A Russian court has sentenced former Deputy Education Minister Marina Rakova and former university rector Sergei Zuyev to real and suspended prison terms for fraud Rakova was detained in October 2021 on accusations of misappropriating 50 million rubles ($540,000) of Education Ministry funds for a state educational program then the head of the prestigious Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences Although both had pleaded guilty and paid damages critics viewed the case as part of the Kremlin’s tightening grip on higher education and restrictions on academic freedom Moscow’s Nikulinsky District Court on Tuesday found Rakova and Zuyev guilty of major fraud according to the court’s press center A judge sentenced Rakova to five years at a medium-security prison while Zuyev received a four-year suspended sentence Five other defendants in the same case received suspended sentences ranging from three to four years Prosecutors had requested an eight-year prison term for Rakova and a 6.5-year prison sentence for Zuyev Vladimir Mau, the former head of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Publication Administration (RANEPA), was detained as part of the same embezzlement case in June 2022 Authorities lifted the charges against Mau in October 2022 but he stepped down from RANEPA in January 2023 for “health reasons.” Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent." These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help please support us monthly starting from just $2 and every contribution makes a significant impact independent journalism in the face of repression Doctors at the Sklifosovsky Research Institute for Emergency Medicine saved a patient suffering both a heart attack and a stroke He was discharged a week later without any neurological impairments as announced by Anastasia Rakova Deputy Moscow Mayor for Social Development The 38-year-old male patient was admitted to the Sklifosovsky Research Institute for Emergency Medicine with symptoms of a stroke and numbness on the right side of his body He reported having lost consciousness and experiencing a seizure upon coming to himself Following a neurologist’s examination he was urgently admitted to neurocritical care MRI results confirmed the diagnosis of multifocal stroke with hemorrhagic transformation — a condition that poses serious risk and can lead to a patient’s death within 24 hours in 5 cases out of 10 if left with no prompt medical intervention After his condition was stabilized and intensive therapy was provided the patient underwent comprehensive diagnostic testing he was also experiencing a myocardial infarction This is a critical condition caused by the death of the heart muscle tissue in response to a sudden interruption in the oxygen-rich blood flow can lead to necrosis of that part of the heart The patient was transferred to the vascular surgery unit for the subsequent emergency care precise method for examining heart vessels) doctors identified an 85 per cent stenosis in the interventricular artery they performed balloon angioplasty and placed a stent in the affected vessel the patient was transferred to the neurology department for ongoing treatment Thanks to timely medical intervention overcoming two dangerous cardiovascular threats The new emergency medical aid standard has been introduced across flagship centers and intensive care departments in Moscow’s hospitals Its implementation is part of the city’s healthcare infrastructure modernization strategy up to 2030 The so-called ‘Rakova case’ is fast becoming one of the most significant criminal cases to be investigated in Russia this year. So far, it has implicated former deputy minister Marina Rakova and the head of one of the country’s last surviving independent universities. Since we last reported on the case The Bell established that the criminal investigation was preceded by a conflict over multi-billion ruble state contracts involving Russia’s largest high school textbook publisher that is controlled by veteran lawmaker Oleg Tkach Why the world should care: For some time now the Russian government has been investing large sums of money in high school education and textbooks are seen to be of particular importance in shaping the outlook of young people Rakova evidently made some powerful enemies all The Bell’s newsletters and online content will be behind a paywall We have taken this decision so that The Bell can remain financially independent and maintain our high standards of journalism and economic expertise Join the newsletter to receive the latest updates in your inbox Understand the Russian economy and politics with a monthly infographic plus a selection of articles to add to your reading list hundreds of thousands of Russians left the country Most of them were highly-skilled personnel who could work remotely or find jobs abroad The Russian authorities are sticking to their story that most of those who were “scared off” at the start have since returned Despite being hit with unprecedented Western sanctions the war with Ukraine has been accompanied by a noticeable increase in the well-being of Russians A new study has revealed the extent of the domestic feel-good factor with economists at the Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economics (BOFIT) finding the level Denis worked as an analyst at the Russian Central Bank and reported for independent Russian media The essential insider view on Russian politics and business $269 every two years for the first 2 years You already have an active subscription to The Bell PRO at this email.We have sent you a link to authorize your account by email The dates displayed for an article provide information on when various publication milestones were reached at the journal that has published the article activities on preceding journals at which the article was previously under consideration are not shown (for instance submission All content on this site: Copyright © 2025 Elsevier B.V., its licensors, and contributors. 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All rights reserved six Dartmouth students competed in person and online at the New England Olympiada of Spoken Russian at Harvard University a one-day event for students to demonstrate their Russian-speaking abilities The competition invites students of various Russian language proficiency levels from colleges across New England to either perform monologues in-person or submit recordings of poem recitations and songs online All entries were required to fall under this year’s theme students from 10 schools participated in three competitions divided by class year: an in-person speech contest a virtual poetry contest and a virtual song contest Dartmouth students placed in seven contests Caroline Klearman ’27 and Aidan Silvestro ’27 who traveled to the in-person speech contest Cohen placed third in both the second-year speech contest and second-year song contest Klearman placed second in the first-year speech contest and Silvestro placed second in the heritage students poetry contest — a designation for students of Russian heritage who did not grow up speaking Russian.  Klearman said she decided to participate at the encouragement of Russian professor Alfia Rakova Klearman said Rakova helped her fix errors in the speech she had written two weeks before the competition Klearman added that the event was “an interesting way” to meet other students studying Russian from different schools Other students instead chose to participate in the online poetry and song competitions Maria Eduarda Goncalves Freitas ’26 and Alexander Joel ’25 submitted their poem and song recordings online Donovan placed second in the third-year poetry contest Freitas won the first-year poetry contest and Joel won the second-year poetry contest Joel said he was also encouraged by Rakova to “take an academic risk” and participate in the poetry reading competition Joel said he struggled to decipher his chosen poem “и при слове грядущее (with the word ‘future’)” by Joseph Brodsky “It dealt with some very abstract themes about power censorship [and] collective memory,” he said.  after meeting with Rakova and continuing to practice the poem Joel said he “really found the correct voice for it.” Freitas said she chose “О Чтении (About reading)” by Andrey Usachov because she wanted to understand the meaning and structure of the poem she read In addition to her struggle of learning Russian for the first time Freitas said she struggled with her pronunciation for the poem recitation because her first language is Portuguese.  “I tend to pronounce ‘s’ as a ‘z’ sometimes so I tried to fix it based on Professor Rakova’s advice,” she said.  Freitas added that she used videos of others reciting the same poem to emulate the proper tone Freitas said she usually feels “nervous” to talk in public but her positive experience at the event has made her excited to participate again if she takes another year of Russian Freitas added that she had previously participated in Olympiad competitions during high school — an experience she said she missed.  “I definitely missed going into small competitions where you test your knowledge about a thing that you’ve been excited about learning,” Freitas said Joel said the competition helped him realize that poetry is “an incredible way” to learn a language because it provides “cultural insights and language practice.” “[Poetry has] definitely been an important part of my experience learning Russian at Dartmouth,” Joel said we learned how to recite poems from memory whether that’s the famous Pushkin poem [‘Я вас любил (I Loved You)’] or other poems.” Klearman said her experience during the competition helped her become more interested in the Russian language.  “[The event] really helped engage me in Russian,” Klearman said but [the event] made me more interested in it.” Apply Now Schedule Sign Me Up 10 students sat down to write an essay for the 18th annual National Post-Secondary Russian Essay Contest sponsored by the American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR)—joining more than 1,300 other undergraduate essay-writers from 67 schools nationwide Alfia Rakova a research assistant professor and director of the Russian department’s language program opened an envelope to reveal this year’s topic: “An Important Person in My Life / Важный человек в моей жизни.” The students had an hour to write Dartmouth’s Russian department is small But the program’s rigor and Rakova’s enthusiasm for pushing her students to succeed paid off: Seven out of the 10 contestants won prizes or honorable mention—the largest number of Dartmouth awardees since Rakova’s students began participating in the competition in 2014 Rakova presented each student with a framed certificate from the ACTR traditional Russian nesting dolls that Rakova ordered specially for the occasion “I’m very proud of my students—the whole department is very proud of our students,” Rakova says a history major specializing in U.S.-Russian foreign relations took a bronze prize for second-year non-native speakers She participated in the contest to test her language skills “to see how I could not just be able to write an essay but communicate an idea beyond the bounds of a classroom experience.” Durfee says she wrote about a high school teacher who changed her life by encouraging her to study public speaking “She’s been a really important figure in my life I felt self-conscious about expressing deep and emotionally invested thoughts in Russian and how simplistic I probably was coming across But at the same time I felt strongly enough about it that I was able to try to overcome that.” received honorable mention in the same category who served six years as a linguist in the Navy before coming to Dartmouth “The fact that I won any sort of recognition for my essay made me feel very proud,” she says Writing about something so personal in a new language “made me take a step back from the incident,” she says “I focused a lot on how exactly do I get my thoughts to come across in Russian so a lot of it was just the mental labor of but I don’t really know how to say it like this so I don’t have a vocabulary that’s very big but I tried to write a metaphorical essay about multiple people who represent the same figure in my life,” he says Studying Russian at Dartmouth helps Petrovsky feel closer to his culture while he’s far from home “And I really love the professors in the department,” he says and I really enjoy the classes.” Another non-Russian Slavic speaker “I was very surprised but then very proud of all of us because we’ve been taking classes together now for several terms and it was really cool to see how much success there was,” says Maria Jarostchuk ’17 an environmental studies major and Russian minor from Acton “I think that’s very indicative of Dartmouth’s Russian department.” Jarostchuk competed as a heritage speaker—her grandparents emigrated from Russia during World War II and she grew up speaking “Runglish” with her siblings She received a silver award at the second-year level Of her decision to study Russian at Dartmouth “I wanted to be able to speak completely in Russian with my grandparents I’ve had Professor Rakova for four terms and she’s just a phenomenal professor She puts so much time and care into every single class and you don’t even realize how much you’re learning And then I’ll go back and visit my grandparents and be speaking with them about politics philosophy—all these things that I never thought I could say in Russian.” Both work as drill instructors for the Russian department “I have been trying to work on creative writing in different languages not only English but also Russian and French and German and this was an opportunity to try out another form,” says Messen “And it’s hard to say no to Professor Rakova,” says Ryzhova she will not let them rest on their laurels Earlier this month she handed the contestants copies of their entries with grammar and spelling errors circled in red ink “Maybe next year you’ll be competing again,” she says The framers were acutely aware of competing interests and they had great distrust of concentrated authority We inspire students to practice good global citizenship while strengthening their own communities Act Now Learn more about South Australia's new university for the future Presented by the Hawke Centre, in arrangement with WOMADelaide Festival’s Planet Talks Program a free public lecture delivered by Tim Flannery (Australia) and Ursula Rakova (PNG) discussing the beauty and environmental challenges facing Papua New Guinea Tim Flannery is one of the world’s most prominent environmentalists In 2007 he was named ‘Australian of the Year’ He delivered the 2002 Australia Day Address to the nation Australia’s largest and most successful crowdfunded organisation His latest book is ‘Sunlight and Seaweed.’ Text Publishing Climate justice advocate Ursula Rakova of Papua New Guinea gives a human face to the challenges faced in the Pacific from environmental degradation She is a pioneer in Papua New Guinea’s environmental movement and campaigner for the survival of her people.  Born on Papua New Guinea’s Carteret Islands in the Southwestern Pacific an area which is threatened by rising sea levels She and her community are among the world’s first climate change refugees Frustrated by inaction on the part of the Papua New Guinea (PNG) government Rakova’s community took matters into their own hands and formed Tulele Peisa (“Sailing in the wind on our own”) –  a community-based organisation helping to relocate the Carterets’ population to safer ground Ursula received the Pride of PNG award for her contribution to the environment commitment and conviction to building a strong accountable and ecologically conscious civil society movement Presented by The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre in arrangement with WOMADelaide festival’s Planet Talks Program Executive Director &Events and Exhibitions Producer +61 (0)8 8302 0651 jacinta.thompson@unisa.edu.au View contact information The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial CentreHawke Building - Level 5, UniSA City West Campus55 North Terrace(cnr Fenn Place and North Terrace)Adelaide Be the first to hear what's happening at The Hawke Centre Sign me up 08 8302 2376 >Ask UniSA FAQs >Australian contact details +61 8 8302 0114 >Ask UniSA FAQs >International contact details 1300 301 703 >Ask UniSA FAQs >Campus Central contact details >Research degree student support >Key UniSA contacts >Staff Directory UniSA respectfully acknowledges the Kaurna Boandik and Barngarla First Nations Peoples and their Elders past and present who are the First Nations’ Traditional Owners of the lands that are now home to our campuses in Adelaide While the views presented by speakers within The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre public program are their own and are not necessarily those of either the University of South Australia they are presented in the interest of open debate and discussion in the community and reflect our themes of: Strengthening our Democracy - Valuing our Diversity - Building our Future The Hawke Centre reserves the right to change their program at any time without notice Ivicom from Austria intends to install a 150 MW wind park in Kučevo municipality next to a wind power plant it is already building 0 Ivicom Energy began the construction of wind park Krivača in the Golubac municipality in May It will be the first such facility south of the rivers of Sava and Danube in Serbia Both locations are in the vicinity of the Đerdap national park and geopark in Serbia’s east VE Rakova Bara commissioned a study for a detailed regulation plan and the Municipality of Kučevo published it for public review by October 27. The planned capacity of the wind power plant is 150 MW Rakova Bara is envisaged to consist of 30 or so turbines The rotor diameter is limited to 160 meters while the hub height can be up to 120 meters compared to a maximum of 210 meters to the tip of the blade The Rakova Bara facility is envisaged to consist of thirty or so turbines Wind power plant Rakova Bara would be built between the villages of Rakova Bara The document’s authors proposed the construction of a 110 kV power line toward the existing 400 kV overhead power line south of the location Arhiplan from Aranđelovac produced the study Ivicom Holding controls 70% of VE Rakova Bara, while the rest is owned by Slovenian company H-Planet. The Austrian firm has a 75% share in Ivicom Energy, which is building Krivača, while Petrol from Slovenia has 25% According to information from the company’s website it is cooperating in the two projects with private equity firm Alfi-Fund Both special purpose vehicles are registered in nearby Žagubica The Austrian company is cooperating with Slovenian partners on both projects in Serbia Ivicom Holding is working on a 500 MW gas power plant in Korça in the south of Albania. After building the Krnovo wind power plant in Montenegro, it established a partnership with state-owned power utility Elektroprivreda Crne Gore (EPCG) for the Gvozd wind park project next to it Ivicom is also developing wind power plant projects in Georgia and Tanzania The company got a green light in 2019 in Bihać in Bosnia and Herzegovina for research for a possible wind farm at a site called Teočak Be the first one to comment on this article 02 May 2025 - The project is located in Constanța county recognized for its superior yields in green energy production 02 May 2025 - The Sunčana (Sunny) Vipava project envisages installing solar power plants with a combined capacity of 20 MW one of the largest wind turbine manufacturers in the world 30 April 2025 - OMV put into operation its 10 MW green hydrogen plant at the Schwechat refinery © CENTER FOR PROMOTION OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 2008-2020 website developed by ogitive the Carteret Islands were the first place in the world to move people due to climate change-related sea level rise Local Ursula Rakova told Sistas, Let's Talk that she swam and lived off the sea but "the same sea is now destroying our atolls" Ursula owns land on the islands and knows how destabilising it is in every aspect of her life "[It's] eroding our shorelines really fast," she said they live lives of anxiety because they don't know what tomorrow is bringing "They don't know what the changes of the… sea will be like tomorrow And if I continue to ignore the fact that people are going without food it will be with me for the rest of my life." In a region highly susceptible to extreme weather women are on the front line and are among the most vulnerable to changing weather patterns a community-driven climate displacement program supporting people relocating from the Carteret Islands to Bougainville and having to see my people facing a shortage of food because there's hardly any food … on the island has led me to think… I've got to walk my talk," she said "I've been talking about living sustainable lives … and if my people are not living sustainable lives … how can I continue to talk about sustainable livelihoods if I'm not helping my own people I think it's high time I go back and help my people in whatever little ways I can'." Flora Vano and Anne Pakoa say empowering women is not just about gender equality but is central to building resilience and addressing the broader challenges posed by the climate crisis Vanuatu, home to about 300,000 people across roughly 80 islands, has been labelled the most at-risk country in the world for natural disasters Anne founded the Vanuatu Human Rights Coalition and Young Women for Change in Vanuatu and said a comprehensive approach to support both men and women in the community was needed "Women's rights are a climate justice issue because women face impacts [more] severely than men. "As a human rights defender and activist, this is what I'm seeing ... It affects the livelihoods of women." She leads the ActionAid Vanuatu team in emergency response and has witnessed first-hand the crucial role women play in ensuring their communities' survival. "We have seen that when you empower women, and you trust them, they grow anything you put on their hands," she said.  She joined the organisation, a non-profit that empowers women to respond to humanitarian crises, when Tropical Cyclone Pam hit in 2015. Flora has since helped establish Women I TokTok Tugeta, a forum that brings together more than 4,000 Ni Vanuatu women. She's also helped establish a sister program — Women Wetem Weta — which translates to women's weather Watch. The program involves Flora and her team translating messages from English into Baslama and then broadcasting those messages via SMS to 40 per cent of the population "And so information flows from the government, down to the hub, all the way to the village, and then coming back right up," she said.  "We have activities and empowerment programs tailored [to] women to be who they are, to take charge in their lives, to be the leader of who they want to be, to have a voice. "As a Ni Vanuatu woman, empowerment of women means access to information, access to education, access to be able to talk, access to be able to lead, and if I can be empowered to have all that, I want all women across Vanuatu to be empowered also, to have the same thing I have. “Empowerment means a lot. It means recognition of women.” Sergei Zuev, rector of the Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Science (known as Shaninka), was arrested Tuesday after a 30-hour interrogation by police independent universities in Russia and the arrest sent a tremor of fear through the country’s academic community Why the world should care: Like the notorious criminal case against theater director Kirill Serebrennikov the Rakova-Zuev case highlights the risks faced by independent institutions that work with government funding Russian officials have worked hard in recent years to scare off foreign donors cultural organizations and universities almost entirely dependent on state money Powered by artificial intelligence (AI) Moscow’s medical decision support system has helped physicians and general practitioners make as much as 14 million preliminary diagnoses She added that one of such services is called Top 3 It is a digital assistant that analyzes patient complaints to be further entered by the doctor into the examination record in the Unified Medical Information and Analysis System and suggests three most likely preliminary diagnoses The doctor may choose one of them or make an alternative diagnosis The system detects 95 per cent of most frequent diseases Once a preliminary diagnosis is made the neural network will generate a list of tests and additional consultations if the patient has already undergone some The service only provides assistance since the final decision always remains with the specialist The digital platform frees up doctors to spend more time to examine and talk to the patient Moscow has been digitizing its healthcare system for over 10 years AI technologies help doctors in their daily routine improving the quality and accessibility of medical services Many locally available medical solutions are based on a single digital platform Designed by the Moscow Social Development Complex and Moscow Department of Information Technologies it provides bespoke care to every patient at all stages from diagnosis to treatment and follow-up High-tech medical care is becoming more accessible to citizens every year a record number of high-tech surgeries — over 90,000 — were performed at the city hospitals and at federal and private centers High-tech medical care allows for less invasive surgeries reducing the risk of post-surgery complications and promises a quicker recovery period high-tech medical care was most often provided in Cardiovascular Surgery — 22.8 per cent (20,867 cases) Traumatology and Orthopedics — 21.7 per cent (19,883 cases) Oncology — 18.5 per cent (16,906 cases) high-tech medical care in other areas remains no less important More than 5,000 cases (6.1 per cent) of the total high-tech medical care accrue to Neurosurgery; more than 8,500 (9.3 per cent) ophthalmic surgeries have already been performed the Moscow Healthcare Department hospitals apply the most innovative treatment methods including robotic-assisted surgeries on six Da Vinci surgical systems coronary artery bypass grafting and heart valve prosthetics vascular formations and other disorders in the cranial cavity using noninvasive techniques with ionizing radiation at N.V Sklifosofsky Research Institute for Emergency Medicine complex large joint replacement and revision replacement surgeries more than 40 city hospitals offer free-of-charge high-tech medical care in more than 20 profiles Seeking help: Pais Taehu and Ursula Rakova during their visit to Brisbane to raise awareness of the problems in the Pacific Islands ALMOST 6000 islanders to Australia’s north face forced evacuation as they watch their low-lying Pacific homelands disappear under rising seas Their plight amounts to just a drop in the ocean and yet these island people take solace from Pope Francis’ call for action on climate change and the environment The communities of four atoll groups – Carteret Islands Tasman Islands and Fead Islands – have already started moving to neighbouring Bougainville eating away their beaches and coastal lands On some of the most populated atolls deep wells are already contaminated by salt water and the people are forced to rely on coconut water and rainwater for drinking and everyday use The closest of the islands are more than 80km from Bougainville which is an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea we live by the sea and they provide for us every day a Catholic woman who was born in the Carterets “We are already suffering the impacts of climate change and rising sea levels – this is a matter of life and death.” which means “Sailing in the wind on our own” and has the task of shifting displaced island families Ten families from the Carteret Islands have already moved to a 48ha plantation on Bougainville Ms Rakova is one of two island leaders visiting Australia on a speaking tour pleading for government and community aid – in the name of respect and dignity She has described the loss of their homelands and their livelihoods which has reduce them to amongst the world’s poorest people Ms Rakova took solace in Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical on the environment Laudato Si (Praise Be) which highlighted the plight of those suffering directly from climate change to stop environmental degradation and global warming and argued that environmental damage was intimately linked to global inequality “We know how unsustainable is the behaviour of those who constantly consume and destroy while others are not yet able to live in a way worthy of their human dignity,” Pope Francis wrote a traditional chief from the Tasman Islands the most far-flung of the island groups off Bougainville and which support a population of 1500 people “We are affected the same way as the Carteret Islands who is chairman of the Temarai Association a voice for the welfare of the outer atolls people it is better to act now than waiting for anything to happen.” While the atoll peoples face the full force of climate change Ms Rakova was critical of some of the international efforts to help her people studies by lawyers – 27 programs – aimed at disaster risk reduction such things as building up the sea walls and the gardens to stop saltwater intrusion and planting mangroves,” she said In the meantime what do the island people do “It is important that we can master our own destiny We know the situation on the ground and what needs to be done.” Ms Rakova said she accepted that climate change had caused irreversible loss and damage to her islands and that displacement was inevitable She said funding would be better directed towards relocating people to the mainland finding appropriate land and building houses “My vision is that Carteret Islanders are living sustainable livelihoods and are safe and secure wherever they are – that they have enough land space to grow food and cash crops to sustain their family incomes,” Ms Rakova said She singled out Caritas Australia and Catholic Mission as amongst the humanitarian organisations which had delivered focused and practical assistance so far This included providing agricultural projects on the mainland community groups and individual benefactors she said building mainland houses for the Carteret Islanders would cost about $8500 each or about $1.6 million for the islands’ 150 families “That is not a big cost for a neighbour as big as Australia,” she said Ms Rakova said direct support for community-based relocation projects like Tulele Peisa was better than aid money being channelled through government projects Caritas Australia’s chief executive officer Paul O’Callaghan said as one of the highest per capita emitters in the world Australia had a special responsibility to show leadership in mitigating and preventing the negative impacts of climate change in the Pacific region Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania executive committee president Archbishop John Ribat of Port Moresby said he was heartened by growing world concern about climate change and global warming “Pope Francis in his recent encyclical Laudato Si invites – indeed urges – the global human family to see our planet and its peoples as our universal home,” he said “The protection of the atmosphere and the oceans are powerful examples of the need for political representatives and leaders of nations to take responsibility for the wellbeing of peoples beyond their own particular shores or borders.” Australian Religious Response to Climate Change president Thea Ormerod said ratifying the Paris Agreement was a first step for Australia to do its fair share of accelerating the shift to low-carbon technologies and building resilience in vulnerable countries “In many places across this fragile planet of ours It is destroying lives and livelihoods,” she said Donations can be made directly via an account for Tulele Peisa administered by the Sisters of Mercy Email Sr Wendy Flannery at wendy.flannery@gmail.com The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929 accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians who have walked upon and cared for this land for thousands of years We acknowledge the continued deep spiritual attachment and relationship of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to this country and commit ourselves to the ongoing journey of Reconciliation Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader Over 26,000 couples have got married in Moscow since the start of the year with about 3,000 of them having wedding ceremonies in nontraditional locations More than 8,000 couples are going to get married at offsite venues by the end of this year The five most popular venues are the Royal Mansion the OKO Tower restaurant and the Yakimanka Hall multifunctional space Moscow residents have a chance to hold a solemn ceremony at wedding palaces and at other venues as part of the New Addresses of Happiness project Newlyweds who want to have a more modest wedding ceremony can visit My Documents centers Meet our Community02.02.2021We have a large community spanning from Iceland to the Czech Republic directly influencing the life and work of a community of a few hundred thousand students and some 50.000 members of staff Here are three colleagues that we would like to introduce to you – more to follow Marie Rakova works at the International Relations Office the Czech Republic as a Traineeship Abroad Coordinator She is responsible for Intercultural Communication courses in Foreign Languages that Palacky University Olomouc offers its students before their traineeship abroad In order to enhance her professional profile she started studying the MSc Human Resource Management at the University of London "I very much appreciate Aurora’s concept and its aspirations in Learning for Societal Impact that perfectly reflect current social developments and expectations to be achieved by exchanging best practices within an international network of university leaders I am happy to be part of this network."- Marie Rakova says   She continues to say that the WP 3.1.2 team's current focus is on the situational and needs analysis The findings shall be used to design a one-day training on How to Assure Quality of International Traineeships which is planned to be delivered in June-September 2021 the group will also start with integrating traineeships in the curriculum of involved Aurora university partners setting up a network of host organizations and publishing traineeship offers they intend to launch the Aurora International Traineeship Programme to recruit future Aurora trainees first traineeships abroad shall take place Marie notices a change in dynamics when it comes to traineeship opportunities we could observe a constant increase in international traineeships the recent COVID-19 pandemic halted traineeship opportunities for many students With experts predicting the worst recession since the Great Depression for the global economy the future will prove to be challenging for the current crop of trainees Blended or virtual traineeships seem to be a possible solution."For the WP 3.1.2 to be formed Aurora Alliance Institutional Coordinators appointed a central IRO international traineeship officer who would contribute to the task team a Dutch multinational human resource consulting company the group has welcomed a student champion who will be actively participating in their task team Callum Perry is the Aurora Student President and is also the Undergraduate Education Officer at UEA Students’ Union for two years He also sits on various academic quality boards in UK Higher Education Bodies "Aurora epitomises what is great about Higher Education when we collaborate and share practices The strength of our collective ambition to further the quality and experiences of students across the world empowers me to fight for education where we care about our footprint inclusion and enriched learning through partnering; to name a few," says Callum Perry All our Student Champions have been trained and are working towards ‘champion’ status which will look desirable to employers and showcase their skills development due to being involved in Aurora They are now creating an ambassador scheme for students to engage in a light-touch way and support work in their own university the Aurora Student council will be organizing a student conference ‘Care and Compassion’ in March which will showcase accessible routes for students to participate in the Alliance work and promote the values of Aurora Callum notices that student voice and activism are at an all-time high in some areas across collective student bodies He says that "students are engaging in conversations around the quality of teaching and their experiences of inclusion and diversity (exacerbated by COVID-19) our student council are increasingly interested in sustainability and the interest from our champions to be part of this has been shown in volume."  To add to this students' sense of voice and importance in forming new practice and policy are increasingly growing we have a duty to create the foundations for this positive work Barbara Tasser is the Head of International Services at the University of Innsbruck She is a formerly trained archaeologist with a multilingual background (German English) and is responsible for the  Aurora Borderless Learning – Recognition and Mobility (WP3.3.1) task team Barbara believes that Aurora is a great and dedicated community  Barbara notes that the first year of the Aurora European University Alliance program will be very much about getting to know each other and the different conditions and circumstances at the respective institutions and the project structure and the larger community She believes that Aurora can play a key role in testing and implementing structured mobility within the Aurora Alliance so that students and staff can train their international competences as borderless and well-serviced as possible the group plans to develop the Aurora Mobility & Recognition Action short-term and blended mobility formats as well as the elaboration of a concept for a short-term mobility fund and a respective housing mechanism Barbara shares that the Aurora Alliance project's goal reflects the trends that have occurred due to the pandemic She says that students are provided with an alternative international learning experience format short-term and blended mobility initiatives in addition to semester-based mobility abroad Telefon: +43 512 507-0 Kontaktieren Sie uns Impressum Datenschutz Barrierefreiheit Zertifikate two additional hospitals have been repurposed to treat coronavirus patients Several more hospitals will be ready to admit patients next week most patients with suspected coronavirus are treated in Russia’s largest medical — the hospital in Kommunarka clinical residents and other medical staff 'We understand that physicians are overloaded now healthcare workers will receive an additional allowance for their work to combat coronavirus,' Anastasia Rakova added construction of a treatment facility launched at the site of the Infection Centre in Troitsky and Novomoskovsky administrative areas The healthcare facility will open in the settlement of Voronovskoye near the village of Golokhvastovo The Infection Centre will cover 70,000 sq m with 250 of them in the intensive care unit The Infection Centre will have cutting-edge medical equipment and supplies Moscow has been on high alert since 5 March This measure allows to keep the normal life in the city while focusing the city services primarily on Muscovites who came from high-risk countries A woman who has been leading efforts to move people from the frequently inundated Carteret Atolls off Papua New Guinea's Bougainville says it is becoming increasingly difficult to counter the impacts of sea level rise Tulele Peisa's Ursula Rakova is leading a campaign to move Carteret Islanders to safety from their frequently flooding home to the Bougainville mainland She said life is tough for the several hundred families still on the Carterets with increasing concerns about food security "When it's a king tide salt water seeps into the island and it's very very difficult to drain out Even the trees that we plant to safeguard the sea from further intrusion they have been uprooted And it's very difficult for us to continue to maintain the island," she said Rakova said they are still to fully secure the land for settlement near Tinputz and need financial support to both do this and to provide infrastructure for the transplanted community Rakova attended the COP27 meeting and castigated those industrialised nations that still refuse to limit fossil fuel use She said she felt let down by the lack of commitment to ending mining fossil fuels She said welcomed the agreement reached at COP27 on loss and damage funding but said this is undermined when countries fail to make a commitment to end mining will want to give money to loss and damage while at the same time they are continuing to extract fossil fuels "Because if they really want to save the earth especially these smaller islands in the Pacific and around the globe they will have to walk their talk," she said Pacific RSS Follow RNZ News Sea level rise caused by climate change is impacting island populations around the world but for many that is easier said than done Ursula Rakova has been battling to relocate her people from the Carteret Islands in Papua New Guinea They don't want to give up the way of life of generations before them More than 3000 people are stuck on the shrinking waiting for the government to fund their resettlement on the mainland of Bougainville Rakova owns the tiny atoll of Huene in the six-island Carteret group where land ownership is traditionally passed down through the women of the clan Her organisation Tulele Peisa has helped about 30 families move to land gifted to them by the Catholic church on mainland Bougainville 90 kilometres away but 350 more families - about 70 percent of the population - need government help to move We want them to move so that they can continue to sustain themselves by growing their own food crops also growing some cash crops," Rakova says The Carteret Islanders depend on government rations because they can no longer grow their own food as seawater erodes the land and encroaches on their crops Speaking to The Detail from Bougainville where she now lives Rakova says she worries that the government's food rationing "continues to breed a generation of people who continue to rely on supplies from the government" She wants that money to be spent instead on buying land and relocating the families About 30 percent of the population would remain on the islands supported by a programme helping them to adapt to the changes But her people are competing against communities from other low lying atolls for government relocation funds "But let's face it: Carteret Islanders have wanted to move for the last 10 but the true extent of the impact of climate change and how many people face dislocation in the Pacific are not known "Relocation is always the last resort option," says Martin de Jong advocacy advisor for the Catholic charity Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand De Jong says even relocations of communities a few hundred metres away are fraught In other low-lying Pacific countries on the frontline of sea level rise such as Kiribati Caritas and other groups have been unsuccessful in their lobbying to speed up the process Relocations are often supported by church groups for example helps with small scale development projects such as a cocoa drier for the Carteret people to process cocoa beans as a cash crop De Jong says even those working closely with the Pacific communities do not know the extent of the impact of climate change and sea level rise "It is one of the frustrating things of working in the last seven or eight years on the [annual] State of the Environment for Oceania report We hear a lot of stories of people having to move at various levels but there seems to be very little if any comprehensive assessment of how many people are moving and how many are at risk." He says the Pacific is very often neglected when it comes to reports on issues such as climate change De Jong says groups like his will be pushing hard in the lead up to the next United Nations Climate Change Conference real action on addressing loss and damage with a proper financial facility and more money committed to it" The Detail also talks to Caritas Fiji director Sirino Rakabi who has has just visited three villages on the island of Vanua Levu that have been torn apart by sea level rise but in different ways He says the experiences of those populations highlight the need to include local people in decisions "Before any decision is made for people to relocate or bring other people from outside proper consultation needs to be carried out with the consent of the people especially people who have been living on those lands for years and then they have to be relocated due to some government arrangements." Find out how to listen and subscribe to The Detail here You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter See terms of use. for easy access to all your favourite programmes Link copiedShareShare articleCarteret climate refugees seek home A grassroots group in Bougainville is scrambling to relocate the Carteret Islanders before rising sea levels swallow their land forever. At only 1.5 metres above sea level at their highest point, the Carteret Islands are some of the first to succumb to the rising ocean tides. The grassroots Tulele Peisa group, which means "sailing the waves on our own" in the local Halia language, is hoping to relocate more than half of the population by 2020. They have secured land for new homes on the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, to the east of mainland Papua New Guinea. Tulele Peisa formed in late 2006 after the Council of Elders on the islands decided to establish their own relocation program. The group's chief executive, Ursula Rakova, says the encroaching tides on the islands have a major impact on people's health. "We're beginning to get more requests for people wanting to move because of the situation and the dire need for food," she says. The storm surges not only wash away houses, but also vegetable gardens, which are critical for the islanders' survival. With no cash economy on the Carterets, the only source of food is what people are able to grow for themselves. Ms Rakova says the relocations are also vital to give more space to those who want to stay on the islands. "Giving justice to the elderly is the most important thing that Tulele Peisa can do. The elderly people do not want to move," she says. The group initially secured 25 hectares of land from the Catholic Church — enough to resettle about 100 people from 10 families. The church has just made another 60 hectares of land available, where Ms Rakova says they're hoping to relocate 25 more families. But the access to safe and secure land is only half the battle. "Building houses for the families to live in is our biggest hurdle at the moment," she says. "We have to keep looking for funds to build homes before we can actually move islanders to mainland Bougainville." Once they are resettled on Bougainville, the Carteret families are allotted one hectare each. In addition to growing their own food, the relocated families also send food and planting materials back home to help supplement what the islanders are able to grow. Tulele Peisa has also provided thousands of mangrove seedlings to prevent the erosion of the coastline, and helped to build raised garden beds. But this will only stave off the inevitable for so long. "Those are adaptation strategies, they aren't really long-term solutions to containing the islands, because we know the islands are going, but we are looking at supporting our families," Ms Rakova says. She says the islanders want to maintain their independent way of living but that the international community should provide more support. "The islanders on the Carterets are victims of what other people have caused and the international community needs to aid and support the work that we are doing," she says. "We have found our way forward [and] we would like to share the way forward with other people, but we need this process to be funded financially so that we can continue to sustain ourselves." This article contains content that is not available. CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) the second phase of the set up of the Rakova jelša city park was concluded The Rakova jelša city park project started in 2014 Its main aim is to connect the city with the Ljubljana Marshes landscape park on the north-south axis towards the Ljubljanica River and to clean up the brownfield area there make it greener and with some urban equipment turn it into a usable surface for recreational purposes In the process over 450 tons of construction waste and over 23 tons of asbestos waste were removed The area of the park which was set up in the first phase is intended for free-time activities The new public surfaces connected the existing pedestrian cycling and water paths of the regional suburbs into a circle and thus made a contribution to the active implementation of sustainable mobility in the city and its surroundings The newly set up part of the park is located west of the part from the first phase and is dedicated first and foremost to self-sufficiency the option of urban self-sufficient agriculture gardening in the immediate vicinity of the city centre is the added value of this area There are 320 gardens in the park encompassed by a low fence and willow hedges the necessary infrastructure had to be set up and linked to the existing one The sheds in the park are designed as joint roofs and the urban equipment (benches fences) is the same as already used in the first phase of the park set up The whole area spans over 75,000 m2 and the value the investment was approximately 820,000 euro with VAT The Government must take adequate measures to respect and protect human rights and address its needs founder of the Tulele Peisa in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville she was vocal on the state’s negligence These cases are specifically related to communities affected by climate change a global threat to human rights because of associated consequences to legal protections Rakova also queried the monies allocated by the National Government to the Autonomous Bougainville Government in 2007 She called on the National and Autonomous Bougainville Government’s to work together to address climate change issues https://youtube.com/watch?v=SR_imbXK0nI%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0 You must be logged in to post a comment.