Jul62017

News story: Project Servator, one year on….

HM Government

If you work at Sellafield or live in the local area then over the last year you may have noticed more of our Civil Nuclear Police (CNC) officers out and about speaking to people.

Chances are you have seen one of our Project Servator deployments.

Launched on 4 July 2016, the aim of Project Servator is to deter any hostile threat by detecting suspicious activity in the local area.

Unpredictable and highly visible deployments made up of armed officers, dogs or behavioural detection officers can pop up anywhere and anytime on site or within the surrounding area making it difficult for any hostile threat.

Project Servator, originally started by our colleagues in the City of London Police, was launched by the CNC at Sellafield one year ago.

In that time, there have been more than 1,500 deployments across the area. These have varied from speaking to Sellafield site workers to visiting over 55 local shop keepers, all to promote the “trust your instinct” message. Officers have also given presentations about Servator and what it means to apprentices at Gen2, local schools and colleges and local community groups.

In the last few months there have been 135 deployments where officers have been out in the community, engaging with local residents to encourage them to report anything suspicious. No matter where they go our officers have received a warm welcome with lots of interest in the project and their role in general.

Supt Graham Shaw, who is the Operational Unit Commander for Sellafield, said: “The idea of Servator is to deter any hostile threat, but also to reassure people and let them know we’re there.

“Other benefits include deterring crime in the area. The unpredictable nature of our deployments, both day and night, mean any criminal can be detected.

“The support and involvement from workers on site or residents in the local community, who have either engaged with our officers during a deployment or reported suspicious behaviour, means that together we send a strong message to any criminal – you will be detected.”

Project Servator will continue to develop within the CNC. The number of officers who are involved with Project Servator is set to increase with our roll out across the other sites we police. Our deployments are also taking on a new element with the involvement of plain clothed officers engaging with members of the public during our visible patrols. These officers are highly trained in behavior detection. Their expertise is in noticing the subtle, sometimes unconscious ways in which people behave differently when they are stressed or anxious.

Supt Shaw added “We look forward to developing Project Servator within the CNC and using different unpredictable tactics will continue to help us deter any criminal behavior.”

If you are interested in Project Servator and are part of a community group who would benefit from a presentation, please email servator@cnc.pnn.police.uk for more information.

Remember, trust your instinct and report any suspicious activity directly to the CNC by calling 019467 73999.

Keep up-to-date with Servator deployments, recruitment information or anything CNC by following us on Twitter: @nuclearpolice

Notes to Editors: There is an opportunity to interview Supt Graham Shaw during a Servator deployment in Seascale. He will be available between 10am- 11am on Thursday 6 July 2017.

If you require an interview, please contact Jane Younger on 019467 80710.

Jul62017

Education money

John Redwood MP

It is clear from the reports of discussions within government and within the Conservative Parliamentary party that many think more money should be given to schools that have low funding levels today. There is general agreement to the idea of the pending reform, that a larger share of the money should go as a per pupil sum for each student at the school to reflect the basic costs of provision where ever it may be in the country and whatever the social background. There is also agreement among many that the better funded schools should not have cash taken away from them when the more lowly funded schools get more.

The Treasury clearly hoped that the new formula would take money from the generously funded and give to the poorly funded without major increases in total funding. It is never easy getting through these redistributional reforms, as the losers always speak more volubly than the winners. It looks as if on this occasion there will need to be some pump priming money as the formula is altered, to prevent big losers. It will also be needed to give sufficient to the winners for them to think they have made a reasonable gain.

Labour asked a Question in the House about this yesterday. The junior Minister, Mr Gibb, replied. He was unable to reveal more of the detail, as the government is still finalising its position on its response to the consultation concerning the new formula. I had a conversation with him afterwards to remind him of the position of Wokingham and West Berkshire.

Wokingham and West Berkshire schools remain at the low end of the table for per pupil money. It does not cost us less in Wokingham to educate a child than it does in the big cities.Teachers pay is based on national rates, whilst property costs are quite high. These matters need to be reflected in a common per pupil sum throughout the country which is a sufficiently high proportion of the total money awarded.

Meanwhile this week in the Commons Ministers have returned to explaining that there do have to be sensible controls on the total level of public spending, given the continuing deficit. More work is being done on spending priorities, and on raising the general level of efficiency and quality in public service. The answer to the need for better public services lies partly in economic growth generating more revenue, and partly in better management. Working smarter can be a win for taxpayers, keeping down cost, for service users, bringing up quality, and for employees, with better paid and more rewarding jobs. I raised these issues with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury when she answered a question about public sector pay yesterday.

Jul62017

China strengthens scientific research cooperation with B&R countries

East Asia

The press conference on the International Symposium on Funding Science and People Cooperation for a Prosperous Belt and Road is held on July 4. [Photo by Wu Qiongjing/China.org.cn]

The press conference on the International Symposium on Funding Science and People Cooperation for a Prosperous Belt and Road was held on July 4.

A consensus was reached at the symposium held from July 3 to 4 on strengthening the cooperation on scientific research collaboration among Belt and Road countries and regions, and decided to build a framework to fund the cooperation of Belt and Road scientific talents, aiming to solve common challenges and boost the economic and social development of Belt and Road countries and regions.

Yang Wei, director and academician of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), said international cooperation becomes increasingly important now.

He added that the communication and exchanges, cooperative research, as well as working in different countries will boost the friendship, encourage mutual learning, facilitate the resolution of difficult problems, and will promote scientific innovation and economic growth of Belt and Road countries and regions. The communication among international scientific research personnel has deepened the cultural exchange among Belt and Road countries and regions, which lays a foundation for sustained cooperation.

Widespread praise over cooperation funding framework

Scientific research funding agencies from more than 30 countries and regions reached a joint declaration at the symposium, which demonstrates that they will deepen cooperation further, collaborate more in basic research, promote joint innovation among scientific research talents, so as to complement each other with respective advantages and resolve common problems.

The prospects depicted by the framework of funding the cooperation among Belt and Roadscientific talents also received widespread praise from the representatives from different countries.

Professor Bernard Stewart, director of interdisciplinary research and international cooperation of Research Councils UK (RCUK), pointed out that RCUK has cooperated with NSFC for ten years. He said, it is a close and dynamic partnership between us, and the cooperation framework will help to deepen the cooperation between the U.K. and China as well as other Belt and Road countries and regions in agriculture, medicine, water resources, robots, big data and other fields in the future.

Professor Pavel Kabat, President and CEO of International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis said, Belt and Road countries and regions have crucial significance, and by proposing this framework, China has taken a visionary move.

Sirimali Fernando, chairman of the National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka also regarded this framework as an excellent opportunity for Sri Lanka, a country with relatively weak foundation of scientific research and limited international partners in this field to escalate its capacity of scientific research overall.

Great attention to China’s leadership in scientific research cooperation

Representatives at the symposium also attached great significance to China’s leadership in scientific research cooperation among Belt and Road countries and regions. In an interview with China.org.cn, Elwyn Grainger-Jones, CEO of Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), said that research in agricultural science is crucial to the achievement of sustainable development goals, and the research of agricultural science among Belt and Road countries and regions has a bright prospect.

Dr. Liu Jian, chief scientist of the United Nations Environment Programme, pointed out that the successful convening of the symposium has testified China’s strong leadership in international scientific research cooperation. The framework proposed by NSFC and science foundations of other countries will play a leading role in supporting the joint cultivation of talents.

China plays an irreplaceably leading role in promoting Belt and Road construction with scientific and technological innovation, Liu emphasized.

NSFC funded over 200 million yuan (US$ 29.4 million) on cooperative projects with Belt and Road countries and regions in 2016, providing support for young scholars in China and abroad to carry out exchange events and cooperation on scientific research.

Jul62017

Children’s ban can help curb fears over internet addiction

East Asia

A child plays a mobile game in Dezhou, Shandong Province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Gaming addiction has become a serious concern for young players and has forced Tencent Holdings Ltd to act.

Children under the age of 12 will only be allowed to play its mega-hit, Honor of Kings, for just one hour each day. They will also be banned from logging on after 9 p.m.

Juveniles between the ages of 12 to 18 will only have access for two hours in a trial program rolled out by Tencent to combat online dependence.

Underage players who exceed their time allowance will automatically be logged off.

“Addiction to anything will bring in problems. We have to do something to prevent teenagers indulging themselves in the game. To protect children is to protect the game,” said Li Min, developer of Honor of Kings.

To enforce the ban, the company will tighten up its realname registration system to prevent young players faking identities.

Back in February, Tencent rolled out a “protection platform” to help parents supervise their children’s game accounts.

Since then, the company has updated the program and connected it to 700,000 accounts, covering 200 games, including Honor of Kings.

Still, Tencent’s decision to bring in tighter controls came after the People’s Daily criticized the game’s negative impact on underage players earlier this week. The newspaper also called on the company to make greater efforts to solve this problem.

The market responded instantly. Tencent’s share price dropped 4.13 percent on Tuesday on the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong.

It was the online company’s largest one-day loss this year, paring HK$109.9 billion ($14 billion) off its market value.

But Zhang Shule, a senior independent game industry analyst, felt there was no reason for investors to panic.

Claims that these games can be addictive were leveled at Legend in 2004 and World of Warcraft in 2009, he claimed. History, he pointed out, just repeats itself.

“Condemnation is not a solution,” Zhang said. “The teenagers who were obsessed with World of Warcraft 10 years ago have not turned out to be a beaten generation.

“Management supervision is indispensable, but it’s unnecessary to focus too much on one simple case,” he added. “Instead, we should come out with some healthy products that can attract children’s attention.”

Up to 70 percent of the players on Honor of Kings are office workers, with another 25 percent university students, statistics released by mobile data-service platform TalkingData in Beijing showed.

Juvenile players make up only 3 percent of total users.

Yet Pony Ma, founder of Tencent, has made it clear that the company has a duty to prevent children from getting addicted to the internet.

“Children who are overly obsessed with the internet usually struggle to communicate with their parents,” Ma said.

“This ends up leading them to the virtual world … and turning away from society,” he added.

Jul62017

Cyberspace court points to digital future

East Asia

A new cyberspace court, set up to handle the soaring number of online piracy and e-commerce disputes, could act as a high-tech model for China’s entire justice system, according to legal experts.

The Supreme People’s Court established the court in April to handle five types of cases, mainly related to online shopping and intellectual property rights. It was formally approved by the central government last week.

Located in an existing court building in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, the cyberspace court has accepted about 1,500 cases so far.

“Setting up this type of court was inevitable,” said Wu Fei, an attorney at Beijing Zhong Wen Law Firm who specializes in online cases. “The rapid development of the internet has brought lots of legal problems, including copyright infringements and e-commerce disputes.”

The move comes after a successful pilot at four Hangzhou courts beginning in 2015. The courts were upgraded with technology that allow plaintiffs to file cases and upload evidence online and even to appear at hearings via video link if they did not live locally.

“This tryout paved the way for the cyberspace court, and it could end up helping create a justice system that harnesses the power of the internet to improve legal efficiency and provide better services,” said Wu, who observed a number of trials during the test period.

“I saw judges handle cases entirely online,” Wu said. “They received materials from litigants and defendants via the internet and then delivered their verdicts. It makes the process so much easier and saves time.”

For many experts, Hangzhou is the ideal setting for the cyberspace court, as it is home to many technology enterprises, including Alibaba, the company behind the Alipay mobile payment system and Taobao online marketplace.

Alibaba alone receives more than 4 million complaints from customers a year, and those that go unresolved often end up in court, according to the Zhejiang High People’s Court. Hangzhou courts handled about 10,000 cases related to e-commerce last year, up from only about 600 in 2013.

Attorneys see wider applications for the model being created by the cyberspace court, as does law professor Wang Sixin at Communication University of China.

“It is not just a court for online disputes but a center to study new methods and legal solutions for the digitalage,” Wang said.

Attorney Wu was enthusiastic. “Maybe one day we will be able to file lawsuits and contact judges on our smartphones, and case hearings can be heard anyplace, anytime,” he said.

Others have urged caution, including Zhu Wei, associate professor of law at China University of Political Science and Law, who warned that personal data protection could become an issue.

“Cybersecurity will be a key challenge for the court. When disputes are solved online, we must ensure that the information remains secure,” Zhu said, adding that talent development is also important.