Feb72017
Beijing police announced Tuesday that 77 suspects had been arrested in connection to organized prostitution.
After a raid on Dec. 23, 2016 at three alleged brothels that were operating as entertainment venues, the police submitted an arrest request to the procuratorate so that those linked to organized prostitution could be detained for questioning.
The arrest warrant was approved on Jan. 26, 2017, and the investigation continues.
Feb72017
That is the message from Skills and Science Minister, Julie James, as she launches the Welsh Government’s new Apprenticeship policy today (7 February).
Aligning the Apprenticeship model to the needs of the Welsh Economy sets out the Welsh Government’s vision for addressing the needs of Welsh businesses and the wider economy and has been designed to increase skills levels in priority areas, including where shortages have been reported.
Developed in consultation with businesses, the policy and its five year action plan sets out how the Welsh Government will support the delivery of its manifesto and Taking Wales Forward commitment to create a minimum of 100,000 high quality apprentices in Wales over this Assembly term by focussing on four priority areas:
Skills and Science Minister, Julie James said:
“This policy highlights our intention to prepare for the jobs of tomorrow, which will require higher levels of competence than in the past.
“It also contains a stronger focus on both technical and professional skills needed for high quality employment opportunities within our communities. This will send a strong message about the value of apprenticeships and technical education in supporting people into sustainable employment and self-employment.”
The policy and supporting information also outlines how the impact of the Apprenticeship Levy – a UK Government employment tax due to come into effect on 6 April 2017 – will be managed in Wales.
The Minister added:
“We have said all along that this levy directly conflicts with areas of devolved responsibility, completely overlooks and undermines our very distinctive approach to supporting apprenticeships in Wales and its introduction means that no new significant money is coming to Wales.”
“To help minimise the impact of the levy in Wales the Welsh Government is taking a different approach to its counterparts in England, one which is better aligned to and supports the growing needs of Wales, its people and economy.”
Support for businesses to recruit new apprentices is already available in Wales and will continue to be available to both levy and non-levy paying employers provided the funding supports apprentices in the identified priority areas.
To deliver these priorities the Welsh Government will be increasing its investment in apprenticeships from £96m to £111.5m for 2017-18. This brings our total investment in apprenticeships and traineeships next year to over £126m.
Of the additional funding, £15.5m will be invested this year to ensure that both public and private sector employers are not disadvantaged as a result of the Apprenticeship Levy.
Julie James added:
“Our public services are essential to maintain functions related to education, fire services, waste management, social services and healthcare. We are committed to working with public sector organisations to help them achieve greater consistency and meet future challenges. This will include the publication of specific apprenticeship plans for Local Authorities, the NHS and the ‘blue light’ services.”
The announcement is being made during the Welsh Government’s Jobs Week.
The policy: Aligning the Apprenticeship model to the needs of the Welsh Economy, its five year action plan and additional supporting information (external link) is available on the Welsh Government website.
Feb72017
Wokingham Borough Council has adopted a new strategy to ensure new developments have appropriate sustainable drainage systems to manage the risk of flooding, improve water quality, and biodiversity. Please find below their press release:
Suds now part of major builds
Wokingham Borough Council has adopted a new strategy to ensure new developments have appropriate sustainable drainage systems to manage the risk of flooding, improve water quality, and biodiversity.
The Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS) Strategy, approved by the borough council’s decision-making executive, is a blueprint based on national standards for developers and civic planning officers when designing developments ranging in size from minor schemes up to the scale of Strategic Development Locations.
SuDS mimic nature, dealing with rainfall where it falls; allowing it to evaporate or soak into the ground. Any remaining water is then drained to the nearest traditional watercourse or sewer at the same rate and volume that would have happened naturally before the new development was built.
“A healthy and safe water environment is fundamental,” said Cllr Angus Ross, executive member for environment.
“There are areas in our borough with increased risk of flooding, and some of our watercourses have poor water quality. This strategy shows how SuDS address these. SuDS use cost effective solutions with low environmental impact. They’re designed to be easy to manage, resilient, needing in some cases only sunlight to work, and are aesthetically attractive.”
SuDS are increasingly being used to counter the problems of flooding caused urbanization where natural surfaces and vegetation are replaced by concrete, asphalt, or roofed structures. Where this happens heavy rainfall cannot easily be absorbed back into the environment without overloading more conventional drainage systems, creating flooding, contaminating drinking water sources, and harming wildlife and the environment.
Examples of SuDS include basins (shallow landscape depressions that are dry most of the time when it’s not raining), rain-gardens (shallow landscape depressions with shrub or herbaceous plants), swales (shallow normally-dry, wide-based ditches), filter drains (gravel-filled trenches), bio retention basins (shallow depressions with gravel and/or sand layers), reed beds and other wetland habitats that collect, store, and filter dirty water along with providing a habitat for wildlife.
A consultation last summer into the borough’s SuDS Strategy was carried out, and the majority of those taking part were very supportive of it.
Now that the new SuDS strategy has been adopted by Wokingham Borough Council, planning applications for developments will need to meet the requirements of the local standards set out in it.
Planning application approval, if granted, will then need to include clear instructions on how the SuDS for that development will be maintained.
Further information:More from Cllr Angus Ross, executive member for environment at email: angus.ross@wokingham.gov.uk
Feb72017
Minister for the Middle East Tobias Ellwood statement on Israel’s Land Regularisation Bill being passed through the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset.
Minister for the Middle East Tobias Ellwood said:
It is of great concern that the bill paves the way for significant growth in settlements deep in the West Bank, threatening the viability of the two-state solution.
As a longstanding friend of Israel, I condemn the passing of the Land Regularisation Bill by the Knesset, which damages Israel’s standing with its international partners.
We reiterate our support for a two-state solution leading to a secure Israel that is safe from terrorism, and a contiguous, viable and sovereign Palestinian state.
Feb72017
e2v, in Chelmsford, has developed a new Charge Coupled Device (CCD) imaging sensor for the space telescope and the first four have now been delivered to the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL), in Surrey. The remaining CCDs for the Visible imager (VIS), will be delivered over the coming months.
The UK Space Agency is funding MSSL to lead the European instrument consortium that is developing and building Euclid’s Visible imager, to be delivered to ESA. The mission, due for launch in 2020, should revolutionise cosmology by improving our understanding of the evolution of the very fabric of the Universe since its birth in the Big Bang, around 13.8 billion years ago.
During its 6 year mission, Euclid’s 36 CCDs will be bombarded with charged particles from the space radiation environment, causing damage. Supported by the UK Space Agency, the Open University’s Centre for Electronic Imaging is working with MSSL to simulate this environment and conduct experiments to understand the impact of charged particles on detector performance, so that radiation damage effects can be removed from the eventual science images.
The entire VIS instrument will generate 610 megapixel images – 25 times larger than a top-of-the-range digital camera and with much better image quality. The field of view of VIS is 0.78 degrees x 0.7 degrees – slightly larger than the area covered by a Full Moon – and the spacecraft will manoeuvre to conduct a survey over the course of the mission.
The second instrument on Euclid, the French-led Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP), is also making progress, and its first detectors are expected to be delivered in the spring. Light gathered by Euclid’s 1.2 metre diameter primary mirror will be split and sent to the two instruments. Together they will map the 3D distribution of several billion galaxies spread over the entire extra-galactic sky.
This will enable scientists to determine in unprecedented detail the properties of the mysterious dark energy and dark matter which are thought to make up most of the Universe.
The UK Space Agency is also contributing to the development of the scientific data processing capability for Euclid, with UK involvement being led from Edinburgh’s Institute for Astronomy.