All posts tagged: limit

amendments to limit faith selection and end compulsory worship

amendments to limit faith selection and end compulsory worship

Published by skeptic

All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group Members Ian Sollom MP and Cat Eccles MP have tabled amendments to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill as it enters report stage in the House of Commons. These would maintain the 50% cap on faith selection for all new state faith schools and end compulsory Christian worship in schools without a religious character. Humanists UK has welcomed the amendments. Extending the 50% faith selection cap to all new schools Liberal Democrat MP Ian Sollom has tabled an amendment that would maintain the limit on faith schools being able to select students on the basis of their religion at 50% of places when the school is oversubscribed. A similar amendment by fellow Liberal Democrat Munira Wilson MP was debated and voted down by Labour MPs during committee stage. The Government is maintaining the 50% faith selection cap on new free schools with a religious character, but by lifting the current restriction that all new schools should be free schools or academies, new state faith schools will open that are allowed to …

2024 confirmed as first year to breach 1.5°C warming limit

2024 confirmed as first year to breach 1.5°C warming limit

Published by skeptic

The sun sets on a hot day in London in July 2024 Guy Corbishley/Alamy Hopes of keeping global warming below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels have been all but extinguished after new data confirmed 2024 was the first calendar year to see average temperatures breach that critical threshold. Last year was the hottest ever recorded in human history, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) will declare later today, in the latest stark warning that humanity is pushing Earth’s climate into uncharted territory. The average global temperature for the year exceeded 1.5°C above the pre-industrial baseline for the first time, the agency will also confirm, breaching the threshold set by the Paris Agreement. The WMO’s assessment is calculated using the average global temperature across six datasets, with the period of 1850 to 1900 used to provide a pre-industrial baseline. Temperature datasets collected by various agencies and institutions around the world vary slightly, mainly due to differences in how ocean temperatures have been measured and analysed over the decades. Some of those datasets will come in just below the …

Lift Schools CEO calls for review of teacher hours limit

Lift Schools CEO calls for review of teacher hours limit

Published by skeptic

The boss of one of the country’s biggest academy trusts has suggested the “archaic” directed time cap for teachers should be reviewed, saying “if we want to be seen as a profession we can’t continue to rigidly count hours”. Becks Boomer-Clark, chief executive of Lift Schools, said instead of “counting hours”, Gen Z teachers want “flexibility, fluidity, a sense of purpose”. Directed time is the number of hours in a year during which school leaders can direct teachers to be at work and available for work. The Conservative government had explored ditching the cap in 2021, but a union leader said at the time any move would be “met with fury in the profession”. But Boomer-Clark, speaking at Labour conference fringe event today, said: “I’m not sure there are as many professions that count hours, and that’s one of the really challenging things, I think, in terms of breaking us free. “Recognising actually what learning looks like, seeing time as an absolutely finite resource, but actually also acting as professionals if we want to be …

How to Train Your Brain to Limit Pain

How to Train Your Brain to Limit Pain

Published by skeptic

Co-authored by neuroplastician, speaker, and author Jasmine Benson. Imagine you take a sugar pill, believing it to be a powerful painkiller, and your pain actually diminishes. Is it all in your head, or is there a deeper neurological basis for this phenomenon? The intriguing realm of placebo effects, in which belief itself can lead to real health improvements, raises profound questions about how our brains process pain and how we attach “value” to experience. The placebo effect is a fascinating example of how our brain’s expectations can significantly alter our physical and mental health. Contrary to what one might think, the improvement in health from a placebo isn’t about tricking the brain into not feeling pain. Instead, it’s about engaging brain systems associated with value and motivation. This distinction is crucial as it changes how we approach pain management and treatment. The Science Behind the Magic Pain perception is largely a top-down process, in which higher-level brain regions combine sensory and emotional information to predict pain. The placebo effect, in which health improves after taking …

The two-child welfare limit: why won’t Labour scrap the cap? – podcast | News

The two-child welfare limit: why won’t Labour scrap the cap? – podcast | News

Published by skeptic

The two-child welfare limit was introduced by the Conservative government in 2017, limiting support for families on universal credit with three or more children. According to many experts, since then it has been the single biggest policy keeping UK children in poverty. Helen Pidd visits the home of Janet Arinaitwe, a mother of three, who describes what the limit has meant for her family. Still, as explained by Tom Clark, contributing editor at Prospect magazine, the Labour government may keep the policy for now anyway. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA Support The Guardian The Guardian is editorially independent. And we want to keep our journalism open and accessible to all. But we increasingly need our readers to fund our work. Support The Guardian Source link

Tell us: have you been affected by the UK’s two-child limit on universal credit? | Benefits

Tell us: have you been affected by the UK’s two-child limit on universal credit? | Benefits

Published by skeptic

The prime minister, Keir Starmer, is facing pressure to abolish the two-child limit on universal credit, with the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, calling the cap “wrong” and urging Starmer to scrap it. The limit on universal credit or child tax credit for more than two children (with exceptions for children with disabilities or those born before April 2017) impacts around 450,000 families, including 1.6 million children. We want to hear from you. Has your family been affected by the two-child limit? What has it meant for your finances? What are your thoughts on Labour’s approach to the issue? Share your experience You can tell us how you have been affected by the two-child limit on universal credit using this form.  Your responses, which can be anonymous, are secure as the form is encrypted and only the Guardian has access to your contributions. We will only use the data you provide us for the purpose of the feature and we will delete any personal data when we no longer require it for this purpose. For …

‘The only limit is our imagination’: Tim Peake on what living in space taught him about life on Earth | Tim Peake

‘The only limit is our imagination’: Tim Peake on what living in space taught him about life on Earth | Tim Peake

Published by skeptic

The astronaut Tim Peake is tracking his cab driver on his phone. The car that will deliver him from our meeting to his next appointment (on a day packed with radio commitments) is late and Peake is calculating the most time-efficient route for us to meander through Soho’s traffic, on foot, to reach it. Peake is the seventh UK-born astronaut in space and the first Briton to spacewalk – an unfathomable feat for us, but not for him. Space, he agrees, casting a glance at a printout of the schedule he keeps in his jacket pocket, might be easier to navigate than rush hour on Earth. We have already been chatting for an hour, in a snug above his agent’s office. He announced his retirement as a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut in January 2023, but we’re meeting in the wake of news that he is preparing for a return to orbit on the first ever all-British space mission. That mission is due to launch next year and Peake is expected to be announced as …

Farmers’ union lobbied to increase pesticide limit in UK drinking water | Water

Farmers’ union lobbied to increase pesticide limit in UK drinking water | Water

Published by skeptic

The National Farmers’ Union lobbied to increase the amount of pesticides allowed in the UK’s drinking water and to allow farmers to spread manure more frequently as part of a post-Brexit loosening of environmental regulations, it can be revealed. Nick von Westenholz, the director of strategy for the lobby group, met Timothy Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, the Earl of Minto, who is the minister of state for regulatory reform, last year and asked him to review EU-derived environmental protections. The Guardian revealed earlier this year that the UK’s EU-derived environmental regulations were being eroded following Brexit. According to government minutes released to Unearthed, the journalism arm of Greenpeace, after a freedom of information request, Von Westenholz told Minto in July last year: “Thresholds for pesticide residues are tiny. Burden on farmers and water companies on the amount they have to invest in systems to meet negligible requirements.” He added: “Opposition to relaxation of standards is around the greater use of pesticides. But [there is] no evidence that increasing thresholds would do any harm.” The NFU said the statement …

Editorial: Biden’s limit on bomb shipments may finally get Netanyahu’s attention

Editorial: Biden’s limit on bomb shipments may finally get Netanyahu’s attention

Published by skeptic

In quietly halting a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel last week, President Biden at last began exercising U.S. leverage to halt a full-scale invasion of Rafah, the final refuge in Gaza for about a million Palestinians displaced by Israeli destruction elsewhere in the besieged territory. It’s the right move, even though Israel may have a sufficient stockpile from previous U.S. shipments to press forward. Biden has tried to walk a line between supporting Israel in its effort to destroy Hamas in the wake of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack that killed about 1,200 people, and pressuring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to limit civilian casualties. Until now, that pressure came only in the form of words. The Gaza death toll is nearing 35,000, and much of the strip has been obliterated. Survivors face starvation because Israel cut off access to corridors for delivery of food and other humanitarian assistance. Pressure from Biden succeeded in reopening some aid routes, but Israel has since limited their use. Israeli has launched airstrikes in Rafah and its troops and …

I was a running addict – but pushing myself to the limit led to two knee replacements | Rod Gilchrist

I was a running addict – but pushing myself to the limit led to two knee replacements | Rod Gilchrist

Published by skeptic

I am preparing for an anaesthetist to sink a hypodermic needle into my back at a busy London hospital ahead of a scheduled surgery to replace my knee. Knowing this might be painful, I ask a fellow patient how he got his mind around the jab. “Two spliffs of good dope worked for me,” he confessed. I’m yet to try that, but this is my second left knee replacement in less than 15 years – an increasingly common story as our population ages and obesity levels cause growing strain on our joints. More than 2m hip and knee replacements have been performed in the UK since the early 2000s and waiting lists continue to grow. By 2060, demand for hip and knee joint replacement (based on data for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man) is estimated to increase by almost 40%. But I think there is another reason for these soaring figures: I blame the fitness gurus. Joe Wicks and his ilk, with their fashionable shorts and bulging quads, all promise we …