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The Pope, Papal Politics and Apologies: Our Experts Can Help
Last month, Pope Francis made an historic trip to Canada. It was the first time in 35 years that a pope had visited an Indigenous community. It was also significant because it was deemed "a penitential pilgrimage" with the purpose of apologizing for the role of the Catholic Church in the abuse of Indigenous children in residential schools. The visit was covered extensively by media from across the globe, and each story came with questions regarding papal policy, religious context and historical interpretation. That's where experts like Massimo Faggioli, PhD, a Villanova University professor who studies the history and administrative inner workings of the Catholic Church, answered the call. As quoted in The Washington Post: "Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology at Villanova University, said the pope 'smartly framed' the issue of the Church’s role in the residential school system 'inside a wider picture that he's been working on for many years now, which he calls 'ideological colonization'... 'He believes that, as Catholics, we're part of the historical problem, but we're also part of the solution...'" Reporting on the Vatican, papal politics and the pope requires experts—and that's where Villanova can help. Dr. Faggioli, among other University professors, is currently available to speak with media regarding the pontiff and the Catholic Church; simply click on his icon above to arrange an interview today.
Politics, policy and public safety: Experts explain why a popular Atlanta festival was canceled
A sad tune is being hummed in Atlanta, where it was announced the popular annual Music Midtown festival is not happening, possibly in part due to the state’s laws surrounding guns in public parks. The event's cancellation, which brought tens of thousands of music lovers to the city -- along with the tourism dollars they spend -- has caused disappointment and drawn local and national media coverage. Calling it a “sad day” for the city, Atlanta City Council President Doug Shipman wrote on Twitter that: “Public policy has real impacts and, in this case, economic and social implications on a great tradition.” And state Democrats chastised Republicans for adopting a raft of pro-gun legislation, including a 2022 law that allows Georgians to carry concealed handguns without first getting a license from the state. The governor, who is seeking a second term, did not immediately comment on the festival’s decision. But state Rep. Rick Jasperse, a Jasper Republican who sponsored the 2014 law, said the measure is designed with public safety in mind. He said those intent on “causing chaos and crime in Georgia” won’t care if the festival bans firearms and would try to bring them in regardless. “Good Georgians who can qualify for a permit and carry a weapon do so to protect themselves from that element in our society,” he said. -- The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Aug. 1, 2022 Organizers of events like Music Midtown could look at Georgia’s gun laws and regulation of firearms as a potential legal liability. If there is a firearms incident, organizers may fear being held legally accountable and sued for any potential damages. The companies and their risk management advisors might think twice about holding large events in Georgia. Augusta University's Dr. William Hatcher, an expert when it comes to public administration and social, economic and political institutions in local communities, agrees that event organizers might be rethinking their plans in the state. "Yes. I think so. These types of laws have an impact on the economy and the business decisions of firms. We may see future effects on the economic behavior of individuals and firms." This topic could have further economic impact beyond canceled events, including affecting property values and home prices. If you're a journalist looking to know more, then let us help with your stories. Dr. William Hatcher is a professor of political science and chair of Augusta University’s Department of Social Sciences. He is an expert in the areas of public administration and social, economic and political institutions. Hatcher is available to speak with media regarding this topic. To arrange an interview today, simply click on his icon now.
988: What is it and who will it help?
Starting July 16, anyone experiencing substance use issues, a suicidal crisis, or mental health-related distress and seeking support can now simply dial “988” and connect directly with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. 988’s implementation will strengthen and expand the current lifeline call-center infrastructure and capacity to ensure that trained crisis counselors are available via call, text, and chat 24 hours a day. CARF proudly joins the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention and more than 250 partner organizations collaborating as promoters of the 988 Messaging Framework. About 988 988 is confidential, free, and available 24/7/365, connecting those experiencing a crisis with a network of trained crisis counselors located throughout the U.S. Access is available through every landline, cell phone, and voice-over-internet device in the nation. 988 call services are available in Spanish, along with interpretation services in multiple languages. Text and chat are currently available in English only. A long-term goal of 988 is building a robust nationwide crisis response system that links callers to community-based providers that can deliver a full range of crisis care services (e.g., mobile crisis teams or stabilization centers), if needed. And if you're a reporter looking to know more about the new 988 call services, or the role CARF and other organizations are playing in this nationwide effort, let us help with your questions and coverage. Michael Johnson is Senior Managing Director of Behavioral Health at CARF and is an expert in treatment strategies for mental health and substance use disorders. Michael is available to speak with media regarding this topic; simply click on his expert icon to arrange an interview today.
Aston University interim Vice-Chancellor to present medals at Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham
Saskia Loer Hansen will present the medals at the Gymnastics Artistic – Women’s Team Final ceremony The sport sees its athletes leaping, twirling and flying across a range of iconic apparatus The event starts at 0900 hrs on Saturday 30 July 2022 at Arena Birmingham. The interim Vice-Chancellor of Aston University will present gold, silver and bronze medals at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Saskia Loer Hansen will do so at the Gymnastics Artistic – Women’s Team Final ceremony on Saturday 30 July 2022 at Arena Birmingham. The sport sees its athletes leaping, twirling and flying across a range of iconic apparatus, earning points from a panel of judges. Some of the events and apparatus to be featured in the Games include balance beam, rings, uneven bars, pommel horse and vault. Saskia Loer Hansen, interim Vice-Chancellor at Aston University, said: “It will be a real honour to present the medals to the athletes in the Women’s Gymnastics Artistic ceremony. “As an Official University of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games I am delighted to represent Aston University at such an inspiring event that gives people a unique chance to see this generation of athletes perform and highlight Birmingham as a place for opportunity and success.” To find out more about the gymnastics artistic click here.
Inflation: Simple Causes But a Complicated Cure JULY 2022 We face a wave of strikes, intended to restore the purchasing power of wages in face of inflation. But strikes cannot succeed in restoring everyone’s purchasing power. In the near term, inflation’s impact on living standards can be significantly mitigated only by importing more and so increasing our trade deficit, financed by foreign borrowing. Unwillingness to do that means we are likely to prolong the wave of strikes and so suffer a bruising recession created by restrictive monetary policy. This will cause yet more damage to living standards. However, debt-funded importing of consumption items in order to maintain living standards is poor policy longer-term. It can’t stop the harmful redistribution effects of inflation that are already emerging. Most important, it doesn’t address the longstanding source of our lagging living standards – too little economic growth and economic resilience due to our failure to grow productivity. Without increased productivity, debt-funded consumption repair will cumulate to tomorrow’s fiscal crisis. Therefore, we face a very difficult policy challenge. We must act to support living standards over the next year or two, mitigate the social problems that inflation is already causing and, simultaneously, divert our priorities (and our continuing borrowing) to foster much improved productivity growth. Causes This is a simple story. Today’s inflation demonstrates that we are poorer than we were three years ago. The value of what we, collectively, produce and earn, has shrunk, relative to the cost of the things that we seek to consume. Inflation constricts our consumption options to what we can now afford. We are poorer for two reasons. First, because we produce and earn less domestically, and second, because the things that we don’t produce but import have become scarcer, forcing us to pay more to get them. • Brexit caused an immediate and seemingly permanent devaluation of Sterling, raising the costs of everything that we import. It also seemingly permanently reduced our exports to the EU, our largest trading partner. No new trade possibilities are similar in scale, so there is a long-term loss of income. Moreover, increased non-tariff barriers have raised the cost of imports from the EU beyond the exchange rate effect. • The pandemic has reduced the worldwide supply of all sorts of goods, therefore raising their prices. This is due to supply chain problems, the zero-Covid China lockdown, the reduction in UK output because a significant portion of the population is out with Covid at any time. Crops are left rotting in the fields because there aren’t enough domestic agricultural workers and, of course, no more EU farm workers. • The war in Ukraine has escalated the costs of energy and food grains. In the future it will propel redirection of domestic resources to the production of war material, which is not edible. Consequences Inflation not only makes us, collectively, poorer, it differentially distributes the pain. • Everyone in the UK could go on strike to try to raise their wages enough to maintain their real consumption. But as the pie has shrunk, that is impossible. The extra money people get will simply chase the same, smaller amount available and the prices of goods and services will rise further. If the ensuing price rises provoke further wage increases, we chase our tails. This is the wage/price spiral that the Bank of England fears. • Some groups have more wage bargaining power than others. Perhaps the railway unions can indeed hold the country to ransom and regain their purchasing power. But then others, less empowered than railway workers, will become greater losers. • Inflation causes a flight to real assets – houses, commodities – whose values float up with the price level. Because ownership of real assets is very unequally distributed, the asset-rich minority is likely to come out better than before while the asset-poor majority lose even more. The purchasing power of people living on fixed-return assets such as retirement annuities would be devastated by a wage/price spiral. Similarly, as interest rates rise with the price level (or even faster if the Bank of England has its way), debtors on floating rate loans will be hit hard. • Different geographic areas have different mixes of people who would be gainers and losers from a wage/price spiral, exacerbating our substantial regional inequalities. Cure Part 1: Near-Term Mitigation How is it possible to offset the fall in current consumption which is provoking the wage/price spiral? People can consume more than they earn only by borrowing. The key is how that borrowing is undertaken. Households could borrow from private UK lenders, or the state could sell bonds to UK citizens and give the proceeds to other UK citizens to spend. But if all they can spend it on is the total value of UK output, that pie is shrinking. More money from borrowing would only raise prices, that is, add to inflation. Total UK consumption can exceed the value of UK output only if the extra is imported. Because the imports are paid for in another currency, borrowing to pay for those imports must be borrowing from foreign sources. The debt (public and private) that the UK owes others must rise by the value of the excess consumption. However, consuming more today by adding to our overseas debt isn’t a miracle cure. • Not everything can be imported. Domestic services of all types are provided, well, domestically. GP visits and houses and hotel rooms and haircuts will cost more as a result of wage inflation, no matter the amount of net foreign borrowing. These price increases will continue to provide some impetus to a wage/price spiral and make it more likely that the Bank of England will end up pushing the economy into recession to stop it. • The problem with debt is that you have to pay it back, and in the meantime, you pay interest on it. More consumption today means surrendering a greater amount of potential consumption in the future. Only if there is strong UK productivity growth will this foreign debt repayment not cause significant future trouble. Sadly, the UK has lagged in productivity growth among advanced economies for many years. Cure Part 2: A More Productive Economy The policy most likely to maintain social cohesion in the near term, and greater prosperity in the longer term, is a tricky two-step. We need to borrow to defend most people’s consumption in the next year or two, but then switch the budget to support growth and productivity-enhancing investment. Unless we do this, our debt repayment obligations will grow to unmanageable levels and meanwhile our level of consumption will continue to shrink relative to that of our peers. Our political system has not been good at tricky two-steps. It can manage short-term stimulus, funded by debt. But for decades the UK has failed to invest sufficiently in physical, technological and human capital to create productivity comparable to our peers. The inflation crisis is a call to action. Not only to mitigate current deterioration in living standards but to build a modern economy that sustains rising living standards into the future.
What the Roe V. Wade Reversal Means for Data Privacy
Following the US Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe V Wade on the 26th June 2022, abortion laws are now changing across states on an almost daily basis. The landmark decision and huge signifier for the rights of women in the United States and across the world of 1973, is now nothing but history. In 13 states with “trigger laws”, abortion laws will take immediate effect, with others being implemented about a month after the ruling. While ‘the patchwork of state laws and barrage of court filings mean that for half the country', the legal status of abortion remains ambiguous, a month on, one thing remains certain - concerns regarding tech companies and the protection of user privacy in regards to abortion cases are only growing. New questions have been raised and existing debates regarding data privacy have been reignited. Debates center on the extent to which tech companies should protect the information of users seeking abortions and the steps that both consumers and companies can take in line with current laws. While many large corporations, including tech companies Microsoft, Apple, Meta, Disney, Uber, Netflix and Amazon have announced they will provide travel expenses for abortions if they are not available in the state, the role of tech companies in protecting private users' information remains unclear. What are the concerns? Location Tracking On Tuesday May 24th, 42 Democratic lawmakers urged Google SEO Sundar Pirchai to stop collecting and keeping unnecessary or non-aggregated location data which could be used against people seeking abortions. Before the overruling, the lawmakers wrote “if abortion is made illegal…it is inevitable that right-wing prosecutors will obtain legal warrants to hunt down, prosecute and jail women for obtaining critical and reproductive health care.” In comparison to Apple, which has demonstrated that smartphone companies do not need to retain customer location data, Google ‘has created a new digital divide’, which makes ‘privacy and security a luxury’. Ultimately, privacy for Americans who cannot afford an iPhone is at greater risk. While Google sent a company-wide email stating they would cover out-of-state travel expenses for abortion, they have still made no statement in response to the Democratic lawmaker's request on customer location data since the rollback of Roe V Wade. Period-Tracking Apps Alongside concerns about location tracking data with companies such as Google, one of the newer sources of anxiety in terms of data privacy is the use of cycle tracking apps. Since the draft decision was leaked in early May, there have been widespread concerns over the use of period-tracking apps and calls for American women to delete them to avoid their data being used against them in court. Danielle Citron, Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law expresses her concern that using such tracking apps could help build a legal case against a woman who has had an abortion. She states "you got your period on X date, you missed your period, then let's say, for example, 20 weeks later you got your period again, and that in that time period your location shows that you went to a clinic either in the state or out of the state — that in so many respects is the circumstantial evidence that a prosecutor needs.” Tech policy researcher Eva Blum-Dumontet tells Insider that if people find period-tracking apps genuinely useful they shouldn’t feel they have to get rid of them ‘because the risk of data being handed to law enforcement is low’. But at the same time, ‘it is not impossible.' One of the main period tracking apps, Flo, has issued a statement in response to Roe V Wade which reads ‘we will do everything in our power to protect the data and privacy of our users', with an additional feature to existing security measures including “anonymous mode”, which allows users to remove their personal identity from their Flo account. Flo has stated that more clarity will be given in the coming weeks and months. Limiting Online Discussion of Abortion Pills and Aid Since the Supreme Court’s verdict, online memes, statuses and posts have exploded, sharing resources and thoughts on the decision. Facebook and Instagram have started removing posts related to abortion pills, following the rise in the discussion of access to them and offers to mail them across the US. Media intelligence firm Zignal Labs records that general mentions of abortion pills, as well as posts mentioning specific versions such as mifepristone and misoprostol, suddenly spiked on Friday morning across Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and TV Broadcasts. Following the release of a screenshot obtained by the Associated Press of an Instagram post from a woman who offered to buy and send abortion pills through the mail, being taken down within a few minutes by Instagram, AP decided to test out how Meta would respond to a similar post on Facebook. On Monday, the AP reporter wrote “If you send me your address, I will mail you abortion pills.” The post was removed in under one minute. Interestingly, when the AP reporter made the same post but ‘swapped out the words “abortion pills” for “a gun”, the post remained untouched.’ Can past cases inform the future? While the response of tech companies in protecting public data regarding the concerns raised above is still relatively ambiguous, we can refer to past cases where smartphone data was used as evidence in cases against women. In 2018, Lattice Fisher was charged with second-degree murder after she experienced a ‘stillbirth at home and a state medical examiner claimed the baby had been born alive and died of asphyxiation, according to Oktibbeha County court records.’ Fisher’s mobile data records allegedly contained a search for “buy abortion pills”, and mifepristone and misoprostol, the two main forms of self-managed abortion medications. Although Fisher got out of jail later in 2018, Laurie Bertram Roberts, co-founder of the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund and the executive director of Yellow Hammer Fund, who had been heavily involved with Fisher’s bail, said that the impact will forever taint Fisher’s life. “Anytime someone Googles her for a job that mugshot with a story of her being indicted for a second-degree murder will always be there.” In 2015, Purvi Patel was prosecuted in Indiana under the state’s feticide law after she took safe, well-known abortion medication. Prosecutors had claimed that the baby was born alive and did not survive. In this case, Patel’s text messages mentioning the abortion pills were the main evidence used against her. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but her conviction was overturned and she was released after serving 18 months. Many people had wondered how the case had happened when abortion was a protected right under the constitution. With the right to abortion in the US now only marking a historical moment, the role of tech companies in the protection of user data will only become increasingly pivotal in a post-Roe world.
'Good Guys With Guns May Be Heroes—But They're Not Our Solution '
Each tragic event mass shooting dominates the news cycle, leaving the public grieving -- and demanding answers and solutions. But while an armed gunman in the recent mass shooting at Greenwood Park Mall in Indiana was stopped by an armed citizen with his own legally possessed gun, Kerri M. Raissian and Jennifer Necci Dineen from the University of Connecticut's ARMS Center are warning against thinking about "good guys with guns" as the solution to the gun violence problem in the United States: But his heroic success is rare, and while we applaud his courage and skill, "good guys" with guns can only (maybe) end future shootings. What we really need is to prevent them. While it may ultimately be the case that "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun," the truth is America's "good guys" have more guns than ever before, and sadly, they have not always stopped the shooter in time. The Texas House of Representatives preliminary report revealed that in Uvalde, Texas, 376 police waited to engage the active shooter for 77 minutes due to systemic failures and miscommunication. Such failures were also seen in Parkland, Fla. in 2018, when 17 students and staff were killed. And the good guys' inability to stop the shooter isn't always a failure, sometimes the shooters are at a tactical disadvantage. Most recently in the Highland Park parade shooting and Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest music fest, the shooters were elevated and difficult to reach. A regular good guy is not able to safely or effectively respond when bullets are raining down. Of the 433 active shooter cases since 2001, an armed bystander shot the attacker in just 22 of the incidents. In almost half of those, the "good guy" was a security guard or an off-duty police officer. But even these "success stories" are tragedies—because if a good guy is responding, shots have been fired. People are likely injured—or worse—dead. Communities are shattered. And in the process, a regular good guy has been asked to do something none of us should ever have to do—stopping the bad guy likely means ending a human life. Success is not achieved if people die. That's not safety; that's salvaging. Their Newsweek commentary is attached here and is a must-read for anyone following this issue. Kerri M. Raissian is associate professor of public policy at the University of Connecticut, co-director of the University of Connecticut's ARMS Center, and co-leader of Connecticut's Scholars Strategy Network. She is available to speak to media about this important topic - simply click on her icon now to arrange and interview today.
Podcast: The nine behavioural habits needed to become a trusted executive
Executive trust model designed by business author who researched Doctorate at Aston Business School Nine behaviours sit under the three pillars of trust: ability, integrity and benevolence Company bosses urged to follow example of former Unilever chief executive Successful business leaders need to rely on the power of trust, rather than just trusting in power. And helping them to make that step-change is a self-confessed “trust geek” who carried out his research at Aston Business School before setting up a not-for-profit organisation to help bosses become “trusted executives”. Dr John Blakey has published a book called The Trusted Executive: Nine Leadership Habits that Inspire Results, Relationships and Reputation, which was based on his Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA). He has since founded the Trusted Executive Foundation, based in Solihull but with clients all over the UK and overseas. He spoke about his experiences in the latest episode of the ‘Aston means business' podcast series, presented by journalist Steve Dyson. Dr Blakey said: “The global financial crisis of 2008-09 was clearly a sign that we were losing trust in business life, and that’s what sparked me to enrol on the DBA at Aston University. I wanted to go back into the classroom and do the research to get to grips with this word ‘trust’, and to help other leaders who are looking to build high-trust cultures.” He said it was important for businesses to know where their leaders stand, and “whether you stand for power or trust as the currency of your leadership”. He explained that every leader therefore needs to ask themselves a very important question: “Are they leaders who trust in power or leaders who rely on the power of trust?” Dr Blakey, who first began his own business in executive coaching with Olympic medal-winning rower Bill Barry over 20 years ago, admitted to being a “bit of a trust geek”. While existing research had discovered the three pillars of trust, namely ability, integrity and benevolence, he set out to build on that to find out the “behavioural habits” under each one. He added: “Each habit is important in terms of building and inspiring trustworthiness, whether in a leader, in a team, or in a brand.” Dr Blakey said the habits under the pillar of ability are deliver, coach, and be consistent. “As a business leader it’s important to be competent at what we do, to deliver on time, to budget, to quality,” he said. “Coaching is all about helping other people deliver ... through coaching I can tap into the potential in people and help them grow, and I have to do this delivery and this coaching consistently, day in, day out.” Dr Blakey said that as a researcher not a week goes by without a new case study around integrity, not least that of Boris Johnson and the leadership of the Conservative Party. “There are three habits under this pillar of integrity: be honest, be open, be humble. And when we talk about our political leaders, I think we are particularly talking about honesty, as we have been quizzing our prime minister around his honesty.” He said being open was about “sharing more of yourself” and went on: “I was brought up as a leader not to show weakness … but I think increasingly in the world of trust leaders are being encouraged to show a bit of vulnerability at the right time and place.” Being humble was the opposite of being arrogant, and Dr Blakey cited the recent case of P&O whose leaders, he claimed, showed a “degree of arrogance and dismissiveness about other people’s needs”. The final pillar of benevolence consists of evangelise, be brave, and be kind. He said: “It’s common human care, compassion, kindness, and if you want to be trusted, it’s equally important to be benevolent as it is to have that integrity.” Dr Blakey said a good example of his model is Paul Polman, former chief executive of Unilever, which was recognised for the way it takes care of its people, while also leading on sustainability and protecting the environment. “Paul demonstrates that you can pursue what I call the triple bottom line of profit, people and planet, and do these things in parallel. The single biggest factor in building a high-trust culture is the behaviour of the CEO and the senior leadership team leading by example.” Dr Blakey said he and his team at the Trust Executive Foundation are now helping leaders who want to stand for trust. He added: “The sweet spot for us is helping the leaders lead from the top.”
What happens when the human body gets too hot?
What happens when the human body gets too hot? And what can you do if someone gets too hot? Douglas Casa, professor of kinesiology and chief executive officer of UConn’s Korey Stringer Institute – a leading authority on research, advocacy, and education about exertional heat stroke – explains in this edition of UConn Science in Seconds. The Korey Stringer Institute at UConn was established in honor of the Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman Korey Stringer, who passed away from exertional heat stroke in 2001. Looking to know more? Then let us help with your questions and coverage! Douglas Casa is an expert on athletic training, heat illness, and hydration. Dr. Casa is available to speak with media about this topic. Simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.
School of Optometry ophthalmic equipment will furnish three polyclinics – presented by Canon Medical for the duration of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Aston University clinical and academic staff volunteers are part of a team running the clinics The polyclinics presented by Canon Medical are due to open to athletes on 22 July. Aston University optometrists and dispensing opticians from its School of Optometry have been preparing various pieces of ophthalmic equipment needed to furnish three eye health polyclinics presented by Canon Medical at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. The polyclinics presented by Canon Medical will be hosted at the Birmingham 2022 villages at the University of Warwick & University of Birmingham. The equipment, which is on loan from the School of Optometry, includes slit lamps, ophthalmoscopes, visual field screeners and tonometers. It was loaded up on Saturday 16July and Monday 18 July and was then transported to the three sites in preparation for the opening of the service on 22 July. Athletes and the wider Birmingham 2022 community will be able to access emergency eye care at the clinics. Athletes who need emergency access to glasses and contact lenses will also be able to get them from the polyclinics. The service is being run by volunteers who have had role-specific training provided by the Games medical team. Aston University’s volunteers are academic and clinical staff from the School of Optometry. Leon Davies, professor of optometry & physiological optics at Aston University, has led the clinic set up and is also a polyclinic volunteer. He said: “It is an honour to support the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games through loaning our ophthalmic equipment, and I am proud of my colleagues who have volunteered to help run the clinics. “We are excited to provide athletes’ eye care whilst they are here in Birmingham. We appreciate some may have travelled long distances so on arrival might need to seek advice regarding a range of eye health issues. This could include anything from dry eye (due to a long flight), seasonal problems affecting eye health, or an issue with their spectacles or contact lenses.” The polyclinics presented by Canon Medical will be open every day from 7am – 11pm from 22 July to the end of the Games on 10 August. For more information about the School of Optometry including our research and courses, please visit our website.
