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Futures Beyond Divides: What World Are We Building?

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Huge Fall In Health and Care Worker Visas

The number of health and care worker visas issued fell by 77% in the latest figures. The net immigration rate continues to fall. There has been a change to the centrally supported nurse international recruitment programme. Other changes to immigration rules have affected other sectors, such as hospitality and study visas. There is a critical gap in the workers needed in care and other sectors. The NHS is saying the gap is critical to patient care and safety.

Racism Storm At The US Open Tennis Championships

The tennis player Jelena Ostapenko sparked a racism storm at the US Open with her behaviour towards the American player Taylor Townsend. After losing the match, she accused her of having 'no class' and 'no education'. She initially defended her comments on social media. Then she issued an apology without referring to Townsend directly, and using her level of English as an excuse. Taylor Townsend responded gracefully.

Man arrested over racist abuse to Jess Carter

Jess Carter faced racist abuse online, and a man has now been arrested for this. Described as 'disgusting and appalling' abuse, police investigated and said that no one should be subjected to this type of abuse. Carter has now stepped back from social media. She has been commended by the police for standing up to this abuse. These stories show what is happening in society around racism in all areas of life. This is not isolated to race. Research from Kick It Out shows that sexist abuse online prevents women and girls from posting online and engaging in football.

Facial recognition cameras are too racially biased to use at Notting Hill Carnival

Instant face-matching cameras proposed for use at the Notting Hill Carnival are less accurate for women and people of colour. Ministers ramped up the deployment of vans fixed with facial recognition technology to nine forces across England and Wales. With this inaccuracy in the technology, this is a huge cause for concern. Campaigners claim the police have been allowed to 'self-regulate' their use of the technology.

Four-Day Week Good For Workers and Employers

Another pilot of the four-day working week in the public sector has found an increase in productivity and improvements in staff well-being. Workers switched to a 32-hour week with no loss of pay or benefits. The study found that 98% of employees judged morale and motivation to have improved. The study over a year showed that sick days for psychological reasons dropped by 25.7%. Employees' days off were staggered to ensure coverage over the week.

Twelve-year-old Inventor of a Solar-powered Backpack for homeless makes Time magazine's Girls of the Year List

Rebecca Young from Glasgow designed a solar-powered backpack with an electric blanket inside to help homeless people. She was eleven when she came up with the idea after seeing people sleeping on the streets during a freezing Scottish winter. She has been named with nine other girls from around the world, all recognised as being young leaders inspiring communities aimed at women and girls. With a study from Lego showing that children were twice as likely to credit major inventions to men, it's great to see this list to inspire girls and show them what's possible.

Some Canva employees will become overnight millionaires

Canva's eligible current and former employees, or “Canvanauts,” will be able to sell up to $3 million of their vested equity. This will make many of them significant sums of money. Canva CEO, Melanie Perkins, was turned down by many investors. The founders have pledged to transfer more than 80% of their stake to the Canva Foundation for charitable causes.

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