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Wyoming school leaders agree to ‘monumental’ remake of K-12 education

Wyoming school leaders agree to ‘monumental’ remake of K-12 education

Wyoming’s top education leaders have agreed to collaborate on pilot projects that could kickstart the remaking of the state’s K-12 education system.

In a first, a formal partnership will unite the Wyoming State Board of Education, Wyoming Department of Education, University of Wyoming and Gov. Mark Gordon’s office and their educational initiatives to put all of the state’s power behind transitioning education in Wyoming toward a system that’s center on individual student progress rather than seat time.

“Our listening carefully to educators across Wyoming reveals a hunger for student-centered innovation and competency-based approaches to teaching and learning,” Scott Thomas, the dean of UW’s College of Education, said in a statement. “This deliberate collaboration represents a signal moment for innovating education and advancing children’s learning throughout the state.”

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Riverton High School

Desks at Riverton High School are pictured on Feb. 9. 




The State Board of Education, which includes Thomas and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, voted Thursday at a meeting in Riverton to formalize their cooperation and start on pilot projects that will move some schools toward competency-based learning, allowing them to focus more on the individual learning of students.

The pilots will be voluntary for schools, but those that join will change how they instruct and assess students.

Two paths forward

Diana Clapp, the coordinator for the Wyoming State Board of Education, presented members of the State Board of Education with two options.

In the first, the group will collaborate with schools and communities to expand on the work that they are already doing around competency-based learning. Schools would “mainstream” the programs they already have in place, such as career readiness and technical training programs, so that they reach more students.


Gordon initiative calls for remaking of Wyoming's education system

The group would guide the schools through the transition, helping them with planning and giving them the support that they need to scale competency-based education. The Wyoming School-University Partnership, an alliance between school districts, community colleges, UW and state education organizations, would serve as a hub, acting as a facilitator so that schools could share their work and learn from one another.

The second option would involve starting from scratch. It would include the complete reorientation of pilot schools and pave the way for “systemic change” in Wyoming education.

The state would place pilot schools into small groups, which would then work together with the Department of Education, State Board of Education and the others to transform how they teach students. The schools and their communities would focus on the “application and transference of learning, personalized learning experiences, and alternative demonstrations of competency,” moving students away from seat time and traditional testing and assignments, according to a State Board of Education memo.

Outside experts would help the schools, which would open up their graduation requirements so that students could earn credits for educational opportunities outside of school. For example, instead of requiring a student to take a biology or environmental science course with exams, they may earn credit by working with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department on research. 

In both pilots, schools would reconsider course and graduation requirements, give more weight to opportunities such as internships, capstones and work-based learning opportunities, and would allow students more flexibility to work at their own pace and follow their interests. The schools would also emphasize learning through projects.

“The willingness of the Governor, State Board and University to partner with us on this call for innovation is the key to our state achieving student centered education that best prepares students for the workforce,” Degenfelder said in a statement.







Megan Degenfelder

Martin Carman, 12, shows now Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder how to fly a drone on Aug. 11 at Code Ninjas in Casper. Degenfelder is a former Department of Education administrator and worked for an energy company before taking office.




The state’s education leaders have yet to decide on a particular direction and have yet to select schools, but they will begin to outline plans for the pilots in the coming weeks, said Linda Finnerty, a spokesperson for the Department of Education.

Degenfelder said during the board’s meeting that the goal is to begin the pilots next fall.


Degenfelder prioritizes teacher retention, school choice in first 90 days

An audible excitement swept those at the State Board of Education as they discussed the pilot projects and the shift toward competency-based learning.

“You’re talking about changing the bedrock essentially of education,” Lachelle Brant, Gordon’s education policy adviser, told the State Board of Education.

The board’s members acknowledged that the pilot schools could be the start of a monumental shift for Wyoming’s K-12 education.

“Sometimes a person gets on a board and you don’t really know what you’re supposed to be doing or what you’re accomplishing,” said Ellen Creagar, a member of the board and a social science and business professor at Eastern Wyoming College. “This isn’t that board folks. This is a board that’s really moving, shaking and making big, important, positive change for students and changing the face of education in Wyoming. It’s exciting.”

Bringing together initiatives

Competency-based education essentially means moving from a system in which students mold to education to one in which education molds to individual students.

It’s going from school desks lined up in rows, students listening to a PowerPoint lecture, to tests that ask a student to successfully perform a science experiment. It’s students taking the knowledge and skills that they build and applying them to the world outside of the classroom.

Competency-based education is premised on the “mastery” of a subject, not a test score or the time spent in a classroom.

Each of the four state bodies has led their own push toward competency-based education.

US Reading and Math Scores , Fell Sharply During Pandemic, , New Data Reveals. National Assessment of Educational Progress scores of fourth-grade students were released by the Education Department on Sept. 1. The scores reveal the most significant drop in math and reading scores for nine-year-olds in decades. The age of students is considered developmentally crucial. The scores are considered a prominent indicator of educational performance and economic outlook. Education scholars lamented the news, saying it is unlikely that the students affected by the pandemic will be able to catch up in the coming years. I don’t think we can expect to see these 9-year-olds catch up by the time they leave high school, Dr. Aaron Pallas, Teachers College Columbia University, via ‘The Wall Street Journal’. This is not something that is going to disappear quickly, Dr. Aaron Pallas, Teachers College Columbia University, via ‘The Wall Street Journal’. According to ‘The Wall Street Journal,’ . some scholars believe it could take decades for many students to return to pre-pandemic academic performance levels. COVID-19 shocked American education and stunted the academic growth [of students], Peggy G. Carr, National Center for Education Statistics Commissioner, via ‘The Wall Street Journal’. Average scores for math fell seven points from their pre-pandemic levels. Average scores for reading fell five points from their pre-pandemic levels. The numbers are the steepest decline in scores since 1990



The Department of Education and UW’s College of Education have focused on teachers, using the approach as a new way to train and certify educators. For Wyoming students, the most notable steps have come from Gordon’s office and the State Board of Education.

Gordon announced the creation of his Reimagining and Innovating the Delivery of Education (RIDE) initiative in May 2021. He asked the advisory group to broadly study how Wyoming could better prepare its K-12 students amid concerns about state funding for schools.

The group started a public input process to hear what Wyoming’s “consumers” – students, parents, businesses and educators – wanted from schools. It released a survey and held more than a dozen listening sessions across the state, producing a report in December that called for the remaking of Wyoming’s education system to focus on individualized learning for students.

In its report, the advisory group recommended the state strengthen career-connected education and change its K-12 system so that students progress through school based on academic mastery of subjects.

Gordon’s RIDE initiative paralleled an ongoing effort from the State Board of Education triggered several years before when the addition of computer science standards for K-12 raised questions about graduation requirements.

The State Board of Education started public outreach for its Profile of a Graduate initiative in March 2021 as it looked to shape Wyoming’s high school graduation requirements. The board asked Wyomingites to share the skills and knowledge that they wanted to see from the state’s graduates.

A survey and dozens of listening sessions revealed that the state’s residents wanted graduates to have seven key competencies, including mastering, applying and transferring foundational knowledge and skills, communicating effectively, and thinking critically.

While the State Board of Education and Gordon’s RIDE advisory group communicated with one another, their work was siloed – even as they found the same appeal of competency-based learning.

The vote Thursday at the State Board of Education marks the first time that all four state bodies have agreed to work together to advance competency-based learning in Wyoming.

“It is an honoring of the voices of the people of Wyoming,” Clapp told the board.

But while the board, UW, Department of Education and Gordon have bonded together, they still face a challenging road ahead.

A transition to competency-based learning is an enormous task and will not happen overnight. Board members acknowledged that the most significant obstacle will be educating parents, schools and communities about what may seem like a radical change.

Yet, they shared resolve that competency-based learning is the future of K-12 education in Wyoming.

“We’re all really in this together,” Degenfelder said.

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TUCKER CARLSON: Leaders turned the American legal system against their political opponents

TUCKER CARLSON: Leaders turned the American legal system against their political opponents

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The defining principle of the American authorized technique, genuinely of American existence, the theory that has stored us no cost, is equivalent justice — and the theory is rather easy. No make a difference what you seem like or who your dad and mom were or what your politics may well be, the regulation treats you precisely the same way as it would any other American. In this region, justice is blind. Now, that’s a lofty regular, but due to the fact Us citizens have lengthy thought in fairness and because most of the men and women in demand of administering that process have behaved in superior religion, this nation has, for the most section, lived up to its main great for 250 many years, producing it the finest region in the entire world, but the populist surge of 2016 altered anything. 

Lasting Washington quickly felt extra threatened by its personal voters, by American voters, than by any overseas adversary. Donald Trump, to them, appeared additional perilous than ISIS. They panicked, and in their panic, our leaders resolved to flip the American authorized system as properly as the American intel organizations and if needed the U.S. Military, from their political opponents. They felt they experienced no decision. In carrying out this, they abandoned the historical principle of equality less than the law and they replaced it with what is properly a loyalty oath. Opponents of the regime turned enemies of the condition. That’s a substantial improve and you are observing the benefits of that modify tonight.  

Just 24 hours after a Manhattan grand jury indicted Joe Biden’s rival in the upcoming presidential race, a different jury also in New York convicted a Republican social media influencer named Douglass Mackey. What did Mackey do incorrect? Well, Douglass Mackey’s criminal offense was mocking Hillary Clinton voters online. You happen to be looking at on your monitor the meme that Mackey posted on Twitter through the 2016 election. In that meme, Mackey indicates it’s feasible to vote for president by textual content message simply because only Hillary voters could be stupid sufficient to imagine anything so absurd, but of class, in actual daily life, no 1 did believe that. 

Mackey’s insult did not change a single vote in the election and no a person has proved in any other case. The federal government introduced forth not a one victim of this criminal offense. It couldn’t. Douglass Mackey was joking. Nobody thought he was a federal election official and in truth, his social media profile photograph had a Donald Trump hat. It was unmistakable. This was mockery, but in the wake of the 2016 election and the growing hysteria about Donald Trump, mocking the Democratic Bash grew to become a criminal offense. So as a final result tonight, Douglass Mackey faces 10 many years in prison. The circumstance versus Doug Mackey is the most shocking attack on freedom of speech in this country in our lifetimes. 

TRUMP INDICTED: NYPD ORDERS ALL OFFICERS TO REPORT IN UNIFORM FRIDAY ‘IN Preparation FOR ANYTHING’ 

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Waco Regional Airport 

Previous U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Waco Regional Airport  ( (Picture by Brandon Bell/Getty Photos))

It’s also a valuable lesson in who will be permitted to converse going forward. As it turns out, a female termed Kristina Wong posted an pretty much equivalent meme the similar 12 months back all through the 2016 election, but compared with Doug Mackey, Wong voted for Hillary Clinton. “Hey, Trump supporters,” she wrote. “Skip poll strains and textual content in your vote.” Same criminal offense, but the Division of Justice below Joe Biden has revealed no fascination in prosecuting Kristina Wong. Do you see how this performs? Have you internalized our new partisan legal standards? That would be the position of the training. They want you to know the procedures. We will have much more on the Doug Mackey scenario and what it signifies for you and for America in just a moment and by the way, Douglass Mackey is not the only Trump supporter who’s now going to jail simply because of how he voted. 

In accordance to new reporting from Julie Kelly, the FBI’s counterterrorism division just arrested a grandmother in the state of Virginia on 4 misdemeanors this 7 days. What particularly did she do? She entered the Capitol with her aged mom for a whole of 15 minutes on January 6. She hurt no a single. She ruined almost nothing. She just stood there and nevertheless, at the really very same time, in the course of the pretty very same week, none of the transgender thugs who invaded the Tennessee Point out Dwelling yesterday have been rounded up by the FBI counter-terror division and, of program, they would not be. Joe Biden just honored them with a trans working day of visibility. So, what we’re looking at right here unmistakably is bigger than Donald Trump, but we’re heading to start tonight with the most current on his circumstance, and we’re performing that simply because he is — and this is not at all incidental to his prosecution — he is the main Republican applicant for president.  

Now, Trump seemingly is currently being billed not with treason or insurrection or collusion or even shoplifting, but a thing much smaller: a slew of approach crimes relating to a payment he seemingly manufactured 7 a long time back. In no honest program would that be a criminal offense under the legislation seven several years afterwards, but the Soros-funded district lawyer in Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, has stitched collectively a Frankenstein lawful theory to justify this prosecution. Less than regular circumstances, it would be impossible simply because the statute of restrictions has handed, and as if all of that were being not third-environment adequate, another person leaked the information of Donald Trump’s grand jury indictment to the media. Now, that in alone is a crime under the legislation in New York. In truth, a significantly larger criminal offense than those below which Donald Trump is remaining charged.  

DONALD TRUMP AND STORMY DANIELS: WHAT YOU Want TO KNOW 

Will Alvin Bragg prosecute the leaker? Please. It can be virtually definitely anyone in his very own business. Nor will Bragg prosecute, as a lot of people have pointed out currently, the crimes of Hunter Biden or other Democratic partisans — these usually are not exceptional or difficult to discover. Bragg will not prosecute Hillary Clinton, even while she just admitted to violating marketing campaign finance legislation by having to pay for the pretend Russian file. What’s interesting is that none of this has alerted the watchdogs to authorities abuse or media. No, just the reverse. The media are cheerleading our new standards of tribal justice. 

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN: The very good news is here, it is our lawful procedure in action saying no person is earlier mentioned the law.  

Former REP. ELIZABETH HOLTZMAN: Nobody is over the law, not Republicans and not Democrats, not Donald Trump, not any one. 

ADAM KINZINGER, CNN: I are inclined to feel that no person is previously mentioned the legislation.  

ARI MELBER, MSNBC: No human being higher than the law. 

ANDREW WEISSMAN, MSNBC: We have political leaders who are not earlier mentioned the regulation. 

MSNBC Visitor: We you should not think that any individual really should be earlier mentioned the regulation.  

SYMONE SANDERS, MSNBC: They have been all beating the exact drum, if you will. No one is higher than the legislation.  

MSNBC Guest: No a person is above the law. Today’s proof is that that features Trump as properly.  

GLENN KIRSCHNER, MSNBC: New life has been breathed into that stating, “No human being is previously mentioned the law.”  

WILL CAIN: ALVIN BRAGG IS Over and above THE Law 

Let’s be entirely obvious. None of the folks you just observed care a issue about justice. Allow that word melt away in their mouths. No, they are certainly bloodthirsty. They would cheer as you were being necklaced in the road. “No a single is previously mentioned the law!” they would scream as you writhed on the floor. They would, but as very long as they are continue to pretending that the aged specifications of fairness and equivalent software of the legislation implement, then what ever took place to Sam Bankman-Fried? Recall him? Largest fiscal criminal offense in historical past? 

To this working day, no a single has stated or bothered to even try out to convey to us how Sam Bankman-Fried was equipped to make his bail that was established at $250 million. All that has been disclosed to us, the extensive-struggling public, is that a previous dean at Stanford and a Stanford pc scientist set up $500,000 and $200,000 respectively, and his parents set up the worth of their household. So that leaves fairly a major hole. Where by did the relaxation of the money occur from? No a person will inform us. No a single in the media is asking because no 1 cared. Sam Bankman-Fried did not shell out off a previous mistress. No, he defrauded a million men and women and ran off with houses in the Bahamas and still the program is guarding him for the reason that he voted the right way.  

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 06: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg arrives to the courtroom during the Trump Organization tax fraud trial at the New York Supreme Court on Dec. 6, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – DECEMBER 06: Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg comes to the courtroom for the duration of the Trump Organization tax fraud trial at the New York Supreme Courtroom on Dec. 6, 2022 in New York Town. (Photograph by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Visuals) ((Picture by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Pictures))

Which is extraordinary, but he’s not the only legal that Washington refuses to prosecute. There are so quite a few of them. The folks who ruined the U.S. dollar, for case in point the kinds who degraded the United States military and turned it into a joke, which it is the ones who flooded rural The usa with opioids and killed hundreds of 1000’s the persons at this time offering our oil reserves to China. None of them have at any time been prosecuted, in fact, they have all been promoted.  

We’ll have additional on them in just a moment, but for now, we would like to start off with Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner who has been indicted for non-existent crimes in the center of a presidential race. We have a pretty particular issue about how this is heading to have an impact on the race due to the fact, of training course, affecting the race is the entire place. 

Tucker Carlson currently serves as the host of FOX Information Channel’s (FNC) Tucker Carlson Tonight (weekdays 8PM/ET). He joined the network in 2009 as a contributor.

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‘Pay now or pay later’: local leaders urge community to advocate for fix to state education funding system | Local News

‘Pay now or pay later’: local leaders urge community to advocate for fix to state education funding system | Local News

Nearby leaders are optimistic the Legislature will act instantly since the general public faculty funding procedure was ruled unconstitutional, but a Mother or father-Instructor Business president thinks a deal with may acquire so prolonged that quite a few additional kids, particularly minimal-money students of color, won’t get the education they are due.

The almost 800-site ruling issued Feb. 7 by Commonwealth Court docket Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer sided with reduced-wealth community school districts – which includes the School District of Lancaster and 5 other districts who submitted the lawsuit in 2014. It claimed the state has an obligation to assure all kids equal entry to instruction in spite of the level of earnings or the worth of taxable home in their faculty district but did not give a remedy, leaving that up to the Legislature. Cohn Jubelirer also connected a absence of funding to wider achievement gaps for traditionally deprived teams, like Black and Hispanic pupils, English-language learners and very poor pupils.

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Judge rules in favor of School District of Lancaster, 5 other districts in landmark education funding lawsuit

A Pennsylvania decide dominated Tuesday the state’s funding of public education and learning falls woefully sh…

All but 12{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of SDL’s far more than 10,000 pupils detect as non-white and almost a quarter of its pupils are finding out English as a 2nd language.

‘Too minimal, far too late’

Like neighborhood leaders, SDL mom and Smith Wade-El Ementary College Guardian-Trainer Firm President Jessica Sponsler is optimistic that the ruling offers a commencing stage for legislators but she does not believe in politicians to solution a damaged process that has now put her two biracial little ones powering.

“I’m not optimistic it’s going to make a change for my young children, to explain to you the truth of the matter, or any of the young children that go to school with them,” Sponsler explained, outlining that she expects all those kids may possibly have graduated right before the challenge is settled. “There will continue on to be this kind of natural environment exactly where these children are being made use of as pawns in even larger political conversations … (legislators) are just heading to continue on to battle.”

When the lawsuit was filed in 2014, her youngest child experienced just been born and her oldest, who’s now in seventh grade, hadn’t started kindergarten.

“It’s frustrating,” Sponsler stated. “I’m hoping (my young children) will be in a position to enjoy catch up. I’m concerned that they won’t – that it’ll be way too minimal too late.”


College District of Lancaster’s landmark school funding lawsuit will get tentative demo date

However, she and other dad and mom are pushing for action as before long as probable. At a the latest PTO assembly, she and other mother and father developed a record of demands to present to the school board and administrators. One have to have she highlighted is assist workers, these kinds of as steering counselors.

‘Pay now or shell out later’

Democratic condition Rep. Izzy Smith-Wade-El, whose 49th District consists of a great deal of SDL’s enrollment location, understands the annoyance that dad and mom and learners sense ready on legislators to handle unconstitutional inequity, but he’s assured with a new Legislature in place this calendar year, change will materialize.

“There have been men and women acting to shield the status quo or to make it even additional inequitable than it now is, searching to additional privatize methods that belong to the general public due to the fact they care additional about furthering their passions and enriching by themselves than they do about the kids …,” Smith-Wade-El said. “But I think what we’re heading to see … is that they’re not much more effective than the tens of millions of Pennsylvanians who believe that their little ones have earned a attractive childhood.”

Lancaster town-based Spanish American Civic Affiliation CEO Carlos Graupera agrees that parents in individual have a crucial purpose to engage in.

“The Legislature has an obligation to offer with community education and learning in the most fair way,” Graupera explained. “The courts have spoken and communities will need to speak up far too, in all sectors of society. Mother and father, lecturers have to be part of the effort and hard work for equity and funding.”

Community tension is vital simply because “one of the worries is likely to be you’re heading to require the votes to move any new payments,” stated Pedro Rivera, president of Thaddeus Stevens College of Know-how. Rivera was the SDL superintendent when the lawsuit was filed, and became a defendant when he served as the state Secretary of Training from 2015 to 2020.

“There’ll be a will to have a dialogue,” he mentioned, “and a will with the General Assembly mainly because they have been trying for a amount of decades to do proper by university districts. I think the obstacle is going to be when it will come down to the votes.”

Failing to get all those votes quicker than afterwards has huge-ranging implications, pointed out Blanding Watson, president of the Lancaster chapter of the Nationwide Association for the Improvement of Coloured Men and women. The NAACP-Pennsylvania Point out Meeting joined the college districts in filing the lawsuit.

“We are hopeful that all will comply with the judge’s decision,” stated “Laws are socially built. So with that, it is a indication that as a modern society we are relocating in the appropriate way.”

But the challenge is urgent, Watson explained. “The url concerning academic failure and delinquency, violence, and criminal offense is welded to looking through failure. Above 70{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of inmates in America’s prisons simply cannot read through above a fourth-grade level,” he reported.

Equitable funding for colleges arrives with a value, but so does inaction, Watson stated. “This is a way we can pay now or spend afterwards in the price of crime, welfare, health and fitness charges, work losses and downward spiral in the economic climate.”

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Russia-Ukraine war live: world leaders meet in Munich; grain deal negotiations will start next week | Russia

Russia-Ukraine war live: world leaders meet in Munich; grain deal negotiations will start next week | Russia

Key events

Summary of the day so far …

  • The Ukrainian president, Volodymr Zelenskiy, will be the opening speaker on Friday at the three-day Munich security conference as the west faces urgent calls to speed up ammunition production and supplies to Kyiv in the face of mounting fears that Russia is planning a new offensive. The conference is expected to be attended by more than 100 world leaders, and diplomats, including the US vice-president Kamala Harris, and the event will be seen as a key test of the west’s resolve to fight out a grinding, prolonged, expensive war.

  • Negotiations will start in a week on extending a UN-backed initiative that has enabled Ukraine to export grain from ports blockaded by Russia after its invasion, a senior Ukrainian official said on Friday. Yuriy Vaskov said “I think common sense will prevail and the corridor will be extended.”

  • Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne reports that the energy grid is working without consumption restrictions today across all of Ukraine, with the exception of Odesa, where “due to damaged infrastructure there are still restrictions” and “power outage schedules are applied.”

  • Finland’s parliament will vote on 28 February to approve the necessary legislation that will allow the country to eventually become a member of Nato, Reuters reports the Finnish parliament’s head of foreign affairs committee said on Friday.

  • Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said that the US is inciting Ukraine to strike directly at Russian territory, after comments by US under secretary of state Victoria Nuland about Crimea. Zakharova said “[The US] supply weapons in huge quantities, provide intelligence, simply participate directly in the planning of military operations, train Ukrainian armed formations. Now the American warmongers have gone even further: they are inciting the Kyiv regime to further escalate, simply to transfer the war to the territory of our country.”

  • Nuland had told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington the US considers that Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, should be demilitarised at a minimum and Washington supports Ukrainian attacks on military targets on the peninsula.

  • Facebook allowed exiled Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor with ties to the Kremlin to run ads calling for protests and uprisings against the pro-western government, even though he and his political party were on US sanctions lists.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Léonie Chao-Fong will be with you shortly.

Ahead of the Munich security conference, Mykhailo Podolyak, a political adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has reiterated Kyiv’s position that Russia must withdraw from Ukraine as a pre-condition for peace talks.

Reuters reports Podolyak tweeted “For decriminalization of global politics and real global security, the war must end with Ukraine’s victory. Negotiations can begin when Russia withdraws its troops from the territory of Ukraine. Other options only give Russia time to regroup forces and resume hostilities at any moment.”

Finland’s parliament will vote on 28 February to approve the necessary legislation that will allow the country to eventually become a member of Nato, Reuters reports the Finnish parliament’s head of foreign affairs committee said on Friday.

Turkey and Hungary are yet to approve the bids by Sweden and Finland to join the alliance.

Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said that the US is inciting Ukraine to strike directly at Russian territory, after comments by US under secretary of state Victoria Nuland about Crimea. [See 8.43 GMT]

Tass reports that in her weekly press briefing, Zakharova said:

Once again, we have to state the involvement of the US in the conflict in Ukraine. They supply weapons in huge quantities, provide intelligence, simply participate directly in the planning of military operations, train Ukrainian armed formations.

Now the American warmongers have gone even further: they are inciting the Kyiv regime to further escalate, simply to transfer the war to the territory of our country. Like this, direct strikes. This is what we warned about before, and what we were because of forced to launch a special military operation. Now they, US officials, are talking about it openly.

Nuland had said that the US supported Ukraine striking at targets in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014 in a move which is not widely recognised by the international community.

Zakharova said “Crimea is reliably protected”, according to the Tass report.

Ukrainian official: Negotiations to extend Black Sea grain export deal will begin next week

Negotiations will start in a week on extending a UN-backed initiative that has enabled Ukraine to export grain from ports blockaded by Russia after its invasion, a senior Ukrainian official said on Friday.

“Negotiations on extending the grain corridor will begin in a week and then we will understand the positions of all parties,” Ukrainian deputy infrastructure minister Yuriy Vaskov said during a grain conference in Kyiv organised by the ProAgro agriculture consultancy.

“I think common sense will prevail and the corridor will be extended,” he said.

Reuters reports he said that pressure was being exerted on Russia not only to extend the corridor but also to improve the way it works. “We see that the enemy is starting to put forward new conditions. We understand that it will be difficult – as it was in November,” Vaskov said.

A grain terminal at the seaport in Odesa.
A grain terminal at the seaport in Odesa. Photograph: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters

The Black Sea Grain Initiative brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July allowed grain to be exported from three Ukrainian ports.

The agreement was extended by a further 120 days in November and is up for renewal again in March, but Russia has signalled that it is unhappy with some aspects of the deal and has asked for sanctions affecting its agricultural exports to be lifted.

Patrick Wintour

Patrick Wintour

The Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour reports from Munich:

The Ukrainian president, Volodymr Zelenskiy, will be the opening speaker on Friday at the three-day Munich security conference as the west faces urgent calls to speed up ammunition production and supplies to Kyiv in the face of mounting fears that Russia is planning a new offensive.

The conference is expected to be attended by more than 100 world leaders, and diplomats, including the US vice-president Kamala Harris, and the event will be seen as a key test of the west’s resolve to fight out a grinding, prolonged, expensive war. Few are expected to hold out hope of early peace negotiations.

The MSC has had a tradition going back decades of inviting senior leaders from states hostile, or ambivalent, towards the west, but this year has taken the unusual decision to exclude any representatives from Iran or Russia. Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, has responded to his exclusion by setting a Moscow foreign policy goal of ending the diplomatic monopoly of the west.

The Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, however, will be speaking at the conference and his speech will be watched closely to see how far he is willing to go both in distancing himself from Russia’s invasion and in seeking out a post-Covid new trading relationship with the west. He is expected to meet the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who is likely to urge him to do more to criticise the invasion of Ukrainian sovereign territory. A planned trip by Blinken to Beijing was cancelled over the Chinese spy balloon controversy.

Read more here: Zelenskiy to open Munich summit amid fears of new Russian offensive

In Russia, Tass is reporting some reaction to those comments by US under secretary of state Victoria Nuland about Crimea. She said the US supported Ukrainian strikes on Crimea as legitimate military targets, and that Crimea should be demilitarised at least as part of any solution to the war. [See 8.43 GMT]

Tass quotes Dmitry Novikov, first deputy chairman of the State Duma committee on international affairs saying:

Each such statement serves as a pretext for escalation not only in Ukraine, but also around it. An increasing number of states are forced to determine their position in relation to what is actually happening in the centre of Europe. Nevertheless, the more provocative statements are heard, and Nuland’s statement is pure provocation, the further we are from resolving the conflict.

Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne reports that the energy grid is working without consumption restrictions today across all of Ukraine, with the exception of Odesa, where “due to damaged infrastructure there are still restrictions” and “power outage schedules are applied.”

The United States considers that Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, should be demilitarised at a minimum and Washington supports Ukrainian attacks on military targets on the peninsula, under secretary of state Victoria Nuland has said.

“No matter what the Ukrainians decide about Crimea in terms of where they choose to fight etcetera, Ukraine is not going to be safe unless Crimea is at a minimum, at a minimum, demilitarised,” Nuland told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

Asked about the dangers of escalation in the Ukraine war, Reuters reports Nuland said Russia had a host of military installations crucial for the conflict. “Those are legitimate targets, Ukraine is hitting them and we are supporting that,” Nuland said.

Reuters has a quick snap that a Ukrainian official has said negotiations on extending the Black Sea corridor grain export deal will begin next week.

More details soon …

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports on Telegram that two people were killed in the Beryslav district of Kherson in the last 24 hours. Citing Volodymyr Litvinov, head of the Beryslav district administration, it reported:

During the day, the Russian army shelled four communities of the Beryslav district. Residents’ residential buildings and outbuildings were damaged. Two people were killed in the village of Zmiivka, and one was injured in Tyahynka.

Facebook allowed an exiled Moldovan oligarch with ties to the Kremlin to run ads calling for protests and uprisings against the pro-western government, even though he and his political party were on US sanctions lists, Associated Press reports.

The ads featuring exiled opposition politician Ilan Shor were ultimately removed by Facebook but not before they were seen millions of times in Moldova.

Seeking to exploit anger over inflation and rising fuel prices, the paid posts from Shor’s political party targeted the government of pro-western president, Maia Sandu, who earlier this week detailed what she said was a Russian plot to topple her government using external saboteurs.

“Destabilisation attempts are a reality and for our institutions, they represent a real challenge,” Sandu said Thursday as she swore in a new government led by pro-western prime minister, Dorin Recean, her former defence and security adviser.

The ads reveal how Russia and its allies have exploited lapses by social media platforms – like Facebook, many of them operated by US companies – to spread propaganda and disinformation that weaponises economic and social insecurity in an attempt to undermine governments in eastern Europe.

Moldova borders Ukraine, and the pro-Russian separatist region of Transnistria is sandwiched between the two.

China’s President Xi Jinping will deliver a peace speech on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Italy’s foreign minister said on Friday, citing top diplomat Wang Yi.

Wang Yi “told me that Xi will make a peace speech on the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine” on 24 February, Reuters reports minister Antonio Tajani told Italian radio RAI, the day after he met the top Chinese diplomat in Rome.

The UK Ministry of Defence says that as many as 60,000 Russian forces may have been killed just under a year of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and that the casualty rate “has significantly increased since September 2022 when ‘partial mobilisation’ was imposed”.

Convict recruits used by Wagner may have has a casualty rate of one in every two men.

Wagner chief blames ‘bureaucracy’ for slowing military gains

The head of Russia’s mercenary outfit Wagner said on Thursday it could take months to capture the embattled Ukraine city of Bakhmut and slammed Moscow’s “monstrous bureaucracy” for slowing military gains.

Russia has been trying to encircle and capture the battered industrial city ahead of 24 February, the first anniversary of what it terms its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

“I think it’s [going to be in] March or in April,” Wagner head, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said in one of several messages posted online.

“To take Bakhmut you have to cut all supply routes. It’s a significant task,” he said, adding: “Progress is not going as fast as we would like.

“Bakhmut would have been taken before the New Year, if not for our monstrous military bureaucracy.”

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in his nightly video address on Thursday that his priority at the moment is to hold off Russian attacks and get ready for an eventual Ukrainian counter-offensive.

“Holding the situation at the front and preparing for any enemy steps of escalation – that is the priority for the near future,” he said.

Nato alliance officials this week discussed the need for more military hardware for Kyiv, and Britain and Poland agreed after their leaders met on Thursday that support should be stepped up.

US officials have advised Ukraine to hold off with any counter-offensive until the latest supply of US weaponry is in place and training has been provided.

Last year’s gathering took place days before the war began. As Russian troops massed on Ukraine’s borders, western leaders in Munich urged President Vladimir Putin not to invade and warned of dire consequences if he did.

This year, leaders will grapple with the consequences of Putin’s decision to ignore their pleas and unleash the most devastating war in Europe since the second world war that has killed countless thousands and forced millions to flee.

Russian leaders will be notable by their absence at the conference, which runs until Sunday, but senior Ukrainian officials are expected to address it.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address his priority was to hold off Russian attacks and get ready for an eventual Ukrainian counter-offensive.

“Holding the situation at the front and preparing for any enemy steps of escalation – that is the priority for the near future,” he said.

Nato alliance officials this week discussed the need for more military hardware for Kyiv, and Britain and Poland agreed after their leaders met on Thursday that support should be stepped up.

US officials have advised Ukraine to hold off with any counter-offensive until the latest supply of US weaponry is in place and training has been provided.

The Ukraine military’s general staff, in a Thursday evening report, said Russia had also shelled more than two dozen eastern and southern settlements.

There was no word from Russia on the missile strikes or shelling, and Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield reports.

World leaders meet in Munich for security conference

Senior politicians and military leaders from around the world are meeting today in Germany, with Ukrainian officials expected to address the security conference.

Bolstered by tens of thousands of reservists, Russia has intensified ground attacks across southern and eastern Ukraine, and, as the first anniversary of its 24 February invasion nears, a major new Russian offensive appears to be taking shape.

US vice-president Kamala Harris arrives at Munich Airport on 16 February 2023 in Freising, Germany.
US vice-president Kamala Harris arrives at Munich Airport on 16 February 2023 in Freising, Germany. Photograph: Hannes Magerstaedt/Getty Images

Russia rained missiles across Ukraine on Thursday and struck its largest oil refinery. Of at least 36 missiles that Russia fired about 16 were shot down, the air force said, a lower rate than normal.

Ukraine said the barrage included missiles that its air defences cannot shoot down, which will only add urgency to its appeals for more western military support.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and US vice-president Kamala Harris are among many top officials attending the Munich Security Conference.

Summary and welcome

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next while.

Senior politicians and military leaders from around the world will meet today in Germany for the Munich Security Conference, with Ukrainian officials expected to address gathering.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and US vice-president Kamala Harris are among many top officials attending the meeting.

In the meantime, here are the other key recent developments:

  • Russia fired Grad rockets and barrel artillery at a residential district in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on Thursday, killing three men and two women and wounding nine more, Ukraine’s prosecutor general said. Blurred images of the victims were shared on Telegram by the office of the prosecutor, who said the attack was being investigated as a war crime. “Criminal proceedings have been initiated.”

  • Russia launched a total of 36 air- and sea-based cruise missiles, guided air-to-surface missiles and anti-ship missiles at Ukraine overnight into Thursday, according to Ukrainian officials. At least 16 missiles were shot down by Ukrainian forces, the air force said. Among them, air defences in the south downed eight Kalibr missiles fired from a ship in the Black Sea, the officials said.

  • Volodymyr Zelenskiy has ruled out giving up any Ukrainian territory in a potential peace deal with Russia. In an interview with the BBC, Ukraine’s leader said conceding land would mean Russia could “keep coming back”. Zelenskiy said a predicted spring offensive had already begun but he believed his country’s forces could keep resisting Russia’s advance until they were able to launch a counter-offensive.

  • Bakhmut will fall within a couple of months, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has predicted. In an interview with a pro-war military blogger, Yevgeny Prigozhin forecast Bakhmut would be seized in March or April, depending on how many soldiers Ukraine commits to its defence and how well his own troops are supplied.

  • Russia’s overnight bombardment did not have a major impact on power, Ukraine’s energy minister said. German Galushchenko said Ukraine was meeting consumer demand for the fifth successive day. The national power grid operator, Ukrenergo, said it saw no need to introduce emergency power outages to conserve supplies.

  • Critical infrastructure was damaged in Russian strikes on the Lviv region in Ukraine’s west, the regional state administration’s head, Maksym Kozytskyi, reported on Telegram, adding there were no casualties.

  • Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine had returned 101 prisoners of war to Russia following talks, state-run media reported. Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said 100 troops and one civilian had been returned to Ukraine. Nearly all had been defending the southern city of Mariupol before it fell to Russian forces, he said.

  • Russia has “definitely changed tactics” by using decoy missiles without explosive warheads and deploying balloons to fool Ukraine’s air defences, according to a senior Ukrainian official. The goal of the decoy missiles was to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defence systems by offering too many targets, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, told Associated Press.

  • Russian sortie rates have increased over the past week following several weeks of quieter activity, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has reported. Air activity is “now roughly in line with the average daily rate seen since summer 2022”, its latest intelligence update reads.

  • Russia “continues to introduce large numbers of troops” on to the battlefield in Ukraine, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said. Those troops were “ill-equipped and ill-trained” and, as a result, Russian forces were “incurring a lot of casualties and we expect that that will continue”, he told reporters in Estonia.

  • Neither Russia nor Ukraine is likely to achieve their military aims, according to Gen Mark Milley, chair of the US joint chiefs of staff. In an interview with the Financial Times, Milley said he believed the war would end at the negotiating table. The Pentagon was re-examining its weapons stockpiles and may need to boost military spending after seeing how quickly ammunition has been used during the war in Ukraine, he added.

  • Belarus will fight alongside ally Russia if another country launches an attack against it, President Alexander Lukashenko has said, adding that he planned to meet the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on Friday.

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Focused on education, Sen. Rick Scott speaks with leaders in Jacksonville

Focused on education, Sen. Rick Scott speaks with leaders in Jacksonville

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott hosted a roundtable Monday in Jacksonville that was targeted on education. It’s portion of a tour by means of Florida that his group calls “Make Washington Work.”

Scott says the nation’s government has to make changes to get the financial system turned about.

“The ultimate aim is to make absolutely sure each individual citizen has the prospect to fulfill their aspiration mainly because all people has bought a distinct desire,” Scott explained to listeners at Keiser College.

He expended more than a hour there with leaders in training from Northeast Florida, such as the presidents of the College of North Florida, Florida Condition College Jacksonville and educators from Duval County General public Schools.

“If you assume about every family, their futures are kids training, and each guardian needs to make sure they have an instruction, they get a superior spending task. So what you want to do is make sure no matter what the institution is, irrespective of whether it’s virtual schools or homeschooling or personal educational facilities or charter educational facilities or standard community faculties and our universities and our state schools, they all operate jointly,” Scott explained.

The educators spoke about partnering, internships, for each-scholar funding and school decision.

Component of the conversation turned to finding alternatives exterior of leaning on the federal federal government.

Scott states which is something he uncovered from his mom.

“What we have to do is place the family back in the responsibility business enterprise. Really don’t do not depend on the government’s gonna established up some principles. It is gonna clear up your challenge. How can you clear up these problems on your have? And there is some items governing administration has to do, but a ton of it you can do by yourself and you ought to get gain of that,” Scott stated.

Democrats have taken observe of what took place on Capitol Hill very last 7 days — an historic struggle to title a new speaker of the Dwelling of Reps. It delayed the swearing-in of the 118th Congress.

Democrats were unified on their applicant, but in the minority. Republican Kevin McCarthy eventually won the management place on the 15th and final ballot.

I questioned Scott about the contentious method, which he phone calls a fantastic one.

“We ought to be combating about: How do we make absolutely sure we do not squander your bucks? How do we make sure making governing administration far more accountable? How do we make certain federal government is scaled-down? How do we make certain we lower taxes? How do we equilibrium the funds, reduce the personal debt, all these items?” Scott claimed. “I’m quite optimistic that we’re getting genuine conversations now about where this nation has acquired to go.”

Scott has a contentious marriage with some of his colleagues in the Senate. Past thirty day period, Democrats blocked his proposed modification to the IRS enlargement. Scott also unsuccessfully ran to turn out to be Senate minority leader.

Copyright 2023 by WJXT Information4JAX – All legal rights reserved.

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PTA leaders raise concerns as Hillsborough explores new school boundaries

PTA leaders raise concerns as Hillsborough explores new school boundaries

A plan to redraw attendance boundaries for Hillsborough County community educational institutions lacks transparency and general public dialogue, according to a mother or father organization that is pushing for alter.

The County Council of PTA/PTSA, which signifies parent groups all-around the university district, states information released final thirty day period online does not present more than enough detail about transportation, cost price savings, and what the district would do with faculties that it may near or “repurpose.”

The council also disapproves of the format for a series of approaching community gatherings. Planned from Jan. 9 to 13, these will be the 1st in-particular person meetings given that the job guide, New York-based WXY Studio, was employed in March.

“Right now, as considerably as we know, there will be no official presentation, just printed copies of the maps, laptops for on the net reviews, and there will be district and WXY workforce obtainable to remedy person thoughts,” the PTA council claimed in a “Call to Action” posted Saturday on social media.

“This variety of set up is not what we look at to be genuine group instruction and engagement. It restrictions who has facts and does not supply context or general public data for the community to appear up with inquiries.”

The document urges mom and dad to get hold of university board customers and district leaders and insist on far more community dialogue right before the board is questioned to vote in February.

In redrawing boundaries, district leaders hope to use university space more efficiently and minimize their operating price range at a time of continued point out problem about spending.

Linked: Hillsborough’s college boundary designs: closed faculties, 1000’s influenced

10 5:30-7:30 p.m. gatherings are prepared at these substantial faculties: Middleton and Plant Metropolis on Jan. 9, Sumner and Brandon on Jan. 10, Plant and Leto on Jan. 11, Gaither and Sickles on Jan. 12, and Wharton and Bloomingdale on Jan. 13.

The gatherings are designed primarily to help inhabitants fully grasp boundary strategies that ended up introduced Dec. 13 on WXY’s interactive site. The two Jan. 10 meetings will coincide with a on a regular basis scheduled 4 p.m. faculty board conference.

Associated: South Tampa mothers and fathers organize from school rezoning proposals

In a prepared response to the PTA assertion, faculty district communications main Tanya Arja explained the meeting format tends to make the most perception for a district as huge as Hillsborough’s.

“We set the forthcoming meetings for two several hours so that dad and mom and community users can come at any issue for the duration of that time and converse with representatives from WXY Studio and district staff,” Arja stated.

“With 250 educational institutions in our district and 1000’s of families, the extensive vast majority of the questions will probably be unique to every single family’s situation.”

As for the need for a presentation, Arja reported, “a formal presentation relating to the system and recommendations was provided via a webinar (on Dec. 13) and illustrated online for public suggestions.”

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But the PTA corporation also says the info unveiled so much lacks backup materials that would reveal the economical rewards of the boundary adjustments. “We need much more info and we suspect that you probably want a lot more data too,” the assertion said.

“We’d also like to learn a lot more about bus transportation, and what will happen to the repurposed colleges. Everyone should really have entry to this data and it need to be shared in a team instead than person environment.”

Regardless of their concerns, the PTA leaders wrote that they want the boundary job to be thriving. “Authentic in-man or woman training of the community at the galleria events will enable obtain this objective,” they wrote.