Latest news with #IPP
Korea Herald
15 hours ago
- Business
- Korea Herald
Faraday Factory Japan signed an agreement to deliver superconductor tape for the demo stellarator magnet of Proxima Fusion
Proxima Fusion's first-of-a-kind power plant Stellaris will use high temperature superconductor magnets to confine the burning plasma TOKYO, June 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Proxima Fusion and Faraday Factory Japan have signed a contract for the supply of high temperature superconducting (HTS) tape. This delivery will help the leading European stellarator developer Proxima Fusion to achieve its next milestone – a superconducting demo magnet. Stellarators are fusion machines which contain hot, ionized matter (plasma) within a magnetic field of remarkable strength and sophisticated geometry. Significant progress including the highest plasma triple product sustained for tens of seconds was attained recently with the W7-X stellarator, which is built and operated by the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics (IPP) in Germany. Proxima Fusion, originally spun out from the IPP, is building on the record-breaking expertise of W7-X, combining it with advances in stellarator optimization, computational design and state-of-the-art HTS magnet technology. After completing delivering its demo magnet in 2027, Proxima will focus on the delivery of Alpha in 2031, Proxima's net-energy demo stellarator, followed by the first-of-a-kind commercial fusion power plant Stellaris in the 2030s. Timely supply of high-quality HTS tape is essential to keep fusion on fast track. While it takes thousands of kilometers of superconducting tape to build a typical energy-positive fusion prototype, scaling up the fusion industry to commercial power will require millions of kilometers. Since 2020, Faraday Factory has ramped up production by 10 times. The new HTS tape delivery contract is an important milestone, further strengthening the HTS supply chain for the nascent but transformative fusion industry.
Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Daily Mirror
Dad who stole mobile finally released into hospital after 13 years in prison
Thomas White is to be transferred to a secure hospital from Strangeways prison in Manchester after a long campaign, following his arrest aged 27 in 2012 for stealing a mobile phone A man who has spent 13 years in prison for stealing a mobile phone has finally been released into hospital care after a six-year fight. Dad-of-one Thomas White, 42, last year set himself on fire and months ago tried to break his own legs in jail as his mental health deteriorated while serving an indefinite term under an abolished law. White fell victim to the Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) scheme, which was brought in by the last Labour government in 2005 but was later described as 'psychological torture' by the UN. It was intended for people considered 'dangerous' but whose offence did not merit a life sentence. Offenders were given a minimum jail term but no maximum and the law was scrapped in 2012 because of human rights concerns. But it was not altered retrospectively, meaning thousands of inmates have remained languishing in jail beyond their original prison terms. White now suffers with schizophrenia and psychosis, with his family saying doctors attributed his declining mental health to the indefinite sentence. Spearheaded by his sister Clara, a near-decade-long campaign has fought to have him moved to a hospital. Clara received a phone call on Wednesday notifying her that her younger brother will finally be transferred from HMP Manchester to the specialist medium secure Rothbury unit at Northgate Park in Northumberland. Two Independent doctors, as was required, agreed he should be moved and the confirmation of the transfer means the Ministry of Justice has now also approved the change. 'I called my mum and my sister and they both cried tears of joy, we all did,' Clara, 43, told the Mirror. "It's been six years on the battlefield to try and get him moved to a hospital. It's not yet dropped from my head to my heart. 'Every morning I pray that this will be the day we will hear positive news. Yesterday (Wednesday) morning, my brother was facing the rest of his life in prison, and by the afternoon he was going to be a patient, not a prisoner, any more. I prayed again this morning (Thursday) for good news, before realising we received it yesterday. It's been such a long, difficult process.' White, who had previous convictions for theft, was handed an IPP sentence with a two-year tariff for robbery just four months before the sentences were outlawed. Then aged 27, he had been binge-drinking when he took the phone from two Christian missionaries in Manchester. Clara said her brother started to show signs of schizophrenia in 2016, when he walked around in a bedsheet presenting himself as Jesus. That came, she said, after long periods in segregation where he had only his Bible for company. 'It broke him in the end,' said Clara. Eventually a psychiatrist told the family that his schizophrenia and hallucinations were as a result of his IPP sentence and not knowing when he would be released, Clara said. White has spent the past four months on a hospital ward after he repeatedly smashed his face on the prison wing's floor, before trying to break his own legs during a psychotic episode. Clara has been backed in her campaign by Pastor Mick Fleming, a reformed gangster. They say there have been almost 100 suicides of IPP prisoners and more than 300 have died, some from heart attacks and stress-related illnesses, and some from accidental drug overdoses. While of 2,614 people still incarcerated on an IPP jail term, almost 700 have served at least 10 years longer than their original minimum term. 'Some of these men and women have served so long they've lost touch with their families,' said Clara. 'We've ended up with a human traffic jam with these poor people falling through the net. Thomas was one of 300 inmates with severe mental health problems. There are 299 more Thomas Whites still.' White has spent his sentence in 13 different prisons, and will be taken in the coming days from HMP Manchester, also known as Strangeways. 'He keeps asking me if it's really true, if it's really happening, and he's worrying they'll take him to HMP Frankland in County Durham instead,' said Clara. 'Hope has been stolen from him for that long that he no longer knows what it is.' Pastor Mick, whose book Walk in My Shoes features Thomas and Carla's story, said they will now campaign for the other 299 in the same situation as Thomas. 'With Thomas we have created a pathway, and now we're going to go back for the rest,' he said. After a year-long inquiry in 2022, the Justice Select Committee found the IPP sentences were 'Irredeemably flawed' and recommended the government re-sentence all IPP prisoners. The government has since made the decision not to review open-ended prison sentences. Clara and other campaigners for IPP prisoners, including the group UNGRIPP, are working with MP Sir Bob Neill, chair of the Justice Select Committee, to push a bill through parliament that will ensure all prisoners still on IPP sentences are resentenced, which - given that many have served their minimum tariffs multiple times over - would likely lead to release. 'The eyes are a mirror to the soul,' said Clara. 'His eyes tell me how much pain he's been in. I know this is not a straight release but to know he will be sent to the hospital and has a chance at living, rather than dying in prison, is something to celebrate right now.'
The Independent
a day ago
- Health
- The Independent
Desperate father who set himself alight while serving 13 years in jail for stealing a phone finally moved to hospital
A father who set himself alight as his mental health crumbled while serving 13 years in prison for stealing a phone is finally being transferred to hospital following a six-year battle by his family. Thomas White, who is languishing under an abolished indefinite jail term described as 'psychological torture' by the UN, developed paranoid schizophrenia and psychosis in prison as he lost hope of being freed from his Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence. Last year, The Independent revealed how he had set himself on fire in his cell as this newspaper backed his family's calls for him to be transferred for inpatient mental health treatment, after he was repeatedly refused a hospital bed. In March, we revealed how he had he had suffered yet another mental health crisis, which saw him repeatedly smash his face on the floor of maximum security HMP Manchester, where he was being held. This week, the 42-year-old father of one learned he will finally be discharged from prison into hospital care. His tearful sister Clara White told The Independent: 'Thomas will now be a patient and not a prisoner.' White will be moved from the Category A jail, where inspectors last year raised the alarm over widespread drug use, rising violence, poor living conditions and a string of self-inflicted deaths, to the specialist medium secure Rothbury unit at Northgate Park in Northumberland. 'Thomas has been a casualty in this, but so have I and my mum and family,' she said, after years watching him deteriorate inside jail. 'He deserves to be treated with dignity, and I am just overwhelmed that he will go to a safe environment where he's not being hurt.' She said every member of the family shed tears of joy after learning the news on Monday evening. 'The hardest thing was watching my brother dying in front of me,' she added. 'Every visit, he was just dying in front of me; he was weighing less and less. Look at his eyes, you could just tell the pain he was in.' The move comes after prisons minister James Timpson personally visited White on the hospital wing of HMP Manchester during a visit in March, The Independent can reveal. IPP sentences – under which offenders were given a minimum jail term but no maximum – were scrapped in 2012 amid human rights concerns, but not retrospectively, leaving thousands of inmates trapped in jail for years beyond their original prison terms. White, who had previous convictions for theft, was handed an IPP sentence with a two-year tariff for robbery just four months before the sentences were outlawed. Then aged 27, he had been binge-drinking when he took the phone from two Christian missionaries in Manchester. But thanks to the indefinite jail term, he has remained incarcerated as his mental health has deteriorated. He moved prisons 12 times and was banned from seeing his only son, Kayden, nearly 16, for the majority of his prison term. Three psychiatrists had called for White to be moved to a hospital to treat his mental health conditions. The latest on 13 February concluded he was 'struggling in the prison environment' and it is likely 'he is deeply frustrated and angry as a result of his predicament'. Two medical reports last year laid bare the toll of the devastating IPP jail term, warning that White's 'lengthy incarceration' was creating 'impermeable barriers' to his recovery. Dean Kingham, White's lawyer, had argued it was 'inhumane' to keep a man who needs hospital treatment incarcerated inside HMP Manchester. Discussing White's case earlier this year, he told The Independent: 'The British Psychological Society has recognised the psychological harm caused by the IPP sentence. 'Here we have a man whose condition has deteriorated day by day, year by year, being held in a prison that's failing, where the inspector in October 2024 issued an urgent notification. Somewhere, he can more easily access drugs than in the community. 'For me, here we have a potential Article 3 breach of his human rights.' At least 94 IPP prisoners have taken their own lives in prison as they lose hope of being freed, according to campaigners. Of 2,614 people still incarcerated on an IPP jail term, almost 700 have served at least 10 years longer than their original minimum term. However, successive governments have refused to re-sentence IPP prisoners, despite calls from the justice committee and the UN special rapporteur on torture amid high rates of suicide and self-harm.
USA Today
3 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
3 young players Cowboys may try to hide during preseason game
3 young players Cowboys may try to hide during preseason game One of the oldest tricks in the book is for an NFL team to try and hide a player they think has immense upside but isn't ready to contribute right away. Sometimes that is taken to the extreme, where a very minor injury is made out to be season-ending, allowing the club to stash a young player on injured reserve. That let's the youngster still attend meetings and work with the strength and conditioning staff, but bars them from actually practicing with the club. The Dallas Cowboys are well known to employ this tactic. Another, less obvious way, is to limit a player's exposure to the rest of the league. Back when there were four preseason games, players who might not be ready for a role that year would get some burn in the first exhibition, then mysteriously disappear from the rotation as the veterans worked their way into regular-season shape with increased activity the following week. By the fourth game, the run sheet was rookies who were expected to contribute but needed game action and players auditioning for other teams as trade bait or as a nice gesture before they were released. Players who the club thought were going to be contributors, but not without much more seasoning, were often held out from game film so hungry teams with lesser rosters wouldn't try to poach them after cutdown day. The original team hopes it can sneak these players back onto their own practice squads. This year's 90-man roster, 91 with the IPP exemption, may have a couple of candidates for such activity. RB Phil Mafah The 2025 running back class was extremely deep compared to recent draft years. It allowed players to be selected a round later than where they'd normally be projected, sometimes two rounds. As such, the Cowboys grabbed Jaydon Blue in the fifth round when in other year's he'd be a fourth rounder. It allowed them to snag Phil Mafah in the seventh when he could have very easily been in the sixth, or maybe fifth. Mafah is a brusing back who does have some long speed, but barring injury or another acquisition, the Cowboys' depth chart seems pretty secure with Javonte Williams, Blue and Miles Sanders. Hunter Luepke may be transitioning to an H-Back role, serving as a multi-use weapon, including short yardage runs. That would mean the team would stash Mafah on the practice squad, but if he shines in the preseason, than any of the 32 other clubs which are unhappy with their rooms might be looking around the league to poach someone. TE Rivaldo Fairweather There's a name which keeps creeping up into folks conversations as an afterthought, so he apparently sits clearly in the "coaches might think they have something" category: Fairweather. The former Auburn product transferred from FIU and had pretty decent numbers across his final three years in college. The Dallas depth chart at tight end is in flux. Jake Ferguson will be TE1, but is in the walk year of his contract and had an all-time bad 2024 season. Luke Schoonmaker is trying to avoid the bust label as a former second-round pick entering Year 3 and may be getting passed on the depth chart by second-year UDFA Brevyn Spann-Ford. That can all lead to Fairweather having a role similar to Spann-Ford as a rookie but it could mean he'll initially need to be stashed to the side. DB Alijah Clark The Cowboys grabbed nine players in this year's draft, but they didn't have the usually ballyhooed UDFA haul fans are accustomed to seeing. One standout name though was Syracuse's Clark, who spent time as both a safety and nickel corner for the Orange. The Cowboys may be doing patch work at the nickel position in 2025 and they could be looking for help at safety in the near future with Donovan WIlson's contract expiring and questions as to Malik Hooker's long-term fit in Matt Eberflus' scheme. Clark could just as likely be a one-camp-and-done player, or he could shine as a future rotational guy that the club wants to keep away from any poachers.
Singapore Law Watch
3 days ago
- Business
- Singapore Law Watch
Goh Jin Hian judgment clarifies scope of directors' duties, notes observers as ruling says directors should be a ‘sentinel', not a ‘sleuth'
Goh Jin Hian judgment clarifies scope of directors' duties, notes observers as ruling says directors should be a 'sentinel', not a 'sleuth' Source: Business Times Article Date: 17 Jun 2025 Author: Ranamita Chakraborty Observers say judgment offers practical guidance by narrowing the scope of when a director should be held liable for inaction. Former Inter-Pacific Petroleum (IPP) non-executive director Goh Jin Hian's recent win in his appeal in the Appellate Division of the High Court has given 'welcome relief' to other company directors with its clarification of the scope of directors' duties. The Appellate Division in a judgment on Jun 5 overturned a previous ruling requiring Goh to pay damages of US$156 million to the insolvent marine fuel supplier after IPP's liquidators had accused him of 'sleepwalking through his time as a director'. 'Welcome relief' Adrian Chan, first vice-chair at the Singapore Institute of Directors (SID) and head of corporate at Lee & Lee, said the successful appeal was a 'welcome relief' as it clarifies the boundaries of a director's responsibilities and what qualifies as actionable 'red flags'. The judgment, he added, offers practical guidance by narrowing the scope of when a director should be held liable for inaction. Had the lower court's judgment stood, Chan believes directors could face liability even when unaware of fraud committed by peers or when financial reports show no warning signs. Kelvin Law, associate professor of accounting at Nanyang Technological University's Nanyang Business School, said that the case demonstrated that correlation does not equal causation – a mere link is insufficient. He said: 'This case is a powerful reminder that a link isn't enough as a plaintiff must prove that the director's specific failure was the direct cause of the financial loss. To obtain damages, (the) plaintiff has to show that there's a causal relationship between negligence and damage.' Boey Swee Siang, partner at law firm RPC, pointed out that while Goh's failure to be aware of the cargo trading business constituted a breach of his duty of care, the court clarified that the 'red flags' identified by the company's liquidators were insufficient to trigger an inquiry into its financials. In Goh's case, he was only required to satisfy himself within reasonable limits regarding the company's financial position. 'The non-executive director is not required to make exhaustive inquiries into individual transactions or events, so long as these transactions or events were not, on their face, of such a nature as would raise immediate concerns,' added Boey. Yee Chia Hsing, an independent director at several Singapore Exchange-listed companies, agreed with the judgment, saying directors cannot be expected to be better than auditors and there is a right to presume no fraud unless clear warning signs exist. 'If (there is a) need to presume fraud, a lot of resources and effort would be wasted across the entire system as directors would need to be commissioning forensic investigations from auditors on a regular basis specifically to detect fraud,' he told BT. The court ruled that although Goh breached his duty of care by failing to stay informed about IPP's cargo trading operations, this breach was not due to ignoring red flags within the company. 'Get their hands dirty' Still, SID's Chan emphasised that directors, including non-executive ones, have a duty to guide and monitor management, going beyond mere compliance. He said: 'They have to ask tough questions, roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty. Rather than playing the role of a mere sentinel, sleuth, investigator or watchdog... a director should more appropriately look upon himself or herself as an active steward – sometimes being called upon to play all these roles and more, as the circumstances and director duties demand it.' The judgment's reference to '(a) director may be a sentinel, but he is not a forensics investigator or a sleuth' resonated with Chan, who stressed that directors cannot simply stand watch passively. 'There really is no such thing as a 'sleeping director' as a director's duty to act in the best interest of the company is an active one that doesn't ever go to sleep,' he added. RPC's Boey believes this decision serves as a reminder to independent directors of listed companies that 'they do owe a duty of care to their companies, but also sets the standard of care to a reasonable one'. Directors and officers liability insurance Beyond training, Nanyang Business School's Prof Law highlighted the importance of having directors and officers liability insurance. 'It provides the financial resources to defend themselves – which, as this case shows, can be a long and expensive process even if they are ultimately successful,' he added. Chan also advised directors to read 'the fine print, exclusions, coverage, territory, and ensure that the scope and size of the sum assured is appropriate for the size of the business'. He pointed to several high-profile cases involving non-executive directors under investigation or charged for failing to disclose material, price-sensitive information – including Hyflux, Eagle Hospitality Trust, Raffles Education and Cordlife. 'The outcomes of these cases will bring further clarity to the role of directors on listed boards, and will help shape corporate governance in Singapore,' he added. Source: The Business Times © SPH Media Limited. 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