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Jordan News
4 days ago
- General
- Jordan News
Minister of Education Launches the National Summer Program "Basmat" - Jordan News
Dr. Azmi Mahafza, Minister of Education, announced today, Saturday, from Khawla bint al-Azwar Mixed Secondary School under the Directorate of Education for Naour District, the launch of the 2025 edition of the national summer program "Basmat" at all centers of the Ministry of Education. اضافة اعلان The program, which first started in 2017, involves about 17,000 ninth-grade students from public schools, the Military Culture, and the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) from all directorates of education across the Kingdom, with participation from several ministries, organizations, official institutions, and civil society organizations. Haifa Al-Khraisha, Director of Education for Naour District, expressed her happiness during the launch ceremony at Khawla bint al-Azwar School, stating that hosting this national program, with all its meaningful content, is a source of pride and honor. She explained that the national program includes a variety of activities, skills, and events through which the Ministry aims to invest students' energies and time positively, reflecting on their behavior by equipping them with skills and activities that enhance self-development. The program also strengthens their abilities through dialogue, acceptance, life skills, sports, scouting, cultural, and artistic activities. The activities also include awareness lectures on vocational education (BTEC), the "Haqqaq" program lectures, as well as religious lectures in cooperation with the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs. Regarding the program's implementation at the directorate level, the program targets ninth-grade male and female students and is applied with the participation of two schools from each of the 42 education directorates, the Military Culture, and UNRWA—one school for boys and another for girls—with 200 students per center. The daily program includes scouting/guidance activities and skills, sports activities, cultural and artistic activities, values from the "Haqqaq" initiative (Crown Prince Foundation), the National Advancement Plan (Jordanian Armed Forces), the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, the Independent Election Commission, Princess Haya Cultural Center, community service, and voluntary work. The students expressed their happiness participating in the program, eager to benefit from all the activities offered, thanking their teachers and supervisors for the implementation. At the end of the ceremony, attended by Dr. Ajmal Al-Twaikat, Director of Educational Activities at the Ministry, along with several education officials, Dr. Mahafza toured the center's facilities, which included awareness, cultural, sports, and scouting activities.
Associated Press
03-06-2025
- General
- Associated Press
Hegseth orders the name of gay rights activist Harvey Milk scrubbed from Navy ship
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, a highly rare move that will strip the ship of the moniker of a slain gay rights activist who served as a sailor during the Korean War. U.S. officials say Navy Secretary John Phelan put together a small team to rename the replenishment oiler and that a new name is expected this month. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the next name had not yet been chosen. The change was laid out in an internal memo that officials said defended the action as a move to align with President Donald Trump and Hegseth's objectives to 're-establish the warrior culture.' It marks the latest move by Hegseth and the wider Trump administration to purge all programs, policies, books and social media mentions of references to diversity, equity and inclusion. And it comes during Pride Month — the same timing as the Pentagon's campaign to force transgender troops out of the U.S. military. The decision was first reported by Phelan's office did not respond to a request for comment. The USNS Harvey Milk was named in 2016 by then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who said at the time that the John Lewis-class of oilers would be named after leaders who fought for civil and human rights. Milk, who was portrayed by Sean Penn in an Oscar-winning 2008 movie, served for four years in the Navy before he was forced out for being gay. He later became one of the first openly gay candidates elected to public office. Milk served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and had sponsored a bill banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in public accommodations, housing and employment. It passed, and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone signed it into law. On Nov. 27, 1978, Milk and Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, a disgruntled former city supervisor who cast the sole vote against Milk's bill. The ship was christened in 2021, and during the ceremony, then-Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said he wanted to be at the event 'not just to amend the wrongs of the past, but to give inspiration to all of our LGBTQ community leaders who served in the Navy, in uniform today and in the civilian workforce as well, too, and to tell them that we're committed to them in the future.' The ship is operated by Military Sealift Command, with a crew of about 125 civilian mariners. The Navy says it conducted its first resupply mission at sea in fall 2024, while operating in the Virginia Capes. It continued to resupply Navy ships at sea off the East Coast until it began scheduled maintenance at Alabama Shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, earlier this year. While the renaming is rare, the Biden administration also changed the names of two Navy ships in 2023 as part of the effort to remove Confederate names from U.S. military installations. The USS Chancellorsville — named for the Civil War battle — was renamed the USS Robert Smalls after a sailor and former enslaved person. And the USNS Maury, an oceanographic survey ship originally named after a Confederate sailor, was renamed the USNS Marie Tharp after a geologist and oceanographic cartographer who created the first scientific maps of the Atlantic Ocean floor. Maritime lore hints as to why renaming ships is so unusual, suggesting that changing a name is bad luck and tempts retribution from the sea gods. ___
