#successes

Kyiv — Ukraine’s Parliament accepted Yulia Svyrydenko’s resignation as prime minister on Tuesday following President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s decision to overhaul the country’s top leadership. The move has surprised many observers who credit the outgoing cabinet with Ukraine’s recent successes in countering Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion. Zelenskyy says the changes are aimed at preparing…

...December 2024 and November last year. Over 270 non-fatal overdoses have been treated in Ireland’s first supervised injection facility since it opened over a year ago, an Oireachtas committee will hear today. The assistant secretary at the Department of Health will tell TDs and senators that over 1,500 people have visited the facility over 17,000 times between December 2024 and November last year. The injection facility, which cost about €5 million, is over halfway through an 18-month pilot after being licensed by the Department of Health. It is operated by Merchants Quay Ireland, the national homelessness and addiction charity. It was designed to reduce the health risks associated with intravenous drug use, including overdose and the transmission of conditions such as HIV and Hepatitis C through people sharing or reusing needles. The centre was met with opposition from local residents, businesses and schools when it was first proposed and planning permission was refused in 2019. Those against the facility cited concerns about the potential for anti-social behaviour and what they called the “over concentration” of drug services already in the area. David Leach will tell the Joint Committee on Drug Use that an interim evaluation of the facility found there was no increase in the frequency of injecting behaviour in those accessing the service. The evaluation highlighted other positive findings, including the success of the service in accessing people with high levels of vulnerability, the promotion of safer injecting practices and the number of overdose and medical interventions performed there. “A separate academic paper identified a reduction in drug use and drug related litter in the local area, and increased levels of community engagement,” Leach will say.

Hi GPODers! Today is my last day managing the GPOD (for now!), and I wanted to take a moment to talk about something we all know instinctively but rarely say out loud: the photos we share here—and the ones that make it into the magazine—are the best photos of those gardens. They’re the moments we or the gardeners captured when the light was perfect, the blooms behaved, and the weeds stayed out of…

MAN v FAT started out as a weight loss programme but is increasingly proving its worth as a way of building communities where men make great friendships too. And that’s certainly been the case for Zac Woodward, who has relished his time with MAN v FAT in North Tyneside. Zac recently hit his 20% weight loss landmark, and is delighted with how MAN v FAT has supported him with his efforts so…