بريطانيا تنشر دليل جامعاتها لعام 2014

كمبردج ما زالت في الصدارة.. وأكسفورد تعود لمطاردتها

بريطانيا تنشر دليل جامعاتها لعام 2014
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بريطانيا تنشر دليل جامعاتها لعام 2014

بريطانيا تنشر دليل جامعاتها لعام 2014

نشرت بريطانيا الأسبوع الماضي دليل جامعاتها لعام 2014، والذي تناول بالتحليل ترتيب 124 جامعة بريطانية من حيث الأفضلية للعام المقبل. وتصدرت اللائحة جامعة كمبردج، محافظة على مركزها للعام الثالث على التوالي منذ إزاحتها لندها الأبرز جامعة أكسفورد من القمة في عام 2012.. بينما استعادت الأخيرة مركز الوصافة بقوة بعد أن تنازلت مؤقتا عنه العام الماضي لصالح مدرسة (جامعة) لندن للاقتصاد LSE.
وتقوم مجموعة استشارية من جامعة مايفيلد سنويا بجمع مجموعة ضخمة من الإحصاءات لترتيب الجامعات البريطانية، ونشرها في لائحة مفتوحة على موقع The Complete University Guide على الإنترنت، منذ عام 2007. وتعد جامعة مايفيلد Mayfield University أكبر مؤسسة تعليمية في العالم عبر الإنترنت، ولها فروع بالقارات الست، وقامت بتخريج أكثر من 100 ألف طالب في أكثر من 80 دولة حول العالم.
ويقوم الاستشاريون باستخدام معايير صارمة لإخراج اللائحة التي تعد الأبرز من نوعها في بريطانيا، حيث يقومون بتقييم الجامعات وفقا لتسعة معايير تدعى «z-scores»، هي: معدل الصرف الأكاديمي بالنسبة لكل طالب، ومعدل الإنجاز للطلاب، ومعايير القبول الجامعي، ومعدل الصرف على المرافق بالنسبة لكل طالب، وتكريم الطلاب، وآفاق الخريجين بالنسبة لسوق العمل، وتقييم البحوث والجودة، ورضا الطلاب العام، إضافة إلى نسبة الطلاب إلى المعلمين.. وهي معايير يتم الحصول عليها سنويا من إحصاءات وكالة التعليم العالي «HESA». وبعدها يتم وضع نتيجة إجمالية لكل جامعة، حيث يتم احتساب رضا الطلاب بمعدل 1.5، وباقي المعايير بمعدل 1.. ثم من خلال عملية حسابية، تحصل أفضل جامعة على 1000 درجة، وما يتلوها على نسبة مئوية من تلك الدرجات الألف.
وفي تقييم دليل الجامعات 2014، حافظت جامعة كمبردج على رصيدها الكامل من الألف درجة، واحتفظت بصدارة اللائحة للعام الثالث على التوالي باعتبارها أفضل جامعة بريطانية على الإطلاق. وتلتها جامعة أكسفورد، التي شهدت تراجعا العام الماضي للمركز الثالث، متبادلة المراكز مع مدرسة لندن للاقتصاد LSE، وذلك بـ990 نقطة، و975 نقطة على التوالي.
واحتفظت إمبريال كوليدج اللندنية Imperial College London بمركزها الرابع محققة 933 نقطة، وكذلك جامعة دورام Durham في المركز الخامس بـ925 نقطة، وجامعة سانت أندروز St Andrews في المركز السادس بـ891 نقطة، بينما تبادلت جامعتا يونيفرسيتي كوليدج اللندنية University College London، ووارويك Warwick، المركزين السابع والثامن بـ859 و854 نقطة على التوالي. وتقدمت باث Bath مركزا واحدا إلى التاسع بـ852 نقطة، بينما قفزت إكسيتر Exeter ثلاثة مراكز لتحتل المرتبة العاشرة محققة 848 نقطة.
وفي المراتب من الحادي عشر إلى العشرين، توالت جامعات لانكستر Lancaster، ويورك York، وساري Surrey، ولافبروه Loughborough، وبريستول Bristol، ولستر Leicester، وبيرمينغهام Birmingham، وأدنبره Edinburgh، وكينغس كوليدج اللندنية King›s College London، وإيست آنغليا East Anglia.
وشهدت القائمة تغيرات طفيفة في مراكز الجامعات - تقدما أو تأخرا - عن العام الماضي. وحققت جامعة نورثامبتون Northampton تقدما هائلا، إذ قفزت من المركز 101 في لائحة عام 2013 لتحتل المركز 62 في لائحة 2014 بتقدم 39 مركزا.. لكن أبرز الإنجازات بحق كان لجامعة سانت جورجس اللندنية St George›s University of London، والتي جاءت من خارج لائحة عام 2013 تماما لتحتل المرتبة 34 في قائمة أفضل جامعات 2014. وكذلك فعلت الكلية الملكية للزراعة Royal Agriculture College، وجامعات فالموث Falmouth، وكلية الفنون في بورنموث Arts University at Bournemouth، والتي احتلت المراكز 51 و60 و75 على التوالي.
وكان التراجع الأبرز لجامعات أبيريستويث Aberystwyth (من 58 إلى 70؛ بتراجع 12 مركزا)، وجلوسترشاير Gloucestershire (من 74 إلى 94؛ بتراجع 20 مركزا)، وكينغستون Kingston (من 85 إلى 101؛ بتراجع 16 مركزا)، وسندرلاند Sunderland (من 89 إلى 110؛ بتراجع 21 مركزا، وهو أكبر تراجع بالقائمة)، وأخيرا كمبريا Cumbria (من 98 إلى 112؛ بتراجع 14 مركزا).. لكن أسوأ النتائج على الإطلاق كانت بخروج جامعتي ترينيتي سانت ديفيد Trinity Saint David وجامعة ويلز نيوبورت University of Wales Newport من القائمة تماما، بعد أن كانتا تحتلان المركزين 104 و105 على الترتيب في قائمة 2013، علما أنهما كانتا قد تراجعتا من المركزين 92 و89 من قائمة 2012.



Report: Trump Left NATO Summit on Secret Flight Due to Iranian Threat

US President Donald Trump speaks during the signing of an executive order reviewing childhood vaccine recommendations in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 10 August 2026. EPA/BONNIE CASH / POOL
US President Donald Trump speaks during the signing of an executive order reviewing childhood vaccine recommendations in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 10 August 2026. EPA/BONNIE CASH / POOL
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Report: Trump Left NATO Summit on Secret Flight Due to Iranian Threat

US President Donald Trump speaks during the signing of an executive order reviewing childhood vaccine recommendations in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 10 August 2026. EPA/BONNIE CASH / POOL
US President Donald Trump speaks during the signing of an executive order reviewing childhood vaccine recommendations in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 10 August 2026. EPA/BONNIE CASH / POOL

President Donald Trump secretly flew out of last month's NATO summit in Ankara, Türkiye, on an alternate military aircraft while the White House made it appear that the Republican president was flying on Air Force One, according to a report published by The Washington Post on Monday.

The Post said the operation was prompted by an Iranian assassination threat against Trump. The ruse was carried out as journalists and some White House staff members were led to believe they were on the same plane as the president as he began his journey back to Washington from the annual gathering of NATO country leaders.

The Post cited material reviewed by the newspaper, a US official familiar with the operation and another person with knowledge of the president’s travel. The Associated Press has not independently confirmed the report.

Trump had flown to the summit in a white and navy-blue jet. But ahead of departing Türkiye, he said he would fly partway home on an older-model baby blue Air Force One plane instead.

The president at the time said the new luxury jet was being flown out ahead of his departure from Ankara to give some US troops based in eastern England a chance to check out the new Air Force One.

In Ankara, Trump boarded the old Air Force One jumbo jet in view of television cameras ahead of the plane flying to Royal Air Force Mildenhall in the United Kingdom.

However, according to the Post report, after boarding the legacy Air Force One jet, he was secretly shuttled minutes later to a smaller plane — an Air Force C-32A — via an airport catering truck typically used to load meals and other supplies. Trump flew to Mildenhall on that smaller jet.

The White House did not respond directly to questions about the Post report of the secret operation to whisk Trump out of the country on a third aircraft, or the reported elaborate ruse to make it appear he was on the baby blue Air Force One jet flying to Mildenhall.

“As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement.

The US Secret Service declined to comment. The Air Force, which maintains the fleet of executive travel aircraft, referred questions to the White House.


As Trump Media Scraps Some Businesses, It's Doubling Down on Truth Social

Trump Media & Technology Company owns the Truth Social platform (Reuters)
Trump Media & Technology Company owns the Truth Social platform (Reuters)
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As Trump Media Scraps Some Businesses, It's Doubling Down on Truth Social

Trump Media & Technology Company owns the Truth Social platform (Reuters)
Trump Media & Technology Company owns the Truth Social platform (Reuters)

The president's media company has tried its hand at a half-dozen new lines of business to lift its stock, but nothing has worked.

Now it's getting back to its roots.

In a conference call with investors Monday, the company behind Truth Social said it will be unwinding much of its expansion and doubling down on its original media business by selling a form of White House access, a move that has raised big ethical questions among Democrats and government watchdogs, said The Associated Press.

Trump started Truth Social after he was kicked off Twitter and Facebook, but the two reinstated him more than three years ago, so the company has had to transform itself. Instead of a “free speech” forum, it now acts more like a “hear it here first” site, a second White House press office where people get scoops from the president on everything from the Iran war to tariffs to the future of the US central bank.

But shares of the parent company, Trump Media & Technology, kept falling so it decided to become more than a media company, and branched into unrelated industries like online betting, finance, investment funds, buying and storing bitcoin and nuclear energy.

Now it's returning to its original mission, with a twist: It's offering a special new service that grants fast access to President Trump's posts for a fee.

The new business could double or triple revenue

In a conference call with investors, the company's new chief executive, Kevin McGurn, said it had already signed up several high speed trading firms, each paying between $60,000 and $100,000 a month.

“We’re in the early innings,” said McGurn, noting that the potential market included data center companies, news organizations and developers of large language models, not just traders, and he was talking to them all.

McGurn has rejected the idea that the new business is an ethics quagmire as good-government groups have said, noting that other social media companies provide a similar service. As for the White House, it denies conflicts even exist between Trump the president and Trump the businessman where his private interests may influence his public policy.

Traders on Wall Street can make big money if they get White House news faster and so are signing up — 10 in the week since the service began, which may seem like a tiny number but translates into a major boost for the company. The monthly customers collectively are paying as much as $7 million and $12 million annually — two to three times the revenue the company took in for all its businesses last year.

Trump Media needs the money — and a lot more.

It's lost more than $1 billion since the start of last year, and its earnings report released Monday for the three months ended June 30 showed relief is not on the horizon. It lost another $238 million, though much of that was due to paper losses from the plunging value of its bitcoin holdings.

Time is running out

The clock is ticking to fix the company.

Trump Media depends partly on outside funding, specifically $1 billion raised from lenders with a special agreement that allows them to get paid back early. They can demand the company buy back their convertible notes on Nov. 30, 18 months before the loans mature.

That cashout date is just after the November midterms, which could impact the company should Democrats get control of Congress. Several current members, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, say they will hold formal investigations of Trump's businesses, including Trump Media, should they take over.

A third deadline is farther out, but the most consequential — the end of Trump's presidency.

Trump is a big draw for the platform's users, but it's not clear how many will read his posts after he leaves office, much less why traders will pay as much $1.2 million a year for sneak peeks at his posts if he's no longer able to declare on the site that the Strait of Hormuz is open or that he's hiking tariffs on dozens of countries.

Would Vance in the White House help Truth Social? The special, high-speed service, called Truth API, includes posts from other top posters on the site, but no one comes near the president in popularity. He has 13 million followers. The second biggest poster, his son, Donald Jr., has 7.5 million.

Other heavily followed posters include Trump administration members who also may fall in popularity once out of office, including FBI director Kash Patel and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

A wild card is JD Vance, who will be out of his vice presidential job in 2028 but, if he runs for president and wins, may continue to post on the site where he has five million followers.

The other business line that McGurn is choosing to hold onto is nuclear fusion, a technology still not commercially available but that is getting a big boost by the current administration.

The US government has a helping hand In June, the US Department of Energy released a “road map” committing to government funding to speed the development of nuclear fusion as a national priority and calling for public-private partnerships.

Despite the help, investors still aren't convinced Trump Media has a rosy future.

After closing at about $62 shortly after it went public in 2024, the stock has plunged into the single digits, wiping out billions in stock market value.

On Monday, Trump Media dove again, down 8% to $9.39 a share.


İngiltere'nin yaklaşık dörtte üçü kuraklıktan etkileniyor

İngiltere'de yaşanan rekor sıcaklıklarda şemsiyesiyle yürüyen bir kadın, (Reuters)
İngiltere'de yaşanan rekor sıcaklıklarda şemsiyesiyle yürüyen bir kadın, (Reuters)
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İngiltere'nin yaklaşık dörtte üçü kuraklıktan etkileniyor

İngiltere'de yaşanan rekor sıcaklıklarda şemsiyesiyle yürüyen bir kadın, (Reuters)
İngiltere'de yaşanan rekor sıcaklıklarda şemsiyesiyle yürüyen bir kadın, (Reuters)

İngiliz hükümeti, ülkenin bütün zamanların en kurak temmuz ayını geride bırakmasının ardından, İngiltere'nin yaklaşık yüzde 71,3'ünün kuraklıktan etkilendiğini açıkladı. Hükümet, gelecek hafta beşinci sıcak hava dalgasının başlamasının ve yağışların düşük seyretmesinin beklendiğini bildirdi.

İngiltere Çevre, Gıda ve Köyişleri Bakanlığı dün yaptığı açıklamada, "İngiltere'nin yaklaşık dörtte üçü şu anda kuraklık yaşıyor. Ağustos ayının kurak başlamasının ardından koşullar daha da kötüleşiyor" ifadelerini kullandı. Bakanlık ayrıca ülkenin tüm bölgelerinde su kaynakları üzerinde baskı bulunduğunu belirtti.