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KYIV -- Ukrainian authorities say they have launched an investigation into an assault on journalists of the Skhemy (Schemes) program during an interview with Ukreksimbank chief Yevhen Metsher in Kyiv.

The National Police have launched a probe into obstruction of the journalists' work, the force said on October 5, a day after the incident in Metsher's office.

The incident started when Kyrylo Ovsyaniy -- a reporter for Skhemy, a joint investigative project by RFE/RL and UA: Pershy television -- asked Metsher a question that angered the bank executive as part of an investigation that the journalists plan to make pubic soon.

Metsher instructed security personnel to stop the journalists and take their cameras and video materials away, after which physical force was used against cameraman Oleksandr Mazur to forcibly seize his two cameras and memory cards.

The journalists were allowed to leave the office after the interview was deleted from their memory cards.

The head of Ukreksimbank's press service, Volodymyr Pikalov, was also present during the incident.

Ovsyaniy recorded the incident with an audio device, and posted the clip on YouTube.

In a statement on Facebook, the bank did not address allegations that force was used against journalists.

The statement said the press service was "forced to stop the interview" because the questions were related to information about clients, which it said the bank did not have the right to provide to journalists.

It said the journalists also "made assumptions about alleged violations committed by the bank."

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Ukraine Investigates Assault On Journalists During Interview With Bank Executive - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

UkraineUAE Business Forum was held in Dubai during the National Day of Ukraine at Expo 2020.

Holding the National Day of Ukraine in the first days of the exhibition is significant. For the first time, Ukraine participates in the World Expo exhibition with its own pavilion. I am confident that our country's participation in the words largest fair will help find new forms of cooperation, strengthen partnerships with business circles of the UAE, as well as other participating countries, said Iryna Novikova, head of the official delegation of Ukraine, Deputy Economy Minister of Ukraine, the Ministrys press service informed on October 5.

As part of the National Day, a tour of the Ukraine Pavilion for the official delegations of the UAE and Ukraine and the UkraineUAE Business Forum was held.

During the forum, a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the UAE Federation of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

The program of the event was divided into three thematic sessions: energy (energy for sustainable development), agro-industrial complex, IT and innovation. According to the deputy minister, these are currently "the most promising areas of economic and investment cooperation between Ukraine and the UAE."

The official ceremony on the occasion of the National Day of Ukraine at the World Expo 2020 was attended by UAE Minister of Tolerance Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan and UAE Minister of State for Food and Water Security Mariam bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Almheiri.

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UkraineUAE business forum held within Expo 2020 - Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

Terms of Reference for carrying out follow-up study of the New Ukrainian School reformimplementation

Learning Together is a four-year collaborative project between Ukraine and Finland. The project is funded by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the European Commission. The Finnish consortium in charge of the project implementation is led byFCGInternational Ltd. The project started in August 2018 and will continue till July2022.

The project focuses on supporting the New Ukrainian School (NUS) reform, especially in the primary education, and is designed around three main clusters and cross-cutting elements. These clusters are (1) teacher preparation, (2) education promotion, and (3) educationenvironment.

Learning together is now seeking to contract a qualified and experienced research organization/NGOwhich could carry out annual follow up study that will provide data on awareness on and perception of theNUSreform and its impact on schools. The purpose of this Terms of Reference (TOR) is to call for competitive service providers to carry out this research. This assignment focuses on carrying out research to produce reliable data about the Projects results and the reform on which the decision makers can rely and further develop the implementation activities.

1.Introduction

TheNUSreform piloting started in 129 schools in September 2017. In those schools all the first-graders followed new education standard, curricula and teaching methods. New education environments were developed and teachers were specially trained for new teaching approaches. In 2018 theNUSreform was rolled outnationwide.

In 2019, Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) launched a study to find out results ofNUSreform in everyday teaching and learning. The baseline study was conducted in autumn 2019 among 149 third grade teachers, 897 third grade students, 149 school principals and 2497 parents. It also aimed to find out the target audiences perceptions about the school reform. Total of 25 pilot schools and 124 normal schools were sampled to participate in this study. Published results of this survey can be found by this link:https://bit.ly/3wVegyU.

For further implementation of the reform, it is planned to carry out follow-up studies among the same target audiences in 2021. It is expected that about 75% of the questionnaire items used in the study will remain the same in order to follow the trends. Additionally, monitoring study onNUSawareness and perception will be conducted among general public and localofficials.

Target groups:3 grade teachers, 3 grade pupils, parents, school principals, general population, local educationaladministrations.

2. Objective

We are looking for an experienced and reliable research organization/NGOthat can conduct the follow-up monitoring study in 2021. The major goal of this study is to support decision makers by providing reliable data about the level of implementation and communication ofNUS. This includes also pragmatic recommendations how to further enhance the implementation. The survey will also provide monitoring data on the ProjectsKPIs, asfollows:

The main research question is: what is the level of implementation ofNUScontents in the schools? Thus, the study should focus on educational contents, teaching approaches and knowledge, skills and competences that studentslearn.

Some questions used in the first-round surveywere:

3. Scope of Work

The Service Provider will be contractedto:

3.1 Design, implement, analyze and report on the results of the monitoring study,including:

Planned study components andmethods:

Methods:

1) observation of students group work 2 competence-based tasks (structured and creative) for a group of 6 randomly selected students; observation by two trained experts, filling in an evaluation form with 15 closedquestions.

2) self-administered questionnaire for students (6-10items).

Method:observation of 3rd grade teachers performance in the class during a day; two trained experts, filling in evaluation forms to fix teachers statements and coding them by 10-15types.

Methods:

1) observation of students work in the class during a day; two trained experts, filling in monitoring forms on types and formats of work used and time spent on eachtype/format.

2) self-administered questionnaire for students around 30 questions, 2/3 of themclosed-end.

Up to 40 question items, 2 of themopen-ended.

Up to 30 question items on their attitudes regardingNUSreform and their needs andproposals.

Up to 5 closed-end questions, their awareness and attitudes regardingNUSreform. Participation in an omnibus-type survey isenvisioned.

Planed sample size 1000.

Phone/online representative survey of local educational authorities, up to 15 question items, 3 of whichopen-ended.

Planed sample size 600.

4. Expected Deliverables

The Service Provider will submit the followingdeliverables:

4.1. Analytical framework (Description of data that will be collected in the survey, for what purpose, why it is important to collect those and how these things will be reported, where and towhom).

4.2. Development of study tools in English and Ukrainian (about 75% of the instruments and questionnaire items will be repeated from the previous baseline study) including pretesting. The questionnaires should include items for measuring Projects Key Performance Indicators,NUSReform Perception Key Performance Indicators as set in the Communication Strategy 2019-2022 of MoES (understanding of the reform, understanding of particular messages of the campaigns, acceptance of the reform in the targetgroups).

4.3. Development of studyprocedures.

4.2. Technical report, where study design, including sampling, weights,QMprocedures, data collection procedures will be explained in detail in Ukrainian andEnglish.

4.3. Implementation of the study in2021.

4.4. Inputting the data, cleaning the data, in the created databank (MSExcel/SPSS).

4.5. Analyzing the data and producing results (tables and figures) accordingly to Analytical framework described in 4.1. including calculation of the Project andNUSReform Perception Key PerformanceIndicators.

4.6. Draw up recommendations based on the collected data for decision makers and various targetaudiences.

4.7. Write summary reports on targeted audiences in close collaboration withMOES, Reform Support Team (RST) and Learning Together project inUkrainian.

The first data collection should start in October2021.

The firstanalytical report should be ready by January 10,2022.

The supervision of workwill be carried out by the Project Learning Together, Ministry of Education and Science, and Reform Support Team (RST) staff members. It is expected that MoES will support this survey by an official order to be issued not later than in June2021.

5. Budget

The budget, details of the assignment, terms and conditions will be specified in the contract between the FCG International Ltd (Contractor) and the Service Provider. Payment milestones will be based on the acceptance of the key deliverables by the Project Management Team.

6. Submission requirements

The Proposalmust include thefollowing:

6.1 A Technical Proposal not exceeding 10 pages in length including the intended approach and the planned activities in the management of the undertaking, including an example of analytical framework, and, description about item development, operational work plan with timelines and plan how the quality of the work will be monitored. Risk analysis should be also included, as well as examples of reports on the similar projects ineducation.

6.2 Breakdown ofcosts

The budget breakdown must include two separate sections: Fees of experts and Other Costs. The fees shall be defined on rates based on working days or working months. Other Costs must be broken down to correspond the Technical Proposal and Work Plan. The Budget Breakdown must be inEuros.

6.3 The Curriculum Vitae of the team members with obligatory examples of participation in similar researchprojects.

6.4. Official documents proving the status of the organization and the document proving the financial capacity (annual turnover and profit/loss) of theorganization.

Copies of registration documents (including a copy of the certificates of state registration of legal entities which the Participant plans to apply for the provision of services, a copy of the tax certificate; an Extract from the Statute indicating theactivities).

Other relevant supporting material may be attached as anannex.

The Proposal must be inEnglish.

7. Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated based on Quality (90% weight) and Price (10%weight).

The quality of the proposal will be evaluated based on thefollowing:

Organization:

The Service Providers teamsqualifications:

TechnicalProposal:

The best candidates will be invited for an interview consisting of a 20 minutes presentation and 15 minutes for Q&A.

8. Deadline for Proposals

The timeline of the tender is asfollows:

In case the tenderers want to have further clarification on the competition, written questions must be sent via email (dmytro.morgun@fcg.fi) by October 11,2021.

All tenderers will be provided with answers to all clarification requests by October 13,2021.

The final application must be submitted by October 15 (including), 2021 via email todmytro.morgun@fcg.fi.

Please note that all written communication must be in English. Further instructions for the tender are given only from the email mentioned above. Advice obtained from other sources may be disregarded in the tenderevaluation.

Originally posted here:
Follow-up study of the New Ukrainian School reform implementation - KyivPost - Ukraine's Global Voice - Kyiv Post

German hotel workers probed over singers antisemitism allegations

FRANKFURT, Germany German prosecutors have opened an investigation into employees at a hotel after a rock musician made accusations of antisemitism against them in a video posted on social media.

The singer Gil Ofarim said in an emotional video published yesterday that two employees at the Westin hotel in Leipzig, in eastern Germany, had asked him to put away a Star of David pendant before he would be allowed to check in.

Two employees at the Westin were subsequently suspended while the accusations are investigated, a spokeswoman for the Marriott International hotel group says today.

Prosecutors are currently examining the accusations made against the hotel employees, say authorities in Leipzig.

At the same time, one of the accused files for defamation, describing the events very differently to the singer, according to a spokeswoman for the police.

The same individual reported threats made against him via his Instagram account.

Ofarim rejected the defamation allegation, saying that it was exactly like how I described it in the video.

I find it shameful and sad that I still have to justify and explain myself after such an incident, he tells Spiegel Online.

After the video was published yesterday, thousands of individuals gathered outside the hotel to demonstrate in solidarity with the singer and against antisemitism.

The German governments Commissioner for Jewish Life and the Fight against Anti-Semitism Felix Klein offered his sympathy and solidarity to Ofarim in an interview with the Funke media group.

It was good and important that the incident had been made public, Klein said, and showed the need for more education on antisemitism in Germany.

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Ukraine hosts memorial ceremony marking 80 years since Babi Yar massacre - The Times of Israel

80 years ago, around 34,000 Jews were lined up and killed in a ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in the biggest Nazi mass killings during World War Two. They were then buried in mass graves and left for the world to forget.

More horrors followed the mass killings on September 29 and 30 as the Nazis continued to round up Jews, the mentally ill, Soviet prisoners, and others over the following years, killing up to 200,000 in total at Babi Yar.

The dark spot in history is, however, not forgotten. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has remembered it with civil memorials as a lesson of the past. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy laid flowers at the foot of the Menorah memorial, and another ceremony is planned for October 6.

Babi Yar. Two short words that sound like two short shots but carry long and horrible memories of several generations, Zelenskyy said at the memorial.

Anatoly Podolsky, the director at the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies in Kyiv, told Euronews that the Jewish population and others had no idea of what was coming back then due to the lack of information about the Nazi atrocities and anti-Semitism this early in the war.

That was due to the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, the so-called MolotovRibbentrop Pact, signed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939.

Over the years, I have spoken to many from that time, and they had not seen it coming. During the German occupation in the First World War, many said that they were treated okay. They, therefore, didnt expect these atrocities to happen in the Second World War, says Podolsky, who says that the Soviet Union didnt inform the local population in Kyiv or Ukraine overall about what was coming.

One of the survivors of Babi Yar was Dina Pronicheva, who was ordered to march down in the ravine and undress before the shootings started. She avoided the fate of many others by jumping before the shootings and playing dead among the corpses.

She gasped for air as the Nazi SS soldiers started to cover the graves.

All around were standing fascists armed with submachine guns, Ukrainian policemen, and fierce dogs ready to tear a human apart, she testified after the war.

I pretended to be dead. Those who had been killed or wounded were lying under me and on top of me - many were still breathing, others were moaning. Suddenly I heard a child weeping and the cry: Mummy! I imagined my little girl crying, and I started to cry myself.

It was getting dark. Germans armed with submachine guns walked around, finishing off the wounded. I felt that somebody was standing above me, but I did not give any sign that I was alive, even though that was very difficult. Then I felt we were being covered with earth.

"I closed my eyes so that the soil would not get into them, and when it became dark and silent, literally the silence of death, I opened my eyes and threw the sand off me, making sure that no one was close by, no one was around, no one was watching me, Pronicheva said.

About 29 people are known to have survived Babi Yar, and Podolsky says that the atrocity still significantly impacts Jews and others living in Ukraine today. Many Jews, who fled their homeland, never returned, and the day is a way to remember history, he says.

Yaakov Dov Bleich is the chief rabbi in Ukraine and the vice-president of the World Jewish Congress. He said that remembering is vital for everyone.

This is not only a Jewish thing; it was a crime against humanity. They could have been doctors, nurses, engineers. They were people. They were killed because they were Jewish, but the significance is for all because of the hate.

"To wipe out an entire community in two days is something that is very hard for us, even today 80 years later, to understand, Bleich says.

The Ukrainian government plans to build a Holocaust Memorial Centre in Kyiv, which isnt getting support from everyone in Ukraine.

Podolsky says that the construction is controversial because the government is cooperating with a Russian organisation, while Bleich says that the plans are good as the families and the world will get a place to mourn.

Tens of thousands were killed. Hundreds of thousands or millions have families that died there. They had no place to go to pray; there are hundred thousand people without gravestones, Bleich said, It gives closure and peace.

While Ukrainians agree about atrocities at Babi Yar, the history of the Nazis and their occupation overall is a controversial topic in Ukraine, when it comes to other topics during the war. That is partly due to some Ukrainians opinion of controversial figures such as Stepan Bandera, explains Podolsky.

The Ukrainian government is considering giving the title Hero of Ukraine to Bandera because he fought for Ukrainian independence back in the 1930s and 1940s, but to others, he is an anti-Semitic war criminal who cooperated with the Nazis. His movement is accused of having killed up to 100,000 Jews and Poles during WW2. Bandera was, however, jailed for several years during the atrocities.

We need to be open about our history and the role of people such as Bandera in the Second World War, explains Podolsky, He is a hero for some, and we need to be open about Ukraines own role. I think that the atrocities in Babi Yar, which we all agree upon, can be a way for us to move away from the Ukrainian nationalist and also Soviet understanding of our history and into a more liberal and open understanding.

Bleich says that Ukraine has to deal with the legacy of people like Bandera, but he says that Ukraine has come a long way, and there isnt much anti-Semitism in Ukraine. Recently, Ukraine also approved a new law banning anti-Semitism.

It is important to get the balance and understand what is the heroization that he (Bandera) did. And we have to be able to say that they did things that were wrong. Some of these heroes did participate in crimes against humanity, and Ukraine has to decide whom they want for heroes,

It is important to take everything in the proper context. For that we need historians. (To answer) how, why, and what happened. Something Ukraine is working on as well, but it is taking time for them.

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Babi Yar: 80 years after Nazi massacre, its ghosts still haunt Ukraine - Euronews