Source: United Nations (Video News)
30 years ago, world leaders united around a groundbreaking commitment to put people at the centre of development. At the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen, they pledged to eradicate poverty, promote social integration, and achieve full and productive employment for all.
Read more: https://desapublications.un.org/un-desa-voice/feature/february-2025/strengthening-solidarity-and-inclusion-social-development
US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator for Utah Mike Lee
WASHINGTON –Today, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) introduced the Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident (BOWSER) Act in the Senate and House, named after District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser. In response to the mayor and city council’s failure to prevent violent crime, corruption, and voting by non-citizens, the bill would repeal the District of Columbia Home Rule Act one year after passage. Congress has the authority to manage the nation’s capital according to Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Constitution. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) is the lead sponsor of the bill in the House of Representatives.
“The corruption, crime, and incompetence of the D.C. government has been an embarrassment to our nation’s capital for decades,” said Sen Lee. “It is long past time that Congress restored the honor and integrity of George Washington to the beautiful city which bears his name.”
“The radically progressive regime of D.C. Mayor Bowser has left our nation’s Capital in crime-ridden shambles.” said Rep. Ogles. “Washington is now known for its homicides, rapes, drug overdoses, violence, theft, and homelessness. Bowser and her corrupt Washington City Council are incapable of managing the city. As such, it seems appropriate for Congress to reclaim its Constitutional authority and restore the nation’s Capital. The epicenter of not only the United States Federal Government but also the world geopolitics cannot continue to be a cesspool of Democrats’ failed policies.”
Failures of governance in the District of Columbia include:
You can read the Text of the BOWSER Act HERE.
You can read the One Pager HERE.
US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator for Utah Mike Lee
WASHINGTON –Today, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) joined Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) as a co-sponsor of the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act. This legislation would require that federal regulations with an economic impact of $100 million or more be subject to an up-or-down vote in Congress, reclaiming legislative power from the regulatory state.
“Without the REINS Act, Americans will continue to live under the tyranny of unelected bureaucrats who effectively make laws but never have to stand for election,” said Sen. Lee. “Congress has an opportunity to restore its constitutional lawmaking role while saving countless American workers, consumers, businesses, and families from the costs imposed by endless federal regulations.”
Additional cosponsors in the Senate include U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Katie Britt (R-AL), Ted Budd (R-NC), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Steve Daines (R-MT), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), James Lankford (R-OK), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Bernie Moreno (R-OH), James Risch (R-WI), Rick Scott (R-FL), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Tim Sheehy (R-MT), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and Eric Schmitt (R-MO).
Background:
Under the REINS Act, once major rules are drafted, they must then be affirmatively approved by both chambers of Congress and then signed by the President, satisfying the bicameralism and presentment requirements of the Constitution. Currently, regulations ultimately take effect unless Congress specifically disapproves.
The bill defines a “major” rule as one that the Office of Management and Budget determines may result in an economic impact of $100 million or greater each year; “a major increase in costs or prices” for American consumers, government agencies, regions, or industries; or “significant adverse effects” on the economy.
The REINS Act also includes the following provisions:
You can read the REINS Act HERE.
You can find more info on regulatory reform HERE.
US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator for Arkansas – John Boozman
WASHINGTON––U.S. Senators John Boozman (R-AR), Chair of the Senate Recycling Caucus, Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate EPW Committee, applauded committee passage of the Strategies to Eliminate Waste and Accelerate Recycling Development (STEWARD) Act.
The STEWARD Act, approved unanimously by Boozman’s EPW Committee colleagues, would improve our nation’s recycling and composting systems and establish a pilot recycling program at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to award grants on a competitive basis to communities interested in improving their recycling accessibility.
“Strengthening our commitment to recycling in order to preserve the resources we are blessed with, as well as spur economic growth and encourage industry innovation, benefits all Americans,” said Boozman. “I am proud to see the STEWARD Act advance with bipartisan support as we continue our efforts to encourage sustainable recycling infrastructure systems and practices.”
“For too many Americans, recycling remains out of reach – either because facilities don’t exist in their communities or because the infrastructure to make recycling economically viable is not in place. The STEWARD Act aims to close these gaps by ensuring that recycling services are accessible to all communities. The bill also recognizes that, to solve a problem, you need to measure and understand it first. The data provisions in the STEWARD Act will empower decision-makers to track progress, identify areas for improvement, and make informed decisions that will drive real change in our nation’s recycling systems,” Capito said.
“I’m proud to join Chairman Capito and Senator Boozman to lead the STEWARD Act, which is an essential preliminary step in reducing the amount of plastics seeping into our bodies and environment,” said Whitehouse. “Recycling is a stopgap in the rising flood of plastic waste, and I look forward to working with my colleagues—on both sides of the aisle—to tackle this issue on all fronts.”
Boozman, Capito and Whitehouse introduced the STEWARD Act last month. The measure combines Boozman-authored legislation from previous Congresses known as the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act and the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act that aim to enhance commercial and curbside recycling.
As a leader of the Senate Recycling Caucus, Boozman has also hosted events bringing together industry leaders to promote sustainability and preservation of our natural resources.
Find a one-pager explanation of the bill here.
US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts – Elizabeth Warren
February 06, 2025
After pressure, Kennedy agreed to transfer stake in anti-vaccine lawsuits to his son, but would still have influence over those cases as HHS Secretary
“Your relationships with these entities [with business before HHS] will raise serious doubts about your impartiality if you participate in decisions about cases and other particular matters that involve them.”
Text of Letter (PDF)
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Pensions, and Labor, wrote to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), about his continued conflicts of interest. The senators called out Mr. Kennedy’s plan to enter office with a serious ethics conflict by keeping a financial interest in anti-vaccine lawsuits within his family, asked him to recuse himself from former clients’ matters, commit to not lobbying HHS after his tenure as Secretary, and more.
Mr. Kennedy initially had an agreement with the law firm Wisner Baum that would allow him to earn 10% of any payments awarded to plaintiffs in cases he referred to the firm, including cases against the pharmaceutical company Merck’s Gardasil vaccine. As HHS Secretary, Mr. Kennedy would have the power to influence the outcome of those vaccine cases, including influencing Merck’s willingness to settle, or influencing the jury pool. Last week, Mr. Kennedy announced he would transfer his stake in those cases to his adult son, an attorney at Wisner Baum.
“This arrangement simply does not pass the smell test. Your son is not an independent third party, and ethics experts have critiqued your plan as exploiting a loophole in the law,” wrote the senators. The lawmakers called on Mr. Kennedy to divest from cases he’s referred to the firm by either forfeiting the fee or agreeing with Wisner Baum to accept an amount not dependent on the outcome of cases during his tenure.
Mr. Kennedy has also worked with an anti-vaccine advocacy group, Children’s Health Defense, which regularly sues the agencies he’d oversee as HHS Secretary, and a number of law firms with ongoing health-related matters. Mr. Kennedy has agreed to not work on his former clients’ matters for one year. However, the senators are concerned that the cooling-off period is too short to resolve the concern that he would not be impartial when handling matters involving former clients with whom he still has fresh relationships. To address such concerns, over a dozen Biden appointees voluntarily agreed to recuse themselves from former clients’ matters for four years.
Mr. Kennedy also said he would continue to hold investments in a fund invested in multiple companies regulated by HHS, and that he would seek a waiver to work on matters that impact those investments.
“You appear to be planning to make decisions that can impact your own investments in numerous health companies. We urge you to either divest these holdings before taking office or to recuse from all particular matters that could impact those holdings,” wrote the lawmakers.
During his hearing, Mr. Kennedy committed to not working for a drug company for at least four years after leaving government service. However, he did not commit to not seeking compensation from entities that sue drug companies or that he would regulate or interact with at HHS. Numerous Biden appointees agreed to a cooling-off period of at least four years before working in the industries they regulated.
“You should commit to not lobbying HHS for at least four years after leaving office, either as a formal registered lobbyist or informal shadow lobbyist — given that former high-level officials can leverage their influence not only by directly lobbying but through facilitating others to do so,” concluded the lawmakers.
The senators asked Mr. Kennedy to make these commitments to increase American’s trust in his ability to serve the public interest during his time at HHS.
US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont)
Welch spoke on the Trump Administration’s lawlessness and illegal actions—from pardoning January 6th defendants to freezing federal funding and international aid
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) took to the Senate Floor at 5:00 a.m. this morning to sound the alarm on the dangers of Donald Trump’s lawlessness and to oppose the nomination of Russell Vought, Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Senator Welch spoke for an hour.
View his remarks here:
Senate Democrats held the floor all night to oppose Russell Vought’s nomination to OMB and to slam the Trump Administration’s freeze on federal loans and grants. Vought’s radical Project 2025 would slash federal funding, and threaten the programs and services Vermonters rely on, like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. As director of the OMB, Vought will be tasked with carrying out President Trump’s federal funding freeze, which is unconstitutional. Additionally, Vought is an open election denier and told Senators in his confirmation hearing he believed the 2020 election was ‘rigged.’ The Senate is expected to vote on Vought Thursday.
Senator Welch last week convened Vermonters to discuss how the Trump Administration’s federal funding freeze has impacted communities, families and workers across the state. The federal courts temporarily blocked the order, and on Monday extended the temporary restraining order. In addition, the court has required OMB to re-open funding currently held by the government and provide the court a compliance report by the end of the week.
■■■
Senator Welch’s Committee and Subcommittee Assignments for the 119th Congress include:
Senate Committee on Finance
Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry
Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Rural Development, Energy, and Credit
Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Ranking Member, Subcommittee on the Constitution
Senate Committee on Rules & Administration
Source: United Kingdom – Government Statements
The Prime Minister met Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof in Downing Street today.
The Prime Minister met Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof in Downing Street today.
The leaders reflected on the UK and Netherlands’ strong friendship and shared approach to global challenges. They talked about the successes of existing cooperation on tackling organised crime, including the people smuggling gangs driving illegal migration. The Prime Minister set out the UK’s approach to disrupting these criminals, and agreed further cooperation with the Netherlands on this issue.
The Prime Minister then reflected on his attendance at the Informal European Council meeting in Brussels on Monday, and his ambition to strengthen cooperation with the EU for mutual benefit through the UK-EU reset.
Discussing Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine, the Prime Minister reiterated the UK’s iron-clad support and the leaders underscored their commitment to working together so that Ukraine is in the strongest possible position. They agreed to work towards a new bilateral security partnership led by their Foreign Ministers.
Turning to technology and innovation, the leaders agreed on the importance of moving at pace to seize on the opportunities offered by new and emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, quantum and semiconductors, and agreed to pursue a new innovation partnership to accelerate growth in key technologies.
On the subject of energy, the Prime Minister shared details on his plans to make it easier to build nuclear infrastructure in the UK. The leaders agreed to work towards a new agreement on sustainable energy, including nuclear, and both agreed on the importance of energy security.
The leaders looked forward to the fact direct Eurostar services between London and the Netherlands are set to restart on Monday, and hoped to speak again soon.
Published 6 February 2025
Alberta’s government is making record investments in mental health and addiction services to support Albertans of all ages in their pursuit of wellness and recovery. Through the Alberta Recovery Model and Recovery Alberta, the province has increased opportunities for recovery of eating disorders. Every aspect of a person’s life can be affected by eating disorders, including both mental and physical health, especially for teenagers who are still in development.
The EHN Sandstone Recovery Centre is the result of a collaborative partnership between Alberta’s government, Recovery Alberta, Silver Linings Foundation and Edgewood Health Network (EHN Canada).
With an investment of almost $10 million over three years (2023-26) in partnership with Recovery Alberta to establish the EHN Sandstone Recovery Centre in Calgary, Alberta’s government remains committed to supporting this important recovery program for young Albertans. The Silver Linings Foundation raised $4 million in capital funding for this facility.
“This is another important step in creating strong, recovery-oriented systems of care in communities across Alberta. Eating disorders can often be misunderstood and can go unrecognized or underdiagnosed. With the opening of this centre, young Albertans can now get the care they deserve and have better access to intensive treatment to better support them in their recovery.”
Operated by EHN Canada, the 12-bed EHN Sandstone Recovery Centre in Calgary increases access to specialized eating disorders treatment in the province providing up to 52 youth and young adults with treatment free of charge every year.
“EHN Sandstone Recovery Centre provides the highest standard of treatment for eating disorders in a safe, nurturing environment where young people can begin their journey to recovery. Our multidisciplinary team of compassionate experts is dedicated to addressing the unique challenges of eating disorders with evidence-based care and unwavering support. At the heart of our mission is helping patients and their families rediscover hope, rebuild their lives and achieve lasting recovery.”
“Eating disorders have long been overlooked in mental health, leaving a critical gap in care. After a decade of advocacy, we’re proud to see Alberta’s first live-in recovery centre become a reality. This centre addresses a critical need many families, including my own, have faced. Thanks to this partnership, a critical resource is now accessible to Albertan families.”
“The opening of this facility means more resources and support for individuals battling eating disorders. Recovery from an eating disorder is a complex and ongoing process that requires dedication and support. The centre’s multidisciplinary team will play a vital role in guiding individuals through their journey, and we look forward to seeing the positive impact this will have on the lives of many in the community.”
The EHN Sandstone Recovery Centre helps close a gap in the continuum of care for youth and young adults diagnosed with complex eating disorders. Albertans aged 12 to 24 now have access to intensive treatment in a community setting, reducing the need for long hospital stays and increasing positive health outcomes.
The centre offers an individualized approach to care, with around-the-clock support from a multidisciplinary team of physicians, nurse practitioners, registered dietitians, nurses, counselors and support staff. Services include academic support, weekly individual and family therapy, daily group therapy, nutritional rehabilitation, structured meal support therapy, self-care and wellness activities, nutritional education, and distress tolerance skills. While treatment length varies, it generally lasts anywhere from three weeks to four months.
EHN Sandstone Recovery Centre – Bedroom (Credit: EHN Canada)
EHN Sandstone Recovery Centre – Common area (Credit: EHN Canada)
EHN Sandstone Recovery Centre – Exterior (Credit: EHN Canada)
Alberta’s government is committed to building a system of care that gives every person facing mental health challenges an opportunity to pursue recovery and wellness. Albertans experiencing mental health challenges can contact 211 for information on services in their community, including other online supports like Kids Help Phone and the Mental Health Helpline.
The facility welcomed its first client in 2024 and is now fully operational. To date, 18 patients have been admitted to the facility with additional referrals being triaged.
Youth and young adults aged 12 to 24 with complex eating disorders can be referred either by an Alberta physician or nurse practitioner.
Silver Linings is a charitable foundation working with communities, health professionals and agencies to increase the awareness and understanding of eating disorders, provide community support for those affected and expand access to eating disorder treatment and care options.
Edgewood Health Network Canada is the nation’s largest network of industry-leading, evidence-based care mental health, trauma, and addiction treatment facilities, each with a passion for providing quality treatment for Canadians.
Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A twice-deported Guatemalan national has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison on charges of conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property and illegal reentry into the United States as a result of a large-scale Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) organized retail crime case.
Marvin Estuardo Morales De Paz, 30, of Cranston, was one of as many as a dozen members of a Rhode Island-based conspiracy of individuals who traveled to home improvement and clothing stores in at least five states to commit thefts. The group then transported the stolen merchandise to Rhode Island to sell. Court documents describe Morales as being “the most consistent member” of the organized group and was present for nearly every theft and set prices and directed sales of the stolen items.
According to information presented to the court, the ring was involved in at least 35 documented thefts in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. It is estimated that members of the conspiracy stole more than $280,000 worth of merchandise. Tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of stolen goods was recovered from Morales’s residence when HSI special agents arrested him on April 11, 2024.
Morales was sentenced Jan. 31 by U.S. District Court Senior Judge William E. Smith to 30 months of incarceration to be followed by one year of supervised release. Morales will be turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and faces deportation upon completion of his term of incarceration.
The matter was investigated by HSI New England’s Providence Resident Agent in Charge office, with the assistance of HSI Boston and HSI Allentown, Pennsylvania. Additional assistance was provided by police departments in Providence, Coventry, Warwick, Smithfield, and Johnston in Rhode Island; Boston, Norwood, Bellingham, Marlboro, Seekonk, Avon, Auburn police departments in Massachusetts; Montville and Fairfield police departments in Connecticut; Parkesburg, Downingtown, Lebanon, Wyomissing, and Reading police departments in Pennsylvania; Nashua police department in New Hampshire; and Marlboro Police Department in New Jersey.
Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
January 31, 2025Tucson, AZ, United StatesOrganized Crime, Narcotics
TUCSON, Ariz. — A Mexican national illegally in the United States was arrested Jan. 25 by special agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
The arrest unfolded after agents discovered information on the whereabouts of one of the illegal alien who was previously convicted for a felony, after fleeing the scene of an accident involving a death/serious injuries. Additionally, records checks revealed this suspect was under investigation by both HSI and DEA for participating in a transnational criminal organization allegedly trafficking cocaine and fentanyl in Tucson.
At approximately 2 p.m., agents observed the suspect exit a residence along with two other individuals. The three suspects entered a car and went to the Home Depot located at the intersection of Dodge Blvd and Broadway Ave in Tucson. Agents followed the vehicle to the parking lot and waited for the suspects to return to their vehicle from Home Depot. Once the three suspects returned to the vehicle, HSI, U.S. Marshals and DEA agents detained the individuals and confirmed their identities and citizenship.
One of the three suspects detained was a United States citizen who was released at the scene. The third suspect was identified as a Mexican citizen also illegally present in the United States. Records checks identified the third suspect had a prior aggravated felony conviction for sexual assault in 2005, after which he was deported.
Both individuals were administratively detained for re-entering the United States without inspection or parole and both are in ICE custody pending the outcome of their immigration cases.
The success of these arrests is due to the significant assistance from DEA and the U.S. Marshals.
Source: US GOIAM Union
The IAM, unions and pro-labor politicians gathered Wednesday in Washington, D.C. at the Department of Labor to protest Elon Musk and his anti-worker agency called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). DOGE wants to raid and hack the Labor Department’s database, a move that could cripple worker protections and displace union workers at the DOL. DOGE’s latest move comes after a similar event occurred last week at another government agency.
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Source: The Conversation – UK – By Lina Eklund, Associate Senior Lecturer, Lund University
SkySat imagery © 2025/Planet Labs PBC
The ceasefire agreed between Israel and Hamas makes provisions for the passage of food and humanitarian aid into Gaza. This support is much needed given that Gaza’s agricultural system has been severely damaged over the course of the war.
Over the past 17 months we have analysed satellite images across the Gaza Strip to quantify the scale of agricultural destruction across the region. Our newly published research reveals not only the widespread extent of this destruction but also the potentially unprecedented pace at which it occurred. Our work covers the period until September 2024 but further data through to January 2025 is also available.
Before the war, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and strawberries were grown in open fields and greenhouses, and olive and citrus trees lined rows across the Gazan landscape. The trees in particular are an important cultural heritage in the region, and agriculture was a vital part of Gaza’s economy. About half of the food eaten there was produced in the territory itself, and food made up a similar portion of its exports.
By December 2023, only two months into the war, there were official warnings that the entire population of Gaza, more than 2 million people, was facing high levels of acute food insecurity. While that assessment was based on interviews and survey data, the level of agricultural damage across the whole landscape remained out of view.
To address this problem, we mapped the damage to tree crops – mostly olive and citrus trees – in Gaza each month over the course of the war up until September 2024. Together with our colleagues Dimah Habash and Mazin Qumsiyeh, we did this using very high-resolution satellite imagery, detailed enough to focus on individual trees.
We first visually identified tree crops with and without damage to “train” our computer program, or model, so it knew what to look for. We then ran the model on all the satellite data. We also looked over a sample of results ourselves to confirm it was accurate.
Our results showed that between 64% and 70% of all tree crop fields in Gaza had been damaged. That can either mean a few trees being destroyed, the whole field of trees completely removed, or anything in between. Most damage took place during the first few months of the war in autumn 2023. Exactly who destroyed these trees and why is beyond the scope of our research or expertise.
As greenhouses look very different in satellite images, we used a separate method to map damage to them. We found over 4,000 had been damaged by September 2024, which is more than half of the total we had identified before the start of the war.
In the south of the territory, where most greenhouses were found, the destruction was fairly steady from December 2023 onwards.
But in north Gaza and Gaza City, the two most northerly of the territory’s five governorates, most of the damage had already taken place by November and December 2023. By the end of our study period, all 578 greenhouses there had been destroyed.
North Gaza and Gaza City have also seen the most damage to tree crop fields. By September 2024, over 90% of all tree crops in Gaza City had been destroyed, and 73% had been lost in north Gaza. In the three southern governorates, Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah and Rafah, around 50% of all tree crops had been destroyed.
Agricultural damage is common in armed conflict, and has been documented with satellite analysis in Ukraine since the 2022 Russian invasion, in Syria and Iraq during the ISIS occupation in 2015, and in the Caucasus during the Chechen wars in the 1990s and 2000s.
The exact impact can differ from conflict to conflict. War may directly damage lands, as we have seen in Gaza, or it may lead to more fallow areas as infrastructure is damaged and farmers are forced to flee. A conflict also increases the need for local agricultural production, especially when food imports are restricted.
Our assessment shows a very high rate of direct and extensive damage to Gaza’s agricultural system, both compared to previous conflict escalations there in 2014 and 2021, and in other conflict settings. For example, during the July-August war in 2014, around 1,200 greenhouses were damaged in Gaza. This time round at least three times as many have been damaged.
Attacks on agricultural lands are prohibited under international law. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court from 1998 defines the intentional use of starvation of civilians through “depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival” as a war crime. The Geneva conventions further define such indispensable objects as “foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production offoodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works”.
Our study provides transparent statistics on the extent and timing of damage to Gaza’s agricultural system. As well as documenting the impacts of the war, we hope it can help the massive rebuilding efforts that will be required.
Restoring Gaza’s agricultural system goes beyond clearing debris and rubble, and rebuilding greenhouses. The soils need to be cleaned from possible contamination. Sewage and irrigation infrastructure need to be rebuilt.
Such efforts may take a generation or more to complete. After all, olive and citrus trees can take five or more years to become productive, and 15 years to reach full maturity. After previous attacks on Gaza the trees were mostly replanted, and perhaps the same will happen again this time. But it’s for good reason they say that only people with hope for the future plant trees.
Lina Eklund receives funding from the Swedish National Space Agency and the Strategic Research Area: The Middle East in the Contemporary World (MECW) at the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
He Yin receives funding from NASA.
Jamon Van Den Hoek receives funding from NASA.
– ref. Gaza: we analysed a year of satellite images to map the scale of agricultural destruction – https://theconversation.com/gaza-we-analysed-a-year-of-satellite-images-to-map-the-scale-of-agricultural-destruction-248796
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Charlotte Haines Lyon, Associate Professor: Education, York St John University
Recently released government statistics show a record number of fines were given to parents for their children’s absence from school in 2023-24 in England. Of the 487,344 fines issued, 91% were for unauthorised family holidays.
If these fines, known as fixed penalty notices, go unpaid or in some cases have been previously issued, parents are taken to court. In 2023-24, 28,296 parents were prosecuted over their children’s school attendance.
Whether the fines have any effect on ensuring attendance is debatable. The figures show that thousands of parents are willing to book a term-time holiday anyway. But fines are certainly affecting the crucial relationship between schools and families.
When I carried out my doctoral research between 2014 and 2016 on the relationships between schools and parents, these bonds were already quite fragile. People in my study argued that endless “dictats” from school built a “brick wall” rather than a partnership.
Now, it’s likely that an increasingly strict application of attendance rules is further breaking down trust.
Fines were first introduced by a Labour government in 2004 as a last resort to tackle truancy. In 2014, then education secretary Michael Gove widened the application of the fines. Local authorities were encouraged to use penalty notices for parents who took their children on holiday during school term time.
Since Gove, education secretaries – including current education minister Bridget Phillipson – have insisted that every day matters in school, and that there are very few reasons to miss school. Holidays are seen as unacceptable.
Since the pandemic, even more focus has been placed on attendance as persistent absence rates have increased.
Government statistics show a correlation between attendance and exam results. However, whether lower attendance causes lower results is difficult to prove, especially when factors such as poverty are taken into account.
What’s more, when holiday absence has been analysed separately, this has not been found to have the same negative affect on achievement at school as other reasons for absence.
The record number of fines issued last year came before new guidance was set in August 2024. Now, fixed penalty notices have risen from £60 to £80 for a first offence (if paid within 21 days) and to £160 for a second offence (if paid within 28 days). If parents receive two fixed penalty notices within three years, the next offence will result in prosecution. However, councils may choose prosecution earlier if they wish.
Whereas previously there was more discretion and variance between authorities and schools, all headteachers must now consider the above approach if a child misses more than five days of school. It can only be assumed that the number of fines and prosecutions will increase.
As a side-effect, we are seeing schools encouraged to clamp down on child illness for fear that parents are lying and are in fact on holiday. While government guidance says that in most cases a parent’s word should be enough evidence that their child is sick, it also states that evidence of illness should be requested in cases where there is “genuine and reasonable doubt about the authenticity of the illness”.
This suggests that schools should be questioning their trust in their pupils’ parents. This is a fundamental break down of the school-parent relationship, not to mention a strain on NHS time.
Term-time holidays are often seen as a way for parents to book a cheaper break, as holidays are generally more expensive during school holidays. But, even leaving aside that many families may only be able to afford a holiday at all if it is taken in term time due to the cost of living crisis, the situation is more complicated.
There are many reasons for taking holidays within school term time. Families might be visiting relatives overseas for a wedding, funeral or because of a family member’s terminal illness. Often, a school might grant one day of absence, but no more.
Parents may be unable to take leave from work during school holidays as a result of the industry they work in. They may have family members who work away for long periods, and want to spend time together with the children when they return. They may have a child with particular needs who is unable to cope with busy holiday times, or children in different schools with different holiday periods.
When a headteacher refuses to authorise such a holiday this leads to resentment from parents. Resentment like this may cause some to withdraw children from school and choose to home educate.
There is some effort now for schools to offer support first before legal intervention for families who might have attendance issues for other reasons, such as emotionally based school avoidance. But there is little to no desire to work with families around their complex needs for holidays.
Partnership with parents is often touted by schools as central to pupils’ wellbeing, progress and attainment. But the power in this partnership is often skewed towards the professionals.
Parents and schools should work together for the good of children. This does not simply mean parents obeying schools; that is not a recipe for partnership. Instead, it means understanding the different contexts that families and teachers live and work in. If parent engagement is essential to wellbeing and school progress, it is not worth continuing down the road of alienation and punishment.
Dr Charlotte Haines Lyon is affiliated with Labour Party and UNISON.
– ref. Fines for term-time holidays are at record levels – this will further erode trust between parents and schools – https://theconversation.com/fines-for-term-time-holidays-are-at-record-levels-this-will-further-erode-trust-between-parents-and-schools-249085
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jonathan Este, Senior International Affairs Editor, Associate Editor
Steve Bannon may no longer be in Donald Trump’s inner circle, but the newly reinstated US president appears to be adhering to a dictum the conservative disrupter-in-chief outlined back in 2018 as he reflected on his role in getting Trump elected the first time. “The Democrats don’t matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”
It’s fair to say that for the first two weeks of Trump’s second presidency the Democrats haven’t really mattered. But Trump and his advisers have got news organisations struggling to work out which way to look.
In any normal news cycle, the appointment of vaccine-sceptic RFK Jnr. as health secretary would dominate the headlines, as would the successful installation of any of the more bizarre Trump cabinet picks. But at the same time the media has had to deal with a steady stream of other attention-grabbing announcements: the idea that the US could one way or the other acquire Greenland from Denmark, for instance, or the threats to use force to take control of the Panama Canal. We’ve had conflicting statements about how to end the war in Ukraine (more of which later) and the now you see them, now you don’t tariff threats against Mexico and Canada, not to mention the idea that the latter could be incorporated as the 51st state of the USA.
The zone has been well and truly flooded. Meanwhile, the administration’s plan to take complete control of the civil service (which appears to be straight out of the Project 2025 playbook) has proceeded apace with career public servants being dismissed in their droves to make way for true Maga (Make America Great Again) believers in key roles. This, needless to say, has struggled for attention in light of all the eye-catching news stories.
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This week’s big idea has to do with his vision for a post-conflict Gaza. Trump foreshadowed this plan last week when he announced he was talking with the leaders of Egypt and Jordan about resettling Gazans there – whether permanently or just for a period of reconstruction of Gaza was not clear, his statement was short on detail. But this week, hosting the Israeli prime minister in Washington (significantly the first foreign leader to visit since his inauguration), Trump expanded on his vision while Benjamin Netanyahu looked on approvingly.
Initially, it appeared that Trump’s plan was for the permanent relocation of all 2.2 million Gazans to other countries while the Trump administration and its allies considered the considerable real estate investment opportunities presented by turning the 360km² Gaza Strip, with its 40km Mediterranean coastline into the “Middle East Riviera”. But as Simon Mabon notes here, administration officials were later quick to insist that the relocation would only last for as long as it takes to rebuild the stricken enclave.
Mabon, professor of international relations at the University of Lancaster who specialises in Middle East politics, also notes that the proposal did what few other issues seem able to do: united the Arab nations in opposition. He also believes that while both Egypt and Jordan have signed peace deals with Israel, the relationship is often fractious and this latest announcement won’t have helped.
Most importantly, perhaps, will be the reaction of Saudi Arabia. Israel (with Washington’s encouragement) has been pursuing normalisation of relations with Riyadh for some years. But the Saudi ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has explicitly rejected “any attempts to displace the Palestinians from their land as well as affirming that relations with Israel would depend on the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Read more:
What Trump’s proposal to ‘take over’ Gaza could mean for Arab-Israeli relations
It’s not the first time, by any means, that the idea of clearing Gaza of Palestinians has been mooted. It’s not even the first time that the real estate investment potential of such a plan has been discussed by a senior Trump official. Back in March last year, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and former senior adviser who was the architect of Trump’s 2020 peace plan, talked up the idea of resettling Gazans in the Negev desert while noting that “Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable”.
Israel’s far-right settler movement, meanwhile, has long yearned to empty out the strip. In December 2023 the leader of the Nachala Israeli settlement movement, Daniella Weiss, declared that Gaza City had always been “one of the cities of Israel. We’re just going back. There was a historical mistake and now we are fixing it.”
The relocation of Palestinians outside Palestine was actually part of the founding mission of UN agency Unrwa – which, incidentally was banned by Israel last week and has been defunded by the US since allegations surfaced last year that a number of Unrwa employees had taken part in the Hamas attacks on October 2023.
Anne Irfan of University College London, a specialist in refugees and displacement, and Jo Kelcey of the Lebanese American University, whose core research area covers the politics of education in marginalised communities such as Gaza, recount here that Unrwa was set up in 1949 following the Nakba (catastrophe) when more than 700,000 Palestinians were displaced in fighting before and after the foundation of the State of Israel.
Unrwa was set up with the aim of resettling the displaced people and sponsoring projects that would create jobs and promote economic development in their new host countries: the “works” in the agency’s title.
As Irfan and Kelcey note, the staunchest opponents of this plan were Palestinians themselves. They could read between the lines of this mission, that their exile was intended to be permanent. It was a non-starter and within five years of Unrwa’s establishment the resettlement policy was shelved in favour of a focus on education, which remains to this day.
Not that Trump would be keen to associate any plan of his with Unrwa. In 2018 he fully defunded the agency, the first time a US president has done this. He has also more recently extended Joe Biden’s suspension of Unrwa funding after the allegations of Hamas infiltration and has made it clear he supports Netanyahu’s ban on the agency operating in Israel.
Meanwhile, how would the Gaza plan sit in terms of Trump’s “America First” strategy? Mark Shanahan, of the University of Surrey, believes this is all part of what he refers to here as “Trumperialism”. It’s not so much America as the light on the hill, trying to find a way to fix global problems and seek peaceful solutions to dangerous and distressing conflicts. Rather, in this case at least, it sees Gaza as “an opportunity for American business to build wealth – the classic US economic hegemony of the populist America First political theory”.
Rather than emulating the Marshall plan of what feels now like a more enlightened era, Trump’s plan for Gaza, at least as he laid it out after his meeting with Netanyahu, is more akin to the plan for the rebuilding of Iraq after the 2003 invasion, writes Shanahan. That is: US private funding for beachside condos and luxury developments while the countries to whom the displaced Palestinians are relocated would be expected to pay for the privilege.
But Trump also hinted this might mean US boots on the ground in the Middle East, cautions Shanahan, adding that “delivering Mar-a-Lago on the Med may mean thousands of American combat troops deployed to Gaza for years at daily risk of death. How do main-street Americans benefit from that?”
Read more:
How Trump’s Gaza plan does – and doesn’t – fit in with his pledge to put America first
And if you wondered whether – like so many of Trump’s big plans and executive orders issued since his second inauguration – the Gaza Riviera scheme might fall foul of the law, it would. As Tamer Morris –
an expert in international law at the University of Sydney – explains, the US would require the consent of the Palestinian people to take control of Gaza. And this is not going to happen.
Forced relocation is forbidden under the Geneva Conventions as is helping another state forcibly relocate people. It could also be interpreted as ethnic cleansing, as defined by the Commission of Experts report on the former state of Yugoslavia to the UN Security Council in 1994.
Read more:
Trump wants the US to ‘take over’ Gaza and relocate the people. Is this legal?
Meanwhile, the US president has also been making noises about his ideas for bringing peace to Ukraine. The latest, aired this week, involved linking continuing US support with favourable concessions on Ukraine’s supply of rare earths and other strategic resources. Stefan Wolff, of the University of Birmingham, has been watching the diplomatic manoeuvrings around Trump, Putin, Xi and Ukraine since the war began nearly three years ago. In the past fortnight, he’s been looking at the prospect of a peace deal brokered by the US.
Wolff thinks it unlikely that anything will be resolved in the foreseeable future beyond a ceasefire and freezing of the battle lines. And that’s not even much more than a distant possibility given that neither Kyiv nor the Kremlin seem to want this for reasons of their own.
The possibility of Europe bearing the burden of maintaining support to Ukraine without the US bearing the lion’s share of the burden also looks remote. Domestic politics in many EU member states is threatening the bloc’s unity – and, in any case, the ability of Europe to make up the shortfall caused by a possible US withdrawal of aid to Ukraine is distinctly doubtful. And unlikely improve any time soon.
Read more:
Ukraine: prospects for peace are slim unless Europe grips the reality of Trump’s world
It appears, meanwhile, that Putin’s ally Kim Jong-un is poised to send another wave of North Koreans to help. Jennifer Mathers, of Aberystwyth University, takes a detailed look at what we know about how these troops have fared thus far. She concludes that, given the terribly heavy losses the North Korean units are reported to be suffering, it’s possible that their leader may be trading the high casualty rate for much-needed combat experience in case his army might want to fight in a conflict nearer to home.
Read more:
North Korea: Kim Jong-un is sending a second wave of soldiers to Ukraine – here’s why
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– ref. Trump’s Gaza and Ukraine plans come under the spotlight – https://theconversation.com/trumps-gaza-and-ukraine-plans-come-under-the-spotlight-249311
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Helen McGettrick, Reader in Inflammation and Vascular Biology, University of Birmingham
About 5% of people who catch COVID have long-lasting symptoms. In these people, loss of smell, dizziness, fatigue and other hallmark COVID symptoms can persist for months after the initial illness. Yet even five years after the COVID pandemic began, we still don’t know why some people develop long COVID and others don’t.
But a recent study brings us a step closer to understanding who is at greatest risk of developing long COVID. The study found that women have a much higher risk of developing long COVID compared to men.
Published in Jama Network Open, the paper investigated symptoms of long COVID in 12,276 adults. Each participant had had COVID at least six months earlier. Using a questionnaire, participants gave information on their current symptoms, allowing researchers to identify those with long COVID.
While previous research has also uncovered a similarly increase long COVID risk in women, these studies had small sample sizes and didn’t consider certain factors that may have distorted the findings.
The new study took these various factors into account in their analysis, including a participant’s age, race, vaccination status and whether they had any other health conditions. This allowed them to better calculate the risks of developing long COVID for men and women.
Their results indicated that women had 31% higher chance of developing long COVID than men.
When broken down by age, this difference disappeared in people aged 18-39. However, the risk was even greater in women aged 40-54, who had a 48% higher risk of developing the condition compared with men. Women over 55 had a 34% higher risk of developing long COVID.
Interestingly, this finding is contrary to data on COVID infection severity, which shows men are more prone to developing severe symptoms. They also make up around two out of three COVID deaths.
While researchers don’t currently know why women are at greater risk of long COVID, differences in the way men’s and women’s immune systems respond to COVID could be a factor.
The immune system is a fascinating, complicated system with many different types of cell, each of which has a specific role in fighting infection.
For instance, B cells make antibodies that target infections, while non-classical monocytes regulate immune function and clear up dead and damaged cells. Our cytotoxic T cells kill virus-infected cells, while helper T cells help activate other immune cells and signal that there’s an issue.
But the proportion and type of immune cells that circulate in the body can differ by sex and age.
For example, older women have lower proportions of cytotoxic and helper T cells, higher percentages of activated B cells and a higher total number of non-classical monocytes compared to younger men and women.
People with long COVID also have a higher number of non-classic monocytes and more activated B cells compared to those who didn’t have long COVID. Given that older women already have a higher proportion of these cell types even before an infection, it’s possible that this may explain why they were at the greatest risk of developing long COVID.
But these aren’t the only immune function differences in women that may account for their greater risk of long COVID.
Women generally have a more intense immune response to infections than men – including against COVID. This more intense response can mainly be accounted for by differences in hormones and the fact that women have two X chromosomes.
In particular, the hormone oestrogen plays a vital role in controlling the immune system. Oestrogen helps contribute to the enhanced immune response that occurs when a person develops an infection. The severe drop in oestrogen that occurs during the menopause may also explain why women are more susceptible to an infection and longer lasting diseases.
Read more:
How biological differences between men and women alter immune responses – and affect women’s health
In this recent Jama study, peri-menopausal women and women who had reached the menopause were at greatest risk of developing long COVID. This suggests oestrogen may be a contributing factor.
After fighting an infection, immune cells should die off – stopping prolonged, uncontrolled damage to the body. While the more intense immune response women have to an infection may be beneficial in reducing the initial severity of the COVID infection, this persistent, heightened immune response and any damage it causes to the body may increase the possibility of long COVID occurring.
Such prolonged, higher intensity immune responses are known to promote the development of autoimmune diseases – where the body’s immune system attacks itself. Women have a higher prevalence of many autoimmune conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren’s and multiple sclerosis.
Although COVID isn’t an autoimmune disease, autoantibodies (proteins released by B cells that attack the body’s own cells and tissues) have been found in people with long COVID. These antibodies promote long COVID symptoms. Possibly women are at greater risk of long COVID for the same reasons they’re at greater risk of developing an autoimmune condition.
The findings from this recent study add to our understanding of long COVID – pointing to which groups are at greatest risk of developing the condition. More work needs to be done to explore differences in how long COVID differs based on sex and age – and the mechanisms that trigger long COVID to begin with.
Through understanding the who and why of long COVID, it might allow for new treatments to be developed.
Helen McGettrick receives funding from Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, Wellcome Leap, Helmsley Foundation and ROCHE. She is also an elected member of British Society of Immunology Congress Committee.
Jonathan Lewis receives funding from the Wellcome Trust and the British Society of Immunology (CARINA).
– ref. Long COVID: women at greater risk compared to men – could immune system differences be the cause? – https://theconversation.com/long-covid-women-at-greater-risk-compared-to-men-could-immune-system-differences-be-the-cause-248700
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Frances Fowle, Personal Chair of Nineteenth-Century Art, History of Art, University of Edinburgh
In 1877 the American artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) achieved notoriety when he exhibited his recent views of the river Thames at the Grosvenor Gallery in London. He gave his paintings musical titles: Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket (1875) and Nocturne in Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge (circa 1872-5).
The view of Battersea Bridge includes Chelsea Church and the then newly constructed Albert Bridge. The lights of Cremorne Pleasure Gardens twinkle in the distance, while fireworks explode in the pale sky above.
The painting is remarkable for its intense, light blue tonality suggestive of evening, the time of day sometimes known as “the blue hour”. Painting from memory, Whistler thinned his paint with copal (a tree resin), turpentine and linseed oil. This created what he called a “sauce”, which he applied in thin, transparent layers, wiping it away until he was satisfied. He left areas of the dark preparatory layer unpainted to create the illusion of the bridge. Inspired by Japanese woodblock prints, he exaggerated its height.
This article is part of Rethinking the Classics. The stories in this series offer insightful new ways to think about and interpret classic books, films and artworks. This is the canon – with a twist.
All this was lost on the critics, however. The author Oscar Wilde reviewed the exhibition and wrote that the Battersea Bridge Nocturne was “worth looking at for about as long as one looks at a real rocket, that is, for somewhat less than a quarter of a minute”.
A few years earlier Whistler had exhibited another view of the Thames, Nocturne: Blue and Silver – Chelsea (1871), at the Dudley Gallery in London. The critic for The Times summed up Whistler’s intention, observing that the painting was:
So closely akin to music that the colours of the one may and should be used, like the ordered sounds of the other; that painting should not aim at expressing dramatic emotions, depicting incidents of history or recording facts of nature, but should be content with moulding our moods and stirring our imaginations, by subtle combinations of colour.
Whistler’s paintings were first compared to music as early as 1863 when the French critic Paul Manz described his haunting portrait, The White Girl (1872), as a “symphony in white”. Whistler adopted the title retrospectively, creating a series of three aesthetic mood paintings or “symphonies”, featuring young women in flowing white dresses.
Press and public alike were puzzled by the artist’s insistence that his paintings lacked any specific narrative or moral message.
When he witnessed the abstraction of Whistler’s latest Nocturnes at the Grosvenor Gallery, the leading English art critic John Ruskin published a venomous review. “I have seen, and heard much of Cockney impudence before now,” he wrote, “but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask 200 guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face.”
Whistler sued Ruskin for libel and used the ensuing two-day trial to defend his views on art. He referred to his paintings throughout proceedings in musical terms, as “arrangements”, “symphonies” or “nocturnes”. When asked what the Battersea Bridge painting was intended to represent, he replied:
I did not intend it to be a ‘correct’ portrait of the bridge. It is only a moonlight scene … As to what the picture represents, that depends upon who looks at it. To some persons it may represent all that is intended; to others it may represent nothing.
Whistler won the court case, but was awarded only a farthing in damages, resulting in his bankruptcy. Undaunted, the following year (1878) he published The Red Rag, in which he articulated his aesthetic theory:
Art should be independent of all clap-trap – should stand alone, and appeal to the artistic sense of eye or ear, without confounding this with emotions entirely foreign to it, as devotion, pity, love, patriotism, and the like. All these have no kind of concern with it, and that is why I insist on calling my works “arrangements” and “harmonies”.
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In 1885 he delivered his, now famous, 10 o’clock Lecture. In it reiterated his aesthetic theory. “Nature,” he wrote, “contains the elements, in colour and form, of all pictures, as the keyboard contains the notes of all music”. He urged artists not to copy nature slavishly, as Ruskin had recommended, but to approach it more like a musician, waiting for that moment when:
The evening mist clothes the riverside with poetry, as with a veil, and the poor buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become campanili and the warehouses are palaces in the night, and the whole city hangs in the heavens, and fairy-land is before us.
It is then, he argued, that nature “sings her exquisite song to the artist alone”.
As part of the Rethinking the Classics series, we’re asking our experts to recommend a book or artwork that tackles similar themes to the canonical work in question, but isn’t (yet) considered a classic itself. Here is Frances Fowles’ suggestion:
Whistler was not the only artist of this period to view his art as the equivalent of music. His work anticipated symbolism, a literary and artistic movement that rejected naturalistic representation in favour of more abstract concerns, such as the connections between words, colours and musical notes.
The relationship between colour, rhythm and sound was central to the work of French artist Paul Signac (1863-1935), who worked in a pointillist technique (applying dots of colour), and assigned his paintings opus numbers and tempos. The Lithuanian painter and composer Mikalojus Čiurlionis (1875-1911), too, fused music and colour and gave his artworks musical titles.
Frances Fowle does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
– ref. Reading Whistler’s Nocturne in Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge as a piece of music – https://theconversation.com/reading-whistlers-nocturne-in-blue-and-gold-old-battersea-bridge-as-a-piece-of-music-241075
US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator for Idaho Mike Crapo
Washington, D.C.–U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) delivered the following remarks at a hearing to consider the nomination of Jamieson Greer to be United States Trade Representative (USTR), with the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.
As prepared for delivery:
“Mr. Greer, welcome and congratulations on your nomination.
“By traditional timelines, this is one of the earliest dates the Finance Committee has held a nomination hearing for the United States Trade Representative, or USTR.
“Your cooperation and timely responses to questions from both sides of the aisle expedited this Committee’s very demanding process.
“Mr. Greer has been nominated by the President for an incredibly important job: America’s chief trade negotiator. By statute—and frankly, in accordance with our Constitution—our negotiator must report to Congress, which means he reports to the Finance Committee.
“This week, attention fell on President Trump’s executive orders to help secure our borders from illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling. I strongly support securing our borders and fighting fentanyl trafficking.
“The executive orders rely on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, and concern drug policy and border security. The President, not USTR, invokes IEEPA, and the Department of Homeland Security, not USTR, is responsible for securing our borders. Nonetheless, I am securing briefings on these orders and, in fact, Customs and Border Protection will brief Committee staff on this matter today.
“What the President has done that is different, though, is bringing tariffs into the discussions about border security. USTR is, as I said, America’s chief trade negotiator.
“Any time the U.S. government is considering tariffs or something that implicates trade policy, he should be part of those conversations, and report to us about those conversations and solicit our input.
“Right now, Mr. Greer is not in government and not privy to various discussions.
“Confirming him will allow him to be part of the conversation and work with this Committee, ensuring Congress fulfills its constitutional responsibilities over international trade.
“When we look at whether Jamieson Greer will be a good negotiator for America’s trade interests and a partner to this committee, his experience and skillset indicate the answer is yes.
“He understands USTR’s policymaking since he served as its Chief of Staff. At USTR, he distinguished himself as an effective negotiator in his work on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, which overwhelmingly passed Congress. As many of my Democrat colleagues know firsthand, he worked closely with them on their priorities for USMCA.
“As an accomplished international trade attorney, he is an expert on our trade agreements and trade laws, including the requirements to report to Congress promptly and thoroughly.
“We need an effective USTR now more than ever. The last USTR did not negotiate any agreements and we lost ground to foreign competitors. The Biden Administration walked away even from its own limited initiatives, such as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. Rather than forge new rules to combat China’s trade practices, the prior administration turned its back on existing rules and positions, such as our intellectual property rights under the WTO TRIPS Agreement, and support for open data flows and non-discrimination against our technology companies.
“The Biden Administration also dawdled on enforcement of our existing trade agreements, including by failing to act against protectionist measures on our U.S. agriculture and energy producers.
“Finally, there was one other major USTR failure during the last Administration: failing to report and to consult with this Committee. Both sides of the aisle expressed serious concern about the last USTR’s repeated failures to consult with the Committee—and her position that she did not need to improve consultation with the Committee or the agency’s transparency with the public.
“We should not hold Mr. Greer responsible for those failings. Mr. Greer has been crystal clear that he will consult with this Committee and respect Congress’s constitutional prerogatives over trade. I expect that some members may disagree from time to time with the Administration, but, if so, Mr. Greer has committed to make its case before us, rather than ignore us. If confirmed, I will hold him to that commitment.
“Mr. Greer, thank you for your willingness to serve, and I look forward to hearing more from you about your perspectives on international trade policy and how you plan to work with this Committee to achieve our shared priorities.
“With that, I recognize Ranking Member Wyden for his opening remarks.”
Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
NEWARK, N.J. — After an investigation led by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Newark with state and local partners, 25 people and four companies were charged for their alleged roles in a multimillion-dollar scheme that used stolen credit card information to fraudulently purchase tens of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel and then resell it to trucking companies and other fuel providers.
“The success of this operation is a true testament to our valued partnership with the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office,” HSI Newark acting Special Agent in Charge Spiros Karabinas said. “Together we targeted members of a criminal organization suspected of using stolen credit card information to purchase diesel fuel along the East Coast and ensured many fraudsters faced justice.”
As alleged, the enterprise operated in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, using credit card “skimmers” that stole financial information from credit and debit cards to create “cloned” cards that were used to make fraudulent fuel purchases. Various vehicles — some having been modified with auxiliary tanks to illegally transport fraudulently purchased diesel fuel — were loaded up with the stolen fuel and delivered it to customers, earning the enterprise illicit profits of $3.4 million during the time period of the investigation.
“These defendants allegedly developed a sophisticated system for stealing credit card information from unsuspecting victims and then used that information to make new, fraudulent cards, which they used to buy diesel fuel,” said New Jersey Attorney General Platkin. “That fuel was then allegedly sold to trucking companies and other fuel providers. Working with our local law enforcement partners, we will always be on the lookout for financial frauds and protect the public from these schemes.”
HSI Newark and the Office of the Attorney General partnered with the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice (DCJ), the Camden County Prosecutor’s office and the Gloucester Township Police Department in the investigation into the criminal organization resulting in the charges.
According to the investigation, in October 2023, DCJ detectives received information from the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office and Gloucester Township Police Department about an alleged diesel fuel theft enterprise operating throughout New Jersey. Participants allegedly placed skimming devices on various gas pumps when the gas stations were closed. A skimming device is a card reader that is surreptitiously placed in a location where individuals will insert their credit or debit cards and records the user’s information.
The investigation revealed that the enterprise possessed “master” keys that unlocked gas pumps, permitting them to install the skimmers inside. Some of the skimmers recovered included stolen information from victims who had used the affected gas pumps. Those devices and other electronic devices recovered during the investigation showed that the enterprise allegedly stole credit card information from thousands of victims from New Jersey and surrounding states.
The stolen financial information was allegedly used to create “cloned” cards that were used to purchase diesel fuel from other gas stations. Approximately 500 cloned cards were recovered from enterprise members during arrests by law enforcement. After purchasing the fuel, they would then deliver the fuel to trucking companies in exchange for payment. No member of the enterprise is registered with the state to sell diesel fuel.
Additional partners in the investigation include New Jersey’s Elizabeth, Bordentown, Mahwah, Roxbury Township, Mantua, Franklin Township, Cranford Township and Kearny police departments, the Union County Prosecutor’s Office – Cyber Crimes Taskforce. Out of state partners include the Bristol and Lancaster City police departments in Pennsylvania, the Colchester Police Department in New York, the East Lyme Police Department in Connecticut plus the New York, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire State Police. Miami-Dade Police Department, Broward County Sheriff’s Office, and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office in Florida and the Texas Department of Public Safety assisted with the arrests.
Charges are merely accusations, and all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
Follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @HSINewark to learn more about HSI’s global missions and operations.
Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A New York man who pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud in April 2024 faces new charges after an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Buffalo.
Timothy Siverd, 37, of Webster, was arrested and charged by criminal complaint with wire fraud, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft, which carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,00 fine, the U.S. District Court for the District of Western New York announced Jan. 16, 2025.
“Our investigation shows Siverd, who is currently awaiting sentencing for involvement in another financial fraud scheme, allegedly continued to indulge his greed through additional involvement in fraudulent activities,” said HSI Buffalo Special Agent in Charge Erin Keegan. “Together with our partner, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, we take the complaint against Siverd seriously and aim to bring justice to victims of financial fraud schemes.”
According to the investigation, in August 2024, an individual reported to law enforcement that Siverd, who owns ROC Scrubby, was using the cleaning company to over-bill customers in excess of tens of thousands of dollars. The individual, an employee of ROC Scrubby, stated that as her employment carried on, she gradually started to hear more and more complaints from customers that they were being over-billed or double-billed for services, or billed for work that was never performed. She also stated that Siverd was able to over-bill customers using the BookingKoala app, which granted Siverd access to each customer’s credit or debit card information. In addition, the individual stated that Siverd would claim to fix the issue and refund money, but customers stated that he would either not refund the money, give a partial refund, or give a full refund only to again over-bill the customers on a later date. The employee knew of at least five customers who were overbilled so often that they changed their credit or debit card numbers to stop it. The employee also reported other suspicious activity of Siverd’s to law enforcement.
In April 2024, Siverd pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud for his involvement in another financial fraud scheme and is awaiting sentencing on that charge.
The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Mexican national was sentenced to more than two years in prison and ordered to pay more than $3.5 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States following a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Jacksonville investigation.
Jose Molina-Herrera, 27, of Honduras, was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison. The court also ordered Molina-Herrera to forfeit $867,005, which are proceeds of the wire fraud offense. In addition, Molina-Herrera was ordered to pay a total of $3,558,579.42 in restitution to the IRS. Molina-Herrera entered a guilty plea on Nov. 1, 2024.
“Wire fraud and the facilitation of ‘off the books’ payments not only undermine the integrity of our legal and economic systems but also supports unlawful employment activities,” said HSI Jacksonville Assistant Special Agent in Charge Tim Hemker. “Homeland Security Investigations, alongside our partners at the Internal revenue Service – Criminal Investigations and the Florida Department of Financial Services – Bureau of Insurance Fraud, is committed to holding those who facilitate these complex fraud schemes accountable for their actions.”
According to court documents, between 2019 and 2020, Molina-Herrera conspired with others to facilitate the payment of construction workers “off the books” to avoid paying premiums for workers’ compensation insurance and payroll taxes. Construction contractors and subcontractors entered arrangements with the conspirators, through which All National Remodeling LLC — a shell company formed by Molina-Herrera — facilitated both the distribution of proof of insurance and the payment of workers with cash. In exchange for 6 percent to 8 percent of the contractors’ and subcontractors’ payroll, Molina-Herrera and others caused the distribution of certificates of liability insurance in the name of All National Remodeling, which contractors and subcontractors then used as nominal proof that workers were supposedly insured. In reality, All National Remodeling’s insurance policy was issued based on a fraudulent application that never disclosed that contractors and subcontractors would be employing workers who were ostensibly insured under the shell company’s barebones insurance policy. As a result of contractors and subcontractors using All National Remodeling’s proof of insurance, but never paying any insurance premiums, the insurance company was defrauded more than $2.2 million.
Molina-Herrera and others also facilitated the deposit of checks into the shell company’s bank accounts, as well as the withdrawal of cash to be paid to workers — all without withholding, or paying over, payroll taxes to the IRS. Through these arrangements with the conspirators, the construction contractors and subcontractors could disclaim responsibility for withholding and paying payroll taxes to the IRS or ensuring that the workers were legally authorized to work in the United States. By facilitating payments to workers of over $14 million without payroll taxes being withheld, Molina-Herrera and his co-conspirators caused the U.S. Treasury to lose more than $3.5 million in tax receipts.
One of Molina-Herrera’s co-conspirators, Oscar Molina-Avila, was previously sentenced to 52 months’ imprisonment for his role in the scheme.
“Using shell companies to pay workers under the table is not only illegal, it gives an unfair competitive advantage that businesses who do things the right way can’t match,” said Ron Loecker, Special Agent in Charge of IRS-Criminal Investigation’s Tampa Field Office. “We will continue to investigate these schemes to ensure compliance with the law and return competitive balance to the industry.”
This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, HSI Jacksonville, and the Florida Department of Financial Services – Bureau of Insurance Fraud. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael J. Coolican.
HSI Tampa’s area of responsibility, which includes 10 geographically strategic offices, covers more than 51,600 square miles of the total 65,757 square miles in the state of Florida. This region has more than 14.2 million people and includes 58 of the 67 counties. HSI Tampa also includes five of the 10 largest cities in Florida, 15 primary commercial service airports, and 11 seaports.
Learn more about HSI Tampa’s mission to increase public safety in Florida communities on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @HSITampa.
Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
CONCORD, N.H. — Three Chinese nationals pleaded guilty Jan. 14 for their roles in a large-scale fraud conspiracy based in China after their activity was uncovered during a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) probe.
Naxin Wu, 26, Mengying Jiang, 34, and Mingdong Chen, 28, pleaded guilty in federal court in Concord to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Judge Landya B. McCafferty scheduled Wu’s sentencing for April 8, 2025 and Jiang’s sentencing for April 22, 2025. Judge Joseph N. Laplante scheduled Chen’s sentencing for April 11, 2025.
According to HSI’s investigation, organized criminal elements in China acquire gift cards through multiple fraudulent means. For example, gift cards are obtained by hacking U.S. companies, and targeting U.S. citizens through romance and elder fraud schemes. The criminal elements then send the gift card data to multiple cells of Chinese nationals operating in the United States through a Chinese-based messaging platform.
Once U.S.-based cells receive the gift card data, they then spend the gift cards to purchase high-value electronics, principally Apple products. After purchasing the Apple products, cell members consolidate the electronics in warehouses for shipment to China, Hong Kong, or countries in Southeast Asia. The cells primarily operate in states with no sales tax, such as New Hampshire, to maximize their profits.
Wu, Jiang, and Chen are members of one cell in New Hampshire. Wu and Jiang purchased fraudulent gift cards at a discount from their face value. They then either personally used the cards or disseminated them to others, including Chen, to use. Wu was responsible for $1.4 million, Jiang for $3 million, and Chen for $400,000 of fraudulent gift cards.
The charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.
HSI New England’s Manchester Resident Agent in Charge office, Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Concord Police Department led the investigation. The Merrimack County Attorney’s Office has provided valuable assistance.
Gift card fraud has become a growing concern for consumers and businesses alike. Under Project Red Hook, HSI is teaming up with our law enforcement partners and businesses to raise awareness of how Chinese organized crime groups are exploiting gift cards to launder money.
Follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @HSINewEngland to learn more about HSI’s global missions and operations.
Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
NEWARK, N.J. — Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Newark led an investigation with law enforcement partners spanning from India to New York and New Jersey, resulting in the discovery of a jeweler running a multimillion-dollar international trade fraud scheme and unlicensed money transmitting.
Monishkumar Kirankumar Doshi Shah, a/k/a “Monish Doshi Shah” (Shah), 40, of Mumbai, India and Jersey City, New Jersey, who operated jewelry companies in New York City’s Diamond District was sentenced to 30 months for spearheading a scheme to illegally evade customs duties for more than $13.5 million of jewelry imports into the United States and for illegally processing more than $10.3 million through an unlicensed money transmitting business. He previously pleaded guilty at the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey to a two-count Information charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and operating and aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business.
“Monishkumar Kirankumar Doshi Shah disregarded our nation’s trade laws and defrauded the U.S. government of millions of dollars in customs duties through his brazen international financial fraud scheme,” said HSI Newark acting Special Agent in Charge Sprios Karabinas. “Through HSI’s investigation, we were able to uncover the mislabeled tracks of jewelry shipments and illegal transactions Shah hoped to conceal. We are thankful for the collaboration with partners across the globe who helped us bring this case to successful prosecution.”
According to the investigation, from approximately December 2019 to approximately April 2022, Shah engaged in a scheme to evade duties for shipments of jewelry from Turkey and India to the United States. Shah would ship and/or instruct his co-conspirators to ship goods from Turkey or India — which would have been subject to an approximately 5.5% duty if shipped directly to the United States — to one of Shah’s companies in South Korea. Shah’s co-conspirators in South Korea would change the labels on the jewelry to state that they were from South Korea instead of Turkey or India, and then ship them to Shah or his customers in the United States, thereby unlawfully evading the duty. Shah would also make and instruct his customers to make fake invoices and packing lists to make it look like Shah’s South Korean companies were actually ordering jewelry from Turkey or India. Shah also instructed a third-party shipping company to provide false information to U.S. Customs and Border Protection concerning the origin of the jewelry. During the scheme, Shah shipped approximately $13.5 million of jewelry from South Korea to the United States without paying the appropriate duty.
In addition, from approximately July 2020 through approximately November 2021, Shah owned and/or operated numerous jewelry companies in New York City’s Diamond District, including MKore LLC, MKore USA Inc, and Vruman Corp. Shah used these entities to conduct more than $10.3 million in illegal financial transactions for customers — including converting cash to checks or wire transfers. Shah would also collect cash from customers and use other individuals’ jewelry companies to convert the cash into wires or checks. At times, Shah and other members of the money transmitting business moved hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single day. In exchange for their services, certain members of the money transmitting business charged a fee. None of Shah’s or his associates’ companies were registered as money transmitting businesses with New York, New Jersey, or the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Salas ordered restitution in the amount of $742,500 for the wire fraud scheme and forfeiture in the amount of $11,126,982.33 for the wire fraud and unlicensed money transmitting schemes. In addition, the Court imposed a two-year term of supervised release.
HSI Newark partnered with HSI New York, the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation in Newark, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the investigation leading to the sentence. International partners included the HSI attaché office in Seoul, and the Korea Customs Service, the Seoul Customs Special Investigation Office in South Korea. The DEA, the Parsippany -Troy Hills Police Department, the Morristown Police Department, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – Office of Inspector General and the Justice Department’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section assisted in the investigation.
Follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @HSINewark to learn more about HSI’s global missions and operations.
Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
MIAMI — Two Ukrainian nationals who were extradited from the Kingdom of Thailand to the United States in September 2024 were sentenced Jan. 27 on charges related to labor-staffing companies they operated in Florida.
Oleg Oliynyk and Oleksandr Yurchyk were each sentenced to 15 years in prison for conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to commit money laundering after a joint investigation between Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Miami-Key West and IRS Criminal Investigation.
According to court documents, Oliynyk, Yurchyk and others owned and operated a series of labor-staffing companies in South Florida — including Paradise Choice LLC, Paradise Choice Cleaning LLC, Tropical City Services LLC and Tropical City Group LLC — from at least April 2008 and August 2021. Through these staffing companies, Oliynyk, Yurchyk and co-defendants Oleksandr Morgunov, Mykhaylo Chugay and Volodymyr Ogorodnychuk facilitated the employment of non-resident aliens in the hospitality industry who were not authorized to work in the United States and helped evade the assessment and collection of more than $25 million of federal income and employment taxes.
In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Court Judge Jose E. Martinez ordered Oliynyk and Yurchyk to each serve three years of supervised release, pay $10,863,233.05 in restitution to the United States and to forfeit $11 million.
Oliynyk and Yurchyk are the latest defendants sentenced as part of Operation RoomKey, a joint criminal investigation initiative led by the Tax Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, Homeland Security Investigations and IRS Criminal Investigation.
Acting U.S. Attorney Michael S. Davis for the Southern District of Florida and acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Karen E. Kelly of the Justice Department’s Tax Division made the announcement.
Senior Litigation Counsel Chris Clark of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, Senior Litigation Counsel Sean Beaty, and Trial Attorneys Jessica A. Kraft, Matthew C. Hicks, and Wilson Rae Stamm of the Tax Division are prosecuting the case.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida or on Pacer under case number 21-cr-10009.
Members of the public with information about criminal activity in your community are encouraged to contact the HSI Tip Line at 877-4-HSI-TIP.
Learn more about HSI’s mission to increase public safety in your community on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @HSI_Miami.
Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
LOS ANGELES — HSI Los Angeles has arrested eight individuals for their part in an internal conspiracy among logistic companies’ executives, warehouse owners and truck drivers to smuggle hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of counterfeit and other illegal goods from China into the United States via the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
The 15-count indictment, returned last month and unsealed on Jan. 24, charges nine defendants with conspiracy, smuggling and breaking customs seals. The defendants allegedly took containers flagged for off-site secondary inspection, unloaded the contraband, then stuffed the targeted containers with filler cargo to deceive customs officials and evade law enforcement.
According to the indictment, a search of one warehouse used by the group led to the seizure in June 2024 of $20 million worth of counterfeit items including shoes, perfume, luxury handbags, apparel and watches.
Seven defendants were arrested on Jan. 24, an eighth was taken into custody on Jan. 25, and one defendant is a fugitive. A trial date was scheduled for March 18. The eighth defendant, who was arrested on unrelated state charges, is expected to be arraigned in federal court in the coming days.
“Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Los Angeles and its partners are committed to enforcing customs laws and practices, facilitating legitimate trade, and protecting the integrity of the nation’s supply chain,” said HSI Los Angeles Special Agent in Charge Eddy Wang. “The $1.3 billion dollars’ worth of contraband seized during the investigation into this type of scheme illuminates how complex smuggling schemes try to exploit our legitimate trade practices and the American consumer.”
The 15-count indictment details a conspiracy to coordinate the shipment of large quantities of contraband from China to the United States through the Port of Los Angeles from at least August 2023 to June 2024. The individuals arrested are:
According to the indictment, Wang, Liu and others maintained and operated warehouses to store, conceal and sell large amounts of contraband goods that were illegally imported into the United States from China. When the contraband containers were selected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for inspection, the defendants hired commercial truck drivers to transport the containers from the Port of Los Angeles to locations that the conspirators controlled, including warehouses in the City of Industry that were controlled or managed by Zheng, Wang and others.
At these locations, co-conspirators broke the security seals on the shipping containers and removed the contraband from inside. Then, they affixed counterfeit security seals onto the containers to conceal that cargo had been removed from them. After emptying some of the cargo and re-securing the containers with counterfeit seals, Wang and others then directed co-conspirators to transport the containers to CBP-authorized locations for the remaining cargo to be presented to customs officials for inspection.
Wang, Liu and others paid fees to co-conspirators, including Gomez and Castillo Perez, that were substantially above normal trucking fees to transport the contraband shipping containers.
To date, law enforcement has seized more than $1.3 billion worth of counterfeit goods associated with this and similar seal-swapping schemes.
If convicted of all charges, the defendants would face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for each conspiracy count, up to 10 years in federal prison for each count of breaking customs seals, and up to 20 years in prison for each smuggling count.
Anyone with information on alleged customs fraud are encouraged to call the HSI Tip Line at 877-4-HSI-TIP.
Learn more about HSI’s mission to protect the U.S. economy in your community on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @HSILosAngeles.
Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey man was convicted by a jury in connection with his role in a drug trafficking organization following an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Newark.
On Jan. 29, William Panzera, 51, of North Haledon, New Jersey was convicted of drug trafficking conspiracy and international promotional money laundering conspiracy at the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. The drug trafficking organization is responsible for the importation and distribution of hundreds of kilograms of fentanyl analogues Eight other defendants have previously pleaded guilty in related cases.
HSI Newark is investigating the case with support from HSI Philadelphia, the FBI Newark Field Office, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Newark Field Office, IRS Criminal Investigation, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Newark Police Department, and the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office provided valuable assistance.
According to the investigation, from approximately January 2014 through September 2020, Panzera and other members of the drug trafficking organization, agreed to import and distribute controlled substances and controlled substance analogues, including fentanyl analogues, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), methylone, and ketamine. Co-conspirators ordered controlled substances and analogues from a source in China and paid those sources hundreds of thousands of dollars via wire transfer and cryptocurrency. The conspirators distributed the substances in bulk and in the form of counterfeit pharmaceutical pills that actually contained fentanyl analogues throughout New Jersey.
The jury convicted Panzera of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 100 grams or more of furanyl fentanyl and 4 fluoro isobutyryl fentanyl and international promotional money laundering conspiracy. Panzera faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years in prison, a maximum penalty of life in prison, and a fine of up to $10 million for the drug trafficking conspiracy charge, and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000 for the money laundering conspiracy charge. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 25. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @HSINewark to learn more about HSI’s global missions and operations.
Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
BOSTON — A Swampscott man was sentenced Jan. 22 in federal court in Boston after Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) uncovered a 25-year scheme to conceal his persecution of ethnic Serbs during the Bosnian War as well as making false claims to come to the United States and ultimately become a United States citizen.
Kemal Mrndzic, 52, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper to 65 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. In October 2024, Mrndzic was convicted by a federal jury of engaging in a scheme to conceal his involvement in the persecution of Serb prisoners at the notorious Celebici prison camp in Bosnia in 1992; making a false statement to federal agents about his role at the camp; possessing a fraudulently obtained naturalization certificate and Social Security card; and using a fraudulently obtained passport and certificate of naturalization.
“Through the brave testimony of the survivors of the Celebici prison camp, the persecution Mrndzic attempted to conceal was finally brought to light after over 30 years. Though we can never undo what the survivors endured, I hope this sentence brings some measure of justice, no matter how long delayed,” said HSI New England Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Krol. “HSI remains tireless in our effort to pursue war criminals and human rights violators who attempt to evade justice.”
“For over two decades, Mr. Mrndzic evaded accountability for his participation in the persecution and torture of countless victims at the camp. By holding him accountable for his lies and fraudulent conduct, this sentence reinforces our resolve to ensure that those responsible for war crimes and human rights abuses are identified, exposed, and prosecuted. This case underscores that we will not allow our nation to be a refuge for those who seek to escape justice,” said United States Attorney Leah B. Foley. “The government will be working to ensure that his fraudulently obtained U.S. citizenship is revoked.”
Mrndzic served as a supervisor of the guards at the notorious Celebici prison camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the sectarian war which fractured the country in the 1990s. Twenty-one former detainees described Mrndzic as one of the most notable guards at the camp, who was widely known for his particularly vicious treatment of prisoners and his close association with the camp deputy commander. Mrndzic participated in the systematic and pervasive brutal torture and deprivation of basic human needs of hundreds of captive victims — some of whom were elderly — at the Celebici prison camp. For seven months, victims were forcibly detained with starvation rations, at times forced into lightless, airless manholes that were sealed for hours at a time. Victims also endured daily and nightly beatings that were administered by the guards at the camp — with baseball bats, wooden poles and rifle butts.
Camp survivors who testified at trial in October 2024 recounted murders, the burning of one detainee’s tongue with a heated knife blade, the wrapping of another detainee with a long explosive fuse cord and then lighting it on fire, sexual abuse and other harrowing acts committed over a period of many months. One survivor recounted the beating death of a 70-year-old detainee whom guards pinned a political party badge to his forehead while he was still dying. Survivors also testified about being starved and deprived of the most basic needs, including sleeping on the concrete floor of a sheet metal hangar for months on end while being fed only a slice of bread a day.
A United Nations tribunal investigated the crimes committed at Celebici and in 1998 convicted the two top commanders of the camp and one particularly sadistic guard on numerous crimes including murder and torture. While Mrndzic was interviewed by investigators in connection with that case in 1996, he was not charged by international authorities. Mrndzic subsequently concocted a scheme to leave Bosnia by crossing the border into Croatia and applying to immigrate to the United States using a fabricated story. In his immigration application and interview, he falsely claimed to U.S. immigration authorities that he fled his home after he was captured, interrogated and abused by Serb forces, and could not return home for fear of future persecution. As the government argued at trial, Mrndzic used his own experience as a persecutor to press a false narrative that he had been persecuted. He was admitted to the U.S. in 1999, and ultimately became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2009.
Many Celebici survivors became refugees during and after the Bosnian War. Some came to the United States and have since become U.S. citizens. The survivors living in the United States played a central role in the investigation and prosecution of this case. They provided critical trial testimony and submitted moving victim impact statements.
The investigation was led by HSI New England’s Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force and HSI’s Human Rights Violators & War Crimes Center (HRVWCC) with assistance from the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General’s Boston Field Office; the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, Boston Field Office; and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Boston Field Office. Additional support was provided by the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, DOJ’s Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and the U.S. Embassies in Sarajevo, Belgrade and Helsinki. The United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) in The Hague, Netherlands, the Australian Federal Police, Bosnian and Herzegovinian Ministry of Justice, Serbian Ministry of Justice, law enforcement authorities in Finland and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police all provided valuable assistance as did the Cook County Sheriff’s Office in Illinois and the Swampscott Police Department in Massachusetts.
The HRVWCC is led by HSI and leverages the expertise of criminal investigators, attorneys, historians, intelligence analysts and federal partners to provide a whole of government approach to prevent the United States from becoming a safe haven for individuals who commit war crimes, genocide, torture and other human rights abuses around the globe. Currently, HSI has more than 180 active investigations into suspected human rights violators and is pursuing more than 1,945 leads and removals cases involving suspected human rights violators from 95 different countries. Since 2003, the HRVWCC has issued more than 79,000 lookouts for potential perpetrators of human rights abuses, and stopped over 390 human rights violators and war crimes suspects from entering the U.S.
Source: US State of Pennsylvania
February 07, 2025 – Harrisburg, PA
What:
Pennsylvania Auditor General Timothy L. DeFoor will release the findings from an audit of the Community Conservation Partnership Program (C2P2), administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR).
When:
Friday, February 7, 2025; 11:00 a.m.
Who:
Timothy L. DeFoor, Pennsylvania Auditor General
Where:
Capitol Media Center, Commonwealth Ave, Harrisburg, PA
Watch:
pacast.com/live/audgen and facebook.com/PaAuditorGeneral
Media contacts:
Gabrielle Ernst, Auditor General 717-787-1381 or news@paauditor.gov
Source: US State of Colorado
DENVER – Today, Governor Polis celebrated a year-one study demonstrating that students in Colorado who consistently used Zearn, an online digital math accelerator tool, saw a positive increase in math achievement scores. The study included over 6,000 students in Colorado ranging grades fourth through eighth. Zearn has been made available through a grant through the Governors Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund to provide statewide access to Zearn licenses for all elementary and middle schools in the state to increase math proficiency for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years.
“In Colorado, We are taking an all-hands-on-deck approach to boosting student math achievement to make sure Colorado kids have the support and practice they need to excel in math. This past year, students across Colorado have benefited from access to high-quality digital platforms that have boosted math proficiency and helped Colorado students to learn and grow,” said Governor Polis.
The study looked at a sample of 6,000 Colorado fourth through eighth grade students in key urban and rural districts comparing students who used Zearn consistently with matched peers who did not use Zearn. The study found that consistent use of Zearn across all student groups led to higher CMAS math achievement scores, with the most significant impacts seen among students with the lowest levels of math proficiency. The study additionally highlighted that students utilizing Zearn three or more times a week saw the greatest impact on their CMAS scores.
“As a nonprofit built by teachers, we know how committed Colorado educators are to helping kids catch up and move forward in math. We have been privileged to be able to support them in this effort,” said Zearn CEO and Co-Founder Shalinee Sharma.
In 2023, Governor Polis announced a landmark investment into Zearn to provide math support and learning for students from kindergarten through eighth grade. Provided at no cost to schools and school districts statewide that opt-in to participate, this innovative and data-driven digital math platform includes free high-quality instructional materials, ongoing training for educators, and after-school tutoring resources for K-8 students. 920 schools across Colorado chose to opt-in to use Zearn Math for math acceleration, alongside teacher instruction.
As Chair of The National Governors Association, Governor Polis launched “Let’s Get Ready: Educating All Americans For Success” focused on real solutions to ensure that students gain the skills needed to succeed in the classroom and beyond.
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Source: US State of Connecticut
(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont today announced that the package of legislative proposals he is presenting to the Connecticut General Assembly for consideration this session includes comprehensive reforms to improve healthcare affordability and mitigate out-of-pocket costs for patients, particularly those related to prescription drugs.
“Families across America are simply paying too much for essential prescription drugs, and these rising costs make accessing health coverage a barrier for far too many people,” Governor Lamont said. “I am urging the state legislature to make lowering prescription drug costs a priority this session. The proposals I’ve presented to them contain wide-ranging steps to lower prescription drug costs and put limits on future price increases.”
Recently, through an initiative launched between the Lamont administration and Comptroller Sean Scanlon, Connecticut joined the ArrayRx prescription drug discount card program, which enables all residents in Connecticut to receive a discount card at no cost that gives them discounts at the pharmacy on certain medications. Working in collaboration with Comptroller Scanlon, Governor Lamont is proposing to expand the use of this card in Connecticut, enabling consumers to receive credit for “cash” prescription drug purchases toward their annual deductible if they paid a lower price than they would have under their insurance coverage.
“Skyrocketing drug prices are forcing too many people into impossible choices, like skipping doses or cutting pills in half,” Comptroller Scanlon said. “That’s just wrong, and it must end. If drug makers and pharmacy benefit managers won’t lower prices for the people of our state, we will. I am proud to be working with Governor Lamont on innovative solutions that will rein in costs and improve healthcare affordability in Connecticut.”
“It’s nearly impossible for someone to follow their healthcare provider’s treatment plan if they can’t afford the out-of-pocket cost for the prescriptions they need,” Dr. Deidre Gifford, commissioner of the Connecticut Office of Health Strategy and Governor Lamont’s senior advisor for health and human services, said. “This proposal focuses on making prescription drugs more affordable for Connecticut residents. It’s good healthcare and it’s good public policy.
Governor Lamont’s proposal, House Bill 6870 (An Act Addressing Patients’ Prescription Drug Costs), contains the following actions:
**Download: Fact sheet on Governor Lamont’s proposed legislation (House Bill 6870)
Source: US State of New York
Governor Kathy Hochul joined Superintendent Steven G. James in honoring 176 new State Troopers as they graduated today from the 216th session of the Basic School of the New York State Police Academy. The ceremony was held at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany. Today’s graduation increases the State Police ranks to 5,034 sworn members.
“I commend these 176 new troopers for dedicating themselves to public service, and their commitment to protecting the people of New York State,” Governor Hochul said. “The members of the New York State Police put their lives on the line each day to keep the rest of us safe — in a world where their mission has grown more challenging and complex. On behalf of all New Yorkers, I want to thank the graduates for their hard work and perseverance — and welcome them to the long gray line.”
New York State Police Superintendent Steven G. James said, “Today’s graduation is the culmination of six months of difficult classwork, physical training, and sacrifice, and we now welcome our newest members to one of the most prestigious and well-respected law enforcement agencies in the nation. I am confident they are equipped to carry out our mission to serve our communities with the same professionalism and pride the State Police have exhibited for the past 107 years.”
In addition to honoring all graduates from the 216th Session of Basic School,
Superintendent James presented the following awards:
Academic Achievement Award
As a special incentive for all students attending the State Police Academy Basic School, the Superintendent sponsors the awarding of a firearm for the attainment of the highest level of academic performance during Academy training.
The recipient of the Academic Performance Award is Clayton D. Buff, age 24, who resides in Cohoes, New York. He attended the University at Albany where he studied Criminal Justice. Prior to joining the New York State Police, he served 4 years of active duty with the United States Army. Throughout the Academy training program, he achieved an outstanding overall academic average of 96.58 percent. He will be assigned to Troop G.
Firearms Proficiency Award
The New York State Trooper Foundation has sponsored the awarding of a firearm for the attainment of the highest level of performance in all phases of firearms training.
The recipient of the Superintendent’s Firearms Proficiency Award is Hunter T. Argetsinger, age 24, who resides in Elmira, New York. He is a graduate of Corning Community College where he received an associate’s degree in criminal justice. Prior to joining the New York State Police, he was a police officer with the city of Elmira Police Department. During firearms training, he achieved an average score of 250 out of a possible 250. He will be assigned to Troop E.
Investigator Joseph T. Aversa Physical Fitness Award
The New York State Police Investigators Association has sponsored the awarding of a firearm for the attainment of the highest degree of physical fitness during the Physical Training Program at the Academy. This award will be presented in memory of deceased Investigator Joseph Aversa. Investigator Aversa made the ultimate sacrifice in New York City on March 5, 1990, during a narcotics investigation while serving as a member of the Joint Drug Enforcement Task Force. Investigator Aversa was a six-year State Police veteran who believed that physical conditioning was an integral part of being a Trooper.
The recipient of the Joseph T. Aversa Physical Training Award is Oliver P. Valenti, age 21, who resides in Clarence, New York. Prior to joining the New York State Police, he attended Hilbert College where he studied Forensic Science while employed with Wegmans Marketplace as a front-end coordinator. During the physical agility testing, he achieved the highest score of all 176 Members of the 216th Session, a tribute to his superb physical conditioning. He will be assigned to Troop A.
I commend these 176 new troopers for dedicating themselves to public service, and their commitment to protecting the people of New York State.”
Governor Hochul
Student Representative
The New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Association has sponsored the awarding of a firearm to the member of the class who is selected by his or her peers to represent them during these exercises. The PBA presents the award in memory of Trooper John J. McKenna IV, who was killed in action in 2006, while serving his country as a Marine in Iraq.
The recipient of the Class Representative Award is Antonio M. Vecchio, age 21, who resides in Levittown, New York. Prior to joining the New York State Police, he attended Binghamton University where he studied Economics. He will be assigned to Troop C.
The new Troopers will report for field duty on February 7 or February 10, depending on their platoon. For the following 10 weeks, the new Troopers will be evaluated under a field-training program supervised by senior Field Training Officers.
Below is a complete list of graduates listed alphabetically (Troop assignments are pending):
| Last Name | First Name | Hometown |
|---|---|---|
| Aguilar | Magali | Wallkill, NY |
| Akande-Bowen | Jared | Queens, NY |
| Balbuena | Kelly | Newburgh, NY |
| Akhmedov | Kairat | Brooklyn, NY |
| Argetsinger | Hunter | Elmira, NY |
| Arndt | Mitchell | Mohawk, NY |
| Ashby | Tristan | Syracuse, NY |
| Baines | Evan | Merrick, NY |
| Bartholomew | Zoe | Lake Pleasant, NY |
| Bassiouni | Omar | Staten Island, NY |
| Bektic | Nedim | Utica, NY |
| Beltran | Antonio | Amsterdam, NY |
| Boudreau | Luc | Warwick, NY |
| Boul | Rang | Syracuse, NY |
| Brennan | Lauren | Selkirk, NY |
| Briggs | Cynthia | Hawthorne, NY |
| Brownell | James | Geneva, NY |
| Buck | Aaron | Houghton, NY |
| Buff | Clayton | Cohoes, NY |
| Bull | Lance | Queensbury, NY |
| Bullo | Silvano | Fairport, NY |
| Burns | Mason | Rome, NY |
| Cahill | Edward | Massapequa, NY |
| Canale | Connor | Amsterdam, NY |
| Carnero Tello | Glenn | Bogota, NY |
| Carr | Jason | Cortland, NY |
| Carrillo | Evan | Bronx, NY |
| Carron | Sean | Delhi, NY |
| Cervantes | Manuel | Port Chester, NY |
| Clarke | Hannah | South Glens Falls, NY |
| Clarke | Jakob | Plattsburgh, NY |
| Combs | Jenna | Warrensburg, NY |
| Cosbert | Stefan | Freeport, NY |
| Cox | Tyler | Schenectady, NY |
| Cregin | Ethan | Staten Island, NY |
| Curtin | James | Hicksville, NY |
| Daley | Keri | West Henrietta, NY |
| Dalrymple | Scott | Brewster, NY |
| Dalrymple | Shane | Brewster, NY |
| Deebs | Andrew | Hornell, NY |
| Delaney | Austin | Neversink, NY |
| Delfini | Louis | Staten Island, NY |
| Derick | Gavin | Lindley, NY |
| Diana | Joseph | Holland Patent, NY |
| Disalvo | Natalie | Johns Island, NY |
| Diaz | Israel | East Fishkill, NY |
| Dieng | Ngagne | Bronx, NY |
| Difusco | Frank | Poughquag, NY |
| Diorio | David | Deer Park, NY |
| Eldred | Rebecca | Clifton Park, NY |
| Ellsworth | Logan | Matamoras, NY |
| Fallon | Hayley | Long Beach, NY |
| Fallon | Thomas | Kings Park, NY |
| Faso | Emma | Clarence Center, NY |
| Favreau | Parker | Plattsburgh, NY |
| Feirabend | Michael | West Seneca, NY |
| Fernaays | Ryan | Williamson, NY |
| Finn | Richard | Pleasant Valley, NY |
| Fitzsimmons | Cody | Dryden, NY |
| Flocco | Sophia | Bronx, NY |
| Fontus | Angelo | Brooklyn, NY |
| Galanti | Jillian | Webster, NY |
| Garcia Castrejon | Luis | Pine Plains, NY |
| Gates | Seth | Elbridge, NY |
| Gehrke | Matthew | Centerport, NY |
| Gould | Erin | Astoria, NY |
| Grant | Ariel | Carle Place, NY |
| Hahn | Richard | Kings Park, NY |
| Harrington | Carson | Jacksonville, NY |
| Haynes | Dylan | Baldwin, NY |
| Healey | Trevor | Perry, NY |
| Heegan | Christina | Oneonta, NY |
| Heras | Nelson | Jamaica, NY |
| Hidalgo | Christopher | Queens Village, NY |
| Holloway | William | West Hempstead, NY |
| Ibrahim | Maryam | Williston Park, NY |
| Ibrahim | Mohamed | Levittown, NY |
| Ilahi | Haider | Brooklyn, NY |
| Jansen | Connor | Horseheads, NY |
| Jolly | Kaitlyn | Waterloo, NY |
| Kalletta | George | Manorville, NY |
| Komenda | Kiersten | Springville, NY |
| Karam | Michael | Gansevoort, NY |
| Khork | Brennan | Hornell, NY |
| Knoop | Dennis | Queensbury, NY |
| Koprivica | Marko | Blasdell, NY |
| Kraft | Joel | Waterloo, NY |
| Lamouree | Grant | Queensbury, NY |
| Lask | Michael | Buffalo, NY |
| Lawson | Lance | Valley Stream, NY |
| Lazo | Franklin | Pleasantville, NY |
| Letourneau | Casey | Constable, NY |
| Lillis | Abigail | Angola, NY |
| Locurto | Madeline | New Windsor, NY |
| Manley | Charles | Buffalo, NY |
| Marroquinn | Kevin | Lindenhurst, NY |
| Mcdermott | Dylan | West Babylon, NY |
| Meegan | Liam | West Seneca, NY |
| Messina | Sebastian | Levittown, NY |
| Milazzo | Matteo | Briarcliff, NY |
| Miller | Eric | Medina, NY |
| Murphy | Rebecca | Monroe, NY |
| Monnin | Daniel | Buffalo, NY |
| Moore | Hunter | Castorland, NY |
| Morales | Nicholas | Staten Island, NY |
| Moses | Avery | Fayetteville, NY |
| Motler | Katherine | Glenmont, NY |
| Morales | Nickolas | Binghamton, NY |
| Mustafa Kamal | Mohamad Ayyas | Utica, NY |
| Naum | Caleb | Brewerton, NY |
| Nell | Abigail | Verona, NY |
| Newburg V | Louis | Coeymans, NY |
| Obrien | Cade | Gansevoort, NY |
| Oconnor | James | New Paltz, NY |
| Page | Joshua | Verona, NY |
| Parga | Erick | Island Park, NY |
| Parkhurst | Kevin | Ilion, NY |
| Patti | Victoria | Buffalo, NY |
| Pekoff | Jeremy | Bellmore, NY |
| Pelaez | Matthew | Old Bethpage, NY |
| Peters | Henry | Callicoon, NY |
| Petfield | Jacob | Hawthorne, NY |
| Petry | Henry | Chemung, NY |
| Phillips | Anaya | Medford, NY |
| Pindulic | Amber | Centereach, NY |
| Quintero | Josue | Brooklyn, NY |
| Quirk | Timothy | Centereach, NY |
| Ramirez | Evelin | Carmel, NY |
| Roush | Hailey | Mayville, NY |
| Rath | Nathaniel | Newport, NY |
| Robinson | Shane | Binghamton, NY |
| Romero Lainez | Bryan | West Babylon, NY |
| Rowe | Jake | Pleasant Valley, NY |
| Rutkowski | Jack | Pine Bush, NY |
| Ryan | Allison | Syracuse, NY |
| Salvadori | David | Massapequa Park, NY |
| Sarpong | Joel | Columbus, NY |
| Sasso | Mario | Nanuet, NY |
| Savino | Nicholas | Bellmore, NY |
| Scoma | Anthony | Lancaster, NY |
| Scordo | Alex | Middletown, NY |
| Simon | Nicole | Howard Beach, NY |
| Smoulcey | Ryan | Rome, NY |
| Stephany | Krista | Buffalo, NY |
| Streety | Maxwell | Orchard Park, NY |
| Streety | Mitchell | Thornwood, NY |
| Sustache | Samuel | Syracuse, NY |
| Svitak | Brendan | Marcy, NY |
| Sweet | Jeffrey | Petersburg, NY |
| Szlamcynski | Adam | Star Lake, NY |
| Taylor | Grace | South Kortright, NY |
| Tejeda | Francheska | Buffalo, NY |
| Thaureaux | Alejandro | Webster, NY |
| Thompson | Adam | St Albans, NY |
| Tommasone | Daniel | Schenectady, NY |
| Trzaska | Noah | West Seneca, NY |
| Twoguns | Kristine | Perrysburg, NY |
| Valenti | Oliver | Akron, NY |
| Valladares | Steven | Woodside, NY |
| Vargo | Quinton | West Falls, NY |
| Vasile | Hudson | Mount Morris, NY |
| Vata | Halit | New York City |
| Vecchio | Antonio | Levittown, NY |
| Velez | Diana | Campbell Hall, NY |
| Vogel | Tanner | Ilion, NY |
| Volk III | Robert | Mechanicville, NY |
| Wallace | Connor | Manorville, NY |
| Weist | Brockton | Port Crane, NY |
| White | Alexander | Schenectady, NY |
| Willenbrock | Derek | Amityville, NY |
| Winslow | Hunter | Canastota, NY |
| Workman | Daniel | Groton, NY |
| Young | Tanner | Camden, NY |
| Yudchits | Julia | Herkimer, NY |
| Zahin | Md Muhaiminul | New York City, NY |
| Zambardino | Nicholas | Monroe, NY |
