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  • MIL-OSI: Fortinet Expands Its Cloud-Native Security Offerings with the Introduction of Lacework FortiCNAPP

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —

    News Summary
    Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), the global cybersecurity leader driving the convergence of networking and security, today announced the general availability of Lacework FortiCNAPP, a single unified, AI-driven platform to secure everything from code to cloud all from a single vendor.

    “Lacework FortiCNAPP is based on Lacework’s proven cloud-native application protection platform with tight integration with the Fortinet Security Fabric,” said John Maddison, Chief Marketing Officer at Fortinet. “We’re pleased to expand our cloud-native security offerings and provide the industry’s most comprehensive, full-stack cloud security platform that empowers teams to seamlessly eliminate risk across their multi-cloud environments.”

    The introduction of Lacework FortiCNAPP offers additional benefits that extend beyond Lacework’s leading offering, such as automated remediation and blocking of active runtime threats, as well as enhanced visibility into FortiGuard Outbreak Alerts, which provide key information about new and emerging threats and the risk they pose within an organization’s environment.

    Challenges Disrupting Cloud Adoption
    As customers continue to adopt cloud infrastructure and services, they are quickly realizing that traditional security tools simply lack the native capabilities required to address the scale, velocity, and dynamic nature of the cloud. Security teams are fundamentally challenged by the lack of time to address cloud security at scale due to limited cloud security knowledge, a proliferation of cloud security products that do little to help customers resolve issues, and an overwhelming number of security and compliance alerts.

    Fortinet Helps Accelerate Customers’ Cloud Journeys
    With Lacework FortiCNAPP, Fortinet simplifies and strengthens cloud security with a unified platform from a single vendor that brings together multiple tools to significantly cut down the time to detect, prioritize, investigate, and respond to cloud-native threats. Lacework FortiCNAPP introduces a unique AI approach that never stops learning, maximizing cloud security with minimal time and effort for development, operations, and security teams by automatically connecting risk insights with runtime threat data, and ensuring that the most critical issues are prioritized and addressed.

    Fortinet enables customers to address all their cloud security needs by delivering key features such as:

    • A unified platform: Fragmented tools create complex, expensive, and limited protection. As a platform, Lacework FortiCNAPP provides full visibility from code to cloud and correlates build and runtime risk and threat data to prioritize what matters most.
    • AI-based anomaly detection: Given that cloud threats evolve as quickly as the cloud itself, creating rules for every potential attack scenario is nearly impossible. Lacework FortiCNAPP’s AI-based anomaly detection allows security analysts to detect previously undefined attack patterns that traditional rules-based systems cannot accomplish.
    • Integrated code security: Code security integrated with cloud security empowers teams to address issues at the earliest and most cost-effective stage in the application life cycle. By offering code security as an integral capability within the platform, customers can save time and money by fixing security issues, and reduce the risk of vulnerable applications and infrastructure while maintaining developer productivity and innovation velocity.
    • Composite alerts: Lacework FortiCNAPP is unique in detecting early signs of active attacks by automatically correlating various signals into a single, high-confidence composite alert. The platform uses behavioral analytics, anomaly detection, in-house threat intelligence, and insights from cloud service provider activity logs and threat services to identify active attacks, including compromised credentials, ransomware, and cryptojacking.
    • Integrations with the Fortinet Security Fabric: Integrations with Fortinet solutions such as FortiSOAR enable customers to streamline their response to active runtime threats, such as compromised hosts and compromised access keys, through automated remediation playbooks. Additionally, its integration with FortiGuard Outbreak Alerts helps teams understand how Lacework FortiCNAPP delivers enhanced visibility and deeper insights into the latest threats and where the solution can disrupt potential attacks.
    • Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM): Lacework FortiCNAPP provides CIEM for complete visibility into cloud identities and their permissions. It automatically discovers identities, assesses net-effective permissions, and highlights excessive ones by comparing granted versus used permissions. Each identity is assigned a risk score based on more than 30 factors, helping prioritize high-risk identities. Lacework FortiCNAPP also offers automated remediation guidance for right-sizing permissions, ensuring least-privileged access.

    Third-Party Validation

    Lacework FortiCNAPP is based on the industry-recognized technology from Lacework, which is consistently recognized as a leader and Representative Vendor in CNAPP and Cloud Workload Security by leading analyst firms, including Frost and Sullivan, Gartner®, GigaOm, and KuppingerCole.

    Supporting Quotes

    “Lacework FortiCNAPP helped us deal with the massive amount of information that we were getting out of all the different systems, from the native security tools and logging and alerting tools that came from cloud providers to third-party tools that we had purchased to help solve these problems.”
    – John Turner, Senior Security Architect, LendingTree

    “Lacework FortiCNAPP automatically discovers and catalogs users, services, security groups, and secrets that are active within LawnStarter’s AWS environment and compares them against industry frameworks and compliance requirements. LawnStarter can quickly pull customized reports created by Lacework FortiCNAPP to see which resources are compliant. As a result, LawnStarter has seen a 75% decrease in compliance violations over the past year, saving the company significant time and money. LawnStarter now has a robust compliance practice that is essential to earning and maintaining trust with customers, providers, investors, and advisors.”
    – Alberto Silveira, Head of Engineering, LawnStarter

    Additional Resources

    *Gartner, Gartner Market Guide for Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms, Dale Koeppen, Charlie Winckless, Neil MacDonald, Esraa ElTahawy, 22 July 2024

    GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally. All rights reserved.

    Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

    About Fortinet
    Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) is a driving force in the evolution of cybersecurity and the convergence of networking and security. Our mission is to secure people, devices, and data everywhere, and today we deliver cybersecurity everywhere you need it with the largest integrated portfolio of over 50 enterprise-grade products. Well over half a million customers trust Fortinet’s solutions, which are among the most deployed, most patented, and most validated in the industry. The Fortinet Training Institute, one of the largest and broadest training programs in the industry, is dedicated to making cybersecurity training and new career opportunities available to everyone. Collaboration with esteemed organizations from both the public and private sectors, including CERTs, government entities, and academia, is a fundamental aspect of Fortinet’s commitment to enhance cyber resilience globally. FortiGuard Labs, Fortinet’s elite threat intelligence and research organization, develops and utilizes leading-edge machine learning and AI technologies to provide customers with timely and consistently top-rated protection and actionable threat intelligence. Learn more at https://www.fortinet.com, the Fortinet Blog, and FortiGuard Labs. 

    Copyright © 2024 Fortinet, Inc. All rights reserved. The symbols ® and ™ denote respectively federally registered trademarks and common law trademarks of Fortinet, Inc., its subsidiaries and affiliates. Fortinet’s trademarks include, but are not limited to, the following: Fortinet, the Fortinet logo, FortiGate, FortiOS, FortiGuard, FortiCare, FortiAnalyzer, FortiManager, FortiASIC, FortiClient, FortiCloud, FortiMail, FortiSandbox, FortiADC, FortiAI, FortiAIOps, FortiAntenna, FortiAP, FortiAPCam, FortiAuthenticator, FortiCache, FortiCall, FortiCam, FortiCamera, FortiCarrier, FortiCASB, FortiCentral, FortiConnect, FortiController, FortiConverter, FortiCSPM, FortiCWP, FortDAST, FortiDB, FortiDDoS, FortiDeceptor, FortiDeploy, FortiDevSec, FortiEDR, FortiExplorer, FortiExtender, FortiFirewall, FortiFlex FortiFone, FortiGSLB, FortiGuest, FortiHypervisor, FortiInsight, FortiIsolator, FortiLAN, FortiLink, FortiMonitor, FortiNAC, FortiNDR, FortiPenTest, FortiPhish, FortiPoint, FortiPolicy, FortiPortal, FortiPresence, FortiProxy, FortiRecon, FortiRecorder, FortiSASE, FortiSDNConnector, FortiSEC, FortiSIEM, FortiSMS, FortiSOAR, FortiStack, FortiSwitch, FortiTester, FortiToken, FortiTrust, FortiVoice, FortiWAN, FortiWeb, FortiWiFi, FortiWLC, FortiWLM and FortiXDR. Other trademarks belong to their respective owners. Fortinet has not independently verified statements or certifications herein attributed to third parties and Fortinet does not independently endorse such statements. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein, nothing herein constitutes a warranty, guarantee, contract, binding specification or other binding commitment by Fortinet or any indication of intent related to a binding commitment, and performance and other specification information herein may be unique to certain environments.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: 2X Unveils New ABX Accelerator Services at the 6sense Breakthrough 2024 Conference, Featuring Award-Nominated Client JAGGAER

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    LAS VEGAS, Oct. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — 2X, the global leader in B2B marketing as a service (MaaS), today announced the launch of its highly anticipated ABX Accelerator Services at the 6sense Breakthrough 2024 Conference. As a premier Teal Service Partner of 6sense, 2X continues to drive scalable growth and operational efficiency for enterprises, helping them unlock the full potential of the 6sense platform.

    Introducing the ABX Accelerator Services

    2X’s new ABX Accelerator Services provide B2B marketing leaders with a complete, customized solution to rapidly scale ABX initiatives, streamline operations, and achieve faster ROI. From 6sense technology integration and program management to predictive analytics and customized reporting, these services empower businesses to optimize their investments and fuel pipeline growth without overextending their internal teams. Additionally, 2X offers advanced consulting to continuously refine ABX strategies, ensuring companies meet and exceed their growth targets.

    At the heart of the launch is the ABX Maturity Assessment Tool, a complimentary resource for CMOs and marketing leaders, which will debut at the 6sense Breakthrough 2024 Conference. This tool enables businesses to benchmark their ABX performance against industry standards, providing actionable recommendations to enhance their strategies. Coupled with 2X’s Health Check Diagnostic Session, clients receive deep, tailored insights into the gaps in their ABX efforts, ensuring they maximize their 6sense platform investments.

    “Our new ABX Accelerator Services directly address the challenges of scaling ABX programs by providing expert support and tailored solutions. We’re excited to showcase how businesses can optimize their 6sense investments and accelerate growth through our ‘all-in’ approach,” said Domenic Colasante, CEO of 2X.

    “6sense is focused on partnerships that will add long-term value to our customers, and 2X has played a huge role in ensuring that clients are able to unlock the full potential of 6sense thanks in part to their ability to scale ABX strategies,” said Jo Wright, Global Director of Partnerships at 6sense.

    Event Highlights and New Offerings

    • ABX Accelerator Services Launch: A powerful solution designed to fast-track 6sense implementations, helping businesses achieve measurable results while streamlining operations.
    • ABX Maturity Assessment Tool: Attendees will gain exclusive access to this tool, offering tailored insights to improve ABX strategies and drive growth.
    • Client Panel Discussion: Certinia CMO Drew Chapin, 2X CEO Domenic Colasante, and 2X CMO Lisa Cole will lead a thought-provoking session on how CMOs can do more with less in 2025, focusing on key trends in ABX and marketing budgets.

    Client Success Story: JAGGAER Recognized as Award Finalist

    Further underscoring the impact of 2X’s solutions, JAGGAER, a key 2X client, has been named a finalist for the prestigious 6sense Breakthrough “Efficiency Experts” award. With 2X’s expert guidance, JAGGAER achieved remarkable efficiency gains by leveraging automation and AI to optimize their ABX efforts.

    “Working with 2X has transformed our approach to ABX, allowing us to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness without expanding internal resources,” said Annika Helmrich, VP of Growth Marketing at JAGGAER. “Their expertise with 6sense has been invaluable to our success.”

    For more information on 2X’s ABX Accelerator Services and how your organization can go “all in” on 6sense, visit 2x.marketing/6sense.

    About 2X
    2X is the global leader in B2B marketing as a service (MaaS), helping marketing leaders achieve greater impact while lowering costs through its unique managed services delivery model. 2X provides best-in-class MOps and MarTech management, campaign build and optimization, content and creative production, and strategy consulting services. 2X is a services partner of 6sense, Salesforce, Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot, Bombora, Drift, WordPress, Google, Meta, and many other leading revenue platforms. 

    With more than 1,000 team members globally, 2X is backed by private-equity firm Recognize Partners. 2X has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in the US by Inc. and the Financial Times. For more information, visit 2X.marketing or our LinkedIn.

    Media Contact
    Audree Hernandez
    Jmac PR for 2X
    2X@jmacpr.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Does London have ‘social value’?

    Source: Mayor of London

    What does ‘social value’ mean, and how can it be used in planning decisions to give Londoners the spaces that they need?

    The Planning and Regeneration Committee will tomorrow question experts, community and industry representatives, and local authorities about what social value is, how it’s measured, and how it can make a difference to Londoners.

    Assembly Members will examine how Londoners who run small businesses through council-owned markets and railway arches view ‘social value’ policies, and how they would like to see the social, cultural and environmental value of community assets recognised in approaches to planning and regeneration.

    The guests are:

    Panel 1, 2.00pm – 3.15pm 

    • Maria Adebowale-Schwarte, Commissioner for the London Sustainable Development Commission
    • Tony Burton, Founder of Civic Voice and Chair of Community Review Panels in Old Oak & Park Royal and Dacorum
    • Dr Myfanwy Taylor, Lecturer in Urban Economics and Planning, University College London
    • Guy Battle, Chief Executive Officer at Social Value Portal
    • Stephanie Edwards, Co-Founding Director of Urban Symbiotics

    Panel 2, 3.30pm – 4.45pm

    • Krissie Nicolson, CEO London Trades Guild
    • Nicholas Kasic, Manager of Portobello Road Market and convener of the London Street Trading Benchmarking Group 
    • Sarah Goldzweig, Research and Project Officer at Latin Elephant
    • Stephen Biggs, Corporate Director, Community Wealth Building, London Borough of Islington 
    • Bryce Tudball, Head of Spatial Planning, London Borough of Haringey

    The meeting will take place on Wednesday 9 October from 2pm, in the Chamber at City Hall, Kamal Chunchie Way, E16 1ZE.

    Media and members of the public are invited to attend.

    The meeting can also be viewed LIVE or later via webcast or YouTube.

    Follow us @LondonAssembly.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Slotkin Surpasses $20 Million Returned to Constituents Since Taking Office

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin (MI-08)

    LANSING, Mich. – U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (MI-07) announced today that her team has now returned over $20 million to constituents since taking office in 2019, thanks to the hard work of her constituent services staff.

    The office’s running total is now $20,377,671 returned to residents through constituent case work and represents more than 8,300 constituent cases, the majority of which came from the Internal Revenue Service ($15,814,193), Small Business Administration ($2,034,045), Social Security Administration ($1,169,474) and Department of Veteran Affairs ($405,436).

    Overall, Slotkin’s constituent services team has opened more than 8,300 cases since January of 2019, each one representing a district resident who requested assistance with a federal agency. 

    “My team is committed to helping Michiganders get the most out of their government,” said Slotkin. “They are experts at navigating federal agencies, and this milestone of returning more than $20 million to mid-Michigan constituents is a testament to their knowledge and dedication to serving our communities. If you’re struggling to get a refund or information from a federal agency, you can contact us on our website or over the phone. Our staff in Lansing knows how to navigate bureaucracy better than anyone and is ready to work for you.”

    CONSTITUENT STORIES

    “After multiple attempts to get information regarding the employee retention tax credit we had not received, I reached out to Elissa’s office. They immediately understood the issue and wanted to help. They got to the right people and provided regular and predictable updates resulting in clarification of the problem and ultimately the payment of the tax credits,” Scott from East Lansing said.

    “We contacted Elissa Slotkin… regarding the inability to get a response from the VA for needed funds to stay in an assisted living facility,” Joseph from New Hudson wrote. “Within one week… we had an answer. We thank the Office of Elissa Slotkin for their sincere assistance with this issue. It is so refreshing and uplifting to see our representative act with such integrity in helping her constituents.”

    “I was having difficulty working with [Office of Personnel Management (OPM)]. My retirement annuity had not been calculated correctly and although I spoke with customer service repeatedly, I was not making any progress,” Carole from Milfordsaid. “My former Union Representative suggested I reach out to my congressperson. To my amazement, Elissa Slotkin’s office responded almost immediately and reached out on my behalf. I believe this was essential in encouraging OPM to look more closely at my petition and to handle it in good time. I believe my annuity is now correct and I received a lump sum that was due for the time it was incorrect. Representative Slotkin’s office kept me informed every step of the way. Thanks for the great work!”

    The best way to start the process is by completing a privacy release form through Slotkin’s website.

    A completed form is needed before the constituent services team is able to obtain information about an individual’s case because of the Privacy Act of 1974.

    Slotkin’s office can also assist with requesting D.C. tours and tickets, receiving a milestone birthday or anniversary greeting, or requesting that a flag be flown over the U.S. Capitol. Visit https://slotkin.house.gov/ or call (517) 993-0510 for more information.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Complete in 2024 – VTB accelerates merger with Pochta Bank

    MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

    Source: Mainfin Bank –

    Why is VTB accelerating integration with Post Bank?

    Post Bank is jointly owned VTB and Russian Post, but after the deal, VTB will become the institution’s sole shareholder. The acceleration of integration into Post Bank is explained by several reasons:

    the merger of the two banks will be easier to implement if there is a single decision-making center; Russian Post is experiencing a financial deficit; last year the company suffered a loss of over 7 billion rubles; high key rate – the seller of Post Bank will be able to place the received capital with maximum benefit.

    The financial difficulties of Russian Post have been going on for a long time, for example, in 2022 the company suffered a loss of 27 billion rubles. In 2023, the organization developed a plan to overcome the crisis, among the possible measures is obtaining additional capital.

    What is known about the merger deal between Pochta Bank and VTB?

    VTB management plans to complete the buyout of shares in Pochta Bank in the coming months – the deal is currently undergoing preparation and approval by regulatory authorities (permission from the FAS and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation has not yet been received). The following is known about the merger:

    VTB is to buy out 49.99% of shares from Russian Post and two shares from the bank’s top manager; the deal is valued at an average of RUB 35 billion; the integration of the two banks will be carried out throughout 2025; the complete closure of the Post Bank brand will take place in 2026.

    “A decision on the integration processes has not yet been made; a separate sub-brand may appear on the basis of Pochta Bank – this issue will be discussed only after the completion of the deal,” VTB states.

    Pochta Bank enters the top 30 banks countries in terms of asset size and capital volume, the key area of work is serving individuals and providing consumer creditsThe key feature of the company is an extensive network of offices, represented both independently and in the branches of Russian Post.

    12:00 08.10.2024

    Source:

    Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    http://mainfin.ru/news/completion-in-2024-VTB-accelerates-merger-with-post-bank

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI: Davenport & Company LLC Implements Oyster Solutions, Innovative Trade Supervision Software

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Davenport & Company LLC, a leading financial firm offering a range of wealth management and financial advisory services for individuals, corporations, institutions, and municipalities, has implemented Oyster Solutions’ trade surveillance and monitoring tool, developed by Oyster Consulting.

    Oyster Solutions Governance Risk and Compliance software provides firms like Davenport with scalable technology to conduct trade supervision, surveillance, testing and oversight while accommodating expanding operations and increased regulatory demand.

    “At Davenport, we understand that compliance is not just a box to check—it’s a cornerstone of our business philosophy,” said Brian O’Neal, Head of Central Supervision at Davenport. “Our collaboration with Oyster Solutions reflects our dedication to upholding transparency, trust, and regulatory excellence in everything we do. The capabilities that Oyster has provided to us is only matched by their attention to detail and willingness to support us.”

    The Oyster Solutions Monitor Module:

    • Ingests Pershing’s standard data files and other data files
    • Delivers highly tuned trade, account and client-based alerts
    • Reduces residual risks
    • Operationalizes and aligns surveillance, supervision and compliance

    “When you implement Oyster Solutions software, you’ll no longer be flooded with false positive alerts or burdened with legacy systems that don’t meet your trade supervision and surveillance needs,” said Buddy Doyle, CEO of Oyster Consulting. “Oyster Solutions now integrates Pershing data files. We work with you to understand the alert parameters and while driving results during a rapid implementation. Oyster Solutions provides you with alternatives to less responsive providers.”

    Other features of Oyster Solutions’ GRC software include:

    • Easy visibility, tracking and scheduling of your entire compliance calendar, policies and procedures
    • Risk identification, assessment and prioritization
    • Centralized, compliant documentation and reporting
    • Mutual fund suitability/pricing calculator
    • FINRA CAT, CAIS, MSRB, TRACE and AEP reporting

    WATCH A DEMO

    “We are delighted to partner with Davenport in their mission to implement their compliance standards, providing them with valued added service while they embrace innovation,” said Doyle. “We are committed to empowering financial institutions with robust technology solutions that streamline regulatory compliance processes and foster a culture of integrity.”

    [Contact Information]

    Buddy Doyle, CEO, Oyster Consulting
    buddy.doyle@oysterllc.com
    http://www.oysterllc.com
    (804) 965-5400

    About Oyster Solutions:

    Oyster Solutions is a modern, comprehensive governance, risk and compliance platform for the financial services industry. Oyster Solutions integrates data, automates tasks across your organization and gives your users a simple streamlined experience. Our software empowers broker-dealers and investment advisors to navigate complex regulatory landscapes with confidence and efficiency.

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ffe767c6-cfcb-4f53-8c76-6cda87e57939

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Enact to Host Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Call November 7th

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    RALEIGH, N.C., Oct. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Enact Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: ACT) (Enact) announced it will issue its third quarter earnings release after the market closes on November 6, 2024. Enact will host a conference call to review third quarter 2024 financial results on November 7, 2024 at 8:00 a.m. (ET).

    Enact’s earnings release, summary presentation and financial supplement will be available through the company’s website, https://ir.enactmi.com/, at the time of their release to the public.

    Participants interested in joining the call’s live question and answer session are required to pre-register by clicking here to obtain a dial-in number and unique PIN. It is recommended to join at least 15 minutes in advance, although you may register ahead of the call and dial in at any time during the call. If you wish to join the call but do not plan to ask questions, a live webcast of the event will be available on our website, https://ir.enactmi.com/news-and-events/events.

    The webcast also will be archived on the company’s website for one year.

    About Enact Holdings, Inc.
    Enact (Nasdaq: ACT), operating principally through its wholly-owned subsidiary Enact Mortgage Insurance Corporation since 1981, is a leading U.S. private mortgage insurance provider committed to helping more people achieve the dream of homeownership. Building on a deep understanding of lenders’ businesses and a legacy of financial strength, we partner with lenders to bring best-in class service, leading underwriting expertise, and extensive risk and capital management to the mortgage process, helping to put more people in homes and keep them there. By empowering customers and their borrowers, Enact seeks to positively impact the lives of those in the communities in which it serves in a sustainable way. Enact is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: OMNIQ to Present at the Small Cap Virtual Investor Conference October 10th

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — OMNIQ CORP. (OMQS), a leader in AI-machine vision and automation technology, today announced that Shai Lustgarten, CEO will present live at the Small Cap Virtual Investor Conference, hosted by VirtualInvestorConferences.com, on October 10th 2024.

    DATE: October 10th
    TIME: 11:00 AM ET
    LINK: https://bit.ly/47jLzOI

    Available for 1×1 meetings upon request

    This will be a live, interactive online event where investors are invited to ask the company questions in real-time. If attendees are not able to join the event live on the day of the conference, an archived webcast will also be made available after the event.

    It is recommended that online investors pre-register and run the online system check to expedite participation and receive event updates.  

    Learn more about the event at http://www.virtualinvestorconferences.com.

    Recent Company Highlights

    • OMNIQ Recently announced a collaboration with NEC to enhance public safety.
    • Following recent purchase orders for $2.5M and $1M.
    • This is following a strategic alliance with Ingenico to enhance fintech capabilities.

    About OMNIQ

    OMNIQ Corp. (OTCQB: OMQS) provides computerized and machine vision image processing solutions that use patented and proprietary AI technology to deliver real-time object identification, tracking, surveillance, and monitoring for the Supply Chain Management, Public Safety, and Traffic Management applications. The technology and services provided by the Company help clients move people, objects, and big data safely and securely through airports, warehouses, schools, and national borders and in many other applications and environments.

    OMNIQ’s customers include government agencies and leading Fortune 500 companies from several sectors, including manufacturing, retail, distribution, food and beverage, transportation and logistics, healthcare, and oil, gas, and chemicals. Since 2014, annual revenues have more than doubled, reaching $81 million in 2023, from clients in more than forty countries.

    The Company currently addresses several billion-dollar markets with double-digit growth, including the Global Smart City & Public Safety markets.  

    For more information visit http://www.omniq.com

    About Virtual Investor Conferences®
    Virtual Investor Conferences (VIC) is the leading proprietary investor conference series that provides an interactive forum for publicly traded companies to seamlessly present directly to investors.

    Providing a real-time investor engagement solution, VIC is specifically designed to offer companies more efficient investor access. Replicating the components of an on-site investor conference, VIC offers companies enhanced capabilities to connect with investors, schedule targeted one-on-one meetings and enhance their presentations with dynamic video content. Accelerating the next level of investor engagement, Virtual Investor Conferences delivers leading investor communications to a global network of retail and institutional investors.

    Forward-Looking Statements:
    “Safe Harbor” Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements in this press release relating to plans, strategies, economic performance and trends, projections of results of specific activities or investments, and other statements that are not descriptions of historical facts may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. This release contains “forward-looking statements” that include information relating to future events and future financial and operating performance. The words “anticipate,” “may,” “would,” “will,” “expect,” “estimate,” “can,” “believe,” “potential” and similar expressions and variations thereof are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which that performance or those results will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time they are made and/or management’s good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include, among others, statements made in this press release regarding the closing of the private placement and the use of proceeds received in the private placement. Important factors that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to: fluctuations in demand for the Company’s products particularly during the current health crisis, the introduction of new products, the Company’s ability to maintain customer and strategic business relationships, the impact of competitive products and pricing, growth in targeted markets, the adequacy of the Company’s liquidity and financial strength to support its growth, the Company’s ability to manage credit and debt structures from vendors, debt holders and secured lenders, the Company’s ability to successfully integrate its acquisitions, and other information that may be detailed from time-to-time in OMNIQ Corp.’s filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Examples of such forward-looking statements in this release include, among others, statements regarding revenue growth, driving sales, operational and financial initiatives, cost reduction and profitability, and simplification of operations. For a more detailed description of the risk factors and uncertainties affecting OMNIQ Corp., please refer to the Company’s recent Securities and Exchange Commission filings, which are available at SEC.gov. OMNIQ Corp. undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, unless otherwise required by law.

    CONTACTS:
    OMNIQ
    ir@omniq.com
    http://www.omniq.com

    Virtual Investor Conferences
    John M. Viglotti
    SVP Corporate Services, Investor Access
    OTC Markets Group
    (212) 220-2221
    johnv@otcmarkets.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Rocket Software Study Finds Less than One-Third of Businesses are Using all Available Data to Inform AI Models

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    WALTHAM, Mass., Oct. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Rocket Software, a global technology leader in modernization software, today announced the findings from its survey, Rethinking the Role of Mainframe Data in Enterprise AI and Analytics. Conducted by Foundry Media for Rocket Software, the survey polled over 200 business leaders and decision-makers in data analytics, management, engineering, and architecture across the U.S., U.K., Germany, and France, to understand how organizations are leveraging mainframe data as part of their AI and analytics initiatives. The survey found that only 28% of survey respondents are using mainframe data extensively in data-driven initiatives. Not factoring mainframe data – which includes both real-time and historical information on customer interactions, account data, financial transactions, and inventory – into AI models is a missed opportunity. By integrating this rich data, models become more accurate, insightful, and reflective of the full scope of an organization’s operations, unlocking powerful insights and driving more informed decision-making.

    AI and advanced analytics are playing an increasing role in how businesses differentiate themselves, unlocking opportunities for new efficiencies, growth drivers, and customer experiences. The success and usefulness of an AI model lies in the data that it is trained on. In the race to adopt AI, a majority of organizations have failed to fully leverage mainframe data to enhance their models. AI that accurately represents all of a business’s data empowers leaders with greater visibility into operations and provides deeper insights, facilitating informed decision-making in real-time. In fact, 46% of respondents said mainframe data was a potential means for improving data quality, accuracy, and completeness of existing datasets.

    Challenges, both real and perceived, have led many to struggle when it comes to integrating mainframe data into their AI and analytics capabilities:

    • 76% of leaders said they found accessing mainframe data and contextual metadata to be either very or somewhat challenging
    • 64% said they considered integrating mainframe data with cloud data sources to be somewhat to very challenging
    • The biggest obstacles to leveraging mainframe data were found to be:
      • Complexity of data retrieval and extraction processes (59%)
      • Concerns regarding security, compliance, and data privacy (56%)
      • Proprietary data formats (41%)

    “If organizations fail to incorporate their mainframe data into AI and analytics, they risk developing models that are less intelligent, powerful, or accurate,” said Michael Curry, President, Data Modernization Business Unit, at Rocket Software. “Rocket Software has the technology and expertise to help enterprises easily bridge their mainframe data into their AI and analytics initiatives, automating away the complexity, and reducing the need for specialized skills and knowledge to protect, retrieve, and extract mainframe data.”

    Mainframe modernization is a worthwhile pursuit. Forty two percent of respondents said they prefer to adopt a prebuilt solution to integrate their mainframe data with cloud data, and 51% cited building new analytical capabilities or business initiatives that were not previously possible was the most attractive use case for mainframe data. That’s where experienced partners, who offer resources across the modernization continuum, can support businesses by mitigating challenges to unlock data’s full potential. Survey respondents noted scalability for large datasets (82%), interoperability with existing data management tools and platforms (82%), and robust security and encryption (81%) as the top benefits for integrating mainframe and cloud data.

    To download the full study, click here. For further insights, register for Rocket Software’s webinar on November 12, here.

    Methodology
    Foundry surveyed 213 business leaders and decision-makers, including those employed in data analytics, data management, data engineering, or data architecture roles between May 10, 2024, and May 27, 2024, to understand how organizations are leveraging or planning to leverage mainframe data as part of their AI and analytics initiatives to drive strategy, improve operational efficiencies, and enhance competitive advantage.

    About Rocket Software
    Rocket Software is a global technology leader in modernization and a partner of choice that empowers the world’s leading businesses on their modernization journeys, spanning core systems to the cloud. Trusted by over 12,500 customers and 750 partners, and with more than 3,000 global employees, Rocket Software enables customers to maximize their data, applications, and infrastructure to deliver critical services that power our modern world. Rocket Software is a privately held U.S. corporation headquartered in the Boston area with centers of excellence strategically located throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Rocket Software is a portfolio company of Bain Capital Private Equity. Follow Rocket Software on LinkedIn and Twitter or visit http://www.RocketSoftware.com.

    Media Contact
    Lacey Darrow
    ldarrow@rocketsoftware.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Airship AI Announces $1.2 Million Contract Award with Fortune 100 Transportation & E-Commerce Company for Acropolis Enterprise Video and Data Management Platform

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Continuation of Support and Maintenance for Existing Deployment Supporting
    Operational and Physical Security Requirements for Global Operations

    REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Airship AI Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: AISP) (“Airship AI” or the “Company”), a leader in AI-driven video, sensor, and data management surveillance solutions, has been awarded a contract worth $1.2 million with a Fortune 100 transportation and e-commerce company for the support and maintenance over the next nine months for an existing globally deployed Acropolis Enterprise Video and Data Management platform supporting the company’s operational and physical security requirements.

    “This award underscores the significance of our platform in enhancing our customers’ deployment of the Acropolis ecosystem, which enables them to federate and manage global logistics operations from a unified security operations center,” said Paul Allen, President of Airship AI. “Our support and maintenance agreements ensure that customers can connect with the Airship technical support team anytime, anywhere, receiving comprehensive electronic and telephonic assistance for our entire suite of products.”

    Airship AI’s Acropolis backend enterprise management system enables customers to manage devices and sensors across their entire digital ecosystem via hardware deployed on-premises or in the cloud while utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the edge and/or the backend to optimize operational efficiency and improve real-time decision-making capabilities. Combining the sensor-agnostic nature of our Acropolis platform with our edge-based AI platform, Outpost AI customers can efficiently add “smarts” to existing edge sensors, avoiding costly and operationally disruptive “rip and replace” requirements.

    “Migrating customers to Airship AI is just the beginning of our relationship. Once our platform is operational in their environment, we focus on supporting their workflows to enhance their operational effectiveness and efficiencies. This support includes new software releases, patches, and updates. Our comprehensive approach to building and maintaining relationships at the manufacturer level is a key factor in our impressive customer retention rate, which remains in the high 90th percentile,” concluded Mr. Allen.

    To experience how Airship AI and its suite of enterprise video and data management solutions can help your organization solve your complex video and data management challenges, please email your request to info@airship.ai.

    About Airship AI Holdings, Inc.

    Founded in 2006, Airship AI is a U.S. owned and operated technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Airship AI is an AI-driven video, sensor and data management surveillance platform that improves public safety and operational efficiency for public sector and commercial customers by providing predictive analysis of events before they occur and meaningful intelligence to decision makers. Airship AI’s product suite includes Outpost AI edge hardware and software offerings, Acropolis enterprise management software stack, and Command family of visualization tools.
    For more information, visit https://airship.ai.

    Forward-Looking Statements

    The disclosure herein includes certain statements that are not historical facts but are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “should,” “would,” “plan,” “project,” “forecast,” “predict,” “potential,” “seem,” “seek,” “future,” “outlook,” and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward looking. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, (1) statements regarding estimates and forecasts of financial, performance and operational metrics and projections of market opportunity; (2) changes in the market for Airship AI’s services and technology, expansion plans and opportunities; (3) the projected technological developments of Airship AI; and (4) current and future potential commercial and customer relationships. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this press release, and on the current expectations of Airship AI’s management and are not predictions of actual performance. These forward-looking statements are also subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, as set forth in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, filed with the SEC on April 1, 2024, and the other documents that the Company has filed, or will file, with the SEC. If any of these risks materialize or our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect the Company’s expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this press release. The Company anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause its assessments to change. However, while it may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements.

    Investor Contact:
    Chris Tyson/Larry Holub
    MZ North America
    949-491-8235
    AISP@mzgroup.us

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Syncfusion Presents Essential Studio 2024 Volume 3

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Oct. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Syncfusion, Inc., the enterprise technology partner of choice, announces the release of Essential Studio 2024 Volume 3. This release introduces two new controls for .NET MAUI, four for Blazor, three for the JS 2 suites, a new Chat widget for Flutter, and lots of new features and enhancements for our developers to enjoy.

    “As artificial intelligence features more in our everyday technology, people expect to find it making their lives easier. Our teams have been focused on providing developers with the tools to make this happen in their apps for this release,” said Syncfusion CEO Daniel Jebaraj. “With all the innovation surrounding AI right now, we hope our new controls will help them make really cool smart apps.”

    .NET MAUI
    The 2024 Volume 3 release provides two new controls for .NET MAUI in preview:

    • AI AssistView: Provides a customizable, user-friendly interface for interaction between users and AI services.
    • Kanban: Helps teams track and manage work in progress by organizing tasks into columns representing stages in a project.

    A highlight of the suite’s new features is three new series types for the Cartesian Charts component: stacked line, 100% stacked line, and spline range area. The TreeMap gains drill-down support and rows can now be dragged and dropped to reorder them in the DataGrid control.

    Essential JS 2
    The JS 2 component suites have all received three new AI-powered components in preview:

    • AI AssistView
    • Smart Paste Button: This button simplifies form-filling by pulling content from the clipboard, using AI to match form fields.
    • Smart TextArea: An advanced input area offering context-aware autocomplete suggestions using AI.

    The MultiColumn ComboBox and OTP Input components are now ready for production. Angular components can take advantage of the Fluent 2 high contrast theme and the Bootstrap 5.3 theme upgrade. There are also lots of new features for components like Charts, Diagram, and the Rich Text Editor, as well as performance improvements for the PDF Viewer.

    Blazor
    The Syncfusion Blazor suite also gains four new controls in Volume 3:

    In addition, the OTP Input and TextArea controls have been developed to industry standards and are ready for production. The Diagram control gains a multitude of new features and all Blazor controls can now use a Fluent 2 high contrast theme.

    Flutter
    A brand-new Chat widget has been developed for the Flutter platform, available in preview. This chat interface was designed to facilitate one-on-one or group conversations. Developers can customize the appearance and behavior of its features, like the chat bubbles, input composer, and action buttons. Flutter users can also enjoy sticky note annotations in the PDF Viewer and axes enhancements in the Charts widget.

    These are just a few of the highlights from the Essential Studio 2024 Volume 3 release. To see all the new features and enhancements, check out the Volume 3 blog, What’s New page, or release notes. Current subscribers can download the new version from the License and Downloads page after logging in.

    About Syncfusion, Inc.

    Syncfusion is the enterprise technology partner of choice for software development and business intelligence, delivering an ecosystem of compatible developer control suites, embeddable BI platforms, and business software. Headquartered in Research Triangle Park, N.C., Syncfusion has established itself as a trusted partner worldwide for use in mission-critical applications through its service-oriented approach. Syncfusion’s Essential Studio suite has expanded from one data grid at its launch in 2001, to over 1,800 controls for web, mobile, and desktop development. After nearly two decades of helping developers build business software with Essential Studio, the company channeled this expertise into its own line of enterprise products: Bold BI and Bold Reports for embedded business intelligence, data analysis, and visualization; BoldSign, an embeddable e-signing solution; and most recently, BoldDesk, a customer support platform. Today, Syncfusion has more than 33,000 customers, including large financial institutions, Fortune 500 companies, and global IT consultancies, relying on Essential Studio and Bold products for their business success.

    Contact: Brittany Kearns
    Phone: 919-270-8054
    Email: brittany@crossroadsb2b.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Runway Growth Finance Corp. Provides Third Quarter 2024 Portfolio Update

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    • Completed Seven Investments in New and Existing Portfolio Companies Representing $75.3 Million in Funded Investments

    MENLO PARK, Calif., Oct. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Runway Growth Finance Corp. (Nasdaq: RWAY) (“Runway Growth” or the “Company”), a leading provider of flexible capital solutions to late- and growth-stage companies seeking an alternative to raising equity, today provided an operational and portfolio update for the third quarter ended September 30, 2024.

    “Runway Growth added attractive investments with new and existing portfolio companies in the third quarter as we seek to drive measured and strategic growth,” said David Spreng, Founder and CEO of Runway Growth. “We are pleased to announce two new investments during the quarter, which we believe embody our focus on high-quality, late and growth-stage companies in the fastest growing sectors of the economy. Runway Growth is positioned to execute disciplined investments, support our existing borrowers and generate solid risk-adjusted returns for our shareholders in the long term.”

    Originations
    In the third quarter of 2024, Runway Growth funded seven investments: two investments in new portfolio companies and five investments in existing portfolio companies. These include:

    • Completion of a new $23.0 million investment to Snap! Mobile, Inc. (“Snap”), funding $18.0 million at close. Snap offers a software platform designed to help schools, clubs, and teams fundraise, manage their rosters, communicate with parents and fans, and sell merchandise;
    • Completion of a new $45.3 million investment to Zinnia Corporate Holdings, LLC (“Zinnia”), funding $40.0 million at close. Zinnia provides business processing and technology solutions to the life insurance and annuity industry. Zinnia’s range of solutions includes distribution services and new business issuance, administration processing and call center operations, as well as compliance, fulfillment, and quality assurance services;
    • Completion of a new $20 million investment to existing portfolio company Elevate Services, Inc. (“Elevate”), funding $6.0 million during the quarter, which upsized Elevate’s previous $20 million senior secured term loan. Elevate is a global alternative legal services provider and legal process outsourcer that serves members of the Fortune 500 and 60+ global law firms with outsourced consultancy, technology, and managed services. Elevate has a suite of products and services across several different operating business units including contracts, contract lifetime management and insights, ElevateNext, med legal, ElevateFlex, consulting, and software;
    • Completion of follow-on investments with an aggregate amount of $6.3 million to two existing portfolio companies; and
    • During the quarter Runway-Cadma I LLC (the “JV”), our joint venture with Cadma Capital Partners LLC, purchased a portion of our Airship Group, Inc. loan, amounting to a $5.0 million equity investment in the JV subsidiary.

    Liquidity Events
    During the third quarter ended September 30, 2024, Runway Growth experienced the following liquidity events:

    • Full principal repayment of the Company’s senior secured term loan to CloudPay, Inc. of $75.0 million;
    • An assignment of $10.0 million of the Company’s investment in Airship Group, Inc. to the JV; and
    • Other scheduled principal amortization of $0.6 million.

    Portfolio Construction and Management
    Runway Growth is a credit-first organization, carefully structured to focus on what it believes to be the highest quality, late-stage companies in the venture debt market. The Company is committed to upholding what it believes to be industry-leading investment standards combined with disciplined underwriting and diligent monitoring of its portfolio. Runway Growth is positioned as a preferred lender in the venture debt space, supporting and working closely with companies to help them reach their full growth potential. Since inception, the Company has focused on the fastest growing sectors of the economy, including healthcare, technology and select consumer services and products industries.

    As of September 30, 2024, the Runway Growth portfolio included 49 debt investments to 32 portfolio companies and 86 equity investments in 53 portfolio companies, including 28 portfolio companies where Runway Growth holds both a debt and equity investment. Investments were comprised of late and growth-stage businesses in the technology, healthcare and consumer services and products industries. Runway Growth’s normal business operations include frequent communication with portfolio companies.

    About Runway Growth Finance Corp.
    Runway Growth is a growing specialty finance company focused on providing flexible capital solutions to late- and growth-stage companies seeking an alternative to raising equity. Runway Growth is a closed-end investment fund that has elected to be regulated as a business development company under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Runway Growth is externally managed by Runway Growth Capital LLC, an established registered investment advisor that was formed in 2015 and led by industry veteran David Spreng. For more information, please visit http://www.runwaygrowth.com.

    Forward-Looking Statements
    Statements included herein may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements and are not guarantees of future performance, condition or results and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those described from time to time in Runway Growth’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Runway Growth undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement made herein. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release.

    Important Disclosures
    Strategies described involve special risks that should be evaluated carefully before a decision is made to invest. Not all of the risks and other significant aspects of these strategies are discussed herein. Please see a more detailed discussion of these risk factors and other related risks in the Company’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K in the section entitled “Risk Factors”, which may be obtained on the Company’s website, http://www.runwaygrowth.com, or the SEC’s website, http://www.sec.gov.

    IR Contacts:
    Stefan Norbom, Prosek Partners, snorbom@prosek.com
    Thomas B. Raterman, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, tr@runwaygrowth.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Richtech Robotics Signs Distribution Agreement with Sproutmation, LLC, Commercial Robotics and Automation Solutions Delivery Provider

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    First purchase order under agreement is for 20 Scorpion units

    LAS VEGAS, Oct. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Richtech Robotics Inc. (Nasdaq: RR) (“Richtech Robotics”), a Nevada-based provider of AI-driven service robots, today announces it has signed a distribution agreement with Sproutmation, LLC (“Sproutmation”), a commercial robotics and automation solutions delivery provider. Sproutmation’s first purchase order is for 20 Scorpion units. Under the arrangement, Sproutmation has agreed to an annual sales target of 100 robot units.

    “We are continuously expanding our ecosystem of distribution partners and are pleased to announce our agreement with Sproutmation,” said Matt Casella, President of Richtech Robotics. “Our solutions are synergistic with Sproutmation’s offerings as the company is focused on robots that provide automation for clients. This collaboration will allow us to reach even more organizations across the country.”

    “We are impressed with Richtech Robotics’ suite of solutions, as they provide enhanced customer experiences and increased efficiencies,” stated Thean Ang, CEO of Sproutmation. “Providing these robots to our clients will help elevate our offerings, and we look forward to beginning their deliveries.”

    About Richtech Robotics

    Richtech Robotics is a provider of collaborative robotic solutions specializing in the service industry, including the hospitality and healthcare sectors. Our mission is to transform the service industry through collaborative robotic solutions that enhance the customer experience and empower businesses to achieve more. By seamlessly integrating cutting-edge automation, we aspire to create a landscape of enhanced interactions, efficiency, and innovation, propelling organizations toward unparalleled levels of excellence and satisfaction. Learn more at http://www.RichtechRobotics.com and connect with us on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and YouTube.

    About Sproutmation

    Sproutmation specializes in delivering commercial robotics and automation solutions, focusing on cleaning, delivery, and industrial robots. The company’s offerings cater to a range of sectors, including hospitality and industry, with a mission to streamline tasks and boost efficiency through cutting-edge technology. Based in Minnesota, USA, Sproutmation is dedicated to innovation and enhancing operational productivity with its robotic systems. For more information, you can visit http://www.sproutmation.com.

    Forward Looking Statements

    Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “forecast,” “estimate,” “expect,” and “intend,” among others. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the anticipated success and benefits of the partnership with Sproutmation.

    These forward-looking statements are based on Richtech Robotics’ current expectations and actual results could differ materially. There are a number of factors that could cause actual events to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements include, among others, risks and uncertainties related to market and other conditions, Richtech Robotics’ ability to deliver the requisite number of robot units under the distribution agreement, and Sproutmation’s ability to sell the requisite number of robotiunits under the distribution agreement. Investors should read the risk factors set forth in Richtech Robotics’ Annual Report on Form 10-K/A, filed with the SEC on March 27, 2024, the Registration Statement and periodic reports filed with the SEC on or after the date thereof. All of Richtech Robotics’ forward-looking statements are expressly qualified by all such risk factors and other cautionary statements. The information set forth herein speaks only as of the date thereof. New risks and uncertainties arise over time, and it is not possible for Richtech Robotics to predict those events or how they may affect Richtech Robotics. If a change to the events and circumstances reflected in Richtech Robotics’ forward-looking statements occurs, Richtech Robotics’ business, financial condition and operating results may vary materially from those expressed in Richtech Robotics’ forward-looking statements.

    Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Richtech Robotics assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

    Contact:

    Investors:
    CORE IR
    Matt Blazei
    ir@richtechrobotics.com

    Media: 
    Timothy Tanksley
    Director of Marketing
    Richtech Robotics, Inc
    press@richtechrobotics.com
    702-534-0050

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Taoshi to Showcase World’s First Decentralized and Fair Proprietary Trading Challenge, Built on Bittensor, at Permissionless III

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Taoshi, a forefront innovator in decentralized finance, will showcase its Proprietary Trading Network (PTN) at the upcoming Permissionless III conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, from October 9 to 11, 2024. Exhibiting at Booth #1433, Taoshi’s Manager of Research and Development, Thomas Dougherty, PhD, will be present to provide insights into the company’s breakthrough tool.

    PTN is the world’s first fair, decentralized proprietary trading challenge. Built on Bittensor, PTN allows traders to compete transparently and earn significantly more than they would with traditional proprietary firms, incentivizing some of the world’s best traders to provide actionable trading insights.

    Taoshi’s PTN sets itself apart from most traditional proprietary trading firms, whose revenue comes from charging entry fees to traders. “When a disproportionate reliance is placed on the entry fees, there is little motivation to ensure long-term success for traders. Ironically, existing profit-sharing models are incentivized by traders failing their challenge period. With PTN, we want to change this,” said Dougherty.

    Taoshi’s mission is to disrupt financial market trading by democratizing access to sophisticated and ever-evolving trading strategies. Taoshi’s PTN is leading the way in innovation through its decentralized AI technology that delivers exceptional advantages for traders.

    About Taoshi:
    Founded in 2023, Taoshi, Inc. is a software company that creates blockchain subnetworks built on Bittensor to revolutionize financial market trading. Taoshi is a trusted leader in the crypto space, celebrated for its innovative solutions and commitment to community impact. Explore how Taoshi is shaping the future of technology at http://www.taoshi.io.

    About Thomas Dougherty, PhD:
    Thomas Dougherty, PhD, is the Manager of Research & Development at Taoshi, where he applies his extensive expertise in machine learning and computer vision to advance financial technology innovation. With a doctorate from Stanford University, he oversees the research and development division, focusing on creating sophisticated trading strategies that balance predictability, risk exposure, and returns while addressing statistical instabilities.

    At Taoshi, Thomas is the primary architect of the SN8 incentive mechanism, a cornerstone of the company’s Proprietary Trading Network (PTN). He spearheaded the development of SN8’s scoring system, which evaluates traders through a comprehensive approach that includes risk-adjusted returns, Sharpe ratio, and Omega ratio.

    About Permissionless:
    Permissionless is a conference for founders, application developers, investors, policymakers, and users. Permissionless III will gather the most influential minds in crypto for three days of networking, engaging content, and live conversations.

    MEDIA CONTACT
    Mairi Morrison
    mairi@prlab.co
    +1 512 731 4977

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Sunrun Announces Date for Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Report

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sunrun (Nasdaq: RUN) today announced that it will issue its third quarter 2024 earnings report after the market closes on Thursday, November 7, 2024.

    A conference call has been scheduled to discuss these earnings results at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time. The conference call can be accessed live via the Sunrun Investor Relations website at https://investors.sunrun.com or over the phone by dialing (877) 407-5989 (toll-free) or (201) 689-8434 (toll). An audio replay will be available following the call on the Sunrun Investor Relations website for approximately one month. A transcript of the conference call will also be posted to the Sunrun Investor Relations website the following day.

    About Sunrun
    Sunrun Inc. (Nasdaq: RUN) revolutionized the solar industry in 2007 by removing financial barriers and democratizing access to locally-generated, renewable energy. Today, Sunrun is the nation’s leading provider of clean energy as a subscription service, offering residential solar and storage with no upfront costs. Sunrun’s innovative products and solutions can connect homes to the cleanest energy on earth, providing them with energy security, predictability, and peace of mind. Sunrun also manages energy services that benefit communities, utilities, and the electric grid while enhancing customer value. Discover more at http://www.sunrun.com

    Investor & Analyst Contact:

    Patrick Jobin
    SVP, Deputy CFO & Investor Relations Officer
    investors@sunrun.com

    Media Contact:

    Wyatt Semanek
    Director, Corporate Communications
    press@sunrun.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Defense News: SECNAV Del Toro As-Written Remarks at the USNS Lansing Keel-Laying Event

    Source: United States Navy

    Remarks

    Good afternoon, everyone! It’s wonderful to be with you here on the Gulf Coast of Alabama for today’s keel-laying.

    Governor Whitmer, I am truly grateful for you being here with us—not every ship sponsor chooses to attend keel-layings or buy in nearly as much you have already.

    Thank you, as well, for your partnership on the Michigan Maritime Manufacturing—or M-3—Initiative we announced in July and for your steadfast devotion to your state and indeed our Nation.

    President Kruger, thank you for hosting us today, and for your continued partnership and work for our Navy and our Nation.

    As I said back in July, the city of Lansing is a testament and monument to American ingenuity and our Nation’s democratic ideals.

    And our EPFs are force multipliers for our combat logistics fleet.

    They allow for quicker responses to crises, strengthen our ability to conduct humanitarian and disaster relief operations, and provide logistical support for special forces missions.

    It will be manned by dedicated crews, comprised of both civilian mariners from the Military Sealift Command and embarked military personnel.

    Their expertise and teamwork will ensure it operates at peak efficiency, delivering critical resources and services exactly when and where they’re needed.

    And this ship, specifically, highlights the success and importance of our Maritime Statecraft initiative.

    Maritime Statecraft—for those of you who haven’t heard me say this before—encompasses a national, whole-of-government effort to restore the comprehensive maritime power of our Nation.

    It is not a new concept. It is a call to action responding to national security vulnerabilities in the maritime sector.

    Part of that effort—integral to it, in fact—is revitalizing and rebuilding a strong, healthy workforce to support it.

    And this ship is named for the capital city of the state where, last month, Governor Whitmer and I announced the M3 initiative.

    Michigan has a world-class skilled workforce and is a leader in developing the techno-industrial workforce we need to build and assemble the ships, munitions, parts, and pieces our Navy, Marine Corps, and indeed our Nation need to promote peace around the world.

    And Austal, building this ship, represents another key line of effort under our new, national approach to Maritime Statecraft—a foreign shipbuilder establishing a U.S. subsidiary, investing in America, and partnering with us to build American ships.

    America has been a leading shipping and shipbuilding nation before—and with partners like Austal and Michigan, I know that we can and will be again.

    Again, thank you all for joining us here today and for your continued partnership on behalf of our Navy.

    I look forward to seeing USNS Lansing in the fleet in the future.

    May God grant our Sailors, Marines, civilians, and indeed all Americans fair winds and following seas.

    Thank you.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Defense News: SECNAV Del Toro As-Written Remarks at the Forum at Newport

    Source: United States Navy

    Introduction

    Good afternoon, everyone!

    It is wonderful to be back here again in beautiful Newport, Rhode Island and a privilege to address this group of future-focused leaders from Salve Regina University and the Naval War College.

    I truly appreciate Salve Regina University’s partnership and commitment to providing educational opportunities for our Navy and Marine Corps Officers.

    And I am honored to be a part of this important conference centered on an issue which affects us all, and critically affects the national security of our great Nation.

    To the faculty and staff of Salve Regina University and the Naval War College, distinguished guests and visitors: welcome, and thank you for joining us today.

    World Today

    As I am certain you are all well aware, we face existential threats and challenges in every corner of the globe.

    Across the Atlantic, Russia is well into the third year of its full-scale and illegal invasion of Ukraine.

    The United States proudly stands by the Ukrainian people as they fight for their freedom and sovereignty, and defend democracy for all free nations.

    To the South of Ukraine, in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, we are working alongside our NATO allies and Middle East partners to protect innocent, civilian mariners and commercial shipping against Iranian-aligned Houthi attacks.

    Immediately following the October 7th attacks in Israel, our Navy and Marine Corps Team—represented by the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group and the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group—was on station, the ready integrated force capable of responding to any threat.

    Today, our personnel onboard the Wasp ARG are on station in the Mediterranean Sea, while the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group and Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group are operating in the Middle East.

    In addition to our surface presence, USS Georgia (SSGN 729) provides a powerful deterrence message from below the ocean’s waves.

    And for the first time since World War II, we face a comprehensive maritime power in the Indo-Pacific.

    The People’s Republic of China continues to exert its excessive maritime claims through their navy, coast guard, and maritime militia.

    From the Line of Actual Control high in the Himalayas, to disputed reefs barely peeking above the waves in the South China Sea, recent actions reveal the PRC’s willingness to execute “gray-zone tactics”—types of assault which are below the threshold of armed attack but beyond normal diplomatic actions.

    And the PRC is observing lessons from the ongoing conflicts in Europe and the Red Sea.

    And so, now, more than ever, it is imperative that we have a climate-ready force able to deter aggression and function decisively in every environment so that, if necessary, we will prevail in conflict.

    Three Enduring Priorities

    When I entered office as Secretary of the Navy, I laid out Three Enduring Priorities which are the foundation for all we do in the Department of the Navy.

    They are:

    Strengthening Maritime Dominance,

    Building a Culture of Warfighting Excellence, and

    Enhancing Strategic Partnerships.

    My priority of Strengthening Maritime Dominance centers on ensuring our Sailors and Marines have the best ships, aircraft, and technology available, so that if we are called, we may fight and decisively win our Nation’s wars.

    And to maintain our warfighting edge, we cannot rely simply on maintaining our seapower.

    External threats continue to mount and change.

    To remain the world’s dominant maritime force, the Department of the Navy must rapidly adapt and effectively counter existential threats such as climate change.

    Today, climate change is one of the most destabilizing forces of our time, exacerbating national security concerns and posing serious readiness challenges for our Fleet and Force.

    There exist numerous tangible examples of the impact of climate change on Navy and Marine Corps operations all over the world.

    And the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events has only increased as time has passed. 

    At sea and on shore, changing climate and rising sea levels crucially affect the day-to-day life of our Sailors and Marines.

    Rising temperatures, too, stress and impact the systems within our buildings and installations, greatly decreasing their overall durability.

    Along both our Pacific and Atlantic Coasts, sorties—or, deploying our ships due to threat of extreme weather in port—have become more commonplace.

    And extreme weather events caused by climate change have displaced millions of people, creating climate refugees.

    Our maritime forces have witnessed a substantial rise in the number and scope of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions.

    Simply put, weather impacts normal Navy and Marine Corps operations.

    Weather impacts where our ships can sail, where our amphibious craft can land, and when we can conduct flight operations.

    However, while our world today faces increasingly unpredictable and devasting weather phenomenon, the Department of the Navy is strengthening our climate resilience and reducing our climate impacts to remain the world’s most powerful maritime force.

    Building a Climate-Ready Force

    Computer scientist pioneer, mathematician, visionary, and United States Rear Admiral Grace Hopper once said, “The most dangerous phrase in the language is, ‘We’ve always done it this way.’”

    I implore all of you to assume Admiral Hopper’s mindset when approaching the challenge of climate change.

    The Department of the Navy is actively adapting and innovating for the changing landscape of the world and indeed of warfare.

    We refuse stagnation and have set out ambitious climate goals through the Department of the Navy Climate Action 2030 strategy, in line with Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.

    To build a climate-ready force, we must meet two Performance Goals.

    The first goal is building climate resilience.

    We build climate resilience through installation resilience—by ensuring that our forces, systems, and facilities can continue to operate effectively and accomplish our mission in the face of changing climate conditions and worsening climate impacts.

    Many of our military bases, including our Navy’s largest, Naval Station Norfolk, are fighting a constant battle against rising sea levels, often flooding after even light rain.

    Less than two years ago, we broke ground on the first project to safeguard the Naval Academy from rising sea levels.

    And just last week, we held a ribbon-cutting to mark the end of our work on the Farragut Seawall project—the first of many projects to fortify and protect the institution from extreme weather events.

    Our goal, as outlined by our Naval Academy Installation Resiliency Plan, is for the institution to remain resilient through the 21st Century and beyond.

    We are also developing solutions to climate issues through the Center for Energy Security and Infrastructure Resilience, or “CESIR.”

    Established earlier this year, CESIR will equip our future Navy and Marine Corps Officers with the knowledge and skills to address complex climate challenges throughout their naval careers.

    What’s more, the Department of the Navy is investing in climate resiliency through our facilities, including the renovation of Bancroft Hall—the largest academic dormitory in the United States and home to the entire Brigade of forty-four hundred Midshipmen.

    Severe weather events have impacted the longevity of our buildings both inside and out, along with integral systems such as Bancroft Hall’s HVAC.

    Given the criticality of our facilities to the mission of the United States Navy and Marine Corps and in developing our future warfighters, we must continue to invest in maintenance and improvement of our infrastructure.

    And partnerships outside of the Department of the Navy are crucial to creating climate solutions.

    In 2022, the Naval Postgraduate School partnered with the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability to address the urgent challenges of climate change, energy security, and sustainability.

    Together, NPS and the Doerr School established an Education Partnership Agreement, combining the expertise of two globally recognized hubs of research and innovation to create practical solutions that our Navy and Nation can implement both now and in the future.

    And the Department of the Navy is preparing for extreme weather events through integrated tabletop exercises and training events.

    Two years ago, the Department of the Navy held our first Climate Action tabletop exercise at Marine Barracks Washington and have since held annual exercises dedicated to drive and share climate best practices.

    In June of this year, we conducted Climate Action III with our Caribbean partners in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

    This two-day event marked the third iteration in a series of exercises designed to validate our Climate Action 2030 strategy and highlight the value of partnerships to build shared resilience in a critical region.

    Our Department, together with the DOD, other federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, and our Caribbean partners, shared expertise and solutions to the destabilizing threats which know no borders.

    The second goal of our Climate Action strategy is reducing climate threat.

    This includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions and drawing greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere, stabilizing ecosystems, and achieving the Nation’s commitment to net-zero emissions.

    And throughout the country, the Department of the Navy is leading Department of Defense efforts in reducing climate threats.

    In 2022, Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany became an electrically “Net Zero” base, crucially becoming the first Department of Defense installation to attain this significant milestone.

    Achieving this “Net Zero” breakthrough not only combats climate change by alleviating energy security concerns, but it also improves the base’s overall resilience and saves taxpayer dollars.

    We cannot tackle the climate threat alone. The Department of the Navy has facilitated strategic partnerships to tackle energy resilience issues.

    Marine Corps Air Station Miramar partnered with the city of San Diego to use biogas generated from an on-base landfill as a renewable energy source.

    This initiative provided over three megawatts of energy to the installation, reducing reliance on the city’s electric grid by a whopping 45% and reducing overall emissions.

    The Department is also leveraging public and private innovation in the climate and energy resilience sectors through NavalX Tech Bridges and business accelerators.

    Tech Bridges attract small and medium businesses using innovation challenges, and recent challenges are supporting maritime supply chain and “blue tech” opportunities.

    These partnerships between the Department of the Navy and outside business foster innovation and encourage the development of new technologies for climate adaptation.

    To remain competitive in today’s age of conflict, we must leverage every advantage available to us—and that especially includes our partners in business and industry.

    Closing

    The future of climate resilience is here.

    We know the future impacts of climate change and it is both within our capabilities and incumbent upon us to act—and we have.

    Climate resilience is force resilience. We must look beyond normal operations and approach solutions to climate change through the lens of innovation.

    As Admiral Hopper said, “Our young people are the future. We must provide for them.”

    To do so, we must continue innovating and modernizing for the threats of today and of tomorrow.

    I thank all of you for being here today, to gather, discuss, and create solutions for a more climate resilient future.

    Although climate change is already impacting our world in significant ways, I am heartened by the discussions today, the important work all of you have begun, and the innovation that will come from our collaboration.

    Thank you for tackling this challenge—we need our best and brightest involved in the search for climate solutions.

    May God bless our service men and women and all who support them. Thank you.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Cole Harbour — RCMP arrests two impaired drivers following a hit and run

    Source: Royal Canadian Mounted Police

    RCMP Halifax Regional Detachment arrests two impaired drivers following a hit and run in Cole Harbour.

    On September 25, at approximately 11:48 p.m., RCMP Halifax Regional Detachment responded to a hit and run that occurred in a parking lot on Merrimac Dr. While at the scene RCMP officers observed the vehicle of interest return to the scene and collide with a dumpster.

    RCMP officers completed a traffic stop on the Hyundai Elantra. The driver, a 25-year-old Dartmouth woman, exhibited signs of impairment and provided roadside breath samples into an approved screening device (ASD), which resulted in a “fail”. The driver was arrested for impaired driving.

    From the information and evidence gathered at the scene, it was determined that the rear passenger of the vehicle, a 28-year-old Cole Harbour woman, was the driver at the time of the hit and run. She also showed signs of impairment, and provided a breath sample into an ASD resulting in a “fail”. The woman was arrested for impaired driving.

    Both individuals were transported to the Cole Harbour RCMP Detachment and provided breath samples. The 28-year-old woman provided breath samples of 300 mg% and 280 mg%. and the 25-year-old woman, who struck the dumpster, provided breath samples of 200 mg% and 220 mg%.

    They were both later released and will appear in court at a later date.

    File # 24-132068

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI China: Xi’s speech at event commending role models for ethnic unity, progress published

    Source: China State Council Information Office 2

    A speech delivered by Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, at a national conference held on Sept. 27 to commend role models for ethnic unity and progress, has been published as a booklet.
    The booklet, published by the People’s Publishing House, is available at Xinhua Bookstore outlets across China. 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Join Us on 10/29 for a Foreign and Comparative Law Webinar on What’s in a Legal Gender? A Guide to European Gender Determination Laws

    Source: US Global Legal Monitor

    Earlier this year, a new self-identification act for transgender, intersex, and nonbinary persons was enacted in Germany. The law adds to the growing number of European jurisdictions that have recently enacted self-identification laws for legal gender purposes, including Sweden. The legal landscape is not uniform, however. Other European jurisdictions are curbing the right to change one’s gender, most recently Georgia, which has forbidden the reassignment of one’s gender, and Bulgaria, where the courts have determined that a person cannot change his or her legal gender from that assigned at birth.

    Please join us on October 29, 2024, at 2 p.m. EDT for our next foreign, comparative, and international law webinar titled, “What’s in a Legal Gender? A Guide to European Gender Determination Laws.“ This webinar is the latest installment in the Law Library’s Foreign and Comparative Law Webinar Series.

    This webinar will describe and discuss the regulation of gender self-determination in select jurisdictions in Europe. In particular, the webinar will focus on the existence of gender self-determination laws, the possibility of identifying as a third gender, the rules for changing legal gender, and the use of “X” as a gender marker in passports, among other topics. Similarities and differences in the countries’ approaches will be highlighted.

    Please register here.

    Please request ADA accommodations at least five business days in advance by contacting (202) 707-6362 or [email protected].

    The webinar will be presented by Jenny Gesley and Elin Hofverberg, foreign law specialists in the Global Legal Research Directorate of the Law Library of Congress. Jenny holds a Master of Laws from the University of Minnesota Law School, a Juris Doctor equivalent from the Goethe University of Frankfurt, Germany, and a doctorate in law. Her doctoral dissertation on “Financial Market Supervision in the United States: National Developments and International Standards” (in German) was awarded the Baker & McKenzie Award in 2015. Dr. Gesley is admitted to the New York State Bar and is qualified to practice law in Germany. Elin holds a Master of Laws in international and comparative law from The George Washington University Law School and a Juris Doctor equivalent (Jur. kand.) from Uppsala University Law School. Elin is a member of the New York State Bar and is qualified to practice law in Sweden.

    Subscribe to In Custodia Legis – it’s free! – to receive interesting posts drawn from the Law Library of Congress’s vast collections and our staff’s expertise in U.S., foreign, and international law.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: NIST Awards Up to $1.5 Million to Support Development of Regenerative Medicine Standards Curricula

    Source: US Government research organizations

    Credit: Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock

    GAITHERSBURG, Md. — The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has awarded two organizations cooperative agreements of up to $1.5 million to create curricula and programs for training the current and future regenerative medicine workforce in standards implementation. The award recipients were selected following an open, competitive process announced earlier this year.

    Regenerative medicine, which includes cell therapy, gene therapy and therapeutic tissue engineering, aims to harness the body’s innate ability to heal for regenerating and replacing damaged or diseased cells, tissues and organs. The field provides unprecedented potential to treat previously intractable diseases, such as cancer and genetic disorders.

    In 2023, Congress tasked NIST with supporting the development of the regenerative medicine workforce as part of the agency’s Regenerative Medicine program.

    The awardees will create training programs on the standards, protocols and measurements underpinning the field. 

     “We are thrilled to announce our new partnerships to develop an innovative standards education program, paving the way for flexible and immersive learning experiences that support advanced biomanufacturing,” said Sheng Lin-Gibson, chief of NIST’s Biosystems and Biomaterials Division. “These educational programs will facilitate the adoption of standards and best practices to increase quality and consistency of advanced therapies and ultimately bring down costs.”

    The two cooperative agreements are for $250,000 each per year with the option to renew for up to three years.

    The organizations receiving the awards are Brammer Bio, a part of Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Patheon Pharma Services, and the Standards Coordinating Body (SCB) for Gene, Cell and Regenerative Medicines and Cell-Based Drug Discovery, a nonprofit organization based in Gaithersburg, Maryland. 

    These organizations will produce a wide range of training opportunities including traditional classroom and hands-on teaching, self-paced e-learning and use of digital tools, multimedia resources and immersive augmented reality. 

    Training will be provided to current and future members of the regenerative medicine workforce through continuing education and college- and graduate-level programs. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Ambulance transfer drill carried out

    Source: Hong Kong Information Services

    The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, in collaboration with the Macao Special Administrative Region Government, completed a drill today for the Pilot Scheme for Direct Cross-boundary Ambulance Transfer in the Greater Bay Area.

    The Health Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR explained that the drill was aimed at testing the routing of the cross-boundary ambulance between Macau’s Conde S. Januario Hospital (CHCSJ) and Hong Kong’s Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH), as well as the immigration arrangements.

    After departure from CHCSJ, the ambulance headed to PMH and returned to CHCSJ by making use of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge for both journeys.

    Further to the successful completion of the drill conducted by the Hong Kong SAR Government with the Guangdong Provincial Government and the Shenzhen Municipal Government on August 23, today’s drill was also carried out smoothly in general, the bureau said.

    It added that relevant departments of the two SAR Governments will review the cross-boundary ambulance arrangement, with a view to launching the pilot scheme within 2024.

    Secretary for Health Prof Lo Chung-mau noted that the pilot scheme will start with a direct ambulance transfer of patients from designated hospitals in Shenzhen and Macau to designated public hospitals in Hong Kong.

    He said: “I am glad that the Hong Kong SAR Government and the Macao SAR Government have also made today’s drill a success through concerted efforts, further streamlining the flow of a direct cross-boundary ambulance transfer to get better prepared for the launch of the pilot scheme.”

    In addition to the entry arrangement of vehicles into Hong Kong, the Health Bureau is in discussion with Macau authorities on the implementation details regarding the entry of medical items and personnel on the direct cross-boundary ambulance into Hong Kong.

    In particular, as CHCSJ will deploy healthcare personnel to escort patients with clinical needs on the ambulance, the Hong Kong SAR Government will ensure compliance by the doctors concerned with Hong Kong laws, such that they can continue to carry out the necessary medical procedures on board the ambulance upon entry into Hong Kong.

    In this connection, the Hong Kong Medical Council has issued a promulgation regarding limited registration in accordance with the Medical Registration Ordinance.

    Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Hospital Authority is making limited registration applications for the Macau doctors who will provide support aboard the direct cross-boundary ambulances.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Golden Week attracts 1.38m visitors

    Source: Hong Kong Information Services

    The Mainland’s seven-day National Day Golden Week ended yesterday, and the Government today announced that the Immigration Department recorded a total of around 1.38 million visitors coming to Hong Kong through various sea, land and air control points during the week.

    The overall number of inbound visitors aligned with earlier estimates, while the number recorded on October 1 reached a daily record high since the post-pandemic full opening of the borders, the Government added.

    Among all visitors coming to Hong Kong, those from the Mainland accounted for about 1.22 million, representing 88% of the total arrivals.

    The daily average of Mainland visitors was around 170,000, exceeding that of the 2023 National Day Golden Week and the 2024 Labour Day Golden Week at around 27% and 13% respectively.

    Mainland inbound visitor arrivals peaked on October 1 with around 220,000 visitors arriving in Hong Kong, marking a daily record high since the post-pandemic opening of the borders and setting a corresponding record for the overall number of visitors to Hong Kong in a single day.

    During the National Day Golden Week, the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line and the Express Rail Link West Kowloon were the two ports with the highest daily average number of Mainland visitors, and operations at various control points and transport services ran smoothly.

    Regarding large-scale events, the National Day Fireworks Display over Victoria Harbour on October 1 attracted over 330,000 spectators and concluded with effective crowd control arrangements.

    According to the information provided by the hotel industry, the overall hotel occupancy rate during October 1 to 4 reached 90%. 

    Based on the Travel Industry Authority’s information, around 1,050 Mainland inbound tour groups visited Hong Kong during the National Day Golden Week, with around 80% engaged in overnight itineraries.

    These tour groups involved around 36,000 visitors, accounting for around 3% of all Mainland visitors.

    The interdepartmental working group on festival arrangements, led by Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki, is pleased to note that the rich array of National Day special offers from the Government and various sectors of society were well-received by the public.

    Among them, the “1st October Movie Fiesta: Half-Price Spectacular 2024” subsidised by the Government recorded cumulative admissions reaching 189,000, breaking last year’s record of 155,000. 

    Mr Chan said the concerted efforts of relevant government departments, organisations and industries in making preparations and responses enabled smooth arrangements for receiving visitors, and allowed both locals and visitors to celebrate National Day together.

    “The Government will draw on this experience and further enhance various arrangements in future to provide an even better experience for visitors to Hong Kong during festive periods.”

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Government of Canada unlocks 14 more federal properties for housing

    Source: Government of Canada News (2)

    October 8, 2024 Ottawa, Ontario Public Services and Procurement Canada Everyone deserves a place to call home. However, for many across the country, home ownership and renting is out of reach due to the unprecedented housing crisis Canada is facing. We need to build more homes, faster, to get Canadians into homes that meet their needs, at prices they can afford. That is why in Budget 2024 and Canada’s Housing Plan, the federal government announced the most ambitious housing plan in Canadian history—a plan to build 4 million more homes.

    October 8, 2024              Ottawa, Ontario                            Public Services and Procurement Canada

    Everyone deserves a place to call home. However, for many across the country, home ownership and renting is out of reach due to the unprecedented housing crisis Canada is facing. We need to build more homes, faster, to get Canadians into homes that meet their needs, at prices they can afford. That’s why in Budget 2024 and Canada’s Housing Plan, the federal government announced the most ambitious housing plan in Canadian history: a plan to build 4 million more homes.

    As part of this plan, the Government of Canada is identifying properties within its portfolio that have the potential for housing, and is actively adding them to the Canada Public Land Bank. Wherever possible, the government will turn these properties into housing through a long-term lease, not a one-time sale, to support affordable housing and ensure public land stays public.

    Today, the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Public Services and Procurement, joined by the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, and the Honourable Terry Beech, Minister of Citizens’ Services, announced that 14 new properties have been added to the Canada Public Land Bank.

    A total of 70 federal properties have now been identified as being suitable to support housing. This list will continue to grow in the coming months, with further details on listed properties available soon.

    As part of the initial launch of the Canada Public Land Bank in August 2024, the Canada Lands Company, in partnership with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, issued a call for proposals for 5 properties located in Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa and Montréal. The call for proposals for the properties in Toronto and Montréal closed on October 1, 2024, and evaluations have begun. The call for proposals for the Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa properties will close on November 1, 2024.

    To provide feedback on the land bank and its properties, the Government of Canada launched a call for housing solutions for communities: a secure online platform.

    To date, the Government of Canada has already received interest and feedback from provinces, territories and municipalities, as well as developers, housing advocates and Indigenous groups. This information will be used to develop and bring more properties to market starting this fall.

    To solve Canada’s housing crisis, the federal government is using every tool at its disposal. The Government of Canada is accelerating its real property disposal process to match the speed of builders and the urgency of getting affordable homes built for Canada. 

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Measures adopted following the 19th International Francophonie Summit (5 October 2024)

    Source: Republic of France in English
    The Republic of France has issued the following statement:

    Following the 19th international summit of La Francophonie [OIF – international Francophone organization], which was held in France for the first time in 33 years, Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, and Thani Mohamed-Soilihi, Minister of State for Francophonie and International Partnerships, are announcing a series of measures furthering France’s contribution to raising the international profile of La Francophonie.

    In line with President Macron’s announcements and to reaffirm France’s commitment to raising La Francophonie’s international profile, Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, and Thani Mohamed-Soilihi, Minister of State for Francophonie and International Partnerships, are announcing a series of measures.

    Firstly, because the OIF is a space for exchanges fostering the economic prosperity of Francophone peoples, the Minister of State is announcing the creation of an International Francophone Mobility and Employability Programme (PIMEF). The PIMEF is aimed at young people:

    • It networks 1,100 universities and research centres that are members of the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) in 120 countries (students, teaching staff, researchers, administrative staff) from all over the world. The AUF, one of the OIF’s four operators, will work throughout this year so that it is gradually rolled out from the start of the academic year 2025-2026. France supports the AUF alongside the OIF.
    • Young French-speaking people from these universities will be able to benefit from mobility programmes geared to professionalization and/or employability.
    • The programme will operate on a principle of reciprocity. Universities and institutions will decide on the number of students to be sent to partner structures, which will be identical to the number of students received.

    Secondly, the Minister of State is announcing the creation of the Volontaires unis pour la Francophonie [volunteers united for La Francophonie] programme. The Francophone world is also a space for cultural and educational development. To promote its attractiveness, the programme will enable 100 young volunteers, nationals from OIF member States, to take part in missions lasting several months in another country of the Francophone world, attached to civil-society organizations and public bodies active as regards educational cooperation, social entrepreneurship and the upholding of La Francophonie’s values.

    As regards the cultural aspect, the Minister of State is next announcing exceptional financial support for the TV5 Monde Maghreb group’s television channel for young people “Tivi 5” making widely accessible an offer of varied, good quality Francophone content for young people in that region and encouraging locally produced content in French for young people, showcasing the diversity of Francophone cultural heritage.

    The Minister of State wishes to reiterate his commitment to promoting the French language as a force for transforming society. France supports the feminist organizations whose activities have a transforming effect on society and public policy. In this respect, two projects have been created to help promote gender equality and the progression of women’s rights.

    • The Alliance féministe francophone [Francophone Feminist Alliance]: to ensure that the French language cannot be an obstacle to the participation, influence and networking of feminist organizations in conveying messages promoting gender equality at the highest level, France is launching the Alliance féministe francophone, in addition to the OIF women’s empowerment programme La Francophonie avec elles. Under this alliance, a consortium of voluntary organizations will be supported to coordinate and finance the participation of feminist organizations at major events and international summits, increase their technical capabilities for representation and negotiation, support their plea for greater funding for the international feminist ecosystem.
    • Alongside Martine Biron, Quebec’s Minister of International Relations and La Francophonie and Minister Responsible for the Status of Women, and Salima Saa, Minister of State for Gender Equality, France is launching a Francophone network for women’s equality and rights.

      This initiative will allow us to offer a space for consultation and coordination, bringing together representatives of States that are members and observers to the OIF – Francophone and non-Francophone – and Francophone States that are not members or observers, with a shared interest in and shared commitment to the promotion of women’s and girls’ rights and gender equality, and advisory bodies for equality between men and women. This network will bring together representatives of civil-society organizations. The initiative will gradually take shape, firstly with a limited number of States at the launch, and will have to take account of the Francophone world’s geographical diversity in its composition.

    Minister of State Thani Mohamed-Soilihi says:

    “This 19th summit has shown us that the Francophone world is resolutely forward-looking.

    “This series of measures is another step forward for an OIF that takes action on the educational, economic and cultural fronts and in terms of gender equality and furthering opportunities for our young people.

    “In a world in crisis, La Francophonie provides a remarkable space for multilateral cooperation, allowing its members to coordinate their vision of the world and be a force for progress and for transforming the world.”

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Scottish Greens hail private jet tax review

    Source: Scottish Greens

    08 Oct 2024 Transport Climate Action

    A private jet tax can fund our transition to a greener future.

    More in Transport

    The Scottish Greens have welcomed an announcement that the Scottish Government will be reviewing air departure tax rates, including for private jets specifically.

    Answering a question at the Finance and Public Administration Committee this morning, the Cabinet Secretary said the rates and bands, including the rates on private jet flights, would be reviewed to ensure they align with net zero ambitions.

    There were 12,911 recorded private flights to and from Scotland’s airports in 2023. A recent Oxfam study suggested a tax on these flights could raise up to £21.5 million. Private jets have estimated climate emissions of up to 14 times that of commercial flights.

    The Scottish Greens transport spokesperson, Mark Ruskell MSP, said: “Private jets have a huge environmental impact, and while their super-rich occupants pinball between their golf courses and yachts, it’s taxpayers who are left paying for the damage.

    “We all know that we urgently need to reduce aviation emissions, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to reduce private jet use. Taxing them fairly would deter such reckless flights, help move people to more sustainable modes of transport, and raise the funds to help us to mitigate the destructive impact they have on the rest of us.

    “We all know Labour cuts at Westminster mean money is tight in Scotland. But it isn’t enough to point this out, we must use every lever at our disposal to raise the funds we need for essential services and climate action. I can think of no better way of raising these funds than taxing super-rich polluters.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Six ways to holiday like an old-school travel journalist – without using the internet

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Masood Khodadadi, Reader (Associate Professor) in Tourism, Culture and Society, University of the West of Scotland

    The Travelling Companions by Augustus Leopold Egg (1862). Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

    We all want to get the most out of our holidays, which is why we so often turn to online “top things to see” lists, or TikTok recommendations of a destination’s best sights and eateries.

    But as useful as these strategies can be, using the internet to plan every detail of your travel omits the essence of discovery – the very thing that made pre-internet travel journalism so thrilling to read.

    These six tips explain how you can explore a new place like an old-school travel journalist or an explorer from a bygone era. They’ll enable you to look up from your phone, and discover your destination with intuition and curiosity.

    No one’s 20s and 30s look the same. You might be saving for a mortgage or just struggling to pay rent. You could be swiping dating apps, or trying to understand childcare. No matter your current challenges, our Quarter Life series has articles to share in the group chat, or just to remind you that you’re not alone.

    Read more from Quarter Life:

    1. Discard the itinerary and trust your gut

    Freya Madeline Stark by Herbert Arnould Olivier (1923).
    National Portrait Gallery

    Before smartphones, travel journalists such as Freya Stark and Bruce Chatwin depended on serendipity. They didn’t have TripAdvisor or Google Maps to guide them. Rather, they listened to their instincts and locals’ advice about how to shape their journey.

    A famous example is Chatwin walking through Patagonia after conversations with locals advised him of his next stop.

    Try this on your next adventure: walk without a plan. Follow your instincts towards any of the local cafes, quiet parks, or bustling markets. And if all else fails and you are not quite sure where to start, just stop and ask someone near you what it is that they love about the area. Many times, people’s stories will take you to places you would never have found online.

    2. Use analogue maps and guides

    Before GPS, maps weren’t just functional – they were part of the adventure. Travel writers like Jan Morris and Paul Theroux (father of documentary presenter, Louis) wrote about how their unfolding maps forced them to interact with the landscape in a tactile way.

    Pick up a local map in a bookshop or visitor centre and unfold it in a cafe. Mark where you have been and circle the areas you are curious about.

    In their early editions, guidebooks like The Rough Guide and Lonely Planet didn’t give a thorough list, but instead pushed cultural immersion travel, which is concerned with authentic activities. Think local traditions, history, language and customs of the place you’re visiting. Cultural immersion travel involves mingling with the residents to get an in-depth feel of how they live.

    Although carrying a printed guidebook seems vintage, this act plunges you back to the time when the discovery of hidden corners of a city was about turning pages, not scrolling.

    Chatting with locals is a great way to discover gems in a new place. English Tourists in Campagna by Carl Spitzweg (1845).
    Alte Nationalgalerie

    3. Speak to local people

    Pre-smartphone travellers had one irreplaceable resource at their disposal – people. On his long walks across Europe, for example, travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor relied on the people he met for insight into local customs, history and hidden gems.

    Do exactly the same thing. Go to a typical bar, a bazaar, a local event, or attend a course on the language or the cooking of the place. Engage a bartender, shop owner, or street vendor in a chat. These tips will steer you off the beaten path of algorithms.

    4. Immerse yourself in slow travel

    Travel journalists of the past were in no hurry. Rather than zipping from one attraction to the next, they stayed put for long enough to pull back the layers of a place. Writer Rebecca West’s trek through the Balkans (which she described in her 1941 book, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon) took months. Her long stays in villages allowed her to really get to know the place and its complexities.

    You should slow down on your next trip, too. Stay on in a small town or neighbourhood a little longer than you planned to. Stroll its streets and soak in the rhythms of daily life.

    5. Read travel literature

    The writers of travel history books, be it Robert Byron’s travels among the architecture and culture of Persia, or Isabella Bird entering unknown 19th-century Japan, articulate how their predecessors perceived the lands they visited.

    Read books written by local authors to get deeper into the cultural context of the place you’re visiting. You’ll find their reflections on their hometown or region often give you a more insightful, nuanced perspective than any modern day “top ten” list could.

    6. Research the history of every place you visit

    Writers like Colin Thubron included historical and cultural details to make their travel stories richer and more meaningful.

    Whether you find yourself at a local museum, reading up on the past of a place, or simply walking its streets with an eye for historical markers, learning the background of where you are can infuse your visit with added meaning.


    Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

    Masood Khodadadi 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. Six ways to holiday like an old-school travel journalist – without using the internet – https://theconversation.com/six-ways-to-holiday-like-an-old-school-travel-journalist-without-using-the-internet-240384

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Can visiting genocide memorials make you more empathic?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Magnus Linden, Associate professor of psychology, Lund University

    National memorial to the victims of the Rwandan genocide in Kigali. Oscar Espinosa/Shutterstock

    Each year, people visit museums and memorial sites as part of educational interventions organised around the remembrance of a genocide or an atrocity. Many schools visit a concentration camp as part of Holocaust education, such as Auschwitz-Birkenau. Others travel to memorial sites associated with other genocides, such as the massacre of Muslim men fleeing Srebrenica in Bosnia or the Tuol Sleng genocide museum in Cambodia.

    Two important goals for such education are to foster empathy towards the victims and to increase students’ personal identification with them as a group. In this context, empathy is the ability to feel with the victims and to be able to take their perspective .

    But what does science say about the effect of visiting genocidal memorial sites on empathy and identification with a victim group? Our study, published in Holocaust Studies in July, sheds some light on the question.

    The science of empathy

    While we may justly think of empathy as a personality feature, it is also a capacity that can be activated through social experiences. When we identify with a group of victims we perceive a “we” connecting us with the members of the group.

    We do know that both empathy and identification with another group have been shown to foster positive relations with others.

    They are also important qualities that can protect people threatened by genocide. Empathy was an important factor among those who helped persecuted people to survive during the Holocaust and the genocide in Rwanda, for example.

    Evidence suggests that Israeli high-school students visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau may increase their empathy towards Palestinians. That’s if they initially are already somewhat positive towards Palestinians in principle and if they are prepared to see suffering in universal rather than national terms.

    Auschwitz-Birkenau.
    wikipedia, CC BY-SA

    It has also been shown that groups of Polish students visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau increased their identification with Jews as a group before and after visiting the concentration camp.

    Clear evidence

    In our recent study, we investigated 143 high-school students from Malmö in Sweden, of which 46 took a short course on the Holocaust, including a trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

    We collected data both before and after the trip. We measured two facets of empathy in the students, “empathic concern” (such as “I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me”) and “perspective taking” (such as “Before criticising somebody, I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place”).

    We also measured to what extent they identified with Jews as a group by ratings of how close they felt.

    The results for this group were then compared with responses from a control group of students who did not participate in the course or trip to Auschwitz.

    We found that the Holocaust education and trip increased the students’ preparedness to identify with and take the perspective of Jews compared to those who didn’t go. However, both groups showed similar amount of empathic concern.

    Looking more closely at the change registered among students after the trip, we also found that a feeling of increased closeness to Jews as a group was related to increased perspective taking.

    Our work suggests a role of genocide education in fostering a broad empathic understanding of a victim group’s life and culture. This can provide important stimulation for students to put themselves in the shoes of an often “otherised” group, whose experience of hate and violence can be appreciated as if it is known from the inside.

    This is clearly important at a time when both Holocaust denial and Islamophobia are rising.

    Remaining mysteries

    There is a great need for more research on moral education interventions that involves a site or museum visit. Evaluating how this education works, and which aspects that have the intended effects, is of key importance. Cutting edge scientific methods, such as virtual reality, are now just beginning to make a difference to education in this area.

    We will next be working to pinpoint how trips to sites of atrocity affect students’ moral values, attitudes or behaviour.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Can visiting genocide memorials make you more empathic? – https://theconversation.com/can-visiting-genocide-memorials-make-you-more-empathic-239854

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How discovering the power of allusion enabled me to write better rap music

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Paul Stephen Adey, Rap Lyricist and Lecturer in Music Performance at Confetti Institute of Creative Technology, Nottingham Trent University

    For the first half of my music career, I never fully considered the technical aspects of the art form I practised. Up until my mid-30s, I’d been driven to pen lyrics by a compelling sense of advancement and peer recognition – to achieve some form of artistic acclaim in the UK rap genre.

    When thinking back to this earlier time, I imagine myself as being completely immersed in a darkness of my own ignorance, scrabbling around for passages and phrases without any real understanding of how and why these elements of the craft meant so much to me.

    As a mature student – during the final stages of a masters degree in creative writing – a seed of self-discovery began to germinate. I decided to combine my newly acquired passion for creative writing, critical analysis and literary techniques with my 20 years’ plus career as a rapper, music producer and live performer and embark on a PhD.

    On beginning my research, it became apparent that a technical element of my craft I desperately coveted was called “allusion”. Allusion is an implied reference, perhaps to another work of literature, art, person or event that forms a kind of appeal to the reader or listener. It’s a means of reaching out and sharing an experience with them.

    When using allusion, a writer draws upon common knowledge shared with their audience to find links between cultural understandings or traditions. Most importantly for me, some forms of allusion can be more specialised, even deliberately difficult to grasp. Almost immediately, a realisation hit me: I had practised, been inspired by, adapted and searched for, this technique in rap since my earliest memories of the art form.

    Allusion, as with the more contested literary concept of intertextuality (a term coined in the late 1960s by French philosopher and critic Julia Kristeva to recognise the multiplicity of meaning within a text) has been used in rap and hip-hop culture since its beginnings. In fact, as musicologist Justin Williams points out in his book Rhymin’ and Stealin’ (2013), intertextuality serves as an integral part of the culture’s function. To “borrow” from a wide variety of artistic mediums is key to how hip-hop works, and is partly responsible for how it has thrived for half a century.

    I discovered multiple forms of intertextual engagement in rap while researching my PhD, but one technique stuck out to me the most. Rappers would draw on the words of authors to clarify their points, or further emphasise emotional impact in their work.

    For example, Nas and Kendrick Lamar have used the power of novelist Alice Walker’s writing to enhance their lyrics (both have “borrowed” from The Colour Purple). Lamar also employed the writing of Maya Angelou to add depth and complexity to his early conceptual material.

    Even borrowing a mere two words can have huge intellectual implications for a rap song. Just listen to Earl Sweatshirt’s Shattered Dreams (2018), and his use of James Baldwin’s voice from his inspirational 1962 lecture The Artist’s Struggle for Integrity. It’s a prime example of how this technique manifests itself in the genre.

    When thinking about how rappers engage with allusion and intertextuality, activist and rap artist Yasiin Bey, aka Mos Def, sums it up well:

    Hip Hop is a medium where you can get a lot of information into a very small space. And make it hold fast to people’s memory. It’s just a very radical form of information transferal.

    A ‘sonic-literary journey’

    With a clearer understanding of how deeply allusion and intertextuality runs through hip-hop, I began to craft a new body of work. This material eventually translated (after almost a decade) into a trilogy of LPs, the first of the three being titled S.T.A.R.V.E..

    I wanted to make S.T.A.R.V.E. part of a literary and musical tradition that has long attempted to decipher the feeling of isolation, and its links to mental illness or psychological downfall.

    To do so, I alluded to (and intertextually engaged with) various texts that have historically served as investigations into the sense of disconnectedness, or loneliness within a crowd, that I believe we have all felt at some point in our lives. In my opinion, S.T.A.R.V.E. is more of a novella than an album. It is a narrative as old as the hills, retold in my own image. It just so happens that my preferred medium is music, and my preferred practice is rap.

    Strongbow, the leading track on the author’s album, S.T.A.R.V.E.

    S.T.A.R.V.E. is a highly intertextual project. Poetic quotes on the album span from Charles Bukowski to Robert Frost, while borrowed themes stretch from Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly (2015) to Knut Hamsun’s Hunger (1890).

    Previously conceived conceptual frameworks are also built upon, such as the nihilistic sentiment captured in Nas’s early work on Illmatic (1994), and Mark Fisher’s ideas on capitalism and “depressive anhedonia” in Ghosts of my Life (2014). This is all set against a backdrop of purgatorial imagery prominent in the work of figurative painter Francis Bacon and depicted by film director Adrian Lyne in his groundbreaking psychological horror film, Jacob’s Ladder (1990).

    Of all artistic mediums, I believe music is most open for interpretation. This means that what is taken from the music can often seem a million miles from authorial intentions. But this might be the point.

    When S.T.A.R.V.E. is heard, it will ultimately be down to the ear of the beholder as to which connections and meanings are drawn from the recording. At the end of the day, as Ethan Hawke states on Strongbow, a leading track taken from S.T.A.R.V.E. that quotes Paul Schrader’s 2017 film, First Reformed: “It’s about you.”


    Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

    I dedicate this article to Mark Fisher, whose writing on themes that run close to S.T.A.R.V.E.’s heart serves as another intertextual source of power for the LP. In 2014, Fisher wrote: “The pandemic of mental anguish that afflicts our time cannot be properly understood, or healed, if viewed as a private problem suffered by damaged individuals.”

    – ref. How discovering the power of allusion enabled me to write better rap music – https://theconversation.com/how-discovering-the-power-of-allusion-enabled-me-to-write-better-rap-music-238286

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Turkey’s plan to recycle more has made life hard for its informal waste pickers

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Tulin Dzhengiz, Lecturer in Sustainability, Manchester Metropolitan University

    A waste picker towing his cart through a street in Antalya, Turkey. Evgeny Haritonov/Shutterstock

    Turkey’s 500,000 or so informal waste pickers carry out around 80% of the recycling in the country. These workers, who are also known as çekçekçi, are essential for separating out waste in a country where this is rarely done at source.

    But their lives are precarious. Most of them are unregistered, lack social security, and have no access to basic services such as healthcare. And now they find themselves affected by efforts that formalise Turkey’s waste management system.

    Many of the workers are migrants. But large-scale immigration over recent years, particularly from conflict zones such as Afghanistan and Syria, has contributed to a rise in nationalistic sentiment throughout the country.

    This has seen immigrants – and particularly waste pickers – portrayed in a negative fashion. Waste pickers have, for instance, been labelled “şehir eşkıyası” (urban bandits) by the media. And many people have argued that Turkiye’s informal waste-picking practices should come to an end.

    Yavuz Eroğlu, the president of a non-profit organisation called PAGÇEV that promotes plastic recycling in Turkey, pointed out recently that the country’s “real problem” is its informal waste collection system. In Eroğlu’s view, informal waste picking impedes the effective scaling of recycling initiatives and prevents Turkey from improving its position in the global recycling market.

    Recycling facilities in Turkey require a steady and substantial supply of raw waste materials to function efficiently. But, according to the Turkish Statistics Institution, a mere 12% of the country’s municipal waste was recovered in 2018 – and it is not clear how much of this was actually recycled. This is not nearly enough to keep recycling companies afloat.

    So, in an effort to improve Turkey’s domestic waste management, the Turkish government launched an initiative in 2022 to regulate and formalise waste collection. The legislation requires that local authorities work exclusively with licensed recyclers and registered pickers to sort through and sell waste.

    Resistance movements have subsequently emerged within the çekçekçi community that advocate for the rights and recognition of informal waste pickers in Turkey. These movements have either reinforced the importance of existing waste picker collectives, or led to the creation of new non-profit organisations and cooperatives.

    In Istanbul, for example, the Şişli municipality launched an environmental waste collectors cooperative in 2023 in an attempt to formally integrate informal waste pickers into the municipal waste management system.

    This has involved registering waste pickers, issuing official identification cards, and providing them with access to designated waste collection zones. Similar models have also emerged in different parts of the country. But many of Turkey’s waste pickers remain locked out of the new formal system.

    The framing of informality as the problem is not new, nor is it limited to representatives of Turkey’s plastic recycling industry. In August 2021, the governor of Istanbul’s office ordered a crackdown on informal waste collection activities.

    Police carried out raids on nearly 100 waste collection depots and seized 650 collection carts. More than 200 people were detained in the raids, including 145 Afghan migrants who were sent to a deportation centre.

    The governor’s office justified the action by citing environmental and public health concerns, as well as the unregulated nature of employment in informal waste picking. In a statement, the office argued that unauthorised waste collection leads to unfair profits and announced that inspections would continue.

    Waste workers responded by criticising the governor’s claims and expressed frustration over being labelled as benefiting from unfair profits while living in precarious conditions without social security or a stable income.

    Importing more waste

    In fieldwork carried out between March and April 2024, I spoke with representatives of waste collectors, junk shop owners and waste traders in Istanbul.

    Some reported that there had been a decline in waste-picking rates since the crackdown of 2021. Waste collectors and their representatives expressed concerns that this decline could lead to a further reduction in domestic recycling rates and increase the reliance of recycling facilities on imported waste.

    Turkey is already one of the largest importers of waste from Europe. In 2022, for example, Turkey accounted for 39% of Europe’s waste exports, which included around 400,000 tonnes of plastic.

    Turkiye is a major importer of waste from Europe.
    Sahan Nuhoglu / Shutterstock

    This waste has serious consequences for the environment and human health. A Greenpeace report published in 2022 found that toxins released from Turkey’s plastic waste end up in the fruit and vegetables produced in the Çukurova valley, one of the most fertile valleys in the world.

    A continued decline in domestic waste collection in Turkey would create a vicious cycle. The value of Turkey’s own waste will decrease, further impoverishing informal waste pickers, all while the country’s reliance on imported waste grows to sustain its recycling infrastructure.

    The future of informal waste picking in Turkey remains uncertain. But as the country continues to formalise its waste management system, the challenges facing the sector’s informal workers must not be ignored.

    Tulin Dzhengiz receives funding from Manchester Metropolitan University’s Research Accelarator Grant to carry out this research.

    – ref. Turkey’s plan to recycle more has made life hard for its informal waste pickers – https://theconversation.com/turkeys-plan-to-recycle-more-has-made-life-hard-for-its-informal-waste-pickers-238661

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –