NewzIntel.com

Category: Africa

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Activist News – Christchurch City becomes the first New Zealand city to sanction Israel – PSNA

    Source: Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa

     

    This morning Christchurch City became the first city in New Zealand to sanction Israel after passing a resolution to amend its procurement policy to exclude companies building and maintaining illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. 

     

    “We are delighted the council has taken a stand against Israel’s ongoing theft of Palestinian land”, says PSNA National Chair John Minto.

     

    “It has been the failure of western governments to hold Israel to account which means Israel has a 76-year history of oppression and brutal abuse of Palestinians.”

     

    “Today Israel is running riot across the Middle East because it has never been held to account for 76 years of flagrant breaches of international law,” says Minto.

     

    “The motion passed by Christchurch City today helps to end Israeli impunity for war crimes” (Building settlements on occupied land belonging to others is a war crime under international law)

     

    “The motion is a small but significant step in sanctioning Israel. Many more steps must follow”.

     

    “We are particularly pleased the council rejected the red herrings and obfuscations of New Zealand Jewish Council spokesperson Ben Kepes who urged councillors to reject the motion”

     

    “Mr Kepes presentation was a repetition of the tired, old arguments used by white South Africans to avoid accountability for their apartheid policies last century – policies which are mirrored in Israel today”

     

    Before the vote PSNA National Chair John Minto and University of Canterbury lecturer Josephine Varghese spoke in favour of the motion backed by a packed public gallery displaying a “Stop the genocide” banner.

     

    “It would be nice to think the government would pick up resolution 2334 and show leadership in sanctioning Israel rather than leaving it to local bodies”

     

    John Minto

    National Chair

    Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Uganda: Criminalization shrinks online civic space for LGBTQ people – report

    Source: Amnesty International –

    Online attacks against Uganda’s LGBTQ communities have drastically increased, owing to overly broad laws that criminalize various aspects of the lives of LGBTQ people and entrench discrimination, Amnesty International said in a new report today.

    The report, “Everybody Here Is Having Two Lives and Phones”: The Devastating Impact of Criminalization on Digital Spaces for LGBTQ People in Uganda, details widespread patterns of technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TfGBV) against LGBTQ people in Uganda. It documents cases of doxing, outing, threats of violence, blackmailing, impersonation, hacking and disinformation — further marginalizing LGBTQ people, especially those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.

    The Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) 2023, in particular, was found to have fostered a climate of impunity for attacks against LGBTQ people, forcing both individuals and organizations to significantly alter how they present themselves and engage with people online.

    “Our research shows that, while LGBTQ activists and organizations have continued to use digital spaces in a very hostile environment, the stigma, violence, and discrimination they face in offline spaces has been mirrored and amplified in digital spaces,” said Shreshtha Das, Amnesty International’s Gender Researcher/Advisor.

    “TfGBV has devastating consequences for LGBTQ people, as online targeting can result in offline consequences, including arbitrary arrests, torture and other ill-treatment, forced evictions, dismissal from work, exposure to offline violence, as well as stress, anxiety and depression.”

    TfGBV has devastating consequences for LGBTQ people, as online targeting can result in offline consequences, including arbitrary arrests, torture and other ill-treatment, forced evictions, dismissal from work, exposure to offline violence, as well as stress, anxiety and depression.”

    Shreshtha Das, Amnesty International’s Gender Researcher/Advisor

    Amnesty International conducted research across six Ugandan cities and neighbouring areas, including 64 interviews with LGBTQ individuals and organizations. The research reveals widespread TfGBV and highlights not only the failure of state authorities to prevent or address these abuses, but also their active role in encouraging and condoning them, exposing LGBTQ people to grave human rights abuses.

    A ‘witch hunt’

    LGBTQ individuals and organizations in Uganda rely on digital platforms to connect with their communities, share information about sexual health services, and protect their rights.

    “Instead of adopting policies to combat TfGBV, the Ugandan authorities have clamped down on human rights defenders and organizations, placing discriminatory restrictions on their work.

    Marco Perolini, Amnesty International’s Civic Space Policy Advisor

    The prevalence of TfGBV, however, has severely limited the possibilities for LGBTQ people to access, communicate and come together in digital spaces, while also hindering the outreach efforts of many organizations. Those providing health services to marginalized groups have been forced to avoid advertising their services online, fearing that the authorities could arbitrarily suspend their registration based on spurious accusations of “promoting homosexuality”.

    “Instead of adopting policies to combat TfGBV, the Ugandan authorities have clamped down on human rights defenders and organizations, placing discriminatory restrictions on their work. Their acts amount to a witch-hunt against those perceived as “promoting homosexuality”, creating a chilling effect on the rights to freedom of expression and association,” said Marco Perolini, Amnesty International’s Civic Space Policy Advisor.

    The report documents numerous instances where police seized devices or data of LGBTQ people by threatening them with arrest. Moreover, both police and private individuals have used social media platforms to connect with LGBTQ people first, and then target them with physical violence and blackmailing.

    Blackmail was the most prevalent form of TfGBV noted across all locations. In addition, both police and private individuals have outed LGBTQ people, exposing them to online abuse, threats, physical violence, forced evictions and dismissal from work.

    Amnesty International found that the widespread use of derogatory and offensive language against LGBTQ people is pervasive online, as well as disinformation campaigns that portray LGBTQ people in harmful ways, including depicting them as “sexual predators”.

    These narratives reinforce the stereotyping of LGBTQ people and led to emotional distress, social ostracization, economic hardship and, in some cases, physical violence.

    “Nowadays, digital spaces, which are so vital for LGBTQ people in Uganda, are often no safer than offline spaces — they are experiencing discrimination and violence in both,” said Roland Ebole, Amnesty International’s Uganda researcher.

    Prejudicial laws worsening homophobia and transphobia

    While TfGBV against LGBTQ individuals was common in Uganda before, its severity and prevalence have surged since the passage of the AHA 2023, which has intensified homophobic and transphobic public discourse.

    All interviewees told Amnesty International that they would not report TfGBV to the police due to fears of being outed, blackmailed or arrested. In the few instances when LGBTQ people reported TfGBV cases, the police failed to take any action and instead subjected them to further humiliation.

    “Nowadays, digital spaces, which are so vital for LGBTQ people in Uganda, are often no safer than offline spaces — they are experiencing discrimination and violence in both,”

    Roland Ebole, Amnesty International’s Uganda researcher.

    LGBTQ individuals and organizations also said that reporting cases of TfGBV on social media platforms remained challenging. They often did not know how to report abuses. In spite of social media platforms’ policies to address TfGBV, concerns remain regarding content moderation, especially in widely spoken local languages other than English.

    Out of all the entities Amnesty International wrote to, including various state authorities in Uganda, private organizations, and social media companies (Meta, TikTok and X) detailing our findings, only Meta and TikTok responded. Their responses have been reflected in the report.

    “The Ugandan Parliament must immediately repeal the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 and other laws that criminalize acts and behaviours that disproportionately impact LGBTQ people,” said Shreshtha Das.

    “The authorities must also establish an independent mechanism to conduct effective, prompt, impartial, and independent investigations into allegations of TfGBV and other human rights violations committed against LGBTQ people.”

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Let’s tax carbon: Ross Garnaut on why the time is right for a second shot at carbon pricing

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ross Garnaut, Professorial Research Fellow in Economics, The University of Melbourne

    Damitha Jayawardena/Shutterstock

    Australia now has a government and parliament wanting timely transition to net zero. We have a government and parliament wanting to build Australia as the renewable energy superpower of the zero-carbon world economy. For the time being, we have favourable international settings for using our opportunity.

    The government of Australia has embraced this superpower narrative, taken some big steps towards supporting its emergence, and articulated sound principles for guiding further policy development.

    But Australians in business and the community wanting to make large efforts to turn opportunity into reality find themselves in a tangle of policy uncertainty and contradiction.

    The source of the problem is the abolition of carbon pricing in 2014. Since then, the Commonwealth government has worked within constraints that rule out success.

    We can make a start towards net zero and becoming a renewable energy superpower without moving the constraints, but we can’t get far. This is a problem for any government of Australia, and not only for the current Labor government. We will not rise sustainably out of the post-pandemic dog days until we get energy policy right.

    Striking the right balance

    Striking the right balance between state intervention and market exchange is always essential for successful economic development, in all places.

    The market generally delivers goods and services more cost-effectively than the state where there is genuine competition among suppliers and purchasers of goods and services.

    The difference is especially large and important at a time of structural change and uncertainty. State decisions inevitably tend towards continuation on established paths and slow response to new opportunities.

    Australia will not make use of more than a small fraction of the superpower opportunities available to it without immense contributions from an innovative, competitive private business sector.

    So we have to design energy and related markets that provide the widest possible scope for competition among enterprises within clear rules understood in advance of investment decisions by all market participants.

    The state has to do well the things that only the state can do. Because government capacity is a finite resource, it is much more likely that it will do the essential things well if it doesn’t try to do the things that markets do well.

    The state must define the boundaries between the services that it delivers and those to be delivered by the market.

    In the electricity sector, government must take responsibility for design of the market rules and compliance with them. It must provide the natural monopoly services of electricity transmission and hydrogen transportation and storage. It must take ultimate responsibility for system security and reliability.

    For any market to work, individual market participants must be blocked by regulation from damaging others through their business decisions, or subject to a tax equal to the costs they impose on others. And they must be rewarded for large benefits that they confer on others.

    This is essential economics. Its understatement in Productivity Commission and financial media commentary on energy and climate policy discussion over the past decade reveals the debasement of Australian political culture that gave us the dog days.

    It has been politically incorrect to tell the truth out loud.

    It’s time for carbon pricing

    A crucial element of post-2030 market design is introduction of a green premium for zero-carbon energy.

    It is obviously necessary for low-cost decarbonisation and expansion of the electricity sector and building Australia as a renewable energy superpower. The green premium is crucial for securing international market access for the zero-carbon export industries.

    One of the dog days constraints on policy is that there should be no mandatory demands on private investors. Those constraints must be broken for the green premium to reflect the social cost of carbon, as it must if we are to achieve net zero by 2050 and build Australia as the renewable energy superpower.

    The economically efficient way of achieving the premium is carbon pricing. It would be most efficient within an economy-wide system, although it could be introduced initially for the electricity sector and extended to other industries later.

    Investors now need to know soon that there will be a premium reasonably related to the social cost of carbon after the Renewable Energy Target ends in 2030.

    What matters for the superpower industries is the green premiums for which they are eligible in other countries. Pending the emergence of appropriate premiums, the Commonwealth is proposing payments from the budget.

    That is appropriate. It can get the early movers started. It would be expensive if it continued for long. The superpower industries will grow rapidly if they have access to premiums corresponding to the social cost of carbon. Over time, payments from the Australian budget will be replaced by market premiums in destination countries.

    There are several possible forms of carbon pricing. The system operating in Australia from 2012 to 2014 was economically and environmentally efficient.

    It would have been linked to the EU Emissions Trading System from July 1 2014 if it had not been abolished the day before. The Australian carbon price would be equal to the European price. We would be introducing a European-type Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism to ensure that Australian producers were not disadvantaged by competition in the domestic market from suppliers who were not subject to similar carbon constraints. The ETS (emissions trading scheme) would be contributing around 2% of GDP to public revenues – going a substantial part of the way to answering the daunting budget challenge to restoration of Australian prosperity.

    Part of that increased revenue could support payments to power users to ensure there was no increase in power prices to users until expansion of renewable generation and storage had brought costs down – along the lines of the A$300 per household introduced in the 2024 budget, but larger.

    The arrangements would provide automatic access for zero-carbon Australian goods to the high-priced European market. There would be no need to provide for a green premium for sales to Europe from the Australian market. The green premiums in other markets would at first need to be covered, as they are now, from the Australian public revenue.

    A carbon solutions levy

    Rod Sims (former chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) and I have suggested a carbon solutions levy. It is administratively simpler than the ETS. It would initially raise much more revenue.

    We propose exemption for coal and gas exports to countries in which Australian zero-carbon exports attract a premium comparable to the EU carbon price, even if it is not generated through an ETS.

    We would hope that if the carbon solutions levy were to be introduced from 2030, our major trading partners would by that time have introduced green premiums that justify exemption from the levy for coal and gas exports to those countries.

    The European Union would be exempt from the beginning. The Northeast Asian economies are moving towards eventual justification of exemption. China now has a country-wide emissions trading system.

    The carbon price in July 2024 is about A$21 per tonne, having increased by 50% since early in the year. The price is expected to continue rising until it is playing a major role in transformation of Chinese industry.

    Incidentally, China undertook to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that its emissions would peak by 2030, but its rapid expansion of renewable energy generation, electric vehicles and zero-carbon industrial technologies suggest that the peak may have come in 2023.

    Japan is working on direct budgetary support for importers of zero-carbon products which could pass through into a premium for zero-carbon exports from Australia.

    During a visit in April 2024, I was advised that the Japanese government is working towards issue of “green bonds” to pay for the premium. A carbon tax from 2035 would meet the cost of servicing and retiring the bonds.

    Korea and Taiwan are introducing their own mechanisms for supporting premiums for zero-carbon imports.

    One initial criticism of the carbon solutions levy is that it would cause leakage of Australian exports to competing suppliers of gas and coal. There would be some leakage, alongside substantial transfers from rents to the public revenues, and for metallurgical coal in particular, some increase in export prices.

    The price increase would introduce an element of green premium for Australian green iron exports. The Superpower Institute (a non-profit research organisation founded by Sims and I) has commissioned the Centre of Policy Studies at Victoria University to quantify the extent of leakage, transfers from rent and higher export prices. The results will be available for public discussion early in 2025. The study will also calculate the effect of the levy on Australian public finances, real incomes and real consumption.

    Regional considerations

    Australia’s main competitor in regional coal markets is Indonesia. Its main competitors in gas markets are Papua New Guinea, East Timor, Indonesia, Brunei and the Middle East petroleum producers.

    No informed person would suggest that there could be an economic problem with leakage to the Middle East: Saudi Arabia and the small Gulf states extract revenue from petroleum exports at much higher rates per dollar than Australia would after imposition of the levy.

    There is a case in the Australian national interest for not seeing expansion of export sales from Papua New Guinea and East Timor as being entirely a waste.

    But in their national interest and ours, I suggest that we seek to negotiate a four-way agreement on climate and energy with Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea.

    We would all impose carbon solutions levy-type levies at similar rates. This would be a major source of revenue for all of us.

    Participation of Indonesia removes leakage of coal exports. Indonesia already has an emissions trading scheme, although it generates a carbon price of only a few dollars per tonne.

    It may choose to remove other imposts on fossil carbon exports at the time of introduction of new carbon-related measures – such as the requirement to make 35% of coal exports available at prices well below international prices for domestic power generation.

    Participation of the four countries removes the leakage issue for gas. The four neighbours would cooperate in major development programs based on expansion of zero-carbon energy supply and goods production.

    There is active discussion in Indonesia of archipelago-wide electricity transmission infrastructure to allow the superior renewable energy resources of the outer islands – Papua, Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi, Kalimantan, Sumatra – to contribute to decarbonisation and growth of zero-carbon industry everywhere, including in the Java heartland.

    The Indonesian grid would run close to neighbouring Australia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, East and West Malaysia and the Philippines. It would be the geopolitically practical means of linking Australia and Singapore, as envisaged in the SunCable project in the Northern Territory.

    The Indonesian national grid could link to the Australian Sungrid discussed in my book The Superpower Transformation in Darwin and the Pilbara.

    The alternatives to carbon pricing are weak

    The alternatives to economy-wide carbon pricing are likely to turn out to be short-lived expedients that lead sooner rather than later to the return of today’s incoherence and underperformance in energy and climate policy and performance.

    The state must provide reliability of power supply to the general population.

    The Commonwealth government can do this without distorting competitive electricity markets by establishing an energy reserve I have proposed in my book The Superpower Transformation.

    The superpower industries depend on electricity and hydrogen markets operating efficiently and embodying carbon prices. Otherwise the market design issues relevant to their development are similar to those for electricity.

    Negative carbon externalities need to be corrected by taxation or alternative carbon pricing mechanisms. Positive externalities from innovation should be rewarded.

    Positive innovation externalities are important in the introduction of new industries, technologies and business models for the zero-carbon economy.

    Economy-wide carbon pricing at the social cost of carbon is essential to getting the balance right between state intervention and market exchange.

    Once it is in place with fiscal rewards for innovation, the government can let businesses decide which new industries and technologies warrant investment.

    Once carbon pricing is known to be coming into place reasonably soon, there is no further need for government underwriting of investment in power generation.

    There is no need to include a climate trigger in assessment of a project of any kind: if it emits carbon, it will pay for the climate damage it does.

    There is no need for government to take a view on climate grounds about the merits of nuclear power generation. It is zero-emissions generation and, like renewable energy, not subject to the carbon price. If it can compete with other forms of generation, it will find a place in private investment decisions on the energy mix.

    There is no need for government investment in nuclear power generation. Private investors will have the same incentives to invest in nuclear as in other zero-carbon generation technologies.

    There will be no need for the government to take a view on incentives for carbon capture and storage. If it is effective and emissions are actually reduced, carbon payments will be correspondingly reduced.

    The carbon price will allow private investors to get on with the job of expanding renewable energy supply at a rapid pace and decarbonising the economy more generally.

    This is an edited extract from Ross Garnaut’s new book, Let’s Tax Carbon: And Other Ideas for a Better Australia.

    Ross Garnaut is a Director and shareholder of Zen Energy. Together with Rod Sims, Ross is a co-founder and Director of The Superpower Institute, a not for profit think tank.

    – ref. Let’s tax carbon: Ross Garnaut on why the time is right for a second shot at carbon pricing – https://theconversation.com/lets-tax-carbon-ross-garnaut-on-why-the-time-is-right-for-a-second-shot-at-carbon-pricing-241806

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI China: China’s dark energy detector granted SKA pathfinder status

    Source: China State Council Information Office 2

    This undated file photo shows an array of China’s Tianlai Experiment, a project aimed to test key technologies for detecting dark energy, in the Kazak Autonomous County of Barkol in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. [Photo/National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences]
    China’s Tianlai Experiment, a scientific project aimed at detecting dark energy using a radio telescope array, has been officially granted “pathfinder” status by the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Observatory, according to the National Astronomical Observatories (NAOC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
    The SKA is a next-generation giant radio telescope array that is under construction. Once completed, it will be the world’s largest radio telescope array. China, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Australia and six other nations make up the project’s official membership.
    Facilities involved in SKA-related science and technology studies are called SKA pathfinders or SKA precursors. Several radio telescopes around the world have been certified as SKA pathfinders, said Chen Xuelei, chief scientist of the Tianlai Experiment and a researcher at the NAOC, which operates the project.
    The latest discoveries from these pathfinders can provide new scientific exploration opportunities for the SKA, and their related technologies may be applied to the construction of the SKA and future radio telescopes, Chen said.
    Located in the Kazak Autonomous County of Barkol in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the Tianlai Experiment consists of two arrays: the Tianlai cylinder array, which has three adjacent cylindrical reflectors with a total of 96 receivers, and the Tianlai dish array, which consists of 16 dishes, each six meters in diameter.
    The project aims to test key technologies for detecting dark energy, which is thought to make up about 70 percent of the cosmos and drive the acceleration of its expansion.
    Dark energy cannot be detected directly, but its abundance and properties can be analyzed by observing how the expansion rate of the universe changes over time. The “sound” of the Big Bang left an imprint on the matter distribution in the early universe that has now grown into large-scale structures. By studying the large-scale matter distribution, astronomers can derive these “baryon acoustic oscillations” and determine the cosmic expansion rate over time.
    Tianlai, which literally means “heavenly sounds,” aims to detect these acoustic oscillations. It will search for the 21-centimeter signals emitted by hydrogen atoms, with hydrogen being the most abundant element in the universe. As the universe is expanding, these 21-centimeter signals have gradually shifted to longer wavelengths in a process referred to as “redshift.”
    The Tianlai Experiment will cover a range of radio wavelengths — thereby also covering redshifted signals — to generate a map of the three-dimensional distribution of matter in the universe, Chen said.
    The Tianlai research team is composed of scholars and graduate students at the NAOC and other Chinese universities, as well as experts and scholars from foreign research institutions. 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Human Rights Council Concludes Fifty-Seventh Regular Session after Adopting 37 Resolutions and One Statement by the President

    Source: United Nations – Geneva

    Council Extends Mandates of Nine Country and One Thematic Mandate Holders

    The Human Rights Council today concluded its fifty-seventh regular session after adopting 37 resolutions and one Statement by the President, in which it, among others, extended the mandates of nine country and one thematic mandate holders.

    The Council extended the mandate of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka under agenda item two.

    It extended for a period of one year the mandates of the independent international fact-finding mission for the Sudan under agenda item two; of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burundi, under agenda item four; and of the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia, the Team of International Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in the Central African Republic under agenda item 10.

    Under agenda item four, the mandate of the independent international fact-finding mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela was extended for a period of two years. 

    The Council also decided to extend, for a period of three years, the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change.

    Further resolutions adopted concerned the thirtieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action; the role of good governance in the promotion and protection of human rights; countering cyberbullying; promotion of a democratic and equitable order; the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination; social reintegration of persons released from detention and persons subjected to non-custodial measures; the World Programme for Human Rights Education: the plan of action for the fifth phase; and on terrorism and human rights.

    Other resolutions concerned local government and human rights; the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation; the human rights of migrants; human rights and indigenous peoples; promoting accessibility for the full enjoyment of all human rights by all; equal participation in political and public affairs; the elimination of domestic violence; the right to development; the situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic; national human rights institutions; education as a tool to prevent racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance; from rhetoric to reality: a global call for concrete action against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance; technical assistance and capacity-building to address the human rights implications of the nuclear legacy in the Marshall Islands; biodiversity and human rights; promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the Internet; and youth and human rights.

    Resolutions on the enhancement of technical cooperation and capacity-building in the field of human rights; cooperation with Georgia; and technical assistance and capacity-building for Yemen in the field of human rights were also adopted.

    The President’s Statement adopted concerned the report of the Advisory Committee on its thirty-first session. 

    During the session, the Council adopted the final outcomes of the Universal Periodic Review of 14 States, namely those of New Zealand, Afghanistan, Chile, Cyprus, Viet Nam, Yemen, Vanuatu, North Macedonia, Comoros, Slovakia, Eritrea, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic and Cambodia.

    At the end of the session, the Council appointed four Special Procedures mandate holders: the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, Nils Muižnieks (Latvia); for the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, member from Western European and other States, Isabel Mamadou (Spain); for the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, member from Asia-Pacific States, Mohammed Al-Obaidi (Iraq); and for the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination, member from Latin American and Caribbean States, Andrés Macias Tolosa (Colombia). 

    The Council also elected four members of its Advisory Committee: Frans Viljoen (African States), Miznah O.Alomair (Asia-Pacific States), Alessandra Devulsky (Latin American and Caribbean States), and Vassilis Tzevelekos (Western Europe and other States).

    Darius Staniulis, Vice-President and Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council, said over the past five weeks, the Council completed its extensive programme of work.  It held 23 interactive dialogues with Special Procedures mandate holders and expert mechanisms; nine interactive dialogues with the High Commissioner, Deputy High Commissioner, Assistant Secretary-General and other Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Representatives; five dialogues with international investigative mechanisms; five enhanced interactive dialogues; six panel discussions; and nine general debates.  The Council also adopted 14 outcomes of the Universal Periodic Review.  Finally, the Council completed the adoption of 37 resolutions and one President’s Statement across a wide range of issues.

    The Council adopted the draft report of the fifth-seventh session ad referendum.

    Omar Zniber, President of the Human Rights Council, in his concluding remarks,

    extended his deepest gratitude to the members of the Bureau, the Secretariat and all other United Nations staff for their cooperation, support and dedication during the session.  Mr. Zniber said the fifty-seventh session had been a success and was an example of multilateralism.

    The fifty-eighth regular session of the Human Rights Council is scheduled to be held from 24 February to 4 April 2025.

    Action on a Statement by the President Under Agenda Item One on Organizational and Procedural Matters

    In a Statement by the President (A/HRC/57/L.13) on the Report of the Advisory Committee, adopted without a vote, the Council takes note of the report of the Advisory Committee on its thirty-first session.

    Action on Resolutions Under Agenda Item Two on the Annual Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General 

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.1) on Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka, adopted without a vote, the Council decides to extend the mandate of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and all work requested of it by the Council in its resolution 51/1, and requests the Office to present an oral update to the Council at its fifty-eighth session and a comprehensive report on progress in reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka at its sixtieth session, to be discussed in an interactive dialogue.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.22) on Responding to the human rights and humanitarian crisis caused by the ongoing armed conflict in the Sudan, adopted by a vote of 23 in favour, 12 against and 12 abstentions, the Council reiterates its call for an immediate and complete ceasefire by all parties, without preconditions, and a negotiated and peaceful resolution to the conflict on the basis of inclusive, Sudan-owned and Sudan-led dialogue; decides to extend the mandate of the independent international fact-finding mission for the Sudan for a period of one year; requests the fact-finding mission to provide the Council with an oral update on its work at its fifty-ninth session and a comprehensive report at its sixtieth session, to be followed by an interactive dialogue, and to submit the report to the General Assembly at its eightieth session.

     In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.24) on the Situation of human rights in Afghanistan, adopted without a vote, the Council decides to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan for a period of one year, and requests the Special Rapporteur to present a report to the Council at its fifty-eighth session, including a separate study on the so-called “Law on propagation of virtue and prevention of vice”, to provide an oral update to the Council at its sixtieth session and to present a report to the General Assembly at its eightieth session; requests the Special Rapporteur to prepare a report on access to justice and protection for women and girls…and to present it to the Council at its fifty-ninth session, to be followed by an enhanced interactive dialogue; and also requests the Office of the High Commissioner to present, during an enhanced interactive dialogue at the sixtieth session of the Council, a comprehensive report, including a mapping of policies and practices, edicts and so-called laws by the Taliban that impair the enjoyment of human rights; and decides to remain seized of the matter.

    Action on Resolutions Under Agenda Item Three on the Promotion and Protection of All Human Rights, Civil, Political and Cultural Rights, Including the Right to Development 

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.2) on Marking the thirtieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted without a vote , the Council decides to convene, during the high-level segment at its fifty-eighth session, a high-level panel discussion to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women; invites the President of the Human Rights Council to consider the theme “Thirtieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action” for the annual high-level panel discussion on human rights mainstreaming, to be held at the fifty-eighth session of the Council; and also requests the High Commissioner to prepare a summary report on the panel discussion.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.5) on the Role of good governance in the promotion and protection of human rights, adopted without a vote, the Council requests the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee to prepare a study on the impact of artificial intelligence systems on good governance…highlighting good practices around the globe on the ways to develop, deploy, use and govern artificial intelligence systems, and to present the study to the Human Rights Council at its sixty-second session.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.7) on Countering cyberbullying, adopted without a vote, the Council decides to include the topic of countering cyberbullying against persons with disabilities in the context of its next annual interactive debate on the rights of persons with disabilities, to be held at its fifty-eighth session; requests the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a report … on countering cyberbullying against older persons, and to present the report to the Council at its sixty-second session; and decides to remain seized of the matter.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.9) on the Promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, adopted by a vote of 27 in favour, 15 against and 5 abstentions, the Council calls upon States and the United Nations system to minimise the adverse impact of multiple interrelated global crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, through the strengthening and enhancement of international cooperation; requests the High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to provide all the human and financial resources necessary for the effective fulfilment of the mandate by the Independent Expert; and invites the Independent Expert to study and present concrete measures that can be adopted by States and international institutions to contribute to the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order and the transformation of the international financial architecture, in close cooperation with relevant stakeholders from all regions.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.10) on the Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination, adopted by a vote of 29 in favour, 14 against and 4 abstentions, the Council urges once again all States to exercise the utmost vigilance against the threat posed by the activities of mercenaries; and requests the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination to continue the work already carried out by previous mandate holders on the strengthening of international law and the international legal framework for the prevention and sanction of the recruitment, use, financing, arming and training of mercenaries, and to study and identify new sources and causes, emerging issues, manifestations and trends.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.17/Rev.1) on Social reintegration of persons released from detention and persons subjected to non-custodial measures, adopted without a vote, the Council requests the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a comprehensive study, with practical recommendations on human rights and the social reintegration of persons released from detention and persons subjected to non-custodial measures, based on wide consultations with key stakeholders, and to present the study, accessible to persons with disabilities, to present to the Council at its sixtieth session.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.21) on the World Programme for Human Rights Education: the plan of action for the fifth phase, adopted without a vote, the Council reaffirms the continuation of the World Programme on Human Rights Education and launches its fifth phase, for the period 2025-2029; and decides to convene at its sixty-third session a high-level panel discussion to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training, further decides that the discussion will be fully accessible to persons with disabilities, and requests the Office of the High Commissioner to prepare a summary report of the discussion and to submit it to the Council by its sixty-fourth session. 

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.3) on Terrorism and human rights, adopted without a vote, the Council calls upon States to ensure that any measure taken to counter terrorism and violent extremism conducive to terrorism complies with international law; invites the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism to pay attention to the negative effect of terrorism on the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and to make recommendations in this regard; and decides to remain seized of this matter.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.6) on Local government and human rights, adopted without a vote, the Council requests the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to convene a one-day panel discussion … prior to the sixtieth session of the Council, to exchange and review the best practices of States, local governments and other relevant stakeholders in overcoming the various challenges that local governments face in promoting and protecting human rights; also requests the Office of the High Commissioner to prepare a report … in which it compiles and analyses the best practices of States, local governments and other relevant stakeholders in overcoming the various challenges that local governments face in promoting and protecting human rights, taking into account the results of the panel, and to present the report to the Council at its sixty-third session. 

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.23/Rev.1) on the Human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, adopted without a vote, the Council decides to convene, at its fifty-ninth session, a panel discussion on the realisation of the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, and also decides that the discussion shall be fully accessible to persons with disabilities, including through the provision of hybrid modalities; and requests the High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a summary report on the panel discussion and to present it to the Council at its sixty-first session. 

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.27) on the Human rights of migrants, adopted without a vote, the Council requests the Office of the High Commissioner to prepare a study on human rights monitoring in the context of migration, including at international borders, in consultation with States and other relevant stakeholders, and to submit the study to the Council before its sixtieth session; to convene a one-day intersessional panel discussion, accessible to persons with disabilities, and with appropriate gender representation, on measures to prevent, counter and address dehumanising and harmful narratives about migrants and migration, hate speech, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance against migrants; to ensure the meaningful participation of migrants and their family members; and to prepare a summary report on the panel discussion and the recommendations resulting from it, and to submit the report to the Council at its sixty-second session and to the General Assembly at its eighty-first session; and decides to remain seized of the matter. 

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.29/Rev.1) on Human rights and Indigenous Peoples, adopted without a vote, the Council decides that the theme of the annual half-day panel discussion on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, to be held during the sixtieth session of the Council, will be the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the context of a just transition to sustainable energy systems, including in relation to critical minerals, and requests the Office of the High Commissioner to encourage and facilitate the participation of Indigenous women and youth in the panel, to make the discussion fully accessible to and inclusive for persons with disabilities, and to prepare a summary report on the discussion for submission to the Council prior to its sixty-second session; and invites the General Assembly to consider holding a high-level plenary meeting on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, during its eighty-second session, and to evaluate the implementation of the outcome document of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.33) on Promoting accessibility for the full enjoyment of all human rights by all, adopted without a vote (as orally revised), the Council invites the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to provide technical assistance and capacity-building support to States upon their request in developing and implementing policies and programmes on accessibility, to continue to share its expertise with the relevant intergovernmental organizations and United Nations agencies, funds and programmes and to assist the relevant special procedure mandate holders and treaty bodies to integrate the view of accessibility for all from the perspective of the full enjoyment of all human rights by all into their work in close consultation with the relevant stakeholders.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.34) on the Equal participation in political and public affairs, adopted without a vote, the Council calls upon all States to enhance the political participation of all women, and to address violence against women participating in political and public affairs; and requests the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue its dissemination and promotion of the guidelines on the effective implementation of the right to participate in public affairs … and to prepare, in consultation with States and all other relevant stakeholders, a follow-up report on good practices and challenges that States face when using the guidelines, with a particular focus on participation in elections, and to present the report to the Council at its sixty-third session.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.35/Rev.1) on the Elimination of domestic violence, adopted without a vote (as orally revised), the Council decides to convene an intersessional panel discussion on the intensification of efforts to prevent and eliminate domestic violence, before its sixty-first session, and requests the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to organise the panel discussion … and requests the Office of the High Commissioner to prepare a comprehensive report … on how to address structural and underlying causes and risk factors to prevent domestic violence, in consultation with States and all relevant stakeholders, and to present the report to the Council at its sixty-second session.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.19) on the Right to development, adopted by a vote of 29 in favour, 14 against and 4 abstentions, the Council requests the High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to submit to the Council an annual report on the activities of the Office of the High Commissioner, including on inter-agency coordination within the United Nations system that has direct relevance to the realisation of the right to development; requests the Special Rapporteur and the members of the Expert Mechanism to participate in relevant international dialogues and policy forums relating to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda; requests the Office of the High Commissioner to organise the next biennial panel discussion on the right to development, to be held at its sixty-third session, in a format that is fully accessible to persons with disabilities, including sign language interpretation; and also requests the Office to prepare a report on the panel discussion and to submit it to the Council at its sixty-sixth session. 

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.26) on Biodiversity and human rights, adopted without a vote, the Council requests the High Commissioner for Human Rights to conduct a global analytical study on the implementation of a human-rights based approach into the goals and targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, to be submitted to the Council at its sixty-first session; and encourages the Office of the High Commissioner to cooperate with other relevant United Nations organizations and bodies, as well as with Indigenous Peoples, people of African descent and groups in vulnerable situations on advancing human rights-based biodiversity action. 

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.28) on the Promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the Internet, adopted without a vote (as orally revised), the Council calls upon all States to accelerate efforts to bridge digital divides, including the gender digital divide, and to take the necessary and appropriate measures to promote free, open, interoperable, reliable, accessible and secure access to the Internet; and requests the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a report on a human rights approach to meaningful connectivity and to overcoming digital divides, including by addressing threats to individuals’ access to the Internet, and to present it to the Council at its sixty-second session, to be followed by an interactive dialogue. 

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.30) on Youth and human rights, adopted without a vote, the Council decides that the theme of the next biennial panel discussion, to be held during the sixtieth session of the Council, will be the role of youth in fostering peaceful societies and creating an enabling environment for the enjoyment of human rights by all, and requests the Office of the High Commissioner to organise the panel discussion following consultations with youth and youth-led organizations and to prepare a summary report on the panel discussion for consideration by the Council at its sixty-first session; and requests the Office of the High Commissioner, in consultation with States and relevant stakeholders, to conduct a detailed study on the impact of mental health challenges on the enjoyment of human rights by young people and to submit the study to the Council for consideration prior to its sixty-third session. 

    Before the resolution was adopted, the Council took action on and rejected amendment L.39.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.31/Rev.1) on the Mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change, adopted without a vote (as orally revised), the Council decides to extend for a period of three years the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change under the same terms as provided for by the Council in its resolution 48/14; and requests the Special Rapporteur to report annually on the implementation of the mandate to the Council and the General Assembly in accordance with their programmes of work.

    Action on Resolutions Under Agenda Item Four on Human Rights Situations that Require the Council’s Attention 

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.4) on the Situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, adopted by a vote of 20 in favour, 8 against and 19 abstentions, the Council decides to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation as defined by the Council in its resolution 54/23 for a period of one year, and requests the mandate holder to … present a comprehensive report to the Council at its sixtieth session and to the General Assembly at its eightieth session; and calls upon the Russian authorities to establish full and non-selective engagement with all United Nations human rights mechanisms, and to refrain from all forms of intimidation and reprisal against persons and associations for their cooperation with United Nations human rights mechanisms. 

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.11) on the Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic, adopted by a vote of 26 in favour, 4 against and 17 abstentions, the Council demands that all parties to the conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic immediately comply with their respective obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and emphasises the need to ensure that all those responsible for such violations and abuses are held to account and that civilians are protected; and demands that the Syrian authorities cooperate fully with the Council and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic by granting the Commission immediate, full and unfettered access throughout the Syrian Arab Republic; demands that all parties to the conflict maintain rapid, unhindered, safe and sustainable humanitarian access and ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches its intended recipients.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.12) on the Situation of human rights in Burundi, adopted by a vote of 22 in favour, 10 against and 15 abstentions, the Council strongly condemns all human rights violations and abuses committed in Burundi; decides to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burundi for a further period of one year; and requests the Special Rapporteur to present to the Human Rights Council, at its fifty-ninth session, an oral update on the situation of human rights in Burundi, and also to submit to the Council, at its sixtieth session, and to the General Assembly, at its eightieth session, a comprehensive report.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.8) on the Situation of human rights in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, adopted by a vote of 23 in favour, 6 against and 18 abstentions (as orally revised), the Council decides to extend for a period of two years the mandate of the independent international fact-finding mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to enable the mission to continue to investigate gross violations of human rights committed since 2014, with a particular focus on the situation of human rights in the lead-up to, during and after the 2024 presidential elections, and on the violence by armed individuals known as colectivos; and urges the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to resume cooperation in a full manner with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the fact-finding mission. 

    Before the resolution was adopted, the Council took action on and rejected amendments L.40, L.41, L.42, L.43 and an oral amendment.

    Action on a Resolution Under Agenda Item Eight on Follow-up and Implementation of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.16) on National human rights institutions, adopted without a vote (as orally revised), the Council requests the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to provide the Office of the High Commissioner with the financial and human resources necessary for the servicing of the sessions of the Subcommittee on Accreditation of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions; and requests the Secretary-General to submit to the Council, at its sixty-third session, a report on the implementation of the present resolution … and a report on the activities of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions in accrediting national institutions in compliance with the Paris Principles.         

    Action on Resolutions Under Agenda Item 9 on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Forms of Intolerance, Follow-Up to and Implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.25) on Education as a tool to prevent racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, adopted without a vote (as orally revised), the Council urges States, in particular, to adopt and implement laws, policies and programmes that prohibit and combat discrimination on the basis of race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, at all levels of education, both formal and non-formal; and requests the High Commissioner for Human Rights to submit to the Council at its sixty-third session a comprehensive report, accessible to persons with disabilities, including in an accessible and easy to read format, analysing relevant education-related practices and measures to prevent racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, with input from all relevant stakeholders. 

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.36/Rev.1) on From rhetoric to reality: a global call for concrete action against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, adopted by a vote of 30 in favour, 5 against and 12 abstentions, the Council decides that the Chair-Rapporteur of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Elaboration of Complementary Standards to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination may request that the annual session of the Ad Hoc Committee be split into two full one-week segments; requests the High Commissioner for Human Rights to facilitate the interactive participation of six legal experts in one of the two full one-week segments of the fifteenth and sixteenth sessions of the Ad Hoc Committee, to be held in 2025 and 2026 respectively; requests the Chair-Rapporteur of the Ad Hoc Committee to present in person a progress report to the General Assembly at its eightieth session, and to participate in the interactive dialogue and carry out consultations to continue progress in the elaboration of complementary standards to the Convention; reiterates its decision to request the Group of Independent Eminent Experts on the Implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action to report annually on its session and activities to the Council, and that its report will be also transmitted and presented to the General Assembly, and in this regard requests the Chair of the Group to engage in an interactive dialogue with the Assembly under the agenda item entitled “Elimination of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance”; and encourages the General Assembly to proclaim a second International Decade for People of African Descent commencing in 2025. 

    Action on Resolutions Under Agenda Item 10 on Technical Assistance and Capacity-Building 

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.14) on Technical assistance and capacity-building to address the human rights implications of the nuclear legacy in the Marshall Islands, adopted without a vote, the Council requests the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to cooperate with the Government of the Marshall Islands in the field of human rights and to provide technical assistance and capacity-building to the National Nuclear Commission of the Marshall Islands in advancing its national strategy for nuclear justice and pursuing transitional justice in its efforts to address the nuclear legacy; and requests the Office of the High Commissioner to prepare a report on addressing the challenges and barriers to the full realisation and enjoyment of the human rights of the people of the Marshall Islands, stemming from the State’s nuclear legacy, and to submit it to the Council at its sixty-third session, to be followed by an enhanced interactive dialogue.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.15) on Assistance to Somalia in the field of human rights, adopted without a vote, the Council decides to renew the mandate of the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia, under agenda item 10, for a period of one year, to assess, monitor and report on the situation of human rights in Somalia; requests the Independent Expert to report to the Council at its sixtieth session and to the General Assembly at its eightieth session; and also requests the Independent Expert to provide an update to the Council in her report on progress on the implementation of the benchmarks and indicators in the transition plan to inform future action by the Council.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.18) on the Enhancement of technical cooperation and capacity-building in the field of human rights, adopted without a vote, the Council decides … that the theme of the annual thematic panel discussion under agenda item 10, to be held at its fifty-ninth session, will be “The role of technical cooperation and capacity-building in strengthening national structures which play a role in promoting and safeguarding human rights, particularly national human rights institutions and national mechanisms for implementation, reporting and follow-up”; and also requests the Office of the High Commissioner to prepare a report, to be submitted to the Human Rights Council at its fifty-ninth session, to serve as a basis for the panel discussion, on the role of technical cooperation and capacity-building among States, the Office and other relevant stakeholders, to support States’ efforts to strengthen national structures which play a role in promoting and safeguarding human rights.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.20) on Cooperation with Georgia, adopted by a vote of 24 in favour, 3 against and 20 abstentions, the Council demands that immediate and unimpeded access be given to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and other international and regional human rights mechanisms to Abkhazia, Georgia, and the Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia, Georgia; requests the High Commissioner for Human Rights to present to the Council an oral update on the follow-up to the present resolution at its fifty-eighth session and to present a report on developments relating to and the implementation of the present resolution at its fifty-ninth session; and also requests the High Commissioner to continue to provide technical assistance through the Office of the High Commissioner in Tbilisi.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.37) on Technical assistance and capacity-building in the field of human rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, adopted without a vote, the Council decides to renew, for one year, the mandate of the team of international experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and requests the team to provide the necessary technical support to the Government in implementing effectively its National Transitional Justice Policy, in particular by taking account of the cross-border nature of conflict and insecurity in the Great Lakes, identifying the causes of conflict and preventing their recurrence, and designing and implementing mechanisms for transitional justice and the fight against impunity, and encourages it to support the Government in this regard; requests the team of international experts to submit its final report to the Council, in the framework of an enhanced interactive dialogue, at its sixtieth session and to present it with an oral update at its fifty-eighth session; requests the High Commissioner to present the Council with an oral update on the situation of human rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the framework of an enhanced dialogue, at its fifty-eighth session; also requests the High Commissioner to prepare a comprehensive report on the situation of human rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to submit it to the Council, in the framework of an enhanced interactive dialogue, at its sixtieth session; and decides to remain seized of the matter until its sixtieth session.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.38/Rev.1) on Technical assistance and capacity-building in the field of human rights in the Central African Republic, adopted without a vote, the Council decides to renew, for one year, the mandate of the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in the Central African Republic, which is to assess, monitor and report on the situation with a view to making recommendations relating to technical assistance and capacity-building in the field of human rights; requests the Independent Expert to pay particular attention to violations of human rights and international humanitarian law alleged to have been committed by all parties to the conflict; decides to convene, at its fifty-eighth session, a high-level dialogue to enable it to assess human rights developments on the ground…; requests the Independent Expert to provide an oral update on his report on technical assistance and capacity-building in the field of human rights in the Central African Republic to the Human Rights Council at its fifty-ninth session and to submit a written report to the Council at its sixtieth session and to the General Assembly at its eightieth session; and requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to provide the Independent Expert with all the necessary technical, human and financial resources to enable him to carry out fully his mandate.

    In a resolution (A/HRC/57/L.32) on Technical assistance and capacity-building for Yemen in the field of human rights, adopted without a vote, the Council requests the High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to provide substantive capacity-building and technical assistance to the Government of Yemen and all requisite technical and logistical support to the National Commission of Inquiry, to enable it to continue to investigate allegations of violations and abuses committed by all parties to the conflict in Yemen and to submit its comprehensive report on alleged violations and abuses of human rights in all parts of Yemen as soon as it is available; and requests the High Commissioner to present a report on the implementation of technical assistance, as stipulated in the present resolution, to the Council at its sixtieth session.

    Other Matters 

    The Council appointed four Special Procedures mandate holders: the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, Nils Muižnieks (Latvia); for the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, member from Western European and other States, Isabel Mamadou (Spain); for the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, member from Asia-Pacific States, Mohammed Al-Obaidi (Iraq); and for the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination, member from Latin American and Caribbean States, Andrés Macias Tolosa (Colombia). 

    The Council elected four members of its Advisory Committee: Frans Viljoen (African States), Miznah O.Alomair (Asia-Pacific States), Alessandra Devulsky (Latin American and Caribbean States), and Vassilis Tzevelekos (Western Europe and other States).

    The Council also adopted its draft report for the fifty-seventh session ad referendum.

    Bureau of the Council

    The President of the Council is Omar Zniber of Morocco.  The four Vice-Presidents are Febrian Ruddyard (Indonesia); Darius Staniulis (Lithuania); Marcela Maria Arias Moncada (Honduras); and Heidi Schroderus-Fox (Finland).  Mr. Staniulis also served as Rapporteur.

     

    Produced by the United Nations Information Service in Geneva for use of the media; 
    not an official record. English and French versions of our releases are different as they are the product of two separate coverage teams that work independently.

    HRC24.030E

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: 4 ways countries are strengthening women’s participation in security efforts

    Source: United Nations – Peacekeeping

    Written by Elssa Gbeily, a Strategic Communications Intern from Belgium and Lebanon focusing on gender issues with the UN Department of Peace Operations. She has a background in gender, peace and security.

    The full, equal and meaningful participation of women in all peacekeeping areas has been found to make our operations more effective and lets us better reflect and engage with the communities we serve. However, according to the latest data available, women still make up approximately 10% of peacekeeping’s police and military personnel.

    As UN military and police personnel are contributed by Member States, drawing from their own security institutions, troop and police contributors are critical to closing this gender gap. To help empower women peacekeepers and increase their numbers, UN Member States have committed to promote equal opportunity for all in their own security and defence institutions by identifying and removing barriers to women serving. This is making their own security sectors stronger while also leading to the deployment of more diverse military and police contingents to peacekeeping missions.

    On 17 October, the UN released its first-ever report on this issue, “Towards Equal Opportunity for Women in the Defence Sector.” It highlights that, despite the efforts of Member States to achieve gender equality, challenges and barriers still exist, making this a key issue for all. The report also showcases some innovative solutions that countries are using to boost women’s participation. Here are four standout best practices from the report:

    1. India: expanding opportunities for women in the armed forces

    India, a top contributor to UN peace operations, has made significant strides toward integrating women into its military forces. In 2020, the Indian Army began offering women permanent positions, giving them equal opportunities for career advancement. By 2022, the National Defence Academy admitted its first female cadets, symbolizing progress in building gender-equal pathways in military leadership.

    2. Canada: reforming military culture to promote inclusivity

    Canada is spearheading military reforms to eliminate gender bias and address sexual misconduct. In 2021, they established a Chief of Professional Conduct and Culture (CPCC to foster a safe and respectful environment for all service members. This cultural shift enhances the operational effectiveness of Canadian forces and, in turn, strengthens Canada’s peacekeeping deployments by ensuring inclusive participation.

    Colonel Marie-Ève Bégin, the Director General of the CPCC, highlighted that “the creation of [this new structure] shows our commitment to improving our organization’s culture.”

    3. Uruguay: empowering women in the armed forces through family support

    Uruguay has introduced initiatives to support women in its military, with a focus on deployment, helping them balance military service with caregiver responsibilities. With support from the Elsie Initiative Fund, the Ministry of Defence provides scholarships to cover childcare and elder care costs for deployed women and single parent families, regardless of gender, ensuring that caregiver obligations do not hinder participation in military operations and peacekeeping deployments.

    4. Ghana: training women for leadership in peacekeeping

    Ghana, another of UN Peacekeeping’s top troop-contributing countries, is addressing the challenge of advancing women’s careers in the national army by focusing on skills development, including in operational and tactical fields that are traditionally male-dominated, as well as on leadership opportunities.

    “We should continue to challenge gender stereotypes, call out discrimination, draw attention to biases and seek out inclusion,” says Commodore Faustina Anokye, the highest-ranking female officer in the history of the Ghanaian navy who also served as Deputy Force Commander of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Western Sahara (MINURSO).

    A global commitment to inclusive security

    Removing barriers to women who want to serve in the defence sector is a key way Member States are meeting their commitment to promote gender equality in peacekeeping missions. “If these institutions are not inclusive and representative,” said Alexandre Zouev, Assistant Secretary-General for Rule of Law and Security Institutions, “our gender parity efforts in peacekeeping will inevitably fall short.”

    Departments across the UN, through their Security Sector Reform (SSR) initiatives, are supporting Member States’ efforts to promote women’s participation in their defence sectors. The UN has also launched the Braking Barriers, Building Peace advocacy campaign, which is promoting equal opportunities in defence and security sectors around the world.  Through this work, the UN and its Member State partners are making peacekeeping more representative and responsive to diverse security needs, which is especially critical in today’s complex conflict environments.

    By committing to gender equality, the UN and its Member States are building more inclusive societies and enhancing sustainable peace and security for all.

    —

    This story is part of the “Action for Peacekeeping” (A4P) story series, which reports on efforts by the UN, its Member States, and other partners to strengthen peacekeeping operations, and the impact they have for people living in conflict areas.

    Women, Peace and Security is a key area of the A4P agenda and its implementation strategy A4P+, which seeks to enhance accountability to our peacekeepers. Supporting women’s full, equal, and meaningful participation in peace and political processes is central to enhancing operational effectiveness in peacekeeping and sustaining peace.

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: FACT SHEET: U.S. Achievements in the Global Fight Against  Corruption

    Source: The White House

    Corruption poses a grave and enduring threat to U.S. national interests and those of our partners. When officials abuse their entrusted power for personal or political gain, the interests of authoritarians and corrupt actors win – at the expense of citizens, honest businesses, and healthy societies. As the Biden-Harris Administration took office, this longstanding challenge had metastasized. In some countries, oligarchs were teaming up with foreign kleptocrats to warp policy and procurement decisions in exchange for kickbacks – with no accountability. Corrupt officials were laundering stolen assets through the U.S. and global financial systems, while local investigators were ill-equipped to follow the money. Reformers in countries saddled with corruption had scarce public resources to actually address development needs. The Biden-Harris Administration tacked these challenges starting Day One, to ensure democracy delivers and corrupt actors are held to account.

    The first National Security Study Memorandum of the Biden-Harris Administration established countering corruption as a “core U.S. national security interest,” leading to the issuance in December 2021 of the first United States Strategy on Countering Corruption. Since then, the United States has taken action at home and around the world to curb illicit finance, hold corrupt actors accountable, forge multilateral partnerships, and equip frontline leaders to take on transnational corruption. The result has been historic progress in protecting the U.S. financial system from money-laundering, including in the residential real estate sector, while enhancing corporate transparency. This Administration has mobilized record levels of foreign assistance dedicated to anti-corruption, including $339 million in Fiscal Year 2023 alone – almost double the yearly average during the previous four years. This new assistance has unlocked support for anti-corruption institutions, leveled the playing field for law-abiding businesses, enabled journalists to team up across borders, and more. Expanded law enforcement cooperation and capacity-building have generated convictions of corrupt actors as well as the seizure, forfeiture, and return of criminal proceeds, while new anti-corruption offices at the Department of State (State) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) energized diplomatic and stakeholder engagement. The United States imposed sanctions on more than 500 individuals and entities for corruption and related activities, and established – for the first time in any jurisdiction globally – a new visa restriction for those who enable corrupt activity.

    U.S. progress on anti-corruption has produced concrete benefits for the American people and stakeholders around the world – enhancing prosperity, economic security, safety, and democracy, as outlined below. To bolster and sustain this work, the U.S. government has also modernized its approach to addressing corruption as a cross-cutting priority. Today, Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics Daleep Singh will highlight the benefits of this work to American businesses and workers at a White House anti-corruption roundtable with leaders from 15 major U.S. companies.

    Advancing economic opportunity abroad

    • Improving the business enabling environment: U.S. assistance advanced governments’ capacity to prevent, detect, investigate, and prosecute corruption, while encouraging anti-bribery compliance. State expanded its Fiscal Transparency Innovation Fund – to help willing partners improve budget transparency – while holding countries to account for progress in its Fiscal Transparency Report. In the past two years alone, a newly expanded State-Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) program facilitated U.S. collaboration with foreign counterparts on more than 50 transnational corruption and money laundering cases with a U.S. nexus. In coordination with State, experienced legal advisors from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) assisted foreign justice partners around the world in investigating and prosecuting corruption and money laundering cases, and recovering assets. And DOJ’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, in partnership with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, has recovered more than $1.7 billion and returned or assisted in returning more than $1.6 billion for the benefit of the people harmed by the corruption.
    • Enforcing our bans on foreign bribery and money-laundering – and pressing other countries to do the same: To enable honest companies to compete overseas, the United States upheld its commitments under the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention by enforcing its foreign bribery and related laws and working with partners to monitor other countries’ progress in implementing the Convention, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2024. Since the start of the Administration, DOJ has imposed more than $3.5 billion in total monetary sanctions under the Foreign Corruption Practices Act (FCPA) in 16 corporate resolutions, and announced charges against more than 70 individuals. For instance, this April the former Comptroller General of Ecuador was convicted of money laundering relating to his receipt of over $10 million in bribes from, among others, the Brazil-based construction conglomerate Odebrecht S.A. The Securities and Exchange Commission continued civil enforcement of the FCPA, with approximately $1 billion in total monetary sanctions in 22 corporate resolutions, spanning conduct in 24 countries, since the start of the Administration. DOJ is also enforcing the recently enacted Foreign Extortion Prevention Act, which criminalizes demands for bribes by foreign officials from U.S. companies and others. In addition, this August DOJ announced a new Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program to uncover and prosecute corporate crime – with a particular focus on foreign and domestic corruption, as well as violations by financial institutions of their obligations to take steps to detect and deter money laundering.
    • Seizing windows of opportunity: U.S. assistance has become more agile via the establishment of USAID’s Anti-Corruption Response Fund (providing flexible support to countries experiencing new opportunities or backsliding), the State-DOJ Global Anti-Corruption Rapid Response Fund (providing assistance and case mentoring to foreign partners on short notice), and USAID’s Democracy Delivers initiative (which has marshalled $500 million in funding from the United States and others to help reformers deliver, including on their anti-corruption commitments). These innovations, informed by USAID’s Dekleptification Guide, are enabling the U.S. government to more nimbly pivot toward environments where local momentum can be bolstered by outside assistance.
    • Bolstering integrity in high-risk sectors: In April 2024, the United States and its partners launched the Blue Dot Network – a mechanism to certify infrastructure projects that have met global standards for quality and sustainability, including transparency in procurement and provisions to limit opportunities for corruption. The United States also supported the launch of PROTECT, a collective action project to address corruption risk in the supply chain for critical minerals.
    • Strengthening corruption safeguards in the Indo-Pacific: In June, the United States and thirteen other partners held a signing ceremony, after concluding eight rounds of negotiations in record time, for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) Fair Economy Agreement. The Agreement aims to create a more transparent, predictable trade and investment environment across IPEF partners’ markets, including through binding obligations to prevent and combat corruption. The Department of Commerce (Commerce) and State are accelerating implementation by offering new anti-corruption technical assistance to IPEF partners, including workshops on procurement corruption.
    • Dialoguing with the private sector: In 2021, State launched the Galvanizing the Private Sector as Partners in Combatting Corruption initiative, which connects companies and governments to strengthen business integrity and encourage governance reform. Commerce’s International Trade Administration organized the 2024 forum of the Business Ethics for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Small and Medium Enterprises Initiative – the world’s largest public-private partnership on ethical business conduct – at which stakeholders formalized policy recommendations on business integrity in public procurement.

    Protecting the U.S. financial system from abuse

    • Expanding corporate transparency: To deter kleptocrats and criminals from laundering money through anonymous shell companies, the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) operationalized a new filing system for certain companies operating in the United States to report their beneficial owners – the real people who own or control them – pursuant to the bipartisan Corporate Transparency Act. Treasury held hundreds of outreach events across all states and territories, reaching thousands of stakeholders, to enable companies to quickly and easily comply with this reporting requirement.
    • Closing loopholes for money-laundering: Treasury finalized rules to close two major loopholes in the U.S. financial system: (1) to increase transparency in the U.S. residential real estate sector, to ensure that law-abiding homebuyers are not disadvantaged by individuals laundering their ill-gotten gains, and (2) to safeguard the investment adviser industry from illicit finance. Treasury also proposed a rule to modernize financial institutions’ anti-money-laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) programs, to make them more effective and risk-based. Together, these rulemakings represent historic advances for the U.S. AML/CFT regime, in line with international standards, that will help the United States urge other countries to undertake similar reforms to curb illicit finance. The Biden-Harris Administration has also called on Congress to close even more loopholes that facilitate money-laundering by passing the ENABLERS Act.
    • Blocking assets and denying entry to corrupt actors: Since the start of the Administration, Treasury has designated more than 500 individuals and entities for corruption and related activities, across six continents. That includes blocking the assets of 20 individuals and 48 companies in Fiscal Year 2024 for corruption in Afghanistan, Guatemala, Guyana, Paraguay, Western Balkans, and Zimbabwe. In tandem, State publicly issued corruption-related visa restrictions for 76 foreign officials and family members in Fiscal Year 2024, and 292 over the course of the Administration. These actions have protected the U.S. financial system from corrupt actors and promoted accountability in domestic jurisdictions. For example, just one week after the U.S. issuance of a public visa restriction on former Director of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) Intelligence Services Osman Mehmedagic for significant corruption, he was arrested by BiH authorities for abuse of office.
    • Taking aim at enablers of corruption: In December 2023, President Biden issued an historic Presidential Proclamation establishing a visa restriction for those who facilitate and enable significant corruption and their immediate family members. This new visa restriction complements existing commitments to use sanction and law enforcement capabilities to target private enablers of public corruption. Earlier this year, the FBI and DOJ secured a guilty plea and a criminal penalty of $661 million from Gunvor – one of the largest commodities trading firms in the world – for facilitating bribery of Ecuadorian officials and laundering those bribes through U.S. banks. In addition, USAID launched new activities to incentivize integrity within professions that serve as gatekeepers to the international financial system.
    • Upholding international standards: The United States has helped lead efforts to expand anti-corruption work at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), including improving assessment tools, mitigating risks associated with “golden passport” programs, and highlighting how non-financial sectors can be abused by corrupt actors.

    Keeping America and our partners safe

    • Addressing corruption risk in the security sector: Security sector corruption can divert essential supplies, empower malign actors, threaten the safety of U.S. service members, and undermine U.S. military missions writ large. In the past year, the Department of Defense (DOD) incorporated corruption risk into its security cooperation planning – subjecting certain proposals to further scrutiny and identifying risk mitigation measures as needed. State also created new resources to weigh corruption risk as part of security sector assistance decision-making. In addition, State’s Global Defense Reform Program and DOD’s institutional capacity building programs advanced more transparent, accountable, and professional defense institutions. DOD continued running a training course on combatting corruption for partner military commanders and civilian leaders.
    • Tackling organized crime and corruption: Transnational criminal organizations often rely on corruption to enable their criminal activities and evade accountability – which fuels narcotrafficking into the United States, human smuggling, cybercrimes, and more. The U.S. government is deploying anti-corruption tools to target criminal networks and their financial enablers, in line with the 2023 White House Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime.
    • Standing up to Russia’s aggression: The United States has adapted to address the wartime needs of Ukraine’s anti-corruption stakeholders, as they close off a key vector for Russian dominance and advance Ukraine’s democratic future. In 2023, Ukrainian anti-corruption investigators and prosecutors achieved an 80 percent increase in prosecutions and a 50 percent increase in convictions, plus opened cases against high-ranking officials including the former head of the Ukrainian Supreme Court.  With U.S. support, Ukraine has advanced significant reforms on asset disclosure, launched a whistleblower portal, strengthened the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, and enhanced transparency and integrity in reconstruction.
    • Securing a greener future: The United States has integrated an anti-corruption lens across sectors, with particular emphasis on addressing corruption vulnerabilities that threaten a secure, just energy transition for all. This includes USAID support to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), increased mining transparency in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, and innovations that address transnational corruption in green energy mineral supply chains across 15 countries.
    • Protecting global health: Corruption curtails the ability of states to respond to pandemics and undercuts access to basic healthcare. USAID is tackling this challenge by releasing cutting-edge guidance on anti-corruption in the health sector and launching integrated programming. For example, in Liberia the United States is working with the government to curb theft of pharmaceuticals through civil society monitoring, law enforcement trainings, and public awareness campaigns.
    • Addressing the root causes of migration: Combating corruption is a core component of improving conditions in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras – so people do not feel compelled to leave their homes, in line with the U.S. Strategy for Addressing the Root Causes of Migration in Central America. Recent U.S. actions have included training up to 27,000 justice sector stakeholders in those countries to more effectively address corruption.

    Defending democracy by rooting out corruption

    • Tackling electoral corruption: When candidates can be bankrolled by foreign adversaries and institutions captured by kleptocrats, citizens lose faith in their governments—or even in democracy itself. In response, USAID has launched new programs to bolster electoral integrity, strengthen independent media, and increase the transparency of political finance in high-risk locations.
    • Lifting up civil society and independent media: The U.S. government has substantially expanded support to frontline activists and journalists, including through the Global Anti-Corruption Consortium. In addition, a new State Department initiative is training hundreds of journalists in transnational corruption investigations, while USAID’s new investigative journalist networks in Asia and Southern Africa are building capacity to track corruption across sectors and across borders. The Secretary of State established a new award for Anti-Corruption Champions, which has honored dozens of courageous civil society leaders and embattled reformers. In 2022, the United States also hosted the largest regular gathering of civil society activists fighting corruption – the International Anti-Corruption Conference – in Washington, DC, with keynote remarks from APNSA Jake Sullivan.
    • Protecting sovereignty: Authoritarian actors like Russia and the PRC use bribery to interfere in the policy, procurement, debt, and electoral processes of other countries – undermining both sovereignty and democracy. The United States is standing up to this tactic by building the resilience of frontline actors to detect and deflect foreign-backed strategic corruption, educating partners about the kleptocrats’ playbook, harnessing sanction tools to deter threats, and increasing collaboration between practitioners working on anti-corruption and those addressing foreign malign influence – both within the USG and with likeminded partners. For example, in June the United States joined with Canada and the UK to expose Russia’s use of corruption and covert financing, among other tactics, to undermine democratic processes in Moldova.
    • Restoring trust in American democracy: The Biden-Harris Administration has established the strongest ethics standards of any U.S. presidency. On his first day in office, the President signed an Executive Order requiring administration officials to take a stringent ethics pledge, which extends lobbying bans, limits shadow lobbying, and makes ethics waivers more transparent. The Administration also restored longstanding democratic norms by protecting DOJ cases from political interference, releasing the President’s and Vice-President’s taxes, and voluntarily disclosing White House visitor logs. And in the last year, the Office of Government Ethics finalized rules updating the standards for ethical conduct and legal expense funds for executive branch employees.
    • Protecting American democracy from malign finance: Just as we defend democracy around the world, the U.S. government is working to keep American democracy safe from foreign adversaries. Actions to curb money laundering in the United States can help reduce the ability of foreign and domestic actors to make illegal campaign contributions and evade U.S. election laws. President Biden has called on Congress to go even further by passing the DISCLOSE Act, which would curb the ability of foreign entities and special interests to use dark money loopholes to influence our elections.
    • Revitalizing participation in the Open Government Partnership (OGP): The United States rejoined the Steering Committee of OGP – a platform for civil society and governments to forge joint commitments and learn from each other– and provided assistance for OGP’s work on anti-corruption. Domestically, the United States has turbocharged OGP implementation by creating the U.S. Open Government Secretariat at the General Services Administration, an Open Government Federal Advisory Committee, an Interagency Community of Practice – spanning federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, and engaged with hundreds of stakeholders to exchange lessons and expand transparency, accountability, and public participation. The United States also launched the first-ever Request for Information to feed into the 6th U.S. OGP National Action Plan and announced development of a toolkit to help federal agencies more meaningfully engage with the public.

    Modernizing and coordinating U.S. government efforts to fight corruption

    • Institutionalizing anti-corruption as an enduring priority: Over the past four years, Departments and Agencies have made substantial organizational improvements to elevate corruption concerns. For example:
      • The State Department’s new Office of the Coordinator on Global Anti-Corruption leads the integration of anti-corruption priorities into bilateral and other policy processes, conducts targeted diplomatic engagements, and drives strategic planning, including through the Department’s senior-level Anti-Corruption Policy Board. In the past year, the Office jumpstarted implementation of the Combating Global Corruption Act and completed an analysis of anti-corruption assistance to inform future State Department decision-making.
      • USAID’s new Anti-Corruption Center, within the newly established Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance, serves as a hub of technical expertise and thought leadership – driving the integration of corruption considerations across USAID’s portfolio, supporting USAID Missions in developing localized approaches, managing a suite of programming focused on transnational corruption, and using its convening power and policy insights to forge strategic partnerships. Since 2022, USAID has released its first-ever Anti-Corruption Policy, which outlines a cross-sectoral approach to constraining opportunities for corruption, raising the costs of corruption, and incentivizing integrity – plus a host of tools to drive uptake across USAID.
      • FBI’s International Corruption Unit expanded an agreement with the State Department to deploy six regional anti-corruption advisors to strategic locations around the world, where they organize regional working groups with local law enforcement officials, provide case-base mentorship, and facilitate coordination with the International Anti-Corruption Coordination Centre.

    Expanded interagency capacity has been complemented by the National Security Council’s establishment of a dedicated Director for Anti-Corruption position, for the first time, to ensure whole-of-government coordination and advance anti-corruption within key policy processes.

    • Leading in multilateral fora: The United States has regained its leadership role in the international bodies that shape anti-corruption norms globally and can sustain momentum across time. In particular, the United States stepped into the presidency of the UN Convention against Corruption Conference of States Parties (UNCAC COSP), proudly hosting in December 2023 thousands of stakeholders in Atlanta, Georgia, led by the U.S. Representative to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield. As part of its commitment to championing the role of non-governmental actors in the fight against corruption, the United States facilitated record civil society participation in UNCAC working group meetings, hosted the first UNCAC Private Sector Forum, and supported inclusive implementation of UNCAC commitments in Latin America, East Africa, and Southeast Asia. The United States also participated in several peer reviews of our own anti-corruption practices over the last three years, and proudly made these results public. Alongside these multilateral fora, we convened the Global Forum on Asset Recovery action series to accelerate practitioner cooperation across the United States, Algeria, Honduras, Iraq, Moldova, Nigeria, Seychelles, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and Zambia.
    • Understanding corruption dynamics: The Intelligence Community developed and disseminated new resources to bolster intelligence prioritization, collection and analysis on corrupt actors and their networks. USAID commissioned research on topics like countering corruption through social and behavioral change and State initiated an interagency anti-corruption learning agenda and a small grants program to support it.
    • Deepening external partnerships: The United States convened a series of coordination meetings with other bilateral donors and philanthropies in order to harmonize our anti-corruption approaches and galvanized anti-corruption resources across the donor community through the Integrity for Development campaign. USAID’s Countering Transnational Corruption Grand Challenge for Development brought together technologists, businesses, activists, and others to collaboratively address concrete corruption challenges.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Press Gaggle by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan En Route Berlin,  Germany

    Source: The White House

    2:15 P.M. EDT

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Okay.  So, I’m just going to get straight to it.  

    As you can see, I have the national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, here to talk to us about the trip but also the latest in the Middle East.

    Jake, the floor is yours. 

    MR. SULLIVAN:  So, I don’t know if you guys have heard because of the lack of Wi-Fi back here, but the IDF has confirmed the death of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader, and I’ll come to that in just a moment. 

    But let me start by laying out what we hope to achieve over the course of the next 24 hours in Berlin.  This is the president’s first visit to Berlin as president, and he did not want his time in office to go by without going to the capital of one of — one of our most important partners and allies. 

    Germany is a core Ally in NATO, a core partner in the G7.  They’ve been a core player in the Allied response to Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.  And the president is looking forward to having the opportunity to talk to the chancellor and other German officials about where we go from here in Ukraine; about developments in the Middle East, in Iran, Lebanon, Gaza, Israel; about how we align our respective approaches on the PRC; about how we align our industrial and innovation strategies; about artificial intelligence and the clean energy transition. 

    He will also have the opportunity to meet with the prime minister of the UK and president of France.  The four leaders — Germany, France, UK, U.S. — will sit together to particularly focus on two issues.

    One, the war in Ukraine and the pathway ahead, particularly in light of the fact that they’ve all had the opportunity to engage in person with President Zelenskyy over the course of the last few weeks and heard from him about where he sees things going.  So, this is an opportunity to consult on that.

    And then, second, to talk about the ongoing and fast-moving developments across the Middle East region.

    The president will see President Steinmeier.  He’ll spend one-on-one time with Chancellor Scholz.  He’ll spend time with his delegation — with Chancellor Scholz and his delegation. 

    And then, of course, there’ll be this meeting among the four leaders in the afternoon, and there’ll be an opportunity for press statements with the chancellor and the president. 

    So, that’s the plan for tomorrow.

    Of course, this comes against the backdrop of a pretty significant — very significant day in the Middle East, and that is that Yahya Sinwar has been taken off the battlefield.  This is a murderous terrorist responsible for the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.  He has a lot of blood on his hands — Israeli blood, American blood, Palestinian blood — and the world is better now that he’s gone. 

    President Biden has just put out a written statement sharing his thoughts and reactions to the death of Sinwar, and he looks forward to the opportunity soon, perhaps very shortly, to speak to Prime Minister Netanyahu to congratulate the IDF and the brave Israeli soldiers and security professionals who carried out the operation that killed Sinwar but also to talk about the way forward, because Sinwar was a massive obstacle to peace and the day after in Gaza.  And now that that obstacle has been removed, President Biden looks forward to talking to Prime Minister Netanyahu about how we secure the return of the hostages, an end to the war, and a move to the day after in Gaza — a Gaza where Hamas is no longer in power or control. 

    So they’ll have the opportunity to have an initial conversation about that, but this truly is an opportunity we need to seize together to bring about a better day for the people of Gaza, the people of Israel, the people of the whole region.  And the United States is committed to doing everything in our power to help contribute to that. 

    Last thing I will say is that from shortly after October 7th, President Biden dispatched special operations personnel and intelligence professionals to Israel to work side by side with their Israeli counterparts in the hunt for Hamas leaders, including Sinwar, and it was with American intelligence help that many of these leaders, including Sinwar, were hunted and tracked, were flushed out of their hiding places, and put on the run.  And, ultimately, this is a credit to the IDF for taking out Sinwar over the course of the last hours and days, but we’re proud of the support that the United States has given to the IDF all along the way. 

    So, with that, I’d be happy to take your questions.

    Q    Jake —

    Q    Can you say anything — well, go ahead.  I’m sorry. 

    Q    Jake, thanks so much for doing this.  You kind of implied that Sinwar had been an obstacle to hostage release and ceasefire.  How big an obstacle is that?  And does this give you additional hope now of a ceasefire and possibly a hostage release?  How should we process this?

    MR. SULLIVAN:  I didn’t just imply it; I stated it explicitly. 

    At various points along the way, Sinwar was more interested in causing mayhem and chaos and death than in actually trying to achieve a ceasefire and hostage deal.  And we repeatedly saw moments where it was him, in particular, who stood in the way of making progress towards a ceasefire and hostage deal.  Now, there were other obstacles too along the way, but he was certainly a critical one. 

    And, yes, I think his removal from the battlefield does present an opportunity to find a way forward that gets the hostages home, brings the war to an end, brings us to a day after.  That’s something we’re going to have to talk about with our Israeli counterparts.

    Of course, there are still other Hamas actors who need to be brought to justice, and there are hostages, including Americans, being held by terrorists.  We’re going to have to deal with all of that, but we believe there is a renewed opportunity right now that we would like to seize.

    Yeah.

    Q    Do you assess this as being the cutting off of the head of the Hydra, or what — what’s your assessment of Hamas’ capabilities from now on?  Is there going to be a mop up?  And what — what would you recommend the Israelis do?

    MR. SULLIVAN:  Sinwar was a critical figure operationally, militarily, and politically for Hamas.  He had, in fact, consolidated control of both the political and military wing under his singular leadership in — in recent weeks and months.  And so, this is a very significant event.

    But what exactly it means for the future of Hamas as an organization, it’s early days yet.  We will have to see.

    What we do know is that the broad military structure, the battalions of Hamas have been systematically dismantled.  We do know that Hamas does not pose the kind of threat to Israel that it posed on October 7th or anything close to it.  We also know that there are still Hamas terrorists wielding guns and holding hostages and harboring a desire to continue to attack Israel and attack others. 

    And so, we’re going to have to sort through all of that.  But this is an incredibly significant blow to Hamas.  It is the removal of someone who, as I said, was unique in the consolidation of the control of the Hamas apparatus under his command.  And now we will have to work to ensure that his death actually does deal the kind of long-term blow to Hamas that all of us would like to see.

    Q    Can you give —

    Q    Do you get the sense that Netanyahu is done now, that he’s — he’s reached his objectives?  You just laid out the decimation of Hamas — 

    MR. SULLIVAN:  No, his critical objective that — has not been reached.  That objective is the return of the hostages, including American hostages.  So, from the United States’ perspective, we now need to work with Israel, with Qatar and Egypt, with others — and this is something we’ll discuss with our European partners as well — to secure the release of those hostages.  We’d like to see that happen.

    Q    You referenced U.S. intel.  To what extent did that play a role in this particular operation? 

    MR. SULLIVAN:  This operation was an IDF operation.  I’m not here to overclaim or — or try to take credits for something where the credit belongs to them. 

    But the Americans — the special operations personnel, the intelligence professionals — they also deserve our thanks for the work that they did alongside the IDF over the course of many months to help create the kind of counterterrorism pressure in Gaza that put a lot of these guys on the run.  And Sinwar was plainly on the run (inaudible).

    Q    Earlier this — earlier this week, Secretary Blinken and Secretary Austin sent letters to their counterparts threatening legal action if the humanitari- — humanitarian situation in Gaza doesn’t improve.  Can you give us a sense of what that legal option would be and if there are any deadlines or specific actions that the president will raise with Prime Minister Netanyahu about that today?

    MR. SULLIVAN:  The letter speaks for itself.  I think a lot of the headlines were breathless and overblown.  We have had an ongoing dialogue with Israel for months now about improving the humanitarian situation.  We have had previous communications that looked quite similar and that generated positive momentum towards opening crossings and getting more aid in.  We’ve had, actually, constructive back-and-forth with our Israeli counterparts over the last few days in response to our requests, and we expect that we’ll see progress on the ground. 

    One thing that has unfolded this week is — is the reopening of some of the crossings that had been closed in the north and trucks going in.  We need to see that sustained and expanded as we go forward, among the other requests in that letter. 

    But I’d — and I’d — just the other point I would make here is that it’s — it was a private diplomatic communication.  It was a serious, substantive laydown.  It’s part of our ongoing work and partnership with Israel.  And having it all out there in the open, leaked in the way that it was, I think, was highly unfortunate.  And I’ll leave it at that.

    Q    Can you give us a sense of what the president will say in this conversation with Netanyahu?  Will he push for an accelerated timeline for a ceasefire?  Will he say, you

    know, kind of, “Now you achieved the main direct- — main objective and we should move forward on — on other things,” or push for humanitarian aid?

    MR. SULLIVAN:  I’m going to let the president speak to the prime minister before I preview what he’s going to say in the press on the record, but we’ll try to give you a good sense of both what the president is thinking and what he’s communicating to the prime minister at the appropriate time.

    Q    To — to what extent do you think this success with Sinwar might embolden Netanyahu when it comes to retaliating against Iran?  Or do you see them as totally unrelated?  And what are your conversations right now with them in terms of restraint — or whatever you want to call it — when the president has thoughts about what the target should be when they hit back?

    MR. SULLIVAN:  We’ve had very constructive communications with the Israelis about how they’re thinking about responding to the attack on October 1st.  Those conversations will continue. 

    I can’t speculate as to the psychology of the prime minister based on what happened today.  What I can say is that the logic of deterrence, the logic of a response to a salvo of 200 ballistic missiles — nothing in the Middle East is unrelated, but that is a distinct logic from the killing of Sinwar today.

    Q    Jake, going back to the trip.  What message will President Biden give his fellow leaders about America’s place in the world, given the uncertainty around our upcoming election?

    MR. SULLIVAN:  Say that again.

    Q    What reassurance will President Biden give his fellow leaders about America’s place in the world, given the uncertainty about our upcoming presidential election?

    MR. SULLIVAN:  What President Biden can do is what he’s done for four years, which is lay out his vision of America’s place in the world and point the way forward based on what he thinks are in America’s national security interests and in the interests of our close allies. 

    Beyond that, he can’t speak for anyone else and doesn’t intend to.

    Q    Is there any —

    Q    Does this change your calculus on whether Israel can come to the table on a ceasefire by the end of the year?

    MR. SULLIVAN:  I’m sorry?

    Q    Your calculus on whether a ceasefire could be reached by the end of the year.

    MR. SULLIVAN:  I have long since given up on making predictions or drawing timelines.  All I can say is that we see an opportunity now that we want to seize to try to secure the release of the hostages, and we’re going to work at that as rapidly as we possibly can.

    Q    Give- — given the situation, would the president reconsider possibly holding a press conference during his time in Berlin?  It would be good to hear from him firsthand on how he thinks about this and the situation in Ukraine. 

    MR. SULLIVAN:  I will note for the record there are heads nodding.  (Laughter.)  I’ll also note for the record that that is a really fascinating way to bring the press into the middle of a world historical event.  So — (laughter) — and I’ll leave it at that.

    Q    I’ll follow up on that.  The president talks about democracy as being a key part of his administration, of his vision for America that you just referenced.  Why would he not take questions from the press at what was originally going to be a state visit to Germany?  I don’t understand.

    MR. SULLIVAN:  It’s fascinating how you guys can — (laughs) — make this the story.

    Q    It’s not the story.  It’s just a question. 

    MR. SULLVIAN:  I mean, honestly, I think invoking democracy and suggesting that President Biden is somehow insufficiently committed to it because of the structure of his press engagement on one day in Germany is a bit ludicrous. 

    Q    I can ask a Germany question.  So, a lot of the moves that President Biden has made both domestically and internationally have been characterized as “Trump-proofing” the — the, you know, U.S. government for a future Trump presidency. 

    How do you feel about that characterization?  I’m talking about moves like bringing NATO under — forgive me, it’s too complicated to explain, but you know what I’m talking about. 

    So, do you think he’s Trump-proofing?

    MR. SULLIVAN:  I — I don’t like characterizations like that because they’re inherently political.

    Q    So, what is he doing, then?

    MR. SULLIVAN:  What the president is trying to do is to make our commitment to Ukraine sustainable and institutionalized for the long term.  And every other ally agreed that that was the responsible thing to do. 

    The la- —

    Q    (Inaudible) necessarily reduced U.S. role, is that the idea?

    MR. SULLIVAN:  Not at all.  The basic logic was what the president laid out at the Washington Summit this summer, which is the communiqué said Ukraine’s place, Ukraine’s future, is in NATO.  There is work to do to get from here to there, including reforms and security conditions being met. 

    So, the question is, how do you build a bridge from where we are now to Ukraine’s eventual membership in NATO?  And the answer to that question was the set of deliverables in Washington, including the institutionalization of the security support apparatus for Ukraine.  That is what we were trying to accomplish, and that’s what we believe we did accomplish.

    Q    Jake, on Iran.  Can you confirm and elaborate on reporting that President Biden directed the NSC to warn Iran that any attempt on President Trump’s life would be seen as an act of war?

    MR. SULLIVAN:  I will tell you that President Biden has taken this issue with the utmost seriousness.  He asked to be updated on it regularly.  He gives us direction for how to respond to it regularly and in a very serious and consequential way.  We are following his directives and implementing them.  And I’m not going to get into specifics on what that looks like.

    Q    Jake, what about these reports that President Trump and President Putin have had seven conversations?  Are you worried about this?  Are you worried about any sort of backdoor conversations President Trump is having with leaders?

    MR. SULLIVAN:  I do not know if that’s true or not, but obviously that would raise red flags if it were true. 

    Q    Another one on — since you just said Putin.  There’s been reporting in Germany that Chancellor Scholz said he would be open to speaking with President Putin ahead of the G20 if asked — sort of various ways he said it.  Have you guys talked about this?  Has he told President Biden about this?  Do you think this would be a good idea to do a leader-level conversation with President Putin at this time?

    MR. SULLIVAN:  That has not come up between the chancellor and the president.  You know, I was just in Germany at the end of last week with my German counterpart.  That — the question of a call to Putin didn’t come up.  So, I think that’s a question better put to the chancellor. 

    Q    The official who briefed us yesterday about the Germany trip on the — on the phone mentioned that the Ramstein meeting would be rescheduled.  Does that mean the president will be going back to Ramstein at some point, or what — what did that mean?

    MR. SULLIVAN:  We will hold a leaders-level Ramstein meeting virtually in November.

    Q    One more.  On the frozen assets deal — the Russian frozen assets.  What’s the progress on that there?  I assume this comes up in the conversations.  Is there a plan B if the EU doesn’t figure out a sanctions regime?

    MR. SULLIVAN:  I’m feeling very good about the progress that we’ve made on the G7 commitment to mobilize $50 billion from the proceeds of the Russian sovereign assets by the end of the year.  We intend to meet that commitment, and we intend to make a contribution — the United States.  The EU, obviously, has announced that it’s prepared to make a contribution.  So are other partners.  So, from my perspective, at this point, everything is on track. 

    Q    Is there any update on when the president might talk to President Xi?

    MR. SULLIVAN:  No.

    Thank you, guys. 

    Q    Thank you.

    Q    Who you — wait, who are you rooting for in the playoffs, World Series?

    MR. SULLIVAN:  I’m a Minnesota Twins fan, so I can’t root for the Guardians, but I definitely can’t root for the Yankees.

    I don’t know.

    Q    What about the Dodgers and Mets?

    MR. SULLIVAN:  Yeah, I’m watching, but actually I don’t — I’ve not clearly determined who I’d prefer to win.  But, yeah, Dodgers or Mets. 

    Q    Can you swing back and talk to us off the record later?

    MR. SULLIVAN:  Sure. 

    Q    Great.

    Q    Thanks.

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  I don’t know.  Is there any real thing — anything else to discuss?  Let me t- —

    Q    The only thing I would say is we disagree with the suggestion that democracy and speaking — and taking questions from the press is “ludicrous.” 

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  All right.  Noted.

    Q    I would argue that our stories allow the president to have a relationship with the world, not just with other leaders, and the ability to talk openly will help that. 

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  All right.  Noted.  Noted. 

    Let’s move on.

    So, just want to talk about an announcement.  This is domestic, obviously, going to go to the — to that space.  I just wanted to touch on an announcement very quickly.

    And so, today, the Biden-Harris administration announced an additional $4.5 billion in student debt cancelation for over 60,000 public service workers, bringing the total number of public — of public service workers who have had their student debt canceled under the Biden-Harris administration to over 1 million people. 

    One such example is Kelly, a kindergarten teacher in Rhode Island, who had been paying off her student loans for a decade.  After the student let her know that her debt had been canceled, she tol- — after the president, pardon me — she told us that after 12 years of marriage, she might be able to take the honeymoon she never had.

    The president — the president’s administration made it a priority to fix the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.  Prior to our administration, only 7,000 public service workers had received relief since the program was established in 2007. 

    Thanks to the work of the Biden-Harris administration, as of today, 1 million teachers, nurses, firefighters, service members, first resp- — responders, and — and more who — who pursued careers in public service have gotten the relief they deserve. 

    The relief brings the total loan forgiveness approved by the Biden-Harris administration — administration to over $175 billion for nearly 5 million Americans.  And while — meanwhile, our Republicans elected officials have repeatedly attempted to block student debt relief. 

    President Biden and Vice President Harris remain committed to making education affordable for all Americans. 

    With that, what else do you guys have for me?

    Q    I have a question. 

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Sure.

    Q    Did President Biden talk to Vice President Harris ahead of this trip to see if she had any message for the world leaders or to get her input on what the situation should be going forward? 

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  As you know, the president and the vice president talk regularly.  I don’t have a specific call to — to read out, but I think you can see the last almost four years of the — what we’ve been able to do, what the president has been able to do on the world stage, certainly has been in partnership with the vice president.  I know that she supports his trip and everything that he’s — he’s trying to do tomorrow in the — in the short trip that we have in — in Germany.

    I just don’t have anything to read out as a call specifically on this trip.

    Q    Is the president or the administration facing pressure from allies to get something done after the election but before he is out of office?  There’s been some talks that Zelenskyy — you know, whether that’s accelerating a push for Ukraine into NATO or — or other funding things for Ukraine?

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Well, you’re talking about the victory plan.  Certainly, I’m going to let the Ukr- — Ukrainians speak to their victory plan as it relates to that question about NATO. 

    Look, I think — I think what you have seen from this president, from this administration — obviously, including the vice president — is how much we have stand behind — next to, if you will — with Ukrainians and how they’re trying to beat back the aggression that we’ve seen from Russia.  And you have not just seen us standing there.  You’ve seen this president take action, and — which is why you see NATO much stronger than it was, and that’s why you see 50 countries have gotten behind Ukraine.  And you heard us — you heard us lay out yesterday an additional assistance package that we have provided to Ukrainians. 

    And so, we’re going to have to continue — we’re going to continue having conversations with the Ukrainians on what they need on the battlefield and how else we can be helpful to them. 

    As it relates to their victory plan — as it relates to what’s next, I’m certainly going to let the Ukrainians speak directly about that. 

    Obviously, the president has had a conversation with the president, President Zelenskyy, on that plan.  I just don’t have anything beyond that, and I’m not — certainly, I’m not going to get into hypotheticals from here. 

    Q    The president at the funeral yesterday had a — what looked like a spirited conversation with former President Obama.  Did you talk to him about what they discussed?

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  No, it’s been kind of busy the last couple hours on the plane, as you can imagine. 

    Look, I’ll — I’ll say this.  The president really very much looked — appreciated being there at the — at the funeral of Ethel Kennedy, who he saw as someone who was incredible and had a — was an incredible force, obviously, in her life, during her — her years.  And what he wanted to do is — was to lift up — lift her up and speak to her accomplishment and what she meant to him — not just to him but to her family and to the country.  So, he appreciated doing that. 

    And we have said many times the president and — and president — and former President Biden [Obama] — they have a very close relationship.  They’ve had one for a long time, obviously, as he served as his vice president.

    I don’t have anything else to — to share on that.  I have not had this conversation with the president.  Obviously, we’ve been pretty busy these past couple of hours on the plane. 

    Q    Do you know if the president was able to watch any of the Fox News interview that Vice President Harris did?  And does —

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Yes, he —

    Q    — did he talk to you about how — how she did? 

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Yeah, he was able to — to catch that.  And he saw her performance, her interview as strong.  And I think what you saw and what — and this is what he believes — is that you saw why Americans and people want to see her continuing to fight for them.  And that’s what he saw last night.  That’s what we all saw — many of us saw.  So, I think she was strong and incredibly impressive in that interview. 

    Q    Karine, does the president believe that his vice president would be a markedly different leader?

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  I mean, look, he talked about this on Tuesday when he was in Philly, and he — and I talked a little bit about this as well, just reit- — really reiterating what the president shared, which is that, look, she’s going to be essentially her own person, right?  She is going to have her own direction, her own view of how to move forward. 

    And he did that, right?  He was loyal to President Obama when he was vice president, but he cut his own path.  And so, that’s what he expects from the vice president to do. 

    So, nothing — nothing new.  That’s what he expects her to do — to have her own path, to have — to build on — certainly, to build on the economic successes that we have seen and continuing the — the work that we’ve been able to do. 

    But she’s going to cut her own path.  He was very clear about that a couple days ago.

    Q    Karine —

    Q    But on student loans — you talked about the PSLF 1 million, a huge achievement for those borrowers — what’s your message for the other 40 million-plus borrowers who’ve been caught up in a lot of legal limbo over the past three years?

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Look, I’ll — I’ll say this.  You know, I’m not going to speak to the legal — the legal components of this.  There are legal matters that are happening, so they are ongoing.  So, I’m not going to speak to that. 

    But I think what you can take away from what this president has — trying to do, when Republicans have continued to block him, in promising to give Americans a little bit of breathing room, to make sure that Americans who have — borrows [borrowers] who have loans and — and are squeezed by those loans are not able to, you know, buy a home, start a family.

    The president was very attuned to that and very clear that he wanted to give them an opportunity — an opportunity to really, you know, be able to — to start that life that they wanted.  And so, he’s been trying to do that, even though he’s been blocked and — and Republicans have gotten in the way. 

    I think you can see over the past — certainly, the past six months, the president continuing to try to take actions to — to make sure he kept his commitment to Americans who, again, need a little bit of breathing room.

    So, I’m not going to speak to the legal matter, but I think this announcement today shows his commitment to public service workers, right?  I talked about firefighters, nurses.  I talked about police officers, who put so much on the line, who give so much for — for everybody, for folks who need their assistance and their help, and wanted to give them that opportunity to really be able to — to move on economically in what they want to accomplish for themselves and for their family.

    All right.  Anything else?

    Q    On the —

    Q    So —

    Q    Sorry.  Go ahead.

    Q    Sorry.

    Now going back to the funeral for a minute.  Did he speak with Speaker Emeritus Pelosi?  And also, she was not seen at the Italian American celebration, when she’s been front and center in the past.  Was she not invited?

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  I — I don’t have anything to share with you on that.  I didn’t talk to the president about that at all.  But what you saw — obviously, you saw the president and the former president, Pres- — President Obama, connect, have a moment together.  The president m- — very much looked forward to that.  I just don’t have anything on Nancy Pelosi.

    Q    Just —

    Q    I noticed he didn’t recognize her when he recognized the other two presidents at the funeral.

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Well, he wanted it — I can say this.  He wanted it to be, you know — to — to be very focused on the family.  He wanted it to be, you know, brief and — and very poignant.  And that’s what his focus was yesterday on his remarks.

    Q    On the trip.  Obviously, this is a abbreviated agenda from, you know, the Ramstein summit —

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Yeah.

    Q    — and other things.

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Yeah.

    Q    But can you explain to us, what’s the reason that it’s so short?  Why do we have to get out of Germany at 4:00 p.m. tomorrow?  Is there a reason on the German chancellor’s schedule why we have to —

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, I mean —

    Q    Regardless of the press conference, there was also talk about maybe doing a Holocaust memorial situation.  What’s —

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  No, I totally understand what — totally — as you — let’s step back for a second. 

    The reason that the president had to postpone his trip was because Hurricane Milton was coming, and it was — it was forecast to be a historical hurricane, and the president wanted to be in the States to deal with the response and what was needed, certainly, by the impacted region, for what folks on the ground really needed.

    And so, that’s why we postponed the trip.  We said that we wanted to certainly get that back on the books.  We were able to do it — to your point, a truncated version, but it is a robust schedule.  And we were able to work with the Germans and to be able to get done what we can on this trip.

    I mean, the president has a busy schedule.  He does.  There’s a lot going on in the next couple days, couple weeks.

    Q    But he has to get back to the States for something in particular —

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  I mean, we’ll —

    Q    — that we don’t know about?

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  We’re certainly going to share with you what the — his — the next couple of days of his schedule is going to look like.  But he wanted to — and I said this yesterday in the briefing room.  He wanted to thank the chancellor for his partnership, for his leadership as well with Ukraine.  Outside of the U.S., U- — the U- — German is the second — have provided the second-most resources, assistance to Ukrainians.

    And so, he wanted to be, you know, thankful to him.  And so, that’s what you’re seeing on this trip.  He wanted to make this happen.  He asked his team to make this trip happen.

    And so, look, we have a busy schedule.  We got a lot going on in next couple of days, next couple of weeks.  And so, we tried to fit this in, and this is what we were able to do in working with the German government as well to make this happen.

    Q    Does the president, as the election hits its final two weeks, expect to get more aggressive in outreach and participation?  Is that maybe what you’re referencing, or what’s his thinking on that?

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, you know I can’t speak to political trips or any- —

    Q    But if —

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  But wa- —

    Q    — you could speak on his schedule.

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Well, I — I’m just — want to get that out of there.  And so, look, the president is certainly looking at — looking forward to being out there and supporting the vice president.

    I just want to be super mindful.  But he will — you’ll see him — you’ll see him hit the road.  You’ll see him hit the road, for sure.

    That’s all I got. 

    All right.  Thanks, everybody.  Sorry my voice is a little hoarse.

    Q    Thanks, Karine.

    MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Thanks, everybody.

    2:45 P.M. EDT

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Greater BRICS spearheads Global South cooperation as leaders meet in Kazan

    Source: China State Council Information Office

    This photo shows a view of the Kazan Kremlin in Kazan, Russia, Oct. 20, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

    Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the 16th BRICS Summit on Oct. 22-24 in the Russian city of Kazan at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    BRICS is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, five major emerging markets with considerable economic potential. It has now evolved into an influential international cooperation mechanism with an expanded membership.

    Over the past 18 years, China has upheld the BRICS spirit of openness, inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation and helped drive the BRICS cooperation mechanism to a new level, serving as a constructive force for safeguarding world peace, promoting common development, improving global governance and facilitating democratization of international relations.

    This year marks the beginning of greater BRICS cooperation. During the upcoming summit, the first such gathering to be held after the BRICS expansion, Xi and leaders of other BRICS countries are expected to draw a blueprint for the development of its mechanism, inject new impetus into a multipolar world, facilitate economic globalization and democratization of international relations, and open up a new chapter for the solidarity and development of the Global South.

    New starting point

    “BRICS is an important force in shaping the international landscape. We choose our development paths independently, jointly defend our right to development, and march in tandem toward modernization. This represents the direction of the advancement of human society, and will profoundly impact the development process of the world,” said Xi during the 15th BRICS Summit in August 2023.

    Other than the countries that officially joined the BRICS family on Jan. 1, 2024, over 30 countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Türkiye and Azerbaijan have either formally applied for or expressed interest in its membership.

    After the expansion, the BRICS countries account for about 30 percent of the global GDP, nearly half of the global population and one-fifth of global trade.

    China has been committed to deepening mutually beneficial cooperation with its BRICS partners. In the first quarter of this year, China’s imports and exports to BRICS countries increased by more than 11 percent year on year.

    Ahmed Al-Ali, a researcher based in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), said that the BRICS has become an important engine to drive global economic recovery and maintain world peace and stability thanks to its steady economic growth, and equal and extensive cooperation opportunities.

    “Ethiopia’s BRICS membership could significantly boost the country’s socio-economic development through various economic opportunities, including increased investment, expanded South-South cooperation and trade partnerships,” said Balew Demissie, a researcher at the Policy Studies Institute of Ethiopia.

    China’s cooperation with other BRICS members has strongly defended multilateralism and promoted the democratization of international relations, said Evandro Carvalho, a Brazilian professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, an economic think tank.

    The appeal of the BRICS cooperation mechanism comes from its spirit of openness, inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation. “BRICS countries gather not in a closed club or an exclusive circle, but a big family of mutual support and a partnership for win-win cooperation,” Xi said during the 14th BRICS Summit in June 2022.

    From the “BRICS Plus” cooperation approach proposed in 2017 to the historic expansion of BRICS membership, the mechanism is widely welcomed, with growing influence and appeal.

    The BRICS cooperation mechanism respects the interests of all parties involved and is an “attractive platform for cooperation and mutual benefit,” said Elshad Mammadov, an Azerbaijani economics expert.

    The BRICS Media Summit is held in Moscow, Russia, Sept. 14, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

    Fruitful achievements

    At present, the mechanism is at a crucial stage of building on past achievements and ushering in a new era of cooperation. China is working with other BRICS partners, embarking on a new journey of greater BRICS cooperation.

    “We should navigate the trend of our times and stay in the forefront. We should always bear in mind our founding purpose of strengthening ourselves through unity, enhance cooperation across the board, and build a high-quality partnership. We should help reform global governance to make it more just and equitable, and bring to the world more certainty, stability and positive energy,” Xi has said.

    Applauding more participants and exploring new ways of cooperation within the mechanism, the BRICS countries will also have more opportunities and their roles in the global arena will continue to expand, said Ivan Melnikov, first vice-chairman of the Russian State Duma and chairman of the Russia-China Friendship Association.

    China and its BRICS partners have worked together to advance practical cooperation and deepen mutual benefit, setting up projects such as the China-BRICS Science and Innovation Incubation Park for the New Era and the China-BRICS AI Development and Cooperation Center, as well as hosting the BRICS Forum on Partnership on New Industrial Revolution and BRICS Industrial Innovation Contest.

    Set up by the BRICS and opened in 2015, the New Development Bank (NDB) aims to mobilize resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging market economies and developing countries.

    Meanwhile, people-to-people and cultural exchanges among BRICS countries are in full swing with popular events such as film festivals, sports games, and co-productions of films and documentaries.

    The first special session for BRICS countries of the International Youth Poetry Festival kicked off in the Southeastern Chinese city of Hangzhou in July, attracting 72 poets from BRICS countries.

    In mid-September, over 60 media leaders from more than 40 countries joined the BRICS Media Summit in Moscow, discussing the role of BRICS media in promoting a multipolar world.

    People-to-people exchanges have deepened among BRICS countries, and BRICS member states have worked towards a closer friendship, providing a “BRICS model” for promoting exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, said Ahmed Hamadi, a political commentator of the Aletihad News Center of the UAE.

    A model of E190-E2 aircraft is on display at the exhibition of BRICS New Industrial Revolution 2024 in Xiamen, southeast China’s Fujian Province, Sept. 10, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

    Bright future

    Thanks to the concerted efforts of all parties, the BRICS has increasingly become an important force in shaping the international landscape and safeguarding global stability.

    The BRICS cooperation mechanism is now a key venue for emerging markets and developing countries to strengthen solidarity and cooperation and safeguard common interests, thereby serving as the most pivotal mechanism representing the Global South.

    China is a significant promoter of BRICS cooperation and a natural member of the Global South. Beijing has all along stood with other developing countries through thick and thin. While pursuing its own development, China has continuously provided new opportunities for the rest of the world by sharing its development dividends.

    “China’s role in promoting the continuous development of BRICS is significant,” said Zukiswa Roboji, a researcher at Walter Sisulu University in South Africa.

    The BRICS mechanism effectively promotes solidarity and cooperation among countries of the Global South, and enhances the representation of developing countries in global governance, and China has made positive contributions to raising the global influence of BRICS cooperation, Roboji said.

    The genuine multilateralism advocated by China and its efforts in promoting the modernization of the Global South have brought confidence and important strength to the world, said Bunn Nagara, director and senior fellow at Belt and Road Initiative Caucus for Asia-Pacific.

    “Today, China is exactly what the countries of the Global South want to be,” said Dilma Rousseff, former Brazilian president and president of the NDB, adding that China’s advocacy of more just and effective global governance is helping the world build a bright shared future.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Re-elected Tunisian president takes oath of office

    Source: China State Council Information Office 3

    Tunisia’s re-elected President Kais Saied (Front) speaks at the Tunisian Parliament in Tunis, Tunisia, on Oct. 21, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

    Tunisia’s re-elected President Kais Saied took an oath on Monday at the Assembly of People’s Representatives’ headquarters, the Tunisian Parliament, in the capital Tunis.

    The plenary parliamentary session, broadcast on the state television channel Watanya 1, was attended by parliament deputies, members of the National Council of Regions and Districts, and senior government officials.

    In his speech, Saied pledged to safeguard the independence of the homeland and the integrity of its territory, respect the Constitution of the country and its legislation, and watch over its interests and owe it allegiance.

    He emphasized that combating terrorism and fighting corruption are critical challenges that must be addressed.

    Saied also rejected any form of foreign interference in Tunisia’s internal affairs, saying that “the sovereignty of Tunisia is a red line that must not be crossed.”

    According to Article 92 of the Tunisian Constitution, the elected president takes an oath for a five-year term before assuming office.

    Saied has been re-elected for a second term, after winning 90.69 percent of the vote in the presidential election held on Oct. 6.

    Tunisia holds presidential elections every five years, and the 66-year-old Saied has been in office since his election in 2019.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI: BW Energy: Q3 2024 trading update 

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    BW Energy: Q3 2024 trading update

    BW Energy will publish financial figures for Q3 2024 on Friday, 15 November 2024. 

    Net production to BW Energy was 2.4 million barrels of oil (bbls) in Q3 2024, equal to 25,570 bbls per day, from the Dussafu licence in Gabon (73.5% working interest) and the Golfinho field (100% working interest) in Brazil.    

    Volume (mmbbls)  Q3 2024  Q2 2024 
    Net production    2.4  2.1 
    Dussafu    1.9  1.4 
    Golfinho    0.5  0.7 
         
    Net volume sold    2.5  1.9 
    Dussafu*    2.0  0.9 
    Golfinho    0.5  1.0 
           
    Average realised price (USD/bbl)     
    Dussafu    82.0  76.3 
    Golfinho    81.7  86.4 
           
    *Includes State Profit Oil and DMO deliveries     

    DUSSAFU 

    • Highest quarterly production since inception 
    • Operating cost (excluding royalties) of USD 20.5/bbl 
    • The net volume sold (basis for revenue recognition), included 195,000 bbls of DMO deliveries and 232,000 bbls of state profit oil, with an under-lift position of 391,500 bbls at period-end 
    • The DHBSM-2H well on Hibiscus South was completed in July with the first conventional ESP (Electrical Submersible Pump) system 
    • The DHIBM-3H well was worked over in early August with a conventional ESP 
    • The DHIBM-7H well, on the northern flank of Hibiscus Main, started production utilizing a conventional ESP in early October and is performing to expectation 
    • The DHBSM-1H ESP failed on 20 September, as the last of the defective generation, with change-out to a conventional ESP completed and production restarted mid-October  
    • The ESP replacement program on track for completion by year-end and to reach gross production target of 40,000 bbls/day  

    GOLFINHO 

    • Inventory at period end of 340,700 bbls  
    • Production cost (excluding royalties) of USD 63.3/bbl primarily due to lower production 
    • Production impacted by a planned maintenance shutdown on the FPSO Cidade de Vitória. Production availability set to improve in Q4 following maintenance completion on one gas lift compressor, with full compressor capacity expected to be back in service in Q1 2025 

    HEDGING, LIQUIDITY AND DEBT 

    • Q3 expected gain from hedging of USD 8.6 million, all of which is unrealised.  
    • Period-end cash balance of USD 209 million vs. USD 244 million end-June 2024, with the change reflecting cash flow from operations, debt repayment and investments including acquisition of shares in ReconAfrica. 
    • Period-end gross debt of USD 556 includes MaBoMo lease, Dussafu RBL, Golfinho prepayment facility and bond debt. 

    For further information, please contact:

    Brice Morlot, CFO BW Energy, +33.7.81.11.41.16 

    ir@bwenergy.no 

    About BW Energy: 

    BW Energy is a growth E&P company with a differentiated strategy targeting proven offshore oil and gas reservoirs through low risk phased developments. The Company has access to existing production facilities to reduce time to first oil and cashflow with lower investments than traditional offshore developments. The Company’s assets are 73.5% of the producing Dussafu Marine licence offshore Gabon, 100% interest in the Golfinho and Camarupim fields, a 76.5% interest in the BM-ES-23 block, a 95% interest in the Maromba field in Brazil, a 95% interest in the Kudu field in Namibia, all operated by BW Energy. In addition, BW Energy holds approximately 6.6% of the common shares in Reconnaissance Energy Africa Ltd. and a 20% non-operating interest in the onshore Petroleum Exploration License 73 (“PEL 73”) in Namibia. Total net 2P+2C reserves and resources were 580 million barrels of oil equivalent at the start of 2024. 

    This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. 

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: IMF Reaches Staff-Level Agreement with Tanzania on the Fourth Review of the Extended Credit Facility and the First Review of the Resilience and Sustainability Facility

    Source: IMF – News in Russian

    October 17, 2024

    End-of-Mission press releases include statements of IMF staff teams that convey preliminary findings after a visit to a country. The views expressed in this statement are those of the IMF staff and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF’s Executive Board. Based on the preliminary findings of this mission, staff will prepare a report that, subject to management approval, will be presented to the IMF’s Executive Board for discussion and decision.

    • The Tanzanian authorities and the IMF have reached staff-level agreement on the fourth review under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and the first review under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).
    • Economic growth momentum is picking up in 2024 with improved external and fiscal balances and low inflation. Policy priorities continue to be focused on enhancing exchange rate flexibility, strengthening the monetary policy framework, continuing to implement growth-friendly fiscal consolidation, enhancing domestic revenue mobilization, and expediting structural reform implementation.
    • The RSF is supporting the authorities’ efforts to advance structural reforms and investments in adaptation and mitigation to address risks and challenges associated with climate change.

    Washington, DC: A staff team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) led by Mr. Charalambos Tsangarides, IMF mission chief for Tanzania, visited Dodoma and Dar es Salaam from October 2 to 17, 2024, to hold discussions with the authorities on the fourth review under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and the first review under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF). Subject to approval by the IMF Executive Board,  the review will make available SDR198.61 million (about US$265.78 million), bringing the total IMF financial support under the ECF arrangement to SDR568.84 million (about US$758.11 million), and SDR85.24 million (about US$114.07 million) under the RSF.

    At the conclusion of the mission, Mr. Tsangarides issued the following statement:

    “I am pleased to announce that the IMF team and the Tanzanian authorities have reached a staff-level agreement on the policies needed to complete the fourth review under Tanzania’s ECF-supported program, and the first review of the RSF arrangement. The IMF’s Executive Board will discuss these requests in the coming weeks.

    “The momentum in Tanzania’s economy is continuing in 2024 with economic activity growing at about 5.4 percent in the first half of 2024 after an annual growth of 5.1 percent in 2023. Inflation in September remained stable at 3.1 percent (yoy), well within the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) target. Earlier headwinds to the economy have subsided, and improved liquidity in the foreign exchange market has alleviated some of the shortage in the formal market, although pressures remain. The outlook is favorable, with growth expected to pick up to 5.4 percent in 2024; however, risks are tilted to the downside as intensification of regional conflicts, increased commodity price volatility, a global slowdown, reemergence of FX pressures in the first half of 2025, and climate related disasters, could weigh negatively on the economy.

    “The current account deficit improved markedly to about 3.1 percent of GDP in FY2023/24 from 6.5 percent of GDP the previous year, on the back of strong service exports growth and a slowdown in imports of goods and services helped by lower commodity prices. Improvements in the current account balance year-on-year, a 13 percent exchange rate depreciation over the same period, and the seasonal inflows of dollars in the second half of the year have helped ease some of the foreign exchange market pressures. The BoT remains committed to continue to allow exchange rate flexibility to ensure a market determined exchange rate, while limiting FX interventions to avoid disorderly market conditions, in line with its intervention policy. Maintaining a moderately tight monetary policy stance will complement efforts to ease pressures in the FX market, while preserving price stability.

    “Fiscal consolidation in FY2023/24 was achieved through improvements in tax revenue collections and adjustments in current spending. The FY2024/25 budget envisages continued growth-friendly consolidation, supported by tax policy and revenue administration efforts. The government is committed to increase priority social spending to protect the most vulnerable. The authorities’ structural reform agenda aims to support a resilient, sustainable, and inclusive growth through improving the business environment and strengthening governance.

    “At its meeting in October, the BoT Monetary Policy Committee maintained the policy rate, the Central Bank Rate, at 6 percent, to contain emerging inflationary pressures. The BoT will continue to calibrate its monetary policy to maintain low and stable prices, while safeguarding the recovery of economic activities from the impacts of global economic shocks and unfavorable weather conditions.

    “Supported by the RSF, the authorities are implementing their climate reform agenda to address climate policy challenges and enhance the resilience and sustainability of the Tanzanian economy. Efforts are underway to clearly define the institutional framework for climate change related policies and strengthen public investment management in line with climate impacts and risks. Progress on the implementation of the RSF reforms continues, and the authorities are mobilizing technical and financial assistance from development partners.

    “The mission met with Minister of Finance, Dr. Mwigulu Nchemba, Bank of Tanzania Governor, Mr. Emmanuel Tutuba, other senior officials, development partners, and private sector representatives. The IMF team would like to thank the Tanzanian authorities and other counterparts for their hospitality, and the candid and productive discussions.”

    IMF Communications Department
    MEDIA RELATIONS

    PRESS OFFICER: Pavis Devahasadin

    Phone: +1 202 623-7100Email: MEDIA@IMF.org

    @IMFSpokesperson

    https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2024/10/17/pr-24378-tanzania-imf-reaches-staff-level-agreement-on-the-4th-rev-of-ecf-and-1st-rev-of-rsf

    MIL OSI

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: APO Group’s Director of Strategy, João Marques, Appointed as Strategic Advisor to Decarb.earth to Support Expansion of Renewable Energy Projects in Africa

    Source: Africa Press Organisation – English (2) – Report:

    JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, October 22, 2024/APO Group/ —

    João Marques, Director of Strategy at APO Group (www.APO-opa.com), has been appointed as a strategic advisor to Decarb.earth, a Swiss-based sustainability start-up operating in the carbon credit landscape, to help accelerate renewable energy projects and decarbonisation efforts across Africa. In this advisory role, Marques will leverage his expertise to connect Decarb.earth with renewable energy developers in the region, supporting the company’s mission of driving sustainable development.

    Decarb.earth is today at the forefront of carbon credit innovation, identifying renewable energy initiatives in developing markets and enabling them to access alternative financing solutions. By facilitating the issuance of high-quality carbon credits, the company empowers developers to reinvest in their projects, scaling their impact on emissions reduction.

    “João Marques’ deep understanding of Africa’s energy landscape and his experience in strategic partnerships will be invaluable as Decarb.earth expands its reach on the continent,” said Marco Funk, founder, and CEO of Decarb.earth. “His involvement will help us identify new projects and foster relationships that will further our innovative platform’s capabilities.”

    Marques expressed enthusiasm for the new role: “I am excited to support Decarb.earth in its efforts to bring more renewable energy solutions to Africa. Their vision for transforming the carbon credit market aligns with the continent’s urgent need for sustainable energy, and I look forward to contributing to their strategy in driving innovation and growth.”

    As the Director of Strategy at APO Group, the leading pan-African communications consultancy and press release distribution service, and an expert in African energy markets, Marques will help bring together market insights and a strategic leadership to these efforts. This appointment also reflects APO Group’s broader commitment to supporting sustainability initiatives and promoting economic development across Africa.

    Decarb.earth’s platform uses cutting-edge technology in the form of Smart Contracts to streamline carbon credit issuance, significantly reducing the time and costs associated with traditional methods. The company has already partnered with major players like Masdar and Go Solr to revolutionise the carbon credit landscape, ensuring efficient and impactful decarbonisation solutions.

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI: BW Energy: Invitation to Q4 2024 results presentation 31 January  

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Invitation to Q4 2024 results presentation 31 January  

    BW Energy will release its fourth quarter and preliminary full-year 2024 results on Friday, 31 January at 07:30 CET.  

    A conference call followed by Q&A will be hosted by CEO Carl K. Arnet, CFO Brice Morlot and COO Lin G. Espey the same day at 15:00 CET. 

    You can follow the presentation via webcast with supporting slides, available on: 

    Viewer Registration Q4 2024  

    https://events.webcast.no/viewer-registration/RLEuPs34/register 

    Call-in information 

    Participants dial in numbers: 

    DK: +45 7876 8490 

    SE: +46 8 1241 0952 
    NO: +47 2195 6342 
    UK: +44 203 769 6819 
    US: +1 646-787-0157 
    Singapore: 65-3-1591097 
    France: 33-1-81221259 

    PIN code: 980877 

    For further information, please contact:

    ir@bwenergy.no  


    About BW Energy:     

    BW Energy is a growth E&P company with a differentiated strategy targeting proven offshore oil and gas reservoirs through low risk phased developments. BW Energy has access to existing production facilities to reduce time to first oil and cashflow with lower investments than traditional offshore developments. BW Energy’s assets are 73.5% of the producing Dussafu Marine licence offshore Gabon, 100% interest in the Golfinho and Camarupim fields, a 76.5% interest in the BM-ES-23 block, a 95% interest in the Maromba field in Brazil and a 95% interest in the Kudu field in Namibia, all operated by BW Energy, as well as approximately 6.6% (on an undiluted basis) of the common shares of Reconnaissance Energy Africa Ltd. Total net 2P+2C reserves and resources were 580 million barrels of oil equivalent at the start of 2024.  

    This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Algeria’s Bid Round Paves Way for $50B Hydrocarbon Investment Drive

    Source: Africa Press Organisation – English (2) – Report:

    PARIS, France, January 24, 2025/APO Group/ —

    Algeria is set to invigorate its hydrocarbon sector with a substantial $50 billion investment over the next four years, focusing primarily on exploration and production activities. Central to this initiative is an ongoing licensing round, offering six onshore blocks to international and domestic energy companies. Although the 2024 round closes before the Invest in African Energy (IAE) Forum, taking place in Paris this May, the forum provides a platform for stakeholders to analyze the implications of this strategy, discuss upcoming results and explore partnerships for future rounds. Below is an overview of the available licensing opportunities, from technical specifications to potential implications for the sector.

    Technical Specifications

    The National Agency for the Valorization of Hydrocarbon Resources (ALNAFT) has identified six onshore blocks for its current licensing round, which opened in November. These blocks include M’Zaid, Ahara, Reggane II and Zerafa II, which will be offered as Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs). Additionally, Toual and Kern El-Kassa will be made available as Participation Agreements. Together, these blocks cover approximately 152,000 km², representing a significant area for exploration and development.

    These opportunities are supported by a wealth of geological and geophysical data. ALNAFT has compiled over 102,000 line-kilometers of 2D seismic data and more than 45,000 km² of 3D seismic data. This extensive dataset offers investors a clear and comprehensive view of Algeria’s subsurface potential, aiding in the identification of promising hydrocarbon prospects.

    What to Expect

    The licensing round opened on November 26, 2024, when tender documents and data rooms became accessible to interested parties. The deadline for bid submissions is April 15, 2025, and following the evaluation of bids, contracts will be officially awarded in Algiers on May 29, 2025. This carefully planned timeline reflects Algeria’s commitment to a transparent and efficient bidding process. Combined with its offering of both PSCs and Participation Agreements, this framework creates an environment conducive to collaboration, innovation and flexibility, attracting a diverse range of international and domestic investors to its hydrocarbon sector.

    Moreover, the round is part of an ambitious five-year licensing strategy, which involves issuing one call per year through 2029. This long-term framework ensures a steady stream of investment opportunities, positioning Algeria as a reliable and strategic player in the global energy landscape.

    Implications for the Sector

    The 2024 licensing round represents a pivotal moment in Algeria’s strategy to increase hydrocarbon production and boost foreign investment. By offering expansive acreage backed by high-quality seismic data, Algeria is positioning itself as a prime destination for energy investments and new exploration activity. As part of the five-year licensing strategy extending through 2029, the round underscores Algeria’s long-term vision for its hydrocarbon sector. The regularity of these calls demonstrates Algeria’s commitment to fostering investor confidence and remaining a vital energy player in the region.

    IAE 2025 (http://apo-opa.co/3CuyQxq) is an exclusive forum designed to facilitate investment between African energy markets and global investors. Taking place May 13-14, 2025 in Paris, the event offers delegates two days of intensive engagement with industry experts, project developers, investors and policymakers. For more information, please visit http://www.Invest-Africa-Energy.com. To sponsor or participate as a delegate, please contact sales@energycapitalpower.com.

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Kenya’s female freedom fighters were the silent heroes of the anti-colonial movement – here are some of their stories

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Bethany Rebisz, Lecturer in the History of Modern Africa, University of Bristol

    Each year in Kenya, familiar faces are feted at the national remembrance of the country’s heroes and heroines. Dedan Kimathi is arguably the most commemorated of figures. As one of the most prominent leaders of the anti-colonial Land and Freedom Army, Mau Mau, he has become a symbol of the bloodshed for independence.

    Field Marshal Muthoni Kirima also features. She avoided British capture for 11 years, hiding in the forests of central Kenya, and was the only woman to reach the status of field marshal in the Mau Mau. So it is unsurprising that the then deputy president, Rigathi Gachagua, and other top government leaders attended her funeral in September 2023. Kirima died at the age of 92. The surviving Mau Mau generation is now declining, but many of those who fought or grew up during the 1950s rebellion live on.

    While the leaders of the Mau Mau and the political elite now hold a prominent place in Kenya’s national history of independence, this cannot be said of the thousands of civilians who contributed to the anti-colonial cause. These include the unarmed women who sustained the freedom fighters during this fraught period of Kenya’s history.

    Historians estimate that between 1952 and 1960, British colonial forces detained 80,000 Kenyans, hanged over 1,000 suspected rebels, and forcibly resettled approximately 1.2 million civilians in colonial “villages”. As its control of the colony dwindled, Britain used brutal measures including torture, forced labour and collective punishment to suppress anti-colonial dissent. It wasn’t until 2013 that Britain finally acknowledged these human rights abuses, having been exposed in the landmark High Court hearings (2011-2012).

    These discoveries have instigated a flurry of historical examination from historians and activists to assess British brutality in Kenya. This work has largely focused on the detention camps incarcerating freedom fighters and Britain’s military campaign. But what of the civilians, mainly women and children, whose lives were disrupted and threatened by their forced resettlement into guarded villages? In 2018, I set out to conduct research in Kenya to capture these important stories.

    The oral histories of women Britain forcibly resettled in the 1950s offer important insights into life in these villages. They challenge the evidence in the colonial archive. Archival records lack rich or diverse information about the day-to-day experiences of those who lived in the villages.

    Brutal history

    Between 1954 and 1960, an estimated 1.2 million Kenyans were forcibly removed from their homes and forced into colonial “villages”. This form of collective punishment was to work in tandem with the mass detention of suspected freedom fighters. Torture and forced labour were practised widely.

    The High Court hearings forced Britain to release its “migrated archive”, which consisted of over 20,000 files pertaining to 37 of its former colonies. These records had been secretly removed during the process of decolonisation. The archive corroborated survivors’ testimonies of torture, sexual violence and mistreatment in the camps. These new histories of colonial violence expose the limits of international human rights laws in the wars of decolonisation.

    For its audience back home and across the world, Britian’s Colonial Office circulated images of the colonial villages, images depicting community, safety and even joy. Photographs of children playing on a make-shift slide, women laughing in a sewing class, a village headman smiling in the local shop. But how well did these depictions represent lived experiences?

    Women’s stories

    Over the Spring of 2019, I interviewed several women who had at some stage of the 1950s been forcibly resettled. Their ages at the time of interview ranged from 69 to 105 years old.

    Most women were put in contact with me during my time spent in the central region of Kenya, building up relationships with community leaders, cultural heritage practitioners, and through friends. The interviews conducted for the project mainly took place in the participant’s homes. Stories and memories shared over a warm mug of chai (tea).

    Several themes emerged from the interviews with women who experienced forced resettlement.

    Firstly, surveillance. When the British colonial government declared a state of emergency in October 1952, it was concerned by the growing anti-colonial sentiment and initial attacks made by Mau Mau fighters. By 1953 it became apparent to colonial officials that women in the Gikuyu, Embu and Meru regions were playing a significant role in sustaining the forest fight. Much of the Mau Mau strategising took place deep in the forests of Mount Kenya, with women supplying food, ammunition, and intelligence to the armed combatants.

    Women were characterised as the eyes and ears of the movement and concentrating them in colonial “villages” ensured the colonial state’s eyes and ears were fixed upon them. As one interviewee explained to me:

    everything had changed … you do not play, you do not make a noise … We see the Home Guards up there.

    Women and children in the villages knew they were under constant watch from the colonial state and its guards, and they regulated their own behaviour accordingly.

    The villages, while depicted in propaganda as lush green spaces with happy villagers, instead followed similar patterns to the detention scheme. Most villages were surrounded by barbed-wire fences, or trenches filled with sharpened sticks.

    These were well fortified spaces to keep out the Mau Mau and keep in those who might support them. Security posts were often situated at the top of hillsides facing down on the huts of inhabitants. Security officials monitored all movement.

    As one interviewee expressed it:

    We looked like caged people. Like people in prison.

    The punishments inflicted if rules were broken raise a second theme in these interviews: brutality. Violence and coercion came in several forms. If a family was suspected of continuing to aid forest fighters, guards set the roof of their hut ablaze.

    Village-wide curfews were put in place and people were locked inside their homes for extended periods of time. They were denied food. Public beatings were inflicted. People were executed. Many women sustained severe bodily harm when being interrogated at the security post. These punishments often extended to sexual violence.

    But the British colonial state could not break the women’s spirit. Women spoke of the food they shared with one another. They recalled caring for children who had been orphaned. Women set up trading networks that sustained the community and prepared them for life post-conflict. Many persisted in their support of the Mau Mau, sneaking food out of the village, breaking the fences so forest fighters could get into the village site, and strategising under nightfall.

    With military operations subduing from 1956, Britain slowly began releasing families from the colonial villages. Some women were allocated land elsewhere, others were assigned land that had once been part of that village. For many then, the memories of forced resettlement remain ever present.

    Silent heroes

    During this research I often received a similar response from women: “you want to speak to my husband, he was in the forest, he was detained, he was one of those heroes”.

    Collectively, women who faced forced resettlement for their participation and connection to the liberation movement have tended to marginalise their own significance.

    Yet, in many ways, women across the central region of Kenya embodied the conflict. Their day-to-day lives became part of the battlefield. It raises a challenge for scholars to recognise all the experiences of colonialism in Kenya. To extend our anti-colonial histories beyond Mau Mau, also.

    – Kenya’s female freedom fighters were the silent heroes of the anti-colonial movement – here are some of their stories
    – https://theconversation.com/kenyas-female-freedom-fighters-were-the-silent-heroes-of-the-anti-colonial-movement-here-are-some-of-their-stories-241374

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Kenya’s female freedom fighters were the silent heroes of the anti-colonial movement – here are some of their stories

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Bethany Rebisz, Lecturer in the History of Modern Africa, University of Bristol

    Each year in Kenya, familiar faces are feted at the national remembrance of the country’s heroes and heroines. Dedan Kimathi is arguably the most commemorated of figures. As one of the most prominent leaders of the anti-colonial Land and Freedom Army, Mau Mau, he has become a symbol of the bloodshed for independence.

    Field Marshal Muthoni Kirima also features. She avoided British capture for 11 years, hiding in the forests of central Kenya, and was the only woman to reach the status of field marshal in the Mau Mau. So it is unsurprising that the then deputy president, Rigathi Gachagua, and other top government leaders attended her funeral in September 2023. Kirima died at the age of 92. The surviving Mau Mau generation is now declining, but many of those who fought or grew up during the 1950s rebellion live on.

    While the leaders of the Mau Mau and the political elite now hold a prominent place in Kenya’s national history of independence, this cannot be said of the thousands of civilians who contributed to the anti-colonial cause. These include the unarmed women who sustained the freedom fighters during this fraught period of Kenya’s history.

    Historians estimate that between 1952 and 1960, British colonial forces detained 80,000 Kenyans, hanged over 1,000 suspected rebels, and forcibly resettled approximately 1.2 million civilians in colonial “villages”. As its control of the colony dwindled, Britain used brutal measures including torture, forced labour and collective punishment to suppress anti-colonial dissent. It wasn’t until 2013 that Britain finally acknowledged these human rights abuses, having been exposed in the landmark High Court hearings (2011-2012).

    These discoveries have instigated a flurry of historical examination from historians and activists to assess British brutality in Kenya. This work has largely focused on the detention camps incarcerating freedom fighters and Britain’s military campaign. But what of the civilians, mainly women and children, whose lives were disrupted and threatened by their forced resettlement into guarded villages? In 2018, I set out to conduct research in Kenya to capture these important stories.

    The oral histories of women Britain forcibly resettled in the 1950s offer important insights into life in these villages. They challenge the evidence in the colonial archive. Archival records lack rich or diverse information about the day-to-day experiences of those who lived in the villages.

    Brutal history

    Between 1954 and 1960, an estimated 1.2 million Kenyans were forcibly removed from their homes and forced into colonial “villages”. This form of collective punishment was to work in tandem with the mass detention of suspected freedom fighters. Torture and forced labour were practised widely.

    The High Court hearings forced Britain to release its “migrated archive”, which consisted of over 20,000 files pertaining to 37 of its former colonies. These records had been secretly removed during the process of decolonisation. The archive corroborated survivors’ testimonies of torture, sexual violence and mistreatment in the camps. These new histories of colonial violence expose the limits of international human rights laws in the wars of decolonisation.

    For its audience back home and across the world, Britian’s Colonial Office circulated images of the colonial villages, images depicting community, safety and even joy. Photographs of children playing on a make-shift slide, women laughing in a sewing class, a village headman smiling in the local shop. But how well did these depictions represent lived experiences?

    Women’s stories

    Over the Spring of 2019, I interviewed several women who had at some stage of the 1950s been forcibly resettled. Their ages at the time of interview ranged from 69 to 105 years old.

    Most women were put in contact with me during my time spent in the central region of Kenya, building up relationships with community leaders, cultural heritage practitioners, and through friends. The interviews conducted for the project mainly took place in the participant’s homes. Stories and memories shared over a warm mug of chai (tea).

    Several themes emerged from the interviews with women who experienced forced resettlement.

    Firstly, surveillance. When the British colonial government declared a state of emergency in October 1952, it was concerned by the growing anti-colonial sentiment and initial attacks made by Mau Mau fighters. By 1953 it became apparent to colonial officials that women in the Gikuyu, Embu and Meru regions were playing a significant role in sustaining the forest fight. Much of the Mau Mau strategising took place deep in the forests of Mount Kenya, with women supplying food, ammunition, and intelligence to the armed combatants.

    Women were characterised as the eyes and ears of the movement and concentrating them in colonial “villages” ensured the colonial state’s eyes and ears were fixed upon them. As one interviewee explained to me:

    everything had changed … you do not play, you do not make a noise … We see the Home Guards up there.

    Women and children in the villages knew they were under constant watch from the colonial state and its guards, and they regulated their own behaviour accordingly.

    The villages, while depicted in propaganda as lush green spaces with happy villagers, instead followed similar patterns to the detention scheme. Most villages were surrounded by barbed-wire fences, or trenches filled with sharpened sticks.

    These were well fortified spaces to keep out the Mau Mau and keep in those who might support them. Security posts were often situated at the top of hillsides facing down on the huts of inhabitants. Security officials monitored all movement.

    As one interviewee expressed it:

    We looked like caged people. Like people in prison.

    The punishments inflicted if rules were broken raise a second theme in these interviews: brutality. Violence and coercion came in several forms. If a family was suspected of continuing to aid forest fighters, guards set the roof of their hut ablaze.

    Village-wide curfews were put in place and people were locked inside their homes for extended periods of time. They were denied food. Public beatings were inflicted. People were executed. Many women sustained severe bodily harm when being interrogated at the security post. These punishments often extended to sexual violence.

    But the British colonial state could not break the women’s spirit. Women spoke of the food they shared with one another. They recalled caring for children who had been orphaned. Women set up trading networks that sustained the community and prepared them for life post-conflict. Many persisted in their support of the Mau Mau, sneaking food out of the village, breaking the fences so forest fighters could get into the village site, and strategising under nightfall.

    With military operations subduing from 1956, Britain slowly began releasing families from the colonial villages. Some women were allocated land elsewhere, others were assigned land that had once been part of that village. For many then, the memories of forced resettlement remain ever present.

    Silent heroes

    During this research I often received a similar response from women: “you want to speak to my husband, he was in the forest, he was detained, he was one of those heroes”.

    Collectively, women who faced forced resettlement for their participation and connection to the liberation movement have tended to marginalise their own significance.

    Yet, in many ways, women across the central region of Kenya embodied the conflict. Their day-to-day lives became part of the battlefield. It raises a challenge for scholars to recognise all the experiences of colonialism in Kenya. To extend our anti-colonial histories beyond Mau Mau, also.

    Bethany Rebisz consults for the Museum of British Colonialism, a non-profit platform which facilitates global conversations about British colonialism and its legacies. The research conducted and explored in this article received funding from the UKRI AHRC, Royal Historical Society, and the British Institute of Eastern Africa.

    – ref. Kenya’s female freedom fighters were the silent heroes of the anti-colonial movement – here are some of their stories – https://theconversation.com/kenyas-female-freedom-fighters-were-the-silent-heroes-of-the-anti-colonial-movement-here-are-some-of-their-stories-241374

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Video: Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni delivers Keynote address at the Social Justice Summit at Cape Town.

    Source: Republic of South Africa (video statements-2)

    Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni delivers Keynote address at the Social Justice Summit at Cape Town.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVKNLGVRNGE

    MIL OSI Video –

  • MIL-OSI Video: Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi launches Human Settlements Research Strategy & Urban October Month.

    Source: Republic of South Africa (video statements-2)

    Minister of Human Settlements Mmamoloko Kubayi, delivering her keynote address on the occasion of launch the department’s Strategy in Kempton Park, City of Ekurhuleni.

    This landmark initiative aims to bolster the Human Settlements policy-making process by providing critical research support and direction, outlining long-term, medium-term, and short-term timelines for research activities. The strategy’s primary objective is to foster meaningful partnerships with esteemed research institutions specializing in the built environment and human settlements sector. Human Settlements Department/Thulani Hlophe, 07/10/2024

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjPdZ8m1Zuw

    MIL OSI Video –

  • MIL-OSI Video: What Is the Informal Economy? & Sustainable Space Exploration | WEF | Top Stories of the Week

    Source: World Economic Forum (video statements)

    This week’s top stories of the week include:

    0:15 What is the informal economy? – Erika Kraemer-Mbula is an expert on alternative development paths. She says the informal economy is more prevalent than many think, two-thirds of overall employment. It touches many areas, from retail to transport, domestic care, and even creative and intellectual labour.

    4:49 Sustainable space exploration – Alice Bunn is the former head of the UK’s space agency and now leads UKspace, its space trade association. Billionaire space missions may steal the headlines, Bunn says, but the majority of space programmes benefit everyday lives all over the world.

    9:32 AI can help preserve languages – 7,168 languages are spoken in the world today. But one dies out every 40 days. 90% could fall silent forever in the next 100 years. One key problem is that generative AI is trained on just a few of the world’s languages.

    14:06 How tech can bridge access to justice – Gerald Abila was raised in Uganda in the 1980s during a period of bloody civil conflict. Abila planned on becoming an engineer. But his studies prompted the question: What’s the most powerful tool we can use to engineer a peaceful society? His answer: the law.

    _____________________________________________

    The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.

    World Economic Forum Website ► http://www.weforum.org/
    Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/worldeconomicforum/
    YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/wef
    Instagram ► https://www.instagram.com/worldeconomicforum/ 
    Twitter ► https://twitter.com/wef
    LinkedIn ► https://www.linkedin.com/company/world-economic-forum
    TikTok ► https://www.tiktok.com/@worldeconomicforum
    Flipboard ► https://flipboard.com/@WEF

    #WorldEconomicForum

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnESC0M2xa8

    MIL OSI Video –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Joint donor statement on Humanitarian Access in Sudan

    Source: Government of Sweden

    Joint donor statement on Humanitarian Access in Sudan by the UK, USAID, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland, Canada and the European Commissioner for Crisis Management.

    The people of Sudan are experiencing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. 25 million people, half of Sudan’s population, are in urgent need of assistance. Fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has forced approximately 11 million from their homes, fleeing horrific violence and severe hunger since the outbreak of conflict 18 months ago. Women and girls are facing severe protection risks, including widespread sexual violence and other grave human rights violations. 

    In August, famine conditions were confirmed in Zamzam camp for internally displaced people – home to over 500,000 people. This marks the third official famine determination in the 21st century. On 9 October, in addition to the ongoing risk of famine in areas of greater Darfur, we were alerted that urban and rural areas of South Kordofan are now at elevated risk of famine due to continuing conflict and siege-like conditions. 

    The conflict between SAF and RSF and the two sides’ systematic obstruction of local and international humanitarian efforts is at the root of this famine. The war has driven civilians from their homes – uprooting them from their livelihoods. People have been increasingly forced into harmful coping strategies, and are more at risk for being trafficked. It has damaged agricultural production and disrupted trade flows and market functionality, resulting in a severe deterioration in the production of and access to food. 

    In Darfur, only a fraction of the aid needed to feed 7 million acutely food insecure people has been allowed in since August. Untold numbers of people have already died, and many more will die as a result. An immediate and coordinated scale-up of assistance, together with full, safe and unhindered humanitarian access to populations in need, is urgently required to mitigate the large-scale loss of life. We condemn that, despite the overwhelming urgency, both SAF and RSF persist in obstructing the humanitarian response. 

    In addition, bureaucratic impediments by both the Sudan’s Humanitarian Aid Commission and the Sudan Agency for Relief and Humanitarian Operations continue to impede the delivery of assistance at the necessary scale. The Sudanese authorities must recognize that it is essential to work in partnership with humanitarian actors in Sudan, allowing them to address the most urgent needs independently and unhindered. Bureaucratic obstacles that are primarily designed to obstruct the delivery of aid, such as delays in issuing visas and travel permits, will continue to prevent life-saving support to the most vulnerable communities – including those seeking safety from the RSF’s assault on El Fasher in Northern Darfur. The recent treatment of the inter-agency Mission in Darfur is unacceptable and underlines this pattern of obstructive behaviour. The UN and partners must be able to engage with all parties to the conflict to ensure that lifesaving aid reaches people in urgent need wherever they are. 

    The parties have a duty to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians and humanitarian personnel. In practice, this means the removal of all arbitrary restrictions on the Adre border crossing from Chad, including the 3-month time limit, opening of all possible cross-border routes without impediment, and agreeing on routes for humanitarian aid across conflict lines. In this regard, we recall the clear commitment of Chairman of the Sovereign Council, General Al-Burhan, to alleviate and remove all obstacles facing humanitarian actions. 

    We welcome the fulfilment of the humanitarian pledges made during the Paris Conference for Sudan and neighbouring countries on 15 April and recent progress of the Advancing Lifesaving and Peace in Sudan (ALPS) group in improving cross-border and crossline access. We call on the SAF and the RSF to engage and to deliver on their existing commitments and obligations for the sake of the Sudanese people. 

    Last month, world leaders gathered at the UN General Assembly called for the immediate cessation of hostilities and urgent action in support of Sudan. This is needed now more than ever, with the escalation of the hostilities causing displacement, destruction and death. 

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Attorney General James Announces 548 Guns Turned in at Rochester Gun Buyback

    Source: US State of New York

    NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James today announced that 548 firearms were turned in at a community gun buyback event in Rochester hosted by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) and the Rochester Police Department. This event was part of Attorney General James’ ongoing effort to combat gun violence and keep New Yorkers safe. To date, Attorney General James has removed more than 8,200 guns from New York state since taking office in 2019.

    “Gun buyback events empower local communities to remove unwanted firearms off our streets and out of our communities,” said Attorney General James. “Every one of the guns collected today is another potential life saved and tragedy averted. I thank the Rochester Police Department and my partners in local and state government for working with my office to ensure this event was a success. Together, we will keep protecting New York families from the scourge of gun violence.”

    Today’s buyback event in Rochester resulted in 548 guns being turned in, including 32 assault weapons, 306 handguns, and 152 long guns. Following today’s gun buyback event, Attorney General James has helped remove more than 8,200 guns out of New York communities.

    “Gun buyback programs like this are important tools to crack down on gun trafficking and keep dangerous weapons out of the wrong hands,” said U.S. Representative Joe Morelle. “I’m grateful to Attorney General James for her leadership, and I look forward to our continued work together to reduce violence and keep our families safe.”

    “Gun buyback programs can reduce the number of weapons in our community, help remove firearms from homes where they might be stored unsafely or are no longer desired, and can help to prevent illegal guns from falling into the wrong hands,” said Monroe County Executive Adam Bello. “These programs are part of broader community safety initiatives aimed at reducing gun violence and improving public safety. Thanks to Attorney General Letitia James and the Rochester Police Department for their partnership on this effort.”

    “Gun Buyback programs offer one more tool in our comprehensive strategy to confront the challenge of illegal guns and the havoc they’re causing on our streets,” said Rochester Mayor Malik D. Evans. “I encourage anyone with an unwanted firearm in their home to participate in this event and help us reduce firearm violence in our neighborhoods. I want to thank Attorney General Letitia James for partnering with the Rochester Police Department and the Church of Love Faith Center for holding this event in our city and helping us create a safe, equitable and prosperous Rochester by inspiring hope and delivering opportunity for everyone.” 

    “New Yorkers and Attorney General James are making explicit efforts to curb violence in our communities,” said Senator Samra G. Brouk. “With this gun buyback event, firearms will be removed from our neighborhoods, lowering the chances of violent incidents while compensating individuals for doing the right thing. With community action, we can prevent crises and tragedies in our city.”

    “Gun buybacks are about taking guns off our streets, curbing gun violence, and keeping our communities safe,” said Senator Jeremy Cooney. “I want to thank Attorney General Letitia James for hosting this event and for her commitment to public safety across New York.” 

    “Reducing the supply and spread of uncared-for firearms is a key step towards reducing gun violence in our community,” said Rochester Police Chief David M. Smith. “Although we will always take in unwanted firearms, events like these are a great incentive for community members to do the right thing and surrender unwanted or uncared-for firearms. I would like to thank the Attorney General’s Office for helping us to continue the reduction of gun violence in our community.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Iran holds int’l short film festival

    Source: China State Council Information Office 3

    The 41st Tehran International Short Film Festival (TISFF) kicked off on Friday in the Iranian capital, the official news agency IRNA reported.

    According to IRNA, 107 short works will compete for top awards in the festival’s international section.

    The submitted works, including 59 fiction films, 21 animated movies, 18 documentaries, and nine experimental films, were from India, China, Poland, the United States, Egypt, Greece, France, Palestine, Türkiye, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Russia, Australia, Japan, Germany, Italy and Cuba.

    Held for consecutively over the past four decades, the TISFF is one of the oldest short film festivals in the region. 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Chinese company begins construction of crucial Neno-Ligowe road in Malawi

    Source: China State Council Information Office

    A Chinese company, together with local officials, on Friday announced the commencement of the Neno-Ligowe road construction in Ligowe Village of Neno, one of Malawi’s isolated districts.

    Neno, a border district with Mozambique in southern Malawi, is known for its mountainous terrain and poor roads, which become impassable during the rainy season.

    According to Neno District Council Official Brightone Mphinga, the Neno-Ligowe road, a 20 km stretch, is vital for the people of Neno as it will not only facilitate the transportation of people and goods, especially farm produce, but also improve access to health and education services in the area.

    Mphinga told Xinhua that the arrival of China Railway 20th Bureau Group Corporation Limited (CR20) to announce the start of the project is an assurance that the long-awaited road will soon be realized.

    He said that the poor condition of the road has long deprived the people of Neno of essential services, including healthcare and education.

    “This is a crucial project for us, and we are very grateful. We want to assure the CR20 company that the District Commissioner’s office, along with all government offices and local communities, will work together to provide all necessary support until the project is completed,” Mphinga said.

    Chief Mlauli, the area’s highest traditional authority, echoed Mphinga’s sentiments, pledging continued community support to ensure smooth progress. He said that the road’s completion will significantly boost the local economy, making it easier and more affordable for farmers to transport crops such as Irish potatoes, cowpeas, tangerines and oranges to market.

    CR20 Project Manager Deng Jing reassured the people of Neno that the company will deliver a high-quality, durable road within the 18-month contract period. He also called for support from local authorities and the community to ensure the project’s success.

    CR20 has already mobilized more than 10 dump trucks and excavators at the site, with nearly 100 Chinese and Malawian workers ready to begin construction.

    The Neno-Ligowe Road project involves upgrading the existing dirt road, which is often impassable, to a 9.5-meter-wide asphalt-paved route. The road is critical for transportation and socio-economic development in the region, connecting Mwanza, a major border post, to Ntcheu, a commercial hub for farm produce in central Malawi.

    Since 2018, CR20 has implemented several projects in Malawi, contributing to local capacity building through employment for over 5,000 Malawians, as well as training and mentorship programs. 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI Video: The Minister of Basic Education briefs members of the media on readiness of the 2024 NSC Exams

    Source: Republic of South Africa (video statements-2)

    The Minister of Basic Education Ms Siviwe Gwarube briefs members of the media on readiness to administer the 2024 NSC Examinations

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYc5–AwRzs

    MIL OSI Video –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Statement attributable to the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General on Mozambique  

    Source: United Nations secretary general

    The Secretary-General strongly condemns the killings in Maputo of Elvino Dias, legal advisor to Mozambican presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, and Paulo Guambe, the legal representative of the political party PODEMOS.

    The Secretary-General expresses his deep condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims. He urges the authorities to swiftly investigate the killings and bring their perpetrators to justice.

    The Secretary-General calls on all Mozambicans, including political leaders and their supporters, to remain calm, exercise restraint and reject all forms of violence ahead of the official announcement of the electoral results.

    The Secretary-General reiterates the solidarity of the United Nations with the people of Mozambique and reaffirms its unwavering support to peace and stability during this important phase in the country’s history.

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Statement attributable to the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General on Mozambique  

    Source: United Nations – English

    he Secretary-General strongly condemns the killings in Maputo of Elvino Dias, legal advisor to Mozambican presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, and Paulo Guambe, the legal representative of the political party PODEMOS.

    The Secretary-General expresses his deep condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims. He urges the authorities to swiftly investigate the killings and bring their perpetrators to justice.

    The Secretary-General calls on all Mozambicans, including political leaders and their supporters, to remain calm, exercise restraint and reject all forms of violence ahead of the official announcement of the electoral results.

    The Secretary-General reiterates the solidarity of the United Nations with the people of Mozambique and reaffirms its unwavering support to peace and stability during this important phase in the country’s history.

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: New Building Commissioner appointed

    Source: New South Wales Premiere

    Published: 20 October 2024

    Released by: Minister for Building

    Minister for Building Anoulack Chanthivong has welcomed the appointment of the new NSW Building Commissioner.

    Department of Customer Service Secretary Graeme Head has appointed James Sherrard to the role.

    Mr Sherrard has more than 30 years’ experience spanning global construction projects with specialist expertise in strategy, commercial and infrastructure areas.

    His previous role was Head of Commercial, Performance and Strategy at Transport NSW, where he led a team responsible for contract frameworks, the acquisition of property for major infrastructure projects, procurement including several multi-billion dollar projects and an analytics team.

    He has been a project manager on civic, residential and sporting infrastructure projects across metropolitan and regional NSW and globally including the Sydney and London Olympics and has formal qualifications in building, business and law. He has worked at senior levels in professional services consulting, focused on infrastructure and urban renewal.

    His experience in international construction projects between 2004 and 2015 spanned time working in the UK, Algeria, Afghanistan and Hong Kong.

    Minister for Building Anoulack Chanthivong said:

    “I would like to congratulate Mr Sherrard on his appointment, which follows former Building Commissioner David Chandler retiring in August after being an outspoken force creating positive change for the building industry in NSW.

    “As part of this change, we last year launched Building Commission NSW transforming a ten person Office of the Building Commissioner into a more than 400 strong standalone regulator.

    “With his depth and breadth of experience across the public and private sectors and globally, Mr Sherrard is well placed to take the Building Commission to the next level in its development.

    “It is exciting to embark on a new era with James at the helm, working with stakeholders, industry, consumers and government to continue the Minns Labor Government’s work to rebuild trust in the construction industry and ensure a supply of well built homes across the state.

    “I would also like to thank Matt Press for acting in the role while the recruitment process was completed. Matt will continue as Acting Building Commissioner until James joins Building Commission NSW on 2 December.”

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: What makes Chinese students so successful by international standards?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Yongqi Gu, Associate Professor, School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

    Getty Images

    There is a belief widely held across the Western world: Chinese students are schooled through rote, passive learning – and an educational system like this can only produce docile workers who lack innovation or creativity.

    We argue this is far from true. In fact, the Chinese education system is producing highly successful students and an extremely skilled and creative workforce. We think the world can learn something from this.

    In a viral video earlier this year, Apple CEO Tim Cook highlighted the unique concentration of skilled labour that attracted his manufacturing operations to China:

    In the US, you could have a meeting of tooling engineers, and I’m not sure we could fill the room. In China you could fill multiple football fields.

    To which Tesla CEO Elon Musk quickly responded on X: “True”.

    When South African President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the Shenzhen headquarters of electric vehicle manufacturer BYD earlier this year, he was surprised to learn the company was planning to double its 100,000-strong engineering taskforce within the coming decade.

    He might not have been so surprised had he known Chinese universities are producing more than ten million graduates every year – the foundation for a super-economy.

    The ‘paradox of the Chinese learner’

    Chinese learners achieve remarkable success levels compared to their Western – or non-Confucian-heritage – counterparts.

    Since Shanghai first participated in the PISA educational evaluation in 2009, 15‑year-olds in China have topped the league table three out of four times in reading, mathematics and science.

    How can a supposedly passive and rote Chinese system outperform its Western counterparts? A number of Australian scholars have been studying this “paradox of the Chinese learner” since the 1990s.

    Their research shows those common perceptions of Chinese and other Asian learners are wrong. For example, repetition and meaningful learning are not mutually exclusive. As one Chinese saying goes:

    书读百遍其意自现 – meaning reveals itself when you read something many times.

    What can Western education learn?

    An emphasis on education is a defining feature of Chinese culture. Since Confucianism became the state-sanctioned doctrine in the Han Dynasty (202BCE–220CE), education has entered every fabric of Chinese society.

    This became especially true after the institutionalisation of the Keju system of civil service examinations during the Sui Dynasty (581CE–618CE).

    Today, the Gaokao university entrance examination is the modern Keju equivalent. Millions of school leavers take the exam each year. For three days every July, Chinese society largely comes to a standstill for the Gaokao.

    While the cultural drive for educational excellence is a major motivation for everyone involved in the system, it is not something that is easily learned and replicated in Western societies.

    However, there are two principles we believe are central to Chinese educational success, at both the learner and system levels. We use two Chinese idioms to illustrate these.

    The first we call “orderly and gradual progress” – 循序渐进. This principle stresses patient, step-by-step and sequenced learning, sustained by grit and delayed gratification.

    The second we call “thick accumulation before thin production” – 厚积薄发. This principle stresses the importance of two things:

    • a comprehensive foundation through accumulation of basic knowledge and skills
    • assimilation, integration and productive creativity only come after this firm foundation.
    Technique to art: weekly calligraphy lessons have been mandatory in Chinese primary and middle schools since 2013.
    Getty Images

    Knowledge, skill and creativity

    The epitome of orderly and gradual progress is the way calligraphy is learned. It goes from easy to difficult, simple to complex, imitating to free writing, technique to art. Since 2013, it has been a mandatory weekly lesson in all primary and middle schools in China.

    The art of Chinese writing embodies patience, diligence, breathing, concentration and an appreciation of the natural beauty of rhythm. It teaches Chinese values of harmony and the aesthetic spirit.

    “Thick accumulation” can be illustrated in the way students study extremely hard for the national Gaokao examination, and also during tertiary education. This way they accumulate the basic knowledge and skills required in a modern society.

    “Thin production” refers to the ability to narrow or focus this accumulated knowledge and skill to find and implement creative solutions in the workplace or elsewhere.

    Ways of learning

    On the face of it, the emphasis on gradual and steady progress, and on accumulation of basic knowledge and skills, may look like a slow, monotonous and uninspiring process – the origin of those common myths about Chinese learning.

    In reality, it boils down to a simple argument: without a critical mass of basic knowledge and skills, there is little to assimilate and integrate for productive creativity.

    Of course, there are problems with Chinese learning and education, not least the fierce competitiveness and overemphasis on examinations. But our focus here is simply to show how two basic educational principles underpin Chinese advances in science and technology in a modern knowledge economy.

    We believe these principles are transferable and potentially beneficial for policymakers, scholars and learners elsewhere.

    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. What makes Chinese students so successful by international standards? – https://theconversation.com/what-makes-chinese-students-so-successful-by-international-standards-238325

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: “Dispiriting, dangerous, anti-development” education and health cuts by nearly every country with World Bank and IMF loans

    Source: Oxfam –

    New global index reveals that nine out of ten countries worldwide are pursuing policies that are likely to increase levels of economic inequality.

    94 percent of countries (94 out of 100 countries) with current World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans have cut vital investments in public education, health and social protection over the past two years, according to a new report published today by Oxfam and Development Finance International (DFI).

    The figure is even higher for International Development Association (IDA) countries, the world’s poorest countries —95 percent (40 out of 42 countries) have pursued such cuts.

    “These cuts are not just dispiriting; they’re dangerous and fundamentally anti-development,” said Kate Donald, Head of Oxfam International’s Washington DC Office. “Too many Global South countries are facing the agonizing choice between investing in education and health or adopting austerity measures to keep up with crushing debt payments. These decisions come at a terrible human cost —millions of people depend on public services to thrive and build better lives for themselves and their children.”

    “Last year, we applauded the World Bank for finally making inequality an institutional priority. But our latest findings show that both the Bank and IMF have a lot of work to do if they are to genuinely contribute to tackling inequality rather than perpetuate it,” said Donald.

    In 2023, under growing pressure from economists, shareholders and civil society, the World Bank introduced its first-ever “vision indicator” aimed at reducing the number of countries with high inequality (Gini of 0.4 or above). Despite this step forward, the Bank has watered down previous commitments to support progressive taxation, including increased taxation of the super-rich. Tackling inequality has so far not been incorporated into the policy framework for the upcoming replenishment of the Bank’s IDA, which provides grants or low-interest loans to the world’s poorest countries, over half of which are in Africa. Inequality is high or increasing in 54 percent of countries that receive funds from IDA.

    Using the latest data from government budgets, the “Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CRI) Index 2024” ranks 164 governments on their policies regarding public services, tax, and workers’ rights —policies central to reducing inequality. This year’s edition shows that, for the first time since the Index began in 2017, the majority of countries are backsliding across all the three critical areas.

    Overall, 84 percent of countries have cut investment in education, health and social protection, 81 percent weakened their tax systems’ ability to reduce inequality, and in 90 percent of them, labour rights and minimum wages have worsened.

    Some countries have improved their ranking since 2022. Burkina Faso and Vanuatu increased their minimum wage, Croatia boosted investment in health, and Guyana retains one of the highest corporate tax rates (40 percent).

    Others have fallen sharply, including Argentina whose new government has slashed public health and education budgets by 76 percent and 60 percent, respectively, and is phasing out the country’s wealth tax. Pakistan has cut education and social protection budget shares by a third under IMF-imposed austerity measures.

    Even the top performers, high-income countries led by Norway and Canada, are lagging in many indicators. Around 5 percent of their populations face catastrophic out-of-pocket healthcare costs. Excepting Japan, most have low rates of corporate income tax. Denmark has been cutting the income tax rate paid by the richest 1 percent for years.

    The bottom performers in the Index remain dominated by those from Sub-Saharan Africa (all countries in the region have World Bank and IMF programs). In addition to low tax revenues, the debt crisis, conflict and climate breakdown are diverting scarce resources from education, health and social safety nets. On average, low- and middle-income countries are spending 48 percent of their budgets on debt service, far more than they do on education and health combined. Six of the bottom ten countries are in or at high risk of debt distress.

    Higher taxes on the income and wealth of the super-rich could raise trillions of dollars to plug financing gaps for public services in low- and middle-income countries. At the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in July 2024, for the first time in history, the world’s largest economies agreed to cooperate to tax the ultra-rich, a move welcomed by President of the World Bank Ajay Banga.

    “The world’s governments are doing even less to fight inequality, exacerbating extremism and undermining growth. With the World Bank adopting a new anti-inequality target, the World Bank and IMF have a new opportunity to champion policies which cut inequality —free public services, fairer tax systems, and stronger workers’ rights. They must seize this with both hands,” said Matthew Martin, Executive Director of DFI.
     

    Download Oxfam and DFI’s “Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CRI) Index 2024” at http://www.inequalityindex.org. Development Finance International (DFI) is a non-profit capacity-building, advocacy, advisory and research group.  

    According to Oxfam’s research, inequality is high or increasing in 25 (54 percent) of countries that receive funds from IDA.

    Significant investment from the World Bank is needed to radically and rapidly improve data on inequality, particularly on the incomes and the wealth of those at the top.  For more than 100 countries, the most recent data available is from 2019 or earlier, predating the last five years of crisis.
     

    MIL OSI NGO –