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Category: AM-NC

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Albanian Parliament launches e-Legislation Portal with OSCE and Swiss support

    Source: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe – OSCE

    Headline: Albanian Parliament launches e-Legislation Portal with OSCE and Swiss support

    Head of OSCE Presence in Albania, Ambassador Michel Tarran, speaking at today’s event aimed at launching Albanian Assembly’s e-Legislation portal. (OSCE/Elton Tahirllari) Photo details

    On 23 June 2025, in an important milestone for Albania’s legislative process, the Assembly of Albania launched the e-Legislation Portal, created through a project of the OSCE Presence in Albania with funding from the Swiss government.
    The Portal, developed in line with the international Akoma Ntoso standard, is designed to allow real-time search and access to consolidated legislative documents. It enhances internal workflow, supports more effective and transparent law-making and contributes to informed decision-making in the Assembly. The e-Legislation Portal is also a stepping stone towards the country’s full transition to the e-Legislation system by 2028.
    Addressing the launching event attended by dignitaries and officials from institutions involved in the law-making process, Speaker of Parliament Elisa Spiropali praised the initiative as an important step towards a unified and standardized legislative process across institutions in Albania, where Parliament leads. “With this platform, we are opening a new chapter in the way we draft, discuss, and adopt laws,” she announced. “We have built a crucial tool for modernizing and digitizing the parliamentary process of law-making, thereby significantly contributing to the democratic transformation of society. The portal represents a direct and concrete response to the challenge of swiftly transforming the Albanian Parliament into one that meets the rigorous standards of EU member state parliaments.” The Speaker expressed gratitude to the OSCE Presence for its continued partnership with the Assembly and to the Swiss Embassy for its contribution and financial support.
    “By embracing e-Legislation, Albania joins a growing number of countries that have adopted these systems and positions itself as a regional leader in digital legislative reform,” said Ambassador Michel Tarran, Head of the OSCE Presence. “Looking ahead, the long-term success of the e-Legislation process depends on full ownership by the Parliament, as a clear testament to the sustainability of this reform and its integration into the institutional fabric of Albania’s legislative system,” he added.
    The event included a demonstration of the Portal’s functionalities. It currently hosts over 300 laws processed in the Akoma Ntoso format. Although currently in a testing phase, the Portal is accessible at: e-legjislacioni.parlament.al, where users can explore its features and contribute to its ongoing improvement. Content development will continue under the direction of the Assembly, with support from the OSCE Presence, as needed.
    The initiative is part of the OSCE Presence’s project “e-Legislation support for Albania” (2023–2025), funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation. The OSCE Presence continues to support the Albanian Parliament in areas including law-making, legislative reform, capacity building, electoral processes, civic engagement, gender equality and good governance.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Free activities for Island youngsters this summer 23 June 2025 School’s out, HAF is in! Free activities for Island youngsters this summer

    Source: Aisle of Wight

    School’s out, and the fun is in! This summer, the Isle of Wight’s much-loved Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme is back — and it’s bigger, brighter, and bolder than ever before.

    From arts and crafts to horse riding, football to theatre skills, this year’s line-up is bursting with activities to keep young minds and bodies buzzing. Whether your child dreams of dancing, diving into creative play, or caring for animals, there’s something for everyone.

    And let’s not forget the food! Every session includes a hot, nutritious meal — or a packed lunch for day trips — with many providers encouraging children to roll up their sleeves and help prepare and serve the food themselves. It’s all part of the fun!

    Rhea Martin, HAF delivery officer, said: “The HAF programme is about more than just keeping children busy — it’s about giving them the chance to try new things, make friends, and enjoy healthy meals in a safe and supportive environment.

    “We’re proud to be offering such a wide range of activities again this year, and we encourage families to take full advantage of what’s on offer.”

    Here’s just a taste of what’s on offer this summer:

    • Animal care
    • Arts and crafts
    • Creative play
    • Dance
    • Day trips
    • Football
    • Gymnastics
    • Horse riding
    • Tennis
    • Theatre skills
    • Water sports

    New booking system for 2025

    Booking holiday activities has never been easier. The new HAF Booking System allows families to browse and book all available activities in one convenient location. By visiting the Eequ Booking System, users can quickly find and secure their preferred sessions.

    Book HAF activities

    Any questions? The helpful HAF team can be reached via email at holidayactivities@iow.gov.uk  

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: “Ahead of Time Together”: Winners and Prize-Winners of “Highest Standard” Awarded in Moscow

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –

    June 13th Center of Cultures The HSE hosted a ceremony to honor the winners of the All-Russian School OlympiadHighest quality“. Of the more than 4.5 thousand winners and prize winners, about 700 schoolchildren from 67 regions of Russia took part in it. The best of the best were noted in special nominations established by the organizing committee of the Olympiad. For the second year in a row, the Olympiad “Highest Standard” is held with the support of Sber.

    Before the ceremony, a festival program was organized in the HSE atrium, which for an hour and a half became the main city square of HSE City with street activities and artists, a lounge area and elegant pavilions, flags and garlands.

    Here you could get a consultation from a neuro-fortune teller, play table football and hockey, solve puzzles and dance, take part in the creation of living paintings. In the chill-zone of Sber, which is supporting the Olympiad for the second season, schoolchildren played computer games, ate ice cream and got answers to questions about building a dream career, and in the VR-greenhouse of the ROST Group of Companies, a partner of Vysshaya Proba in biology, they picked tomatoes, drank smoothies and tried snacks with the taste of tomato and cucumber.

    In the Photo Mosaic zone, participants were invited to contribute to the creation of the HSE inscription from hundreds of photographs of Olympiad diploma winners. Those who wished could take part in a quest introducing HSE, in the game What? Where? When?, continue to build up their intellectual potential at the master class What Can Be Learned from Social (and Not Only) Network Analysis? or the training Creative Worlds: How Ideas Turn into Collaborations.

    The guests then moved to the Cultural Center. The participants of the ceremony honoring the diploma holders (similar events were previously held in Saint Petersburg, Perm And Nizhny Novgorod) said the first vice-rector of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Vadim Radaev.

    “The Olympiad “Higher Standard” will soon turn 30, and every year it becomes more and more beautiful and cool. It already includes 30 profiles, including two new ones – “Industrial Programming” together with “Yandex” and “History of Art” together with the Pushkin Museum. And of course, the competition is growing. This year, more than 50 thousand people took part in it, and your victory is even more significant. There are more than 4.5 thousand winners and prize-winners, and even more diplomas, because some of you managed to win the Olympiad in several profiles,” said Vadim Radaev.

    The First Vice-Rector also thanked the partners and the team of organizers, “who are conducting the ‘Higher Test’ at the highest level.”

    Olga Tsukanova, Managing Director and Head of the Academic Partnerships Directorate at Sber, joined in the congratulations. She emphasized that the Higher School of Economics offers a wide range of sciences, and those who win the Olympiads then find themselves in a variety of fields.

    “We will be glad to see you among our employees, clients, partners, and we are ready to support those who see the future, who are moving towards the future, who are ready to lead others. Invitations to internships at Sber are received not only by students, but also by schoolchildren, who can try themselves in our product teams, “twist” the products that we release to the market. And students, especially after two years of study, having received a solid base, do cool projects at Sber,” said Olga Tsukanova.

    The organizing committee of the Olympiad established special nominations in which the best of the best were recognized: “Everest of Science” (diplomas in five or more profiles), “Conquering Olympus” (the highest results in profiles from 90 points), “Victory Marathon” (prize places for four or more years), “Ahead of Time” (completion of tasks two grades higher than the class of study, and tasks for the 7th grade by sixth-graders) and “HSE Olympiads” (winning several intellectual competitions of the National Research University Higher School of Economics). The laureates in these nominations, as well as two diploma winners of the Olympiad, who celebrated their birthday on June 13, were presented with diplomas, medals and gifts on stage.

    Deputy Vice-Rector – Head Directorate for the Development of Intellectual Competitions HSE University Danil Fedorov, congratulating the winners in the “Everest of Science” nomination, urged them to apply to a university where it is difficult to study, reminding them that the Higher School of Economics is exactly such a university.

    Olga Tsukanova invited the winners in the Conquering Olympus nomination to become students of the AI360: Artificial Intelligence Engineering track of the bachelor’s program Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, which is being implemented at HSE jointly with Sber and Yandex.

    Chairman of the Methodological Commission for the Profile “Foreign Languages” – Head Foreign language schools HSE University Ekaterina Kolesnikova compared the process of preparing for the Olympics to playing sports. “The winners in the “Victorious Marathon” nomination know very well that those who do not stop when things are difficult, who act at the limit of their capabilities, win,” she noted.

    The winners in the “Ahead of Time” nomination were announced by Anna Korovko, Senior Director for Main Educational Programs at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, and the Chair of the Methodological Commission for the “Political Science” profile, Dean Faculty of Social Sciences Denis Stukal. Anna Korovko promised that by the time they finish 11th grade, studying at the HSE will become even more difficult, and Denis Stukal, himself a former Olympiad participant, called them true leaders who not only challenged those who were a year or two older than them, but also succeeded in doing so.

    “You have a great future ahead of you, and I hope that at some point it will become inextricably linked with our university, because HSE is a university that is also ahead of its time. Let’s get ahead of it together and move only forward,” Denis Stukal concluded.

    The Chairperson of the Methodological Commission for the Economics Profile, Daria Tabashnikova, announced the winner in the HSE Olympiads brand nomination, Anastasia Usenko, who won the Vysshaya Proba Olympiad, the In Your Own Words essay championship, and the Highest Aerobatics competition. “Collecting awards, receiving diplomas, and preferences is great, but it’s even cooler when a person tries himself in different things and succeeds,” Daria Tabashnikova emphasized.

    The results of the event were summed up by the Director for Work with Gifted Students at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Tamara Protasevich.

    “The ending Olympiad season of “Highest Standard” is the fifteenth, anniversary one for our team, which is responsible for its implementation. The year 2025 is generally rich in anniversaries: 5 years of the All-Russian Case Championship, 10 years of “Highest Aerobatics”. And “Highest Standard” is our largest project: registration for it began in August last year, and diplomas are being awarded now, in June. The Olympiad is constantly in the focus of our attention, and we are constantly improving it,” said Tamara Protasevich.

    She gave examples of feedback from Olympiad participants, which those present in the hall agreed with, raising glowing hearts: “The level of tasks is decent, difficult, but interesting,” “The atmosphere is pleasant, comfortable, not overwhelming, allows you to enjoy completing the Olympiad tasks,” “Organization – everything is clear and well thought out, prompt responses to questions, caring, friendly volunteers.”

    Tamara Protasevich also announced another nomination – “Recognition of the Organizers”, the winners of which were the best volunteers – students of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, who over the past three years participated in the “Higher Standard” and other intellectual competitions of the university. “Without these guys, not a single project of our directorate would have taken place. They are the best!” – she concluded.

    The ceremony of honoring the diploma winners ended with a collective performance of the student anthem “Gaudeamus”, after which all its participants were awarded the Olympiad diplomas and medals in the lobby of the Center of Cultures. Some of them shared their impressions with the news service “Vyshka.Glavnoe”.

    “The Highest Standard” is a combination of all the best that can be found at the Olympiad, says Erland Glukhov, a 10th-grader at the AMTEK General Education Lyceum in Cherepovets. “I participated in the in-person stage in Moscow, my friends in St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod, and everyone was happy with the organization of the process and the support of the participants. I especially like the tasks: they are designed in an unconventional way, they include interesting elements, and they are really interesting to solve.”

    According to Erland, behind every victory at the Olympics there is, first and foremost, hard work, not only your own, but also that of your mentors, as well as the support of your parents.

    “When I was doing assignments in the Law profile, I had the feeling that I was in some other universe the whole time, that I fell asleep in the first minute and woke up in the last minute, when everything was already done,” said Alexander Gimpelson, a 10th-grade student at School No. 7 “Russian Classical School” in Ryazan. “The assignments required a creative approach, and it was always necessary not only to reproduce the provisions of the laws, but also to understand them, evaluate them from different angles, and show how they can be applied in practice.”

    In preparation for the Olympiad, Alexander mastered scientific literature, thanks to which “these complex adverbial participial phrases, thirty subordinate clauses in one sentence of the law became lively and understandable.” In a year, he plans to enroll in the Faculty of Law at the National Research University Higher School of Economics and subsequently specialize in the field of private law.

    11th-grader Polina Platonova from the Vladimir region has been participating in Olympiads since the 4th grade. This year she went to Nizhny Novgorod for the “Highest Standard”, and she associates the in-person round competitions with both a holiday and a tense struggle. The girl is considering the possibility of entering the National Research University Higher School of Economics – Nizhny Novgorod and also associates her further professional development with jurisprudence.

    Albina Markaryan, an 11th-grader from Voronezh, participated in the final round in her hometown and will be applying to the HSE for a bachelor’s degree in International Relations this year. Before the awards ceremony, she walked around the atrium (“everything was organized wonderfully, lots of competitions and entertainment”), she liked everything in the university building, and she has no doubt that if she is accepted, these feelings will not only remain, but will also intensify.

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Scorecard for Safer Play: Athletic Field Assessment Form Updated for Mobile Use

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    A new online version of the UConn Extension’s existing Athletic Field Assessment Form provides school grounds managers and turf professionals with an easier way to document, monitor, and maintain safe athletic fields. Developed by a team from the Sustainable Landscape Program, the new tool was built on a 14-year legacy of the paper assessment form to create a mobile-friendly format, making it easier to assess turf health, track maintenance activities, and advocate for resources.

    The idea for digitizing the original paper scorecard was sparked when Vickie Wallace, senior extension educator, gave a presentation at a National Sports Field Managers Association (SFMA) conference several years ago. She shared data collected from an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) project focused on the assessments of Connecticut school athletic fields and surrounding landscapes. She was aided in the three-year data collection effort by the late emeritus professor, Bill Dest, students, and project staff member Alyssa Siegel-Miles.

    “At the end of my presentation, a colleague from the turfgrass seed industry approached me and said, ‘your assessment form could be a really cool app,” Wallace says. That conversation changed the direction of a portion of UConn’s next IPM grant proposal, which ultimately included development of the new online assessment tool.

    Building on a Proven Framework

    Wallace, Dest, and UConn professor Jason Henderson from the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture were the primary authors of the original assessment form. The form has been in use for well over a decade and remains available on the UConn School IPM website. Designed to support school grounds managers and assess the safety and quality of athletic fields, both the paper assessment form and the new assessment tool assigns numerical ratings to a variety of factors that can influence the playing surface quality of the athletic field, including turfgrass density, surface uniformity, and wear damage, weed and pest presence, along with the ability to record necessary cultural maintenance such as mowing, irrigation, nutrient applications, cultivation and overseeding, and turfgrass health.

    “We worked hard to build a comprehensive tool that municipal and school grounds managers could use to inform and communicate with administrators about management practices related to field care,” Wallace says.

    For many school grounds managers, especially those in K-8 settings, this tool becomes a powerful way to justify funding for overseeding, irrigation improvements, and other maintenance activities.

    “I had a couple of school grounds managers tell me after one of our school grounds workshops that they hesitated to use the original assessment because when combining the category scores together, the final quantified number clearly highlighted the quality of the athletic field surface. The managers interpreted a low score to incorrectly mean they were doing something wrong, rather than recognize the score provided evidence that their overused fields required additional staff, supplies, and equipment to ensure quality playing surfaces,” says Wallace. “The tool was created to help them advocate for more resources and improve safety.”

    By adding the opportunity to enter data from the field, store data related to maintenance inputs in situ, the tool allows the input of data to be easy and quick. There is no longer the need to make notes in the field and transfer the data to a paper or computer log later in the day.

    Features and Flexibility

    Now available as a web-based tool that can be accessed from both desktop and mobile devices, the Athletic Field Assessment Tool includes expanded functionality without a cost to input data. Managers can create an account and enter static field data like identified turfgrass species, renovation history, or soil type, along with dynamic reports on mowing, overseeding, cultivation, and turf quality ratings. The UConn Digital Experience Group worked with Wallace and Siegel-Miles to build the online tool.

    Key features include:

    • Turf Quality Rating on a 1–15 scale, with 15 being excellent
    • Report types including weed or other pest presence and maintenance events
    • Photo uploads for visual documentation
    • Data filtering and report printing
    • Unlimited field entries and ample data storage

    “You can enter data for as many fields as you want, and tailor how often you assess them based on field use,” Wallace says.

    Some managers conduct a varying range of assessments to monitor turf health and recovery from wear because they have both high school and elementary fields with different use levels.  Data can be stored on the phone or ultimately transferred to a computer at the end of the season.

    Feedback from school grounds managers played an important role in shaping the final product. The team tested beta versions and provided input to improve usability and relevance for turfgrass professionals.

    A Tool for Communication and Collaboration

    Because school grounds managers often communicate with school administrators or athletic directors, the tool helps them present data related to present day/current field conditions to support real time decisions related to field playability or event scheduling. The tool can also document, in an easily understood format, how routine management practices impact turfgrass health.

    “Documenting the level of activity on a field helps justify why a field needs to recover or rest, or documenting wear damage on a field helps argue the need to rotate practices to another section of the field,” Wallace says. “It supports conversations with administrators and coaches, so they understand the importance of turf care.”

    That value isn’t going unnoticed.

    ” I believe [the tool] can help professionals in our sports turf industry very much. It is also very user-friendly,” says Richard Calarco, CSFM, AOLCP, L&C Park Consultants, LLC; retired director of Parks and Recreation from the Town of Hebron.

    This work relates to CAHNR’s Strategic Vision area focused on Fostering Sustainable Landscapes at the Urban-Rural Interface.

    Follow UConn CAHNR on social media

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Personal Insolvency and Data Collection Systems

    Source: International Monetary Fund

    Disclaimer: IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: The EU’s CBAM: Implications for Member States and Trading Partners

    Source: International Monetary Fund

    Summary

    The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) came into force on October 1, 2023, introducing reporting requirements for importers of covered products and, from 2026, an obligation to pay a fee on the carbon content of imported goods. This paper uses indices of ad valorem tariffs to assess the incidence of the EU CBAM on both EU member states and the EU’s trading partners. Overall, the direct impact on EU countries’ trade is estimated to be small, adding 0.1 percent to the value of EU imports when averaged across all imports, and 0.04 percent to the average cost of non-EU countries’ exports to the EU—with a maximum of 1.2 percent. However, effects could be sizeable for specific products such as iron, steel and aluminium, which can help explain CBAM’s political salience. Moreover, an expanded CBAM featuring full coverage of ETS sectors and a significantly higher carbon price could entail larger costs in the more distant future.

    Subject: Environment, Exports, Greenhouse gas emissions, Imports, International trade

    Keywords: Carbon Leakage, Carbon Taxation, Emissions Trading, Exports, Global, Greenhouse gas emissions, Imports, Trade Policy

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: The Art of Leisure: Slim Aarons’ Dazzling Summer Scenes Debut on Samsung Art Store”

    Source: Samsung

    Today, a dozen of Slim Aarons’ most  iconic mid-century jet-set scenes arrive on Samsung Art Store in a seasonal, summertime delivery of works from the legendary Photographer. These sunny images of exotic resort locations such as Lake Como, Marrakech, and Mabella join the two dozen works of Aarons’s already available for digital display on the Samsung Art Store.
    This latest collection of images from Aaron’s to debut on the Samsung Art Store showcases photographs from the 1960s, 70s and 80s, capturing the world’s most exclusive summer resorts and society destinations, where his timeless vision comes alive in full kaftan clad splendor. This seasonal offering, curated by Samsung Art Store, invites you into Aarons’ timeless world, where sunlit patios set the stage for photographs of the bold personalities and effortless style Aarons is known for. Featuring some of his most famous photography such as Positano Beach (1979) and Poolside Gossip (1970), each image reflects Aarons’ ability to capture high society in its most unguarded, yet dazzling, moments.

    “Slim Aarons photography is truly timeless and offers a window into an era defined by elegance and style,” says Daria Greene, Samsung Art Store’s Global Curator. “His extraordinary ability to transport viewers through space and time to the most exotic and exclusive locations of the 20th century is unmatched and accounts for his enduring popularity. As part of the Samsung Art Store catalogue, we’re now able to bring his work into millions of homes in an entirely new format for him.”
    “Bringing Slim Aarons’ work to Samsung Art Store reflects our deep commitment to shaping a more accessible future for art and for artists around the world,” said Yong Su Kim, Corporate EVP and Head of Service Business Team. “Samsung Art Store was built to reimagine how art is experienced in the home — making the world’s most celebrated works available in a way that is personal, dynamic, and beautifully integrated into daily life.”

    An Analog Icon Goes Digital
    “Expanding the Slim Aarons catalog available on the Samsung Art Store supports our mission to keep Slim’s incredible artistic legacy alive in the 21st century,” said Shawn Waldron, curator of the Slim Aarons archive for Getty Images. “Slim provided the blueprint for aspirational living by focusing on timeless elegance and environments. The Samsung Frame television is the ideal digital product to honor and display his work in ways he could never have imagined in his lifetime.”
    Slim Aarons’ famously described his photography as capturing “attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places,” a phrase that has become synonymous with his legacy. Now, with his work available on Samsung Art Store, Aarons’ timeless vision finds a new audience, offering an effortless way to transform any space. Samsung Art Store subscribers can also enjoy over 3,500 other works of art from over 800 artists with the service now available on Neo QLED 8K, Neo QLED, QLED, The Frame and The Frame Pro, which are powered by Samsung Vision AI for AI-enhanced picture and sound.
    For more information, visit www.samsung.com.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: ICC elects four new members to the Executive Board

    Source: International Chamber of Commerce

    Headline: ICC elects four new members to the Executive Board

    The new members were formally elected during the annual meeting of the ICC World Council on 19 June 2025 and will each serve a three-year term effective 19 June 2025. The diverse experience of new members will enrich ICC’s roadmap to enable peace and prosperity through trade and reflects ICC’s continued commitment to geographic representation and diversity of expertise as the world’s largest and most inclusive business organisation.

    The ICC Executive Board is responsible for developing and implementing ICC’s strategy, policy and programme of action as well as for overseeing the financial affairs of ICC. 

    ICC Chair Philippe Varin said:

    “I’m very pleased to welcome this exceptional group of global leaders who bring deep expertise and fresh perspectives to ICC. Their leadership will be vital as we continue charting a path forward in delivering real-world solutions for business in a changing global environment. My thanks also to our outgoing Board members for their contributions.”

    The new Board members are: 

    Mohammad Lootah

    Mohammad Ali Rashed Lootah is the President and CEO of Dubai Chambers, where he leads strategic initiatives to enhance Dubai’s business environment, attract foreign investment, support global business expansion, and promote the digital economy. Prior to this role, he held several key leadership positions within Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism, including CEO of Commercial Compliance and Consumer Protection, overseeing areas such as consumer rights, business protection, and intellectual property. He also served in senior roles at the Department of Economic Development and the Dubai Land Department. 

    Zhang Hui

    Zhang Hui is Vice Chairman, Executive Director and President of the Bank of China, roles he assumed between December 2024 and January 2025. He also serves as Vice Chairman of BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) Limited. Mr Zhang joined the Bank of China in 2024 after serving as Executive Vice President of China Development Bank from 2021 to 2024. Prior to that, he spent many years at Bank of Communications, where he held various senior roles including as Chief Risk Officer, general manager of several risk management departments, and president of regional branches including in Guizhou and Shanghai. 

    Anousheh Ansari

    Anousheh Ansari is the CEO of XPRIZE, where she leads global innovation competitions addressing some of humanity’s most pressing challenges. A tech entrepreneur and space pioneer, Ms Ansari co-founded and led Prodea Systems, an IoT company recognised among Inc. Magazine’s 500 fastest-growing firms. In 2006, she became the first female private space explorer, the first astronaut of Iranian descent, and the first Muslim woman in space. Under her leadership, XPRIZE has awarded over US$81 million and launched US$361 million in active competitions. Ms Ansari also serves in various global advisory roles, including with the World Economic Forum, GESDA and UNESCO, and is an advocate for women entrepreneurs through initiatives like The Billion Dollar Fund for Women.

    Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul

    Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul is a Thai business leader and former Minister of Tourism and Sports, known for her contributions to both public policy and corporate governance. As Thailand’s tourism minister from 2014 to 2017, Ms Wattanavrangkul championed sustainable tourism and cultural heritage. She currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors at Kasikornbank and Toshiba Thailand, and plays an active role in advancing education, innovation and international cooperation through various institutional boards. Ms Wattanavrangkul’s career reflects a strong commitment to inclusive and sustainable development in Thailand.

    Term renewals

    Elected to serve on the ICC Executive Board for a second term during the World Council meeting were Holger Bingmann (Germany), Managing Partner, Bingmann Pflüger International GmbH, Rebecca Enonchong (Cameroon), CEO, AppsTech and Chair of Afrilabs, Marjorie Yang (Hong Kong), Chair, Esquel Group, Lama Al Sulaiman (Saudi Arabia), Shareholder and Board Member of Rolaco Holdings, KSA and LUX and Justin D’Agostino (Hong Kong), Global CEO, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer.

    Outgoing Board members are Candace Johnson (United States/Luxemburg), Vice-Chair, NorthStar Earth and Space, Fredrik Cappelen (Sweden), Chairman and Board Member in the Swedish and Nordic industry, Valentina Mintah (Ghana), Founder West Blue Consulting, Zhang Xiaolun (China) Chair, China National Machinery Industry Corporation (SINOMACH).

    Leading chambers worldwide

    The ICC World Council also ratified the re-election of Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu as Chair of the ICC World Chambers Federation (WCF) for a second three-year term commencing 20 June 2025. Mr Hisarcıklıoğlu is Chair of ICC Türkiye and President of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB).

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Embarrassed? Why this feeling might actually be good for you

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Laura Elin Pigott, Senior Lecturer in Neurosciences and Neurorehabilitation, Course Leader in the College of Health and Life Sciences, London South Bank University

    Embarrassment is generated by a network of different brain regions working together. Kues/ Shutterstock

    Picture this: it’s your first day at a new job. You’re about to introduce yourself to a large group of people you’ll be working with – and promptly fall flat on your face. Not exactly the entrance you had in mind.

    We’ve all cringed at moments like these — whether they happen to us or to others. That instant, full-body wince, and the shared, silent relief that it didn’t happen to you.

    Embarrassment is a universal, visceral and oddly contagious emotion. It’s what psychologists call a self-conscious emotion. This means it hinges on our awareness of ourselves through others’ eyes.

    Unlike shame or guilt, embarrassment isn’t usually moral — it’s about looking awkward or inept. Context matters too. We feel more embarrassed in front of people whose opinions we value or who hold power.

    Yet while embarrassment may feel uncomfortable, it actually has surprising social and psychological benefits.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    Empathy and social connection

    Evolutionary psychologists believe embarrassment developed as a social corrective – a way to acknowledge mistakes, signal remorse and reduce conflict within groups.
    This instinct probably helped our ancestors stay in the group, which was critical for survival. People who showed embarrassment were seen as more trustworthy and cooperative.

    In this way, embarrassment can invite empathy and forgiveness, strengthening relationships. It signals that we care what others think, promoting approachability and emotional closeness. So, while it’s uncomfortable in the moment, embarrassment probably evolved to keep communities cohesive.

    Embarrassment is also contagious. Most of us have cringed on someone else’s behalf. This shows how deeply tuned our social brains are. We empathise with others’ awkwardness, often rushing to reassure them. This empathy helps preserve harmony and can also help us build connection with others.

    Embarrassment signals remorse and can invite empathy from others.
    fizkes/Shutterstock

    Trust and virtue

    Visible signs of embarrassment – such as blushing or stumbling over words – are often seen as signs of honesty and generosity. One study found that people who show embarrassment are judged to be more trustworthy and sociable.

    Blushing may have evolved on purpose to be a visible, honest signal of humility that others instinctively trust. Experiments even show we’re more likely to forgive someone who looks embarrassed than someone who acts indifferent.

    Learning social norms

    Forgetting you’re not on mute in a Zoom meeting, sending a message to the wrong group chat or realising your shirt’s inside out after an important meeting. These moments may be minor, but our brains still process them as social threats – albeit small ones.

    In this way, embarrassment helps us adhere to social norms and expectations – many of which are unwritten and only discovered once we’ve flubbed them by mistake. Embarrassment acts as an internal guide, helping us remember social missteps and encouraging us to conform to shared expectations – not out of shame, but because it feels right. It also nudges us whenever we stray near the edges of what’s socially comfortable, helping us course-correct swiftly.

    The way we react to an embarrassing situation is also important in helping us learn from our experiences. Many of us laugh nervously when embarrassed. This effectively reframes the incident from threatening to harmlessly amusing in our minds.

    Humility and authenticity

    Embarrassment keeps egos in check, signals emotional intelligence and makes us more relatable. In a curated world, an awkward moment can humanise us and build credibility.

    However, while moderate embarrassment is healthy and constructive, excessive fear of it can become harmful – crossing into social anxiety.

    Your brain on embarrassment

    Embarrassment isn’t generated by a single “embarrassment centre” in the brain. Rather, it’s generated by a network of different brain regions working together.

    The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is a region in the front of the brain that’s active during self-reflection and when thinking about how others perceive us. It’s also involved in storing social memories – which is why an embarrassing memory, even from years ago, can still make you cringe when it pops into your head.

    The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is the reason you blush, your heart pounds and you feel sweaty when you’re deeply embarrassed. The ACC activates your “fight or flight” reaction. When the ACC fires up, it also helps us adjust our behaviour – aiding in impulse control and helping us learn from the mistake so we don’t do it again.

    The amygdala is the brain’s emotional alarm bell. When we get embarrassed, the amygdala registers the emotional intensity of the situation – especially the fear of being seen negatively.

    People with social anxiety show an imbalance between the mPFC and amygdala. Their mPFC is underactive (so they’re less able to rationalise others’ perspectives), while their amygdala is overactive (causing excessive fear signals). This combination makes it hard for them to accurately gauge social situations, often interpreting them as more threatening and embarrassing than they really are.

    Finally, the insula, a region located deep in the brain, helps us tune into our emotions and bodily states. This creates that gut-level discomfort we feel during embarrassing moments. All these regions work in concert during an embarrassing moment.

    Embarrassment is uncomfortable, yes – but it’s also a reminder that we care about others and want to belong. It’s part of what makes us human. So the next time you experience an embarrassing moment, try to laugh it off and remember that the moment is helping us to learn and connect.

    Laura Elin Pigott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Embarrassed? Why this feeling might actually be good for you – https://theconversation.com/embarrassed-why-this-feeling-might-actually-be-good-for-you-259094

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why social media injury recovery videos could do more harm than help

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Craig Gwynne, Senior Lecturer in Podiatry, Cardiff Metropolitan University

    Studio Romantic/Shutterstock

    When Kim Kardashian glided into the launch party of her NYC SKIMS boutique on a knee scooter, a mobility aid for people with lower leg injuries – stiletto on one foot, designer cast on the other – she wasn’t just managing an injury. She was creating content.

    And she’s far from alone.

    In 2024, rapper Kid Cudi turned his own broken foot into a viral storyline, posting updates of himself on crutches and in a surgical boot after a mishap at the Coachella festival in California. These high profile injuries don’t just invite sympathy; they generate style points, followers and millions of views.

    But as injury recovery morphs into online entertainment, it raises an important question: is this trend helping people heal or encouraging risky behaviour that can delay recovery?

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    Open any social media feed and you’ll likely stumble across videos of people hobbling through supermarkets, dancing on crutches, or sweating through workouts in a medical boot. Hashtags like #BrokenFootClub and #InjuryRecovery have spawned thriving online communities where users share advice, frustrations and recovery milestones. For many, rehab has become a public performance, complete with triumphant comeback narratives.

    And it’s not just celebrities. All sorts of people are turning their injuries, from hiking sprains to post-surgery recoveries, into digital diaries. Some offer helpful tips or emotional support, while others focus on fast-tracked progress, sometimes glossing over the slower, necessary steps that true healing demands.

    A broken foot used to mean rest. Now it can mean millions of views.

    Watching others navigate recovery can be deeply reassuring. Seeing someone joke about wobbling to the bathroom or demonstrate how to climb stairs with crutches can ease the loneliness that often comes with injury.

    And some creators are genuinely getting it right. Increasing numbers of healthcare professionals, from orthopaedic surgeons to physiotherapists and podiatrists, now use social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram to share safe exercises, realistic timelines and expert tips on navigating recovery. For people who struggle to access in-person care, this clinically sound content can be a lifeline.

    But not all content is created equal – and some can do more harm than good.

    When rest gets rebranded

    But on social media, rest isn’t always part of the narrative. The most viewed recovery videos often aren’t posted by healthcare professionals but by influencers eager to showcase rapid progress. Some discard crutches too soon, hop unaided, or attempt high-impact exercises while their bodies are still vulnerable – all for the sake of engagement.

    What’s often missing is the unglamorous reality: swelling, setbacks, rest and the slow, sometimes frustrating, pace of real healing. Bones, tendons and ligaments aren’t impressed by likes or follower counts. Healing requires time and carefully structured loading: a gradual, deliberate increase in weight bearing and movement to rebuild strength without risking re-injury.

    Ignoring this process can lead to delayed healing, chronic pain, re-injury, or even long term joint and muscle complications that can affect the knees, hips, or back.

    And this isn’t just speculation. A 2025 study examining TikTok content on acute knee injuries found that most videos were produced by non-experts and often contained incomplete or inaccurate information. Researchers warned that this misinformation may not only distort patient expectations but also lead to decisions that hinder proper recovery. Similar trends were found in anterior cruciate ligament knee injury videos, where dangerous, non-evidence based practices were widely promoted to millions of viewers.

    Healthcare professionals are now seeing the ripple effects firsthand. Many physiotherapists and podiatrists report a growing number of patients arriving with unrealistic expectations shaped by social media, rather than medical advice. Some patients feel frustrated when their recovery doesn’t match the rapid progress they see online. Others attempt risky exercises before their bodies are ready, setting themselves back.

    A 2025 study examining TikTok content on acute knee injuries found that most videos were produced by non-experts and often contained incomplete or inaccurate information. Researchers warned that this misinformation may not only distort patient expectations but also lead to decisions that hinder proper recovery.

    The World Health Organization has also flagged the dangers of online health misinformation. When social media shortcuts replace professional care, patients risk not only slower recovery but potentially more complex medical problems, while clinicians are left managing the aftermath.

    Recovery isn’t a race

    While supportive online communities can be a valuable source of comfort, the pressure to “bounce back” quickly can be dangerous. Viral videos and celebrity recoveries can create a toxic sense of comparison, tempting people to rush their own healing process.

    Research shows that the psychological drive to return to activity, particularly among younger adults, can reduce rehab compliance and sharply increase the risk of re-injury. True recovery isn’t governed by trending hashtags; it follows a personal, biologically determined timeline that requires patience, rest, and carefully structured rehabilitation.

    Seeing stars like Kim Kardashian with a designer cast might make injury look fashionable. But for most people, a broken foot is not glamorous; it’s weeks of awkward movement, discomfort, adaptation and quiet, steady healing.

    Mobility content can inspire, motivate, and connect – but it’s not a road map for your own recovery. If you’re injured, approach online content with curiosity, not comparison. Learn from others, but listen to your body. Healing is personal. Your recovery won’t be dictated by views, likes, or viral trends – it will unfold on your body’s own timetable.

    Craig Gwynne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Why social media injury recovery videos could do more harm than help – https://theconversation.com/why-social-media-injury-recovery-videos-could-do-more-harm-than-help-258533

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Where did the wonder go – and can AI help us find it?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Lucy Gill-Simmen, Vice Dean for Education & Student Experience, Royal Holloway University of London

    French philosopher René Descartes crowned human reason in 1637 as the foundation of existence: Cogito, ergo sum – I think, therefore I am. For centuries, our capacity to doubt, question and think has been both our compass and our identity. But what does that mean in an age where machines can “think”, generate ideas, write novels, compose symphonies and, increasingly, make decisions?

    Artificial intelligence (AI) has brought a new kind of certainty, one that is quick, data-driven and at times frighteningly precise, at times alarmingly wrong. From Google’s Gemini to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, we live in a world where answers can arrive before the question is even finished. AI has the potential to change not just how we work, but how we think. As our digital tools become more capable, we may well be justified in asking: where did the wonder go?

    We have become increasingly accustomed to optimisation. From using apps to schedule our days to improving how companies hire staff through AI-powered recruitment tools, technology has delivered on its promise of speed and efficiency.

    This article is part of our State of the Arts series. These articles tackle the challenges of the arts and heritage industry – and celebrate the wins, too.

    In education, students increasingly use AI to summarise readings and generate essay outlines; in healthcare, diagnostic models match human doctors in detecting disease.

    But in our pursuit of optimisation, we may have left something essential behind. In her book The Power of Wonder (2023), author Monica Parker describes wonder as a journey, a destination, a verb and a noun, a process and an outcome.

    Lamenting how “modern life is conditioning wonder-proneness out of us”, the author suggests we have “traded wonder for the pale facsimile of electronic novelty-seeking”. And there’s the paradox: AI gives us knowledge at scale, but may rob us of the humility and openness that spark genuine curiosity.

    AI as the antidote?

    But what if AI isn’t the killer of wonder, but its catalyst? The same technologies that predict our shopping habits or generate marketing content can also create surreal art, compose jazz music and tell stories in different ways.

    Tools like DALL·E, Udio.ai, and Runway don’t just mimic human creativity, they expand our creative capacity by translating abstract ideas into visual or audio outputs instantly. They don’t just mimic creativity, they open it up to anyone, enabling new forms of self-expression and speculative thinking.

    The same power that enables AI to open imaginative possibilities can also blur the line between fact and fiction, which is especially risky in education where critical thinking and truth-seeking are paramount. That’s why it’s essential that we teach students not just to use these tools, but to question them. Teaching people to wonder isn’t about uncritical amazement – it’s about cultivating curiosity alongside discernment.

    Educators experimenting with AI in the classroom are starting to see this potential, as my recent work in the area has shown. Rather than using AI merely to automate learning, we are using it to provoke questions and to promote creativity.

    When students ask ChatGPT to write a poem in the voice of Virginia Woolf about climate change, they learn how to combine literary style with contemporary issues. They explore how AI mimics voice and meaning, then reflect on what works and what doesn’t.

    When they use AI tools to build brand storytelling campaigns, they practise turning ideas into images, sounds and messages and learn how to shape stories that connect with audiences. Students are not just using AI, they’re learning to think critically and creatively with it.

    This aligns with Brazilian philosopher Paulo Friere’s “banking” concept of education, where rather than depositing facts, educators are required to spark critical reflection. AI, when used creatively, can act as a dialogue partner, one that reflects back our assumptions, challenges our ideas and invites deeper inquiry.

    The research is mixed, and much depends on how AI is used. Left unchecked, tools like ChatGPT can encourage shortcut thinking. When used purposely as a dialogue partner, prompting reflection, testing ideas and supporting creative inquiry, studies show it can foster deeper engagement and critical thinking. The challenge is designing learning experiences that make the most of this potential.

    A new kind of curiosity

    Wonder isn’t driven by novelty alone, it’s about questioning the familiar. Philosopher Martha Nussbaum describes wonder as “taking us out of ourselves and toward the other”. In this way, AI’s outputs have the potential to jolt people out of cognitive ruts and into new realms of thought, causing them to experience wonder.

    It could be argued that AI becomes both mirror and muse. It holds up a reflection of our culture, biases and blind spots while nudging us toward the imaginative unknown at the same time. Much like the ancient role of the fool in King Lear’s court, it disrupts and delights, offering insights precisely because it doesn’t think like humans do.

    This repositions AI not as a rival to human intelligence, but as a co-creator of wonder, a thought partner in the truest sense.

    Descartes saw doubt as the path to certainty. Today, however, we crave certainty and often avoid doubt. In a world overwhelmed by information and polarisation, there is comfort in clean answers and predictive models. But perhaps what we need most is the courage to ask questions, to really wonder about things.

    The German poet Rainer Maria Rilke once advised: “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.”

    AI can generate perspectives, juxtapositions and “what if” scenarios that challenge students’ habitual ways of thinking. The point isn’t to replace critical thinking, but to spark it in new directions. When artists co-create with algorithms, what new aesthetics emerge that we’ve yet to imagine?

    And when policymakers engage with AI trained on other perspectives from around the world, how might their understanding and decisions be transformed? As AI reshapes how we access, interpret and generate knowledge, this encourages rethinking not just what we learn, but why and how we value knowledge at all.

    Educational philosophers such as John Dewey and Maxine Greene championed education that cultivates imagination, wonder and critical consciousness. Greene spoke of “wide-awakeness”, a state of being in the world.

    Deployed thoughtfully, AI can be a tool for wide-awakeness. In practical terms, it means designing learning experiences where AI prompts curiosity, not shortcuts; where it’s used to question assumptions, explore alternatives, and deepen understanding.

    When used in this way, I believe it can help students tell better stories, explore alternate futures and think across disciplines. This demands not only ethical design and critical digital literacy, bit also an openness to the unknown. It also demands that we, as humans, reclaim our appetite for awe.

    In the end, the most human thing about AI might be the questions it forces us to ask. Not “What’s the answer?” but “What if …?” and in that space, somewhere in between certainty and curiosity, wonder returns. The machines we built to do our thinking for us might just help us rediscover it.

    Lucy Gill-Simmen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Where did the wonder go – and can AI help us find it? – https://theconversation.com/where-did-the-wonder-go-and-can-ai-help-us-find-it-258490

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Society needs a systems update to cope with climate crisis – my new film explains why

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By James Dyke, Associate Professor in Earth System Science, University of Exeter

    The climate and ecological crisis is one of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced. If the world fails to address it, and over the rest of this century we continue to burn fossil fuels and pump even more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, we’ll face catastrophe. On this much, almost all governments agree (with some notable exceptions such as the US).

    Even the world’s largest oil and gas companies now acknowledge that their products are behind the alarming increase in global temperatures and that we will have to transition to alternative fuels. Eventually.

    In some oil and gas firms’ net zero policies you will often see the word “eventually” or its equivalent used. Yes, they accept that the age of fossil fuels will be over, but they don’t give any end date. In fact, with continued expansion of new oil and gas fields they appear to give every indication of continuing to be fossil fuel companies for the foreseeable future.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    Will such firms actually phase out coal, oil and gas at the rate required to avoid dangerous climate change? How quickly does that now have to happen? Immediately.

    At current rates of emissions, the window to have a 50:50 chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C will close in as little as six years. Given that global emissions are not stabilising but in fact going up, we are in the process of overshooting 1.5°C and heading deep into dangerous climate change territory.

    Does that mean it’s game over, that the climate catastrophes we fear will come to pass? Thinking about these sorts of systemic risks form the basis of much of my current research. This includes some pretty alarming analysis on how societies can react to challenges such as climate change in ways that can make the situation much worse.

    But herein lies a potentially powerful source of hope for the future because what we do as individuals and members of communities and countries will make all the difference. That’s what was on my mind when I started working on a new climate change documentary with filmmaker Paul Maple.

    Radical reductions

    Our new film System Update: Rebooting Our Future argues that, while we may have run out of time to avoid dangerous climate change, we are now only beginning to see how we can not just avoid further environmental damage but make a much better world for all of humanity. To do that, we must go beyond the incremental and timid policies of today. We need to be radical and dig into the drivers of climate change.

    Take economic growth, for example. You will not find a political party in power in any industrialised nation that does not have continued economic growth as one of its core objectives. Economic performance is often the main way politicians are judged. That’s why threats of a recession lead news reports.

    In System Update, I ask what is this economic growth for, if it continues to drive expanded energy and material consumption and drive us further towards climate and ecological collapse?

    If our economic and political systems cannot deliver radical emissions reductions in a sustainable and fair way, then they need to be rebooted. Rather than policies being orientated towards maximising economic growth, we can instead question how the current goods and services an economy produces are used.

    How can local communities be empowered to make themselves more resilient to climate change while reducing their emissions? Where can citizen assemblies strengthen our democracies and help foster the wider support for ambitious climate action? These assemblies work by recruiting a representative cross section of society who hear from a range of climate experts, and then work together to provide policy recommendations.

    I put such questions to an amazing group of activists, academics and policymakers. We quickly discovered from economic anthropologist Jason Hickel that there is no end of new thinking about economics.

    Lawyer and key architect of the Paris agreement Farhana Yamin recounted the epic battle that she and others have been waging with politicians to get them to understand and act on some of the fundamental truths of climate change. Researcher and strategist Laurie Laybourn spoke of the need for leaders to understand how this gathering storm of climate change demands new mindsets.

    Climate change adaptation expert Kathryn Brown made the case for a rapid increase in efforts to protect communities from environmental change, while climate historian Alice Bell put today’s debates into the wider context. Climate campaigner Max Wakefield and climate justice activist Dylan Hamilton connected the big picture elements of the climate crisis to both everyday actions like what you buy and how to you travel, to deeper engagement with politics.

    It’s easy to feel overwhelmed about the scale of climate change. There is a constant stream of bad news about rising temperatures and extreme weather. What I hope System Update shows is that there is no end of ideas for how such an outcome could be averted, and how you could put them into practice.

    We will win. The age of fossil fuels is ending. The question now is, how fast do you want to make that happen?

    Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

    James Dyke does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Society needs a systems update to cope with climate crisis – my new film explains why – https://theconversation.com/society-needs-a-systems-update-to-cope-with-climate-crisis-my-new-film-explains-why-257503

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Appeals court ruling grants Donald Trump broad powers to deploy troops to American cities

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jack L. Rozdilsky, Associate Professor of Disaster and Emergency Management, York University, Canada

    Residents of Los Angeles will need to get used to federally controlled National Guard troops operating on their streets. Due to a ruling from an appeals court on June 19, United States President Donald Trump now has broad authority to deploy military forces in American cities.

    This is a troubling development. All presidents have held in their grasp extraordinary powers to deploy military troops domestically. But Trump stands apart with his apparent keen interest in manufacturing false emergencies to exploit extraordinary power.

    An 1878 law called the Posse Comitatus Act restricts using the military for domestic law enforcement. The broader principle being challenged by Trump’s actions in L.A. is the norm of the military not being allowed to interfere in the affairs of civilian governance.

    Injunctions and appeals

    Five months into Trump’s presidency, L.A. has been targeted for aggressive immigration enforcement. In their pluralistic city where dozens of languages and nationalities peacefully co-exist, some Angelenos believe the city is experiencing an attack on its most essential social fabric.

    On June 7, Trump acted under United States Code Title 10 provisions to take over command and control of California’s National Guard. Federalized military forces were deployed.

    The objective was to counter what Trump argued was a form of rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States. In fact, these “rebellions” were largely peaceful protests in downtown L.A.

    On June 9, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted an injunction restraining the president’s use of military force in L.A. The court order supported Gov. Gavin Newsom’s contention that Trump overstepped his authority.

    On June 19, a decision from a panel of judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned the injunction.

    What this means at the moment is that Trump does not have to return control of the troops to Newsom. California has options to continue litigation by asking the Federal Appeals Court to rehear the matter, or perhaps directly asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.

    Moving toward authoritarianism

    Trump’s June 7 memorandum facilitating his move to overrule Newsom’s authority and seize control of 2,000 National Guard troops was based on the president defining his own so-called emergency.

    He claimed incidents of violence and disorder following aggressive immigration enforcement amounted to a form of rebellion against the U.S.

    As Trump flexes his emergency power might, his second term has been called the 911 presidency. He has used extraordinary emergency powers at a pace well beyond his predecessors, pressing the limits to address his administration’s supposed sense of serious perils overtaking the nation.

    Issues arise when the level of actual danger locally is not at all representative of what the president suggests is a full-scale national emergency. For example, demonstrations over immigration raids occupied only a tiny parcel of real estate in L.A.’s huge metropolitan area. A Los Angeles-based rebellion against the U.S. was not occurring.

    As dissent over aggressive immigration enforcement actions grew, localized clashes with law enforcement did occur. Mutual aid surged into Los Angeles, where neighbouring California law enforcement agencies acted to assist one another. The law enforcement challenges never rose to the level of the governor of California requesting additional federal support.

    Shortly after the federal government took over the California National Guard, Newsom said the move was purposefully inflammatory.

    In addition to declaring dubious emergencies to amass power, stoking violence is a characteristic of authoritarian rulers. Creating fear, division and feelings of insecurity can lead to community crises. Trump did not need to wait for a crisis; it seems he simply invented one.

    No guardrails

    The expression “out of kilter” comes to mind as Trump inches closer to invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807. If so, the situation will look quite similar in practice to what is happening now in Los Angeles.

    Five years ago, Trump flirted with invoking the Insurrection Act during Black Lives Matter unrest in Washington, D.C., in and around Lafayette Park.

    As recent L.A. protests intensified, Trump stated: “We’re going to have troops everywhere.”

    Currently, there are few guardrails in place to prevent a rogue president from misusing the military in domestic civilian affairs. Trump has been coy about whether he would tap into the greater powers available to him under the Insurrection Act.

    Real emergencies presenting existential threats to America do persist. Nuclear proliferation, climate change and pandemics need serious leaders. But politically exploiting last-resort emergency laws designed to provide options to deal with genuine existential threats — not to weaponize them against protesters demonstrating against public policy — is absurd.

    Jack L. Rozdilsky receives support for research communication and public scholarship from York University. He also has received research support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

    – ref. Appeals court ruling grants Donald Trump broad powers to deploy troops to American cities – https://theconversation.com/appeals-court-ruling-grants-donald-trump-broad-powers-to-deploy-troops-to-american-cities-258894

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: To spur the construction of affordable, resilient homes, the future is concrete

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Pablo Moyano Fernández, Assistant Professor of Architecture, Washington University in St. Louis

    A modular, precast system of concrete ‘rings’ can be connected in different ways to build a range of models of energy-efficient homes. Pablo Moyano Fernández, CC BY-SA

    Wood is, by far, the most common material used in the U.S. for single-family home construction.

    But wood construction isn’t engineered for long-term durability, and it often underperforms, particularly in the face of increasingly common extreme weather events.

    In response to these challenges, I believe mass-produced concrete homes can offer affordable, resilient housing in the U.S. By leveraging the latest innovations of the precast concrete industry, this type of homebuilding can meet the needs of a changing world.

    Wood’s rise to power

    Over 90% of the new homes built in the U.S. rely on wood framing.

    Wood has deep historical roots as a building material in the U.S., dating back to the earliest European settlers who constructed shelters using the abundant native timber. One of the most recognizable typologies was the log cabin, built from large tree trunks notched at the corners for structural stability.

    Log cabins were popular in the U.S. during the 18th and 19th centuries.
    Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images

    In the 1830s, wood construction underwent a significant shift with the introduction of balloon framing. This system used standardized, sawed lumber and mass-produced nails, allowing much smaller wood components to replace the earlier heavy timber frames. It could be assembled by unskilled labor using simple tools, making it both accessible and economical.

    In the early 20th century, balloon framing evolved into platform framing, which became the dominant method. By using shorter lumber lengths, platform framing allowed each floor to be built as a separate working platform, simplifying construction and improving its efficiency.

    The proliferation and evolution of wood construction helped shape the architectural and cultural identity of the nation. For centuries, wood-framed houses have defined the American idea of home – so much so that, even today, when Americans imagine a house, they typically envision one built of wood.

    A suburban housing development from the 1950s being built with platform framing.
    H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock via Getty Images

    Today, light-frame wood construction dominates the U.S. residential market.

    Wood is relatively affordable and readily available, offering a cost-effective solution for homebuilding. Contractors are familiar with wood construction techniques. In addition, building codes and regulations have long been tailored to wood-frame systems, further reinforcing their prevalence in the housing industry.

    Despite its advantages, wood light-frame construction presents several important limitations. Wood is vulnerable to fire. And in hurricane- and tornado-prone regions, wood-framed homes can be damaged or destroyed.

    Wood is also highly susceptible to water-related issues, such as swelling, warping and structural deterioration caused by leaks or flooding. Vulnerability to termites, mold, rot and mildew further compromise the longevity and safety of wood-framed structures, especially in humid or poorly ventilated environments.

    The case for concrete

    Meanwhile, concrete has revolutionized architecture and engineering over the past century. In my academic work, I’ve studied, written and taught about the material’s many advantages.

    The material offers unmatched strength and durability, while also allowing design flexibility and versatility. It’s low-cost and low-maintenance, and it has high thermal mass properties, which refers to the material’s ability to absorb and store heat during the day, and slowly release it during the cooler nights. This can lower heating and cooling costs.

    Properly designed concrete enclosures offer exceptional performance against a wide range of hazards. Concrete can withstand fire, flooding, mold, insect infestation, earthquakes, hail, hurricanes and tornadoes.

    It’s commonly used for home construction in many parts of the world, such as Europe, Japan, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, as well as India and other parts of Southeast Asia.

    However, despite their multiple benefits, concrete single-family homes are rare in the U.S.

    That’s because most concrete structures are built using a process called cast-in-place. In this technique, the concrete is formed and poured directly at the construction site. The method relies on built-in-place molds. After the concrete is cast and cured over several days, the formwork is removed.

    This process is labor-intensive and time-consuming, and it often produces considerable waste. This is particularly an issue in the U.S., where labor is more expensive than in other parts of the world. The material and labor cost can be as high as 35% to 60% of the total construction cost.

    Portland cement, the binding agent in concrete, requires significant energy to produce, resulting in considerable carbon dioxide emissions. However, this environmental cost is often offset by concrete’s durability and long service life.

    Concrete’s design flexibility and structural integrity make it particularly effective for large-scale structures. So in the U.S., you’ll see it used for large commercial buildings, skyscrapers and most highways, bridges, dams and other critical infrastructure projects.

    But when it comes to single-family homes, cast-in-place concrete poses challenges to contractors. There are the higher initial construction costs, along with a lack of subcontractor expertise. For these reasons, most builders and contractors stick with what they know: the wood frame.

    A new model for home construction

    Precast concrete, however, offers a promising alternative.

    Unlike cast-in-place concrete, precast systems allow for off-site manufacturing under controlled conditions. This improves the quality of the structure, while also reducing waste and labor.

    The CRETE House, a prototype I worked on in 2017 alongside a team at Washington University in St. Louis, showed the advantages of a precast home construction.

    To build the precast concrete home, we used ultra-high-performance concrete, one of the latest advances in the concrete industry. Compared with conventional concrete, it’s about six times stronger, virtually impermeable and more resistant to freeze-thaw cycles. Ultra-high-performance concrete can last several hundred years.

    The strength of the CRETE House was tested by shooting a piece of wood at 120 mph (193 kph) to simulate flying debris from an F5 tornado. It was unable to breach the wall, which was only 2 inches (5.1 centimeters) thick.

    The wall of the CRETE House was able to withstand a piece of wood fired at 120 mph (193 kph).

    Building on the success of the CRETE House, I designed the Compact House as a solution for affordable, resilient housing. The house consists of a modular, precast concrete system of “rings” that can be connected to form the entire structure – floors, walls and roofs – creating airtight, energy-efficient homes. A series of different rings can be chosen from a catalog to deliver different models that can range in size from 270 to 990 square feet (25 to 84 square meters).

    The precast rings can be transported on flatbed trailers and assembled into a unit in a single day, drastically reducing on-site labor, time and cost.

    Since they’re built using durable concrete forms, the house can be easily mass-produced. When precast concrete homes are mass-produced, the cost can be competitive with traditional wood-framed homes. Furthermore, the homes are designed to last far beyond 100 years – much longer than typical wood structures – while significantly lowering utility bills, maintenance expenses and insurance premiums.

    The project is also envisioned as an open-source design. This means that the molds – which are expensive – are available for any precast producer to use and modify.

    The Compact House is made using ultra-high-performance concrete.
    Pablo Moyano Fernández, CC BY-SA

    Leveraging a network that’s already in place

    Two key limitations of precast concrete construction are the size and weight of the components and the distance to the project site.

    Precast elements must comply with standard transportation regulations, which impose restrictions on both size and weight in order to pass under bridges and prevent road damage. As a result, components are typically limited to dimensions that can be safely and legally transported by truck. Each of the Compact House’s pieces are small enough to be transported in standard trailers.

    Additionally, transportation costs become a major factor beyond a certain range. In general, the practical delivery radius from a precast plant to a construction site is 500 miles (805 kilometers). Anything beyond that becomes economically unfeasible.

    However, the infrastructure to build precast concrete homes is already largely in place. Since precast concrete is often used for office buildings, schools, parking complexes and large apartments buildings, there’s already an extensive national network of manufacturing plants capable of producing and delivering components within that 500-mile radius.

    There are other approaches to build homes with concrete: Homes can use concrete masonry units, which are similar to cinder blocks. This is a common technique around the world. Insulated concrete forms involve rigid foam blocks that are stacked like Lego bricks and are then filled with poured concrete, creating a structure with built-in insulation. And there’s even 3D-printed concrete, a rapidly evolving technology that is in its early stages of development.

    However, none of these use precast concrete modules – the rings in my prototypes – and therefore require substantially longer on-site time and labor.

    To me, precast concrete homes offer a compelling vision for the future of affordable housing. They signal a generational shift away from short-term construction and toward long-term value – redefining what it means to build for resilience, efficiency and equity in housing.

    An image of North St. Louis, taken from Google Earth, showing how vacant land can be repurposed using precast concrete homes.
    Pablo Moyano Fernández, CC BY-SA

    This article is part of a series centered on envisioning ways to deal with the housing crisis.

    Pablo Moyano Fernández does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. To spur the construction of affordable, resilient homes, the future is concrete – https://theconversation.com/to-spur-the-construction-of-affordable-resilient-homes-the-future-is-concrete-254561

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: No country for old business owners: Economic shifts create a growing challenge for America’s aging entrepreneurs

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Nancy Forster-Holt, Clinical Associate Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, University of Rhode Island

    Americans love small businesses. We dedicate a week each year to applauding them, and spend Small Business Saturday shopping locally. Yet hiding in plain sight is an enormous challenge facing small business owners as they age: retiring with dignity and foresight. The current economic climate is making this even more difficult.

    As a professor who studies aging and business, I’ve long viewed small business owners’ retirement challenges as a looming crisis. The issue is now front and center for millions of entrepreneurs approaching retirement. Small enterprises make up more than half of all privately held U.S. companies, and for many of their owners, the business is their retirement plan.

    But while owners often hope to finance their golden years by selling their companies, only 20% of small businesses are ready for sale even in good times, according to the Exit Planning Institute. And right now, conditions are far from ideal. An economic stew of inflation, supply chain instability and high borrowing costs means that interest from potential buyers is cooling.

    For many business owners, retirement isn’t a distant concern. In the U.S., baby boomers – who are currently 61 to 79 years old – own about 2.3 million businesses. Altogether, they generate about US$5 billion in revenue and employ almost 25 million people. These entrepreneurs have spent decades building businesses that often are deeply rooted in their communities. They don’t have time to ride out economic chaos, and their optimism is at a 50-year low.

    New policies, new challenges

    You can’t blame them for being gloomy. Recent policy shifts have only made life harder for business owners nearing retirement. Trade instability, whipsawing tariff announcements and disrupted supply chains have eroded already thin margins. Some businesses – generally larger ones with more negotiating power – are absorbing extra costs rather than passing them on to shoppers. Others have no choice but to raise prices, to customers’ dismay. Inflation has further squeezed profits.

    At the same time, with a few notable exceptions, buyers and capital have grown scarce. Acquirers and liquidity have dried up across many sectors. The secondary market – a barometer of broader investor appetite – now sees more sellers than buyers. These are textbook symptoms of a “flight to safety,” a market shift that drags out sale timelines and depresses valuations – all while Main Street business owners age out. These entrepreneurs typically have one shot at retirement – if any.

    Adding to these woes, many small businesses are part of what economists call regional “clusters,” providing services to nearby universities, hospitals and local governments. When those anchor institutions face budget cuts – as is happening now – small business vendors are often the first to feel the impact.

    Research shows that many aging owners actually double down in weak economic times, sinking increasing amounts of time and money in a psychological pattern known as “escalating commitment.” The result is a troubling phenomenon scholars refer to as “benign entrapment.” Aging entrepreneurs can remain attached to their businesses not because they want to, but because they see no viable exit.

    This growing crisis isn’t about bad personal planning — it’s a systemic failure.

    Rewriting the playbook on small business policy

    A key mistake that policymakers make is to lump all small business owners together into one group. That causes them to overlook important differences. After all, a 68-year-old carpenter trying to retire doesn’t have much in common with a 28-year-old tech founder pitching a startup. Policymakers may cheer for high-growth “unicorns,” but they often overlook the “cows and horses” that keep local economies running.

    Even among older business owners, circumstances vary based on local conditions. Two retiring carpenters in different towns may face vastly different prospects based on the strength of their local economies. No business, and no business owner, exists in a vacuum.

    A small business owner in Rochester, Vt., discusses the challenges of retirement in a news segment from WCAX-TV.

    Relatedly, when small businesses fail to transition, it can have consequences for the local economy. Without a buyer, many enterprises will simply shut down. And while closures can be long-planned and thoughtful, when a business closes suddenly, it’s not just the owner who loses. Employees are left scrambling for work. Suppliers lose contracts. Communities lose essential services.

    Four ways to help aging entrepreneurs

    That’s why I think policymakers should reimagine how they support small businesses, especially owners nearing the end of their careers.

    First, small business policy should be tailored to age. A retirement-ready business shouldn’t be judged solely by its growth potential. Rather, policies should recognize stability and community value as markers of success. The U.S. Small Business Administration and regional agencies can provide resources specifically for retirement planning that starts early in a business’s life, to include how to increase the value of the business and a plan to attract acquirers in later stages.

    Second, exit infrastructure should be built into local entrepreneurial ecosystems. Entrepreneurial ecosystems are built to support business entry – think incubators and accelerators – but not for exit. In other words, just like there are accelerators for launching businesses, there should be programs to support winding them down. These could include confidential peer forums, retirement-readiness clinics, succession matchmaking platforms and flexible financing options for acquisition.

    Third, chaos isn’t good for anybody. Fluctuations in capital gains taxes, estate tax thresholds and tariffs make planning difficult and reduce business value in the eyes of potential buyers. Stability encourages confidence on both sides of a transaction.

    And finally, policymakers should include ripple-effect analysis in budget decisions. When universities, hospitals or governments cut spending, small business vendors often absorb much of the shock. Policymakers should account for these downstream impacts when shaping local and federal budgets.

    If we want to truly support small businesses and their owners, it’s important to honor the lifetime arc of entrepreneurship – not just the launch and growth, but the retirement, too.

    Nancy Forster-Holt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. No country for old business owners: Economic shifts create a growing challenge for America’s aging entrepreneurs – https://theconversation.com/no-country-for-old-business-owners-economic-shifts-create-a-growing-challenge-for-americas-aging-entrepreneurs-254537

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How the end of carbon capture could spark a new industrial revolution

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Andres Clarens, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Virginia

    Steelmaking uses a lot of energy, making it one of the highest greenhouse gas-emitting industries.
     David McNew/Getty Images

    The U.S. Department of Energy’s decision to claw back US$3.7 billion in grants from industrial demonstration projects may create an unexpected opening for American manufacturing.

    Many of the grant recipients were deploying carbon capture and storage – technologies that are designed to prevent industrial carbon pollution from entering the atmosphere by capturing it and injecting it deep underground. The approach has long been considered critical for reducing the contributions chemicals, cement production and other heavy industries make to climate change.

    However, the U.S. policy reversal could paradoxically accelerate emissions cuts from the industrial sector.

    An emissions reality check

    Heavy industry is widely viewed as the toughest part of the economy to clean up.

    The U.S. power sector has made progress, cutting emissions 35% since 2005 as coal-fired power plants were replaced with cheaper natural gas, solar and wind energy. More than 93% of new grid capacity installed in the U.S. in 2025 was forecast to be solar, wind and batteries. In transportation, electric vehicles are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. automotive market and will lead to meaningful reductions in pollution.

    But U.S. industrial emissions have been mostly unchanged, in part because of the massive amount of coal, gas and oil required to make steel, concrete, aluminum, glass and chemicals. Together these materials account for about 22% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

    The global industrial landscape is changing, though, and U.S. industries cannot, in isolation, expect that yesterday’s means of production will be able to compete in a global marketplace.

    Even without domestic mandates to reduce their emissions, U.S. industries face powerful economic pressures. The EU’s new Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism imposes a tax on the emissions associated with imported steel, chemicals, cement and aluminum entering European markets. Similar policies are being considered by Canada, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and the United Kingdom, and were even floated in the United States.

    The false promise of carbon capture

    The appeal of carbon capture and storage, in theory, was that it could be bolted on to an existing factory with minimal changes to the core process and the carbon pollution would go away.

    Government incentives for carbon capture allow producers to keep using polluting technologies and prop up gas-powered chemical production or coal-powered concrete production.

    The Trump administration’s pullback of carbon capture and storage grants now removes some of these artificial supports.

    Without the expectation that carbon capture will help them meet regulations, this may create space to focus on materials breakthroughs that could revolutionize manufacturing while solving industries’ emissions problems.

    The materials innovation opportunity

    So, what might emissions-lowering innovation look like for industries such as cement, steel and chemicals? As a civil and environmental engineer who has worked on federal industrial policy, I study the ways these industries intersect with U.S. economic competitiveness and our built environment.

    There are many examples of U.S. innovation to be excited about. Consider just a few industries:

    Cement: Cement is one of the most widely used materials on Earth, but the technology has changed little over the past 150 years. Today, its production generates roughly 8% of total global carbon pollution. If cement production were a country, it would rank third globally after China and the United States.

    Researchers are looking at ways to make concrete that can shed heat or be lighter in weight to significantly reduce the cost of building and cooling a home. Sublime Systems developed a way to produce cement with electricity instead of coal or gas. The company lost its IDP grant in May 2025, but it has a new agreement with Microsoft.

    Making concrete do more could accelerate the transition. Researchers at Stanford and separately at MIT are developing concrete that can act as a capacitor and store over 10 kilowatt-hours of energy per cubic meter. Such materials could potentially store electricity from your solar roof or allow for roadways that can charge cars in motion.

    How concrete could be used as a capacitor. MIT.

    Technologies like these could give U.S. companies a competitive advantage while lowering emissions. Heat-shedding concrete cuts air conditioning demand, lighter formulations require less material per structure, and energy-storing concrete could potentially replace carbon-intensive battery manufacturing.

    Steel and iron: Steel and iron production generate about 7% of global emissions with centuries-old blast furnace processes that use intense heat to melt iron ore and burn off impurities. A hydrogen-based steelmaking alternative exists today that emits only water vapor, but it requires new supply chains, infrastructure and production techniques.

    U.S. Steel has been developing techniques to create stronger microstructures within steel for constructing structures with 50% less material and more strength than conventional designs. When a skyscraper needs that much less steel to achieve the same structural integrity, that eliminates millions of tons of iron ore mining, coal-fired blast furnace operations and transportation emissions.

    Chemicals: Chemical manufacturing has created simultaneous crises over the past 50 years: PFAS “forever chemicals” and microplastics have been showing up in human blood and across ecosystems, and the industry generates a large share of U.S. industrial emissions.

    Companies are developing ways to produce chemicals using engineered enzymes instead of traditional petrochemical processes, achieving 90% lower emissions in a way that could reduce production costs. These bio-based chemicals can naturally biodegrade, and the chemical processes operate at room temperature instead of requiring high heat that uses a lot of energy.

    Is there a silver bullet without carbon capture?

    While carbon capture and storage might not be the silver bullet for reducing emissions that many people thought it would be, new technologies for managing industrial heat might turn out to be the closest thing to one.

    Most industrial processes require temperatures between 300 and 1830 degrees Fahrenheit (150 and 1000 degrees Celsisus for everything from food processing to steel production. Currently, industries burn fossil fuels directly to generate this heat, creating emissions that electric alternatives cannot easily replace. Heat batteries may offer a breakthrough solution by storing renewable electricity as thermal energy, then releasing that heat on demand for industrial processes.

    How thermal batteries work. CNBC.

    Companies such as Rondo Energy are developing systems that store wind and solar power in bricklike materials heated to extreme temperatures. Essentially, they convert electricity into heat during times when electricity is abundant, usually at night. A manufacturing facility can later use that heat, which allows it to reduce energy costs and improve grid reliability by not drawing power at the busiest times. The Trump administration cut funding for projects working with Rondo’s technology, but the company’s products are being tested in other countries.

    Industrial heat pumps provide another pathway by amplifying waste heat to reach the high temperatures manufacturing requires, without using as much fossil fuel.

    The path forward

    The Department of Energy’s decision forces industrial America into a defining moment. One path leads backward toward pollution-intensive business as usual propping up obsolete processes. The other path drives forward through innovation.

    Carbon capture offered an expensive Band-Aid on old technology. Investing in materials innovation and new techniques for making them promises fundamental transformation for the future.

    Andres Clarens receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P Sloan Foundation.

    – ref. How the end of carbon capture could spark a new industrial revolution – https://theconversation.com/how-the-end-of-carbon-capture-could-spark-a-new-industrial-revolution-257894

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: I’m an expert in crafting public health messages: Here are 3 marketing strategies I use to make Philadelphia healthier

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Sarah Bauerle Bass, Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Temple University

    A comic book produced for Black transgender women in Philadelphia explains the benefits of using PrEP to prevent HIV infection. Wriply Bennet for the Risk Communication Laboratory, Temple University

    In Philadelphia, the leading causes of death are heart disease, cancer and unintentional drug overdose. While some of these deaths are caused by things out of our control – like genetics – many are largely preventable.

    Preventable deaths are the result of a series of decisions. Whether a person decides to smoke, eat lots of fried foods or be a couch potato, their decisions – sometimes unconsciously – can affect their health.

    I’m a health communication expert and public health researcher at Temple University in North Philadelphia. I began working in public health in the late 1980s at the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and before that I worked in marketing and public relations. I have spent my career thinking about how health decisions are like many of the decisions consumers make each day around which products to buy.

    One key difference with health decisions is the inherent risks involved. There isn’t much risk in trying a new brand of cereal, but there is risk in riding a motorcycle without a helmet.

    Many people have a “that won’t happen to me” attitude when making a decision that involves risk. This element of “risk perception” has guided my interest in health decisions and how to use commercial marketing techniques – the same ones companies use to sell products – to encourage people to get vaccinated, get a colonoscopy or get treated for a medical condition.

    Temple students involved in the RapidVax project talk to Kensington residents about COVID-19 vaccinations during the pandemic.
    Temple University College of Public Health

    Breaking demographics into psychographics

    One strategy I use is segmentation analysis.

    Segmentation analysis is the process of looking at groups of people who may look like they are all similar on the surface – such as Black women from North Philadelphia – and then breaking them into smaller groups based on differences in their attitudes, beliefs or behaviors.

    Looking at these “psychographics” instead of demographics like age or sex can help public health communication researchers better understand how to communicate effectively.

    For example, I led a study in 2021 that looked at how connected transgender women living in Philadelphia and the San Francisco Bay Area felt to other members of the trans community. We wanted to see if messaging about PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, the medication used to prevent HIV infection, would need to be different depending on how connected they felt.

    We found that participants who were more engaged with the trans community were not only more knowledgeable about PrEP, but they were also more likely to see the benefits of using it compared with those who were less engaged.

    This indicates that strategies to reach those not as connected may need to include, for example, providing more basic information about what PrEP is and how it works.

    An example of perceptual mapping that shows different attitudes and beliefs around the HIV prevention medication PrEP.
    Temple University College of Public Health

    Mathematical models and 3D maps

    Another powerful marketing tool that I use is a process known as perceptual mapping and vector message modeling.

    Using simple survey answers, we can mathematically model how people are thinking about a health decision and present it in a three-dimensional map.

    Similar to how someone might think about the relationship between where cities or countries are in relation to each other – such as where Philadelphia is in relation to New York or Chicago – we can take answers from a survey and convert them into distances. We ask people to agree or disagree to statements about the benefits or barriers to a decision and enter their responses into a computer program to create the map.

    We can then do vector message modeling, which shows how to move the group toward the desired decision.

    Think back to high school physics when you may have learned about the amount of force, or pushing and pulling, needed to move one object toward another. Vector message modeling helps us figure out which beliefs to push or pull against to get the group to move toward a particular decision, and it helps us create the most persuasive messages for that group.

    When we use vector modeling along with segmentation analysis, we can also compare how messaging may need to be similar or different for different groups.

    For example, I used segmentation analysis and then perceptual mapping and vector message modeling to understand how medical mistrust might affect the decision to get vaccinated for COVID-19 among a group of Philadelphians who had not yet been vaccinated.

    Education materials created after using commercial marketing techniques to identify persuasive messages about COVID-19 booster shots.
    Temple University College of Public Health

    Our team then looked at perceptual maps and vector message modeling by levels of mistrust. The vectors showed that those with high levels of medical mistrust would be more likely to respond to messages that addressed concerns about the pandemic being a hoax, or the worry that minorities wouldn’t get the same treatment as others.

    This allowed us to think about how to build in messages around those issues in public media campaigns or other communication strategies that encourage vaccination.

    Decision-making tools

    I have used these methods to create and test a number of different communication strategies to influence health decisions.

    For example, I’ve developed web-based tools that have been used in hospitals and clinics in Philadelphia to encourage methadone patients with hepatitis C to receive antiviral treatment for their infection, Black cancer patients to take part in a clinical trial or to get genetic testing, and patients with low literacy and higher risk of colorectal cancer to have a colonoscopy.

    Staff members from the Risk Communication Laboratory organize materials to educate North Philadelphia residents about COVID-19 booster shots.
    Temple University College of Public Health

    My colleagues and I have also developed posters, booklets and social media posts that encourage low-income and vaccine-hesitant Philadelphians in Kensington to get COVID-19 booster shots; educational slides for low-literacy Philadelphia adults on dirty bombs and how the radioactive weapons might be used in a terror attack; and a comic book for trans women to learn about the benefits of PrEP use.

    Getting people to make better decisions about their health can be an uphill battle. We all have our reasons for not doing things that are good for us. For example, what did you eat for lunch today? Was it healthy? If not, why did you eat it?

    My job is to figure out what makes people do what they do, and then help them make decisions that keep them healthy.

    Read more of our stories about Philadelphia.

    Sarah Bauerle Bass has received funding from a number of organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Departments of Health, and independent pharma research grants from Gilead and Merck.

    – ref. I’m an expert in crafting public health messages: Here are 3 marketing strategies I use to make Philadelphia healthier – https://theconversation.com/im-an-expert-in-crafting-public-health-messages-here-are-3-marketing-strategies-i-use-to-make-philadelphia-healthier-254905

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: 3 years after abortion rights were overturned, contraception access is at risk

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Cynthia H. Chuang, Professor of Medicine and Public Health Sciences, Penn State

    Women living in states that ban or severely restrict abortion may be especially motivated to avoid unintended pregnancy. Viktoriya Skorikova/Moment via Getty Images

    On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization eliminated a nearly 50-year constitutional right to abortion and returned the authority to regulate abortion to the states.

    The Dobbs ruling, which overturned Roe v. Wade, has vastly reshaped the national abortion landscape. Three years on, many states have severely restricted access to abortion care. But the decision has also had a less well-recognized outcome: It is increasingly jeopardizing access to contraception.

    We are a physician scientist and a sociologist and health services researcher studying women’s health care and policy, including access to contraception. We see a worrisome situation emerging.

    Even while the growing limits on abortion in the U.S. heighten the need for effective contraception, family planning providers are less available in many states, and health insurance coverage of some of the most effective types of contraception is at risk.

    A growing demand for contraception

    Abortion restrictions have proliferated around the country since the Dobbs decision. As of June 2025, 12 states have near-total abortion bans and 10 states ban abortion before 23 or 24 weeks of gestation, which is when a fetus is generally deemed viable. Of the remaining states, 19 restrict abortion after viability and nine states and Washington have no gestational limits.

    It’s no surprise that women living in states that ban or severely restrict abortion may be especially motivated to avoid unintended pregnancy. Even planned pregnancies have grown riskier, with health care providers fearing legal repercussions for treating pregnancy-related medical emergencies such as miscarriages. Such concerns may in part explain emerging research that suggests the use of long-acting contraception such as intrauterine devices, or IUDs, and permanent contraception – namely, sterilization – are on the rise.

    A national survey conducted in 2024 asked women ages 18 to 49 if they have changed their contraception practices “as a result of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.” It found that close to 1 in 5 women began using contraception for the first time, switched to a more effective contraceptive method, received a sterilization procedure or purchased emergency contraception to keep on hand.

    The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs reshaped the landscape of abortion access across the U.S.

    A study in Ohio hospitals found a nearly 16% increase in women choosing long-acting contraception methods or sterilization in the six months after the Dobbs decision, and a 33% jump in men receiving vasectomies. Another study, which looked at both female and male sterilization in academic medical centers across the country, also reported an uptick in sterilization procedures for young adults ages 18 to 30 after the Dobbs decision, through 2023.

    A loss of contraception providers

    Ironically, banning or severely restricting abortion statewide may also diminish capacity to provide contraception.

    To date, there is no compelling evidence that OB-GYN doctors are leaving states with strict abortion laws in significant numbers. One study found that states with severe abortion restrictions saw a 4.2% decrease in such practitioners compared with states without abortion restrictions.

    However, the Association of American Medical Colleges reports declining applications to residency training programs located in states that have abortion bans – not just for OB-GYN training programs, but for residency training of all specialties. This drop suggests that doctors may be overall less likely to train in states that restrict medical practice. And given that physicians often stay on to practice in the states where they do their training, it may point to a long-term decline in physicians in those states.

    But the most significant drop in contraceptive services likely comes from the closure of abortion clinics in states with the most restrictive abortion policies. That’s because such clinics generally provide a wide range of reproductive services, including contraception. The 12 states with near-total abortion bans had 57 abortion clinics in 2020, all of which were closed as of March 2024. One study reported a 4.1% decline in oral contraceptives dispensed in those states.

    Contraception under threat

    The Dobbs decision has also encouraged ongoing efforts to incorrectly redefine some of the most effective contraceptives as medications that cause abortion. These efforts target emergency contraceptive pills, known as Plan B over-the-counter and Ella by prescription, as well as certain IUDs. Emergency contraceptive pills are up to 98% effective at preventing pregnancy after unprotected sex, and IUDs are 99% effective.

    Neither method terminates a pregnancy, which by definition begins when a fertilized egg implants in the uterus. Instead, emergency contraceptive pills prevent an egg from being released from the ovaries, while IUDs, depending on the type, prevent sperm from fertilizing an egg or prevent an egg from implanting in the uterus.

    Conflating contraception and abortion spreads misinformation and causes confusion. People who believe that certain types of contraception cause abortions may be dissuaded from using those methods and rely on less effective methods. What’s more, it may affect health insurance coverage.

    Medicaid, which provides health insurance for low-income children and adults, has been required to cover family planning services at no cost to patients since 1972. Since 2012, the Affordable Care Act has required private health insurers to cover certain women’s health preventive services at no cost to patients, including the full-range of contraceptives approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

    According to our research, the insurance coverage required by the Affordable Care Act has increased use of IUDs, which can be prohibitively expensive when paid out of pocket. But if IUDs and emergency contraceptive pills were reclassified as interventions that induce abortion, they likely would not be covered by Medicaid or the Affordable Care Act, since neither type of health insurance requires coverage for abortion care. Thus, access to some of the most effective contraceptive methods could be jeopardized at a time when the right to terminate an unintended or nonviable pregnancy has been rolled back in much of the country.

    Indeed, Project 2025, the conservative policy agenda that the Trump administration appears to be following, specifically calls for removing Ella from the Affordable Care Act contraception coverage mandate because it is a “potential abortifacient.” And politicians in multiple states have expressed support for the idea of restricting these contraceptive methods, as well as contraception more broadly.

    On the third anniversary of the Dobbs decision, it is clear that its ripple effects include threats to contraception. Considering that contraception use is almost universal among women in their reproductive years, in our view these threats should be taken seriously.

    Cynthia H. Chuang receives funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

    Carol S. Weisman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. 3 years after abortion rights were overturned, contraception access is at risk – https://theconversation.com/3-years-after-abortion-rights-were-overturned-contraception-access-is-at-risk-258458

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The sleeper Supreme Court decision that could have profound impacts on the Trump administration agenda – and restore faith in the high court

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Ray Brescia, Associate Dean for Research and Intellectual Life, Albany Law School

    The Trump administration has tried to punish or suppress speech and opposition to administration policies. Baac3nes/Getty Images

    The American public’s trust in the Supreme Court has fallen precipitously over the past decade. Many across the political spectrum see the court as too political.

    This view is only strengthened when Americans see most of the justices of the court dividing along ideological lines on decisions related to some of the most hot-button issues the court handles. Those include reproductive rights, voting rights, corporate power, environmental protection, student loan policy, worker rights and LGBTQ+ rights.

    But there is one recent decision where the court was unanimous in its ruling, perhaps because its holding should not be controversial: National Rifle Association v. Vullo. In that 2024 case, the court said that it’s a clear violation of the First Amendment’s free speech provisions for government to force people to speak and act in ways that are aligned with its policies.

    The second Trump administration has tried to wield executive branch power in ways that appear to punish or suppress speech and opposition to administration policy priorities. Many of those attempts have been legally challenged and will likely make their way to the Supreme Court.

    The somewhat under-the-radar – yet incredibly important – decision in National Rifle Association v. Vullo is likely to figure prominently in Supreme Court rulings in a slew of those cases in the coming months and years, including those involving law firms, universities and the Public Broadcasting Service.

    That’s because, in my view as a legal scholar, they are all First Amendment cases.

    Will the Supreme Court continue to protect free speech rights, as it did unanimously in 2024?
    Geoff Livingston/Getty Images

    Why the NRA sued a New York state official

    In May 2024, in an opinion written by reliably liberal Sonia Sotomayor, a unanimous court ruled that the efforts of New York state government officials to punish companies doing business with the NRA constituted clear violations of the First Amendment.

    Following its own precedent from the 1960s, Bantam Books v. Sullivan, the court found that government officials “cannot attempt to coerce private parties in order to punish or suppress views that the government disfavors.”

    Many of the current targets of the Trump administration’s actions have claimed similar suppression of their First Amendment rights by the government. They have fought back, filing lawsuits that often cite the National Rifle Association v. Vullo decision in their efforts.

    To date, the most egregious examples of actions that violate the principles announced by the court – the executive orders against law firms – have largely been halted in the lower courts, with those decisions often citing what’s now known as the Vullo decision.

    While these cases may still be working their way through the lower courts, it is likely that the Supreme Court will ultimately consider legal challenges to the Trump administration’s efforts in a range of areas.

    These would include the executive orders against law firms, attempts to cut government grants and research funding from universities, potential moves to strip nonprofits of their tax-exempt status, and regulatory actions punishing media companies for what the White House believes to be unfavorable coverage.

    The court could also hear disputes over the government terminating contracts with a family of companies that provides satellite and communications support to the U.S. government generally and the military in particular.

    Despite the variety of organizations and government actions involved in these lawsuits, they all can be seen as struggles over free speech and expression, like Vullo.

    Whether it is private law firms, multinational corporations, universities or members of the media, all have one thing in common: They have all been targeted by the Trump administration for the same reason – they are engaged in actions or speech that is disfavored by President Donald Trump.

    Protecting speech, regardless of politics

    U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, front, took leave to help prosecute war criminals at the Nuremberg trials at the end of World War II.
    Bettman/Getty Images

    The NRA, an often-controversial gun-rights advocacy organization, was the plaintiff in the Vullo decision.

    But just because the groups that have been targeted by the Trump administration are across the political divide from the NRA does not mean the outcome in decisions relying on the court’s opinion will be different. In fact, these groups can rely on the same arguments advanced by the NRA, and are, I believe, likely to win.

    Vullo isn’t the only decision on which the court can rely when considering challenges to the Trump administration’s efforts targeting these groups.

    In the wake of World War II, Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson took a leave from the court and served as a prosecutor in the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders. Prosecuting them for their atrocities, Jackson saw how the Nuremberg defendants wielded government authority to punish enemies who resisted their rise and later opposed their rule.

    Once he returned to the court, Jackson wrote the majority opinion in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, where the court found that students who refused to salute the American flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance at school could not be expelled.

    Jackson’s opinion is a forceful rejection of government attempts to control what people say: “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.”

    If some of the cases testing the state’s power to force fidelity to the executive branch reach the Supreme Court, the cases could offer the justices the opportunity to, once again, speak with one voice as they did in NRA v. Vullo, to demonstrate it can be evenhanded and will not play politics with the First Amendment.

    Ray Brescia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. The sleeper Supreme Court decision that could have profound impacts on the Trump administration agenda – and restore faith in the high court – https://theconversation.com/the-sleeper-supreme-court-decision-that-could-have-profound-impacts-on-the-trump-administration-agenda-and-restore-faith-in-the-high-court-258216

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How do atoms form? A physicist explains where the atoms that make up everything around come from

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Stephen L. Levy, Associate Professor of Physics and Applied Physics and Astronomy, Binghamton University, State University of New York

    Many heavy atoms form from a supernova explosion, the remnants of which are shown in this image. NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team

    Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

    How do atoms form? – Joshua, age 7, Shoreview, Minnesota

    Richard Feynman, a famous theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize, said that if he could pass on only one piece of scientific information to future generations, it would be that all things are made of atoms.

    Understanding how atoms form is a fundamental and important question, since they make up everything with mass.

    The question of where atoms comes from requires a lot of physics to be answered completely – and even then, physicists like me only have good guesses to explain how some atoms are formed.

    What is an atom?

    An atom consists of a heavy center, called the nucleus, made of particles called protons and neutrons. An atom has lighter particles called electrons that you can think of as orbiting around the nucleus.

    The electrons each carry one unit of negative charge, the protons each carry one unit of positive charge, and the neutrons have no charge. An atom has the same number of protons as electrons, so it is neutral − it has no overall charge.

    An atom consists of positively charged protons, neutrally charged neutrons and negatively charged electrons.
    AG Caesar/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

    Now, most of the atoms in the universe are the two simplest kinds: hydrogen, which has one proton, zero neutrons and one electron; and helium, which has two protons, two neutrons and two electrons. Of course, on Earth there are lots of atoms besides these that are just as common, such as carbon and oxygen, but I’ll talk about those soon.

    An element is what scientists call a group of atoms that are all the same, because they all have the same number of protons.

    When did the first atoms form?

    Most of the universe’s hydrogen and helium atoms formed around 400,000 years after the Big Bang, which is the name for when scientists think the universe began, about 14 billion years ago.

    Why did they form at that time? Astronomers know from observing distant exploding stars that the size of the universe has been getting bigger since the Big Bang. When the hydrogen and helium atoms first formed, the universe was about 1,000 times smaller than it is now.

    And based on their understanding of physics, scientists believe that the universe was much hotter when it was smaller.

    Before this time, the electrons had too much energy to settle into orbits around the hydrogen and helium nuclei. So, the hydrogen and helium atoms could form only once the universe cooled down to something like 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius). For historical reasons, this process is misleadingly called recombination − combination would be more descriptive.

    The helium and deuterium − a heavier form of hydrogen − nuclei formed even earlier, just a few minutes after the Big Bang, when the temperature was above 1 billion F (556 million C). Protons and neutrons can collide and form nuclei like these only at very high temperatures.

    Scientists believe that almost all the ordinary matter in the universe is made of about 90% hydrogen atoms and 8% helium atoms.

    How do more massive atoms form?

    So, the hydrogen and helium atoms formed during recombination, when the cooler temperature allowed electrons to fall into orbits. But you, I and almost everything on Earth is made of many more massive atoms than just hydrogen and helium. How were these atoms made?

    The surprising answer is that more massive atoms are made in stars. To make atoms with several protons and neutrons stuck together in the nucleus requires the type of high-energy collisions that occur in very hot places. The energy needed to form a heavier nucleus needs to be large enough to overcome the repulsive electric force that positive charges, like two protons, feel with each other.

    The immense heat and pressure in stars can form atoms through a process called fusion.
    NASA/SDO

    Protons and neutrons also have another property – kind of like a different type of charge – that is strong enough to bind them together once they are able to get very close together. This property is called the strong force, and the process that sticks these particles together is called fusion.

    Scientists believe that most of the elements from carbon up to iron are fused in stars heavier than our Sun, where the temperature can exceed 1 billion F (556 million C) – the same temperature that the universe was when it was just a few minutes old.

    This periodic table shows which astronomical processes scientists believe are responsible for forming each of the elements.
    Cmglee/Wikimedia Commons (image) and Jennifer Johnson/OSU (data), CC BY-SA

    But even in hot stars, elements heavier than iron and nickel won’t form. These require extra energy, because the heavier elements can more easily break into pieces.

    In a dramatic event called a supernova, the inner core of a heavy star suddenly collapses after it runs out of fuel to burn. During the powerful explosion this collapse triggers, elements that are heavier than iron can form and get ejected out into the universe.

    Astronomers are still figuring out the details of other fantastic stellar events that form larger atoms. For example, colliding neutron stars can release enormous amounts of energy – and elements such as gold – on their way to forming black holes.

    Understanding how atoms are made just requires learning a little general relativity, plus some nuclear, particle and atomic physics. But to complicate matters, there is other stuff in the universe that doesn’t appear to be made from normal atoms at all, called dark matter. Scientists are investigating what dark matter is and how it might form.

    Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

    And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

    Stephen L. Levy receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. He is affiliated with CyteQuest, Inc.

    – ref. How do atoms form? A physicist explains where the atoms that make up everything around come from – https://theconversation.com/how-do-atoms-form-a-physicist-explains-where-the-atoms-that-make-up-everything-around-come-from-256172

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Astronomy has a major data problem – simulating realistic images of the sky can help train algorithms

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By John Peterson, Assoc. Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University

    A simulation of a set of synthetic galaxies. Photons are sampled from these galaxies and have been simulated through the Earth’s atmosphere, a telescope and a sensor using a code called PhoSim. John Peterson/Purdue

    Professional astronomers don’t make discoveries by looking through an eyepiece like you might with a backyard telescope. Instead, they collect digital images in massive cameras attached to large telescopes.

    Just as you might have an endless library of digital photos stored in your cellphone, many astronomers collect more photos than they would ever have the time to look at. Instead, astronomers like me look at some of the images, then build algorithms and later use computers to combine and analyze the rest.

    But how can we know that the algorithms we write will work, when we don’t even have time to look at all the images? We can practice on some of the images, but one new way to build the best algorithms is to simulate some fake images as accurately as possible.

    With fake images, we can customize the exact properties of the objects in the image. That way, we can see if the algorithms we’re training can uncover those properties correctly.

    My research group and collaborators have found that the best way to create fake but realistic astronomical images is to painstakingly simulate light and its interaction with everything it encounters. Light is composed of particles called photons, and we can simulate each photon. We wrote a publicly available code to do this called the photon simulator, or PhoSim.

    The goal of the PhoSim project is to create realistic fake images that help us understand where distortions in images from real telescopes come from. The fake images help us train programs that sort through images from real telescopes. And the results from studies using PhoSim can also help astronomers correct distortions and defects in their real telescope images.

    The data deluge

    But first, why is there so much astronomy data in the first place? This is primarily due to the rise of dedicated survey telescopes. A survey telescope maps out a region on the sky rather than just pointing at specific objects.

    These observatories all have a large collecting area, a large field of view and a dedicated survey mode to collect as much light over a period of time as possible. Major surveys from the past two decades include the SDSS, Kepler, Blanco-DECam, Subaru HSC, TESS, ZTF and Euclid.

    The Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile has recently finished construction and will soon join those. Its survey begins soon after its official “first look” event on June 23, 2025. It will have a particularly strong set of survey capabilities.

    The Rubin observatory can look at a region of the sky all at once that is several times larger than the full Moon, and it can survey the entire southern celestial hemisphere every few nights.

    The Vera Rubin Observatory will take in lots of light to construct maps of the sky.
    Rubin Observatory/NSF/AURA/B. Quint, CC BY-SA

    A survey can shed light on practically every topic in astronomy.

    Some of the ambitious research questions include: making measurements about dark matter and dark energy, mapping the Milky Way’s distribution of stars, finding asteroids in the solar system, building a three-dimensional map of galaxies in the universe, finding new planets outside the solar system and tracking millions of objects that change over time, including supernovas.

    All of these surveys create a massive data deluge. They generate tens of terabytes every night – that’s millions to billions of pixels collected in seconds. In the extreme case of the Rubin observatory, if you spent all day long looking at images equivalent to the size of a 4K television screen for about one second each, you’d be looking at them 25 times too slow and you’d never keep up.

    At this rate, no individual human could ever look at all the images. But automated programs can process the data.

    Astronomers don’t just survey an astronomical object like a planet, galaxy or supernova once, either. Often we measure the same object’s size, shape, brightness and position in many different ways under many different conditions.

    But more measurements do come with more complications. For example, measurements taken under certain weather conditions or on one part of the camera may disagree with others at different locations or under different conditions. Astronomers can correct these errors – called systematics – with careful calibration or algorithms, but only if we understand the reason for the inconsistency between different measurements. That’s where PhoSim comes in. Once corrected, we can use all the images and make more detailed measurements.

    Simulations: One photon at a time

    To understand the origin of these systematics, we built PhoSim, which can simulate the propagation of light particles – photons – through the Earth’s atmosphere and then into the telescope and camera.

    A simulation of photons traveling from a single star to the Vera Rubin Observatory, made using PhoSim. The layers of turbulence in the atmosphere move according to wind patterns (top middle), and the mirrors deform (top right) depending on the temperature and forces exerted on them. The photons with different wavelengths (colors) are sampled from a star, refract through the atmosphere and then interact with the telescope’s mirrors, filter and lenses. Finally, the photons eject electrons in the sensor (bottom middle) that are counted in pixels to make an image (bottom right). John Peterson/Purdue

    PhoSim simulates the atmosphere, including air turbulence, as well as distortions from the shape of the telescope’s mirrors and the electrical properties of the sensors. The photons are propagated using a variety of physics that predict what photons do when they encounter the air and the telescope’s mirrors and lenses.

    The simulation ends by collecting electrons that have been ejected by photons into a grid of pixels, to make an image.

    Representing the light as trillions of photons is computationally efficient and an application of the Monte Carlo method, which uses random sampling. Researchers used PhoSim to verify some aspects of the Rubin observatory’s design and estimate how its images would look.

    A simulations of a series of exposures of stars, galaxies and background light through the Rubin observatory using PhoSim. Photons are sampled from the objects and then interact with the Earth’s atmosphere and Rubin’s telescope and camera.
    John Peterson/Purdue

    The results are complex, but so far we’ve connected the variation in temperature across telescope mirrors directly to astigmatism – angular blurring – in the images. We’ve also studied how high-altitude turbulence in the atmosphere that can disturb light on its way to the telescope shifts the positions of stars and galaxies in the image and causes blurring patterns that correlate with the wind. We’ve demonstrated how the electric fields in telescope sensors – which are intended to be vertical – can get distorted and warp the images.

    Researchers can use these new results to correct their measurements and better take advantage of all the data that telescopes collect.

    Traditionally, astronomical analyses haven’t worried about this level of detail, but the meticulous measurements with the current and future surveys will have to. Astronomers can make the most out of this deluge of data by using simulations to achieve a deeper level of understanding.

    John Peterson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Astronomy has a major data problem – simulating realistic images of the sky can help train algorithms – https://theconversation.com/astronomy-has-a-major-data-problem-simulating-realistic-images-of-the-sky-can-help-train-algorithms-258786

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Neuropathic pain has no immediate cause – research on a brain receptor may help stop this hard-to-treat condition

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Pooja Shree Chettiar, Ph.D. Candidate in Medical Sciences, Texas A&M University

    Neuropathic pain is experienced both physically and emotionally. Salim Hanzaz/iStock via Getty Images

    Pain is easy to understand until it isn’t. A stubbed toe or sprained ankle hurts, but it makes sense because the cause is clear and the pain fades as you heal.

    But what if the pain didn’t go away? What if even a breeze felt like fire, or your leg burned for no reason at all? When pain lingers without a clear cause, that’s neuropathic pain.

    We are neuroscientists who study how pain circuits in the brain and spinal cord change over time. Our work focuses on the molecules that quietly reshape how pain is felt and remembered.

    We didn’t fully grasp how different neuropathic pain was from injury-related pain until we began working in a lab studying it. Patients spoke of a phantom pain that haunted them daily – unseen, unexplained and life-altering.

    These conversations shifted our focus from symptoms to mechanisms. What causes this ghost pain to persist, and how can we intervene at the molecular level to change it?

    More than just physical pain

    Neuropathic pain stems from damage to or dysfunction in the nervous system itself. The system that was meant to detect pain becomes the source of it, like a fire alarm going off without a fire. Even a soft touch or breeze can feel unbearable.

    Neuropathic pain doesn’t just affect the body – it also alters the brain. Chronic pain of this nature often leads to depression, anxiety, social isolation and a deep sense of helplessness. It can make even the most routine tasks feel unbearable.

    About 10% of the U.S. population – tens of millions of people – experience neuropathic pain, and cases are rising as the population ages. Complications from diabetes, cancer treatments or spinal cord injuries can lead to this condition. Despite its prevalence, doctors often overlook neuropathic pain because its underlying biology is poorly understood.

    Neuropathic pain can be debilitating.
    Kate Wieser/Moment via Getty Images

    There’s also an economic cost to neuropathic pain. This condition contributes to billions of dollars in health care spending, missed workdays and lost productivity. In the search for relief, many turn to opioids, a path that, as seen from the opioid epidemic, can carry its own devastating consequences through addiction.

    GluD1: A quiet but crucial player

    Finding treatments for neuropathic pain requires answering several questions. Why does the nervous system misfire in this way? What exactly causes it to rewire in ways that increase pain sensitivity or create phantom sensations? And most urgently: Is there a way to reset the system?

    This is where our lab’s work and the story of a receptor called GluD1 comes in. Short for glutamate delta-1 receptor, this protein doesn’t usually make headlines. Scientists have long considered GluD1 a biochemical curiosity, part of the glutamate receptor family, but not known to function like its relatives that typically transmit electrical signals in the brain.

    Instead, GluD1 plays a different role. It helps organize synapses, the junctions where neurons connect. Think of it as a construction foreman: It doesn’t send messages itself, but directs where connections form and how strong they become.

    This organizing role is critical in shaping the way neural circuits develop and adapt, especially in regions involved in pain and emotion. Our lab’s research suggests that GluD1 acts as a molecular architect of pain circuits, particularly in conditions like neuropathic pain where those circuits misfire or rewire abnormally. In parts of the nervous system crucial for pain processing like the spinal cord and amygdala, GluD1 may shape how people experience pain physically and emotionally.

    Fixing the misfire

    Across our work, we found that disruptions to GluD1 activity is linked to persistent pain. Restoring GluD1 activity can reduce pain. The question is, how exactly does GluD1 reshape the pain experience?

    In our first study, we discovered that GluD1 doesn’t operate solo. It teams up with a protein called cerebellin-1 to form a structure that maintains constant communication between brain cells. This structure, called a trans-synaptic bridge, can be compared to a strong handshake between two neurons. It makes sure that pain signals are appropriately processed and filtered.

    But in chronic pain, the bridge between these proteins becomes unstable and starts to fall apart. The result is chaotic. Like a group chat where everyone is talking at once and nobody can be heard clearly, neurons start to misfire and overreact. This synaptic noise turns up the brain’s pain sensitivity, both physically and emotionally. It suggests that GluD1 isn’t just managing pain signals, but also may be shaping how those signals feel.

    What if we could restore that broken connection?

    This image highlights the presence of GluD1, in green and yellow, in a neuron of the central amygdala, in red.
    Pooja Shree Chettiar and Siddhesh Sabnis/Dravid Lab at Texas A&M University, CC BY-SA

    In our second study, we injected mice with cerebellin-1 and saw that it reactivated GluD1 activity, easing their chronic pain without producing any side effects. It helped the pain processing system work again without the sedative effects or disruptions to other nerve signals that are common with opioids. Rather than just numbing the body, reactivating GluD1 activity recalibrated how the brain processes pain.

    Of course, this research is still in the early stages, far from clinical trials. But the implications are exciting: GluD1 may offer a way to repair the pain processing network itself, with fewer side effects and less risk of addiction than current treatments.

    For millions living with chronic pain, this small, peculiar receptor may open the door to a new kind of relief: one that heals the system, not just masks its symptoms.

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

    – ref. Neuropathic pain has no immediate cause – research on a brain receptor may help stop this hard-to-treat condition – https://theconversation.com/neuropathic-pain-has-no-immediate-cause-research-on-a-brain-receptor-may-help-stop-this-hard-to-treat-condition-256982

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: SHU and Shandong Institute of Technology and Business agreed on cooperation

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: State University of Management – Official website of the State –

    On June 23, a delegation from Shandong Institute of Technology and Business (SIITB) visited the National University of Management to sign a cooperation agreement.

    Rector of the State University of Management Vladimir Stroev, vice-rectors Maria Karelina and Dmitry Bryukhanov and director of the Institute of Marketing Gennady Azoev introduced the guests to the history of the university and the main areas in which cooperation is possible.

    “Our university has been training management personnel for various areas of the economy for over 100 years. We have both a humanitarian and a technical component of training. In addition, many students independently study Chinese, as they see more prospects in it than in English. GUU is actively developing cooperation with the People’s Republic of China: our university has a center for social, political and economic research in China, and last year we conducted an internship for 50 graduates of the presidential program for training management personnel in China,” Vladimir Stroyev noted.

    Rector of SHITB Tao Hu spoke about the history and capabilities of his university, noting the presence of similar positions and interests:

    “Thank you for the invitation, you have a very beautiful university. We are pleased that the interaction between our countries and our universities is developing. Since 1985, the Shandong Institute has been training personnel, primarily in the field of economics. And we really value international cooperation. I am sure that we will be able to work well on joint projects.”

    The parties discussed the possibility of admitting GUU graduates to master’s programs at SHITiB: “Business Management and Entrepreneurship”, “Applied Economics”, “Computer Science”, as well as admitting SHITiB graduates to the GUU master’s program “International Marketing and Brand Management”.

    Another area of cooperation will be the exchange of teachers for teaching language and special courses and the implementation of scientific cooperation programs.

    At the end of the meeting, a ceremonial signing of a cooperation agreement on the issues outlined took place.

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: War commemorations discussed

    Source: Hong Kong Information Services

    The Working Group on Patriotic Education under the Constitution & Basic Law Promotion Steering Committee (CBLPSC) held its third meeting today to discuss a work plan for activities to commemorate the 80th anniversary of victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and in the World Anti-Fascist War.

     

    The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government said it places great importance on planning for such commemorations. As stated in last year’s Policy Address, it will host a series of events to enhance the public’s patriotism and sense of national belonging.

     

    CBLPSC Chairman and Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki stated that over the past few months various bureaus and departments have been formulating proposals and making preparations for the commemorations.

     

    In today’s meeting, the working group discussed the content of various activities that are being planned, and the core spirits and principles that should be upheld.

     

    An official ceremony will be held at the Hong Kong City Hall Memorial Garden on September 3, Victory Day in the War of Resistance, to honour the occasion.

     

    Thematic exhibitions co-organised by the Hong Kong Museum of History and the National Museum of China, as well as the Hong Kong Museum of the War of Resistance & Coastal Defence and the Guangdong Museum of Revolutionary History, will be staged.

     

    Various educational activities and screenings of war-related films will also be organised.

     

    In relation to commemorative activities organised by community groups, the Government will announce more details in due course.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: IAM District 837 Hosts Leadership Tour of Boeing St. Louis Facilities Ahead of Vital Negotiations

    Source: US GOIAM Union

    IAM District 837 President and Directing Business Representative Tom Boelling recently led a high-level tour of Boeing’s St. Louis-area facilities, joined by IAM Resident General Vice President Jody Bennett. The tour provided an in-depth look at the critical aerospace manufacturing work being performed by IAM members across three key locations: St. Louis, St. Charles, Mo., and Mascoutah, Ill.

    “Our members take immense pride in the work they do to support our military and protect our country,” said IAM Resident General Vice President Jody Bennett. “This tour was an important reminder of what we stand for, not just as union members, but as the builders of American strength and security.”

    District 837 members play an essential role in building and producing some of the world’s most advanced military aircraft and defense systems. These include the iconic F-15 and F/A-18 fighter jets, the state-of-the-art T-7A Red Hawk advanced trainer, and the groundbreaking MQ-25 Stingray, the U.S. Navy’s first carrier-based unmanned aerial refueler.

    The visit underscored the skill, dedication, and pride of IAM members who contribute to national defense and aerospace innovation daily. It also served as an opportunity for leadership to hear directly from the workforce ahead of upcoming negotiations, ensuring that their voices remain central to the process.

    The post IAM District 837 Hosts Leadership Tour of Boeing St. Louis Facilities Ahead of Vital Negotiations appeared first on IAM Union.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Spaza Shop Awareness Campaign benefits business owners 

    Source: South Africa News Agency

    Government’s Spaza Shop Support Awareness Campaign is providing much-needed clarity while also encouraging business owners to do things by the book.

    “Before today, I didn’t know where to start or which documents were truly necessary. This workshop answered questions I’ve had for years. Now, I understand what compliance actually means and how to meet those expectations,” spaza shop owner Matshidiso Mooki said.

    Mooki was among those who attended the session held at the City Hall in the Vereeniging Central Business District in Gauteng on Friday.

    She said the campaign brought clarity.

    “I am determined to ensure that I comply with all the regulations so that I can qualify for support through the Spaza Shop Support Fund,” she said of the session.

    The campaign offered spaza shop owners and township-based convenience store operators critical information on how to apply for both financial and non-financial support under the R500-million fund that was launched by Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau and Small Business Development Minister Stella Ndabeni Abrahams in April.

    For Matome Tshabalala, the information received at the session was a game changer. He started his shop after the COVID-19 lockdown.

    “I’ve always operated informally, but now I want to do things the right way. What stood out for me was the emphasis on record-keeping and understanding zoning laws. I also appreciated the introduction to stock management and bookkeeping,” he said.

    The campaign, which aims to formalise and support township-based enterprises, brought together local spaza shop owners, government officials and business development stakeholders.

    READ | Government’s Spaza Shop campaign goes to Sedibeng

    Compliance 

    Participants at the session heard about the importance of compliance requirements for spaza shop permit applications. 

    Matshepo Madumbo, the Assistant Manager of Local Economic Development and Tourism at Emfuleni Local Municipality, emphasised the importance of adhering to municipal regulations when applying for permits.

    “Many residential areas are not zoned for commercial activity. For a spaza shop to operate legally, the property owner must apply for a rezoning certificate. Without that, the business cannot be recognised as compliant.

    “I cannot stress the importance of submitting a stamped building plan, an occupancy certificate, certified identity document, a proof of address no older than three months, and registration documents from the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) along with a valid tax clearance certificate,” she said. 

    Madumbo noted that failure to comply with these requirements often leads to unnecessary delays and missed opportunities for funding and supplier networks.

    “The Spaza Shop Support Campaign continues to rollout across provinces, ensuring that township entrepreneurs are not only included in the broader economic framework but are also equipped to thrive within it. 

    “By focusing on compliance, formalisation, and access to resources, the campaign is helping to level the playing field for small business owners in underserved communities,” said the  Department of Trade, Industry and Competition and the Department of Small Business Development.  – SAnews.gov.za

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: The proposed Transformation Fund levels the economic playing field for emerging black businesses

    Source: South Africa News Agency

    By Parks Tau 

    In 1994, South Africa inherited an economy that was structurally designed to exclude the vast majority of South Africans. Apartheid’s distorted policies had created a dual economy: one of wealth and privilege and another of poverty and exclusion.

    This calculated economic strategy, structured along racial lines, created white-owned mines, farms, and factories while many black South Africans languished on the fringes of the economy in an underdeveloped informal sector.

    Their meaningful participation in our nation’s wealth was further eroded by discriminatory laws that restricted Black South Africans from owning land, accessing quality education, and entering skilled professions.

    These economic distortions which were implemented over hundreds of years continue to plague our nation today as we grapple with one of the highest levels of economic inequality in the world, worsened by alarmingly high unemployment, especially among Black youth.

    The country’s Gini coefficient of 0.63 shows that our nation’s income remains unevenly distributed, with the top 10 percent of the population holding more than 85 percent of household wealth. This persistent disparity undermines the development of an inclusive economy where all citizens participate and benefit.

    The transformation we seek is about positive change and is the only logical path to long-term growth and the reduction of inequality. In deracialising ownership across our economy, we open more opportunities for black people, in particular women and the youth.

    While the Constitution guides our work in creating a society with equal opportunities, we require a deliberate removal of structural obstacles to draw more people into the economy and mechanisms that advance our constitutional commitment to economic redress and transformation.

    In this regard, government plans to introduce the Transformation Fund to help level the economic playing field for emerging Black businesses, particularly those in key economic sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture and tourism who struggle to secure funding due to stringent lending requirements.

    The fund will provide financial support, infrastructure and capacity-building to Black-owned businesses – in particular Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises, women and youth entrepreneurs, and people living with disabilities – who are often locked out of meaningful economic participation due to their lack of access to capital.

    In fostering greater access to capital, business owners can invest in equipment, hire skilled staff, expand into new markets and ultimately quicken the pace of transformation in South Africa’s economy. It is also expected to stimulate meaningful economic activities across all regions of our country.

    A similar transformation initiative took place in South Korea, whose government actively worked with companies in the country to address market failures. Local businesses known as Chaebol were guaranteed loans from the banking sector, backed by the government. In the late 1980s, this led to rapid industrialisation with Chaebol businesses dominating the industrial sector in manufacturing, trading and heavy industries

    There was also great success in Malaysia’s empowerment initiative, demonstrating what can be achieved through transformation. The country in 1970 found itself in a similar position we face today and began to transform its society and economy through economic empowerment. Its empowerment plan, the National Economic Policy, assisted with the redistribution of the country’s wealth to the indigenous Malays known as Bumiputeras. Today Malaysia is among the richest countries in Southeast Asia by GDP per capita.  

    The Transformation Fund we are proposing will operate through a transparent application process, where qualifying businesses as well as partnerships, can apply for funding based on the project’s potential for social impact, sustainability, and alignment with national development goals.

    The fund will be anchored in contributions already made to the Enterprise Supplier Development and Equity Equivalent Investment Programme as part of our nation’s B-BBEE policy.  While no additional contributions are required over and above those made under our B-BBEE commitments, the voluntary co-funding by government and business of our transformation efforts can quicken the change we want in our economy.

    In supporting the Transformation Fund, both the public and private sectors stand to benefit from the investment in future suppliers, customers, and innovators who will, in turn build resilience and relevance in a fast-changing society.

    In advancing the establishment of the fund, it is proposed that the fund will be managed by a dedicated governance structure to ensure transparency. A Special Purpose Vehicle will be established to ensure accountability to an Oversight Committee and a board that possesses the required skills and capacity.

    The fund’s draft concept document was released for public comment on 19 March 2025 and the comment period concluded on 28 May 2025. South Africans are encouraged to continue to actively engage on the fund, and more details can be found on the website www.dtic.gov.za.

    Government plans to have the fund operational by the end of the year and capacitated with R100 billion. Once operational, it will assist in helping to bring real change in our economy and the lives of people. Let us turn transformation from a concept into practice as we make a real difference in others’ lives and create a fairer society.

    *Parks Tau is the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: AFRICA/KENYA – The appeal of the Archbishops of Nyeri and Nairobi for the march in memory of last year’s victims: “Let dialogue prevail”

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Nairobi (Agenzia Fides) – Let dialogue prevail between the government and young people. This is the appeal for the march in memory of the victims of last year’s protests against the budget law (see Fides, June 21, 25, and 26, 2024). The march is scheduled for June 25. Yesterday, Sunday, June 22, addressing the media together, Monsignor Anthony Muheria, Archbishop of Nyeri and Vice President of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB), and his counterpart in Nairobi, Archbishop Philip Arnold Subira Anyolo, invited President William Ruto to listen to the country’s youth.“With just over 60 hours to the march, our greatest call is to safeguard human life,” declared Archbishop Muheria. “It does not matter what your goals are—the most urgent goal is to protect life, uplift the poor, and listen to one another.”Archbishop Anyolo added: “We have no right at any time to take the life of another. As Catholics, we believe life begins at conception – and that belief compels us to care even for mothers who mourn children killed in such unrest,” The two Archbishops also addressed a message to young people, urging them to moderate their intransigent positions and participate constructively in nation-building, while warning political leaders that inflammatory rhetoric fuels division and violence. Addressing the young people, Archbishop Muheria ask for “a spirit of unity,” so “let us walk together and find solutions as we mourn those who died.”“Political leaders must avoid recklessness in speech. As our national anthem reminds us, we must speak with each other to live together as one nation,” added Msgr. Anyolo.The two prelates urged the government to prioritize justice for those who lost their lives during last year’s protests and for those still recovering from injuries sustained in clashes with law enforcement, which left at least 60 dead. In recent days, clashes have erupted during demonstrations demanding the truth about the death in a security cell of blogger Albert Ojwang (see Fides, June 12 and 17, 2025). (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 23/6/2025)
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  • MIL-OSI Europe: AFRICA/KENYA – The appeal of the Archbishops of Nyeri and Nairobi for the march in memory of last year’s victims: “Let dialogue prevail”

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Nairobi (Agenzia Fides) – Let dialogue prevail between the government and young people. This is the appeal for the march in memory of the victims of last year’s protests against the budget law (see Fides, June 21, 25, and 26, 2024). The march is scheduled for June 25. Yesterday, Sunday, June 22, addressing the media together, Monsignor Anthony Muheria, Archbishop of Nyeri and Vice President of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB), and his counterpart in Nairobi, Archbishop Philip Arnold Subira Anyolo, invited President William Ruto to listen to the country’s youth.“With just over 60 hours to the march, our greatest call is to safeguard human life,” declared Archbishop Muheria. “It does not matter what your goals are—the most urgent goal is to protect life, uplift the poor, and listen to one another.”Archbishop Anyolo added: “We have no right at any time to take the life of another. As Catholics, we believe life begins at conception – and that belief compels us to care even for mothers who mourn children killed in such unrest,” The two Archbishops also addressed a message to young people, urging them to moderate their intransigent positions and participate constructively in nation-building, while warning political leaders that inflammatory rhetoric fuels division and violence. Addressing the young people, Archbishop Muheria ask for “a spirit of unity,” so “let us walk together and find solutions as we mourn those who died.”“Political leaders must avoid recklessness in speech. As our national anthem reminds us, we must speak with each other to live together as one nation,” added Msgr. Anyolo.The two prelates urged the government to prioritize justice for those who lost their lives during last year’s protests and for those still recovering from injuries sustained in clashes with law enforcement, which left at least 60 dead. In recent days, clashes have erupted during demonstrations demanding the truth about the death in a security cell of blogger Albert Ojwang (see Fides, June 12 and 17, 2025). (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 23/6/2025)
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  • MIL-OSI Europe: ASIA/SYRIA – Massacre of Christians in Damascus. Greek Orthodox Patriarchate: “they are our new martyrs”

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Monday, 23 June 2025

    by Pascale RizkDamascus (Agenzia Fides) – “On the day our Church of Antioch commemorates all the Antiochian saints, the treacherous hand of injustice has risen this evening and reaped our souls along with the souls of our loved ones who fell as martyrs today during the evening Mass at the Church of St. Elias in Dwela’a in Damascus.” With these words, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, led by Patriarch Yohanna X, addressed the faithful around the world following the massacre perpetrated during the evening Mass on Sunday, June 22.The Church of St. Elias is located in the Tabbalah neighborhood, at the entrance to the Douweila neighborhood. It was built in 1990. It is a monastic complex with a church, a school, and several guest rooms for pilgrims and students.According to information from local sources, the attack began with several shots fired at praying Christians from outside the church. Then, at least two suicide bombers wearing explosive belts entered the church through the rear entrance to the altar and blew themselves up.The eyewitness account of Laure al NasrMeanwhile, a video with the account of eyewitness Laure al Nasr was posted on social media: Her husband, Geryes el Bechara, a member of the General Directorate of the Road Traffic Authority, tried to stop the attacker along with Botros el Bechara, one of the brothers present at the mass. “The shots,” Laura recounts in her account, traumatized by her own grief, “first hit the church windows, frightening the people who gathered around the altar. As the attacker entered the church,” the witness continued, “Geryes and Botros tried to stop him: one by hitting him on the arm to make him drop a grenade that hadn’t exploded, the other by trying to pull him out of the church.” At that moment, the suicide bomber detonated his explosive belt and blew himself up. “I saw the bodies of my husband and my brother-in-law being torn to pieces, one next to the other. They tried to save us all; they are martyrs for our Church.” Other family members died in the massacre: their sister Myriam, cousins Julia, Sleman, and Nabil. A niece and a third brother of Geryes and Botros, notary Elias el Bechara, were seriously injured.Unconfirmed information suggests the suicide bombers may have been of Pakistani origin, and another attacker is said to have escaped after the massacre.So far, the provisional death toll amounts to 22 and 53 injured. “We continue to collect the remains and bodies of our martyrs,” reads the statement released by the Patriarchate.The government’s reactionsProfessor Hind Aboud Kabawat (see Fides, 12/2/2025), Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, the only Christian minister in the government led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, went to the scene of the attack to express the Syrian government’s closeness to the community affected by the massacre. Government authorities condemned the attack and blamed individuals linked to the so-called Islamic State. “This criminal act, targeting members of the Christian community, is a desperate attempt to undermine national unity and destabilize the country, as well as a response by the remnants of terrorism to the continued successes of the Syrian state and leadership,” reads the government statement.Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, under the name Abu Muhammed el-Jolani, headed the Islamist “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham” for years, which played a leading role in the fight against the Assad regime, which collapsed in December of last year.Interior Ministry spokesperson Noureddine Al-Baba announced that “all those involved in this criminal act will be held accountable, and we will work to restore the church to its former glory.”The solidarity of the entire population with the church affected by the massacre was also expressed through blood donations in the hospitals where the wounded are being treated. Meanwhile, Islamists are praising the massacre and issuing intimidating messages directed at Christians in other Syrian cities. Official expressions of solidarity with the Syrian Christians, however, came from leaders of other religious communities, while several ministers visited the wounded and their families in hospitals.In the final part of the message, issued by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of AntiochThe statement, published on , calls on the relevant authorities in Syria to “assume full responsibility for the protection of the Holy Sites and all citizens.” This at a time when the entire Middle East seems more than ever to be dominated by “inhuman forces that want to accelerate the end of the world” (Pope Francis). (Agenzia Fides, 23/6/2025)
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