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  • MIL-OSI Global: Most Americans believe misinformation is a problem — federal research cuts will only make the problem worse

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By H. Colleen Sinclair, Associate Research Professor of Social Psychology, Louisiana State University

    Americans say the government and social media companies need to do something about misinformation and disinformation. Boris Zhitkov/Getty Images

    Research on misinformation and disinformation has become the latest casualty of the Trump administration’s restructuring of federal research priorities.

    Following President Donald Trump’s executive order on “ending federal censorship,” the National Science Foundation canceled hundreds of grants that supported research on misinformation and disinformation.

    Misinformation refers to misleading narratives shared by people unaware that content is false. Disinformation is deliberately generated and shared misleading content, when the sharer knows the narrative is suspect.

    The overwhelming majority of Americans – 95% – believe misinformation’s misleading narratives are a problem.

    Americans also believe that consumers, the government and social media companies need to do something about it. Defunding research on misinformation and disinformation is, thus, the opposite of what Americans want. Without research, the ability to combat misleading narratives will be impaired.

    The attack on misleading narrative research

    Trump’s executive order claims that the Biden administration used research on misleading narratives to limit social media companies’ free speech.

    The Supreme Court had already rejected this claim in a 2024 case.

    Still, Trump and GOP politicians continue to demand disinformation researchers defend themselves, including in the March 2025 “censorship industrial complex” hearings, which explored alleged government censorship under the Biden administration.

    The U.S. State Department, additionally, is soliciting all communications between government offices and disinformation researchers for evidence of censorship.

    Trump’s executive order to “restore free speech,” the hearings and the State Department decision all imply that those conducting misleading narrative research are enemies of the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech.

    These actions have already led to significant problems – death threats and harassment included – for disinformation researchers, particularly women.

    So let’s tackle what research on misinformation and disinformation is and isn’t.

    Misleading content

    Misinformation and disinformation researchers examine the sources of misleading content. They also study the spread of that content. And they investigate ways to reduce its harmful impacts.

    For instance, as a social psychologist who studies disinformation and misinformation, I examine the nature of misleading content. I study and then share information about the manipulation tactics used by people who spread disinformation to influence others. My aim is to better inform the public about how to protect themselves from deception.

    Sharing this information is free speech, not barring free speech.

    Yet, some think this research leads to censorship when platforms choose to use the knowledge to label or remove suspect content or ban its primary spreaders. That’s what U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan argued in launching investigations in 2023 into disinformation research.

    It is important to note, however, that the constitutional definition of censorship establishes that only the government – not citizens or businesses – can be censors.

    So private companies have the right to make their own decisions about the content they put on their platforms.

    Trump’s own platform, Truth Social, bans certain material such as “sexual content and explicit language,” but also anything moderators deem as trying to “trick, defraud, or mislead us and other users.” Yet, 75% of the conspiracy theories shared on the platform come from Trump’s account.

    Further, both Trump and Elon Musk, self-proclaimed free speech advocates, have been accused of squelching content on their platforms that is critical of them.

    Musk claimed the suppression of accounts on X was a result of the site’s algorithm reducing “the reach of a user if they’re frequently blocked or muted by other, credible users.” Truth Social representatives claim accounts were banned due to “bot mitigation” procedures, and authentic accounts may be reinstated if their classification as inauthentic was invalid.

    Research shows that conservatives are more susceptible to misinformation than liberals.
    klevo/Getty Images

    Is it censorship?

    Republicans say social media companies have been biased against their content, censoring it or banning conservatives unfairly.

    The “censorship industrial complex” hearings held by the House Foreign Affairs South and Central Asia Subcommittee were based on the premise that not only was misleading narrative research part of the alleged “censorship industrial complex,” but that it was focused on conservative voices.

    But there isn’t evidence to support this assertion.

    Research from 2020 shows that conservative voices are amplified on social media networks.

    When research does show that conservative authors have posts labeled or removed, or that their accounts are suspended at higher rates than liberal content, it also reveals that it is because conservative posts are significantly more likely to share misinformation than liberal posts.

    This was found in a recent study of X users. Researchers tracked whose posts got tagged as false or misleading more in “community notes” – X’s alternative and Meta’s proposed alternative to fact checking – and it was conservative posts, because they were more likely to include false content than liberal posts.

    Furthermore, an April 2025 study shows conservatives are more susceptible to misleading content and more likely to be targeted by it than liberals.

    Misleading America

    Those accusing misleading narrative researchers of censorship misrepresent the nature and intent of the research and researchers. And they are using disinformation tactics to do so.

    Here’s how.

    The misleading information about censorship and bias has been repeated so much through the media and from political leaders, as evident in Trump’s executive order, that many Republicans believe it’s true. This repetition produces what psychologists call the illusory truth effect, where as few as three repetitions convince the human mind something is true.

    Researchers have also identified a tactic known as “accusation in a mirror.” That’s when someone falsely accuses one’s perceived opponents of conducting, plotting or desiring to commit the same transgressions that one plans to commit or is already committing.

    So censorship accusations from an administration that is removing books from libraries, erasing history from monuments and websites, and deleting data archives constitute “accusations in a mirror.”

    Other tactics include “accusation by anecdote.” When strong evidence is in short supply, people who spread disinformation point repeatedly to individual stories – sometimes completely fabricated – that are exceptions to, and not representative of, the larger reality.

    Facts on fact-checking

    Similar anecdotal attacks are used to try to dismiss fact-checkers, whose conclusions can identify and discredit disinformation, leading to its tagging or removal from social media. This is done by highlighting an incident where fact-checkers “got it wrong.”

    These attacks on fact-checking come despite the fact that many of those most controversial decisions were made by platforms, not fact-checkers.

    Indeed, fact-checking does work to reduce the transmission of misleading content.

    Research shows little bias in choice of who is fact-checked.
    Liudmila Chernetska/Getty Images

    In studies of the perceived effectiveness of professional fact-checkers versus algorithms and everyday users, fact-checkers are rated the most effective.

    When Republicans do report distrust of fact-checkers, it’s because they perceive the fact-checkers are biased. Yet research shows little bias in choice of who is fact-checked, just that prominent and prolific speakers get checked more.

    When shown fact-checking results of specific posts, even conservatives often agree the right decision was made.

    Seeking solutions

    Account bans or threats of account suspensions may be more effective than fact-checks at stopping the flow of misinformation, but they are also more controversial. They are considered more akin to censorship than fact-check labels.

    Misinformation research would benefit from identifying solutions that conservatives and liberals agree on.

    Examples include giving people the option, like on social media platform Bluesky, to turn misinformation moderation on or off.

    But Trump’s executive order seeks to ban that research. Thus, instead of providing protections, the order will likely weaken Americans’ defenses.

    H. Colleen Sinclair receives funding from a variety of government and foundation sources. The statements and opinions included in this The Conversation article are solely the author’s. Any statements and opinions included in these pages are not those of the Social Research and Evaluation Center, the College of Human Sciences & Education, the Louisiana State University, or the LSU Board of Supervisors.

    – ref. Most Americans believe misinformation is a problem — federal research cuts will only make the problem worse – https://theconversation.com/most-americans-believe-misinformation-is-a-problem-federal-research-cuts-will-only-make-the-problem-worse-255355

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Is Mars really red? A physicist explains the planet’s reddish hue and why it looks different to some telescopes

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By David Joffe, Associate Professor of Physics, Kennesaw State University

    Siccar Point, photographed by the Curiosity rover, is near Mars’ Gale Crater. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS; Processing & License: Kevin M. Gill

    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.

    Is Mars really as red as people say it is? – Jasmine, age 14, Everson, Washington

    People from cultures across the world have been looking at Mars since ancient times. Because it appears reddish, it has often been called the red planet.

    The English name for the planet comes from the Romans, who named it after their god of war because its color reminded them of blood. In reality, the reddish color of Mars comes from iron oxide in the rocks and dust covering its surface.

    Your blood is also red because of a mixture of iron and oxygen in a molecule called hemoglobin. So in a way, the ancient connection between the planet Mars and blood wasn’t completely wrong. Rust, which is a common form of iron oxide found here on Earth, also often has a reddish color.

    Iron oxide, found in rust on old metal machinery, is the compound that colors rocks and dust on Mars’ surface reddish brown.
    Lars Hammar/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA

    In my current research on exoplanets, I observe different types of signals from planets beyond Earth. Lots of interesting physics goes into how researchers perceive the colors of planets and stars through different types of telescopes.

    Observing Mars with probes

    If you look closely at pictures of Mars taken by rovers on its surface, you can see that most of the planet isn’t purely red, but more of a rusty brown or tan color.

    You can see Mars’ rusty color in this photo taken by the Viking lander.
    NASA/JPL

    Probes sent from Earth have taken pictures showing rocks with a rusty color. A 1976 picture from the Viking lander, the very first spacecraft to land on Mars, shows the Martian ground covered with a layer of rusty orange dust.

    Not all of Mars’ surface has the same color. At the poles, its ice caps appear white. These ice caps contain frozen water, like the ice we usually find on Earth, but these ice caps are also covered by a layer of frozen carbon dioxide – dry ice.

    This layer of dry ice can evaporate very quickly when sunlight shines on it and grows back again when it becomes dark. This process causes the white ice caps to grow and shrink in size depending on the Martian seasons.

    This picture from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the planet with the same rusty color covering large parts of its surface.
    NASA, ESA, Zolt G. Levay (STScI)

    Beyond visible light

    Mars also gives off light in colors that you can’t see with your eyes but that scientists can measure with special cameras on telescopes.

    Light itself can be thought of not only as a wave but also as a stream of particles called photons. The amount of energy carried by each photon is related to its color. For example, blue and violet photons have more energy than orange and red photons.

    The rainbow of visible light that you can see is only a small slice of all the kinds of light. Some telescopes can detect light with a longer wavelength, such as infrared light, or light with a shorter wavelength, such as ultraviolet light. Others can detect X-rays or radio waves.
    Inductiveload, NASA/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

    Ultraviolet photons have even more energy than the photons you can see with your eyes. These photons are found in direct sunlight, and because they have so much energy, they can damage the cells in your body. You can use sunscreen to protect yourself from them.

    Infrared photons have less energy than the photons you can see with your eyes, and you don’t need any special protection from them. This is how some types of night-vision goggles work: They can see light in the infrared spectrum as well as the visible color spectrum. Scientists can take pictures of Mars in the infrared spectrum using special cameras that work almost like night-vision goggles for telescopes.

    The Hubble Space Telescope could take pictures in both visible light and infrared light.
    NASA, James Bell (Cornell University), Justin Maki (NASA-JPL), Mike J. Wolff (SSI)

    The colors on the infrared picture aren’t really what the infrared light looks like, because you can’t see those colors with your eyes. They are called “false colors,” and researchers add them to look at the picture more easily.

    When you compare the visible color picture and the infrared picture, you can see some of the same features – and the ice caps are visible in both sets of colors.

    A UV view of Mars with the MAVEN spacecraft.
    NASA/LASP/CU Boulder

    NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft, launched in 2013, has even taken pictures with ultraviolet light, giving scientists a different view of both the surface of Mars and its atmosphere.

    Each new type of picture tells scientists more about the Martian landscape. They hope to use these details to answer questions about how Mars formed, how long it had active volcanoes, where its atmosphere came from and whether it had liquid water on its surface.

    Astronomers are always looking for new ways to take telescope pictures outside of the regular visible spectrum. They can even make images using radio waves, microwaves, X-rays and gamma rays. Each part of the spectrum they can use to look at an object in space represents new information they can learn from.

    Even though people have been looking at Mars since ancient times, we still have much to learn about this fascinating neighbor.

    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.

    David Joffe receives funding from the NASA Office of STEM Engagement through a grant from the Georgia Space Grant Consortium

    – ref. Is Mars really red? A physicist explains the planet’s reddish hue and why it looks different to some telescopes – https://theconversation.com/is-mars-really-red-a-physicist-explains-the-planets-reddish-hue-and-why-it-looks-different-to-some-telescopes-256398

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: RNA has newly identified role: Repairing serious DNA damage to maintain the genome

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Francesca Storici, Professor of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology

    Double-strand breaks in DNA can be deadly. Victor Golmer/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    Your DNA is continually damaged by sources both inside and outside your body. One especially severe form of damage called a double-strand break involves the severing of both strands of the DNA double helix.

    Double-strand breaks are among the most difficult forms of DNA damage for cells to repair because they disrupt the continuity of DNA and leave no intact template to base new strands on. If misrepaired, these breaks can lead to other mutations that make the genome unstable and increase the risk of many diseases, including cancer, neurodegeneration and immunodeficiency.

    Cells primarily repair double-strand breaks by either rejoining the broken DNA ends or by using another DNA molecule as a template for repair. However, my team and I discovered that RNA, a type of genetic material best known for its role in making proteins, surprisingly plays a key role in facilitating the repair of these harmful breaks.

    These insights could not only pave the way for new treatment strategies for genetic disorders, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, but also enhance gene-editing technologies.

    Sealing a knowledge gap in DNA repair

    I have spent the past two decades investigating the relationship between RNA and DNA in order to understand how cells maintain genome integrity and how these mechanisms could be harnessed for genetic engineering.

    A long-standing question in the field has been whether RNA in cells helps keep the genome stable beyond acting as a copy of DNA in the process of making proteins and a regulator of gene expression. Studying how RNA might do this has been especially difficult due to its similarity to DNA and how fast it degrades. It’s also technically challenging to tell whether the RNA is directly working to repair DNA or indirectly regulating the process. Traditional models and tools for studying DNA repair have for the most part focused on proteins and DNA, leaving RNA’s potential contributions largely unexplored.

    RNA plays a key role in protein synthesis.

    My team and I were curious about whether RNA might actively participate in fixing double-strand breaks as a first line of defense. To explore this, we used the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 to make breaks at specific spots in the DNA of human and yeast cells. We then analyzed how RNA influences various aspects of the repair process, including efficiency and outcomes.

    We found that RNA can actively guide the repair process of double-strand breaks. It does this by binding to broken DNA ends, helping align sequences of DNA on a matching strand that isn’t broken. It can also seal gaps or remove mismatched segments, further influencing whether and how the original sequence is restored.

    Additionally, we found that RNA aids in double-strand break repair in both yeast and human cells, suggesting that its role in DNA repair is evolutionary conserved across species. Notably, even low levels of RNA were sufficient to influence the efficiency and outcome of repair, pointing to its broad and previously unrecognized function in maintaining genome stability.

    RNA in control

    By uncovering RNA’s previously unknown function to repair DNA damage, our findings show how RNA may directly contribute to the stability and evolution of the genome. It’s not merely a passive messenger, but an active participant in genome maintenance.

    One type of RNA that has been effectively used in treatments is mRNA.
    Aldona/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    These insights could help researchers develop new ways to target the genomic instability that underlies many diseases, including cancer and neurodegeneration. Traditionally, treatments and gene-editing tools have focused almost exclusively on DNA or proteins. Our findings suggest that modifying RNA in different ways could also influence how cells respond to DNA damage. For example, researchers could design RNA-based therapies to enhance the repair of harmful breaks that could cause cancer, or selectively disrupt DNA break repair in cancer cells to help kill them.

    In addition, these findings could improve the precision of gene-editing technologies like CRISPR by accounting for interactions between RNA and DNA at the site of the cut. This could reduce off-target effects and increase editing precision, ultimately contributing to the development of safer and more effective gene therapies.

    There are still many unanswered questions about how RNA interacts with DNA in the repair process. The evolutionary role that RNA plays in maintaining genome stability is also unclear. But one thing is certain: RNA is no longer just a messenger, it is a molecule with a direct hand in DNA repair, rewriting what researchers know about how cells safeguard their genetic code.

    Francesca Storici consults at Tessera Therapeutics. She has received funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

    – ref. RNA has newly identified role: Repairing serious DNA damage to maintain the genome – https://theconversation.com/rna-has-newly-identified-role-repairing-serious-dna-damage-to-maintain-the-genome-256429

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Will AI take your job? The answer could hinge on the 4 S’s of the technology’s advantages over humans

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Bruce Schneier, Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

    Sometimes speed matters – and sometimes it doesn’t. Korakrich Suntornnites/iStock via Getty Images

    If you’ve worried that AI might take your job, deprive you of your livelihood, or maybe even replace your role in society, it probably feels good to see the latest AI tools fail spectacularly. If AI recommends glue as a pizza topping, then you’re safe for another day.

    But the fact remains that AI already has definite advantages over even the most skilled humans, and knowing where these advantages arise — and where they don’t — will be key to adapting to the AI-infused workforce.

    AI will often not be as effective as a human doing the same job. It won’t always know more or be more accurate. And it definitely won’t always be fairer or more reliable. But it may still be used whenever it has an advantage over humans in one of four dimensions: speed, scale, scope and sophistication. Understanding these dimensions is the key to understanding AI-human replacement.

    Speed

    First, speed. There are tasks that humans are perfectly good at but are not nearly as fast as AI. One example is restoring or upscaling images: taking pixelated, noisy or blurry images and making a crisper and higher-resolution version. Humans are good at this; given the right digital tools and enough time, they can fill in fine details. But they are too slow to efficiently process large images or videos.

    AI models can do the job blazingly fast, a capability with important industrial applications. AI-based software is used to enhance satellite and remote sensing data, to compress video files, to make video games run better with cheaper hardware and less energy, to help robots make the right movements, and to model turbulence to help build better internal combustion engines.

    Real-time performance matters in these cases, and the speed of AI is necessary to enable them.

    Scale

    The second dimension of AI’s advantage over humans is scale. AI will increasingly be used in tasks that humans can do well in one place at a time, but that AI can do in millions of places simultaneously. A familiar example is ad targeting and personalization. Human marketers can collect data and predict what types of people will respond to certain advertisements. This capability is important commercially; advertising is a trillion-dollar market globally.

    AI models can do this for every single product, TV show, website and internet user. This is how the modern ad-tech industry works. Real-time bidding markets price the display ads that appear alongside the websites you visit, and advertisers use AI models to decide when they want to pay that price – thousands of times per second.

    Scope

    Next, scope. AI can be advantageous when it does more things than any one person could, even when a human might do better at any one of those tasks. Generative AI systems such as ChatGPT can engage in conversation on any topic, write an essay espousing any position, create poetry in any style and language, write computer code in any programming language, and more. These models may not be superior to skilled humans at any one of these things, but no single human could outperform top-tier generative models across them all.

    It’s the combination of these competencies that generates value. Employers often struggle to find people with talents in disciplines such as software development and data science who also have strong prior knowledge of the employer’s domain. Organizations are likely to continue to rely on human specialists to write the best code and the best persuasive text, but they will increasingly be satisfied with AI when they just need a passable version of either.

    How AI is affecting the job market.

    Sophistication

    Finally, sophistication. AIs can consider more factors in their decisions than humans can, and this can endow them with superhuman performance on specialized tasks. Computers have long been used to keep track of a multiplicity of factors that compound and interact in ways more complex than a human could trace. The 1990s chess-playing computer systems such as Deep Blue succeeded by thinking a dozen or more moves ahead.

    Modern AI systems use a radically different approach: Deep learning systems built from many-layered neural networks take account of complex interactions – often many billions – among many factors. Neural networks now power the best chess-playing models and most other AI systems.

    Chess is not the only domain where eschewing conventional rules and formal logic in favor of highly sophisticated and inscrutable systems has generated progress. The stunning advance of AlphaFold2, the AI model of structural biology whose creators Demis Hassabis and John Jumper were recognized with the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2024, is another example.

    This breakthrough replaced traditional physics-based systems for predicting how sequences of amino acids would fold into three-dimensional shapes with a 93 million-parameter model, even though it doesn’t account for physical laws. That lack of real-world grounding is not desirable: No one likes the enigmatic nature of these AI systems, and scientists are eager to understand better how they work.

    But the sophistication of AI is providing value to scientists, and its use across scientific fields has grown exponentially in recent years.

    Context matters

    Those are the four dimensions where AI can excel over humans. Accuracy still matters. You wouldn’t want to use an AI that makes graphics look glitchy or targets ads randomly – yet accuracy isn’t the differentiator. The AI doesn’t need superhuman accuracy. It’s enough for AI to be merely good and fast, or adequate and scalable. Increasing scope often comes with an accuracy penalty, because AI can generalize poorly to truly novel tasks. The 4 S’s are sometimes at odds. With a given amount of computing power, you generally have to trade off scale for sophistication.

    Even more interestingly, when an AI takes over a human task, the task can change. Sometimes the AI is just doing things differently. Other times, AI starts doing different things. These changes bring new opportunities and new risks.

    For example, high-frequency trading isn’t just computers trading stocks faster; it’s a fundamentally different kind of trading that enables entirely new strategies, tactics and associated risks. Likewise, AI has developed more sophisticated strategies for the games of chess and Go. And the scale of AI chatbots has changed the nature of propaganda by allowing artificial voices to overwhelm human speech.

    It is this “phase shift,” when changes in degree may transform into changes in kind, where AI’s impacts to society are likely to be most keenly felt. All of this points to the places that AI can have a positive impact. When a system has a bottleneck related to speed, scale, scope or sophistication, or when one of these factors poses a real barrier to being able to accomplish a goal, it makes sense to think about how AI could help.

    Equally, when speed, scale, scope and sophistication are not primary barriers, it makes less sense to use AI. This is why AI auto-suggest features for short communications such as text messages can feel so annoying. They offer little speed advantage and no benefit from sophistication, while sacrificing the sincerity of human communication.

    Many deployments of customer service chatbots also fail this test, which may explain their unpopularity. Companies invest in them because of their scalability, and yet the bots often become a barrier to support rather than a speedy or sophisticated problem solver.

    Where the advantage lies

    Keep this in mind when you encounter a new application for AI or consider AI as a replacement for or an augmentation to a human process. Looking for bottlenecks in speed, scale, scope and sophistication provides a framework for understanding where AI provides value, and equally where the unique capabilities of the human species give us an enduring advantage.

    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. Will AI take your job? The answer could hinge on the 4 S’s of the technology’s advantages over humans – https://theconversation.com/will-ai-take-your-job-the-answer-could-hinge-on-the-4-ss-of-the-technologys-advantages-over-humans-258469

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: President El-Sisi Meets Chairman of Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) Board of Directors

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

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    Today, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met with Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) Major General Mokhtar Abdel Latif.

    Spokesman for the Presidency, Ambassador Mohamed El-Shennawy, said the President was briefed on the activities and projects undertaken by factories and companies affiliated with the Arab Organization for Industrialization across various fields. Major General Abdel Latif noted that the AOI operates according to a comprehensive strategy aimed at deepening local manufacturing, increasing export rates, and enhancing the industrial and technological capabilities of its factories. This is in addition to cooperating with the private sector to establish joint projects, leveraging the AOI’s advanced industrial capabilities.

    President El-Sisi affirmed the AOI’s significant role in various sectors, particularly with regard to the improvement of local manufacturing ratios, the localization of industry, and the increase of exports, which contributes to reducing the import bill and providing foreign currency, thereby supporting the national economy.

    President El-Sisi was also updated on the existing frameworks of cooperation between the AOI and several major international companies operating in the automotive industry. The President inspected a number of “Citroën C4X” models, which are locally manufactured with a 45% component ratio in the factories of the Arab Organization for Industrialization, in partnership with the Arab American Vehicles Company (AAV) and the French “Stellantis” Group.

    AOI Chairman, Major General Abdel Latif,  said planning for the production of this model began in August 2023, adding that technical and logistical preparations were undertaken, leading to the production of initial prototypes in March 2025. He noted that approximately 7,000 cars are scheduled for annual production over four years, totaling 28,000 vehicles. Furthermore, preparations are underway for the production of a new car in cooperation with the “Stellantis” Group, with production set to begin in late 2026. This new model will see a total of 240,000 cars manufactured exclusively in AOI factories, and will not be manufactured in any of the Group’s other global facilities.

    President El-Sisi gave directives to further strengthen cooperation with private sector companies, both locally and internationally. This is in alignment with the state’s strategy aimed at localizing the automotive industry, increasing the percentage of local components, and maximizing exports of products manufactured in Egypt.

    – on behalf of Presidency of the Arab Republic of Egypt.

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: African Development Bank approves €19.6 million in financing to scale up Cabo Verde’s pioneer in wind and battery storage capacity

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

    The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) has approved a €19.6 million financing package to support the Cabeólica Phase II Expansion Project in Cabo Verde.

    The project is the country’s first renewable energy initiative to integrate wind power generation and battery energy storage systems (BESS) at scale.

    The financing includes a loan of approximately €12.6 million from the African Development Bank, and €7 million in concessional loan financing from the Bank Group-managed Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA).

    Building on the success of the original Cabeólica power project commissioned in 2012, Phase II will add 13.5 megawatts of wind generation capacity and 26 megawatt-hours of grid-connected battery energy storage. The expansion is expected to generate over 60 gigawatt-hours of clean energy annually, eliminating expensive thermal generation and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 50,000 tonnes annually.

    “This project is a testament to Cabo Verde’s long-term vision to decarbonize its power sector and enhance its resilience. It also demonstrates how private sector investment, facilitated by catalytic concessional financing, can deliver cost-effective, sustainable energy solutions for small island economies,” said Wale Shonibare, Director for Energy Financial Solutions, Policy and Regulations at the African Development Bank. 

    Daniel Schroth, the Bank Group’s director for Renewable Energy and Efficiency said: “SEFA’s support for the integration of battery storage into Cabo Verde’s power system enhances power security and grid reliability while reducing generation costs in Cabo Verde.” He noted that the project highlights the added value of the right mix of financing and technology to strengthen long-term power sector sustainability.

    Ayotunde Anjorin, Chairman of Cabeólica and Senior Director and CFO at Africa Finance Corporation, said: “As the first renewable energy commercial scale PPP in sub-Saharan Africa, Cabeólica  is again proud to lead this transformative expansion project comprising additional wind capacity and battery energy storage. This project underscores Cabeólica’s deep commitment to delivering reliable, clean energy infrastructure in line with national goals and priorities and continues to set a replicable model for the region.”

    Cabeólica Phase II entails five installations across four islands: a wind expansion on Santiago and BESS deployments on Santiago, Sal, Boa Vista, and São Vicente. Battery storage will support ancillary grid services such as frequency response and voltage regulation, enabling more efficient use of intermittent wind power and reducing curtailment. With Cabo Verde’s electricity system still heavily reliant on imported fossil fuels, these upgrades are expected to reduce system costs and enhance energy security.

    Owned by Africa Finance Corporation, A.P. Moller Capital, and Cabo Verdean public entities, Cabeólica S.A. is the country’s first independent power producer (IPP). Phase II of the project will be underpinned by a 20-year power purchase and storage services agreement with the national utility Electra S.A., at tariffs significantly lower than the national average generation cost.

    The project advances Cabo Verde’s goal of generating 50% of its electricity from renewables by 2030 as well as its Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement.

    It aligns with the African Development Bank’s ‘Light Up and Power Africa’ High-5 priority, its Ten-Year Strategy, and SEFA’s Green Baseload pillar.

    – on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).

    Media Contact:
    Olufemi Terry
    Communication and External Relations Department
    media@afdb.org

    Technical Contact:
    Wole Lawuyi
    Chief Investment Officer
    Energy Financial Solutions
    c.lawuyi@afdb.org

    About the African Development Bank Group:
    The African Development Bank Group is Africa’s premier development finance institution. It comprises three distinct entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). On the ground in 41 African countries with an external office in Japan, the Bank contributes to the economic development and the social progress of its 54 regional member states. For more information: www.AfDB.org

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  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Export bar placed on £8 million Rubens work

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Export bar placed on £8 million Rubens work

    A temporary export bar has been placed on an oil sketch, titled ​​Cimon Falling in love with Efigenia, by Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens

    • The work has been valued at £8.4 million 
    • The export bar will allow time for a UK gallery or institution to acquire the oil sketch for the nation

    An export bar has been placed on an oil sketch by Flemish artist, Peter Paul Rubens, which is at risk of leaving the UK.

    Rubens was an exceptionally successful painter and is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens was born in Siegen, Germany in 1577 and is mostly known for his vibrant style emphasising movement, colour, and sensuality. Some of his most famous paintings include The Elevation of the Cross and Judgement of Paris. 

    Cimon Falling in love with Efigenia is a remarkable example of one of Rubens’ authentic oil sketches created entirely by his own hand.

    Oil sketches by Rubens have been eagerly collected in the UK and there is a strong British connection to this piece, as George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham (1592–1628), was an admirer of his artistic talent and displayed works by Rubens in his home at York House. This included the finished painting of Cimon and Efigenia for which the current oil sketch is a preparatory work.

    The sketch is a marvellous encapsulation of Rubens’ working methods at a relatively early stage in his career. It would enhance the representation of such works in the UK if saved for the nation by a cultural institution. 

    Arts Minister Sir Chris Bryant said: 

    This work is the perfect example of Rubens’ artistic talent and gives us greater insight into Flemish art during the 17th century. 

    I hope that a UK gallery is able to save  it so that the public can enjoy it for generations to come.

    Mark Hallett, Committee Member said: 

    This is a picture that gives us the opportunity to appreciate a great artist’s creative process in full flow. Produced on panel as the primary sketch for a monumental oil painting that now hangs in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Cimon falling in Love with Efigenia is entirely the product of Rubens’s own hand, rather than one that – as is the case with the final picture – contains the contributions of his studio assistants. In the sketch, we see Rubens exploring the artistic possibilities of an ethically and erotically charged scene from early Renaissance literature, and experimenting with the established pictorial conventions of the female nude. The longer one looks at and thinks about this picture, the more complex and challenging it becomes: the mark of all truly significant works of art. For these reasons, Cimon falling in Love with Efigenia demands to be found a permanent home in the UK, where it can be enjoyed and reflected upon for decades to come.

    The Minister’s decision follows the advice of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA).

    The RCEWA made its recommendation on the basis that the painting met the second and third Waverley criteria for its outstanding aesthetic importance and its outstanding significance to the study of Rubens’ preparatory studies and sketches and their influence, as well as the treatment of the female nude in art.

    The decision on the export licence application for the painting will be deferred for a period ending on 15 September 2025 inclusive. At the end of the first deferral period owners will have a consideration period of 15 Business Days to consider any offer(s) to purchase the painting at the recommended price of £8,440,000. The second deferral period will commence following the signing of an Option Agreement and will last for six months.

    Notes to editors:

    1. Organisations or individuals interested in purchasing the painting should contact the RCEWA on 02072680534 or rcewa@artscouncil.org.uk.
    2. Details of the painting are as follows: Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) Cimon Falling in love with Efigenia, c. 1616–17. Oil on panel, 29.8 x 43.5 cm. The painting is on a narrow wooden panel with vertical grain. The painting is in generally good condition.

    3. Provenance: Probably the painter and dealer Jeremias Wildens (1621-53), son of Jan Wildens (1586 – 1653) who collaborated with Rubens on the Vienna picture in which he painted the landscape; His estate: inventory drawn up 30 January 1653 and 11 January 1654, no. 528 ‘Eenen Thimon met Naeckte vrouwkens van Rubbens’ (A Thimon [Cimon] with naked women by Rubens); Philippe Panné, Esq., Great George Street, Hanover Square, London (d. 1819); His sale: Christie’s, London, A catalogue of the very capital, valuable and highly important collection of Italian, French, Flemish and Dutch pictures, of the late Ph. Panné, Esq. of Great George Street, Hanover Square, deceased, 27 March 1819 (including 350 lots), lot 17, as ‘Rubens, Cymon and Iphigenia. panel, 12’ x 17’ [sic.] (sold 26-5 pounds); William Noel-Hill, 3rd Baron Berwick (1773-1842); His sale: Christie’s, London, 1 December 1827, lot 73, as ‘Rubens’ School, Cymon and Iphiginia’ (“17 guineas”, “”bought in”); Sir Matthew Wilson,1st Baronet of Eshton Hall (1802-1891), Gargrave, 1877; Private Collection, U.K. by 1886; Private collection, purchase, 2024

    4. The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest is an independent body, serviced by Arts Council England (ACE), which advises the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on whether a cultural object, intended for export, is of national importance under specified criteria.

    Updates to this page

    Published 16 June 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: UK’s Janus Accelerator selected for NATO DIANA’s 2026 defence innovation programme

    Source: United Kingdom – Government Statements

    News story

    UK’s Janus Accelerator selected for NATO DIANA’s 2026 defence innovation programme

    The Janus Accelerator will support a new cohort of cutting-edge companies developing dual-use technologies that enhance NATO’s technological edge.

    The UK’s Janus Accelerator has been selected as an activated site for NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) 2026 programme, reinforcing Britain’s position at the forefront of global defence innovation.

    Based in London’s thriving White City Innovation District, the Janus Accelerator will support a new cohort of cutting-edge companies developing dual-use technologies that enhance NATO’s technological edge while addressing critical defence challenges.

    The selection comes as DIANA launched its 2026 Challenge Call on 2 June, with Phase 1 of the accelerator programme scheduled to begin in early 2026.

    Sharpening NATO’s technological advantage

    NATO DIANA was formally established in 2023 to identify and accelerate dual-use innovation across the Alliance. The initiative provides innovators with vital resources, networks and guidance to develop deep technologies that solve pressing defence challenges – from operating in denied environments to countering threats to collective resilience.

    Emerging and disruptive technologies have become increasingly crucial for maintaining NATO’s competitive edge in collective defence and security. Through a transatlantic network spanning 23 accelerators and 182 test centres, DIANA connects military end-users with innovative start-ups, researchers and technologists across all 32 NATO nations.

    John Cunningham, Director of Defence Innovation, said:

    The selection of the Janus Accelerator as an activated site for NATO DIANA’s 2026 programme represents a significant vote of confidence in the UK’s defence innovation ecosystem. This partnership will help unlock the potential of our most promising dual-use technologies, accelerating groundbreaking solutions to strengthen NATO’s capabilities while creating high-skilled jobs and economic growth here in Britain.

    State-of-the-art innovation hub

    Launched in January 2025 and supported by the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA), the Janus Accelerator is delivered by the Janus Consortium and collocated with the NATO DIANA Regional Office at Imperial College London’s Innovation Hub.

    Companies participating in the DIANA accelerator programme gain unparalleled exposure to government and military buyers, investors and end users across the Alliance – creating pathways to scale innovative solutions that address NATO’s most pressing security challenges.

    Updates to this page

    Published 16 June 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Amidst regional conflict, the Strait of Hormuz remains critical oil chokepoint

    Source: US Energy Information Administration

    In-brief analysis

    June 16, 2025

    Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration analysis based on Vortexa tanker tracking
    Note: 1Q25=first quarter of 2025

    The Strait of Hormuz, located between Oman and Iran, connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. The strait is deep enough and wide enough to handle the world’s largest crude oil tankers, and it is one of the world’s most important oil chokepoints. Large volumes of oil flow through the strait, and very few alternative options exist to move oil out of the strait if it is closed. In 2024, oil flow through the strait averaged 20 million barrels per day (b/d), or the equivalent of about 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption. In the first quarter of 2025, total oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz remained relatively flat compared with 2024.

    Although we have not seen maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz blocked following recent tensions in the region, the price of Brent crude oil (a global benchmark) increased from $69 per barrel (b) on June 12 to $74/b on June 13. This piece highlights the importance of the strait to global oil supplies.

    Chokepoints are narrow channels along widely used global sea routes that are critical to global energy security. The inability of oil to transit a major chokepoint, even temporarily, can create substantial supply delays and raise shipping costs, potentially increasing world energy prices. Although most chokepoints can be circumvented by using other routes—often adding significantly to transit time—some chokepoints have no practical alternatives. Most volumes that transit the strait have no alternative means of exiting the region, although there are some pipeline alternatives that can avoid the Strait of Hormuz.

    Between 2022 and 2024, volumes of crude oil and condensate transiting the Strait of Hormuz declined by 1.6 million b/d, which were only partially offset by a 0.5-million b/d increase in petroleum product cargoes. The decline in oil transit through the strait partially reflects the OPEC+ decision to voluntarily cut crude oil production several times starting in November 2022, which lowered exports from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In addition, disruptions in 2024 to oil flows around the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Arabian Sea to the Red Sea, led Saudi Arabia’s national oil company Aramco to shift seaborne crude oil flows from the Strait of Hormuz, instead sending it over land through its East-West pipeline to ports on the Red Sea. Also, more refining capacity in the Persian Gulf states increased regional demand for crude oil and shifted some flows to local markets within the Persian Gulf.

    Flows through the Strait of Hormuz in 2024 and the first quarter of 2025 made up more than one-quarter of total global seaborne oil trade and about one-fifth of global oil and petroleum product consumption. In addition, around one-fifth of global liquefied natural gas trade also transited the Strait of Hormuz in 2024, primarily from Qatar.

    Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook, June 2025, and U.S. Energy Information Administration analysis based on Vortexa tanker tracking
    Note: World maritime oil trade excludes intra-country volumes except those volumes that transit the Strait of Hormuz. LNG=liquefied natural gas. 1Q25=first quarter of 2025

    Based on tanker tracking data published by Vortexa, Saudi Arabia moves more crude oil and condensate through the Strait of Hormuz than any other country. In 2024, exports of crude and condensate from Saudi Arabia accounted for 38% of total Hormuz crude flows (5.5 million b/d).

    Alternative routes
    Saudi Arabia and the UAE have some infrastructure in place that can bypass the Strait of Hormuz, which may somewhat mitigate any transit disruptions through the strait. The pipelines do not typically operate at full capacity, and we estimate that about 2.6 million b/d of capacity from the Saudi and UAE pipelines could be available to bypass the Strait of Hormuz in the event of a supply disruption.

    Saudi Aramco operates the 5 million-b/d East-West crude oil pipeline, which runs from the Abqaiq oil processing center near the Persian Gulf to the Yanbu port on the Red Sea. Aramco temporarily expanded the pipeline’s capacity to 7.0 million b/d in 2019 when it converted some natural gas liquids pipelines to accept crude oil. In 2024, Saudi Arabia pumped more crude oil through the East-West pipeline to avoid the shipping disruptions around the Bab al-Mandeb.

    The UAE also operates a pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz. This 1.8 million-b/d pipeline links onshore oil fields to the Fujairah export terminal in the Gulf of Oman. In 2024, crude oil and condensate volumes originating in the UAE and traversing Hormuz were 0.4 million b/d less than in 2022 because refinery upgrades allowed more heavy crude oil to be refined locally. These upgrades also allowed the UAE to increase exports of its lighter crude oil grades, and use of the pipeline to the Fujairah export terminal increased. Increased use of the pipeline for day-to-day operations has limited the excess capacity available to reroute additional volumes around the Strait of Hormuz.

    Iran inaugurated the Goreh-Jask pipeline and the Jask export terminal on the Gulf of Oman (avoiding the Strait of Hormuz) with a single export cargo in July 2021. The pipeline’s effective capacity remains around 300,000 b/d. However, during the summer of 2024 Iran exported less than 70,000 b/d from ports (Bandar-e-Jask and Kooh Mobarak) using the Goreh-Jask pipeline and stopped loading cargoes after September 2024.

    Destination markets
    We estimate that 84% of the crude oil and condensate and 83% of the liquefied natural gas that moved through the Strait of Hormuz went to Asian markets in 2024. China, India, Japan, and South Korea were the top destinations for crude oil moving through the Strait of Hormuz to Asia, accounting for a combined 69% of all Hormuz crude oil and condensate flows in 2024. These markets would likely be most affected by supply disruptions at Hormuz.

    Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration analysis based on Vortexa tanker tracking
    Note: 1Q25=first quarter of 2025

    In 2024, the United States imported about 0.5 million b/d of crude oil and condensate from Persian Gulf countries through the Strait of Hormuz, accounting for about 7% of total U.S. crude oil and condensate imports and 2% of U.S. petroleum liquids consumption. In 2024, U.S. crude oil imports from countries in the Persian Gulf were at the lowest level in nearly 40 years as domestic production and imports from Canada have increased.

    Principal contributors: Candace Dunn, Justine Barden

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • India joins elite global group for Rinderpest Containment as ICAR-NIHSAD Bhopal earns category A status

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    India has secured a prestigious position in global animal health with the designation of the ICAR-National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD) in Bhopal as a Category A Rinderpest Holding Facility (RHF) by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The recognition was The achievement highlights India’s commitment to international disease control standards and reinforces its pivotal role in safeguarding global animal health.

    At the 92nd General Session of WOAH in Paris on May 29, 2025, where Alka Upadhyaya, Secretary of the Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying (DAHD) and India’s WOAH Delegate, received the certificate from WOAH’s Director General.

    Rinderpest, historically known as “cattle plague,” was a devastating livestock disease eradicated globally in 2011. To prevent its re-emergence, WOAH and FAO restrict the storage of Rinderpest Virus-Containing Material (RVCM) to a select few high-security laboratories worldwide. ICAR-NIHSAD, a Biosafety Level-3 (BSL-3) facility and WOAH reference laboratory for avian influenza, was designated as India’s RVCM repository in 2012. Following a rigorous evaluation in March 2025 by international experts, the institute earned Category A RHF status for one year, affirming its robust biosafety measures, effective inventory management, and preparedness for emergencies.

    This milestone places India among an elite group of six global facilities tasked with securely managing rinderpest virus material, underscoring the nation’s leadership in animal health, biosecurity, and the One Health framework. “India’s role in eradicating rinderpest was historic, and today, preserving that legacy is equally critical. This recognition reflects our responsibility and readiness,” said Ms. Alka Upadhyaya. The international committee also urged India to pursue Category B designation by focusing on vaccine seed material, further strengthening its global standing.

  • Israel says Tehran residents to ‘pay price’ after Tel Aviv, Haifa attacks

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (2)

    srael and Iran kept up their attacks, killing and wounding civilians and raising concern among world leaders at a G7 meeting in Canada this week that the biggest battle between the two old enemies could lead to a broader regional conflict.

    The Iranian death toll in four days of Israeli strikes, carried out with the declared aim of wiping out Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, had reached at least 224, with 90% of the casualties reported to be civilians, an Iranian health ministry spokesperson said.

    Early on Monday, the Israeli military said it had detected more missiles launched from Iran towards Israel.

    “At this time, the (Israeli Air Force) is operating to intercept and strike where necessary to eliminate the threat,” the Israeli Defence Forces said. Live video footage showed several missiles over Tel Aviv and Reuters witnesses said explosions could be heard there and over Jerusalem.

    At least 10 people in Israel, including children, have been killed so far, according to authorities there.

    Group of Seven leaders began gathering in the Canadian Rockies on Sunday with the Israel-Iran conflict expected to be a top priority.

    German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his goals for the summit include for Iran to not develop or possess nuclear weapons, ensuring Israel’s right to defend itself, avoiding escalation of the conflict and creating room for diplomacy.

    “This issue will be very high on the agenda of the G7 summit,” Merz told reporters.

    Before leaving for the summit on Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump was asked what he was doing to de-escalate the situation. “I hope there’s going to be a deal. I think it’s time for a deal,” he told reporters. “Sometimes they have to fight it out.”

    Iran has told mediators Qatar and Oman that it is not open to negotiating a ceasefire while it is under Israeli attack, an official briefed on the communications told Reuters on Sunday.

    FIRST DAYLIGHT ATTACK ON ISRAEL

    Explosions shook Tel Aviv on Sunday during Iran’s first daylight missile attack since Israel’s strike on Friday. Shortly after nightfall, Iranian missiles hit a residential street in Haifa, a mixed Jewish-Arab city, and in Israel’s south.

    In Bat Yam, a city near Tel Aviv, residents braced on Sunday evening for another sleepless night after an overnight strike on an apartment tower.

    “It’s very dreadful. It’s not fun. People are losing their lives and their homes,” said Shem, 29.

    Images from Tehran showed the night sky lit up by a huge blaze at a fuel depot after Israel began strikes against Iran’s oil and gas sector – raising the stakes for the global economy and the functioning of the Iranian state.

    Brent crude futures were up $1.04, or 1.4%, to $75.39 a barrel by 0115 GMT, having jumped as much as $4 earlier in the session. While the spike in oil prices has investors on edge, stock and currency markets were little moved in early trading in Asia on Monday.

    “It’s more of an oil story than an equity story at this point,” said Jim Carroll, senior wealth adviser and portfolio manager at Ballast Rock Private Wealth. “Stocks right now seem to be hanging on.”

    TRUMP VETOES PLAN TO TARGET KHAMENEI, OFFICIALS SAY

    In Washington, two U.S. officials told Reuters that Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan in recent days to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

    When asked about the Reuters report, Netanyahu told Fox News on Sunday: “There’s so many false reports of conversations that never happened, and I’m not going to get into that.”

    “We do what we need to do,” he told Fox’s “Special Report With Bret Baier.”

    Israel began the assault with a surprise attack on Friday that wiped out the top echelon of Iran’s military command and damaged its nuclear sites, and says the campaign will escalate in the coming days.

    The intelligence chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Kazemi, and his deputy were killed in attacks on Tehran on Sunday, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said.

    Iran has vowed to “open the gates of hell” in retaliation.

    TRUMP WARNS IRAN NOT TO ATTACK

    Trump has lauded Israel’s offensive while denying Iranian allegations that the U.S. has taken part and warning Tehran not to widen its retaliation to include U.S. targets.

    Two U.S. officials said on Friday the U.S. military had helped shoot down Iranian missiles that were headed toward Israel.

    The U.S. president has repeatedly said Iran could end the war by agreeing to tough restrictions on its nuclear program, which Iran says is for peaceful purposes but which Western countries and the IAEA nuclear watchdog say could be used to make an atomic bomb.

    The latest round of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the U.S., due on Sunday, was scrapped after Tehran said it would not negotiate while under Israeli attack.

    (Reuters)

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Dounreay helps Caithness retrieve its past

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    News story

    Dounreay helps Caithness retrieve its past

    A Pictish stone believed to date back 1,700 years has been retrieved and preserved for future generations with financial help from Dounreay’s operators.

    David Calder, NRS Dounreay Head of Sustainability and Socio-economics, Lord Thurso and Dave Wilson, NRS Dounreay Managing Director (left to right) at the stone’s unveiling. Copyright: High Life Highland

    Dounreay isn’t the only site in Caithness where relics of the past are being retrieved and made safe for the future.

    Thirty miles south-east of the site, a Pictish stone believed to date back 1,700 years has been retrieved and preserved for future generations, with financial help from Dounreay’s operators.

    The stone was discovered in 2022 by Fiona Begg Wade who alerted archaeologists when she was clearing up the burial ground at St Martin’s, Ulbster, where some of her relatives are buried.

    It was found lying horizontally on the ground, in a line with other plain stones, and probably used as a grave marker in recent times. It is weathered but several typical Pictish symbols – the double disc and z-rod, the mirror, and the comb – can be made out.

    A project to remove, restore and place the stone on public display came to fruition when it was unveiled at the North Coast Visitor Centre in Thurso.

    Among those attending the unveiling by Lord Thurso, the land-owner who has loaned the artefact to High Life Highland who run the centre and museum, was Dave Wilson, managing director of Nuclear Restoration Services Dounreay.

    He said:

    We’re in the business of retrieving the past to make it safe for the future, and I’m delighted we can help the visitor centre do the same with a long-lost legacy of previous generations.

    The Caithness and North Sutherland Fund has contributed £5,500 towards the cost of the project. The Fund was established by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Dounreay to provide community benefit from the construction and operation of the site’s low-level waste vaults.

    A total of £4 million has been invested in the fund to date, supporting a range of community projects with a combined value of £15 million.

    Dounreay also part-funds the running costs of the North Coast Visitor Centre with High Life Highland.

    For more information about the Caithness and North Sutherland Fund, see their website.

    Updates to this page

    Published 16 June 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Work to start on new Cot Hill crossing next month

    Source: City of Plymouth

    Work to construct a new crossing over Cot Hill in Plympton will get under way on Monday 14 July.

    The crossing, near the Marshall Road junction, will help people (including those with disabilities) to walk and cycle across this busy road.

    It will create a safer pedestrian and cycle route between Saltram Park and Plympton St Mary playing field, further enhancing the National Cycle Network.

    In addition to the crossing, the scheme will include a dropped kerb crossing point on Marshall Road, a raised table crossing on Dudley Road and a wider, shared-use path on Cot Hill.

    Double yellow lines will also be introduced on the eastern (uphill) side of Cot Hill between Marshall Road and Dudley Road to help prevent obstructive parking.

    The improvements are entirely grant-funded by National Highways through Sustrans.

    Councillor John Stephens, Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Transport, said: “We’re looking forward to starting work on these improvements, which will not only make a big difference for people walking and cycling between Saltram and other parts of Plympton, including the playing field but also alleviate some of the problem parking in the area. Helping people to walk and cycle more improves health and wellbeing, while also reducing traffic congestion and carbon emissions.”

    The first phase of works, programmed to run from Monday 14 July to Sunday 5 October, will require temporary signals at the junction of Cot Hill and Marshall Road. There will also be no parking along a stretch of Marshall Road and Cot Hill.

    The second phase is planned to begin on Monday 6 October and will require temporary signals on Cot Hill between the Marshall Road and Underlane junctions.  

    To help minimise disruption on the network during this second phase, Dudley Road will be temporarily one-way (eastbound only), with traffic only allowed to access at Cot Hill and exit at Linketty Lane. The no parking restriction on Cot Hill will remain in place, as well as on a short stretch of Dudley Road.

    The final week will include overnight closures for resurfacing, with all work expected to be complete by Friday 14 November.

    Dates may change due to weather or other unforeseen circumstances. The latest updates will be published on our Cot Hill crossing web page.

    People can also sign up for our weekly Roadworks Roundup here.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Lively turnout and local talent shine at Buskfest 2025 in Banbridge

    Source: Northern Ireland City of Armagh

    Banbridge town centre was filled with the sound of live music and the buzz of community spirit as Buskfest 2025 welcomed performers and visitors for a relaxed and enjoyable day of entertainment – despite the rain!

    With over eighty acts taking part and a prize fund of £3,500 up for grabs, the annual busking competition attracted a wide mix of musical talent, from solo acoustic artists to lively bands. The atmosphere was friendly and welcoming, with visitors enjoying performances across the town between 2pm and 5pm.

    This year’s winners, 4AM Club, were announced during the evening concert in the town centre, which also featured performances from last year’s champions Banshee, popular local act The Reillys, and headliners The Nooks.

    Alongside the music, an artisan market offered a range of local food, crafts, and handmade products, while a family funfair at Solitude Park, added to the day’s relaxed, family-friendly feel.

    Alderman Stephen Moutray ,Lord Mayor of Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Borough, commented: “Buskfest continues to provide a fantastic showcase for emerging and established performers and is a much-loved highlight in the borough’s events calendar. The atmosphere in Banbridge was brilliant, with the town centre buzzing with music, family fun, and a real sense of community. Events like this not only celebrate our local talent but also support our businesses and hospitality sector.”

    The judging panel, including BBC Radio Ulster’s Ralph McLean, noted the diversity and quality of talent on show, with many returning acts and new faces adding to the variety. This year’s event was supported by several valued sponsors including Banbridge Chamber of Commerce, The Boulevard Outlet Shopping, Game of Thrones Studio Tour, and Eats and Beats Festival, Newcastle, whose contributions helped ensure a vibrant and well-supported day for performers and visitors alike.

    Winners on the day were:

    Best Individual – Cellofella

    Best band – Frank

    Best Junior – Sarah Reynolds

    Best performance – Daniel and the Lion

    Spirit of Buskfest – Banbridge Ukes

    Overall winner – 4AM Club

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Suspicious death at Gilberton

    Source: New South Wales – News

    Police are investigating a death at Gilberton this evening.

    Just after 7pm on Monday 16 June, police received a report of a person collapsed inside a unit on Walkerville Terrace.

    When police arrived, they found a person deceased at the property.

    Detectives from Eastern District attended the scene with the assistance of Major Crime officers and Investigators have determined the death to be suspicious.

    A woman has been detained and is assisting police in relation to the incident.

    More information will be provided when known.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Congressman Amo Leads Introduction of Bipartisan, Bicameral Resolution to Help Veteran Mental Health by Establishing “Vets Get Outside Day

    Source: US Congressman Gabe Amo (Rhode Island 1st District)

    WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Gabe Amo (D-RI) and Congressman Seth Moulton (D-MA) introduced a resolution to establish “Vets Get Outside Day” to support veterans struggling with mental health challenges. Nearly 460,000 veterans were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries between 2020 and 2022, and there were 6,146 veteran suicide deaths in 2020.

    U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) and Angus King (I-ME) introduced a companion resolution in the Senate.

    “Veterans were willing to lay it all on the line for our country, but service often comes with sacrifice,” said Congressman Amo. “Many veterans struggle with their mental health. Getting outside in a meaningful way can help ease the transition back to civilian life, which is why I am proud to work alongside colleagues in both the Senate and the House to introduce a bipartisan resolution designating June 14th, 2025, as Veterans Get Outside Day, and encouraging veterans to experience all the natural beauty Rhode Island has to offer.”

    “Resuming civilian life can be isolating. When veterans stay active and connected with their community, their mental health and quality of life improve. That is what today is all about,”said Senator Cassidy.

    “From beach walks on the rocky coast to a challenging hike in the woods, Maine’s extraordinary outdoor spaces can bring moments of calm during the most difficult times,” said Senator King. “I hope that ‘Vets Get Outside Day’ will encourage Maine veterans to find a relaxing outdoor space that helps them process their daily stressors. It’s a simple way to promote two of Maine’s greatest treasures — the great outdoors and our brave veterans.”

    “Veterans have sacrificed so much for our country, and many face unique, lifelong health challenges as a result of their service. As a Marine veteran, I know firsthand how healing simply spending time outdoors can be. The moments where I can go on a long run or spend time on the water are sacred,” said Congressman Moulton. “I’m proud to partner with my House and Senate colleagues to designate Vets Get Outside Day. This is a great way to remind every veteran to do something healing for themselves; and it’s another important step toward destigmatizing the national conversation around mental health. We are all in this together, and together we can build a community that leads the way on changing how we talk about mental health.”

    Veterans in crisis can dial 9-8-8 and then press 1 to be connected with the Veterans Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
     

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Young people from Central Asia, Afghanistan and Mongolia build knowledge on security sector governance and reform, safety of journalists at OSCE-DCAF summer school

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

    Headline: Young people from Central Asia, Afghanistan and Mongolia build knowledge on security sector governance and reform, safety of journalists at OSCE-DCAF summer school

    Young people from Central Asia, Afghanistan and Mongolia build knowledge on security sector governance and reform, safety of journalists at OSCE-DCAF summer school | OSCE

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    Home Newsroom News and press releases Young people from Central Asia, Afghanistan and Mongolia build knowledge on security sector governance and reform, safety of journalists at OSCE-DCAF summer school

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Join us in Newcastle to discuss youth, masculinity and the political divide

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Grace Allen, Education and Young People Editor

    Mounir Taha/Shutterstock

    When the Netflix series Adolescence hit TV screens in March this year, its depiction of boyhood, violence and online misogyny sparked debates across the UK and beyond.

    As Young People editor at The Conversation, I knew that these were topics that academics who write for us had been building their expertise on for years. The many articles we’ve published include how parents can talk to their children about the “manosphere”, the world of hypermasculine influencers, how hustle culture plays into ideas of male self worth and what girls have to say about all this.

    At the charity Cumberland Lodge, with whom I’ve collaborated in the past, the young people who make up their Youth and Democracy network had thoughts, too. And the points they’ve raised have a huge overlap with some of the nuance brought up by our experts.

    How much is social media actually to blame for rising misogyny? Are influencers exploiting uncertainty left by a shift away from traditional gender roles? Do young people lack the knowledge and the opportunity to discuss these issues? How does class play a role? And is a culture of blame and a fear of doing harm stopping boys and young men from being part of the solution?

    It seemed obvious that we should get everyone together to talk about this – young people giving their perspective, and academic researchers offering theirs. And we’d like you to join the discussion, too. At Newcastle University on Thursday July 3, I’ll be talking to experts and contributors to The Conversation Sophie Lively and Michael Joseph Richardson, along with young people from Cumberland Lodge’s Youth and Democracy project.

    We’d love to see you there. You can get your ticket here.

    • Date: Thursday, July 3
    • Time: 6:00pm – 8:30pm
    • Location: Old Library Building, Newcastle University, NE1 7RG
    • Tickets: Tickets cost £10 (£5 concessions) including light refreshments, and can be booked here.

    – ref. Join us in Newcastle to discuss youth, masculinity and the political divide – https://theconversation.com/join-us-in-newcastle-to-discuss-youth-masculinity-and-the-political-divide-258932

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Come As You Really Are exhibition – the largest ever presentation of hobbies across the region and beyond

    Source: City of Wolverhampton

    The exhibition presents hobbies of all kinds to celebrate their variation, freedom of expression and ingenuity, broadening our perception of who gets to be called creative and where the impulse to create stems from.

    On display will be unique hand crafted objects loaned by hobbyists working in diverse disciplines, such as knitters and needleworkers, wood carvers and model makers, potters, painters and illustrators, costume and cosplay makers, model engineers, origami specialists and many more. There will also be collections, including vintage football programmes, kitchenalia, milk bottles, painted eggs, gnomes and stones, alongside comics, action figures and toys – from Goo-jit-Zu to Transformers and He-Man to dollhouses!

    The exhibition also features new and existing works by Patel, including a new film that explores the outstanding creativity and passion that people put into their hobbies. A selection of objects by the hobbyists featured in the film will be interspersed throughout the exhibition, including animals sculpted in wool by Mandy Smith, a needle felting enthusiast from Tipton.

    Come As You Really Are by Hetain Patel is a nationwide project made up of 13 partner presentations across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales from Summer 2024 – 2026.

    Commissioned by Artangel, the project began with a national call out inviting members of the public to share the activity to which they dedicate their spare time. At the heart of this project is a nationwide community of people whose labours of love are a lens through which the artist presents an alternative portrait of the UK. The inaugural exhibition took place at The Hobby Cave at Grants, Croydon, London between 18 July and 20 October 2024. This is being followed by curated presentations at partner venues across the UK throughout 2025 – 2026.

    Aiming to showcase hobbies from across the region, Wolverhampton Art Gallery launched a fresh call out in the Midlands in January 2025. Gallery staff have been amazed by the immense skill, passion and imagination demonstrated in the hundreds of responses from hobbyists across the region and further afield.

    Councillor Chris Burden, City of Wolverhampton Council Cabinet Member for City Development, Jobs and Skills, said: “The power of creativity is unstoppable, and at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, we’re celebrating it in all its forms.

    “Come As You Really Are brings together an incredible tapestry of hobbies from handcrafted masterpieces to nostalgic collections – revealing the passion, ingenuity, and individuality behind each one.

    “Whether you’re a dedicated hobbyist or simply curious, this exhibition invites you to explore the many ways we express ourselves beyond the everyday. Join us in celebrating the limitless nature of human creativity and the joy of making!”

    Hetain Patel said: “There is a vulnerability in sharing something so personal, which often happens in private spaces around the responsibilities of daily life. But there is also a tremendous power in sharing collectively, which is at the heart of this project. I hope people join us in this celebration of the unstoppable nature of self expression that is demonstrated by our hobbies.”  

    Mariam Zulfiqar, Director at Artangel, said: “Hetain Patel’s work has always invited us to reflect on identity as multidimensional and complex. For Come As You Really Are he generously extends an invitation to people around the country, asking them to share the objects, activities and pastimes that form part of their identity. The ambitious presentation of hundreds of objects loaned by as many hobbyists creates a new kind of picture, where people and their identities are seen beyond national, racial, gendered or age related categories that conventionally categorise who we are.

    “Artangel is working with a network of leading arts and cultural organisations to realise this ambitious project across the UK and supporting one of our most exciting artists working today to create an exceptionally memorable and inclusive project.”

    Come As You Really Are opens on Saturday 12 July and runs until Sunday 5 October, 2025. The exhibition is free to the public, and timeslots can be booked in advance. Wolverhampton Art Gallery is open Monday to Saturday from 10.30am to 4.30pm and Sunday from 11am to 4pm. For more information, please visit Wolverhampton Arts & Culture.

    The launch weekend on Friday 25 and Saturday 26 July celebrates hobbies and hobbyists, with a Friday Late, from 6pm to 9.00pm, and a Hobby Fair, from 1pm to 3pm on Saturday. Visitors will have the opportunity to explore the exhibition hobbies and themes in the company of artist Hetain Patel and participating hobbyists, with talks, workshops, demos and live performances including music and fashion.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Rosneft produced 100 millionth ton of oil at the Eastern hub of the Uvat project

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Rosneft – Rosneft – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    RN-Uvatneftegaz (part of the oil and gas production complex of NK Rosneft) produced the 100-millionth ton of oil at the Eastern Hub*. This largest field provides more than 50% of the oil production of the Uvat project.

    The hub’s production stock includes 1,026 wells producing about 11,000 tons of oil per day. Since the start of the hub’s fields’ operation, the drilling meterage in production drilling has amounted to 3.5 million meters of rock. Currently, the construction of high-tech, mainly horizontal wells using hydraulic fracturing operations (HF) continues. In the construction of wells, modern technologies are used that allow up to 10 HF stages to be carried out, as well as biopolymer drilling mud.

    The first fields in this area – Malyka and Urnenskoye – were put into operation in 2009, and geological exploration work continues here, which has allowed the Eastern Hub to increase its recoverable reserves.

    High production indicators are ensured by the developed infrastructure of the field. Over the 15 years since the beginning of the development of the territory in a hard-to-reach area, key oil and gas production facilities have been built, which allow new fields to be put into operation at an accelerated pace. The central collection point prepares the extracted raw materials, external oil transportation is provided by a main oil pipeline with a length of more than 260 km. More than 210 km of roads have been built at the hub fields, 560 km of power transmission lines have been installed. A gas turbine power plant with a capacity of 83 MW supplies energy to the main production facilities, using associated petroleum gas as fuel.

    More than 2 thousand employees of the enterprise and contractors work at the oil field. RN-Uvatneftegaz creates conditions for their comfortable living, including at autonomous fields. A residential complex for 290 people, a gym, and a medical center have been built here. The construction of the third stage of the residential complex is in its final stage, which will increase its capacity by another 90 people.

    The company’s work in the social sphere has been repeatedly recognized with awards at the “Russian Organization of High Social Efficiency” competition.

    *For the efficient development of deposits in hard-to-reach marshy terrain, the Uvat project uses a strategy of hubs – centers with a single infrastructure, to which smaller satellite deposits are gradually added. Currently, there are four hubs operating in Uvat: Vostochny, Protozanovsky, Tyamkinsky and Kalchinsky, the infrastructure of which is constantly expanding.

    Reference:

    RN-Uvatneftegaz LLC, a subsidiary of Rosneft Oil Company, is conducting exploration and development of a group of fields located in the Uvatsky District of the Tyumen Region and the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Yugra. The Uvatsky project includes 19 licensed areas with a total area of over 25 thousand square kilometers.

    Department of Information and Advertising of PJSC NK Rosneft June 16, 2025

    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 Russia: Rosneft held the second corporate triathlon competition

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Rosneft – Rosneft – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    Rosneft held the second corporate triathlon competition in Moscow. Both experienced athletes and newcomers competed for victory in the individual and team events. All participants demonstrated exceptional endurance, fortitude and corporate team spirit.

    Rosneft develops a healthy lifestyle culture and comprehensively supports sports. As part of the Energy of Life program, the Company’s employees take part in a number of major sports events, including marathon races, international triathlon competitions, family sports events, the All-Russian Physical Culture and Health Complex GTO festival, and many others.

    This year, the participants of the Rosneft Triathlon competition were offered three distance options: Olympic, sprint and super-sprint. They all differed in mileage, but required the same full dedication. The athletes also competed in the relay race – 19 teams took part in it, each of which included three participants.

    The competition took place in the Krylatskoye sports complex. The first stage, swimming, took place in the Rowing Canal, followed by a cycling race and running. The triathlon united Rosneft employees from different cities of the country and divisions of the Company. At the same time, the oldest athlete who took part in the distance and successfully completed it turned 57 years old.

    In the Olympic distance (1.5 km swimming, 40 km cycling and 10 km running), the winners were Denis Zaitsev from Samaraneftegaz and Kristina Ignatyeva from RN-Vankor. In the sprint (0.75 km swimming, 20 km cycling and 5 km running), the winners were Mikhail Ignatyev from Udmurtneft and Irina Lokhmakova from Slavneft-Krasnoyarskneftegaz. In the super sprint (300 m swimming, 7.3 km cycling and 2 km running), the winners were Dmitry Krupin from SIBINTEK and Victoria Bunyak from RN-Moscow. In the relay, the Udmurtneft team won gold, while the Verkhnechonskneftegaz team and the second Udmurtneft team also made it onto the podium.

    Congratulations to the winners and all participants of the Rosneft corporate triathlon competitions!

    Reference:

    Rosneft has one of the strongest triathlon teams among corporate teams. Rosneft Triathlon has been participating in various competitions since 2015 and unites more than 200 athletes of the Company.

    During its performances, the Rosneft triathlon team was awarded the title of “Most Successful Corporate Team” in the annual triathlete rating according to the organizer of international starts IRONSTAR, and took first place in corporate team standings at IRONSTAR triathlon competitions.

    As part of the corporate program “Energy of Life”, the Company carries out large-scale information and organizational work to develop a mass sports movement among employees and involve them in a healthy lifestyle. More than 128 thousand employees of the Company participate in the corporate-wide sports and health movement. More than 92 thousand take part in competitions in various sports in corporate-wide competitions and challenges, in competitions at the regional and federal levels. Sports training is organized for employees.

    Department of Information and Advertising of PJSC NK Rosneft June 16, 2025

    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 Russia: SSK GUU: the gold standard of student sports

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

    The verification of applications in the system of events for the development of student sports clubs “Certification”, organized by the Association of Student Sports Clubs of Russia (ASSC of Russia), has been completed.

    Based on the results of the assessment, the GUU Student Sports Club took the leading position, receiving the highest “gold” certification status and ahead of well-known Moscow universities, which received “silver”.

    It is worth noting that out of 191 sports clubs throughout Russia, only 21 clubs were awarded the “gold” status, which emphasizes the high level of achievements of the SSC GUU.

    And this victory would not have been possible without the active participation of students, activists and athletes. Let us continue to maintain this high level together.

    Subscribe to Vkontakte and Telegram of the SSK GUU to stay up to date with all the events and get to know the mascot of the GUU better.

    The full final table and certification criteria are available at the link: vk.cc/cMLZRv.

    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 Russia: This Time Must be Different: Lessons from Sri Lanka’s Recovery and Debt Restructuring

    Source: IMF – News in Russian

    Opening Remarks by the IMF First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath Conference on “Sri Lanka’s Road to Recovery: Debt and Governance” Shangri-La Hotel Colombo

    June 16, 2025

    Excellencies, distinguished guests, colleagues, and friends,

    It is a great honor to join you today for this important conference which takes place at a critical juncture in Sri Lanka’s economic journey.

    This conference comes not only at the mid-point of Sri Lanka’s IMF-supported economic reform program, but also at a moment when the global economy is facing powerful crosscurrents—slowing growth, rising tariffs, and a rapidly changing global economic order alongside profound uncertainty. Countries are being tested by shocks that are more frequent and more complex. The challenge for all of us is to build resilience in a world that demands it.

    Achievements Resulting from Reforms Supported by the IMF-EFF Program

    In this light, Sri Lanka’s experience stands out—both for the severity of the crisis the country experienced three years ago, and the remarkable progress that has been achieved in a very short time. The crisis was precipitated by years of declining tax revenues, depleted foreign exchange reserves and an explosive and unsustainable increase in public debt as growth collapsed. There were long lines for fuel, severe shortages of basic goods, record inflation, and widespread power outages. For many households, daily life became an exercise in hardship.

    Today, thanks to bold reforms and the commitment of the Sri Lankan people, substantial progress has been made to restore macroeconomic stability and reduce hardships faced by people. Fuel, cooking gas, and medicines are available again. Inflation has been brought under control and economic growth has returned—expanding by 5 percent in 2024. On the fiscal front, the government has achieved an extraordinary adjustment and tax revenues have increased by more than two-thirds as a share of GDP.

    The government has also put a strong emphasis on improving governance, which is fundamental for establishing trust with citizens and ensuring sustained growth. Important milestones have been achieved including central bank independence, improving public financial management, and strengthening the legal framework for anti-corruption.  Our analysis shows that comprehensive fiscal governance and accountability reforms in Sri Lanka can boost GDP by more than 7 percent and reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio by more than 6 percentage points over 10 years.

    Sri Lanka also took the difficult but necessary decision to default on its public debt and pursue a sovereign debt restructuring. These decisive actions on debt have helped ease the burden on the country. External creditors have forgiven $3 billion in debt and restructured another $25 billion, extending repayment over two decades at lower interest rates. Sri Lanka’s bonds are once again included in global indices, and its credit rating has improved.

    The experience of Sri Lanka holds important lessons for the world, and I would like to speak to the lessons from its debt restructuring.

    I. The Nexus between Economic Reforms and Debt Restructuring

    Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring had to deal with several challenges:

    1. Calibrating the restructuring targets to deliver sufficient debt relief. This was a complex endeavor. As with all restructurings, debt sustainability needs to be restored through a combination of debt relief and policy adjustments, such as fiscal effort. The targets must be carefully calibrated to consider country specific circumstances. In Sri Lanka’s case, the targets considered the severity of the crisis while also recognizing the country’s high levels of private savings, tourism receipts and remittances. Through this restructuring, over the next decade, external debt service as a share of GDP is reduced by a half, and external and total debt stock will fall by 27 and 34 percentage points of GDP respectively.
    2. Facilitating collaboration in a complex external creditor landscape. A full range of official creditors needed to find ways to coordinate, and not all creditors had the internal processes in place to deliver swiftly. The Official Creditor Committee chaired by France, India and Japan shepherded many creditors together and China informally coordinated with this group. Still there were challenges in the sharing of information across creditor groups and concerns about comparability of treatment across official bilateral creditors. To help move the process along, the IMF staff were very active in providing information and using IMF “good offices” on an ongoing basis to support coordination.
    1. Containing financial and social stability risks from the restructuring. A large share of Sri Lanka’s debt is domestic. The authorities recognized that external debt relief by itself would be unlikely to restore debt sustainability and domestic debt needed to be part of the restructuring effort. This had to be tackled carefully because of the significant exposure of Sri Lanka’s domestic financial sector, the central bank and the public pensions vehicle to government debt. To preserve financial and social stability, the authorities avoided nominal debt reductions and focused on lowering interest rates and lengthening maturities.

    The Sri Lankan debt restructuring experience provides several lessons that will help make the process simpler for other countries that need restructuring in the future. Sri Lanka’s experience better illuminated the trade-offs in setting debt targets and directly led to the development of improved methodologies for evaluating state contingent features in debt contracts. It helped creditors learn how to improve coordination and gave them new instrument designs to contemplate. Together with other recent restructuring cases, it helped motivate important reforms to IMF’s debt policies.

    Over time, there have been other important improvements in the sovereign debt architecture. The IMF, Bank and G20 Presidency convened the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable to help serve as a forum for creditor dialogue and generate consensus on difficult issues that arise in restructurings. An important recent output of these efforts is a restructuring playbook, published at the time of our Spring Meetings, which lays out the typical steps in a restructuring and an indicative timeline. It is important to recognize that, thanks to these initiatives, experiences, and the G20 Common Framework, the restructuring process has become faster. In the recent case of Ghana’s, it took five months to get from an IMF staff level agreement to delivering the financing assurances required for program approval—roughly half the time it took for Chad in 2021 and Zambia in 2022. Looking ahead, let me assure you that our work on improving the timeliness and effectiveness of the global debt architecture will continue.

    For Sri Lanka, the experience with the debt restructuring drives home the importance of managing the economy such that a similar situation will never arise again.

    II. Important to Stay the Course

    Let us be clear: none of the achievements thus far would have been possible without the courage and sacrifice of the Sri Lankan people. The crisis was costly and painful, particularly for the poor. The reforms undertaken to address the root causes of the crisis—adjustments in taxation, the removal of unsustainable subsidies, efforts to restore cost-reflective energy pricing—have asked a great deal from ordinary citizens. These are difficult measures. They test the social fabric. And yet, they are the foundation of a more resilient future.

    That is why we must now turn our focus from crisis response to sustainable recovery. There is a lot that is still needed. Poverty rates at 24.5 percent in 2024, according to the latest World Bank estimates, are too high and need to be brought down quickly. This requires continued macroeconomic stability and successful implementation of structural reforms. Tackling corruption will require major reforms. Implementing the government’s action plan on governance reforms is critical. While much has been done to reduce external debt, domestic debt is still high and steadfast implementation of sound fiscal policy is critical to continue bringing it down.

    None of this will be easy. In addition to the domestic challenges, the global environment is difficult with tariffs, geopolitical conflict and economic fragmentation posing major risks for small open economies like Sri Lanka’s.

    This is why there is no room for policy errors. As the IMF Managing Director noted during our Spring Meetings in April: the choice facing countries today is between reform and regret. Between building buffers—or risking future crises.

    Sri Lanka’s reform program has delivered strongly. But history reminds us of the risks. Of the 16 IMF programs Sri Lanka has engaged in over the years, about half ended prematurely. Often, reform fatigue sets in. Hard-earned gains were reversed. Growth faltered. The country cannot afford to repeat that cycle.

    Let me therefore underscore how essential it is to sustain the reform momentum, and in a manner that is inclusive and accountable. Public dialogue matters. Transparency matters. Engaging civil society and listening to diverse voices—not just in Colombo, but across the island—will help ensure that policies are responsive and responsible. This conference is exactly the kind of platform that can foster such engagement. It is a space to reflect, to challenge assumptions, and to build consensus. The IMF will remain a steadfast partner as Sri Lanka pursues stable and inclusive growth that improves the lives of all citizens and future generations.

    This time must be different! As President Dissanayake has said, let us ensure this is the last IMF program Sri Lanka will need.

    We agree, and believe this is possible if Sri Lanka stays the course.

    Thank you.

    IMF Communications Department
    MEDIA RELATIONS

    PRESS OFFICER:

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

    https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2025/06/16/sp061625-gg-this-time-must-be-different-lessons-from-sri-lankas-recovery-and-debt-restructuring

    MIL OSI

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  • MIL-OSI Europe: AMERICA/NICARAGUA – “President of Peace”: Violeta Chamorro, dies in exile

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Monday, 16 June 2025

    Twitter

    Managua (Agenzia Fides) – She marked the history of her country as a symbol of democracy. Violeta Barrios de Chamorro was the woman who defeated Ortega in Nicaragua and the first woman elected President in the Americas on April 25, 1990.”My heartfelt memory, my gratitude, and my prayers go out to Doña Violeta. She was a woman of integrity, courage, and faith. She now lives forever in the heart of God, in whom she believed and whom she loved. My condolences go out to her children and her entire family in this time of mourning. Thank you, Doña Violeta!” said the Auxiliary Bishop of Managua, Silvio José Báez, who lives in exile between Rome, Madrid, and Miami (see Fides, 22/6/2020).She took over a country ravaged by war and divided between the Sandinistas and the opposition. That year, Nicaragua suffered more than 50,000 deaths in the war between the so-called Contras and the army, as well as severe economic bankruptcy. “Doña Violeta” ruled from 1990 to 1997. Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, known in Central America as the “President of Peace,” died last Saturday, June 14, 2025, in exile in San José, Costa Rica, leaving a sign and a light that will forever reflect democracy in Nicaragua. (AP) (Agenzia Fides, 16/6/2025)
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  • MIL-OSI Europe: AMERICA/NICARAGUA – “President of Peace”: Violeta Chamorro, dies in exile

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Monday, 16 June 2025

    Twitter

    Managua (Agenzia Fides) – She marked the history of her country as a symbol of democracy. Violeta Barrios de Chamorro was the woman who defeated Ortega in Nicaragua and the first woman elected President in the Americas on April 25, 1990.”My heartfelt memory, my gratitude, and my prayers go out to Doña Violeta. She was a woman of integrity, courage, and faith. She now lives forever in the heart of God, in whom she believed and whom she loved. My condolences go out to her children and her entire family in this time of mourning. Thank you, Doña Violeta!” said the Auxiliary Bishop of Managua, Silvio José Báez, who lives in exile between Rome, Madrid, and Miami (see Fides, 22/6/2020).She took over a country ravaged by war and divided between the Sandinistas and the opposition. That year, Nicaragua suffered more than 50,000 deaths in the war between the so-called Contras and the army, as well as severe economic bankruptcy. “Doña Violeta” ruled from 1990 to 1997. Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, known in Central America as the “President of Peace,” died last Saturday, June 14, 2025, in exile in San José, Costa Rica, leaving a sign and a light that will forever reflect democracy in Nicaragua. (AP) (Agenzia Fides, 16/6/2025)
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  • MIL-OSI Europe: AFRICA/SUDAN – Parish priest of El Fasher killed by stray bullet

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Khartoum (Agenzia Fides) – Father Luka Jomo, parish priest in the besieged city of El Fasher, Sudan, was killed by a stray bullet. This was announced in a statement by the diocese of El Obeid on June 13. “Dear fathers, sisters, and all the faithful. It is with great sorrow that I write to inform you of Fr Luka Jomo’s passing to the Father’s House this morning (June 13) at 3am in El Fasher. The cause of death was a stray bullet that took his life and that of two other young people. Let us unite in prayer and ask God the Father that their souls may rest in peace”.El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, considered to be the last stronghold of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) in the region, controlled almost entirely by the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo who continuously bomb the city. Father Jomo was therefore a victim of these bombings, not the intended victim of a targeted assassination.After the Angelus on Sunday 15 June, Pope Leo XIV addressed his thoughts “to the Republic of Sudan, torn apart by violence for over two years now. I was saddened to receive the news of the death of Father Luke Jumu, parish priest of El Fasher, who was a victim of a recent bombing. I offer the assurance of my prayers for him and all the victims, and I renew my appeal to warring parties to stop the violence, protect civilians and engage in dialogue for peace. I also urge the international community to intensify efforts to provide at least essential assistance to the people, who have been severely affected by this grave humanitarian crisis.” The three-year Sudanese civil war that broke out in April 2023 has left tens of thousands dead, 14 million internally displaced persons and more than three and a half million refugees in neighboring countries. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 16/6/2025)
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  • MIL-OSI Europe: AFRICA/SUDAN – Parish priest of El Fasher killed by stray bullet

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Khartoum (Agenzia Fides) – Father Luka Jomo, parish priest in the besieged city of El Fasher, Sudan, was killed by a stray bullet. This was announced in a statement by the diocese of El Obeid on June 13. “Dear fathers, sisters, and all the faithful. It is with great sorrow that I write to inform you of Fr Luka Jomo’s passing to the Father’s House this morning (June 13) at 3am in El Fasher. The cause of death was a stray bullet that took his life and that of two other young people. Let us unite in prayer and ask God the Father that their souls may rest in peace”.El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, considered to be the last stronghold of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) in the region, controlled almost entirely by the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo who continuously bomb the city. Father Jomo was therefore a victim of these bombings, not the intended victim of a targeted assassination.After the Angelus on Sunday 15 June, Pope Leo XIV addressed his thoughts “to the Republic of Sudan, torn apart by violence for over two years now. I was saddened to receive the news of the death of Father Luke Jumu, parish priest of El Fasher, who was a victim of a recent bombing. I offer the assurance of my prayers for him and all the victims, and I renew my appeal to warring parties to stop the violence, protect civilians and engage in dialogue for peace. I also urge the international community to intensify efforts to provide at least essential assistance to the people, who have been severely affected by this grave humanitarian crisis.” The three-year Sudanese civil war that broke out in April 2023 has left tens of thousands dead, 14 million internally displaced persons and more than three and a half million refugees in neighboring countries. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 16/6/2025)
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  • MIL-OSI Europe: AFRICA/NIGERIA – “The survivors of the Yelwata massacre are terrified and lack everything”

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Monday, 16 June 2025

    Abuja (Agenzia Fides) – “The survivors of the massacre are terrified; they have suffered and seen unspeakable violence” Father Remigius Ihyula, Coordinator of the Development, Justice and Peace Commission of the diocese of Makurdi, in the State of Benue (in the central-eastern part of Nigeria) told Fides referring to the massacre of a group of displaced people hosted at the Catholic mission of Yelwata, in the local administrative area of Gouma, cited yesterday, June 15, by Pope Leo XIV.”We are talking about several hundred people who were displaced from their farms by gangs of Fulani nomads and then housed in a parish facility,” Father Ihyula told Fides. “A group of Fulani nomads attacked the facility on the night of June 13-14. At least 200 people were killed.” “The attackers not only carried out a massacre, but also vandalized the building. The survivors now lack everything, from food to clothing, mattresses, blankets, and even medicine,” the priest continued. According to Father Ihyula, “the massacre has been highlighted in the international media because of the large number of dead, but here we witness violent deaths every day. One day, three people are killed, the next, ten, and so on.”The Coordinator of the “Justice and Peace” Commission says he does not at all share the view expressed by some Western media that “the Fulani nomads are victims of climate change.” According to this interpretation, climate change is driving Fulani herders to violently occupy farmers’ land in search of new land and water sources for their livestock. “No, that’s not the case,” he emphasizes, “because the armed Fulani nomads are motivated by an Islamist ideology.They want to conquer the land of Christian farmers in order to later establish an Islamic state.” “As head of the Justice and Peace Commission in the Diocese of Makurdi, I personally sought dialogue with the Fulani nomads. But they have always rejected it,” the Catholic priest concludes. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 16/6/2025)
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  • MIL-OSI Europe: AFRICA/NIGERIA – “The survivors of the Yelwata massacre are terrified and lack everything”

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Monday, 16 June 2025

    Abuja (Agenzia Fides) – “The survivors of the massacre are terrified; they have suffered and seen unspeakable violence” Father Remigius Ihyula, Coordinator of the Development, Justice and Peace Commission of the diocese of Makurdi, in the State of Benue (in the central-eastern part of Nigeria) told Fides referring to the massacre of a group of displaced people hosted at the Catholic mission of Yelwata, in the local administrative area of Gouma, cited yesterday, June 15, by Pope Leo XIV.”We are talking about several hundred people who were displaced from their farms by gangs of Fulani nomads and then housed in a parish facility,” Father Ihyula told Fides. “A group of Fulani nomads attacked the facility on the night of June 13-14. At least 200 people were killed.” “The attackers not only carried out a massacre, but also vandalized the building. The survivors now lack everything, from food to clothing, mattresses, blankets, and even medicine,” the priest continued. According to Father Ihyula, “the massacre has been highlighted in the international media because of the large number of dead, but here we witness violent deaths every day. One day, three people are killed, the next, ten, and so on.”The Coordinator of the “Justice and Peace” Commission says he does not at all share the view expressed by some Western media that “the Fulani nomads are victims of climate change.” According to this interpretation, climate change is driving Fulani herders to violently occupy farmers’ land in search of new land and water sources for their livestock. “No, that’s not the case,” he emphasizes, “because the armed Fulani nomads are motivated by an Islamist ideology.They want to conquer the land of Christian farmers in order to later establish an Islamic state.” “As head of the Justice and Peace Commission in the Diocese of Makurdi, I personally sought dialogue with the Fulani nomads. But they have always rejected it,” the Catholic priest concludes. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 16/6/2025)
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  • MIL-OSI Europe: ASIA/MYANMAR – The Vicar of Mandalay: “We thank Pope Leo for his words and his attention to the suffering of the civilian population”

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Archdiocese of Mandalay

    Mandalay (Agenzia Fides) – “Throughout Myanmar, there are areas where fighting is taking place, where people are displaced, where civilians are suffering great hardship while fleeing the conflict. In our Diocese of Mandalay, in particular, the Sagaing area is the most affected by clashes, bombings, and immense suffering of the civilian population,” Fr. Peter Sein Hlaing Oo, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Mandalay in north-central Myanmar, told Fides. The Vicar General and the entire local Church appreciate the words of Pope Leo XIV, who, during the Sunday Angelus prayer yesterday, June 15, recalled the ongoing fighting in Myanmar. “We thank him for his words and his attention to the suffering of the civilian population,” he said. The Catholic priest tells Fides about the situation in Sagaing: “Many villages have been abandoned or reduced to rubble due to the constant bombing. The helpless people do not know where to find refuge. There are Catholic churches and parishes in this area, and all of them are in serious difficulty. We have Catholic believers in both the regime-controlled areas and those controlled by the resistance. And there are believers who are caught in the crossfire. The people are helpless and defenseless. But our priests are courageously working for the people, especially the elderly, women, and children, who often lack even the bare necessities to support themselves. Together with religious and catechists, they are providing social services in areas that are very dangerous because they have been affected by the firefights.” “We continue to pray every day, hold Masses and prayer vigils for our people, for peace, for the future of the nation,” the Vicar General concluded. “We continue to trust in God in this terrible situation. And let us not forget that in Mandalay, in addition to the war, we are also experiencing the devastating effects of the earthquake.” Also speaking to Fides, Joseph Kung, a Catholic from Yangon, who is active in the local Church and teaches at a private university, added: “As the Pope has noted, civilian infrastructure continues to be attacked and destroyed by the army throughout the country. The most painful thing is when schools are attacked, when pupils and students are attacked, young people who only wanted to continue their education.” “There is still so much pain and outrage over the massacre a month ago, when an airstrike on the village of Oe Htein Kwin in the Sagaing region killed 20 pupils and two teachers,” he emphasized.”Among the areas most affected by the conflict are Sagaing, Rakhine State, and areas in Chin and Kachin States. We are constantly receiving reports from the dioceses of Bamaw and Myitkyina, both in Kachin, where many villages have been destroyed and civilians continue to be displaced,” he continues. Kung concludes: “We are grateful to Pope Leo for his appeals. When the Pope mentions Myanmar, it gives us hope because we know we are not alone and abandoned. The population is exhausted and scarred by four years of civil war. We wait and pray every day, placing our suffering in the hands of God and the Virgin Mary.” (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 16/6/2025)
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