NewzIntel.com

Category: Americas

  • MIL-OSI: Grupo Bolsa Mexicana de Valores Partners With IPC to Deploy Beeks Technology to Simplify the Process of Onboarding New Participants Into the Market

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    • The launch of a new infrastructure for co-location reduces entry barriers for market participants, facilitating their operation in the Mexican financial markets.
    • Deployment includes a primary site and an alternate site in Mexico City to provide greater security for all participants.

    MEXICO CITY and GLASGOW, United Kingdom, Feb. 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Grupo Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (BMV), with more than 130 years of experience, and IPC, a leading company in technology and services related to global financial markets, announced the signing of an agreement to launch the advanced Beeks’ technology infrastructure. The deployment includes primary and disaster recovery sites in Mexico City, providing a secure solution to support BMV’s market growth and innovation.

    With the launch of this new infrastructure, set to go live in the second half of 2025, BMV will provide secure and scalable co-location services to its clients. This will allow clients to host their operations directly on the platform, eliminating the need for a proprietary site.

    “This agreement allows us to deliver cutting-edge technology, with a low-latency infrastructure deployed locally in Mexico City. We are well-positioned to meet the evolving needs of our market participants, remain at the forefront of innovation and as a leader in the region.” said Jorge Alegría, CEO of Grupo BMV.

    The agreement was signed with IPC as the contracting party; Beeks will manage end-to-end deployment of the Exchange infrastructure. Leveraging Beeks’ extensive expertise and proven technology, BMV members will benefit from a robust, flexible, and secure solution designed specifically for capital markets.

    “Beeks technology offers a dedicated, fully managed infrastructure for exchanges and trading venues worldwide,” said Gordon McArthur, CEO of Beeks Group. “We are proud to partner with BMV and leverage our established relationship with IPC to deliver cutting-edge solutions to the financial markets. This two-site deployment will ensure resiliency, security and scalability, supporting BMV’s ambitions for growth and innovation in the market.”

    IPC’s Tito Singh, CRO added: “This is a great example of the strength of our partnership strategy, working with the best suppliers to support our customer first approach. It reinforces our long-term relationship with Beeks and our ongoing collaboration to deliver innovative, market-leading solutions in the industry.”

    By deploying Beeks technology, BMV is well positioned to attract liquidity, drive market access and reinforce its position as a leader in Latin America’s financial ecosystem.

    About Grupo Bolsa Mexicana de Valores

    The Mexican Stock Exchange with more than 130 years of experience makes it possible for the securities and derivatives market to operate in Mexico, through a group of leading companies that offer services in the capital, derivatives and debt markets, as well as post-trade services, information products and added value.

    To learn more, visit www.bmv.com.mx/en/Grupo_BMV. 

    About IPC

    IPC Systems, a leader in technology and specialized services that has driven global financial markets for more than 50 years, is at the forefront of next-generation e-commerce connectivity and cloud communications, setting the standard for exceptional service, innovation, and expertise.

    IPC’s customer-centric approach is enhanced by an extensive and diverse financial ecosystem that spans all asset classes and connects market participants anywhere in the world to improve communication, collaboration, and compliance. Global services include e-commerce, business communications, and infrastructure-as-a-service solutions.

    IPC is ideally positioned to anticipate change and stay aligned with rapidly changing markets, and to empower clients to adapt to change, now and in the future.

    For more information, visit ipc.com

    About Beeks

    Beeks is a trusted technology partner offering a secure and scalable private infrastructure designed specifically for the financial markets. Our platform operates exclusively in dedicated environments, ensuring unprecedented compliance, performance, and control for capital markets participants.

    With a focus on low-latency infrastructure-as-a-service, Beeks supports the trading activities of global banks, financial exchanges, asset managers, brokers, and independent software providers. Our solutions are independent of public cloud providers, yet fully compatible with hybrid configurations, offering a flexible, on-demand operating model with no costly upfront costs.

    Beeks provides expert support 24 hours a day, seven days a week and a scalable infrastructure that evolves with your business needs, enabling fast time to market with deployments in days, not months. Our innovative offerings, including Beeks Analytics to improve data analytics and performance, demonstrate our commitment to delivering excellence and driving fintech growth.

    To learn more about Beeks Group and its offerings, visit beeksgroup.com.

    Media Contact

    Martina Vargas on behalf of IPC
    T: (352) 282-1294
    marti@capvstrategies.com 

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI USA: St. Louis District 837 Readies For Upcoming Boeing Defense Negotiations

    Source: US GOIAM Union

    IAM District 837’s negotiating committee recently completed a negotiation preparation program ahead of upcoming contract talks with Boeing Defense in St. Louis. The week-long training covered essential skills, such as drafting contract language, presenting proposals, assessing the company’s strengths and weaknesses, and exploring various bargaining strategies. Aerospace Coordinators Bobby Barnwell, Stephen Jordan, and Instructor Jeff McLeod supported the program. 

    In June 2025, approximately 3,200 IAM District 837 members will begin contract negotiations with Boeing Defense. These members work across Boeing facilities in St. Charles, Mo., St. Louis, and Mascoutah, Ill. 

    The 2022 contract agreement included significant improvements: 

    • An average of a 14% general wage increase over three years, in addition to cost-of-living adjustments.
    • No changes to existing comprehensive health insurance plans.
    • Elimination of the two-tier wage system.
    • Boosts auto progression rate from 50 to 65 cents per hour twice a year.
    • Lead pay and second shift premium increases.
    • Sick, parental, and funeral leave improvements.

    “Our focus is on protecting and improving the livelihoods of IAM Union members at Boeing Defense in St. Louis,” said IAM International President Brian Bryant. “The negotiation prep program gives members the strategic tools to negotiate at the table with confidence.”

    “Our members deserve a contract that reflects their hard work and dedication,” said IAM Midwest Territory General Vice President Sam Cicinelli. “This program ensures we’re ready to fight for fair wages, benefits, and working conditions.”

    “As the landscape of collective bargaining continues to evolve, it’s crucial that we stay prepared with innovative and strategic approaches,” said IAM District 837 President and Directing Business Representative Boelling. “I appreciate the staff, instructors, and technical team at the Winpisinger Center for organizing this valuable in-person training.”

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump’s lurking assault on Canada rests on endless lies and irrational populism

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Ilan Kapoor, Professor, Critical Development Studies, York University, Canada

    United States President Donald Trump has temporarily put his trade war against Canada and Mexico on hold after vowing to slap 25 per cent tariffs on most Canadian and Mexican imports, although he’s imposed tariffs on all steel and aluminum, including from Canada.

    He has also upped the ante by threatening to increase tariffs should Canada carry through on its own threat of retaliatory tariffs, with the possibility of further sanctions in the spring following a U.S. government study investigating ways to address the country’s trade deficits.

    This is nothing less than an attempt at the economic subordination of Canada by its giant and — until very recently — friendly neighbour and ally. But what makes Trump’s impending trade war even more absurd is that it is based on a series of lies.

    Trade, drugs, migrants, banks

    Trump has claimed that the U.S. has a “US$200 or $250 billion” trade deficit with Canada. The American government’s own data show that the trade in goods deficit with Canada in 2024 was US$55 billion.

    But when you factor in services (in technology or finance), an area in which the U.S. currently enjoys a trade surplus, the annual U.S.-Canada annual trade deficit falls to US$45 billion. And if you exclude energy exports, sold to the U.S. at a discount, the trade scales tip decidedly in favour of the U.S.

    Then we also have Trump’s claim that tariffs are needed to penalize Canada for allowing an “invasion” of drugs (mainly fentanyl) and undocumented migrants into the U.S.

    But once again, figures from his own government agencies show that only 1.5 per cent of migrants apprehended in 2024, and a mere 0.2 per cent of all fentanyl impounded at U.S. borders in 2024, originated in Canada.

    Finally, just hours before the American reprieve on tariffs, Trump raised a new red herring: that Canada does not allow American banks into the country. But many U.S. banks do operate in Canada, making up half of the country’s foreign banking assets.

    The grip of populism

    So why such lies? I suggest that we need to look to nationalist populism for an explanation. A deep, often irrational, emotional bond underpins this form of populism.

    Just as was the case in his 2016 election campaign, Trump’s 2024 campaign successfully tapped into people’s frustrations and anxieties over everything from high food prices to the housing crisis and rising precarious employment as he promised once more to “make America great again.”

    Tariffs featured prominently, with Trump bidding to put “America First” by punishing the country’s three largest trading partners — Mexico, Canada and China — for their alleged “unfair” trade practices.

    These types of seductive populist slogans unite people under a common banner, soothing their anxieties. But the accompanying peril is their dependence on the construction of national enemies to unify the nation. In 2016, Trump singled out Muslims and Mexicans. Today it is migrants, trans people and America’s supposed three main trading villains.

    Dangerous sentiments

    Trump’s populism is therefore built on irrational, if not dangerous, sentiments: blind fear, pridefulness, xenophobia, transphobia, racism and aggression.

    No wonder he engages in both blatant falsehoods and unabashed bullying. His lies are integral to his continuing attempts to paint the U.S. as a victim, despite its global supremacy in many areas, thereby justifying attempts at subordinating America’s putative “enemies” and even its friends. Populist sentiment, precisely because it is rooted in the irrational exuberance of pride and unity, cares little about facts, logic or veracity.

    A case in point is Trump’s affirmation that the U.S. is “subsidizing” Canada as a result of the trade deficit. The allegation contravenes any economic sense — trade deficits are the result of market-driven imports exceeding exports — yet its deployment here evokes the anxiety-producing prospect that Canada is ripping off American taxpayers.

    Populist passion trumps rational argument. Bluster whips up national fervour.

    Much ado about nothing

    This is also why Canada’s efforts to appease Trump have yielded little to date. Days after Trump’s election win, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was quick to visit him at his Florida estate in an attempt to reassure him on fentanyl and migrants.

    The Canadian government then announced a $1.3 billion border security package and improved state oversight of the production of opioids.

    In the days leading up to Trump’s tariff executive order, Canadian federal ministers and provincial premiers also frantically engaged in a public relations offensive (interviews on American TV, meetings with congressional lawmakers and Trump’s cabinet nominees) aimed at changing minds. All to no avail.

    Trump finally blinked only a few hours before the Feb. 4 tariff deadline. All it took was the offer by Trudeau of measures that, for the most part, had already been included in the previously announced border security/fentanyl measures. It seems the repackaged deal was enough to allow the president to declare a victory, while granting Canada a mere temporary reprieve.



    Read more:
    Trump’s tariff threats show the brute power of an imperial presidency

    So all in all, much ado about not too much. Lots of theatrics and brinkmanship, but little advancement, especially on the supposed main problem to be addressed — trade deficits.

    The Trump administration has basically stuck to its populist platform, providing more evidence that rational decision-making does not play a role.

    Quite the opposite, in fact: attempts to appease Trump appear to have been taken as proof that his threats work, and more demands are undoubtedly in store. That’s evident by the continuing prospect of tariffs in March and the possibility of more to come afterwards (including on steel and aluminum).

    Self-defeating irrationality

    Trump’s tariff war is senseless. If the measures go ahead, they could plunge Canada into a painful recession requiring state stimulus to support the economy and jobs, and retaliatory and counter-retaliatory trade measures.

    This may well be Trump’s intention — he has declared he wants to annex Canada by “economic force” — but it is likely to backfire. Any future trade war will harm not just Canada, Mexico and China, but also the U.S.

    Canada’s counter-tariffs target Red States, where Trump derives most of his electoral support.

    And given the American dependence on Canada for some 50 per cent of its crude oil imports, Canada’s nuclear option is to impose export tariffs on oil to the U.S. That would cause American prices at the pump to increase dramatically overnight and prove highly unpopular.

    In the longer term, then, no one stands to win as a consequence of Trump’s irrational populist policy-making. In the meantime, expect not much else from Trump’s administration than more unpredictability, brinkmanship, intimidation … and, yes, lies.

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

    – ref. Trump’s lurking assault on Canada rests on endless lies and irrational populism – https://theconversation.com/trumps-lurking-assault-on-canada-rests-on-endless-lies-and-irrational-populism-249256

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI: Visited App Releases List of Top Travel Destinations in 2024

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    TORONTO, Feb. 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The travel app, Visited, by Arriving In High Heels Corporation, has published a travel report which showcases top travel trends around the world with highlight of 2024 travels. 

    Visited is a travel tracking app, which lets users map out their travel journey, mark famous places visited on travel lists and helps with trip planning for their itinerary feature. It is the ultimate travel bucket list planning app, as it has over 150 travel lists available from ancient sites to golf destinations. The app is available in 30 languages for both iOS or Android and is free to download.

    According to Visited’s travel stats, the average global traveler has been to 18 countries. While American travelers have been to 23. Travelers from the United Arab Emirates have visited the most countries, with an average of 30 countries visited. Swiss and Finnish travelers came in second and third as the most well-traveled. The most popular countries to visit are France, Spain, Italy, Germany, the UK, and the U.S. 

    The most sought-after places to visit are Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Brazil. The top destinations that American travelers want to travel to include Australia, Greece, and New Zealand. The highest numbers of American users have traveled to Mexico, Canada, France, the UK, and Italy.

    The most popular travel destinations in the world in 2024 were in Europe, while the U.S. is in 12th spot, Turkey is in 10th spot and Thailand is in 15th spot. For American travelers, 2024 saw the UK, Portugal and Japan topping the list of the most visited countries.

    The most popular travel lists are world wonders, capitals of the world and culinary experiences.

    The travel report was compiled based on 2.4 million international users and over 300,000 U.S. users. To see more top travel lists and browse top destinations worldwide, download Visited on iOS or Android. For the full travel report, visit https://visitedapp.com/travel-report-results/

    To learn more about the Visited app, visit https://visitedapp.com. 

    About Arriving In High Heels Corporation

    Arriving In High Heels Corporation is a mobile app company with apps including Pay Off Debt, X-Walk, and Visited, their most popular app. Visited Media provides customized travel research services to travel companies.

    Contact Information

    Anna Kayfitz

    anna@arrivinginhighheels.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Major League Soccer kicks off 30th season this weekend on MLS Season Pass

    Source: Apple

    Headline: Major League Soccer kicks off 30th season this weekend on MLS Season Pass

    February 18, 2025

    UPDATE

    Major League Soccer kicks off 30th season this weekend on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV

    Major League Soccer kicks off its 30th season this Saturday on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, with all 30 teams taking the pitch for MLS is Back weekend.

    Fans in more than 100 countries and regions can sign up for MLS Season Pass to access every MLS game with no blackouts, along with in-depth coverage and analysis, exclusive content, and more — including the annual Leagues Cup tournament, Campeones Cup, MLS All-Star Game, Audi MLS Cup Playoffs games, and select MLS NEXT Pro matches. The full regular-season schedule can be found at mlssoccer.com.

    “With new ways to watch, expansive programming, and incredible exclusive content, this will be Major League Soccer’s biggest season yet,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music, Apple TV+, Sports, and Beats. “We’re excited to bring fans around the world closer to the game than ever before.”

    30th Season Sleeve Patches

    To celebrate the league’s 30th season, the left sleeve of every club’s first-team player kit will feature a bespoke Apple TV sleeve patch. Inspired by each club’s distinctive crest, color palette, and visual identity, the patches will be worn by players for the duration of the 2025 season.

    An Exclusive Lionel Messi Interview with Zane Lowe

    On Friday, February 28, eight-time Ballon d’Or winner and reigning MLS MVP Lionel Messi joins Apple Music’s Zane Lowe for an exclusive in-depth interview exploring the global superstar’s past, present, and future. In the rare sit-down conversation, Messi opens up about coming to Inter Miami, the growth and momentum of MLS, the evolution of his playing style, the role of music in his life, fatherhood, and more. Fans can enjoy a preview of the interview below, and tune in to the full interview next week on Apple Music, YouTube, and MLS Season Pass.

    MLS Season Pass Now Available on Android

    The Apple TV app — home of MLS Season Pass — is now available to download from Google Play on Android mobile devices, including phones, tablets, and foldables. Available around the world,1 the app was built from the ground up to deliver Android users a familiar and intuitive interface. Android users can subscribe to MLS Season Pass using their Google Play account on Android mobile and Google TV devices.

    The Launch of Sunday Night Soccer

    MLS Season Pass will broadcast a featured game of the week on Sunday evenings under the banner Sunday Night Soccer, with enhanced production and dedicated studio programming. Sunday Night Soccer matches will be available to stream for Apple TV+ subscribers and will be preceded by new preview shows, MLS Countdown and MLS La Previa. MLS Wrap Up and MLS El Resumen will move to Sunday evenings following the Sunday match to highlight and recap the full week of matches, giving fans a more comprehensive view of all the week’s action, with first-rate commentary and analysis, along with can’t-miss highlights. The inaugural Sunday Night Soccer matchup will showcase the league’s newest franchise, San Diego FC, as it makes its debut against reigning MLS Cup champions LA Galaxy on February 23 at 7 p.m. ET. The match will also broadcast live in Times Square.

    More Ways to Watch

    T-Mobile is giving qualified T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile customers — including businesses — a promotional offer for complimentary access to MLS Season Pass all season long, with no blackout dates. Starting today, T-Mobile customers can redeem the offer for a limited time via T-Mobile Tuesdays in the T-Life app.

    MLS Season Pass subscriptions are also available via DIRECTV, with live matches available in the DIRECTV satellite guide on channels 480 through 495, similar to the viewing experience for other league packages. Customers who subscribe through DIRECTV will also be able to access MLS Season Pass through the Apple TV app. DIRECTV customers can access a free preview on DIRECTV channels from February 22 to March 1, after which they will be able to subscribe to MLS Season Pass through DIRECTV channels. This offering expands upon DIRECTV’s exclusive rights to provide MLS Season Pass to commercial establishments, which has been available to DIRECTV for BUSINESS’s vast network of more than 300,000 sports bars, restaurants, and more since the 2023 season.

    Xfinity customers can enjoy an integrated MLS Season Pass viewing experience, with the ability to sign up directly through Xfinity and watch live matches seamlessly within the channel guide on X1 and the Xfinity Stream app, and the Apple TV app. Comcast and Apple are also providing free access to MLS 360 for all Xfinity customers throughout the season via separate MLS 360 channels. Xfinity customers can access a free preview of MLS Season Pass from February 22 to March 2, after which they’ll be able to subscribe directly through Xfinity.

    Onside: Major League Soccer on Apple TV+

    On Friday, February 21, Apple TV+ will premiere the highly anticipated eight-part panoramic documentary event Onside: Major League Soccer. Produced for Apple by the dynamic sports storytellers Box to Box Films, in partnership with Major League Soccer, the docuseries provides unprecedented access to players, coaches, and clubs, and explores the electrifying moments and captivating stories that made the 2024 season unforgettable. The first episode will be available for all MLS Season Pass subscribers from February 21 to March 3. Watch the official trailer.

    Follow MLS on the Apple Sports App

    Fans can stay up to date on scores, stats, standings, and their favorite clubs throughout the MLS season on the free Apple Sports app for iPhone.2 Users can easily navigate between scores and upcoming games; explore play-by-play information, team stats, lineup details, and live betting odds; and tap to watch matches on MLS Season Pass in the Apple TV app.3 Apple Sports also seamlessly syncs with favorites selected within the My Sports experience, including in the Apple TV app and Apple News. With iOS 18 and watchOS 11, the Apple Sports app now offers Live Activities for all MLS matches, delivering live scores and play-by-play info at a quick glance to a user’s iPhone and Apple Watch Lock Screens.4

    Subscribing to MLS Season Pass

    MLS Season Pass is available through the Apple TV app on Apple devices, Android devices, smart TVs, streaming devices, set-top boxes, and game consoles, as well as on the web at tv.apple.com. Fans can also access MLS Season Pass from the Apple TV app on Apple Vision Pro, where they can watch games alongside other apps in their physical space; within an Environment, so the screen feels 100 feet wide; and in Spatial Audio for an even more immersive viewing experience.

    Fans can sign up for MLS Season Pass for $14.99 per month during the season, or $99 for the full season, and Apple TV+ subscribers can sign up at a special price of $12.99 per month, or $79 per season. A subscription to MLS Season Pass for this season will be included with each full-season MLS club ticket account. Through Family Sharing, up to six family members can share the subscription using their own Apple ID and password. For more information, and to subscribe to MLS Season Pass, visit apple.co/_MLS_.

    1. Availability may vary by region.
    2. Available in the U.S., the UK, and Canada.
    3. A subscription is required.
    4. Live Activities require iOS 18 and watchOS 11 or later.

    Press Contacts

    Sam Citron

    Apple

    citron@apple.com

    Apple Media Helpline

    media.help@apple.com

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI USA: California Woodland and Forest Change

    Source: US Geological Survey

    References

    Balch, J. K., Abatzoglou, J. T., Joseph, M. B., Koontz, M. J., Mahood, A. L., McGlinchy, J., … Williams, A. P. (2022). Warming weakens the night-time barrier to global fire. Nature, 602(7897), 442-448. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04325-1

    Brown, J. F., Tollerud, H. J., Barber, C. P., Zhou, Q., Dwyer, J. L., Vogelmann, J. E., and others (2020). Lessons learned implementing an operational continuous United States national land change monitoring capability: The Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP) approach. Remote Sens. Environ. 238:111356. doi: 10.1016/j.rse.2019.111356

    Cartwright, J. (2019). Ecological islands: conserving biodiversity hotspots in a changing climate. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 17(6), 331-339. doi:10.1002/fee.2058

    Dwomoh, F. K., Auch, R. F., Brown, J. F., & Tollerud, H. J. (2023). Trends in tree cover change over three decades related to interannual climate variability and wildfire in California. Environmental Research Letters, 18(2), 024007. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/acad15

    Dwomoh, F. K., Brown, J. F., Tollerud, H. J., & Auch, R. F. (2021). Hotter drought escalates tree cover declines in Blue oak woodlands of California. Frontiers in Climate, 3(67). doi:10.3389/fclim.2021.689945

    Eidenshink, J., Schwind, B., Brewer, K., Zhu, Z.-L., Quayle, B., & Howard, S. (2007). A project for monitoring trends in burn severity. Fire Ecology, 3(1), 3-21. doi:10.4996/fireecology.0301003

    Higuera P.E. and Abatzoglou J.T. (2021). Record-setting climate enabled the extraordinary 2020 fire season in the western United States Glob. Change Biol. 27 1–2

    Juang, C. S., Williams, A. P., Abatzoglou, J. T., Balch, J. K., Hurteau, M. D., & Moritz, M. A. (2022). Rapid growth of large forest fires drives the exponential response of annual forest-fire area to aridity in the western United States. Geophysical Research Letters, 49(5), e2021GL097131. doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL097131 

    Lund, J., Medellin-Azuara, J., Durand, J., & Stone, K. (2018). Lessons from California’s 2012–2016 drought. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 144(10), 04018067. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000984

    Madakumbura, G. D., Goulden, M. L., Hall, A., Fu, R., Moritz, M. A., Koven, C. D., . . . Randerson, J. T. (2020). Recent California tree mortality portends future increase in drought-driven forest die-off. Environmental Research Letters, 15(12), 124040. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/abc719

    McDonald, P. M. (1990). “Quercus douglasii Hook & Arn. Blue oak,” in Silvics of North America, eds R. M. Burns, and B. H. Honkala (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service), 631–639.

    Morueta-Holme, N., Fløjgaard, C., & Svenning, J.-C. (2010). Climate change risks and conservation implications for a threatened small-range mammal species. PLoS ONE, 5(4), e10360. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0010360

    Reiner, R., and Craig, A. (2011). Conservation easements in California blue oak woodlands: testing the assumption of livestock grazing as a compatible use. Nat. Areas J. 31, 408–413. doi: 10.3375/043.031.0411

    Restaino, C., Young, D. J. N., Estes, B., Gross, S., Wuenschel, A., Meyer, M., & Safford, H. (2019). Forest structure and climate mediate drought-induced tree mortality in forests of the Sierra Nevada, USA. Ecological Applications, 29(4), e01902. doi:10.1002/eap.1902

    Stahle, D. W., Therrell, M. D., Cleaveland, M. K., Cayan, D. R., Dettinger, M. D., and Knowles, N. (2001). Ancient blue oak reveal human impact on San Francisco Bay salinity. Eos. Trans. Am. Geophys. Union 82, 141–145. doi: 10.1029/EO082i012p00141

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2013). Level III ecoregions of the continental United States: Corvallis, Oregon, US EPA–National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, map scale 1: 7,500,000. 

    Waddell, K. L., and Barrett, T. M. (2005). Oak Woodlands and Other Hardwood Forests of California, 1990s. Portland, OR: US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, 245. doi: 10.2737/PNW-RB-245

    Westerling, A. L. (2016). Increasing western US forest wildfire activity: sensitivity to changes in the timing of spring. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. 371:20150178. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0178

    Zhu, Z., & Woodcock, C. E. (2014). Continuous change detection and classification of land cover using all available Landsat data. Remote Sensing of Environment, 144(0), 152-171. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2014.01.011

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI: Rapsodo Partners with TruGolf’s E6 APEX to Enhance Simulated Golf, Adding Improved Player Analysis and Practice Capabilities

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    ST. LOUIS, Feb. 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Rapsodo, the leading developer of golf, baseball and softball ball-flight monitors and simulators, today announces compatibility with TruGolf’s E6 APEX. The new partnership makes the software available for use with the Mobile Launch Monitor 2 Pro (MLM2PRO), expanding simulation capabilities for premium MLM2PRO members.

    While current Rapsodo MLM2PRO premium members can access trials of E6 software, this new partnership offers Rapsodo members the option to upgrade to a yearly membership. There are three annual membership tiers to choose from – Play Suite ($300), Improve Suite ($150) or Enjoy Suite ($450).

    • The Play Suite uses AI and machine learning technology to recreate nearly any course in the world in industry-leading 4K quality. It features a multiplayer stroke play, online statistic tracking and AI commentary on over 1,500 Courses, with more releasing throughout the year.
    • The Improve Suite serves as a player’s secret tool for long-term improvement, featuring three modes: comprehensive practice range, club fitting and bag mapping. Members can improve their on-course strategy or use the guided skills challenges to enhance certain aspects of their game.
    • The Enjoy Suite combines all the capabilities of the Improve and Play suites, delivering the ultimate user experience.

    “E6 APEX is at the forefront of golf gamification and club analysis, and we’re thrilled to offer compatibility with the software on the MLM2PRO,” said Pete Gibbons, director of golf at Rapsodo. “Golfers are consistently looking for ways to improve their game and lower their scores, and as a sports technology company, we’re constantly looking for the newest technology that can enhance our user’s experience and improve their performance. The integration of TruGolf’s E6 APEX expands our product offerings so athletes at every level can experience real-life conditions and grow their skills during practice rounds and skills games.”

    Today’s announcement follows a recent simulation update to the MLM2PRO that enhanced the quality of graphics and added junior tee locations to Rapsodo simulated courses, which improved the game experience and raised the bar on family-friendly fun. Each of these updates signifies Rapsodo’s commitment to regularly expanding and improving its golf technology.

    Rapsodo MLM2PRO premium members can purchase access to TruGolf’s E6 Apex here for an additional yearly fee. Once downloaded, users can connect the software to their Rapsodo MLM2PRO through a simple integration.

    A media kit with images of TruGolf’s E6 Apex can be found here.

    Rapsodo products are available for purchase on Rapsodo.com.

    About Rapsodo
    Rapsodo defies limits with affordable, professional-grade technology to enhance the way athletes play across the world. Used by MLB teams, NCAA Division I Champions, and elite PGA coaches, Rapsodo technology has earned multiple MyGolfSpy’s Best Of Golf Awards and the Official Player Development Partner of USA Baseball, affirming Rapsodo’s leadership in golf, baseball, and softball tech. Do what you didn’t think was possible. Play Without Limits. Play with Rapsodo. Discover more at Rapsodo.com.

    Media Contact:
    Matt Greenfield
    Uproar by Moburst for Rapsodo
    matthew.greenfield@moburst.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: WSO2Con 2025 to Showcase How Enterprises Can Embrace ‘Platformless Modernization’ to Drive Innovation

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Austin, TX, Feb. 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — WSO2Con 2025 will empower enterprises to embrace ‘Platformless Modernization’ by showcasing real-world strategies, expert insights, and innovations that simplify development, accelerate digital transformation, and future-proof IT infrastructures. Keynotes, customer stories and technical discussions during the three-day event will explore and deep-dive into how enterprises can transform digital innovation by eliminating the complexities of traditional platforms either by adopting an enterprise-grade internal developer platform or leveraging software-as-a-service offerings to build your own. The event will take place from March 18 to 20, 2025, in Barcelona, Spain, at the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya.

    Delivering a platform experience without the complexity

    Platformless modernization aims to redefine how organizations build, deploy, and manage applications. Traditional platforms often come with operational overhead, requiring businesses to maintain infrastructure and navigate complex configurations. A platformless approach removes these burdens, making the platform layer invisible to developers, so they can focus on just building innovative applications and providing better digital experiences to their customers and users.

    At WSO2Con 2025, WSO2 executives and industry experts will explore what platformless modernization means for enterprises, offering insights into:

    • How businesses can deliver developer-friendly experiences without the overhead of managing platforms
    • Strategies for enabling rapid, secure, and scalable application development powered by API management, integration, and identity solutions
    • The role of internal developer platforms (IDPs) in modernizing software delivery with AI, Kubernetes, and cloud-native architectures

    Insightful keynotes and customer success stories

    The conference will feature a distinguished lineup of keynote speakers. In his opening keynote, WSO2’s Founder and CEO, Dr. Sanjiva Weerawarana will discuss the vision for platformless modernization with WSO2 technical experts providing in-depth sessions on how platformless is shaping the future of integration, API management and identity & access management. 

    Jeremy Schneider, Senior Partner & Co-Head of Global Software & High-Tech Practice, McKinsey and Company will provide a framework for navigating evolution in the digital economy in his keynote Every Company is a Software Company. In other keynote presentations, Amy Bingham, vice president & chief information officer at Pekin Insurance will share learnings on how Pekin turned a challenging year of unprecedented setbacks into a story of resilience, rebuilding, and long-term success in an increasingly unpredictable world. Jonathan Pearl, executive director – technology product management at financial services company, BNY Mellon, will explore the power of APIs and how they can be used to drive modernization, innovation and collaboration – both internally and externally. He will discuss the key principles and best practices for designing, building, discovering and governing APIs, as well as the cultural and organizational changes needed to successfully support an API first strategy.

    Registration for WSO2Con 2025 is still open with a flash sale from February 18 to 21, 2025. To register and view the full agenda, visit https://wso2.com/wso2con/2025/. 

    About WSO2

    Founded in 2005, WSO2 is the largest independent software vendor providing open-source API management, integration, and identity and access management (IAM) products. WSO2’s products and platforms—including our next-gen internal developer platform, Choreo—empower organizations to leverage the full potential of APIs for secure delivery of digital services and applications, enabling thousands of enterprises in over 90 countries globally to drive their digital transformation journeys. Our open-source, API-first approach frees developers and architects from vendor lock-in, enabling rapid digital product creation. Recognized as leaders by industry analysts, WSO2 has over 800 employees worldwide with offices in Australia, Brazil, Germany, India, Spain, Sri Lanka, the UAE, the UK, and the US, with USD100M in annual recurring revenue. Visit https://wso2.com to learn more. Follow WSO2 on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).

    Trademarks and registered trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.

    ###

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: ITS Logistics February Port Rail Ramp Index: Potential Effects of Tariffs and Impact on Trade Lanes Signify Most Pressing Unknown Supply Chain Threat

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    RENO, Nev., Feb. 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — ITS Logistics today released the February forecast for the ITS Logistics US Port/Rail Ramp Freight Index. This month the index reveals that operations have returned to normal in all regions following the Lunar New Year peak and light inventory front loading to avoid anticipated bottlenecks. In addition, the most significant current unknowns for the industry are the potential effects of tariffs and their impact on trade lanes. 

    “Though changing booking patterns and front loading inventory can help with savings in the short-term, these strategies usually lead to additional cost and material flow problems,” said Paul Brashier, Vice President of Global Supply Chain for ITS Logistics. “The consensus from most experienced shippers is to not be reactionary, as this issue will continue to be very fluid, and the timing and duration of disruptions is unknown.” 

    In an effort to promote fairer trade and enhance the appeal of U.S. goods, President Trump has called for agencies to explore reciprocal tariffs aimed at increasing America’s revenue. This move, however, risks sparking a global trade war, potentially worsening inflation.

    Last week, the President signed a memorandum proposing a 25% tariff on non-energy imports from Canada and a 10% tariff on imports of Canadian energy—primarily crude oil. He also signed proclamations to help bolster tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the U.S. to help minimize attempts by China and Russia to evade penalties. To encourage this change, an incremental 10% tariff on imports from China was established, along with an executive order to place a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico, which has been postponed until March. 

    While the tariffs have not yet been imposed, the signing of the memo allows the current presidential administration to begin a review process to initiate them. As the industry awaits further action from the administration, ocean carrier RFP season is approaching, and professionals should begin seeing volumes shift back to the East and Gulf Coast ports as Red Sea diversions and labor disruptions are not expected to be a concern in 2025.

    “We suggest companies consider moving bookings to the East and Gulf Coast ports now that the labor issues have been resolved,” continued Brashier. “Earlier in the month, the wage scale committee for the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) approved a tentative six-year agreement with the United States Maritime Alliance from early January. Members are now expected to vote on their new master contract regarding the East and Gulf Coast ports on February 25.”

    ITS Logistics offers a full suite of network transportation solutions across North America and distribution and fulfillment services to 95% of the U.S. population within two days. These services include drayage and intermodal in 22 coastal ports and 30 rail ramps, a full suite of asset and asset-lite transportation solutions, omnichannel distribution and fulfillment, LTL, and outbound small parcel.

    The ITS Logistics US Port/Rail Ramp Freight Index forecasts port container and dray operations for the Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf regions. Ocean and domestic container rail ramp operations are also highlighted in the index for both the West Inland and East Inland regions. Visit here for a full comprehensive copy of the index with expected forecasts for the US port and rail ramps.

    About ITS Logistics
    ITS Logistics is one of North America’s fastest-growing, asset-based modern 3PLs, providing solutions for the industry’s most complicated supply chain challenges. With a people-first culture committed to excellence, the company relentlessly strives to deliver unmatched value through best-in-class service, expertise, and innovation. The ITS Logistics portfolio features North America’s #19 asset-lite freight brokerage, the #12 drayage and intermodal solution, a top 50 dedicated fleet, an innovative cloud-based technology ecosystem, and a nationwide distribution and fulfillment network.

    Media Contact
    Amber Good
    LeadCoverage
    amber@leadcoverage.com

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/128e7687-6bfd-4f21-af3a-442b9cc93409

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Philly’s Chinatown has a rich tradition of activism – the Sixers arena fight was just one of many to preserve the neighborhood

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Vivian Truong, Assistant Professor of History, Swarthmore College

    Save Chinatown protesters take to the streets on Sept. 7, 2024. Zachary Kreines, CC BY-NC-ND

    Visitors commonly view Philadelphia’s Chinatown as a place to eat Chinese food and appreciate Chinese culture. But for longtime members of the Chinatown community, the neighborhood – home to over over 5,000 residents – is also defined by its tenacity and survival.

    Chinatown’s rich tradition of activism was on full display for the past two and half years, as residents and allies fiercely opposed the Philadelphia 76ers’ plans to build a basketball arena in the Market East neighborhood at the southern edge of Chinatown.

    A city-sponsored community impact study found that the arena could have resulted in the “loss of Chinatown’s core identity and regional significance.” It estimated that half of the neighborhood’s small businesses would have suffered due to increased congestion, potential rent increases and a new demographic less likely to patronize the area’s ethnic businesses.

    While the reason for the Sixers’ sudden decision to scrap the Market East arena plan remains unclear, the announcement in January 2025 came as a relief to Chinatown community members who felt they had averted yet another threat to their neighborhood’s existence.

    I’m a historian whose research focuses on Asian Americans, cities and social movements, and I’ve seen how urban residents take the existence of Chinatowns in major cities across the country – and even globally, from London to Havana, Cuba, and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – for granted. Chinatowns continue to exist and thrive thanks to the residents and allies who fight for them.

    The fight over the Sixers arena was only the latest struggle in over 50 years of community organizing in Philadelphia’s Chinatown.

    Friendship Gate, erected in the 1980s, serves as a symbolic entrance to Philadelphia’s Chinatown.
    Jumping Rocks/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

    A refuge from xenophobia

    Like other American Chinatowns, Philadelphia’s formed during an era of virulent anti-Chinese racism. The neighborhood was established in the 1870s as a refuge for immigrants fleeing the American West, where white railroad workers and miners declared “The Chinese must go!”.

    Among the earliest businesses were a handful of laundries and a restaurant on the 900 block of Race Street, just north of Philadelphia’s main commercial district.

    In the era of anti-Chinese immigration laws from 1875 to 1943, Chinatowns were associated with opium-smoking, gambling and prostitution. Law enforcement targeted and stigmatized the Philadelphia neighborhood as a center of vice and danger. Meanwhile, city and private developers had their eyes on Chinatown as early as the 1920s.

    In 1923, the Bell Telephone Company purchased additional real estate along the corridor for its new high-rise building and parking lot, displacing Chinese residents. In the same decade, the city used eminent domain to demolish blocks of housing to make way for the Broad-Ridge Spur connecting the Eighth Street and Vine Street subway stations. A Philadelphia Evening Bulletin article in 1934 declared Chinatown to be “a thing of the past.”

    As the city began to accommodate more car owners, Race Street was remade as a major thoroughfare to the Delaware Valley Bridge, now called the Ben Franklin Bridge. In 1926, the year the bridge was completed, the Bulletin declared that “The Delaware River Bridge has come and Chinatown must go,” echoing the xenophobic slogans that drove Chinese workers out of western states half a century earlier.

    But Chinatown persisted.

    As restrictions on immigration from China loosened after World War II, more Chinese women immigrated to the U.S. The neighborhood transformed from a bachelor society of aging workers to a growing intergenerational community of families.

    ‘Save Chinatown’ movement forms

    During the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s, Philadelphia’s Chinatown youth took inspiration from the Black Power and anti-war movements to fight for their community.

    In 1966, the city proposed the expansion of Vine Street into an expressway that would have demolished large swaths of Chinatown, including the beloved Holy Redeemer church and school. Established for Chinese American Catholics in 1941, Holy Redeemer hosted neighborhood meetings and recreational events as well as religious services. The Vine Street Expressway project was one instance of the national phenomenon of urban renewal, which aimed to clear and redevelop areas designated as blighted.

    The Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation nonprofit worked with Yellow Seeds, a group of radical Asian American youth who opposed U.S. racism and imperialism, and other Chinatown community members to fight construction of the expressway.

    These groups comprised the 1970s Save Chinatown movement. They held numerous protests, made frequent media appearances and used the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act to craft their strategy. They demanded an environmental impact statement, which, when issued in 1983, recommended a much smaller expressway than originally designed. Holy Redeemer was saved. The final plans also scrapped two off-ramps that would have cut through the neighborhood. Construction on the expressway was completed in 1991.

    Resisting a prison, baseball stadium and casino

    The Save Chinatown movement continued through the decades as community members successfully fought the construction of a federal prison in 1993, a baseball stadium in 2000 and a casino in 2008 – all proposed for sites in or bordering Chinatown.

    “The future of Chinatown is going to be a huge battle,” activist Debbie Wei stated in a 2002 documentary released after the conclusion of the baseball stadium fight a few years earlier. “We’re going to fight it, and my children are probably going to have to fight it as well.”

    ‘Look Forward and Carry on the Past: Stories from Philadelphia’s Chinatown’ (2002). Debbie Wei’s reflections on the future of Chinatown begin at 25:28.

    Her words were prescient. Her daughter Kaia Chau emerged as a key leader of the campaign against the Sixers arena 20 years later.

    Chau co-founded Students for the Preservation of Chinatown with fellow student leader Taryn Flaherty. The group organized teach-ins, galvanized Philadelphia-area students to join protests, and highlighted arena developers’ ties to local universities, including the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University. By focusing on the developers, students made connections between the arena proposal and the gentrification of West Philadelphia, including the demolition of the University City Townhomes, an affordable housing complex whose residents were mostly Black.

    The movement against the Sixers arena became part of a multiracial, citywide fight against displacement. As Rev. Gregory Holston of Black Philly 4 Chinatown, part of the Save Chinatown coalition, put it: “In North Philadelphia, in West Philadelphia, in South Philadelphia, the same process is happening over and over and over again, where people are pushing and displacing people of color out of this city.”

    Philadelphia’s Chinatown neighborhood celebrates the Lunar New Year in 2024, the Year of the Dragon.
    Wolfgang Schwan/Anadolu via Getty Images

    Thriving intergenerational community

    Activists have also created new housing, educational and arts institutions to keep Chinatown a family-friendly neighborhood.

    The location where the prison was planned in 1993 is now Hing Wah Yuen, a 51-unit mixed-income affordable housing complex developed by the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation – the same organization that led the fight against the Vine Street Expressway in the 1970s.

    After the plans for the baseball stadium were scrapped in 2000, the grassroots Chinatown-based organization Asian Americans United partnered with the arts and culture organization Philadelphia Folklore Project to found the Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures School in 2005.

    The K-8 school, located in the footprint of the proposed stadium, teaches Mandarin and emphasizes art and music classes that reflect students’ cultural background.

    More recently, recognizing the need for more “third places” for youth beyond home and school, student leaders Chau and Flaherty launched the Ginger Arts Center in 2024. The organization provides a recreational space and arts programs for young people in Chinatown.

    The community institutions that have sprung up in the wake of defeated development projects illustrate how Chinatown is not a thing of the past, nor is it solely a food and culture destination to be consumed.

    Rather, Chinatown is a thriving community that has long fought to survive, reinvent itself and determine its own future – one that carries the legacy of previous generations of resistance.

    Read more of our stories about Philadelphia.

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

    – ref. Philly’s Chinatown has a rich tradition of activism – the Sixers arena fight was just one of many to preserve the neighborhood – https://theconversation.com/phillys-chinatown-has-a-rich-tradition-of-activism-the-sixers-arena-fight-was-just-one-of-many-to-preserve-the-neighborhood-247549

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Firing civil servants and dismantling government departments is how aspiring strongmen consolidate personal power – lessons from around the globe

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Erica Frantz, Associate Professor of Political Science, Michigan State University

    A leader bent on expanding his own power would see the government’s bureaucracy as a key target. Andry Djumantara – iStock/Getty Images Plus

    With the recent confirmations of Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – two of the most controversial of President Donald Trump’s high-level administration nominees – the president’s attempt to remake government as a home for political loyalists continues.

    Soon after coming to office for a second term, Trump aggressively sought to overhaul Washington and bring the federal government in line with his political agenda. He is spearheading an effort to purge the government’s ranks of people he perceived as his opponents and slash the size of long-standing bureaucratic agencies – in some instances dismantling them entirely.

    At the helm of much of this is businessman Elon Musk, who is not only the world’s richest man but also the largest donor of the 2024 election and the owner of multiple businesses that benefit from lucrative government contracts.

    Musk – and a small cohort of young engineers loyal to him but with little experience in government – descended on Washington, announced their control over multiple government agencies, fired career civil servants, and even strong-armed access to government payment systems at the Treasury Department, where the inspector general had just been sacked.

    This unprecedented sequence of events in the U.S. has left many observers in a daze, struggling to make sense of the dramatic reshaping of the bureaucracy under way.

    Yet, as researchers on authoritarian politics, it is no surprise to us that a leader bent on expanding his own power, such as Trump, would see the bureaucracy as a key target. Here’s why.

    Elon Musk, standing next to President Donald Trump, explains his theory concerning government bureaucracy.

    Dismantle democracy from within

    A well-functioning bureaucracy is an organization of highly qualified civil servants who follow established rules to prevent abuses of power. Bureaucracies, in this way, are an important part of democracy that constrain executive behavior.

    For this reason, aspiring strongmen are especially likely to go after them. Whether by shuffling the personnel of agencies, creating new ones, or limiting their capacity for oversight, a common tactic among power-hungry leaders is establishing control over the government’s bureaucracy. Following a failed coup attempt in 2016, for example, Turkish President Reccep Tayyip Erdoğan fired or detained as many as 100,000 government workers.

    In the short term, greater executive control over the bureaucracy gives these leaders a valuable tool for rewarding their elite supporters, especially as diminished government oversight increases opportunities for corruption and the dispersion of rewards to such insiders. Erdoğan, for example, by 2017 had worked to fill lower-level bureaucratic positions with loyalists of his party, the AKP, to ensure the party’s influence over corruption investigations.

    In the long term, this hollowing out and reshaping of the bureaucracy is part of a broader plan in which aspiring autocrats usurp control over all institutions that can constrain them, such as the legislature and the courts. As we document in our book, “The Origins of Elected Strongmen,” attacks on the bureaucracy constitute a significant step in a larger process in which elected leaders dismantle democracy from within.

    Take control of bureaucracy

    The seemingly bizarre series of events that have transpired in Washington since Trump came to power are highly consistent with other countries where democracy has been dismantled.

    Take Benin, for example. Its leader, Patrice Talon – one of the wealthiest people in Africa – came to power in democratic elections in 2016.

    Soon after taking control, Talon created new agencies housed in the executive office and defunded existing ones, as a means of skirting bureaucratic constraints to his rule. The central affairs of the state were in the hands of an informal cabinet, initially led by Olivier Boko, a wealthy businessman considered to be Talon’s right-hand man despite not having any official position in government.

    Talon and his inner circle used this control over the state to enrich themselves, turning the country into what one journalist referred to as “a company in the hands of Talon and his very close clique.”

    Consolidating control over the bureaucracy was just one step in a larger process of turning Benin into an autocratic state. Talon eventually amassed greater power and influence over key state institutions, such as the judiciary, and intervened in the electoral process to ensure his continued rule. By 2021, Benin could no longer be considered a democracy.

    Purge civil service

    A similar dynamic occurred in Hungary. After governing relatively conventionally for one term, Prime Minister Viktor Orban was defeated in elections in 2002. He blamed that outcome on unfriendly media and never accepted the results as legitimate.

    Orban returned to office in 2010, bent on retribution.

    Orban ordered mass firings of civil servants and put allies of his party, Fidesz, in crucial roles. He also used the dismantling of bureaucratic constraints to pad the pockets of the elites whose support he needed to maintain power.

    As a Hungarian former politician wrote in 2016, “While the mafia state derails the bureaucratic administration, it organizes, monopolizes the channels of corruption and keeps them in order.”

    Likewise in Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez had his cronies draw up a blacklist of civil servants to be purged for signing a petition in support of a referendum to determine whether Chávez should be recalled from office in 2004; government employees who signed were subsequently fired from their jobs.

    More than a decade later, Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s current leader, would conduct his own purge of civil servants after they signed a petition to hold another recall referendum. After multiple rounds of government and military purges, Maduro was able to overturn an election he lost and jail his opponents, knowing full well the judges and generals would follow his orders.

    Benin’s leader, Patrice Talon, consolidated control over the bureaucracy as part of a larger process of turning the country into an autocratic state.
    Yanick Folly/AFP via Getty Images

    Foster culture of secrecy and suspicion

    Orban and Chavez, like Talon, were democratically elected but went on to undermine democracy.

    In environments where loyalty to the leader is prioritized over all else, and purges can happen at a moment’s notice, few people are willing to speak up about abuses of power or stand in the way of a power grab.

    Fostering a culture of secrecy and mutual suspicion among government officials is intentional and serves the leader’s interests.

    As a World Bank report highlighted in 1983, in President Mobutu Sese Seko’s Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo, the bureaucracy had been “privatized by the ruling clique,” creating a climate in which “fear and repression … prevented any serious threat from dissenting groups.”

    When leaders gain full power over the bureaucracy, they use it to reward and punish ordinary citizens as well. This was a tried-and-true tactic under the PRI’s rule in Mexico for much of the 20th century, where citizens who supported the PRI were more likely to receive government benefits.

    In short, when aspiring autocrats come to power, career bureaucrats are a common target, often replaced by unqualified loyalists who would never be hired for the position based on merit. Recent events in the U.S., as unprecedented as they may seem, are precisely what we would expect with the return of Trump, a would-be autocrat, to power.

    Andrea Kendall-Taylor is affiliated with the Center for New American Security.

    Joe Wright has received funding from the Charles Koch Foundation.

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

    – ref. Firing civil servants and dismantling government departments is how aspiring strongmen consolidate personal power – lessons from around the globe – https://theconversation.com/firing-civil-servants-and-dismantling-government-departments-is-how-aspiring-strongmen-consolidate-personal-power-lessons-from-around-the-globe-249089

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trans people affirmed their gender without medical help in medieval Europe − history shows how identity transcends medicine and law

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Sarah Barringer, Ph.D. Candidate in English, University of Iowa

    The Lady and the Unicorn: Sight. Unknown/Musée de Cluny, Paris via Didier Descouens/Wikimedia Commons

    Restrictions on medical care for transgender youth assume that without the ability to medically transition, trans people will vanish.

    As of 2024, 26 U.S. states have banned gender-affirming care for young people. Less than a month into office, President Donald Trump issued numerous executive orders targeting transgender people, including a mandate to use “sex” instead of “gender” on passports, visas and global entry cards, as well as a ban on gender-affirming care for young people. These actions foreground the upcoming Supreme Court case of U.S. vs. Skrmetti which promises to shape the future of gender-affirming health care in the U.S., including restrictions or bans.

    History, however, shows that withholding health care does not make transgender people go away. Scholarship of medieval literature and historical records reveals how transgender people transitioned even without a robust medical system – instead, they changed their clothes, name and social position.

    Surgery in medieval times

    Surgery was not a widespread practice in the medieval period. While it gained some traction in the 1300s, surgery was limited to southern France and northern Italy. Even there, surgery was dangerous and the risk of infection high.

    Cutting off fleshy bits is an old practice and, potential dangers aside, removing a penis or breasts wasn’t impossible. But amputating functioning limbs was nearly always a form of punishment. Medieval people, including surgeons and patients, likely would not have had positive views of surgery that involved removing working body parts.

    Illustration from a Latin translation of Albucasis’ Chirurgia, depicting surgical instruments.
    Wellcome Collection

    Surgeons in the 14th century were increasingly thinking about how to perform surgery on those with both male and female genitalia – people now called intersex. But they thought about this in terms of “correcting” genitalia to make it more apparently male or female – an attitude still present today. Historically, the procedure was probably performed on adults, but today it is usually performed on children. Both then and now, the surgery often disregards the patient’s wishes and is not medically necessary, at times leading to complications later. For patients deemed female, excess flesh could be cut away, and for patients deemed male, the vulva could be cauterized to close it.

    There is, however, at least one historical example of a transgender individual receiving surgery. In 1300, near Bern, Switzerland, an unnamed woman was legally separated from her husband because she was unable to have sex with him. Soon after, the woman headed to Bologna, which was the surgery capital of Europe at the time. There, a surgeon cut open the woman’s vulva, revealing a penis and testicles. The account ends, “Back home, he took a wife, did rural work, and had legitimate and sufficient intercourse with his wife.”

    The story presents the possibility of medical transition, possibly even a desire for it. But given the limits of surgical techniques and ideologies at the time, these forms of medical transition were unlikely to be common.

    Transitioning without medicine

    To transition without medicine, medieval transgender people relied on changes they could make themselves. They cut their hair, put on different clothes, changed their names, and found new places in society.

    In 1388, a young woman named Catherine in Rottweil, Germany, “put on men’s clothes, declared herself to be a man, and called herself John.” John went on to marry a woman and later developed breasts. This caused some initial consternation – the city council of Rottweil sent John and his wife to court. However, the court did not see breasts as inhibiting John’s masculinity and the couple went home without facing any charges.

    In 1395, a transgender woman named Eleanor Rykener appeared before a court in London, England, after she was caught working as a prostitute. The court clerk wrote “that a certain Anna … first taught [her] to practice this detestable vice in the manner of a woman. [She] further said that a certain Elizabeth Bronderer first dressed [her] in women’s clothing” and later she took on work as an embroideress and tapster, a sort of bartender. The account is Rykener’s own, but the court clerk editorialized it, notably adding the phrase “detestable vice” in reference to prostitution.

    Detail of lovers in bed, Aldobrandino of Siena, Le Régime du corps, northern France. 13th century.
    British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts/Sloane MS 2435, f. 9v.

    Rykener’s account reveals that there were a number of people interested in helping her transition – people who helped her dress, taught her how to behave, provided her employment and supported her choice of a new name. Community was a more important part of her transition than transforming her body. Based on the record, she apparently did not make an effort to create breasts.

    Another account appeared in 1355 in Venice, Italy, concerning Rolandina Ronchaia. While John declared himself male, and Rykener was very active in her transition, Ronchaia’s transition was spurred on by the perceptions of others. She argued that she had always had a “feminine face, voice and gestures,” and was often mistaken for a woman. She also had breasts, “in women’s fashion.” One night, a man came to have sex with her, and Ronchaia, “wishing to connect like a woman, hid [her] own penis and took the man’s penis.” After that, she moved to Venice, where, although she continued to wear men’s clothes, she was still perceived as a woman.

    Ronchaia’s account is unique because it emphasizes her body and her desire to change it by hiding her penis. But this was still a matter of what she herself could do to express her gender, rather than a medical transition.

    A long transgender history

    The accounts of medieval transgender individuals are limited – not only in number but in length. A lot of things did not get written down, and people were not talking about transgender people the way we are now.

    Historical accounts of transgender individuals are almost always in court records, which reflect the concerns of the court more clearly than the concerns of its subjects. The court was especially worried about sexual activity between men, which both overemphasizes the importance of sex in medieval transgender people’s lives and often obscures that these accounts are even about transgender people. Eleanor Ryekener’s account frequently misgenders her and refers to her as “John.”

    But it’s clear that transgender people existed in the medieval period, even when medical care was unavailable to them.

    A court document from the interrogation of John Rykener.
    Internet Medieval Source Book/Wikimedia Commons

    It is also the case that many of these individuals – Rykener is a likely exception – were probably intersex, and their experience would be different from those who were not. Intersex people were legally recognized and allowed some leeway if they chose to transition as an adult. This is starkly apparent in an account from Lille, France, in 1458, where a transgender woman was accused of sodomy and burned at the stake. She claimed “to have both sexes,” but the account says this was not the case. While being demonstrably intersex may not have saved her, that she claimed she was is telling.

    Gender transition has a long history, going even further back than the medieval period. Then as now, the local community played a vital role in aiding an individual’s transition. Unlike the medieval period, most modern societies have far greater access to medical care. Despite current restrictions, transgender people have far more options for transition than they once did.

    Medieval modes of transitioning are not a solution to current denials of medical care. But medieval transgender lives do illuminate that transgender people will not vanish even when the legal and medical systems strive to erase them.

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

    – ref. Trans people affirmed their gender without medical help in medieval Europe − history shows how identity transcends medicine and law – https://theconversation.com/trans-people-affirmed-their-gender-without-medical-help-in-medieval-europe-history-shows-how-identity-transcends-medicine-and-law-248559

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: ICE Philadelphia removes El Salvadorian wanted for aggravated homicide and terrorist organization

    Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement

    PHILADELPHIA – Immigration and Customs Enforcement Philadelphia removed Jonathan Stanley Garcia Vasquez, a citizen of El Salvador with a final order of removal, to El Salvador, Feb. 14. Garcia is a foreign fugitive wanted by law enforcement authorities in El Salvador for aggravated homicide and terrorist organization.

    “Today’s successful removal of Jonathan Stanley Garcia Vasquez highlights our unyielding commitment to the safety and security of the American people. By apprehending and deporting alien foreign fugitives, ICE excels in fulfilling its public safety and national security missions,” said ERO Philadelphia acting Field Office Director Brian McShane. “ERO staff stationed in El Salvador, and their Security Alliance for Fugitive Enforcement taskforce, played a crucial role in this operation, demonstrating the strength of our international cooperation and reach. We will continue to work tirelessly to protect our citizens from those who seek to harm them.”

    The U.S. Border Patrol arrested Garcia near Hidalgo, Texas, for entering the United States without inspection or parole by an immigration official, June 9, 2016. The same day, USBP served him with a notice and order of expedited removal, charging inadmissibility.

    On Jan. 27, 2017, an immigration judge with the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review in El Paso, Texas, granted Garcia an immigration bond, and he was released, Feb. 6, 2017.

    Authorities in El Salvador issued an arrest warrant for Garcia for aggravated homicide and terrorist organization, Aug. 7, 2018.

    An immigration judge with the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review in El Paso, Texas ordered Garcia removed from the United States to El Salvador in absentia, Oct. 30, 2018.

    ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Newark arrested Garcia in West New York, New Jersey during a routine enforcement action and transferred him to ERO Philadelphia at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, for removal to El Salvador, Dec. 20, 2024. He remained in ICE custody throughout removal proceedings.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Calgary — Alberta RCMP and provincial partners track down top offenders

    Source: Royal Canadian Mounted Police

    As part of a new RCMP-led data sharing initiative, Alberta RCMP, Calgary Police Service, and Alberta Sheriffs worked together in a Joint Forces Operation (JFO), targeting the top priority offenders in the province, through a warrant roundup.

    The decisions to implement the initiative came following the recognition by Alberta RCMP that all law enforcement agencies in Alberta were ranking priority offenders in different ways. Understanding that criminals operate in various jurisdictions, it was determined that a province wide-model to identify and prioritize offenders was required.

    Through the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police, all police forces in Alberta have entered into an information sharing agreement that will allow for intelligence and statistical data to be routinely shared. This sharing enables police agencies in Alberta to have a true understanding of the priority offenders that are causing the most harm, not only within individual policing jurisdictions, but across the province. This shared data allows police agencies to properly prioritize and take enforcement action on the most harmful offenders, ensuring the safety of all Albertans.

    Alberta RCMP ranks the tens of thousands of unique offenders in Alberta based on the harm they cause in individual communities. To determine the harm caused by these individuals, the Alberta RCMP Strategic Analysis and Research Unit developed a matrix to determine which offenders were causing the most harm in Alberta. This determination is done using the uniform Crime Severity Index scoring that is typically applied to communities by Statistics Canada and applying it to individual’s offenders.

    Alberta RCMP, with the assistance of Calgary Police Service Business Analytics, Intelligence & Reporting Section, and policing partners across the province, are now able to collect, translate, and disseminate the offender data of all police agencies in the province to form a clear province-wide priority offender list.

    From Nov. 17 to Nov. 30, 2024, the Joint Forces warrant apprehension team hit the streets of Calgary and Southern Alberta, which resulted in the following:

    • 88 arrests
    • 177 warrants executed; 44 for Provincial offences and 133 For Criminal Code offences, representing a total of 306 charges.

    RCMP Province wide executed 1005 warrants associated to 948 different offenders. The individuals arrested during the JFO had warrants from all types of crime, ranging from repeat petty thefts, to arsons, drug trafficking, robbery, and sexual offenses.

    To highlight some of the offenders who were arrested:

    • A 55-year-old male resident of Calgary, who had four warrants for his arrest with over 42 charges associated mostly related to property crime, was arrested. In the previous 18 months he has been linked to a number of offences such as robbery, drug possession and theft of motor vehicle.
    • A 42-year-old male resident of Airdrie, who had seven warrants for his arrest with a total of 27 charges for property crime and fail to comply with court ordered conditions, was arrested. In the previous 18 months he has been associated to files related to sexual interference, sexual assault, and a variety of property crime and drug trafficking offences.
    • A 34-year-old male resident of Calgary, who had five warrants for his arrest with a total of 32 charges for failing to comply with court orders, was arrested. He has a history of being involved in trafficking drugs, assault with a weapon, as well as a variety of property crime offences.
    • A 28-year-old female resident of Cold Lake had one warrant for her arrest for driving offences. She has had 50 interactions with police in the past 18 months, including for robbery, assault with a weapon, drug trafficking and firearms possession investigations.

    “Law Enforcement needs to work together to ensure that jurisdictional borders do not impede our ability to catch the criminals causing the most harm across Alberta,” said Supt. Mike McCauley of the Alberta RCMP. “A small percentage of criminals cause a significant amount of harm across the province, and by using data to drive our work like we do in operations like these, the impact is incredible. “

    “Thanks to strong interagency collaboration and information sharing, there are now fewer dangerous offenders on Alberta’s streets and in our communities,” said Supt. Mike Letourneau of the Alberta Sheriffs. “The Alberta Sheriffs are proud to work alongside our law enforcement partners as we pursue our shared objective of keeping Albertans safe.”

    “We are committed to working collaboratively with our law enforcement partners across the province to keep Calgarians safe,” says Superintendent Jeff Bell of the CPS Criminal Operations & Intelligence Division. “Apprehending offenders that have committed crimes across our province is a critical step in maintaining public safety and preventing further victimization. We are proud to have been a partner in this important initiative.”

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How Oscar-nominated screenwriters attempt to craft authentic dialogue, dialects and accents

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Chris C. Palmer, Professor of English, Kennesaw State University

    Editors deployed AI to make the Hungarian dialogue in ‘The Brutalist’ sound more authentic. A24/TNS

    The 2025 slate of Oscar nominees recognizes many writers, directors and actors whose scripts and performances don’t necessarily reflect their own cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

    Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley, both white, co-wrote “Sing Sing,” a story about rehabilitation through art in a maximum security prison where the characters are almost entirely people of color.

    Meg LeFauve has now earned her second nomination for penning a script that gives voice the gamut of emotions surging through a young girl in “Inside Out 2.” She’s in her 50s.

    The director of “Conclave,” Edward Berger, its writer, Peter Straughan, and its lead actor, Ralph Fiennes, are all self-proclaimed lapsed Catholics. Yet they brought to life a political thriller set in the Vatican.

    “The Brutalist” was written entirely in English, but much of the film’s dialogue is in Hungarian, with two leads who are not native Hungarian speakers.

    Most screenwriters endeavor to craft characters outside their own backgrounds and experiences. But concerns about authentic language representation and cultural accuracy persist, and accusations of cultural appropriation and lazy research are commonplace.

    “Emilia Pérez,” for example, has been heavily criticized not only for unrealistic portrayals of gender transition but also for inauthentic depictions of Mexican culture and accents.

    The film’s director, Jacques Audiard, has even claimed his lack of knowledge of Spanish has been an artistic benefit. He says it gives him “a quality of detachment” to emphasize “emotion” rather than “focus too strongly on the accent, the punctuation.”

    His lack of interest in precise depictions of language and culture contrasts sharply with our recent research, which shows ample interest from practicing screenwriters in accurately representing dialects and accents in scripts.

    Wanting to get it right

    We surveyed over 50 current members of the Writers Guild of America, and they broadly told us that sensitivity to linguistic representation has increased since the 2010s.

    Several commented that there’s been more commitment to hiring writers who represent the characters’ voices and backgrounds. There’s also more “freedom to include diverse characters and worlds… but a commensurate emphasis on authenticity and a higher bar for what that means,” as one writer explained.

    “Authenticity” was consistently cited in our survey as a principal consideration when writing dialogue. Other concerns included scripts’ intelligibility, historical accuracy and believability.

    In most cases, screenwriters aspire to write dialogue that sounds authentic. But it’s not easy – and often requires collaboration to get it right. Writers noted how they’ll adjust their dialogue based on production needs, such as budgetary concerns, input from actors and directors, and feedback from dialect coaches and historical consultants.

    For example, spec scripts – or noncommissioned film scripts – are written before any casting or production decisions are made. The dialogue in these scripts will likely change once actors and other creatives are attached to the project.

    Recipes for capturing linguistic nuance

    In our study, we also reviewed screenwriting manuals published as far back as 1946.

    Manuals didn’t begin to raise explicit ethical concerns, such as the use of inaccurate linguistic stereotypes in dialogue, until the 1980s. For example, many older films, such as “Gone with the Wind,” often used phonetic spelling in their scripts, with features such as g-dropping – “quittin’” for “quitting” – to mark only the speech of lower-class or racially marginalized characters, despite the fact that all people, regardless of background, have accents.

    Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn and Tim Robbins look over a script on the set of the death row drama ‘Dead Man Walking,’ which was set in Louisiana.
    Demmie Todd/Fotos International via Getty Images

    Writing in heavy phonetics is generally discouraged in modern screenwriting.

    There are practical reasons for this. Scripts are read before they’re seen and therefore must first appeal to the not so general audience of executives who buy them. As one writer explained, “My script is targeted towards them.”

    Take “Trainspotting.” Irvine Welsh’s 1993 novel about a group of heroin addicts in Edinburgh was written with heavy phonetics to capture the characters’ Scottish dialect: “ah wouldnae git tae watch it.” But the screenplay uses lines without phonetics, such as, “I wouldn’t have bothered.”

    In this respect, there’s a notable difference in novels and their respective adaptations. One surveyed writer avoids dialectal markers and will “default to standard American English unless there is a reason not to.”

    That doesn’t mean the actors in “Trainspotting” should speak in an American English accent. Instead, screenwriters might simply indicate the use of language and dialect when describing the scene in a script or, as one surveyed screenwriter explained, “make a note in the parenthetical that ‘Brynn speaks with a heavy West Virginia accent’” to flag the work that “the actor, dialogue coach, and writer will need to do together.”

    This method is employed in “The Brutalist.” The film is partly in Hungarian, but writer and director Brady Corbet and his Norwegian co-writer, Mona Fastvold, wrote the Hungarian dialogue in standard English. They then used parentheticals to indicate any non-English delivery of dialogue. The film’s stars, Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones, worked with a dialect coach to hone their accents.

    “Anora,” which tells the story of an exotic dancer in a whirlwind romance, features characters who speak Russian, Armenian and English with varying degrees of fluency. Even though the characters frequently switch between these languages, the entire script is in unbroken English. Code-switching is simply marked with “Russian,” “Armenian” or “English” in the script before a piece of dialogue.

    ‘Anora’ featured characters who switched between Russian, Armenian and English.

    But limiting oneself to standard U.S. English restricts diversity in the written dialogue itself. Some writers may want to use dialect or language to convey character authenticity on the page.

    Our survey respondents described this as “flavor” – the strategic use of dialectal words or phrases to create distinct voices, with limited phonetics. Jesse Eisenberg, in his Oscar-nominated script “A Real Pain,” lightly blends American English with occasional Yiddish words to great effect: “… landed in Galveston for some fakakta reason,” or “crazy” reason.

    AI chimes in

    Attempts at authenticity can become muddied when AI gets involved.

    When making “The Brutalist,” Corbet controversially used AI technology to refine the movie’s Hungarian dialogue.

    Some questioned the film’s authenticity due to the use of AI, arguing that nothing can be authentic if it’s achieved artificially.

    But the film’s creators, including editor and native Hungarian speaker Dávid Jancsó, defended this choice. They argued the technology actually enhanced the language’s authenticity, particularly since Hungarian’s system of vowels and consonants is especially hard for nonnative speakers to capture accurately.

    Whether writers use phonetics or standard language, and whether producers use AI or dialect coaches, questions of ethics and linguistic authenticity will remain. It’s important to research language choices and dialogue, and to consult the diverse speakers portrayed in scripts.

    These are among the many essential checks and balances that are becoming bigger parts of the filmmaking process.

    Mitchell Olson is affiliated with Carter Stanton, Creative Executive at Brookstreet Pictures, which was a co-producer of “The Brutalist.” He’s also an acquaintance of Meg LeFauve. He has no stake in the performance of their work outside of having professional relationships.

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

    – ref. How Oscar-nominated screenwriters attempt to craft authentic dialogue, dialects and accents – https://theconversation.com/how-oscar-nominated-screenwriters-attempt-to-craft-authentic-dialogue-dialects-and-accents-247658

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Deporting millions of immigrants would shock the US economy, increasing housing, food and other prices

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Francisco I. Pedraza, Professor of political scinece, Arizona State University

    Immigrant farmworkers pick strawberries in California in April 2024. Visions of America/Joe Sohm/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

    One of President Donald Trump’s major promises during the 2024 presidential campaign was to launch mass deportations of immigrants living in the U.S. without legal authorization.

    The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has said that, since January 2025, it is detaining and planning to deport 600 to 1,100 immigrants a day. That marks an increase from the average 282 immigration arrests that happened each day in September 2024 under the Biden administration.

    The current trend would place the Trump administration on track to apprehend 25,000 immigrants in Trump’s first month in office. On an annual basis, this is about 300,000 – far from the “millions and millions” of immigrants Trump promised to deport.

    A lack of funding, immigration officers, immigration detention centers and other resources has reportedly impeded the administration’s deportation work.

    The Trump administration is seeking US$175 billion from Congress to use for the next four years on immigration enforcement, Axios reported on Feb. 11, 2025.

    If Trump does make good on his promise of mass deportations, our research shows that removing millions of immigrants would be costly for everyone in the U.S., including American citizens and businesses.

    Immigrant farmworkers protest in New York City in May 2022.
    Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

    Food costs will increase

    One important factor is that mass deportations would weaken key industries in the U.S. that rely on immigrant workers, including those living in the U.S. illegally.

    Overall, immigrants without legal authorization make up about 5% of the total U.S. workforce.

    But that overall percentage doesn’t reflect these immigrants’ concentrated presence within various industries. Approximately half of U.S. farmworkers are living in the country without legal authorization, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

    Some of these immigrant farmworkers are skilled supervisors who make decisions about planting and harvesting. Others know how to use and maintain tractors, loaders, diggers, rakers, fertilizer sprayers, irrigation systems, and other machines crucial to farm operations.

    If those workers were to be suddenly removed from the country, Americans would see an increase in food costs, including what they spend on groceries and at restaurants.

    With fewer available workers to pick fruits and vegetables and prepare the food for shipment and distribution, the domestic production of food could decrease, leading to higher costs and more imports.

    National estimates of the restaurant and food preparation workforce, meanwhile, indicate that between 10% and 15% of those workers are immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.

    Past state-level immigration enforcement policies offer an idea of what could happen at the national level if Trump were to carry out widespread deportations.

    For example, a 2011 Alabama law called HB-56 directed local police officers to investigate the immigration status of drivers stopped for speeding. It also prohibited landlords from renting properties to immigrants who do not have legal authorization to work or live in the country. That law and its resulting effects prompted some Alabama-based immigrant workers to leave the state following workplace raids.

    Their departure wound up costing the state an estimated $2.3 billion to $10.8 billion loss in Alabama’s annual gross domestic product due to the loss of workers and economic output.

    Other industries that rely on immigrants

    Part of the challenge of mass deportations for industries like construction, nearly a quarter of whose workers are living without legal authorization, is that their workforce is highly skilled and not easily replaced. Immigrant workers are particularly involved in home construction and specialize in such tasks as ceiling and flooring installation as well as roofing and drywall work.

    Fewer available workers would mean slower home construction, which in turn would make housing more expensive, further compounding existing problems of housing supply and affordability.

    Shocks from deportations would also slow commercial and public infrastructure construction. Six construction workers, for example, died in April 2024 in the sudden collapse of the Baltimore Key Bridge in Maryland. All of them were Latino immigrants living in the U.S. without legal documentation.

    Examining the arguments

    Trump administration officials and other politicians have argued that deporting large numbers of immigrants would help the country save money, since fewer people will use federal and state funds by attending public schools or receiving temporary shelter.

    Trump said in November 2024 that there is “no price tag” for large-scale deportations.

    “It’s not a question of price tag,” Trump said. “We have no choice. When people have killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries, and now they’re going to go back to those countries because they’re not staying here,” Trump told NBC News.

    Trump and his supporters also argue that deporting immigrants would mean more jobs for American workers.

    But there is compelling evidence to the contrary.

    First, immigrants are filling labor shortages and doing jobs that many Americans don’t want to do, ones that might be unsafe or poorly paid.

    Even if Americans were willing to do those jobs, there simply aren’t enough Americans in the workforce to fill existing labor vacuums, let alone an enlarged one following deportations.

    Second, for employers, having fewer workers in the country translates into higher wages, which in turn means less capital to adapt and grow. For businesses based on consumer debt – think mortgages, car loans and credit cards – deportations would disrupt the financial sector by removing responsible borrowers who make consistent payments.

    Third, immigrants living without legal documentation in the U.S. pay more than $96 billion in federal, state and local taxes per year and consume fewer public benefits than citizens.

    Immigrants without legal authorization are not eligible for Social Security benefits and can’t enroll in Medicare or many other safety net programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

    A Guatemalan immigrant worker buys pipes for a plumbing job on a house remodel in New Philadelphia, Ohio, on Jan. 27, 2025.
    Rebecca Kiger for The Washington Post via Getty Images

    The bottom line

    In other words, people who are living and working in the U.S. without legal authorization are helping to pay, through taxes, the costs of caring for Americans as they age and begin to draw on the nation’s retirement and health care programs.

    The burden from recent inflation notwithstanding, an economy supported by immigrants living illegally in the U.S. protects Americans.

    The U.S. would be unable to dodge the economic shocks and high costs that mass deportations would bring about.

    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. Deporting millions of immigrants would shock the US economy, increasing housing, food and other prices – https://theconversation.com/deporting-millions-of-immigrants-would-shock-the-us-economy-increasing-housing-food-and-other-prices-245342

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why community pharmacies are closing – and what to do if your neighborhood location shutters

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Lucas A. Berenbrok, Associate Professor of Pharmacy and Therapeutics, University of Pittsburgh

    Neighborhood pharmacies are rapidly shuttering.

    Not long ago, Walgreens, one of the nation’s biggest pharmacy chains, announced plans to close 1,200 stores over the next three years. That’s part of a larger trend that has seen nearly 7,000 pharmacy locations close since 2019, with more expected in the coming years.

    Many community pharmacies are struggling to stay open due to an overburdened workforce, shrinking reimbursement rates for prescription drugs and limited opportunities to bill insurers for services beyond dispensing medications.

    As trained pharmacists who advocate for and take care of patients in community settings, we’ve witnessed this decline firsthand. The loss of local pharmacies threatens individual and community access to medications, pharmacist expertise and essential public health resources.

    The changing role of pharmacies

    Community pharmacies – which include independently owned, corporate-chain and other retail pharmacies in neighborhood settings – have changed a lot over the past decades. What once were simple medication pickup points have evolved into hubs for health and wellness. Beyond dispensing prescriptions, pharmacists today provide vaccinations, testing and treatment for infectious diseases, access to hormonal birth control and other clinical services they’re empowered to provide by federal and state laws.

    Given their importance, then, why have so many community pharmacies been closing?

    There are many reasons, but the most important is reduced reimbursement for prescription drugs. Most community pharmacies operate under a business model centered on dispensing medications that relies on insurer reimbursements and cash payments from patients. Minor revenue comes from front-end sales of over-the-counter products and other items.

    However, pharmacy benefit managers – companies that manage prescription drug benefits for insurers and employers – have aggressively cut reimbursement rates in an effort to lower drug costs in recent years. As a result, pharmacists often have to dispense prescription drugs at very low margins or even at a loss. In some cases, pharmacists are forced to transfer prescriptions to other pharmacies willing to absorb the financial hit. Other times, pharmacists choose not to stock these drugs at all.

    And it’s not just mom-and-pop operations feeling the pinch. Over the past four years, the three largest pharmacy chains have announced plans to close hundreds of stores nationwide. CVS kicked off the trend in 2021 by announcing plans to close 900 pharmacy locations. In late 2023, Rite Aid said that thousands of its stores would be at risk for closure due to bankruptcy. And late in 2024, Walgreens announced its plans to close 1,200 stores over the next three years.

    To make matters worse, pharmacists, like many other health care providers, have been facing burnout due to high stress and the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, pharmacy school enrollment has declined, worsening the workforce shortage just as an impending shortfall of primary care physicians looms.

    Why pharmacy accessibility matters

    The increasing closure of community pharmacies has far-reaching consequences for millions of Americans. That’s because neighborhood pharmacies are one of the most accessible health care locations in the country, with an estimated 90% of Americans living within 5 miles of one.

    However, research shows that “pharmacy deserts” are more common in marginalized communities, where people need accessible health care the most. For example, people who live in pharmacy deserts are also more likely to have a disability that makes it hard or impossible to walk. Many of these areas are also classified as medically underserved areas or health professional shortage areas. As pharmacy closures accelerate, America’s health disparities could get even worse.

    So if your neighborhood pharmacy closes, what should you do?

    While convenience and location matter, you might want to consider other factors that can help you meet your health care needs. For example, some pharmacies have staff who speak your native language, independent pharmacy business owners may be active in your community, and many locations offer over-the-counter products like hormonal contraception, the overdose-reversal drug naloxone and hearing aids.

    You may also consider locations – especially corporate-owned pharmacies – that also offer urgent care or primary care services. In addition, most pharmacies offer vaccinations, and some offer test-and-treat services for infectious diseases, diabetes education and help with quitting smoking.

    What to ask if your pharmacy closes

    If your preferred pharmacy closes and you need to find another one, keep the following questions in mind:

    • What will happen to your old prescriptions? When a pharmacy closes, another pharmacy may buy its prescriptions. Ask your pharmacist if your prescriptions will be automatically transferred to a nearby pharmacy, and when this will occur.

    • What’s the staffing situation like at other pharmacies? This is an important factor in choosing a new pharmacy. What are the wait times? Can the team accommodate special situations like emergency refills or early refills before vacations? Does the pharmacist have a relationship with your primary care physician and your other prescribers?

    • Which pharmacies accept your insurance? A simple call to your insurer can help you understand where your prescriptions are covered at the lowest cost. And if you take a medication that’s not covered by insurance, or if you’re uninsured, you should ask if the pharmacy can help you by offering member pricing or manufacturer coupons and discounts.

    • What are your accessibility needs? Pharmacies often offer services to make your care more accessible and convenient. These may include medication packaging services, drive-thru windows and home delivery. And if you’re considering switching to a mail-order pharmacy, you should ask if it has a pharmacist to answer questions by phone or during telehealth visits.

    Remember that it’s best to have all your prescriptions filled at the same pharmacy chain or location so that your pharmacist can perform a safety check with your complete medication list. Drug interactions can be dangerous.

    Community pharmacies have been staples of neighborhoods for more than a century. Unfortunately, current trends in pharmacy closures pose real threats to public health. We hope lawmakers address the underlying systemic issues so more Americans don’t lose access to their medications, health services and pharmacists.

    Lucas A. Berenbrok is part owner of the consulting company, Embarx, LLC. He receives funding from the American Pharmacists Association.

    Michael Murphy consults to the American Pharmacists Association.

    Sophia Herbert has received funding from the Community Pharmacy Foundation.

    – ref. Why community pharmacies are closing – and what to do if your neighborhood location shutters – https://theconversation.com/why-community-pharmacies-are-closing-and-what-to-do-if-your-neighborhood-location-shutters-217775

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How California can rebuild safer, more resilient cities after wildfires without pricing out workers

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Nichole Wissman, Assistant Professor of Management, University of San Diego

    After the fires, what comes next for residents? Zoe Meyers/AFP via Getty Images

    The dramatic images of wealthy neighborhoods burning during the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires captured global attention, but the damage was much more widespread. Many working-class families lost their homes, businesses and jobs. In all, more than 16,000 structures – most of them homes – were destroyed, leaving thousands of people displaced.

    The shock of this catastrophic loss has been reverberating across Southern California, driving up demand for rental homes and prices in an already unaffordable and competitive housing market. Many residents now face rebuilding costs that are expected to skyrocket.

    Climate-related disasters like this often have deep roots in policies and practices that overlook growing risks. In the Los Angeles area, those risks are now impossible to ignore.

    As the region starts to recover, communities have an opportunity to rebuild in better ways that can protect neighborhoods against a riskier future – but at the same time don’t price out low-income residents.

    Sisters Emilee and Natalee De Santiago sit on the front porch of what remains of their home after the Eaton Fire in Altadena, Calif., in January 2025.
    Brandon Bell/Getty Images

    Research shows that low-income residents struggle the most during and after a disaster. Disaster assistance also tends to benefit the wealthy, who may have more time and resources to navigate the paperwork and process. This can have long-term effects on inequality in a community. In Los Angeles County, where one-third of even moderate-income households spend at least half their income on housing, many residents may simply be unable to recover.

    My research at the University of San Diego focuses on managing risk in the face of climate change. I see several ways to design solutions that help low- and moderate-income residents recover while building a safer community for the future.

    Better building policies that recognize future risk

    Before a disaster, communities trying to adapt to climate change often prioritize protecting high-risk, high-value property, such as a beachfront or hillside neighborhood with wealthy homes. My own research also shows a trend toward incremental climate adaptations that don’t disturb the status quo too much and, as a result, leave many risks unaddressed.

    Climate risks are often underestimated, in part because of policy limitations and a political reluctance to consider unpopular solutions, such as restricting where people can build. Yet, disasters once considered unimaginable, such as the Los Angeles wildfires, are occurring with increasing frequency.

    An aerial view shows the devastation left by the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles in January 2025. Homes in the hills can be at the highest fire risk during dry weather and strong winds.
    AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

    Making communities safer from these risks requires communitywide efforts. And that can mean making difficult decisions.

    Policy changes, such as updating zoning laws to prevent rebuilding in highly vulnerable areas, can avoid costly damage in the future. So can not building in risky areas in the first place.

    California already has some of the strictest wildfire-prevention codes in the country, but the same rules for new homes don’t apply to older homes. Communities can invest in programs to help these property owners retrofit their homes by offering grants or incentives to remove highly flammable landscaping or to “harden” existing homes to make them less vulnerable to burning.

    Research shows that resilience efforts can spur “climate gentrification,” or displacement due to increases in property values. So, focusing on affordability in resilience efforts is important. For long-term affordability and resilience, governments can collaborate with communities to develop strategies such as supporting Community Land Trusts through grants, low-interest loans or land transfers; implementing zoning reforms to enable higher-density, climate-resilient affordable housing; and incentivizing green infrastructure to strengthen community resilience.


    Beverly Hills Fire Department

    In some cases, communities may have to considered managed retreat – moving people out of high-risk areas – but with adequate compensation and support for displaced residents to ensure that they can rebuild their lives elsewhere.

    Making the risks clear through insurance

    Insurance rates can also encourage residents and communities to lower their risks. Yet in many places, insurance policies have instead obscured the risks, leaving homeowners less aware of how vulnerable their property may be.

    For years, insurers underpriced wildfire risk, driven by market competition. California policies also capped the premiums they could charge. As fire damage and rebuilding costs soared in recent years, insurers unwilling to shoulder more of the risk themselves pulled out of the state. That left countless Californians uninsured and hundreds of thousands reliant on the state-run insurance known as the FAIR Plan. The plan imposes caps on payouts and is now struggling to stay solvent, resulting in higher costs that insurers are expected to pass on to consumers.

    Insurance reforms could help reduce the financial burden on vulnerable populations while also lowering overall risk. To achieve this, the reforms could incentivize building more resilient homes in less risky areas.

    As seen with the LA fires, what your neighbor does matters. Reducing fire risk in each home can make entire neighborhoods safer. Insurers can provide a road map for how to reduce those risks, while state and local governments can provide assistance to retrofit homes and help ensure that insurance premiums remain affordable.

    There are also innovative approaches to fund resilience efforts that can include insurers. One example is New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act, which requires fossil fuel companies to finance climate adaptation efforts.

    Equipping communities with resilience hubs

    When disasters strike, local groups and neighbors play critical roles in stabilizing neighborhoods. But residents also need more specialized help to find housing and apply for disaster aid.

    Building resilience hubs in communities could help support residents before, during and after disasters.

    The resilience hub in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles provides one model for what these spaces can achieve. It’s anchored in a community arts center with solar power and backup energy storage. Residents can drop in to cool down during heat waves or charge their phones during power outages. It also hosts community classes, including in disaster preparedness.

    Boyle Heights, a largely Hispanic neighborhood in Los Angeles, has a resilience hub that provides disaster preparedness training, as well as support with food, housing and applying for assistance after disasters strike.
    Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

    During and after a disaster, resilience hubs can serve as central organizing points. They can provide crucial information, resources and assistance with completing paperwork to access aid. Having access to skilled help in navigating what can be a complicated, time-consuming process is often critical, particularly for people who aren’t native English speakers.

    Getting assistance is also often critical for displaced renters, who may have little certainty about when or if they will be able to return to their homes. Understanding their legal rights can be confusing, and rising costs as rental housing is rebuilt can price them out of the market.

    Research shows that building a supportive community can provide a crucial social safety net when dealing with disasters and also boost the community’s social and economic well-being.

    Reframing policies for everyone

    The catastrophic LA wildfires were a powerful reminder that governments and communities need to think carefully about the risks they face and the role policies may play as they learn to live with greater fire risk.

    Building a resilient future in a warming world will require bold, innovative and collective strategies that support communities while advancing equitable solutions.

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

    – ref. How California can rebuild safer, more resilient cities after wildfires without pricing out workers – https://theconversation.com/how-california-can-rebuild-safer-more-resilient-cities-after-wildfires-without-pricing-out-workers-247680

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Nat King Cole’s often overlooked role in the Civil Rights Movement

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Donna M. Cox, Professor of Music, University of Dayton

    Nat King Cole performs in Copenhagen, Denmark, in April 1960. Ebbe Wrae/JP Jazz Archive/Getty Images

    Six decades after Nat King Cole’s death in 1965, his music is still some of the most played in the world, and his celebrity transcends generational and racial divides. His smooth voice, captivating piano skills and enduring charisma earned him international acclaim.

    One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Cole was not only a groundbreaking musician but also a quiet, yet resolute, advocate for social justice.

    As an African American sacred music scholar, I have been immersed in the inseparable link between music, culture and social change for over 40 years. Examining Cole through the lens of his activism uncovers the nuanced ways in which he challenged the status quo and contributed to the Civil Rights Movement.

    Beneath the polished veneer of his public image lay a deeply personal commitment to confronting racism and advocating for equality that is often overlooked.

    Formative years

    Nathaniel Adams Coles was born on March 17, 1919, in Montgomery, Alabama, to Perlina Adams Coles and Edward James Coles. Perlina served as the organist at the True Light Baptist Church and later the First Baptist Church of North Chicago, both pastored by Nathaniel’s father. She passed her love for music to her children, teaching them to play the piano and organ. Cole’s formative years were spent in church; gospel songs, hymns and spirituals formed the foundation of his musical education.

    Though Cole is primarily remembered for his jazz and pop hits, the emotive power, communal emphasis and uplifting nature of Black sacred music profoundly shaped his artistry throughout his career, despite his single sacred album, “Every Time I Feel The Spirit,” released in 1959. The influence of gospel music, in particular, can be heard in his soulful phrasing and heartfelt delivery, contributing to his remarkable ability to connect with audiences.

    Growing up in Chicago, he was also exposed to a rich tapestry of musical genres, including blues, classical and jazz. This eclectic upbringing laid the foundation for his versatile musical style and commercial success.

    Group portrait of singer Nat King Cole with his mother, Perlina, his younger brother, Ike, and his father, Edward, circa 1940.
    Nat King Cole photograph collection/New York Public Library

    While Cole’s music was not overtly political, his very presence in the mainstream was a statement. In an era of racial segregation, he was a Black man achieving unprecedented success in a predominantly white music industry. His impeccable diction, tailored suits and sophisticated performances countered the prevailing stereotypes of African Americans as uncouth or subservient.

    By embodying a poised and dignified persona, Cole communicated a powerful message: Black excellence and humanity could not be denied. As race scholar George Lipsitz writes in “The Possessive Investment in Whiteness,” “The cultural field … is a site of struggle where meanings are contested and power relations are negotiated.”

    Cole’s success challenged the structural racism that sought to confine Black artists to the margins and opened doors for future generations. He acknowledged the significance of his presence on national television, recognizing it as a potential turning point for Black representation. While hesitant to explicitly label himself an activist, he contemplated the impact of his success on breaking down barriers, believing that “when you’ve got the respect of white and colored, you can ease a lot of things.”

    Confronting racism

    In response to critics who dismiss Cole’s legacy as apolitical, I argue that they overlook the complexity of his resistance. Several scholars have stated that in a society where overt defiance often resulted in violence or economic ruin, Cole’s ability to navigate the entertainment industry while maintaining his dignity was itself a form of activism.

    Though Cole never referred to himself as an activist, he confronted racism in both overt and quiet ways. Scholars such as cultural theorist Stuart Hall and researcher Laura Pottinger define “quiet activism” as modest, everyday acts of resistance – either implicitly or explicitly political – that challenge dominant ideologies and power structures. These acts often entail processes of production or creativity.

    Despite his commercial success, Cole faced relentless systemic and personal racism. In 1948, he purchased a home in the affluent Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, a move met with hostility; the local homeowners association attempted to expel him, and he endured threats and acts of vandalism.

    Yet Cole refused to be intimidated. His resolve was a courageous act of resistance that highlighted the pervasive inequalities of the time.

    Cole faced blatant discrimination in Las Vegas. He was often denied access to the same hotels and restaurants where he performed, forced to stay in segregated accommodations. One particularly notable incident occurred at the Sands Hotel. in Las Vegas. When the maitre d’ tried to deny service to Cole’s Black bandmates in the dining room, Cole threatened to cancel his performance and leave. This forced the hotel management to back down, setting a precedent for other Black entertainers and patrons.

    Cole quietly sued hotels and negotiated contracts that guaranteed his right to stay in the hotels where he performed, a significant step toward desegregation. He also made it a point to bring his entire entourage, including Black musicians and friends, to these establishments, challenging their “whites only” policies.

    ‘We Are Americans Too’

    Photo of Natalie Cole singing with her father, Nat King Cole, in 1957.
    Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

    Cole’s impact extended beyond the realm of music. In 1956, he became the first African American to host a national network television show, “The Nat King Cole Show.” This was a groundbreaking moment, as it brought a Black man into the living rooms of millions of white Americans every week.

    Though the show faced challenges with sponsorship due to racial prejudice, it marked a significant step toward greater representation and acceptance. As historian Donald Bogle notes in his 2001 book “Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks,” “Television … became a new battleground for the image of the black performer.” Cole’s show, despite its short run, was a crucial battle in this war.

    When Cole was attacked onstage by white supremacists during a concert in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1956, it underscored the physical danger Black public figures faced and galvanized Cole’s commitment to the Civil Rights Movement.

    It is important to note that Cole’s support for the Civil Rights Movement was often quiet and behind the scenes. He faced criticism from some who felt he should have been more outspoken. However, his actions demonstrate his commitment to the cause of racial equality. Cole, who died in 1965 at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, was a member of his local NAACP branch. He also performed at benefit concerts for the organization, raising money to support their efforts in fighting racial discrimination.

    Shortly after the attack in Birmingham, Cole recorded his only song that is specifically political, “We Are Americans Too.” Recorded in 1956, the song was a powerful statement of belonging and a challenge to racial exclusion. Though it would not come close to reaching commercial success, it did serve as a powerful reminder that African Americans were, in fact, Americans. Over a half-century later, this song still resonates and speaks to the ongoing struggle for full inclusion and recognition for marginalized groups.

    The juxtaposition of the refrain “We are Americans too” against the backdrop of the treatment of Black people during the Civil Rights Movement gives this song emotional weight. The very act of having to assert “We are Americans too” highlights the injustice of the situation.

    It underscores the disconnect between the ideals of American democracy and the reality of racial inequality. In this context, the refrain “We are Americans too” is an act of resistance, a challenge to the prevailing social order. It highlights the hypocrisy of a nation founded on principles of liberty while denying those same liberties to a significant portion of its population. It’s a call for America to finally recognize the full humanity and citizenship of its Black citizens.

    ‘We Are Americans Too.’

    Great art, and great artists, are powerful witnesses of the times in which they live, love, work and play. Their commentary, both artistically and humanly, leaves an important record for generations. This is clearly evident in Nat King Cole.

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

    – ref. Nat King Cole’s often overlooked role in the Civil Rights Movement – https://theconversation.com/nat-king-coles-often-overlooked-role-in-the-civil-rights-movement-248527

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Many gluten-free foods are high in calories and sugar, low on fiber and protein, and they cost more − new research

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Sachin Rustgi, Associate Professor of Molecular Breeding, Clemson University

    The vast majority of Americans are not sensitive to foods containing gluten. Westend61 via Getty Images

    U.S. consumers often pay more for gluten-free products, yet these items typically provide less protein and more sugar and calories compared with gluten-containing alternatives. That is the key finding of my new study, published in the journal Plant Foods for Human Nutrition.

    This study compared gluten-free products with their gluten-containing counterparts, and the findings suggested that many perceived benefits of gluten-free products – such as weight control and diabetes management – are exaggerated.

    Currently, many gluten-free products lack dietary fiber, protein and essential nutrients. Manufacturers often add supplements to compensate, but the incorporation of dietary fibers during processing can hinder protein digestion.

    In addition, gluten-free products generally contain higher sugar levels compared with other products containing gluten. Long-term adherence to a gluten-free diet has been associated with increased body mass index, or BMI, and nutritional deficiencies.

    Gluten-free products – defined in the U.S. as those that contain less than or equal to 20 parts per million of gluten – largely lack wheat, rye, barley and sometimes oats, all rich sources of arabinoxylan, a crucial nonstarch polysaccharide. Arabinoxylan provides several health benefits, including promoting beneficial gut bacteria, enhancing digestion, regulating blood sugar levels and supporting a balanced gut microbiota.

    Our study also pointed out that it is difficult to find a gluten-free product that excels in all nutritional areas, such as high protein and fiber content with low carbohydrates and sugar.

    On the other hand, gluten-free seeded bread contains significantly more fiber – 38.24 grams per 100 grams – than its gluten-containing counterparts. This is likely due to efforts by manufacturers to address fiber deficiencies by using ingredients such as pseudo-cereals, such as amaranth and quinoa hydrocolloids – meaning water-soluble macromolecules used in gluten-free baked goods made with quinoa flour.

    These improvements, however, vary by manufacturer and region. For example, gluten-free products in Spain tend to have lower fiber content than their gluten-containing counterparts.

    Why it matters

    The term “gluten-free diet” has become a buzzword, much like “organic,” and is now a part of everyday life for many people, often without a full understanding of its actual benefits. While a gluten-free diet is a medical necessity for people who are sensitive to gluten, a condition called celiac disease, or for those with wheat allergies, others adopt a gluten-free diet due to perceived health benefits or because it’s a trend.

    In 2024, the global gluten-free product market was valued at US$7.28 billion and projected to reach $13.81 billion by 2032. The U.S. market share is estimated to be $5.9 billion – a little less than half of the global figure.

    Approximately 25% of the U.S. population consumes gluten-free products. This figure is far higher than the the roughly 6% of people with non-celiac wheat sensitivity, 1% of people with celiac disease and even lower percentages of people with wheat allergies.

    This suggests that many people adopt gluten-free diets for reasons other than medical necessity, which may not offer health or financial benefits.

    Symptoms of celiac disease and gluten intolerance include stomach pain and bloating.

    What’s next

    Investment in research and development is essential to create more nutritionally balanced gluten-free products using locally available ingredients. This will require human feeding trials with different formulations of gluten-free products to ensure that these products meet nutritional needs without adverse effects.

    Collaborations between governments could help secure subsidies, which would reduce production costs and make these products more affordable. Although the initial costs of research and maintaining a gluten-free production line are high, using local ingredients and financial incentives can make these products more cost-competitive compared with their gluten-containing counterparts.

    Public education is also important to keep people informed about the pros and cons associated with a gluten-free diet.

    The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.

    Sachin Rustgi receives funding from the US Department of Agriculture and the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research.

    – ref. Many gluten-free foods are high in calories and sugar, low on fiber and protein, and they cost more − new research – https://theconversation.com/many-gluten-free-foods-are-high-in-calories-and-sugar-low-on-fiber-and-protein-and-they-cost-more-new-research-247165

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Consumption of renewable diesel continues general growth trend on the U.S. West Coast

    Source: US Energy Information Administration

    In-brief analysis

    February 18, 2025

    Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Petroleum Supply Monthly
    Note: Renewable diesel consumption, which is defined as renewable diesel product supplied plus refinery and blender net inputs, is inflated because we do not collect renewable diesel export data. The difference between consumption and the sum of production, imports, and receipts reflects inventory changes.

    Renewable diesel is increasingly replacing petroleum diesel on the U.S. West Coast, where state-level policies are attracting new production capacity and shipments to the region. The fuel continues to mostly be consumed in California but is also making up a substantial share of Oregon’s and Washington’s smaller distillate pools, according to quarterly data published by California, Oregon, and Washington.

    Renewable diesel is a transportation and heating fuel that is chemically equivalent to petroleum-based distillate and is produced using fats, oils, or greases rather than petroleum. Although some renewable diesel is consumed in other regions, such as the U.S. East Coast, the fuel is primarily consumed on the West Coast because California, Oregon, and Washington have active clean fuel programs that incentivize its consumption.

    West Coast renewable diesel consumption has approximately doubled since the first quarter of 2023 (1Q23), with increased domestic production supplying most of the growth. Much of that production growth has come from California, where Marathon’s Martinez plant and Phillips 66’s Rodeo plant have added new capacity. Most of the remaining growth has come from increasing production in other parts of the United States, where renewable diesel plants are commonly producing fuel to ship to the West Coast via rail, tanker, or barge.

    In November, the most recent month for which we have historical data, renewable diesel production on the West Coast totaled more than 90,000 barrels per day (b/d)—almost four times the volume from 1Q23 and making up about 45% of the region’s consumption of renewable diesel. Interregional rail shipments supplied about 20% of West Coast consumption, tanker or barge shipments contributed almost 25%, and the remaining demand was met through imports and inventory draws.

    Our analysis of data published by California, Oregon, and Washington suggests most renewable diesel is consumed in California, although consumption is generally increasing in all three states.

    Data source: California Air Resources Board, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, and Washington Department of Ecology
    Note: Washington publishes its quarterly data later than California and Oregon. 1Q23=first quarter of 2023

    More renewable diesel is also consumed in California as a share of all distillate used for transportation. In 3Q24, renewable diesel made up nearly 65% of distillate fuel consumed in California for transportation, a decrease from nearly 70% in 2Q24, and biodiesel made up more than 5%.

    Data source: California Air Resources Board, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, and Washington Department of Ecology
    Note: Washington publishes its quarterly data later than California and Oregon. 1Q23=first quarter of 2023

    In Oregon, biofuels made up about one-quarter of the transportation distillate fuel consumed in 3Q24, with renewable diesel making up about twice the share of biodiesel. Like in California, the share of biofuels in Oregon was down from 2Q24, when biofuels made up one-third of the state’s transportation distillate fuel supply. In Washington, during 2Q24, about 20% of the transportation distillate fuel consumed in the state was biofuels, with more than 15% coming from renewable diesel.

    Principal contributor: Jimmy Troderman

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: New Treatment Improves Bovine IVF

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    Up until the 1950s, scientists were scratching their heads trying to figure out why their experiments using perfectly healthy eggs and sperm to develop in-vitro fertilization (IVF) were unsuccessful.

    Then, they made a critical discovery — sperm capacitation.

    Maria Gracia Gervasi, assistant professor of animal science in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, is an expert on sperm capacitation and the application of assisted reproductive technologies such as IVF in rodent and bovine species. She is part of a team that recently developed a new method for sperm capacitation that makes bovine IVF more effective.

    Sperm capacitation is a set of processes mammalian sperm need to undergo while they are inside the female reproductive system before they can fertilize an egg.

    During capacitation, a series of molecular pathways are activated that cause the sperm to move differently, known as “hyperactive motility.” The sperm needs to be moving this way to successfully penetrate an egg to fertilize it. There are also changes to the sperm head that expose the part of the sperm that fuses with the egg during fertilization.

    The discovery of capacitation enabled the development of IVF technology, revolutionizing human and animal reproduction.

    Gervasi is part of a group of collaborators that published their findings in Theriogenology. Claudia E. Osycka-Salut, a researcher from the Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnologicas (IIBio-UNSAM-CONICET), Buenos Aires is the first author on the paper.

    In Gervasi’s previous lab, they worked on a study showing that using a calcium ionophore – a kind of chemical that binds to and help transport ions – improved sperm capacitation in mice. This led her to wonder if it would work in bovine species as well.

    When bovine sperm are capacitated in the laboratory, scientists put them in a medium containing calcium, bicarbonate, a protein called bovine serum albumin, and heparin.

    “All of these components are required for sperm capacitation in bovine species and IVF,” Gervasi says.

    When Gervasi and her team introduced the calcium ionophore, it increased calcium levels in the medium. This caused the sperm to stop moving. Then, when the researchers washed the calcium out of the medium, the sperm started moving again with hyperactive motility – indicating they had induced capacitation.

    In this study, they found that the ionophore achieved similar results as traditional IVF procedures without heparin.

    However, when they then tested the ionophore with heparin, there were significant improvements in fertilization rates and embryo development.

    The fertilization rate for sperm treated with the ionophore was 83%, compared to 70% in the untreated group. The rate of fertilized eggs that developed into embryos increased from 11% to 27%.

    “The difference is just adding this little sperm treatment before using it for IVF,” Gervasi says.

    This approach could have a significant impact on the bovine industry in the U.S. and globally as IVF is an increasingly popular method for breeding cattle. This is because it is much easier to take semen from a bull with characteristics a farmer wants to introduce into a herd and ship that semen or embryos rather than having to move the bull around.

    “The application of our treatment for in-vitro production to improve the capacitation and fertilization could have a huge impact on the industry because we could double the number of embryos,” Gervasi says. “It’s a big improvement.”

    This treatment could also improve fertilization and embryo development rates for cryogenically preserved semen that has already been sexed. The process of sexing the semen damages the sperm, leading to reduced fertilization rates.

    “Being able to test our treatment with those sperm would also be very applicable to what industry is using nowadays,” Gervasi says.

    Gervasi will follow up this work by seeing if embryos produced from sperm treated with the ionophore remain more successful than those produced without the ionophore once implanted in an animal.

    Gervasi is currently working on a separate sperm treatment that could be combined with the ionophore treatment to bolster the improvements demonstrated in this study. She is also interested in analyzing the genetic quality of the embryos produced using these treatments.

    “My lab here at UConn is focused on understanding how sperm and sperm treatments during capacitation can influence not only fertilization, but post-fertilization events like embryo development,” Gervasi says. “So, I will definitely be focusing a lot on embryo quality and what is the sperm bringing to it.”

    This work was supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive #2022-67016-36302 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

    This work relates to CAHNR’s Strategic Vision area focused on Ensuring a Vibrant and Sustainable Agricultural Industry and Food Supply.

    Follow UConn CAHNR on social media

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Puppetry Exhibition Showcases Photographic Work of UConn Alum, 60 Years of Puppet Arts

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    The lens of Richard Termine’s camera frames the performers before him like the decorative proscenium around a stage, in a view the award-winning photographer says is both wonderful and challenging to capture.

    Termine says he considers himself a partner to the performers, moving in a dance around them, anticipating their next move, as he clicks his way to capturing the moments of life and emotion they convey.

    A Middletown native and double UConn alum, he started studying the dramatic arts as an elementary student who went to the library to learn more after seeing a marionette performance of “Rigoletto,” he says.

    “It just blew me away. It was transformative,” Termine ’75 (SFA), ’78 MFA says of that school assembly. “When I go to the theater … I want to go to worlds and places I haven’t been, and puppetry is No. 1 on the list that does that for me.”

    Jim Henson, left, and Brian Henson taught a three-week International Workshop in Puppetry for Film and Television during the summer of 1987 at the Institut International de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mezières, France. Termine went along as Jim Henson’s teaching assistant and also photo documented the event. (Photo courtesy of Richard Termine)

    A one-time puppet designer, puppet builder, and puppet director, Termine lists name-brand shows on his resume including “Sesame Street” and readily talks about knowing the famed duo Jim Henson and Frank Oz. He discovered photography in the late 1970s at the suggestion of a friend.

    Today, he lists the New York Times and Village Voice, along with Time, Newsweek, and People among his credits. Yet, even after decades in the business, Termine says he still marvels at the power of puppets and their performers.

    “I’m standing on their shoulders in terms of my art form, and I’m the interpreter of what’s in front of me,” he says. “What I love about this is I’m transformed when I’m working. … When I’m in the moment, it’s exhilarating.”

    Visitors to the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry will have a chance to see just what Termine sees when he puts his eye to the camera. Its latest exhibition, “American Puppet Theater Today: The Photography of Richard Termine,” includes 151 of his images.

    The show, courtesy of The Jim Henson Foundation, was created in 2019 for display in France and since has seen five iterations including at exhibitions in Chicago, New York City, Montreal, and College Park, Maryland. Its Connecticut show in Storrs is on display until May 11.

    From Marionette and Shadow to Rod and Hand

    Foundation President Cheryl Henson, curator of the exhibition and daughter of renowned puppeteer Jim Henson, uses words like “play, magic, imagination, and creativity” when talking about the importance of puppetry and its value in the world today.

    “Puppetry brings out all of these really essential parts of being human,” she says.

    While the Muppet style her father made famous on shows like “Sesame Street” might have the broadest reach of any style – the show featuring Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and Elmo has aired in 124 countries – she says the accessibility of the myriad puppet styles is what gives puppetry “infinite potential.”

    Much of that variety can be seen in “American Puppet Theater,” with Henson describing the show as “a celebration of what puppetry can do.”

    During a recent tour of the exhibition, Termine points out a 2011 photograph of Jim Rose, a marionette fabrication teaching artist, and says it’s among his favorites. The image is simple: a puppeteer fiddling with the cross brace of a marionette, tugging at a string that lifts the puppet’s head in a loving gaze toward its handler.

    Henson notes that thanks to UConn’s John Bell, director of the Ballard, and Emily Wicks, the museum’s operations and collections manager, the exhibition has 15 puppets on display alongside Termine’s photographs.

    She walks toward the first, which greets those entering the exhibition, a direct-manipulation puppet named Disfarmer – a small bald man with glasses – adjusting the back of a Depression-era camera draped in a dark cloth. It’s one of six versions made for a 2009 production about photographer Mike Disfarmer.

    Another puppet, this one with a political message, is poised in the back corner of the Ballard. It’s a toy theater with a black proscenium adorned with four ornate butterflies from the performing company Great Small Works. Next to it, Termine notes, is a 2010 photograph depicting a performing John Bell; his wife, Trudi Cohen; and Jenny Romaine.

    The Blue Fairy from the opera “La Bella Dormente Nel Bosco” swoops through the air in the opposite corner, while a couple of Punch and Judy-style hand puppets get some laughs long after their 2009 adult-only performance of “The Punch and Jimmy Show.”

    While the exhibition features mostly puppets outside the Muppet style, Termine says the show reflects the impact Jim Henson, who died in 1990, and his Foundation have had on the puppetry world.

    Puppet Arts Program: A Diamond Year

    The Jim Henson Foundation, founded by its namesake in 1982, is devoted to cultivating the work of American puppeteers and has provided support for more than 1,300 projects from more than 350 artists in that time.

    “When we look at [this exhibition], these are artists that have been supported by the Foundation, creating their own work, finding their own voices in this rich art form,” Termine, Foundation vice president, says. “It’s right here, and that’s what makes this special.”

    Puppeteer Basil Twist performs with Stickman at a reception in June 2021 at Upper Penthouse, Central Park South, New York City. (Photo courtesy of Richard Termine)

    “One of the things my dad really loved about puppetry is how much the different puppeteers loved watching each other’s work and how they’d get so excited about somebody else’s brilliance,” Henson adds.

    Say a name related to the puppet community and Termine and Henson can explain the loop of how that person is connected to this person and the next. It’s a community, they say, and many in it have UConn ties.

    Termine’s mother once met Carol Thompson ’68 (SFA), ’78 MA, a student of renowned UConn professor Frank Ballard, who introduced Termine to the famed puppeteer in 1970 when he was doing a production of “The Love for Three Oranges” at UConn.

    The friend who nudged Termine in the late 1970s to take up photography was the late Manchester-native-turned-Emmy-nominated puppet designer Jan (Rosenthal) Stefura ’77 (SFA), who built Mokey Fraggle on “Fraggle Rock,” among others.

    Termine’s MFA class included Bart Roccoberton Jr. ’90 MFA, who heads UConn’s Puppet Arts Program, and his teachers included the late Jerry Rojo, the former dramatic arts professor who designed the black box Mobius Theater in the Drama/Music building.

    With deep connections in the puppet world, UConn’s Puppet Arts Program celebrates its 60th anniversary this year with a special section of the exhibition dedicated to that achievement.

    It’s “a leader” in the industry, Termine says, so much so that several years ago, when a couple of UConn women’s basketball players visited the set of “Sesame Street,” most of crew sported their UConn garb to share their school pride.

    The same sense of delight swelled in Termine when he visited the Ballard Museum in Downtown Storrs recently for the exhibition’s opening: “To come back here and to share what I started,” he said, trailing off in thought. “Thanks to the Henson family and to my training here at UConn.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Getting a Foot Up on Production Simulation and Streamlining

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    A creative collaboration between UConn’s Connecticut Manufacturing Simulation Center (CMSC) and ZANEEZ® Health in Glastonbury, Conn., is focusing on virtual prototyping of an innovative foot and ankle platform made from advanced thermoplastic polymers. This process reduces the time and cost associated with multiple rounds of physical testing, optimizing structural integrity and product performance before physical production begins.

    “AnkleSTONE®, developed by ZANEEZ® Health, represents a significant advancement in orthopedic rehabilitation devices,” says Jeongho Kim, principal investigator and CMSC director, and also a professor for the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Manufacturing Engineering. “This partnership with CMSC allows our team to provide advanced technical expertise and simulation capabilities to enhance product development.

    “At CMSC,” Kim explains, “we have the tools and computational resources to assist companies like ZANEEZ® in overcoming limitations in physical prototyping. Our partnership enables them to analyze critical load capacities and structural performance, for example, helping refine the AnkleSTONE® design for maximum effectiveness and resilience.”

    The AnkleSTONE® team includes, from left, Jake Crane (strategic advisor, CONNSTEP), Dan Tangari, Marien Zanyk, and Jeongho Kim.

    Supported by the U.S. Economic Development Administration, CMSC provides technical assistance at no cost to small- and medium-sized manufacturers in Connecticut, fostering innovation and economic development in the state. The center offers a suite of high-performance computing-based modeling and simulation services, enabling companies to replace costly physical prototypes with virtual simulations that streamline the development process.

    Many small businesses, Kim adds, lack the specialized resources required for intensive prototyping. The center’s physics-based modeling and virtual prototyping approach, he says, allows companies like ZANEEZ® to develop cost-effective solutions efficiently.

    CMSC’s staff is currently engaged in virtual prototyping of the AnkleSTONE® foot and ankle platform, made from advanced thermoplastic polymers. This process reduces the time and cost associated with multiple rounds of physical testing, optimizing structural integrity and product performance before physical production begins.

    “Research and support from CMSC has made our development process more efficient, saving a tremendous amount of time and expense versus physical prototyping and destructive testing,” says Dan Tangari, a lead designer from Spark Design LLC, working with ZANEEZ®. Spark, Tangari explains, works with a diverse group of clients to help develop innovative products from initial concept through production.

    CMSC, says Tangari, has been assisting Marien Zanyk, ZANEEZ® founder and CEO, in refining her AnkleSTONE® product for injection molding. “This requires accounting for complex loads and stress that the product will encounter during use,” he explains. “This type of analysis is outside the scope of our capabilities. Partnering with Dr. Kim and CMSC was an invaluable step in the development process.”

    The Engineering Science Building houses the Connecticut Manufacturing Simulation Center (Sean Flynn/UConn Photo)

    Through Kim’s advanced structural analysis of the AnkleSTONE® product, potential weak areas were identified in the design for typical use-case scenarios, Tangari continues. “Our combined team was able to meet virtually at regular intervals to review new findings based on the latest simulations. This virtual prototyping provided insights that guided our design improvements, allowing us to iterate faster, and make much more informed decisions during CAD refinement. The collaboration between ZANEEZ® and CMSC allows us to feel confident moving forward that we have a proven design that is ready for production.”

    Since its inception in 2016, CMSC has collaborated with over 50 businesses, training more than 350 professionals, 2,400 UConn students, and 24 community students.  Other CMSC projects include partnerships with Aero Gear, PCX Aerospace, and Advanced Manufacturing LLC, focusing on complex simulation and optimization for Connecticut’s manufacturing sector.

    Located at the Engineering Science Building on UConn’s Storrs campus, CMSC continues to support the state’s manufacturing industry with cutting-edge computational tools and research. For more information, visit CMSC’s website or LinkedIn page.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: United States Attorney Gary M. Restaino Completes His Service to the Department of Justice

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    PHOENIX, Ariz. – The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona announced that United States Attorney Gary M. Restaino has completed his service to the Department, effective yesterday.

    Mr. Restaino was informed of his termination in a communication from the White House.  As a Presidential appointee, Mr. Restaino is subject to removal from office in the discretion of the sitting President.  The White House thanked him for his service to the United States.

    “Getting the opportunity to lead an Office in which I have worked for many years has been energizing,” said U.S. Attorney Restaino. “I am grateful to President Biden for the appointment, to Senators Kelly and Sinema for their support of my nomination, and to Attorney General Garland for his stewardship of the Department of Justice. And most of all I am thankful for our people here in Arizona – the dedicated prosecutors, victim advocates and administrative professionals at the United States Attorney’s Office, as well as the agents, analysts, and accountants at our federal law enforcement agencies – who work collaboratively and collegially with state and local partners and leaders of underserved communities to make Arizona a better and safer place.”

    Since 2021 the Office has continued its strong efforts at border security, enhanced violent crime prosecutions and increased civil rights prosecutions and interventions.

    Border Security

    Violent Crime Prosecutions

    Civil Rights

    Mr. Restaino became United States Attorney in November 2021 after 20 years of service as a federal employee, including two years in the Peace Corps in Paraguay and 18 years as an Assistant United States Attorney here in Arizona. During his tenure, Mr. Restaino served on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, advising Attorney General Garland on matters of policy, procedure, and management, and also elevating the voices of the U.S. Attorney community in Washington. In addition, for nearly 90 days in the spring and summer of 2022, and at the direction of President Biden, Mr. Restaino served the women and men of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as their Acting Director, pending the confirmation of the agency’s nominee.

    Pursuant to the Vacancy Reform Act, career prosecutor and First Assistant United States Attorney Rachel C. Hernandez currently serves as the Acting United States Attorney for the District.

    The United States Attorney’s Office represents the interests of the United States in criminal and civil cases in federal court in Arizona, coordinates the efforts of its federal law enforcement partners, advocates for the rights of victims, and enhances and strengthens communities through dialogue, outreach, and engagement. The Office currently has approximately 180 Assistant United States Attorneys and approximately 160 additional administrative professionals spread between two large offices in Phoenix and Tucson, and two smaller branch offices in Yuma and Flagstaff.
     

    RELEASE NUMBER:    2025-018_Departure of United States Attorney Gary M. Restaino

    # # #

    For more information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/az/
    Follow the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, on X @USAO_AZ for the latest news.

     

    2025-018_Departure of United States Attorney Gary M. Restaino

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How to be happy with what you have – and avoid the trap of comparison

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Joshua Forstenzer, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Co-Director of the Centre for Engaged Philosophy, University of Sheffield

    Alphavector/Shutterstock

    In many ways, I feel like we shouldn’t be happy with what we have. We live in a world of tremendous inequality and cruelty, running towards an environmental wall. Not just that, but some of the best people I know are chronic persistors: they know how not to accept the unacceptable.

    But we also live in an economy that profits from and purposefully generates private feelings of lack, want, comparison and envy. Somewhat counter-intuitively, this envy often spurs on the feelings of lack and want, rather than the other way around. This is the genius of advertising: to generate “perceived” (aka fake) needs. I see someone living a “good” life – exciting, sexy, creative – and now I want what they have: the shoes, watch, holiday, you name it.

    Envy requires comparison. And comparison requires a scale by which to rank ourselves. Popular culture offers quite a few. Being the object of sexual desire (think of “matches” on dating apps) for example, or digital social connectivity (think of “followers” or “likes”). These can all play a role in shaping your sense of personal success or failure.

    Ready to make a change? The Quarter Life Glow-up is a new, six-week newsletter course from The Conversation’s UK and Canada editions.

    Every week, we’ll bring you research-backed advice and tools to help improve your relationships, your career, your free time and your mental health – no supplements or skincare required. Sign up here to start your glow-up at any time.

    Sometimes, these are presented in a unified pseudo-metric of success. Take for example the idea of a “high-value man”. The parts of the internet that use the concept tend to celebrate having money, a wide social network and being useful to others. This often veers into celebrating material wealth and superficial self improvement as the path to success and sexual attractiveness. The viral TikTok song I’m Looking for a Man in Finance is an only mildly exaggerated spoof of this ideal.

    The implicit assumption is that having more “good things” than others means being more valuable as a person. But behind this there are a host of hidden assumptions – not least that you can “own” the genuinely valuable things in life (as opposed to being them).

    These hidden assumptions usually reveal deep seated shame – the feeling that you are not enough as you are. And that you are not entitled to set the parameters that define the success or failure of your own life.

    Feeling bad about yourself is not always unhealthy. A healthy negative feeling lets you know if you have done something wrong, or acted in a manner that does not meet your own moral standards. This feeling calls for you to change your ways.

    Shame can be very psychologically painful.
    Alphavector/Shutterstock

    The unhealthy feeling, that I am calling “shame”, is not merely the feeling of embarrassment or moral doubt. Rather, it is (to follow vulnerability researcher Brené Brown’s definition) “the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging”.

    This feeling is so psychologically painful that you may reflexively do all you can to remain unaware of it. This denial means that you can start to see your own critical inner voice (itself shaped by past negative experiences) as animated by an “objective” social reality, telling you not just that you’re failing, but that you are a failure. This is often called “projection”.

    Other times, when you can bear to consciously feel this emotion, you may seek to negotiate with it and offer remedial actions to the universe to make up for recurrent feelings of worthlessness. In darker times still, shame can overtake your whole life, paralysing you and creeping into the quietest parts of your private self.

    How to combat shame and be happy with what you have

    Shame can be a remarkably sticky emotion. Identifying and interrogating it can be helpful. Working on revising how you understand your self and your relationship to others can also help. The options are many, but for the sake of illustration here are three that speak to me.

    1. Stoicism

    Stoics believed that your essential nature is stable and the project of life is to fulfil this nature and flourish. When making judgments, people ascribe value to an imagined state of affairs (“it would be really great if I were thinner”) and a belief that a specific course of action will make it a reality (“going without chocolate will return the figure I had in my teens”).

    A stoic approach means connecting with your community.
    Alphavector/Shutterstock

    Both of these can be false, because the things you desire can actually be bad for you, and you have less control over the future than you tend to think. Stoics thought people should try to get the relationship between their emotional state and the goods they pursue into harmony, seeking self-mastery in order to flourish.

    To this end, stoic ethics demand that you recognise and cultivate habits that put you in touch with your own nature within the wider world – starting from the self, expanding to the family, the community, the state, humanity and ultimately the cosmos.

    2. Existentialism

    In contrast, existentialism requires paying attention to the lack of any ultimate purpose in human life. No one thing can ever fully define who you are. Your capacity to reinvent yourself, to value something new, to start a fresh project, is yours alone.

    Existentialists define life’s meaning for themselves.
    Alphavector/Shutterstock

    The empty feeling of meaninglessness you sometimes encounter when you have finally achieved a long sought after goal (like getting that big promotion) can be dizzying. But this feeling is a reminder of the fact that nothing in your nature demands that you achieve any one thing. It’s up to you.

    You must face authentically the fact that you are free and therefore responsible for your projects and the meaning you give to them.

    3. Humanistic psychotherapy

    A humanistic psychotherapeutic perspective offers a middle way. It invites you to look upon yourself with compassion, seeing yourself as complex, responsible and yet also imperfect and vulnerable, always involved in a richly evolving tapestry of relationships that ultimately gives meaning and purpose to your life.

    In humanistic psychotherapy, our relationships give life meaning.
    Alphavector/Shutterstock

    This means that relationships and the recognition you give and derive from them provide the only solid basis for confronting that most important question – “who am I?” – ultimately seeing you through your darkest times. But this means that you need these relationships to be genuine, kind and honest so that you can see yourself and others for the frail, evolving and unique individuals that we all are.

    Joshua Forstenzer’s work receives funding from the Yale Center for Faith and Culture as part of its Templeton-funded Life Worth Living project (https://lifeworthliving.yale.edu/). He is also a consultant to North Consulting as part of the LIFE Erasmus+ project (https://www.kmop.gr/projects-vf/news-life-worth-living/) which uses text-based pedagogic methods to facilitate wellbeing conversations about meaning and purpose with teachers and school leaders in five European countries.

    – ref. How to be happy with what you have – and avoid the trap of comparison – https://theconversation.com/how-to-be-happy-with-what-you-have-and-avoid-the-trap-of-comparison-235476

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Video: A COMMITTMENT like no other! | U.S. Army

    Source: US Army (video statements)

    About the U.S. Army:

    The Army Mission – our purpose – remains constant: To deploy, fight and win our nation’s wars by providing ready, prompt & sustained land dominance by Army forces across the full spectrum of conflict as part of the joint force.

    Interested in joining the U.S. Army?
    Visit: spr.ly/6001igl5L

    Connect with the U.S. Army online:
    Web: https://www.army.mil
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/USarmy/
    X: https://www.twitter.com/USArmy
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/usarmy/
    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/us-army
    #USArmy #Soldiers #Military #Committment

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBCEuM6LcuE

    MIL OSI Video –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Mexican national admits intent to distribute cocaine following ICE investigation

    Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement

    CAMDEN, N.J. – A Mexican national admitted to trafficking cocaine and illegally reentering the United States after previously sustaining an aggravated felony conviction, following an investigation by ICE Homeland Security Investigations Newark.

    Anastacio Santiago Chaparro, aka Arnoldo Urquidez, 41, pleaded guilty to an indictment charging him with possession with intent to distribute cocaine and illegal reentry by a convicted felon, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey announced on Feb. 7.

    “Our collaboration with the DEA in this investigation thwarted this criminal alien’s plan to introduce a harmful amount of cocaine into New Jersey’s neighborhoods,” said ICE HSI Newark Special Agent in Charge Ricky J. Patel. “We are committed to keeping our communities safe by bringing drug traffickers to justice and holding them accountable for the violent crimes that often come with their illicit business.”

    According to the investigation, on Nov. 6, 2023, Santiago Chaparro was caught by law enforcement transporting a backpack that contained over 10 kilograms of cocaine. Santiago Chaparro admitted that the cocaine was intended for distribution. Additionally, Santiago Chaparro had been deported from the United States to Mexico three times and previously sustained a conviction for being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm, an aggravated felony.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI: Oxbridge / SurancePlus to Speak at RWA DAY During ETHDenver 2025

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    GRAND CAYMAN, Cayman Islands, Feb. 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Oxbridge Re Holdings Limited (Nasdaq: OXBR) (“Oxbridge Re”), together with its subsidiary SurancePlus, is engaged in the tokenization of Real-World Assets (“RWAs”), initially with tokenized reinsurance securities, and in providing reinsurance solutions to property and casualty insurers in the Gulf Coast region of the United States, announced today that CEO and Chairman Jay Madhu will be a featured speaker at RWA DAY during ETHDenver 2025, a premier event focused on Real-World Asset (RWA) tokenization, moderated by Adam Blumberg.

    Event Details: Oxbridge / SurancePlus CEO Jay Madhu and Adam Blumberg Fireside Chat
    Location: Hilton City Center, Denver, CO
    Date: Wednesday, February 26, 2025
    Time: 2:15 PM (MST)

    By using blockchain technology, SurancePlus transforms reinsurance contracts into decentralized, on-chain, tradable assets, offering uncorrelated, high-yield investment opportunities for investors, targeting a 20% and a 42% annual return.

    Fireside Chat Topics Include:

    • The impact of blockchain technology on the reinsurance industry
    • How decentralized tokenized reinsurance securities open new investment opportunities, with historical returns surpassing expectations and targeting annual returns of 20% and 42%.
    • The growth of RWAs and their integration into mainstream finance
    • Oxbridge’s strategic vision for expanding blockchain-based reinsurance solutions

    Jay Madhu, CEO of Oxbridge, commented, “I look forward to speaking at RWA DAY and discussing how SurancePlus is driving innovation in the reinsurance sector through decentralization and tokenization. Blockchain technology is transforming financial markets, and we are leading the way in bringing decentralized, institutional-grade RWA solutions to investors. Our tokenized reinsurance securities target annual returns of 20% and 42%.”

    Attendees at ETHDenver 2025 who are interested in learning more about Oxbridge / SurancePlus’ role in the RWA and blockchain space are encouraged to attend the session and connect with the team during the ETHDenver 2025 event.

    About Oxbridge Re Holdings Limited 

    Oxbridge Re Holdings Limited (NASDAQ: OXBR, OXBRW) (“Oxbridge”) is headquartered in the Cayman Islands. The company offers tokenized Real-World Assets (“RWAs”) as tokenized reinsurance securities and reinsurance business solutions to property and casualty insurers, through its wholly owned subsidiaries SurancePlus Inc., Oxbridge Re NS, and Oxbridge Reinsurance Limited.

    Insurance businesses in the Gulf Coast region of the United States purchase property and casualty reinsurance through our licensed reinsurers Oxbridge Reinsurance Limited and Oxbridge Re NS.

    Our Web3-focused subsidiary, SurancePlus Inc. (“SurancePlus”), has developed the first “on-chain” reinsurance RWA of its kind to be sponsored by a subsidiary of a publicly traded company. By digitizing interests in reinsurance contracts as on-chain RWAs, SurancePlus has democratized the availability of reinsurance as an alternative investment to both U.S. and non-U.S. investors. 

    Company Contact:
    Oxbridge Re Holdings Limited
    Jay Madhu, CEO
    +1 345-749-7570
    jmadhu@oxbridgere.com

    Forward-Looking Statements

    This press release may contain forward-looking statements made pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “project” and other similar words and expressions are intended to signify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and conditions but rather are subject to various risks and uncertainties. A detailed discussion of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from such forward-looking statements is included in the section entitled “Risk Factors” contained in our Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on 26th March 2024. The occurrence of any of these risks and uncertainties could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business, financial condition and results of operations. Any forward-looking statements made in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release and, except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement contained in this press release, even if the Company’s expectations or any related events, conditions or circumstances change.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Franklin Electric Reports Fourth Quarter 2024 and Full Year 2024 Results

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Fourth Quarter 2024 Highlights

    • Consolidated net sales of $485.7 million, an increase of 3% to the prior year
    • Energy Systems and Distribution net sales increased 5% and 6%, respectively, while Water Systems net sales were flat
    • Operating income was $43.0 million with operating margin of 8.9%
    • GAAP fully diluted earnings per share (EPS) was $0.72

    Full Year 2024 Highlights

    • Consolidated net sales of $2.0 billion, a decrease of 2% to the prior year
    • Distribution net sales increased 2%, while Water Systems and Energy Systems net sales decreased 2% and 8%, respectively
    • Operating income was $243.6 million with operating margin of 12.1%
    • GAAP fully diluted earnings per share (EPS) was $3.86
    • Cash flows from operating activities were $261.4 million

    FORT WAYNE, Ind., Feb. 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Franklin Electric Co., Inc. today announced its fourth quarter and full year financial results for fiscal year 2024.

    Fourth quarter 2024 net sales were $485.7 million, compared to fourth quarter 2023 net sales of $473.0 million. Fourth quarter 2024 operating income was $43.0 million, compared to fourth quarter 2023 operating income of $50.8 million. Fourth quarter 2024 EPS was $0.72, versus EPS in the fourth quarter 2023 of $0.82.

    Full year 2024 net sales were $2.0 billion, compared to full year 2023 net sales of $2.1 billion. Full year 2024 operating income was $243.6 million, compared to full year 2023 operating income of $262.4 million. Full year 2024 EPS was $3.86, versus EPS in the full year 2023 of $4.11.

    “The fourth quarter marked a solid finish to a challenging year. Our results were driven by strong performance in our newly renamed Energy Systems segment. While we have worked through the elevated post-COVID backlogs at this time, underlying demand remains healthy, and we continue to execute on productivity initiatives as we align our businesses with the more normalized environment,” commented Joe Ruzynski, Franklin Electric’s CEO.

    “Our resiliency is supported by the breadth of our global portfolio, which has proven to be a strategic asset as we closed out a year shaped by macroeconomic pressures. Order trends have improved, and with the support of a very healthy balance sheet, we are well-positioned to capitalize on opportunities in the year ahead. In 2025, our focus turns to driving revenue growth and margin expansion as we accelerate innovation and growth,” concluded Mr. Ruzynski.

    Segment Summaries

    Water Systems net sales were $279.6 million in the fourth quarter, flat compared to the fourth quarter 2023. Results were driven by higher sales of groundwater products, water treatment products and all other surface products. These sales increases were offset by lower sales of large dewatering pumps, which had a record fourth quarter last year. Water Systems operating income in the fourth quarter 2024 was $35.6 million. Fourth quarter 2023 Water Systems operating income was $44.1 million.

    Distribution net sales were $157.2 million, an increase of $9.2 million or 6 percent compared to the fourth quarter 2023. Sales increases were driven by higher volumes and the incremental impact from a recent acquisition. The Distribution segment operating income in the fourth quarter 2024 was $0.5 million. Fourth quarter 2023 Distribution operating income was $1.0 million.

    Energy Systems net sales were $68.8 million in the fourth quarter 2024, an increase of $3.1 million or 5 percent compared to the fourth quarter 2023. Sales increases were driven by higher volumes and price realization. Energy Systems operating income in the fourth quarter 2024 was a record for any fourth quarter at $24.7 million. Fourth quarter 2023 Energy Systems operating income was $19.4 million. The Company has changed the name of the Fueling Systems segment to Energy Systems to reflect its diverse portfolio and growth strategy, as well as to better reflect the markets and customers served by the segment.

    Cash Flow

    The Company ended 2024 with a cash balance of $220.5 million, an increase of $135.5 million compared to the end of 2023. Net cash flows from operating activities for 2024 were $261.4 million versus $315.7 million in the same period in 2023. Cash flow in 2023 benefitted from actions the Company took to improve working capital including inventory reductions as its supply chain resiliency and lead times improved during the year.

    2024 Guidance

    The Company expects its full year 2025 sales including the impact of its recently announced acquisitions to be in the range of $2.09 billion to $2.15 billion and full year 2025 EPS to be in the range of $4.05 to $4.25.

    Earnings Conference Call

    A conference call to review earnings and other developments in the business will commence at 9:00 am ET. The fourth quarter 2024 earnings call will be available via a live webcast. The webcast will be available in a listen only mode by going to:

    https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/9jnstij5

    For those interested in participating in the question-and-answer portion of the call, please register for the call at the link below.

    https://register.vevent.com/register/BI4b232e4ceea6435ba8f046e92e18e563

    All registrants will receive dial-in information and a PIN allowing them to access the live call. It is recommended that you join 10 minutes prior to the event start (although you may register and dial in at any time during the call).

    A replay of the conference call will be available from Tuesday, February 18, 2025, through 9:00 am ET on Tuesday, February 25, 2025, by visiting the listen-only webcast link above.

    Forward Looking Statements

    “Safe Harbor” Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any forward-looking statements contained herein, including those relating to market conditions or the Company’s financial results, costs, expenses or expense reductions, profit margins, inventory levels, foreign currency translation rates, liquidity expectations, business goals and sales growth, involve risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to, risks and uncertainties with respect to general economic and currency conditions, various conditions specific to the Company’s business and industry, weather conditions, new housing starts, market demand, competitive factors, changes in distribution channels, supply constraints, effect of price increases,  raw material costs, technology factors, integration of acquisitions, litigation, government and regulatory actions, the Company’s accounting policies, future trends, epidemics and pandemics, and other risks which are detailed in the Company’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings, included in Item 1A of Part I of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2023, Exhibit 99.1 attached thereto and in Item 1A of Part II of the Company’s Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. These risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements made herein are based on information currently available, and the Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

    About Franklin Electric

    Franklin Electric is a global leader in the production and marketing of systems and components for the movement of water and energy. Recognized as a technical leader in its products and services, Franklin Electric serves customers around the world in residential, commercial, agricultural, industrial, municipal, and fueling applications. Franklin Electric is proud to be named in Newsweek’s lists of America’s Most Responsible Companies and Most Trustworthy Companies for 2024 and America’s Climate Leaders 2024 by USA Today.

    Franklin Electric Contact:

    Jeffery L. Taylor
    Franklin Electric Co., Inc.
    InvestorRelations@fele.com

     
    FRANKLIN ELECTRIC CO., INC. AND CONSOLIDATED SUBSIDIARIES
    CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME
    (Unaudited)
                   
    (In thousands, except per share amounts)              
                   
      Fourth Quarter Ended   Fiscal Year End
      December 31,   December 31,   December 31,   December 31,
      2024   2023   2024   2023
                   
    Net sales $ 485,745     $ 472,970     $ 2,021,341     $ 2,065,133  
                   
    Cost of sales   321,505       312,961       1,304,061       1,368,125  
                   
    Gross profit   164,240       160,009       717,280       697,008  
                   
    Selling, general, and administrative expenses   117,846       108,825       470,136       433,476  
                   
    Restructuring expense   3,360       356       3,499       1,091  
                   
    Operating income   43,034       50,828       243,645       262,441  
                   
    Interest expense   (1,339 )     (1,481 )     (6,319 )     (11,790 )
    Other income, net   630       1,831       1,339       3,696  
    Foreign exchange expense, net   (1,590 )     (4,026 )     (6,818 )     (12,124 )
                   
    Income before income taxes   40,735       47,152       231,847       242,223  
                   
    Income tax expense   6,443       8,322       50,238       47,489  
                   
    Net income $ 34,292     $ 38,830     $ 181,609     $ 194,734  
                   
    Less: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests   (637 )     (281 )     (1,300 )     (1,462 )
                   
    Net income attributable to Franklin Electric Co., Inc. $ 33,655     $ 38,549     $ 180,309     $ 193,272  
                   
    Income per share:              
    Basic $ 0.73     $ 0.83     $ 3.92     $ 4.17  
    Diluted $ 0.72     $ 0.82     $ 3.86     $ 4.11  
                   
    FRANKLIN ELECTRIC CO., INC. AND CONSOLIDATED SUBSIDIARIES
    CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
    (Unaudited)
           
    (In thousands)      
           
      December 31,   December 31,
      2024   2023
    ASSETS      
           
    Cash and cash equivalents $ 220,540     $ 84,963  
    Receivables (net)   226,826       222,418  
    Inventories   483,875       508,696  
    Other current assets   32,950       37,718  
    Total current assets   964,191       853,795  
           
    Property, plant, and equipment, net   223,566       229,739  
    Lease right-of-use Assets, net   62,637       57,014  
    Goodwill and other assets   570,212       587,574  
    Total assets $ 1,820,606     $ 1,728,122  
           
           
    LIABILITIES AND EQUITY      
           
    Accounts payable $ 157,046     $ 152,419  
    Accrued expenses and other current liabilities   139,989       104,949  
    Current lease liability   18,878       17,316  
    Current maturities of long-term debt and short-term borrowings   117,814       12,355  
    Total current liabilities   433,727       287,039  
           
    Long-term debt   11,622       88,056  
    Long-term lease liability   43,304       38,549  
    Income taxes payable non-current   –       4,837  
    Deferred income taxes   10,193       29,461  
    Employee benefit plans   29,808       35,973  
    Other long-term liabilities   22,118       33,914  
     
    Redeemable noncontrolling interest   1,224       1,145  
           
    Total equity   1,268,610       1,209,148  
    Total liabilities and equity $ 1,820,606     $ 1,728,122  
           
    FRANKLIN ELECTRIC CO., INC. AND CONSOLIDATED SUBSIDIARIES
    CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
    (Unaudited)
    (In thousands)      
           
      2024   2023
    Cash flows from operating activities:      
    Net income $ 181,609     $ 194,734  
    Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash flows from operating activities:      
    Depreciation and amortization   56,073       52,260  
    Non-cash lease expense   21,438       18,852  
    Share-based compensation   12,061       10,133  
    Other   (13,327 )     10,259  
    Changes in assets and liabilities:      
    Receivables   (17,045 )     19,150  
    Inventory   10,889       48,176  
    Accounts payable and accrued expenses   15,285       (23,085 )
    Operating leases   (21,129 )     (18,874 )
    Income taxes-U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act   (3,870 )     (2,902 )
    Other   19,369       7,007  
           
    Net cash flows from operating activities   261,353       315,710  
           
    Cash flows from investing activities:      
    Additions to property, plant, and equipment   (41,682 )     (41,415 )
    Proceeds from sale of property, plant, and equipment   1,182       1,494  
    Acquisitions and investments   (5,201 )     (34,831 )
    Other investing activities   73       463  
           
    Net cash flows from investing activities   (45,628 )     (74,289 )
           
    Cash flows from financing activities:      
    Net change in debt   29,235       (115,529 )
    Proceeds from issuance of common stock   7,204       9,193  
    Purchases of common stock   (61,041 )     (43,332 )
    Dividends paid   (46,876 )     (41,723 )
    Deferred payments for acquisitions   (2,591 )     (802 )
           
    Net cash flows from financing activities   (74,069 )     (192,193 )
           
    Effect of exchange rate changes on cash   (6,079 )     (10,055 )
    Net change in cash and cash equivalents   135,577       39,173  
    Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period   84,963       45,790  
    Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $ 220,540     $ 84,963  
           

    Key Performance Indicators: Net Sales Summary

      Net Sales For the Fourth Quarter
      United
    States    		 Latin Europe,
    Middle    		 Asia Total        
    (in millions) & Canada America East & Africa Pacific Water Energy** Distribution Other/Elims Consolidated
                       
    Q4 2023 $161.2   $46.6   $45.5   $26.3   $279.6   $65.7   $148.0   ($20.3 ) $473.0  
    Q4 2024 $158.5   $44.3   $49.7   $27.1   $279.6   $68.8   $157.2   ($19.9 ) $485.7  
    Change ($2.7 ) ($2.3 ) $4.2   $0.8   $0.0   $3.1   $9.2   $0.4   $12.7  
    % Change   -2 %   -5 %   9 %   3 %   0 %   5 %   6 %     3 %
                       
    Foreign currency translation, net* ($0.4 ) ($5.5 ) ($0.8 ) ($0.8 ) ($7.5 ) $0.0   $0.0     ($7.5 )
    % Change   0 %   -12 %   -2 %   -3 %   -3 %   0 %   0 %     2 %
                       
    Acquisitions $3.1   $0.0   $0.0   $0.0   $3.1   $0.0   $4.0     $7.1  
    % Change   2 %   0 %   0 %   0 %   1 %   0 %   3 %     2 %
                       
    Volume/Price ($5.4 ) $3.2   $5.0   $1.6   $4.4   $3.1   $5.2   $0.4   $13.1  
    % Change   -3 %   7 %   11 %   6 %   2 %   5 %   4 %   -2 %   3 %
                       
      Net Sales For the Full Year
      United
    States    		 Latin Europe,
    Middle    		 Asia Total        
    (in millions) & Canada America East & Africa Pacific Water Energy** Distribution Other/Elims Consolidated
                       
    FY 2023 $744.4   $174.2   $198.3   $86.8   $1,203.7   $296.5   $673.3   ($108.4 ) $2,065.1  
    FY 2024 $708.5   $170.9   $211.4   $93.2   $1,184.0   $273.7   $685.5   ($121.9 ) $2,021.3  
    Change ($35.9 ) ($3.3 ) $13.1   $6.4   ($19.7 ) ($22.8 ) $12.2   ($13.5 ) ($43.8 )
    % Change   -5 %   -2 %   7 %   7 %   -2 %   -8 %   2 %     -2 %
                       
    Foreign currency translation, net* ($0.9 ) ($9.7 ) ($6.3 ) ($2.4 ) ($19.3 ) $0.0   $0.0     ($19.3 )
    % Change   0 %   -6 %   -3 %   -3 %   -2 %   0 %   0 %     -1 %
                       
    Acquisitions $17.6   $0.0   $0.0   $0.0   $17.6   $0.0   $17.1     $34.7  
    % Change   2 %   0 %   0 %   0 %   1 %   0 %   3 %     2 %
                       
    Volume/Price ($52.6 ) $6.4   $19.4   $8.8   ($18.0 ) ($22.8 ) ($4.9 ) ($13.5 ) ($59.2 )
    % Change   -7 %   4 %   10 %   10 %   -1 %   -8 %   -1 %   12 %   -3 %
                       

    *The Company has presented local currency price increases used to offset currency devaluation in the Argentina and Turkey hyperinflationary economies within the foreign currency translation, net row above.
    ** Recognizing the Company’s diverse portfolio and growth strategy, it renamed its Fueling Systems segment to Energy Systems to better reflect the markets and customers served by this business.

    Key Performance Indicators: Operating Income and Margin Summary

    Operating Income and Margins          
    (in millions) For the Fourth Quarter 2024
      Water Energy Distribution Other/Elims Consolidated
    Operating Income / (Loss) $ 35.6   $ 24.7   $ 0.5   $ (17.8 ) $ 43.0  
    % Operating Income To Net Sales   12.7 %   35.9 %   0.3 %     8.9 %
               
    Operating Income and Margins          
    (in millions) For the Fourth Quarter 2023
      Water Energy Distribution Other/Elims Consolidated
    Operating Income / (Loss) $ 44.1   $ 19.4   $ 1.0   $ (13.7 ) $ 50.8  
    % Operating Income To Net Sales   15.8 %   29.5 %   0.7 %     10.7 %
               
    Operating Income and Margins          
    (in millions) For the Full Year of 2024
      Water Energy Distribution Other/Elims Consolidated
    Operating Income / (Loss) $ 197.9   $ 93.6   $ 24.3   $ (72.2 ) $ 243.6  
    % Operating Income To Net Sales   16.7 %   34.2 %   3.5 %     12.1 %
               
    Operating Income and Margins          
    (in millions) For the Full Year of 2023
      Water Energy Distribution Other/Elims Consolidated
    Operating Income / (Loss) $ 196.6   $ 92.7   $ 34.3   $ (61.2 ) $ 262.4  
    % Operating Income To Net Sales   16.3 %   31.3 %   5.1 %     12.7 %
               

    The MIL Network –