NewzIntel.com

Category: Americas

  • MIL-OSI Security: Canadian Citizen Charged With Aerial Photography Of Defense Installation

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    Orlando, Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces the filing of a criminal information charging Xiao Guang Pan (71, Canada) with three counts of using an unmanned aircraft to photograph vital defense installations and equipment without authorization. If convicted, Pan faces a maximum penalty of one year in federal prison on each count. 

    According to the criminal information, Pan used an unmanned aircraft to photograph vital defense installations and equipment at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base. On three separate days in January 2025, Pan took aerial photographs of Space Launch complexes, a payload processing facility, a submarine wharf, and munitions bunkers. Taking unauthorized photographs of vital defense installations or equipment is prohibited under federal law. 

    An information is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

    This case is being investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with valuable assistance from the Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Air Marshals Service, the NASA Office of Inspector General, and the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Richard Varadan.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Conover Company Settles Allegations Related To Receiving An Improper Paycheck Protection Program Loan

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Taiji Group USA, Inc. (Taiji Group), a paper converter in Conover, N.C., has agreed to pay $460,395.09, to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by knowingly providing false information to apply for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan to which the company was not entitled, announced Lawrence J. Cameron, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.

    Congress created the PPP in March 2020 as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, to provide forgivable loans to small businesses struggling to pay employees and other expenses. In 2021, Congress offered a second round of forgivable PPP loans through the Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act. When applying for PPP loans, borrowers were required to certify the truthfulness and accuracy of all information provided in their loan applications.

    In March 2021, Taiji Group applied for a second round PPP loan and certified that it was eligible to receive the loan. Among other certifications, Taiji Group certified that no “entity created in or organized under the laws of the People’s Republic of China” owned or held 20 percent or more of the economic interest in Taiji Group. The company also certified that it did not retain, as a member of its board of directors, a person who was a resident of the People’s Republic of China. At the time of its application, however, both of these certifications were allegedly false. For this reason, Taiji Group was not eligible for the $271,165 second round PPP loan that it received. After receiving the PPP loan, Taiji Group sought and received forgiveness of the total amount of the loan.

    “PPP loans were a lifeline for many businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Cameron. “Ineligible businesses that improperly obtained federal aid loans harmed the taxpayers who funded these programs and reduced the resources available for businesses that were eligible to receive assistance. Our office is committed to rooting out fraud and holding accountable businesses that wrongfully benefited from these federal programs.”

    This matter arose from a lawsuit filed under the qui tam or whistleblower provision of the False Claims Act, which permits private parties, called relators, to file suit on behalf of the United States for false claims and share in a portion of the government’s recovery. The qui tam case is captioned United States of America ex rel. Sidesolve, LLC, v. Taiji Group USA, Inc., W.D.N.C. Case No. 5:24-cv-98.

    The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth Johnson.

    Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

    The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only. There has been no determination of liability. 

     

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Warren Statement on Senate Republicans Confirming RFK Jr. for HHS Secretary

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts – Elizabeth Warren
    February 13, 2025
    Washington, D.C. – Following Senate Republicans voting to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released the following statement:
    “Putting Kennedy in charge of the nation’s public health is a huge mistake. When dangerous diseases resurface and people can’t access lifesaving vaccines, all Americans will suffer. And thanks to his serious, unresolved conflicts of interest, RFK Jr.’s family could continue getting richer from his anti-vaccine crusade while he’s in office.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Resilience, Adaptation to Climate Change Must Be at Centre of Decolonization Talks, Secretary-General Says, as Special Committee Begins Annual Session

    Source: United Nations MIL OSI b

    Decolonization is not the end of a journey, but the first step on a new path, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said today as the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples began its 2025 Session.

    Opening the session, Mr. Guterres — speaking via a message delivered by Courtney Rattray, his Chef de Cabinet — pointed out that even after achieving decolonization, countries still need to grapple with the legacies of being oppressed, which range from chronic institutional underinvestment to profound imbalances and discrimination.  He also recalled how liberation movements in Portuguese colonies transformed societies, adding that decolonization has been one of the defining causes of his own political journey.

    The path to decolonization requires collaboration between Non-Self-Governing Territories, administering Powers and Member States, he said, calling for more dialogue and constructive discussions.  “Resilience and adaption need to be at the heart” of these discussions, he said, because most Non-Self-Governing Territories are small islands at the front line of the climate crisis.

    Menissa Rambally (Saint Lucia), who was re-elected as Chair for this session, noted that 2025 marks the midpoint of the fourth International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism. “Let us move forward with determination and unity, inspired by the resilience and aspirations of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories,” she said.  Recalling the Special Committee’s visiting mission to the British Virgin Islands in August 2024, she thanked the United Kingdom and the Government and people of the British Virgin Islands for their cooperation.

    Timor-Leste to Host Regional Seminar

    She also thanked the Government and people of Timor-Leste for their willingness to host this year’s regional seminar.  The Committee then approved the Government of that country as host of the 2025 Pacific regional seminar from 21 to 23 May in Dili, while noting that the seminar is traditionally held to coincide with the annual observance of the Week of Solidarity with the Peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories — 25 to 31 May.

    The Special Committee also heard from the representative of Timor-Leste, who said he was “deeply honoured by the trust” vested in his country.  It not merely an honour, but a responsibility, as well, he said, welcoming it as a recognition of his nation’s resilience.  “We stand ready to provide a nurturing and inspiring environment for dialogue, reflection and strategic planning,” he said, noting that preparations are underway.  Noting that wisdom and patience are needed for transformative change, he looked forward to the day when decolonization is not just a goal but a lived reality.

    Report of Visiting Mission to British Virgin Islands

    The Chair then introduced the report of the visiting mission to the British Virgin Islands (document A/AC.109/2025/20), noting that it was held from 26 to 27 August 2024, and included meetings with a broad range of civil society representatives.  Highlighting the “exceptional dialogue” with territorial Government, the people of the Territory and the administering Power, she said that the mission identified a need for improved education on decolonization so that the people can make informed decisions about their future.  The mission also noted a growing consensus to advance the decolonization process, she said, adding that the United Kingdom and United Nations remain essential to facilitating this.

    The representative of Antigua and Barbuda also recalled the visiting mission and described it as “a major step in giving a voice to the islanders”.  Highlighting the relationship between the British Virgin Islands and his country, as well as the wider Caribbean community, he noted that the mission met with a wide cross-section of the Islands’ population.  Many people expressed the need for developing self-Government arrangements and shared openly about the process that would be required.  “They are aware of the challenge ahead” and they know what they need, he said, stressing the need for continued engagement between the British Virgin Islands and the United Kingdom.

    The representatives of Papua New Guinea and Iraq welcomed the recommendations in the report of the visiting mission, while Saint Lucia’s delegate noted the role of education in promoting self-determination.

    Committee Members Reaffirm Commitment to Decolonization

    Committee members, including the representatives of Syria, Bolivia, India and Sierra Leone, also took the opportunity to reaffirm commitment to decolonization.  The representative of Indonesia, recalling the Bandung Conference of 1955, held in his country, underscored the need to avoid a “one-size-fits-all approach”.

    Cuba’s delegate expressed support for self-determination for “the brotherly people of Puerto Rico”.  Though colonialism was abolished practically everywhere in the second half of the twentieth century, it prevails in new modes, he pointed out.  Nicaragua’s delegate called for more extensive participation from Non-Self-Governing Territories in the regional seminars.

    Fiji’s delegate said the prime consideration in self-determination is the will of the people.  “If we look at recent history, in the last 65 years,” he said, it is clear that it is more important to enable Non-Self-Governing Territories to be self-governing “and then we help them”.  The process of helping them meet the conditions for self-determination is not going to work, he cautioned, stressing that the process should be driven by “the determination of the human beings involved.”

    Committee Elects Bureau and Approve Work Programme

    Also today, the Special Committee elected its Bureau by acclamation, electing Ernesto Soberón Guzmán (Cuba), Hari Prabowo (Indonesia) and Michael Imran Kanu (Sierra Leone) as Vice-Chairs.  Koussay Aldahhak (Syria) was re-elected as Rapporteur.

    Members also approved their “Organization of work: relevant resolutions and decisions of the General Assembly” (document A/AC.109/2025/L.1) and tentative work programme and timetable (document A/AC.109/2025/L.2), as orally revised.

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Dominican Man Sentenced to Prison for Illegal Reentry

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    BOSTON – A Dominican man, living in Methuen, was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for illegally reentering the United States after deportation.

    Santos Guzman, 56, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper to two years in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. Guzman is subject to deportation upon completion of his sentence. In November 2024, Guzman pleaded guilty to illegal reentry after being indicted by a federal grand jury in December 2021.

    Guzman is a citizen of the Dominican Republic who entered the United States at an unknown date and unknown location. Guzman was convicted in 2019 of two state drug trafficking crimes and, in November 2019, was ordered removed from the United States. On Jan. 7, 2020, he was deported to the Dominican Republic. Thereafter, at an unknown time and place, Guzman reentered the United States and in November 2021, was arrested on a state drug trafficking offense. A copy of his fingerprint from his removal document was compared to his fingerprint taken in connection with his November 2021 arrest and they were identical to each other.

    United States Attorney Leah B. Foley Patricia H. Hyde, Acting Field Office Director, Boston, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations; and Methuen Police Chief Scott J. McNamara made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Suzanne Sullivan Jacobus of the Major Crimes Unit prosecuted the case. 
     

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Enzymes are the engines of life − machine learning tools could help scientists design new ones to tackle disease and climate change

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Sam Pellock, Postdoctoral Scholar in Biochemistry, University of Washington

    Enzymes have complicated molecular structures that are hard to replicate. Design Cells/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    Enzymes are molecular machines that carry out the chemical reactions that sustain all life, an ability that has captured the attention of scientists like me.

    Consider muscle movement. Your body releases a molecule called acetylcholine to trigger your muscle cells to contract. If acetylcholine sticks around for too long, it can paralyze your muscles – including your heart muscle cells – and, well, that’s that. This is where the enzyme acetylcholinesterase comes in. This enzyme can break down thousands of acetylcholine molecules per second to ensure muscle contraction is stopped, paralysis avoided and life continued. Without this enzyme, it would take a month for a molecule of acetylcholine to break down on its own – about 10 billion times slower.

    You can imagine why enzymes are of particular interest to scientists looking to solve modern problems. What if there were a way to break down plastic, capture carbon dioxide or destroy cancer cells as fast as acetylcholinesterase breaks down acetylcholine? If the world needs to take action quickly, enzymes are a compelling candidate for the job – if only researchers could design them to handle those challenges on demand.

    Designing enzymes, unfortunately, is very hard. It’s like working with an atom-sized Lego set, but the instructions were lost and the thing won’t hold together unless it’s assembled perfectly. Newly published research from our team suggests that machine learning can act as the architect on this Lego set, helping scientists build these complex molecular structures accurately.

    What’s an enzyme?

    Let’s take a closer look at what makes up an enzyme.

    Enzymes are proteins – large molecules that do the behind-the-scenes work that keep all living things alive. These proteins are made up of amino acids, a set of building blocks that can be stitched together to form long strings that get knotted up into specific shapes.

    The specific structure of a protein is key to its function in the same way that the shapes of everyday objects are. For example, much like a spoon is designed to hold liquid in a way that a knife simply can’t, the enzymes involved in moving your muscles aren’t well suited for photosynthesis in plants.

    For an enzyme to function, it adopts a shape that perfectly matches the molecule it processes, much like a lock matches a key. The unique grooves in the enzyme – the lock – that interact with the target molecule – the key – are found in a region of the enzyme known as the active site.

    The induced fit model of enzymes states that both the enzyme and its substrate change shape when they interact.
    OpenStax, CC BY-SA

    The active site of the enzyme precisely orients amino acids to interact with the target molecule when it enters. This makes it easier for the molecule to undergo a chemical reaction to turn into a different one, making the process go faster. After the chemical reaction is done, the new molecule is released and the enzyme is ready to process another.

    How do you design an enzyme?

    Scientists have spent decades trying to design their own enzymes to make new molecules, materials or therapeutics. But making enzymes that look like and go as fast as those found in nature is incredibly difficult.

    Enzymes have complex, irregular shapes that are made up of hundreds of amino acids. Each of these building blocks needs to be placed perfectly or else the enzyme will slow down or completely shut off. The difference between a speed racer and slowpoke enzyme can be a distance of less than the width of a single atom.

    Initially, scientists focused on modifying the amino acid sequences of existing enzymes to improve their speed or stability. Early successes with this approach primarily improved the stability of enzymes, enabling them to catalyze chemical reactions at a higher range of temperatures. But this approach was less useful for improving the speed of enzymes. To this day, designing new enzymes by modifying individual amino acids is generally not an effective way to improve natural enzymes.

    This model of acetylcholinesterase shows acetylcholine (green) bound to its active site.
    Sam Pellock, CC BY-SA

    Researchers found that using a process called directed evolution, in which the amino acid sequence of an enzyme is randomly changed until it can perform a desired function, proved much more fruitful. For example, studies have shown that directed evolution can improve chemical reaction speed, thermostability, and even generate enzymes with properties that aren’t seen in nature. However, this approach is typically labor-intensive: You have to screen many mutants to find one that does what you want. In some cases, if there’s no good enzyme to start from, this method can fail to work at all.

    Both of these approaches are limited by their reliance on natural enzymes. That is, restricting your design to the shapes of natural proteins likely limits the kinds of chemistry that enzymes can facilitate. Remember, you can’t eat soup with a knife.

    Is it possible to make enzymes from scratch, rather than modify nature’s recipe? Yes, with computers.

    Designing enzymes with computers

    The first attempts to computationally design enzymes still largely relied on natural enzymes as a starting point, focusing on placing enzyme active sites into natural proteins.

    This approach is akin to trying to find a suit at a thrift store: It is unlikely you will find a perfect fit because the geometry of an enzyme’s active site (your body in this analogy) is highly specific, so a random protein with a rigidly fixed structure (a suit with random measurements) is unlikely to perfectly accommodate it. The resulting enzymes from these efforts performed much more slowly than those found in nature, requiring further optimization with directed evolution to reach speeds common among natural enzymes.

    Recent advances in deep learning have dramatically changed the landscape of designing enzymes with computers. Enzymes can now be generated in much the same way that AI models such as ChatGPT and DALL-E generate text or images, and you don’t need to use native protein structures to support your active site.

    AI tools are helping researchers design new proteins.

    Our team showed that when we prompt an AI model, called RFdiffusion, with the structure and amino acid sequence of an active site, it can generate the rest of the enzyme structure that would perfectly support it. This is equivalent to prompting ChatGPT to write an entire short story based on a prompt that only says to include the line “And sadly, the eggs never showed up.”

    We used this AI model specifically to generate enzymes called serine hydrolases, a group of proteins that have potential applications in medicine and plastic recycling. After designing the enzymes, we mixed them with their intended molecular target to see whether they could catalyze its breakdown. Encouragingly, many of the designs we tested were able to break down the molecule, and better than previously designed enzymes for the same reaction.

    To see how accurate our computational designs were, we used a method called X-ray crystallography to determine the shapes of these enzymes. We found that many of them were a nearly perfect match to what we digitally designed.

    Our findings mark a key advance in enzyme design, highlighting how AI can help scientists start to tackle complex problems. Machine learning tools could help more researchers access enzyme design and tap into the full potential of enzymes to solve modern-day problems.

    Sam Pellock receives funding from the Washington Research Foundation and Schmidt Futures program.

    – ref. Enzymes are the engines of life − machine learning tools could help scientists design new ones to tackle disease and climate change – https://theconversation.com/enzymes-are-the-engines-of-life-machine-learning-tools-could-help-scientists-design-new-ones-to-tackle-disease-and-climate-change-249565

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: 13 February 2025 Departmental update Public notice and comment on new members of the Global Validation Advisory Committee (GVAC)

    Source: World Health Organisation

    The global secretariat of the Global Validation Advisory Committee (GVAC) on the validation of elimination of mother-to-child transmission and elimination of viral hepatitis B and C as a public health problem has considered the appointment of four new members to the Committee. The new members bring expertise crucial to viral hepatitis C elimination to the GVAC. With these appointments, the Global Validation Secretariat bolsters the capacity of the GVAC to conduct its mission for assessing whether countries have met the criteria for validation of hepatitis elimination as a public health problem.

    The new members are:

    1. Dr Kimberly Green, Global Director for Primary Health Care (PHC), PATH, United States of America. Dr Green will bring expertise in prevention and service delivery of viral hepatitis.
    2. Ms Rachel Halford, Chief Executive Officer, The Hepatitis C Trust, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Ms Halford will bring expertise in civil society, human rights, community engagement and lived experience of hepatitis C.
    3. Dr Ajeet Singh Bhadoria, Additional Professor, Department of Community and Family Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India. Dr Singh Bhadoria will bring expertise in epidemiology of liver diseases, patient care and services for viral hepatitis.
    4. Dr Ibou Thior, Senior Technical Adviser, PATH, United States of America. Dr Thior will bring expertise in viral hepatitis research, blood safety and injection safety for prevention of hepatitis C.

    To enhance WHO’s management of conflicts of interest, as well as strengthen public trust and transparency in connection with WHO advisory groups involving the provision of technical advice, the names and brief biographies of individuals being considered for assignment to WHO advisory groups are disclosed for public notice and comment.

    The comments received by WHO through the public notice and comment process are treated confidentially and their receipt will be acknowledged through a generic email notification to the sender. Comments and perceptions brought to the attention of WHO through this process are an integral component of WHO’s conflict of interest assessment policy and are carefully reviewed. WHO reserves the right to discuss information received through this process with the relevant expert with no attribution to the provider of such information. Upon review and assessment of the information received through this process, WHO, in its sole discretion, may take appropriate management action in accordance with its policies.

    The list of participating experts, a summary of relevant interests disclosed by such experts, and any appropriate mitigation measures taken by WHO relating to the management of conflicts of interests, will be reported publicly in accordance with WHO practice.

    The deadline for public comments is 24 February 2025. Please send your comment to gvacsecretariat@who.int with subject: Public comments on new GVAC members.

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: CBO Explains Common Sources of Uncertainty in Cost Estimates for Legislation

    Source: US Congressional Budget Office

    The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 requires the Congressional Budget Office to prepare a cost estimate for nearly every bill that is approved by a full committee of either the House or Senate. For those estimates, CBO produces a point estimate—that is, a specific amount—rather than a range. The estimates specify the legislation’s likely effects on federal outlays and revenues compared with the agency’s projections of what would occur under current law over a 10-year period (projections often referred to as CBO’s baseline). Lawmakers can use CBO’s cost estimates to inform their deliberations and enforce budgetary rules. Those estimates generally reflect the middle of the distribution of the most likely budgetary outcomes that would result if a piece of legislation was enacted. Though representing the agency’s best assessment of the legislation’s budgetary effects, estimates can be subject to uncertainty arising from various sources. This document describes how CBO addresses the most common sources of uncertainty in its cost estimates.

    Although uncertainty has many sources, this document addresses six.

    • Broad legislative language
    • Insufficient data or research material
    • Behavioral responses
    • Budget projections under current law
    • Varied eligible population
    • Dependence on a future event

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: In Memoriam: Ross D. MacKinnon, Former Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    Ross D. MacKinnon, former dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) and Professor Emeritus of geography, passed away from pancreatic cancer at his home in Sonoma, California, surrounded by family, on Jan. 27, 2025, at the age of 82.

    A dedicated leader and scholar, MacKinnon left a lasting impact on UConn and the many students, faculty, and colleagues who had the privilege of working with him.

    As dean of CLAS from 1996 to 2008, he oversaw a period of transformative growth and investment in the College. He played a pivotal role in guiding CLAS through the UConn 2000 capital program, a state-funded initiative that revitalized the University and strengthened its academic foundation.

    Throughout his tenure, he championed major investments in faculty hiring, research, and academic programs. He also spearheaded several multidisciplinary initiatives that continue to shape UConn’s academic community today.

    Among his many accomplishments, he led the creation of the UConn Humanities Institute, which supports humanities scholarship through funding, fellowships, and programming. He was also instrumental in establishing the Human Rights Institute and the Center for Health, Intervention, and Prevention, now known as the Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy.

    Before joining UConn, MacKinnon served as dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and professor of geography at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He previously served as head of SUNY Buffalo’s Department of Geography, during which time he strengthened the department’s graduate program and scholarly reputation. Prior to that, he was a faculty member in the University of Toronto’s geography department.

    MacKinnon earned a bachelor’s degree in geography from the University of British Columbia in 1964, a Master of Science in geography from Northwestern University in 1966, and a Ph.D. in geography from Northwestern University in 1968.

    He was a proud Canadian and naturalized U.S. citizen who believed in the promise of America. He loved traveling, sharing a good meal with friends, live jazz, contemporary painting, new plays, UConn men’s and women’s basketball, and the Buffalo Bills. He had a great sense of humor and was quick with encouragement.

    He is survived by his wife, Marilyn Hoskin, and his two daughters, Pam and Caroline MacKinnon.

    His family asks those who wish to honor his memory to take a moment to remember Ross and consider supporting the Dean Ross MacKinnon Endowment for CLAS Graduate Fellows.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Ohio-Based Supplier of Aircraft Parts and Three Employees Charged for Illicit Export Scheme Involving Russia

    Source: US State of California

    Flighttime Enterprises Inc., an American subsidiary of a Russian aircraft parts supplier, along with three of its current and former employees, have been charged federally with crimes related to a scheme to illegally export aircraft parts and components from the United States to Russia and Russian airline companies without the required licenses from the Department of Commerce.

    The three individuals charged include Daniela Friery, 43, a naturalized U.S. citizen residing in Loveland, Ohio; Pavil Iglin, 46, a citizen of Russia who currently resides in Florida pursuant to a non-immigrant visa; and Marat Aysin, 39, a legal permanent resident of the United States who currently resides in Florida.

    According to the 11-count indictment unsealed today, the three defendants worked for Flighttime Enterprises Inc., an aircraft equipment supplier with office locations near West Chester, Ohio, and Miami.

    As alleged in the indictment, following Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Flighttime and the individual defendants knowingly and willfully violated and evaded the export restrictions imposed on Russia to ship aviation parts to Russia and Russian end users, including airlines subject to Department of Commerce Temporary Denial Orders, by mislabeling shipments, providing false certifications, and using intermediary companies and countries to obscure the true end destination and end users. The indictment details four specific export transactions totaling more than $2 million.

    For example, in June 2022, Flighttime employees allegedly negotiated the purchase of an auxiliary power unit from an American supplier for $395,000. The U.S. supplier initially expressed hesitation about the transaction due to the company’s connections to Russia. In connection with the purchase, Aysin falsely told the American supplier that the part would be used to replenish stock in West Chester. Through Aysin, Iglin allegedly signed and dated a Russia end-user certificate with the supplier falsely certifying that the part would not be exported to Russia. The part was thereafter illegally exported to Russia for a Russian aviation company without the required license.

    The company and three defendants are each charged with one count of conspiring to violate the Export Control Reform Act (ECRA), and multiple counts of violating the ECRA, which are federal crimes punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

    They are also charged with conspiracy to commit smuggling, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, and multiple counts of smuggling, which carry maximum penalties of 10 years in prison. Finally, they are each charged with one count of conspiring to launder monetary instruments, a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

    Sue J. Bai, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division; U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker for the Southern District of Ohio; Special Agent in Charge Elena Iatarola of the FBI Cincinnati Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Levine of the Office of Export Enforcement, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced the case.

    The FBI and BIS are investigating the case.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy S. Mangan for the Southern District of Ohio is prosecuting the case with assistance from Trial Attorneys Maria Fedor and Menno Goedman of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.

    An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI: $HAREHOLDER ALERT: Monteverde & Associates PC Reminds Former Avangrid, Inc. Shareholders of Class Action Lawsuit and Upcoming March 31, 2025 Deadline – AGR

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    NEW YORK, Feb. 13, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —

    Monteverde & Associates PC (the “M&A Class Action Firm”), has recovered millions of dollars for shareholders and is recognized as a Top 50 Firm by ISS Securities Class Action Services Report. We are headquartered at the Empire State Building in New York City and are the only firm to have filed a federal securities class action lawsuit on behalf of former public common shareholders of Avangrid, Inc. (former ticker symbol: AGR), in connection with the acquisition by Iberdrola, S.A. (the “Merger”). The case is styled Goldschein v. Avangrid, Inc., Case No. 25-cv-00772 (the “Federal Class Action”), and a copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.monteverdelaw.com/news.

    If you owned Avangrid shares as of August 19, 2024, and received $35.75 at the close of the Merger, please contact our firm to discuss your legal rights.

    TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE: If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must seek lead appointment in the Federal Class Action by March 31, 2025. For more information, please go to https://monteverdelaw.com/case/avangrid-inc/. It is free and there is no cost or obligation to you. Any member of the putative Class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member.

    NOT ALL LAW FIRMS ARE THE SAME. Before you hire a law firm, you should talk to a lawyer and ask:

    1. Do you file class actions and go to Court?
    2. When was the last time you recovered money for shareholders?
    3. What cases did you recover money in and how much?

    About Monteverde & Associates PC

    Our firm litigates and has recovered money for shareholders…and we do it from our offices in the Empire State Building. We are a national class action securities firm with a successful track record in trial and appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. 

    No company, director or officer is above the law. If you owned common stock in Avangrid and have concerns or wish to obtain additional information free of charge, please visit our website or contact Juan Monteverde, Esq. either via e-mail at jmonteverde@monteverdelaw.com or by telephone at (212) 971-1341.

    Contact:
    Juan Monteverde, Esq.
    MONTEVERDE & ASSOCIATES PC
    The Empire State Building
    350 Fifth Ave. Suite 4740
    New York, NY 10118
    United States of America
    jmonteverde@monteverdelaw.com
    Tel: (212) 971-1341

    Attorney Advertising. (C) 2025 Monteverde & Associates PC. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Monteverde & Associates PC (www.monteverdelaw.com).  Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senator Marshall Releases Statement After Voting to Confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Kansas Roger Marshall
    Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D., released the following statement after voting to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy was confirmed by a vote of 52-48.
    “Today marks a great day for America, particularly for our nation’s children,” said Senator Marshall. “I want to extend a big thank you to all members of the Make America Healthy Again movement who were instrumental in pushing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. across the finish line. With 60 percent of Americans currently battling chronic diseases, we desperately need a radical shift toward prevention rather than focusing on treatment alone. Now, it’s time to get to work and Make America Healthy Again.”
    BACKGROUND
    Senator Marshall is a founding member of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Caucus, which will focus on nutrition, access to affordable, high-quality, nutrient-dense foods, improving primary care, and addressing the root causes of chronic diseases. 
    Senator Marshall met with Kennedy last December, where they discussed addressing chronic disease, improving nutrition and food policy, ensuring vaccine and drug safety, empowering the physician-patient relationship, and leaving our world cleaner, safer, and healthier for future generations.
    In early February this year, Senator Marshall voted to advance Kennedy during his Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing. 
    Senator Marshall also recently wrote an op-ed in The Hill supporting Kennedy’s nomination.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senators Coons, Wicker introduce bill to better financially protect poultry growers against avian flu outbreaks

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Delaware Christopher Coons
    WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) yesterday introduced the Healthy Poultry Assistance and Indemnification Act (HPAI ACT) to ensure that all poultry growers and laying operations in highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) control areas whose operations are affected receive compensation. This bill was
    “As avian flu cases rise in Delaware, it’s vital that we have smart policies in place that protect Delaware’s independent family farmers and poultry growers both medically and financially. As it stands, blind spots in our HPAI compensation program punish growers for culling flu-free flocks,” said Senator Coons. “As co-Chair of the Senate Chicken Caucus, I hope that including this bipartisan solution in the next Farm Bill will provide a lifeline to all hardworking farmers who do their part in helping us contain disease outbreaks by offering them fair and immediate financial relief, allowing them to recover quickly and assisting them in maintaining the strength of our essential poultry supply chains.”
    “Farmers play a significant role in providing our nation with food and protecting our national security,” said Senator Wicker. “Unexpected avian flu outbreaks harm the poultry industry, put farmers at risk for financial hardship, and drive up the cost of chicken and eggs at the grocery store. Since the initial outbreak in 2022, HPAI has led to the loss of a record 156 million birds across the United States. This bipartisan legislation would ensure farmers are compensated for their work to contain these outbreaks.”
    “The current wave of Bird Flu outbreaks is leaving our farming communities twisting in the wind,” said Congressman Mark Alford. “When poultry operations test positive for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, the federal government makes growers whole for lost revenue. The Healthy Poultry Assistance and Indemnification Act will level the playing field by ensuring poultry growers and layer operations—who are impacted by USDA control zones put in place even though their own birds never tested positive—also qualify for indemnity payments. I’m proud to once again co-lead this critical bipartisan legislation to support Missouri’s agriculture community.”
    “The San Joaquin Valley is the heart of California agriculture, and our poultry farmers are on the front lines of the avian flu crisis. When they face challenges, we all pay the price—from farms to grocery stores. That’s why I’m leading the charge with the HPAI Act to provide real relief, protect our food supply, and ensure the farmers who feed America get the support they deserve,” said Congressman Jim Costa.
    Under the current policies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), when an HPAI case is discovered, all poultry farms located within a 10-kilometer radius of the case are banned from placing flocks until the virus is contained. Afterward, all growers who have positive tests in their flocks receive compensation from the USDA, but not those within the control area whose flocks don’t contract HPAI. This creates a perverse incentive: once a control area is established, it is preferable for poultry operations within the area to have HPAI cases, as otherwise they will not receive compensation afterward despite undergoing many of the same financial struggles. This bill would rectify that so all growers in the control area are duly compensated. 
    Since the start of the HPAI outbreak in 2022, bird flu has affected 153 million birds in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. This has caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses to poultry growers and layer operations, driving food inflation even higher for Americans’ most cost-effective animal protein sources. 
    In addition to Senators Coons and Wicker, this legislation is cosponsored by Senators Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).
    Specifically, the HPAI Act would:
    Expand USDA-APHIS compensation to all poultry farmers in an HPAI control area. The program currently only compensates farmers whose flocks test positive, not those in the control area who are disallowed from placing flocks until the virus is contained, which sometimes takes months. 
    Simplify the calculation of indemnity. The payments to farmers will be calculated based on the average income they earned from the last five flocks. This method is more transparent and ensures that farmers will not face a cash shortfall in the face of an HPAI outbreak in their area.
    This legislation is endorsed by the Delaware Department of Agriculture, the Delmarva Chicken Association, the National Chicken Council, the United Egg Producers, the Delta Council, and the American Farm Bureau Federation.
    The full bill text is available here.
    A one-pager is available here. 
    Senator Coons and Senator Wicker are the co-Chairs of the Senate Chicken Caucus.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Crapo Statement on Rollins Confirmation to USDA

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Idaho Mike Crapo

    Washington, D.C.–U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) issued the following statement after the Senate confirmed, by a vote of 72-28, Brooke Rollins to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA):
    “Brooke Rollins has had a distinguished career in the Trump Administration, serving as Domestic Policy Chief during the President’s first term.  Her previous work in the Administration will serve her well as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and as Congress and the Administration work to pass a new Farm Bill.  Her commitment to America’s farmers, ranchers and rural communities will benefit Idahoans and strengthen our agricultural industry.  I congratulate her on her confirmation.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Capito Votes to Confirm Kennedy for HHS Secretary

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for West Virginia Shelley Moore Capito
    WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Chairman of the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) Appropriations Subcommittee, issued the following statement after voting to confirm Robert Kennedy Jr. to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS):
    “Coming from a state whose residents live with the impact of chronic diseases more than most, I agree with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that we need to Make America Healthy Again. As the chairman of the subcommittee responsible for funding HHS, I will work closely with Secretary Kennedy to make sure West Virginia’s priorities are considered,” Senator Capito said. “Secretary Kennedy understands the unique health care challenges of rural America and the need to balance embracing new ideas with what has been proven successful in the past. I look forward to working with him to combat the drug crisis in West Virginia and across the country, make the foods we are eating healthier, improve the transparency of our health care systems, and deliver better health care to more Americans.”
    Senator Capito previously met with Kennedy in December 2024 to discuss his nomination and learn more about his vision to lead the department.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Capito Votes to Confirm Rollins as Agriculture Secretary

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for West Virginia Shelley Moore Capito
    WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) issued the following statement after voting to confirm Brooke Rollins to serve as the next Secretary of Agriculture:
    “Brooke Rollins understands firsthand the challenges facing rural America and will work day in and day out to support our West Virginia farmers, ranchers, and growers. That’s one of the many reasons I was proud to vote to confirm her to serve as our next Agriculture Secretary. I look forward to working with Secretary Rollins and the Trump administration to protect our family farms, grow our rural communities, and put American agriculture first,” Senator Capito said.
    Senator Capito previously met with Rollins in December 2024 to discuss her nomination and learn more about her vision to lead the department.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Murphy To McMahon: You’re Saying It’s A Possibility That A Public School With Programming Related to Race Could Lose Federal Funding

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Connecticut – Chris Murphy

    February 13, 2025

    [embedded content]
    WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, on Thursday questioned Linda McMahon at a hearing on her nomination for Secretary of Education. Murphy pressed McMahon on how a Trump administration executive order restricting federal funding for DEI programs will impact schools across the country. McMahon refused to provide clarity for the thousands of teachers and school administrators who are wondering whether offering African American history courses, supporting cultural student groups, or celebrating Black History Month will put their federal funding at risk.
    A full transcript of Murphy’s exchange with McMahon can be found below
    MURPHY: “Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Ms. McMahon, good to see you. You and I have spent a lot of time over the years, and I appreciate your willingness to sit before the committee and answer some really important questions.
    “I want to talk to you about an executive order that the Trump administration issued that commands agencies, including the Department of Education, to eliminate grants to organizations and entities that support DEI programs and activities. As you know, this has a lot of schools all across the country scrambling, because they have no idea what that means. They don’t know because the order doesn’t define DEI as to whether they are in compliance or out of compliance, and whether they are going to have their federal grants compromised. How does a school know whether it’s running a DEI program or not?”
    MCMAHON: “Well certainly, and thank you Senator, and it is good to see you again outside of the state of Connecticut, where we run into each other. DEI, I think, has been–it’s a program that’s tough. It was put in place ostensibly for more diversity, for equity and inclusion. And I think what we’re seeing is that it’s having an opposite effect. We are getting back to more segregating of our schools, instead of having more inclusion in our schools. When there are DEI programs that say that Black students need separate graduation ceremonies or Hispanics need separate ceremonies, we are not achieving what we wanted to achieve with inclusion.”
    MURPHY: “Let me give you an example then. So this order applies to Department of Defense schools, and those schools have canceled all programming around Black History Month. So if a school in Connecticut celebrates Martin Luther King Day and has a series of events and programming teaching about Black history, are they in violation of a policy that says schools should stop running DEI programs?”
    MCMAHON: “Not in my view, that is clearly not the case. The celebration of Martin Luther King Day and Black History Month should be celebrated throughout all of our schools. I believe that Martin Luther King was one of the strongest proponents of making sure that we look at all of our populations, when he said that he would hope that his children wouldn’t be judged by the color of their skin, but the content of their character, and I think that is the fundamental basis that we should celebrate Black History Month.”
    MURPHY: “West Point has closed down all ethnic clubs. So the Society of Black Engineers can no longer meet because they believe that to be in compliance with this order, they cannot have groups structured around ethnic or racial affiliations. Would public schools be in violation of this order? Would they risk funding if they had clubs that students could belong to based on their racial or ethnic identity?” 
    MCMAHON: “Well, I certainly today don’t want to address hypothetical situations. I would like, once I’m confirmed, to get in and assess these programs, look at what has been covered–”
    MURPHY: “Isn’t that a pretty easy one? I mean, you’re saying that it’s a possibility that if a school has a club for Vietnamese American students or Black students, where they meet after school, that they could be potentially in jeopardy of receiving federal funding?”
    MCMAHON: “Again, I would like to fully understand what that order is and what those clubs are doing.”
    MURPHY: “That’s pretty chilling. I think schools all around the country are going to hear that. What about educational programming centered around specific ethnic and racial experiences? My son is in a public school. He takes a class called African American History. If you are running an African American history class, could you perhaps be in violation of this executive order?”
    MCMAHON: “I’m not quite certain, and I’d like to look into it further and get back to you on that.”
    MURPHY: “So there’s a possibility– there’s a possibility, you’re saying– that public schools that run African American history classes, right, this is a class that has been taught in public schools for decades, could lose federal funding if they continue to teach African American history?”
    MCMAHON: “No, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that I would like to take a look at these programs and fully understand the breadth of the executive order and get back to you on that.”
    MURPHY: “I think you are going to have a lot of educators and a lot of principals and administrators scrambling right now. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, my time’s expired.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with interim President of Syria Ahmed al-Sharaa

    Source: Government of Canada – Prime Minister

    Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with the interim President of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa.

    The Prime Minister offered congratulations on the success of ending the Assad regime, which inflicted decades of suffering on the Syrian people. He underscored that Canada continues to stand with Syrians in their pursuit of a more just and inclusive society, noting Canada has welcomed over 100,000 refugees since 2015. Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly and Special Envoy Alghabra are currently attending the International Conference on Syria in Paris, France, where they will discuss how the international community can support the Syrian people in re-building their country.

    Prime Minister Trudeau and interim President al-Sharaa agreed on the importance of an inclusive political process to ensure lasting peace and stability for all Syrians. The Prime Minister underscored the importance of protecting human rights, including women and minority communities, as well as establishing good governance for Syria. He also emphasized Canada’s support for the immediate delivery of assistance and to facilitate the delivery of aid into Syria to support its redevelopment efforts. Both acknowledged the challenges of the current sanctions and efforts undertaken by the transitional government to put Syria on the path towards future success.

    The two leaders looked forward to a new chapter for Syria, and they agreed to remain in contact.

    Associated Links

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: What we learned from Trump and Putin’s phone call

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jonathan Este, Senior International Affairs Editor, Associate Editor

    Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, spoke for much of the European diplomatic community when she reacted to news of Donald Trump’s phone chat with Vladimir Putin: “This is the way the Trump administration operates,” she declared. “This is not how others do foreign policy, but this is now the reality.”

    The resigned tone of Baerbock’s words was not matched by her colleague, defence minister Boris Pistorius, whose criticism that “the Trump administration has already made public concessions to Putin before negotiations have even begun” was rather more direct.

    Their sentiments were echoed, not only by European leaders, but in the US itself: “Putin Scores a Big Victory, and Not on the Battlefield” read a headline in the New York Times. The newspaper opined that Trump’s call had succeeded in bringing Putin back in from the cold after three years in which Russia had become increasingly isolated both politically and economically.

    This was not lost on the Russian media, where commentators boasted that the phone call “broke the west’s blockade”. The stock market gained 5% and the rouble strengthened against the dollar as a result.

    Reflecting on the call, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, continued with operation flatter Donald Trump by comparing his attitude favourably with that of his predecessor in the White House, Joe Biden. “The previous US administration held the view that everything needed to be done to keep the war going. The current administration, as far as we understand, adheres to the point of view that everything must be done to stop the war and for peace to prevail.

    “We are more impressed with the position of the current administration, and we are open to dialogue.”

    Trump’s conversation with Putin roughly coincided with a meeting of senior European defence officials in Brussels which heard the new US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, outline America’s radical new outlook when it comes to European security. Namely that it’s not really America’s problem any more.

    Hegseth also told the meeting in Brussels yesterday that the Trump administration’s position is that Nato membership for Ukraine has been taken off the table, that the idea it would get its 2014 borders back was unrealistic and that if Europe wanted to guarantee Ukraine’s security as part of any peace deal, that would be its business. Any peacekeeping force would not involve American troops and would not be a Nato operation, so it would not involve collective defence.

    Sign up to receive our weekly World Affairs Briefing newsletter from The Conversation UK. Every Thursday we’ll bring you expert analysis of the big stories in international relations.

    International security expert David Dunn believes that the fact that Trump considers himself a consummate deal maker makes the fact that his administration is willing to concede so much ground before negotiations proper have even got underway is remarkable. And not in a good way.

    Dunn, who specialises in US foreign and security policy at the University of Birmingham, finds it significant that Trump spoke with Putin first and then called Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky to fill him in on the call. This order of priority, says Dunn, is a sign of the subordination of Ukraine’s role in the talks.

    He concludes that “for the present at least, it appears that negotiations will be less about pressuring Putin to bring a just end to the war he started than forcing Ukraine to give in to the Russian leader’s demands”.



    Read more:
    Trump phone call with Putin leaves Ukraine reeling and European leaders stunned

    Hegseth’s briefing to European defence officials, meanwhile, came as little surprise to David Galbreath. Writing here, Galbreath – who specialises in defence and security at the University of Bath – says the US pivot away from a focus on Europe has been years in the making – “since the very end of the cold war”.

    There has long been a feeling in Washington that the US has borne too much of the financial burden for European security. This is not just a Donald Trump thing, he believes, but an attitude percolating in US security circles for some decades. Once the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union disintegrated, the focus for Nato become not so much collective defence as collective security, where “conflict would be managed on Nato’s borders”.

    But it was then the US which invoked article 5 of the Nato treaty, which establishes that “an armed attack against one or more [member states] in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all”. The Bush government invoked Article 5 the day after the 9/11 attacks and Nato responded by patrolling US skies to provide security.

    Pete Hegseth dashes Ukraine’s hopes of a future guaranteed by Nato.

    Galbreath notes that many European countries, particularly the newer ones such as Estonia and Latvia, sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. “The persistent justification I heard in the Baltic states was “we need to be there when the US needs us so that they will be there when we need them”.

    That looks set to change.



    Read more:
    US says European security no longer its primary focus – the shift has been years in the making

    The prospect of a profound shift in the world order are daunting after 80 years in which security – in Europe certainly – was guaranteed by successive US administrations and underpinned, not just by Nato but by a whole set of international agreements.

    Now, instead of the US acting as the “world’s policeman”, we have a president talking seriously about taking control of Greenland, one way or another, who won’t rule out using force to seize the Panama Canal and who dreams of turning Gaza into a coastal “riviera” development.

    Meanwhile Russia is engaged in a brutal war of conquest in Ukraine and is actively meddling in the affairs of several other countries. And in China, Xi Jinping regularly talks up the idea of reunifying with Taiwan, by force if necessary, and is fortifying islands in the South China Sea with a view to aggressively pursuing territorial claims there as well.

    And we thought the age of empires was in the rear view mirror, writes historian Eric Storm of Leiden University. Storm, whose speciality is the rise of nation states, has discerned a resurgence of imperial tendencies around the world and fears that the rules-based order that has dominated the decades since the second world war now appears increasingly tenuous.



    Read more:
    How Putin, Xi and now Trump are ushering in a new imperial age

    Gaza: the horror continues

    In any given week, you’d expect the imminent prospect of the collapse of the Gaza ceasefire to be the big international story. And certainly, while Trump and Putin were “flooding the zone” (see last week’s round-up for the origins of this phrase) the prospects of the deal lasting beyond its first phase have become more and more uncertain.

    Hamas has recently pulled back from its threat not to release any more hostages. Earlier in the week it threatened to call a halt to the hostage-prisoner exchange, claiming that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had breached the terms of the ceasefire deal. Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, responded – with Trump’s backing – saying that unless all hostages were released on Saturday, all bets were off and the IDF would resume its military operations in the Gaza Strip. Trump added that “all hell is going to break out”.

    The US president has also doubled down on his idea for a redeveloped Gaza and has continued to pressure Jordan and Egypt to accept millions of Palestinian refugees. This, as you would expect, has not made the population of Gaza feel any more secure.

    Nils Mallock and Jeremy Ginges, behavioural psychologists at the London School of Economics, were in the region last month and conducted a survey of Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza to get a feel for how the two populations regard each other. It makes for depressing reading.

    The number of Israelis who reject the idea of a two-state solution has risen sharply since the October 7 2023 attacks by Hamas, from 46% to 62%. And roughly the same proportion of people in Gaza can now no longer envisage living side by side with Israelis. Both sides think that the other side is motivated by hatred, something which is known to make any diplomatic solution less feasible.



    Read more:
    We interviewed hundreds of Israelis and Gazans – here’s why we fear for the ceasefire

    We also asked Scott Lucas, a Middle East specialist at University College Dublin, to assess the likelihood of the ceasefire lasting into phase two, which is when the IDF is supposed to pull out of Gaza, allowing the people there room to being to rebuild, both physically and in terms of governance.

    He responded with a hollow laugh and a shake of the head, before sending us this digest of the key developments in the Middle East crisis this week.



    Read more:
    Will the Gaza ceasefire hold? Where does Trump’s takeover proposal stand? Expert Q&A

    We’ve become very used to seeing apocalyptic photos of the devastation of Gaza: the pulverised streets, choked with rubble, that make the idea of rebuilding seem so remote. But the people of Gaza also cultivated a huge amount of crops – about half the food they ate was grown there. Gazan farmers grew tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and strawberries in open fields as well as cultivating olive and citrus trees.

    Geographers Lina Eklund, He Yin and Jamon Van Den Hoek have analysed satellite images across the Gaza Strip over the past 17 months to work out the scale of agricultural destruction. It makes for terrifying reading.



    Read more:
    Gaza: we analysed a year of satellite images to map the scale of agricultural destruction

    World Affairs Briefing from The Conversation UK is available as a weekly email newsletter. Click here to get our updates directly in your inbox.

    – ref. What we learned from Trump and Putin’s phone call – https://theconversation.com/what-we-learned-from-trump-and-putins-phone-call-249902

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Living to tell the story: Lawsuit accuses ER doctor of anti-Indigenous racism

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Mary Jane Logan McCallum, Professor of History, University of Winnipeg

    On Jan. 15, 2023, Justin Flett arrived at the emergency room at St. Anthony’s Hospital, in the Pas, Manitoba.

    According to Flett’s statement of claim, submitted to the Court of King’s Bench of Manitoba in December and as reported by CBC News and APTN, he told the triage nurse he was experiencing distressing abdominal pain.

    Flett was assigned a triage score of five, which is intended for non-urgent low-priority cases. The statement of claim alleges that the physician who finally saw Flett insinuated that he was hungover, saying something to the effect of: “I don’t know what to tell you, we don’t treat you here for hangovers.”. Flett was not given diagnostic tests, imaging, a physical examination or pain medication.

    In a statement made through his lawyer, Flett said, “I knew that there was something seriously wrong with me and this doctor didn’t seem to want to take me seriously or help me. In that moment, I just felt worthless.”

    Flett is a father of six, a building contractor, a resident of Winnipeg and a citizen of Tataskweyak First Nation.

    Flett’s statement of claim says he endured an 11-hour bus trip to Winnipeg to seek the care he needed while in severe pain and without other healthcare alternatives.

    Once in Winnipeg, Flett called 911 and requested an ambulance. He was instructed by the operator to take a taxi to Seven Oaks Hospital. There he was triaged as a priority but still told to wait.

    He finally underwent surgery for acute appendicitis more than 30 hours after he first sought care. The surgery left Flett with complications.

    Flett is suing the Winnipeg and Northern Regional health authorities as well as an ER doctor, accusing them of racism and failing to provide timely care.

    As scholars of Indigenous and settler colonial history, we see Flett’s story within an enduring pattern of anti-Indigenous medical racism.

    A pattern of anti-Indigenous medical racism

    Brian Sinclair is not here to personally tell his version of what happened in the 34 hours he spent in September 2008 in the emergency room of a major Winnipeg hospital.

    Structures of Indifference by Mary Jane Logan McCallum and Adele Perry.

    Sinclair, a middle-aged Anishinaabe man, died from what is normally an easily treated infection. In our 2018 book, Structures of Indifference: An Indigenous Life and Death in a Canadian City, we show how Sinclair’s tragic and unnecessary death reveals some painful truths about the ongoing history of settler colonialism, and how its legacies continue to devalue Indigenous life.

    Sinclair’s death and Flett’s accusations can only be understood within a history of settler colonialism and segregated medical care that is exemplified by the “Indian hospitals” that ran from the 1920s to the 1980s. They must also be understood in context of a society that blames Indigenous people for their own deaths.

    Sinclair was assumed to be drunk by medical staff and did not receive timely or adequate care, while Flett accuses medical authorities in Manitoba of the same treatment.

    These types of experiences are not particular to Manitoba, but are mirrored by incidents of medical racism across Canada.

    Tania Dick, Dzawada̱ʼenux̱w registered nurse and current Indigenous Nursing Lead at the University of British Columbia, explained to CBC’s The Current in 2018 that many Indigenous families have their own “Brian Sinclair story.”

    This includes the family of Joyce Echaquan. Echaquan was a 34-year-old Atikamew mother of six, who recorded hospital staff hurling racial slurs at her while withholding medical treatment causing her death in a hospital north of Montréal in September 2020.

    Inadequate treatment

    Both Echequan’s and Sinclair’s families and communities made sure that their deaths did not go unnoticed.

    In Sinclair’s case, an inquest and a number of reports resulted in significant changes to the way that patients are triaged and managed.

    Echaquan’s experience led to an inquest and the development of Joyce’s Principle, which aims to “guarantee to all Indigenous people the right of equitable access, without any discrimination, to all social and health services.”

    These cases have helped fuel a growing awareness about anti-Indigenous medical racism, including among organizations of medical professionals.

    Apologies and pledges

    Two years ago, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba (CPSM) apologized and accepted responsibility for failing to fairly treat Indigenous patients and they pledged to take action against anti-Indigenous racism.

    And last year, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) also acknowledged the racism and discrimination that Indigenous patients and health care providers face. They apologized and pledged to “act against anti-Indigenous racism in health care.”

    When we discuss these stories and the apologies in our classrooms we find our students know it is time to think beyond quick fixes and surface remedies. Rather, we need to address racism and colonialism as powerful determinants of health.

    The inquests, reports and apologies appear to have fallen short. Flett’s lawsuit claims that his treatment violated Sections 7 and 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It seeks damages under Section 24.1, which says that those whose rights or freedoms have been violated can seek remedies from the courts.

    It is a good time for us all to think about the ongoing costs of anti-Indigenous racism in Canada’s past and present.

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

    – ref. Living to tell the story: Lawsuit accuses ER doctor of anti-Indigenous racism – https://theconversation.com/living-to-tell-the-story-lawsuit-accuses-er-doctor-of-anti-indigenous-racism-247078

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Video: Kaine Speaks on Senate Floor in Opposition to RFK, Jr. to Secretary of Health and Human Services

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Virginia Tim Kaine

    BROADCAST-QUALITY VIDEO IS AVAILABLE HERE.
    WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, spoke on the Senate floor in opposition to President Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
    “I don’t believe Mr. Kennedy can separate fact from fiction. I don’t believe Mr. Kennedy can separate conspiracy from content,” Kaine said. “Now, you wouldn’t want someone suffering from that challenge in any position of leadership at any level of government—local, state, or federal. But this particular position, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, one of the most important positions in the nation as it respects to people’s physical and mental health, is exactly the wrong kind of a position for someone who can’t tell fact from fiction or content from conspiracy.”
    Kaine continued, “… the American public needs to be able to rely on HHS and other critical agencies for information that is not just about the state of their savings account or housing costs. This is about life and death.”
    Kaine then discussed the Gardasil vaccine, which is manufactured in Virginia and protects Americans from certain cancers caused by HPV, and raised concerns about RFK, Jr.’s previous comments on Gardasil. Kaine said, “[RFK, Jr.] has said that the vaccination is one of the most dangerous vaccines ever created. He has said that it’s dangerous and defective. On one of his website articles on his blog, he said that ‘it is inescapable that Gardasil kills girls.’ …He cannot separate fact from fantasy, content from conspiracy.”
    “This inability to tell the difference between fact and fiction and content and conspiracy would be dangerous enough if it was just about health information,” Kaine said. “But this individual’s inability to tell the difference between fact and fiction and between conspiracy and content is not just limited to health.”
    Kaine then brought up a previous post from RFK, Jr. posted on July 5, 2024, in which he refused to “take a side” on 9/11 conspiracy theories. Kaine said, “A lot of Virginia families lost loved ones that day… I don’t take it very well when someone says they won’t take sides about 9/11—when someone admits it’s hard to tell what is a conspiracy theory and what isn’t.”
    “If you cannot tell what happened on 9/11, if you decide to just freelance an opinion 23 years later, and tell the American public—and he’s running for president at the time—I will not take sides on 9/11, you should not have been nominated for this position in the first place,” said Kaine.
    “This is a very, very dangerous vote that we will cast tomorrow. Of any position in the federal government that needs somebody who can tell the difference between fact and fiction, conspiracy and content, HHS Secretary is that position,” Kaine concluded. “And Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. so badly flunks the test of what is needed—careful, reasoned information that people can count on—that I urge my colleagues, even if you voted in a committee, even if you voted on a procedural resolution to move this to the floor, stop now. You can still stop now. Don’t hurt this country. Don’t hurt the health of this country by putting someone in office who can’t even understand what happened on 9/11.”
    Kaine pressed RFK, Jr. on his previous statements regarding 9/11 and the Gardasil vaccine during RFK, Jr.’s nomination hearing. Last week, Kaine joined his colleagues in pressing RFK, Jr. over his conflicts of interest related to anti-vaccine lawsuits and his plan to transfer stake in anti-vaccine lawsuits to his son.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Warner, Kaine & Subramanyam Introduce Bill to Designate George C. Marshall House as a National Park Service Affiliated Area

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Virginia Tim Kaine
    WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) and U.S. Representative Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA-10) introduced legislation to designate the General George C. Marshall House in Leesburg, known as Dodona Manor, as an affiliated area under the National Park Service (NPS). Warner and Kaine advocated for years alongside then-U.S. Representative Jennifer Wexton for an official designation, which would provide new resources to preserve and celebrate General Marshall’s legacy at the site, including technical assistance to support restoration efforts, accessibility improvements, and new programming.
    “Dodona Manor has an immense historic value to our nation and is worth celebrating,” said the lawmakers. “Turning it into an affiliated area under the National Park Service is a fitting way to preserve this property, honor General Marshall’s legacy and help future generations learn about his life. We are glad to introduce this legislation together and will keep working to get it across the finish line.”
    “The Marshall Center and the Leesburg community are deeply grateful to Congressman Subramanyam and Senators Kaine and Warner for their leadership in introducing legislation to designate George C. Marshall’s Dodona Manor as an affiliated area of the National Park System. This significant step recognizes General Marshall’s enduring legacy and will ensure the preservation of his historic home for future generations,” said Marshall Center Chairman Tom Greenspon. “We are honored to continue our work in safeguarding this national treasure and look forward to collaborating with our legislative champions to achieve full affiliation.”
    General Marshall led a lifetime of public service, serving as Chief of Staff to the Army during America’s entry into World War II, as Secretary of State where he orchestrated the historic Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe following the war—work for which he received a Nobel Peace Prize—and as Secretary of Defense after the onset of the Korean War.
    Dodona Manor is currently registered as a National Historic Landmark by the Department of the Interior and has been designated by the Commonwealth of Virginia as a Virginia Landmark.
    The Marshall House has been an integral part of the Leesburg community for over two centuries. General Marshall and his wife Katherine purchased the property in 1941 as a weekend retreat house, and regularly spent time at the property throughout General Marshall’s tenure as Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense. While residing there, he received world dignitaries including President Truman and Madam Chiang Kai-shek
    In 2005, Dodona Manor opened as a historic house museum and hosts international exchanges, historical exhibits, community events, and educational programming about the life and legacy of the Marshall family.
    The legislation was passed by the U.S. Senate in December 2024, but did not pass the U.S. House before the end of the 118th Congress and therefore must be reintroduced.
    Full text of the legislation can be found here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Kaine, Colleagues Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Crack Down on Deadly Fentanyl Additive Xylazine

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Virginia Tim Kaine
    WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), alongside his colleagues, introduced the bipartisan, bicameral Combating Illicit Xylazine Act. This bill would list xylazine as a Schedule III controlled substance while protecting the drug’s legal use by veterinarians, farmers, and ranchers.
    Xylazine, also known as “tranq,” is an easily accessible veterinary tranquilizer that is being used as a low-cost cutting agent for fentanyl. The bipartisan Combating Illicit Xylazine Act would regulate xylazine and give law enforcement the tools they need to go after those traffickers the drug for illicit use. The bill is endorsed by 39 state attorneys general—including Virginia’s—major law enforcement organizations, and veterinary organizations.
    “I’m fully committed to addressing the fentanyl crisis. I’m glad that bipartisan legislation I’ve led in the Senate to help keep Virginians safe from fentanyl was signed into law by President Biden, but there’s more work to do,” said Kaine. “That includes protecting our communities from the illicit use of xylazine, which is often mixed with fentanyl to create an even more lethal drug. I’m glad to partner with my colleagues on this bipartisan, commonsense approach to do that, while making sure the veterinarians who need xylazine to treat animals can still access it.”
    The Combating Illicit Xylazine Act would:
    Schedule xylazine as Schedule III substance under the Controlled Substances Act; 
    Ensure veterinarians, farmers, and ranchers can still use the drug for its intended purpose by creating a clear definition of “ultimate user” – someone lawfully permitted to possess a controlled substance for legitimate use;
    Enable the DEA to track its manufacturing to ensure it is not diverted to the illicit market; and
    Require a report on prevalence, risks, and recommendations regarding xylazine.
    Kaine has long advocated for more resources to combat the fentanyl crisis. Kaine introduced and Congress passed the bipartisan Disrupt Fentanyl Trafficking Act to direct increased federal attention to fentanyl trafficking by declaring fentanyl trafficking a national security threat, utilizing Pentagon resources like counter-drug intelligence, and involving Mexico as an active partner to combat the crisis. Kaine also helped pass a supplemental national security funding package that included the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, bipartisan legislation cosponsored by Kaine, to require the President to sanction drug rings involved in international drug trafficking. Last July, Kaine traveled to Brownsville and McAllen, Texas to discuss fentanyl interdiction at the southern border with various law enforcement agencies and international partners from Mexico. Last year, Kaine also introduced the bipartisan Strengthening Tracking Of Poisonous Tranq Requiring Analyzed National Quantification Act, or the STOP TRANQ Act to require the State Department to include reporting on xylazine, or “tranq,” in its annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR).
    This legislation is led by U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Katie Britt (R-AL), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Shelly Moore Capitol (R-WV), James Risch (R-ID), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Rick Scott (R-FL), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Todd Young (R-IN). It is led in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representatives Jimmy Panetta (D-CA-19) and August Pfluger (R-TX-11).  

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: WATCH: Baldwin Warns Colleagues That Confirming Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Will Harm Families

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Wisconsin Tammy Baldwin
    Published: 02.13.2025
    Senate set to vote on confirmation of RFK, Jr. to lead Department of Health and Human Services Thursday; Baldwin: “RFK, Jr. will put Americans in harm’s way”

    WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) took to the Senate floor to express her opposition to the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
    Senator Baldwin announced her opposition to Mr. Kennedy’s nomination following a one-on-one meeting with him. She penned an op-ed in Newsweek detailing her reservations about his open opposition to safe and effective vaccines, his agenda to undermine vital research to find cures for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, and his decadeslong track record of spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories.
    A full recording of the Senator’s remarks is available here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: February 13th, 2025 Heinrich Statement on Trump’s Threat to Dismantle the Department of Education

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for New Mexico Martin Heinrich

    WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) released the following statement on President Trump’s unlawful threat to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education:

    “Gutting the Education Department will have disastrous consequences in New Mexico and across the country. Whether it’s because our kids’ favorite teacher is laid off, their after school program is shuttered, or they lose the help they need learning to read, President Trump’s threatened actions will hurt our kids.

    “As a father and as New Mexico’s senior senator, I will do everything I can to stop President Trump’s attack on our children’s future.”

    Background on How President Trump’s Unlawful Dismantling of the Education Department Will Harm New Mexico’s Students, Parents, and Educators:

    Title I Funding

    87% of schools in New Mexico receive a total of $147 million in federal Title I funding from the Department of Education. This funding supports low-income students with literacy and math. Title I funds are used for:

    • Hiring additional teachers and specialists who support students and their teachers with literacy and math instruction
    • Purchasing additional instructional materials
    • Teacher training
    • Parent engagement
    • Smaller Classroom Sizes

    Federal Pell Grants

    Over 44,000 low-income college students in New Mexico — including students in vocational-technical certificate programs — currently receive a Federal Pell Grant from the Department of Education. Pell Grants help New Mexicans pay for tuition, housing, food, transportation, books, and other education-related costs.

    Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Funding

    The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funds special education services. 16.5% of New Mexico students are on an individualized education plan (IEP) and receive services under this program. New Mexico receives $120 million per year in IDEA funding from the Department of Education. IDEA funding can be used to pay special education instructors, support services such as behavioral health specialists, and classroom materials and equipment designed for students with disabilities.

    21st Century Community Learning Center (After School Program) Funding

    The Department of Education administers Title IV, Part B funds for after school programs. In New Mexico, 124 schools receive this funding for their after school enrichment and tutoring programs.

    Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act Funding

    The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act funds grants for equipment and programming for high school career and technical education programs. New Mexico receives $10.5 million in Carl Perkins Act Career and Technical Education Improvement Act funding from the Department of Education.

    Title II, Part A Funding

    Title II, Part A funds teacher professional development. New Mexico receives over $2 million per year from the Department of Education to help educators improve and expand their teaching skills.

    Title III Funding

    Title III funds help students learn English. 1 out of 3 families in New Mexico speak a language other than English at home and about 1 out of 6 students are classified as English learners. New Mexico currently receives about $9 million per year to help kids learn English.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Schatz: RFK Jr., Whose Dangerous Lies Fueled Measles Outbreak in Samoa & Caused Preventable Deaths, Unqualified To Lead HHS

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Hawaii Brian Schatz

    WASHINGTON – Today on the Senate floor, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) underscored the troubling record of President Donald Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose efforts in Samoa to deceive families about measles vaccines led to a deadly outbreak that killed more than 80 people, many of whom were young children. Schatz urged his colleagues to vote against RFK Jr. in tomorrow’s confirmation vote.

    “It’s not often that the stakes of a vote to confirm a cabinet nominee are this high. But tomorrow, when we vote on the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the stakes will be life or death,” said Senator Schatz. “ Mr. Kennedy, in his words, but more importantly in his actions, has proven over and over that he is a unique danger to society. But he’s on the edge of becoming the country’s top health leader with the power to unleash bygone diseases and undermine trust in science for generations to come.”

    “For the first time ever, we will have a Health Secretary who has actively helped cause outbreak instead of to contain them,” he continued. “We’ll have someone in charge of medical research who’s taken every opportunity to undermine science instead of promoting it. We’ll have someone who’s never come across a wacky idea that he didn’t like, whether it’s that antidepressants are causing mass shootings or that chemicals in the water are turning kids gay… Those two things should be immediately disqualifying.”

    Schatz recounted the story of how Kennedy traveled to Samoa in 2019 to discourage people from taking the measles vaccine which ultimately led to an outbreak in which thousands of people were infected and 83, mostly children, died.

    “It is so chilling to contemplate the idea that someone as recognizable as a Kennedy would fly across an ocean to a small, developing country and basically tell everybody, ‘Be afraid of this lifesaving medicine’,” Schatz concluded. “If you think it’s a good idea to leave all of these diseases in the rearview mirror, then this is a very bad person to have running the Department of Health and Human Services.”

    Video of Senator Schatz’s remarks is available here.

    The full text of Senator Schatz’s remarks, as delivered, is below.

    It is not often that the stakes of a vote to confirm a cabinet nominee are this high. But tomorrow, when we vote on the nomination of RFK Jr. to be the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, the stakes will be life and death. Mr. Kennedy, in his words, but more importantly in his actions, has proven over and over again that he is a unique danger to society.

    But he is on the edge of becoming the country’s top health leader, with the power to unleash bygone diseases and undermine trust in science for generations to come. For the first time ever, we will have a Health Secretary who has actively helped to cause outbreak instead of to contain them. We’ll have someone in charge of medical research who has taken every opportunity to undermine science, instead of promoting it.

    We’ll have someone who’s never come across a crazy idea that he didn’t like, whether it’s that antidepressants are the cause of mass shootings or chemicals in the water are turning children gay.

    This is the Secretary of the Health and Human Services Department. Those two things right there should be immediately disqualifying. This should be 100 to 0. This guy used to be a Democrat. This guy was pro-choice. This guy was for clean energy. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue except to say for HHS, you need somebody who has devoted their life and hopefully has some expertise in the area of public health.

    And it’s not just that we didn’t get someone who has expertise in public health. We have someone who has caused disease and death. And I say those words with precision. I understand that both sides of the aisle are prone to exaggerating their case, and being apocalyptic. When we describe a pending vote, I’ve been here for a while, and everything is always the most important vote that we will ever cast.

    And I don’t know if this is the most important vote we’ll ever cast. I do think, gosh, I hope I’m wrong. I really do hope I’m wrong. But I do think this is likely the Cabinet Secretary vote that is likely to age the most poorly, because this person has the potential to actually cause diseases like rubella, like mumps, like measles, like polio, that have been gone for many generations because we have a vaccine regime.

    And I want to tell you what he did in Samoa. In 2019, he flew to Samoa to discourage people from taking the measles vaccine. And the reason was that he wanted to run a quote, natural experiment to see how people would fare against the disease without protections. Now, some of you may know this. My father was the first whistleblower against the Tuskegee experiments in which the United States Public Health Service did a similar thing.

    They knew that penicillin cured syphilis, and they knew that for the most part, untreated syphilis caused death. But the US Public Health Service decided to divide a cohort of African-American men into two parts. One would receive the medicine and be safe and be cured, and another cohort would receive a placebo and not get the lifesaving cure for syphilis.

    And why did they do that? To quote, “observe the disease process”.

    To observe the disease process. So when you when you investigate whether or not a medicine works, there’s a whole process to it, right? The FDA double blind studies all the rest of it. But the basic idea is you’re trying to get to some level of reliability and statistical significance so that you can project out into the population what’s going to work and what’s not.

    Now, the second way to do this is say you can achieve statistical significance until you just let a bunch of people get sick and figure out what happens. The United States Congress, led by someone with whom I served for a couple of years, Tom Harkin, when they found out about the Tuskegee experiments, made a law against the U.S. Public Health Service ever doing that again because it’s immoral.

    It’s bad science. Sure. But more than that, it treated these African-American men as if they were worth experimenting on, as if this this category of human beings in the United States were expendable for scientific research purposes. And that’s exactly what happened in Samoa. And it’s exactly what happened in Samoa.

    6000 people got the measles. 83 people died. 79 of them were kids. It is so chilling to contemplate the idea that someone as recognizable as a Kennedy would fly across an ocean to a small, developing country and basically tell everybody, be afraid of this lifesaving medicine. And it’s saw he did that once and said, I’m sorry I misunderstood or I’m being misunderstood.

    This dude actually sells onesies on his website saying, I think it’s like “unvaxxed and unafraid” for a little baby. This guy has views that are out of the mainstream of, I would guess, 99 out of 100 United States senators. And I do understand the pressure that some of my colleagues are facing. They’re being told if you vote against one Trump nominee, you will be primaried.

    So that’s not a small amount of pressure. But this one, I just promise you, it’s not going to age well.

    Some of my colleagues are expressing reservations in private. And I think that’s better than not expressing any reservations at all. And some of them are getting private assurances from Mr. Kennedy that he does not, in fact, hate all vaccines. He just wants to answer questions and all the rest of it. I am not reassured. I think this person has demonstrated over a pretty long career that he says whatever is convenient in the moment, right?

    This is like an unreconstructed, he’s a Kennedy. He was running for president in the Democratic primary, and now he’s a Trump guy, like ten months later. What does that mean? It means he’s got no core values, right? Like there’s just no way to go from over here to over here politically in such a short period of time, except that he was offered something, and he was offered this job.

    And why does he want this job? Because he’s got a very specific view about public health.

    And I just want to make one other point. The problem of our food system. Right. The problem of the extent to which we subsidize ultra-processed foods that are coming from commodities that are subsidizing the farm bill and causing people to get increasingly diabetic, and all the related health problems that happen related to that. Like, that’s a really legitimate place to do some good bipartisan work.

    And I would love to do that. It’s also not what the HHS secretary does, what the United States Department of Agriculture does, for the most part, and it’s what the Congress does. The problem is the farm bill. The problem is you get what you subsidize. And we are subsidizing all the corn products and all the soy products and all the sugar products that go into the lab tested extra delicious, extra bad for you, extra addictive stuff that is making us all.

    Even though we’re the wealthiest country in human history, a very unhealthy country. And so if that’s all this guy we’re working on, you can count me in. But if your idea of public health has to do with healthy food, has to do with prevention, has to do with understanding that our food system and our agricultural system and our USDA and our farm bill process is essentially broken.

    You don’t actually have to purchase this kind of crazy, evil stuff. You just don’t you don’t have to do it. There’s lots of good people on the food system side. You can work with, work for, cheer on, organize with. But this man is going around… he’s not talking about the COVID vaccine.

    He’s not talking about whether or not it’s appropriate to require masks in public, where Democrats and Republicans are, like, still arguing about stuff like that. He’s talking about stuff that like, if you’re a parent and now you don’t know whether when your kid goes to school, they’ve reached herd immunity for stuff that is like way, way, way generations back in the rearview mirror.

    And so I don’t know if this is going to mark one of the most important public health moments in American history, but I can’t think of another time where we actually have the technology, we have the medicine, we have the science, we have the distribution system, we have the public infrastructure to keep people safe. And we just decide by a vote of 53 to 47 to make people unsafe.

    So Secretary of Defense, DNI, all these are important. Treasury. Every cabinet position is important. It’s going to be a little more challenging to know whether your vote is vindicated in the sweep of history. I think this guy is going to age very poorly in the job, because I think we are going to see bad public health outcomes very, very shortly.

    This really is a matter of life and death. And I understand what I have learned over the last ten days is if Republicans are going to display courage, it’s not going to be on the cabinet. There are a few that have voted, you know, not with their party, but for the most part, like they’re in line, and Trump is going to get his cabinet.

    But let this be a marker for everybody. Let today be a marker for everybody. If you even if you voted for Trump, if you didn’t vote for Trump, if you’re not a voter, it doesn’t matter. If you think it’s a good idea to leave all of these diseases in the rearview mirror, then this is a very, very bad person to have running the Department of Health and Human Services.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Klobuchar Statement on Senator Tina Smith

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Minnesota Amy Klobuchar

    WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) released the following statement on U.S. Senator Tina Smith’s (D-MN) announcement she will not seek reelection in 2026.

    “It’s been a privilege to work with Senator Tina Smith. I’m lucky enough to call her not only a colleague, but a true friend. Tina and I have been friends since long before our time together in the Senate. We have watched each other’s kids grow up and been there for each other through life’s ups and downs. As the only Senator to have worked at Planned Parenthood, Tina quickly became a leader in Washington in the fight to protect women’s rights. Tina also bravely shared her own story as part of her work to strengthen mental health services for all Americans. Her quiet but effective governing style earned her the title the velvet hammer. While Tina and I will continue to work together for the next two years, our friendship and her legacy will last a lifetime.”

     

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Helping Alberta industry lead the world

    [. However, many of these technologies don’t yet exist, are still early in development or are not yet commercially available. Given our energy leadership, Alberta will continue to lead the way.

    Alberta’s government is investing $55 million from the industry-funded TIER program to help industries, big and small, test and implement the technologies they need to keep leading the world. Delivered through Emissions Reduction Alberta, this funding will help 15 projects develop cutting-edge technologies that could one day be used across Canada and around the world.

    “When it comes to innovation, Alberta’s track record is second to none. This funding will help empower our industry and businesses to develop the new technologies that are in demand around the world. This funding is a win-win: creating jobs, reducing emissions, and strengthening our economy for the benefit of all Albertans.”

    Rebecca Schulz, Minister of Environment and Protected Areas

    This funding will support projects across the economy, including the energy, newsprint, cement, water treatment, dairy and forestry sectors. In total, $46 million will go to 12 projects through Emissions Reduction Alberta’s Industrial Transformation Challenge, with an additional $8.7 million invested in three projects approved through the Partnership Intake Program.

    “By investing in these technologies today, we are helping to maintain Alberta as a global leader in industrial innovation and paving the way for a more sustainable and competitive future across our industries.”

    Heather Stephens, chief operating officer, Emissions Reduction Alberta

    Funding ranges from $500,000 to $10 million for each project, including:

    • $10 million to help Alberta Newsprint Company make best-in-class energy efficiency upgrades that will reduce costs and improve the mill’s competitiveness.
    • $8.4 million to help Dairy Innovation West advance a new approach for developing concentrated milk products that can be transported with less energy and further processed into other dairy products, increasing the province’s milk-processing capacity.
    • $7.45 million to help the City of Calgary install a first-in-Alberta and second-in-Canada technology to use thermal energy at the Fish Creek wastewater treatment plant.
    • $4 million to help Lafarge Canada explore using calcined clay in cement products, lowering the overall emission intensity of cement while maintaining strength.
    • $3.7 million to help Flash Forest Inc. advance a proof-of-concept that uses drones, AI-based site selection software and ecological science to speed up and improve tree planting and reforestation. 
    • $2 million to help Merlin Plastics develop a commercial-scale operation that will divert hard-to-recycle plastics from landfills or incineration.
    • $700,000 to help TS-Nano Canada test a new product that will more effectively seal oil and gas wells, reducing potential methane leaks and reducing operational costs.

    “With support from the Government of Alberta and Emissions Reduction Alberta, Alberta Newsprint Company will adopt state-of-the-art technologies that significantly reduce its carbon footprint, demonstrating Alberta’s leadership in sustainable manufacturing.”

    Ron Stern, president and chief executive officer, Alberta Newsprint Company

    “This funding support enables the City of Calgary to employ innovative low-carbon technology to heat the new infrastructure for the Fish Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade project. By using heat pumps to recover thermal energy from wastewater effluent as a heat source, the project significantly reduces the plant’s greenhouse gas emissions.”

    Michael Thompson, general manager, Infrastructure Services, City of Calgary

    “The support from the Government of Alberta and Emissions Reduction Alberta has been instrumental in driving the development and deployment of innovative technologies for the Dairy Innovation West facility. This funding not only accelerates our progress but also underscores Alberta’s commitment to advancing clean technology and sustainable solutions that have a lasting impact both locally and globally.”

    Henry Holtmann, chair, Dairy Innovation West

    A full list of funding and project details can be found at https://www.eralberta.ca. 

    Quick facts

    • These projects are estimated to reduce 119,000 tonnes of emissions each year, 394,000 tonnes of emissions by 2030, and more than 2.2 million tonnes of emissions by 2050.
    • These projects are estimated to create almost 1,600 jobs and inject $237 million into Alberta’s GDP by 2027.
    • Emissions Reduction Alberta’s Partnership Intake Program acts as a catalyst to de-risk and deploy novel technology solutions by giving applicants the opportunity to leverage funding from both Emissions Reduction Alberta and trusted partner organizations.
    • Industrial Transformation Challenge applicants and their technologies can originate from anywhere in the world, but projects must be piloted, demonstrated or deployed in Alberta and show significant emissions reduction and economic benefits within the province.  
    • Successful applicants are eligible for up to $10 million per project, with a minimum request of $500,000. Funding received through the Industrial Transformation Challenge will match private contributions on a one-to-one basis.

    Related information

    • Industrial Transformation Challenge
    • Partnership Intake Program

    Multimedia

    • Watch the news conference

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Luján, Colleagues Urge Trump Administration to Exempt Seasonal Firefighters from Federal Hiring Freeze

    US Senate News:

    Source: US Senator for New Mexico Ben Ray Luján

    Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) joined U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and 13 of their Senate colleagues in a letter urging the Trump administration to exempt seasonal firefighters from the federal hiring freeze. Reports emerged last week indicating that the federal funding freeze is preventing the hiring and onboarding of seasonal firefighters, a workforce that already struggles with recruitment and retention. This comes as the West continues to be ravaged by deadly wildfires.

    “We write today following reports that hiring and onboarding for federal seasonal firefighters has stopped due to the Trump Administration’s federal hiring freeze,” wrote the Senators. “We are extremely concerned to hear that this is happening across the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Park Service ahead of what’s expected to be another devastating wildfire year.”

    “Although there is an urgent need to hire more federal firefighters, the Trump Administration’s hiring freeze does the opposite and is pausing hiring at a critical time for this already understaffed workforce,” they continued. “We urge you to put the safety of families and communities across the country first and allow the federal seasonal firefighter hiring process to continue without delay.”

    The full letter can be found here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Luján Votes Against Agriculture Secretary Nominee Following Funding Freeze for Farmers, Ranchers, and Acequias

    US Senate News:

    Source: US Senator for New Mexico Ben Ray Luján

    WaPo Report: Farmers on the hook for millions after Trump freezes USDA funds

    Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, issued the following statement after voting against the nomination of Brooke Rollins to serve as Secretary of the Department of Agriculture:  

    “New Mexico’s agriculture industry is the backbone of our rural economies and helps feed both our state and the world. It is unacceptable that our farmers, ranchers, and acequia parciantes are now caught in the crosshairs of Elon Musk’s political agenda – left on the hook for millions of dollars that the federal government promised them. This isn’t about politics – it’s about real people who are being abandoned by the administration despite their critical role in providing for all Americans.

    “The administration must uphold its commitment to our farmers, ranchers, and producers. Until there is a commitment to do so, I cannot support a nominee who prioritizes a political agenda over the needs of our agriculture industries and all Americans.”

    MIL OSI USA News –