Category: Americas

MIL-OSI USA: ICE Baltimore arrests Uzbekistani man convicted of sex offense in Maryland

Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement

BALTIMORE — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement apprehended an Uzbekistani native convicted of fourth-degree sex offense when officers arrested Islom Gaziev, 65, Feb. 4, in Owings Mills, Maryland.

“Every arrest like this means one less predator on our streets today and one less potential victim tomorrow,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Baltimore acting Field Office Director Matthew Elliston. “Our top priority is public safety, and this arrest is yet another example of our commitment to protecting the residents of Maryland. We will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that those who pose a threat to our communities are held accountable.”

Gaziev lawfully entered the United States through John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, Oct. 20, 2015, and later violated the terms of his lawful admission.

The Westminster Police Department in Westminster, Maryland, arrested and charged Gaziev with fourth-degree sex offense Aug. 20, 2024. The Carroll County Circuit Court convicted Gaziev of fourth-degree sex offense Dec. 13, 2024, and sentenced him to three years supervised probation.

ICE served Gaziev a notice to appear before a Department of Justice immigration judge following his arrest, and he remains in ICE custody.

MIL OSI USA News –

February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Detroit Local 141 Spreads IAM Generosity to Community

Source: US GOIAM Union

IAM Local 141, which represents airline members in the Detroit area with members at United, Southwest and American, has a passion for helping people in need. The local, which has a membership of around 400, regularly donates and volunteers at regional non-profit organizations.

“I’m proud of our members at Local 141 who are helping and spending their valuable time by serving and giving,” said IAM Air Transport Territory General Vice President Richie Johnsen. “They embody the core values of the IAM, and labor in general. They’re focused on lifting people up and building bridges.”

Area non-profits aided by IAM Local 141 include homeless shelters, drug recovery centers, a domestic violence shelter, the Detroit Rescue Mission and the American House Senior Living facility.

“It’s very rewarding and I mean that from my heart. I come from a family that’s always been involved in community service,” said Stephanie Dianna Walker, IAM Local 141 Community Service Chair. “I really care about my community. It truly feels good to be able to live up to the IAM’s motto of service to the community.”

Since December, members of Local 141 have served refreshments at shelters, listened and encouraged patients who are recovering from addiction, donated hundreds of blankets to a senior center and cooked meals for victims of domestic violence.

“We want the community to know we are there for them,” said Andrea Myers, an IAM Air Transport Special Representative, who is active with Local 141. “What we are trying to do is let the community know there’s people out there who have their best interest, and care.”

In the coming months, IAM Local 141 members plan to continue serving local shelters. They’re also organizing a movie night for at-risk and underserved members of the community and are planning a day of pampering for poor and at-risk women.

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MIL OSI USA News –

February 12, 2025

MIL-OSI: Værdipapirfonden Sparinvest suspenderer midlertidig handel med udvalgte afdelinger

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

Nykredit Portefølje Administration A/S anmodede den 11. februar 2025 Nasdaq Copenhagen om at suspendere udvalgte afdelinger kl. 12, grundet tekniske udfordringer.

Fund Name	ISIN	Order Book Code
INDEX Emerging Market Bonds Lokalvaluta	DK0060254043	SPVINO
INDEX Emerging Market Bonds Lokalvaluta Akk. – KL A	DK0060254126	SPVINOAKKKLA
INDEX Globale Aktier KL	DK0060747822	SPVIGAKL
INDEX Globale Aktier Min. Risiko Akk. KL	DK0060748127	SPVIGAMRAKL
INDEX Bæredygtige Global KL	DK0060747905	SPVIBGKL
INDEX Bæredygtige USA KL	DK0060748200	SPVBUSAKL
INDEX Bæredygtige Europa KL	DK0060748044	SPVBEUKL
INDEX Lav Risiko KL	DK0060748556	SPVILRKL
INDEX Mellem Risiko KL	DK0060748630	SPVIMRKL
INDEX Høj Risiko KL	DK0060748713	SPVIHRKL
INDEX Emerging Market Bonds	DK0062729406	SPVIEB
INDEX Emerging Market Bonds Akk. KL A	DK0062729596	SPVIMA

Suspensionen blev ophævet kl. 14.33.

Eventuelle spørgsmål vedrørende denne meddelelse kan rettes til Portfolio Management, npa.pm@nykredit.dk eller Christian Rye Holm, CRH@nykredit.dk.

Med venlig hilsen
Dirk Schulze

The MIL Network –

February 12, 2025

MIL-OSI Economics: A small consultancy firm in Puerto Rico adopts AI — helping other businesses thrive

Source: Microsoft

Headline: A small consultancy firm in Puerto Rico adopts AI — helping other businesses thrive

Embracing technology to be competitive

Intelligent Economics’ platform runs on Azure App Service, a service for hosting web applications running on Microsoft’s cloud computing services. It also uses Power BI, a set of software services, apps and connectors that turn data into visuals and interactive insights.

The portal was first introduced in 2018 and has been adding new features and improvements continuously since then. A beta version of the AI bot was launched in November for clients to speed up their customized data searches and improve their overall experience.

The bot runs on Azure OpenAI Service with a GPT4 model. It uses Azure AI Foundry and Azure AI Search, a set of tools to build, ground and deploy machine learning models on Azure. Clients’ information and personal data remain anonymous, according to IE, but interactions with the bot are used to fine-tune the bot’s responses, tone and functionality.

The platform and the AI bot are fed with more than 1,000 economic indicators of from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, verified and regularly polished by IE’s economists — from per capita income and inflation data to retail sales and personal consumption aggregates. There is also data for the rest of the US and Latin American countries.

“The most important thing is that it is fed with our database … not from random data found on the internet,” said Chantal Benet, vice president and chief economist at Intelligent Economics.

Additionally, clients can opt to upload their own internal operating data, such as sales data and price tags, which is not shared with others. They can combine local public data with their own to develop business projections.

Monthly and yearly indicators are tracked by Vélez’s group of economists from sometimes scattered and hard to find government websites and public and private sources of economic data. And much of the data is broken down by municipality, providing an exceptionally in-depth view of the state of the local economy.

Clients say they have all the economic data they need to identify regional and local trends in a single place, available around the clock, easy to access and displayed in an enticing manner through customized dashboards and colorful charts.

This real-time access allows them to enhance the efficiency and productivity of daily work and corporate planning, ultimately making them more competitive in a challenging environment.

Vélez has also developed his own economic surveys — he offers an exclusive monthly consumer confidence index — and provides specific daily analysis explaining indicators and economic trends. As the portal is mostly focused on local data, that exclusive analysis gives it an edge over other global platforms of economic content.

The web platform and the AI bot are fed with more than 1,000 economic indicators from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, giving it an edge over other global data platforms. Photo by Brandon Cruz.

Navigating local economics

Thompson, who runs De la Cruz, one of the largest advertising and marketing firms in Puerto Rico with offices in Miami and Colombia, has been a client of Vélez since 2006. He used to receive the data by phone in marathon sessions. Sometimes he could not reach Vélez immediately when he needed him the most.

Now, he says, the platform is saving him a lot of time and headaches. For instance, the portal was instrumental for Thompson to obtain, quickly and easily, the necessary hard data to justify a planned acquisition in the Dominican Republic to his stakeholders and to secure the needed financing.

Sometimes IE’s platform even helps Thompson’s own clients. Recently, it was key to identifying potential new markets and opportunities for a multinational bank that had overhauled its leading team in Puerto Rico and was being advised by De la Cruz.

“Having everything in a single portal speeds up our entire work and analysis process,” Thompson said. “That’s super important for us.”

Tapping into trustworthy information quickly is particularly important in Puerto Rico. The island, a US territory of 3.2 million people, has been immersed in a complex economic downturn since the mid-2000s, according to the World Bank, which coupled with natural disasters and government crises has fueled an unprecedented wave of migration.

“The economic situation in Puerto Rico is atypical enough to always require a short-term outlook to determine your next steps,” says Benet.

Vélez started his career in the island’s government in the early 1990s, working as an economist at the municipality of San Juan. After more than a decade in public service, he founded his own consultancy firm investing his life savings.

From the start, the economist and his team sought ways to stand out from the crowd — in his case, his then four competitors. He now anticipates that digitalization can triple his sales in the next decade and enable him to reach 400 clients without necessarily increasing the current staff.

Benet says the firm is focused on further implementing and expanding their digital journey: “We always knew that technology was the future.”

Top image: Gustavo Vélez and Chantal Benet, president and vice-president of Intelligent Economics, at the consultancy firm’s headquarters in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Photo by Brandon Cruz.

MIL OSI Economics –

February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Why are migrants dying trying to cross into the US? These are the 3 main risks they face

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Marni LaFleur, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of San Diego

An altar set at the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Baja, Calif., in November 2024 honors migrants who died trying to reach the U.S. Guillermo Arias/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump closed much of the activity at the U.S.-Mexico border in January 2025, making it impossible for migrants who arrive at a U.S. port of entry to apply for asylum. Trump’s border policies are likely to make it far more difficult and dangerous for migrants trying to reach the U.S. – but won’t deter all people who want to cross the U.S.-Mexico border without legal authorization.

The number of migrants crossing from Mexico into the U.S. without legal authorization dropped dramatically in 2024. But for a long time, crossing the U.S.-Mexico border by land has been the world’s deadliest migration route.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection recovered the remains of 10,784 migrants from 1988 through 2024.

This figure is an estimate of the total number of migrants who have died trying to cross from Mexico into the U.S. – there is no centralized system or organization that tracks migrant deaths, or any federal laws guiding authorities on how to manage the remains of migrants.

Many other dead migrants are also never found.

I am a professor of anthropology and have spent the past several years trying to understand how and why migrants die trying to enter the U.S.

Stranded migrants who are now staying in Mexican border towns and others with plans to still try to illegally cross into the U.S. might pursue increasingly dangerous ways to enter the country.

Research shows that there are three main reasons why migrants die trying to reach the U.S. from Mexico. First, migrants are often exposed to extreme weather conditions. Second, they drown in rivers or other bodies of water. Third, they could also experience blunt force trauma because of falls or motor vehicle accidents.

A body of a man is found by the Rio Grande in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on March 28, 2024.
David Peinado/Anadolu via Getty Images

Environmental exposure is common and dangerous

Migrants coming from Central and South America often travel to the U.S. in groups, typically with the help of a guide, called a coyote, they pay to help them.

They may spend days or weeks walking through remote areas without access to shelter or fresh food and clean water. They might sleep outdoors in very cold weather and walk during extreme heat. This can cause hypothermia or hyperthermia.

One of those remote areas is the Sonoran Desert, which spans the southwest U.S. into northwest Mexico. It is divided by the U.S.-Mexico border and is one of the hottest places on Earth. Ambient temperatures can soar to or above 118 degrees Fahrenheit, or 48 degrees Celsius.

As part of the strategy to stop migrants from coming to the U.S., Customs and Border Protection does not place many officers in the depths of the desert along the border. The government’s 1994 migration “prevention through deterrence” strategy explains that because the desert itself poses mortal danger to individuals, it is unnecessary to guard the land.

With border barriers, video surveillance, bright lights and many patrol agents closer to more populated areas along the U.S.-Mexico border, migrants can view the desert as a viable alternative for entering the U.S. Deterrent practices have been found to not stop migrants from trying to enter the U.S., but they do increase the number of migrants who die trying to do so.

Even migrants who are near help or are rescued from the desert may not recover from exposure to extreme temperatures. In 2023, for example, a 9-year-old migrant boy died from organ failure after authorities found him along the Arizona border.

Drowning poses another risk

Drowning is another leading cause of death for migrants trying to reach the U.S.

In California, for example, the 82-mile-long All-American Canal runs parallel to the U.S.-Mexico border. Although the canal doesn’t look particularly dangerous, it is deep, cold, fast-moving and has steep concrete edges that are difficult to scale. Migrants might not be able to swim, or others, particularly women and children, are not strong enough to withstand the force of the currents.

Areas of the Rio Grande, a river that divides the U.S. and Mexico in some areas of Texas, have become hot spots for migrant drownings. Approximately 1,107 migrants died trying to cross this river between 2017 to 2023. The river is fast and deep and is filled with rocks and heavy vegetation that make crossing difficult.

Additionally, in an effort to further deter migrant crossing at Eagle Pass, an area of the Rio Grande, the Texas National Guard installed more than 100 miles of razor wire along the river’s banks in 2024. They set up a large string of oversized orange buoys in the water, creating what the federal government called a navigation obstruction for migrants.

These tactics have sparked larger debates on how to handle migration, and which government agency is responsible for preventing people from crossing into the country, or apprehending them when they do so.

In 2024, a Mexican woman and her two children tried to cross the Rio Grande but struggled to do so. As Customs and Border Protection agents prepared to rescue the distressed and drowning individuals, the Texas National Guard prevented rescue attempts. The family died from drowning, and their bodies were later recovered.

Blunt force trauma

Another leading cause of death of migrants is falling from heights or experiencing car accidents.

At the California border region alone, approximately 20% of migrant deaths were due to blunt force trauma between 2018 through 2023. This rate rose after the 2020 expansion of the border wall, which now spans 741 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. In total, the border is nearly 2,000 miles.

In one incident in Texas in 2020, a pregnant 19-year-old Guatemalan woman died after falling from the border wall, which ranges from 18 to 30 feet. Medical authorities were unable to save the fetus.

In Texas, between 2021 and 2023, high-speed chases by immigration officials led to the deaths of 74 people. Some individuals were ejected from moving vehicles, while others were hit by fast-moving vehicles. Another particularly deadly accident occurred in 2021 in Holtville, California, when an SUV transporting 25 migrants collided with a semitruck. Thirteen migrants were killed.

Migrants from Colombia sleep outside in Jacumba, Calif., after crossing into the U.S. in May 2023.
Gregory Bull/Associated Press

‘Prevention through deterrence’

For more than 30 years, the U.S. government has tried to prevent migrants from reaching the U.S. through different strategies, like deploying Border Patrol agents or building walls.

There are many practical and policy-based interventions that would make it safer for migrants to cross through the U.S. and Mexico deserts. For example, water stations along known migration routes of the desert save lives.

Regardless of how the Trump administration tries to stop migrants from reaching the U.S., people will likely still try to come and embark on unsafe journeys to do so – and I will continue to track their experiences and deaths.

Marni LaFleur received funding from the National Science Foundation. I am the founder and director of a California registered 501 (c)(3) called Lemur Love (EIN 48-1174852).

– ref. Why are migrants dying trying to cross into the US? These are the 3 main risks they face – https://theconversation.com/why-are-migrants-dying-trying-to-cross-into-the-us-these-are-the-3-main-risks-they-face-246108

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Gov. Kemp Announces State Court Judge and County Solicitor Appointments

Source: US State of Georgia

Atlanta, GA – Governor Brian P. Kemp today announced the following appointments: Mason Rountree to the Paulding County State Court and Melissa Poole as the Solicitor General of Long County.

Mason B. Rountree is a native Georgian and founding partner of Rountree Law Firm in Paulding County, where he practiced primarily non-domestic civil litigation, misdemeanor criminal defense, and small business law. Rountree graduated from the University of Georgia with a business degree in economics and from Georgia State University College of Law. While attending law school, Rountree interned for Georgia Supreme Court Justices George Carley and Hugh Thompson. Upon graduating with his J.D., he served as the law clerk in the Tallapoosa Judicial Circuit for the Honorable Superior Court Judges Arthur Fudger; William A. Foster, III; and Marion Cummings. Rountree joined the law firm of Brock, Clay, Wilson & Rogers in Cobb County in 1996 as a civil litigation associate before forming his law firm in 1999. He also previously served part-time as Judge of the City of Dallas. Rountree and his wife, Ana, have four children, one grandchild, and enjoy spending time on the water looking for wildlife on the Georgia coast and exploring their bat cave in west Georgia.

Melissa Poole currently serves as an assistant district attorney for the Atlantic Judicial Circuit and a solicitor for the City of Richmond Hill. Poole received her bachelor’s degree in international studies from Mount Vernon College and her J.D. from Mercer University’s Walter F. George School of Law. After graduation, she served as a law clerk in the Oconee Judicial Circuit. Poole then joined the firm King & Spalding before joining the District Attorney’s Office in 2001. She has also worked as a certified mediator in the Atlantic Judicial Circuit. Poole has three children and is involved in their schools, including serving on both the parent’s council and the booster club.

MIL OSI USA News –

February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI: BexBack Revolutionizes Crypto Trading: Double Deposit Bonus, 100x Leverage & No KYC

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

SINGAPORE, Feb. 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — With the price of bitcoin once again trading below $100,000, many analysts believe it will enter a long period of high volatility. Holding spot positions may not continue to generate profits in the short term. BexBack Exchange is stepping up its efforts to provide traders with irresistible preferential packages. The platform now offers a 100% deposit bonus, a $50 welcome bonus for new users, and a 100x leverage on cryptocurrency trading, creating unparalleled opportunities for investors.

What Is 100x Leverage and How Does It Work?

Simply put, 100x leverage allows you to open larger trading positions with less capital. For example:

Suppose the Bitcoin price is $100,000 that day, and you open a long contract with 1 BTC. After using 100x leverage, the transaction amount is equivalent to 100 BTC.

One day later, if the price rises to $105,000, your profit will be (105,000 – 100,000) * 100 BTC / 100,000 = 5 BTC, a yield of up to 500%.

With BexBack’s deposit bonus

BexBack offers a 100% deposit bonus. If the initial investment is 2 BTC, the profit will increase to 10 BTC, and the return on investment will double to 1000%.

Note: Although leveraged trading can magnify profits, you also need to be wary of liquidation risks.

How Does the 100% Deposit Bonus Work?
The deposit bonus from BexBack cannot be directly withdrawn but can be used to open larger positions and increase potential profits. Additionally, during significant market fluctuations, the bonus can serve as extra margin, effectively reducing the risk of liquidation.

About BexBack?

BexBack is a leading cryptocurrency derivatives platform that offers 100x leverage on BTC, ETH, ADA, SOL, and XRP futures contracts. It is headquartered in Singapore with offices in Hong Kong, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Argentina. It holds a US MSB (Money Services Business) license and is trusted by more than 500,000 traders worldwide. Accepts users from the United States, Canada, and Europe. There are no deposit fees, and traders can get the most thoughtful service, including 24/7 customer support.

Why recommend BexBack?

No KYC Required: Start trading immediately without complex identity verification.

100% Deposit Bonus: Double your funds, double your profits.

High-Leverage Trading: Offers up to 100x leverage, maximizing investors’ capital efficiency.

Demo Account: Comes with 10 BTC in virtual funds, ideal for beginners to practice risk-free trading.

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Convenient Operation: No slippage, no spread, and fast, precise trade execution.

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Lucrative Affiliate Rewards: Earn up to 50% commission, perfect for promoters.

Take Action Now—Don’t Miss Another Opportunity!

If you missed the previous crypto bull run, this could be your chance. With BexBack’s 100x leverage and 100% deposit bonus and $50 bonus for new users (complete one trade within one week of registration), you can be a winner in the new bull run.

Sign up on BexBack now, claim your exclusive bonus and start accumulating more BTC today!

Website: www.bexback.com

Contact: business@bexback.com

Contact:
Amanda
business@bexback.com

Disclaimer: This content is provided by BexBack. The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the content provider. The information provided in this press release is not a solicitation for investment, nor is it intended as investment advice, financial advice, or trading advice. It is strongly recommended you practice due diligence, including consultation with a professional financial advisor, before investing in or trading cryptocurrency and securities. Please conduct your own research and invest at your own risk.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d4445477-0112-4df9-8539-ab93cd5affac

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c33fa072-02d1-4cbc-b4af-8168cc1fc992

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/dddf867f-8361-4b82-adca-bc3323f36632

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/296fa3c6-0da5-45fd-a274-3afbf2099c18

The MIL Network –

February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI: StormFisher Hydrogen Secures US$50 million Commitment from Hy24 to Deliver Pipeline of Clean Fuel Production Projects in North America
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)
- The investment will accelerate StormFisher Hydrogen’s current project pipeline deployment, including several facilities in the U.S. and Canada, with a total renewable capacity of up to 1.8 GW by 2030.
- Hy24, investing through their Clean Hydrogen Infrastructure Fund, is entering directly into the North American market, contributing to the advancement of clean fuel deployment in the region while supporting StormFisher Hydrogen’s export ambitions to European and Asian markets.
HOUSTON, Feb. 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — StormFisher Hydrogen, a leading developer and producer of clean fuels, announces today it has secured a US$50 million commitment from Hy24’s Clean Hydrogen Infrastructure Fund, the world’s leading low-carbon hydrogen asset manager. This strategic partnership will accelerate StormFisher Hydrogen’s pipeline of clean fuel production projects in North America, helping them to reach final investment decisions (FID) and catalyzing the transition to low carbon energy solutions.

“We are pleased to make our first direct investment in North America to support the growth of StormFisher Hydrogen,” said Pierre-Etienne Franc, co-founder and CEO of Hy24. “The company can leverage its energy platform approach, strong offtaker strategy, and a favorable international regulatory landscape to deploy its robust pipeline of e-Fuels projects and drive its export ambitions to European and Asian markets. These clean energy solutions present a significant opportunity for North America in its pursuit of energy security, economic growth, and its trade and continued leadership in the sector.”

StormFisher Hydrogen’s current project pipeline includes several facilities located across the United States (Texas, Kansas, Minnesota) and Canada (Ontario region). Together, they will have the capacity to convert up to 1.8 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy from solar and wind into RFNBO e-Fuels (renewable fuel of non-biological origin), such as green hydrogen, e-Methanol, green ammonia, and e-Methane. The company’s most advanced project located in North Texas, U.S. is expected to reach FID in early 2026 and will have an e-Methanol production capacity of more than 120,000 tonnes per year.

“This collaboration with Hy24 enables us to advance projects in our pipeline and reinforces our role as a leader in project development,” said Judson Whiteside, President and CEO of StormFisher Hydrogen. “We bring a lot of value and long-term jobs to the communities we are developing in, while increasing molecule exports to Europe and Asia. With cutting-edge energy infrastructure and highly skilled workforce, the United States is poised to lead the global low-carbon fuels market. Our projects strengthen America’s position in the energy transition while enhancing domestic energy resilience and independence.”

StormFisher Hydrogen will make a significant contribution to the development of North America’s e-Fuel production capacity, which is critical for decarbonizing hard-to-abate industries such as maritime, aviation, and chemicals. It will also help establish the United States as a key supplier to the global market while reinforcing the country’s leadership in the energy sector.

With previous investment from ARC Financial Corp.’s ARC Energy Transition Fund and this new investment from Hy24, StormFisher Hydrogen is expected to deploy several billion dollars of capital over the next decade. The company’s clean fuel production facilities will have material economic benefits for local communities, creating approximately 50 permanent high-quality, full-time jobs per site.

“We are thrilled to partner with Hy24,” said Brian Boulanger, CEO of ARC Financial Corp. “Their deep expertise and sectoral focus in the hydrogen and e-Fuel space will be instrumental in accelerating StormFisher Hydrogen’s mission to lead in clean fuel development. With the management team’s proven track record in developing major projects, ARC Financial Corp.’s extensive North American investment experience, and Hy24’s global reach, we are well-positioned to deliver low-carbon hydrogen-derived products to our industrial customers at scale.”

About StormFisher Hydrogen

StormFisher Hydrogen develops and operates facilities that produce e-Fuels through the sourcing of renewable electricity to produce green hydrogen and the sourcing and use of carbon dioxide from industrial point sources. StormFisher Hydrogen works with hard-to-abate sectors such as transportation (maritime/aviation), heavy industry, and gas utility companies, as well as traditional methanol users seeking clean fuel solutions to support long-term decarbonization goals.

About Hy24

The Clean H2 Infra Fund is managed by Hy24, a 50/50 joint venture between Ardian, a world leading private investment house, and FiveT Hydrogen, a clean hydrogen investment pureplay. The world’s largest clean hydrogen infrastructure fund results from the initiative of Air Liquide, TotalEnergies and VINCI Concessions, combined with the one of Plug Power, Chart Industries and Baker Hughes, which were sharing a common objective to accelerate the development of the hydrogen sector. The fund is now up and running with €2 billion of allocations. With strong industrial and financial expertise at its core, Hy24 will have a unique capacity to accelerate the scaling up of hydrogen solutions along the whole value chain: production, conversion, storage, supply, and usage. Hy24 will support large early stage and strategic projects into becoming essential energy infrastructures. The infrastructure fund managed by Hy24 complies with Article 9 of the European regulation on sustainability-related disclosures in the financial services sector (SFDR). Hy24 is an alternative investment fund manager regulated by the French Autorité des marchés financiers under the number GP-202171. The Clean H2 Infra Fund is dedicated to professional investors and not commercialized in the United States of America.

About ARC Financial Corp.

Founded in 1989, ARC Financial Corp. is committed to building high-performing businesses that address the world’s energy and sustainability needs. To date, ARC has raised C$6.4 billion across eleven energy-focused funds since the launch of its private equity business in 1997, having invested capital in more than 180 companies across the energy landscape. ARC’s newest fund, ARC Energy Fund 10, is focused on infrastructure development and energy services & manufacturing opportunities in energy transition. For more information, please visit www.arcfinancial.com

Press Contacts

StormFisher Hydrogen
Karen Hamill, Director, Communications Strategy Group
khamill@wearecsg.com, W: https://stormfisher.com

Hy24
Elizabeth Adams, Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting
Hy24@fticonsulting.com, W: https://hy24partners.com

The MIL Network –
February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI: Parallels Introduces New “Elevate Now” Partner Program to Boost Partner Growth and Success
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Parallels, a global leader in virtualization and end-user computing solutions, today introduced its “Elevate Now” Partner Program, designed to equip new and existing partners with more resources, greater profitability, and enhanced support. The program updates, which focus on delivering increased value and growth opportunities, are aimed at enabling resellers, managed service providers (MSPs), value added resellers (VARs), and system integrators (SI) to thrive.

“Our goal with this program redesign is to ensure that all partners, regardless of size, can navigate the changes and disruption in the traditional virtual desktop landscape,” said Michelle Chiantera, Chief Revenue Officer for Parallels. “With substantial updates to discounts, program tiers, and support, we’re delivering a partner-first, channel-first model that helps partners meet market demands, boost their bottom line, and offers an attractive alternative to Citrix.”

Key benefits of Parallels’ “Elevate Now” Partner Program include:
- Updated program tiers. In addition to added benefits for existing Silver, Gold, and Platinum partners, Parallels has introduced a new Essentials tier, tailored for smaller partners who may not yet meet the minimum deal size requirements of higher tiers. This entry-level tier provides resources and support to help these partners grow and advance through the program. Plus, a new partner portal offers streamlined access to vital resources, empowering all partners to maximize program benefits and succeed.
- Expanded partner benefits. Higher discounts, enriched support, faster onboarding, and free enablement and certification across all program tiers ensure partners can more easily grow and thrive.
- Increased profitability. The updated discount model emphasizes new business generation, offering higher margins for resellers, while enabling partners to manage and fully benefit from customer renewals.
“With our partner-sourced sales pipeline doubling and new deal registrations tripling over the past year, we’re excited to see that our partners are thriving,” said Chiantera. “The changes we’ve made to our program are designed to sustain this momentum, giving partners even greater profit margins and the resources they need to unlock new opportunities.”

“The benefits we receive as strategic partners allow us to increase our margins through enhanced deal registration and MDF investments, helping us grow and expand our Parallels footprint. Parallels also supports us in maintaining our installed base, which has become a key market differentiator for us.” – Pedro Guerreiro, Chief Solutions Officer, A2it Technology

Parallels extends migration program

Parallels is empowering Citrix and Omnissa customers to transition smoothly to Parallels solutions with its specialized migration program, extended through to May 31, 2025. This program includes tailored migration tools and financial incentives, such as a free one-year license for customers committing to a three-year paid subscription and additional rebates for gold and platinum partners. For more details, including the program terms, conditions, and complete eligibility requirements, visit: www.parallels.com/lp/parallels-migration.

Flexible SPLA billing simplifies license management for MSPs

Parallels offers tailored support for MSPs through its flexible SPLA concurrent billing model, enabling partners to manage customer licenses on a monthly basis with ease and scalability. With this model, MSPs can access Parallels’ powerful suite of solutions to deliver secure, high-performance virtual workspaces without upfront commitments. To learn how Parallels can streamline your services, visit www.parallels.com/partners/msp/.

Empower customer success with Parallels’ suite of end-user computing solutions

“Elevate Now” partners gain access to Parallels’ comprehensive suite end-user computing solutions, including Parallels RAS, Parallels Secure Workspace, Parallels DaaS, and Parallels Browser Isolation. Learn more at www.parallels.com/partners.

About Parallels

Parallels is a global leading brand in cross-platform solutions that make it simple for businesses and individuals to use and access the applications and files they need on any device or operating system. Parallels helps customers leverage the best technology out there, whether it’s Windows, Mac, ChromeOS, iOS, Android, or the cloud. Parallels solves complex engineering and user-experience problems by making it simple and cost-effective for businesses and individual customers to use applications anywhere, anytime. For more information, please visit www.parallels.com.

© 2025 Parallels International GmbH. All rights reserved. Parallels is a trademark or registered trademark of Parallels International GmbH. in Canada, the United States and/or elsewhere. Mac is a trademark of Apple Inc. Android and ChromeOS are trademarks of Google LLC. All other company, product and service names, logos, brands and any registered or unregistered trademarks mentioned are used for identification purposes only and remain the exclusive property of their respective owners. For all notices and legal information please visit www.parallels.com/about/legal/

Contact:
Ashley Ruess
ashley.ruess@alludo.com

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8652a83e-758b-429e-8cb6-22324f22f756

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/bfbf424c-3b2e-442b-8fa5-89b0c64d2fec

The MIL Network –
February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Learning a new language? Your mindset matters more than ‘having a knack’
Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Xijia Zhang, Graduate Student, Department of Psychology, University of Alberta

Know that every time you manage to learn a new word, or manage to get your message across in the language you are learning and you are improving. (Shutterstock)

If you stumble when you need to talk to someone in a language that isn’t your native language, do you think: “I just don’t have the knack for languages” or “Maybe I am not cut out to learn another language?”

Learning and using a language other than your mother tongue can be a daunting challenge. The good news is that everyone is smart enough to learn another language. An important part of that process is developing a mindset that will help you to succeed.

What is a language mindset?

We study people’s motivation to learn new languages from the perspective of language mindset theory. Language mindset theory shows that what people believe about aptitude has a role to play in language learning.

This theory concerns learners’ beliefs about whether they can change their aptitude for learning and using languages, and how different beliefs are associated with different outcomes, including language proficiency.

If learners think they can improve their ability when learning something hard about a new language, or when they didn’t do well in certain aspects of language learning, they won’t be scared off by thinking that their current level of ability is low.

Learners may even feel that these difficulties or failures are chances to learn something new and to improve their language ability. They remain hopeful and confident about what they can potentially achieve in language learning. They focus on what they can do to improve their language skills through the learning process, rather than merely surviving the interaction, getting a good grade or doing better than other people.

A growth or a fixed mindset

Language mindset theory — pertaining to learners’ beliefs about their aptitude for learning and using languages — can be differentiated into three types of views:
1. General language intelligence about whether a person believes they can change their ability to use spoken and written language to express themselves and communicate with others;
2. Beliefs about their aptitude for learning a new language;
3. Beliefs regarding whether their ability to learn a new language is in any way related to age.
If a person thinks these three types of language aptitude are something they’re born with and cannot change, they could be classified as a learner with a fixed mindset.

If they feel they can improve one or more of these aspects of language aptitude, and especially second-language aptitude, they could be characterized as a growth-mindset learner. Ultimately, learners with a growth mindset are likely to become more proficient in the language they are learning than a person with a fixed mindset.

Our research shows that about 20 per cent of language learners have a growth mindset, another 20 per cent have a fixed mindset and the majority (60 per cent) have a mixed mindset.

How teachers can help

Although people are increasingly using digital apps like Duolingo, language courses remain a common way for people to learn languages — and language teachers can help learners develop a growth mindset.

Teachers have a role promoting having a growth mindset.
(Shutterstock)

Teachers can help by reminding learners that they can improve their language intelligence through their efforts. For low-stakes assignments and tests, teachers can encourage learners to take risks and attempt new challenges and use these moments as an opportunity to learn something new.

Teachers should also provide feedback that focuses on the learning process; for example, what types of learning strategies learners could use, whether they need to work harder and what resources could be helpful for their language learning.

In this way, teachers convey an important message that it’s OK to make mistakes, and what learners do in the learning process matters more than how proficient they currently are. Even when learners are faced with high-stakes exams, teachers can still help learners connect the content of the exams to using the language in real-life communication.

If teachers can create a classroom environment that fosters a growth language mindset, learners are more likely to continue learning the language.

Mindset can shift, aptitude can grow

If you are a language learner who finds yourself thinking that your language aptitude is fixed, it’s never too late to change your belief.

Every time you master a new word, or acquire a new aspect of grammar or even just manage to get your message across to another person in the language you are learning, you are improving.

If you are having a hard time learning a certain aspect of the language, try using a different learning strategy, finding resources that can help you or simply giving yourself more time to practice. Remember, everyone is smart enough to learn a new language.

Xijia Zhang is affiliated with the University of Alberta.

Kimberly Noels works for the University of Alberta. She receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. Learning a new language? Your mindset matters more than ‘having a knack’ – https://theconversation.com/learning-a-new-language-your-mindset-matters-more-than-having-a-knack-246825
MIL OSI – Global Reports –
February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: NOAA’s vast public weather data powers the local forecasts on your phone and TV – a private company alone couldn’t match it

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Christine Wiedinmyer, Associate Director for Science at CIRES, University of Colorado Boulder

A forecaster monitors incoming data for Hurricane Irma in 2017 at the National Hurricane Center, part of the NOAA. Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images

When a hurricane or tornado starts to form, your local weather forecasters can quickly pull up maps tracking its movement and showing where it’s headed. But have you ever wondered where they get all that information?

The forecasts can seem effortless, but behind the scenes, a vast network of satellites, airplanes, radar, computer models and weather analysts are providing access to the latest data – and warnings when necessary. This data comes from analysts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, known as NOAA, and its National Weather Service.

Atmospheric scientists Christine Wiedinmyer and Kari Bowen, who is a former National Weather Service forecaster, explained NOAA’s central role in most U.S. weather forecasts.

When people see a weather report on TV, what went on at NOAA to make that forecast possible?

A lot of the weather information Americans rely on starts with real-time data collected by NOAA satellites, airplanes, weather balloons, radar and maritime buoys, as well as weather stations around the world.

All of that information goes into the agency’s computers, which process the data to begin defining what’s going on in different parts of the atmosphere.

NOAA forecasters use computer models that simulate physics and the behavior of the atmosphere, along with their own experience and local knowledge, to start to paint a picture of the weather – what’s coming in a few minutes or hours or days. They also use that data to project seasonal conditions out over weeks or months.

NOAA’s data comes from many sources to provide a more complete picture of developing climate and weather conditions. Communities and economies rely on that constantly updated information.
NOAA

When severe weather is on the way, the agency issues the official alerts you’ll see in the news and on your phone.

All of this analysis happens before the information reaches private weather apps and TV stations.

No matter who you are, you can freely access that data and the analyses. In fact, a large number of private companies use NOAA data to create fancy maps and other weather products that they sell.

It would be extremely difficult to do all of that without NOAA.

The agency operates a fleet of 18 satellites that are packed with instruments dedicated to observing weather phenomena essential to predicting the weather, from how hot the land surface is to the water content of the atmosphere. Some are geostationary satellites which sit high above different parts of the U.S. measuring weather conditions 24/7. Others orbit the planet. Many of these are operated as part of partnerships with NASA or the Air Force.

Some private companies are starting to invest in satellites, but it would take an enormous amount of money to replicate the range of instrumentation and coverage that NOAA has in place. Satellites only last so long and take time to build, so NOAA is continually planning for the future, and using its technical expertise to develop new instruments and computer algorithms to interpret the data.

NOAA’s low earth orbiting satellites circle the planet from pole to pole and across the equator 14 times a day to provide a full picture of the year twice a day. The agency also has geostationary satellites that provide continuous coverage over the U.S.
NOAA

Maritime buoys are another measuring system that would be difficult to replicate. Over 1,300 buoys across oceans around the world measure water temperature, wind and wave height – all of which are essential for coastal warnings, as well as long-term forecasts.

Weather observation has been around a long time. President Ulysses S. Grant created the first national weather service in the War Department in 1870. It became a civilian service in 1880 under the Department of Agriculture and is now in the Commerce Department. The information its scientists and technologists produce is essential for safety and also benefits people and industries in a lot of ways.

Could a private company create forecasts on its own without NOAA data?

It would be difficult for one company to provide comprehensive weather data in a reliable way that is also accessible to the entire public.

Some companies might be able to launch their own satellite, but one satellite only gives you part of the picture. NOAA’s weather observation network has been around for a long time and collects data from points all over the U.S. and the oceans. Without that robust data, computer models and the broad network of forecasters and developers, forecasting also becomes less reliable.

Analyzing that data is also complex. You’re not going to be able to take satellite data, run a model on a standard laptop and suddenly have a forecast.

And there’s a question of whether a private company would want to take on the legal risk of being responsible for the nation’s forecasts and severe weather warnings.

Neil Jacobs, nominated to oversee NOAA, explains why the agency is essential for accurate national weather forecasting, and why private companies might not want to take on the legal risk on their own.

NOAA is taxpayer-funded, so it is a public good – its services provide safety and security for everyone, not just those who can pay for it.

If weather data was only available at a price, one town might be able to afford the weather information necessary to protect its residents, while a smaller town or a rural area across the state might not. If you’re in a tornado-prone area or coastal zone, that information can be the difference between life or death.

Is climate data and research into the changing climate important for forecasts?

The Earth’s systems – its land, water and the atmosphere – are changing, and we have to be able to assess how those changes will impact weather tomorrow, in two weeks and far into the future.

Rising global temperatures affect weather patterns. Dryness can fuel wildfires. Forecasts have to take the changing climate into account to be accurate, no matter who is creating the forecast.

Drought is an example. The dryness of the Earth controls how much water gets exchanged with the atmosphere to form clouds and rainfall. To have an accurate weather prediction, we need to know how dry things are at the surface and how that has changed over time. That requires long-term climate information.

NOAA doesn’t do all of this by itself – who else is involved?

NOAA partners with private sector, academia, nonprofits and many others around the world to ensure that everyone has the best information to produce the most robust weather forecasts. Private weather companies and media also play important roles in getting those forecasts and alerts out more widely to the public.

A lot of businesses rely on accuracy from NOAA’s weather data and forecasts: aviation, energy companies, insurance, even modern tractors’ precision farming equipment. The agency’s long-range forecasts are essential for managing state reservoirs to ensure enough water is saved and to avoid flooding.

The government agency can be held accountable in a way private businesses are not because it answers to Congress. So, the data is trustworthy, accessible and developed with the goal to protect public safety and property for everyone. Could the same be said if only for-profit companies were producing that data?

Christine Wiedinmyer is the CIRES Associate Director for Science. CIRES is a CU Boulder research institute that has a cooperative agreement (grant) with NOAA called the Cooperative Institute for Earth Systems Research and Data Science, CIESRDS. Wiedinmyer’s funding is primarily from NOAA, which supports more than 400 CIRES CU Boulder employees.

Kari Bowen is the Science and Administration Manager. CIRES is a CU Boulder research institute with a cooperative agreement (grant) with NOAA called the Cooperative Institute for Earth Systems Research and Data Science, CIESRDS. Bowen’s funding is from NOAA, which supports more than 400 CIRES CU Boulder employees.

– ref. NOAA’s vast public weather data powers the local forecasts on your phone and TV – a private company alone couldn’t match it – https://theconversation.com/noaas-vast-public-weather-data-powers-the-local-forecasts-on-your-phone-and-tv-a-private-company-alone-couldnt-match-it-249451

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Influence on Healthcare Market Expected to Generate Revenues of $610 Billion By 2034

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

PALM BEACH, Fla., Feb. 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FN Media Group News Commentary – The growing adoption of the digital technologies in the healthcare sector owing to the growing need for reducing the healthcare costs and offer enhanced quality patient care services to the patients are the prominent factors that are boosting the growth of the global artificial intelligence in healthcare market. The surging prevalence of various chronic diseases and growing elderly population is resulting in the increased pool of patients at hospitals. The large volume of patient health data is generated every day, which is required to be stored and managed effectively. The growing demand for the personalized medicines and the necessity of maintaining digital health records are significantly driving the artificial intelligence in healthcare market. The novel technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning are now being integrated to the healthcare systems that will allow the health professionals in early identification of the diseases and offer enhanced care services to the patients. Moreover, the data analytics, deep learning technology, natural language processing (NPL), predictive analytics, and content analytics are supporting the healthcare professionals in early diagnosis and care services. A report from Precedence Research said that the global artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare market size accounted for USD 26.69 billion in 2024 and is predicted to reach around USD 613.81 billion by 2034, growing at a CAGR of 36.83% from 2024 to 2034. North America AI in healthcare market size reached USD 8.67 billion in 2023. Active A.I. companies active in the markets include: Avant Technologies Inc. (OTCQB: AVAI), Tempus AI, Inc. (NASDAQ: TEM), BigBear.ai (NYSE: BBAI), Talkspace (NASDAQ: TALK), SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOUN).

The Precedence Research report added: “North America region was the highest market share holder in (recent years). North America is characterized by the increased inclination towards the advanced and latest digital technologies. The strong and developed healthcare, IT, and telecommunications infrastructure in North America has supported the growth of the artificial intelligence in healthcare market. Furthermore, the favorable government policies that encourage the adoption of the digital and novel technologies like artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector. North America has the presence of huge pool of patients. It is estimated that over half of the US population is suffering from one or more chronic diseases. This is resulting in increased volume of patients in hospitals. The health data of these patients needs to be stored and managed in digital form as per the government regulations. This is a major factor that propels the demand for the artificial intelligence in healthcare sector.”

Avant Technologies, Inc. (OTCQB: AVAI) and Ainnova Advance Toward FDA Clinical Trial with Selection of Top CRO – Avant Technologies, Inc. (“Avant” or the “Company”) and its partner, Ainnova Tech, Inc., (Ainnova), a leading healthcare technology company focused on revolutionizing early disease detection using artificial intelligence (AI), today announced the selection of Fortrea, a global provider of clinical development solutions to the life sciences industry, as the contract research organization (CRO) to conduct Ainnova’s upcoming clinical studies to seek approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Ainnova’s Vision AI platform.

Fortrea will assist Ainnova in requesting a pre-submission meeting with the FDA for guidance on the clinical testing needed for its Vision AI platform in the early detection of diabetic retinopathy. After a pre-submission meeting, Fortrea will then work with Ainnova on its FDA submission and a subsequent clinical study before concluding with an FDA 510(k) submission to obtain clearance from the FDA to market its Vision AI platform.

The upcoming clinical studies are significant to Avant and its shareholders because of the partnership formed by Avant and Ainnova to advance and commercialize Ainnova’s technology portfolio, including its Vision AI platform and its versatile retinal cameras. The joint venture formed by the two companies, Ai-nova Acquisition Corp. (AAC), has the licensing rights for this portfolio in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, so the success of Ainnova’s clinical studies with the FDA will be vital to marketing the technology portfolio in the United States.

Ainnova’s Chief Executive Officer, Vinicio Vargas, said of the selection, “We worked diligently to identify and select the right CRO to help us both engage the FDA and then conduct our clinical studies. Fortrea is an established and highly regarded full-service CRO with expertise in more than 20 therapeutic areas, and a CRO with an extensive portfolio of successfully completed clinical trials, including those involving both emerging and large biopharmaceutical, medical device, and diagnostic companies.”

With Fortrea’s guidance, Ainnova expects to submit its pre-submission application in the coming weeks and expects to meet with the FDA for its pre-submission meeting in late March/early April 2025. Additionally, Ainnova will also interact with the FDA to devise a plan to obtain clearance for four algorithms it recently acquired the exclusive licensing rights to, which include early detection for cardiovascular risk, prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and chronic kidney disease. CONTINUED… Read this and more news for Avant Technologies at: https://www.financialnewsmedia.com/news-avai/

In other A.I. developments and happenings in the market recently include:

Tempus AI, Inc. (NASDAQ: TEM), a technology company leading the adoption of AI to advance precision medicine and patient care, recently announced it has completed its acquisition of Ambry Genetics, a recognized leader in genetic testing that aims to improve health by understanding the relationship between genetics and disease.

“This acquisition complements our strategy of leveraging diagnostics and data to drive innovation, further strengthening our ability to deliver cutting-edge solutions to clinicians, patients, and life sciences companies,” said Eric Lefkofsky, Founder and CEO of Tempus. “We are excited to welcome Ambry to the Tempus team as we work together to improve patient outcomes and transform treatment journeys through the power of technology.”

BigBear.ai (NYSE: BBAI) has recently been awarded a contract by the Department of Defense (DoD) Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) to advance BigBear.ai’s Virtual Anticipation Network (VANE) prototype. This initiative will support the CDAO and Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) by leveraging custom AI models to better assess news media originating in countries that are potential foreign adversaries.

The prototype award is designed to improve CDAO’s ability to identify key trends and topics related to potential foreign adversarial areas of interest, enabling faster and more informed assessments of media data vital to national security. VANE was created to contrive clarity in multi-domain environments for military and government applications by aggregating and analyzing vast data points, enabling predictions of adversarial activity in complex situations.

“We are honored to continue our support in the modernization of our nation’s defense efforts. This award underscores the importance of leveraging cutting-edge AI technologies to address complicated geopolitical challenges,” said Ryan Legge, President of National Security at BigBear.ai. “By advancing VANE within CDAO, we are arming our warfighters with sophisticated intelligence capabilities to leverage foreign insights critical to the safety of our Nation and those protecting it.”

Talkspace (NASDAQ: TALK) recently announced the launch of Insights, a new feature that enhances therapeutic care by helping Talkspace providers efficiently prepare for sessions and guide client care between sessions. The feature was developed and refined in partnership with Talkspace clinicians.

Before each session, providers can use Insights to synthesize data from each client’s care journey, a process that is typically manual — including changes in that client’s symptom acuity from evidence-based psychological assessments and key details from the most recent session — to generate a concise pre-session primer tailored to the therapist’s upcoming appointment. After the session, an update can be generated to reflect the discussion’s key points, highlight therapeutic progress, and note follow-ups for future sessions.

SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOUN), a global leader in voice artificial intelligence, recently announced the launch of Brand Personalities, a groundbreaking feature for its SoundHound Chat AI Automotive voice assistant – making it the first in-vehicle assistant to offer distinct, customizable personas tailored to each automaker’s unique brand identity, designed to enhance both the user experience and brand loyalty for OEMs.

Brand Personalities enables car makers to control the entire personality of their voice assistant including response style, character and vivaciousness. Automotive partners can choose from pre-designed personas, create fully customized personalities tailored to their specific needs, or even introduce seasonal characters for campaigns. Due to SoundHound’s unique software architecture, multiple personas can be defined for specific sub-brands or model lines—allowing sports cars, family cars, and commercial vehicles to each have distinct personalities that reflect the unique needs of their customers.

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The MIL Network –

February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI: Most Popular Cruise Ports, Published by Travel Planning App, Visited
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

TORONTO, Feb. 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Visited app, a travel list app published by Arriving In High Heels Corporation, announces the publication of its Top 25 Most Visited cruise ports list, based on international travelers cruising. The app was developed to keep track of all countries visited, it has later expanded to include US states that users have been to and destinations and experiences while abroad. With over 175 travel lists to choose from, including famous ports, users can select places and activities that they have done or wish to do. By building their ultimate bucket list, they are able to plan their future trip with itinerary feature.

The top visited cruise ports list is based on over 2.45 international travelers, with the full list available in the app on iOS or Android stores. “It is not surprising that 5 cruise ports out of 25, are found in United States, as a lot of cruises heading to Caribbean and Latin America originate there. What is surprising is that Barcelona continues to top the list as the most visited cruise port,” said Anna Kayfitz, CEO of Arriving In High Heels.

For those that love Cruising, here are the top 10 most popular cruise ports as per Visited’s users:
1. Barcelona, Spain
2. Venice, Italy
3. Miami, USA
4. London, UK
5. Amsterdam, Netherlands
6. New York, USA
7. Naples, Italy
8. Lisbon, Portugal
9. Copenhagen, Denmark
10. Cozumel, Mexico
To see the full list of popular cruise ports in United States and abroad, download the Visited app on iOS or Android.

About Visited Travel App

Visited is the ultimate travel bucket list app, is the app for those that love to travel both internationally and domestically. Some features of the app includes:
- Personalized map which an be looked at as by country, region or city
- Over 175 Travel lists, where users can select where they have been or want to go and what they like or want to do. Travel categories include places such as art museums, US National Parks or activities such as golf destinations, culinary experiences and wine regions.
- You can print your personal travel poster, which is a 16x20in country map with been, want and live colors.
- Trip itinerary feature lets you see the number of places and experiences you wish to visit and do by country. The rank helps decide where to next.
- Personal travel stats let’s you see how many countries you visited, what percentage of the world or country you have seen as well as they type of traveler you are.
The travel app is available in 30 languages and is available on iOS or Android and free to download.

To learn more about the Visited app and its latest feature update, please visit https://visitedapp.com/.

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

Contact:
Anna Kayfitz
anna@arrivinginhighheels.com

The MIL Network –
February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: The New Yorker turns 100 − how a poker game pipe dream became a publishing powerhouse

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Christopher B. Daly, Professor Emeritus of Journalism, Boston University

The New Yorker expanded the scope of journalism far beyond the standard categories of crime, courts, politics and sports. Design Uncensored

Literate in tone, far-reaching in scope, and witty to its bones, The New Yorker brought a new – and much-needed – sophistication to American journalism when it launched 100 years ago this month.

As I researched the history of U.S. journalism for my book “Covering America,” I became fascinated by the magazine’s origin story and the story of its founder, Harold Ross.

In a business full of characters, Ross fit right in. He never graduated from high school. With a gap-toothed smile and bristle-brush hair, he was frequently divorced and plagued by ulcers.

Ross devoted his adult life to one cause: The New Yorker magazine.

For the literati, by the literati

Born in 1892 in Aspen, Colorado, Ross worked out west as a reporter while still a teenager. When the U.S. entered World War I, Ross enlisted. He was sent to southern France, where he quickly deserted from his Army regiment and made his way to Paris, carrying his portable Corona typewriter. He joined up with the brand-new newspaper for soldiers, Stars and Stripes, which was so desperate for anybody with training that Ross was taken on with no questions asked, even though the paper was an official Army operation.

Harold Ross and Jane Grant in 1926.
University of Oregon Libraries

In Paris, Ross met a number of writers, including Jane Grant, who had been the first woman to work as a news reporter at The New York Times. She eventually became the first of Ross’ three wives.

After the armistice, Ross headed to New York City and never really left. There, he started meeting other writers, and he soon joined a clique of critics, dramatists and wits who gathered at the Round Table in the Algonquin Hotel on West 44th Street in Manhattan.

Over long and liquid lunches, Ross rubbed shoulders and wisecracked with some of the brightest lights in New York’s literary chandelier. The Round Table also spawned a floating poker game that involved Ross and his eventual financial backer, Raoul Fleischmann, of the famous yeast-making family.

In the mid-1920s, Ross decided to launch a weekly metropolitan magazine. He could see that the magazine business was booming, but he had no intention of copying anything that already existed. He wanted to publish a magazine that spoke directly to him and his friends – young city dwellers who’d spent time in Europe and were bored by the platitudes and predictable features found in most American periodicals.

First, though, Ross had to come up with a business plan.

The kind of smart-set readers Ross wanted were also desirable to Manhattan’s high-end retailers, so they got on board and expressed interest in buying ads. On that basis, Ross’ poker partner Fleischmann was willing to stake him US$25,000 to start – roughly $450,000 in today’s dollars.

Ross goes all in

In the fall of 1924, using an office owned by Fleischmann’s family at 25 West 45th St., Ross got to work on the prospectus for his magazine:

“The New Yorker will be a reflection in word and picture of metropolitan life. It will be human. Its general tenor will be one of gaiety, wit and satire, but it will be more than a jester. It will not be what is commonly called radical or highbrow. It will be what is commonly called sophisticated, in that it will assume a reasonable degree of enlightenment on the part of its readers. It will hate bunk.”

The magazine, he famously added, “is not edited for the old lady in Dubuque.”

In other words, The New Yorker was not going to respond to the news cycle, and it was not going to pander to middle America.

Ross’ only criterion would be whether a story was interesting – with Ross the arbiter of what counted as interesting. He was putting all his chips on the long-shot idea that there were enough people who shared his interests – or could discover that they did – to support a glossy, cheeky, witty weekly.

Ross almost failed. The cover of the first issue of The New Yorker, dated Feb. 21, 1925, carried no portraits of potentates or tycoons, no headlines, no come-ons.

Instead, it featured a watercolor by Ross’ artist friend Rea Irvin of a dandified figure staring intently through a monocle at – of all things! – a butterfly. That image, nicknamed Eustace Tilly, became the magazine’s unoffical emblem.

A magazine finds its footing

Inside that first edition, a reader would find a buffet of jokes and short poems. There was a profile, reviews of plays and books, lots of gossip, and a few ads.

It was not terribly impressive, feeling quite patched together, and at first the magazine struggled. When The New Yorker was just a few months old, Ross almost even lost it entirely one night in a drunken poker game at the home of Pulitzer Prize winner and Round Table regular Herbert Bayard Swope. Ross didn’t make it home until noon the next day, and when he woke, his wife found IOUs in his pockets amounting to nearly $30,000.

Fleischmann, who had been at the card game but left at a decent hour, was furious. Somehow, Ross persuaded Fleischmann to pay off some of his debt and let Ross work off the rest. Just in time, The New Yorker began gaining readers, and more advertisers soon followed. Ross eventually settled up with his financial angel.

A big part of the magazine’s success was Ross’ genius for spotting talent and encouraging them to develop their own voices. One of the founding editor’s key early finds was Katharine S. Angell, who became the magazine’s first fiction editor and a reliable reservoir of good sense. In 1926, Ross brought James Thurber and E.B. White aboard, and they performed a variety of chores: writing “casuals,” which were short satirical essays, cartooning, creating captions for others’ drawings, reporting Talk of the Town pieces and offering commentary.

E.B. White in his office at The New Yorker.
Bettmann/Getty Images

As The New Yorker found its footing, the writers and editors began perfecting some of its trademark features: the deep profile, ideally written about someone who was not strictly in the news but who deserved to be better known; long, deeply reported, nonfiction narratives; short stories and poetry; and, of course, the single-panel cartoons and the humor sketches.

Intensely curious and obsessively correct in matters grammatical, Ross would go to any length to ensure accuracy. Writers got their drafts back from Ross covered in penciled queries demanding dates, sources and endless fact-checking. One trademark Ross query was “Who he?”

During the 1930s, while the country was suffering through a relentless economic depression, The New Yorker was sometimes faulted for blithely ignoring the seriousness of the nation’s problems. In the pages of The New Yorker, life was almost always amusing, attractive and fun.

The New Yorker really came into its own, both financially and editorially, during World War II. It finally found its voice, one that was curious, international, searching and, ultimately, quite serious.

Ross also discovered still more writers, such as A.J. Liebling, Mollie Panter-Downes and John Hersey, who was raided from Henry Luce’s Time magazine. Together, they produced some of the best writing of the war, most notably Hersey’s landmark reporting on the use of the first atomic bomb in warfare.

A crown jewel of journalism

Over the past century, The New Yorker had a profound impact on American journalism.

For one thing, Ross created conditions for distinctive voices to be heard. For another, The New Yorker provided encouragement and an outlet for nonacademic authority to flourish; it was a place where all those serious amateurs could write about the Dead Sea Scrolls or geology or medicine or nuclear war with no credentials other than their own ability to observe closely, think clearly and put together a good sentence.

Finally, Ross must be credited with expanding the scope of journalism far beyond standard categories of crime and courts, politics and sports. In the pages of The New Yorker, readers almost never found the same content that they’d come across in other newspapers and magazines.

Instead, readers of The New Yorker might find just about anything else.

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

– ref. The New Yorker turns 100 − how a poker game pipe dream became a publishing powerhouse – https://theconversation.com/the-new-yorker-turns-100-how-a-poker-game-pipe-dream-became-a-publishing-powerhouse-246774

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Whether Christians should prioritize care for migrants as much as for fellow citizens has been debated for centuries

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Laura E. Alexander, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Nebraska Omaha

Vice President JD Vance has criticized the U.S. Catholic bishops condemning agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement entering churches and schools. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

Vice President JD Vance and several bishops of the U.S. Roman Catholic Church are having a war of words over the Trump administration’s flurry of executive orders and highly publicized immigration raids. The bishops argue that these policies tend to empower gangs and traffickers while harming vulnerable families; Vance has criticized the bishops’ stance and argued that crackdowns are a matter of public safety.

In the wake of President Donald Trump’s executive orders, both Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Bishop Mark Seitz, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration, publicly objected to the tone and the humanitarian impacts of the orders.

Seitz critiqued generalizations that denigrate and describe migrants without legal status as “criminals” or “invaders,” saying this “is an affront to God, who has created each of us in his own image.” Instead, he urged humane policies and bipartisan immigration reform for an “effective, orderly immigration system.”

Interviewed on “Face the Nation,” Vance argued that the USCCB should “look in the mirror … and recognize that when they receive over US$100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Or are they actually worried about their bottom line?”

To be clear, this line of attack appears to be false. USCCB contracts with the U.S. State Department to resettle refugees and has received over $100 million in recent years to do so, but refugee resettlement is a legal immigration program. The Catholic Church, rather than making money on this program, provides funding from its own budget to supplement its humanitarian work with refugees. For example, according to the USCCB’s audited financial statements, in 2023, the most recent year reported, the USCCB spent over $134.2 million on resettlement services. Federal grants provided over $129.6 million for these services, with the USCCB covering the rest.

As a scholar of religion and migration, I see in this debate long-standing tensions among Catholic – and other Christian – thinkers and practitioners about moral obligations to people with whom we have closer versus more distant relationships.

This tension is magnified in the case of migrants without legal status, since most of these migrants do have close relationships with U.S. communities and citizens, but they are not legally authorized by the U.S. government.

2 perspectives on moral responsibility

In international relations, different stances on how to treat people who are not citizens of one’s own state are described as “cosmopolitan” and “communitarian,” respectively.

Some Christian thinkers have adopted these terms as a helpful way to understand Christian ethical debates over how to prioritize caring for people who are more closely connected or less connected to us. Those who take a cosmopolitan stance argue that Christians should care equally about all people of the world and should not show preference to family members or those within their near orbit, even if, for practical reasons, they do assist those close to them more often.

Meanwhile, thinkers who take a communitarian stance argue that Christians certainly should care about the well-being of all but have a moral obligation to prefer helping people they have a closer relationship with, such as family members, those who are close geographically and possibly fellow citizens.

Christian theologies of neighborly love

Many Christian thinkers have developed perspectives on how to prioritize care for different neighbors by interpreting the words and actions of Jesus, as well as the teachings and practices of the early Christian church. Over time, Christian thinkers have also considered institutional statements and traditional teachings of different church bodies.

Early theologians, including Clement of Rome, the first-century bishop of Rome, and John Chrysostom, archbishop of Constantinople in the fourth and fifth centuries, demonstrated cosmopolitan tendencies.

Biblical passages encourage believers to welcome strangers.
‘Sermon on the Mount’ by Henrik Olrik via Wikimedia Commons

These early church leaders consider biblical passages, including commandments in the Hebrew Bible, to welcome strangers. In the Gospels of the New Testament, Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan upholds a person of different ethnicity and religion from Jesus and his followers as an ideal “neighbor.” It also praises acts of kindness across ethnic and religious boundaries.

In another passage, Jesus heals the daughter of a woman who was both non-Jewish and of foreign ethnicity, accepting her chastisement for his initial reluctance to assist a non-Jew.

Later in the New Testament, the apostle Paul used expansive language for the Christian community, particularly in Galatians, the ninth book of the New Testament: “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

The contemporary Roman Catholic Church has often taken a cosmopolitan perspective on social issues. Pope Francis, in his message for the 2024 World Day of Migrants and Refugees, highlights the biblical passage that “our citizenship is in heaven” and states that “the encounter with the migrant … ‘is also an encounter with Christ.’”

Catholic service organizations draw on this thinking when they help migrants in concrete ways. In addition to refugee resettlement services, many Catholic organizations provide humanitarian assistance such as food and shelter to migrants, no matter where they are from.

Christian communitarian thought

From a communitarian perspective, some thinkers argue that Christians’ concrete obligations to members of their communities can differ from their obligations to others, even though they view all people as of equal moral worth.

New Testament writings describe how members of early Christian groups provided food and care for those in their communities – even as they also gave charity to the poor in the wider society.

St. Thomas Aquinas, whose writings have also become part of the current debate after Vance referenced them online, argues that Christians should assist people in need, even to the point of depriving themselves of luxuries or social standing. He consistently urges Christians to love all people as commanded by God. Yet he also writes that, all other things being equal, Christians can properly meet the needs of people close to them before they give to those outside their own family or close circles, and that in political matters there can be some justification for preferring fellow citizens.

Some contemporary Christian thinkers apply similar ideas to relationships between citizens and noncitizens in modern states. Ethicist Mark Amstutz argues that American Christian churches should incorporate a stronger focus on citizens’ needs and solidarity within state communities into their statements on immigration. German Catholic thinker Manfred Spieker has advocated that Christian social teachings permit preferences for people one is close to, as well as requirements of cultural integration by immigrants.

These proponents of Christian communitarian perspectives continue to stress that all neighbors should be treated well even if some are prioritized over others. In this way, Vance’s remarks are not the best example of Christian communitarian thought, since migrants without legal status still should not be demonized nor falsely accused of criminal behavior, both of which Vance himself has done in the past few months.

Immigrants in communities and the command to love

Christian thinkers do agree that Christians are commanded by God to show love for all people – those who are like them, those who are not like them and even enemies.

But it’s possible that love could take different shapes in different relationships. Immigration poses a unique test case because immigrants are not citizens, but they are “close” neighbors to U.S. citizens.

Immigrants, including undocumented immigrants, are integral parts of the communities where they live. They work in vital jobs; in 2020-22, 42% of hired farmworkers were migrants without legal status. Immigrants, both with legal status and without, have brought new workers and young families to small towns whose populations have declined in recent decades.

This further nuances debates about cosmopolitan and communitarian moral perspectives, since immigrants arrive from places outside the U.S. but have close relationships with U.S. citizens, whether as family members or as neighbors with whom they work, shop and worship.

At the moment, public debate over immigration reflects trends in U.S. politics as much or more than it does Christian ethics. Yet Christian communities do continue to wrestle with cosmopolitan and communitarian ways of thinking, as they try to understand and apply Christian scriptural and moral commands to care for all people.

Laura E. Alexander receives funding from the Mellon Foundation and has previously received funding from the Public Religion Research Institute. As a private individual, she is a member of the Nebraska Alliance for Thriving Communities, a statewide network of businesses, institutions, and individuals seeking immigration reform solutions.

– ref. Whether Christians should prioritize care for migrants as much as for fellow citizens has been debated for centuries – https://theconversation.com/whether-christians-should-prioritize-care-for-migrants-as-much-as-for-fellow-citizens-has-been-debated-for-centuries-248640

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Rural Americans don’t live as long as those in cities − new research

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, James Irvine Chair in Urban and Regional Planning and Professor of Public Policy, University of Southern California

Part of the problem is that people living in rural areas don’t always have easy access to health care. cstar55/iStock via Getty Images

Rural Americans – particularly men – are expected to live significantly shorter, less healthy lives than their urban counterparts, according to our research, recently published in the Journal of Rural Health.

We found that a 60-year-old man living in a rural area is expected on average to live two fewer years than an urban man. For women, the rural-urban gap is six months.

A key reason is worse rates among rural people for smoking, obesity and chronic conditions such as high blood pressure and heart disease. These conditions are condemning millions to disability and shortened lives.

What’s more, these same people live in areas where medical care is evaporating. Living in rural areas, with their relatively sparse populations, often means a shortage of doctors, longer travel distances for medical care and inadequate investments in public health, driven partly by declines in economic opportunities.

Our team arrived at these findings by using a simulation called the Future Elderly Model. With that, we were able to simulate the future life course of Americans currently age 60 living in either an urban or rural area.

The model is based on relationships observed in 20 years of data from the Health and Retirement Study, an ongoing survey that follows people from age 51 through the rest of their lives. Specifically, the model showed how long these Americans might live, the expected quality of their future years, and how certain changes in lifestyle would affect the results.

We describe the conditions that drive our results as “diseases of despair,” building off the landmark work of pioneering researchers who coined the now widely used term “deaths of despair.” They documented rising mortality among Americans without a college degree and related these deaths to declines in social and economic prospects.

The main causes of deaths of despair – drug overdoses, liver disease and suicide – have also been called “diseases of despair.” But the conditions we study, such as heart disease, could similarly be influenced by social and economic prospects. And they can profoundly reduce quality of life.

We also found that if rural education levels were as high as in urban areas, this would eliminate almost half of the rural-urban life-expectancy gap. Our data shows 65% of urban 60-year-olds were educated beyond high school, compared with 53% of rural residents the same age.

One possible reason for the difference is that getting a bachelor’s degree may make a person more able or willing to follow scientific recommendations – and more likely to work out for 150 minutes a week or eat their veggies as their doctor advises them to.

Rural communities are increasingly hampered by their lack of access to health care.

Why it matters

The gap between urban and rural health outcomes has widened over recent decades. Yet the problem goes beyond disparities between urban and rural health: It also splits down some of the party lines and social divides that separate U.S. citizens, such as education and lifestyle.

Scholarship on the decline of rural America suggests that people living outside larger cities are resentful of the economic forces that may have eroded their economic power. The interplay between these forces and the health conditions we study are less appreciated.

Economic circumstances can contribute to health outcomes. For example, increased stress and sedentary lifestyle due to joblessness can contribute to chronic health issues such as cardiovascular disease. Declines in economic prospects due to automation and trade liberalization are linked to increases in mortality.

But health can also have a strong influence on economic outcomes. Hospitalizations cause high medical costs, loss of work and earnings, and increases in bankruptcy. The onset of chronic disease and disability can lead to long-lasting declines in income. Even health events experienced early in childhood can have economic consequences decades later.

In tandem, these health and economic trends might reinforce each other and help fuel inequality between rural and urban areas that produces a profoundly different quality of life.

What still isn’t known

It should be noted that our results, like many studies, are describing outcomes on average; the rural population is not a monolith. In fact, some of the most physically active and healthy people we know live in rural areas.

Just how much your location affects your health is an ongoing area of research. But as researchers begin to understand more, we can come up with strategies to promote health among all Americans, regardless of where they live.

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

Elizabeth Currid-Halkett was the Kluge Chair in Modern Culture at the Library of Congress while conducting some of this research.

Currid-Halkett is on the Scholars’ Council for the nonprofit Braver Angels.

Bryan Tysinger receives funding from NIA.

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

– ref. Rural Americans don’t live as long as those in cities − new research – https://theconversation.com/rural-americans-dont-live-as-long-as-those-in-cities-new-research-242261

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: How opioid deaths tripled in Philly over a decade − and what may be behind a recent downturn

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Ben Cocchiaro, Assistant Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health, Drexel University

Fatal overdose deaths in Philadelphia dropped 7% in 2023. The city is expected to release 2024 data in the spring. Spencer Platt via Getty Images

After nearly a decade of almost year-over-year increases in overdose deaths, the tide may finally be turning in Philadelphia.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced in May 2024 an estimated 3% decrease in overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2023 compared with 2022. Shortly after, data from the Philadelphia Department of Public Health showed a similar trend: Fatal overdoses across the city decreased 7% in 2023, from 1,207 to 1,122. The city is expected to release its 2024 data in the spring of 2025.

While these declines are notable, the city’s 2023 fatal overdose numbers are three times higher than they were in 2013.

Still, if 2024 numbers confirm the downward trend, it allows a little hope into an otherwise bleak epidemic that is killing more Philadelphians than homicides, car accidents and diabetes combined.

Something may finally be working. But what?

If over a decade spent treating and researching substance use disorders has taught me anything, it’s that the overdose epidemic is what researchers and policymakers refer to as a wicked problem. Wicked problems are constantly changing, complex, interconnected knots of other problems with no clear solution.

But let’s look at what we do know about how overdose deaths in Philadelphia spiked in the first place – and why they may finally be decreasing.

Why overdose deaths spiked

The first wave of the overdose epidemic began in the late 1990s and is attributed to overprescription of opioid pain medicines. But the largest acceleration in deaths didn’t occur until after the government and health insurers implemented prescribing controls in the early 2010s. These controls led many people who were no longer able to get prescribed opioids to turn to illicit heroin.

In a phenomenon known as the “iron law of prohibition,” stricter drug law enforcement led drug-trafficking organizations to shift from heroin toward more powerful synthetic opioids that are easier to produce, conceal and distribute. Gram for gram, pure fentanyl is over 50 times stronger than pure heroin.

But street-obtained fentanyl has proven to be anything but pure.

Local drug-testing efforts found as much as a fiftyfold difference in potency between bags of fentanyl that appear identical.

This unpredictable potency is considered to be the chief contributor to the deadliness of street fentanyl. It’s like cracking a beer and not knowing whether drinking it will get you mildly buzzed or send you to the graveyard.

Research suggests drug busts, though touted as improving public safety, can lead to more inconsistency and unpredictability in the potency of illicit opioids. An analysis of 14 studies conducted in the U.S. demonstrated a marked increase in fatal overdoses following the supply disruptions that result from drug seizures.

There’s also some evidence that the heightened economic insecurity and despair caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may have intensified the fatal overdose epidemic.

Andres Freire of Prevention Point stands on the ‘bupe bus,’ a mobile service that offers medication treatment such as buprenorphine to people with opioid use disorder in Philadelphia.
Jeff Fusco for The Conversation U.S., CC BY-NC-ND

Potential reasons for decline

Just as economic insecurity was associated with rising deaths, the subsequent economic recovery as the U.S. emerged from the pandemic may have contributed to the 2023 drop in overdose fatalities nationwide.

However, the unequal distribution of that recovery seems to track with worsening racial disparities in overdose rates in the late 2010s to early 2020s.

Another possible explanation for the reduction in overdose deaths is the increasing availability of buprenorphine.

Buprenorphine, an FDA-approved medication for opioid use disorder, reduces withdrawal and cravings for fentanyl. What’s more, it decreases overdose risk by more than 50%.

However, efforts to increase access to this medication have stagnated. National prescribing rates for buprenorphine were relatively stable from 2019 to 2023, and the CDC estimates that only a quarter of those who need treatment are getting it. Efforts to make buprenorphine available without a prescription have not yet gained traction.

Access to and education around naloxone, a lifesaving drug used to reverse opioid overdoses, has also increased, and the drug is increasingly being administered by bystanders. Over 1.3 million doses were distributed in Pennsylvania since 2017. National research suggests these distribution efforts, often spearheaded by local harm-reduction organizations, have led to quicker administration of naloxone. This saves lives while also decreasing reliance on emergency medical services.

Finally, the consequences of a seemingly minor characteristic of fentanyl’s pharmacology might also be reducing the overdose death rate in Philadelphia.

Fentanyl’s effects last only a third as long as heroin. This shorter duration led drug traffickers to add the animal tranquilizer xylazine – also called “tranq” – and the veterinary anesthetic medetomidine into Philadelphia’s street drug supply. In 2019, two-thirds of heroin or fentanyl sampled in Philadelphia had xylazine in it. By 2021 all of it did.

These additives lengthen the duration of the effect, mitigate withdrawal symptoms and possibly reduce the amount of fentanyl needed per dose. Some evidence from animal studies shows that xylazine reduces fentanyl intake by suppressing fentanyl withdrawal, thereby lengthening the time before a person uses again.

What’s more, the skin wounds and sedative effects that are associated with xylazine may be motivating some people to avoid using street fentanyl.

Over 1.3 million doses of naloxone have been distributed for free in Pennsylvania since 2017.
Jeff Fusco for The Conversation U.S., CC BY-NC-ND

What’s next for Philadelphia

The opioid settlement, a multibillion-dollar payment from the pharmaceutical industry to resolve legal actions against them, has led to increased funding in Philadelphia for naloxone and medications such as buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder.

However, in the past year the city eliminated funding for needle exchanges and implemented compulsory treatment strategies, which research suggests often do not reduce drug use or criminal recidividism.

Meanwhile, at the federal level, Republican members of Congress have proposed cuts to Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income Americans.

Whether new data, when it’s released, will show overdose deaths in Philly have continued to decline or are back on the rise is anybody’s guess. But I do know that harm-reduction advocates, medical providers and communities of people who use drugs will continue to fight this epidemic as if their lives depend on it. For many, it does.

Ben Cocchiaro is affiliated with Prevention Point Philadelphia but his opinions are his own. He served on the Data Analysis and Sharing Subcommittee of the Philadelphia Mayor’s Task Force to Combat the Opiate Epidemic from 2016-2017.

– ref. How opioid deaths tripled in Philly over a decade − and what may be behind a recent downturn – https://theconversation.com/how-opioid-deaths-tripled-in-philly-over-a-decade-and-what-may-be-behind-a-recent-downturn-247768

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Decluttering can be stressful − a clinical psychologist explains how personal values can make it easier

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Mary E. Dozier, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Mississippi State University

Asking how discarding an item fits with a person’s goals can help them decide whether to keep it. MoMo Productions via Getty Images

I recently helped my mom sort through boxes she inherited when my grandparents passed away. One box was labeled – either ironically or genuinely – “toothpick holders and other treasures.” Inside were many keepsakes from moments now lost to history – although we found no toothpick holders.

My favorite of the items we sorted through was a solitary puzzle piece, an artifact reflecting my late grandmother’s penchant for hiding the final piece to a jigsaw puzzle just to swoop in at the last moment and finish it.

After several hours of reminiscing, my mom and I threw away 90% of what we had sorted.

“Why did I keep this?” is a question I hear frequently, both from my family and friends and from patients. I am a licensed clinical psychologist whose research focuses on the characterization, assessment and treatment of hoarding disorder, particularly for adults 60 years of age or older. As such, I spend a great deal of my time thinking about this question.

What drives the need to keep stuff?

Hoarding disorder is a psychiatric condition defined by urges to save items and difficulty discarding current possessions. For adults with “clinically severe” hoarding disorder, this leads to a level of household clutter that impairs daily functioning and can even create a fire hazard. In my professional experience, however, many adults struggle with clutter even if they do not meet the clinical criteria for hoarding disorder.

Holding on to things that have sentimental value or could be useful in the future is a natural part of growing older. For some people, though, this tendency to hold on to objects grows over time, to the point that they eventually do meet criteria for hoarding disorder. Age-related changes in executive function may help explain the increase in prevalence of hoarding disorder as we get older; increasing difficulty with decision-making in general also affects decisions around household clutter.

The traditional model behind hoarding disorder suggests that difficulty with discarding comes from distress during decision-making. However, my research shows that this may be less true of older adults.

Time to declutter.
Kurt Whitman/Education Images via Getty Images

When I was a graduate student, I conducted a study in which we asked adults with hoarding disorder to spend 15 minutes making decisions about whether to keep or discard various items brought from their home. Participants could sort whatever items they wanted. Most chose to sort paper items such as old mail, cards or notes.

We found that age was associated with lower levels of distress during the task, such that participants who were older tended to feel less stressed when making the decision about what to keep and what to discard. We also found that many participants, particularly those who were older, actually reported positive emotions while sorting their items.

In new research publishing soon, my current team replicated this finding using a home-based version of the task. This suggests that fear of making the wrong decision isn’t a universal driver of our urge to save items.

In fact, a study my team published in August 2024 with adults over 50 with hoarding disorder suggests that altruism, a personality trait of wanting to help others, may explain why some people keep items that others might discard. My colleagues and I compared our participants’ personality profiles with that of adults in the general population of the same gender and age group. Compared with the general population, participants with hoarding disorder scored almost universally high on altruism.

Altruism also comes up frequently in my clinical work with older adults who struggle with clutter. People in our studies often tell me that they have held onto something out of a sense of responsibility, either for the item itself or to the environment.

“I need it to go to a good home” and “my grandmother gave this to me” are sentiments we commonly hear. Thus, people may keep things not out of fear of losing them but because saving them is consistent with their values.

Your values can help guide which possessions should stay in your life and which ones should go.

Leaning into values

In a 2024 study, my team demonstrated that taking a values-based approach to decluttering helps older adults to decrease household clutter and increases their positive affect, a state of mind characterized by feelings such as joy and contentment. Clinicians visited the homes of older adults with hoarding disorder for one hour per week for six weeks. At each visit, the clinicians used a technique called motivational interviewing to help participants talk through their decisions while they sorted household clutter.

We found that having participants start with identifying their values allowed them to maintain focus on their long-term goals. Too often, people focus on the immediate ability of an object to “spark joy” and forget to consider whether an object has greater meaning and purpose. Values are the abstract beliefs that we humans use to create our goals. Values are whatever drives us and can include family, faith or frivolity.

Because values are subjective, what people identify as important to keep is also subjective. For example, the dress I wore to my sister’s wedding reminded me of a wonderful day. However, when it no longer fit I gave it away because doing so was more consistent with my values of utility and helpfulness: I wanted the dress to go to someone who needed it and would use it. Someone who more strongly valued family and beauty might have prioritized keeping the dress because of the aesthetics and its link to a family event.

Additionally, we found that instead of challenging the reasons a person might have for keeping an item, it is helpful to instead focus on eliciting their reasons for discarding it and the goals they have for their home and their life.

Tips for sweeping away the old

My research on using motivational interviewing for decluttering and my observations from a current clinical trial on the approach point to some practical steps people can take to declutter their home. Although my work has been primarily with older adults, these tips should be helpful for people of all ages.

Start with writing out your values. Every object in your home should feel value-consistent for you. For example, if tradition and faith are important values for you, you might be more inclined to hold onto a cookbook that was made by the elders at your church and more able to let go of a cookbook you picked up on a whim at a bookstore.

If, instead, health and creativity are your core values, it might be more important to hold onto a cookbook of novel ways to sneak more vegetables into your diet.

Defining value-consistent goals for using your space can help to maintain motivation as you declutter. Are you clearing off your desk so you can work more efficiently? Making space on kitchen counters to bake cookies with your grandchildren?

Remember that sometimes your values will conflict. At those moments, it may help to reflect on whether keeping or discarding an object will bring you closer to your goals for the space.

Similarly, remember that values are subjective. If you are helping a loved one declutter, maintain a curious, nonjudgmental attitude. Where you might see a box filled with junk, your grandmother might see something filled with “toothpick holders and other treasures.”

For additional resources and information on hoarding disorder, visit the International OCD Foundation website.

Mary E. Dozier has received funding from the American Psychological Foundation and the National Institute of Mental Health.

– ref. Decluttering can be stressful − a clinical psychologist explains how personal values can make it easier – https://theconversation.com/decluttering-can-be-stressful-a-clinical-psychologist-explains-how-personal-values-can-make-it-easier-247171

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Legal fight against AI-generated child pornography is complicated – a legal scholar explains why, and how the law could catch up

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Wayne Unger, Assistant Professor of Law, Quinnipiac University

Child pornography laws may be clear, but AI makes enforcement more difficult. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

The city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was shaken by revelations in December 2023 that two local teenage boys shared hundreds of nude images of girls in their community over a private chat on the social chat platform Discord. Witnesses said the photos easily could have been mistaken for real ones, but they were fake. The boys had used an artificial intelligence tool to superimpose real photos of girls’ faces onto sexually explicit images.

With troves of real photos available on social media platforms, and AI tools becoming more accessible across the web, similar incidents have played out across the country, from California to Texas and Wisconsin. A recent survey by the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit, found that 15% of students and 11% of teachers knew of at least one deepfake that depicted someone associated with their school in a sexually explicit or intimate manner.

The Supreme Court has implicitly concluded that computer-generated pornographic images that are based on images of real children are illegal. The use of generative AI technologies to make deepfake pornographic images of minors almost certainly falls under the scope of that ruling. As a legal scholar who studies the intersection of constitutional law and emerging technologies, I see an emerging challenge to the status quo: AI-generated images that are fully fake but indistinguishable from real photos.

Policing child sexual abuse material

While the internet’s architecture has always made it difficult to control what is shared online, there are a few kinds of content that most regulatory authorities across the globe agree should be censored. Child pornography is at the top of that list.

For decades, law enforcement agencies have worked with major tech companies to identify and remove this kind of material from the web, and to prosecute those who create or circulate it. But the advent of generative artificial intelligence and easy-to-access tools like the ones used in the Pennsylvania case present a vexing new challenge for such efforts.

In the legal field, child pornography is generally referred to as child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, because the term better reflects the abuse that is depicted in the images and videos and the resulting trauma to the children involved. In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled that child pornography is not protected under the First Amendment because safeguarding the physical and psychological well-being of a minor is a compelling government interest that justifies laws that prohibit child sexual abuse material.

That case, New York v. Ferber, effectively allowed the federal government and all 50 states to criminalize traditional child sexual abuse material. But a subsequent case, Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition from 2002, might complicate efforts to criminalize AI-generated child sexual abuse material. In that case, the court struck down a law that prohibited computer-generated child pornography, effectively rendering it legal.

The government’s interest in protecting the physical and psychological well-being of children, the court found, was not implicated when such obscene material is computer generated. “Virtual child pornography is not ‘intrinsically related’ to the sexual abuse of children,” the court wrote.

States move to criminalize AI-generated CSAM

According to the child advocacy organization Enough Abuse, 37 states have criminalized AI-generated or AI-modified CSAM, either by amending existing child sexual abuse material laws or enacting new ones. More than half of those 37 states enacted new laws or amended their existing ones within the past year.

California, for example, enacted Assembly Bill 1831 on Sept. 29, 2024, which amended its penal code to prohibit the creation, sale, possession and distribution of any “digitally altered or artificial-intelligence-generated matter” that depicts a person under 18 engaging in or simulating sexual conduct.

Deepfake child pornography is a growing problem.

While some of these state laws target the use of photos of real people to generate these deep fakes, others go further, defining child sexual abuse material as “any image of a person who appears to be a minor under 18 involved in sexual activity,” according to Enough Abuse. Laws like these that encompass images produced without depictions of real minors might run counter to the Supreme Court’s Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition ruling.

Real vs. fake, and telling the difference

Perhaps the most important part of the Ashcroft decision for emerging issues around AI-generated child sexual abuse material was part of the statute that the Supreme Court did not strike down. That provision of the law prohibited “more common and lower tech means of creating virtual (child sexual abuse material), known as computer morphing,” which involves taking pictures of real minors and morphing them into sexually explicit depictions.

The court’s decision stated that these digitally altered sexually explicit depictions of minors “implicate the interests of real children and are in that sense closer to the images in Ferber.” The decision referenced the 1982 case, New York v. Ferber, in which the Supreme Court upheld a New York criminal statute that prohibited persons from knowingly promoting sexual performances by children under the age of 16.

The court’s decisions in Ferber and Ashcroft could be used to argue that any AI-generated sexually explicit image of real minors should not be protected as free speech given the psychological harms inflicted on the real minors. But that argument has yet to be made before the court. The court’s ruling in Ashcroft may permit AI-generated sexually explicit images of fake minors.

But Justice Clarence Thomas, who concurred in Ashcroft, cautioned that “if technological advances thwart prosecution of ‘unlawful speech,’ the Government may well have a compelling interest in barring or otherwise regulating some narrow category of ‘lawful speech’ in order to enforce effectively laws against pornography made through the abuse of real children.”

With the recent significant advances in AI, it can be difficult if not impossible for law enforcement officials to distinguish between images of real and fake children. It’s possible that we’ve reached the point where computer-generated child sexual abuse material will need to be banned so that federal and state governments can effectively enforce laws aimed at protecting real children – the point that Thomas warned about over 20 years ago.

If so, easy access to generative AI tools is likely to force the courts to grapple with the issue.

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

– ref. Legal fight against AI-generated child pornography is complicated – a legal scholar explains why, and how the law could catch up – https://theconversation.com/legal-fight-against-ai-generated-child-pornography-is-complicated-a-legal-scholar-explains-why-and-how-the-law-could-catch-up-247980

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Mirror life is a scientific fantasy leading to a dangerous reality − a synthetic biologist explains how mirror bacteria could conquer life on Earth

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Kate Adamala, Assistant Professor of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota

Synthetic biology offers many tantalizing possibilities, but scientists consider some projects too risky to pursue. DBenitostock/Moment via Getty Images

Most major biological molecules, including all proteins, DNA and RNA, point in one direction or another. In other words, they are chiral, or handed. Like how your left glove fits only your left hand and your right glove your right hand, chiral molecules can interact only with other molecules of compatible handedness.

Two chiralities are possible: left and right, formally called L for the Latin laevus and D for dexter. All life on Earth uses L proteins and D sugars. Even Archaea, a large group of microorganisms with unusual chemical compositions, stick to the program on the handedness of the main molecules they use.

For a long time, scientists have been speculating about making biopolymers that would mirror compounds in nature but in the opposite orientation – namely, compounds made of D proteins and L sugars. Recent years have seen some promising advancements, including enzymes that can make mirror RNAs and mirror DNAs.

Chirality refers to something that is not superimposable on its mirror image – like your hands.
NASA

When scientists observed that these mirror molecules behave just like their natural equivalents they considered that it would be possible to make a whole living cell from them. Mirror bacteria in particular had the potential to be a useful basic research tool – possibly allowing scientists to study a new tree of life for the first time and solve many problems in bioengineering and biomedicine.

This so-called mirror life – living cells made from building blocks with an opposite chirality to those that make up natural life – could have very similar properties to natural living cells. They could live in the same environment, compete for resources and behave like you would expect of any living organism. They would be able to evade infection from other predators and immune systems because these opponents wouldn’t be able to recognize them.

These features are why researchers like me were so attracted to mirror life in the first place. But these qualities are also huge bugs of this technology that make it a problem.

I am a synthetic biologist who studies using chemistry to create living cells. I am also a bioengineer who develops tools for the bioeconomy. As a chemist by training, engineering mirror life initially seemed like a fascinating way to answer foundational questions about biology and practically apply those findings to industry and medicine. As I learned more about the immunology and ecology of mirror life, however, I became aware of the potential environmental and health consequences of this technology.

Real concerns about hypothetical mirror life

It’s important to note that researchers are likely at least 10 to 30 years away from creating mirror bacteria. On the timescale of a fast-moving field like synthetic biology, a decade is a very long time. Creating synthetic cells is difficult on its own. Creating mirrored ones would require several technical breakthroughs.

However, it would come with a risk. If mirror cells were released into the environment, they would likely be able to quickly proliferate without much restriction. The natural mechanisms that keep ecosystems in balance, including infection and predation, would not work on mirror life.

Bacteria, like most life forms, are susceptible to viral infections. These bacterial viruses, or bacteriophages, enter bacteria by binding to their surface receptors and then use their cellular machinery to replicate. But just as a left glove doesn’t fit a right hand, natural bacteriophages wouldn’t recognize mirror cell receptors or be able to use its machinery. Mirror life would likely be resistant to viruses.

Mirror bacteria may be able to evade the bacteriophages that would otherwise help keep them in check. Here, multiple bacteriophages are attached to a bacterial cell wall.
Professor Graham Beards/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Microorganisms foraging in the environment also keep bacterial populations in check. They differentiate food from nonfood by using chemical “taste” receptors. Anything those receptors bind to, such as bacteria and organic debris, are considered edible, while things that cannot bind to those receptors, such as rocks, are classified as inedible. Think about how a dog foraging on the kitchen floor will eat a bread roll but only sniff a spoon and move on. Mirror life would be, to the bacterial predators, more like a spoon than bread – predators would “sniff” it with their receptors and move on because these cells can’t bind.

Safety from being eaten would be great news for mirror bacteria, because it would allow it to replicate freely. It would be much worse news to the rest of the ecosystem, because mirror bacteria might hog all the nutrients and spread uncontrollably. Even if mirror bacteria don’t actively attack other organisms, they would still consume food sources other organisms need. And since mirror cells would have much lower death rates than regular organisms due to a lack of predation, they would slowly but surely take over the environment.

Even if mirror cells grow more slowly than normal cells, they would be able to grow without anything stopping them.

Insufficient immunity

Another biological control mechanism that wouldn’t be able to “sniff” out mirror cells is the immune system.

Your immune cells constantly check everything they find in your blood. The decision tree of an immune cell is fairly simple. First, decide whether something is alive or not, then compare it with its database of “self” – your own cells. If it is alive but is not a part of you, then it needs to be killed. Mirror cells likely wouldn’t pass the first step of that screen: it would not induce an immune response because the immune system would not be able to recognize or bind to mirror cell antigens. This means mirror cells could infect an unprecedentedly wide variety of hosts.

You might think an infection from mirror bacteria could be treated with antibiotics of the same handedness. It would probably work, and may even be easier on your gut than regular antibiotic therapy. Because antibiotics are also handed, mirror versions of these drugs would not affect your gut microbiome, just like how regular antibioics would not affect mirror cells.

But humans are a relatively small part of the ecosystem. All other animals and plants may also be susceptible to infection from mirror pathogens. While it is possible to imagine developing mirror antibiotics to treat human infections, it is physically impossible to treat the entire plant and animal world. If all organisms are susceptible to even a slow-moving infection by mirror bacteria, there is no good treatment that could be deployed across the entire ecosystem.

Better safe than sorry

Mirror life is an exciting research subject and a potential tool with some practical applications in medicine and biotechnology. But for many scientists, including me, none of those benefits outweigh the serious consequences to human health and the environment that mirror life poses.

I and a group of researchers in immunology, ecology, biosafety and security – including some who used to actively work on mirror life – conducted a thorough analysis of possible concerns regarding the creation of mirror life. No matter how we looked at it, straight up or in the mirror, the conclusions were clear: The potential benefits of engineering mirror life are not worth the risk.

Mirror life is scientifically tantalizing but ethically unwise.

There is no way to make anything completely foolproof, and that includes any safeguards built into a mirror cell that could prevent the risk of accidental or deliberate release into the environment. Researchers working in this space, including us, may find this disappointing. But not making mirror cells can ensure the safety and security of the planet. More discussion among the global scientific community about what kinds of research on mirror biomolecules and related technologies are safe – as well as how to regulate this research – can help safeguard against potential harms.

Keeping mirror cells inside the mirror, rather than making them a physical reality, is the clearest path to staying safe.

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

– ref. Mirror life is a scientific fantasy leading to a dangerous reality − a synthetic biologist explains how mirror bacteria could conquer life on Earth – https://theconversation.com/mirror-life-is-a-scientific-fantasy-leading-to-a-dangerous-reality-a-synthetic-biologist-explains-how-mirror-bacteria-could-conquer-life-on-earth-245842

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI: Turbo Energy Welcomes International Business Executive Julian Groves to Board of Directors
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

VALENCIA, Spain, Feb. 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Turbo Energy, S.A. (NASDAQ:TURB) (“Turbo Energy” or the “Company”), a global provider of leading-edge, AI-optimized solar energy storage technologies and solutions, today announced the appointment of Julian Groves to the Company’s Board of Directors, which was approved by the Company’s shareholders on December 18, 2024 at the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders.

Turbo Energy Welcomes Julian Groves to Board of Directors

Groves brings Turbo Energy extensive experience in commercial strategy, geographic market expansion, worldwide product distribution and logistics, capital formation, private equity investments and corporate governance, as well as nearly three decades of experience leading business-to-business, direct-to-consumer, retail, wholesale and ecommerce initiatives for numerous iconic global brands in both the public and private sectors.

Since February 2019, Groves has served as Chief Operating Officer and executive member of the Board of MGO Global, Inc., a Nasdaq-listed company engaged in global commercialization of digitally-native lifestyle brands that have included both legendary soccer icon Leo Messi’s apparel brand, Messi Brand, and Stand Flagpoles. In this role, he has helped MGO raise tens of millions in pre-IPO, IPO and follow-on financings and is currently working to complete MGO’s business combination with one of the world’s leading commercial and pool management businesses serving the crude oil and refined petroleum tanker market in a transaction expected to be valued at more than $300 million.

Previously, Groves served as CEO of EC2M Holdings, a lifestyle brand-building company which owned and operated London Persona, a growing men’s lifestyle brand launched as a direct-to-consumer shopping experience for men seeking season-to-season high-end wardrobes. EC2M also represented the lifestyle brand Trickers throughout North America and Canada, charged with developing and managing the brand’s B2B channel. Other former senior executive posts have included Sales Director, EMEA of J Brand Europe, a premium, American denim clothing company in which Fast Retailing acquired an 80% stake for $290 million in 2012. As General Manager, EMEA of True Religion, Julian had full profit and loss (P&L) responsibility for the region, overseeing corporate operations in Switzerland and managing full P&L responsibility for the growing, fashion-forward denim brand.

In August 2007, Julian was recruited by GUESS Europe to serve as Country Manager of the casual lifestyle brand’s operations in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Under his proven leadership, GUESS Europe opened 32 concessions and 22 retail shops, including GUESS’ Central London flagship store. Earlier in his distinguished career, he was General Manager, UK and Ireland, for Groupe Zannier International from September 2004 through 2007; United Kingdom Sales Director for Burberry from September 2001 through 2004; and United Kingdom Sales Manager for LVMH Kenzo Homme UK Ltd. from November 1997 through August 2001.

Commenting on Groves’ appointment to the Board Enrique Selva, Chairman of the Board of Turbo Energy, stated, “I am delighted to welcome Julian to Turbo Energy’s Board and believe that his deep understanding of business strategy and global market penetration will have a significant impact on Turbo Energy’s planned expansion initiatives – with particular emphasis on commercialization of our SUNBOX Home solar energy storage technologies in the United States. He represents an outstanding addition to our Board and his unique and proven skillset is expected to greatly complement and enhance the overall strength and depth of capabilities of our leadership.”

About Turbo Energy, S.A.

Founded in 2013, Turbo Energy is a globally recognized pioneer of proprietary solar energy storage technologies and solutions managed through Artificial Intelligence. Turbo Energy’s elegant all-in-one and scalable, modular energy storage systems empower residential, commercial and industrial users expanding across Europe, North America and South America to materially reduce dependence on traditional energy sources, helping to lower electricity costs, provide peak shaving and uninterruptible power supply and realize a more sustainable, energy-efficient future. A testament to the Company’s commitment to innovation and industry disruption, Turbo Energy’s introduction of its flagship SUNBOX represents one of the world’s first high performance, competitively priced, all-in-one home solar energy storage systems, which also incorporates patented EV charging capability and powerful AI processes to optimize solar energy management. Turbo Energy is a proud subsidiary of publicly traded Umbrella Global Energy, S.A., a vertically integrated, global collective of solar energy-focused companies. For more information, please visit www.turbo-e.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release about future expectations, plans and prospects, as well as any other statements regarding matters that are not historical facts, may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based only on current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of the business of the Company, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control, including the risks described in our registration statements and annual report under the heading “Risk Factors” as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results and financial condition may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and Turbo Energy, S.A. specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For more information, please contact:
At Turbo Energy, S.A.
Dodi Handy, Director of Communications
Phone: 407-960-4636
Email: dodihandy@turbo-e.com

Attachment
- Julian Groves
The MIL Network –
February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI: Silver Tiger Metals to Present at the Metals and Mining Growth Virtual Investor Conference February 13th

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Feb. 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Silver Tiger Metals Inc. (TSXV:SLVR)(OTCQX:SLVTF) based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, focused on Developing Production at the El Tigre Silver Mining District in Sonora Mexico, today announced that Glenn Jessome President & CEO, will present live at the Metals and Mining Virtual Investor Conference hosted by VirtualInvestorConferences.com, on February 13^th, 2025

DATE: February 13^th
TIME: 1:00pm EST
LINK: https://bit.ly/3Ex4Xxc
Available for 1×1 meetings: February 12^th / 13^th

This will be a live, interactive online event where investors are invited to ask the company questions in real-time. If attendees are not able to join the event live on the day of the conference, an archived webcast will also be made available after the event.

It is recommended that online investors pre-register and run the online system check to expedite participation and receive event updates.

Learn more about the event at www.virtualinvestorconferences.com.

About Silver Tiger and the El Tigre Historic Mine District

Silver Tiger Metals Inc. is a Canadian company whose management has more than 27 years’ experience discovering, financing, and building large hydrothermal gold and silver mines in Mexico. Silver Tiger’s 100% owned 28,414 hectare Historic El Tigre Mining District is located in Sonora, Mexico. Principled environmental, social and governance practices are core priorities at Silver Tiger.

Silver Tiger commenced work on its El Tigre Project in 2017. El Tigre intends to build an open pit and underground mine. Silver Tiger has drilled over 150,000 meters at the El Tigre Project, with 119,000 meters completed since 2020. Silver Tiger has completed several MREs, a maiden MRE in 2017 and MRE updates in 2023 and 2024. The PEA for the El Tigre open pit was released in November 2023.

The October 2024 PFS for the El Tigre open pit delivered robust economics. The PFS projects an After-Tax NPV of US$222 million at a 5% discount rate, an After-Tax IRR of 40.0%, and a payback period of 2.0 years. This open pit operation is expected to have a 10-year mine life. The El Tigre project delivers a life of mine undiscounted After-Tax Cash Flow of US$318 million, with initial capital costs of $86.8 million (including $9.3 million in contingency). Operating cash costs are projected at $973/oz AuEq and $12/oz AgEq, with AISC at $1,214/oz AuEq and $14/oz AgEq. The economics of the Project have been evaluated based on a discounted $26/oz silver price and gold price of $2,150/oz.

Silver Tiger is now drilling from underground drill pads, focusing on the high-grade silver Veins, Sulphide and Shale Zones. A PEA for the permitted underground mineral resource is expected to be released in the first half of 2025.

About Virtual Investor Conferences^®
Virtual Investor Conferences (VIC) is the leading proprietary investor conference series that provides an interactive forum for publicly traded companies to seamlessly present directly to investors.

Providing a real-time investor engagement solution, VIC is specifically designed to offer companies more efficient investor access. Replicating the components of an on-site investor conference, VIC offers companies enhanced capabilities to connect with investors, schedule targeted one-on-one meetings and enhance their presentations with dynamic video content. Accelerating the next level of investor engagement, Virtual Investor Conferences delivers leading investor communications to a global network of retail and institutional investors.

CONTACTS:
Silver Tiger Metals Inc.
Devin Devarennes
VP Investor Relations
902-233-3656
Devin@silvertigermetals.com

Virtual Investor Conferences
John M. Viglotti
SVP Corporate Services, Investor Access
OTC Markets Group
(212) 220-2221
johnv@otcmarkets.com

The MIL Network –

February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI: Red Pine Exploration to Present at the Metals and Mining Growth Virtual Investor Conference February 13th
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

TORONTO, Feb. 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Red Pine Exploration Inc. (TSXV: RPX, OTCQB: RDEXF), based in Toronto, focused on Gold exploration in Canada, today announced that Michael Michaud, President and CEO, will present live at the Metals and Mining Virtual Investor Conference hosted by VirtualInvestorConferences.com, on February 13^th, 2025

DATE: February 13th
TIME: 1:30 pm (EST)
LINK: https://bit.ly/3CX0cMV
Available for 1×1 meetings: February 13-17

This will be a live, interactive online event where investors are invited to ask the company questions in real-time. If attendees are not able to join the event live on the day of the conference, an archived webcast will also be made available after the event.

It is recommended that online investors pre-register and run the online system check to expedite participation and receive event updates.

Learn more about the event at www.virtualinvestorconferences.com.

Recent Company Highlights
- Recent Drilling at the Wawa Gold Project has Expanded Gold System
- Recent Mineral Resource Estimate increased by 150% ounces of gold
- Fully Funded to complete 25,000 metre drill program
About Red Pine Exploration Inc.

Red Pine Exploration Inc. is a gold exploration company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Company’s shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol “RPX” and on the OTCQB Markets under the symbol “RDEXF”.

The Wawa Gold Project is in the Michipicoten Greenstone Belt of Ontario, a region that has seen major investment by several producers in the last five years. The Company’s land package hosts numerous historic gold mines and is over 7,000 hectares in size. Red Pine is building a strong position as a major mineral exploration and development player in the Michipicoten region.

About Virtual Investor Conferences^®
Virtual Investor Conferences (VIC) is the leading proprietary investor conference series that provides an interactive forum for publicly traded companies to seamlessly present directly to investors.

Providing a real-time investor engagement solution, VIC is specifically designed to offer companies more efficient investor access. Replicating the components of an on-site investor conference, VIC offers companies enhanced capabilities to connect with investors, schedule targeted one-on-one meetings and enhance their presentations with dynamic video content. Accelerating the next level of investor engagement, Virtual Investor Conferences delivers leading investor communications to a global network of retail and institutional investors.

CONTACTS:
Red Pine Exploration Inc.
Michael Michaud
President and CEO
905-410-3191
mmichaud@redpineexp.com

Virtual Investor Conferences
John M. Viglotti
SVP Corporate Services, Investor Access
OTC Markets Group
(212) 220-2221
johnv@otcmarkets.com

The MIL Network –
February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Art and science illuminate the same subtle proportions in tree branches

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Mitchell Newberry, Research Assistant Professor of Biology, University of Michigan

Tree branches in art throughout history follow geometric rules related to fractal geometry. ‘Almond blossom’ by Vincent van Gogh. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

Do artists and scientists see the same thing in the shape of trees? As a scientist who studies branching patterns in living things, I’m starting to think so.

Piet Mondrian was an early 20th-century abstract artist and art theorist obsessed with simplicity and essence of form. Even people who have never heard of Mondrian will likely recognize his iconic irregular grids of rectangles.

When I saw Mondrian’s 1911 “Gray Tree,” I immediately recognized something about trees that I had struggled to describe. By removing all but the most essential elements in an abstract painting, Mondrian demonstrated something I was attempting to explain using physics and fractal geometry.

My field of research is mathematical biology. My colleagues and I try to explain how treelike structures such as veins and arteries, lungs and leaves fine-tune their physical form to efficiently deliver blood, air, water and nutrients.

Fundamental research in the biology of branching helps cure cardiovascular diseases and cancer, design materials that can heal themselves and predict how trees will respond to a changing climate. Branching also shows up in ant foraging patterns, slime molds and cities.

The treeless tree

From 1890 to 1912, Mondrian painted dozens of trees. He started with full-color, realistic trees in context: trees in a farmyard or a dappled lane. Gradually he removed leaves, depth, color and eventually even branching from his tree paintings. “Gray Tree” uses only curved lines of various thickness superimposed on top of one another at seemingly random angles. Yet the image is unmistakably a tree.

How did Mondrian convey the sense of a tree with so little? The science of trees may offer some clues.

The science of branching

One goal of mathematical biology is to synthesize what scientists know about the vast diversity of living systems – where there seems to be an exception to every rule – into clear, general principles, ideally with few exceptions. One such general principle is that evolution fine-tunes treelike structures in living things to make metabolism and respiration as efficient as possible.

The body carefully controls the thickness of vessels as they branch, because deviation from the most efficient diameter wastes energy and causes disease, such as atherosclerosis.

In many cases, such as human blood vessels, the body exerts much tighter control over diameter than length. So while veins and arteries might take circuitous routes to accommodate the vagaries of organs and anatomy, their diameter usually stays within 10% of the optimum. The same principle appears in tree branches as well.

The precise calibration of branch diameter leads to a hallmark of fractal shapes called scale invariance. A scale invariance is a property that holds true regardless of the size of an object or part of an object you’re looking at. Scale invariance occurs in trees because trunks, limbs and twigs all branch in similar ways and for similar reasons.

The scale invariance in branch diameter dictates how much smaller a limb should be as it branches and how much investment a tree makes in a few thick branches versus many thin ones. Trees have evolved scale invariance to transport water, reach light and resist gravity and wind load as efficiently as possible given physical limits.

This science of trees inspired my colleague and me to measure the scaling of tree branch diameter in art.

The art of trees

Among my favorite images is a carving of a tree from a late-medieval mosque in India. Its exaltation of trees reminds me of Tolkien’s Tree of Gondor and the human capacity to appreciate the simple beauty of living things.

But I also find mathematical inspiration in the Islamic Golden Age, a time when art, architecture, math and physics thrived. Medieval Islamic architects even decorated buildings with infinitely nonrepeating tiling patterns that were not understood by Western mathematics until the 20th century.

The stylized tree carvings of the Sidi Saiyyed mosque also follow the precise system of proportions dictated by the scale invariance of real trees. This level of precision of branch diameter takes an attentive eye and a careful plan – much better than I could freehand.

Indeed, wherever our team looked at trees in great artwork, such as Klimt’s “Tree of Life” or Matsumura Goshun’s “Cherry Blossoms,” we also found precise scale invariance in the diameter of branches.

“Grey Tree” also realistically captures the natural variation in branch diameters, even when the painting gives the viewer little else to go on. Without realistic scaling, would this painting even be a tree?

As if to prove the point, Mondrian made a subsequent painting the following year, also with a gray background, curved lines and the same overall composition and dimensions. Even the position of some of the lines are the same.

But, in “Blooming Apple Tree” (1912), all the lines are the same thickness. The scaling is gone, and with it, the tree. Before reading the title, most viewers would not guess that this is a painting of a tree. Yet Mondrian’s sketches reveal that “Blooming Apple Tree” and “Gray Tree” are the very same tree.

The two paintings contain few elements that might signal a tree – a concentration of lines near the center, lines that could be branches or a central trunk and lines that could indicate the ground or a horizon.

Yet only “Gray Tree” has scale-invariant branch diameters. When Mondrian removes the scale invariance in “Blooming Apple Tree,” viewers just as easily see fish, scales, dancers, water or simply nonrepresentational shapes, whereas the tree in “Gray Tree” is unmistakable.

Photo synthesis

Mondrian’s tree paintings and scientific theory highlight the importance of the thickness of tree branches. Consilience is when different lines of evidence and reasoning reach the same conclusions. Art and math both explore abstract descriptions of the world, and so seeing great art and science pick out the same essential features of trees is satisfying beyond what art or science could accomplish alone.

Just as great literature such as “The Overstory” and “The Botany of Desire” show us how trees influence our lives in ways we often don’t notice, the art and science of trees show how humans are finely attuned to what’s important to trees. I think this resonance is one reason people find fractals and natural landscapes so pleasing and reassuring.

All these lines of thinking give us new ways to appreciate trees.

Mitchell Newberry has published research on tree branching supported by University of Michigan and University of New Mexico. He volunteers with Cool It Burque, a tree-planting group in Albuquerque, NM.

– ref. Art and science illuminate the same subtle proportions in tree branches – https://theconversation.com/art-and-science-illuminate-the-same-subtle-proportions-in-tree-branches-247967

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI USA News: Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Restores Section 232 Tariffs
Source: The White House
COUNTERING TRADE PRACTICES THAT UNDERMINE NATIONAL SECURITY: Yesterday, President Donald J. Trump signed proclamations to close existing loopholes and exemptions to restore a true 25% tariff on steel and elevate the tariff to 25% on aluminum.
- President Trump is taking action to protect America’s critical steel and aluminum industries, which have been harmed by unfair trade practices and global excess capacity.
- President Trump is reinstating the full 25% tariff on steel imports and increasing tariffs on aluminum imports to 25%.
  
  Key reforms include eliminating all alternative agreements, applying strict “melted and poured” standards, expanding tariffs to include key downstream products, terminating all general approved exclusions, and cracking down on tariff misclassification and duty evasion schemes.
- The countries of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, the European Union, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom had received exemptions, which prevented the tariffs from being effective.
  
  By granting exemptions to certain countries, the United States inadvertently created loopholes that were exploited by China and others with excess steel and aluminum capacity, undermining the purpose of these exemptions.
- The President is exercising his authority under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to adjust imports of steel and aluminum to protect our national security.
  
  This statute provides the President with authority to adjust imports being brought into the United States in quantities or under circumstances that threaten to impair national security.
  
  In March 2018, President Trump invoked authority under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (19 U.S.C. § 1862) to impose 25% tariffs on steel imports and 10% tariffs on aluminum. These measures were remarkably effective in supporting recovery and reinvestment in the American steel industry and saved the domestic primary aluminum industry from total collapse. But exemptions and loopholes have permitted evasion of the tariffs and weakened the effectiveness of the program.
  
  The reinvigorated Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum will support the program’s original objective of revitalizing the domestic steel and aluminum industries and achieving sustainable capacity utilization of at least 80%.
RESTORING FAIRNESS TO STEEL AND ALUMINUM MARKETS: President Trump is taking action to end unfair trade practices and the global dumping of steel and aluminum.
- Foreign nations have been flooding the United States market with cheap steel and aluminum, often subsidized by their governments.
- A report from the first Trump Administration found that steel import levels and global excess were weakening our domestic economy and threatening to impair national security.
  
  The report found that excess production and capacity, particularly in China, has been a major factor in the decline of domestic aluminum production.
- While the domestic steel industry briefly achieved 80% utilization in 2021, subsequent trade pressure following the COVID-19 pandemic has depressed domestic production. In 2022 and 2023, capacity utilization fell to 77.3% and 75.3%, respectively. High import volumes from sources exempt from Section 232 tariffs are a major factor in depressing domestic production volumes.
- For aluminum, there was an increase in the capacity utilization rate between 2017 and 2019, from 40% to 61% during that period. But since 2019, the aluminum capacity utilization has once again seen a steady decline, falling from 61% to 55% between 2019 and 2023.
- The United States does not want to be in a position where it would be unable to meet demand for national defense and critical infrastructure in a national emergency.
STRENGTHENING AMERICA’S MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY: President Trump’s decision to close existing loopholes and exemptions will strengthen United States’ steel and aluminum industries.
- In his first term, President Trump imposed Section 232 tariffs to protect the American steel and aluminum industries from unfair foreign competition.
- The steel tariffs that President Trump implemented led to thousands of jobs gained and higher wages in the metals industry.
  
  These tariffs were hailed as a “boon” for Minnesota’s iron ore industry, with state officials crediting tariffs for bolstering the local economy.
  
  Steel and aluminum imports drastically decreased under President Trump, falling by nearly a third from 2016 to 2020.
  
  The tariffs led to a wave in investment across the United States, with more than $10 billion committed to build new mills.
- It was recently announced that Hyundai Steel is actively considering building a steel plant in the United States.
- U.S. steelmakers, including the American Iron and Steel Institute and the Steel Manufacturers Association, have praised President Trump’s America First trade policy.
TARIFFS WORK: Studies have repeatedly shown that contrary to public rhetoric, tariffs can be an effective tool for achieving economic and strategic objectives.
- A 2024 study on the effects of President Trump’s tariffs in his first Administration found that they “strengthened the U.S. economy,” and “led to significant reshoring” in industries like manufacturing and steel production.
- A 2023 report by the U.S. International Trade Commission that analyzed the effects of Section 232 and 301 tariffs on more than $300 billion of U.S. imports found that the tariffs reduced imports from China, effectively stimulated more U.S. production of the tariffed goods, with very minor effects on prices.
- According to the Economic Policy Institute, the tariffs implemented by President Trump during his first Administration “clearly show[ed] no correlation with inflation” and only had a temporary effect on overall price levels.
- An analysis from the Atlantic Council found that “tariffs would create new incentives for US consumers to buy US-made products.”
- Former Biden Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen affirmed last year that tariffs do not raise prices: “I don’t believe that American consumers will see any meaningful increase in the prices that they face.”
A 2024 economic analysis found that a global tariff of 10% would grow the economy by $728 billion, create 2.8 million jobs, and increase real household incomes by 5.7%.
MIL OSI USA News –
February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Acting Chairman Statement on Climate-Related Disclosure Rules

Source: Securities and Exchange Commission

Today, I am taking action on The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors rule that was adopted by the Commission on March 6, 2024 (the “Rule”).[1] The Rule is currently being challenged in litigation consolidated in the Eighth Circuit[2] and the Commission previously stayed effectiveness of the Rule pending completion of that litigation.[3] The Rule is deeply flawed and could inflict significant harm on the capital markets and our economy.

Both Commissioner Peirce and I voted against the Rule’s adoption.[4] Commissioner Peirce said that then-existing disclosure rules were sufficient and that the “[R]ule’s anticipated benefits do not outweigh the costs.”[5] She argued that “only a mandate from Congress should put us in the business of facilitating the disclosure of information not clearly related to financial returns.”[6] I stated that the Commission was “without statutory authority or expertise” to address climate change issues and that “this [R]ule is climate regulation promulgated under the Commission’s seal.”[7]

During the comment period, many submissions likewise urged that the Rule not be adopted. Among the reasons were that the Rule would require a large volume of financially immaterial information, financially material climate-related risks were already subject to disclosure under existing rules, and the proposed rules overstepped the SEC’s regulatory authority.[8]

The Commission’s briefs previously submitted in the cases consolidated in the Eighth Circuit do not reflect my views. The briefs defend the Commission’s adoption of the Rule, but I continue to question the statutory authority of the Commission to adopt the Rule, the need for the Rule, and the evaluation of costs and benefits. I also question whether the agency followed the proper procedures under the Administrative Procedure Act to adopt the Rule.

The lack of statutory authority is a weighty factor. Commissioners have a constitutional obligation to determine the bounds of the agency’s statutory authority, and my views on the Commission’s authority here were the result of lengthy study and research informed by many comments on all sides of the issue.

These views, the recent change in the composition of the Commission, and the recent Presidential Memorandum regarding a Regulatory Freeze,[9] bear on the conduct of this litigation. I believe that the Court and the parties should be notified of these changes.

Therefore, I have directed the Commission staff to notify the Court of the changed circumstances and request that the Court not schedule the case for argument to provide time for the Commission to deliberate and determine the appropriate next steps in these cases. The Commission will promptly notify the Court of its determination about its positions in the litigation.

[2] Iowa v. SEC, No. 24-1522 (8th Cir.); see also Liberty Energy Inc. v. SEC, No. 24-cv-739 (N.D. Tex.).

[5] Commissioner Peirce Statement.

[7] Commissioner Uyeda Statement.

[8] See, e.g., Comment of the Federal Regulation of Securities Committee of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association (Jun. 24, 2022); Comment of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Jun. 16, 2022); Comment of the National Association of Convenience Stores (Jun. 8, 2022); Comment of the National Association of Manufacturers (Jun. 6, 2022).

MIL OSI USA News –

February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Phobos Ransomware Affiliates Arrested in Coordinated International Disruption

Source: US State of North Dakota

Note: View the superseding indictment here.

Phobos Group Alleged to have Attacked Over 1,000 Victims Worldwide

The Justice Department today unsealed criminal charges against Roman Berezhnoy, 33, and Egor Nikolaevich Glebov, 39, both Russian nationals, who allegedly operated a cybercrime group using the Phobos ransomware that victimized more than 1,000 public and private entities in the United States and around the world and received over $16 million in ransom payments. Berezhnoy and Glebov were arrested this week as part of a coordinated international disruption of their organization, which includes additional arrests and the technical disruption of the group’s computer infrastructure.

From May 2019, through at least October 2024, Berezhnoy, Glebov, and others allegedly caused victims to suffer losses resulting from the loss of access to their data in addition to the financial losses associated with the ransomware payments. The victims included a children’s hospital, health care providers, and educational institutions.

8Base Seizure Banner

According to court documents, Berezhnoy, Glebov, and others operated a ransomware affiliate organization, including under the names “8Base” and “Affiliate 2803,” among others, that victimized public and private entities through the deployment of Phobos ransomware.

As part of the scheme, Berezhnoy, Glebov, and others allegedly hacked into victim computer networks, copied and stole files and programs on the victims’ network, and encrypted the original versions of the stolen data with Phobos ransomware. The conspirators then allegedly extorted the victims for ransom payments in exchange for the decryption keys to regain access to the encrypted data by, among other things, leaving a ransom note on compromised victim computers and separately reaching out to victims to initiate ransom payment negotiations.

As alleged, the conspirators also threatened to expose victims’ stolen files to the public or to the victims’ clients, customers, or constituents if the ransoms were not paid. The conspirators are further alleged to have established and operated a darknet website where they repeated their extortionate threats and ultimately published the stolen data if a victim failed to pay the ransom.

After a successful Phobos ransomware attack, criminal affiliates paid fees to Phobos administrators for a decryption key to regain access to the encrypted files. Each deployment of Phobos ransomware was assigned a unique alphanumeric string in order to match it to the corresponding decryption key, and each affiliate was directed to pay the decryption key fee to a cryptocurrency wallet unique to that affiliate.

The charges unsealed today against Berezhnoy and Glebov follow the recent arrest and extradition of Evgenii Ptitsyn, a Russian national, on charges relating to his alleged administration of the Phobos ransomware variant.

In parallel with this week’s arrests, Europol and German authorities have announced an international operation involving the FBI and other international law enforcement partners to disrupt over 100 servers associated with this criminal network.

Berezhnoy and Glebov are charged in an 11-count indictment with one count of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse, three counts of causing intentional damage to protected computers, three counts of extortion in relation to damage to a protected computer, one count of transmitting a threat to impair the confidentiality of stolen data, and one count of unauthorized access and obtaining information from a protected computer. If convicted, Berezhnoy and Glebov face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each wire fraud-related count; 10 years in prison on each computer damage count; and five years in prison on each of the other counts. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Supervisory Official Antoinette T. Bacon of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron for the District of Maryland, Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran of the FBI’s Cyber Division, and Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the FBI Baltimore Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI Baltimore Field Office is investigating the case. The Justice Department extends its thanks to international judicial and law enforcement partners in the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Spain, Belgium, Poland, Czech Republic, France, Thailand, Finland, and Romania, as well as Europol and the U.S. Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center, for their cooperation and coordination with the Phobos ransomware investigation. The National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs also provided valuable assistance.

Senior Counsel Aarash A. Haghighat of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas M. Sullivan for the District of Maryland are prosecuting the case. Former CCIPS Trial Attorney Riane Harper and former Assistant U.S. Attorneys Aaron S.J. Zelinsky and Jeffrey J. Izant for the District of Maryland provided substantial assistance.

Additional details on protecting networks against Phobos ransomware are available at StopRansomware.gov, including Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Advisory AA24-060A.

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 –

February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: China’s crude oil imports decreased from a record as refinery activity slowed

Source: US Energy Information Administration

In-depth analysis

February 11, 2025

Data source: China General Administration of Customs, Bloomberg L.P.

Slower oil demand growth in 2024 led to less crude oil processed by China’s refineries and fewer crude oil imports compared with the record high set in 2023. China, the world’s largest importer of crude oil, received 11.1 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2024, down from 11.3 million b/d in 2023. Even though total imports decreased about 2%, imports from some countries increased while others decreased.

Why did China’s crude oil imports decrease last year?

We estimate that 16.3 million b/d of petroleum and other liquid fuels were consumed in China last year, second only to the United States globally. China’s domestic crude oil production averaged 4.3 million b/d in 2024, so the country had to import crude oil to meet the demand from its domestic refined petroleum product and petrochemical manufacturing sectors. China’s refiners imported 11.1 million b/d of crude oil and processed 14.2 million b/d. Both crude oil imports and refinery runs decreased in China from record levels in 2023, when the country imported 11.3 million b/d of crude oil and processed 14.8 million b/d.

Net decreases in the consumption of transportation fuel (gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel) last year meant China’s refineries processed less crude oil. Monthly data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics and General Administration of Customs indicate that consumption of both gasoline and jet fuel grew in China during 2024, but consumption of diesel fuel offset this growth with a large decline from 2023. These estimates are preliminary and subject to revision until late 2025, when China publishes annual consumption data, which we use to update our International Energy Statistics.

Instead of transportation fuels, liquefied petroleum gases (LPG), naphtha, or other petroleum products that can be imported directly for petrochemical manufacturing instead of refined from crude oil have led China’s growth in petroleum consumption. As a result, the net decline in transportation fuel demand reduced both refinery runs and import demand for crude oil in China last year.

Which countries do China’s refiners import crude oil from?

China’s refiners purchase crude oil from dozens of countries, with Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Malaysia being the largest sources. Imports from Malaysia increased significantly last year to 1.4 million b/d, which is more than Malaysia’s domestic crude oil production of around 0.6 million b/d. The large difference stems from crude oil cargoes that were initially shipped from Iran but were then relabeled or transferred to avoid sanctions.

Imports from Russia increased in 2024 for the third consecutive year and averaged 2.2 million b/d, 1% more than in 2023. China increased imports from Russia after the Group of Seven (G7) country import bans and sanctions limited Russia’s ability to sell crude oil after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. These actions prompted Russia to sell some of its crude oil at discounted prices, making it more attractive to certain buyers.

On January 10, 2025, the United States announced additional sanctions on several oil vessels transporting crude oil from Russia. Because of potential disruptions from these actions, refiners in China may reduce purchases from Russia and replace those barrels with others from crude oil exporting countries not subject to sanctions, such as Brazil, Canada, the United States, or countries in the Middle East.

China’s second-largest source of crude oil imports was Saudi Arabia, although these imports decreased for the third consecutive year and averaged 1.6 million b/d, 9% less than in 2023.

Data source: China General Administration of Customs, Bloomberg L.P.
Note: Congo=Congo-Brazzaville

Imports from other Middle East OPEC countries including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait also declined, but imports from Iraq increased. Although small, crude oil imports from Canada increased, particularly in the second half of the year after the Trans Mountain expansion (TMX) project began commercial operations in May 2024. This pipeline expansion brings increased crude oil export capacity to Asia from Canada’s West Coast, which contributed to imports at more than 0.3 million b/d from Canada in September, an all-time high.

What factors will affect China’s crude oil imports and refining this year?

We forecast petroleum consumption in China will grow more slowly in 2025 and 2026 than in previous years in our latest Short-Term Energy Outlook. Because we expect growth in China’s consumption will outpace China’s domestic production of crude oil and other liquids, we believe net imports will increase. Last summer, we released a study on refinery capacity expansions in China and other countries through 2028. Several integrated refining and petrochemical complexes will open or expand over the next few years, suggesting crude oil imports will continue growing to meet feedstock demand from these facilities.

However, a tax change implemented in December 2024 creates considerable uncertainty for China’s petroleum trade balance this year. China reduced a value-added tax rebate offered on some petroleum product exports, which reduces their competitiveness in world markets. Depending on the effects of this change on Chinese refiners’ operations and profitability, refinery runs and crude oil imports could decline.

Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook, January 2025
Note: We forecast net imports as domestic consumption minus production.

Principal contributor: Jeff Barron

MIL OSI USA News –

February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: What Should Be on Your Plate? Study Shows Student Athletes Don’t Know

Source: US State of Connecticut

High school health classes often consist of a series of awkward lessons about STDs, drugs, and alcohol. Rarely do these classes teach students anything about another critical component of their health — nutrition.

This lack of nutrition education is especially dangerous to student athletes who need to fuel their bodies properly to protect themselves from injury and other health risks.

A new study shows that high school athletes have some serious gaps in both their general and sports-specific nutrition knowledge.

This work was published in Nutrients. Jennifer B. Fields, assistant professor of nutritional science in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, collaborated with researchers at the University of Wisconsin and George Mason University on this study.

Fields and her collaborators have known that young athletes struggle with proper nutrition to fuel their highly active bodies.

“There’s this preconceived notion that all athletes are healthy,” Fields says. “A lot of times that’s not the case.”

The researchers previously found a high prevalence of eating disorders and other forms of disordered eating in college athletes, often linked to a lack of nutrition knowledge.

Student athletes often turn to unscientific outlets, like social media, for nutrition information in the absence of formal education.

Given this, the team became interested in seeing if similar patterns existed for high school athletes.

They used a pre-validated survey, the Abridged Sports Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire, to assess student athletes’ nutrition knowledge. Forty-four students were recruited from high schools in Wisconsin and beyond. The students’ total nutrition score averaged around 45% for both boys and girls. Their general nutrition knowledge was about 58% and sport nutrition knowledge was about 35%.

The students’ perceptions about the daily recommended intake of key nutrients were significantly off base. They thought they needed fewer carbohydrates and total calories, and far more protein and fat than is actually recommended.

The students also demonstrated a lack of knowledge about when and what to eat to support sport performance.

“Their level of general nutrition knowledge and sport nutrition knowledge was very, very low,” Fields says. “They didn’t know how to eat a balanced diet for their overall health. Moreso, they didn’t know how to make proper fueling decisions for their sport.”

Many students reported that their primary source for nutrition knowledge was friends or family, followed closely by their coaches, who do not generally receive any formal nutrition training or education.

Fields says many of these knowledge gaps may be fueled by social media which pumps out inaccurate nutrition information and unrealistic body standards for young people, especially athletes.

“Adolescents in particular are just inundated with social media,” Fields says. “High schoolers are on Instagram, TikTok, whatever it may be, getting preconceived notions about how their bodies should look, how they should eat, and how they should exercise. And many times, it’s really conflicting with how they should be fueling as an athlete.”

One of the key differences between sports and regular nutrition is athletes’ calories and carbohydrate needs. Athletes should be consuming more than half their daily calories as carbohydrates, Fields says.

“Carbohydrates are athletes’ best friends,” Fields says. “That is so contradictory to what a lot of social media tells us.”

Athletes also, generally, shouldn’t follow the trend of intermittent fasting diets as they need to be fueling consistently throughout the day to support performance and recovery and ensure they are getting enough calories.

Athletes need to have more muscle mass to support their own safety as well, meaning they won’t look like some of the people they see on social media.

The next step for this research will be to develop an educational intervention for high school athletes to empower them with the knowledge they need to make healthy choices.

“One of our biggest takeaways is simply the need for more general nutrition education and sports-specific nutrition education for these adolescent athletes,” Fields says. “If we can change the behaviors throughout these high school years, then they get to college and have a much better sense of how to eat for their health and to optimize their performance.”

This work relates to CAHNR’s Strategic Vision area focused on Enhancing Health and Well-Being Locally, Nationally, and Globally.

Follow UConn CAHNR on social media

MIL OSI USA News –

February 12, 2025
MIL-OSI: CPA Canada – Interview opportunity: Celebrate love without the price tag this Valentine’s Day
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

TORONTO, Feb. 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Valentine’s Day is often seen as the ultimate celebration of love—but does it always have to come with a price tag?

Some couples splurge on extravagant dinners and lavish gifts, while others are rethinking whether you need to break the bank to show you care.

A 2024 survey by Leger found that nearly half of Canadians spend money on gifts, 40 per cent on dining out, and yet 87 per cent believe the holiday is overly commercialized.

“Money and love don’t have to go hand-in-hand,” says Li Zhang, financial literacy leader at CPA Canada. “The key is making sure your Valentine’s Day celebration reflects what truly matters to you and your partner—not just for the ‘gram.’”

For those who want to celebrate love without the hefty price tag, here are some low- or no-cost ways to make the day special:
- Recreate your first date at home: Cook the same meal, play the same music, and reminisce.
- Write a love letter: A heartfelt, handwritten note can be far more meaningful than any store-bought card.
- Take a digital detox together: Unplug from your devices and spend uninterrupted quality time together.
- Plan a memory walk: Visit a place that holds special meaning in your relationship.
- Make a ‘reasons I love you’ jar: Fill a jar with small notes of appreciation and admiration.
“If love is priceless, why does Valentine’s Day come with a receipt? Perhaps the most romantic gesture isn’t about spending—it’s about making your partner feel valued in ways money can’t buy,” says Zhang.

To arrange an interview with our personal finance expert, please contact media@cpacanada.ca.

The MIL Network –
February 12, 2025

Category: Americas

Embracing technology to be competitive

Navigating local economics

Environmental exposure is common and dangerous

Drowning poses another risk

Blunt force trauma

‘Prevention through deterrence’

What is a language mindset?

A growth or a fixed mindset

How teachers can help

Mindset can shift, aptitude can grow

When people see a weather report on TV, what went on at NOAA to make that forecast possible?

Could a private company create forecasts on its own without NOAA data?

Is climate data and research into the changing climate important for forecasts?

NOAA doesn’t do all of this by itself – who else is involved?

For the literati, by the literati

Ross goes all in

A magazine finds its footing

A crown jewel of journalism

2 perspectives on moral responsibility

Christian theologies of neighborly love

Christian communitarian thought

Immigrants in communities and the command to love

Why it matters

What still isn’t known

Why overdose deaths spiked

Potential reasons for decline

What’s next for Philadelphia

What drives the need to keep stuff?

Leaning into values

Tips for sweeping away the old

Policing child sexual abuse material

States move to criminalize AI-generated CSAM

Real vs. fake, and telling the difference

Real concerns about hypothetical mirror life

Insufficient immunity

Better safe than sorry

The treeless tree

The science of branching

The art of trees

Photo synthesis

Why did China’s crude oil imports decrease last year?

Which countries do China’s refiners import crude oil from?

What factors will affect China’s crude oil imports and refining this year?