NewzIntel.com

Category: Americas

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Hommage aux récipiendaires de la Médaille de la bravoure de 2024

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    Huit personnes de la Nouvelle-Écosse, dont un homme ayant perdu la vie lors d’un acte héroïque, ont reçu la plus haute distinction de bravoure de la Province lors d’une cérémonie qui avait lieu aujourd’hui, 22 octobre, à Halifax.

    Le premier ministre, Tim Houston, a remis la Médaille de la bravoure de la Nouvelle-Écosse aux personnes suivantes :

    • Carl Comeau, Pointe-de-l’Église
    • Carl Deveau, Saulnierville
    • Terrence Leblanc, Saulnierville
    • Kevin Corkum, Middle LaHave
    • Conor Scott, Dartmouth
    • Nicholas (Nick) Holland, Ellershouse (posthume)
    • Bruce Lake, Hilden
    • Alexander (Alex) Munroe, Windsor Junction

    « Notre province a dû affronter plusieurs épreuves au cours des dernières années, y compris des feux de forêt dévastateurs et des inondations extrêmes. Les gens de la Nouvelle-Écosse ont l’habitude de joindre leurs forces et de s’entraider, a rappelé le premier ministre, Tim Houston. Ces récipiendaires incarnent parfaitement l’esprit de communauté. Au nom de tous les gens de la Nouvelle-Écosse, je tiens à leur rendre hommage et à les remercier d’avoir repoussé leurs limites en agissant de façon si altruiste. »

    La Médaille est décernée aux gens de la Nouvelle-Écosse qui sont allés au-delà de leurs responsabilités en risquant leur propre vie pour sauver la vie ou les biens d’autrui.

    Voici les récipiendaires et leurs actes de bravoure :

    • Le 14 juin 2023, l’ambulancier Carl Comeau, qui n’était pas de service à ce moment-là, a téléphoné au 911 après avoir remarqué un incendie résidentiel à St-Bernard, dans le comté de Digby. Quand les ambulanciers Carl Deveau et Terrence Leblanc sont arrivés, les trois hommes ont rapidement pris la décision d’entrer dans la maison en flammes. Malheureusement, la femme qu’ils tentaient de sauver n’a pas survécu.

    • Le 28 mai 2023, un important feu de forêt s’est rapidement propagé à Hammonds Plains et à Upper Tantallon. Alors que les résidents évacuaient les lieux, le chef du service d’incendie de la Municipalité régionale d’Halifax, Kevin Corkum, et un pompier, Conor Scott, sont retournés dans la zone évacuée, bravant l’intense brasier pour secourir un homme qui se trouvait encore dans sa maison.

    • Le 22 juillet 2023, pendant des pluies torrentielles, Nicholas Holland se déplaçait en voiture sur la route 14, près de Brooklyn, dans le comté de Hants, en compagnie de trois autres personnes. Leur véhicule a été emporté par la crue et s’est rempli d’eau. M. Holland a libéré les personnes qui étaient coincées dans la voiture. Deux d’entre elles ont par la suite été secourues par les premiers intervenants. Malheureusement, M. Holland et la quatrième personne, une adolescente, n’ont pas survécu.

    • Le 19 août 2023, Bruce Lake, un policier de Truro qui n’était pas en service, faisait une randonnée avec des amis dans le parc national Fundy, au Nouveau-Brunswick, quand le groupe a remarqué une jeune femme en difficulté dans une rivière. M. Lake a bravé le fort courant et a ramené la femme en lieu sûr, sur la rive.

    • Le 6 mars 2023, les deux petits frères d’Alex Munroe jouaient dans la neige dans leur cour avant quand un chien a attaqué l’un des enfants. Quand Alex, qui avait alors 13 ans, s’est précipité dehors avec sa mère pour secourir les garçons, le chien s’en est pris à la mère. Alex a courageusement repoussé le chien, a aidé ses proches à se mettre à l’abri, et a téléphoné au 911, sauvant ainsi sa famille d’une attaque qui aurait pu être mortelle.

    Citations

    « Aujourd’hui, nous reconnaissons huit membres de nos collectivités néo-écossaises. Ces personnes, malgré des conditions difficiles et dangereuses, n’ont pas hésité à offrir leur aide à autrui. J’applaudis leurs gestes héroïques et inspirants. »
    — Barbara Adams, procureure générale et ministre de la Justice

    Faits en bref

    • Il s’agit de la 14e cérémonie provinciale rendant hommage à des gens qui ont risqué leur vie pour aider quelqu’un. (La Médaille n’a pas été remise en 2020 en raison de la COVID-19.)
    • Depuis 2008, 55 personnes de la Nouvelle-Écosse ayant posé un geste courageux, dont les récipiendaires d’aujourd’hui, ont reçu la Médaille.

    Ressources supplémentaires

    Pour en savoir plus sur les récipiendaires de la Médaille et pour proposer la candidature d’une personne ayant fait preuve de bravoure en Nouvelle-Écosse : https://novascotia.ca/bravery (en anglais seulement)

    À l’exception du recadrage, les photos de Communications Nouvelle-Écosse ne doivent être modifiées en aucune façon.

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Justice Department Announces Formation of Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism

    Source: US State Government of Utah

    Pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order on Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism, the Justice Department announced today the formation of a multi-agency Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. The Task Force’s first priority will be to root out anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses.

    In addition to the Department of Justice, the Task Force will include representatives from the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and other agencies as it develops. The Task Force will be coordinated through the Department’s Civil Rights Division.  

    “Anti-Semitism in any environment is repugnant to this Nation’s ideals,” said Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Leo Terrell, who will be heading the Task Force. “The Department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found. The Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump’s renewed commitment to ending anti-Semitism in our schools.”

    If you have been discriminated against, you can file a complaint with the Civil Rights Division, at Contact the Civil Rights Division | Department of Justice (https://civilrights.justice.gov). President Trump’s Executive Order can be found here: Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism – The White House.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Two Chinese Chemical Company Executives Convicted And Multiple Websites And Cryptocurrency Accounts Seized In Connection With Fentanyl Precursor Importation And Money Laundering Schemes

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    Qingzhou Wang, the Company’s Principal Executive, and Yiyi Chen, the Company’s Marketing Manager, Conspired to Import Ton Quantities of Fentanyl Precursors from China to the United States in Exchange for Payment in Cryptocurrency

    Danielle R. Sassoon, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Derek S. Maltz, the Acting Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”), announced that a jury returned a guilty verdict against QINGZHOU WANG, a/k/a “Bruce” (“WANG”), and YIYI CHEN, a/k/a “Chiron” (“CHEN”), on fentanyl precursor importation and money laundering charges.  WANG was also convicted of importing a methamphetamine precursor.  WANG and CHEN, both nationals of China, were found guilty following a two-week trial before U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe.

    U.S. Attorney Danielle R. Sassoon and Acting Administrator Derek S. Maltz also announced today the seizure of domain names for seven websites and four cryptocurrency accounts, totaling approximately $900,000 worth of digital funds, tied to the illicit precursor chemical business of WANG and CHEN’s company, HUBEI AMARVEL BIOTECH CO., LTD., a/k/a “AmarvelBio,” (“AMARVEL BIOTECH”), its related entities, and its executives and employees.  Five additional websites tied to AMARVEL BIOTECH, including its principal website, were previously seized in June 2023.

    U.S. Attorney Danielle R. Sassoon said: “Qingzhou Wang and Yiyi Chen conspired to import massive amounts of fentanyl precursors from China into the United States.  They did so with callous disregard for the effect that such deadly chemicals would ultimately have here in the United States.  Now, they stand convicted in an American courtroom and face a substantial term of imprisonment for their crimes.  And we are not done.  The seizures announced today continue the ongoing fight against the fentanyl supply chain.  The message should be clear:  we are watching, and we will continue to dismantle these fentanyl precursor operations, and bring the individuals responsible to justice.”

    Acting Administrator Derek S. Maltz said: “I have personally seen the devastation that illicit fentanyl has had on American families. I have looked into the eyes of hundreds of mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers, who would give anything to have one more moment with their loved one. The DEA’s top priority is protecting the safety of the American people. These convictions, and the seizures of these websites and accounts, show that no matter where you live in the world or where you operate in the fentanyl supply chain, the DEA will utilize all of our resources to bring you to justice. I’m incredibly proud of the men and women of DEA, alongside our law enforcement partners, who worked tirelessly on this investigation and the unrelenting fight against illicit fentanyl.”

    As reflected in the Indictment, public filings, and the evidence presented at trial:

    AMARVEL BIOTECH was a chemical manufacturer based in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei province, China, that exported vast quantities of the precursor chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl and its analogues. A synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin, fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 49.  Fentanyl analogues, similar in chemical makeup and effect to fentanyl, can be even more potent and lethal than fentanyl.  Fentanyl and its analogues have devastated communities across the U.S. and are fueling the ongoing opioid epidemic, which killed at least 105,263 Americans between February 2022 and January 2023 alone.

    During the course of an undercover investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”), AMARVEL BIOTECH and its principal executive, WANG, its marketing manager, CHEN, and a sales representative, FNU LNU, a/k/a “Er Yang,” a/k/a “Anita” (“YANG”), shipped more than 200 kilograms from China to the United States of precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl and its analogues.  AMARVEL BIOTECH, WANG, CHEN, and YANG shipped the precursors to the U.S. after being told that the chemicals would be used to produce fentanyl in New York, and they agreed to supply multi-ton shipments of fentanyl precursors despite being told that Americans had died after consuming fentanyl made from the chemicals that the defendants had sold.

    For example, on or about November 17, 2022, a DEA confidential source (“CS-1”) wrote to YANG using an encrypted messaging application, “You know I making fentanyl,” and “Is not safe.”  YANG replied, “i know.”  On or about December 1, 2022, YANG wrote to CS-1, promising that CS-1 would be “happy with our product” and noting that CS-1 would “be able to synthesize fentanyl.” In exchange for payment in cryptocurrency, AMARVEL BIOTECH thereafter shipped from China to New York approximately 999.7 grams of the fentanyl precursor 1-boc-4-AP, approximately 1,002.6 grams of the fentanyl precursor 1-boc-4-piperidone, and approximately 893.6 grams of the methamphetamine precursor methylamine.

    In or about March 2023, WANG and CHEN traveled from China to Bangkok, Thailand, to meet with an individual whom CS-1 represented was CS-1’s boss, but was in fact another DEA confidential source (“CS-2”).  During the meeting, WANG and CHEN discussed AMARVEL BIOTECH’s ability to supply ton-quantities of fentanyl precursors to New York for CS-1 and CS-2’s fentanyl manufacturing operation.  After CS-2 stated that CS-2 wanted a different formula for manufacturing fentanyl and that several of CS-2’s American customers had purportedly died, WANG and CHEN advised they had “a lot of customers in America and Mexico” who could provide technical assistance with fentanyl production.                        

    After the March 2023 meeting in Bangkok, AMARVEL BIOTECH, WANG, CHEN, and YANG agreed to sell CS-1 and CS-2 approximately 210 kilograms of fentanyl precursors in exchange for payment in cryptocurrency.  During an April 10, 2023 video call with WANG and CHEN, CS-2 stated that the approximately 210 kilograms of fentanyl precursors would be used to manufacture approximately 50 to 55 kilograms of fentanyl—an amount that could contain approximately 25 million deadly doses.   

    In or about May 2023, AMARVEL BIOTECH, WANG, CHEN, and YANG sent to the U.S. the shipment ordered by CS-1 and CS-2.  On or about May 5, 2023, the DEA retrieved the precursor shipment from a warehouse near Los Angeles, California.  Lab testing confirmed the presence of a precursor chemical for a fentanyl analogue. In an encrypted messaging group chat with CS-1, CS-2, WANG, and CHEN, YANG explained that “New York, the United States, has been strict in checking the precursors of the ‘final product’ some time ago, so for the sake of safety, this time it is sent to California.”

    In or about June 2023, WANG and CHEN traveled from China to meet again with CS-2.  During the meeting, WANG and CHEN discussed with CS-2 a multi-ton order of fentanyl precursor chemicals.  WANG and CHEN also discussed the need to take additional measures to protect themselves from detection and interdiction of their shipments “because recently American government . . . seized some Mexican group and they followed the routes to China,” where the U.S. Government found “our competitor in China”—an apparent reference to fentanyl-related charges filed in the Southern District of New York and announced in April 2023 against, among others, leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel and certain China-based precursor chemical company executives.

    AMARVEL BIOTECH openly advertised online its sale of precursor chemicals for use in manufacturing fentanyl.  Through its website and a host of other storefront sites, AMARVEL BIOTECH targeted precursor chemical customers in Mexico, where drug cartels operate clandestine laboratories and distribute finished fentanyl into and throughout the United States, including by advertising fentanyl precursors as a “Mexico hot sale,” guaranteeing “100% stealth shipping” abroad, and posting to its websites documentation of AMARVEL BIOTECH shipping chemicals to Culiacan, the home city of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the dominant drug trafficking organizations in the Western Hemisphere and which is largely responsible for the massive influx of fentanyl into the U.S. in recent years.  Below is a screenshot of one of AMARVEL BIOTECH’s store pages for a fentanyl precursor:

    AMARVEL BIOTECH also endeavored to thwart law enforcement interdiction of its precursor chemical shipments.  AMARVEL BIOTECH advertised online the business’s ability to use deceptive packaging—such as packaging indicating the contents are dog food, nuts, or motor oil—to ensure “safe” delivery of the illicit contents such shipments.  An example of one of AMARVEL BIOTECH’s online advertisements are shown below:

    *                *                *

    WANG, 36, of China, and CHEN, 32, of China, were each convicted of:  one count of conspiracy to import the fentanyl precursor chemical 1-boc-4-AP, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe it will be used to manufacture fentanyl, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.  WANG was also convicted of: one count of importation of the fentanyl precursor chemical 1-boc-4-AP, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe it will be used to manufacture fentanyl, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of importation of the methamphetamine precursor chemical methylamine, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.  WANG and CHEN were each acquitted of one count of conspiracy to manufacture, distribute, and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl and a fentanyl-related substance.

    The maximum penalties are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by a judge.

    A table listing the websites for which the domain names have been seized pursuant Title 21, U.S. Code, Sections 853 and 970 is set forth below:

    Internet users attempting to access the seized domains now see the following:

    Ms. Sassoon praised the outstanding efforts of the DEA’s Special Operations Division Bilateral Investigations Unit.  Ms. Sassoon also thanked the DEA Bangkok Country Office, DEA Wellington Country Office, DEA Beijing Country Office, DEA Honolulu District Office, DEA New York Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (“OCDETF”) Strike Force, DEA Riverside District Office, DEA Special Testing Laboratory, the DEA Southwest Laboratory, the Office of International Affairs of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, the Royal Thai Police Narcotics Suppression Bureau, the Fiji Police Force Narcotic Bureau, the Fiji Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaii for their assistance.

    This case is being handled by the Office’s National Security and International Narcotics Unit.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alexander Li and Kevin Sullivan are in charge of the prosecution, with assistance from Paralegal Specialist Sabrina Jim Munoz.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Losses of Public Money for 2024-25 Third Quarter

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    Released on February 3, 2025

    The report on losses of public money within Saskatchewan health organizations has been tabled with the Standing Committee on Public Accounts.

    The Ministry of Health reports losses by the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA), Athabasca Health Authority (AHA), Saskatchewan Cancer Agency (SCA), Health Shared Services Saskatchewan (3sHealth), Health Quality Council (HQC) and Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO) in keeping with similar reporting of losses within ministries and Crown agencies.

    One reportable loss was reported by the SHA to the Ministry of Health in the third quarter of the 2024-25 fiscal year (from October 1 to December 31, 2024):

    Various medical supplies were reported missing and presumed stolen from a SHA site, resulting in a loss of $3,000 over a period of six months in 2024. 

    See the attached report or visit: www.saskatchewan.ca/government/government-structure/ministries/health/other-reports/public-losses. 

    -30-

    For more information, contact:

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Loss Reports Tabled

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    Released on February 3, 2025

    The most recent quarterly reports on losses of public money within government ministries and Crown corporations, for the period from October 1, 2024, to December 31, 2024, have been tabled with their respective legislative committees.

    The Provincial Comptroller has tabled a nil report with the Public Accounts Committee for Executive Government’s third quarter of 2024-25.

    The Crown Investments Corporation tabled a nil report with the Crown and Central Agencies Committee for the Crown sector’s third quarter of 2024-25.

    -30-

    For more information, contact:

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Call for Medal of Bravery Nominations

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    Applications for the Province’s highest recognition for bravery opened today, February 3.

    “As Nova Scotians, we pull together, we watch out for one another, and we rise to the challenge time and time again,” said Premier Tim Houston. “The Medal of Bravery is an opportunity to recognize the everyday heroes among us who – when faced with immediate danger – showed remarkable courage and bravery.”

    The nomination form is available at Access Nova Scotia centres, MLA offices and online: https://novascotia.ca/bravery/pub/nova-scotia-bravery-award-nomination-form.pdf

    The deadline for nominations is May 1.

    Quick Facts:

    • acts of bravery that occurred on or after January 1, 2022, are eligible for nomination
    • any Nova Scotian who performed an act of bravery beyond what is expected of them is eligible for nomination whether the incident took place in the province or not
    • an advisory committee reviews all nominations and puts forward its recommendations for recognition
    • 55 Nova Scotians have been awarded the Medal of Bravery since it was introduced in 2008

    Additional Resources:

    Information on past medal recipients and how to nominate a brave Nova Scotian is available at: https://novascotia.ca/bravery

    Other than cropping, CNS photos are not to be altered in any way.

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Appel de candidatures pour la Médaille de la bravoure

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    Les mises en candidatures à la plus haute distinction de bravoure de la Province sont acceptées à compter d’aujourd’hui, 3 février.

    « Les gens de la Nouvelle-Écosse unissent leurs efforts et veillent les uns sur les autres, et nous nous montrons sans cesse à la hauteur, affirme le premier ministre Tim Houston. La médaille de la bravoure est une occasion de reconnaître les gens ordinaires qui, en situation de danger immédiat, sont devenus des héros et ont démontré un courage et une bravoure remarquables. »

    Le formulaire de mise en candidature est disponible dans les centres Accès Nouvelle-Écosse, dans les bureaux des députés et députées, et à l’adresse https://novascotia.ca/bravery/pub/nova-scotia-bravery-award-nomination-form-fr.pdf.

    La date limite pour les mises en candidature est le 1er mai.

    Faits en bref

    • Les actes de bravoure accomplis le 1er janvier 2022 ou à une date ultérieure seront considérés.
    • Une personne de la Nouvelle-Écosse qui a accompli un acte de bravoure au-delà des attentes est admissible à être mise en candidature, même si l’incident a eu lieu à l’extérieur de la province.
    • Un comité consultatif évalue toutes les candidatures et soumet ses recommandations.
    • 55 personnes de la Nouvelle-Écosse ont reçu la médaille de la bravoure depuis sa création en 2008.

    Ressources supplémentaires

    Renseignements sur les récipiendaires précédents et sur la façon de soumettre une candidature : https://novascotia.ca/bravery (en anglais seulement)

    À l’exception du recadrage, les photos de Communications Nouvelle-Écosse ne doivent être modifiées en aucune façon.

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI: Westhaven Commences Winter Drill Program on the Shovelnose Gold Property

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Westhaven Gold Corp. (TSX-V:WHN) is pleased to announce that drilling has commenced on the 41,634 hectare Shovelnose gold property, situated within the prospective Spences Bridge Gold Belt (SBGB), 30 kilometres south of Merritt, British Columbia.

    The winter drill program will be testing three target areas: Certes 1, Certes 3 and Corral, with approximately 2,500 metres (m) of drilling in five holes. Certes 1 and 3 are located approximately 8-10 kilometres (kms) southeast of the high-grade South Zone deposit (see Preliminary Economic Assessment July 18, 2023). A corridor of mineralization and anomalous pathfinder geochemistry was expanded southeast by surface sampling and drilling in 2024. This corridor may represent single west-northwest striking structure 13.5 kms in length that remains open in all directions.

    Preliminary shallow drilling in 2024 at Certes has uncovered a well-preserved epithermal system, now confirmed in the pathfinder geochemistry and TerraSpec (SWIR) analytical work. Certes 3 will be the initial focus of the program, testing down-dip the arsenic and gold-bearing carbonate breccias and quartz veins intersected in hole SN24-425 (e.g. 125ppm arsenic over 9m, 0.69 g/t Au over 1.74m).

    Drilling at Certes 1 will test a subvertical resistivity feature, outlined by the fall 2024 IP survey, immediately north of hole SN24-420 which saw a transition from high level gold pathfinders, mercury and antimony in the first 350m (e.g. 0.44ppm Hg over 119m) to deeper pathfinders such as arsenic in the bottom 40m of the hole. Certes 1 is also proximal to mercury-bearing sinter cobbles and boulders found on surface, suggesting the epithermal system is entirely preserved here.

    A single hole is also planned at the Corral target, south of Certes. Corral is thought to represent a west-northwest striking structure subparallel to Certes in an area of anomalous arsenic in outcrop. This hole will target a resistivity feature detected in the same IP survey.

    Shovelnose Development

    An updated Mineral Resource Estimate and Preliminary Economic Assessment for the South Zone deposit is expected to be completed in Q1 2025 and will include the Forget Me Not (FMN) and Franz Zones, additional discoveries located within the main Vein Zone 1 trend.

    On behalf of the Board of Directors
    WESTHAVEN GOLD CORP.

    “Gareth Thomas”

    Gareth Thomas, President, CEO & Director is responsible for this announcement
    Telephone number: 604-681-5558 ext. 102

    Qualified Person Statement

    Peter Fischl, P.Geo., who is a Qualified Person within the context of National Instrument 43-101 has read and takes responsibility for this release.

    Sampling, Laboratory Analyses and Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC)

    Most core samples consist of halved drill core cut by manual sawing. In rare cases, and where required by physical core conditions, manual splitting may be used. Half of the core is retained in the original core box for reference samples and any required future work, including QA/QC. Core samples, controlled by a unique barcoded reference number, are delivered to ALS’s Kamloops facility and prepared using the PREP-31 package. Each core sample is crushed to better than 70% passing a 2mm (Tyler 9 mesh, US Std. No.10) screen. A split of 250g is taken and pulverized to better than 85% passing a 75-micron (Tyler 200 mesh, US Std. No. 200) screen. Further analytical and assay procedures are conducted in ALS’s North Vancouver facility. A 0.75g subsample of the pulverized split is subjected to four acid digestion and analyzed via ICP-MS (method code ME-MS61m (+Hg)) which reports a suite of 49 elements. All samples are also analyzed for gold by fire assay with an AES finish, method code Au-ICP21 (30g sample size). Samples returning gold values over 10ppm are subjected to ore grade check assays using fire assay and a gravimetric finish (method code Au-GRA21 and a 30g sample size). Other overlimit elements may also be subjected to ore grade analyses which vary depending on the element of interest. QA/QC includes the laboratory’s internal quality assurance controls as well as field controls, including the insertion of quarter core duplicates, certified reference materials and blanks, each at a rate of roughly one per 20-25 core samples. Additional blanks are inserted following samples with visible gold or significant concentrations of ginguro (fine grained bands of dark gray to black sulphides). QA/QC data are evaluated on receipt for failures, and appropriate action is taken if results for duplicates, standards and blanks fall outside allowed tolerances. Westhaven’s ongoing Quality Assurance and Quality Control programs are consistent with industry best practices and include auditing of all exploration data. Any significant changes will be reported when available.

    Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

    About Westhaven Gold Corp.

    Westhaven is a gold-focused exploration company advancing the high-grade discovery on the Shovelnose project in Canada’s newest gold district, the Spences Bridge Gold Belt. Westhaven controls 61,512 hectares (615 square kilometres) with four gold properties spread along this underexplored belt. The Shovelnose property is situated off a major highway, near power, rail, large producing mines, and within commuting distance from the city of Merritt, which translates into low-cost exploration. Westhaven trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol WHN. For further information, please call 604-681-5558 or visit Westhaven’s website at www.westhavengold.com

    Forward-Looking Statements

    This news release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and Westhaven does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Forward-looking statements in this news release may include, but are not limited to, the interpretation of preliminary results from exploration undertaken to date at Shovelnose using various exploration techniques and analysis; statements with respect to potential styles of epithermal mineralization at the Shovelnose Project;  the possibility that the Company’s Shovelnose project may host multiple gold bearing epithermal systems; and, the potential for an intermediate sulphidation epithermal signature at the Certes target.  In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as “plans”, “expects” or “does not expect”, “is expected”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “forecasts”, “intends”, “anticipates” or “does not anticipate”, or “believes”, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might” or “will be taken”, “occur” or “be achieved”. However, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Westhaven’s property interests are in the exploration stages only, are without known bodies of commercial mineralization and have no ongoing mining operations.  Mineral exploration involves a high degree of risk and few properties, which are explored, are ultimately developed into producing mines. Exploration of the Company’s mineral properties may not result in any discoveries of commercial bodies of mineralization. If the Company’s efforts do not result in any discovery of commercial mineralization, the Company will be forced to look for other exploration projects or cease operation. Factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include the risk that the Company will encounter unanticipated geological factors, risks associated with the interpretation of exploration, drilling and assay results, the possibility that the Company may not be able to secure permits and other governmental clearances necessary to carry out the Company’s exploration plans, the risk that the Company will not be able to raise sufficient funds to carry out its business plans, and the risk of political uncertainties and regulatory or legal changes that might interfere with the Company’s business and prospects. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

    Plan Map of Proposed Winter Drilling

    A map accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d48db140-e744-4e80-8630-5a6f650a222c

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senator Murray Calls on Trump to Rescind Executive Orders Still Blocking Billions for Communities Across America

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray

    After rescinding disastrous OMB memo directing a blanket federal funding freeze, Murray demands Trump revoke orders blocking billions of dollars for critical infrastructure projects across America, key national security initiatives, and more

    Murray: “Yesterday, because the American people spoke up loud and clear, Donald Trump retreated from his devastating blanket funding freeze. But make no mistake: there is still far too much chaos on the ground and Trump is still blocking billions of dollars for communities across the country through his Executive Orders.”

    ***VIDEO HERE***

    Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, called on President Trump to swiftly rescind the directives included in a variety of executive orders he signed on his first day in office that are still in effect and still blocking billions of dollars in resources for communities across America—even after Trump rescinded his administration’s disastrous OMB memo in the face of public outcry, which created a blanket federal funding freeze.

    Speaking on the Senate floor, Senator Murray said:

    “Over the last few days, the American people have felt the painful consequences of Trump’s disastrous funding freeze.

    • Seniors who count on Meals on Wheels have wondered whether they’d have dinner this week.
    • Head Start teachers in red states and blue states panicked over whether they’d have the funds needed to keep their doors open and take care of kids.
    • Disaster relief for people who have endured the unimaginable and been knocked off their feet was thrown into jeopardy.
    • Grant programs to help firefighters do their jobs, combat the fentanyl crisis, get families health care, and so much more were, in an instant, at risk of evaporating into thin air.
    • I heard from a Tribe in my state concerned they’d have to lay off hundreds of staff providing essential services for the Tribe—that could mean putting everything from providing health care to housing in jeopardy—because of the President’s freeze.
    • A shelter for homeless youth in my state still can’t access its HUD funding and is staring down a $3 million deficit—forcing them to hold an emergency board meeting to figure out what, if anything, they can now do.
    • Hospitals in my state are worried that programs which are appropriately focused on someone’s gender or race are in jeopardy—like how pulse oximeters don’t work as well on dark skin, so they need other pathways to be found.

    “The chaos and confusion—the needless stress and distraction—are the result of having a president who is more focused on the billionaires who now fill his administration, than the plight of regular people all across the country.

    “Yesterday, because the American people spoke up loud and clear, Donald Trump retreated from his devastating blanket funding freeze.

    “But make no mistake: there is still far too much chaos on the ground and Trump is still blocking billions of dollars for communities across the country through his Executive Orders.

    • We’re talking about critical funding to rebuild roads and bridges, resources that are already creating thousands of good-paying new clean energy jobs in every state in the country, and critical global investments that help keep America safe.
    • That is completely unacceptable.

    “So, today, I am calling on President Trump to take four simple, commonsense steps:

    1. He needs to ensure every last dollar—down to the last penny—that was caught up by his disastrous blanket funding freeze gets out the door.
    2. He needs to rescind his executive orders that are still, at this very moment, ripping funding away from American families and communities.
    3. He needs to withdraw Russ Vought’s nomination to oversee our nation’s budget. It is clear the person who masterminded so much of this chaos doesn’t belong anywhere near the Office of Management and Budget.
    4. And finally, President Trump needs to abandon, once and for all, his illegal scheme to skirt around our laws and block funding that American workers and families are counting on.

    “I am not asking a lot here: ensure every dollar held up by the illegal freeze is restored, stop the ongoing effort to block funding, withdraw the mastermind of this chaos, and simply follow the law.

    “The American people deserve better than the catastrophe we have witnessed this week, and they deserve to know that the investments Trump is currently holding up—to rebuild the highway they drive to work on or lower their energy costs, and so much more—will make it out the door.

    “If the President is so intent on opposing funding for infrastructure projects and good-paying American jobs, he needs to sit down at the negotiating table and make his case to Congress. I will not let the President rip up the Constitution or rip money away from our communities.”

    ____________________________________________________

    LAST WEEK: within his first hours in office, President Trump signed a number of executive orders that illegally block funding that was signed into law to rebuild America’s infrastructure, lower families’ energy costs, create new, good-paying jobs, strengthen our national security, and more.

    ON MONDAY NIGHT: Trump expanded his funding freeze dramatically when the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a sweeping, illegal memo directing a near-blanket freeze on virtually all federal funding, with carveouts for Social Security, Medicare, and “assistance provided directly to individuals.” Senator Murray immediately wrote a letter to OMB alongside House Appropriations Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) raising alarms about the sweeping directive and calling the acting director to restore funding, as the law requires.

    ON TUESDAY: Senator Murray joined millions of Americans in decrying the chaos and pain President Trump’s freeze caused—as reports poured in from across the country about how it risked shuttering Head Start programs, cutting off disaster relief, jeopardizing cancer research, and much more. The White House, in trying to clarify the scope of the memo, instead created more chaos, confusion, and headaches for the American people.

    ON WEDNESDAY: Senator Murray again slammed Trump’s devastating freeze cutting off funding families count on—noting that even programs the administration said were back online were, in fact, still shuttered, and she called on Trump to stop withholding funding. Then, facing nationwide backlash, President Trump had his OMB revoke its memo. But President Trump vowed to keep his freeze of hundreds of billions of dollars in funding tied up by his executive orders in place—and his aides continued their vows to block more funding signed into law.

    RIGHT NOW: President Trump continues to hold up vast swaths of funding implicated by his illegal executive orders—and chaos and confusion pervade over whether funding implicated by his now-rescinded OMB memo has been fully restored.

    His executive orders direct agencies to, among other things, halt disbursement of funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, foreign development assistance, and virtually any funding his administration deems “woke.”

    President Trump’s ongoing freeze is holding up funding Congress delivered—often on a bipartisan basis—to:

    • Rebuild America’s roads and bridges.
    • Connect families to high-speed internet access.
    • Upgrade transit and transportation infrastructure.
    • Lower Americans’ energy costs.
    • Create new, good-paying clean energy jobs.
    • Strengthen America’s national security.
    • Much more.

    President Trump must rescind his executive orders—and stop blocking funding the American people are counting on. His failure to do so will:

    • Kill good-paying American jobs.
    • Delay—or altogether scrap—infrastructure projects all across the county.
    • Raise American families’ energy costs.
    • Create more chaos, confusion, and uncertainty that hurt families, businesses, small businesses, and local organizations and governments.
    • Gut efforts to tackle the climate crisis and ensure every American has clean air and water.
    • Halt work cleaning up Superfund sites contaminated with hazardous waste and substances.
    • Undermine our national security and credibility on the world stage.
    • Much more.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senator Murray Statement on Court Blocking Trump’s Devastating Funding Freeze

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray

    Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement on a federal district court ordering a temporary restraining order blocking President Trump’s federal funding freeze:

    “Today, the court affirmed what we’ve long known: the President does not have the power to rip funding that is law away from the American people.

    “People in every corner of the country have felt the painful consequences of Trump’s disastrous funding freeze—and we are going to keep fighting to make sure funding to rebuild our roads and bridges, invest in families, create good paying jobs, and so much more gets out the door as the law requires.”

    In its order, the court noted that:

    • “The Executive’s action unilaterally suspends the payment of federal funds to the States and others simply by choosing to do so, no matter the authorizing or appropriating statute, the regulatory regime, or the terms of the grant itself. The Executive cites no legal authority allowing it to do so; indeed, no federal law would authorize the Executive’s unilateral action here.”
    • “Congress has not given the Executive limitless power to broadly and indefinitely pause all funds that it has expressly directed to specific recipients and purposes and therefore the Executive’s actions violate the separation of powers.”
    • “The Executive Branch has a duty to align federal spending and action with the will of the people as expressed through congressional appropriations, not through ‘Presidential priorities.’”
    • “Federal law specifies how the Executive should act if it believes that appropriations are inconsistent with the President’s priorities–it must ask Congress, not act unilaterally.”

    Senator Murray has consistently raised alarm bells over President Trump and his top advisors’ ongoing efforts and plans to block funding Congress has provided from making it out to American families, businesses, and communities. Last week, she grilled President Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, on his loud declarations that President Trump should unilaterally hold up funding—and his refusal to commit to Congress to follow the law. She called out President Trump’s unlawful executive orders holding up funding for infrastructure, national security programs, good-paying clean energy jobs and innovations, and much more—and released a fact sheet detailing how his orders violate the law and the constitution. On Monday night, after OMB issued its sweeping memo freezing trillions of dollars in funding for America, Senator Murray and House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro sent a letter to Acting OMB Director Matthew J. Vaeth raising the alarm on President Trump’s unlawful executive orders and the new memoranda. She joined colleagues hours later for a press conference highlighting the mass panic and confusion the memo was already creating for families and communities in every part of the country. On Wednesday, Senator Murray spoke at a press conference hammering how badly Trump’s actions are hurting their states—and working people all across the country. On Thursday, she called on Trump to rescind his executive orders still blocking billions of dollars in funding for communities across America after Trump revoked his disastrous OMB memo that ordered a blanket funding freeze.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Imposing Duties to Address the Situation at Our Southern Border

    Source: The White House

              By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (NEA), section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2483), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,

              I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that the sustained influx of illegal aliens and illicit opioids and other drugs has profound consequences on our Nation, endangering lives and putting a severe strain on our healthcare system, public services, communities, and schools.  Since the end of my first term, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) within the Department of Homeland Security has recorded more than three times as many inadmissible encounters nationwide as during my first term.

         These challenges threaten the fabric of our society.  Gang members, smugglers, human traffickers, and illicit drugs of all kinds have poured across our borders and into our communities.  Mexico has played a central role in these challenges, including by failing to devote sufficient attention and resources to meaningfully stem the tide of unlawful migration and illicit drugs.

         Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) are the world’s leading traffickers of fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, and other illicit drugs, and they cultivate, process, and distribute massive quantities of narcotics that fuel addiction and violence in communities across the United States.  These DTOs collaborate and conspire with transnational cartels and other global partners to smuggle drugs into the United States, utilizing clandestine airstrips, maritime routes, tunnels, and overland corridors, and both willing and unwilling human couriers.  

         The Mexican DTOs have an intolerable alliance with the government of Mexico. This alliance endangers the national security of the United States, and we must eradicate the influence of these dangerous cartels from the bilateral environment. The government of Mexico has afforded safe havens for the cartels to engage in the manufacturing and transportation of illicit drugs, which collectively have led to the overdose deaths of hundreds of thousands of American victims.

         Mexican cartels are also implicated in human trafficking and smuggling operations, enabling the illegal migration of millions across our borders.  These operations are often tied to organized crime, and they create pathways for cartel activities to expand into the United States.  Furthermore, violent criminals originating from Central and South America easily transit into and through Mexico, and into the United States, where they cause irreparable harm to our citizens.  These dangerous criminals are involved in drug-related violence, gang activity, and other crimes that endanger the safety of American communities.
     
         Immediate action is required to address the national emergency I declared in Proclamation 10886 of January 20, 2025 (Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border of the United States), and to finally end the public health crisis caused by opioid use and addiction, which will not happen unless the compliance and cooperation of the government of Mexico is assured.

         I hereby determine and order:
         Section 1.  (a)  As President of the United States, my highest duty is the defense of the country and its citizens.  A Nation without borders is not a Nation at all.  I will not stand by and allow our sovereignty to be eroded, our laws to be trampled, our citizens to be endangered, or our borders to be disrespected anymore.

         I previously declared a national emergency with respect to the grave threat to the United States posed by the influx of illegal aliens and illicit drugs into the United States in Proclamation 10886.  Pursuant to the NEA, I hereby expand the scope of the national emergency declared in that proclamation to cover the failure of Mexico to arrest, seize, detain, or otherwise intercept DTOs, other drug and human traffickers, criminals at large, and illicit drugs.  In addition, this failure to act on the part of the government of Mexico constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.  I hereby declare and reiterate a national emergency under the NEA and IEEPA to deal with that threat.  This national emergency requires decisive and immediate action, and I have decided to impose, consistent with law, ad valorem tariffs on articles that are products of Mexico as set forth in this order.  In doing so, I invoke my authority under section 1702(a)(1)(B) of IEEPA, and specifically find that action under other authority to impose tariffs is inadequate to address this unusual and extraordinary threat.

         Sec. 2.  (a)  All articles that are products of Mexico, as defined by the Federal Register notice described in section 2(d) of this order (the Federal Register notice), shall be, consistent with law, subject to an additional 25 percent ad valorem rate of duty.  Such rate of duty shall apply with respect to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern time on February 4, 2025, except that goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, after such time that were loaded onto a vessel at the port of loading or in transit on the final mode of transport prior to entry into the United States before 12:01 a.m. eastern time on February 1, 2025, shall not be subject to such additional duty, only if the importer certifies to CBP as specified in the Federal Register notice. 
         (b)  The rates of duty established by this order are in addition to any other duties, fees, exactions, or charges applicable to such imported articles. 
         (c)  Should the government of Mexico retaliate against the United States in response to this action through import duties on United States exports to Mexico or similar measures, the President may increase or expand in scope the duties imposed under this Executive Order to ensure the efficacy of this action. 
         (d)  In order to establish the duty rate on imports of articles that are products of Mexico, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall determine the modifications necessary to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) in order to effectuate this order consistent with law and shall make such modifications to the HTSUS through notice in the Federal Register.  The modifications made to the HTSUS by this notice shall be effective with respect to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern time on February 4, 2025, except as otherwise noted in subsection 2(a) of this section, and shall continue in effect until such actions are expressly reduced, modified, or terminated.
         (e)  Articles that are products of Mexico, except those that are eligible for admission under “domestic status” as defined in 19 CFR 146.43, which are subject to the duties imposed by this order and are admitted into a United States foreign trade zone on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern time on February 4, 2025, except as otherwise noted in subsection 2(a) of this section, must be admitted as “privileged foreign status” as defined in 19 CFR 146.41.  Such articles will be subject upon entry for consumption to the rates of duty related to the classification under the applicable HTSUS subheading in effect at the time of admittance into the United States foreign trade zone. 
         (f)  No drawback shall be available with respect to the duties imposed pursuant to this order.
         (g)  For avoidance of doubt, duty-free de minimis treatment under 19 U.S.C. 1321 shall not be available for the articles described in subsection (a) of this section.
         (h)  Any prior Presidential Proclamation, Executive Order, or other presidential directive or guidance related to trade with Mexico that is inconsistent with the direction in this order is hereby terminated, suspended, or modified to the extent necessary to give full effect to this order. 
         (i)  The articles described in subsection (a) of this section shall exclude those encompassed by 50 U.S.C. 1702(b).

         Sec. 3.  (a)  The Secretary of Homeland Security shall regularly consult with the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, and the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security on the situation at our southern border.  The Secretary of Homeland Security shall inform the President of any circumstances that, in the opinion of the Secretary of Homeland Security, indicate that the government of Mexico has taken adequate steps to alleviate the illegal migration and illicit drug crisis through cooperative actions.  Upon the President’s determination of sufficient action to alleviate the crisis, the tariffs described in section 2 of this order will be removed.
         (b)  The Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, and the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security shall recommend additional action, if necessary, should the government of Mexico fail to take adequate steps to alleviate the illegal migration and illicit drug crises through cooperative enforcement actions.

         Sec. 4.  The Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Commerce, is hereby authorized to take such actions, including adopting rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to me by IEEPA as may be necessary to implement this order.  The Secretary of Homeland Security may, consistent with applicable law, redelegate any of these functions within the Department of Homeland Security.  All agencies shall take all appropriate measures within their authority to implement this order.

           Sec. 5.  The Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Commerce, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs,  and the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, is hereby authorized to submit recurring and final reports to the Congress on the national emergency under IEEPA declared in this order, consistent with section 401(c) of the NEA (50 U.S.C. 1641(c)) and section 204(c) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1703(c)).

         Sec. 6.  General Provisions.  (a)  Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
         (i)   the authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof; or
         (ii)  the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
         (b)  This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
         (c)  This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

    THE WHITE HOUSE, 
        February 1, 2025.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Imposing Duties to Address the Synthetic Opioid Supply Chain in the People’s Republic of China

    Source: The White House

         By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (NEA), section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2483), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,

         I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that the sustained influx of synthetic opioids has profound consequences on our Nation, including by killing approximately two hundred Americans per day, putting a severe strain on our healthcare system, ravaging our communities, and destroying our families.  Synthetic opioid overdose is the leading cause of death for people aged 18 to 45 in the United States. 

         During my first term, I took steps to end the direct flow of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to the United States.  Since then, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which exerts ultimate control over the government and enterprises of the PRC, has subsidized and otherwise incentivized PRC chemical companies to export fentanyl and related precursor chemicals that are used to produce synthetic opioids sold illicitly in the United States. 

         Furthermore, the PRC provides support to and safe haven for PRC-origin transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) that launder the revenues from the production, shipment, and sale of illicit synthetic opioids.  These PRC-origin TCOs coordinate and communicate using PRC social media software applications in the conduct of their business.

         Many PRC-based chemical companies also go to great lengths to evade law enforcement and hide illicit substances in the flow of legitimate commerce.  Some of the techniques employed by these PRC-based companies to conceal the true contents of the parcels and the identity of the distributors include the use of re-shippers in the United States, false invoices, fraudulent postage, and deceptive packaging.   While more than 500,000 pounds of drugs have been seized at the southern border each of the last 3 fiscal years, in addition, more than 42,000 pounds of drugs have been seized at the northern border each year on average over the last 3 years.  Illicit drugs kill tens of thousands of Americans each year, including 75,000 deaths per year attributed to fentanyl alone.

         The influx of these drugs to our Nation threatens the fabric of our society.  The PRC plays a central role in this challenge, not merely by failing to stem the ultimate source of many illicit drugs distributed in the United States, but by actively sustaining and expanding the business of poisoning our citizens.

         The flow of contraband drugs like fentanyl to the United States through illicit distribution networks has created a national emergency, including a public health crisis in the United States, as outlined in the Presidential Memorandum of January 20, 2025 (America First Trade Policy), Proclamation 10886 of January 20, 2025 (Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border of the United States), and Executive Order 14157 of January 20, 2025 (Designating Cartels and Other Organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists). 

         Despite multiple attempts to resolve this crisis at its root source through bilateral dialogue, PRC officials have failed to follow through with the decisive actions needed to stem the flow of precursor chemicals to known criminal cartels and shut down the money laundering TCOs.  The PRC implements the most sophisticated domestic surveillance network coupled with the most comprehensive domestic law enforcement apparatus in the world.  The PRC also routinely exerts extraterritorial reach across the globe to threaten, harass, and suppress what it views as political dissent.  As such, the CCP does not lack the capacity to severely blunt the global illicit opioid epidemic; it simply is unwilling to do so.

         Immediate action is required to address the national emergency I declared and to finally end this emergency, including the public health crisis caused by opioid use and addiction, which will not happen until the full compliance and cooperation of the PRC government is assured.
    I hereby determine and order:
         Section 1.  (a)  As President of the United States, my highest duty is the defense of the country and its citizens.  I will not stand by and allow our citizens to be poisoned, our laws to be trampled, our communities to be ravaged, or our families to be destroyed.

         I previously declared a national emergency with respect to the grave threat to the United States posed by the influx of illegal aliens and drugs into the United States in Proclamation 10886.  Pursuant to the NEA, I hereby expand the scope of the national emergency declared in that proclamation to cover the failure of the PRC government to arrest, seize, detain, or otherwise intercept chemical precursor suppliers, money launderers, other TCOs, criminals at large, and drugs.  In addition, this failure to act constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.  I hereby declare and reiterate a national emergency under the NEA and IEEPA to deal with that threat.  This national emergency requires decisive and immediate action, and I have decided to impose, consistent with law, ad valorem tariffs on articles that are products of the PRC as set forth in this order.  In doing so, I invoke my authority under section 1702(a)(1)(B) of IEEPA, and specifically find that action under other authority to impose tariffs is inadequate to address this unusual and extraordinary threat.

         Sec. 2.  (a)  All articles that are products of the PRC, as defined by the Federal Register notice described in section 2(d) of this order (the Federal Register notice), shall be, consistent with law, subject to an additional 10 percent ad valorem rate of duty.  Such rate of duty shall apply with respect to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern time on February 4, 2025, except that goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, after such time that were loaded onto a vessel at the port of loading or in transit on the final mode of transport prior to entry into the United States before 12:01 a.m. eastern time on February 1, 2025, shall not be subject to such additional duty, only if the importer certifies to U.S. Customs and Border Protection within the Department of Homeland Security as specified in the Federal Register notice. 
         (b)  The rates of duty established by this order are in addition to any other duties, fees, exactions, or charges applicable to such imported articles. 
         (c)  Should the PRC retaliate against the United States in response to this action through import duties on United States exports to the PRC or similar measures, the President may increase or expand in scope the duties imposed under this Executive Order to ensure the efficacy of this action.
         (d)  In order to establish the duty rate on imports of articles that are products of the PRC, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall determine the modifications necessary to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) in order to effectuate the objectives of this order consistent with law and shall make such modifications to the HTSUS through notice in the Federal Register.  The modifications made to the HTSUS by this notice shall be effective with respect to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern time on February 4, 2025, except as otherwise noted in subsection 2(a) of this section, and shall continue in effect until such actions are expressly reduced, modified, or terminated.
         (e)  Articles that are products of the PRC, except those that are eligible for admission under “domestic status” as defined in 19 CFR 146.43, which are subject to the duties imposed by this order and are admitted into a United States foreign trade zone on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern time on February 4, 2025, except as otherwise noted in subsection 2(a) of this section, must be admitted as “privileged foreign status” as defined in 19 CFR 146.41.  Such articles will be subject upon entry for consumption to the rates of duty related to the classification under the applicable HTSUS subheading in effect at the time of admittance into the United States foreign trade zone. 
         (f)  No drawback shall be available with respect to the duties imposed pursuant to this order. 
         (g)  For avoidance of doubt, duty-free de minimis treatment under 19 U.S.C. 1321 shall not be available for the articles described in subsection (a) of this section. 
         (h)  Any prior Presidential Proclamation, Executive Order, or other presidential directive or guidance related to trade with the PRC that is inconsistent with the direction in this order is hereby terminated, suspended, or modified to the extent necessary to give full effect to this order. 
         (i)  The articles described in subsection (a) of this section shall exclude those encompassed by 50 U.S.C. 1702(b).

         Sec. 3.  (a)  The Secretary of Homeland Security shall regularly consult with the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, the Attorney General, and the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security on the situation regarding the PRC.  The Secretary of Homeland Security shall inform the President of any circumstances that, in the opinion of the Secretary of Homeland Security, indicate that the PRC government has taken adequate steps to alleviate the opioid crisis through cooperative actions.  Upon the President’s determination of sufficient action to alleviate the crisis, the tariffs described in section 2 of this order will be removed.
         (b)  The Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, and the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, shall recommend additional action, if necessary, should the PRC fail to take adequate steps to alleviate the illicit drug crisis through cooperative enforcement actions.

         Sec. 4.  The Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Commerce, is hereby authorized to take such actions, including adopting rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to the President by IEEPA as may be necessary to implement this order.  The Secretary of Homeland Security may, consistent with applicable law, redelegate any of these functions within the Department of Homeland Security.  All executive departments and agencies shall take all appropriate measures within their authority to implement this order.

         Sec. 5.  The Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Commerce, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, the Attorney General, and the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, is hereby authorized to submit recurring and final reports to the Congress on the national emergency under IEEPA declared in this order, consistent with section 401(c) of the NEA (50 U.S.C. 1641(c)) and section 204(c) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1703(c)).

         Sec. 6.  General Provisions.  (a)  Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
         (i)   the authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof; or
         (ii)  the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
         (b)  This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
         (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    THE WHITE HOUSE,
        February 1, 2025.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Imposing Duties to Address the Flow of Illicit Drugs Across Our Northern Border

    Source: The White House

         By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (NEA), section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2483), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,

    I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that the sustained influx of illicit opioids and other drugs has profound consequences on our Nation, endangering lives and putting a severe strain on our healthcare system, public services, and communities.

    This challenge threatens the fabric of our society.  Gang members, smugglers, human traffickers, and illicit drugs of all kinds have poured across our borders and into our communities.  Canada has played a central role in these challenges, including by failing to devote sufficient attention and resources or meaningfully coordinate with United States law enforcement partners to effectively stem the tide of illicit drugs.

    Drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) are the world’s leading producers of fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, and other illicit drugs, and they cultivate, process, and distribute massive quantities of narcotics that fuel addiction and violence in communities across the United States.  These DTOs often collaborate with transnational cartels to smuggle illicit drugs into the United States, utilizing clandestine airstrips, maritime routes, and overland corridors. 

    The challenges at our southern border are foremost in the public consciousness, but our northern border is not exempt from these issues.  Criminal networks are implicated in human trafficking and smuggling operations, enabling unvetted illegal migration across our northern border.  There is also a growing presence of Mexican cartels operating fentanyl and nitazene synthesis labs in Canada.  The flow of illicit drugs like fentanyl to the United States through both illicit distribution networks and international mail — due, in the case of the latter, to the existing administrative exemption from duty and taxes, also known as de minimis, under section 1321 of title 19, United States Code — has created a public health crisis in the United States, as outlined in the Presidential Memorandum of January 20, 2025 (America First Trade Policy) and Executive Order 14157 of January 20, 2025 (Designating Cartels and Other Organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists).  With respect to smuggling of illicit drugs across our northern border, Canada’s Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre recently published a study on the laundering of proceeds of illicit synthetic opioids, which recognized Canada’s heightened domestic production of fentanyl, largely from British Columbia, and its growing footprint within international narcotics distribution.  Despite a North American dialogue on the public health impacts of illicit drugs since 2016, Canadian officials have acknowledged that the problem has only grown.  And while U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) within the Department of Homeland Security seized, comparatively, much less fentanyl from Canada than from Mexico last year, fentanyl is so potent that even a very small parcel of the drug can cause many deaths and destruction to America families.  In fact, the amount of fentanyl that crossed the northern border last year could kill 9.5 million Americans.

    Immediate action is required to finally end this public health crisis and national emergency, which will not happen unless the compliance and cooperation of Canada is assured.

    I hereby determine and order:

         Section 1.  (a)  As President of the United States, my highest duty is the defense of the country and its citizens.  A Nation without borders is not a nation at all.  I will not stand by and allow our sovereignty to be eroded, our laws to be trampled, our citizens to be endangered, or our borders to be disrespected anymore.

    I previously declared a national emergency with respect to the grave threat to the United States posed by the influx of illegal aliens and illicit drugs into the United States in Proclamation 10886 of January 20, 2025 (Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border).  Pursuant to the NEA, I hereby expand the scope of the national emergency declared in that Proclamation to cover the threat to the safety and security of Americans, including the public health crisis of deaths due to the use of fentanyl and other illicit drugs, and the failure of Canada to do more to arrest, seize, detain, or otherwise intercept DTOs, other drug and human traffickers, criminals at large, and drugs.  In addition, this failure to act on the part of Canada constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in substantial part outside the United States, to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.  I hereby declare and reiterate a national emergency under the NEA and IEEPA to deal with that threat.  This national emergency requires decisive and immediate action, and I have decided to impose, consistent with law, ad valorem tariffs on articles that are products of Canada set forth in this order.  In doing so, I invoke my authority under section 1702(a)(1)(B) of IEEPA and specifically find that action under other authority to impose tariffs is inadequate to address this unusual and extraordinary threat.

         Sec. 2.  (a)  All articles that are products of Canada as defined by the Federal Register notice described in subsection (e) of this section (Federal Register notice), and except for those products described in subsection (b) of this section, shall be, consistent with law, subject to an additional 25 percent ad valorem rate of duty.  Such rate of duty shall apply with respect to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern time on February 4, 2025, except that goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, after such time that were loaded onto a vessel at the port of loading or in transit on the final mode of transport prior to entry into the United States before 12:01 a.m. eastern time on February 1, 2025, shall not be subject to such additional duty, only if the importer certifies to CBP as specified in the Federal Register notice. 

    (b)  With respect to energy or energy resources, as defined in section 8 of Executive Order 14156 of January 20, 2025 (Declaring a National Energy Emergency), and as otherwise included in the Federal Register notice, such articles that are products of Canada as defined by the Federal Register notice shall be, consistent with law, subject to an additional 10 percent ad valorem rate of duty.  Such rate of duty shall apply with respect to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern time on February 4, 2025, except that goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, after such time that were loaded onto a vessel at the port of loading or in transit on the final mode of transport prior to entry into the United States before 12:01 a.m. eastern time on February 1, 2025, shall not be subject to such additional duty, only if the importer certifies to CBP as specified in the Federal Register notice.  

    (c)  The rates of duty established by this order are in addition to any other duties, fees, exactions, or charges applicable to such imported articles. 

    (d)  Should Canada retaliate against the United States in response to this action through import duties on United States exports to Canada or similar measures, the President may increase or expand in scope the duties imposed under this order to ensure the efficacy of this action.

    (e)  In order to establish the duty rate on imports of articles that are products of Canada, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall determine the modifications necessary to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) in order to effectuate this order consistent with law and shall make such modifications to the HTSUS through notice in the Federal Register.  The modifications made to the HTSUS by this notice shall be effective with respect to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern time on February 4, 2025, and shall continue in effect until such actions are expressly reduced, modified, or terminated.

    (f)  Articles that are products of Canada, except those that are eligible for admission under “domestic status” as defined in 19 CFR 146.43, which are subject to the duties imposed by this order and are admitted into a United States foreign trade zone on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern time on February 4, 2025, except as otherwise noted in subsections (a) and (b) of this section, must be admitted as “privileged foreign status” as defined in 19 CFR 146.41.  Such articles will be subject upon entry for consumption to the rates of duty related to the classification under the applicable HTSUS subheading in effect at the time of admittance into the United States foreign trade zone. 

    (g)  No drawback shall be available with respect to the duties imposed pursuant to this order. 

    (h)  For avoidance of doubt, duty-free de minimis treatment under 19 U.S.C. 1321 shall not be available for the articles described in subsection (a) and subsection (b) of this section.

         (i)  Any prior Presidential Proclamation, Executive Order, or other Presidential directive or guidance related to trade with Canada that is inconsistent with the direction in this order is hereby terminated, suspended, or modified to the extent necessary to give full effect to this order. 

         (j)  The articles described in subsection (a) and subsection (b) of this section shall exclude those encompassed by 50 U.S.C. 1702(b).

         Sec. 3.  (a)  The Secretary of Homeland Security shall regularly consult with the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, and the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security on the situation at our northern border.  The Secretary of Homeland Security shall inform the President of any circumstances that, in the opinion of the Secretary of Homeland Security, indicate that the Government of Canada has taken adequate steps to alleviate this public health crisis through cooperative enforcement actions.  Upon the President’s determination of sufficient action to alleviate the crisis, the tariffs described in section 2 of this order shall be removed.

    (b)  The Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, and the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, shall recommend additional action, if necessary, should the Government of Canada fail to take adequate steps to alleviate the illegal migration and illicit drug crises through cooperative enforcement actions.

         Sec. 4.  The Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Commerce, is hereby authorized to take such actions, including adopting rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to the President by IEEPA as may be necessary to implement this order.  The Secretary of Homeland Security may, consistent with applicable law, redelegate any of these functions within the Department of Homeland Security.  All executive departments and agencies shall take all appropriate measures within their authority to implement this order.

         Sec. 5.  The Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Commerce, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, and the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, is hereby authorized to submit recurring and final reports to the Congress on the national emergency under IEEPA declared in this order, consistent with section 401(c) of the NEA (50 U.S.C. 1641(c)) and section 204(c) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1703(c)).

         Sec. 6.  General Provisions.  (a)  Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

    (i)   the authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof; or

    (ii)  the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

    (b)  This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

    (c)  This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

    THE WHITE HOUSE,

        February 1, 2025.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI: Sophos Completes Secureworks Acquisition

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    OXFORD, United Kingdom and ATLANTA, Feb. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sophos and Secureworks® (NASDAQ:SCWX), two global cybersecurity pioneers that have innovated and redefined services and technology solutions for defeating cyberattacks, today announced the completion of Sophos’ acquisition of Secureworks. The all-cash transaction values Secureworks at approximately $859 million. With the completion of the acquisition, Secureworks’ common stock has ceased trading on Nasdaq. Sophos is backed by Thoma Bravo, a leading software investment firm.

    With this acquisition, Sophos is now the leading pure-play cybersecurity provider of Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services, supporting more than 28,000 organizations of all sizes worldwide. The combination will enable Sophos to deliver an unparalleled security operations platform, featuring hundreds of built-in integrations for adaptive protection, detection and response for mitigating cyberattacks. The open and scalable platform helps organizations, especially those with diverse IT estates, safeguard current and future technology investments, providing greater operational efficiencies and return on cybersecurity spend. Sophos X-Ops is also expanding its threat intelligence and security services capabilities with the addition of the Secureworks Counter Threat Unit™ and security operations and advisory teams.

    As a channel-first cybersecurity provider, Sophos remains unwavering in its commitment to deliver cutting-edge security services and technologies that empower our global community of resellers, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Managed Security Services Providers (MSSPs). This includes expanding their reach, enhancing operational scalability and providing stronger defenses to the countless organizations that need the ability to effectively defend against today’s constant and complex cyberattacks.

    “The market is embracing MDR as a clear means to deliver positive cybersecurity outcomes, and this has meant rapid growth in the category,” said Joe Levy, CEO, Sophos. “Sophos is differentiated by our very mature competencies in ransomware detection, malware analysis and threat actor tradecraft. These defenses are further augmented by Sophos’ native artificial intelligence (AI), first innovated by our globally peer recognized AI team nearly a decade ago, and embedded in our MDR, endpoint, network, email, and cloud security to more effectively neutralize and stop threats. With the integration of Secureworks, our expanded services and product portfolio will provide even stronger end-to-end security solutions that will include identity threat detection and response (ITDR), next-gen SIEM and managed risk, all in a single open platform.

    “We will also be able to further advance our AI, threat intelligence and attack research through more diverse and deeper global telemetry that is analyst-tuned for the real-world. At every level, we are very excited about this next accelerated chapter for Sophos.”

    Available Now
    In the near term, Sophos and Secureworks are operating business as usual, working with our respective channel partners, MSPs and MSSPs worldwide to distribute our existing security services and technology. Both companies’ sales and customer experience groups will operate to support existing customers, assist with renewals and develop current and new business opportunities. Sophos protects more than 600,000 customers worldwide with its portfolio of MDR, endpoint, network, email, and cloud security solutions that integrate and adapt to provide real-time defense through the Sophos Central platform.

    Transaction Details
    Under the terms of the agreement, Sophos acquired Secureworks in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $859 million. Secureworks shareholders, including Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL), will receive $8.50 per share in cash. This represents a 28% premium to the unaffected 90-day volume-weighted average price (VWAP).

    Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal counsel to Sophos, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC., Barclays, BofA Securities, HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., and UBS Investment Bank acted as financial advisors and provided debt financing for the transaction. Piper Sandler & Company and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC acted as financial advisors to Secureworks, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP acted as legal counsel.

    About Sophos
    Sophos is a global leader and innovator of advanced security solutions for defeating cyberattacks. The company acquired Secureworks in February 2025, bringing together two pioneers that have redefined the cybersecurity industry with their innovative, native AI-optimized services, technologies and products. Sophos is now the largest pure-play Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider, supporting more than 28,000 organizations. In addition to MDR and other services, Sophos’ complete portfolio includes industry-leading endpoint, network, email, and cloud security that interoperate and adapt to defend through the Sophos Central platform. Secureworks provides the innovative, market-leading Taegis XDR/MDR, identity threat detection and response (ITDR), next-gen SIEM capabilities, managed risk, and a comprehensive set of advisory services. Sophos sells all these solutions through reseller partners, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) worldwide, defending more than 600,000 organizations worldwide from phishing, ransomware, data theft, other every day and state-sponsored cybercrimes. The solutions are powered by historical and real-time threat intelligence from Sophos X-Ops and the newly added Counter Threat Unit (CTU). Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, U.K. More information is available at www.sophos.com. 

    Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
    This communication includes certain disclosures which contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including but not limited to certain statements related to the merger of the wholly-owned subsidiary of Sophos, Inc., a Massachusetts corporation (“Parent”) with and into Secureworks Corp. (the “Company”), with the Company continuing as the surviving corporation and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Parent (the “Merger”). In most cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “confidence,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “guidance,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “outlook,” “should,” and “would,” or similar words or expressions that refer to future events or outcomes. These forward-looking statements, including certain statements regarding the Merger and its effects, are based largely on information currently available to our management and our management’s current expectations and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical results or those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although we believe our expectations are based on reasonable estimates and assumptions, they are not guarantees of performance. There is no assurance that our expectations will occur or that our estimates or assumptions will be correct, and we caution investors and all others not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Important factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such plans, estimates or expectations include but are not limited to: (i) potential adverse reactions or changes to business relationships resulting from the completion of the Merger; (ii) legislative, regulatory and economic developments; (iii) unpredictability and severity of catastrophic events, including but not limited to acts of terrorism, outbreaks of war or hostilities or the COVID-19 pandemic and other public health issues, as well as management’s response to any of the aforementioned factors; (iv) the impact of inflation, rising interest rates, and global conflicts, including disruptions in European economies as a result of the Ukrainian/Russian conflict and the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, the relationship between China and Taiwan and ongoing trade disputes between the United States and China; (v) there may be liabilities that are not known, probable or estimable at this time or unexpected costs, charges or expenses; (vi) those risks and uncertainties set forth under the headings “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors” in the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, as such risk factors may be amended, supplemented or superseded from time to time by other reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) from time to time, which are available via the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. These factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. Neither Parent nor the Company undertakes to update, and expressly disclaim any obligation to update, any forward-looking statements, whether resulting from circumstances or events that arise after the date the statements are made, new information, or otherwise. If one or more of these or other risks or uncertainties materialize, or if the underlying assumptions prove to be incorrect, actual results may vary materially from what we may have expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Furthermore, new risks and uncertainties arise from time to time, and it is impossible for us to predict those events or how they may affect Parent or the Company.

    Media Contacts
    Kelly Kane, Director of Public Relations, Americas: Kelly.Kane@sophos.com 
    Samantha Powers, VP of Public Relations: Sophos@walkersands.com 

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Apple Music kicks off Kendrick Lamar’s Road to Halftime ahead of Super Bowl LIX

    Source: Apple

    Headline: Apple Music kicks off Kendrick Lamar’s Road to Halftime ahead of Super Bowl LIX

    February 3, 2025

    PRESS RELEASE

    Apple Music kicks off Kendrick Lamar’s Road to Halftime ahead of Super Bowl LIX

    Tune in to the Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show press conference for The Official Kendrick Lamar Interview on February 6 at 10 a.m. CT on Apple Music

    CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today announced Apple Music is celebrating Kendrick Lamar’s Road to Halftime with a spotlight on the era-defining artist who has made a seismic impact on hip-hop and culture.

    Coming off of a remarkable year, Kendrick was among the top 10 artists of 2024 globally, with his latest album, GNX, soaring to No. 1 in 129 countries upon release, while “Not Like Us” was the top-streamed song on Apple Music worldwide. Throughout his career, Kendrick has seen nine albums top Apple Music’s top albums chart in more than 160 countries.

    “Throughout his career, Kendrick Lamar hasn’t met the cultural moment so much as he’s defined it,” said Rachel Newman, Apple Music’s global head of content and editorial. “He is an artist’s artist — authentic to his core. We couldn’t be more thrilled to watch him headline the third Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show this year, in what’s sure to be another moment we’ll all be talking about for decades.”

    Fans can get ready for the big event with a wide selection of music and exclusive content, from the first-look trailer Kendrick shared last month; to exclusive playlists curated by New Orleans musicians, NFL players, and teams; to over 100 hours of dedicated Apple Music Radio programming. It all leads up to the highly anticipated Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show on Sunday, February 9, at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.

    To access it all, check out Kendrick’s Road to Halftime on Apple Music.

    The Halftime Show Press Conference

    On Thursday, February 6, at 10 a.m. CT, Apple Music Radio hosts Ebro Darden and Nadeska Alexis will sit down with Kendrick at the Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show press conference for the headliner’s official interview. Viewers can tune in live or watch on demand on Apple Music at apple.co/applemusichalftime or Apple Podcasts; on YouTube, Facebook, and X; or on the NFL Network.

    Before the interview, fans can also tune in to the Apple Music Radio pre-show at 9:30 a.m. CT featuring Apple Music Radio hosts Zane Lowe and Eddie Francis, alongside Ebro and Nadeska. The live show will highlight Apple Music’s biggest moments of the past year and feature special guests during a look back at iconic halftime performances.

    100 Hours of Programming on Apple Music Radio

    The award-winning Apple Music Radio will be on the ground and in the stands for a full four-day takeover starting February 6 across New Orleans and Los Angeles. Exclusive programming will include daily “Live from Super Bowl LIX NOLA” broadcasts with Zane, Ebro, Nadeska, and Eddie as they shine a light on the city’s music culture while connecting with artists, athletes, and other notable voices. “Super Bowl LIX LA” broadcasts with Apple Music Radio hosts Hanuman, Brooke Reese, Estelle, Jayde Donovan, and newly added Evelyn Sicairos and Lechero will reflect on the New Orleans fanfare, as well as celebrate Kendrick’s music and hometown back in L.A.

    “Kendrick Lamar: Hip-Hop’s MVP” hosted by Ebro will celebrate Kendrick’s catalog and take listeners on a chronological journey through the milestones in Kendrick’s career and discography.

    And on Saturday before the game, Apple Music will bring the New Orleans club scene to listeners with mixes from NOLA DJs Legatron Prime, DJ Poppa, Mannie Fresh, and KLC the Drum Major. Mustard will spin a special Kendrick Lamar Megamix.

    Listeners can tune in at apple.co/_Radio.

    The Story of Kendrick Lamar in 20 Songs

    Available on Apple Music and Apple News, “The Story of Kendrick Lamar in 20 Songs” offers a captivating glimpse into Kendrick’s remarkable ability to continually redefine the tropes and forms of classic hip-hop.

    Bonus Content from Shazam

    Fans who use the Shazam app to identify Kendrick Lamar songs throughout the week leading up to the performance can access the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show event page, where they’ll find bonus content like a custom Apple Watch face and iPhone wallpaper. They can also save the concert to receive timely reminders for the Set List playlist and photos from the show.

    Apple Music’s Biggest Offer Ever

    Those who are not yet subscribed can check out Apple Music’s biggest offer ever. For a limited time, new and eligible subscribers can get six months of Apple Music for $2.99.

    More to Explore Across Apple Services

    Across Apple services, fans can explore with Apple Maps Guides to New Orleans, catch up on the latest with Apple News, and get moving with a new Artist Spotlight series on Apple Fitness+.

    New Ways to Navigate New Orleans with Apple Maps
     Last week, Apple Maps unveiled new ways visitors and locals alike can explore New Orleans, including a Detailed City Experience and 3D landmarks that bring to life some of the city’s most iconic locations — including Cafe Du Monde, the Steamboat NATCHEZ, and Caesars Superdome — in a visually stunning view. The Detailed City Experience delivers amazing details to help users navigate the city, including road markings, land cover, and public transit routes.

    Apple Maps has also added a new Guide to its Hyperlocal series, this time curated by Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives. Lisa shares some of her favorite spots for food, music, and more in her hometown of New Orleans.

    All the Latest Updates on Apple News
    Starting today, Apple News will offer a dedicated hub that delivers special coverage of Super Bowl LIX. From media day to kickoff, fans will find the latest news on the game from local and national sports publishers like The Athletic, Sports Illustrated, The Kansas City Star, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

    NFL fans can also sign up for personalized news notifications to all of the week’s top football stories curated by the Apple News editors, and during the Super Bowl, the Apple News app will feature the latest highlights, as well as the buzziest commercials and halftime show.

    With the free Apple Sports app for iPhone,1 fans can follow the big game in real time right on their Lock Screen with Live Activities,2 and go deeper in-app with full play-by-play information, team stats, box scores, and live betting odds.

    A Special Fitness+ Artist Spotlight
    The Artist Spotlight series on Fitness+ dedicates entire workout playlists to a single artist, and the latest installment — available starting today — celebrates the music of Kendrick Lamar. This special series features Cycling, HIIT, Strength, Yoga, Pilates, and Kickboxing workouts, all set exclusively to his music.

    Supporting Education and Creativity in New Orleans

    Apple has long-standing community partnerships in New Orleans, with a focus on supporting education and creativity in the community. This includes working with the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music (EMCM) to expand access to youth music and technology education, helping Arts New Orleans provide opportunities for aspiring artists through their Young Artist Movement (YAM) program, and equipping students at Delgado Community College with the tools and resources to produce their own podcast about local culture and history. On Saturday, February 8, audiences around the world can tune in to the Super Bowl Host Committee Parade to see the Apple Music-sponsored float, designed on iPad by YAM artists and featuring the EMCM youth jazz ensemble.

    About Apple Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. Apple’s six software platforms — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, visionOS, and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, iCloud, and Apple TV+. Apple’s more than 150,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth and to leaving the world better than we found it.

    1. Available in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada.
    2. Live Activities require iOS 18 and watchOS 11 or later.

    Press Contacts

    Cat Franich

    Apple

    cfranich@apple.com

    Kimberly Mai

    Apple

    k_mai@apple.com

    Apple Media Helpline

    media.help@apple.com

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Freezing US foreign aid will result in humanitarian disaster News Feb 02, 2025

    Source: Doctors Without Borders –

    We are talking about countless refugees and other displaced persons, children threatened by malaria, and people who need HIV and tuberculosis treatment, whose care risks being stopped. Already we are hearing from local organizations who have closed their doors and are unsure when or if they will be able to reopen.

    The latest reports follow two weeks of partners trying to grapple with sweeping changes that imperil the delivery of humanitarian and health assistance to those who need it most around the world. The existing humanitarian waiver is insufficient and needs to be expanded to cover all necessary health and humanitarian programs. 

    We urge the US government to immediately resume funding of critical humanitarian and health aid, either through rescinding relevant orders freezing funding or expanding the current narrow humanitarian waiver to cover all necessary health and humanitarian programs.

    The broad halt in foreign assistance, coupled with limitations to and a lack of clarity around humanitarian waivers, has already resulted in the loss of lifesaving medical humanitarian aid and harmful impacts on patient communities. In the last week, MSF’s medical teams have witnessed confusion as clinics and other critical services previously supported by USAID were shut down without warning.

    MSF does not accept US government funding and our programs will not be directly affected. However, the massive role that the United States government plays in funding international aid cannot be rapidly filled by others.

    We urge the US government to halt the ad hoc waiver system and allow for all critical humanitarian and medical assistance to continue as the administration reviews its foreign assistance priorities.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Is there life out there? The existence of other technological species is highly likely

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Maikel Rheinstadter, Professor of Biophysics, McMaster University

    We live in a golden age for space exploration. Scientists are gathering massive amounts of new information and scientific evidence at a record pace. Yet the age-old question remains unanswered: are we alone?

    New telescope technologies, including space-based tools such as the James Webb Telescope, have enabled us to discover thousands of potentially habitable exoplanets that could support life similar to that on Earth.

    Gravitational wave detectors have opened a new avenue for space exploration by detecting space-time distortions caused by black holes and supernovae millions of light-years away.

    Commercial space ventures have further accelerated these advancements, leading to increasingly sophisticated spacecraft and reusable rockets, signifying a new era in space exploration.

    NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission successfully touched down on asteroid Bennu when it was 207 million miles away from Earth and brought back rock and dust samples.



    Read more:
    Bennu asteroid reveals its contents to scientists − and clues to how the building blocks of life on Earth may have been seeded

    Several countries have developed the ability to deploy robots on the moon and Mars, with plans to send humans to these celestial bodies in the future.

    A central driver of all these ambitious endeavours is still that fundamental question of whether life exists — or ever existed — elsewhere in the universe.

    The James Webb telescope was launched in 2021, and is the most powerful telescope ever sent into space.
    (Shutterstock)

    Defining life

    Defining life is surprisingly challenging. While we intuitively recognize living organisms as having life, a precise definition remains elusive. Dictionaries offer various descriptions, such as the ability to grow, reproduce and respond to stimuli.

    But even these definitions can be ambiguous.

    A more comprehensive definition considers life as a self-sustaining chemical system capable of processing information and maintaining a state of low entropy, with little disorder or randomness.

    Living things constantly require energy to sustain their molecular organization and maintain their highly organized structures and functions. Without this energy, life would quickly descend into chaos and disrepair. This definition encompasses the dynamic and complex nature of life, emphasizing its ability to adapt and evolve.

    Life on Earth, as we currently understand it, is based on the interplay of DNA, RNA and proteins. DNA serves as the blueprint of life, containing the genetic instructions necessary for an organism’s development, survival and reproduction. These instructions are converted into messages that guide the production of proteins, the workhorses of the cell that are responsible for a vast array of functions.

    This intricate system of DNA replication, protein synthesis and cellular processes — all based on long strings of molecules linked by carbon atoms — is fundamental to life on Earth. However, the universe may harbour life forms based on entirely different principles and biochemistries.

    An illustration of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, which uses an X-ray spectrometer to help search for signs of ancient microbial life in rocks.
    (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

    Something other than carbon

    Life elsewhere could use different elements as building blocks. Silicon, with its chemical similarities to carbon, has been proposed as a potential alternative.

    If they exist, silicon-based life forms may exhibit unique characteristics and adaptations. For instance, they might use silicon-based structures for support, analogous to bones or shells in carbon-based organisms.

    Even though silicon-based organisms have not yet been found on Earth, silicon plays an important role in many existing life forms. It is an important secondary component for many plants and animals, serving structural and functional roles. For example, diatoms, a type of algae found in the ocean, feature glassy cell walls made of transparent silicon dioxide.

    This doesn’t make diatoms silicon-based life forms, but it does prove silicon can indeed act as a building block of a living organism. But we still don’t know if silicon-based life forms exist at all, or what they would look like.



    Read more:
    Extraterrestrial life may look nothing like life on Earth − so astrobiologists are coming up with a framework to study how complex systems evolve

    The origins of life on Earth

    There are competing hypotheses on how life arose on Earth. One is that that life’s building blocks were delivered on or in meteorites. The other is that those building blocks came together spontaneously via geochemistry in our planet’s early environment.

    Meteorites have indeed been found to carry organic molecules, including amino acids, which are essential for life. It’s possible that organic molecules formed in deep space and were then brought to Earth by meteorites and asteroids.

    On the other hand, geochemical processes on early Earth, such as those occurring in warm little ponds or in hydrothermal vents deep in the ocean, could have also provided the necessary conditions and ingredients for life to emerge.

    However, no lab has yet been able to present a comprehensive, certain pathway to the formation of RNA, DNA and the first cellular life on Earth.

    Many biological molecules are chiral, meaning they exist in two forms that are mirror images of each other, like left and right hands. While both left- and right-handed molecules are typically naturally produced in equal amounts, recent analyses of meteorites have revealed a slight asymmetry, favouring the left-handed form by as much as 60 per cent.

    Chirality refers to the existence in nature of mirror images of the same thing.
    (Shutterstock)

    This asymmetry in space-derived organic molecules is also observed in all biomolecules on Earth (proteins, sugars, amino acids, RNA and DNA), suggesting it could have arisen from the slight imbalance delivered from space, supporting the theory that life on Earth is extraterrestrial in origin.

    Chances of life

    The slight imbalance in chirality observed in many organic molecules could be an indicator that life on Earth originated from the delivery of organic molecules by extraterrestrial life. We could well be descendants of life that originated elsewhere.

    The Drake equation, developed by astronomer Frank Drake in 1961, provides a framework for estimating the number of detectable civilizations within our galaxy.

    This equation incorporates factors such as the rate of star formation, the fraction of stars with planets, and calculates the fraction of those planets where intelligent life may emerge. An optimistic estimate using this formula suggests that 12,500 intelligent alien civilizations might exist in the Milky Way alone.

    The primary argument for extraterrestrial life remains probabilistic: considering the sheer number of stars and planets, it seems highly improbable that life wouldn’t have arisen elsewhere.

    The probability of humanity being the sole technological civilization in the observable universe is considered to be less than one in 10 billion trillion. Additionally, the chance of a civilization developing on any single habitable planet is better than one in 60 billion.

    With an estimated 200 billion trillion stars in the observable universe, the existence of other technological species is highly likely, potentially even within our Milky Way galaxy.

    Maikel Rheinstadter receives funding from the National Science and Engineering Council Canada (NSERC), the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Province of Ontario and McMaster University..

    – ref. Is there life out there? The existence of other technological species is highly likely – https://theconversation.com/is-there-life-out-there-the-existence-of-other-technological-species-is-highly-likely-248191

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI: Vantage Drilling International Ltd. – Settlement of management incentive awards

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Dubai, Feb. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Vantage Drilling International Ltd. (the “Company“) has today approved the settlement of certain restricted stock units (“RSUs“) pursuant to the Company’s Management Incentive Plan, including RSUs held by certain persons discharging managerial responsible/primary insiders (“PDMRs“) as further set out in the attached forms of notification.  

    This information is disclosed in accordance with article 19 of the EU Market Abuse Regulation and section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

    About the Company
    Vantage Drilling International Ltd., a Bermuda exempted company, is an offshore drilling contractor. Vantage Drilling’s primary business is to contract drilling units, related equipment and work crews primarily on a dayrate basis to drill oil and natural gas wells globally for major, national and independent oil and gas companies. Vantage Drilling also markets, operates and provides management services in respect of drilling units owned by others. For more information about the Company, please refer to the Company’s website, www.vantagedrilling.com  

    Attachment

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Rare portraits reveal the humanity of the slaves who revolted on the Amistad

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Kate McMahon, Historian of Global Slavery, Smithsonian Institution

    John Warner Barber’s ‘Death of Capt. Ferrer,’ 1839. Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

    On the night of July 1, 1839, 53 enslaved Africans revolted aboard the slaving schooner La Amistad – Spanish for “Friendship” – while they were being shipped to a plantation in Puerto Príncipe, Cuba.

    Kidnapped and trafficked from modern-day Sierra Leone to Havana on a larger vessel, they had been transferred to the smaller La Amistad to reach Puerto Príncipe.

    A 25-year-old man named Sengbe Pieh led the rebels, who suffered 10 fatalities in the fray. They still managed to kill the captain, Ramon Ferrer, and take control of the ship, ordering the surviving crew to return them to Sierra Leone. But the crew instead sailed the vessel north, where it was captured in Long Island Sound.

    With the rebels detained in Connecticut, their fate would be decided by the state’s legal system.

    A remarkable set of 22 drawings reveal the faces of these rebels, providing a rare glimpse into their humanity when they were affirming their right to live free.

    I served as the lead historian and researcher for an exhibition where three of these portraits are now on display, “In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World,” at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

    Few images exist

    In 1808, the United States, along with a host of other countries, banned the participation of its citizens in the transportation of enslaved people from Africa to the Americas. Nonetheless, at least 2.8 million Africans were brought to the Americas between 1808 and 1866, primarily to work on sugar plantations in Brazil and Cuba. Shippers, plantation owners, merchants and crews reaped massive profits.

    But historians know very little about the individuals aboard these slave ships. More often than not, their existence was reflected in numbers on ledgers and spreadsheets. Their birth names, birth dates, family histories – anything that would have humanized them – were hard to come by.

    Portraits of enslaved people from the 19th century were also unusual. Enslavers often viewed them as mere chattel and not worth the expense and effort of commissioning a painting. If they did appear in art, it was in the background as loyal servants, helpless victims or stereotypical brutes.

    Putting faces to the names

    That’s what makes these drawings, created by Connecticut artist William H. Townsend during the trial, so remarkable.

    ‘Fuli,’ by William H. Townsend.
    Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

    Historians don’t know exactly why Townsend decided to draw them, only that he lived locally and sat in the courtroom during the trial. In 1934, these portraits were donated to Yale University’s Beinecke Library by one of Townsend’s descendants.

    While his motivations for drawing these portraits remain unclear, the humanity he depicted is clear. The expressions of his subjects often evoke both their resistance and their desire for freedom.

    Fuli, one of several captives who had stolen water on board the vessel and had been ordered flogged by Captain Ferrer during the voyage, gazes at the viewer with a solemn, self-possessed air. It’s easy to imagine him as a leader steeled by all the suffering he experienced over the course of his journey.

    Marqu – or Margru – was one of the three young girls who were aboard the Amistad. In her portrait, she gently smiles – a glint of a personality that’s persevered despite the trauma of the voyage and her time spent in prison awaiting trial.

    Marqu, drawn by William H. Townsend, was one of three enslaved girls aboard the Amistad.
    Library of Congress

    Grabo – or Grabeau – was second-in-command to Pieh in the revolt. He was a rice planter and was married at the time of his capture, and was enslaved to repay a debt his family owed. In his portrait, he gazes with his eyebrows raised – inquisitive, proud and at ease.

    Lights of freedom

    Despite their different facial expressions, the three appear to be united in their collective determination to be agents in their own liberation. In Pieh’s words: “Brothers, we have done that which we purposed. … I am resolved it is better to die than to be a white man’s slave.”

    Grabo, second-in-command of the rebels aboard the Amistad, drawn by William H. Townsend.
    Library of Congress

    The lawyers hired by abolitionists to represent the 53 surviving rebels – Roger S. Baldwin, Theodore Sedgwick and Seth Staples – argued that they rebelled because “each of them are natives of Africa and were born free, and ever since have been and still of right are and ought to be free and not slaves.”

    Eventually, the case made it to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court found that because the captives aboard the Amistad were free at the time of their capture in Long Island, they could not be considered property of Spain.

    The verdict became a landmark case for litigating the illegal slave trade, which continued to expand over the next two decades until finally ending in the 1860s. The Amistad rebels inspired other captives: In 1841, as the American ship Creole traveled between Richmond, Virginia, and New Orleans, those on board revolted, wresting control of the ship and sailing it to the Bahamas, where they eventually gained their freedom.

    These portraits, like the testimony in court and the revolt onboard the Amistad, bring the massive, messy, contested story of slavery down to the scale of individual humans. Their visages call upon present and future generations to collectively imagine not only the horrors of the slave trade, but also the power of individual dignity and collective resistance.

    They light the darkness – in the 1840s and in the world today.

    Kate McMahon 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. Rare portraits reveal the humanity of the slaves who revolted on the Amistad – https://theconversation.com/rare-portraits-reveal-the-humanity-of-the-slaves-who-revolted-on-the-amistad-245133

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Drought can hit almost anywhere: How 5 cities that nearly ran dry got water use under control

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Sara Hughes, Adjunct Professor of Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan

    Las Vegas’ water supplier offers rebates to residents who tear out their grass lawns to save water. LPETTET/iStock/Getty Images Plus

    Water scarcity is often viewed as an issue for the arid American West, but the U.S. Northeast’s experience in 2024 shows how severe droughts can occur in just about any part of the country.

    Cities in the Northeast experienced record-breaking drought conditions in the second half of 2024 after a hot, dry summer in many areas. Wildfires broke out in several states that rarely see them.

    By December, much of the region was experiencing moderate to severe drought. Residents in New York City and Boston were asked to reduce their water use, while Philadelphia faced risk to its water supply due to saltwater coming up the Delaware River.

    Parts of the Northeastern U.S. were so dry in summer 2024 that several large wildfires burned in New Jersey, as well as in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and even in New York City.
    New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection via AP

    Before the drought, many people in the region weren’t prepared for water shortages or even paying much attention to their water use.

    As global temperatures rise, cities throughout the U.S. are more likely to experience hotter, drier conditions like this. Those conditions increase evaporation, drying out vegetation and soil and lowering groundwater tables.

    The Northeast drought was easing in much of the region in early 2025, but communities across the U.S. should take note of what happened. They can learn from the experiences of cities that have had to confront major water supply crises – such as Cape Town, South Africa; São Paulo, Brazil; Melbourne, Australia; Las Vegas; and New Orleans – and start planning now to avoid the worst impacts of future droughts.

    Lessons from cities that have seen the worst

    Our new analysis of these five cities’ experiences provides lessons on how to avoid a water supply crisis or minimize the effects through proactive policies and planning.

    Many cities have had to confront major water supply crises in recent years. Perhaps the most well-known example is Cape Town’s “Day Zero.”

    After three years of persistent drought in the region, Cape Town officials in fall 2017 began a countdown to Day Zero – the point at which water supplies would likely run so low that water would be turned off in neighborhoods and residents would need to fetch a daily allocation of water at public distribution points. Initially it was forecast to occur in April 2018.

    Residents in Cape Town, South Africa, line up to fill water jugs during a severe drought in 2018.
    AP Photo/Bram Janssen

    Water rates were raised, and some households installed flow restrictors, which would automatically limit the amount of water that could be used. Public awareness and conservation efforts cut water consumption in half, allowing the city to push back its estimate for when Day Zero would arrive. And when the rains finally came in summer 2018, Day Zero was canceled.

    A second example is São Paulo, which similarly experienced a severe drought between 2013 and 2015. The city’s reservoirs were reduced to just 5% of their capacity, and the water utility reduced the pressure in the water system to limit water use by residents.

    Water pricing adjustments were used to penalize high water users and reward water conservation, and a citywide campaign sought to increase awareness and encourage conservation. As in Cape Town, the crisis ended with heavy rains in 2016. Significant investments have since been made in upgrading the city’s water distribution infrastructure, preventing leaks and bringing water to the city from other river basins.

    Planning ahead can reduce the harm

    The experiences of Cape Town and São Paulo – and the other cities in our study – show how water supply crises can affect communities.

    When major changes are made to reduce water consumption, they can affect people’s daily lives and pocketbooks. Rapidly designed conservation efforts can have harmful effects on poor and vulnerable communities that may have fewer alternatives in the event of restrictions or shutoffs or lack the ability to pay higher prices for water, forcing tough choices for households between water and other necessities.

    Planning ahead allows for more thoughtful policy design.

    For example, Las Vegas has been grappling with drought conditions for the past two decades. During that time, the region implemented water-conservation policies that focus on incentivizing and even requiring reduced water consumption.

    Lake Mead, a huge reservoir on the Colorado River that Las Vegas relies on for water, reached record low levels in 2022.
    AP Photo/John Locher

    Since 2023, the Las Vegas Valley Water District has implemented water rates that encourage conservation and can vary with the availability of water supplies during droughts. In its first year alone, the policy saved 3 billion gallons of water and generated US$31 million in fees that can be used by programs to detect and repair leaks, among other conservation efforts. A state law now requires businesses and homeowner associations in the Las Vegas Valley to remove their decorative grass by the end of 2026.

    Since 2002, per capita water use in Las Vegas has dropped by an impressive 58%.

    Solutions and strategies for the future

    Most of the cities we studied incorporated a variety of approaches to building water security and drought-proofing their community – from publishing real-time dashboards showing water use and availability in Cape Town to investing in desalination in Melbourne.

    But we found the most important changes came from community members committing to and supporting efforts to conserve water and invest in water security, such as reducing lawn watering.

    There are also longer-term actions that can help drought-proof a community, such as fixing or replacing water- and energy-intensive fixtures and structures. This includes upgrading home appliances, such as showers, dishwashers and toilets, to be more water efficient and investing in native and drought-tolerant landscaping.

    Prioritizing green infrastructure, such as retention ponds and bioswales, that help absorb rain when it does fall and investing in water recycling can also diversify water supplies.

    Taking these steps now, ahead of the next drought, can prepare cities and lessen the pain.

    Michael Wilson is an employee of RAND, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization. This research was funded by the RAND Center for Climate and Energy Futures.

    Sara Hughes 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. Drought can hit almost anywhere: How 5 cities that nearly ran dry got water use under control – https://theconversation.com/drought-can-hit-almost-anywhere-how-5-cities-that-nearly-ran-dry-got-water-use-under-control-248760

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: 3 ways the Trump administration could reinvest in rural America’s future, starting with health care

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Randolph Hubach, Professor of Public Health, Purdue University

    Rural America can be idyllic, but many communities still need support. Mint Images via Getty Images

    Rural America faces many challenges that Congress and the federal government could help alleviate under the new Trump administration.

    Rural hospitals and their obstetrics wards have been closing at a rapid pace, leaving rural residents traveling farther for health care. Affordable housing is increasingly hard to find in rural communities, where pay is often lower and poverty higher than average. Land ownership is changing, leaving more communities with outsiders wielding influence over their local resources.

    As experts in rural health and policy at the Center for Rural and Migrant Health at Purdue University, we work with people across the United States to build resilient rural communities.

    Here are some ways we believe the Trump administration could work with Congress to boost these communities’ health and economies.

    1. Rural health care access

    One of the greatest challenges to rural health care is its vulnerability to shifts in policy and funding cuts because of rural areas’ high rates of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.

    About 25% of rural residents rely on Medicaid, a federal program that provides health insurance for low-income residents. A disproportionate share of Medicare beneficiaries – people over 65 who receive federal health coverage – also live in rural areas. At the same time, the average health of rural residents lags the nation as a whole.

    Rural clinics and hospitals

    Funding from those federal programs affects rural hospitals, and rural hospitals are struggling.

    Nearly half of rural hospitals operate in the red today, and over 170 rural hospitals have closed since 2010. The low population density of rural areas can make it difficult for hospitals to cover operating costs when their patient volume is low. These hospital closures have left rural residents traveling an extra 20 miles (32 km) on average to receive inpatient health care services and an extra 40 miles (64 km) for specialty care services.

    The government has created programs to try to help keep hospitals operating, but they all require funding that is at risk. For example:

    • The Low-volume Hospital Adjustment Act, first implemented in 2005, has helped numerous rural hospitals by boosting their Medicare payments per patient, but it faces regular threats of funding cuts. It and several other programs to support Medicare-dependent hospitals are set to expire on March 31, 2025, when the next federal budget is due.

    • The rural emergency hospital model, created in 2020, helps qualifying rural facilities to maintain access to essential emergency and outpatient hospital services, also by providing higher Medicare payments. Thus far, only 30 rural hospitals have transitioned to this model, in part because they would have to eliminate inpatient care services, which also limits outpatient surgery and other medical services that could require overnight care in the event of an emergency.

    Rural emergency hospitals can get extra funding, but there’s a catch: They have no inpatient beds, so people in need of longer care must go farther.
    AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

    Services for pregnant women have also gotten harder to find in rural areas.

    Between 2011 and 2021, 267 rural hospitals discontinued obstetric services, representing 25% of the United States’ rural obstetrics units. In response, the federal government has implemented various initiatives to enhance access to care, such as the Rural Hospital Stabilization Pilot Program and the Rural Maternal and Obstetric Management Strategies Program. However, these programs also require funding.

    Expanding telehealth

    Before the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth – the ability to meet with your doctor over video – wasn’t widely used. It could be difficult for doctors to ensure reimbursement, and the logistics of meeting federal requirements and privacy rules could be challenging.

    The pandemic changed that. Improving technology allowed telehealth to quickly expand, reducing people’s contact with sick patients, and the government issued waivers for Medicare and Medicaid to pay for telehealth treatment. That opened up new opportunities for rural patients to get health care and opportunities for providers to reach more patients.

    However, the Medicare and Medicaid waivers for most telehealth services were only temporary. Only payments for mental and behavioral health teleheath services continued, and those are set to expire with the federal budget in March 2025, unless they are renewed.

    One way to expand rural health care would be to make those waivers permanent.

    Increasing access to telehealth could also support people struggling with opioid addiction and other substance use disorders, which have been on the rise in rural areas.

    2. Affordable housing is a rural problem too

    Like their urban peers, rural communities face a shortage of affordable housing.

    Unemployment in rural areas today exceeds levels before the COVID-19 pandemic. Job growth and median incomes lag behind urban areas, and rural poverty rates are higher.

    Rural housing prices have been exacerbated by continued population growth over the past four years, lower incomes compared with their urban peers, limited employment opportunities and few high-quality homes available for rent or sale. Rural communities often have aging homes built upon outdated or inadequate infrastructure, such as deteriorating sewer and water lines.

    Rental homes in older towns can become run down. Community maintenance of pipes and other services also requires funding.
    LawrenceSawyer/E+ via Getty Images

    One proposal to help people looking for affordable rural housing is the bipartisan Neighborhood Homes Investment Act, which calls for creating a new federal tax credit to spur the development and renovation of family housing in distressed urban, suburban and rural neighborhoods.

    Similarly, the Section 502 Direct Loan Program through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which subsidizes mortgages for low-income applicants to obtain safe housing, could be expanded with additional funding to enable more people to receive subsidized mortgages.

    3. Locally owned land benefits communities

    Seniors age 65 and older own 40% of the agricultural land in the U.S., according to the American Farmland Trust. That means that more than 360 million acres of farmland could be transferred to new owners in the next few decades. If their heirs aren’t interested in farming, that land could be sold to large operations or real estate developers.

    That affects rural communities because locally owned rural businesses tend to invest in their communities, and they are more likely to make decisions that benefit the community’s well-being.

    A farmer carries organic squash during harvest. Young farmers often struggle to find land to expand their operations.
    Thomas Barwick/Stone via Getty Images

    Congress can take some steps to help communities keep more farmland locally owned.

    The proposed Farm Transitions Act, for example, would establish a commission on farm transitions to study issues that affect locally owned farms and provide recommendations to help transition agricultural operations to the next generation of farmers and ranchers.

    About 30% of farmers have been in business for less than 10 years, and many of them rent the land they farm. Programs such as USDA’s farm loan programs and the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program help support local land purchases and could be improved to identify and eliminate barriers that communities face.

    We believe that by addressing these issues, Congress and the new administration can help some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens. Efforts to build resilient and strong rural communities will benefit everyone.

    Randolph Hubach receives funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Health Resources and Services Administration.

    Cody Mullen receives funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration. He is affiliated with the National Rural Health Association.

    – ref. 3 ways the Trump administration could reinvest in rural America’s future, starting with health care – https://theconversation.com/3-ways-the-trump-administration-could-reinvest-in-rural-americas-future-starting-with-health-care-245451

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump’s tariff threats fit a growing global phenomenon: hardball migration diplomacy

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Nicholas R. Micinski, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, University of Maine

    View at the entrance of the United States Embassy taken in Bogota, Colombia Pablo Vera/AFP via Getty Images

    As diplomatic spats go, it was short-lived.

    On Jan 26, 2025, Colombian President Gustavo Petro turned away American military planes carrying people being deported from the United States. In response, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened 25% tariffs and travel bans on Colombian government officials. Despite insisting that “the U.S. cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals” and needed to “establish a protocol for the dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them,” Petro’s government backed down and resumed cooperation with U.S. immigration officials.

    All this took place in the span of just a few hours. But “migration diplomacy” – the use of diplomatic tools and threats to control the number and flow of migrants – isn’t new. Indeed, it was a feature of Trump’s first administration. And it is not unique to Trump; it has been in the foreign policy playbook of previous U.S. presidents as well as the European Union and governments around the world.

    As an expert on migration policy and international affairs, I have observed the evolution of this global trend, in which nations leverage migration policies for geopolitical ends.

    Richer countries with increasingly populist, nationalist bases are putting in place anti-migrant policies. But these same nations depend on poorer countries to accept deportations and host the majority of the world’s refugees – governments can’t unilaterally “dump” deported immigrants back into the home country, or in a third country.

    And while migration diplomacy can be cooperative, there’s always the possibility a disagreement will spiral into diplomatic spats or outright conflict.

    Threats to control migration

    Migration diplomacy is a relatively recent academic term. But the practice of using foreign policy tools to control migration is centuries old. Common tools of migrant diplomacy fall between the “carrots” of bilateral treaties, development aid and infrastructure investment, and the “sticks” of tariffs, travel bans and sanctions.

    Trump, during his first term, focused more on the sticks, frequently threatening tariffs or cuts in aid to push through deals on migration. For example, in 2018, Trump posted on Twitter that if Honduras and other Central American governments did not stop migrant caravans to the U.S., he would cut all aid: “no more money or aid will be given … effective immediately!”

    A few months later, Trump followed through with the threat, suspending US$400 million in aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

    Trump then upped the ante, posting: “Now we are looking at the ‘BAN,’ … Tariffs, Remittance Fees, or all of the above. Guatemala has not been good.”

    Within three days, Guatemala signed a deal with the U.S. to cooperate on asylum and deportations. Honduras and El Salvador followed suit two months later.

    Similarly, in 2019, Trump threatened Mexico that the U.S. would impose a 5% tariff on goods “until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP.”

    Within 11 days, Mexico signed the Migrant Protection Protocols, known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, institutionalizing what human rights groups called “illegal pushbacks” that put people at risk of torture, sexual violence and death.

    Imposing visa restrictions

    Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the U.S. government can stop granting visas to any country that “denies or unreasonably delays accepting an alien who is a citizen.”

    And during his first term, Trump imposed visa restrictions on people from Cambodia, Eritrea, Ghana, Guinea, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan and Sierra Leone because those countries were deemed to be not cooperating with deportations.

    Such visa restrictions worked with Guinea and Ghana, which both began accepting deportations of their citizens from the U.S.

    Migration as diplomatic weapon

    Nations also use migration policy as tools to push other foreign policy goals not necessarily related to migration. As political scientist Kelly Greenhill explored in her book “Weapons of Mass Migration,” governments are using coercive engineered migration to create pressure against other rival nations. This was seen in 2021 when Belarus bused asylum seekers to the Polish border in an apparent effort to overwhelm the EU’s asylum system.

    Migrants at the Belarusian-Polish border in 2021.
    Leonid Shcheglov/BELTA/AFP via Getty Images

    Similarly, Trump used migration policies to bully other nations into cooperating with the United States. The “Muslim ban” of his first administration – rebranded in later iterations as travel bans – banned entry of citizens from Chad, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. While the first executive order pertaining to the ban was immediately criticized as Islamophobic, the administration changed legal reasoning in front of the Supreme Court, arguing that the ban stemmed from nations not sharing information about potential terrorists and due to their passports being vulnerable to fraud.

    The travel bans were an attempt to coerce nations into sharing information with the U.S. and enforcing U.S. standards of identity documents. Indeed, Chad was later removed from the ban when it adopted these standards.

    The use of migration diplomacy by the U.S. government predates Trump. Tit-for-tat restrictions on travel were common throughout the Cold War. In 2001, President George W. Bush applied visa sanctions to Guyana when its government refused to cooperate on deportations. In 2016, President Barack Obama also applied retaliatory visa restrictions on Gambia for failing to accept U.S. deportation flights.

    Conditional aid from EU

    The European Union tends to use carrots rather than sticks to encourage cooperation on deportations. For example, a 2016 EU-Turkey deal provided 6 billion euros (US$6.25 million) in aid for refugees in Turkey in exchange for accepting the deportation of what the EU describes as “irregular migrants.” In 2023, the EU also struck a 105 million euro ($109 million) deal with Tunisia in return for the North African country’s cooperation on preventing irregular migration.

    But like Trump, the EU is not opposed to punishing states for refusing to cooperate on deportations. In April 2024, the EU tightened rules on visas for Ethiopians because their government refused to accept the return of citizens who had asylum claims denied. Earlier, the EU suspended 15 million euros ($15.6 million) in development aid to Ethiopia on similar grounds.

    Migration interdependence

    Trump’s threats and EU migration deals reveal a type of migration interdependence: Rich states in the Global North don’t want to host large numbers of migrants and refugees and need willing partners in the Global South to accept deportations, enforce emigration restrictions and continue hosting the majority of the world’s refugees.

    This interdependence is typically balanced by rich countries footing the bill and poor countries accepting deportations. But migration diplomacy is also used by less powerful nations aware of the opportunity of exacting concessions out of countries, blocs or international bodies. For example, the Kenyan government repeatedly threatened to close the Dadaab refugee camp and expel all Somali refugees unless it received more international aid. Similarly, Pakistan threatened to deport Afghan refugees unless the international community did more, but backed down after significant increases in aid.

    Rwanda extracted around $310 million from the British government without resettling a single person after a 2022 plan aimed at deterring asylum seekers to the U.K. by deporting them to Rwanda – where their cases would be reviewed and eventually settled – was blocked by the European Court of Human Rights and the U.K.’s Supreme Court.

    Similarly, the small South Pacific island nation of Nauru was paid more than $118 million with the aim of hosting all asylum seekers to Australia. The policy broke down after reports of abysmal conditions in Nauru’s detention facilities.

    While migration diplomacy does work both ways, richer countries by and large have the upper hand. And Trump’s threats against Colombia – and others – are just one example of this hardball migration diplomacy.

    Nicholas R. Micinski 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. Trump’s tariff threats fit a growing global phenomenon: hardball migration diplomacy – https://theconversation.com/trumps-tariff-threats-fit-a-growing-global-phenomenon-hardball-migration-diplomacy-248380

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump’s Project 2025 agenda caps decades-long resistance to 20th century progressive reform

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Colin Gordon, Professor of History, University of Iowa

    There has long been a tug-of-war over White House plans to make government more liberal or more conservative. Douglas Rissing/iStock / Getty Images Plus

    For much of the 20th century, efforts to remake government were driven by a progressive desire to make the government work for regular Americans, including the New Deal and the Great Society reforms.

    But they also met a conservative backlash seeking to rein back government as a source of security for working Americans and realign it with the interests of private business. That backlash is the central thread of the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” blueprint for a second Trump Administration.

    Alternatively disavowed and embraced by President Donald Trump during his 2024 campaign, Project 2025 is a collection of conservative policy proposals – many written by veterans of his first administration. It echoes similar projects, both liberal and conservative, setting out a bold agenda for a new administration.

    But Project 2025 does so with particular detail and urgency, hoping to galvanize dramatic change before the midterm elections in 2026. As its foreword warns: “Conservatives have just two years and one shot to get this right.”

    The standard for a transformational “100 days” – a much-used reference point for evaluating an administration – belongs to the first administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

    President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Bill in Washington on Aug. 14, 1935.
    AP Photo, file

    Social reforms and FDR

    In 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression, Roosevelt faced a nation in which business activity had stalled, nearly a third of the workforce was unemployed, and economic misery and unrest were widespread.

    But Roosevelt’s so-called “New Deal” unfolded less as a grand plan to combat the Depression than as a scramble of policy experimentation.

    Roosevelt did not campaign on what would become the New Deal’s singular achievements, which included expansive relief programs, subsidies for farmers, financial reforms, the Social Security system, the minimum wage and federal protection of workers’ rights.

    Those achievements came haltingly after two years of frustrated or ineffective policymaking. And those achievements rested less on Roosevelt’s political vision than on the political mobilization and demands made by American workers.

    A generation later, another wave of social reforms unfolded in similar fashion. This time it was not general economic misery that spurred actions, but the persistence of inequality – especially racial inequality – in an otherwise prosperous time.

    LBJ’s Great Society

    President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society programs declared a war on poverty and, toward that end, introduced a raft of new federal initiatives in urban, education and civil rights.

    These included the provision of medical care for the poor and older people via Medicaid and Medicare, a dramatic expansion of federal aid for K-12 education, and landmark voting rights and civil rights legislation.

    As with the New Deal, the substance of these policies rested less with national policy designs than with the aspirations and mobilization of the era’s social movements.

    Resistance to policy change

    Since the 1930s, conservative policy agendas have largely taken the form of reactions to the New Deal and the Great Society.

    The central message has routinely been that “big government” has overstepped its bounds and trampled individual rights, and that the architects of those reforms are not just misguided but treasonous. Project 2025, in this respect, promises not just a political right turn but to “defeat the anti-American left.”

    After the 1946 midterm elections, congressional Republicans struck back at the New Deal. Drawing on business opposition to the New Deal, popular discontent with postwar inflation, and common cause with Southern Democrats, they stemmed efforts to expand the New Deal, gutting a full employment proposal and defeating national health insurance.

    They struck back at organized labor with the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, which undercut federal law by allowing states to pass anti-union “right to work” laws. And they launched an infamous anti-communist purge of the civil service, which forced nearly 15,000 people out of government jobs.

    In 1971, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce commissioned Lewis Powell – who would be appointed by Republican President Richard Nixon to the Supreme Court the next year – to assess the political landscape. Powell’s memorandum characterized the political climate at the dawn of the 1970s – including both Great Society programs and the anti-war and Civil Rights movements of the 1960s – as nothing less than an “attack on the free enterprise system.”

    In a preview of current U.S. politics, Powell’s memorandum devoted special attention to a disquieting “chorus of criticism” coming from “the perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians.”

    Powell characterized the social policies of the New Deal and Great Society as “socialism or some sort of statism” and advocated the elevation of business interests and business priorities to the center of American political life.

    A copy of Project 2025 is held during the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago.
    AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

    Building a conservative infrastructure

    Powell captured the conservative zeitgeist at the onset of what would become a long and decisive right turn in American politics. More importantly, it helped galvanize the creation of a conservative infrastructure – in the courts, in the policy world, in universities and in the media – to push back against that “chorus of criticism.”

    This political shift would yield an array of organizations and initiatives, including the political mobilization of business, best represented by the emergence of the Koch brothers and the powerful libertarian conservative political advocacy group they founded, known as Americans for Prosperity. It also yielded a new wave of conservative voices on radio and television and a raft of right-wing policy shops and think tanks – including the Heritage Foundation, creator of Project 2025.

    In national politics, the conservative resurgence achieved full expression in President Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign. The “Reagan Revolution” united economic and social conservatives around the central goal of dismantling what was left of the New Deal and Great Society.

    Powell’s triumph was evident across the policy landscape. Reagan gutted social programs, declared war on organized labor, pared back economic and social regulations – or declined to enforce them – and slashed taxes on business and the wealthy.

    Publicly, the Reagan administration argued that tax cuts would pay for themselves, with the lower rates offset by economic growth. Privately, it didn’t matter: Either growth would sustain revenues, or the resulting budgetary hole could be used to “starve the beast” and justify further program cuts.

    Reagan’s vision, and its shaky fiscal logic, were reasserted in the “Contract with America” proposed by congressional Republicans after their gains in the 1994 midterm elections.

    This declaration of principles proposed deep cuts to social programs alongside tax breaks for business. It was perhaps most notable for encouraging the Clinton administration to pass the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996, “ending welfare as we know it,” as Clinton promised.

    Aiming at the ‘deep state’

    Project 2025, the latest in this series of blueprints for dramatic change, draws most deeply on two of those plans.

    As in the congressional purges of 1940s, it takes aim not just at policy but at the civil servants – Trump’s “deep state” – who administer it.

    In the wake of World War II, the charge was that feckless bureaucrats served Soviet masters. Today, Project 2025 aims to “bring the Administrative State to heel, and in the process defang and defund the woke culture warriors who have infiltrated every last institution in America.”

    As in the 1971 Powell memorandum, Project 2025 promises to mobilize business power; to “champion the dynamic genius of free enterprise against the grim miseries of elite-directed socialism.”

    Whatever their source – party platforms, congressional bomb-throwers, think tanks, private interests – the success or failure of these blueprints rested not on their vision or popular appeal but on the political power that accompanied them. The New Deal and Great Society gained momentum and meaning from the social movements that shaped their agendas and held them to account.

    The lineage of conservative responses has been largely an assertion of business power. Whatever populist trappings the second Trump administration may possess, the bottom line of the conservative cultural and political agenda in 2025 is to dismantle what is left of the New Deal or the Great Society, and to defend unfettered “free enterprise” against critics and alternatives.

    Colin Gordon receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, and the Russell Sage Foundation.

    – ref. Trump’s Project 2025 agenda caps decades-long resistance to 20th century progressive reform – https://theconversation.com/trumps-project-2025-agenda-caps-decades-long-resistance-to-20th-century-progressive-reform-247176

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Your environment affects how well your medications work − identifying exactly how could make medicine better

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Gary W. Miller, Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

    Even the air you breathe may influence how effective a drug may be for you. Jorg Greuel/Photodisc via Getty Images

    Your genes play a major role in determining your height, hair and eye color, and skin tone, but they don’t tell the entire story of who you are. Your environment is incredibly important in shaping your personality, your likes and dislikes, and your health. In fact, your diet, social interactions, exposure to pollution, physical activity and education often exceed the influence of genetics on many of the features that define you.

    Figuring out how your genes and environment increase your likelihood of developing asthma, heart disease, cancer, dementia and other conditions can have life-changing consequences. The field of genomics has made it relatively straightforward to test both in the hospital and at home for a wide range of genetic variations linked to disease risk.

    And in recent years, science has been making progress on tracking down the environmental culprits that drive risk for several diseases – and on identifying ways to optimize treatments based on your personal environmental exposures.

    Prescribing the most effective treatment from the get-go can reduce harmful drug reactions.
    Willie B. Thomas/DigitalVision via Getty Images

    My work as a pharmacologist and toxicologist has led me to the emerging science of exposomics – the study of all of the physical, chemical, biological and social factors that affect your biology. While your genome comprises all of the genes that encode your biology, your exposome is a concept that comprises all your environmental exposures. Like how researchers use DNA sequencers to study genomics, scientists in exposomics use chemistry and high-tech sensors to measure the effects of thousands of environmental factors on health.

    Medications don’t always work

    For many people, standard drug therapies to treat certain conditions simply don’t work. Controlling blood pressure often requires months of trial and error. It can take months or even years to identify an adequate treatment plan for depression.

    Adverse events caused by medications account for more than 1 million visits to emergency departments each year in the U.S. What drives these differences in drug effects between patients? Is it their genes? Are they not taking their medication as prescribed due to side effects? Or something else?

    As it turns out, your environment can have a major effect on how well specific treatments work for you. Think about the warning labels advising you not to drink grapefruit juice while taking a specific drug, for example. This is because a natural chemical in grapefruit inhibits the enzymes that break down those medications. Some common statins used to control high cholesterol can build up to toxic levels because the chemical in grapefruit juice blocks its normal processing.

    Grapefruit isn’t the only environmental factor affecting how you respond to your medications. Over 8,600 chemicals are used in commerce in the U.S., and you are exposed to thousands of these chemicals on a daily basis. It is more likely than not that many of these chemicals can interact with the drugs you take.

    Your exposome encompasses a wide range of factors.
    Nathalie Ruaux/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

    Some of the chemicals we use to keep fleas and ticks off pets can actually increase the levels of the same enzyme blocked by grapefruit juice, meaning a statin may be broken down so fast that it doesn’t control elevated cholesterol.

    Byproducts from the combustion of organic matter, such as engine exhaust and burning wood, can also interfere with drug-metabolizing enzymes. Some of these chemicals, called polyaromatic hydrocarbons, can inactivate medications used to treat asthma. The environmental factor triggering your asthma could prevent the drugs used to treat it from working.

    A chemical solution?

    Advances in chemistry are helping researchers figure out what chemicals are getting in the way of treatment.

    Your hospital laboratory can already measure dozens of molecules in your blood. Measuring your salt levels can tell doctors how your kidneys are working, cholesterol levels indicate your risk of heart disease, and specific enzymes reveal your liver’s health. These common tests are routine and useful for nearly every patient.

    There are many additional tests that can help determine how a specific condition is progressing or responding to therapy. Hemoglobin A1c levels help determine how well glucose levels are being controlled in those with prediabetes or diabetes. And thousands of other human diseases have their own corresponding biomarkers.

    In research laboratories, scientists can detect the presence of thousands of molecules at once using instruments called mass spectrometers. Each chemical in a sample has a unique mass, and these devices measure these masses for scientists to categorize. Thus, scientists can identify all of the pesticides, plasticizers, plastics, pollution and other chemicals present in a given sample. They can also measure your own internal biology, such as the compounds involved in processing the food you eat and the hormones influencing how you behave.

    Moreover, mass spectrometers can measure drug metabolites. When you take a drug, it is typically broken down or metabolized to several different compounds. Some of these compounds contribute to the drug’s effects, while others are inactive. Analyzing what metabolites are present in your body provides information about how you process drugs and whether the drugs you’re taking will interact with each other.

    Taking all these factors together, scientists can study how your environment may be interfering with the effectiveness of your medications.

    A better prescription – for you

    Together with dozens of scientists across many institutions, my colleagues and I are developing methods to measure all of the chemicals in your body. The project, dubbed IndiPHARM – short for individualized pharmacology – is designing tools to measure a wide range of drugs, drug metabolites and environmental chemicals at the same time.

    By combining environmental data with genetic information, we hope to improve how drugs work in people by figuring out whether chemicals in their environment or diet are altering how they process a given drug. This includes whether the administered drugs are at therapeutic levels, how the drugs and chemicals are interacting with each other, and determining whether other variables are affecting intended drug effects. This could lead to changing the amount of drug prescribed, switching to a different medication or even redesigning the medicines themselves.

    Our team is starting with identifying the environmental and biological factors associated with metabolic diseases, including obesity and diabetes, along with common co-occurring conditions such as hypertension, high cholesterol and depression. For example, there are significant differences in how well people respond to anti-obesity or anti-diabetes drugs, and we hope to figure out why that is so all patients can benefit through tailored treatment.

    Getting the right drug to the right person at the right time requires a better understanding of the environmental factors that influence how they work. We envision a future where a doctor can use your genetic and environmental history to figure out the best drug treatment that would work for you from the start, reducing the need for trial and error.

    Gary W. Miller receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Advanced Research Project Agency for Health, the Department of Defense, Cancer Research UK, and the European Commission. He is co-founder of Exposome Therapeutics.

    – ref. Your environment affects how well your medications work − identifying exactly how could make medicine better – https://theconversation.com/your-environment-affects-how-well-your-medications-work-identifying-exactly-how-could-make-medicine-better-246476

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Where does black fall on the color spectrum? A color scientist explains

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Michael J. Murdoch, Associate Professor of Color Science, Rochester Institute of Technology

    You perceive electromagnetic radiation in the form of light in all the colors of the rainbow. MirageC/Movement via Getty Images

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

    Where does black fall on the color spectrum? – Utsav, age 17, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

    People love the rainbow of ROYGBIV colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Human eyes perceive visible light as this array of colors.

    You may notice that some colors you can perceive aren’t part of the classic rainbow, though. Where is black, for example?

    I’m an associate professor of color science, a field that combines physics and perception. Color scientists are interested in learning more about human vision and applying that knowledge to make color systems – such as in cameras, screens or lighting systems – work better.

    To understand where black falls on the color spectrum, first consider what light actually is.

    Light is radiation visible to the human eye

    Light is energy called electromagnetic radiation. It’s made up of a stream of energy particles called photons.

    Each photon has its own energy level. There are two characteristics you can use to describe a photon. Its frequency is how fast it vibrates back and forth – or oscillates – as it travels. And its wavelength is the distance between those oscillations in space.

    Light is made up of photons traveling as waves through space.
    DrSciComm via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

    As photons with wavelengths within a range of about 400–700 nanometers stream into your eyes, your brain perceives them as light. Scientists call these photons visible radiation. You perceive photons with different wavelengths as different colors.

    Photons outside that range of wavelengths are invisible to human eyes. Shorter wavelength energy includes ultraviolet, X-ray and gamma radiation, while longer wavelength energy includes infrared and radio waves.

    The human eye can perceive only a small range of wavelengths of radiation.
    Ali Damouh/Science Photo Library via Getty Images

    Shades and intensities

    Color perception is also affected by the quantity of photons – what physicists call the power – at different visible wavelengths. More photons means more powerful light, which looks brighter. A very vivid color consists mostly of photons of similar wavelength. For example, a pure red may consist of photons that all share the same wavelength near 620 nanometers.

    A stream of photons with a wider range of wavelengths will appear as a paler, less saturated color. White light, such as natural daylight, consists of photons with wavelengths spread fairly evenly across a wide range of the visible spectrum. LEDs and other electric light sources are not quite as uniform across the spectrum, but they still appear white or achromatic, meaning without color.

    Mixtures of wavelengths combine and appear as new colors. The human visual system interprets pure red light and pure green light combined as yellow. Add in pure blue, and this mix of radiation appears white. Scientists and engineers take advantage of this quality in display devices, which are able to create a huge range of perceived colors by mixing the primary colors red, green and blue.

    Black on the color spectrum

    While there’s no black in a rainbow, photons anywhere in the electromagnetic spectrum can be seen as black. Or in some cases, they can’t be seen at all!

    Radiation within the visible spectrum can appear black if it is low in power – more specifically, lower in power than its surroundings.

    Additionally, radiation outside the visible range of wavelengths appears black to our eyes. For example, infrared radiation appears black because it is invisible to humans.

    Perception is subjective

    Our eyes detect the wavelength and power of the light, but our brains interpret it. So color perception always depends on the context.

    People are good at adapting to a wide range of light levels, from sunlight to starlight. So our perception of color and brightness depends on what’s around and what we’ve been looking at recently. If you step from outdoor daylight into a dark theater, at first you probably perceive the whole environment as black, and you may even have trouble finding your way.

    However, your visual system immediately begins to adapt to the low light level. Soon, visual details begin to emerge. What appeared black now has different levels of lightness and color.

    Color perception depends on the surrounding environment.
    Michael J. Murdoch

    Consider the optical illusion that consists of a light rectangle next to a dark rectangle. Each rectangle contains a circle. The circles appear to be different shades but in fact are identical. Against the light background, the circle is dark enough to appear black. Surrounded by the black background, it becomes clear that the circle is merely dark gray. Even when you know the circles are the same, it’s hard to believe because the effect of the surrounding background is so strong.

    In a smooth gradient from gray to black, where does black begin?
    Michael J. Murdoch

    You might be asking yourself, how dark must a color be to appear black? Another way to ask the question is, how low in power must the physical light be in order to look black?

    For a visual answer, look at a gradient from dark gray to black. Where in the gradient is the boundary, or threshold, at which you call it black? What if you dim your display or view the screen in a much brighter or much darker environment? Probably the best answer for how dark it must be is, “It depends.”

    Color perception is a fascinating topic, and we color scientists are continuing to uncover details of how the human visual system works while also applying our knowledge to many other useful things, including dyes, cameras, printers, LED lighting systems and AR/VR displays.

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

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

    Michael Murdoch is a member and former board member of the Inter-Society Color Council, part of the Color Literacy Project.

    – ref. Where does black fall on the color spectrum? A color scientist explains – https://theconversation.com/where-does-black-fall-on-the-color-spectrum-a-color-scientist-explains-234540

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Fossil shark teeth are abundant and can date the past in a unique way

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Stephanie Killingsworth, Ph.D. Student in Geological Sciences, University of Florida

    A paleontologist holds a megalodon fossil tooth. Kristen Grace/FLMNH, CC BY-SA

    The ratios of strontium isotopes in fossil shark teeth can be used to better understand how coastal environments evolved in ancient times, according to our newly published work.

    As paleontologists with the Florida Museum of Natural History, we’re interested in understanding ancient Florida environments.

    Our study was one of the first to date Florida coastal deposits using fossil shark teeth and a technique that looks at variations in ocean strontium. Strontium is a chemical element that occurs naturally in rock, soil and water.

    Ocean strontium values change over time, which makes measuring the levels of the chemical element a unique global system for determining the age of similar coastal sedimentary rock deposits worldwide.

    Changes in strontium isotope ratios have multiple causes. Land erosion deposits strontium into oceans, while carbonate-producing marine life produce and release strontium when building their skeletons. Strontium is also released by deep-sea vents.

    Geochemist Donald DePaolo and geologist B. Lynn Ingram discovered variations in ocean strontium by examining strontium isotopes ratios in marine sediments, including fossils. The levels of strontium isotopes in marine sediments provide a “time stamp” that correlates to the strontium value of the seawater at that time.

    That data allowed scientists to map out ratios of strontium isotopes in seawater over time. This global strontium seawater curve correlates to the geologic timescale. Scientists use the curve to reconstruct past ocean chemistry and climate conditions, as well as the age of mollusks and other shell-producing marine fossils.

    Why it matters

    Properly dating ancient sites is key to understanding how Earth and its living creatures evolved over time.

    But historically, strontium dating, while reliable, had limitations.

    For example, it works best in fully marine environments and is challenging to use in fossil sites along coastlines. That’s because the strontium values might be influenced by land sediments and freshwater rivers.

    Additionally, material used for strontium dating must not have undergone considerable physical and chemical change during fossilization, the preservation of once living things from the past. Any major chemical alteration to the fossil can affect the strontium value and give an inaccurate date.

    Our study shows that fossil shark teeth are more resistant to these types of changes due to their outer enamel-like surface.

    Remarkably, fossil shark teeth are also incredibly abundant. Sharks ruled the earth’s oceans for 400 million years, and every individual grows and sheds thousands of teeth in their lifetime.

    How we did our work

    Florida fossil sites are unique in that they possess some of the richest fossil sediments for important times in geologic history. These sites can help us understand changing climates, vegetation and sea levels over time.

    The Florida Museum of Natural History has a collection of over 115,000 shark tooth specimens from Florida alone.

    To do our study, we selected shark tooth specimens from two significant Neogene-period fossil sites in Florida. The Neogene, from 2.6 to 23.5 million years ago, was a time of immense change in biodiversity because of changing climates.

    We analyzed the strontium present in powdered samples collected by shaving a thin layer from the surfaces of the teeth. The age of the teeth helped to clarify the age of the fossil sites where they were collected. This data enabled us to calibrate and differentiate the ages of our two sites, Montbrook and Palmetto Fauna Bone Valley, by about 600,000 years.

    Before our study, scientists could estimate the age of the sites based only on mammal fossils. The sites were thought to be the same age. Our work provides a more precise date.

    These ages offer new insights into what happened in the southeastern region of North America, some 5 million to 6 million years ago. Our revised age calibrations coincide with global events, including major sea-level fluctuations and the Great American Biotic Interchange – the migration of land mammals between North and South America after the formation of the Isthmus of Panama 4 million to 5 million years ago.

    For example, because certain species of ground sloths are not found at the Montbrook site (5.85 million years old) but are found at the Palmetto Fauna Bone Valley site (5.22 million years old), it suggests the immigration of ground sloths into North America occurred between these two dates.

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

    Bruce J. MacFadden receives funding from the National Science Foundation.

    Stephanie Killingsworth 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. Fossil shark teeth are abundant and can date the past in a unique way – https://theconversation.com/fossil-shark-teeth-are-abundant-and-can-date-the-past-in-a-unique-way-247749

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: SBA Offers Relief to Mississippi Businesses, Nonprofits and Residents Hit by December Storms

    Source: United States Small Business Administration

    WASHINGTON – The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced that low interest federal disaster loans are now available to Mississippi businesses, nonprofit organizations, and residents who sustained physical damages and economic losses from the severe storms and tornadoes that occurred Dec. 28 – 29, 2024. The SBA issued a disaster declaration in response to a request received from Gov. Tate Reeves on Jan. 24.  

    The disaster declaration covers the counties of Choctaw, Clarke, Clay, Greene, Jasper, Jones, Lowndes, Noxubee Oktibbeha, Perry, Wayne and Webster, as well as the counties of Choctaw and Washington in Alabama.

    Businesses and nonprofits are eligible to apply for business physical disaster loans and may borrow up to $2 million to repair or replace disaster-damaged or destroyed real estate, machinery and equipment, inventory, and other business assets.  

    Homeowners and renters are eligible to apply for home and personal property loans and may borrow up to $100,000 to replace or repair personal property, such as clothing, furniture, cars, and appliances. Homeowners may apply for up to $500,000 to replace or repair their primary residence.  

    Applicants may be eligible for a loan increase of up to 20% of their physical damages, as verified by the SBA, for mitigation purposes. Eligible mitigation improvements include strengthening structures to protect against high wind damage, upgrading to wind rated garage doors, and installing a safe room or storm shelter to help protect property and occupants from future damage.

    “SBA disaster loans do more than repair damage, — they may also mitigate against future disasters,” said Randle Logan, acting associate administrator for the SBA’s Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience. “Expanded funding is available to make pro-active property and building upgrades that protect homes and businesses from future storms.”

    The SBA also offers Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs) to help meet working capital needs, such as ongoing operating expenses for small businesses and private nonprofit (PNP) organizations.  EIDL assistance is available regardless of whether the organization suffered any physical property damage.    

    Interest rates are as low as 4% for businesses, 3.625% for nonprofits, and 2.563% for homeowners and renters, with terms up to 30 years. Interest does not begin to accrue, and payments are not due, until 12 months from the date of the first loan disbursement. The SBA sets loan amounts and terms, based on each applicant’s financial condition.

    Beginning Thursday, Jan. 30, SBA customer service representatives will be on hand at two Disaster Loan Outreach Centers (DLOC) to answer questions about SBA’s disaster loan program, explain the application process and help individuals complete their application.  

    At the DLOCs, individuals can connect directly with SBA specialists to apply for disaster loans and learn about the full range of programs available to rebuild and move forward in their recovery journey. Walk-ins are accepted, but you can schedule an in-person appointment in advance at appointment.sba.gov. The DLOCs hour of operations are listed below.

    Disaster Loan Outreach Center

    Oktibbeha County

    Oktibbeha County Community Safe Room

    985 Lynn Lane

    Starkville, MS 39759

    Opening: Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, at 11 a.m.

    Hours: Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

    Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

    Closed: Sunday

    Permanently Closes: Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, at 4 p.m.  

    Disaster Loan Outreach Center

    Wayne County

    City 2 Voting Precinct

    500 Mississippi Drive

    Waynesboro, MS 39367

    Opening: Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, at 11 a.m.

    Hours: Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

    Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

    Closed: Sunday

    Permanently Closes: Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, at 4 p.m.  

    The SBA encourages applicants to submit their loan applications promptly. Applications will be prioritized in the order they are received, and the SBA remains committed to processing them as efficiently as possible.  

    For more information and to apply online visit SBA.gov/disaster. Applicants may also call SBA’s Customer Service Center at (800) 659-2955 or email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov for information on SBA disaster assistance. For people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.  

    The filing deadline to return applications for physical property damage is March 28, 2025. The deadline to return economic injury applications is Oct. 27, 2025.  

    ###

    About the U.S. Small Business Administration

    The U.S. Small Business Administration helps power the American dream of business ownership. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow or expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI: Latest CarGurus Brand Campaign Celebrates Life’s Big Deal Moments, Like Buying or Selling a Car

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    The “Big Deal” campaign pays tribute to the momentous experience of car shopping, along with the trusted digital tools from CarGurus that help consumers find the best deal on their big deal

    BOSTON, Feb. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — CarGurus, Inc. (Nasdaq: CARG), the No. 1 visited site for shopping, buying, and selling new and used cars1, today announced the launch of its latest national brand campaign, “Big Deal”, recognizing the important role cars play in people’s lives and the significance of making the right decision during a purchase or sale. The new spots empathize with the big decisions drivers make along the buy/sell journey to reach their ideal outcome, underscoring CarGurus’ role in helping consumers find the best deal on their big deal.

    “CarGurus has joined drivers along this important journey for nearly two decades, developing the best tools and information to help consumers feel confident in their decisions as a growing share prefer to do more online before going to the dealership,” noted Dafna Sarnoff, CarGurus Chief Marketing Officer. “As a result, CarGurus has earned the trust of tens of millions of monthly users who turn to our site to make sure they find the best deal for their needs.”

    CarGurus is the No. 1 most visited car-shopping site1, connecting buyers to the best deals by providing complete vehicle history and unbiased deal ratings on the largest selection of new and used vehicles in the U.S.2 Added tools like price drop alerts and the ability to finance in advance enable confident decision-making in one of the biggest purchases of a person’s life. The platform also supports sellers with car pricing tools and the ability to instantly receive multiple offers to sell their car either completely online or through a local dealer in select markets, empowering them to choose the best deal.

    “Although CarGurus makes the process easy with all the tools and information you need to get the best deal, we don’t want to lessen the gravity of the purchase and its significant impact on people’s lives. Buying or selling a car is a huge decision, an emotional experience that we wanted to reflect in this campaign,” said Carter Collins, Partner and Managing Director of Bindery. “Beyond the excitement of working with the No. 1 most visited car shopping site1, partnering with the CarGurus team has been one of our most rewarding and close-knit experiences to date.”

    The “Big Deal” campaign will run across TV networks and connected TV providers. The spots will be supplemented with digital and social executions, including influencer programs throughout the year. View the full campaign video library here: https://cargur.us/19jlLY.

    Creative Credits:

    CarGurus

    • Dafna Sarnoff, Chief Marketing Officer
    • Evan Jones, Creative Director
    • Allison Conroy, Brand Marketing Director
    • Carli Riibner, Sr Brand Marketing Specialist
    • Maggie Meluzio, Director of Public Relations

    Creative and Production – Bindery

    • Carter Collins, Partner, Managing Director
    • Kim Devall, Executive Creative Director
    • Laura Hockstad, Producer
    • Chris Hilk, Editor

    Production – Ruffian

    • Bubble & Squeak, Director
    • Robert Herman, Founder, EP
    • Leslie Vaughn, Line Producer
    • Paul Meyers, Director of Photography
    • Craig Pinckes, 1st Assistant Director

    Production Services – Habitant

    • Arturo Arroyo, Managing Director
    • Montserrat Becerril, Chief of Staff
    • Elizabeth Tapia, Head of Production
    • Ivan Perez, Executive Producer
    • Andrea Fumero, Line Producer
    • Rodrigo Sánchez, Production Manager

    Color + VFX – Trafik

    • Daniel de Vue, Senior Colorist
    • Ali Soofi, Assistant Colorist
    • Geoff Linville, Color Producer
    • Greer Bratschie, Head of Production
    • Karena Ajamian, Executive Producer
Ciaran Birks, VFX Producer
    • Jaime Aguirre, Flame Lead
    • Ben Fall, Flame Assist

    Animation and Text Graphics – Buff Motion

    Sound – Antfood

    • Wilson Brown, Partner, Executive Creative Director
    • Sue Lee, Executive Producer
    • Joshua Heath, Creative Lead
    • Dalton Harts, Composer, Mix Engineer
    • Linton Smith, Mix Engineer
    • Trevor Haimes, Senior Producer
    • Charlie Blasberg, Music Supervisor
    • Katie Hansen, Production Coordinator

    About CarGurus, Inc.

    CarGurus (Nasdaq: CARG) is a multinational, online automotive platform for buying and selling vehicles that is building upon its industry-leading listings marketplace with both digital retail solutions and the CarOffer online wholesale platform. The CarGurus platform gives consumers the confidence to purchase and/or sell a vehicle either online or in-person, and it gives dealerships the power to accurately price, effectively market, instantly acquire, and quickly sell vehicles, all with a nationwide reach. The company uses proprietary technology, search algorithms and data analytics to bring trust, transparency, and competitive pricing to the automotive shopping experience. CarGurus is the most visited automotive shopping site in the U.S.1

    CarGurus also operates online marketplaces under the CarGurus brand in Canada and the United Kingdom. In the United States and the United Kingdom, CarGurus also operates the Autolist and PistonHeads online marketplaces, respectively, as independent brands.

    To learn more about CarGurus, visit www.cargurus.com, and for more information about CarOffer, visit www.caroffer.com.

    CarGurus® is a registered trademark of CarGurus, Inc., and CarOffer® is a registered trademark of CarOffer, LLC. All other product names, trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

    ¹ Similarweb: Traffic Report [Cars.com, Autotrader, TrueCar, CARFAX Listings (defined as CARFAX Total visits minus Vehicle History Reports traffic)], Q3 2024, U.S.
    ² Compared to Autotrader.com, Cars.com, TrueCar.com (YipitData as of September 30, 2024), and CarFax (Joreca as of September 30, 2024)

    Media Contact:
    Maggie Meluzio
    Director, Public Relations & External Communications
    pr@cargurus.com

    Investor Contact:
    Kirndeep Singh
    Vice President, Investor Relations
    investors@cargurus.com

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f1267674-ed08-44a3-a107-cde3ff19ccdb

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Bill McLaughlin Named Thrive’s New CEO

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    BOSTON, Feb. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Thrive, a global technology outsourcing provider for cybersecurity, Cloud, and traditional managed service provider (MSP) services, today announced the long-planned leadership transition elevating Bill McLaughlin into the CEO role, effective immediately. McLaughlin succeeds Rob Stephenson, who has led Thrive for nearly a decade. Under Stephenson, Thrive has attained industry prominence, earned a reputation for excellence, and delivered a compounded annual growth rate above 30%. Stephenson will remain onboard as a member of Thrive’s leadership team, particularly focused on supporting McLaughlin and driving the company’s M&A strategy.

    “Bill came to Thrive over three and a half years ago with the plan to be my successor,” said Stephenson. “He has been running day-to-day sales and operations, is one of the most highly respected executives in our industry, and is responsible for much of Thrive’s success. It’s been a pleasure of a lifetime leading this company and there is nobody I would feel more confident in succeeding me than Bill McLaughlin. Under his leadership, Thrive will continue to set the pace for MSP and MSSP innovation and achievement.”

    With more than 20 years of experience in the managed services industry, McLaughlin brings deep knowledge and understanding of IT, customer success, and go-to-market strategy. Prior to joining Thrive as President in 2021, McLaughlin held senior leadership positions at companies like Kaseya, Atlantic Tomorrow’s Office, and NER Data Products, where he oversaw customer success, sales initiatives, and M&A activity.

    Throughout his time at Thrive, McLaughlin has partnered with leading organizations to ensure their digital transformations are secure, cost-effective, and future-ready. As President, he played a pivotal role in growing Thrive through acquisition – including the purchase of 11 companies over the past two years. Through its growth, Thrive has expanded the breadth and quality of its services, as well as its geographical footprint. The organization now has over 1,400 team members across the U.S., UK, Canada, and APAC regions.

    In January, the company received a strategic investment from Berkshire Partners and Court Square Capital Partners, supporting growth and continued opportunity in the outsourced IT space. As CEO, McLaughlin will continue to invest in Thrive’s team and capabilities as they serve their customers with excellence.

    “Thrive is redefining what it means to be a next-generation service provider – in terms of the solutions we deliver, the markets we serve, the problems we solve, and the way we take care of and upskill our people,” said McLaughlin. “While this is an exciting new chapter, our mission and vision remain the same: we’re going to keep delivering exceptional service and solutions to our customers, solving some of their most critical business problems – and we’re going to do it as a team.”

    To learn more about open positions at Thrive, visit the careers page.

    About Thrive 

    Thrive delivers global technology outsourcing for cybersecurity, Cloud, networking, and other complex IT requirements. Thrive’s NextGen platform enables customers to increase business efficiencies through standardization, scalability, and automation, delivering oversized technology returns on investment (ROI). They accomplish this with advisory services, vCISO, vCIO, consulting, project implementation, solution architects, and a best-in-class subscription-based technology platform. Thrive delivers exceptional high-touch service through its POD approach of subject matter experts and global 24x7x365 SOC, NOC, and centralized services teams. Learn more at www.thrivenextgen.com or follow us on LinkedIn.  

    Thrive Contact:  
    Amanda Maguire  
    thrive@v2comms.com   

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Readout of President Donald J. Trump’s Call with President el-Sisi of Egypt

    Source: The White House

    On Saturday, President Donald J. Trump received a call from President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, in which President el-Sisi congratulated President Trump on his inauguration.  President Trump thanked President el-Sisi for his friendship, and discussed the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.  The two leaders also discussed Egypt’s important role in the release of hostages from Gaza and President el-Sisi expressed his confidence that President Trump’s leadership could usher in a golden age of Middle East peace.

    MIL OSI USA News –