Category: Americas

MIL-OSI USA: Alzheimer’s disease may damage the brain in two phases

Source: US Department of Health and Human Services – 2

News Release

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

NIH-funded brain mapping study uncovers which cell types may be harmed first.

Alzheimer’s disease may damage the brain in two distinct phases, based on new research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) using sophisticated brain mapping tools. According to researchers who discovered this new view, the first, early phase happens slowly and silently — before people experience memory problems — harming just a few vulnerable cell types. In contrast, the second, late phase causes damage that is more widely destructive and coincides with the appearance of symptoms and the rapid accumulation of plaques, tangles, and other Alzheimer’s hallmarks.

“One of the challenges to diagnosing and treating Alzheimer’s is that much of the damage to the brain happens well before symptoms occur. The ability to detect these early changes means that, for the first time, we can see what is happening to a person’s brain during the earliest periods of the disease,” said Richard J. Hodes, M.D., director, NIH National Institute on Aging. “The results fundamentally alter scientists’ understanding of how Alzheimer’s harms the brain and will guide the development of new treatments for this devastating disorder.”

Scientists analyzed the brains of 84 people, and the results, published in Nature Neuroscience, suggest that damage to one type of cell, called an inhibitory neuron, during the early phase may trigger the neural circuit problems that underlie the disease. Additionally, the study confirmed previous findings about how Alzheimer’s damages the brain and identified many new changes that may happen during the disease.

Specifically, the scientists used advanced genetic analysis tools to study the cells of the middle temporal gyrus, a part of the brain that controls language, memory and vision. The gyrus has been shown to be vulnerable to many of the changes traditionally seen during Alzheimer’s. It is also a part of the brain that researchers have thoroughly mapped for control donors. By comparing control donor data with that from people who had Alzheimer’s, the scientists created a genetic and cellular timeline of what happens throughout the disease.

Traditionally, studies have suggested that the damage caused by Alzheimer’s happens in several stages characterized by increasing levels of cell death, inflammation and the accumulation of proteins in the form of plaques and tangles. In contrast, this study suggests that the disease changes the brain in two “epochs” — or phases — with many of the traditionally studied changes happening rapidly during the second phase. This coincides with the appearance of memory problems and other symptoms.

The results also suggest that the earliest changes happen gradually and “quietly” in the first phase before any symptoms appear. These changes include slow accumulation of plaques, activation of the brain’s immune system, damage to the cellular insulation that helps neurons send signals and the death of cells called somatostatin (SST) inhibitory neurons.

The last finding was surprising to the researchers. Traditionally, scientists have thought that Alzheimer’s primarily damages excitatory neurons, which send activating neural signals to other cells. Inhibitory neurons send calming signals to other cells. The paper’s authors hypothesized how loss of SST inhibitory neurons might trigger the changes to the brain’s neural circuitry that underlie the disease.

Recently, a separate NIH-funded brain mapping study by researchers at MIT found that a gene called REELIN may be associated with the vulnerability of some neurons to Alzheimer’s. It also showed that star-shaped brain cells called astrocytes may provide resilience to or resist the harm caused by the disease.

Researchers analyzed brains that are part of the Seattle Alzheimer’s Disease Brain Cell Atlas (SEA-AD), which is designed to create a highly detailed map of the brain damage that occurs during the disease. The project was led by Mariano I. Gabitto, Ph.D., and Kyle J. Travaglini, Ph.D., from the Allen Institute, Seattle. The scientists used tools — developed as part of the NIH’s Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative – Cell Census Network (BICCN) — to study more than 3.4 million brain cells from donors who died at various stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Tissue samples were obtained from the Adult Changes in Thought study and the University of Washington Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

“This research demonstrates how powerful new technologies provided by the NIH’s BRAIN Initiative are changing the way we understand diseases like Alzheimer’s. With these tools, scientists were able to detect the earliest cellular changes to the brain to create a more complete picture of what happens over the entire course of the disease,” said John Ngai, Ph.D., director of The BRAIN Initiative®. “The new knowledge provided by this study may help scientists and drug developers around the world develop diagnostics and treatments targeted to specific stages of Alzheimer’s and other dementias.”

This study was funded by NIH grants: U19AG060909, P30AG066509, U19AG066567, U01AG006781. Additional funding was provided by the Nancy and Buster Alvord Endowment. The Rush University Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Chicago, Il, shared donor metadata from the Religious Orders Memory/Memory and Aging Project.

Researchers can obtain data from the SEA-AD study by going to the study’s website: https://portal.brain-map.org/explore/seattle-alzheimers-disease

About the National Institute on Aging (NIA): NIA leads the U.S. federal government effort to conduct and support research on aging and the health and well-being of older people. Learn more about age-related cognitive change and neurodegenerative diseases via NIA’s Alzheimer’s and related Dementias Education and Referral (ADEAR) Center website. Visit the main NIA website for information about a range of aging topics, in English and Spanish, and stay connected.

The BRAIN Initiative, a multidisciplinary collaboration across 10 NIH Institutes and Centers, is uniquely positioned for cross-cutting discoveries in neuroscience to revolutionize our understanding of the human brain. By accelerating the development and application of innovative neurotechnologies, The BRAIN Initiative® is enabling researchers to understand the brain at unprecedented levels of detail in both health and disease, improving how we treat, prevent, and cure brain disorders. The BRAIN Initiative involves a multidisciplinary network of federal and non-federal partners whose missions and current research portfolios complement the goals of The BRAIN Initiative.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health^®

Reference

Gabitto, M. I.; Travaglini, K. J.; et al. Integrated multimodal cell atlas of Alzheimer’s disease. Nature Neuroscience. 2024 October 15 doi: 10.1038/s41593-024-01774-5

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MIL OSI USA News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: UConn Deepening Ties to Capital City With ‘UConn IN Hartford’ Initiative

Source: US State of Connecticut

Say the words, “UConn Hartford,” and what comes to mind? The stately former Hartford Times building that has served as the flagship university’s downtown campus since its much-hailed renovation and opening in 2017?

While the main campus is the principal nexus of UConn’s presence in Connecticut’s capital city, it’s but one of a growing number of locations, programs, and initiatives underway that deepen the University’s ties with Hartford.

In fact, UConn’s presence in Hartford continues to grow, including plans to offer 200 beds of student housing in the bustling downtown Pratt Street district, the recent opening of a nearby research center, the growth of local internships and a planned co-op program, and other initiatives.

UConn is working with local and state leaders, the city and regional business community, alumni, and others on the “UConn IN Hartford” initiative, which seeks to provide students a community-centered experience in the capital city while they pursue their academics at UConn.

Gov. Ned Lamont hears about UConn’s future in Hartford (Ashley Stimpson/UConn Foundation)

Scores of those supporters gathered recently to learn more about the university’s plans and to tour 64 Pratt St., which will be transformed from its former use as a law office into apartment-style units for about 200 UConn Hartford students.

Lexington Partners will work with Shelbourne Properties and LAZ Investments to jointly develop the apartments, and UConn will lease the space and run it as student housing starting in fall 2026 with on-site resident advisers and a hall director.

It’s part of a broader vision shared by UConn, state and local leaders, and others to position Hartford as a “college town,” in which students are a major part of Hartford’s culture, economy, and future.

“These dorms will be a huge boost to our capital city, bringing 200 more UConn students downtown who will reflect the diversity and incredible strength of our state, and who are going to make a name for themselves and change the world in so many different ways,” Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said at the recent reception.

Hartford’s diversity is evident at the UConn campus, where the majority of students are either the first generation in their family to attend college, are students of color, or both.

About 86% received some form of financial aid last year, and about 58% received federal Pell Grants, which are awarded to the neediest students.

In a 2023 survey, about 70% of UConn Hartford undergraduates said that they would be interested in student housing nearby, but since most said they lived with their parents, the rent would need to be affordable to make it a viable option.

To expand access to the Pratt Street housing opportunity, the UConn Foundation has launched the new Hartford Residential Scholars Enhancement Fund, which will harness community contributions to provide stipends for qualifying students who want to live in the apartments, but couldn’t otherwise afford it.

The housing option and the initiative to help qualifying students with the costs are closely aligned with goals in the UConn Strategic Plan, which prioritizes holistic student success, access, affordability, and the strength of UConn’s regional campuses as integral to their host communities.

Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam says UConn’s plans will be a major boost for the city (Ashley Stimpson/UConn Foundation)

For UConn Hartford students, the student housing will provide the dual benefit of living in the vibrant downtown setting while having the kinds of supports and community-centered experiences that dorm life offers.

“Our job as a public university is to create access and opportunities for our students to learn and grow, and in turn they give back to the communities they come from. Right here, UConn Hartford provides a beacon of hope, opportunity, and transformation for our students,” said Mark Overmyer-Velázquez, UConn Hartford’s campus dean and chief administrative officer.

UConn Hartford is a federally designated Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution and, with about 20% of its population identifying as Hispanic, it is on the threshold of reaching Hispanic Serving Institution status as an emerging HSI. It also has a rich history of engagement with the city in service, academics, and research.

UConn Hartford students can take classes in more than 36 academic departments and can pursue 10 undergraduate programs and advanced degrees fully in Hartford through the School of Business, Neag School of Education, School of Public Policy, and School of Social Work. They may also elect to transfer to Storrs with the credits they have earned.

“They have the ability to do all of that at the scale of a small liberal arts college, with all of the rich benefits that UConn offers as a Research 1 university,” Overmyer-Velázquez said.

UConn’s presence in Hartford also includes the School of Law in the West End; the main campus at 10 Prospect St. and the nearby School of Social Work at 38 Prospect St.; UConn Health’s Health Disparities Institute at 241 Main St.; and the Graduate Business Learning Center, Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation’s BUILD Hartford course, both at Constitution Plaza.

The newest UConn presence in Hartford is a big one: The University recently opened its new Community Intersections & Innovation Space for research and academic uses at 229 Trumbull St, also known as Hartford 21 (H21), very close to the student housing location.

UConn is leasing space in that office building to house lecture halls, academic centers, classrooms, and faculty offices, providing opportunities to partner on support for community engagement, and on research projects and research grants.

UConn President Radenka Maric talks with stakeholders about UConn’s future in Hartford (Ashley Stimpson/UConn Foundation)

UConn moved its campus from West Hartford to its current location in 2017, and has worked since then to position it as a centerpiece of a thriving capital city by bringing people downtown to learn, live, and support the regional economy.

The University has also significantly bolstered the wrap-around student services available UConn Hartford and other regional campuses. They include increasing medical and mental health care, adding Husky Harvest food pantries, helping students establish and expand clubs, boosting on-site career services, and other academic and social programs to help build a sense of community and support student success.

Connecticut State House of Representatives Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford (’07 LAW), noted at the recent reception that after the pandemic, many companies vacated their city office spaces as more employees worked remotely. Student housing like UConn’s planned units are a critical evolution in the vitality of those communities, he said.

“This is such a big deal because of what it’s going to lead to,” Ritter said. “This is going to be what UConn is about: UConn changes the lives of young people and communities that it impacts.”

MIL OSI USA News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Moolenaar to Detroit News: “News” Article Gave CCP a Pass

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman John Moolenaar (4th District of Michigan)

Headline: Moolenaar to Detroit News: “News” Article Gave CCP a Pass

By Congressman John Moolenaar

Chad Livengood’s recent article on electric vehicles ignored serious issues regarding the Chinese Communist Party, supply chain security, and human rights abuses while offering a case for increasing the involvement of Chinese companies in America’s auto industry that was far too optimistic. The article was also condescending to the common-sense concerns of Michigan residents. These issues affect all of us in Michigan, whether we work for an automaker or simply pay our taxes.

The Chinese Communist Party seeks to increase America’s dependance on China as a way of controlling our country. In April 2020, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said, “we must tighten international production chains’ dependence on China.” Additionally, the CCP has identified battery technology as a “major technical domain” that it would like to dominate for years to come.

Tragically, the EV supply chains controlled by the CCP are intertwined with human rights abuses and its genocide of a minority group known as the Uyghurs. Uyghurs are Muslims living in northwest China and the CCP has put millions of them into internment camps where they are forced into slave labor. One of the companies tied to this genocide is Gotion High-Tech, whose subsidiary wants to build a facility in the Big Rapids area. The company is receiving $715 million in state subsidies and tax breaks.

Michigan residents are not misguided in their concerns about CCP-affiliated companies, and having political leaders bring a spotlight to these issues is not wrong, as Livengood seemed to suggest. In fact, more journalistic skepticism of these companies would help all Michigan residents. In the case of Gotion, for example, Livengood wrote the company will bring “2,350 jobs averaging about $51,000 a year” to Mecosta County. This contradicts his paper’s reporting from April 2023, when “Gotion has said in its application for a property tax exemption, it expects an annual average wage at the facility of $61,995.” So far, not one media outlet – including the News – has bothered to ask Gotion why it is now offering average wages $11,000 less than it promised the state legislature a year ago. CCP-affiliated companies are always changing their story, but their goal remains the same: further the CCP’s agenda and increase America’s dependence on China.

The U.S. and our allies must compete to win. Our country invented the battery technology that China has and let it get away. Now we must develop better technology once again.

MIL OSI USA News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: People displaced by hurricanes face anxiety and a long road to recovery, US census surveys show − smarter, targeted policies could help

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Trevor Memmott, Assistant Professor of Policy and Public Affairs, UMass Boston

Hurricane Helene flooded homes with water and mud in Marshall, N.C. Many people will be out of their homes for months or longer. AP Photo/Jeff Roberson

The trauma of natural disasters doesn’t end when the storm or wildfire is gone, or even when communities are being put back together and homes have been rebuilt.

For many people, being displaced by a disaster has long-term consequences that often aren’t obvious or considered in disaster aid decisions.

We study public policy and disaster response. To get a better understanding of the ongoing challenges disaster victims face – and how officials can respond more effectively – we analyzed U.S. Census Bureau surveys that ask people nationwide about their disaster displacement experiences, as well as their stress and anxiety.

The results show how recovery from disasters such as hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes and flooding involves more than rebuilding, and how already vulnerable groups are at the greatest risk of harm.

Millions are displaced every year

The Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey has been continually collecting data on people’s social and economic experiences since 2020. Since late 2022, it has specifically asked respondents whether they had been displaced from their homes because of natural disasters.

Nearly 1.4% of the U.S. adult population reported being displaced in the previous year, equating to more than 3 million Americans. The most common cause of those displacements was hurricanes, responsible for nearly one-third of the displacements.

Some groups faced a higher chance of being displaced by a natural disaster than others.

The likelihood of displacement was above average for people with incomes of less than $50,000 (1.9% of that population was displaced), disabled people (2.7%), African Americans (2.3%) and Latinos/Hispanics (1.8%), as well as for those who identified their sexual orientation as gay/lesbian, bisexual, something else, or said that they don’t know (2.2%).

The problems of displacement go beyond immediate evacuation. People may have to stay in temporary shelters such as stadiums, churches or disaster relief areas. During this time, they are likely unable to work and earn income. Others with nowhere else to go may return to still-damaged homes after the storm passes.

Many people who were displaced by a hurricane faced weeks without power or lacked access to enough food, clean water or other basic necessities. After being displaced, 64% of adults said they lacked electricity some or all of the time, 37% lacked enough food, 29% lacked drinkable water, and 25% indicated that they experienced unsanitary conditions some or all of the time.

Going without enough clean water or electricity can expose people to diseases and other health risks, on top of the stress of dealing with the damage, displacement and uncertainty about the future.

About 36% of those displaced were out of their homes for more than one month. Nearly 16% of them indicated that they never were able to return. Vulnerable groups, especially people of color and disabled people, were least likely to return home quickly.

Impacts on health

Being displaced also piles on stress and creates instability. People displaced by storms may bounce among family members’ houses, hotel rooms or even vehicles as they wait to return to a home that has been damaged. They may have lost jobs or be unable to find temporary housing nearby, creating feelings of uncertainty about the future.

People who feel that their safety or security is threatened are more likely to experience mental stress and, potentially, post-traumatic stress disorder. The effects can accumulate over time and have long-term health consequences. Chronic stress can contribute to hypertension and heart disease and make rebuilding lives even harder as people struggle with more than just the damage around them.

The Household Pulse Survey also collects information on the symptoms of anxiety and depression that individuals experience.

Among those who have been displaced by a hurricane, 38% indicated experiencing generalized anxiety, a much higher percentage than the 23% of the population who did not experience displacement.

Similarly, 33% of those who were displaced experienced symptoms of major depressive disorder compared with 18% of the population who did not face displacement.

Better policies for long-term recovery

The survey results highlight the need to restore water and power to homes quickly after disasters. The results also point to prioritizing communities that are least able to afford being displaced.

Studies have shown that low-income communities often wait longest for power to be restored after hurricanes. The survey shows that these communities and other disadvantaged groups also face higher levels of displacement after disasters.

Beyond the immediate responses to a disaster, the survey suggests that federal, state and local policymakers will have to consider long-term assistance for both housing recovery and for health care.

A young man stares at what is left of his family’s homes after Hurricane Helene flooded parts of Hendersonville, N.C., in September 2024.
AP Photo/Brittany Peterson

Currently, the Federal Emergency Management Agency primarily focuses on providing short-term disaster relief. The large majority of its disaster funding goes toward evacuation, temporary shelter for people displaced, emergency supplies, insurance and rebuilding community infrastructure. While other federal programs provide rebuilding assistance for individuals, they don’t sufficiently address the long-term challenges, in our view.

Some ways government could help include providing targeted cash transfers to ensure vulnerable households can rebuild, investing in affordable and climate-resilient housing that can limit losses in future disasters, and funding long-term mental health services for disaster survivors at free or reduced cost.

As the climate warms, extreme storms are becoming more common in every region of the country. That’s raising the risks and the need for policymakers to prepare communities to limit harm from disasters and recover afterward. We believe rebuilding lives will require support long term, both for building more resilient homes and infrastructure and for recovering from the trauma.

Christian Weller is affiliated with the Center for American Progress (Senior Fellow)

Trevor Memmott 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. People displaced by hurricanes face anxiety and a long road to recovery, US census surveys show − smarter, targeted policies could help – https://theconversation.com/people-displaced-by-hurricanes-face-anxiety-and-a-long-road-to-recovery-us-census-surveys-show-smarter-targeted-policies-could-help-241189

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Apple introduces powerful new iPad mini built for Apple Intelligence
Source: Apple

Headline: Apple introduces powerful new iPad mini built for Apple Intelligence

October 15, 2024

PRESS RELEASE

Apple introduces powerful new iPad mini built for Apple Intelligence

The ultraportable iPad mini is more capable and versatile than ever with the powerful A17 Pro chip and support for Apple Pencil Pro

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today introduced the new iPad mini, supercharged by the A17 Pro chip and Apple Intelligence, the easy-to-use personal intelligence system that understands personal context to deliver intelligence that is helpful and relevant while protecting user privacy. With a beloved ultraportable design, the new iPad mini is available in four gorgeous finishes, including a new blue and purple, and features the brilliant 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display. A17 Pro delivers a huge performance boost for even the most demanding tasks, with a faster CPU and GPU, a 2x faster Neural Engine than the previous-generation iPad mini,¹ and support for Apple Intelligence. The versatility and advanced capabilities of the new iPad mini are taken to a whole new level with support for Apple Pencil Pro, opening up entirely new ways to be even more productive and creative. The 12MP wide back camera supports Smart HDR 4 for natural-looking photos with increased dynamic range, and uses machine learning to detect and scan documents right in the Camera app.

The new iPad mini features all-day battery life and brand-new experiences with iPadOS 18. Starting at just $499 with 128GB — double the storage of the previous generation — the new iPad mini delivers incredible value and the full iPad experience in an ultraportable design. Customers can pre-order the new iPad mini today, with availability beginning Wednesday, October 23.

“There is no other device in the world like iPad mini, beloved for its combination of powerful performance and versatility in our most ultraportable design. iPad mini appeals to a wide range of users and has been built for Apple Intelligence, delivering intelligent new features that are powerful, personal, and private,” said Bob Borchers, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With the powerful A17 Pro chip, faster connectivity, and support for Apple Pencil Pro, the new iPad mini delivers the full iPad experience in our most portable design at an incredible value.”

A17 Pro Unlocks Powerful Performance

The new iPad mini gets a major update with A17 Pro, delivering incredible performance and power efficiency in an ultraportable design. A17 Pro is a powerful chip that unlocks a number of improvements over A15 Bionic in the previous-generation iPad mini. With a 6-core CPU — two performance cores and four efficiency cores — A17 Pro delivers a 30 percent boost in CPU performance.¹ A17 Pro also brings a boost in graphics performance with a 5-core GPU, delivering a 25 percent jump over the previous generation.¹ A17 Pro brings entirely new experiences — including pro apps used by designers, pilots, doctors, and others — and makes it faster than ever for users to edit photos, dive into more immersive AR applications, and more. The new iPad mini brings true-to-life gaming with hardware-accelerated ray tracing — which is 4x faster than software-based ray tracing — as well as support for Dynamic Caching and hardware-accelerated mesh shading. From creating engaging content faster than ever in Affinity Designer, to playing demanding, graphics-intensive AAA games like Zenless Zone Zero, users can take the powerful performance and ultraportable iPad mini anywhere.

Built for Apple Intelligence

With the power of the A17 Pro chip, the new iPad mini delivers support for Apple Intelligence. Deeply integrated into iPadOS 18, Apple Intelligence harnesses the power of Apple silicon and Apple-built generative models to understand and create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks. Many of the models that power Apple Intelligence run entirely on device, and Private Cloud Compute offers the ability to flex and scale computational capacity between on-device processing and larger, server-based models that run on dedicated Apple silicon servers.

The first set of Apple Intelligence features will be available in U.S. English this month through a free software update with iPadOS 18.1, and available for iPad with A17 Pro or M1 and later. Apple Intelligence delivers experiences that are delightful, intuitive, easy to use, and specially designed to help users do the things that matter most to them:²
- With Writing Tools, users can refine their words by rewriting, proofreading, and summarizing text nearly everywhere they write, including Mail, Notes, Pages, and third-party apps.
- Siri becomes more deeply integrated into the system experience and gets a new design with an elegant glowing light that wraps around the edge of the screen when active on iPad. With richer language-understanding capabilities, communicating with Siri is more natural and flexible. Siri can follow along when users stumble over their words, can maintain context from one request to the next, and now, users can type to Siri. Siri also has extensive product knowledge to answer questions about features on iPad and other Apple devices.
- In Photos, the Memories feature now enables users to create the movies they want to see by simply typing a description, and with the new Clean Up tool, they can identify and remove distracting objects in the background of a photo — without accidentally altering the subject.
Additional Apple Intelligence features will be rolling out over the next several months:
- Image Playground allows users to create playful images in moments.
- Image Wand is a new tool in the Apple Pencil tool palette that can transform a rough sketch into a polished image.
- Emoji will be taken to an entirely new level with the ability to create original Genmoji by simply typing a description, or by selecting a photo of a friend or family member.
- Siri will be able to draw on a user’s personal context to deliver intelligence that is tailored to them. It will also gain onscreen awareness to understand and take action with users’ content, as well as take hundreds of new actions in and across Apple and third-party apps.
- With ChatGPT integrated into experiences within iPadOS 18, users have the option to access its expertise, as well as its image- and document-understanding capabilities, within Siri and Writing Tools without needing to jump between tools. And privacy protections are built in so a user’s IP address is obscured, and OpenAI won’t store requests. Users can access ChatGPT for free without creating an account, and ChatGPT’s data-use policies apply for those who choose to connect their account.
Even Faster Connectivity

With faster wireless and wired connectivity, users can do even more on iPad mini while on the go. The new iPad mini supports Wi-Fi 6E, which delivers up to twice the performance than the previous generation,³ so users can download files, play games online, and stream movies even faster. Wi-Fi + Cellular models with 5G allow users to access their files, communicate with peers, and back up their data in a snap while on the go. Cellular models of the new iPad mini are activated with eSIM, a more secure alternative to a physical SIM card, allowing users to quickly connect and transfer their existing plans digitally, and store multiple cellular plans on a single device. Customers can easily get connected to wireless data plans on the new iPad mini in over 190 countries and regions around the world without needing to get a physical SIM card from a local carrier. The USB-C port is now up to 2x faster than the previous generation, with data transfers up to 10Gbps, so importing large photos and videos is even quicker.

Incredible Camera Experience

Great cameras, along with the incredibly portable form factor of iPad mini, enable powerful mobile workflows. The 12MP wide back camera delivers gorgeous photos, and with Smart HDR 4, they will be even more detailed and vivid. Utilizing the powerful 16-core Neural Engine, the new iPad mini uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically identify documents right in the Camera app and can use the new True Tone flash to remove shadows from the document. The 12MP Ultra Wide front-facing camera in portrait orientation, with support for Center Stage, is great for all the ways customers use iPad mini.

Magical Capabilities with Apple Pencil Pro

Apple Pencil Pro unlocks magical capabilities and powerful interactions, turning iPad mini into a sketchbook users can take anywhere. Apple Pencil Pro can sense a user’s squeeze, bringing up a tool palette to quickly switch tools, line weights, and colors, all without interrupting the creative process. A custom haptic engine delivers a light tap that provides confirmation when users squeeze, double-tap, or snap to a Smart Shape for a remarkably intuitive experience. Users can roll Apple Pencil Pro for precise control of the tool they’re using. Rotating the barrel changes the orientation of shaped pen and brush tools, just like pen and paper, and with Apple Pencil hover, users can visualize the exact orientation of a tool before making a mark. Apple Pencil Pro features support for Find My, and pairs, charges, and is stored through a new magnetic interface on the new iPad mini. iPad mini also supports Apple Pencil (USB-C), ideal for note taking, sketching, annotating, journaling, and more, at a great value.

iPadOS 18 Brings Powerful and Intelligent New Features

In addition to the groundbreaking capabilities of Apple Intelligence, iPadOS 18 brings powerful features that enhance the iPad experience, making it more versatile and intelligent than ever. iPadOS also has advanced frameworks like Core ML that make it easy for developers to tap into the Neural Engine to deliver powerful AI features right on device.
- Designed for the unique capabilities of iPad, Calculator delivers an entirely new way to use Apple Pencil to solve expressions, as well as basic and scientific calculators with a new history function and unit conversions. With Math Notes, users are now able to type mathematical expressions or write them out to see them instantly solved in handwriting like their own. They can also create and use variables, and add an equation to insert a graph. Users can also access their Math Notes in the Notes app, and use all of the math functionality in any of their other notes.
- In the Notes app, handwritten notes become more fluid, flexible, and easy to read with Smart Script and the power of Apple Pencil. Smart Script unleashes powerful new capabilities for users editing handwritten text, allowing them to easily add space, or even paste typed text in their own handwriting. And as users write with Apple Pencil, their handwriting will be automatically refined in real time to be smoother, straighter, and more legible.
- With new Audio Recording and Transcription, iPad can capture a lecture or conversation, and transcripts are synced with the audio, so users can search for an exact moment in the recording.
- New levels of customization come to iPad, and users have even more options to express themselves through the Home Screen with app icons and widgets that can be placed in any open position. App icons and widgets can take on a new look with a dark or tinted effect, and users can make them appear larger to create the experience that is perfect for them. Control Center has been redesigned to provide easier access to many of the things users do every day, delivering quick access to new groups of a user’s most-utilized controls. Users can even organize new controls from third-party apps in the redesigned Control Center.
- The Photos app receives its biggest update ever, bringing users powerful new tools that make it easier to find what they are looking for with a simplified and customizable app layout that takes advantage of the larger display on iPad and helps users browse by themes without having to organize content into albums.
- Users have new ways to stay connected and express themselves in Messages, with all-new animated text effects, redesigned Tapbacks, and the ability to schedule messages to send at a later time.
Better for the Environment

The new iPad mini is designed with the environment in mind, including 100 percent recycled aluminum in the enclosure, 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets, and 100 percent recycled gold plating and tin soldering in multiple printed circuit boards. The new iPad mini meets Apple’s high standards for energy efficiency, and is free of mercury, brominated flame retardants, and PVC. The packaging is 100 percent fiber-based, bringing Apple closer to its goal to remove plastic from all packaging by 2025.

Today, Apple is carbon neutral for global corporate operations and, as part of its ambitious Apple 2030 goal, plans to be carbon neutral across its entire carbon footprint by the end of this decade.

Pricing and Availability
- Customers can pre-order the new iPad mini starting today, October 15, on apple.com/store, and in the Apple Store app in 29 countries and regions, including the U.S. It will begin arriving to customers, and will be in Apple Store locations and Apple Authorized Resellers, starting Wednesday, October 23.
- Available in blue, purple, starlight, and space gray, the new iPad mini starts at $499 (U.S.) for the Wi-Fi model, and $649 (U.S.) for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model.
- The new iPad mini starts with 128GB of storage — double the storage of the previous generation. The new iPad mini is also available in 256GB and 512GB configurations.
- For education, the new iPad mini starts at $449 (U.S.). Education pricing is available to current and newly accepted college students and their parents, as well as faculty, staff, and home-school teachers of all grade levels. For more information, visit apple.com/us-hed/shop.
- Apple Pencil Pro is compatible with the new iPad mini. It is available for $129 (U.S.), and $119 (U.S.) for education. Apple Pencil (USB-C) is available for $79 (U.S.), and $69 (U.S.) for education.
- The new Smart Folio, available in charcoal gray, light violet, denim, and sage, is $59 (U.S.).
- Apple offers great ways to save on the latest iPad. Customers can trade in their current iPad and get credit toward a new one by visiting the Apple Store online, the Apple Store app, or an Apple Store location. To see what their device is worth and for terms and conditions, customers can visit apple.com/shop/trade-in.
- Customers in the U.S. who shop at Apple using Apple Card can pay monthly at 0 percent APR when they choose to check out with Apple Card Monthly Installments, and they’ll get 3 percent Daily Cash back — all up front. More information — including details on eligibility, exclusions, and Apple Card terms — is available at apple.com/apple-card/monthly-installments.
- AppleCare+ for iPad provides unparalleled service and support. This includes unlimited incidents of accidental damage, battery service coverage, and 24/7 support from the people who know iPad best.
- Every customer who buys directly from Apple Retail gets access to Personal Setup. In these guided online sessions, a Specialist can walk customers through setup, or focus on features that help them make the most of their new device.
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. Testing conducted by Apple in September 2024 using preproduction iPad mini (A17 Pro) and production iPad mini (6th generation) units. Tested with Affinity Photo 2 v2.5.5.2636 using the built-in benchmark version 25000. Performance tests are conducted using specific iPad units and reflect the approximate performance of iPad mini.
2. Apple Intelligence will be available as a free software update for iPad with A17 Pro or M1 and later with device and Siri language set to U.S. English. The first set of features will be available in beta this month with iPadOS 18.1 with more features rolling out in the months to come. Later this year, Apple Intelligence will add support for localized English in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.K. In the coming year, Apple Intelligence will expand to more languages, like Chinese, English (India), English (Singapore), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Vietnamese, and others.
3. Wi‑Fi 6E available in countries and regions where supported.
Press Contacts

Tara Courtney

Apple

tcourtney@apple.com

Skylar Eisenhart

Apple

s_eisenhart@apple.com

Apple Media Helpline

media.help@apple.com
MIL OSI Economics –
January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI: Bullish Sentiments High on Gold Trends as Mining Operations Continue to Ramp Up

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

PALM BEACH, Fla., Oct. 15, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FN Media Group News Commentary – In an recent article published by Skilliing.com regarding current Gold trends: “From ancient civilizations to modern-day investors, gold has consistently been sought after for its perceived stability and hedge against inflation and economic uncertainty. This enduring appeal has led to significant price movements over the years, with gold prices often mirroring broader economic trends. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for predicting future gold price movements and making informed investment decisions. According to experts, the gold price in October 2024 is expected to be influenced by several key factors. The ongoing geopolitical tensions, particularly in the Middle East, are likely to keep gold prices elevated. Additionally, the anticipation of US rate cuts in the third and fourth quarters of 2024 could further boost gold prices. With the current record already at $2,431.85, the next milestone to watch is $2,500 per ounce. The bullish setup of gold’s chart and its leading indicators suggest that gold could move close to the $2,550 area in 2024. This prediction is supported by the recent rally in gold prices, which has already surpassed many predictions for the year. The combination of geopolitical concerns and the potential for rate cuts makes a further rally in gold prices plausible.” Active mining companies in the markets this week include RUA GOLD Inc. (OTCQB: NZAUF) (TSX-V: RUA), Mawson Gold Limited (OTCPK: MWSNF), Founders Metals Inc. (OTCQX: FDMIF), SNOWLINE GOLD CORP (OTCQB: SNWGF) (TSX-V: SGD), Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE: AEM) (TSX: AEM).

Skilliing.com added: “In the context of broader economic trends, the gold price prediction for October 2024 is also influenced by the strength of the dollar and the overall economic landscape. As interest rates start to fall, gold prices could hit fresh records. The average price target for gold in the final quarter of 2024 is around $2,175 per ounce, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. This suggests a continued upward trajectory for gold prices in the latter half of 2024. 2025 Outlook: The outlook for 2025 is more uncertain. Some experts expect gold prices to stabilize around $2,350 per ounce in early 2025, with a potential decline to $2,175 later in the year, depending on the pace of U.S. central bank rate cuts. HSBC predicts a 12% drop in gold prices in 2025 due to rising real interest rates, while other analysts remain bullish, suggesting prices could exceed $3,000. 2030 Outlook: By 2030, some forecasts suggest gold could reach $7,000 per ounce, driven by low real interest rates, rising inflation, and demographic shifts that fuel demand for gold as a secure asset. Central bank demand will likely play a key role in supporting long-term growth.”

RUA GOLD’s (TSXV:RUA) (OTCQB:NZAUF) Drill Program Intersects Near Surface Gold at The Reefton Project – RUA GOLD Inc. (WKN: A4010V) (“RUA GOLD” or the “Company”) is pleased to provide an update from the drilling campaign underway at the Reefton Project on the South Island of New Zealand.    The Company commenced its near mine drill program on the Murray Creek targets in July. A second drill rig was introduced in September to test the Capleston vein system. These historic mines collectively produced ~700koz of gold at 25.2g/t within a radius of ~20 kilometers.

Robert Eckford, CEO of RUA GOLD commented: “Our five years of meticulous surface exploration work over the Reefton project is paying dividends from the outset of this drill program. Both of the initial drill holes have confirmed we are in right area and are locating these lodes. The near surface intercepts on Capleston are encouraging and makes for compelling economic ounces, it supports our thesis that the surface veins are continuous past the old workings. Despite the initial drill hole at Murray Creek hitting old workings, it is extremely encouraging that we have identified the dip angle of the Victoria lode and we have even more confidence with the subsequent hole that is underway now, and results from this will be ready in the next few weeks.”

Capleston – On the second drill rig, which was introduced to test the Capleston vein system, the Company targeted an undeveloped and near-surface vein at the southern end of the two kilometer long historic Capleston project, the highest-grade producer of the Reefton Goldfield historically. Near surface targets lend themselves to early development and are the closest to transportation and infrastructure, providing low-cost operational advantages.

The first diamond drill hole, DD_REF_043, intersected a 12m zone of quartz-pyrite-arsenopyrite in the hanging wall, with a 1m quartz vein from 31m to 32m @ 3.86 g.t Au.   A legacy drill hole intercepted the southern lode at 33m downhole, with 1m @ 24g/t Au followed by 1m @ 2.5g/t Au¹. Mapping has recorded historical waste samples up to 32.0g/t Au in the vicinity, and a strong soil anomaly enveloping the vein (up to 410ppb Au).

Murray Creek – RUA GOLD reports the completion of the first hole testing the down-dip extension of the Victoria lode, DD_VIC_041, which is being evaluated by the team. This intersected the targeted reef at 344m down hole and encountered historical underground workings over a 4m length. It then exited out to the footwall before drilling on for an additional 20m.

This confirms that the lode extension is accurate and, with the precise location confirmed, a second hole is underway that is 50m deeper down dip from the initial drill hole. The Company anticipates an intersection into an un-mined portion of the reef at around 350m. Results from this testing will be available in the coming weeks.    CONTINUED… Read this full press release and more news for RUA GOLD at:   https://www.financialnewsmedia.com/news-rua/

Other recent developments in the mining industry of note include:

Mawson Gold Limited (OTCPK: MWSNF) recently announced that further to its news releases dated June 10, 2024 and July 30, 2024, Mawson has entered into an arrangement agreement (the “Arrangement Agreement”) with SUA Holdings Ltd. (“SUA”), a newly formed wholly-owned subsidiary of Mawson, pursuant to which the Company proposes to spin-out its uranium assets in Sweden (the “Uranium Assets”) to SUA in consideration for common shares of SUA (“SUA Common Shares”) and distribute 100% of the SUA Common Shares it then holds to the Mawson shareholders on a pro rata basis. As a result, following completion of the Arrangement, the Mawson shareholders (other than any dissenting shareholders) will also become shareholders of SUA and SUA will no longer be a subsidiary of Mawson.

In connection with the Arrangement, Mawson has subscribed for additional SUA Common Shares for aggregate consideration of $600,000 to provide working capital to SUA. Such additional SUA Common Shares will also be distributed to the Mawson shareholders under the Arrangement.

Founders Metals Inc. (OTCQX: FDMIF) recently announced that, further to the press release dated October 10, 2024, it has entered into an agreement with B2Gold Corp (“B2Gold”) for a C$12.1 million investment (the “Strategic Investment”) at a price of C$2.75 per common share (each, a “Share”). Together with the previously announced bought deal private placement of C$20M (the “Brokered Offering”), the Company will raise a total of C$32.1 million, fully funding the planned 2025 budget. Upon completion of the Strategic Investment and the Brokered Offering, B2Gold will own 5.0% of the Company’s issued and outstanding common shares on a non-diluted basis.

Colin Padget, Founders’ President & CEO commented, “We are very pleased with B2Gold’s investment in Founders along with the support and validation it brings to our Antino Gold Project. We look forward to drawing on B2Gold’s experience in exploring for, and developing, world-class mining assets in similar geological environments. This broader financing package leaves Founders well positioned to ramp up exploration at Antino, fully funding our planned 2025 exploration budget and the near-term addition of a fourth diamond drill.”

SNOWLINE GOLD CORP (OTCQB: SNWGF) (TSX-V: SGD) recently announced additional analytical results from its 2024 Valley deposit drilling campaign on the Rogue Project in Canada’s Yukon Territory alongside updates on its regional activities. Holes V-24-081 and V-24-084 returned strong, consistent gold grades from near-surface along the southwestern edge of the Valley deposit, outperforming the model used for the Company’s initial mineral resource estimate (MRE) earlier this year. In addition, Snowline has completed the first phase of a reclamation program at the Plata mining camp near the Rogue Project, organizing and inventorying debris and abandoned equipment from historical mining activities in the region for future demobilisation. The Company awaits analytical results from the majority of its 2024 exploration campaign, including >24,600 m of drilling in 44 holes across 5 different targets.

“It is a testament to the consistency of mineralization at Valley that results like today’s have become almost commonplace,” said Scott Berdahl, CEO & Director of Snowline. “Nonetheless, they further demonstrate the strength of the system near surface, and key holes V-24-081 and V-24-084 outperform our model along the southwest margin of the deposit.

Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE: AEM) (TSX: AEM) recently announced that it has filed an updated technical report for the Detour Lake mine in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

The technical report is available on SEDAR+ (http://www.sedarplus.ca) and on the Company’s website (http://www.agnicoeagle.com).   Agnico Eagle is a Canadian based and led senior gold mining company and the third largest gold producer in the world, producing precious metals from operations in Canada, Australia, Finland and Mexico.

About FN Media Group:

At FN Media Group, via our top-rated online news portal at http://www.financialnewsmedia.com, we are one of the very few select firms providing top tier one syndicated news distribution, targeted ticker tag press releases and stock market news coverage for today’s emerging companies. #pressrelease #tickertaggingpressreleases

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DISCLAIMER: FN Media Group LLC (FNM), which owns and operates FinancialNewsMedia.com and MarketNewsUpdates.com, is a third party publisher and news dissemination service provider, which disseminates electronic information through multiple online media channels. FNM is NOT affiliated in any manner with any company mentioned herein. FNM and its affiliated companies are a news dissemination solutions provider and are NOT a registered broker/dealer/analyst/adviser, holds no investment licenses and may NOT sell, offer to sell or offer to buy any security. FNM’s market updates, news alerts and corporate profiles are NOT a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell or hold securities. The material in this release is intended to be strictly informational and is NEVER to be construed or interpreted as research material. All readers are strongly urged to perform research and due diligence on their own and consult a licensed financial professional before considering any level of investing in stocks. All material included herein is republished content and details which were previously disseminated by the companies mentioned in this release. FNM is not liable for any investment decisions by its readers or subscribers. Investors are cautioned that they may lose all or a portion of their investment when investing in stocks. For current services performed FNM was compensated forty nine hundred dollars for news coverage of the current press releases issued by RUA GOLD Inc. by a non-affiliated third party. FNM HOLDS NO SHARES OF ANY COMPANY NAMED IN THIS RELEASE.

This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. “Forward-looking statements” describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as “may”, “future”, “plan” or “planned”, “will” or “should”, “expected,” “anticipates”, “draft”, “eventually” or “projected”. You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company’s annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and FNM undertakes no obligation to update such statements.

Contact Information:

Media Contact
email: editor@financialnewsmedia.com
+1(561)325-8757

SOURCE: FN Media Group

The MIL Network –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI: Metal Sky Star Acquisition Company Announces LOI with Fedilco Group Limited

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

NEW YORK, Oct. 15, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Metal Sky Star Acquisition Corporation, a Cayman Islands exempted company (NASDAQ: MSSA) (the “Company” or “Metal Sky”) announced today that it has entered into a letter of intent (the “LOI”) with Fedilco Group Limited, a Cyprus based company (“Fedilco”) holding 80% equity interest of Viva Armenia Closed Joint-Stock Company, an Armenia-based telecommunication company (“Viva”). Pursuant to the LOI, the Company expresses interest in acquiring all the issued and outstanding shares of Fedilco. The parties will obtain all the required permissions and/or approvals of the state authorities of the Republic of Armenia.

Viva’s success in the field of mobile communications is conditioned by the following principle: mobile services should be available not to a limited number of people, but to everyone. Viva provides its subscribers with the opportunity to keep in touch with their homeland, regardless of their location. Viva has 529 roaming partners in 192 countries of the world. Viva is the first company in Armenia to introduce and apply CSR as a management model and is the first operator to be guided by the international principles of social responsibility ISO 26000.

“We are excited to announce this LOI with Fedilco,” said Wenxi He, CEO of Metal Sky. “Viva is emerging as a leader in the telecommunication industry in Armenia, and we believe that this transaction will position us to effectively capitalize on growth opportunities in the sector and enhance shareholder value.”

“We are excited to enter this partnership to meet our commitment to focus on the next generation telecommunication technology,” said Loizos Vasiliou, Director of Fedilco. “This partnership into the public markets broadens our investor base and the combined company will have a strong platform to drive innovation and expand our market reach.”

About Metal Sky Star Acquisition Corporation

Metal Sky Star Acquisition Corporation is a blank check company formed under the laws of the Cayman Islands for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses.

About Fedilco Group Limited

Fedilco Group Limited, incorporated under the laws of Cyprus, is the controlling shareholder of Viva, a leading and innovate technology company in Armenia’s ICT sector.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains statements that constitute “forward-looking statements,” including with respect to the proposed transaction with Fedilco. Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous conditions, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, including those set forth in the Risk Factors section of the Company’s annual report for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, filed with the SEC on August 30, 2024. Copies are available on the SEC’s website, http://www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release, except as required by law.

Company Contacts:

Wenxi He
Chief Executive Officer
221 River Street, 9th Floor,
Hoboken, New Jersey
(201)721-8789
Email: olivia.he@gmail.com
olivia@metalskystar.com

Source: Metal Sky Star Acquisition Corporation

The MIL Network –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI: Red Cat Secures $1 Million Contract for its FlightWave Edge 130 Blue

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Oct. 15, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Red Cat Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: RCAT) (“Red Cat”), a drone technology company integrating robotic hardware and software for military, government, and commercial operations, today announced it secured a $1 million contract for its Edge 130 Blue drones from the United States Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM). The contract was secured through Noble, a leading provider of global sustainment and operations support for the U.S. Military and civilian government agencies, and was coordinated for procurement by the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) on behalf of CECOM.

FlightWave, an industry-leading provider of VTOL drone, sensor and software solutions was acquired by Red Cat in September 2024. The acquisition brings FlightWave’s flagship drone, the Edge 130 Blue into its family of low-cost, portable unmanned reconnaissance and precision lethal strike systems. FlightWave’s size, weight and vertical take off capabilities makes it ideal for maritime operations and littoral environments. FlightWave’s recent TACFI award will accelerate advanced enhancements to the Edge 130 Blue.

“It is great to deepen our relationship with the U.S. Army and to be part of CECOM’s mission to deliver C5ISR systems that enable full spectrum combat operations at the point of need,” said Jeff Thompson, Red Cat CEO. “We are committed to supporting the U.S. Army’s modernization strategy and transformation into a multi-domain force where small, portable unmanned aerial systems like the Edge 130 play an increasing role in conducting intelligence, maneuver, and strike activities across multiple battlefield formations.”

The Edge 130 Blue is a UAS-certified military-grade tricopter for long-range mapping, inspection, surveillance, and reconnaissance needs. Designed specifically for government and military applications, the Edge 130 Blue can be assembled and hand-launched in just one minute by a single user to capture high-accuracy aerial imagery with medium-range autonomy. Weighing in at only 1200g, the Edge has a 60+ minute flight time in forward mode, an industry-leading endurance among all other Blue UAS-approved drones available.

About Red Cat, Inc.
Red Cat (Nasdaq: RCAT) is a drone technology company integrating robotic hardware and software for military, government, and commercial operations. Through two wholly owned subsidiaries, Teal Drones and FlightWave Aerospace, Red Cat has developed a bleeding-edge Family of ISR and Precision Strike Systems including the Teal 2, a small unmanned system offering the highest-resolution thermal imaging in its class, the Edge 130 Blue Tricopter for extended endurance and range, and FANG™, the industry’s first line of NDAA compliant FPV drones optimized for military operations with precision strike capabilities. Learn more at http://www.redcat.red.

Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” that are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release may be identified by the use of words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “seek,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “target,” “aim,” “should,” “will” “would,” or the negative of these words or other similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements are based on Red Cat Holdings, Inc.’s current expectations and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Further, certain forward-looking statements are based on assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. These and other risks and uncertainties are described more fully in the section titled “Risk Factors” in the Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 27, 2023. Forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are made as of this date, and Red Cat Holdings, Inc. undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law.

Contact:

INVESTORS:
E-mail: Investors@redcat.red

NEWS MEDIA:
Phone: (347) 880-2895
Email: peter@indicatemedia.com

The MIL Network –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Canada: Defence Minister Bill Blair to travel to Europe for North Atlantic Treaty Organization and G7 Defence Ministers’ Meetings

Source: Government of Canada News

The Honourable Bill Blair, Minister of National Defence, will travel to Europe from October 17-20 to meet with Allies and partners to discuss issues of shared interest and ways to strengthen defence relationships.

October 15, 2024 – Ottawa, Ontario – National Defence / Canadian Armed Forces

The Honourable Bill Blair, Minister of National Defence, will travel to Europe from October 17-20 to meet with Allies and partners to discuss issues of shared interest and ways to strengthen defence relationships.

From October 17-18, Minister Blair will attend the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Defence Ministers’ Meeting (DMM) in Brussels, Belgium. This meeting will be an important opportunity for Allies to discuss issues related to security in the Euro-Atlantic, Middle East and Indo-Pacific regions, as well as NATO’s ongoing support for Ukraine.

In Brussels, Minister Blair will participate in several side events, including a Defence Ministers’ Meeting of the Global Coalition Against Daesh. The Minister will also host a Northern Defence Dialogue with Arctic Allies and partner states to reaffirm their shared commitment to enhanced collaboration on Arctic security and defence.

From October 18-20, the Minister will attend the first-ever G7 DMM in Naples, Italy. He will participate in discussions with his counterparts on G7 priorities, including support for Ukraine, the conflict in the Middle East, as well as economic security and resilience.

While in Europe, Minister Blair will hold several bilateral meetings with counterparts.

Media Availability

Following the G7 DMM, Minister Blair will hold individual interviews with Canadian media. For further information, please contact Simon Lafortune (details below).

Date and time: Saturday, October 19 between 9:30AM and 10:30AM ET

Other arrangements can be made if necessary.

-30-

Simon Lafortune
Press Secretary and Communications Advisor
Office of the Minister of National Defence
Phone: 343-549-0778
Email: Simon.Lafortune2@forces.gc.ca

Media Relations
Department of National Defence
Phone: 613-904-3333
Email: mlo-blm@forces.gc.ca

MIL OSI Canada News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Canada: Double Double: October 15th Canada Carbon Rebate delivers boost for rural families

Source: Government of Canada News (2)

Today, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, visited community members at a local coffee shop in Gananoque, Ontario, to announce the latest quarterly Canada Carbon Rebate payments are being delivered to their bank accounts and mailboxes, with a one-time “double double” rural top-up

October 15, 2024 – Gananoque, Ontario

Today, families across Canada will receive their Canada Carbon Rebate, a payment that is making life more affordable for Canadians. The Canada Carbon Rebate—alongside measures like dental care, child care, and others—contribute to the Government of Canada’s plan to help Canadian families get ahead while ensuring big polluters pay their fair share.

Today, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, visited community members at a local coffee shop in Gananoque, Ontario, to announce the latest quarterly Canada Carbon Rebate payments are being delivered to their bank accounts and mailboxes, with a one-time “double double” rural top-up.

The “double double” rural top-up

In Budget 2024, the Government of Canada doubled the rural top-up from 10 percent to 20 percent of the Canada Carbon Rebate base amount, to better support Canadians who live in rural areas and small communities, since they often drive longer distances and have higher energy needs. Given the delayed passage of the Budget, today families are receiving an added one-time 20 percent to make up retroactively for the doubling of the rural top-up on the April 15 and July 15 payments, effectively adding a one-time 40 percent top-up to the base amount of this quarter’s Canada Carbon Rebate. For a family of four in Gananoque, Ontario, this means receiving a payment of $392 today, and a total of $1,344 from Canada Carbon Rebates this fiscal year.

The Canada Carbon Rebate and the rural supplement are part of a broader government effort to ease financial pressures on Canadians while simultaneously supporting the Government of Canada’s plan to combat climate change.

Canada’s price on pollution is working. When it comes to meeting Canada’s goals, pollution pricing alone is delivering at least a third of the reductions needed, while delivering clean air and incentivizing job-creating greener investments in communities. As of today, emissions are trending down, while the economy grows and wages for Canadians are increasing.

Hermine Landry
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of Environment and Climate Change
873-455-3714
Hermine.Landry@ec.gc.ca

Media Relations
Environment and Climate Change Canada
819-938-3338 or 1-844-836-7799 (toll-free)
media@ec.gc.ca

MIL OSI Canada News –

January 23, 2025

MIL-OSI Canada: Canada Carbon Rebate rural top-up, 2024 and 2025

Source: Government of Canada News

Backgrounder

Ensuring carbon pollution pricing helps make life more affordable

A price on pollution is widely recognized as the most efficient means to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are contributing to the more intense wildfires, droughts, and floods caused by climate change. Canada’s approach to pollution pricing is also designed to put money back into people’s pockets.

Putting a price on pollution is a cornerstone of Canada’s plan, which is working to tackle climate change.

Quarterly Canada Carbon Rebate for individuals—increased rural top-up

The climate crisis is affecting all of Canada, but especially rural and small communities. They frequently face environmental, social, economic, cultural, and health impacts from climate change that are more intense than those in urban areas. Despite these challenges, these communities show remarkable resilience and often lead the way in adaptation efforts across Canada.

Canadians living in rural and small communities are on the front lines of climate change, witnessing firsthand the devastating impacts of intensified wildfires, droughts, and floods. A price on pollution is found to be one of the most efficient ways that Canada is reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute significantly to the frequency and severity of these impacts caused by climate change. The Canada Carbon Rebate both puts money back into people’s pockets and also stimulates investment in clean alternatives.

In provinces where the federal fuel charge applies, most households get back more than they pay through the Canada Carbon Rebate for individuals, as a result of the federal carbon pollution pricing system, with lower- and middle-income households benefitting the most.

To further recognize rural Canadians’ higher energy needs, particularly for home-heating and transportation, the Government of Canada has doubled the rural top-up available for households in rural areas and smaller communities from 10 percent to 20 percent of their Canada Carbon Rebate base amount, as of April 2024.

This October, eligible Canadians will receive the enhanced rural top-up for the first time. The increase will be retroactive to April 1, 2024, so those households can expect an increased top-up amount for October 2024 with a one-time boost due to the increased top-up amounts for April and July.

The top-up will apply to residents of provinces where the federal fuel charge applies, that is, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia whose primary residence is outside a Census Metropolitan Area, as defined by Statistics Canada. All rebate recipients in Prince Edward Island are eligible for the rural top-up, and it is included in their base amount. Determine if you qualify for the rural top-up.

The table below shows the amount a family of four can expect to receive each quarter in 2024–2025. As all proceeds are returned in the province they were collected in, the rebate amount varies between provinces. It is higher in provinces with more consumption of fossil fuels.

Table 1

Quarterly Canada Carbon Rebate amounts for families of four for 2024 and 2025
Province	Family of four	Rural
Alberta	$450.00	$540.00
Manitoba	$300.00	$360.00
Ontario	$280.00	$336.00
Saskatchewan	$376.00	$451.20
New Brunswick	$190.00	$228.00
Nova Scotia	$206.00	$247.20
Prince Edward Island*	$220.00	$220.00
Newfoundland and Labrador	$298.00	$357.60

*As all residents of Prince Edward Island are eligible for the 20 percent rural top-up, it is reflected in the base amount for that province.

Table 2

Annual Canada Carbon Rebate amounts for families of four for 2024 and 2025
Province	Family of four	Rural
Alberta	$1,800.00	$2,160.00
Manitoba	$1,200.00	$1,440.00
Ontario	$1,120.00	$1,344.00
Saskatchewan	$1,504.00	$1,804.80
New Brunswick	$760.00	$912.00
Nova Scotia	$824.00	$988.80
Prince Edward Island*	$880.00	$880.00
Newfoundland and Labrador	$1,192.00	$1,430.40

*As all residents of Prince Edward Island are eligible for the 20 percent rural top-up, it is reflected in the base amount for that province.

Canada Carbon Rebate for Small Businesses

Canada’s small- and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of the Canadian economy and the heart of our communities. Across the country, they keep main streets flourishing, create good jobs, and deliver on the dream of entrepreneurship. Through the new Canada Carbon Rebate for Small Businesses, the Government of Canada is delivering on its commitment to return proceeds from the price on pollution directly to small- and medium-sized businesses with employees in the provinces where the federal fuel charge applies.

This accelerated and automated return process will deliver over $2.5 billion directly to an estimated 600,000 small- and medium-sized businesses with employees in provinces where the pollution pricing system applies through a refundable tax credit. By receiving direct payments from the Canada Revenue Agency, separate from tax refunds, this simple process for returning fuel charge proceeds will help eligible small- and medium-sized businesses to focus on what matters most—driving their businesses forward.

The Canada Revenue Agency plans to issue the rebate to eligible Canadian-controlled private corporations (CCPCs) that filed their 2023 tax return no later than July 15, 2024, by the end of the calendar year. Most businesses should receive their payment by:

December 16, 2024, if registered for direct deposit
December 31, 2024, if receiving payment by cheque

On October 1, 2024, the Government of Canada specified payment rates, on a per employee basis, for the 2019–2020 to 2023–2024 fuel charge years, and the designated provinces in which these payment rates will apply.

Table 3

Specified payment rates per employee for the Canada Carbon Rebate for Small Businesses, 2019 and 2020 to 2023 and 2024
–	2019 to 2020	2020 to 2021	2021 to 2022	2022 to 2023	2023 to 2024
Alberta*	n/a	$147	$123	$140	$181
Saskatchewan	$110	$271	$244	$298	$233
Manitoba	$48	$99	$77	$89	$168
Ontario	$26	$68	$75	$86	$146
New Brunswick*	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	$87
Nova Scotia*	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	$119
Prince Edward Island*	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	$82
Newfoundland and Labrador*	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	$179

*As the federal fuel charge only came into effect as of January 1, 2020, in Alberta, and as of July 1, 2023, in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador, small businesses in these provinces will receive payments for proceeds collected as of those respective dates.

Table 4

Example payment amounts for businesses, by number of employees, 2019 to 2023
–	10 employees	25 employees	50 employees	100 employees	499 employees
Alberta*	$5,910	$14,775	$29,550	$59,100	$294,909
Saskatchewan	$11,560	$28,900	$57,800	$115,600	$576,844
Manitoba	$4,810	$12,025	$24,050	$48,100	$240,019
Ontario	$4,010	$10,025	$20,050	$40,100	$200,099
New Brunswick*	$870	$2,175	$4,350	$8,700	$43,413
Nova Scotia*	$1,190	$2,975	$5,950	$11,900	$59,381
Prince Edward Island*	$820	$2,050	$4,100	$8,200	$40,918
Newfoundland and Labrador*	$1,790	$4,475	$8,950	$17,900	$89,321

Additionally, to allow more businesses to receive a payment, it is also being proposed that corporations that file their tax return for 2023 after July 15, 2024, and on or before December 31, 2024, would be eligible for a payment. Legislation enacting these changes requires Royal Assent before payments can be issued to businesses filing after the initial July 15 deadline.

More information on the Canada Carbon Rebate for Small Businesses payment amounts from 2019 and 2020 to 2023 and 2024 has been published by Finance Canada.

Pollution pricing relief for farmers and fishers

Farmers are on the frontlines of climate change, facing ever-increasing risks of floods, droughts, and storms to their operations. Canada’s approach to pollution pricing offers targeted support to farmers, who are also investing to deploy cost-saving and job-creating clean technology solutions. Farmers generally do not pay the fuel charge for gasoline and light fuel oil (diesel) used in eligible farming machinery on farms. Additionally, biological emissions are not priced under this federal system, totalling roughly 97 percent of on-farm emissions.

Greenhouse operators also receive upfront relief of 80 percent of the fuel charge on propane and marketable natural gas used to heat an eligible greenhouse or to supplement carbon dioxide in eligible greenhouses to grow or produce plants.

Additionally, farm businesses that operate in provinces where the federal fuel charge is in place can generally receive a refundable tax credit, the purpose of which is to return fuel charge proceeds related to farm use of natural gas and propane in heating and drying activities in those provinces to help farmers transition to lower-carbon ways of farming.

Canada’s Greenhouse Gas Offset Credit System also provides an economic incentive for farmers to undertake innovative greenhouse gas reduction and removal projects.

As part of the strengthened climate plan and the 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan, the Government of Canada committed over $1.5 billion to accelerate the agricultural sector’s progress on reducing emissions while remaining a global leader in sustainable agriculture. This includes $470.7 million for the Agricultural Clean Technology (ACT) Program to create an enabling environment for developing and adopting clean technology. This will help drive the changes required to achieve a low-carbon economy and promote sustainable growth in Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sector.

Fishers are also provided with relief from paying the federal fuel charge on gasoline and light fuel oil (diesel) used in fishing vessels for eligible fishing activities.

Industrial pollution pricing system

Industrial pollution pricing systems are designed to ensure there is a price incentive for industrial emitters to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and spur innovation while remaining competitive. Not only does pollution pricing ensure big polluters pay their fair share, it is also helping Canada attract new major projects that are creating good paying jobs.

Canada’s approach to pollution pricing gives major heavy industries certainty on the price they pay for the pollution they generate, helping to bring forward investments in job-creating cleaner alternatives to meet their business needs. This helps them make informed decisions and is also designed to protect against the risk of industrial facilities moving to another region to avoid paying a price on carbon pollution.

All proceeds generated from the federal industrial pollution pricing system in backstop jurisdictions are returned in the jurisdiction of origin to support industrial projects in cutting emissions and using new, cleaner technologies and processes.

The Output-Based Pricing System (OBPS) Proceeds Fund returns proceeds collected under the federal OBPS and is comprised of two streams: the Decarbonization Incentive Program and the Future Electricity Fund. Further information on projects being funded by federal industrial pollution pricing proceeds has been published on the Open Government Portal.

MIL OSI Canada News –

January 23, 2025

MIL-OSI United Kingdom: New leader for ARU’s work-based courses

Source: Anglia Ruskin University

Published: 14 October 2024 at 10:30

Specialist in education and workforce development Carl Dawson joins university

Carl Dawson, a globally renowned expert in online education and workforce development with over 20 years of experience, has been appointed to lead Anglia Ruskin University’s Online and Degrees at Work teams.

Relocating to the UK from Texas, Carl has previously worked closely with universities, governments and companies in the United States, Canada, Australia, Bangladesh, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Carl has extensive experience across both the public and private sectors and has implemented digital learning programs for institutions and governments, including the UK Cabinet Office. In 2013, he co-founded Construct Education, later recognized by Deloitte as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in the UK and now operating globally.

He helped build accredited online education programs at institutions such as Howard University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Tennessee.

In 2021, Carl became an advisor to the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on new digital learning strategies in a post COVID world.

His academic research includes time as a Transformational Leadership Fellow at Oxford University, a Policy Fellow at Cambridge University, and a Senior Research Associate at Jesus College, Cambridge, focusing on new economic models for higher education.

The Degrees at Work team is at the forefront of driving growth for ARU’s distance learning and apprenticeships. The team collaborates closely with employers and academics to identify future talent needs, generating insights that shape ARU’s innovative, professional work-based programs.

Carl, who takes the role of Director of Learning Development Services at ARU, said:

“I’m thrilled to return to the UK to join Anglia Ruskin University and help shape the future of work in the East of England and beyond, ensuring this unique region leads in preparing learners for tomorrow’s industries and societal needs.

“Being part of the University of the Year is an incredible opportunity, and I’m eager to build on our Gold Award for teaching, pioneering degree apprenticeships, and decade-long distance and online learning success.”

MIL OSI United Kingdom –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: NASA Spotlight: Felipe Valdez, an Inspiring Engineer

Source: NASA

Felipe Valdez is someone who took advantage of every possible opportunity at NASA, working his way from undergraduate intern to his current job as a flight controls engineer.
Born in the United States but raised in Mexico, Valdez faced significant challenges growing up.
“My mom worked long hours, my dad battled addiction, and eventually, school became unaffordable,” Valdez said.
Determined to continue his education, Valdez made the difficult choice to leave his family and return to the U.S. But as a teenager, learning English and adapting to a new environment was a culture shock for him. Despite these changes, his curiosity for subjects such as math and science never wavered.
“As a kid, I’d always been good with numbers and fascinated by how things worked. Engineering combined both,” Valdez said. “This sparked my interest.”
While he pursued an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from California State University, Sacramento, guidance from his professor, Jose Granda, proved to be pivotal.
“He encouraged me to apply for a NASA internship,” Valdez said. “He’d actually been a Spanish-language spokesperson for a [space] shuttle mission, so hearing about someone with my background succeed gave me the confidence I needed to take that step.”
Valdez’s hard work paid off – he was selected as a NASA Office of STEM Engagement intern at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. There, he worked on software development for vehicle dynamics, actuators, and controller models for a space capsule in computer simulations.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Valdez said. “Getting that opportunity changed everything.”
This internship opened the door to a second with NASA this time at the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California. He had the chance to work on flight computer development for the Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Lower Drag, an experimental flying wing design.
After these experiences, he was later accepted as an intern for NASA’s Pathways Program, a work-study program that offers the possibly of full-time employment at NASA after graduation.
“That was the start of my career at NASA, where my passion for aeronautics really took off,” he said.
Valdez was the first in his family to pursue higher education, earning his bachelor’s degree from Sacramento State and his master’s in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the University of California, Davis.
Today, he works as a NASA flight controls engineer under the Dynamics and Controls branch at Armstrong. Most of his experience has focused on flight simulation development and flight control design, particularly for distributed electric propulsion aircraft.
“It’s rewarding to be part of a group that’s focused on making aviation faster, quieter, and more sustainable,” Valdez said. “As a controls engineer, working on advanced aircraft concepts like distributed electric propulsion allows me design algorithms to directly control multiple motors, enhancing safety, controllability, and stability, while enabling cleaner, and quieter operations that push the boundaries of sustainable aviation.”
Throughout his career, Valdez has remained proud of his heritage.   “I feel a strong sense of pride knowing that inclusion is one of our core values, opportunities are within reach for anyone at NASA.”

MIL OSI USA News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI: OTC Markets Group Welcomes Blumetric Environmental, Inc. to OTCQX

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

NEW YORK, Oct. 14, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM), operator of regulated markets for trading 12,000 U.S. and international securities, today announced Blumetric Environmental, Inc. (TSX-V: BLM; OTCQX: BLMWF), (“BluMetric”) an integrated product and service organization, has qualified to trade on the OTCQX® Best Market. BluMetric Environmental, Inc. upgraded to OTCQX from the Pink® market.

BluMetric Environmental, Inc. begins trading today on OTCQX under the symbol “BLMWF.” U.S. investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for the company on http://www.otcmarkets.com.

The OTCQX Market provides investors with a premium U.S. public market to research and trade the shares of investor-focused companies. Graduating to the OTCQX Market marks an important milestone for companies, enabling them to demonstrate their qualifications and build visibility among U.S. investors. To qualify for OTCQX, companies must meet high financial standards, follow best practice corporate governance, and demonstrate compliance with applicable securities laws.

“We are excited to announce our trading debut on the OTCQX, a milestone that reflects our commitment to connecting with a broader investor base,” said Scott MacFabe, CEO of BluMetric. “This achievement coincides with our strategic expansion into the U.S. market through our recent acquisition of Gemini Water. We look forward to leveraging this platform as we execute on our new opportunities and drive shareholder value.”

About BluMetric Environmental Inc.
BluMetric Environmental Inc. is an integrated product and service organization. It principally provides sustainable solutions for complex environmental issues. It serves clients in many industrial sectors, and at all levels of government, both domestically and internationally. The organization offers services and solutions such as environmental earth sciences and engineering; contaminated site remediation; water resource management; industrial hygiene; occupational health and safety; and water and wastewater design-build and pre-engineered solutions. It operates in Canada and internationally, of which the majority of the revenue is derived from the operations in Canada.

About OTC Markets Group Inc.
OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM) operates regulated markets for trading 12,000 U.S. and international securities. Our data-driven disclosure standards form the foundation of our three public markets: OTCQX^® Best Market, OTCQB^® Venture Market and Pink^® Open Market.

Our OTC Link^® Alternative Trading Systems (ATSs) provide critical market infrastructure that broker-dealers rely on to facilitate trading. Our innovative model offers companies more efficient access to the U.S. financial markets.

OTC Link ATS, OTC Link ECN and OTC Link NQB are each an SEC regulated ATS, operated by OTC Link LLC, a FINRA and SEC registered broker-dealer, member SIPC.

To learn more about how we create better informed and more efficient markets, visit http://www.otcmarkets.com.

Subscribe to the OTC Markets RSS Feed

Media Contact:
OTC Markets Group Inc., +1 (212) 896-4428, media@otcmarkets.com

The MIL Network –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI: Descartes Acquires Sellercloud

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

Adds Inventory Management and Order Management Capabilities to Descartes’ Ecommerce Suite

WATERLOO, Ontario and ATLANTA, Oct. 14, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Descartes Systems Group (TSX:DSG) (Nasdaq:DSGX), the global leader in uniting logistics-intensive businesses in commerce, announced that it has acquired Sellercloud, a leading provider of omnichannel ecommerce solutions.

Based in the US, Sellercloud supports small and mid-market retailers, distributors, wholesalers, and manufacturers with multi-channel ecommerce operations. Sellercloud’s Inventory Management Solutions and Order Management Solutions (IMS/OMS) help customers synchronize, plan and manage inventory levels across multiple sales channels. In addition, Sellercloud helps product sellers orchestrate the fulfillment process from routing orders to the right warehouse to enabling warehouse staff to better manage order picking, packing, shipping, and returns.

“Our integrated ecommerce solutions are designed to help product sellers through all phases of their growth, from a single product startup to a global multi-channel enterprise,” said Mikel Richardson, General Manager of ecommerce at Descartes. “Sellercloud expands our product suite with advanced inventory and order management capabilities that our customers have been asking for. When combined with Descartes’ existing ecommerce shipping, fulfilment and warehouse management solutions, we believe the result is a truly differentiated offering to manage the full lifecycle of domestic and cross-border ecommerce shipments.”

“We continue to listen to our customers for key areas of investment in our Global Logistics Network,” said Edward J. Ryan, Descartes’ CEO. “Sellercloud directly complements our ecommerce investments in XPS, ShipRush, pixi, and Peoplevox, and we’re excited to welcome the Sellercloud employees, customers and partners into the Descartes family.”

Sellercloud is headquartered in New Jersey. Descartes acquired Sellercloud for up-front consideration of approximately US $110 million satisfied from cash on hand, plus additional potential performance-based consideration. The maximum amount payable under the all-cash performance-based earn-out is US $20 million, based on the combined business achieving revenue-based targets in each of the first two years post-acquisition. Any earn-out is expected to be paid in fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2027.

About Descartes Systems Group
Descartes is the global leader in providing on-demand, software-as-a-service solutions focused on improving the productivity, security, and sustainability of logistics-intensive businesses. Customers use our modular, software-as-a-service solutions to route, track and help improve the safety, performance and compliance of delivery resources; plan, allocate and execute shipments; rate, audit and pay transportation invoices; access global trade data; file customs and security documents for imports and exports; and complete numerous other logistics processes by participating in the world’s largest, collaborative multimodal logistics community. Our headquarters are in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and we have offices and partners around the world. Learn more at http://www.descartes.com, and connect with us on LinkedIn and X (Twitter).

Descartes Investor Contact
Laurie McCauley
(519) 746-2969
investor@descartes.com

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (“forward-looking statements”) that relate to Descartes’ acquisition of Sellercloud and its solution offerings; the potential to provide customers with omnichannel ecommerce solutions including inventory management and order management solutions; other potential benefits derived from the acquisition and Sellercloud’s solution offerings; and other matters. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to, the expected future performance of the Sellercloud business based on its historical and projected performance as well as the factors and assumptions discussed in the section entitled, “Certain Factors That May Affect Future Results” in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Ontario Securities Commission and other securities commissions across Canada including Descartes’ most recently filed management’s discussion and analysis. If any such risks actually occur, they could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. In that case, the trading price of our common shares could decline, perhaps materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purposes of providing information about management’s current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. We do not undertake or accept any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in our expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based, except as required by law.

The MIL Network –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Tech Secretary welcomes foreign investment in UK data centres which will spur economic growth and AI innovation in Britain
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

Four major tech firms based in the US have committed to the UK as the place to invest in data centres, fueling Britain’s economic growth and spurring on AI development.
£6.3 billion global investment into UK data centres.

The Technology Secretary Peter Kyle has today (Monday 14 October) welcomed the ‘vote of confidence’ in Britain made by US firms CyrusOne, ServiceNow, Cloud HQ and CoreWeave, who have announced the UK will be the home for their data infrastructure worth a total of £6.3 billion.

The investments, announced as part of today’s International Investment Summit, will take the total investment in UK data centres to over £25 billion since this government took office, demonstrating the government’s continuous effort in driving growth by partnering with business.

These new data centres will provide the UK with more computing power and data storage, so that Britain has the necessary infrastructure to train and deploy the next generation of AI technologies, such as complex machine learning models and algorithms. This in turn will help us roll out AI faster in areas like healthcare, which will help everyone live better and healthier lives.

Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said:

Tech leaders from all over the world are seeing Britain as the best place to invest with a thriving and stable market for data centres and AI development.

Data centres power our day-to-day lives and boost innovation in growing sectors like AI. This is why only last month, I took steps to class UK data centres as Critical National Infrastructure giving the industry the ultimate reassurance the UK will always be a safe home for their investment. Today’s drumbeat of investment is a vote of confidence in Britain and our approach to work with business to deliver sustained growth for all.

It comes as Washington DC-headquartered firm CloudHQ is set to develop a new £1.9 billion data centre campus in Didcot, Oxfordshire.

The hyper-scale data centre is currently in development and will help meet the UK’s growing demand for AI and machine learning. It will create 1,500 jobs during construction, and 100 permanent jobs once fully operational.

Hossein Fateh, CloudHQ’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer, said:

We are very excited to deliver a hyper-scale campus in the UK that is truly an extension of Slough due to our private diverse fibre optic route.

Our site enables us to build out our campus environment to provide scale and density to meet our customers’ requirements.

Global AI platform and software leader ServiceNow also confirmed its commitment to the UK market, with plans to invest £1.15 billion into its UK business over the next 5 years. The investment will not only support the future development of AI in the UK, expanding its data centres with Nvidia GPUs for local processing data, but also support new office space as the company significantly grows into employee base beyond its current headcount of 1,000 employees.

ServiceNow Chairman and CEO Bill McDermott said:

Working together, ServiceNow and HM government are on the brink of a great unlock, putting AI to work for people across the country.

AI-powered transformation is a generational opportunity to champion citizens, empower employees, and delight customers. ServiceNow’s investment will accelerate the UK’s innovation blueprint, redefining how people live and work.

CyrusOne, a leading global data centre developer headquartered in the United States, announced plans to expand their investment into the UK to £2.5 billion over the coming years.

Subject to planning permission, the projects should be operational by Q4 2028 and are expected to create over 1,000 jobs both directly and within its immediate design and construction value chain.

Eric Schwartz, President and Chief Executive Officer at CyrusOne, said:

The UK government’s recent ‘critical national infrastructure’ (CNI) designation was a strong signal that data centres are of strategic importance to the UK economy.

It has provided CyrusOne with the confidence to continue its expansion in the UK and support the government’s policy ambition to become a centre of excellence for digital services, technology innovation and AI.

Announcing its second investment in the UK this year, AI hyperscaler CoreWeave also confirmed £750 million to support the next generation of AI cloud infrastructure.

Building on its £1 billion investment announced in May and the opening of its European headquarters in London, CoreWeave will be investing a further £750 million in the UK to support the demand for critical AI infrastructure. The investment in the UK is CoreWeave’s second largest investment in a country following the USA.

Mike Intrator, CEO and co-founder of CoreWeave:

CoreWeave’s multiple investments in 2024 are a mark of our confidence in the government’s commitment to attracting global private investment through the creation of a stable, business-friendly environment.

We are encouraged by the UK’s strong talent pool, which is reflected in our decision earlier this year to open our European headquarters in London, and priority focus on investing in critical infrastructure, to drive the continued development of the UK’s thriving AI sector.

Today’s investments follow major deals with investment giant Blackstone, who committed to £10 billion investment in the North East of England last month, and Amazon Web Services, who announced they plan to invest £8 billion in building, maintaining and operating data centres in the UK over the next 5 years.

Only last month, the Tech Secretary also classed UK data centres as ‘Critical National Infrastructure’ (CNI), giving the sector can greater government support in recovering from and anticipating critical incidents, ensuring the industry remains secure and stable.

In July, he also appointed entrepreneur Matt Clifford to kickstart an AI Opportunities Action Plan, which will set out how to boost take up of AI across all parts of the economy, and consider the necessary AI infrastructure, talent, and data access required to drive adoption by the public and private sectors.

This week’s International Investment Summit will see ministers and business leaders discuss how the UK can capitalise on emerging growth sectors including health tech and AI, clean energy and creative industries with confirmed speakers including Ruth Porat President & Chief Investment Officer, Alphabet and Google, David Ricks, CEO of Eli Lilly, Alex Kendall CEO of Wayve and Pushmeet Kohli Principal Scientist at Google DeepMind.

The Prime Minister will take part in an “in conversation” event with former CEO and chairman of Google Eric Schmidt and CEO of GSK Dame Emma Walmsley to discuss how the UK can seize the opportunities of AI to drive growth and productivity, and it’s potential to improve public services such as health and education’

Tech Secretary Peter Kyle will take part in a conversation about accelerating innovation as well as sign a memorandum of understanding with Elderberry, the world’s largest pharmaceutical firm, which sets the stage for a world-first trial of obesity medications on the NHS, in Greater Manchester, while the company plans to set up a new biotech hub in the UK.

Notes to editors

CloudHQ has already secured planning permission to build a state-of-the-art data centre campus in Didcot.

DSIT media enquiries

Email press@dsit.gov.uk

Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 6pm 020 7215 300

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Published 14 October 2024
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI: Red Cat Introduces ARACHNID™ Family of Small ISR and Precision Strike Systems at AUSA 2024
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Oct. 14, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Red Cat Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: RCAT) (“Red Cat”), a drone technology company building hardware and software for military, federal, and commercial operations, today introduced its ARACHNID™ family of unmanned intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and precision strike systems. Red Cat unveiled the Family of Systems at AUSA 2024 Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington D.C.

The ARACHNID family of systems is purpose built for the U.S. Army’s roadmap to integrate UAS and long endurance aircraft in a combined arms fight with synchronized fire and maneuver across various command levels. Red Cat currently addresses the needs of warfighters at the platoon and company level with drones that span capabilities and endurance for short and medium-range operations in air, land, and maritime environments. Future potential partnerships will enable long-range reconnaissance.

Red Cat redefines the future of sUAS for defense applications by combining the capabilities of portable, low-cost, and recoverable ISR drones with precision strike payloads. The company is enabling a shift away from legacy, high-cost UAS to highly interoperable systems that can adapt to a rapidly evolving battlefield. This shift includes layered UAS/LE deployment to shape fires and maneuver, extended reach via networks and autonomy, and reduced cognitive burden with increased safety and survivability for warfighters.

“The U.S. Army has prioritized integrating UAS across military formations from squad to corps and have specific requirements informed by an understanding of emerging real-world threats,” said Jeff Thompson, Red Cat CEO. “We are introducing the ARACHNID™ family of systems to ensure we can react to the rapidly evolving needs of sUAS for short, medium and long range operations. With future partnerships, our drones can be dropped from long endurance aircraft or integrated into unmanned surface vessels to extend reach and penetration at the battlefield’s tactical edge.”

ARACHNID advances Red Cat’s established leadership in the sUAS space and brings enhanced capabilities and tech integrations to its existing flagship products from Teal. To reflect this technology evolution and the capabilities of the newest model that Red Cat developed for the U.S. Army’s SRR Program of Record, the company has rebranded its flagship within the ARACHNID family of systems:
- Black Widow™ (successor to Teal 2) is a highly capable, rucksack portable sUAS designed specifically for operation in Electronic Warfare (EW) environments. A fully modular architecture enables swift adaptation to mission requirements including short range reconnaissance and secondary payload operation. Black Widow™ is significantly enhanced from the Teal 2 model with longer endurance, EW resilience, and advanced autonomy.
- WEB™ (Warfighter Electronic Bridge) is a Ground Control Station purpose built to operate Red Cat’s entire ARACHNID family of systems for military operations. WEB is fully integrated with Kinesis and ATAK to provide seamless integration with platforms and enhance mission effectiveness. WEB can also function as a stand-alone GCS for other non-Red Cat platforms, offering multi-domain versatility.
To address the needs of medium-range reconnaissance and persistent strike systems, Red Cat is accelerating the development of its FANG™ line of First-Person View (FPV) drones. Additionally, Red Cat’s product roadmap includes TRICHON™, which will build upon the FlightWave Edge 130 Blue, a military-grade VTOL tricopter for medium-range mapping, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.

“The Pentagon’s Replicator initiative established a bold mission to accelerate the deployment of attritable sUAS to the warfighter. In concert with Replicator’s mission we are accelerating the development of our products that will enhance the effectiveness and safety of military and security operations,” said George Matus, Red Cat CTO. “In many ways, domestic UAS innovation has been spurred by learnings in Ukraine and Israel, where drones have clearly demonstrated asymmetric warfare. The ARACHNID family of systems represents what we believe the future of drones needs to look like.”

The new family of systems will leverage ongoing industry collaboration, underpinned by the Red Cat Futures Initiative. Both through Red Cat’s agile internal research and development, as well as robust partnerships, the family of systems will continually iterate with new capabilities across hardware and software. Red Cat has the ability to manufacture these systems at a high production rate with superior quality to meet the demands of our customers globally.

To meet with Red Cat and see the Black Widow™ and rest of the family of systems, visit booth 330 at AUSA October 14-16, 2024.

For more information about the Red Cat family of systems and capabilities, visit: https://redcat.red/solutions/family-of-systems/.

About Red Cat, Inc.  
Red Cat (Nasdaq: RCAT) is a drone technology company integrating robotic hardware and software for military, government, and commercial operations. Through two wholly owned subsidiaries, Teal Drones and Flightwave Aerospace, Red Cat has developed a bleeding-edge Family of ISR and Precision Strike Systems including Black Widow™, a small unmanned system offering the highest-resolution thermal imaging in its class, TRICHON™ Tricopter for extended endurance and range, and FANG™, the industry’s first line of NDAA compliant FPV drones optimized for military operations with precision strike capabilities. Learn more at http://www.redcat.red.

Forward-Looking Statements 
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” that are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release may be identified by the use of words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “seek,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “target,” “aim,” “should,” “will,” “would,” or the negative of these words or other similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements are based on Red Cat Holdings, Inc.’s current expectations and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Further, certain forward-looking statements are based on assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. These and other risks and uncertainties are described more fully in the section titled “Risk Factors” in the final prospectus related to the public offering filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are made as of this date, and Red Cat Holdings, Inc. undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law. 

Contacts:

INVESTORS:
E-mail: Investors@redcat.red

NEWS MEDIA:
Indicate Media
Phone: (347) 880-2895
Email: peter@indicatemedia.com

The MIL Network –
January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI China: COP16: Forum on Energy Transition Promoting Biodiversity Conservation to kick off

Source: China State Council Information Office

The 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will be held in Cali, Colombia, from October 21 to November 2, 2024. GEIDCO will partner with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) to host a forum on energy transition and biodiversity conservation during COP16. The event, scheduled for Oct. 25 from 10-11 a.m. in the Cali Cultural Center’s main auditorium, will unveil research findings titled “Plans and Typical Cases for Promoting Biodiversity Conservation through Energy Transition”.

MIL OSI China News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Africa: Hamburg Sustainability Conference spotlights youth entrepreneurship in Africa, African Development Bank Group support for continent’s youth-led small and medium enterprises

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

HAMBURG, Germany, October 14, 2024/APO Group/ —

African youth entrepreneurs supported the by African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) took center stage at the Hamburg Sustainability Conference on Monday.

During a session, titled “Empowering Young Entrepreneurs in Africa,” executives of the African Development Bank and its partner the African Guarantee Fund (http://apo-opa.co/3Y78rMT), as well as young African business leaders showcased innovative approaches to bridging the financing gap for youth entrepreneurs.

The two-day Hamburg Sustainability Conference, which drew global leaders, development institutions and young business founders across the continent, featured high-level discussions on reshaping international financial systems and creating investment environments that promote achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The session explored the impact of the Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (http://apo-opa.co/3Y3wpZI) initiative. Through AFAWA, the Bank has approved approximately $1.8 billion in lending for Africa’s women entrepreneurs; some $1 billion has already been disbursed to more than 18,000 women-led small and medium enterprises.

Melanie Keita, CEO and co-founder of Melanin Kapital (http://apo-opa.co/48alJNA), a Nairobi-based fintech company that provides digital loans, and a beneficiary of AFAWA, spoke about the need for more accessible financing options for Africa’s youth-led startups. She questioned whether there were plans to digitise the loan process: “Can people access loans from their living room instead of having to travel a lot of time and then go with a lot of paperwork and being denied loans sometimes?”

South Africa’s Minister in the Presidency Responsible for Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation, Maropene Ramokgopa, told attendees that young African entrepreneurs are “drivers of change.” She urged governments to prioritise entrepreneurship policies and reduce bureaucratic barriers.

“From financial technology, agriculture, renewable energy and creative sector to digital health solutions, young African entrepreneurs are transforming their communities,” Ramokgopa added. “They are also creating jobs and reshaping the economies as well.”

Africa is facing a significant demographic shift: the continent is expected to be home to 1.4 billion people aged under 25 by the year 2063.

Ahmed Attout, Director for Financial Sector Development at the African Development Bank, introduced its Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Banks (YEIB) initiative, designed to de-risk investing in youth entrepreneurs while fostering talent and entrepreneurship across Africa.

“[The Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Banks initiative] is a one-stop shop that can give youth access to finance, employment guarantees, employment technical assistance,” Attout said, adding that the initiative is in the advanced implementation phase in Liberia and Ethiopia.

Jules Ngankam, CEO of the African Guarantee Fund, an implementing partner of AFAWA, announced significant progress in delivering solutions for entrepreneurs. He said the Fund has issued $3 billion in guarantees, enabling commercial banks to lend $5 billion to small and medium-sized enterprises.

The session was followed by a roundtable to stimulate networking between development institutions and African innovators. Joining Keita at the roundtable were two other beneficiaries of the Bank’s support: Chiemela Anosike, founder and CEO of Solaris GreenTech (http://apo-opa.co/48alKkC), and Ebun Feludu, CEO of Kokari Coconuts & Company (http://apo-opa.co/3A6ibiv), both Nigeria-based.

Chiemela Anosike said the struggle for start-up success is real. “Entrepreneurship is hard. Entrepreneurship in Africa is harder…so, it’s difficult. So, we have programs like this…but then you give us another full-time job because you’re into fundraising and then it’s taking six months. You’re developing just one proposal [for financing] and it’s taking one month plus,” Anosike told roundtable participants.

Bank Director for Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Martha Phiri told the entrepreneurs that the Bank is integrating entrepreneurship skills into its vocational training programs, in recognition that not all graduates will find employment in existing job markets.

Tapera Muzira, the Bank’s Lead Expert for Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development said the Bank’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab (http://apo-opa.co/3YqnotZ), an online platform that connects African entrepreneurs with resources, financing, and business development services, is closing the information gap that limits youth potential to contribute to economies and communities.

Earlier, Norway’s Minister of International Development, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, noted that her country is committed to supporting African youth entrepreneurship. She referenced the USAID and Norway-led Financing for Agricultural Small-and-Medium Enterprises in Africa program, a multi-donor fund designed to spur investment in Africa’s agricultural growth.

“African youth constitute 60% of the population, which is why youth engagement and involvement is central in Norwegian foreign and development policies. Financing entrepreneurs is not enough. We need to build an entrepreneurial culture that supports solid institutional and regulatory frameworks,” Tvinnereim said.

The Hamburg Sustainability Conference is organized annually by the United Nations Development Program, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Michael Otto Foundation for Sustainability (http://apo-opa.co/48alMJg) and the City of Hamburg.

MIL OSI Africa –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Finding critical minerals from scoops of sand

Source: US Government research organizations

Smartphones, batteries and satellites all require critical minerals like cobalt, niobium and tin. As society increasingly relies on these minerals to create a more sustainable energy economy, demand may soon outpace available supply.

To potentially help boost national supply of critical minerals, which are crucial to both the economy and national security, Dustin Trail and Rachel Glade, professors at the University of Rochester, are collaborating on a U.S. National Science Foundation-supported project to find novel ways to identify undiscovered critical mineral reservoirs.

“With just a scoop of sand from a river basin, we can sample all the surface rocks and see if any of them came from critical mineral-enriched sources,” Trail said. Quartz carries tiny amounts of critical minerals inside, which could be used to fingerprint whether each quartz grain found in a riverbed originally came from a critical mineral-rich rock or not.

In addition to studying the minerals themselves, the team will also study how mineral grains move in rivers and drainage basins. Glade will collect hundreds of rocks, drill into the rocks to add a radio frequency identification tracker, put them back in the stream and then see how far they travel. These data points will go into a mathematical model to help predict how minerals’ shape and size affect how they move in river basins, with the goal of using these quantities to predict travel distance, and therefore origin, of the sediments.

The team is focusing efforts on sites around Rochester, New York, but could see following a similar approach in areas that are more remote and difficult to explore, such as Alaska.

MIL OSI USA News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Nguyen a Biomedical Engineering Star

Source: US State of Connecticut

Through millions in coveted grants, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are recognizing how impactful Thanh Nguyen’s research is to the field of biomedical engineering.

Nguyen, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering, has already established himself as one of the top-funded researchers at UConn. The NIH is adding to that success by awarding Nguyen four R01 grants totaling more than $9.5 million, with $7.5 million going to UConn researchers.

His research is the interface of biomedicine, material engineering, and the use of nano- and microtechnology. Nguyen has made strides on multiple fronts, with multi-disciplinary projects dedicated to helping heal helping people with diverse afflictions.

“We are always motivated by medical problems that have a high impact on human health,” says Nguyen.

R01 grants are highly competitive, awarded to research and development projects that live up to the NIH’s mission to improve health, extend life, and reduce illness and disability.

For Nguyen, his collaborators, and students, the grants present an opportunity to improve technology to help bones and cartilage to heal. He is also working to develop improved methods to deliver lifesaving vaccines and antibodies to worldwide populations.

Assistant professor Thanh Nguyen supports numerous postdoctoral and Ph.D. students in his biomedical engineering laboratory.

Two of the grants are brand new, providing $2.1 million and $1.5 million toward respective projects. On the former, Nguyen is the primary investigator on a project to stimulate and accelerate healing defects to the longest bones in the body, such as the femur and tibia.

“Bones in most parts of the body can regenerate themselves, but when you get a long and large bone injury, the body needs help to regenerate,” Nguyen says.

Significant long bone injuries are often treated with growth factors or stem cells to stimulate healing. However, the techniques often include serious side effects that can impair patients.

Nguyen and his team are working to minimize the danger through the application of safe biomaterials as an electrically active scaffold over a bone defect. The scaffold would be biodegradable and able to produce electrical charges, stimulating bone repair.

Concurrently, Nguyen is working with fellow researchers to provide needed antibodies to breastfeeding infants with HIV. Globally, more than 130,000 babies are infected with HIV annually, and certain antibodies have shown to be effective against the virus.

The second new R01 grant will fund the development microneedle technology to deliver multi-potent antibodies which can last a long time in the baby body to sustain the immune protection against infectious HIV virus. Currently, multiple injections are required, and the antibodies must be stored at cold temperatures. The process is expensive and burdensome.

Nguyen says microneedle patches would greatly simplify the process and reduce the cost of cold-chain storage. Along with the collaborators in Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS), Nguyen’s research would investigate the effectiveness of the anti-HIV patches in small animals and large animals like monkeys.

Nguyen says the treatment is applied similar to a nicotine patch, painlessly delivering the antibodies into the recipient. Ultimately, the patches will be tested in pediatric patients who have a high risk of HIV infection as a result of breastfeeding from HIV-infected mothers.

Besides these two grants, he received a $2.16 million grant to research how his invented biodegradable ultrasound technology can increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy in brain cancer patients.

The fourth grant, for nearly $2 million, investigates how tissue-scaffolding made of his lab’s invented biodegradable electrically active polymer can regrow cartilage, as successfully performed on rabbits. The treatment could be a game changer for osteoarthritis patients whose cartilage in body parts such as the knee has deteriorated through injury or aging.

Beyond the NIH, Nguyen has received significant support through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in a $2.6 million project as the PI on development of a microneedle array patch capable of delivering multiple human vaccines at once.

In late September, the Gates Foundation awarded Nguyen another $4 million for his work on the microneedle patch. Nguyen and his team are working to scale up production of the patch, which can deliver multiple vaccines at ones. This includes vaccines or antibodies to fight diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, HIV, and polio.

Once almost eradicated, polio continues to affect populations in developing countries, with the most cases reported in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan. Nguyen hopes the microneedle patch will make new progress in the effort to eliminate the threat of polio once and for all.

Now with $6.6 million in Gates Foundation funding, Nguyen is pleased to be able to expand his team, including offer more opportunities to undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Together, his prolific research funding has brought a total amount of $25 million funding to UConn since 2016 when he started as an assistant professor, a testament to the impact of his research.

“I am very grateful to the NIH and the Gates Foundation for the opportunity to pursue vaccination and biomedical engineering research at UConn,” Nguyen says.

Nguyen’s breakthroughs have led to numerous awards, more than 20 issued and pending patents, and an induction into the U.S. National Academy of Inventors. He is also a reputable mentor, adviser and collaborator, with his work currently supporting more than 21 people, including 11 post-doctoral and 10 Ph.D. students in his biomedical engineering lab.

While he has been successful as a fundraiser, Nguyen says it has taken many years and widespread publication to achieve his level of support. He backs his proposals through innovative ideas, significant problems to address and extensive scientific data, utilizing the resources at his disposal.

“We keep working and producing high quality research published in well-known scientific journals,” he says. “That has helped create a successful and impactful research program.”

MIL OSI USA News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI China: 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics shared by 3 recipients

Source: China State Council Information Office

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decided on Monday to award the 2024 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson.

This trio, consisting of Acemoglu and Johnson from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Robinson from the University of Chicago, has been honored “for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity.”

Jakob Svensson, chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, stated that the laureates have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions in achieving the goal of reducing income differences between countries.

The laureates’ research contributes to the understanding that “societies with a poor rule of law and institutions that exploit the population do not generate growth or change for the better,” the committee stated in a press release.

Daron Acemoglu was born in 1967 in Istanbul, Türkiye. He earned his PhD in 1992 from the London School of Economics and Political Science and is currently a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, the United States. Simon Johnson, born in 1963 in Sheffield, the United Kingdom, received his PhD in 1989 from MIT and is also a professor there. James A. Robinson, born in 1960, obtained his PhD in 1993 from Yale University and is a professor at the University of Chicago, IL, USA.

The prize includes 11 million Swedish Krona (approximately 1 million U.S. dollars). Established in 1968 by Sweden’s central bank Sveriges Riksbank, the prize has been awarded since 1969 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which selects the laureates in economic sciences.

MIL OSI China News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Canada: Statement by the Prime Minister on Thanksgiving

Source: Government of Canada – Prime Minister

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement on Thanksgiving:

“Today, Canadians across the country will gather to celebrate Thanksgiving – a time to reflect, share meals with friends and family, and give thanks for all of life’s blessings.

“As we celebrate the harvest season, we have much to be thankful for: our hardworking farmers and food banks who work to ensure Canadians have access to nutritious food; our health care workers who are there for us in times of need; and the members of the Canadian Armed Forces who keep us safe. We also give thanks to the volunteers in our communities, whose acts of kindness exemplify what it means to be Canadian. Whether lending a hand to a neighbour or creating opportunities to bring people together, their contributions make Canada the country we proudly call home.

“As we give thanks for all we have, let’s commit to making Canada even better. Let’s work to make our communities more vibrant, dynamic, and inclusive. Together, we can break down barriers and create more opportunities for everyone. Let’s keep building a future where every generation has a fair shot – regardless of who you are, where you come from, how you pray, or who you love.

“On behalf of the Government of Canada, I wish you all a happy and healthy Thanksgiving.”

MIL OSI Canada News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Scientists around the world report millions of new discoveries every year − but this explosive research growth wasn’t what experts predicted

Source: The Conversation – USA – By David P. Baker, Professor of Sociology, Education and Demography, Penn State

The number of research studies published globally has risen exponentially in the past decades. AP Photo/Frank Augstein, file

Millions of scientific papers are published globally every year. These papers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine present discoveries that range from the mundane to the profound.

Since 1900, the number of published scientific articles has doubled about every 10 to 15 years; since 1980, about 8% to 9% annually. This acceleration reflects the immense and ever-growing scope of research across countless topics, from the farthest reaches of the cosmos to the intricacies of life on Earth and human nature.

Derek de Solla Price wrote an influential book about the growth rate of science.
The de Solla Price family/Wikimedia Commons

Yet, this extraordinary expansion was once thought to be unsustainable. In his influential 1963 book, “Little Science, Big Science… And Beyond,” the founder of scientometrics – or data informetrics related to scientific publications – Derek de Solla Price famously predicted limits to scientific growth.

He warned that the world would soon deplete its resources and talent pool for research. He imagined this would lead to a decline in new discoveries and potential crises in medicine, technology and the economy. At the time, scholars widely accepted his prediction of an impending slowdown in scientific progress.

Faulty predictions

In fact, science has spectacularly defied Price’s dire forecast. Instead of stagnation, the world now experiences “global mega-science” – a vast, ever-growing network of scientific discovery. This explosion of scientific production made Price’s prediction of collapse perhaps the most stunningly incorrect forecast in the study of science.

Unfortunately, Price died in 1983, too early to realize his mistake.

So, what explains the world’s sustained and dramatically increasing capacity for scientific research?

We are sociologists who study higher education and science. Our new book, “Global Mega-Science: Universities, Research Collaborations, and Knowledge Production,” published on the 60th anniversary of Price’s fateful prediction, offers explanations for this rapid and sustained scientific growth. It traces the history of scientific discovery globally.

Factors such as economic growth, warfare, space races and geopolitical competition have undoubtedly spurred research capacity. But these factors alone cannot account for the immense scale of today’s scientific enterprise.

The education revolution: Science’s secret engine

In many ways, the world’s scientific capacity has been built upon the educational aspirations of young adults pursuing higher education.

Funding from higher education supports a large part of the modern scientific enterprise.
AP Photo/Paul Sancya

Over the past 125 years, increasing demand for and access to higher education has sparked a global education revolution. Now, more than two-fifths of the world’s young people ages 19-23, although with huge regional differences, are enrolled in higher education. This revolution is the engine driving scientific research capacity.

Today, more than 38,000 universities and other higher-education institutions worldwide play a crucial role in scientific discovery. The educational mission, both publicly and privately funded, subsidizes the research mission, with a big part of students’ tuition money going toward supporting faculty.

These faculty scientists balance their teaching with conducting extensive research. University-based scientists contribute 80% to 90% of the discoveries published each year in millions of papers.

External research funding is still essential for specialized equipment, supplies and additional support for research time. But the day-to-day research capacity of universities, especially academics working in teams, forms the foundation of global scientific progress.

Even the most generous national science and commercial research and development budgets cannot fully sustain the basic infrastructure and staffing needed for ongoing scientific discovery.

Likewise, government labs and independent research institutes, such as the U.S. National Institutes of Health or Germany’s Max Planck Institutes, could not replace the production capacity that universities provide.

Collaboration benefits science and society

The past few decades have also seen a surge in global scientific collaborations. These arrangements leverage diverse talent from around the world to enhance the quality of research.

International collaborations have led to millions of co-authored papers. International research partnerships were relatively rare before 1980, accounting for just over 7,000 papers, or about 2% of the global output that year. But by 2010 that number had surged to 440,000 papers, meaning 22% of the world’s scientific publications resulted from international collaborations.

This growth, building on the “collaboration dividend,” continues today and has been shown to produce the highest-impact research.

Universities tend to share academic goals with other universities and have wide networks and a culture of openness, which makes these collaborations relatively easy.

Today, universities also play a key role in international supercollaborations involving teams of hundreds or even thousands of scientists. In these huge collaborations, researchers can tackle major questions they wouldn’t be able to in smaller groups with fewer resources.

Supercollaborations have facilitated breakthroughs in understanding the intricate physics of the universe and the synthesis of evolution and genetics that scientists in a single country could never achieve alone.

The IceCube collaboration, a prime example of a global megacollaboration, has made big strides in understanding neutrinos, which are ghostly particles from space that pass through Earth.
Martin Wolf, IceCube/NSF

The role of global hubs

Hubs made up of universities from around the world have made scientific research thoroughly global. The first of these global hubs, consisting of dozens of North American research universities, began in the 1970s. They expanded to Europe in the 1980s and most recently to Southeast Asia.

These regional hubs and alliances of universities link scientists from hundreds of universities to pursue collaborative research projects.

Scientists at these universities have often transcended geopolitical boundaries, with Iranian researchers publishing papers with Americans, Germans collaborating with Russians and Ukrainians, and Chinese scientists working with their Japanese and Korean counterparts.

The COVID-19 pandemic clearly demonstrated the immense scale of international collaboration in global megascience. Within just six months of the start of the pandemic, the world’s scientists had already published 23,000 scientific studies on the virus. These studies contributed to the rapid development of effective vaccines.

With universities’ expanding global networks, the collaborations can spread through key research hubs to every part of the world.

Is global megascience sustainable?

But despite the impressive growth of scientific output, this brand of highly collaborative and transnational megascience does face challenges.

On the one hand, birthrates in many countries that produce a lot of science are declining. On the other, many youth around the world, particularly those in low-income countries, have less access to higher education, although there is some recent progress in the Global South.

Sustaining these global collaborations and this high rate of scientific output will mean expanding access to higher education. That’s because the funds from higher education subsidize research costs, and higher education trains the next generation of scientists.

De Solla Price couldn’t have predicted how integral universities would be in driving global science. For better or worse, the future of scientific production is linked to the future of these institutions.

David Baker receives funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. National Institutes of Health, Fulbright, FNR
Luxembourg, and the Qatar Nation Research Fund.

Justin J.W. Powell has received funding for research on higher education and science from Germany’s BMBF, DFG, and VolkswagenStiftung; Luxembourg’s FNR; and Qatar’s QNRF.

– ref. Scientists around the world report millions of new discoveries every year − but this explosive research growth wasn’t what experts predicted – https://theconversation.com/scientists-around-the-world-report-millions-of-new-discoveries-every-year-but-this-explosive-research-growth-wasnt-what-experts-predicted-237274

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: No country still uses an electoral college − except the US

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Joshua Holzer, Associate Professor of Political Science, Westminster College

Every four years, Congress gathers to count electoral votes. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

The United States is the only democracy in the world where a presidential candidate can get the most popular votes and still lose the election. Thanks to the Electoral College, that has happened five times in the country’s history. The most recent examples are from 2000, when Al Gore won the popular vote but George W. Bush won the Electoral College after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, and 2016, when Hillary Clinton got more votes nationwide than Donald Trump but lost in the Electoral College.

The Founding Fathers did not invent the idea of an electoral college. Rather, they borrowed the concept from Europe, where it had been used to pick emperors for hundreds of years.

As a scholar of presidential democracies around the world, I have studied how countries have used electoral colleges. None have been satisfied with the results. And except for the U.S., all have found other ways to choose their leaders.

The Holy Roman Empire had seven electors: Three were members of the Catholic Church and four were significant members of the nobility. This image depicts, from left, the archbishop of Cologne, the archbishop of Mainz, the archbishop of Trier, the count palatine of the Rhine, the duke of Saxony, the margrave of Brandenburg and the king of Bohemia.
Codex Balduini Trevirorum, c. 1340, Landeshauptarchiv Koblenz via Wikimedia Commons

The origins of the US Electoral College

The Holy Roman Empire was a loose confederation of territories that existed in central Europe from 962 to 1806. The emperor was not chosen by heredity, like most other monarchies. Instead, emperors were chosen by electors, who represented both secular and religious interests.

As of 1356, there were seven electors: Four were hereditary nobles and three were chosen by the Catholic Church. By 1803, the total number of electors had increased to 10. Three years later, the empire fell.

When the Founding Fathers were drafting the U.S. Constitution in 1787, the initial draft proposal called for the “National Executive,” which we now call the president, to be elected by the “National Legislature,” which we now call Congress. However, Virginia delegate George Mason viewed “making the Executive the mere creature of the Legislature as a violation of the fundamental principle of good Government,” and so the idea was rejected.

Pennsylvania delegate James Wilson proposed that the president be elected by popular vote. However, many other delegates were adamant that there be an indirect way of electing the president to provide a buffer against what Thomas Jefferson called “well-meaning, but uninformed people.” Mason, for instance, suggested that allowing voters to pick the president would be akin to “refer(ring) a trial of colours to a blind man.”

For 21 days, the founders debated how to elect the president, and they held more than 30 separate votes on the topic – more than for any other issue they discussed. Eventually, the complicated solution that they agreed to was an early version of the electoral college system that exists today, a method where neither Congress nor the people directly elect the president. Instead, each state gets a number of electoral votes corresponding to the number of members of the U.S. House and Senate it is apportioned. When the states’ electoral votes are tallied, the candidate with the majority wins.

James Madison, who was not fond of the Holy Roman Empire’s use of an electoral college, later recalled that the final decision on how to elect a U.S. president “was produced by fatigue and impatience.”

After just two elections, in 1796 and 1800, problems with this system had become obvious. Chief among them was that electoral votes were cast only for president. The person who got the most electoral votes became president, and the person who came in second place – usually their leading opponent – became vice president. The current process of electing the president and vice president on a single ticket but with separate electoral votes was adopted in 1804 with the passage of the 12th Amendment.

Some other questions about how the Electoral College system should work were clarified by federal laws through the years, including in 1887 and 1948.

After the 2020 presidential election exposed additional flaws with the system, Congress further tweaked the process by passing legislation that sought to clarify how electoral votes are counted.

James Madison disliked the idea of an electoral college.
Chester Harding, via National Portrait Gallery

Other electoral colleges

After the the U.S. Constitution went into effect, the idea of using an electoral college to indirectly elect a president spread to other republics.

For example, in the Americas, Colombia adopted an electoral college in 1821. Chile adopted one in 1828. Argentina adopted one in 1853.

In Europe, Finland adopted an electoral college to elect its president in 1925, and France adopted an electoral college in 1958.

Over time, however, these countries changed their minds. All of them abandoned their electoral colleges and switched to directly electing their presidents by votes of the people. Colombia did so in 1910, Chile in 1925, France in 1965, Finland in 1994, and Argentina in 1995.

The U.S. is the only democratic presidential system left that still uses an electoral college.

A ‘popular’ alternative?

There is an effort underway in the U.S. to replace the Electoral College. It may not even require amending the Constitution.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, currently agreed to by 17 U.S. states, including small states such as Delaware and big ones such as California, as well as the District of Columbia, is an agreement to award all of their electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate gets the most votes nationwide. It would take effect once enough states sign on that they would represent the 270-vote majority of electoral votes. The current list reaches 209 electoral votes.

A key problem with the interstate compact is that in races with more than two candidates, it could lead to situations where the winner of the election did not get a majority of the popular vote, but rather more than half of all voters chose someone else.

When Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Finland and France got rid of their electoral colleges, they did not replace them with a direct popular vote in which the person with the most votes wins. Instead, they all adopted a version of runoff voting. In those systems, winners are declared only when they receive support from more than half of those who cast ballots.

Notably, neither the U.S. Electoral College nor the interstate compact that seeks to replace it are systems that ensure that presidents are supported by a majority of voters.

Editor’s note: This story includes material from a story published on May 20, 2020.

Joshua Holzer 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. No country still uses an electoral college − except the US – https://theconversation.com/no-country-still-uses-an-electoral-college-except-the-us-240281

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: What is a communist, and what do communists believe?

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Aminda Smith, Associate Professor of History, Michigan State University

Seeking social change often requires collective action. champc/iStock / Getty Images Plus

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.

What is a communist? – Artie, age 10, Astoria, New York

Simply put, a communist is someone who supports communism. I study the history of communism, which is a political and economic view.

Communism has long been controversial, and in the U.S. today, reputable sources disagree about it. Some experts argue that communist views are well supported by historical evidence about the way societies have developed over time. Others suggest that history has shown communism not to work.

Many of those appraisals are based on examples of people who tried to establish communism. Communists have launched revolutions in many places including Russia and China. In five countries – China, North Korea, Laos, Cuba and Vietnam – communist parties control the current governments. The economic and political systems in those countries are not fully communist, but some might be working to transition from capitalism to communism.

In part because the U.S. has difficult relationships with these countries, many Americans have negative views of communists and communism. To evaluate those countries and to decide your own opinions about communism in general, it is important to first be clear about what the principles of communism are.

Communists believe that people should share wealth so that no one is too poor, no one is too rich, and everyone has enough to survive and have a good life.

A communist might be a member of a Communist party, which is a political party, or a member of a group of people who want to play a role in government.

The opening of the 2014 convention of the Communist Party of the United States of America.

In communism, people work together to produce and distribute the things they need to live, such as food, clothing and entertainment. That does not mean that everything is shared at all times.

In a communist society, individuals might still live in their own homes and have their own food, clothing and personal items such as televisions and cellphones. However, the places where these items were produced, such as factories and farms, would be owned by everyone.

Similarly, a person might still create artistic products such as works of literature or craftsmanship on their own. The goal would not be to make money, though, but instead to share for everyone to enjoy.

Communists support some form of collective ownership. Ownership by everyone would ensure that all members of society have equal rights to the products from the factories and farms because they would all be part owners of the enterprises.

In such a society, everyone would also have equal political rights and would participate in governance together. Theoretically, communism should entail some form of democracy.

What is Marxism?

German philosopher Karl Marx.
John Jabez Edwin Mayal via Wikimedia Commons

Throughout history, there have been many different views on what communism is, how it should be organized and how it might be achieved. The most famous theories about communism are probably the ones that were developed by a German philosopher named Karl Marx. His ideas are often called Marxism.

Marx studied history and observed that the way people produced goods and services was closely related to who held power. For example, in farming societies, those who owned the land had more power than those who did not.

Marx also noticed that people with less power had often risen up, usually violently, to overthrow the powerful people. He called this concept class struggle. He believed this process was how societies developed from one system of government and economy to another. He claimed that class struggle led societies through a progression toward greater efficiency in the production of goods and services, higher levels of technology and wider distribution of social and political power.

When Marx was alive in the 1800s, an economic and political system called capitalism had developed in many countries. In capitalist societies, the economy centered on factories. Factory owners had significant political and economic influence.

Marx observed that in countries such as Germany, England and the United States, factory owners hired laborers who worked long hours producing goods such as shirts or tables. While the factory owners sold these products at high prices, they paid the workers very little. As a result, the factory owners became richer, while many workers struggled to afford the goods they produced or even to provide food for their families.

Marx believed that this inequality would eventually lead to a worker uprising. During their revolution, Marx predicted, the workers would seize control of the factories, begin running them more fairly, and this would lead to a new political system, known as socialism.

Where does socialism fit in?

A campaign poster from 1976, spotlighting the candidates from the Communist Party of the United States of America.
Library of Congress

Of course, if the workers staged a revolution, the factory owners would fight back. Marx thought that, immediately after the revolution, the workers would first need to create a strong government to prevent the owners from reestablishing capitalism. During that phase, which Marx called socialism, the workers would run the government while they continued moving away from capitalism and trying to create a more equal society.

Marx thought people would eventually see that socialism was much better than capitalism because socialism would end exploitation while still allowing a society to continue moving toward better economic and political practices, but without inequality. Once that happened, a government would no longer be necessary.

The society would become communist. There would still be governance, but not a government that was separated from the people. Rather, in a communist society, the people would govern together, and everyone would do some of the work and receive what they needed.

There are Communist parties in many places, and many are currently working to move their countries toward communism. At this time, no country has yet made the transition to full communism, but many people still hope that transition will happen somewhere, sometime. Those people are communists. Communists are optimistic that humans can one day create a more fair and equal society.

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.

Aminda Smith 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. What is a communist, and what do communists believe? – https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-communist-and-what-do-communists-believe-234255

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: A devastating hurricane doesn’t dramatically change how people vote – but in a close election, it can matter

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Boris Heersink, Associate Professor of Political Science, Fordham University

Residents walk on a damaged street in Sarasota, Fla., on Oct. 10, 2024. Eva Marie Uzcategui for The Washington Post via Getty Images

North Carolina and Florida are changing administrative rules and, in some cases, issuing emergency funding that is intended to make it easier for people in areas damaged by Hurricanes Helene and Milton to vote.

The recovery in both states is expected to extend far beyond the November 2024 election period. The majority of the people in the affected communities in North Carolina and Florida voted for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in 2020, making some election analysts wonder if some Trump supporters will be able to cast their ballots.

Amy Lieberman, a politics and society editor at The Conversation U.S., spoke with Boris Heersink, a scholar of voters’ behavior after a natural disaster, to better understand if and how the recent hurricanes could shift the results of the 2024 presidential election.

How can hurricanes create complications ahead of an election?

A massive hurricane disrupts people’s lives in many important ways, including affecting people’s personal safety and where they can live. Ahead of an election, there are a lot of practical limitations about how an election can be executed – like if a person can still receive mail-in ballots at home or elsewhere, or if it is possible to still vote in person at their polling location if that building was destroyed or damaged.

Another issue is whether people who have just lived through a natural disaster and will likely be dealing with the aftermath for weeks to come are focused on politics right now. Some might sit out the election because they simply have more important things to worry about.

Beyond practical concerns, how else can a natural disaster influence an election?

The other side of the equation, which is what political scientists like myself are mostly focusing on, is whether people take the fact that a natural disaster happened into consideration when they vote.

Two scholars, Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels, have argued that sometimes voters are not great at figuring out how to incorporate bad things that happened to them into a voting position. In some cases, it is entirely fair to hold an elected official responsible for bad outcomes that affect people’s lives. But at other moments, bad things can happen to us without that being the fault of an incumbent president or governor. And voters should ideally be able to balance out these different types of bad things – those it is fair to punish elected officials for, and those for which it isn’t fair to hold them responsible.

After all, a devastating hurricane is terrible, but it is not Kamala Harris’ fault that it happened. But Achen and Bartels argue that voters frequently still punish elected officials for random bad events like this.

Their most famous example is the consequences of a series of shark attacks off the New Jersey coast in the summer of 1916. As a result of those attacks, the New Jersey tourism industry saw a major decline. While these findings are still being debated, Achen and Bartels argue that Jersey shore voters subsequently voted against Woodrow Wilson in the 1916 presidential election at a higher rate than they would have had the shark attacks not happened. They argue that voters did this even though Wilson had no involvement in the shark attacks.

Kamala Harris visits a Hurricane Helene donation drop-off site for emergency supplies in Charlotte, N.C., on Oct. 5, 2024.
Mario Tama/Getty Images

How else do voters consider bad events when they vote?

Scholars like John Gasper and Andrew Reeves argue that voters mostly care whether elected officials respond appropriately to a disaster. So, if the president does a good job reacting, voters do not actually punish them at all in the next election. However, voters can punish elected officials if they feel like the response is not correct.

The fact that Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana in 2005 was not the fault of then-President George W. Bush. But the perceived slowness of the government response is something a voter could have held him responsible for.

How do voters’ political affiliations affect where and how they lay the blame?

Colleagues and I have shown that how people interpret the combination of a disaster and the government response is likely colored by their own partisanship.

We looked at both the effects of Superstorm Sandy on the 2012 presidential election and natural disasters’ impact on elections more broadly from 1972 through 2004. One core finding is that when presidents reject state officials’ disaster declaration requests, they lose votes in affected counties – but only if those counties were already more supportive of the opposite party.

If there is a strong positive government response, the incumbent president or their party can actually gain votes or lose voters affected by a disaster. So, Republicans affected by the hurricanes could become more inclined to vote against Harris if they feel like they are not getting the help they need. But it could also help Harris if affected Democrats feel like they are getting enough aid.

The major takeaway is that if the government responds really effectively to a natural disaster or other emergency, there is not a huge electoral penalty – and there could even be a small reward.

That is not irrelevant in a close election. If Republicans in affected areas in North Carolina feel the government response has been poor and it inspires them to turn out in higher numbers to punish Harris, that could matter. But if they feel like the response has been adequate, research suggests either no real effect on their support for Harris – or possibly even an increase in Harris voters.

Donald Trump speaks with owners of a furniture store that was damaged during Hurricane Helene on Sept. 30, 2024, in Valdosta, Ga.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

How much influence can a politician have on people assessing a government response?

Scholars mostly assume that people affected can tell whether the government response was good or not. Trump and other Republicans are falsely saying that the response is slow and falsely claiming that Federal Emergency Management Agency money is being spent on immigrants who are not living in the country legally. There does not appear to be a slow government response to the hurricane in North Carolina, and there’s no evidence the response is insufficient in Florida, either.

So, the question now is whether voters affected by these hurricanes will respond based on their actual lived experiences, or how they are told they are living their experience.

Boris Heersink receives funding from the Russell Sage Foundation.

– ref. A devastating hurricane doesn’t dramatically change how people vote – but in a close election, it can matter – https://theconversation.com/a-devastating-hurricane-doesnt-dramatically-change-how-people-vote-but-in-a-close-election-it-can-matter-241179

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: What does Springfield, Illinois, in 1908 tell us about Springfield, Ohio, in 2024?

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Joseph Patrick Kelly, Professor of Literature and Director of Irish and Irish American Studies, College of Charleston

Supporters gather at a campaign rally for Donald Trump in Butler, Pa., on Oct. 5, 2024. Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

Lying about Black people is nothing new in political campaigning.

Despite the thorough debunking of false rumors that Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio, former President Donald Trump and his GOP allies insist on repeating the lies.

“If I have to create stories,” admitted JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, “that’s what I’m going to do.”

While many political observers believe that these lies have, as The New York Times columnist Lydia Polgreen described, finally “crossed a truly unacceptable line,” in fact, white politicians have told brazen, fearmongering, racist lies about Black people for over the past 100 years.

One of the more notorious lies occurred in 1908 in another Springfield, this one in Illinois. As a historian who studies the impact of racism on democracy, it’s my belief that what happened there and in other cities helps to clarify what Trump and Vance are trying to do in Springfield, Ohio, today.

Lying when everyone knows you’re lying seems to be the point.

New target, old message

Springfield, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln’s home town, was, in 1908, a working-class city of just under 50,000 people – about the same size as its modern counterpart in Ohio.

Because of the city’s manufacturing industries, Springfield was also an attractive place to live and work for Black men and women escaping the social oppression of the Deep South.

The Black population of Springfield had been growing by about 4% annually, and by 1908, roughly 2,500 Black people were living there to work in the city’s manufacturing plants. As the wealth of some Black families rose, so too did racist fears among whites that Black migrants were taking their jobs.

Rumors spread through false newspaper reports among white residents that a Black man had raped a white woman.

As the story went, a Black man broke through the screen door of a modest house in a white neighborhood. He supposedly dragged a 21-year-old white woman by her throat into the backyard, where he raped her. Or so the woman said.

A couple of weeks after the incident, the woman admitted she lied. There was no Black man. There was no rape. But by then, telling the truth was too late. The rumor had triggered a wave of anti-Black violence.

William English Walling, a white, liberal journalist from Kentucky, reported that Springfield’s white folks launched “deadly assaults on every negro they could lay their hands on, to sack and plunder their houses and stores, and to burn and murder.”

For two days, the violence raged, while white “prosperous businessmen looked on” in complicit approval, Walling wrote. Several blocks in Black neighborhoods were burned, and at least eight Black men were killed.

One of the men killed was William K. Donnegan. The 84-year-old died after his white attackers slit his throat and then hanged him with a clothesline from a tree near his home.

As a dozen different rioters told Walling: “Why, the n—–s came to think they were as good as we are!”

Telling the truth about racist tropes

At the turn of the 19th century, racial tensions were most often expressed in sexual terms – Black men having sex with white women.

That sexual anxiety was part of what cultural historians call a “master narrative,” a symbolic story that dramatizes white nationalism and the belief that citizenship and its benefits were preserved for one racial group at the expense of all others.

One of the first to debunk this rape fantasy was Ida B. Wells, the Black editor and owner of the weekly “Memphis Free Press.”

In 1892, a white mob lynched one of her good friends, Thomas Moss, and two others associated with his cooperative Peoples’ Grocery store. The Appeal Avalanche, a white Memphis newspaper, wrote that the lynching “was done decently and in order.”

Ida B. Wells was among the NAACP’s founders.
Library of Congress

In her May 21, 1892, editorial about Moss’ death, Wells told a different story about “the same old racket – the new alarm about raping a white woman.”

Wells explained that she worried that people who lived outside of the Deep South might believe the lies about Black people.

“Nobody in this section of the country,” she wrote, not even the demagogues spreading rumors, “believe the old thread bare lie that Negro men rape white women.”

Political fearmongering

What happened in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1898 was based on a deliberate, cynical election strategy of lies.

At the turn of the 20th century, North Carolina’s disaffected, poor working-class white Populists joined forces with Black Republicans to form what were known as the Fusionists.

In Wilmington, then the largest city in North Carolina, the Fusionists were able to vote out the white-nationalist Democratic Party in the early 1890s and became a symbol of hope for a democratic South and racial equality.

They also became a target for Democrats seeking to regain power and restore white nationalism.

A political cartoon from the Raleigh News & Observer, Aug. 13, 1898.
North Carolina Collection, UNC Chapel Hill

The spark came in the summer of 1898 when Rebecca Felton, the wife of a Georgia congressman and a leading women’s rights advocate, gave an address to Georgia’s Agricultural Society on Aug. 11 that sought to protect the virtue of white women.

“If it needs lynching,” she said, “to protect a woman’s dearest possession from the ravening of beasts – then I say lynch; a thousand times a week if necessary.”

In response, Alexander Manly, the Black editor of The Daily Record, in Wilmington, followed the lead of Ida B. Wells and attacked the myths of Black men. Manly pointed out in his August 1898 editorial that poor white women “are not any more particular in the matter of clandestine meetings with colored men than are the white men with colored women.”

Democrats bent on stoking racial fears circulated Manly’s editorial throughout North Carolina before the November 1898 elections, decrying the “Outrageous Attack on White Women!” by “the scurrilous negro editor.”

If that wasn’t enough to stir up North Carolina Democrats, party officials sent the Red Shirts, their white nationalist militia, to Wilmington to overthrow the city’s biracial government, install all white officials and restore white rule.

To that end, a white mob destroyed Manly’s newspaper office, chased him and other Black leaders into exile, rampaged through Black neighborhoods and killed an untold number of Black men.

It was a white nationalist coup d’etat.

The great white protector

In his modern-day attempt to divide working-class white people from working-class Black people, Vance has urged his supporters to ignore “the crybabies” in the mainstream media.

“Keep the cat memes flowing!” he posted on X.

An estimated 67 million people watched the U.S. presidential debate on ABC and heard Trump angrily proclaim: “They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating … the pets of the people that live there.”

Once again, the old narrative is resurrected.

Joseph Kelly is not affiliated with any political party. In the past, he has been a volunteer with the Charleston County (SC) Democratic Party.

– ref. What does Springfield, Illinois, in 1908 tell us about Springfield, Ohio, in 2024? – https://theconversation.com/what-does-springfield-illinois-in-1908-tell-us-about-springfield-ohio-in-2024-239074

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: From Swift to Springsteen to Al Jolson, candidates keep trying to use celebrities to change voters’ songs

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Matt Harris, Associate Professor of Political Science, Park University

It’s 2016 all over again. And 2020, for that matter. Democrats are staring at what looks to be another coin flip election between their party’s nominee and Donald Trump.

In an election that could come down to a few hundred thousand votes in a handful of states, every voter matters – no matter how you reach them. With that in mind, Democrats are communicating not just on matters of policy, but matters of pop culture.

Specifically, Democrats are embracing football and Taylor Swift. The Harris-Walz campaign trotted out endorsements from 15 Pro Football Hall of Famers and sells Swiftie-style friendship bracelets on its campaign website, among other overtures. Swift herself has endorsed Kamala Harris.

Tim Walz cited his experience as a football coach and mentioned Swift in the vice presidential debate.

Democratic challenger and former NFLer Colin Allred, who is running to unseat GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, has put out ads in which he appears moments from taking to the gridiron.

But how much does pop culture campaigning, if you will, matter? Does trying to link a campaign to a sport, or a culture, or a style of music actually influence elections? Looking to five different election campaigns in the past can give a sense of the effects, or lack thereof, of such campaigning.

An ad for Texas Democrat Rep. Colin Allred, a former NFL player, stresses his football past in his bid to unseat GOP Sen. Ted Cruz.

Reagan and Springsteen

Any discussion of the embrace of pop culture by candidates should probably start with Ronald Reagan’s Bruce Springsteen era.

Reagan, attempting to reach beyond his base, viewed 1984 as a vibes-based election and cited Springsteen as an exemplar of the hope his campaign wished to inspire. Springsteen rejected a request from Reagan’s camp to use his often-misunderstood “Born in the U.S.A.” on the campaign trail. The song’s lyrics describe a down-on-his-luck Vietnam War veteran, but if you don’t listen carefully to the lyrics, the song can sound like a celebration of veterans and being American.

While Reagan went on to win 49 states in that year’s election, perhaps the biggest long-term impact of his courtship of Springsteen fans was to turn Springsteen from a relatively apolitical performer to a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party.

In this way, Springsteen’s transformation mirrors that of Taylor Swift, with Marsha Blackburn, the Tennessee Republican senator, serving as her Reagan – the person who pushed the performer into the political arena after years on the sidelines.

Springsteen and Kerry

Springsteen’s foray into politics eventually led him to back Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004 with a series of concerts called the “Vote for Change”“ tour.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry greets the crowd with musician Bruce Springsteen while campaigning in Columbus, Ohio, on Oct. 28, 2004.
AP Photo/Laura Rauch

Kerry, meanwhile, undertook his own efforts at cultural turf claiming. His attempts to demonstrate his bona fides as a sports-loving everyman went awry at times, when he flubbed the name of “Lambeau Field,” home of Wisconsin’s Green Bay Packers, and referred to a nonexistent Boston Red Sox player, “Manny Ortez.” The ill-fated sports references arguably didn’t hurt his campaign – he won Wisconsin and Massachusetts – but he was ridiculed for a photo-op hunting trip late in the campaign and went on to lose rural Midwestern voters decisively – as well as the election.

Kerry’s dabbling with hunting imagery was perhaps an attempt to dull President George W. Bush’s advantage in perceived strength of leadership, which was in part burnished by his adoption of a cowboy persona.

Harding, Jolson and the Cubs

While Reagan’s attempt to woo 1980s rock fans is one of the best-known attempts to campaign on a mantra of popular culture, it was far from the first.

Sen. Warren Harding’s 1920 front porch campaign for president was given a jolt of enthusiasm by a visit from singer and actor Al Jolson. Harding was also visited in his hometown, Marion, Ohio, by other actors and celebrities and the Chicago Cubs.

Harding’s strategy probably better serves as a template for things to come than a decisive move in the 1920 election: His victory with over 60% of the popular vote suggests no celebrity could have saved Democrat James Cox.

Bill Clinton and MTV

As the Harris-Walz campaign tries to draw votes from Swift’s young fans, parallels can be drawn to Democratic Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton’s attempts to embrace youth culture in the 1992 presidential election. Among other appearances, Clinton took questions from young voters on MTV and played saxophone on “The Arsenio Hall Show.”

While the direct effect of Clinton’s forays into youth culture is difficult to measure, he did surge among young voters relative to Democrat Michael Dukakis’ 1988 presidential campaign.

In his 1992 campaign, Bill Clinton went on MTV to answer young people’s questions, which included ‘If you had it to do over again, would you inhale?’

Ford and football

Any discussion of politicians embracing football culture would be incomplete without a discussion of the American president best at playing football, Gerald Ford, the vice president who became the nation’s 38th president in 1974, when Richard Nixon resigned during the Watergate scandal.

Ford played center on two national championship teams at the University of Michigan. While not using his football player background to the same level as former football coach Walz did at the Democratic National Convention, Ford did make use of his football credentials on the stump during the 1976 presidential campaign and was joined on the campaign trail by Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant.

But the votes of football fans were apparently not enough to keep Ford in the White House for long. He lost the 1976 election to Democrat Jimmy Carter.

Potentially fruitful pickups

Will the Harris-Walz strategy of recruiting voters through pop culture be successful? Swift’s fans are largely young, suburban women, and NFL fans are strewn across the political spectrum. There are potentially fruitful pickups in both camps. The candidates certainly think it matters: Walz said he “took football back” from Republicans, a claim disputed by Trump.

Stressing pop culture credentials can also provide attention to a campaign, regardless of persuasion. Clinton’s pop culture appearances generated coverage beyond the appearances themselves and were cost-effective for a campaign short on funds.

This type of pop culture campaigning generates coverage, then, even if voters aren’t moved by thinking a candidate shares their love of football or pop music.

Matt Harris 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. From Swift to Springsteen to Al Jolson, candidates keep trying to use celebrities to change voters’ songs – https://theconversation.com/from-swift-to-springsteen-to-al-jolson-candidates-keep-trying-to-use-celebrities-to-change-voters-songs-239381

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: As OpenAI attracts billions in new investment, its goal of balancing profit with purpose is getting more challenging to pull off

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Alnoor Ebrahim, Thomas Schmidheiny Professor of International Business, Tufts University

What’s in store for OpenAI is the subject of many anonymously sourced reports. AP Photo/Michael Dwyer

OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company that developed the popular ChatGPT chatbot and the text-to-art program Dall-E, is at a crossroads. On Oct. 2, 2024, it announced that it had obtained US$6.6 billion in new funding from investors and that the business was worth an estimated $157 billion – making it only the second startup ever to be valued at over $100 billion.

Unlike other big tech companies, OpenAI is a nonprofit with a for-profit subsidiary that is overseen by a nonprofit board of directors. Since its founding in 2015, OpenAI’s official mission has been “to build artificial general intelligence (AGI) that is safe and benefits all of humanity.”

By late September 2024, The Associated Press, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal and many other media outlets were reporting that OpenAI plans to discard its nonprofit status and become a for-profit tech company managed by investors. These stories have all cited anonymous sources. The New York Times, referencing documents from the recent funding round, reported that unless this change happens within two years, the $6.6 billion in equity would become debt owed to the investors who provided that funding.

The Conversation U.S. asked Alnoor Ebrahim, a Tufts University management scholar, to explain why OpenAI’s leaders’ reported plans to change its structure would be significant and potentially problematic.

How have its top executives and board members responded?

There has been a lot of leadership turmoil at OpenAI. The disagreements boiled over in November 2023, when its board briefly ousted Sam Altman, its CEO. He got his job back in less than a week, and then three board members resigned. The departing directors were advocates for building stronger guardrails and encouraging regulation to protect humanity from potential harms posed by AI.

Over a dozen senior staff members have quit since then, including several other co-founders and executives responsible for overseeing OpenAI’s safety policies and practices. At least two of them have joined Anthropic, a rival founded by a former OpenAI executive responsible for AI safety. Some of the departing executives say that Altman has pushed the company to launch products prematurely.

Safety “has taken a backseat to shiny products,” said OpenAI’s former safety team leader Jan Leike, who quit in May 2024.

Open AI CEO Sam Altman, center, speaks at an event in September 2024.
Bryan R. Smith/Pool Photo via AP

Why would OpenAI’s structure change?

OpenAI’s deep-pocketed investors cannot own shares in the organization under its existing nonprofit governance structure, nor can they get a seat on its board of directors. That’s because OpenAI is incorporated as a nonprofit whose purpose is to benefit society rather than private interests. Until now, all rounds of investments, including a reported total of $13 billion from Microsoft, have been channeled through a for-profit subsidiary that belongs to the nonprofit.

The current structure allows OpenAI to accept money from private investors in exchange for a future portion of its profits. But those investors do not get a voting seat on the board, and their profits are “capped.” According to information previously made public, OpenAI’s original investors can’t earn more than 100 times the money they provided. The goal of this hybrid governance model is to balance profits with OpenAI’s safety-focused mission.

Becoming a for-profit enterprise would make it possible for its investors to acquire ownership stakes in OpenAI and no longer have to face a cap on their potential profits. Down the road, OpenAI could also go public and raise capital on the stock market.

Altman reportedly seeks to personally acquire a 7% equity stake in OpenAI, according to a Bloomberg article that cited unnamed sources.

That arrangement is not allowed for nonprofit executives, according to BoardSource, an association of nonprofit board members and executives. Instead, the association explains, nonprofits “must reinvest surpluses back into the organization and its tax-exempt purpose.”

What kind of company might OpenAI become?

The Washington Post and other media outlets have reported, also citing unnamed sources, that OpenAI might become a “public benefit corporation” – a business that aims to benefit society and earn profits.

Examples of businesses with this status, known as B Corps., include outdoor clothing and gear company Patagonia and eyewear maker Warby Parker.

It’s more typical that a for-profit business – not a nonprofit – becomes a benefit corporation, according to the B Lab, a network that sets standards and offers certification for B Corps. It is unusual for a nonprofit to do this because nonprofit governance already requires those groups to benefit society.

Boards of companies with this legal status are free to consider the interests of society, the environment and people who aren’t its shareholders, but that is not required. The board may still choose to make profits a top priority and can drop its benefit status to satisfy its investors. That is what online craft marketplace Etsy did in 2017, two years after becoming a publicly traded company.

In my view, any attempt to convert a nonprofit into a public benefit corporation is a clear move away from focusing on the nonprofit’s mission. And there will be a risk that becoming a benefit corporation would just be a ploy to mask a shift toward focusing on revenue growth and investors’ profits.

Many legal scholars and other experts are predicting that OpenAI will not do away with its hybrid ownership model entirely because of legal restrictions on the placement of nonprofit assets in private hands.

But I think OpenAI has a possible workaround: It could try to dilute the nonprofit’s control by making it a minority shareholder in a new for-profit structure. This would effectively eliminate the nonprofit board’s power to hold the company accountable. Such a move could lead to an investigation by the office of the relevant state attorney general and potentially by the Internal Revenue Service.

What could happen if OpenAI turns into a for-profit company?

The stakes for society are high.

AI’s potential harms are wide-ranging, and some are already apparent, such as deceptive political campaigns and bias in health care.

If OpenAI, an industry leader, begins to focus more on earning profits than ensuring AI’s safety, I believe that these dangers could get worse. Geoffrey Hinton, who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in physics for his artificial intelligence research, has cautioned that AI may exacerbate inequality by replacing “lots of mundane jobs.” He believes that there’s a 50% probability “that we’ll have to confront the problem of AI trying to take over” from humanity.

And even if OpenAI did retain board members for whom safety is a top concern, the only common denominator for the members of its new corporate board would be their obligation to protect the interests of the company’s shareholders, who would expect to earn a profit. While such expectations are common on a for-profit board, they constitute a conflict of interest on a nonprofit board where mission must come first and board members cannot benefit financially from the organization’s work.

The arrangement would, no doubt, please OpenAI’s investors. But would it be good for society? The purpose of nonprofit control over a for-profit subsidiary is to ensure that profit does not interfere with the nonprofit’s mission. Without guardrails to ensure that the board seeks to limit harm to humanity from AI, there would be little reason for it to prevent the company from maximizing profit, even if its chatbots and other AI products endanger society.

Regardless of what OpenAI does, most artificial intelligence companies are already for-profit businesses. So, in my view, the only way to manage the potential harms is through better industry standards and regulations that are starting to take shape.

California’s governor vetoed such a bill in September 2024 on the grounds it would slow innovation – but I believe slowing it down is exactly what is needed, given the dangers AI already poses to society.

Alnoor Ebrahim 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. As OpenAI attracts billions in new investment, its goal of balancing profit with purpose is getting more challenging to pull off – https://theconversation.com/as-openai-attracts-billions-in-new-investment-its-goal-of-balancing-profit-with-purpose-is-getting-more-challenging-to-pull-off-240602

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

January 23, 2025

Category: Americas

Reference

Millions are displaced every year

Impacts on health

Better policies for long-term recovery

The “double double” rural top-up

Backgrounder

Ensuring carbon pollution pricing helps make life more affordable

Quarterly Canada Carbon Rebate for individuals—increased rural top-up

Canada Carbon Rebate for Small Businesses

Pollution pricing relief for farmers and fishers

Industrial pollution pricing system

Notes to editors

Share this page

Updates to this page

Faulty predictions

The education revolution: Science’s secret engine

Collaboration benefits science and society

The role of global hubs

Is global megascience sustainable?

The origins of the US Electoral College

Other electoral colleges

A ‘popular’ alternative?

What is Marxism?

Where does socialism fit in?

How can hurricanes create complications ahead of an election?

Beyond practical concerns, how else can a natural disaster influence an election?

How else do voters consider bad events when they vote?

How do voters’ political affiliations affect where and how they lay the blame?

How much influence can a politician have on people assessing a government response?

New target, old message

Telling the truth about racist tropes

Political fearmongering

The great white protector

Reagan and Springsteen

Springsteen and Kerry

Harding, Jolson and the Cubs

Bill Clinton and MTV

Ford and football

Potentially fruitful pickups

How have its top executives and board members responded?

Why would OpenAI’s structure change?

What kind of company might OpenAI become?

What could happen if OpenAI turns into a for-profit company?