NewzIntel.com

Category: Americas

  • MIL-OSI USA: House Republicans are Codifying President Trump’s America First Agenda into Law

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Mike Johnson (LA-04)

    WASHINGTON — This morning, at the weekly House Republican Leadership press conference, Speaker Johnson addressed House Republicans’ efforts to codify President Trump’s America First agenda into law, Congressional Democrats refusal to work in any meaningful way for their constituents, and Republicans common sense priorities for budget reconciliation.

    Watch the Speaker’s full remarks here.

    On codifying the Trump agenda:

    We’ve been working around the clock to codify so much of what President Trump has been doing. I think there’s 143 executive orders that have been issued thus far, and we’re working around the clock to make sure that we put these into statutory law so that it can’t be reversed and erased by an upcoming administration. For some reason, the media acts like this effort is somehow a negative thing. It’s not at all. Anybody who says that just fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between Congressional Republicans and President Trump and his administration. We all ran on the same America first agenda: secure the border, cut taxes for working families, revive American energy production, strengthen our standing on the world stage and bring back common sense.

    We already have the formula for prosperity and security, and that’s the thing about President Trump: he’s not an unknown entity, as we’ve all recounted many times. He’s done it once; he’ll do it again. We plan to work together to enshrine the agenda in the law and make sure we have a roaring American economy and stability and security, prosperity, and strength again,. From day one, President Trump has used his executive authority to reverse the devastating policies of the last administration. There was a lot of that to be done, but as the previous administration made it painfully clear, executive orders can be undone and overwritten, and that’s why we have to move it through the legislative process. And we are.

    On Congressional Democrats refusal to work with Republicans:

    House and Senate Republicans are utilizing the budget reconciliation process primarily because leader Schumer in the Senate, Leader Jeffries in the House and their Democrat colleagues, refused to engage in anything, no matter how meritorious, even to improve the lives of their constituents if it means that President Trump will somehow be credited with a win. I mean, it’s really sad, but that’s the fact. They’d rather put on performative stunts and host these activist town halls, and all this other nonsense then just work with us to bring costs down and make communities safer for their constituents. Just think about how the American people feel about these issues.

    When Democrats had a trifecta in 2021, they used the budget reconciliation process, but you know what they did? They used it to “stimulate” the economy. What did that mean? Well, trillions in new spending and tax hikes and the green New Deal giveaways. We can’t do that. It’s not sustainable, so we’re going to reverse it. And guess what happened when they did that? We had runaway inflation, making the cost of living for everyday Americans unbearable. Contrast that with what we’re doing, what Republicans are working on right now, what we are delivering through the committees and soon through the whole house: lower taxes, decreased regulation, safer streets, keeping more of your money that you earn in your own pocket. We’ll take that to the people every single day, and they’ll be for us. And as the house works to finish budget reconciliation over the next few weeks, we’ll continue to shine a light on the Do- Nothing Democrats who would rather oppose President Trump’s popular agenda than work for the needs of their own constituents.

    On the commonsense provisions included in budget reconciliation:

    Consider this, secure the border, right? Securing the border is an 80/20 issue in America. Deporting illegal aliens? More than 50% of American people believe that every single illegal alien should be deported… But despite those numbers, the Democrats are taking trips to Central America to bring back violent illegal aliens back to the country. It’s madness. Strengthening Medicaid for Americans who need it by eliminating things like fraud, waste and abuse, which is a huge problem in the program, including removing illegal aliens. If you add all that together, 66% of the American people think that that’s a very important idea. We need to improve, shore up and strengthen the program so that it can be there for the people who desperately need and deserve it. And Democrats, what do they do? Lying about what we’re doing with Medicaid, so much so that we’ve gotten them to pull down their advertising because they were literally breaking the law. We sent cease and desist letters and they had to take it down.

    Cutting taxes for working families and small businesses, what American doesn’t want to pay fewer taxes to the government? There may be a few, but I haven’t found them, especially on matters like the overtime, tipped wages and Social Security. Big promises for the President, and we’re going to deliver that. But it turns out congressional Democrats apparently want Americans to pay more. They’re adamantly against all those things I just named. They’re against keeping taxes low. And when they oppose the reconciliation bill, when they oppose the solution to this, to extend the tax cuts, they are actually advocating for the largest tax increase in US history, end of sentence.

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Wasserman Schultz, Carter, Krishnamoorthi, Bacon Announce Newly Formed Children’s Safety Caucus

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23)

    “For my entire professional career, children’s safety has been a top priority. Kids can’t always protect themselves, so looking out for their best interests and creating a safer world is critical. In Florida, drowning prevention is central to this mission,” said Wasserman Schultz. “No tragedy cuts deeper to a parent than losing a child to a preventable death. That’s why I am extremely eager to launch the new, bipartisan Children’s Safety Caucus with my colleagues Buddy Carter, Raja Krishnamoorthi, and Don Bacon. I look forward to collaborating to keep our kids safe with sensible outreach, education, and initiatives.”

    Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Representatives Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-25), Earl L. “Buddy” Carter (GA-01), Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08), and Don Bacon (NE-02) announced the formation of the bipartisan Children’s Safety Caucus. The caucus will work to find and promote solutions to dramatically reduce preventable childhood deaths and injuries.  

    Avoidable injuries are the number one cause of child fatalities in the United States. In 2022, more than 9,000 families lost a child because of preventable injury. Nearly 5.6 million children are treated in emergency departments for injuries every year. 

    “For my entire professional career, children’s safety has been a top priority. Kids can’t always protect themselves, so looking out for their best interests and creating a safer world is critical. In Florida, drowning prevention is central to this mission,” said Wasserman Schultz. “No tragedy cuts deeper to a parent than losing a child to a preventable death. That’s why I am extremely eager to launch the new, bipartisan Children’s Safety Caucus with my colleagues Buddy Carter, Raja Krishnamoorthi, and Don Bacon. I look forward to collaborating to keep our kids safe with sensible outreach, education, and initiatives.”  

    “As a proud father and grandfather, the protection of children is always at the front of my mind. Avoidable injuries remain the number one cause of child fatalities in the United States, and I am proud to join with my colleagues to create the Children’s Safety Caucus, as we work in a bipartisan fashion to protect America’s kids,” said Carter. “Thank you to Reps. Wasserman Schultz, Krishnamoorthi, and Bacon for joining me in this effort.”

    “As a father and grandfather, I believe there is nothing more important than protecting our children. I’m pleased to help establish the bipartisan Children’s Safety Caucus, where we’ll work together to develop solutions that keep our kids safe,” said Bacon. “Every child deserves the opportunity to grow up in a safe environment, and this caucus will serve as a vital platform to advance solutions that protect our children.”

    “As a father of three, nothing has driven me more in Congress than the mission to make the world safer for our children,” said Krishnamoorthi. “That’s why I’ve taken on Big Tobacco and other special interests by leading Congressional efforts against toxic metals in baby food, predatory vape companies targeting kids, and dangerous car seats. My investigation into booster seat safety led to the introduction of my Booster Seat Safety Act—legislation that applies the American Academy of Pediatrics’ guidelines for the seat and mandates that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration establish rigorous side-impact crash testing standards. I am proud to co-chair the Children’s Safety Caucus to continue fighting for solutions that keep our children safe—whether it’s at home, at school, or on the road.”

    The Children’s Safety Caucus will focus on issue areas like child passenger safety, water safety, and safe sleep issues.  An important goal for the caucus is to host meetings and forums throughout the Congressional session to highlight the need for bipartisan support for children’s safety issues. The caucus will update members of Congress and their staff on relevant legislation, best practices to better inform constituents, and host events to promote child safety. 

    U.S. Statistics on children’s safety: 

    Road

    • 14 kids 12 and under die in motor vehicle crashes each week. Another 2,300 are injured in nonfatal crashes. 
    • Properly used child car seats and booster seats reduce the risk of death by as much as 71%
    • More than half of all car seats are not properly installed.
    • Car Seat Technicians in every state are available to help parents, grandparents, and caregivers properly install their child’s car or booster seat!

    Water

    • Drowning is the leading cause of injury related death among children 1-4.
    • It’s the third leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among children 19 and under.
    • In 2018, there were 918 children under the age of 19 who drowned and over 7,000 more were seen in the emergency room.

    Safe Sleep

    • Unintentional suffocation is the leading cause of injury-related death among children under 1.
    • Nearly 3,500 infants die each year in the U.S. from sleep related infant deaths.
    • Causes of sleep-related infant deaths include suffocation, entrapment, strangulation, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Video: President Trump Participates in a Bilateral Meeting with the Prime Minister of Canada, May 6, 2025

    Source: United States of America – The White House (video statements)

    The White House

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

    MIL OSI Video –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Bacon, Pappas Co-lead Taiwan Representative Office Act

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Don Bacon (2nd District of Nebraska)

    Bacon, Pappas Co-lead Taiwan Representative Office Act

    Washington, DC – Reps. Don Bacon (NE-02) and Chris Pappas (NH-01) have introduced legislation to direct the Secretary of State to engage in negotiations with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) to rename its office the ‘‘Taiwan Representative Office.”

    Currently named the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in the United States, it represents the interests of Taiwan in the United States in the absence of formal diplomatic relations, functioning as a de facto embassy. Its counterpart in Taiwan is the office of the American Institute in Taiwan in Taipei.

    This bill does not restore diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan) or alter the position of the United States with respect to the international status of Taiwan.

    “Taiwan is our friend, and we are treating them like second-class people because of the pressure and bullying by China,” said Rep. Bacon. “We want to elevate what we call their diplomatic facilities and their senior diplomatic representative. Taiwan deserves better from the world’s superpower for freedom.” 

    “I am committed to standing with all our democratic allies against threats to their security and sovereignty, and we must continue to strengthen our diplomatic partnership with our democratic ally Taiwan as they face continued threats from Xi Jinping’s authoritarian regime,” said Rep. Pappas. “This bipartisan policy would properly recognize Taiwan’s de facto embassy in Washington to demonstrate our continued support and counter Xi Jinping’s attempts to intimidate Taiwan and other allies.”

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Landsat at Work: Satellites Help with Complex Crop and Water Issues

    Source: US Geological Survey

    Landsat at Work: Satellites Help with Complex Crop and Water Issues

    California faces challenges in trying to produce so much of our food

    In just one example of the benefits of monitoring, growers in a 100,000-acre area of California—an area about the size of Bakersfield—saw a 13% reduction in groundwater pumping in the first year of using information derived from Landsat and other sources. That resulted in savings of roughly $40 million. 

    Supplies of groundwater for irrigation are more predictable than surface water, which can fluctuate with drought, but groundwater is not infinite. If too much groundwater is pumped out, wells can go dry and land can sink, leading to infrastructure issues. Monitoring groundwater use can help prevent problems like these.

    ‘Users of Landsat on a Daily Basis’

    Many types of crops grow in California, which supplies more than a third of the country’s vegetables and three-fourths of its fruits and nuts, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

    Using remote sensing data like Landsat to map crops field by field reveals how many acres are growing. That lets various commodity boards such as the Almond Board of California and the California Walnut Board estimate the volume of crop that’s available to market to the world. And using remote sensing to know how much water those crops are using helps growers optimize groundwater use, management and regulatory compliance. 

    “We are significant users of Landsat on a daily basis,” said Joel Kimmelshue, founding partner and principal soil and agricultural scientist at Land IQ. 

    This Land IQ map of California shows a large number of crop types throughout the Central Valley and other areas. Courtesy of Land IQ

    Land IQ maps more than 50 California crops on 15 million producing acres of land with a very high (97+%) degree of accuracy. The company also provides monthly crop water consumption estimates, with Landsat and other satellite information as a fundamental starting point coupled with data-driven models. An extensive ground data collection system helps calibrate and validate the satellite results. 

    Background photo: This is an irrigated pistachio grove near Chowchilla, California. California produces most of the pistachios in the United States, with 488,000 acres in 2024. USDA photo taken November 9, 2018, by Lance Cheung.

    Nearly 40 groundwater sustainability agencies and irrigation districts use Land IQ’s crop water use estimates, including the Mid-Kaweah Groundwater Sustainability Agency (MKGSA) in the San Joaquin Valley.

    Several years ago, MKGSA made the difficult decision to put restrictions on groundwater use in reaction to sustained drought and a new California state law. MKGSA needed a way to measure growers’ groundwater usage, but under a tight deadline, there wasn’t nearly enough time to install water meters to monitor 65,000 acres of irrigated cropland. 

    So MKGSA turned to Land IQ to estimate the total amount of water used by crops, which is based on evapotranspiration (ET), a combined loss of water through evaporation and plant transpiration. 

    MKGSA growers were initially given 2.5 acre-feet of groundwater per acre of land in 2022—enough to cover each acre with 2.5 feet of water—beyond precipitation or surface water that their crops also use. Every month, they can check their groundwater consumption for the previous month on a dashboard to see how their “water budget” is going and what they have left for the rest of the year. If they don’t use all their allocated groundwater in one year, the unused amount remains available for them in the future.

    ABOVE: This panel of three images shows the same area of central California, near Tulare and Visalia southeast of Fresno, in July 2024. Left: A Landsat image, one of the satellite sources of information for Land IQ’s mapping. Middle: A Land IQ monthly map of crop types, which also includes wheat at a more muted fuchsia. Right: A Land IQ monthly map of evapotranspiration, which ranges from red at no evapotranspiration through orange, yellow and green up to blue, with the highest level. This area of California has a number of dairies as well, which can be seen in some of the areas that do not have a color-coded crop type. The middle and right images are courtesy of Land IQ.

    “Without the Land IQ data, farmers couldn’t plan. They were just doing what they used to do, what their grandfathers did, what their great-grandfathers did. And that wasn’t working. We were overdrafting the groundwater system. They had to make a change,” said Aaron Fukuda, interim general manager of the MKGSA and general manager of the Tulare Irrigation District, which is a member of the MKGSA. 

    “At the core of all of it is the ET data. Pull that out, and the heart of the system falls apart.” – Aaron Fukuda

    MKGSA’s growers have four years of Land IQ data to look back on now. In addition to keeping track of their water budgets, they can find the average of how much water is used by a certain tree crop, like almonds, or another perennial crop. “They’re fine-tuning their irrigation to get to the optimum yields based on water availability, yields and commodity pricing,” Fukuda said.

    For growers of annual crops such as corn or wheat, once they know how many acre-feet of groundwater each crop type needs, they can plan out what to plant in each field based on how much water they have to “spend.” 

    MKGSA’s plan, a revision from an earlier plan rejected by the state, is paying off. In a comparison of two drought years—2021 to 2022—groundwater pumping went down 13%, saving 20,000 acre-feet of water and roughly $40 million, based on a drought-year value of water at $2,000 per acre-foot, Fukuda said. In other words, that’s 6.5 billion gallons, enough water to supply a city like Santa Barbara for more than a year and a half.

    Plus, because the revised plan met the state’s requirements, MKGSA is being considered to avoid a “probation” period in which the state would take over the sustainability planning. That would cost growers tens of millions of dollars in fees annually, Fukuda said.

    “Because we’ve implemented the allocation system, because we’re cutting back, we’re making the hard decisions; because we’re monitoring and we are showing results, we are hoping to avoid probation.” 

    One reason Landsat is so valuable to companies like Land IQ and customers like the MKGSA and its growers is because the data is offered to the public at no cost, said Diya Chowdhury, Land IQ spatial sciences team lead. “That allows us to pass that cost savings down to our clients. There’s a limited budget, and it allows us to work within that.” 

    Chowdhury estimates that overall, Land IQ includes Landsat data in 90 percent of its crop mapping and ET projects, which also include Arizona, Australia and Mexico.

    Landsat’s annual value in 2023 was calculated to be $25.6 billion for myriad uses, including the agriculture industry. Landsat is a partnership that began between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and NASA more than 50 years ago, by far the longest-running Earth observation satellite program in the world. The data are made available through the USGS.

    Some Land IQ projects need to look at imagery from decades ago. “Landsat is considered to be the industry standard due to the historical record of data,” Chowdhury said. 

    The two current satellites collect fresh imagery of every spot of land on Earth every eight days, a benefit to Land IQ. “It gives us a time series of data to work with,” she added. “We’re looking at crops, which is a dynamic system. You need to consider how things are evolving and changing over time.” 

    Landsat Next is planned with three satellites that would collectively capture a new view of the Earth’s surface every six days.

    The company uses artificial intelligence (AI) methods—specifically machine learning—to be able to incorporate all of the remote sensing and ground data into its work.

    Looking ahead, Landsat’s role is expected to grow as technology evolves.

    AI methods will continue to be useful as plans for the next generation of Landsat satellites include even more remote sensing data. A trio of satellites is planned to launch in late 2030/early 2031 as Landsat Next, capturing far more detail about features of the Earth’s surface more frequently than current Landsat satellites, including more information about crop conditions.

    Landsat is crucial for Land IQ’s work, Kimmelshue said, and “for the people that use those ground-validated results. That’s the real critical part: for them to manage the short water that we have in many places in the western United States.”

    Disclaimer: This web page contains hypertext links to information created and maintained by other organizations. USGS is not responsible for the content of any off-site pages. Reference herein to any specific commercial products, processes, or services by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply its endorsement or recommendation by the United States Government. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Springfield Man Convicted of Aggravated Sexual Abuse of a Minor Less Than 12 and Engaging in Illicit Sexual Conduct with a Minor in a Foreign Place

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Springfield, Mo., man was convicted on May 5th following a guilty plea to three counts of Aggravated Sexual Abuse of a Minor Less Than 12 Years and a single count of Engaging in Illicit Sexual Conduct with a Minor in a Foreign Place.   The defendant plead guilty to all four counts of a federal indictment on the first day of a jury trial after the conclusion of the first witness’s testimony. 

    John Michael Bradley, 65, was charged by indictment in December 2023 that involved Bradley’s criminal conduct occurring between 2005 and 2006 while he was an active-duty member of the United States Army in Honduras, and between 2007 and 2008 when he returned to Honduras multiple times as a civilian.

    In his plea of guilty the defendant admitted that while he was stationed in Honduras in 2005, he met the minor victim.  Over the course of the next three years, beginning when the minor victim was four years old, the defendant sexually abused the child on numerous occasions. The defendant admitted that after his active-duty tour in Honduras ended in 2006 he returned to Honduras from the United States with the intent to engage in sexual acts with the minor victim and did engage in sexual acts with the minor victim.  The minor victim, now an adult, reported the crimes to U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Division in 2021.  The defendant has a previous federal conviction in 2019 for possession of child pornography also in the Western District of Missouri.

    Under federal statutes, the defendant is subject to a sentence of not less than 30 years and up to life in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

    This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Luna and Kenneth W. Borgnino. It was investigated by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, and U.S Army Criminal Investigations Division.

    Project Safe Childhood

    This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Registered Sex Offender Sentenced to 12 Years in Federal Prison for Using Instagram to Prey on Minors

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    EVANSVILLE— William Virgil Russell, II, 33, of Evansville, has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release after pleading guilty to possession of sexually explicit material involving minors.   

    According to court documents, on April 3, 2023, social media application, Instagram, reported that an account owned by William V. Russell had accessed at least one video suspected of containing child sexual abuse material. The video depicted an adult male attempting to rape a prepubescent minor female.

    Working with Instagram to review the account, law enforcement investigators found additional child sexual abuse material, as well as posts by Russell soliciting underage videos that stated, “Looking for freaks with young kids or siblings that need $$” and “Looking for under l2 to buy from hit me up.”

    On September 26, 2023, investigators searched Russell’s home in Evansville and recovered his cellphone. Further investigation uncovered 21 sexually explicit images involving minors, as well as numerous chat session transcripts in which Russell describes himself as a pedophile, says he prefers toddlers, and asks women to provide him with nude and sexually explicit images of their children. Russell often offered to pay for the images.

    At the time of the offenses described above, Russell was a registered sex offender based on a felony conviction for Possession of Child Sexual Abuse Material in Warrick County, Indiana. Following his release, Russell must continue to remain registered as a sex offender wherever he lives, works, or goes to school.

    “Every parent should know that social media apps like Instagram are not safe spaces for young children and are often hunting grounds for predators who seek gratification from their exploitation,” said John E. Childress, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. “I commend the investigators with FBI, Evansville PD, and the efforts of our AUSA for working together to ensure more vulnerable individuals are not victimized.”

    The FBI and Evansville Police Department investigated this case. The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Richard L. Young

    Acting U.S. Attorney Childress thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd S. Shellenbarger, who prosecuted this case.

    This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.

    If you are a victim of child sexual exploitation, please contact your local police department. Resources for victims of child exploitation can be found on our website at https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdin/project-safe-childhood

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    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI: CREDIT AGRICOLE S.A. ANNOUNCES REDEMPTION OF ¥105,500,000,000 Japanese Yen Callable Senior Non-Preferred Bonds issued on June 4, 2020 (ISIN: JP525022AL60)

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

                                                     Montrouge, May 6, 2025

    CREDIT AGRICOLE S.A. ANNOUNCES REDEMPTION OF

    ¥105,500,000,000 Japanese Yen Callable Senior Non-Preferred Bonds

    issued on June 4, 2020 (ISIN: JP525022AL60)*

    Crédit Agricole S.A. (the “Issuer”) announces today the redemption (the “Redemption”) with effect on June 4, 2025 (the “Redemption Date”) of all of its outstanding ¥105,500,000,000 Japanese Yen Callable Senior Non-Preferred Bonds – issued on June 4, 2020 (ISIN: JP525022AL60) (the “Bonds”) pursuant to Condition 7 (4) (Redemption at the option of the Issuer) of the Conditions of the Bonds (the “Conditions of the Bonds”), at a price equal to 100% of the principal amount together with interest accrued to and including the date fixed for redemption (the “Redemption Amount”).

    On the Redemption Date, the Redemption Amount shall become due and payable and, in accordance with Condition 6 (3) of the Conditions of the Bonds, unless the Redemption Amount is improperly withheld or refused, each Bond shall cease to bear interest on the Redemption Date.

    The holders of the Bonds will receive formal notice of the Redemption in accordance with the Conditions of the Bonds.

    For further information on Crédit Agricole S.A., please see Crédit Agricole S.A.’s website: https://www.credit-agricole.com/en/finance.

    DISCLAIMER

    This press release does not constitute an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell the Bonds in the United States of America, Canada, Australia or Japan or in any other jurisdiction. The distribution of this press release in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law. Persons into whose possession this announcement comes are required to inform themselves about, and to observe, any such restrictions

    No communication or information relating to the redemption of the Bonds may be distributed to the public in a country where a registration obligation or an approval is required. No action has been or will be taken in any country where such action would be required. The redemption of the Bonds may be subject to specific legal and regulatory restrictions in certain jurisdictions; Crédit Agricole S.A. accepts no liability in connection with a breach by any person of such restrictions.

    This press release is an advertisement; and none of this press release, any notice or any other document or material made public and/or delivered, or which may be made public and/or delivered to the holders of the Bonds in connection with the redemption of the Bonds is or is intended to be a prospectus for the purposes of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council dated 14 June 2017 (as amended, the “Prospectus Regulation”). No prospectus will be published in connection with the redemption of the Bonds for the purposes of the Prospectus Regulation.

    This press release does not, and shall not, in any circumstances, constitute an offer to the public of Bonds by Crédit Agricole S.A. nor an invitation to the public in connection with any offer in any jurisdiction, including France.

    * The ISIN number is included solely for the convenience of the holders of the Bonds. No representation is being made as to the correctness or accuracy of the ISIN number either as printed on the Bonds or as contained herein and the holder may rely only on the identification numbers printed on its Bond.

    モンルージュ、2025年5月6日

    クレディ・アグリコル・エス・エー

    第7回期限前償還条項付非上位円貨社債（2020）

    （2020年6月4日発行、1,055億円（ISIN: JP525022AL60）*）の

    期限前償還を公表

    クレディ・アグリコル・エス・エー（「発行会社」）は、2020年6月4日に発行したクレディ・アグリコル・エス・エー第7回期限前償還条項付非上位円貨社債（2020）（ISIN: JP525022AL60）（「本社債」）の1,055億円全額について、本社債の要項（「社債要項」）第7項（4）（発行会社による任意償還）に基づき、2025年6月4日付（「償還期日」）で、本社債の金額の100％に償還期日（その日を含む。）までの経過利息を付して（「償還金額」）期限前償還（「本償還」）することを本日公表いたしました。

    償還期日に償還金額の支払期限が到来し、社債要項第6項（3）に基づき、償還金額の不当な留保又は拒絶がなされない限り、償還期日をもって各本社債にかかる利息の付与が停止されます。

    本社債の所持人は、社債要項に従い、本償還に関する正式な通知を受ける予定です。

    クレディ・アグリコル・エス・エーの詳細については、クレディ・アグリコル・エス・エーのWebサイト（https://www.credit-agricole.com/en/finance）をご参照ください。

    免責事項

    本プレスリリースは、米国、カナダ、オーストラリア、日本またはその他の法域において、本社債の購入の申込みまたは売却の申込みの勧誘を構成するものではありません。一定の法域においては、本プレスリリースの配布が法律によって制約される場合があります。本プレスリリースを入手した者には、かかる制約について自ら調査し、遵守することが要求されます。

    登録義務または承認が要求される国においては、本社債の償還に関するコミュニケーションまたは情報を公に配布してはなりません。かかる措置が要求される国において、いかなる措置も講じられておらず、または講じられる予定もありません。本社債の償還は、一定の法域において、特定の法律および規制上の制約を受ける可能性があります。クレディ・アグリコル・エス・エーは、かかる制約に対するいかなる者の違反についても、一切責任を負いません。

    本プレスリリースは広告にすぎず、本プレスリリース、または本社債の償還に関連し本社債の債権者に対し公表および／もしくは交付された、または公表および／もしくは交付される通知その他の文書または資料は、2017年6月14日付欧州議会および理事会の規則（EU）第2017/1129号（その後の改正を含み、以下「目論見書規則」）上の目論見書ではなく、かかる目論見書を意図したものでもありません。目論見書規則の適用上、本社債の償還に関して目論見書は発行されません。

    本プレスリリースは、いかなる場合においても、クレディ・アグリコル・エス・エーによる本社債の公募を構成するものではなく、またフランスを含むいかなる法域における申込みに関連しても、勧誘を構成するものではありません。

    * ISIN番号は、本社債の債権者の便宜のためにのみ付されたものです。本社債に印刷されたまたは本プレスリリースに記載されたISIN番号の正しさまたは正確性を表明するものではなく、債権者は、本社債に印刷された識別番号にのみ依拠することができます。

    CRÉDIT AGRICOLE S.A. PRESS CONTACT

    Alexandre Barat                             + 33 1 57 72 12 19                                      alexandre.barat@credit-agricole-sa.fr
    Olivier Tassain                               + 33 1 43 23 25 41                                      olivier.tassain@credit-agricole-sa.fr

    Find our press release on: www.credit-agricole.com – www.creditagricole.info

      Crédit_Agricole   Groupe Crédit Agricole   créditagricole_sa

    Attachment

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: CREDIT AGRICOLE S.A. ANNOUNCES REDEMPTION OF ¥5,800,000,000 Japanese Yen Callable Subordinated Bonds issued on June 4, 2020 (ISIN: JP525022CL68)

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

                                                     Montrouge, May 6, 2025

    CREDIT AGRICOLE S.A. ANNOUNCES REDEMPTION OF

    ¥5,800,000,000 Japanese Yen Callable Subordinated Bonds

    issued on June 4, 2020 (ISIN: JP525022CL68)*

    Crédit Agricole S.A. (the “Issuer”) announces today the redemption (the “Redemption”) with effect on June 4, 2025 (the “Redemption Date”) of all of its outstanding ¥5,800,000,000 Japanese Yen Callable Subordinated  Bonds – issued on June 4, 2020 (ISIN: JP525022CL68) (the “Bonds”) pursuant to Condition 7 (5) (Redemption at the option of the Issuer) of the Conditions of the Bonds (the “Conditions of the Bonds”), at a price equal to 100% of the principal amount together with interest accrued to and including the date fixed for redemption (the “Redemption Amount”).

    On the Redemption Date, the Redemption Amount shall become due and payable and, in accordance with Condition 6 (3) of the Conditions of the Bonds, unless the Redemption Amount is improperly withheld or refused, each Bond shall cease to bear interest on the Redemption Date.

    The holders of the Bonds will receive formal notice of the Redemption in accordance with the Conditions of the Bonds.

    For further information on Crédit Agricole S.A., please see Crédit Agricole S.A.’s website: https://www.credit-agricole.com/en/finance.

    DISCLAIMER

    This press release does not constitute an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell the Bonds in the United States of America, Canada, Australia or Japan or in any other jurisdiction. The distribution of this press release in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law. Persons into whose possession this announcement comes are required to inform themselves about, and to observe, any such restrictions

    No communication or information relating to the redemption of the Bonds may be distributed to the public in a country where a registration obligation or an approval is required. No action has been or will be taken in any country where such action would be required. The redemption of the Bonds may be subject to specific legal and regulatory restrictions in certain jurisdictions; Crédit Agricole S.A. accepts no liability in connection with a breach by any person of such restrictions.

    This press release is an advertisement; and none of this press release, any notice or any other document or material made public and/or delivered, or which may be made public and/or delivered to the holders of the Bonds in connection with the redemption of the Bonds is or is intended to be a prospectus for the purposes of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council dated 14 June 2017 (as amended, the “Prospectus Regulation”). No prospectus will be published in connection with the redemption of the Bonds for the purposes of the Prospectus Regulation.

    This press release does not, and shall not, in any circumstances, constitute an offer to the public of Bonds by Crédit Agricole S.A. nor an invitation to the public in connection with any offer in any jurisdiction, including France.

    * The ISIN number is included solely for the convenience of the holders of the Bonds. No representation is being made as to the correctness or accuracy of the ISIN number either as printed on the Bonds or as contained herein and the holder may rely only on the identification numbers printed on its Bond.

    モンルージュ、2025年5月6日

    クレディ・アグリコル・エス・エー

    第7回期限前償還条項付円貨社債（劣後特約付）（2020）

    （2020年6月4日発行、58億円（ISIN: JP525022CL68）*）の

    期限前償還を公表

    クレディ・アグリコル・エス・エー（「発行会社」）は、2020年6月4日に発行したクレディ・アグリコル・エス・エー第7回期限前償還条項付円貨社債（劣後特約付）（2020）（ISIN: JP525022CL68）（「本社債」）の58億円全額について、本社債の要項（「社債要項」）第7項（5）（発行会社による任意償還）に基づき、2025年6月4日付（「償還期日」）で、本社債の金額の100％に償還期日（その日を含む。）までの経過利息を付して（「償還金額」）期限前償還（「本償還」）することを本日公表いたしました。

    償還期日に償還金額の支払期限が到来し、社債要項第6項（3）に基づき、償還金額の不当な留保又は拒絶がなされない限り、償還期日をもって各本社債にかかる利息の付与が停止されます。

    本社債の所持人は、社債要項に従い、本償還に関する正式な通知を受ける予定です。

    クレディ・アグリコル・エス・エーの詳細については、クレディ・アグリコル・エス・エーのWebサイト（https://www.credit-agricole.com/en/finance）をご参照ください。

    免責事項

    本プレスリリースは、米国、カナダ、オーストラリア、日本またはその他の法域において、本社債の購入の申込みまたは売却の申込みの勧誘を構成するものではありません。一定の法域においては、本プレスリリースの配布が法律によって制約される場合があります。本プレスリリースを入手した者には、かかる制約について自ら調査し、遵守することが要求されます。

    登録義務または承認が要求される国においては、本社債の償還に関するコミュニケーションまたは情報を公に配布してはなりません。かかる措置が要求される国において、いかなる措置も講じられておらず、または講じられる予定もありません。本社債の償還は、一定の法域において、特定の法律および規制上の制約を受ける可能性があります。クレディ・アグリコル・エス・エーは、かかる制約に対するいかなる者の違反についても、一切責任を負いません。

    本プレスリリースは広告にすぎず、本プレスリリース、または本社債の償還に関連し本社債の債権者に対し公表および／もしくは交付された、または公表および／もしくは交付される通知その他の文書または資料は、2017年6月14日付欧州議会および理事会の規則（EU）第2017/1129号（その後の改正を含み、以下「目論見書規則」）上の目論見書ではなく、かかる目論見書を意図したものでもありません。目論見書規則の適用上、本社債の償還に関して目論見書は発行されません。

    本プレスリリースは、いかなる場合においても、クレディ・アグリコル・エス・エーによる本社債の公募を構成するものではなく、またフランスを含むいかなる法域における申込みに関連しても、勧誘を構成するものではありません。

    * ISIN番号は、本社債の債権者の便宜のためにのみ付されたものです。本社債に印刷されたまたは本プレスリリースに記載されたISIN番号の正しさまたは正確性を表明するものではなく、債権者は、本社債に印刷された識別番号にのみ依拠することができます。

    CRÉDIT AGRICOLE S.A. PRESS CONTACT

    Alexandre Barat                             + 33 1 57 72 12 19                                      alexandre.barat@credit-agricole-sa.fr
    Olivier Tassain                               + 33 1 43 23 25 41                                      olivier.tassain@credit-agricole-sa.fr

    Find our press release on: www.credit-agricole.com – www.creditagricole.info

      Crédit_Agricole   Groupe Crédit Agricole   créditagricole_sa

    Attachment

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: New water-monitoring program could save 1.5 billion litres a year

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    Homeowners and businesses in rural British Columbia will soon benefit from new water meters that will help small communities save water and increase resiliency during droughts, while lowering costs for people who use less water.

    “Drinking water is an incredibly precious resource,” said Brittny Anderson, Minister of State for Local Governments and Rural Communities. “Small and rural communities in B.C. face higher financial and management capacity challenges, and water metering helps communities identify leaks, conserve drinking water, and keep costs down for businesses and residents.”

    Nineteen small, rural and First Nations communities will benefit from nearly 15,000 new automated water meters that will be installed. Provincial funding will cover up to 100% of eligible costs. By helping communities have a better understanding of the amount of water that is used, this $50-million provincial investment could help save up to 1.5 billion litres of water each year. This is the equivalent of a day’s worth of drinking water for 750 million people, 37.5 million showers or washing 30 million loads of laundry.

    The meters are part of a pilot program to help small communities and local water suppliers track and manage water use and mitigate the impact of drought, while giving people confidence that they are only paying for what they use. Once installed, the meters can help reduce water use by up to 30%. That means more water stays in rivers and lakes to support fish and ecosystems, with less money spent on building new water systems.

    “People in small and rural communities deserve reliable, affordable water services,” said Randene Neill, Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. “By installing these new water meters, we’re helping communities track their water use, save money and prepare for dry seasons. This is about building stronger, more resilient communities in British Columbia.”

    Water meters help keep more water in the system by providing people with an incentive to use less and identifying where leaks happen. This means lower water bills, fewer costly upgrades to water systems, and more water available during emergencies, such as wildfires. It also reduces pressure on wastewater systems and saves energy used for treating and moving water.

    “This investment will give families and businesses peace of mind knowing they are only paying for the water that they use,” said Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs. “It will also help communities and First Nations save clean drinking water and cut down on unnecessary maintenance. A win-win for people and the planet.”

    The program also includes research that will study the benefits and investigate challenges and opportunities associated with water metering in small communities. The Province will ensure that lessons learned from this program will be made available to all water suppliers in B.C. to help them make decisions to use water more efficiently.

    Quotes:

    Steve Morrisette, parliamentary secretary for rural development –

    “This project is a big win for families and local businesses. It helps ensure British Columbians only pay for the water they actually use, while also protecting our water sources for future generations. With all levels of government working together, it’s making a real difference where it’s needed most.”

    Regional Chief Terry Teegee, BC Assembly of First Nations, on behalf of the First Nations Leadership Council –

    “This is a much-needed and welcomed initiative for First Nations in rural and remote communities who continue to grapple disproportionately with the rippling effects of the climate crisis, and who also face water scarcity in their territories. With increasingly frequent droughts occurring throughout B.C., continued and sustained investments from the Province is vital to support First Nations with watershed security through data collection, monitoring and management.”

    Mark Pendergraft, chair, Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) –

    “The Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen is pleased to participate in this important universal metering pilot program. This project will give the RDOS the opportunity to improve watershed management and improve the sustainability of local water systems going forward.”

    Zoe Grams, executive director, Climate Caucus –

    “Water metering is a proven tool to protect such an essential resource, but such infrastructure is often significantly challenging for local governments to implement. We celebrate the Province’s efforts to ensure more municipalities can conserve the water they need — especially as we face increasing drought.”

    Coree Tull, chair, BC Watershed Security Coalition –

    “This program is a crucial step in helping B.C. communities address the growing challenge of water insecurity and catch up with regions that already have water metering in place. As demand surges for housing, food, and economic growth, water metering is no longer optional — it’s essential infrastructure that enables conservation and supports smart, data-driven community water management.”

    Tim Morris, director, BC Water Legacy –

    “As B.C. grapples with increasing water scarcity and drought, water metering for residential and business users has become a necessity for good water management and to ensure the water security of local communities and economies. The Province’s new water-metering program is an important step that will improve watershed management for communities across B.C., help conserve precious drinking water supplies, and strengthen local drought planning and decision-making.”

    Learn More:

    For more information on communites that will receive funding for water meters, visit: https://news.gov.bc.ca/files/BG_WaterMeterPilot.pdf

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Northern Saskatchewan to see Record Investment to Improve Highways and Airports

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    Released on May 6, 2025

    Today, Highways Minister David Marit highlighted a $122.3 million investment to enhance the safety and reliability of key transportation infrastructure in northern Saskatchewan.

    The 2025-26 Budget includes $86 million in capital improvements to roads and airports and $36.5 million in operation and maintenance. 

    “We will continue investing in northern Saskatchewan and build the necessary infrastructure for industry and the communities,” Marit said. “Since 2007-08, our government has made record investments totaling over $1 billion in the northern transportation network.”

    The ministry continues to invest in northern transportation while balancing the needs of the broader provincial network. The 2025-26 Budget includes the largest investment in the northern region to date, primarily due to several large multi-year capital projects reaching the construction stage. This increase reflects the ministry’s commitment to improving infrastructure while ensuring investments align with long-term planning needs.

    2025-26 Highlights include: 

    • Highway 2 – Design work for resurfacing near Weyakwin. 
    • Highway 102 – Thin Membrane Surface (TMS) upgrade from La Ronge Airport North Access to Sucker River.
    • Highway 102 – Spot improvement North of Lac La Ronge.
    • Highway 106 – TMS upgrade south of Highway 120 Jct.
    • Highway 106 – Micro-surfacing west of Highway 165 Jct.
    • Highway 106 – Strengthening, grade raise, northern spot improvements.
    • Highway 135 – Clay capping and base stabilization south of Pelican Narrows.
    • Highway 155 – Engineered seal west of Beauval.
    • Highway 915 – Crushing and prep work for future gravel resurfacing west of Stanley Mission.
    • Multiple culvert or bridge replacements critical to ensure safety and reliability.
    • Preservation treatments, such as seals and micro-surfacing, that extend the life of the pavement.
    • Targeted safety improvements, such as widening, alignment and guardrails. 

    With this year’s budget, the Government of Saskatchewan has invested more than $13.8 billion in transportation infrastructure since 2008, improving more than 21,800 km of highways across the province. 

    -30-

    For more information, contact:

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Saskatchewan Expands RSV Immunization Program for Infants

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    Released on May 6, 2025

    The province is changing its approach to infant Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) immunization to include all infants born one month before and during RSV season, which typically runs annually from October 1 to March 31. Under this new plan, with parental consent, every baby born in Saskatchewan during this time will be eligible to receive a publicly funded immunization in hospital at the time of birth. 

    “Expanding our RSV immunization program marks a significant step forward in protecting the health of our youngest residents,” Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill said. “By making this protection universal during RSV season, we are helping to reduce severe outcomes in babies, ease pressure on both emergency departments and inpatient pediatric beds during respiratory season, as well as support the overall capacity of our health system. This investment reflects our commitment to giving Saskatchewan families greater peace of mind and a healthier start for their children.”

    RSV infects the lungs causing pneumonia or bronchiolitis and can lead to emergency room visits and hospitalization. RSV bronchiolitis is one of the most common reasons for hospitalization of infants worldwide and has a significant impact on caregivers and families. Premature babies and infants with chronic heart or lung disease are at the highest risk of developing severe infections and death.

    “We know our smallest patients are often our most vulnerable during the winter months when respiratory illness season is most prominent,” Saskatchewan Health Authority Head of Pediatrics Provincial Department Dr. Terry Klassen said. “The Saskatchewan Health Authority applauds the Government of Saskatchewan for responding to the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization’s (NACI) recommendation and expanding the availability of RSV immunizations for newborns as an additional opportunity to protect infants against severe RSV disease.”

    The previous program, based on recommendations from the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS), targeted only high-risk children during their first and second RSV seasons using a multi-dose immunization. The new immunization (Beyfortis) requires only a single dose which will cover the infant in their first RSV season. This will also be given to some high-risk infants in their second season.

    “The children of Saskatchewan will benefit greatly from our all-infant RSV immunization strategy,” SHA’s Maternal and Children’s Programs Executive Director Kim Woycik said. “The impact of this initiative will help protect our youngest and most vulnerable patients from severe lung infections, as well as ease capacity pressures on our emergency rooms and pediatric units during respiratory season. The RSV immunization program will help spare many parents the distress of seeing their child be hospitalized.” 

    Broader immunity can reduce severe outcomes in infants, helping to protect health system capacity by easing pressure on services and reducing the pediatric hospitalizations typically experienced during respiratory season.

    RSV immunization should be considered for all infants born during their first RSV season, and for those with increased risk during their second season. For additional information on RSV immunization, it is best to discuss with your prenatal care team, maternal health care providers while in hospital, or contact your primary health care provider.

    For more information, visit: saskatchewan.ca/government/health-care-administration-and-provider-resources/treatment-procedures-and-guidelines/public-health-issues/respiratory-illnesses/RSV-Infant-Immunization-Program.

    -30-

    For more information, contact:

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: EIA expects lower crude oil prices and higher natural gas prices through 2026

    Source: US Energy Information Administration

    U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION
    WASHINGTON DC 20585

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    May 6, 2025

    The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects recent developments in global trade policy and oil production to contribute to lower global demand for petroleum products through 2026, contributing to lower oil prices than it previously forecast.

    In its May Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), EIA also forecasts natural gas prices to increase from historic lows in 2024.

    U.S. energy market indicators 2024 2025 2026
    Brent crude oil spot price (dollars per barrel) $81 $66 $59
    Retail gasoline price (dollars per gallon) $3.30 $3.10 $3.10
    U.S. crude oil production (million barrels per day) 13.2 13.4 13.5
    Natural gas price at Henry Hub (dollars per million British thermal units) $2.20 $4.10 $4.80
    U.S. liquefied natural gas gross exports (billion cubic feet per day) 12 15 16
    Shares of U.S. electricity generation       
    Natural gas 42% 40% 40%
    Coal 16% 16% 15%
    Renewables 23% 25% 27%
    Nuclear 19% 19% 19%
    U.S. GDP (percentage change) 2.8% 1.5% 1.6%
    U.S. CO2 emissions (billion metric tons) 4.8 4.8 4.7
    Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook, May 2025
    Note: Values in this table are rounded and may not match values in other tables in this report.

    Some key highlights from the May STEO include:

    • Oil supply, demand, and prices: EIA expects the Brent crude oil price to average about $66 per barrel in 2025 and about $59 per barrel in 2026, both significantly lower than the 2024 average of $81 per barrel.
    • Compared with the January STEO—the first STEO to include forecasts for 2026—EIA’s current forecast for global petroleum demand is about 500,000 barrels per day lower. EIA expects lower demand for petroleum products—such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel—along with increased oil production will lead to a generally oversupplied oil market, pushing oil prices down; EIA’s May forecast for 2026 oil prices is $8 per barrel lower than its January forecast.
    • As with all EIA forecasts, its forecast for crude oil prices is highly uncertain, specifically related to possible changes in U.S. and global crude oil production and petroleum demand trends. Notably, EIA concluded this forecast on May 1, which was before the latest OPEC+ meeting, on May 3.
    • U.S. ethane: China waived a 125% tariff on U.S. ethane imports it levied in early April. The tariff removal led EIA to expect strong growth in U.S. ethane production and exports. EIA expects the United States to produce nearly 3 million barrels per day of ethane this year and slightly more than 3 million barrels per day of ethane next year, up from 2.8 million barrels per day in 2024. Most of this growth in U.S. ethane production will be exported to supply growing international demand.
    • Natural gas prices: EIA expects natural gas prices to increase to about $4.20 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) on average in the third quarter of 2025. That price is about 80 cents per MMBtu higher than the April average and almost double the price from last year.
    • Electricity generation: EIA expects the U.S. power sector to generate 2% more electricity this year than it did in 2024, but generation from U.S. natural gas-fired power plants declines by 3% in the agency’s forecast, partially driven by rising natural gas prices. EIA expects rising natural gas prices to also contribute to a 6% increase in coal-fired generation.
    • U.S. solar generation continues to increase the most in electricity generation in the STEO forecast, increasing by 34% in 2025 and 18% in 2026.
    • Coal markets: With U.S. coal-fired power plants generating more electricity this year, EIA now expects U.S. coal production to total more than 500 million short tons in 2025, an upward revision from the April forecast.
    • Trade policy assumptions: The U.S. macroeconomic outlook EIA uses in the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) is based on S&P Global’s macroeconomic model. S&P Global’s most recent model reflects the tariffs announced on April 2, but the model was finalized prior to the temporary 90-day tariff suspension granted to certain countries. As a result, EIA’s macroeconomic forecast assumes significantly lower tariffs on China’s products than are currently in place and significantly higher tariffs on countries subject to the 90-day temporary suspension. These differences in tariff rates likely have offsetting effects on the macroeconomic forecast.

    The full May 2025 Short-Term Energy Outlook is available on the EIA website.

    The product described in this press release was prepared by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the statistical and analytical agency within the U.S. Department of Energy. By law, EIA’s data, analysis, and forecasts are independent of approval by any other officer or employee of the U.S. government. The views in the product and this press release therefore should not be construed as representing those of the U.S. Department of Energy or other federal agencies.

    EIA Program Contact: Tim Hess, STEO@eia.gov
    EIA Press Contact: Chris Higginbotham, EIAMedia@eia.gov

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: 53 Affordable and Supportive Homes in Rochester Completed

    Source: US State of New York

    overnor Kathy  Hochul  today announced the completion of 53 new homes throughout Rochester’s Beechwood neighborhood as part of a $27 million scattered Site redevelopment along Federal Street that transformed obsolete Rochester Housing Authority properties into affordable, supportive homes for families and individuals struggling with homelessness. In the past five years, New York State Homes and Community Renewal has financed more than 6,800 affordable homes in Monroe County. The Federal Street redevelopment project continues this effort and complements Governor Hochul’s $25 billion five-year housing plan, which is on track to create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes statewide.

    “Creating and preserving public housing opportunities in Rochester is vitally important for families today and in the future,” Governor Hochul said. “The work completed in the Beechwood neighborhood demonstrates my dedication to New Yorkers and ensuring communities across the state have access to affordable, energy-efficient homes in safe neighborhoods.”

    The Federal Street Scattered Site initiative furthers the community revitalization goals articulated in Rochester’s 2034 Comprehensive Plan and was developed in collaboration with the Beechwood Neighborhood Association.

    Construction included the demolition of eight blighted structures located at the Rochester Housing Authority’s Federal Street property that were replaced by two multi-family buildings and a single-family home, creating a total of 18 homes. Additional construction work included the replacement or substantial rehabilitation of 35 existing homes throughout the Beechwood neighborhood. Fifty-one of the units are affordable to households earning up to 60 percent of the Area Median Income.    

    The development includes nine apartments with supportive services for individuals experiencing homelessness. Rental subsidies and services are funded through the Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative and administered by the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. The supportive service provider is Spiritus Christi. 

    Designed to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR® Multifamily New Construction – Energy Rating Index compliance path, with support from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s (NYSERDA) New Construction – Housing Program, the development utilizes ENERGY STAR® appliances, low-flow water fixtures, high-performance building envelope measures, all-electric domestic hot water heating, highly-efficient air source heat pumps to provide heating and cooling, and LED lighting. Solar panels have also been installed on one of the buildings at the Federal Street site. Improvements to the rehabilitated homes also include, improved ventilation, enhanced insulation, and window replacements. The Federal Street site provides community spaces and a thoughtfully designed playground. Electric vehicle charging receptacle(s) will be provided on sites where feasible.

    The project was developed by the Rochester Housing Authority with consultant Edgemere Development. State financing includes State and Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits, generating $13 million in equity and $7 million in subsidy from New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR). The project also received $2 million through the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance’s (OTDA) Homeless Housing and Assistance Program. NYSERDA provided $77,000 in funding. The Community Preservation Corporation provided a SONYMA-insured $2 million permanent loan through its partnership with the New York State Common Retirement Fund. The city of Rochester and Rochester Housing Authority provided $400,000 in subsidy.   

    New York State Homes and Community Renewal Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas said, “Through a combination of replacing blighted properties with new, energy-efficient modern buildings, and preserving essential public housing stock, this $27 million project will bring 53 affordable homes to Rochester’s Beechwood neighborhood and benefit families and individuals in need of support. Thank you to all our public and private partners for bringing this innovative project to fruition and for guiding our efforts to revitalize neighborhoods and increase housing supply in the city and across Monroe County.”

    New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance Commissioner Barbara C. Guinn said, “The nine permanent supportive housing units included in this development will provide a safe and affordable place to live for formerly incarcerated individuals and their families, while connecting them with essential support services they need to live stable, independent lives in the community. We are grateful for Governor Hochul’s strong support of the Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative and for her unwavering commitment to expanding the supply of permanent supportive housing across New York State.”

    New York State Energy Research and Development Authority President and CEO Doreen M. Harris said, “I am thrilled to see these out-of-use, neglected buildings transformed into modern, clean housing for the Rochester community. By implementing the latest sustainable building solutions, such as air-source heat pumps and all-electric hot water, projects like this continue to demonstrate how sustainable affordable housing can be achieved in communities throughout the state.”

    U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “Every family in Rochester deserves a safe and affordable place to call home. I’m proud that the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, which I worked hard to protect and expand, has delivered millions to build over 50 new homes across Rochester’s Beechwood neighborhood. Many working families in New York are struggling with high housing costs, and building more housing for working people will help to bring down those high prices. I applaud Governor Hochul’s efforts to increase access to affordable housing in Rochester and across Upstate New York, and I will continue working to deliver federal resources to ensure that every New Yorker has a roof over their heads.”

    Representative Joe Morelle said, “Access to a safe and affordable home is a basic necessity, but sadly, this reality is still out of reach for far too many in our community. These 53 new homes in the Beechwood Neighborhood will help provide the safety and security people deserve and help set them up to thrive. I’m grateful to Governor Hochul for continuing to invest in Rochester and our families, and I look forward to our continued work together.”

    New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said, “Our longstanding partnership with the Community Preservation Corporation has allowed the state’s pension fund to invest in New York’s communities. This project is a win-win that helps grow much-needed affordable and supportive housing to Beechwood, while providing the pension fund with the kind of steady return on investment that provides retirement security for its members, retirees and beneficiaries.”

    Assemblymember Demond Meeks said, “I am proud to support the Rochester Housing Authority’s Federal Street and Scattered Sites development, a vital step toward ensuring equitable and affordable housing for families in our community. This project will provide safe, stable homes for working families, seniors, and individuals in need, while also breathing new life into our neighborhoods through the rehabilitation of existing properties and the construction of new ones. By investing in quality housing and community infrastructure, we are creating stronger, healthier, and more resilient communities for generations to come.”

    Assemblymember Harry B. Bronson said, “The Federal Street and Scattered Sites Housing initiative is bringing much-needed affordable, safe, equitable housing opportunities to the Beechwood neighborhood, which I am proud to represent. This effort is the result of thoughtful collaboration between Rochester Housing Authority working with partners in all levels of government and the community to ensure these homes meet the needs of existing residents and families in the neighborhood and the fabric of the vibrant Beechwood community.”

    Monroe County Executive Adam Bello said, “In the face of a continued affordable housing shortage, the Rochester Housing Authority is taking action. These new units will revitalize the Beechwood Neighborhood and provide families with a safe and stable environment. Additionally, RCH’s emphasis on constructing environmentally friendly units expands the reach of this project and ensures its long-term sustainability.”

    Rochester Mayor Malik D. Evans said, “These homes are more than wood and stone; they are the visible proof that Rochester is moving forward with a new momentum. When we lift up our neighborhoods and invest in the dignity of every street, every family, and every block, we move Rochester forward together, building a city where hope and opportunity walk hand in hand.”

    The Community Preservation Corporation Vice President Miriam Zinter said, “This milestone marks more than the completion of new housing – it is a celebration of what can be achieved when we make meaningful investments in the future of our communities. This project is helping to revitalize the Beechwood neighborhood while providing high-quality, affordable and supportive housing that will serve the diverse needs of our city’s residents for decades to come. I thank Governor Hochul, HCR, the city of Rochester and the Rochester Housing Authority, and our lending partners at the State’s Common Retirement Fund for their partnership.”

    Rochester Housing Authority Executive Director Shawn Burr said, “These homes are more than just buildings—they represent our renewed commitment to preserving public housing, revitalizing neighborhoods, and strengthening our community. We’re proud to kick off our summer of progress right here on Federal Street.”

    Governor Hochul’s Housing Agenda

    Governor Hochul is committed to addressing New York’s housing crisis and making the State more affordable and more livable for all New Yorkers. As part of the FY25 Enacted Budget, the Governor secured a landmark agreement to increase New York’s housing supply through new tax incentives for Upstate communities, new incentives and relief from certain state-imposed restrictions to create more housing in New York City, a $500 million capital fund to build up to 15,000 new homes on state-owned property, an additional $600 million in funding to support a variety of housing developments statewide and new protections for renters and homeowners. In addition, as part of the FY23 Enacted Budget, the Governor announced a five-year, $25 billion Housing Plan to create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes statewide, including 10,000 with support services for vulnerable populations, plus the electrification of an additional 50,000 homes. Nearly 60,000 homes have been created or preserved to date.

    The FY25 Enacted Budget also strengthened the Pro-Housing Community Program which the Governor launched in 2023. Pro-Housing certification is now a requirement for localities to access up to $650 million in discretionary funding. Currently, nearly 300 communities have been certified, including the city of Rochester.

    Accelerating Finger Lakes Forward     

    Today’s announcement complements “Finger Lakes Forward,” the region’s comprehensive strategy to generate robust economic growth and community development. The regionally designed plan focuses on investing in key industries including photonics, agriculture‎ and food production, and advanced manufacturing. More information is available here. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI: FillaRole Launches AI-Powered Hiring Platform to Transform Canadian Employment

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SASKATOON, Saskatchewan, May 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Canadian businesses now have a smarter, faster way to hire—thanks to FillaRole. Officially launched in beta earlier this year, the AI-powered platform is now fully available across the country and has already attracted more than 40,000 job applicants and 90,000 users.

    Unlike traditional job boards that leave hiring teams buried under piles of unqualified resumes, FillaRole is purpose-built to simplify employment. The platform combines advanced artificial intelligence with real human support to instantly organize, rank, and categorize applicants by location and fit. With growing national attention, FillaRole recently earned a coveted spot in VentureLAB’s Accelerated Growth Program, which supports high-potential Canadian tech companies that are redefining their industries.

    Built for Real-World Employers, Not Recruiters

    “Business owners don’t have time to babysit job boards. You post a job, get flooded with resumes, and hope for the best,” said Keli Propp, CEO of FillaRole. “Platforms like Indeed or ZipRecruiter leave you doing all the work. FillaRole actually cares if you succeed. Whether you need one great local hire or a shortlist of candidates from across the country, or across the globe, we make it easy.”

    FillaRole is a three-generation, family-owned and operated Canadian job platform. While designed for employers of all sizes and industries, it has proven especially successful in the construction, manufacturing, hospitality, and healthcare sector—where hiring is often urgent, but rarely anyone’s full-time job. The company has recently gained high-profile support through its new strategic advisor, Jon Reyes, former Cabinet Minister for the Province of Manitoba, who brings valuable credibility and deep insight into workforce policy and immigration strategy.

    Key Features That Save Time and Stress

    Getting started on average takes just seven minutes. Employers sign-up for free, answer a few quick questions, and FillaRole’s team and technology take it from there. Key features include:

    • One-click posting to 19+ job boards – Maximize visibility in a single step.
    • AI-powered matching – Candidates are instantly ranked by fit and location, saving hours.
    • Human support when you need it – From writing job ads to scheduling interviews.
    • Performance reporting in 48 hours – Know what’s working and where to adjust.
    • Local talent first – Prioritizes qualified candidates near you, with the ability to tap into global talent when needed.
    • Immigration-ready talent access – For hard-to-fill roles, access over 40,000 skilled workers through a trusted partner with a 99.5% success rate.

    Built for Local Talent, Ready for the World

    FillaRole operates on the principle of “Hire Near. Hire FaR.” While the platform emphasizes securing local talent, it also recognizes that sometimes local talent isn’t available. In such cases, FillaRole provides seamless, compliant, and stress-free access to global talent through its partnerships with various vetted Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants (RCICs) across Canada.

    Job seekers also benefit from FillaRole’s streamlined approach. Whether they’re Canadian residents or immigration-ready professionals, candidates can register and get matched with real job opportunities that align with their skills and experience. They’ll also receive ongoing push notifications when new, relevant roles are posted—no more sifting through outdated listings.

    FillaRole is a comprehensive solution designed to give businesses a competitive edge in today’s job market. By combining convenience, efficiency, and AI precision, FillaRole delivers better candidates, less time wasted, and a hiring experience built around how real businesses operate.

    “Our clients don’t care about buttons and dashboards. They just want good people and less stress,” said Propp. “We built FillaRole to deliver exactly that.”

    Employers can sign up today or request a demo at www.fillarole.ca.

    About FillaRole
    FillaRole is an AI-powered hiring platform developed to simplify employment for Canadian businesses. By automating job postings and applicant sorting, FillaRole enables employers to save time, improve efficiency, and focus on hiring the right talent. Proudly Canadian, FillaRole supports both local and international hiring with expert guidance every step of the way. To learn more, visit www.fillarole.ca.

    Media Contact:
    Keli Propp
    CEO, FillaRole
    Email: keli@fillarole.ca
    Phone: 306-900-6899

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senators Coons, Booker, colleagues demand DOJ reverse cancellation of hundreds of public safety grants

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Delaware Christopher Coons

    WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) as well as nearly 30 other Democratic senators urged Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Maureen Henneberg to reverse the abrupt cancellation of hundreds of public safety grants that serve crime victims and improve public safety in communities across the country in a letter sent to the Department of Justice (DOJ) last week.

    “On April 22, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs (OJP) notified hundreds of grant recipients across the country, without warning, that their funding had been terminated, effective immediately. Many of these grants are authorized by Congress and support programs that have enhanced public safety in communities rural and urban, affluent and poor, Democratic and Republican. While this administration continues to market itself as the administration of law and order and public safety, DOJ has decided to defund programs that prosecutors, police and sheriff’s departments, judges, mental health service providers, academics, and more depend on to advance the Department’s longstanding ‘core mission of keeping Americans safe and vigorously enforcing the law,’” the senators wrote. 

    “Based on public reporting, outreach from grantees, and a DOJ Justice Management Division  (JMD) spreadsheet, … it appears that the Department defunded at least 365 public safety grants on April 22, 2025. A review of this information reveals that these grants provide support for victims of crime and resources for communities to ensure public safety,” the senators continued.

    By terminating these grants, the Department has defunded programs that support victims of crime, combat rape in prison, assist people with mental health disorders, reduce and prevent violence, and support successful reentry. These examples offer only a sample of the critical funding that DOJ abruptly pulled away from law enforcement organizations in communities across the country.

    “The magnitude of these defunding measures, Congress’ role in authorizing and appropriating grant funds, and the negative impacts that the sudden termination of funding will have on public safety in communities across the country, requires the immediate review of the processes and decisions that led to the cancellation of these critical grants,” the senators added.

    The senators requested answers to nine questions about the cancellations, including whether the Department has reallocated the money to other programs and how officials determined which grants should be cancelled. 

    “Additionally, we advise that the Department restore immediately the grants terminated on April 22. The cursory termination of these programs imperils the public safety of the victims and communities that rely on these critical resources,” the senators concluded.

    The letter is cosigned by U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).

    You can read the full letter here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Rep. Gabe Vasquez Leads Push for Smart Border Security Investments in FY26 Funding Requests

    Source: US Representative Gabe Vasquez’s (NM-02)

    WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Representative Gabe Vasquez (NM-02) is leading a coordinated effort in Congress to secure smart, targeted investments in border security that protect communities, strengthen trade, and enhance national safety without compromising human dignity. Through a series of letters submitted to House appropriators, Vasquez and a group of lawmakers are calling for robust funding to improve staffing, upgrade inspection technology, and expand autonomous surveillance capabilities at the U.S. border.

    “We need to make smart, targeted investments that stop fentanyl before it reaches our neighborhoods and ensure that our ports of entry have the staffing and technology to keep people safe,” said Vasquez. “This funding supports the officers working on the frontlines and helps move goods and people efficiently through places like Santa Teresa. It’s about saving lives, strengthening public safety, and building the infrastructure our border communities rely on every day.” 

    In a letter to the House Appropriations Committee, Vasquez and colleagues urged robust FY26 funding for immigration judges and cutting-edge surveillance tools to relieve staffing shortages and reduce case backlogs. They emphasized the need to modernize the border with investments that directly support on-the-ground operations​.

    Vasquez also led efforts in support of: 

    • $849 million for Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) technology, such as X-ray and gamma-ray scanners to detect illicit cargo, especially fentanyl, at ports of entry, including Santa Teresa in New Mexico; and
       
    • $239 million to hire at least 1,000 additional CBP officers to ensure adequate staffing to operate new technologies and process increased trade volume efficiently​. 

    Additionally, Vasquez joined a request for $60 million to expand Autonomous Surveillance Tower (AST) deployment, providing 24/7 monitoring between ports of entry across remote stretches of the border. These towers serve as a force multiplier for CBP, enhancing safety for officers and the communities they serve. 

    Vasquez continues to champion common-sense border investments that respect border communities, strengthen national security, and uphold American values.

     

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Crapo Statement at HHS Nominations Hearing

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Idaho Mike Crapo

    Washington, D.C.–U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) delivered the following remarks at a hearing to consider James O’Neill to be Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Gary Andres to be an Assistant Secretary of HHS. 

    As prepared for delivery:

    “Today, we meet to consider the nominations of Mr. Jim O’Neill to serve as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Mr. Gary Andres to serve as the Department’s Assistant Secretary for Legislation.  Congratulations on your nominations.

    “Thank you, both, for meeting with bipartisan members and our staff throughout this process.  These conversations have provided us the opportunity to highlight our priorities and learn more about how each of you would approach your roles at HHS.

    “During the hearings for Secretary Kennedy and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Oz, I noted the size and scope of the Department, as well as the importance of the programs it oversees to millions of Americans.

    “If confirmed, you will play an integral role in managing the Department, coordinating and communicating across often-siloed agencies and with Capitol Hill.

    “In many ways, our health care system reflects a bureaucratic, disjointed Department.  Well-intended programs and initiatives can be conflicting, confusing and, in practice, ineffective.

    “While this dynamic presents significant challenges, it also offers opportunities for transformative solutions that benefit patients, providers, innovators and taxpayers.

    “Much like HHS, patients are best-served when our health care system functions as a team, relying on a variety of provider perspectives and talents to deliver patient-centered, high-quality outcomes.  By rethinking the outdated strategy of late-stage, symptom-based care, we can address the underlying causes of chronic conditions that drive up costs for patients and taxpayers.

    “Having previously served at the Department, Mr. O’Neill understands the multifaceted nature of HHS and the importance of internal collaboration to accomplishing shared goals.  If confirmed, he will have cross-cutting insight into the efforts of each division within the Department, allowing him to integrate effective actions to make our health care system more proactive.

    “Mr. Andres is a veteran of Capitol Hill and has a deep understanding of how to implement a successful legislative agenda.  I am confident he will be an asset to Congress as we seek input on the development of legislation and updates on departmental actions.

    “Americans deserve a transparent, responsive health care system that empowers consumer choice, drives competition-spurring innovation and rewards values.  This Committee has taken bipartisan steps to achieve these goals by acting to reform our prescription drug supply chain, fix our broken clinician payment system and expand access to mental health in rural areas, including through telehealth. 

    “If confirmed, I look forward to continuing those efforts with each of you.

    “Thank you, both, for your willingness to serve.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why a hotline is needed to help bring India and Pakistan back from the brink of a disastrous war

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Syed Ali Zia Jaffery, Deputy Director at the Center for Security, Strategy and Policy Research, University of Lahore

    Two weeks after the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, in Indian-administered Kashmir, that claimed 26 lives, India and Pakistan are getting perilously close to a dangerous military confrontation.

    Pakistan carried out two missile tests in three days over the weekend of May 3-5, while India announced that it will conduct on Wednesday May 7 its largest civil defence drill since the 1971 India-Pakistan war.

    The countries have closed their borders and shut down their airspace to each other and have suspended all trade. With both countries possessing nuclear weapons, the rising tension makes managing escalation particularly urgent.

    A key factor in the de-escalation of past crises has been Washington’s role as a third-party crisis manager. While the recent call for restraint from the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, shows US concerns over the gathering crisis, there are considerable uncertainties surrounding what role the US is prepared to play in de-escalation.

    US president Donald Trump remarked after the attack that he is “sure they’ll figure it out one way or the other … There’s great tension between Pakistan and India, but there always has been”, which appears to put the onus of de-escalation on New Delhi and Islamabad.

    What is needed now is robust, real-time crisis communication between the two nations. Instead, both sides appear ready to ratchet up tensions further, with inflammatory rhetoric, enhanced military preparedness and skirmishing along the so-called line of control which separates the two countries in Kashmir.

    The need to give reassurance to each party through empathetic communication is particularly important in the India-Pakistan context. First, the risks of escalation between India and Pakistan are greater than they were in 2019 after the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist bombing, which killed 40 Indian troops at Pulwama near to Kashmir’s main town of Srinagar.

    India identified the Pakistani state as responsible for the attack and responded with airstrikes against what it claimed was a JeM training camp at Balakot in north-western Pakistan. The absence of a trusted channel of communication brought both countries closer than ever to a missile exchange.

    Mike Pompeo, then secretary of state in the first Trump administration, claimed in a 2023 memoir that both sides had readied their nuclear deterrents. Whatever the veracity of Pompeo’s claims, it’s clear that mutual restraint is critical to avoiding miscalculations.

    But Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s delegation of greater operational freedom to the Indian military after the Pahalgam attack has raised concerns that India’s use of force could be more extensive than in 2019. Modi has vowed to pursue and punish the terrorists and their abetters “to the ends of the Earth”, a pledge that raises domestic political costs for him and his government if there is no military follow-through.

    Lessons from the Cuban missile crisis

    One important lesson from past nuclear standoffs – especially the Cuban missile crisis – is that leaders of adversarial nuclear states can sometimes forge empathetic channels of communication that help pull their countries back from the brink. There was no established hotline in October 1962. But US president John F. Kennedy and his Soviet counterpart, Nikita Khrushchev, exchanged a series of letters in which they acknowledged and expressed their shared vulnerability to nuclear war.

    There was no talk of nuclear jingoism or the manipulation of nuclear threats. Instead, as one of us (Nicholas) has argued in a study co-authored with US academic Marcus Holmes, the nuclear shadow that hung over the two leaders encouraged the development of mutual empathy and a bond of trust that were both critical to the peaceful resolution of the crisis.

    Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev and US president John F Kennedy established a leader-to-leader hotline in 1963.
    US State Department

    Kennedy and Khrushchev could have responded to the condition of mutual nuclear vulnerability with brinkmanship, and turned the crisis into what Thomas Schelling – one of the most prominent US nuclear strategists and an advisor to the Kennedy administration – called a “competition in risk-taking”. But instead, they recognised that competitive manipulations of risk could only lead to mutual disaster, which enabled them to avert a potential nuclear exchange.

    Indian and Pakistani leaders could take their cue from this episode. A recent report by the nuclear thinktank Basic (co-edited by Nicholas) urged policymakers to avoid viewing crises as “zero-sum tests of will”. Instead, they should see them as opportunities for cooperation to avert catastrophe.

    Why an India-Pakistan hotline is vital

    But the absence of a trusted confidential line of communication between the leaders of India and Pakistan is a major barrier to empathetic communication. It prevents the two reaching a proper appreciation of shared vulnerabilities that is so critical to crisis de-escalation. As Basic recommended in a 2024 report, the most important contribution to crisis de-escalation between the two countries would be to establish a leader-to-leader hotline.

    Schelling called the US-Soviet hotline agreement of 1963
    the “best single example” of a measure that increased confidence in mutual restraint on both sides, and virtually ruled out what he called the “anxiety to strike first”.

    Such a hotline between the highest levels of Indian and Pakistani diplomacy would be an important step towards preventing these crises from spinning out of control. More crucially, it could play a pivotal role in managing crises when they do occur, offering a vital channel for reassurance and de-escalation.

    Crucially, real-time, reliable and empathetic communication would allow each side to clarify the other’s intent, signal reassurance, correct misperceptions and demonstrate restraint.

    India and Pakistan should not see these mechanisms as concessions or signs of weakness, but as instruments for enhancing mutual security between two nuclear adversaries. In a nuclear age where the margin for error is vanishingly small, overconfidence and brinkmanship must give way to prudence and restraint.



    Read more:
    Moscow-Washington nuclear hotline has averted war in the past – but cool heads will be needed in Trump’s White House and Putin’s Kremlin

    Syed Ali Zia Jaffery is Deputy Director, Center for Security, Strategy and Policy Research, University of Lahore, and Associate Editor, Pakistan Politico Ali was a Visiting Fellow at the Stimson Center, Washington, D.C. Ali regularly writes on strategic issues for national and international publications, to include Routledge, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, South Asian Voices , The National Interest, The Atlantic Council, Asia-Pacific Leadership Network (APLN), CSIS, The Diplomat, Dawn, and 9DashLine, among others. Ali is an alumnus of Woodrow Wilson Center’s Nuclear Proliferation International History Project’s Nuclear History Boot Camp. He is also an alumnus of the International School on Disarmament and Research on Conflicts( ISODARCO). Ali often shares his perspectives on major strategic developments on national and international media. Ali is associated with the British American Security Information Council (BASIC) both as part of its Programme on Nuclear Responsibilities and the Emerging Voices Network. His research interests lie in the fields of nuclear deterrence, strategic stability, and geopolitics. He taught undergraduate level courses on foreign policy, national security, arms control& disarmament, and non-proliferation from 2018 until 2023. He is also a Graduate Research Assistant at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

    Nicholas John Wheeler is a non-resident Senior Fellow at BASIC where he works on the Nuclear Responsibilities Programme with special reference to South Asia.

    – ref. Why a hotline is needed to help bring India and Pakistan back from the brink of a disastrous war – https://theconversation.com/why-a-hotline-is-needed-to-help-bring-india-and-pakistan-back-from-the-brink-of-a-disastrous-war-255727

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Are kids resilient? Societies and families need to offer supports and relationships to nurture resilience

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Elena Merenda, Assistant Program Head of Early Childhood Studies, University of Guelph-Humber

    “Kids are resilient.” You have heard this before, right? You might have even said it, with the best of intentions.

    Resilience sometimes seems like a buzzword and is used in ill-defined ways. If adults praise children’s resilience without addressing their needs, this leaves children vulnerable to harm.

    Resilience doesn’t mean being unaffected by adversity — it means having the tools, relationships and supports to cope with it.

    Part of my role as a child development specialist with expertise in therapeutic play, as well childhood loss and grief, is consulting work with families and educators. I see children acting out in classrooms, withdrawing at home or having difficulties processing and regulating emotions and behaviours. Finding the right supports for a child often means many things.

    Offering children the environments and relationships that build resilience includes:

    In the everyday, children need adults who are well enough to care for them and present enough to notice their struggles.

    Many families with deep needs

    The 2024 National Report Card on Child and Family Poverty from Campaign 2000, a network of organizations committed to ending child and family poverty in Canada, reveals that in 2022, nearly one in five children were growing up in poverty.

    The child poverty rate rose by two and a half percentage points from the previous year, representing the largest annual increase in child poverty on record. Lone-parent households, most of them led by women, are disproportionately affected, with one in five relying on social assistance.



    Read more:
    Child poverty is on the rise in Canada, putting over 1 million kids at risk of life-long negative effects

    As financial insecurity deepens and government supports like the Canada Child Benefit lose their effectiveness due to high costs of living, parents are under formidable financial pressure that impacts their parenting capacity and personal wellness.

    Mental health gaps

    Mental Health Research Canada’s 2023 report, Exploring the Mental Health Landscape of Canadian Parents, reveals that younger parents, especially those under 30, are facing self-reported elevated levels of anxiety and depression since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The data also suggests that parents of children under two years of age are more likely to receive a new mental health diagnosis, likely due to decreased contact with health-care providers during the pandemic.

    What happens when parents are overwhelmed? Children feel it, and they need support to bounce back from it.

    The pressures parents face are not isolated. In a 2025 study on the perceptions of kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2 educators in Ontario regarding their students’ developmental and academic skills and their own mental health during the 2021 to 2022 school year, teachers reported increased anxiety and slower developmental progress in children.



    Read more:
    From full-day learning to 30 minutes daily: The effects of school closures on kindergarteners

    Healthy development can’t be taken for granted

    If we only skim headlines that children displayed resilient capacities during the pandemic without looking deeper at how the pandemic also impeded healthy development, we are missing the full picture.

    It is only through longitudinal study — examining how kids are doing across time — that we’ll be able to fully understand impacts. For example, data from the Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth shows about one in five youth who felt their mental health was good in 2019 no longer felt that way four years later.



    Read more:
    Pandemic babies’ developmental milestones: Not as bad as we feared, but not as good as before

    The 2023 Raising Canada Report, based on research conducted by researchers at the University of Calgary and McGill University and published by the non-profit organization Children First Canada, reports on violence, poverty, mental health struggles and online sexual exploitation affecting Canadian children.

    The report reveals there were 40 child homicides in 2022, and rates of hospital visits for self-harm and suicide attempts among youth have doubled over the past decade.

    These alarming reports suggest many families and children are struggling, lacking the resources they need to process their experiences and heal.

    Building your child’s and your own resilience

    Parental burnout is real — and compassion for oneself is the first step in supporting children.

    A few minutes of undistracted time with your child matters.
    (Shutterstock)

    Here are a few strategies parents can try to use, even when worn down:

    Focus on connection. A few minutes of undistracted time with your child — reading a book, going for a walk or simply talking without a phone nearby — builds connection and safety. When children feel a sense of safety and connection with their parent, they are more likely to share their thoughts and emotions. When children feel safe enough to verbalize their emotions, they are more inclined to process challenging times.

    Name and normalize emotions. Help your child build emotional vocabulary by labelling feelings for them in your day-to-day interactions. Saying things like “I noticed you looked frustrated when your Lego broke. That’s OK. It’s hard when things don’t go as planned” helps children to learn how to identify and name their emotions which is the first step in taming emotions.

    Model self-regulation, and when you feel overwhelmed, label your feelings. Try saying, “I’m feeling really worried right now, so I’m going to take a few deep breaths.” This teaches children that big feelings are a normal human experience. It also models for children healthy coping strategies.

    Ask for help and accept support. Parenting shouldn’t be done alone. Ask for help. Find a community of like-minded parents who can talk through big and small moments with you. Let your child see that it’s OK to ask for help — this is how you build resilience.

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

    – ref. Are kids resilient? Societies and families need to offer supports and relationships to nurture resilience – https://theconversation.com/are-kids-resilient-societies-and-families-need-to-offer-supports-and-relationships-to-nurture-resilience-253789

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: ICE arrests illegal Guatemalan alien charged with sex crime against Massachusetts child

    Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement

    WORCESTER, Mass. — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested an illegal Guatemalan alien charged with sex crimes against a Massachusetts minor. Officers with ICE Boston took custody of Juan Rene Barcenes-Velasquez, 56, when officers from the Worcester District Court turned him over to ICE March 31.

    “Juan Rene Barcenes-Velasquez illegally entered the United States and unlawfully settled in Massachusetts,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia H. Hyde. “Now he has apparently repeatedly victimized a child, doing unthinkable damage to her. Barcenes-Velasquez represents a significant threat to our community that ICE Boston will not tolerate. We will continue to prioritize the safety of New England by arresting and removing criminal alien offenders.”

    Barcenes-Velasquez illegally entered the United States on an unknown date, at an unknown location, without being inspected, admitted or paroled by a U.S. immigration official.

    The Worcester District Court arraigned Barcenes-Velasquez May 27, 2003, for abuse of a prevention order. The court convicted Barcenes-Velasquez of that crime and placed him on probation.

    On March 31, the Worcester District Court arraigned Barcenes-Velasquez for five counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 years of age. Later that day, ICE Boston lodged an immigration detainer against Barcenes-Velasquez with the Worcester District Court, which the court honored.

    “We are happy that our law enforcement partners opted to honor our immigration detainer against Barcenes-Velasquez,” Hyde said. “It is refreshing that our partners in Worcester placed a priority on public safety. The alternative would be for ICE to send a team of officers to make an at-large arrest potentially placing the officers, the offender — and most importantly, the community — in harm’s way.”

    Upon the transfer of custody, ICE Boston arrested and served Barcenes-Velasquez a notice to appear before a Justice Department immigration judge. Barcenes-Velasquez remains in ICE custody.

    Members of the public can report crimes and suspicious activity by dialing 866-DHS-2-ICE (866-347-2423) or completing the online tip form.

    Learn more about ICE’s mission to increase public safety in our communities on X at @EROBoston.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: SBA Relief Still Available to California Small Businesses and Private Nonprofits Affected by the Lake Fire

    Source: United States Small Business Administration

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)is reminding eligible small businesses and private nonprofit (PNP) organizations in California of the June 6 deadline to apply for low interest federal disaster loans to offset economic losses caused by the Lake Fire which occurred July 5‑Aug. 4, 2024.

    The disaster declaration covers the California counties of Kern, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura.

    Under this declaration, SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program is available to eligible small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, nurseries and PNP organizations impacted by financial losses directly related to this disaster. The SBA is unable to provide disaster loans to agricultural producers, farmers, or ranchers, except for aquaculture enterprises.

    EIDLs are for working capital needs caused by the disaster and are available even if the business or PNP did not suffer any physical damage. They may be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable, and other bills not paid due to the disaster.

    “SBA loans help eligible small businesses cover operating expenses after a disaster, which is crucial for their recovery,” said Chris Stallings, associate administrator of the Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience at the SBA. “These loans not only help business owners get back on their feet but also play a key role in sustaining local economies in the aftermath of a disaster.”

    The loan amount can be up to $2 million with interest rates as low as 4% for small businesses and 3.25% for PNPs with terms up to 30 years. Interest does not accrue and payments are not due until 12 months from the date of the first loan disbursement. The SBA sets loan amounts and terms based on each applicant’s financial condition.

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

    Submit completed loan applications to the SBA no later than June 6.

    ###

    About the U.S. Small Business Administration

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

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Gall watching is the new bird watching

    Source: US Geological Survey

    In a new article out recently in American Entomologist, USGS scientists and collaborators describe how you can get into the exciting hobby of “gall watching.” 

    It all starts with an observation: maybe you see a weird, miscolored wart on stems of the oak tree in your backyard, or a fuzzy lump on the leaves of a maple tree on the sidewalk. You can draw, photograph, paint, or simply take notice of the gall. 

    Photos: oak trees parasitized by a variety of gall wasps.

    The next step is identifying the type of gall, maybe from a website like gallformers.com or through an app like iNaturalist. This might narrow your gall observation down to a few species of gall-forming wasps that lay their eggs in oak tree leaves.

    How do you find out which species is it is? Knowing something about the biology of a gall can help. For example, galls formed by wasps typically contain wasp eggs or larva. You can determine what type of wasp laid those eggs by taking a leaf or stem containing galls, adding it to a jar or plastic tub, and bringing it home to see exactly what hatches. And don’t worry – these aren’t wasps that will sting or hurt you. 

    Photos: Red cone galls on an oak tree, and a wasp emerging from a red cone gall in someone’s home. All photos from iNaturalist.

    Ready to take on this new endeavor or want to learn more? 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Guatemalan National Sentenced for Illegal Reentry

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    BOSTON – A Guatemalan national was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for illegally reentering the United States after deportation.    

    William Estuardo Rodriguez-Botello, 39, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani to three months in prison to be followed by one year of supervised release. The defendant is subject to deportation upon completion of the sentence imposed. Earlier in the same hearing Rodriguez-Botello pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful reentry of a deported alien. In February 2025, Rodriguez-Botello was indicted by a federal grand jury.

    Rodriguez-Botello is a citizen of Guatemala who entered the United States illegally in 2005 and 2012 having been removed to Guatemala in each instance. Sometime after his 2012 removal, Rodriguez-Botello illegally returned the United States and on Feb. 3, 2024, immigration authorities became aware Rodriguez-Botello was present in the United States following his arrest by the Waltham Police Department. Rodriguez-Botello was arrested and convicted on charges of Operating Under the Influence Liquor 2nd offense in Waltham District Court. Rodriguez-Botello was released from custody on this matter before ICE could take immigration or criminal enforcement action. On Feb. 4, 2025, immigration authorities encountered Rodriguez-Botello following his arrest and subsequent release from custody on conditions pending his case in Dedham District Court.  

    United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Patricia H. Hyde, Field Office Director, Boston, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Luke A. Goldworm of the Major Crimes Unit prosecuted the case.
     

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Currency controls and debt in Argentina: the stakes are high if Milei’s latest economic gamble doesn’t pay off

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Matt Barlow, Lecturer International Political Economy, University of Glasgow

    Matias Lynch/Shutterstock

    In April, Argentina’s president Javier Milei partially lifted the capital and currency controls that had been in place since 2011. The move was possible with the support of a US$20 billion (£15 billion) IMF bailout and means Argentinians may now buy unlimited dollars again.

    Announcing the move in the capital Buenos Aires, Milei was flanked by American treasury secretary Scott Bessent. Milei took the opportunity to liken it to US president Donald Trump’s “liberation day”.

    While he is often associated with Trump for his abrasive rhetoric and right-wing populist support base, Milei’s liberation day was intended to reduce the role of the state in the economy – unlike the US’s approach of deepening it.

    The latest iteration of currency controls was implemented by then-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to try to shore up the deteriorating value of the Argentinian peso.

    The controls, known locally as el cepo (the clamp), meant that citizens and businesses were limited in the amount of foreign currency they could purchase. At the same time, they were constrained in moving money out of Argentina. This was designed as a safeguard against capital flight, but in effect it stifled inward investment.

    These measures, coupled with a centrally controlled foreign exchange rate, created a lucrative black market for US dollars. Citizens were eager to exchange cash pesos for the traditionally safer US dollar.

    The currency controls were previously lifted by another advocate for market-friendly policies, president Mauricio Macri in 2015. But they were reimposed in 2019 at the end of his term to address a fall in value of the peso.

    Unlike Macri’s broad-brush removal, Milei is phasing out the controls. He is doing so in the context of less economic volatility and a more stable national budget.

    The measures announced this time mean that rather than being fixed, the peso will be able to float between a value of 1,000–1,400 pesos (64p-87p) per US dollar. Milei’s previous policy was a crawling peg, which meant that the peso was pegged to the dollar, but it was prevented from depreciating by more than 1% each month.

    However, this was costly. The central bank had to provide the liquidity and has spent US$2.5 billion since mid-March propping up the official rate of the peso.

    Floating it means its value is determined by the currency markets. This exposes it to volatility, but the currency band provides some security and the central bank can go back to focusing on building its reserves.

    For international companies, future capital can be repatriated out of Argentina (which had been a major barrier to investment). Under the previous restrictions, any profits made by international firms could not be moved out of the country.

    And while Argentinians can now buy unlimited dollars through banks, there is still a US$100 restriction on exchanging physical cash.

    Milei’s gamble

    Analysts have called Milei’s move bold and brave, but also described it as a high-stakes gamble. Recent attempts to do the same thing ended in capital flight, near bankruptcy and ultimately the re-imposition of controls.

    But it was also a step that he promised on the campaign trail in 2023. Back then, Milei argued that economic stability and deregulation were essential to attract investment into Argentina.

    So while the Trump administration looks inwards, Milei is opening Argentina to the private sector – especially in relation to its vast natural resources including shale oil and gas, and lithium.

    Extraction of Argentina’s shale oil and gas has slowed in recent years, but attracting foreign investment in infrastructure has been high on Milei’s priority list. Business, including US energy giant Chevron, seems cautiously optimistic.

    And increased foreign investment in Argentina’s lithium mining sector has raised hopes that the country could be a linchpin in the global energy transition. But at the same time it is deepening Argentina’s dependency on finite commodities.

    But what does all this mean for Argentinians right now? For many old enough to remember, it might seem like deja vu. Opening Argentina up to the forces of the market, reducing the regulatory role of the state and privatising major state assets while borrowing more from the IMF has precedent.

    It was the same approach followed by president Carlos Menem in the 1990s. This had initial success but over the course of the decade resulted in economic disaster, unsustainable debt (leading to the 2001 IMF debt default) and pushed nearly 60% of the population into poverty.

    The US$20 billion IMF loan package (alongside other borrowing) provides Argentina’s central bank with capital to lift the currency restrictions. Adding to the IMF debt burden (which already stood at more than US$40 billion in March 2025) has so far been well received by the markets.

    But market-friendly policies being well received by the markets is surely to be expected. What might the social costs be, however?

    Milei’s programme of deep austerity included cuts to salaries and welfare payments. These initially pushed poverty levels up to 53%, their highest point in two decades. Recent figures show that, while still frighteningly high, falling inflation has helped bring this down to 38%.

    But these figures mask the desperate reality of many. Reductions in state spending and the removal of subsidies mean that income levels for workers and pensioners are below 2023 levels. Many are taking on additional and more precarious work, and soup kitchens are proving essential.

    So for many citizens, the news about the partial lifting of currency controls is a moot point. For these people, buying dollars is not remotely feasible.

    One thing Argentinians are broadly united in is their disdain for the IMF. Borrowing from it has pushed Argentina to the brink previously – Milei will be hoping that by jettisoning one anvil, his deal with the IMF won’t chain him to a heavier one.

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

    – ref. Currency controls and debt in Argentina: the stakes are high if Milei’s latest economic gamble doesn’t pay off – https://theconversation.com/currency-controls-and-debt-in-argentina-the-stakes-are-high-if-mileis-latest-economic-gamble-doesnt-pay-off-255733

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Congresswoman Tenney Introduces the No Subsidies for Gender Transition Procedures Act

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (NY-22)

    Washington, DC – Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (NY-24), U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), and Congressman Dan Crenshaw (TX-2) introduced the No Subsidies for Gender Transition Procedures Act to prohibit taxpayer funding for gender transition procedures covered by Medicaid, Medicare, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Affordable Care Act. 

    The bill would also deny the medical expense tax deduction for gender transition procedures. Eliminating federal spending on these procedures could save American taxpayers $200 million. Currently, 25 states and Washington, D.C. have Medicaid policies that explicitly cover transgender-related health care. Additionally, over 276,000 of the 1.3 million transgender adults in the U.S. are enrolled in Medicaid, highlighting the potential fiscal impact of these coverage policies.

    “Taxpayers should never be forced to fund dangerous and irreversible gender transition surgeries. The No Subsidies for Gender Transition Procedures Act sets a sweeping precedent by applying to both adults and minors and applying to as many federal funding streams as possible,” said Congresswoman Tenney. “This will ensure that regardless of the age of the individual looking to mutilate themself, the American taxpayer will not be forced to subsidize it. We are working to ensure that not a dime of federal funds can be used to pay for gender transition procedures.”

    “Americans overwhelmingly agree that hard-earned taxpayer dollars should not go toward paying for harmful gender transition procedures,” said Senator Marshall. “This legislation delivers on President Trump’s promise, eliminates taxpayer-funded transgender procedures on both minors and adults, and defends our nation’s values. As the reconciliation process continues, I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense legislation and ensure it is included in the One, Big, Beautiful Bill.” 

    “Taxpayers shouldn’t fund dangerous, ideological experiments,” said Congressman Crenshaw. “This is about protecting vulnerable Americans from irreversible harm dressed up as ‘care.’ Health care should be based on science, not activism.”

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Landsat at Work: USGS Satellites Help with Complex Crop and Water Issues

    Source: US Geological Survey

    “Without the Land IQ data, farmers couldn’t plan. They were just doing what they used to do, what their grandfathers did, what their great-grandfathers did. And that wasn’t working. We were overdrafting the groundwater system. They had to make a change,” said Aaron Fukuda, interim general manager of the MKGSA and general manager of the Tulare Irrigation District, which is a member of the MKGSA. 

    “At the core of all of it is the ET data,” Fukuda said. “Pull that out, and the heart of the system falls apart.”

    MKGSA’s growers have four years of Land IQ data to look back on now. In addition to keeping track of their water budgets, they can find the average of how much water is used by a certain tree crop, like almonds, or another perennial crop. “They’re fine-tuning their irrigation to get to the optimum yields based on water availability, yields and commodity pricing,” Fukuda said.

    For growers of annual crops such as corn or wheat, once they know how many acre-feet of groundwater each crop type needs, they can plan out what to plant in each field based on how much water they have to “spend.” 

    MKGSA’s plan, a revision from an earlier plan rejected by the state, is paying off. In a comparison of two drought years—2021 to 2022—groundwater pumping went down 13%, saving 20,000 acre-feet of water and roughly $40 million, based on a drought-year value of water at $2,000 per acre-foot, Fukuda said. In other words, that’s 6.5 billion gallons, enough water to supply a city like Santa Barbara for more than a year and a half.

    Plus, because the revised plan met the state’s requirements, MKGSA is being considered to avoid a “probation” period in which the state would take over the sustainability planning. That would cost growers tens of millions of dollars in fees annually, Fukuda said.

    “Because we’ve implemented the allocation system, because we’re cutting back, we’re making the hard decisions; because we’re monitoring and we are showing results, we are hoping to avoid probation.” 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: 90 days in — Joint Task Force Southern Guard

    Source: United States SOUTHERN COMMAND

    There are 2,160 hours in 90 days — that’s exactly how long Joint Task Force Southern Guard has been active. In that time, more than 2,500 Soldiers, Airmen, Marines, Sailors, Coast Guardsmen, interagency civilians and contractors answered a short-notice tasking to deploy to Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in support of the Department of Homeland Security’s Illegal Alien Holding Operations.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Luján Recognizes National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

    US Senate News:

    Source: US Senator for New Mexico Ben Ray Luján
    Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, issued the following statement regarding Senate passage of a resolution recognizing the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls:
    “Today and every day, we must continue to shed light on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in New Mexico and across the country. For decades, our legal system has failed Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and their families, and we must do more to bring attention to this injustice and stand with our Tribal Nations and Pueblos. I am proud to have cosponsored the resolution to remember the countless Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and I will continue to fight to deliver justice, the truth, and accountability for these women, girls, and their loved ones.”
    Last week, Senator Luján cosponsored a resolution designating May 5, 2025, as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls. Yesterday, the U.S. Senate passed the resolution by unanimous consent.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Cornyn, Whitehouse, Colleagues Introduce Bill to Equip Law Enforcement with Trauma Kits

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Texas John Cornyn
    WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Chris Coons (D-DE), Mike Rounds (R-SD), and Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced the Improving Police Critical Aid for Responding to Emergencies (CARE) Act, which would equip law enforcement officers with quality trauma kits so they can respond immediately if a civilian or fellow officer experiences a traumatic injury during a call:
    “When responding to medical emergencies, time and access to the right tools can mean the difference between life and death,” said Sen. Cornyn. “This legislation would equip law enforcement officers with high-quality trauma kits to prevent deaths due to blood loss and give patients the best chance of survival.”
    “Police officers serve on the frontlines in their communities every day, and they are often first on the scene in medical emergencies,” said Sen. Whitehouse. “Our bipartisan legislation would provide officers in the field with emergency trauma kits, and fund standardized training to allow them to better protect the public and save lives.”
    “As a strong supporter of our brave men and women in law enforcement, I am proud to co-introduce the Improving Police CARE Act which would equip them with the tools they need to keep our communities safe,” said Sen. Tillis. “Ensuring law enforcement officers have effective trauma kits will save countless law enforcement and civilian lives.”
    “Our nation’s law enforcement officers keep our communities safe, and they deserve the resources they need to do just that,” said Sen. Coons. “As co-chair of the Senate Law Enforcement Caucus, I know that this bipartisan, commonsense legislation will ensure that police officers have trauma kits they need in order to save lives.”
    Background:
    Trauma kits play a vital role in preventing deaths due to blood loss. Between 30-40% of trauma-related deaths are caused by hemorrhaging, or uncontrolled bleeding, with 33-56% of them occurring before the patient arrives at the hospital. During the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, tourniquets and tourniquet training were widely adopted by the military for their lifesaving potential in combat. This practice has since been embraced in civilian populations given its clear survival benefit. In fact, one study found that patient survival was six times more likely when a tourniquet was used, underscoring the critical need for timely bleeding control. This is especially true in rural areas where the average EMS response time is typically double that in urban areas. Having access to a trauma kit and early bleeding control can help bridge this gap and mean the difference between life and death.
    The effectiveness of a law enforcement trauma kit program depends in part on the contents and the quality of the kits. Medical professionals recommend that a kit include bleeding control supplies like tourniquets, bandages, non-latex gloves, scissors, and instructions. However, there is enormous variation in the products available on the market.
    The Improving Police Critical Aid for Responding to Emergencies (CARE) Act would:
    Establish baseline standards in consultation with law enforcement and medical professionals for trauma kits purchased using grant funding under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG);
    And require the development of optional best practices that law enforcement agencies can adapt for training law enforcement officers to use trauma kits and for deployment and maintenance of the kits in vehicles and government facilities.
    The legislation is endorsed by the National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO), International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), Major County Sheriffs of America (MCSA), Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA), NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA), National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the Society of Trauma Nurses, the American College of Surgeons (ACS), and the American Trauma Society.

    MIL OSI USA News –