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Category: Americas

  • MIL-OSI Global: 401(k) plans and stock market volatility: What you need to know

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Ronald Premuroso, Accounting Instructor, Western Governors University School of Business

    It’s been a wild ride. iStock/Getty Images Plus

    With stock market charts resembling the contours of a roller-coaster ride in recent days, many Americans could be forgiven for eyeing their 401(k)s with a little concern.

    Retirement savings are crucial to the financial well-being of millions of especially older people in the U.S., so the concern is understandable.

    But just how worried should people be by market fluctuations? And just how big a hit do 401(k)s take when markets fall? The Conversation turned to Western Governors University’s Ronald Premuroso, an expert in this area, for answers.

    What is a 401(k)?

    Simply put, a 401(k) is an employer-sponsored retirement savings plan in which employees contribute a portion of their compensation on a tax-deferred basis.

    The employee is eligible at any age to contribute to a 401(k) plan and has the option to pay into these plans throughout their employment. Many employers match some or all of an employee’s contributions, making the plan even more attractive.

    What about withdrawals?

    Under Internal Revenue Service rules, someone with a 401(k) is required to start making monetary withdrawals from their plan when they reach age 73. Some people start withdrawing at an earlier age.

    Someone with a 401(k) can withdraw funds from the plan early, and at any time. But the money amounts withdrawn will typically be deemed taxable income. In addition, those age 59 and a half and under will likely face a 10% penalty on the withdrawal, unless the employer’s plan allows for hardship distributions, early withdrawals or loans from your plan account.

    The IRS has specific rules for these early withdrawals; if you find yourself in this situation, you should get help from a tax professional.

    All withdrawals starting at age 73, which tax professionals call “RMDs,” are then taxable in retirement – presumably at a lower tax rate than the employee was subject to while employed and working. So these withdrawals starting at age 73 can be a very tax-efficient way of financial planning, including personal income tax planning, for later in life, especially in one’s retirement years.

    Again, it’s important to get help from a tax professional to make sure you meet the IRS’ RMD dollar withdrawal requirements once you start withdrawing.

    In calendar-year 2025, the most that an employee can contribute to a tax-deferred 401(k) plan annually is US$23,500, including the employer’s match. “Super catch-up contributions are allowed for employees over the age of 50 to their employer’s 401(k) plan each year indexed to inflation. In 2025, super catch-up contributions allow individuals age 50 and older to contribute an additional $7,500 beyond the standard limit, bringing their total annual contribution to $31,000. For those turning age 60, 61, 62 or 63 in 2025, the SECURE Act 2.0 allows a higher catch-up contribution limit of $11,250, resulting in a total allowable contribution of $34,750 in 2025.

    When and why did 401(k)s become popular?

    Before 1978, retirement savings options were limited.

    In 1935, Congress created the Social Security Retirement Plan. This was followed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, which created individual retirement accounts, or IRAs, as a way for employees to save tax-deferred money for their retirement.

    401(k) plans became popular with the passage of the Revenue Act of 1978 by Congress.

    Congress saw 401(k) plans at that time as an alternative way to supplement Social Security benefits that all eligible Americans are entitled to receive upon retirement. In 1981, the IRS issued new rules and regulations allowing employees to fund their 401(k)s through payroll deductions. This significantly increased the number of employees contributing to their employers’ 401(k) plans.

    As of September 2024, Americans held $8.9 trillion in 401(k) plans, according to the Investment Company Institute. A study published by the Pension Rights Center toward the end of 2023 using data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics concluded that 56% of all workers – including private sector and state and local government workers – participate in a workplace retirement plan. That equates to 145 million full- and part-time workers.

    How are 401(k) plans affected by market rises and falls?

    Contributions to a 401(k) are typically invested in a variety of financial instruments, including in the stock market.

    Most 401(k) plans offer investment options with varying levels of risk, allowing employees to choose based on their personal comfort levels and financial goals.

    Employers typically outsource the management of these 401(k) plans to third parties. Some of the largest companies managing 401(k) funds on behalf of employers and employees include Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price and Charles Schwab, to name just a few.

    Because many of these investments are tied to the stock market, 401(k) balances can rise or fall with market fluctuations.

    401(k) plans are a financial lifeline for many American retirees.
    Halfpoint Images/Getty Images

    Should I be worried about the stock market tanking my 401(k)?

    It depends – on when you started making contributions, when you plan to retire and when you expect to start making withdrawals.

    Employees with 401(k) accounts should only be worried about falling stocks if they need the money right now – either for retirement living expenses or for other emergency reasons. If you don’t need to take money out soon, there’s usually no reason to panic. History has shown that markets can rebound quickly; short-term drops often don’t signal long-term trends.

    Over time, the stock market has experienced many periods of falling stock prices: the bursting of the internet bubble of 2000; the period after the events of 9/11; and the U.S. and global banking crisis of 2007-2010, to name but three.

    But overall, over time, stock market returns have averaged 9% from 1994 to 2024, and this includes the periods of falling stock prices mentioned above.

    So even if you are a baby boomer heading for retirement and your 401(k) has taken a hit in recent weeks, don’t panic. Bear in mind the truism that stock markets can always go down as well as up.

    History suggests that in the long run, depending upon your plans and timing for retirement, working together with a trusted financial adviser strategically with regard to your 401(k) retirement savings is a good approach, especially during periods like we have seen in recent weeks in the stock market.

    This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute financial advice. Consult with a qualified financial adviser before making financial decisions.

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

    – ref. 401(k) plans and stock market volatility: What you need to know – https://theconversation.com/401-k-plans-and-stock-market-volatility-what-you-need-to-know-254266

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: How and where is nuclear waste stored in the US?

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Gerald Frankel, Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University

    A Southern California Edison employee measures radiation at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station on March 10, 2020. Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images

    Around the U.S., about 90,000 tons of nuclear waste is stored at over 100 sites in 39 states, in a range of different structures and containers.

    For decades, the nation has been trying to send it all to one secure location.

    A 1987 federal law named Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, as a permanent disposal site for nuclear waste – but political and legal challenges led to construction delays. Work on the site had barely started before Congress ended the project’s funding altogether in 2011.

    The 94 nuclear reactors currently operating at 54 power plants continue to generate more radioactive waste. Public and commercial interest in nuclear power is rising because of concerns regarding emissions from fossil fuel power plants and the possibility of new applications for smaller-scale nuclear plants to power data centers and manufacturing. This renewed interest gives new urgency to the effort to find a place to put the waste.

    In March 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments related to the effort to find a temporary storage location for the nation’s nuclear waste – a ruling is expected by late June. No matter the outcome, the decades-long struggle to find a permanent place to dispose of nuclear waste will probably continue for many years to come.

    I am a scholar who specializes in corrosion; one focus of my work has been containing nuclear waste during temporary storage and permanent disposal. There are generally two forms of significantly radioactive waste in the U.S.: waste from making nuclear weapons during the Cold War, and waste from generating electricity at nuclear power plants. There are also small amounts of other radioactive waste, such as that associated with medical treatments.

    Nuclear waste is stored in underground containers at the Idaho National Laboratory near Idaho Falls.
    AP Photo/Keith Ridler

    Waste from weapons manufacturing

    Remnants of the chemical processing of radioactive material needed to manufacture nuclear weapons, often called “defense waste,” will eventually be melted along with glass, with the resulting material poured into stainless steel containers. These canisters are 10 feet tall and 2 feet in diameter, weighing approximately 5,000 pounds when filled.

    For now, though, most of it is stored in underground steel tanks, primarily at Hanford, Washington, and Savannah River, South Carolina, key sites in U.S. nuclear weapons development. At Savannah River, some of the waste has already been processed with glass, but much of it remains untreated.

    At both of those locations, some of the radioactive waste has already leaked into the soil beneath the tanks, though officials have said there is no danger to human health. Most of the current efforts to contain the waste focus on protecting the tanks from corrosion and cracking to prevent further leakage.

    A look inside a cooling pool for spent nuclear fuel rods.

    Waste from electricity generation

    The vast majority of nuclear waste in the U.S. is spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants.

    Before it is used, nuclear fuel exists as uranium oxide pellets that are sealed within zirconium tubes, which are themselves bundled together. These bundles of fuel rods are about 12 to 16 feet long and about 5 to 8 inches in diameter. In a nuclear reactor, the fission reactions fueled by the uranium in those rods emit heat that is used to create hot water or steam to drive turbines and generate electricity.

    After about three to five years, the fission reactions in a given bundle of fuel slow down significantly, even though the material remains highly radioactive. The spent fuel bundles are removed from the reactor and moved elsewhere on the power plant’s property, where they are placed into a massive pool of water to cool them down.

    After about five years, the fuel bundles are removed, dried and sealed in welded stainless steel canisters. These canisters are still radioactive and thermally hot, so they are stored outdoors in concrete vaults that sit on concrete pads, also on the power plant’s property. These vaults have vents to ensure air flows past the canisters to continue cooling them.

    As of December 2024, there were over 315,000 bundles of spent nuclear fuel rods in the U.S., and over 3,800 dry storage casks in concrete vaults above ground, located at current and former power plants across the country.

    Even reactors that have been decommissioned and demolished still have concrete vaults storing radioactive waste, which must be secured and maintained by the power company that owned the nuclear plant.

    Salt spray from the ocean can corrode waste containers at nearby nuclear waste storage sites, like this one at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in California.
    Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

    The threat of water

    One threat to these storage methods is corrosion.

    Because they need water to both transfer nuclear energy into electricity and to cool the reactor, nuclear power plants are always located alongside sources of water.

    In the U.S., nine are within two miles of the ocean, which poses a particular threat to the waste containers. As waves break on the coastline, saltwater is sprayed into the air as particles. When those salt and water particles settle on metal surfaces, they can cause corrosion, which is why it’s common to see heavily corroded structures near the ocean.

    At nuclear waste storage locations near the ocean, that salt spray can settle on the steel canisters. Generally, stainless steel is resistant to corrosion, which you can see in the shiny pots and pans in many Americans’ kitchens. But in certain circumstances, localized pits and cracks can form on stainless steel surfaces.

    In recent years, the U.S. Department of Energy has funded research, including my own, into the potential dangers of this type of corrosion. The general findings are that stainless steel canisters could pit or crack when stored near a seashore. But a radioactive leak would require not only corrosion of the container but also of the zirconium rods and of the fuel inside them. So it is unlikely that this type of corrosion would result in the release of radioactivity.

    A long way off

    A more permanent solution is likely years, or decades, away.

    Not only must a long-term site be geologically suitable to store nuclear waste for thousands of years, but it must also be politically palatable to the American people. In addition, there will be many challenges associated with transporting the waste, in its containers, by road or rail, from reactors across the country to wherever that permanent site ultimately is.

    Perhaps there will be a temporary site whose location passes muster with the Supreme Court. But in the meantime, the waste will stay where it is.

    Gerald Frankel receives funding from ONR, DOE.

    – ref. How and where is nuclear waste stored in the US? – https://theconversation.com/how-and-where-is-nuclear-waste-stored-in-the-us-252475

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: Pennsylvania may be short 20,000 nurses by 2026

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Kymberlee Montgomery, Senior Associate Dean of Nursing, Drexel University

    Education bottlenecks, burnout and an aging workforce are straining the system. Marcus Brandt/picture alliance via Getty Images

    Imagine nearly every seat in Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center − over 20,000 seats − are empty. That’s the scale of Pennsylvania’s projected shortfall of registered nurses by 2026, according to the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania.

    Hospitals in the state report an average 14% vacancy rate for registered nurses. In rural areas it is much higher.

    This shortage, of course, is not just in hospitals. It also affects long-term care facilities, outpatient clinics and home health agencies, which compete with hospitals for a limited pool of registered nurses, licensed nursing professionals and nursing support staff.

    We are a senior associate dean of nursing and clinical professor of nursing at Drexel University’s College of Nursing and Health Professions in Philadelphia, and a dean and professor of nursing at Duquesne University’s School of Nursing in Pittsburgh.

    We know that the nursing shortage in Pennsylvania, while not the worst in the U.S., is severe and jeopardizes the health care that patients receive.

    What caused the shortage?

    Pennsylvania’s nursing shortage is the result of long-standing issues in education, workforce retention and health care delivery.

    Education bottlenecks: Nursing schools in Pennsylvania and nationwide turn away thousands of qualified applicants each year due to faculty shortages, limited classroom space and scarce clinical placements. More than 65,000 qualified applications were turned away from U.S. nursing programs in 2023 alone, according to a report from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

    A key issue is the lack of preceptors. Preceptors are experienced nurses who teach students in real-world settings. A shortage of preceptors directly limits how many students can complete their education.

    Aging workforce: More than a third of Pennsylvania’s registered nurses are 55 or older. This demographic reality means many are nearing retirement.

    Burnout and attrition: The COVID-19 pandemic worsened already high levels of stress, burnout and mental health strain for nurses. Many left the profession early due to emotional exhaustion, family and personal health concerns, unsafe staffing ratios, moral injury and lack of institutional support.

    Uneven distribution: While Pennsylvania may have a sufficient number of licensed nurses on paper, those nurses don’t all still work in the profession. And among those that do, they are not evenly spread across roles or locations. Rural hospitals, long-term care centers, behavioral health settings and maternal-child health units are experiencing acute shortages.

    One issue is the shortage of preceptors who train nursing students in real-world settings.
    Naville J. Oubre III/Southern University and A&M College via Getty Images

    Cost to patients

    For patients and their families, the consequences of the nursing shortage are delayed care, fewer interactions with providers and less time for compassionate, personalized support. Overextended nurses face increased workloads, raising the likelihood of delayed interventions, medication errors and inadequate patient education. These factors undermine quality of care.

    Limited access to nursing care can increase hospital deaths, infections and readmissions, reduce early detection of health issues, and slow the response to life-threatening conditions such as stroke, sepsis and cardiac arrest.

    In Pennsylvania, patients may experience longer emergency room wait times, delayed discharges or transfers to nursing homes or rehabilitation centers, and service disruptions in rural and underserved areas.

    Effect on nurses

    Over 600,000 registered nurses across the U.S. plan to leave the workforce by 2027, according to a 2023 analysis by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing.

    Many cite stress as their reason for leaving the profession. New graduates often leave within their first two years, feeling unprepared for the emotional and operational realities of practice.

    In Pennsylvania, the shortage has created a feedback loop. Understaffing increases pressure on those who remain. A 2023 National Council of State Boards of Nursing survey found that 41% of nurses under age 35 reported feeling emotionally drained.

    Meanwhile, some experienced nurses choose to retire early or shift into nonclinical roles for better schedules, slower pace and improved quality of life.

    This turnover erodes institutional knowledge, increases costs for onboarding and overtime, and limits the capacity to mentor incoming staff.

    What’s being done

    To help address the problem, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro in March 2025 proposed a US$5 million Nurse Shortage Assistance Program. If approved by the General Assembly, the program would cover tuition costs for nursing students who commit to working in Pennsylvania hospitals for three years after graduation.

    HB 390 is also currently under review in the Pennsylvania General Assembly. It aims to establish a $1,000 tax deduction for licensed nurses who serve as clinical preceptors.

    To meet the growing demand for nurses, Pennsylvania hospitals are partnering with colleges and universities to expand clinical training capacity, streamline pathways into nursing and develop innovative education models such as hybrid and accelerated programs.

    Hospitals statewide are also offering substantial sign-on bonuses, loan forgiveness programs, housing stipends and flexible scheduling to attract nurses.

    To improve nurse retention, health care organizations have introduced structured residency programs, mentorship networks and clear career advancement pathways designed to reduce burnout and enhance professional satisfaction.

    They are also increasingly using virtual nursing, telehealth services and AI-driven administrative tools to reduce nurses’ workloads, enhance patient interactions and address staffing gaps.

    And some Philadelphia and Pennsylvania colleges offer refresher and license reactivation programs for retired or inactive nurses who want to rejoin the workforce. Duquesne offers a nurse faculty residency to increase the number of high-quality nursing faculty.

    What more could be done?

    Continuing Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development Programs are another solution. These federal grants, reauthorized under the March 2020 CARES Act, help fund nursing pathways and the availability of high-quality nursing care for patients nationwide.

    On April 1, 2025, the Trump administration announced plans to restructure the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the future status of these programs is not yet known.

    Research consistently demonstrates that care provided by nurses who have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher directly leads to better patient outcomes, improved safety and overall health. A commitment to shoring up the nurse pipeline in Pennsylvania is a commitment to improving the well-being of individuals and communities across the state.

    Board Member for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. The views, analyses, and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or positions of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

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

    – ref. Pennsylvania may be short 20,000 nurses by 2026 – https://theconversation.com/pennsylvania-may-be-short-20-000-nurses-by-2026-252274

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: How the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service protects public health at home and abroad

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Mark Dworkin, Professor of Epidemiology, University of Illinois Chicago

    The Epidemic Intelligence Service has produced a cadre of highly trained public health experts over its 74-year history. peterhowell/iStock / Getty Images Plus via Getty Images

    When the Trump administration announced in February 2025 that it was cutting 10% of staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it seemed that a small but storied program within it called the Epidemic Intelligence Service – also known as the CDC’s disease detectives – would also be cut. A few days later, the program was reinstated. And in March, Epidemic Intelligence Service officers traveled to Texas to support the state’s public health officials in fighting the ongoing measles epidemic.

    But after another massive upheaval at the CDC in April, the unit’s future is uncertain. As of now, applications for the program’s next round of fellows has been postponed.

    The Epidemic Intelligence Service is a dynamic crisis response team. Just as firefighters rush into burning buildings to save lives, this team’s specialists mobilize both domestically and internationally to help curb disease outbreaks. But first and foremost, it is a training program that has produced some of the most highly trained and regarded public health experts in the country who have gone on to work at local and state public health offices, academic departments and international health organizations.

    We are public health experts – one an experienced professor who served in the Epidemic Intelligence Service from 1994-1996, and the other an early career trainee who was accepted to its incoming class of 2025-2027. Although it’s not clear how the administration will enact its new vision for the CDC, we hope a continued urgency to identify and fight infectious disease threats – the essence of the Epidemic Intelligence Service – remains a national priority.

    A program rooted in national security

    The Epidemic Intelligence Service is a two-year fellowship open to physicians, scientists and other health professionals. The program accepts 50 to 80 people each year.

    Students participate in an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer training course in July 1955.
    Dr. Alex Langmuir, CDC

    The Epidemic Intelligence Service was founded in 1951, just five years after the launch of the CDC, in response to Cold War-era concerns about biological warfare. Alexander Langmuir, its founder, was the CDC’s chief epidemiologist and has often been called the father of shoe-leather epidemiology – on-the-ground, out-of-the-office disease investigation through extensive field work and engagement with affected populations.

    In a report announcing the unit’s establishment, Langmuir and a colleague wrote that one of the “problems that would emerge in the event of biological warfare attacks” was “the dearth of trained epidemiologists.” They recognized the urgent need for a specialized team capable of rapidly identifying and responding to potential bioterrorism threats.

    Newspaper headlines on April 13, 1955, announce the effectiveness of the polio vaccine.
    March of Dimes via Wikimedia Commons

    The new division soon evolved to address a wide range of civilian public health threats. In 1955, as one of its first major actions, the program’s officers were tasked with investigating an outbreak of polio in children that started just as the first mass vaccination campaign against the disease launched. Within weeks, Epidemic Intelligence Service officers helped trace the outbreak to a few batches of a vaccine manufactured by a California company called Cutter Laboratories in which the virus had not been properly killed. The incident led to increased safety regulations in vaccine production and boosted public confidence, paving the way to eliminating polio from the U.S. in the ensuing decades.

    The Epidemic Intelligence Service has led the way in tackling many of the most historically significant outbreaks of the past 75 years. Starting in 1966, the unit’s officers were deployed to West Africa to assist in a worldwide smallpox eradication campaign that laid the groundwork for eliminating the disease 13 years later. In 1976, the disease detectives were sent to investigate an outbreak in Philadelphia of a mysterious deadly illness. They helped to characterize what would eventually be known as Legionnaires’ disease, a previously unknown bacterial cause of pneumonia.

    And in 1981, a tip from an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer serving in the Los Angeles County Health Department led to the first description of a new disease that would become the global epidemic of HIV-AIDS. The program’s officers went on to help lead foundational studies on prevalence, prevention and treatment of AIDS around the world.

    Beyond vaccines and immunization

    Even from its earliest days, vaccine-preventable and infectious diseases were far from the Epidemic Intelligence Service’s only focus. During the program’s first 15 years, its officers were involved in a wide swath of epidemiological investigations in areas including lead paint exposure, a cancer cluster’s connection to birth defects, family planning practices and famine relief.

    These activities established the group’s priorities of addressing chronic diseases and population health – goals that have also driven its involvement in disaster response efforts, including hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria and Katrina, as well as the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

    The Epidemic Intelligence Service has also played a key role in keeping the nation’s food supply safe. It investigates major outbreaks of foodborne illnesses, helping to identify which foods are implicated so that contaminated products are removed from shelves and disseminating investigation findings that inform food safety policy. For example, officers investigated a 1993 outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 linked to undercooked hamburgers at several Jack in the Box restaurants. The outbreak sickened more than 700 people and resulted in the deaths of four children. It also led to major food safety reforms including expanded meat and poultry inspection nationwide.

    The CDC’s “disease detectives” train at sites across the U.S. and abroad.

    A legacy of impact

    The importance of an expert, nimble team of disease detectives has only increased. Over the past few years, Epidemic Intelligence Service officers have responded to countless public health threats.

    The program’s officers were involved at every stage of the COVID-19 pandemic response, conducting outbreak investigations on cruise ships, in prisons and in many other settings. They investigated the outbreak of monkeypox in the U.S. in 2022. Most recently they have investigated cases of avian influenza and are working to help describe and control the ongoing measles outbreak in Texas.

    Perhaps the Epidemic Intelligence Service’s most significant legacy has been in building a worldwide network of deep epidemiological expertise. To date, the program has trained more than 4,000 disease detectives, and its officers have collectively conducted thousands of outbreak investigations.

    The unit’s impact has been global. It has been called in to investigate outbreaks on six continents and has served as a model for epidemiology programs developed in dozens of countries.

    All of these activities, at home and abroad, have shaped health policy in crucial ways that in turn protect people’s health. It is increasingly clear that disease outbreaks will continue to occur in the U.S. and abroad. In our view, the Epidemic Intelligence Service’s history provides rich evidence of its value.

    I am currently a member of the EIS Alumni Association Executive Committee.

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

    – ref. How the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service protects public health at home and abroad – https://theconversation.com/how-the-cdcs-epidemic-intelligence-service-protects-public-health-at-home-and-abroad-251042

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: ICE has broad power to detain and arrest noncitizens – but is still bound by constitutional limits

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Rose Cuison-Villazor, Professor of Law and Chancellor’s Social Justice Scholar, Rutgers University – Newark

    U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers restrain a detained person on Jan. 27, 2025, in Silver Spring, Md. Associated Press

    News reports of noncitizens unexpectedly being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, have dominated headlines in recent weeks. Those being detained include noncitizens who hold lawful permanent residency status.

    One story concerns the March 8, 2025, arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident and recent Columbia University graduate, who was initially detained in New Jersey and transported to Louisiana. He remains there while he challenges his detention and the immigration judge’s April 11 decision that he can be deported

    And on March 25, ICE agents arrested Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national and doctoral student at Tufts University, while she was walking on the streets of Somerville, Massachusetts. She is currently detained in Louisiana.

    ICE agents have also detained and removed, among other people, hundreds of Venezuelan noncitizens to El Salvador since March, resulting in high-profile legal cases that are making their way through the court system. And the U.S. has revoked the visas of at least 300 foreign students this year.

    As a scholar of immigration and citizenship law, I think that it is important to help the public understand the scope and limitations of ICE’s authority.

    At the most basic level, ICE has broad, sweeping powers to question, arrest, detain and process the deportation any noncitizen. But ICE is still bound by certain constitutional and other legal restrictions, including noncitizens’ rights to make their case in court to remain in the U.S.

    In a photo provided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE agents prepare to make arrests in Atlanta on Feb. 9, 2025.
    Bryan Cox/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via Getty Images

    ICE’s mission and work

    Created as part of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, ICE is one of the federal agencies responsible for enforcing immigration laws.

    ICE’s operating budget from Oct. 1, 2024 through Sept. 30, 2025 is approximately US$8 billion, a relatively small portion of Homeland Security’s $107.9 billion total budget for that same time period.

    With more than 20,000 immigration enforcement officers stationed across the country, ICE’s day-to-day work is divided into three main areas – homeland security investigations, enforcement and removal operations, and legal representation for the government in an immigration court.

    The branch focused on homeland security investigations probes transnational crime and terrorism-related activities. ICE’s second area of work focuses on apprehending and removing noncitizens who are in violation of immigration laws. Finally, staff at the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor represent the government in immigration hearings, particularly what is called removal proceedings, or deportation.

    ICE’s power to enforce immigration law is primarily granted through the Immigration and Nationality Act, which Congress passed in 1952 amid the Cold War.

    This act outlines the federal government’s authority to regulate immigration and provides immigration agencies, including those established at a later date, like ICE, broad powers to enforce these restrictions. One key part of the Immigration and Nationality Act allows ICE officers to interrogate any individual they believe to be a noncitizen regarding their right “to be or remain” in the U.S.

    The Immigration and Nationality Act also says that any noncitizen can be deported for engaging in activities that the secretary of state believes “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio cited this provision when he revoked Ozturk’s visa. Ozturk was co-author on an op-ed in March 2024 calling for Tufts University to recognize genocide against the Palestinian people.

    Rubio used the same provision to claim that Khalil’s involvement in protests at Columbia University had negative U.S. foreign policy consequences.

    Detain and arrest

    ICE officers have broad power to arrest noncitizens in the U.S.

    With a warrant, they may arrest noncitizens who are in the country without legal permission, including foreign students whose visas are revoked. These warrants are administrative warrants signed by an immigration enforcement supervisor – not a judge.

    ICE officers have long been able to carry out these arrests in plain clothes – although using face coverings, as ICE officers who arrested Ozturk and Khalil did, is a new and, I think, startling development.

    Still, ICE’s powers to interrogate, arrest and detain noncitizens are not absolute.

    For one, immigration law requires noncitizens to be notified in writing that they are being processed for a removal proceeding, so they can appear before an immigration judge and have the opportunity to challenge the government’s claim that they should be deported.

    Noncitizens have the right to legal representation – albeit not paid for by the U.S. government – in an immigration court. Ultimately, an immigration judge, and not ICE, determines if a noncitizen should be deported.

    People take part in a protest on March 27, 2025, in Newark, N.J., against the arrest and threatened deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident.
    Kena Betancur/VIEWpress/Corbis via Getty Images

    The Constitutional limits on ICE

    Crucially, ICE is bound by various constitutional provisions that protect individual rights, including the rights of noncitizens who are living in the U.S. without legal authorization.

    Three particular constitutional amendments impose different checks on ICE’s power.

    The First Amendment, for example, protects individuals’ rights to free speech, assembly and religion. Consequently, ICE cannot target individuals – even if they are noncitizens living in the U.S. without legal permission – for simply participating in peaceful protests or writing something for the public. Rubio has said that he revoked Ozturk’s visa not because of her writing, but because she participated in “activities that are counter to our foreign … policy.” He also relied on this provision to support the deportation of Khalil.

    But Ozturk and Khalil’s lawyers contend that their activities were protected speech. Ultimately, a federal district judge has the power to determine whether ICE targeted them for exercising their First Amendment rights.

    The Fourth Amendment safeguards the right of individuals “to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” ICE must first obtain a search warrant, signed by a judge, before entering a person’s home or private areas of a workplace.

    The Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures also applies in public spaces. So, law enforcement officers must have reasonable suspicion to stop a person – or have probable cause to not have a warrant when they arrest a person they believe is guilty of a crime or in violation of a law and likely to escape. The Immigration and Nationality Act also requires ICE officers to have an arrest warrant unless they have reason to believe that the noncitizen may flee before they get a warrant.

    It is not clear whether ICE officers presented Khalil and Ozturk with arrest warrants before they were detained outside their home and on the street, respectively.

    The Fifth Amendment guarantees the right of all individuals against self-incrimination. This means that people detained by ICE have the right to remain silent during interrogations.

    It also means that before noncitizens can be deported, they must have the opportunity to go before an immigration judge to challenge the government’s plan to remove them, or may file a case before a federal judge to challenge their detention and deportation.

    ICE’s power is not absolute

    Even with an annual budget of approximately $8 billion, ICE does not have the capacity to pursue all immigration law violations.

    In this context, recent Trump administration initiatives could significantly increase ICE’s reach. For example, an April 2025 memorandum of understanding between the Internal Revenue Service and DHS allows the IRS to share tax information of immigrants living in the U.S. without legal authorization. This could help ICE more easily identify, locate and arrest noncitizens living in the U.S. illegally.

    Despite its considerable power, ICE’s authority is not without checks and balances.

    But as a longtime scholar of immigration law, I believe ICE officers’ recent actions raise serious concerns that it is exceeding the bounds of its legal authority and the constitutional limits that are intended to protect individual rights.

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

    – ref. ICE has broad power to detain and arrest noncitizens – but is still bound by constitutional limits – https://theconversation.com/ice-has-broad-power-to-detain-and-arrest-noncitizens-but-is-still-bound-by-constitutional-limits-253700

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: Same-sex marriage is under attack by state lawmakers, emboldened by Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ measures and the Supreme Court’s willingness to overturn precedent

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Paul M. Collins Jr., Professor of Legal Studies and Political Science, UMass Amherst

    Jeff Sralla, left, and his partner of 28 years, Gerald Gafford, wed in 2015 in Texas. AP Photo/Eric Gay

    Same-sex marriage, which the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 legalized nationwide in the case known as Obergefell v. Hodges, is facing resurgent hostility.

    In the decade since the court’s decision, public support for same-sex marriage has increased. Currently, about 70% of Americans approve of legally recognizing the marriages of same-sex couples, a 10-percentage-point bump from 2015.

    Obergefell led to an increase in marriages among same-sex partners, with more than 700,000 same-sex couples currently married.

    Despite this, Republican lawmakers in five states have recently introduced symbolic bills calling on the Supreme Court to overturn its ruling in Obergefell.

    And Republican lawmakers in two states have proposed legislation that creates a new category of marriage, called “covenant marriage,” that is reserved for one man and one woman.

    As a professor of legal studies, I believe such attacks on same-sex marriage represent a serious threat to the institution.

    And others share my concern.

    A 2024 poll of married same-sex couples found that 54% of respondents are worried that the Supreme Court might overturn Obergefell, with only 17% saying they did not anticipate such a challenge.

    Recognizing this fear, Democratic legislators in Michigan have called for the state to pass a ballot initiative to protect same-sex marriage. The initiative would repeal a part of the state constitution that banned same-sex marriage, but which was invalidated by the subsequent Obergefell decision. If Obergefell were overturned, that ban in the Michigan constitution would go into effect again.

    And a law firm in Missouri is helping LGBTQ+ couples establish medical power of attorney plans in the event Obergefell is reversed.

    Here’s what’s known about the current attacks on same-sex marriage.

    Plaintiff James Obergefell of Ohio, center, wipes his eyes after exiting the Supreme Court in Washington on April 28, 2015, following arguments before the court over the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry.
    AP Photo/Cliff Owen

    What happens if anti-Obergefell state legislation passes?

    Currently, two types of legislation have been introduced by Republican state lawmakers.

    First, symbolic legislation that calls on the Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell has been introduced in Idaho, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.

    This legislation is symbolic, since state legislatures do not have control over what the Supreme Court does. And even if it passes, the legislation does not directly threaten the legality of same-sex marriage in those states because it does not address those states’ marriage laws.

    But if it becomes law, this legislation sends a clear signal that, should Obergefell be overturned, these states could quickly enact legislation banning same-sex marriage. For a state such as Michigan, whose constitutional language defining marriage as between one man and one woman is still on the books, the status quo would revert immediately to outlawing same-sex marriage – it wouldn’t require any legislative vote.

    Second, lawmakers in Missouri and Tennessee have introduced legislation that would create a new category of marriage that would be available only to opposite-sex couples. So-called “covenant marriage” would require that the couples who choose this kind of marriage undergo counseling prior to getting married and creates significant obstacles to getting divorced, except under very specific circumstances, such as spousal abuse.

    Tennessee’s sponsor of the legislation, Rep. Gino Bulso, a Republican, was quoted on Knoxnews.com as saying his legislation “seeks to challenge the U.S. Supreme Court’s egregiously wrong 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.” According to Bulso, “The bill is not ‘anti’ anything or any person. It simply recognizes the natural order of things.”

    Since this version of covenant marriage excludes same-sex couples, they would be denied access to covenant marriages, although they would still have access to more traditional forms of marriage.

    Timing of attacks

    Efforts by state Republican lawmakers to revisit same-sex marriage bans are part of a broader assault on LGBTQ+ rights taking place in the U.S.

    The timing of these efforts is primarily driven by two factors: Donald Trump’s second term as president and the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, which overturned the constitutional guarantee of the right to an abortion.

    During his first term in office, Trump enacted policies harmful to the LGBTQ+ community, particularly involving health care and transgender rights.

    But the Biden administration reversed most of these policies.

    In his second term, Trump has upped his hostility to the LGBTQ+ community, following an election campaign in which he made transgender rights a wedge issue. This includes canceling more than US$125 million in federal grants related to LGBTQ+ health programs and stopping the enforcement of the Equal Access Rule, a federal policy that ensured access to federal housing programs regardless of gender identity.

    In turn, this has emboldened Republican lawmakers to target same-sex marriage and other protections for the LGBTQ+ community.

    The Supreme Court’s decision to overrule Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson is the other key factor motivating the timing of attacks on same-sex marriage.

    Legislators in the Tennessee statehouse, seen here, introduced legislation that would create a new category of marriage that would be available only to opposite-sex couples.
    AP Photo/George Walker IV

    In Dobbs, the court’s conservative majority indicated its willingness to revisit – and overrule – precedents that it disagreed with, even if those precedents were supported by a large majority of the public, as was the case for Roe.

    In addition, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a concurring opinion in Dobbs in which he argued that the Supreme Court should apply the logic used to overrule Roe to reconsider other decisions, including Obergefell. Although Thomas’ concurring opinion does not have the force of law, it nonetheless sent what some court observers say is a clear message to opponents of same-sex marriage that at least one justice has an appetite for reconsidering Obergefell.

    Reaffirm or overrule?

    Should the Supreme Court agree to hear a challenge to Obergefell, one of two main outcomes is likely.

    First, the court could reaffirm Obergefell. This would probably put an end to most Republican attacks on same-sex marriage and would maintain the status quo by prohibiting states from outlawing same-sex marriage.

    It would also serve to make the Supreme Court appear moderate, which may enhance its near historically low public approval ratings.

    Second, the court could overrule Obergefell. If a majority of justices did so, I believe they would almost certainly use the same logic employed to overturn Roe v. Wade. That is, the court’s conservative majority could argue that the Constitution does not recognize marriage as a fundamental right, and therefore it is up to the states to regulate and define marriage, including prohibiting same-sex couples from obtaining marriage licenses.

    Under the Respect for Marriage Act, however, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022, states outlawing same-sex marriage would have to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, as would the federal government.

    The bottom line is that Trump’s second term and the Supreme Court’s conservative activism have lit a fire in some Republican lawmakers, who are targeting same-sex marriage as part of a broader attack on LGBTQ+ rights.

    If successful, these efforts would be a dramatic blow to the progress made toward LGBTQ+ equality over the past two decades.

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

    – ref. Same-sex marriage is under attack by state lawmakers, emboldened by Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ measures and the Supreme Court’s willingness to overturn precedent – https://theconversation.com/same-sex-marriage-is-under-attack-by-state-lawmakers-emboldened-by-trumps-anti-lgbtq-measures-and-the-supreme-courts-willingness-to-overturn-precedent-252154

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Ukrainian border guards enhance ability to detect forged documents on OSCE study tour to the Netherlands

    Source: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe – OSCE

    Headline: Ukrainian border guards enhance ability to detect forged documents on OSCE study tour to the Netherlands

    Participants in a site visit on an OSCE study tour to the Netherlands enhancing border guards’ ability to detect forged documents, 9 April 2025. (OSCE) Photo details

    Senior officers from Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service (SBGS) strengthened their document fraud detection capability and explored ways to enhance border control operations at airports and maritime ports during a study tour to the Netherlands organized by the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department, in collaboration with the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, from 7 to 10 April.
    The participants worked with experts at the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee’s Identity Fraud and Documents Centre of Expertise (ECID) to learn about emerging trends in document forgeries, advanced forensic examination techniques and the development of training programmes with forensic document experts. Since ECID experts also provide training to first-line border guards, these exchanges will directly support Ukraine’s Main Forensic Center in developing new training programmes, modelled after ECID’s training structure, and enabling them to deploy trainers previously prepared through the OSCE’s training-of-trainers courses for SBGS.
    During a site visit at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, the officials learned about the integration of modern screening technologies such as automated border control e-gates (ABC e-gates). This supports the intensified efforts by Ukrainian authorities to reopen Ukraine’s civilian airports upon the cessation of hostilities and to deepen the understanding of these technologies toward supporting the country in updating its legislation for implementing ABC e-gates.
    Given the role of Ukraine’s maritime ports in its grain exports, the SBGS officials also benefitted from a site visit at Rotterdam Port, one of the world’s busiest ports, to explore its modernized operations, including the implementation of automation procedures and cargo container screening processes.
    A visit to Keesing Technologies, an identification technologies company, in Amsterdam was an opportunity for participants to learn more about the role of public-private engagement for ensuring document experts are up to date on the latest advances in passport security, including passport features that are the intellectual property of commercial companies.
    The study visit was part of an ongoing project supporting the OSCE participating States and Partners for Co-operation in reducing illegal border crossings with a fake or stolen identity, which is funded by the United States of America.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Sarah Newton Reappointed as Chair of the Health and Safety Executive.

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Sarah Newton Reappointed as Chair of the Health and Safety Executive.

    The Department for Work and Pensions has reappointed Sarah Newton as Chair of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Board.

    • The Health and Safety Executive is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety and advises the DWP.
    • Sarah Newton “delighted” to continue her work on delivering on its 10-year strategy.

    The Department for Work and Pensions has reappointed Sarah Newton as Chair of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Board.

    The reappointment will last for two years starting from 1 August 2025 to 31 July 2027.

    Sarah Newton has led HSE since 2020, overseeing its important role in ensuring the health, safety, and welfare of workers across Great Britain.

    During her tenure, she has driven strategic improvements, strengthened regulatory frameworks, and championed HSE’s mission to protect people and places.

    Minister for Social Security and Disability, Sir Stephen Timms, said:

    I congratulate Sarah on her reappointment as HSE chair, and I look forward to continuing to work with her over the next few years.

    As we overhaul our employment support system and give workers the skills and support they need to succeed in their careers, the role of HSE will be vital to ensure workplaces are safe environments for them to flourish in.

    Chair of the HSE Board, Sarah Newton, said:

    I am delighted to be reappointed as the Chair of the HSE to deliver our ten-year strategy, Protecting People and Places, while supporting the Government’s aim to improve the productivity of and growth in the UK economy. 

    HSE does this by supporting business-led innovation and employers in their duty to prevent work related fatalities, ill health and injuries.

    Over the past five years, HSE has significantly expanded the scope of our work, taking on the responsibility of regulating chemicals in Great Britain and setting up the Building Safety Regulator for England. 

    Throughout this journey, it has been a privilege to work with the non-executive and executive leadership team and many dedicated HSE employees. I look forward to tackling the challenges ahead.

    The Health and Safety Executive is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. It is dedicated to protecting people and places and helping everyone lead safer and healthier lives. 

    The HSE Board oversees the activities of HSE, ensuring that high standards of corporate governance and ways of working are maintained.

    The HSE 10-year strategy sets out clear objectives and core themes to ensure people are protected in the workplace. The strategy prioritises on delivering a reduction in occupational ill health, specifically focusing on work-related stress and mental health.

    Additional Information

    About Sarah Newton

    • Sarah has 30 years’ experience of strategic planning, leadership and change management, dealing with complex issues across the business, voluntary and governmental sectors. She has considerable experience of building partnerships between diverse people and organisations to deliver shared aims. She has served on a wide range of boards and is currently a Non-Executive Director of the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust.
    • Between 2010 and 2019 she was an MP and served for 3 years as a Member of the Science and Technology Select Committee before becoming a Minister in the Home Office and latterly at the Department of Work and Pensions, where she had the honour of working with the HSE and leading the Health and Work unit. Amongst other responsibilities while at the Home Office she led work on tackling modern slavery, human trafficking and human exploitation.
    • Before entering the House of Commons, she was Director of the International Longevity Centre – UK, Age Concern England and American Express Europe. She also served as a Councillor in the London Borough of Merton.
    • Sarah was educated at Falmouth Comprehensive School and Kings College London. Sarah won a Rotary International postgraduate scholarship in the USA.
    • Sarah is married with 3 children.

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    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Denis Manturov arrived in Indonesia on a working visit

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

    Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    Denis Manturov took part in the plenary session of the Russian-Indonesian business forum “Russia-Indonesia: Partnership Strategy”.

    First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Chairman of the Russian-Indonesian Joint Commission on Trade, Economic and Technical Cooperation Denis Manturov arrived at the head of the Russian delegation to Indonesia (Jakarta). The working visit is taking place in the year of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and Indonesia and will last two days.

    On the first day of the visit, Denis Manturov took part in the plenary session of the Russian-Indonesian business forum “Russia – Indonesia: Partnership Strategy”. The forum participants discussed key issues of bilateral cooperation in trade and investment, industry, agriculture, energy, transport, tourism and creative industries. The forum was organized by the Roscongress Foundation jointly with the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

    Despite the difficult geopolitical situation, cooperation between Russia and Indonesia has continued to strengthen in recent years. “Work between our countries in all areas has not stopped. During this time, our trade turnover has increased significantly, to $4.3 billion last year,” Denis Manturov noted.

    The First Deputy Prime Minister noted that today Russia is implementing the tasks of ensuring technological sovereignty. First of all, in high-tech industries: transport engineering, shipbuilding, pharmaceuticals, space and other areas. At the same time, Russia is open to cooperation with reliable foreign partners, in particular with Indonesia. This concerns cooperation both in the trade and economic sphere, including energy, and in humanitarian areas.

    “I believe that today we have a favorable moment amidst global uncertainty – this moment has arrived, and it is especially felt in today’s business forum and discussions. The next step is to strengthen our trade. Yes, the volume of trade between our countries has increased by 30%, but this is not enough, we need more. And as President Prabowo instructed me, it is necessary to finalize the free trade agreement with the EAEU so that through it, it will facilitate the trade that both Indonesia and Russia need,” said Airlangga Hartarto, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia.

    “Negotiations on a free trade agreement are underway, and I hope that the agreement will be signed by the end of the year. You know about the initiative of the United States of America to significantly increase foreign trade tariffs, this could give additional impetus to speed up the signing of the agreement,” Denis Manturov said, answering a question from Indonesian media after the session.

    “The Russia-Indonesia Business Forum, which brought together more than 500 entrepreneurs and government officials, became a platform for open and trusting dialogue between the government, business, and society of the two countries,” noted Alexander Stuglev, Chairman of the Board and Director of the Roscongress Foundation.

    At the end of the plenary session of the forum, the First Deputy Prime Minister invited his Indonesian colleagues to take part in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Eastern Economic Forum and the Innoprom International Industrial Exhibition.

    In the afternoon, Denis Manturov visited the Indonesian Badminton Association. Badminton is a national sport in Indonesia, and special attention is paid to its development here. Representatives of the Russian and Indonesian badminton associations told Denis Manturov about their plans for cooperation. Also during the visit, the best athletes of the Indonesian team demonstrated their skills during exhibition performances and held several friendly matches with members of the Russian delegation.

    Denis Manturov also attended a gala concert dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and Indonesia. Russian and Indonesian artists and creative groups took part in it.

    Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Eagle Ford natural gas production increases as crude oil production holds steady

    Source: US Energy Information Administration

    In-brief analysis

    April 14, 2025

    In our April Short-Term Energy Outlook, we forecast U.S. annual natural gas production from the Eagle Ford region in southwest Texas will grow from 6.8 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2024 to 7.0 Bcf/d in 2026. The increase in natural gas production comes as natural gas prices rise and demand for liquefied natural gas exports grows. Oil production in the Eagle Ford, on the other hand, has hovered around 1.1 million barrels per day (b/d) since 2020, and we forecast it will remain about the same through 2026.

    This increase in natural gas production with stable oil production in the Eagle Ford region is a result of increasing gas-oil ratios. As more oil and natural gas are produced, pressure within the reservoir declines, allowing more natural gas relative to oil to be produced.

    The Eagle Ford region contains many plays, the largest of which are the Eagle Ford play and the Austin Chalk play. Development in the Austin Chalk play in Texas began nearly a century ago, and the play has been undergoing a resurgence in drilling activity since 2014. Since 2014, oil production from the Austin Chalk play has nearly quadrupled, and natural gas production has increased by nearly 675%.

    The Eagle Ford play makes up 73% (5.5 Bcf/d) of the region’s natural gas production and 86% (1.0 million b/d) of the region’s oil production. Since 2020, natural gas production from the play has grown by 10% (0.5 Bcf/d) while oil production has declined by 4% (46,000 b/d).

    The Austin Chalk play makes up 23% (1.8 Bcf/d) of the region’s natural gas production and 11% (125,000 b/d) of the region’s oil production. It is the fastest-growing play in the region, with natural gas production nearly tripling (1.1 Bcf/d) and oil production growing by 26% (26,000 b/d) since 2020.

    Principal contributors: Trinity Manning-Pickett, Troy Cook

    MIL OSI USA News –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Upcoming US Law Webinars – May 2025

    Source: US Global Legal Monitor

    We hope you will join us in May for the next offering of our Orientation to Legal Research webinar focusing on U.S. federal statutes, and an Orientation to Law Library Collections (OLLC) webinar, which will feature the Alaska State Court Law Library as part of our 50 State Law Libraries Outreach Project. The 50 State Law Libraries Outreach Project aims to strengthen the ties between the Law Library of Congress and state law libraries by sharing information about our collections, products, and services with one another and with the public. Susan Falk, state law librarian, will present from the Alaska State Court Law Library during the webinar. The Law Library will also offer a Lunch and Learn webinar, which will focus on public international law and the general principles of law as they relate to international law. We hope you will join us for these upcoming webinars in May!

    An Orientation to Legal Research: U.S. Federal Statutes

    Date: Thursday, May 8, 2025, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EDT

    Content: This webinar is designed to give a basic introduction to legal sources and research techniques. This entry in the series provides an overview of U.S. statutory and legislative research, including information about how to find and use the U.S. Code, the U.S. Statutes at Large, and U.S. federal bills and resolutions.

    Instructor: Jason Zarin. Jason is a legal reference specialist at the Law Library. Jason has a B.A. in economics from Tufts University, an M.A. in economics from UCLA, a J.D. from the University of Southern California, an LL.M. in taxation from Georgetown University, and a Master of Science in information systems from the University of Texas at Austin.

    Register here. 

    An Orientation to Law Library Collections Webinar Featuring the Alaska State Court Law Library 

    Date: Thursday, May 15, 2025, 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. EDT

    Content: This webinar will feature a special appearance by law librarians from the Alaska State Court Law Library as part of the State Law Libraries Outreach Project. The purpose of the State Law Libraries Outreach Project is to strengthen the ties between the Law Library of Congress and state law libraries by sharing information about our collections, products, and services with one another and with the public. This project involves providing a guest spot for state law librarians, or their designees, to discuss the collections and services they offer during our Orientation to Law Library Collections Webinars.

    Instructor: Sarah Friedman. Sarah Friedman is a legal reference librarian at the Law Library of Congress. Sarah holds a B.A. in English literature and criticism from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and a J.D. from Roger Williams University School of Law.

    Register here. 

    Flyer announcing the Lunch and Learn webinar titled, An Overview of Public International Law. Created by Taylor Gulatsi.

    A Lunch and Learn Webinar: An Overview of Public International Law

    Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2025, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EDT

    Content: This entry in the series provides an introduction to treaty practice and international conventions, international customary law and its relationship to international law, general principles of law as they relate to international law, and a final category covering other evidence for international law. The presentation also briefly discusses the inclusion of international governmental organizations, such as the United Nations, within the framework of international law.

    Instructor: Louis Myers. Louis Myers holds a B.A. in history from Kent State University, a J.D. from the University of Idaho College of Law, and an M.L.I.S. from Kent State University.

    Register here.

    To learn about other upcoming classes on domestic and foreign law topics, visit the Legal Research Institute. Please request ADA accommodations at least five business days in advance by contacting (202) 707-6362 or [email protected].

    Subscribe to In Custodia Legis – it’s free! – to receive interesting posts drawn from the Law Library of Congress’s vast collections and our staff’s expertise in U.S., foreign, and international law.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI: Red Cat Holdings Announces Closing of $30 Million Registered Direct Offering of Common Stock

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, April 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Red Cat Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: RCAT) (“Red Cat” or “Company”), a drone technology company integrating robotic hardware and software for military, government, and commercial operations, has successfully closed the previously announced registered direct offering with certain institutional investors for the purchase and sale of 4,724,412 shares of common stock resulting in gross proceeds of approximately $30 million, before deducting placement agent fees and other offering expenses. The offering closed on April 11, 2025.

    “We believe this financing positions Red Cat for significant growth in the drone industry focused on aerospace and defense technologies, establishing Red Cat as one of the fastest growing drone companies based in the United States,” said Jeff Thompson, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Red Cat.

    • Red Cat remains focused in the near term on driving growth through being the previously announced sole winner of the U.S. Army Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR) Program of Record and will continue to grow sales of its Black Widow, Edge 130 and FANG product offerings and invest in new product offerings.
    • Red Cat is reiterating its calendar 2025 guidance of $80-120 million, driven by military contracts and strategic partnerships, including the recently announced partnership with Palantir Technologies, which integrates Palantir’s Visual Navigation (VNav) and Warp Speed manufacturing operating system.
    • Red Cat continues to hire strategic talent, most recently adding Christian Koji Ericson as CFO, previously with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Shawn Webb as President of FlightWave Aerospace, leveraging his 25 years of aerospace and defense experience, including a leadership role at AeroVironment (Nasdaq: AVAV), to enhance the company’s military drone production capabilities.

    The Company intends to use net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital.

    Northland Capital Markets acted as the exclusive placement agent and Ladenburg Thalmann served as financial advisor for the transaction.

    The offering is being made pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-283242), which was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on December 11, 2024. A final prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to the registered direct offering was filed with the SEC and is available on the SEC’s website located at http://www.sec.gov. Additionally, when available, electronic copies of the final prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus may be obtained from Northland Securities, Inc., 150 South Fifth Street, Suite 3300, Minneapolis, MN.

    This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

    About Red Cat Holdings, Inc.

    Red Cat (Nasdaq: RCAT) is a drone technology company integrating robotic hardware and software for military, government, and commercial operations. Through two wholly owned subsidiaries, Teal Drones and FlightWave Aerospace, Red Cat has developed a leading-edge Family of Systems. This includes the flagship Black Widow™, a small unmanned ISR system that was awarded the U.S. Army’s Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR) Program of Record contract. The Family of Systems also includes TRICHON™, a fixed wing VTOL for extended endurance and range, and FANG™, the industry’s first line of NDAA compliant FPV drones optimized for military operations with precision strike capabilities. Learn more at www.redcat.red.

    Safe Harbor Forward-Looking Statements

    This press release contains “forward-looking statements” that are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release may be identified by the use of words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “seek,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “target,” “aim,” “should,” “will” “would,” or the negative of these words or other similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements relating to the expected timing of the offering and the satisfaction of customary closing conditions related to the offerings, and our intended use of proceeds from the offering. Forward-looking statements are based on Red Cat Holdings, Inc.’s current expectations and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Further, certain forward-looking statements are based on assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. These and other risks and uncertainties are described more fully in the section titled “Risk Factors” in the Form 10-KT filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 31, 2025. Forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are made as of this date, and Red Cat Holdings, Inc. undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law.

    Contact:

    INVESTORS:
    E-mail: Investors@redcat.red

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

    The MIL Network –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI: POET Broadens Customer Engagements Following Showcase of Groundbreaking Products

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    TORONTO, April 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — POET Technologies Inc. (“POET” or the “Company“) (TSX Venture: PTK; NASDAQ: POET), a leader in the design and implementation of highly-integrated optical engines and light sources for artificial intelligence networks, today announced significant new customer engagement in response to live demonstrations of the POET Teralight™ line of 1.6T transmit and receive optical engines that broke performance expectations at the 2025 Optical Fiber Communications (OFC) Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California.

    POET also debuted POET Blazar™, a groundbreaking external light source (ELS) that promises to shrink costs by an order of magnitude with the potential to disrupt the AI connectivity ecosystem at a time when the industry is in need of viable new solutions.

    “Blazar represents a new class of laser and is designed to drive AI connectivity to the next level. It can transform the economics of AI connectivity with an architecture that reduces costs and increases scale and manufacturing efficiency,” said Dr. Suresh Venkatesan, the Company’s Chairman & CEO. “With the massive amount of compute power that AI demands, we believe that Blazar offers an economically superior solution for co-packaged optics (CPO) applications and, more importantly, for chip-to-chip, light-based connectivity in AI clusters.”

    “The period immediately following OFC is a crucial one for POET and we are seeing robust engagement with existing and new customers alike,” commented Raju Kankipati, POET’s Chief Revenue Officer. “We are laser focused on driving revenue this year and preparing for substantial revenue growth in 2026.”

    About POET Technologies Inc.
    POET is a design and development company offering high-speed optical modules, optical engines and light source products to the artificial intelligence systems market and to hyperscale data centers.  POET’s photonic integration solutions are based on the POET Optical Interposer™, a novel, patented platform that allows the seamless integration of electronic and photonic devices into a single chip using advanced wafer-level semiconductor manufacturing techniques. POET’s Optical Interposer-based products are lower cost, consume less power than comparable products, are smaller in size and are readily scalable to high production volumes. In addition to providing high-speed (800G, 1.6T and above) optical engines and optical modules for AI clusters and hyperscale data centers, POET has designed and produced novel light source products for chip-to-chip data communication within and between AI servers, the next frontier for solving bandwidth and latency problems in AI systems.  POET’s Optical Interposer platform also solves device integration challenges in 5G networks, machine-to-machine communication, self-contained “Edge” computing applications and sensing applications, such as LIDAR systems for autonomous vehicles.  POET is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with operations in Allentown, PA, Shenzhen, China, and Singapore.  More information about POET is available on our website at www.poet-technologies.com.

    Forward-Looking Statements
    This news release contains “forward-looking information” (within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws) and “forward-looking statements” (within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). Such statements or information are identified with words such as “anticipate”, “believe”, “expect”, “plan”, “intend”, “potential”, “estimate”, “propose”, “project”, “outlook”, “foresee” or similar words suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding any potential outcome. Such statements include the Company’s expectations with respect to the success of the Company’s product development efforts, the performance of its products, including its Teralight and Blazar product lines, operations, meeting revenue targets, and the expectation of continued success in the financing efforts, the capability, functionality, performance and cost of the Company’s technology as well as the market acceptance, inclusion and timing of the Company’s technology in current and future products and expectations regarding its successful development of high speed transceiver solutions and its penetration of the Artificial Intelligence hardware markets.

    Such forward-looking information or statements are based on a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions which may cause actual results or other expectations to differ materially from those anticipated and which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, the completion of its development efforts with its customers, the ability to build working prototypes to the customer’s specifications, and the size, future growth and needs of Artificial Intelligence network suppliers. Actual results could differ materially due to a number of factors, including, without limitation, the failure of its technology to meet performance requirements, the failure to produce optical engines on time and within budget, the failure of Artificial Intelligence networks to continue to grow as expected, the failure of the Company’s products to be included in products aimed at AI and datacom networks, operational risks in the completion of the Company’s projects, the ability of the Company to generate sales for its products, and the ability of its customers to deploy systems that incorporate the Company’s products. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information or statements are reasonable, prospective investors in the Company’s securities should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because the Company can provide no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking information and statements contained in this news release are as of the date of this news release and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise this forward-looking information and statements except as required by law.

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

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a8eba04a-f0cf-41fc-b1ac-23060775218c

    The MIL Network –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: Are twins allergic to the same things?

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Breanne Hayes Haney, Allergy and Immunology Fellow-in-Training, School of Medicine, West Virginia University

    If one has a reaction to a new food, is the other more likely to as well? BjelicaS/iStock via Getty Images Plus

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

    Are twins allergic to the same things? – Ella, age 7, Philadelphia

    Allergies, whether spring sneezes due to pollen or trouble breathing triggered by a certain food, are caused by a combination of someone’s genes and the environment they live in.

    The more things two people share, the higher their chances of being allergic to the same things. Twins are more likely to share allergies because of everything they have in common, but the story doesn’t end there.

    I’m an allergist and immunologist, and part of my job is treating patients who have environmental, food or drug allergies. Allergies are really complex, and a lot of factors play a role in who gets them and who doesn’t.

    What is an allergy?

    Your immune system makes defense proteins called antibodies. Their job is to keep watch and attack any invading germs or other dangerous substances that get inside your body before they can make you sick.

    An allergy happens when your body mistakes some usually harmless substance for a harmful intruder. These trigger molecules are called allergens.

    Y-shaped antibodies are meant to grab onto any harmful germs, but sometimes they make a mistake and grab something that isn’t actually a threat: an allergen.
    ttsz/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    The antibodies stick like suction cups to the allergens, setting off an immune system reaction. That process leads to common allergy symptoms: sneezing, a runny or stuffy nose, itchy, watery eyes, a cough. These symptoms can be annoying but minor.

    Allergies can also cause a life-threatening reaction called anaphylaxis that requires immediate medical attention. For example, if someone ate a food they were allergic to, and then had throat swelling and a rash, that would be considered anaphylaxis.

    The traditional treatment for anaphylaxis is a shot of the hormone epinephrine into the leg muscle. Allergy sufferers can also carry an auto-injector to give themselves an emergency shot in case of a life-threatening case of anaphylaxis. An epinephrine nasal spray is now available, too, which also works very quickly.

    A person can be allergic to things outdoors, like grass or tree pollen and bee stings, or indoors, like pets and tiny bugs called dust mites that hang out in carpets and mattresses.

    A person can also be allergic to foods. Food allergies affect 4% to 5% of the population. The most common are to cow’s milk, eggs, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish and sesame. Sometimes people grow out of allergies, and sometimes they are lifelong.

    Who gets allergies?

    Each antibody has a specific target, which is why some people may only be allergic to one thing.

    The antibodies responsible for allergies also take care of cleaning up any parasites that your body encounters. Thanks to modern medicine, people in the United States rarely deal with parasites. Those antibodies are still ready to fight, though, and sometimes they misfire at silly things, like pollen or food.

    Hygiene and the environment around you can also play a role in how likely it is you’ll develop allergies. Basically, the more different kinds of bacteria that you’re exposed to earlier in life, the less likely you are to develop allergies. Studies have even shown that kids who grow up on farms, kids who have pets before the age of 5, and kids who have a lot of siblings are less likely to develop allergies. Being breastfed as a baby can also protect against having allergies.

    Children who grow up in cities are more likely to develop allergies, probably due to air pollution, as are children who are around people who smoke.

    Kids are less likely to develop food allergies if they try foods early in life rather than waiting until they are older. Sometimes a certain job can contribute to an adult developing environmental allergies. For example, hairdressers, bakers and car mechanics can develop allergies due to chemicals they work with.

    Genetics can also play a huge role in why some people develop allergies. If a mom or dad has environmental or food allergies, their child is more likely to have allergies. Specifically for peanut allergies, if your parent or sibling is allergic to peanuts, you are seven times more likely to be allergic to peanuts!

    Do you have an allergy twin in your family?
    Ronnie Kaufman/DigitalVision via Getty Images Plus

    Identical in allergies?

    Back to the idea of twins: Yes, they can be allergic to the same things, but not always.

    Researchers in Australia found that 60% to 70% of twins in one study both had environmental allergies, and identical twins were more likely to share allergies than fraternal (nonidentical) twins. Identical twins share 100% of their genes, while fraternal twins only share about 50% of their genes, the same as any pair of siblings.

    A lot more research has been done on the genetics of food allergies. One peanut allergy study found that identical twins were more likely to both be allergic to peanuts than fraternal twins were.

    So, twins can be allergic to the same things, and it’s more likely that they will be, based on their shared genetics and growing up together. But twins aren’t automatically allergic to the exact same things.

    Imagine if two twins are separated at birth and raised in different homes: one on a farm with pets and one in the inner city. What if one’s parents smoke, and the others don’t? What if one lives with a lot of siblings and the other is an only child? They certainly could develop different allergies, or maybe not develop allergies at all.

    Scientists like me are continuing to research allergies, and we hope to have more answers in the future.

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

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

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

    – ref. Are twins allergic to the same things? – https://theconversation.com/are-twins-allergic-to-the-same-things-245914

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: Perceived consensus drives moral intolerance in a time of identity-driven politics and online bubbles

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Jen Cole Wright, Professor of Psychology, College of Charleston

    Differences of opinion within your group signal for you to be tolerant around that issue. OsakaWayne Studios/Moment via Getty Images

    To live together in social communities, people create and maintain expectations about what is normal and what is not. Sometimes things can fall outside the range of normal and people are OK with it. You might have a neighbor who likes to wear Revolutionary War-era costumes on their evening walks around the neighborhood. Their behavior seems weird to you, but you consider it an instance of everyone’s freedom to express themselves.

    But other times something seems not only abnormal but also unacceptable. In this case, people take active steps to squelch what feels unfair, inappropriate, bad or deviant. Things that people think are morally abnormal – aberrant behavior, transgressions, violations of their most sacred values – are viewed as highly threatening and necessary to shut down, with force if necessary. Most people would find a neighbor who purposefully starves and tortures their dogs morally repugnant. That neighbor would need to be stopped and would deserve to be punished.

    A decade of research in my psychology lab and others’ demonstrates that people struggle to express tolerance for different moral values – for instance, about sexual orientation, helping the poor, being a stay-at-home mother and so on.

    In study after study, people are less willing to help, share with, date, be roommates with and even work for people who have different moral values. Even children and adolescents express more willingness to shun and punish moral transgressors than people who do something personally obnoxious or offensive but not immoral.

    When asked to talk with a stranger who they know disagrees with them, people will turn their bodies away more and move farther away when the disagreement involves a moral rather than personal disagreement. And they are more willing to condone using violence against someone who doesn’t share their morals.

    All this sounds like bad news for societies like ours filled with people who hold diverse moral values. But there is an important counterbalance to this blanket intolerance. When people sense disagreement within their community about moral issues – even those they personally feel strongly about – it pushes them to have tolerance for people with other views.

    In other words, when it is clear that people you see as your peers – members of your community – disagree with each other, you recognize the need for continued respectful discussion. It automatically tones down the natural tendency toward intolerance for moral views that differ from your own.

    Splintering off into polarized groups

    While perceived disagreement within a community appears to function as a corrective to intolerance, the opposite is also true: Consensus is a powerful trigger of intolerance. When most of the community agrees that something is morally bad, then those who disagree are viewed as outliers and labeled as “deviant.” Intolerance becomes not only justified but is seen as necessary.

    But how is consensus reached? In diverse, democratic societies like ours − where people are allowed to form their own opinions − there are two ways this might happen.

    The democratic ideal is that over time, through shared discussion and reflection, people eventually come to an agreement or compromise. Once a sense of consensus – or close enough – has been reached, group members can be confident that those who continue to disagree can be safely ignored or no longer tolerated.

    More often, though, consensus is achieved when the disagreement becomes strong enough to fracture communities into multiple, smaller “issue-position” groups. Here’s an example.

    An original group could hold members with varying views who eventually split off into smaller, more uniform position-based groups.
    Olivier Le Moal/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    Consider a controversial issue, such as abortion. Two people may agree that terminating a pregnancy is something that causes harm but also falls within women’s reproductive autonomy. Yet, at the same time, they may disagree – one prioritizes discouraging abortions whenever possible, while the other prioritizes the freedom to make that choice.

    Over time, the two people encounter others whose views are more extreme. Because the two resonate more with different sides of the issue, they find themselves pulled in opposite directions, eventually becoming more at odds with each other.

    At the community level, when more extreme views grow strong enough and gain enough traction with enough people, it activates new group identities. Where once there was a community of people who disagreed with one another about abortion, there are now two smaller, distinct and separate communities of pro-lifers and pro-choicers.

    What is problematic is that issue-position groups, by definition, create consensus, signaling to their members that they, and not the other group, have got things right.

    Civility toward the other side is no longer required: The other viewpoint, and anyone who holds it, is considered morally wrong. Intolerance, though, can become a moral mandate. Members of issue-position groups often find themselves on a moral crusade against the other side.

    Extreme identities in opposition

    Unfortunately, this type of group-driven consensus is increasingly common.

    One prominent example in the United States is that people are more likely than they were in the past to experience politics as not just about disagreement on various political values and approaches to governance but as opposing groups. Being liberal or conservative is an identity that puts one group in opposition to the other. And only one side can be “right” and “moral.”

    At least in these group-identity-fueled contexts, people can lose sight of the fact that they are all Americans, even going so far as to assert that their smaller group represents the only “true” or “real” Americans.

    The proliferation of issue-position groups is made easier by the ability to quickly find and connect with people who share your views via the internet and social media. Many Americans don’t actively participate in civic life within the larger groups they’re a part of, such as their neighborhood or city, where they would naturally encounter a diversity of opinions. People have less practice sharing their views and making room for those who disagree.

    Online it’s easy to block out others you don’t agree with.
    Olga Pankova/Moment via Getty Images

    In contrast, it’s easy, especially online, to find like-minded communities to join and feel validated. This is made even easier by the algorithms employed by search engines and social media apps that prioritize showing content that reflects and reinforces your beliefs, values, activities and practices and shields you from those who are different – unless presenting them as things to disparage and hate.

    This process can accelerate movement toward extreme issue-position groups and identities. As online algorithms begin taking people down different paths, the likelihood that they will find themselves ultimately with more extreme attitudes becomes more probable and more rapidly accomplished.

    Reengaging with your broader communities

    How can people combat this dangerous trend?

    For one, you can get off social media and back into your communities, welcoming opportunities to interact with the complex diversity they contain. And even when online, you can take intentional steps to “burst” the alogrithms, actively finding ways to connect with people who are not like you and ideas with which you may not agree.

    Most importantly, you can always take a step back from the impulse toward intolerance and humbly remember our shared humanity. Even looking into another’s eyes without words can activate compassion and remind you that we are all ultimately members of the same global community.

    Jen Cole Wright is affiliated with the Charleston Climate Coalition, a 501c3 that advocates for a livable climate in the Lowcountry.

    – ref. Perceived consensus drives moral intolerance in a time of identity-driven politics and online bubbles – https://theconversation.com/perceived-consensus-drives-moral-intolerance-in-a-time-of-identity-driven-politics-and-online-bubbles-242088

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: Getting AIs working toward human goals − study shows how to measure misalignment

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Aidan Kierans, Ph.D. Student in Computer Science and Engineering, University of Connecticut

    Self-driving cars are only one example where it’s tricky but critical to align AI and human goals. AP Photo/Michael Liedtke

    Ideally, artificial intelligence agents aim to help humans, but what does that mean when humans want conflicting things? My colleagues and I have come up with a way to measure the alignment of the goals of a group of humans and AI agents.

    The alignment problem – making sure that AI systems act according to human values – has become more urgent as AI capabilities grow exponentially. But aligning AI to humanity seems impossible in the real world because everyone has their own priorities. For example, a pedestrian might want a self-driving car to slam on the brakes if an accident seems likely, but a passenger in the car might prefer to swerve.

    By looking at examples like this, we developed a score for misalignment based on three key factors: the humans and AI agents involved, their specific goals for different issues, and how important each issue is to them. Our model of misalignment is based on a simple insight: A group of humans and AI agents are most aligned when the group’s goals are most compatible.

    In simulations, we found that misalignment peaks when goals are evenly distributed among agents. This makes sense – if everyone wants something different, conflict is highest. When most agents share the same goal, misalignment drops.

    Why it matters

    Most AI safety research treats alignment as an all-or-nothing property. Our framework shows it’s more complex. The same AI can be aligned with humans in one context but misaligned in another.

    This matters because it helps AI developers be more precise about what they mean by aligned AI. Instead of vague goals, such as align with human values, researchers and developers can talk about specific contexts and roles for AI more clearly. For example, an AI recommender system – those “you might like” product suggestions – that entices someone to make an unnecessary purchase could be aligned with the retailer’s goal of increasing sales but misaligned with the customer’s goal of living within his means.

    Recommender systems use sophisticated AI technologies to influence consumers, making it all the more important that they aren’t out of alignment with human values.

    For policymakers, evaluation frameworks like ours offer a way to measure misalignment in systems that are in use and create standards for alignment. For AI developers and safety teams, it provides a framework to balance competing stakeholder interests.

    For everyone, having a clear understanding of the problem makes people better able to help solve it.

    What other research is happening

    To measure alignment, our research assumes we can compare what humans want with what AI wants. Human value data can be collected through surveys, and the field of social choice offers useful tools to interpret it for AI alignment. Unfortunately, learning the goals of AI agents is much harder.

    Today’s smartest AI systems are large language models, and their black box nature makes it hard to learn the goals of the AI agents such as ChatGPT that they power. Interpretability research might help by revealing the models’ inner “thoughts”, or researchers could design AI that thinks transparently to begin with. But for now, it’s impossible to know whether an AI system is truly aligned.

    What’s next

    For now, we recognize that sometimes goals and preferences don’t fully reflect what humans want. To address trickier scenarios, we are working on approaches for aligning AI to moral philosophy experts.

    Moving forward, we hope that developers will implement practical tools to measure and improve alignment across diverse human populations.

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

    Aidan Kierans has participated as an independent contractor in the OpenAI Red Teaming Network. His research described in this article was supported in part by the NSF Program on Fairness in AI in collaboration with Amazon. Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or Amazon. Kierans has also received research funding from the Future of Life Institute.

    – ref. Getting AIs working toward human goals − study shows how to measure misalignment – https://theconversation.com/getting-ais-working-toward-human-goals-study-shows-how-to-measure-misalignment-251896

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Molecular nanocages remove 80-90% of PFAS, or ‘forever chemicals,’ from water

    Source: US Government research organizations

    The porphyrin-based chemical nanocages remove more PFAS from groundwater than traditional filtering methods while keeping toxicity low

    Researchers funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation have created a molecular nanocage that captures the bulk of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, found in water — and it works better than traditional filtering techniques that use activated carbon. Made of organic nanoporous material designed to capture only PFAS, this tiny chemical-based filtration system removed 80 to 90% of PFAS from sewage and groundwater during the study, respectively, while showing very low adverse environmental effects.

    The study was led by scientists at the University at Buffalo and published in American Chemical Society ES&T Engineering.

    PFAS are chemical compounds sometimes called “forever chemicals” and are commonly used in food packaging, nonstick coatings and other applications. PFAS do not degrade easily and are notoriously difficult to remove from water sources. Studies show exposure to PFAS may cause a range of negative health impacts, including decreased fertility, developmental delays in children and increased risk for some cancers. The safe and effective removal of PFAS from groundwater, sewage and other water sources is a national challenge.

    Molecular nanocages have been previously suggested as candidates for pollutant removal, including for PFAS. Their sturdy structures provide capabilities to capture, remove and chemically deactivate hazardous substances like PFAS and many others. They could also potentially filter out noxious gases from the air, the study authors say.

    Credit: Karla Sanchez Lievanos/Research and Education in Energy, Environment and Water Institute (RENEW), University at Buffalo

    An illustration of porphyrin-based molecular nanocages that are engineered for selectivity, water stability and fast sorption. These nanocages achieve on average 90% removal of 38 PFAS compounds from mixed water solutions. The material shows promise for more efficient, safer and sustainable water remediation.

    The researchers synthesized the nanocages from a group of organic chemicals called porphyrins. Previous studies have shown success with porphyrin nanocages in removing dyes, antibiotics, insecticides and chemicals that disrupt human hormone production from water.

    The researchers then tested their nanocages’ ability to absorb 38 different types of PFAS, including GenX, a type of PFAS commonly used in nonstick cookware and other materials. The results showed the nanocages removed 90% of PFAS from groundwater and 80% from unprocessed or “influent” sewage.

    The organic molecular nanocages also outperformed the PFAS-filtering abilities of activated carbon, particularly in unprocessed sewage. Activated carbon and other purification or filtration methods, such as ion exchange resins and reverse osmosis, tend to interact weakly with PFAS, the researchers note. They are also costly, high-maintenance and energy-intensive in comparison to nanocages.

    “Porphyrin-based nanocages offer a potentially practical solution to the challenges of PFAS removal,” says Samy El-Shall, a program director in the NSF Division of Chemistry. “The material can also be mass-produced at scale, and the cages are modifiable to remove PFAS only while leaving other water contents alone.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Animal Tranquilizers Found in Illegal Opioids May Suppress the Lifesaving Medication Naloxone − and Cause More Overdose Deaths

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    The animal tranquilizers xylazine and medetomidine are in approximately one-third of the illegal opioids available in the U.S., including fentanyl, heroin and oxycodone. Animal tranquilizers enhance the user’s euphoric high from opioids, particularly in those who have developed a tolerance to the opioid. But adding the tranquilizers to these already illicit drugs could keep naloxone, a medication known to prevent deaths from opioid overdose, from working.

    These are the key findings of my recent study, published in March 2025 in the Journal of Pharmacy Technology.

    As a pharmacist and researcher who investigates the physical and psychological effects of illegal drugs and “legal high” substances, I’m well aware of how animal tranquilizers in opioids have critical health implications for users, their families and the first responders who try to help them.

    I conducted this new systematic review to collate information on the prevalence of animal tranquilizer adulteration of illicit opioid products, the mechanisms of action, and how these new products could affect the current recommendations for naloxone use in people who have stopped breathing.

    Why it matters

    Opioids, much of them illicit, kill more than 80,000 Americans every year.

    Quick administration of naloxone – also known as Narcan – by a first responder, loved one or bystander can revive an opioid user who has overdosed. If administered in time, naloxone is effective in over 90% of cases. Typically, a nasal spray is used.

    By blocking the brain’s opioid receptors, naloxone keeps the opioid from suppressing the user’s ability to breathe.

    But animal tranquilizers bypass the opioid receptors; instead, they overstimulate the brain’s alpha-2 receptors, which are responsible for inducing relaxation.

    Naloxone, however, does not significantly affect alpha-2 receptors, so it doesn’t work as well with opioids laced with animal tranquilizers.

    To put it another way, naloxone remains effective against the opioid portion of a combination product, but it’s ineffective against the animal tranquilizer component.

    Even after naloxone was administered to them, 73% of people in one study who used opioids blended with xylazine or medetomidine required mechanical ventilation and 55% were comatose.

    Often, the result is death. One study shows just over 35% of users who overdosed on xylazine, with or without opioids, died.

    Neither emergency personnel nor loved ones can tell whether a user has taken only the opioid or a combination drug, which means they can no longer be sure whether the naloxone will work.

    This is all happening as overdose opioid deaths in the U.S. experienced a slight decline. There were just over 81,0000 deaths in 2023, about a 4% decrease from the previous year.

    Much of that progress is due to the increased accessibility of naloxone since its approval as a nonprescription nasal spray by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March 2023.

    Today, it’s common to see health agencies giving away naloxone for free at community events, workplaces putting naloxone boxes near their automatic external defibrillators, and rescue kits containing naloxone in public places, from universities to highway rest stops.

    What still isn’t known

    Because of the possible presence of xylazine or medetomidine in these drugs, changes might be needed to the standard recommendations to treat opioid emergencies. But this has not been systematically studied.

    Currently, if you can’t rouse a person you suspect has overdosed, the recommendation is to administer the first nasal dose of naloxone before calling 911.

    But now, because of the possibility the opioid contains a tranquilizer, it might be better to call 911 before giving the first dose, as is now recommended in New York state. That way, first responders arrive sooner and can provide mechanical ventilation, if needed.

    Should the person not revive after the first dose, rather than following the current standard recommendation – sitting and waiting two minutes before dispensing the second dose – new research suggests it might be better to do rescue breathing. Regardless of what happens in the interdose period, if the second dose is unsuccessful, New York state now recommends rescue breathing until first responders arrive.

    Originally published in The Conversation.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: “Your Only Limit Is Yourself”: First-Year Student’s Cancer Research Gains International Recognition

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    As a child, Tehreem Fatima ’28 (CLAS) spent hours reconstructing microscopes from secondhand parts and conducting various science experiments at home. 

    As she finishes her first year at UConn, Fatima has channeled that curiosity to research glioblastoma, an aggressive and deadly form of brain cancer originating in the brain’s glial cells. The research, which she conducted with no professional support or academic resources, has been accepted into dozens of academic and professional conferences. 

     “I never imagined that so many conferences would accept my work,” Fatima says. “It’s exciting, but since I’m conducting this research independently, I don’t have the funding to attend all of them.” 

    Fatima’s interest in glioblastoma began after her five-year-old cousin, who lived in Pakistan was diagnosed and later died from the disease in February 2025.  

    “When he was diagnosed, I thought, ‘Okay, he’s in Pakistan—there’s nothing I can do for him,’” Fatima says. “But something valuable I can do is apply my skill set. So, I did a lot of research and asked, ‘Where is there a gap in the research?’” 

    Fatima, a physiology and neurobiology major on a full STEM scholarship, an honors program which provides financial support to promising students, first delved into research during high school through a three-year college program in Albany, New York. 

    Early Drive for Research 

    During her sophomore year of high school, Fatima was selected for a competitive three-year program sponsored by SUNY Albany called Science Research, which required students to secure a mentor and participate in research.  

    Tehreem Fatima at the Yale Undergraduate Research Conference. (Contributed by Tehreem Fatima).

    At just 15 years old, she struggled to find academic researchers willing to take her on. But she persisted and eventually convinced J. Andrew Berglund, distinguished professor of biology and director of SUNY Albany’s RNA Institute, to mentor her. 

    “Even before I had a mentor, I was driven to understand how research worked,” Fatima says. “I wanted to build the skills necessary to contribute meaningfully.” 

    Before joining Berglund’s lab, Fatima had taught herself research fundamentals by conducting literature reviews and enrolling in independent courses on platforms like Udemy. 

    Her initial work at the RNA Institute focused on statistical analysis rather than lab experiments, since her young age prevented her from working in an in-person laboratory. Over time, she took on more responsibilities, and by the end of the three-year program, she was leading a summer course at the institute, teaching bioinformatics to students ranging from high school to graduate levels. 

    Independent Research on Glioblastoma 

    During her first year at UConn, Fatima explored a wide range of interests, taking classes across multiple disciplines, writing poetry, and meeting new people. But she also wanted to build on her research experience and continue to study glioblastoma treatments. 

    She designed a study using open-source data, compiling and analyzing chemotherapy treatment datasets. Her goal was to determine whether, when used together, a combination of two widely used chemotherapies could target additional genetic markers compared to using each drug individually. 

    Her work focused on immune checkpoint genes or molecules that glioblastoma tumors use to evade detection by the immune system. By analyzing patient data, she aimed to identify correlations among gene expression, patient survival, and chemotherapy effectiveness. Her findings suggested potential avenues for improving glioblastoma treatment strategies. 

    “Some labs have already collected similar data, but funding constraints have limited further research,” she says. “I wanted to see if my analysis could stand on its own and be useful to the professional community.” 

    Fatima submitted her findings to multiple academic conferences throughout the U.S. as well as internationally, hoping for at least one acceptance. Instead, her research was accepted into over 25 conferences, including those at Brown University, Harvard University, and Yale University. 

    She plans to attend as many of the symposiums as she can, both in-person and online.  

    Next Steps in Her Research 

    This summer, Fatima will participate in a bioinformatics cybersecurity internship at SUNY Albany, where she hopes to expand on her previous research and refine her analysis of glioblastoma therapies. 

    Fatima says it will provide her with valuable skills and resources to further advance her research, and help her as she works toward earning both medical and law degrees. Her long-term goal is to bridge the gap between medicine and public policy. 

    “I want to make science more accessible,” she says. “A lot of times, science is seen as a prestigious field that’s difficult to enter.” 

    Fatima hopes her research will contribute to the fight against glioblastoma and offer hope to families affected by the disease.  

    “Your only limit is yourself,” she says. “I constantly remind myself that if I want to accomplish something, the only thing stopping me is me.” 

    MIL OSI USA News –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: What We Talk About When We Talk About AI

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    Depending on who is asked, artificial intelligence (AI) may be revered, feared, or just plain weird. To some, AI represents the dawn of a new golden age of technology and humanity. And others would argue that so-called AI is not really that “intelligent” at all. 

    In order to have these disagreements productively, argues UConn Humanities Institute Director Anna Mae Duane, we first have to clear something up: are we even talking about the same thing? 

    “There’s an issue of disciplinary language — when we’re talking about AI, even when we’re using the same words in the same language, we don’t mean the same thing at all,” says Duane. “What a philosopher means by ‘intelligence’ and what a computer programmer means by ‘intelligence,’ or ‘learning’ or ‘training’ or ‘language,’ are all very different things.” 

    Duane has had a career-long penchant for collaborating with other scholars, across disciplines and continents. Under her leadership, the UCHI’s latest venture is “Reading Between the Lines: An Interdisciplinary Glossary for Human-Centered AI,” a partnership with the International University at Rabat (UIR) in Morocco. 

    This partnership is supported by a $25,000 grant from the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI).  

    It will include a series of podcasts with interdisciplinary experts weighing in on these critical AI conversations, culminating in a cross-campus, in-person symposium in fall 2025.  

    ‘L’ is for Large Language Model

    What we refer to as “AI” is usually a large language model, which works just how it sounds – by absorbing vast amounts of linguistic data and learning to synthesize outputs based on this data. Examples of LLMs include ChatGPT and the built-in AI features on many apps. 

    But exactly what language are these models being trained on? Predominantly English, notes Duane.  

    This can result in issues when AI is used for non-English contexts. For example, Duane recalls a colleague at UIR who is developing an application to help seniors in need of arthritis care. 

    “What became clear was that just because the AI she was using was trained on English, there were all sorts of mistranslations and misunderstandings,” Duane says. 

    In addition to mistranslations on a literal level, AI can also introduce cultural errors. Culturally informed care is critical to increasing access to healthcare for everyone; an LLM that is trained on mainstream American ideologies will be less useful in every other cultural context. 

    This is just one unforeseen consequence of modeling LLMs on a diet of data dominated by one small corner of the world. Others are likely to emerge as AI is integrated into more industries and technologies.  

    But by establishing a strong scholarly basis for understanding these consequences, Duane thinks we can also help mitigate them. 

    “We’re not helpless in how this turns out, including how we speak about it now,” she says. “We don’t have to do this sort of passive, ‘Well, it’s off and running…’ thing.” 

    Collaborating with an international university, where the primary languages spoken are French and Arabic, is an important step in building this understanding. 

    “This project is a bold step toward reimagining AI in ways that respect and reflect linguistic and cultural diversity,” says Dr. Ihsane Hmamouchi, Vice-Dean at the International Faculty of Medicine at UIR. “What excites me most is our commitment to embedding patient stories and social realities into AI models. By doing so, we’re not only challenging the structural biases of conventional systems but also paving the way for more equitable, human-centered digital healthcare solutions. It’s about developing technology that listens as much as it computes.” 

    Taking the Conversation Global

    “One reason this became possible is because we’ve been putting together an interdisciplinary AI working group here, building that conversation,” says Duane. “We have computer scientists and philosophers and historians and journalists, and we meet once a month via the Institute.” 

    This working group was first supported by a UConn CLAS Multidisciplinary Research Grant. With the interdisciplinary groundwork already laid, the research team was able to then expand the conversation, growing what had previously been an “informal collaboration” with AI scholars at UIR. 

    It’s a testament to the creative and scholarly potential that is unlocked when academics can freely share and build on one another’s expertise. 

    “Here at UConn, we have this great synergy between people in several disciplines, and the capacity to really learn from each other’s work, in ways that produce better research and better conversations than staying in our silos,” Duane says. “We can’t [stay in our silos], on something like AI. It’s going to change everything about how we work and live.” 

    In addition to Duane and Hmamouchi, the project’s collaborators include Clarissa J. Ceglio, UCHI Associate Director of Collaborative Research and Associate Professor of Digital Humanities; Nasya Al-Saidy, UCHI Managing Director; Dan Weiner, Vice Provost of UConn Global Affairs; and Allison Cassaly, Global Initiatives Coordinator, UConn Global Affairs. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI: Flywire to Announce First Quarter 2025 Results on May 6, 2025

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    BOSTON, April 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —  Today, Flywire Corporation (Flywire) (Nasdaq: FLYW), a global payments enablement and software company, announced that its first quarter financial results will be released after market close on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. Flywire will host a conference call to discuss its first quarter financial results at 5:00pm ET the same day. Hosting the call will be Mike Massaro, CEO, Rob Orgel, President and COO, and Cosmin Pitigoi, CFO.

    The conference call will be webcast live from Flywire’s investor relations website at https://ir.flywire.com/. A replay will be available on the investor relations website following the call.

    About Flywire
    Flywire is a global payments enablement and software company. We combine our proprietary global payments network, next-gen payments platform and vertical-specific software to deliver the most important and complex payments for our clients and their customers.

    Flywire leverages its vertical-specific software and payments technology to deeply embed within the existing A/R workflows for its clients across the education, healthcare and travel vertical markets, as well as in key B2B industries. Flywire also integrates with leading ERP systems, such as NetSuite, so organizations can optimize the payment experience for their customers while eliminating operational challenges.

    Flywire supports more than 4,500 clients with diverse payment methods in more than 140 currencies across more than 240 countries and territories around the world. The company is headquartered in Boston, MA, USA with global offices. For more information, visit www.flywire.com. Follow Flywire on X , LinkedIn and Facebook.

    Contacts
    Investor Relations:
    Masha Kahn
    ir@Flywire.com 

    Media
    Sarah King
    media@flywire.com

    The MIL Network –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI: TopBuilder Announces Integration With BuildingConnected

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    HOUSTON, April 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — TopBuilder, a leading business development platform and CRM software for contractors in commercial construction, is excited to announce a new integration with BuildingConnected®, a pre-construction solution that is part of Autodesk Construction CloudÒ, a portfolio of software and services that combines advanced technology, a builders network and predictive insights for construction teams.

    TopBuilder CRM provides a centralized workspace for teams to manage sales pipelines, respond to opportunities with professional quoting and automated workflows, and gain visibility into every stage of construction business development and project management.

    The strategic integration allows contractors to manage bid invitations more effectively, saving time and improving bid success rates, directly impacting construction businesses’ project acquisition and revenue.

    Subcontractors can now import bid invitations, including any updates made throughout the bidding process, from BuildingConnected’s Bid Board tool into TopBuilder. Within TopBuilder, construction teams can then filter and score those bids to identify and prioritize high-value projects based on factors such as job type, general contractor, and market segment. These capabilities help contractors focus on more profitable projects, increasing the likelihood of winning bids and increasing revenue and margins. Finally, intent to bid statuses are sent back to Bid Board.

    Additional integrations with Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar further reduce the risk of missed deadlines and help teams stay on track with automated task reminders and follow-ups. The combination of BuildingConnected with TopBuilder’s ContractorBI™ gives users full visibility into bid performance so they can identify trends and make informed decisions to optimize bid strategies. Increased insight into these processes helps contractors and construction businesses more accurately forecast revenue and improve profitability over time.

    “Our integration with BuildingConnected delivers substantial value to construction teams, enabling them to organize and manage bids more efficiently,” said TopBuilder CEO Dave Knowles. “By connecting TopBuilder’s platform with BuildingConnected, contractors can eliminate data silos, improve collaboration and reduce time spent on manual tasks to increase bid accuracy, and ultimately win more projects.”

    “By focusing attention on projects that best fit their firms, preconstruction teams can better optimize their chances to win the work,” said James Cook, director of industry & technology partnerships at Autodesk. “Integrating bids from BuildingConnected with TopBuilder equips construction teams with the crucial information needed to best allocate resources throughout the bidding process.”

    For more information about how this integration can increase your bid efficiency and profitability, visit TopBuilder on the Autodesk App Store or at www.topbuildersolutions.com.

    About TopBuilder
    TopBuilder is a complete business development platform designed for contractors in commercial construction. It empowers construction teams to streamline their sales processes, accelerate bid generation, and improve revenue forecasting. Through the power of ContractorBI™, users gain actionable insights into bid opportunities, performance, and market trends, allowing for smarter, data-driven decision-making that drives profitability. Learn more at www.topbuildersolutions.com.

    Autodesk, Autodesk Construction Cloud, and BuildingConnected are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

    Media Contact:

    Dave Knowles, Founder & CEO
    davek@topbuildersolutions.com

    The MIL Network –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Video: Two magazines, 20 seconds, all skill.

    Source: US Army (video statements)

    The Army Mission – our purpose – remains constant: To deploy, fight and win our nation’s wars by providing ready, prompt & sustained land dominance by Army forces across the full spectrum of conflict as part of the joint force.

    Interested in joining the U.S. Army?
    Visit: spr.ly/6001igl5L

    Connect with the U.S. Army online:
    Web: https://www.army.mil
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/USarmy/
    X: https://www.twitter.com/USArmy
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/usarmy/
    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/us-army
    #USArmy #Soldiers #Military #Shorts

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgrrCoLiRI8

    MIL OSI Video –

    April 15, 2025

  • MIL-OSI: Cielo Provides Update on Corporate Matters

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    CALGARY, Alberta, April 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Cielo Waste Solutions Corp. (TSXV: CMC; OTC PINK: CWSFF) (“Cielo” or the “Company”) today provides an update on certain business and corporate matters.

    Corporate Update Webinar

    Cielo is pleased to announce that the corporate update webinar (the “Webinar”) with CEO Ryan C. Jackson and CFO Jasdeep K. B. Dhaliwal, as previously announced on April 1, 2025, and re-scheduled on April 9, 2025, will now take place on April 17, 2025. The Webinar will provide Cielo’s shareholders and stakeholders with updates on the Company’s strategic initiatives and future outlook.

    Webinar Details

    Date: Thursday, April 17, 2025
    Time: 2:00PM Mountain Standard Time
    Registration Link: Cielo Webinar (Posted on the Cielo Website under News and Media)

    Duration: 1 Hour

    A recording of the Webinar will be made available on Cielo’s website following the event.

    Corporate Strategy

    As previously announced on April 1, 2025, Cielo intends to relocate its first planned commercial waste-to-fuel facility for the processing of scrap railway ties from Carseland, Alberta to British Columbia, and transition fuel to be produced from renewable diesel to green hydrogen. This strategic pivot allows Cielo to explore funding opportunities through the British Columbia Low Carbon Fuel Standard (BCLCFS) credit program as well as revises the Company’s approach as the demand for renewable fuels changes to better meet market demand.

    Cielo continues to be engaged in advanced discussions with a technology provider on a project in British Columbia that will utilize scrap railway ties as feedstock to produce green hydrogen for use in the British Columbia market and is pleased to announce that it has also identified two proposed additional projects for development in the United States.

    Cielo is excited to continue executing its broader strategy of providing solutions that address processing waste into useful products, including in green hydrogen, renewable natural gas and other low-carbon initiatives. Cielo continues to explore other projects and funding partners to drive its commitment to innovation and environmental sustainability and achieve success in the short-term and sustainable profitable growth in the long-term. Further updates will be provided in the Webinar.

    Dispute Resolution

    As previously announced on April 1, 2025, as a result of recent disagreements between Cielo and Expander Energy Inc. (“Expander”) on various matters, the Company notified Expander of the Company’s intentions to initiate a dispute resolution process in accordance with a licence agreement (“License Agreement”) between the Company and Expander. Cielo had previously received notices of breach from Expander with regard to the License Agreement as well as an asset purchase agreement and a management services agreement (“Management Services Agreement”), each between the Company and Expander, which notices had, among other things, announced Expander’s intentions to terminate the License Agreement.

    On April 11, 2025, Cielo received termination notices (“Termination Notices”) from Expander terminating both the License Agreement and the Management Services Agreement, effective immediately. Concurrently, Cielo also received statements of claim (“Statements of Claim”) from Expander in connection with the License Agreement, the Management Services Agreement and a supply and services agreement between the Company and Expander. Cielo is in the process of reviewing the contents of the Termination Notices and the Statements of Claim and is working diligently with legal and other professional advisors with respect to same to ensure the interests of shareholders are protected.

    Cielo will continue to provide material updates as they become available. As previously announced on April 9, 2025, Cielo has retained Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP as legal advisor.

    ABOUT CIELO

    Cielo Waste Solutions Corp. is a publicly traded company focused on transforming waste materials into high-value renewable fuels. Cielo seeks to address global waste challenges while contributing to the circular economy and reducing carbon emissions. Cielo is fueling renewable change with a mission to be a leader in the wood by-product-to-fuels industry by using environmentally friendly, economically sustainable and market-ready technologies. Cielo is committed to helping society ‘change the fuel, not the vehicle’, which the Company believes will contribute to generating positive returns for shareholders. Cielo shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol “CMC,” as well as on the OTC Pink Market under the symbol “CWSFF.”

    For further information please contact:

    Cielo Investor Relations

    Ryan C. Jackson, CEO
    Phone: (403) 348-2972
    Email: investors@cielows.com

    CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

    This news release contains certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively referred to herein as “forward-looking statements”) within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. All statements other than statements of present or historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as “anticipate”, “achieve”, “could”, “believe”, “plan”, “intend”, “objective”, “continuous”, “ongoing”, “estimate”, “outlook”, “expect”, “may”, “will”, “project”, “should” or similar words, including negatives thereof, suggesting future outcomes.

    Forward-looking statements are subject to both known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of Cielo, that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements and information are based on plans, expectations and estimates of management at the date the information is provided and are subject to certain factors and assumptions. Cielo is making forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, with respect to: the Webinar and the date thereof; the change of location of the first planned commercial facility and the focus on green hydrogen; the exploration and use of financial incentives in British Columbia; the Company’s strategic focus; the Company’s intention to continue to explore alternative partnerships and funding opportunities; the dispute resolution process with Expander, including the Company’s review of the Termination Notices and Statements of Claim, Cielo’s intentions with respect thereto and that the Company will provide further updates as they become available.

    Investors should continue to review and consider information disseminated through news releases and filed by Cielo on SEDAR+. Although Cielo has attempted to identify crucial factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended.

    Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, some of which are described herein. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause Cielo’s actual performance and results to differ materially from any projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required by law, Cielo assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise such statements to reflect new information, subsequent or otherwise.

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

    The MIL Network –

    April 14, 2025

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Sudan: Two years into the conflict, the world’s largest humanitarian crisis now threatens regional stability

    Source: Oxfam –

    Upcoming rains and aid cuts could further hamper humanitarian efforts and push millions of people to famine  

    As Sudan’s conflict enters its third year, massive displacement and fighting are spilling over into neighbouring countries, worsening the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis.  The looming rainy season, combined with aid cuts by the US and other key donors, will severely hamper humanitarian efforts putting millions of lives at risk, a new Oxfam report warned today. 

    Sudan’s brutal conflict has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. More than 12.7 million people —nearly one-third of the population— have been forced to flee their homes, including 3.7 million to neighbouring countries. One in two Sudanese is hungry. Five areas in the country are already experiencing famine, and nearly eight million more people are at risk of starvation. 

    The upcoming rains could turn roads to mud, and trigger the collapse of vital bridges, cutting off entire areas and communities from essential aid and services. This period coincides with the annual lean season, when food insecurity already peaks.  

    The Oxfam report –The Unravelling of the World’s Largest Humanitarian Disaster: From the Sahel to the Red Sea – published jointly with humanitarian organisations responding to the Sudan crisis, highlights the staggering human cost of the Sudan conflict. It warns that the crisis is now spilling over neighbouring South Sudan and Chad, where humanitarian needs are already dire.  

    Fati N’Zi-Hassane, Oxfam in Africa Director, said: 

    “We are already witnessing clashes between armed groups from South Sudan and Sudan. This volatile situation is simmering like a volcano ready to erupt any minute. Unless the fighting stops and the humanitarian crisis is addressed, the situation could quickly turn into a full-blown regional catastrophe.”  

    Two of the host countries, South Sudan and Chad, are already among the world’s poorest countries. They grapple with ongoing conflict, food insecurity, and climate shocks, leaving them ill-equipped to manage the crisis.  

    “We are already witnessing clashes between armed groups from South Sudan and Sudan. This volatile situation is simmering like a volcano ready to erupt any minute. Unless the fighting stops and the humanitarian crisis is addressed, the situation could quickly turn into a full-blown regional catastrophe.”  

    Fati N’Zi-Hassane, Oxfam in Africa Director

    Oxfam International

    In South Sudan, the arrival of people fleeing Sudan’s conflict has put more pressure on already scarce resources, which is deepening local tensions and threatening the fragile peace South Sudan has struggled to maintain.  

    Nadia, a mother of five-year-old son Ismail who fled and is now sheltering in Renk, South Sudan, after soldiers killed her husband and two children says: “The war took everything. We left with nothing but the clothes on our backs. Here, we are safe from bullets, but there is no food, we are dying of hunger.” 

    The report also found that 17 million children in Sudan are out of school, while 65 percent of refugee children in Chad lack access to education — heightening risks of child labour, marriage, trafficking, and recruitment by armed groups. 

    For the first time in the history of modern humanitarian response, a single country –Sudan – reaches over 30 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. Yet, despite the rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis, international support is falling severely short. Only 10 percent of this year’s UN appeal for Sudan has been met to date. 

    The recent suspension of approximately $64 million USAID funding for Chad and South Sudan in 2025 has also dealt a severe blow to lifesaving efforts. In 2024, the U.S. was the largest donor to both countries.  

    “Turning a blind eye to this crisis would not only be a profound political and moral failure, but a failure of our core humanity. Without immediate injection of funds, millions of people will simply die of starvation or disease,” added N’Zi-Hassane. 

    The report urges all warring parties to halt fighting and prioritize diplomacy, in order to forge an immediate and lasting ceasefire.  

    MIL OSI NGO –

    April 14, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: Public protesters are our socially connected friends and neighbours, not angry loners

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Shelley Boulianne, Professor in Communication Studies, Mount Royal University

    For some people, protests don’t seem like rational and responsible forms of political participation in a democratic system. According to the latest World Values Survey (2017-2022), 28.6 per cent of Canadians and 27.7 per cent of Americans said they’d would never, under any circumstances, attend a peaceful demonstration.

    Yet citizens often lack opportunities to influence government decisions outside of voting during elections, leaving them feeling powerless about the direction of their elected government.

    From this perspective, it’s easy to understand why millions may attend protests against Donald Trump’s tariffs, his annexation threats and other policy decisions.

    Some argue that citizens should email, call or write letters to political leaders, but these individualistic activities are easily ignored because they occur behind closed doors. The visibility of protests, combined with a large turnout, helps raise awareness of issues among other citizens and political leaders.

    Protests serve a critical function in a democratic system — they offer a collective and visible method for citizens to express their political views. These events can attract millions of people — many more than the number of respondents to public opinion polls or attendees at government public consultation events.

    Perceptions of effectiveness

    When deciding whether to participate in a march or demonstration, anger, grievances and discontent are important, but these sentiments alone are insufficient to motivate people to act.

    Instead, citizens must interpret their experiences as unjust or unfair to feel compelled to participate in a protest. Likewise, people must believe that the protest will be effective in influencing political leaders.

    In 2019, I conducted an online survey in four countries — the U.S., Canada, the U.K and France — asking respondents to rate the effectiveness of street marches and demonstrations in influencing political leaders.

    Across the four countries, the averages were similar, based on the five-point scale ranging from “not at all” to “a great deal.” And those who believed that protests were effective were far more likely to report having participated in a march or demonstration in the past 12 months compared to those who did not view protests as effective.

    Who protests and why?

    The decision to take part in a protest involves weighing a variety of factors that may encourage or discourage participation, as well as views about the effectiveness of public protests.

    People will often join if they’re asked to, and whether they’re asked to depends on their ties to others who are also interested in attending, or if they’re a member of an organization that encourages its members to attend.

    This social network effect is as important, if not more important, than simply being angry or frustrated.

    People who identify as left-wing are more likely to participate in marches and demonstrations. Historically, this has been true in the United States, but in contemporary research, individuals on both the right and the left sides of the political continuum participate in protest.

    Furthermore, these ideological differences vary by country and time period. Whether a protest attracts those from the right versus the left depends on the issue. Liberals tend to protest against racism, for example, while conservatives protested COVID-19 restrictions.

    Paying attention

    Rather than focusing on left vs. right, research should pay attention to political interest. Are people paying attention to current events or what’s going on in government? Political interest precedes the development of ideological views.

    Furthermore, people can only form their views about the effectiveness of protest once they start paying attention to politics.

    The recent global Hands Off protests attracted citizens who are dissatisfied with Trump’s newly imposed tariffs and other recent government decisions, such as firing thousands of federal civil servants, dismantling of the Department of Education, changes to immigration enforcement and Social Security administration and the termination of health and science funding, especially those with a diversity, equity and inclusion focus.

    These demonstrations were part of a cycle of protests, similar to those observed in 2017 after Trump’s first election.

    To truly understand who participates and who does not in public protests, we need to consider social connections, views about the effectiveness of protest and people’s interest in politics.

    Shelley Boulianne received funding for the administration of the survey from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

    – ref. Public protesters are our socially connected friends and neighbours, not angry loners – https://theconversation.com/public-protesters-are-our-socially-connected-friends-and-neighbours-not-angry-loners-254044

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    April 14, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Attorney General Alan Wilson announces SC Human Trafficking Task Force releases new national hotline posters to commemorate 10th anniversary of state lawRead More

    Source: US State of South Carolina

    (COLUMBIA, S.C.) – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, Chair of the South Carolina Human Trafficking Task Force, announced the release of two new legislatively mandated posters for use across the state. The first version of the poster was released 10 years ago when the General Assembly passed a law requiring hotline posters in certain business establishments.

    South Carolina law (Code 16-3-2100) requires the national human trafficking hotline poster, including the specific language included, to be hung in the following locations:

    • Establishments that have been declared a nuisance for prostitution pursuant to law;
    • An adult business, including a nightclub, bar, restaurant, or another similar establishment in which a person appears in a state of sexually explicit nudity or semi-nudity, as defined by law;
    • Businesses and establishments that offer massage or bodywork services by any person who is not licensed under appropriate laws;
    • Emergency rooms within any hospital;
    • Urgent care centers;
    • Any hotel, motel, room, or accommodation furnished to transients for which fees are charged in this state;
    • All agricultural labor contractors and agricultural labor transporters as defined by law;
    • All airports, train stations, bus stations, rest areas, and truck stops.

    The information must be posted in each public restroom for the business or establishment, and in a prominent location conspicuous to the public at the entrance of the establishment. The Department of Revenue, the State Law Enforcement Division, and the Department of Transportation, depending on regulatory control or authority, are authorized to issue a written warning and assess a fine of not more than fifty dollars. Each day that the poster is not hung in the establishment constitutes a separate and distinct violation, and the establishment may be fined appropriately.

    The new designs were developed in conjunction with the State Task Force Survivor Advisory Subcommittee. The posters can be downloaded on the State Task Force website at humantrafficking.scag.gov. The 11 Regional Human Trafficking Task Forces across the state will also be provided with 1,000 copies to help distribute posters.

    To report an incident or seek victim services, call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888. The Hotline is confidential and open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    April 14, 2025

  • MIL-OSI: Enlight Raises a Total of $1.5 Billion in Project Finance Following its Third U.S. Financial Close Within Four Months

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    The financial close for Quail Ranch includes $243 million of construction loans; COD is expected towards the end of 2025

    Enlight’s three U.S. projects now under construction have a combined capacity of 1.4 FGW and are projected to generate total annual revenues of $135-140 million

    TEL AVIV, Israel, April 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Enlight Renewable Energy Ltd. (“Enlight”, “the Company”, NASDAQ: ENLT, TASE: ENLT.TA), a leading global renewable energy platform, announces the financial close for project Quail Ranch (“Quail Ranch” or “the Project”), located near Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. The Company, through its U.S. subsidiary Clenera Holdings LLC, has secured $243 million in construction financing commitments for the Project.

    Combining 128 MW solar generation with 400 MWh of battery storage capacity, Quail Ranch is scheduled for completion towards the end of 2025. Offtake for both generation and storage volumes is secured by a 20-year busbar PPA with the Public Service Company of New Mexico (“PNM”).

    The Project is an expansion of Atrisco, which commenced commercial operation in 2024. The shared infrastructure between the two sites accelerated Quail Ranch’s development and will reduce construction and operating costs. Both projects are situated on a desert plateau at an elevation of 1,800 meters, offering optimal solar generation conditions.

    Quail Ranch’s financial close joins those of Roadrunner and Country Acres, two other projects now under construction in the U.S., which have achieved a total of $1.5 billion in financing over the past four months with the same consortium of lenders. The three projects have a combined capacity of 1.4 FGW and are expected to generate annual revenues of $135-140 million and EBITDA of $100-110 million when commencing operations in 2025-2026.

    The financial close was led by a consortium of four global banks, including BNP Paribas Securities Corp, Crédit Agricole, Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking, and Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale (Nord/LB). Upon the Project’s COD, the construction loan is expected to convert into a $120 million term loan. The Project is expected to be eligible for the Energy Community Tax Credit Bonus, and the Company anticipates finalizing a tax equity transaction during 2025.

    Gilad Yavetz, CEO of Enlight, said, “We are proud to have achieved the exceptional milestone of three significant financial closings within such a short timeframe, completing the funding for the second wave of Enlight’s U.S. projects. When operational, they will join Atrisco and Apex to generate combined annual revenues of approximately $200 million in the U.S. Quail Ranch completed its financial close after the administration announced its new tariff policy, demonstrating the project’s strength and the Company’s preparedness for this scenario.

    “Additionally, Enlight is focused on advancing the development of two additional megaprojects in the western U.S. with a combined capacity of 2.6 FGW, and which are located in areas with some of the highest solar irradiation in the country. The new projects are part of the Company’s third wave in the U.S., and construction is expected to begin in the coming months.”

    “I am very proud to partner with world-leading banks and complete a third major funding package this year,” said Adam Pishl, CEO and President of Clenera. “We continue to demonstrate our ability to bring high-quality projects banks remain excited about, despite market turbulence. Quail Ranch builds on our incredible success in New Mexico and will help meet the high demand for power to fuel American businesses and homes.”

    About Enlight Renewable Energy

    Founded in 2008, Enlight develops, finances, constructs, owns, and operates utility-scale renewable energy projects. Enlight operates across the three largest renewable segments today: solar, wind and energy storage. A global platform, Enlight operates in the United States, Israel and 10 European countries. Enlight has been traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange since 2010 (TASE: ENLT) and completed its U.S. IPO (Nasdaq: ENLT) in 2023. Learn more at www.enlightenergy.co.il.

    Investor Contact

    Yonah Weisz
    Director IR
    investors@enlightenergy.co.il

    Erica Mannion or Mike Funari
    Sapphire Investor Relations, LLC
    +1 617 542 6180
    investors@enlightenergy.co.il

    Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

    This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We intend such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements as contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical fact, including, without limitation, statements regarding the Company’s expectations relating to the Project, the PPA and the related interconnection agreement and lease option, and the completion timeline for the Project, are forward-looking statements. The words “may,” “might,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “target,” “seek,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue,” “contemplate,” “possible,” “forecasts,” “aims” or the negative of these terms and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, though not all forward-looking statements use these words or expressions. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the following: our ability to site suitable land for, and otherwise source, renewable energy projects and to successfully develop and convert them into Operational Projects; availability of, and access to, interconnection facilities and transmission systems; our ability to obtain and maintain governmental and other regulatory approvals and permits, including environmental approvals and permits; construction delays, operational delays and supply chain disruptions leading to increased cost of materials required for the construction of our projects, as well as cost overruns and delays related to disputes with contractors; our suppliers’ ability and willingness to perform both existing and future obligations; competition from traditional and renewable energy companies in developing renewable energy projects; potential slowed demand for renewable energy projects and our ability to enter into new offtake contracts on acceptable terms and prices as current offtake contracts expire; offtakers’ ability to terminate contracts or seek other remedies resulting from failure of our projects to meet development, operational or performance benchmarks; various technical and operational challenges leading to unplanned outages, reduced output, interconnection or termination issues; the dependence of our production and revenue on suitable meteorological and environmental conditions, and our ability to accurately predict such conditions; our ability to enforce warranties provided by our counterparties in the event that our projects do not perform as expected; government curtailment, energy price caps and other government actions that restrict or reduce the profitability of renewable energy production; electricity price volatility, unusual weather conditions (including the effects of climate change, could adversely affect wind and solar conditions), catastrophic weather-related or other damage to facilities, unscheduled generation outages, maintenance or repairs, unanticipated changes to availability due to higher demand, shortages, transportation problems or other developments, environmental incidents, or electric transmission system constraints and the possibility that we may not have adequate insurance to cover losses as a result of such hazards; our dependence on certain operational projects for a substantial portion of our cash flows; our ability to continue to grow our portfolio of projects through successful acquisitions; changes and advances in technology that impair or eliminate the competitive advantage of our projects or upsets the expectations underlying investments in our technologies; our ability to effectively anticipate and manage cost inflation, interest rate risk, currency exchange fluctuations and other macroeconomic conditions that impact our business; our ability to retain and attract key personnel; our ability to manage legal and regulatory compliance and litigation risk across our global corporate structure; our ability to protect our business from, and manage the impact of, cyber-attacks, disruptions and security incidents, as well as acts of terrorism or war; changes to existing renewable energy industry policies and regulations that present technical, regulatory and economic barriers to renewable energy projects; the reduction, elimination or expiration of government incentives for, or regulations mandating the use of, renewable energy; our ability to effectively manage our supply chain and comply with applicable regulations with respect to international trade relations, the impact of tariffs on the cost of construction and our ability to mitigate such impact, , sanctions, export controls and anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws; our ability to effectively comply with Environmental Health and Safety and other laws and regulations and receive and maintain all necessary licenses, permits and authorizations; our performance of various obligations under the terms of our indebtedness (and the indebtedness of our subsidiaries that we guarantee) and our ability to continue to secure project financing on attractive terms for our projects; limitations on our management rights and operational flexibility due to our use of tax equity arrangements; potential claims and disagreements with partners, investors and other counterparties that could reduce our right to cash flows generated by our projects; our ability to comply with tax laws of various jurisdictions in which we currently operate as well as the tax laws in jurisdictions in which we intend to operate in the future; the unknown effect of the dual listing of our ordinary shares on the price of our ordinary shares; various risks related to our incorporation and location in Israel; the costs and requirements of being a public company, including the diversion of management’s attention with respect to such requirements; certain provisions in our Articles of Association and certain applicable regulations that may delay or prevent a change of control; and other risk factors set forth in the section titled “Risk factors” in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and our other documents filed with or furnished to the SEC.

    These statements reflect management’s current expectations regarding future events and speak only as of the date of this press release. You should not put undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that future results, levels of activity, performance and events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or will occur. Except as may be required by applicable law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date on which the statements are made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

    The MIL Network –

    April 14, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Even small lakes can tell big earthquake stories in the Yellowstone region

    Source: US Geological Survey

    Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week’s contribution is from USGS Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow Sylvia Nicovich of the Geologic Hazards Science Center.

    This house fell into Hebgen Lake during the 1959 earthquake and floated along the shore until it came to rest here. The owner of the house, then-70-year-old Mrs. Grace Miller, escaped only after kicking out her front door and leaping a 5-foot-wide ground crack as her house dropped into the lake.
    Epicenters of 6,188 earthquakes in the Hebgen Lake region since 1990 determined by the University of Utah Seismograph Stations and the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology. All epicenters have horizontal uncertainties of 1.0 km or less. Black contour lines show subsidence (in 2-foot intervals) resulting from the 1959 M7.3 Hebgen Lake earthquake (epicenter shown by red star). Magenta line segments show faults that ruptured during the 1959 earthquake and green line segments are Late Quaternary faults from the USGS Quaternary Fault and Fold Database.

    In the summer of 1959, the west Yellowstone region experienced one of the largest Rocky Mountain earthquakes in instrumented history. The M7.3 Hebgen Lake earthquake caused severe damage and killed 28 people, most notably due to a landslide into a campground in Madison Canyon downstream from Hebgen dam. Here, roughly 30 million cubic meters (imagine 30 million washing machines!) of material from the north-facing slope of Madison Canyon came crashing down in the night, burying the campground and damming the Madison River to form Earthquake Lake. 

    We have learned a lot from destructive historic earthquakes like that at Hebgen Lake. The evidence it left on the landscape, such as fault scarps (steep breaks in slope where vertical displacement occurred along the fault), are especially important for understanding prehistoric earthquakes. The study of such earthquakes, called paleoseismology, can help to better characterize earthquake-producing faults by providing information about the recurrence and magnitudes of past earthquakes. 

    Lakes are becoming increasingly popular in paleoseismic studies. Their regular sedimentation patterns can refine earthquake-timing estimates and can potentially capture earthquakes that may not have ruptured the ground surface but still produced substantial ground shaking. This subdiscipline is called lacustrine paleoseismology and has been typically practiced in deep, steep, glacially influenced lake systems, like those along the Teton Range to the south. Because the impacts of the Hebgen Lake earthquake have been documented, a thorough understanding of how this earthquake affected nearby lake basins could teach us to interpret hidden earthquake records in different types of lakes—especially in shallow lakes with gentle slopes, like Henrys Lake just west of West Yellowstone in Idaho.

    In the late winter of 2023, our team from the US Geological Survey Geologic Hazards Science Center set out to Henrys Lake with the hypothesis that this shallow lake basin contains evidence of the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake. Because Henrys Lake is only about 25 kilometers (about 15 miles) from the earthquake epicenter and therefore experienced strong to very strong shaking, it is fair to assume that lake sediment may have been disturbed. To test this hypothesis, we extracted seven sediment cores, each about 2 meters (a little over 6 feet) long, along an east-west transect across Henrys Lake during winter 2023. A benefit of working on lakes in the winter is that standing on solid (icy) ground can offer a steadier working environment than trying to collect sediment cores from a boat. Just like ice fishing, we used an ice auger to make a hole through the frozen lake surface and plunged the coring device into the water and then into the lake floor, keeping it leashed on a rope to pull it back up once the sediment was collected.

    USGS scientists work to recover sediment cores from Henrys Lake, Idaho. (Left): geologists traverse frozen Henrys Lake with coring supplies. USGS photo by Sylvia Nicovich, March 30, 2023.  (Right) Geologists lower the corer into the lake through a hole augured through the ice. USGS photo by Chris DuRoss, March 31, 2023.

    The cores were examined at the USGS Pacific Coastal Marine Science Center core lab, which is specially equipped for imaging and sampling sediment cores. A common signature of earthquake disturbance within sediment cores results from sediment failure of the lake margin, transport downslope, and deposition in central areas of the lake basin. Cores from multiple locations in Henrys Lake contained a thin (~5 cm, or 2 in), distinct, gray sandy layer in their upper portion that appeared to be a record of a recent earthquake. 

    Transect of sediment cores from Henrys Lake, Idaho. (a) High‐resolution photoscans and computed tomography (CT) of each core correspond to the location tie line. White line on CT represents gamma ray attenuation bulk density (g/cc). Mapped facies are right of each correspondent core. Shades of gray represent background sedimentation and the event deposit by orange. Numbers 1–4 represent background sediment subfacies. HP: herbaceous peat, FL: fluviolacustrine facies, E: event deposit. Yellow rectangles represent sediment sample locations for radiocarbon dating (R1‐3). (b) Bathymetric map of Henrys Lake from data collected by the Idaho National Lab ca. 1990 with a contour interval (CI) of 0.6 m. Thick contour line shows the estimated shoreline prior to dam construction. Black triangles point to primary inlets; DC‐ Duck Creek and TC‐ Targhee Creek.  Figure from Nicovich et al., 2014 (https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024GL110889).
    President Kennedy signs the nuclear test ban treaty for the United States in 1963. Photo from National Archives, Still Pictures Division, Department of State Collection 59-0, box 23 (https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB94/tb02.htm).

    The challenge was then to test if this layer matched the timing of the 1959 earthquake. This was done by measuring the concentration of the chemical component Cesium-137 (137Cs) with depth. 137Cs was produced during atmospheric nuclear testing in the mid-20th century, so the concentration in sediment can be matched with the known frequency of nuclear testing through time to establish the age of the sediment layer. For example, above ground nuclear testing increased around 1954, and the concentration of 137Cs in sediments starts to grow from undetectable levels to detectable that year. Conversely, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed in 1963, so sediment of this age has peak 137Cs concentration that drastically drops immediately thereafter (which is toward the top of the core in the most recently deposited sediment). These defined concentration levels should essentially bound the 1959 earthquake deposit in the sedimentary record!

    So, what about that outstanding layer of sand hypothesized to be associated with the 1959 earthquake? When pairing the 137Cs concentration data with the sedimentological data, we found that the sand deposit was indeed bracketed between 1954 and 1963, providing solid evidence that this layer probably formed during the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake. 

    With evidence that sediment at the bottom of Henrys Lake does, indeed, contain records of past earthquakes, the next goal was to look for other prehistoric earthquakes using the 1959 Hebgen Lake deposit as a reference. However, there were no such similar deposits with the same sediment character and presence in multiple cores. Using radiocarbon dating techniques, we were able to establish that the very lowest portions of the cores were approximately 5,000 years old. Does this mean that there have not been earthquakes similar in intensity to the Hebgen Lake earthquake in the last 5,000 years? Not exactly. The lowermost layer of the cores—the 5,000-year-old layer—is consistent with deposits from a marshy wetland, not a lake at all! Marshy wetlands are saturated areas with a lot of plants and grasses that typically produce organic-rich soils and not finely layered sediment like lakes do, making them much less likely to record an earthquake. Based on estimates of sedimentation rate, it appears that Henrys Lake likely only changed from a marshy wetland to a shallow lake less than about 1,000 years ago.

    Photo and cartoon of 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake deposit in sediment core from Henrys Lake, Idaho, with references to Cesium-137 activity (or concentration). Changes in Cesium-137 are related to atmospheric nuclear tests and provide a means of dating the deposit; those measurements are plotted on the right with depth (in cm) of the core.

    Although there is a lot more to explore about the specific evolution of Henrys Lake and other lakes in the west Yellowstone area, it is promising that a shallow lake with gentle sloping margins can record earthquake shaking. These findings provide increased confidence in our ability to investigate shaking-related deposits in other lakes with similar characteristics in the Rocky Mountain region or beyond.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    April 14, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Raleigh County, W.Va., Disaster Recovery Center opens April 15

    Source: US Federal Emergency Management Agency 2

    strong>News release
    Raleigh County, W.Va., Disaster Recovery Center opens April 15
    CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) will open in Raleigh County at 8 a.m. April 15, 2025. FEMA encourages residents, including homeowners and renters, of the disaster-impacted counties to register for assistance.
     
    The center is located at: 

    Raleigh County Disaster Recovery Center

    Beckley-Raleigh County Emergency Services 
    1224 Airport Road
    Beaver WV 25813
     
    Hours of operation:
    Monday through Saturday: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. 
    Closed Sundays

    Homeowners and renters in Logan, McDowell, Mercer, Mingo, Raleigh, Wayne, and Wyoming counties who sustained losses can apply for assistance in several ways:

    Calling the FEMA Helpline at 800-621-3362.

    Phone lines are open every day and help is available in most languages. If you use a relay service such as video relay service (VRS) or captioned telephone service, please provide FEMA your number for that service.

    Visiting DisasterAssistance.gov.
    Downloading the FEMA App.
    Speaking with someone in person at a Disaster Recovery Center.

    In coordination with the West Virginia Emergency Management Division (WVEMD) and officials in impacted counties, FEMA has opened Disaster Recovery Centers (DRCs) in Logan, McDowell, Mercer, Mingo, Raleigh, Wayne and Wyoming counties. At a center, you can get help applying for federal assistance, update your application, and learn about other resources available. The DRCs located in the table below remain open. DRCs are open to all, including residents with mobility issues, impaired vision, and those who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing. 

    Logan County Disaster Recovery Center
    Mercer County Disaster Recovery Center

    Southern WV Community & Technical College
    100 College Drive
    Logan, WV 25601
     
    Hours of operation:
    Monday to Friday: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. 
    Saturdays: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
    Closed Sundays 

     
    Lifeline Princeton Church of God
    250 Oakvale Road 
    Princeton, WV 24740
     
    Hours of operation:
    Monday to Friday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
    Saturdays: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
    Closed Sundays 
    Closed April 26
     

    McDowell County (Welch) Disaster Recovery Center 
    McDowell County Disaster (Bradshaw) Recovery Center  

    Board of Education Office
    900 Mount View High School Road
    Welch, WV 24801
     
    Hours of operation:
    Monday through Friday: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. 
    Closed Saturdays and Sundays
     

    Bradshaw Town Hall
    10002 Marshall Hwy
    Bradshaw, WV 24817
     
    Hours of operation:
    Monday to Saturday: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
    Closed Sundays

    Mingo County Disaster Recovery Center
    Raleigh County Disaster Recovery Center

    Williamson Campus
    1601 Armory Drive
    Williamson, WV 25661
     
    Hours of operation:
    Monday through Friday: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. 
    Saturdays: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
    Closed Sundays
     

    Beckley-Raleigh County Emergency Services
    1224 Airport Road
    Beaver WV 25813
     
    Hours of operation:
    Monday through Saturday: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. 
    Closed Sundays 

    Wayne County Disaster Recovery Center
    Wyoming County Disaster Recovery Center

    Tolsia High School
    1 Rebel Drive
    Fort Gay, WV 25514
     
    Hours of operation:
    Monday through Friday: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. 
    Closed on Saturdays and Sundays

    Wyoming Court House
    24 Main Ave
    Pineville, WV 24874
     
    Hours of operation:
    Monday through Friday: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. 
    Saturdays: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
    Closed on Sundays

     
    As a reminder, accepting FEMA funds will not affect eligibility for Social Security – including Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) – Medicare, Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, or other federal benefit programs. 
    FEMA assistance does not need to be repaid, but residents should file insurance claims as soon as possible. By law, FEMA cannot cover expenses that have already been covered by other sources like insurance, crowdfunding, local or state programs, donations, or financial assistance from voluntary agencies.
    For more information on West Virginia’s disaster recovery, visit emd.wv.gov, West Virginia Emergency Management Division Facebook page, www.fema.gov/disaster/4861, and www.facebook.com/FEMA.
     
    ###
     FEMA’s mission is helping people before, during and after disasters.
    Follow FEMA online, on X @FEMA or @FEMAEspanol, on FEMA’s Facebook page or Espanol page and at FEMA’s YouTube account. Also, follow on X FEMA_Cam. 
    For preparedness information, follow the Ready Campaign on X at @Ready.gov, on Instagram @Ready.gov or on the Ready Facebook page.  
     

    MIL OSI USA News –

    April 14, 2025
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