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Category: Australia

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Universities – Crown-of-thorns starfish thrive in degraded coral habitats – UoS

    Source: University of Sydney (UoS)

    Better understanding of how reefs degrade will help marine conservation work – Research into one of the most persistent coral predators on the Great Barrier Reef has revealed a troubling paradox in reef ecosystems: the crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) appears to thrive in the very conditions of coral degradation it helps create.

    This work, from Professor Maria Byrne at the University of Sydney and marine science researcher Dr Kennedy Wolfe, sheds light on the interactions between coral health and the population dynamics of COTS, offering critical insights for conservation efforts.

    Professor Byrne from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney said: “This research reinforces our understanding that resilient species have the upper hand when adjusting to altered habitats. Unfortunately, in the case of the Great Barrier Reef, one of these resilient species – the crown-of-thorns starfish – is one of its most persistent coral predators.”

    Negative feedback: how the degraded reef framework operates. Image: Wolfe and Byrne

    Coral reefs, often referred to as the “rainforests of the sea”, are vital ecosystems that support a diverse array of marine life. However, these ecosystems are under severe threat from various stressors, including climate change, pollution and overfishing. Among the most significant challenges are outbreaks of COTS, which can decimate coral populations and lead to widespread reef degradation.

    This study, published in the Marine Environmental Research journal, proposes a “degraded reef hypothesis”, to better understand how COTS remain so persistent, despite extensive efforts to manage their impact.

    The degraded reef framework explains how the loss of live coral, which crown-of-thorns starfish feed off, paradoxically benefits juvenile COTS. As live coral diminishes, these starfish accumulate in rubble habitats, which serve as juvenile nurseries.

    This accumulation of juveniles-in-waiting can promote a pulsed emergence of COTS as they transition into coral-eating adults when corals start to recover. This exacerbates the cycle of coral loss and reef degradation.

    “Our previous research has shown that juvenile COTS can wait for just the right moment to emerge in large numbers; sometimes up to six years,” Professor Byrne said.

    Professor Byrne and Dr Wolfe’s research emphasises that the very conditions that lead to coral degradation – such as heatwaves, cyclones and pollution – create favourable environments for COTS to thrive. This resilience poses a significant challenge for reef management and conservation strategies, as efforts to restore coral health may inadvertently support the proliferation of these destructive starfish.

    “Our findings reveal a critical feedback loop in reef ecosystems,” said Dr Wolfe, who started his research career as a PhD student at the University of Sydney.

    “COTS populations may thrive as coral reefs degrade, leading to further coral loss. This cycle not only threatens corals but also the range of species that depend on healthy reefs for survival,” he said.

    Professor Byrne said: “This feedback loop explains repeated outbreaks on the Great Barrier Reef, despite exhaustive management through manual culling.”

    These findings underscore the need for a multifaceted approach to coral reef conservation that addresses the root causes of degradation while also considering broad ecological dynamics at play.

    Professor Byrne said: “Effective management strategies must account for the resilience of crown-of-thorns starfish and their ability to exploit degraded habitats. These coral predators are a symptom of ongoing environmental impact.”

    By understanding the relationship between coral health and COTS populations, conservationists can develop targeted interventions that mitigate the impacts of these starfish. This may include habitat restoration efforts that focus on enhancing coral resilience, as well as strategies to manage nutrient runoff and sedimentation.

    This latest study adds to the impressive work that Professor Byrne and her team have undertaken, which has improved our understanding of how the crown-of-thorns starfish is able to persist as a pest species on the Great Barrier Reef.

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Nigeria: One out of every four children in Shinkafi and Zurmi is malnourished – MSF

    Source: Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

    MSF is urging immediate action after screening results reveal a catastrophic malnutrition crisis across Northwest Nigeria.

    Abuja,10 September 2024: One out of every four children under the age of five is malnourished in the Shinkafi and Zurmi areas of Nigeria’s Zamfara state, according to a mass screening conducted in June by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the Ministry of Health. 

    Of the 97,149 children screened in 21 different urban and rural locations, 27 percent were found to be suffering from acute malnutrition, with five percent having severe acute malnutrition.

    These concerning figures far exceed the ‘critical level’ threshold established by the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding malnutrition prevalence. MSF urges health authorities, international organisations, and donors to immediately intensify their efforts to tackle the escalating malnutrition crisis in Zamfara state, as well as whole of Northwest Nigeria – a region not yet included in the United Nations Humanitarian Response Plan.

    The mass screening held in June in the Shinkafi and Zurmi areas further revealed that about 22 per cent of children screened are moderately malnourished. Currently, the nutritional supplies essential to treat such children, also known as ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), are unavailable, as UNICEF halted its supplies at the start of the year. This current lack of humanitarian response to treat those who are moderately malnourished in Northwest Nigeria risks the lives of these children who, without immediate care, will progress to severe acute malnutrition that threatens their survival and compromises their long-term health.

    “The screening results from Shinkafi and Zurmi are nothing short of alarming, revealing a catastrophic malnutrition crisis across Northwest Nigeria,” declares Abdullahi Mohammad, an MSF representative in Nigeria. “The response to this overwhelming disaster is grossly insufficient. With malnutrition rates soaring beyond critical levels and no immediate treatment available for moderate acute malnutrition apart from at MSF facilities, we’re effectively letting more children fall into life-threatening conditions. It is crucial we ensure every child receives the medical care they desperately need.”

    MSF currently runs four inpatient and 17 outpatient facilities in Shinkafi, Zurmi, Gummi and Talata Mafara in Zamfara – a state badly affected by malnutrition. Across all four inpatient facilities, MSF teams have treated over 7,000 children from January to July 2024. These figures for admissions are 34 per cent higher than for the same period in 2023. In Shinkafi and Zurmi, where MSF conducted the recent malnutrition screening, the increase in admissions is 50 per cent more than the same period last year. At the medical facility in Gummi, admissions in July 2024 were almost double compared to the same month last year.

     

    Alongside the significant increase in malnutrition admissions, MSF teams are seeing high numbers of children with vaccine preventable diseases such as measles. In Zamfara, they have treated at least 5,700 measles cases so far this year. Infectious diseases like measles, malaria, and acute watery diarrhoea, severely compromise the nutritional status of children. In turn, malnutrition makes them far more susceptible to these illnesses, with a higher risk of death.

     

    “When I first brought my son into the hospital, I didn’t know if he would survive,” says Hafsat Lawal, a mother whose child is being treated for malnutrition at an MSF facility in Zamfara. “Back at home because of the insecurity we don’t have food. The prices of food have more than doubled. If we had money, we would have bought some grains, but we cannot.”

     

    Communities are facing high levels of violence in Zamfara and have told MSF teams that they are scared to move around the state, taking huge risks to reach functioning healthcare facilities. It is estimated by the health authorities that as of 2023, only about 200 out of 700 healthcare centres in Zamfara are accessible, and the rest are non-functional. One of the reasons being that healthcare workers struggle to reach them.

     

    Despite the ongoing humanitarian crisis and facing high levels of insecurity, communities in the Northwest have long been excluded from coordinated humanitarian response. It is essential that health authorities in this area, alongside international organisations and donors, urgently scale up their response. Immediate expansion of health facilities is needed to treat malnourished children to ensure that more hospitals can offer the type of inpatient care desperately needed to save lives. Moreover, UNICEF, as the primary supplier of RUTF, must ensure the consistent and sufficient delivery of these essential therapeutic foods to prevent more children from falling victim to this crisis.

     

    MSF Australia was established in 1995 and is one of 24 international MSF sections committed to delivering medical humanitarian assistance to people in crisis. In 2022, more than 120 project staff from Australia and New Zealand worked with MSF on assignment overseas. MSF delivers medical care based on need alone and operates independently of government, religion or economic influence and irrespective of race, religion or gender. For more information visit msf.org.au  

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Universities – Diet change for farmed yellowtail kingfish aims to save wild stocks – Flinders

    Source: Flinders University

    As the cost of fish oil continues to rise, Australian aquaculture operators are looking for safe and more sustainable sources for healthy formulated feed in order to expand commercial production of popular yellowtail kingfish.
    A South Australian study led by Flinders University, connected to project funding awarded to the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI), assessed the use of substitutes canola oil and poultry oil in farmed kingfish production.  
    “Reducing the use of wild-caught sardines and other small fish to sustain farmed fish – to produce more farmed fish for human consumption – will help maintain our oceans and fishery food chains,” says Associate Professor James Harris, from the College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University.
    As well as demand for seafood in a healthy diet, fish oil is also used in terrestrial animal feeds, with an estimated 460% of current production levels required by 2030 also driving up the commodity costs for aquaculture industries.  
    “We can’t keep catching loads of small fish to feed to larger fish we are growing, so are increasingly looking to reduce fish oil in their diets.”
    Fish oils have large concentrations of long-chain omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids which are essential for cultured carnivorous finfish to sustain optimal growth and health.  
    The Flinders experts, with colleagues from Primary Industries and Regions SA (PIRSA) research division SARDI and the University of Adelaide School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, undertook the study on locally grown kingfish.
    “We found that both oil from canola plants and oil from poultry could be effectively used, although there were some potentially adverse changes seen in the kingfish livers,” says Associate Professor Harris.  
    “These changes give us a chance to investigate further the major role in kingfish fat metabolism to continue looking to manipulate formulated feed to produce these popular fish, which also are farmed in Japan, Europe and the Americas.”
    Previous aquafeed studies have also used soybean oil and swine, bovine or ovine fats as fatty acid substitutes or supplements, with the goal of achieving optimum growth and lipid metabolism as well as palatability of alternative feeds.
    Liver structure and function in yellowtail kingfish, Seriola lalandi, in response to alternative oils in feed (2024) by Benjamin H Crowe, James O Harris, Todd J McWhorter, Matthew S Bansemer and David AJ Stone has been published in Aquaculture 10.1016/j.aquaculture.2024.741379. 
    Acknowledgements: 
    This project is supported by funding from the $6 million Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources as part of its Rural R&D for Profit Programme and the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) awarded to SARDI, the research arm of PIRSA, in partnership with other project participants, including Flinders University and University of Adelaide School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at Roseworthy. This study was led by researchers from Finders University.

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: MSF calls for quick response and unrestricted access as cholera poses latest peril in Sudan’s war – MSF

    Source: Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

    Port Sudan, 11 September, 2024. A cholera outbreak is gripping central and eastern Sudan bringing more, death and misery to people already suffering under the country’s brutal war. Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)’s emergency teams are supporting by treating patients and providing water and sanitation services.

    Ongoing war, floods and now cholera

    In August, Sudanese authorities declared a cholera outbreak, which is currently heavily affecting the states of Kassala, Gedaref and River Nile, Al Jazirah and Khartoum. According to the Ministry of Health, over 5,000 cases of cholera and 191 deaths have been reported. In the second half of August the weekly cases of the disease multiplied by four.

    Cholera cases are not uncommon in Sudan, but this is the second time since the start of the war in April 2023, that the country is faced with outbreaks of the disease. For the past two years, our teams have been actively engaged in emergency responses to mitigate the spread of cholera.

    “The mix of heavy flooding and torrential downpours, combined with the terrible living conditions and inadequate access to drinking water that people, particularly in crowded displaced camps are facing, have created the perfect storm for the spread of this often deadly disease,” says Esperanza Santos, MSF emergency coordinator for Sudan.

    In Kassala, heavy rains and river floods have destroyed water and sanitation infrastructure and left both internally displaced communities and Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees living in even more appalling living conditions.

    “People are dying from cholera right now; and we are pleading on the UN and international organizations to fund and scale up activities, particularly water and sanitation services, which are crucial to stop the lethal spread of cholera,” says Frank Ross Katambula, MSF medical coordinator.

    Cholera adds yet another challenge to the crisis in Sudan and to the decimated health system, already struggling with increasing child malnutrition, high numbers of war wounded and regular cases of preventable diseases. The humanitarian response, frequently obstructed by both warring parties, remains far below what is needed.

    Case management and water and sanitation

    MSF teams in Khartoum, River Nile, Kassala and Gedaref have mobilized to support the Ministry of Health to respond to the situation, by setting up and running cholera treatment centres and units (CTCs and CTUs) and providing support to existing treatment facilities, in some of the most affected areas and hard-to-reach places. Between the end of August and 9 September, MSF teams treated 2,165 patients in our supported facilities.

     Caused by a water-borne intestinal infection, cholera is transmitted through contaminated food , water, or through contact with faecal matter. Cholera can cause severe diarrhea and vomiting, and rapidly proves fatal, within hours, if untreated. But cholera is very simple to treat – rehydration is key.

    “One adult male was unconscious [upon arrival to the facility]. Dehydration causes the body to go into shock. Doctors were resuscitating him, squeezing liters of fluids in his veins for about five minutes,” recalls Angela Giacomazzi, a Human Resource coordinator in Tanedba, about a patient who fortunately survived.

    MSF teams are setting up oral rehydration points, trucking drinking water, constructing handwashing points and latrines, distributing hygiene kits and doing health promotion in the affected communities.In Darfur, where no cases have yet been registered, MSF teams are helping to improve cholera preparedness.

    Unrestricted rapid access for staff and supplies

    After nearly 17 months of challenges and obstructions around the provision of humanitarian assistance in Sudan, MSF calls on the warring parties to allow unhindered access for medical staff and supplies, to all the areas in need across Sudan, to enable a quick and coordinated response and prevent avoidable deaths.

    “There is a risk of running out of essential supplies such as cholera kits in a moment when scaling up the response is urgently needed. We call on the authorities to fast-track and facilitate the delivery of supplies and drugs, as bureaucratic obstacles remain a major challenge,” says Katambula, MSF’s Medical Coordinator.

    MSF Australia was established in 1995 and is one of 24 international MSF sections committed to delivering medical humanitarian assistance to people in crisis. In 2022, more than 120 project staff from Australia and New Zealand worked with MSF on assignment overseas. MSF delivers medical care based on need alone and operates independently of government, religion or economic influence and irrespective of race, religion or gender. For more information visit msf.org.au  

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Universities – New fossil fish species scales up evidence of Earth’s evolutionary march – Flinders

    Source: Flinders University

    Climate change and asteroids are linked with animal origin and extinction – and plate tectonics also seems to play a key evolutionary role, ‘groundbreaking’ new fossil research reveals.
     
    The discovery of an exceptionally well preserved ancient primitive Devonian coelacanth fish in remote Western Australia has been linked to a period of heightened tectonic activity, or movement in the Earth’s crust, according to the new study in Nature Communications. (Open access when published)  
     
    Led by Flinders University and experts from Canada, Australia and Europe, the new fossil from the Gogo Formation in WA, named Ngamugawi wirngarri, also helps to fill in an important transition period in coelacanth history, between the most primitive forms and other more ‘anatomically-modern’ forms.
     
    “We are thrilled to work with people of the Mimbi community to grace this beautiful new fish with the first name taken from the Gooniyandi language,” says first author Dr Alice Clement, an evolutionary biologist and palaeontologist from Flinders University.
     
    “Our analyses found that tectonic plate activity had a profound influence on rates of coelacanth evolution. Namely that new species of coelacanth were more likely to evolve during periods of heightened tectonic activity as new habitats were divided and created,” she says.  
     
    The study confirms the Late Devonian Gogo Formation as one of the richest and best-preserved assemblages of fossil fishes and invertebrates on Earth.
     
    Flinders University Strategic Professor of Palaeontology John Long says the fossil, dating from the Devonian Period (359-419 million years ago), “provides us with some great insight into the early anatomy of this lineage that eventually led to humans”.
     
    “For more than 35 years, we have found several perfectly preserved 3D fish fossils from Gogo sites which have yielded many significant discoveries, including mineralised soft tissues and the origins of complex sexual reproduction in vertebrates,” says Professor Long.
     
    “Our study of this new species led us to analyse the evolutionary history of all known coelacanths.”
     
    Many parts of human anatomy originated in the Early Palaeozoic (540-350 million years ago). This was when jaws, teeth, paired appendages, ossified brain-cases, intromittent genital organs, chambered hearts and paired lungs all appeared in early fishes.
     
    “While now covered in dry rocky outcrops, the Gogo Formation on Gooniyandi Country in the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia was part of an ancient tropical reef teeming with more than 50 species of fish about 380 million years ago.
     
    “We calculated the rates of evolution across their 410 million-year history. This revealed that coelacanth evolution has slowed down drastically since the time of the dinosaurs, but with a few intriguing exceptions.”
     
    Today, the coelacanth is a fascinating deep-sea fish that lives off the coasts of eastern Africa and Indonesia and can reach up to 2m in length. They are “lobe-finned” fish, which means they have robust bones in their fins not too dissimilar to the bones in our own arms, and are thus considered to be more closely related to lungfish and tetrapods (the back-boned animals with arms and legs such as frogs, emus and mice) than most other fishes.
     
    Over the past 410 million years, more than more than 175 species of coelacanths have been discovered across the globe. During the Mesozoic Era, the age of dinosaurs, coelacanths diversified significantly, with some species developing unusual body shapes. However, at the end of the Cretaceous Period, around 66 million years ago, they mysteriously disappeared from the fossil record.
     
    The end Cretaceous extinction, sparked by the impact from a massive asteroid, wiped out approximately 75% of all life on Earth, including all of the non-avian (bird-like) dinosaurs. Thus, it was presumed that the coelacanth fishes had been swept up as a casualty of the same mass extinction event.
     
    But in 1938, people fishing off South Africa pulled up a large mysterious looking fish from the ocean depths, with the ‘lazarus’ fish going on to gain cult status in the world of biological evolution.
     
    Another senior co-author, vertebrate palaeontologist Professor Richard Cloutier, from the University of Quebec in Rimouski (UQAR), says the new Nature Communications study challenges the idea that surviving coelacanths are the oldest ‘living fossils’.
     
    “They first appear in the geological record more than 410 million years ago, with fragmentary fossils known from places like China and Australia. However, most of the early forms remain poorly known, making Ngamugawi wirngarri the best known Devonian coealacanth.
     
    “As we slowly fill in the gaps, we can start to understand how living coelacanth species ofLatimeria, which commonly are considered to be ‘living fossils,’ actually are continuing to evolve and might not deserve such an enigmatic title,” says Professor Cloutier, a previous honorary visiting scholar at Flinders University.
     
    The study’s coauthors have affiliations with Mahasarakham University in Thailand, the South Australian Museum, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, University of Bristol, Curtin University in Western Australia and the WA Museum.
     
    The article, ‘A Late Devonian coelacanth reconfigures actinistian phylogeny, disparity, and evolutionary dynamics’ (2024) by Alice M Clement, Richard Cloutier, Michael SY Lee, Benedict King, Olivia Vanhaesebroucke, Corey JA Bradshaw, Hugo Dutel, Kate Trinajstic and John A Long has been published in Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-51238-4.
     
    https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51238-4

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Australia – Tools, ties and taverns: early Father’s Day boosts household spending in August – CBA

    Source: Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA)

    The CommBank Household Spending Insights Index saw the impact of energy rebates lower spending on Utilities, while university and school fees drove up Education spending.

    The CommBank Household Spending Insights (HSI) Index rose by 1.8 per cent in August to 154.3 as consumers splurged in the lead-up to an early Father’s Day.

    Ten of the 12 spending categories rose in the month, with Hospitality (+5.2 per cent) and Household Goods (+4.4 per cent) leading the way as consumers spoilt Dad at hardware stores, department stores and men’s clothing stores. Restaurants, pubs, taverns and bars and event hire saw a jump in spending in August.

    University and school fees paid in August led to a jump in spending on Education (+3.6 per cent), while Food & Beverage goods (+1.2 per cent), Household Services (+1.8 per cent), and spending on Motor Vehicles (+1.4 per cent) also rose.

    The annual pace of spending in the year to August remains subdued at 3.7 per cent for the year.

    “An early Father’s Day boosted spending in August as consumers appear to have lifted spend on household goods, while hospitality venues also saw people open their wallets during the month. The last time Father’s Day fell so early in the year spending retreated in September, which is worth keeping in mind as the annual spending rate still suggests a relatively weak consumer,” CBA Chief Economist Stephen Halmarick said.

    The biggest spending falls in the month were Utilities (-0.3 per cent) and Transport (-0.3 per cent) as government rebates on electricity and lower petrol prices offered some relief to consumers. This led to notable shifts in spending across home ownership status as renters saw an uptick in the annual rate of spending to 1.3 per cent, while those with a mortgage (+2.8 per cent) and outright owners (+1.8 per cent) saw a slowdown in spending compared to July.  

    “For the first time in August we saw the impact of the various government electricity rebates on wallets which can be seen by the decreased spending on utilities. This, coupled with increased education spend, impacted spending across home ownership categories as we saw a jump in spending by renters likely due to university fees, while outright owners benefited from reduced spend on utilities as this is typically a larger share of their wallet,” Mr Halmarick said.

    “While the earlier timing of Father’s Day has added some complexity to the data, we still anticipate that softer economic conditions, easing inflation, and rate cuts by other central banks will prompt the RBA to lower interest rates later in 2024. However, there is a possibility of delays pushing this into early 2025.”

    The CommBank HSI Index tracks month-on-month data at a macro level and is based on de-identified payments data from approximately 7 million CBA customers, comprising roughly 30 per cent of all Australian consumer transactions.

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Australia – Businesses increase asset investment despite economic uncertainty – CBA

    Source: Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA)

    CBA data shows small and medium-sized businesses are taking a long view on the economy, investing in their productive capacity.

    Businesses are continuing to invest in their operations despite the slower economy, with data from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s business bank showing a 15 per cent uplift in vehicle and equipment financing compared to the same period last year.1

    Motor vehicle purchases have been a key driver (up 55 per cent), as supply chains continue to improve post-Covid and new stock becomes available. Among this category, loans for hybrid vehicles increased fivefold (533 per cent) in the past financial year, and electric vehicles were up 254 per cent. Financing for light commercial vehicles such as utes, vans and light trucks – a category that is particularly popular with small business customers – rose 27 per cent.

    Businesses are also investing in shop and office fit-outs, with financing for shelving and furniture fittings up 25 per cent.

    Financing activity has been particularly strong in areas like Health & Community services (up 35 per cent), Education (up 24 per cent) and Manufacturing (18 percent).

    “Australia’s economic fundamentals are sound, and there are reasons for optimism about the future, but inflation and other global risks contribute to uncertainty that’s rightly prompting business owners to take steps to ensure their operations are future-fit and resilient,” said Grant Cairns, Executive General Manager Business Lending at Commonwealth Bank.

    “While companies are navigating ongoing pressure from rising cost of doing business, we are seeing many business owners taking the long view on the economy and investing in their operations.”

    As motor vehicles are one of the most common asset investments for small and medium-sized businesses, CommBank has collaborated with Carsales to launch a car buying service via the CommBank app or Netbank to help make finding and financing a car or electric vehicle easier for both business owners and individuals.

    A ute with equipment tray parked next to a construction site

    “We are very focused on ensuring access to capital to help drive productive capacity across the country,” Mr Cairns said.

    “For small and medium-sized businesses, this means making it simpler and easier to access funds and we’ve cut our funding time-to-decision by 20 per cent to provide that support faster.”

    Mr Cairns said the bank has also worked to automate and digitise its business lending products, including business overdrafts, which are now available to eligible small business customers via a fully automated online application process that can see funds credited to their account in as little as eight minutes.

    Still, Mr Cairns said, while many businesses were looking to invest, that wasn’t the case for all, and some businesses were doing it tough amid higher cost of living.

    “While there are these pockets of strength and optimism across the economy, we know that the economic climate is challenging some businesses more than others, and we have tailored support available for those who are doing it tough.

    “We have been proactively reaching out to hundreds of thousands of our business customers to check in on them and ensure that those who need support know how to access it and understand what measures are available and that we’re here to help,” he said.

    CBA has a range of measures are available for those who need support including deferred business loan repayments or debt restructuring. More information is available on our website.

    Businesses seeking support can speak to their Relationship Manager or call CBA’s dedicated Business Financial Assistance team, available 24/7, on 13 26 07.
     

    Footnote:

    [1] CBA asset finance data FY24 vs same period of FY23

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Sudan – Catastrophic situation in Zamzam camp, Sudan: every effort must be made to finally deliver food, medicines and essential supplies to blockaded and starved communities

    Source: Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

     16 September – As the results of a nutrition screening carried out by the Sudanese health authorities and Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) earlier this month in Zamzam camp, North Darfur, indicate a catastrophic nutritional situation that is only getting worse, MSF urges the UN and international stakeholders involved in negotiating broader humanitarian access to consider all options to quickly deliver food and essential supplies in the area, including by airdrops.

    “Not only do the results confirm the disaster that we and other stakeholders have been observing and alerting on for months, they also indicate that every day things are getting worse and we’re running out of time” adds Michel Olivier Lacharité, head of emergency operations for MSF. “We are talking about thousands of children who will die over the next few weeks without access to adequate treatment and urgent solutions to allow humanitarian aid and essential goods to reach Zamzam”.

    Despite announcement that gave hope for positive developments, for instance following the Geneva peace talks, no significant amount of humanitarian relief has reached the population in the Zamzam camp and the nearby, war-stricken city of El-Fasher since the IPC Famine Review Committee concluded that famine conditions were prevalent in the area on 1 August this year. Most supply roads are controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) who have made it all but impossible to bring therapeutic food, medicines and essential supplies into the camp since the intensification of fighting around El Fasher last May.

    There’s no more time to waste if thousands of preventable deaths are to be avoided. Among the more than 29,000 children under five years old screened last week during a vaccination campaign in Zamzam camp, 10.1 percent suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), a life-threatening condition, while 34.8 percent suffer from global acute malnutrition (GAM), which will evolve into more severe form of malnutrition if not treated effectively and in timely fashion.

    “The malnutrition rates found during the screening are massive and likely some of the worst ones in the world currently. It’s even more terrifying as we know from experience the results are often underestimated in the area when we use only the mid-upper arm circumference criteria like we did here instead of combining it with measuring weight and height” explains Claudine Mayer, MSF medical referent.

    An MSF mass screening carried out in March 2024 had revealed an 8.2 percent SAM rate and a 29.4 percent GAM rate, which was already twice as high as the 15 percent alert threshold of the World Health Organisation.

    The only food available is from pre-existing stocks, which is not sufficient for people living in the area, and food prices are at least three times as high as in the rest of Darfur. Fuel prices are soaring as well, making it very difficult to pump water and run clinics that rely on generators for electricity. Our staff on site report that for many, it’s impossible to rely on more than one meal per day.

    “In such a dire situation, we should be scaling up our response: instead, running critically low on supplies, we are reaching breaking point and were recently forced to reduce our activity to focus solely on children in the most severe conditions” says Claudine Mayer. “This means we had to suspend treatment for the less severe forms of malnutrition, who represented an active cohort of 2.700 children, and to put an end to consultations provided to adults and children over five years old, who represented thousands of consultations every month”.

    Zamzam camp is estimated to host between 300.000 and 500.00 people, many of them displaced many times over, who are trying to flee the war that has been tearing up their country since last year. In El Fasher, where many of the displaced used to live, only one hospital remains partially standing after the others were damaged or destroyed in the conflict.

    “Due to these unconscionable blockages on supplies, we feel like we are leaving behind an increasing number of patients who already have very few options for getting lifesaving medical care” adds Michel Olivier Lacharité. “If the roads are not an option for getting massive quantities of urgent supplies into the camp, the United Nations should look at every available option. Delaying these supplies meaning causing more deaths – thousands of them, among the most vulnerable.”

    MSF Australia was established in 1995 and is one of 24 international MSF sections committed to delivering medical humanitarian assistance to people in crisis. In 2022, more than 120 project staff from Australia and New Zealand worked with MSF on assignment overseas. MSF delivers medical care based on need alone and operates independently of government, religion or economic influence and irrespective of race, religion or gender. For more information visit msf.org.au  
     

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Russia – MSF-Netherlands is instructed to deregister in the Russian Federation and consequently has to close its programmes in the country

    Source: Médecins Sans Frontières/ Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

    Moscow/ Amsterdam, 17 September 2024: Thirty-two years after starting work in the Russian Federation, Médecins Sans Frontières/ Doctors Without Borders (MSF) had to close its operations in the country.  

    “It is with a heavy heart that we have to close our activities in the Russian Federation,” says Yashovardhan, head of MSF programmes in the country. “Our organisation’s work is guided by the principles of independence, impartiality and neutrality and medical ethics, we provide assistance based on the needs.”

    In August this year, we received a letter from the Ministry of Justice of Russia, with the decision to withdraw the affiliate office of the non-profit association ‘Médecins Sans Frontières’ (Netherlands) in the Russian Federation from the Register of affiliate and representative offices of foreign NGOs.

    The international humanitarian medical organisation had been present in Russia since 1992. For more than 30 years, we successfully implemented dozens of programmes, ranging from assistance to the homeless to emergency response to the collaborative work with the Ministry of Health in the innovative tuberculosis treatment. We worked in various regions of the country: in Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Kemerovo region, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan and – more recently – in the Arkhangelsk and Ivanovo regions as well as in the south of Russia in Belgorod and Rostov-on-Don.

    A significant part of the history of MSF in Russia and the region was linked to the implementation of advanced approaches to the treatment of tuberculosis. MSF has collaborated with medical academic community of Russia and other countries in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia to extend effective, innovative treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR TB) to patients in penitentiary and civil sectors across the region.

    In 2004-2017, we worked in close partnership with the Chechen Ministry of Health (MoH), providing technical and advisory support to the local health authorities in the treatment of drug-sensitive and drug-resistant tuberculosis in the Chechen Republic. The programme covered different aspects of TB diagnostics, treatment, laboratory services and health education, as well as adherence counselling and psychosocial support for patients and their families. In 2014, MSF supported MoH in introducing new treatment regimens for patients with extensively drug-resistant TB which yielded impressive results giving hope to patients who previously had no treatment options left.

    In 2021, MSF and local health authorities of the Arkhangelsk region in the north of Russia started successful implementation of a nine-month all-oral course of treatment for DR TB. 173 patients were enrolled on this treatment regimen. And later, in 2023, we started enrolling patients on an even shorter – just six months-long – all-oral treatment course that was recommended by the World Health Organization in the updated treatment guidelines in late 2022.

    In Arkhangelsk and starting from 2024 in Ivanovo, MSF was providing expertise and technical assistance to health authorities with a special emphasis on implementing new treatment regimens and enhancing patients’ adherence and integrating person-centred care. To date, 41 patients in the Arkhangelsk and Ivanovo regions started treatment for DR TB within this joint programme. The aim of the collaboration was to contribute to the evidence base for more effective – less toxic, person-centred – treatment with a view to scale up these scientifically proven treatment protocols in Russia.

    In Moscow and St Petersburg since 2020, MSF partnered with two community-based NGOs to support access to general healthcare, as well as testing and treatment for infectious diseases, for people living with HIV and other vulnerable groups, such as migrants, who otherwise struggle to obtain medical assistance.  Over 14,000 medical consultations were supported for patients from these vulnerable groups.

    Since the escalation of the armed conflict in Ukraine in 2022, many people have sought safety in Russia, and MSF in partnership with local NGOs in the Belgorod and Rostov regions in the south of Russia started providing assistance to those who crossed into Russia from Ukraine and later – with the development of the situation – internally displaced people. Since the start of our response in 2022, more than 52,000 refugees and displaced people were provided with humanitarian aid and more than 15,400 received free medical, mental health and psychosocial support.

    As part of this partnership, we were also planning to respond to the humanitarian and medical needs of the internally displaced people in the Kursk region. MSF continues to stand in solidarity with people impacted by this conflict and remain steadfast in our commitment to provide humanitarian assistance to those in need, irrespective of what side of the front line they are on, should the necessary conditions for our work be provided by relevant authorities.

    “We would like to take the opportunity to thank all our colleagues in Russia for their hard work and commitment to humanitarian values we hold high as an organisation,” says Norman Sitali, MSF Operations Manager responsible for programmes in Russia. “We are very sad to conclude our programmes in the country as many people in Russia in need of medical and humanitarian assistance will now be left without the support we could have provided to them. MSF would like to still work in Russia again if and when possible”.

    MSF Australia was established in 1995 and is one of 24 international MSF sections committed to delivering medical humanitarian assistance to people in crisis. In 2022, more than 120 project staff from Australia and New Zealand worked with MSF on assignment overseas. MSF delivers medical care based on need alone and operates independently of government, religion or economic influence and irrespective of race, religion or gender. For more information visit msf.org.au  

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Universities – Charging ahead towards future low-cost polymer zinc-ion batteries – Flinders

    Source: Flinders University

    With global demand for lithium-ion batteries fast depleting reserves of raw materials, experts are seeking safe, affordable and reliable alternatives for rechargeable batteries.
    Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) could be the answer to producing low-cost alternatives from abundant feedstocks, and Flinders University scientists are paving the way for the production of simple and practical polymer AZIBs using organic cathodes for more sustainable energy storage technology.
    “Aqueous zinc-ion batteries could have real-world applications,” says Associate Professor in Chemistry Zhongfan Jia, a nanotech researcher at the College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University.
    From electric vehicles to portable electronic devices, the demand and consumption of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have led to resource shortages and supply-chain issues of strategic metals including lithium and cobalt.
    Meanwhile, millions of spent batteries, most of which are not properly recycled, have caused enormous waste and environmental risks – which future alternatives such as AIZBs promise to reduce.
    “Among these alternatives, AZIBs stand out because of the much higher abundance of zinc in the earth’s crust (ten times more than lithium), and their low toxicity and high safety.”
    AZIBs usually use zinc metal as an anode and inorganic or organic compounds as a cathode. While substantial work has been devoted to improving the stability of zinc anodes, high-performing cathodes are needed and remain a major challenge.
    “Our research is building conductivity using nitroxide radical polymer cathodes made from cheap commercial polymer and optimised the battery performance using low-cost additives,” says Associate Professor Jia, who leads a research group working on Sustainable Polymers for Energy and Environment.
    “Our work reevaluated the use of high redox potential nitroxide radical polymers cathodes in AZIBs, and produced the highest mass loading so far,” he says, about a new online journal article in the Journal of Power Resources.
    The study, led by Flinders master student Nanduni Gamage and postdoc fellow Dr Yanlin Shi, developed a lab-made pouch battery using scaled-up polymer (at approx. cost $20 / kg), a non-fluoro Zn(ClO4)2 electrolyte, and BP 2000 carbon black ($1 / kg) without binder to provide a capacity of nearly 70 mAh g-1 and a middle discharge voltage of 1.4 V.
    With a mass loading of 50 mg cm-2, the pouch battery had a capacity of 60 mAh, which can easily power a small electric fan and a model car (see videos in the article).  
    Collaborators in the study, including Dr Jesús Santos-Peña, from the Université Paris Est Creteil CNRS in France, and other experts from the Flinders University Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology.
    The article Converting a low-cost industrial polymer into organic cathodes for high mass-loading aqueous zinc-ion batteries (2024) by Nanduni SW Gamage, Yanlin Shi, Chanaka J Mudugamuwa, Jesús Santos-Peña, David A Lewis, Justin M Chalker and Zhongfan Jia has been published in Energy Storage Materials. 
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ensm.2024.103731.
    In collaboration with Griffith University, the team has also recently developed the organic radical/K dual-ion batteries, a technique that can also relieve dependence on lithium-ion batteries.
    This article Morphological engineering of PTAm@CNTs cathode for high-rate potassium dual-ion battery (2024) by Zhenzhen Wu, Yanlin Shi, Chanaka J. Mudugamuwa, Pan Yang, Hao Chen, Yuhui Tian, Milton Kiefel, Shanqing Zhang, Zhongfan Jia has been published in Journal of Power Resources. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2024.235134.
    Acknowledgements: This project is supported by funding from the Australian Research Council (DP230100587, DP230100642, LE230100168) and the French-Australian International Research Network on Conversion and Energy Storage (IRN-FACES). The authors also acknowledge the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) SA node for supporting the electroanalytical and electrochemical synthesis labs at Flinders University.

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Australia – BAM Mutual Launches Bond Insurance for Australia’s Energy Transition and Social Infrastructure Projects

    Source: BAM Mutual

    AA-Rated Financial Guarantee Reduces Costs and Improves Certainty of Delivery for Essential Infrastructure – MELBOURNE, Australia – BAM Mutual, the only mutual bond insurer focused on reducing the cost of debt sold for essential infrastructure, is opening a Melbourne office and will begin insuring bonds and loans sold to finance projects in Australia and New Zealand. BAM’s focus will include electricity transmission and distribution networks that support the energy transition, social infrastructure, and transportation facilities.

    “BAM Mutual’s mission is to make infrastructure more affordable, and we are looking forward to doing that for project sponsors and the users of projects across Australia and New Zealand,” said CEO Seán W. McCarthy.

    “BAM’s guaranty improves the economics for infrastructure investment by lowering the cost of borrowing, expanding the investor base and creating greater market liquidity, and giving buyers more certainty that they will be repaid on a timely basis, without exception.”

    The initiative is BAM’s first expansion outside the United States and is backed by the most experienced team in the industry, with a track record of analyzing the credit and legal structures of transactions specifically in Australia and New Zealand.

    “Australia and New Zealand are markets where BAM insurance can have a meaningful impact for borrowers while we maintain the same credit appetite we’ve applied in building our U.S. portfolio,” said Chief Credit Officer Suzanne Finnegan.

    The insurer’s new Melbourne office will be led by Andrew Bevan, an Australian native and 25-year capital-markets veteran who has helped finance more than $10 billion of essential infrastructure in 25 transactions across Australia and New Zealand, including the Melbourne Convention Centre and Brisbane Airport.

    Mr. Bevan will identify opportunities for BAM to insure new and existing debt sold to finance projects including electric power facilities, airports, toll roads, and social infrastructure PPPs.

    “The region’s infrastructure needs more than $200 billion of investment over the next five years to support sustainable development and a strong economy,” Mr. Bevan said.

    “BAM Mutual’s guaranty has a strong track record of helping attract investors to finance essential projects, improving market access and lowering costs. I’m proud to be bringing these tools to Australia and New Zealand.”

    About BAM Mutual
    BAM is a mutual bond insurance company operated for the benefit of its members – the sponsors of essential infrastructure projects like roads, airports, and schools, as well as water, wastewater, and power utilities. Through June 30, 2024, BAM has insured more than USD$150 billion of long-term securities for more than 6,000 bond issuers. BAM is rated AA with a Stable outlook by S&P Global Ratings.

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Universities – Early dingoes are related to dogs from New Guinea and East Asia – University of Sydney

    Source: University of Sydney

    Australian dingo has evolved over 3,000 years to become larger and leaner – New archaeological research by the University of Sydney has discovered for the first time clear links between fossils of the iconic Australian dingo, and dogs from East Asia and New Guinea.

    The remarkable findings suggest that the dingo came from East Asia via Melanesia, and challenges previous claims that it derived from pariah dogs of India or Thailand. 

    Previous studies used traditional morphometric analysis – which looks at the size and shape of the animal using callipers – to trace the dingo’s ancestry to South Asia.  

    However, the new study, published in Nature Scientific Reports, uses sophisticated 3D scanning and geometric morphometrics on ancient dingo specimens to show clearly that they are most similar to Japanese dogs, as well as the ‘singing dogs’ of New Guinea and the highland wild dog of Irian Jaya.
     
    Dr Loukas Koungoulos, a research associate in the Discipline of Archaeology at the University of Sydney, said: “The origins of this controversial Australian native animal have been heavily debated for more than a century. Our research has found the elusive first links between fossil material that suggest dingoes have evolved locally from an East Asian dog-like ancestor.”

    Dr Koungoulos added: “The archaeological sites at Lake Mungo and Lake Milkengay hold some of the oldest evidence of dingoes in the whole of Australia. It is incredible to see how these remarkable animals have evolved over thousands of years and gives us a greater understanding of this uniquely Australian species.”  

    The study team – which included Associate Professor Melanie Fillios from the University of New England and Dr Ardern Hulme-Beaman from the University of Liverpool – looked at the remains of ancient dingoes found at Lake Mungo and Lake Milkengay in western NSW.

    Associate Professor Melanie Fillios said: “Our research underscores the antiquity of dingoes, pointing to a common ancestor between dingoes and the more recent canines in Southeast Asia.”

    In collaboration with the Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area Traditional Owners, the team used radiocarbon dating to discover that some remains were over 3,000 years old.

    The team also found that modern-day dingoes have evolved to become larger and leaner, standing at an average of 54cm tall compared to between 40-47cm for their ancient ancestors – a size much closer to their contemporary relatives in Southeast Asia and Melanesia.  

    RESEARCH

    Koungoulos, Loukas G. et al ‘Phenotypic diversity in early Australian dingoes revealed by traditional and 3D geometric morphometric analysis’. (Natural Scientific Reports)  

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-65729-3

    DECLARATION

    Research funding was received from the Australian Government Research Training Partnership, the Carlyle-Greenwell Postgraduate Scholarship and the Ben Sandford Cullen Award.

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada announces judicial appointments in the province of Quebec

    Source: Government of Canada News

    September 23, 2024 – Ottawa, Ontario – Department of Justice Canada  

    The Honourable Arif Virani, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, today announced the following appointments under the judicial application process established in 2016. This process emphasizes transparency, merit, and the diversity of the Canadian population, and will continue to ensure the appointment of jurists who meet the highest standards of excellence and integrity.

    Mathieu Piché-Messier, Partner and National Business Leader in Commercial Litigation at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP in Montréal, is appointed a Judge of the Superior Court of Quebec for the district of Montréal. Justice Piché-Messier replaces Justice P.H. Bélanger (Montréal), who resigned effective May 24, 2024.

    Lysane Cree, Administrative Judge at the Tribunal administratif de déontologie policière in Montréal, is appointed a Judge of the Superior Court of Quebec for the district of Montréal. Justice Cree replaces Justice M. Lachance (Montréal), who was elevated to the Court of Appeal effective June 17, 2024.

    Horia Bundaru, Partner at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP in Montréal, is appointed a Judge of the Superior Court of Quebec for the district of Montréal. Justice Bundaru replaces Justice K. Kear-Jodoin (Montréal), who elected to become a supernumerary judge effective July 16, 2024.

    Quote

    “I wish Justices Piché-Messier, Cree, and Bundaru every success as they take on their new roles. I am confident they will serve Quebecers well as members of the Superior Court of Quebec.”

    —The Hon. Arif Virani, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

    Biographies

    Justice Mathieu Piché-Messier was born and raised in Montreal. He obtained his Bachelor of Civil Law from the Faculty of Law of the Université de Sherbrooke in 1997. He was admitted to the Barreau du Québec in 1998.

    Since 2000, Justice Piché-Messier has practised commercial litigation at Borden Ladner Gervais, where, after being named partner in 2006, he headed the Montreal Commercial Litigation Group for seven years, before being appointed National Business Leader—Commercial Litigation. His practice focused on extraordinary remedies and commercial litigation in the fields of anti-fraud, high technology, industrial espionage, privacy and identity theft, international arbitration, aeronautics, defamation, as well as intellectual property. As a litigator, author, and lecturer, he was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 2018 and a Fellow of Litigation Counsels of America in 2021; he also received the Advocatus Emeritus (Ad. E.) distinction from the Barreau du Québec in 2022. He has been recognized by his peers for appearing in editions of Chambers, The Best Lawyers, and Benchmark Litigation as one of Canada’s top 50 litigators.

    Justice Piché-Messier was a member of the board of directors of the Barreau du Québec, the Montreal Bar, and the Canadian Bar Association—specifically the Quebec Branch. He was also President of the Centre d’accès à l’information juridique du Québec (CAIJ) and of the Young Bar Association of Montreal. Active in the Montreal community, he has been a member on the board of directors of Cirque Éloize, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, Enfants-retour, and Make-a-Wish.

    Justice Piché-Messier and his wife, Natacha Lavoie, are the proud parents of Vincent and Victoria.

    Justice Lysane Cree is from the Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) Nation and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a minor in Northern Studies from McGill University in 1996, before obtaining a Bachelor of Civil Law and a Bachelor of Common Law from McGill University in 2000. She was admitted to the Barreau du Québec in 2003 and subsequently, to the New York State Bar in 2012 and the Law Society of Ontario in 2020.

    Justice Cree began her practice at Hutchins Legal Inc. and focused solely on indigenous law matters and working with First Nations governments in several provinces and occasionally in the State of New York for sixteen years. While still in private practice, she began working on a part-time basis in police ethics with the Comité de déontologie policière (now Tribunal), hearing cases involving indigenous police services in the province of Quebec. She then worked as a decision-maker at the Comité de discipline de la Chambre de la sécurité financière from 2019 to 2021 before becoming a full-time administrative judge at the Tribunal administratif de déontologie policière. During this time, she was involved with the Canadian Council of Administrative Tribunals, as a member of both the Tribunal Excellence Committee and the Truth & Reconciliation Committee.

    Justice Cree is an avid equestrian and enjoys spending time with her horses.

    Justice Horia Bundaru immigrated to Canada at the age of eleven with his parents and younger sister. He obtained a B.C.L./LL.B. from the Faculty of Law of McGill University in 2005, and he was admitted to the Barreau du Québec in 2006.

    Justice Bundaru has spent his entire career at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, where he became a partner in 2016 and where, at the time of his appointment, he headed the Litigation Group in Montreal. A renowned litigator, his practice focused on commercial litigation, construction law and energy law. Since 2016, he has taught civil procedure and drafting at the École du Barreau.

    Justice Bundaru has chaired the Quebec Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, the Liaison Committee of the Montreal Bar with the Superior Court of Quebec in the Civil Division, along with the Salon VISEZ DROIT. At the time of his appointment, he was President of the Liaison Committee with the Court of Appeal and a member of the Conseil de la magistrature du Québec. He is listed in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, Benchmark Litigation Canada as a “Litigation Star,” Thomson Reuters Stand-out Lawyers, The Legal 500 Canada and Best Lawyers in Canada. In 2022, he was named a Fellow of the Canadian College of Construction Lawyers.

    Justice Bundaru is passionate about literature, and he is an avid cross-country skier and tennis player. He and his wife Maya—also a lawyer—have two daughters: Ariane and Éloïse.

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: FEMA Celebrates Climate Week NYC, Officials Across the Agency Participate in Events, Promote FEMA’s Year of Resilience

    Source: US Federal Emergency Management Agency

    Headline: FEMA Celebrates Climate Week NYC, Officials Across the Agency Participate in Events, Promote FEMA’s Year of Resilience

    FEMA Celebrates Climate Week NYC, Officials Across the Agency Participate in Events, Promote FEMA’s Year of Resilience

    WASHINGTON – As extreme weather events caused by climate change continue to increase across the nation, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, U.S. Fire Administrator Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell, FEMA Deputy Administrator for Resilience Victoria Salinas, and FEMA Regional Administrator Region 2 David Warrington will attend Climate Week NYC and lead FEMA’s largest contingent of FEMA officials to ever attend the annual gathering. During the week, FEMA officials will highlight FEMA’s Year of Resilience, host several engagements, and participate in Climate Week NYC Events. 

    FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell will attend several events and address topics including extreme heat, climate risk, resilience, and how climate change is impacting the insurance market. Administrator Criswell will be a keynote speaker at the WSJ House, Bloomberg Sustainable Finance Forum, AON’s Resilience and Adaptation: Ensuring Economic Progress and Combating Climate Risk, and Global Citizen Addressing the Human Costs of Extreme Heat – Financing Measures to Safeguard Human Health at an International and National Level.

    As New York City hosts the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in addition to Climate Week NYC, FEMA is proudly supporting efforts to ensure a safe event each year and is dedicated to ensuring a unified coordinated effort between Local, State, and Federal agencies throughout the greater New York City area throughout the week. 

    Kicking off Climate Week NYC this year, the U.S. Fire Administration will host a Fire Chiefs Roundtable: Climate Change Driven Risks, Response and Resilience: Fire Chiefs’ Perspective  to bring together officials to discuss the current wildfire situation and what it will take to get ahead of future wildfire ignitions and the devastating impacts of intensifying storms. The roundtable will build on discussions and information exchanges that occurred during the inaugural World Fire Congress convened by FEMA/USFA in Washington, D.C. in May 2024.

    FEMA will also host a Risk Communications Webinar, where presenters will share successful strategies to communicate risk and inspire preparedness action in the face of increasingly frequent hazards—an alarming consequence of climate change. 

    FEMA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are partnering for a full-day summit exploring resilient infrastructure challenges and innovative solutions through discussions on the recently published National Resilience Guidance, nature-based solutions, energy efficiency, net-zero energy, and sustainable disaster debris management. 

    The following events are open to the media: 

    Monday, September 23

    10:00 AM: U.S. Fire Administration to Host a Fire Chiefs Roundtable: Climate Change Driven Risks, Response and Resilience: Fire Chiefs’ Perspective (Virtual; In-Person Registration is Closed)

    What: The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) will host an interactive roundtable discussion on climate change driven risks, response and resilience during Climate Week NYC. This interactive roundtable brings together fire chiefs and their government counterparts including U.S. Fire Administrator Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell, FEMA Associate Administrator for External Affairs Justin Ángel Knighten, FEMA Associate Deputy Administrator for Resilience Robin Keegan, FEMA Regional Administrator Region 2 David Warrington, Fire Chief Orange County Brian Fennessy, Fire Chief Los Angeles County Tony Marrone, Fire Chief Fairfax County John Butler, Fire and EMS Chief Washington, D.C. John Donnelly and acting Fire Chief New York City John Esposito. Discussion topics will include the current wildfire situation and what it will take to get ahead of future wildfire ignitions and the devastating impacts of intensifying storms. FEMA Region 2 will host the roundtable discussion including stakeholders from academia, nongovernmental organizations, U.S. and international government representatives and fire service leaders. The roundtable will build on discussions and information exchanges that occurred during the inaugural World Fire Congress convened by FEMA/USFA in Washington, D.C. in May 2024.

    2:30 PM: FEMA to Host National Webinar – Risk Communications (Virtual)

    What: Presenters will share successful strategies to communicate risk and inspire preparedness action in the face of increasingly frequent hazards—an alarming consequence of climate change. This event is a valuable opportunity for risk and crisis communicators, community leaders, emergency management professionals and stakeholders involved in disaster preparedness. Participants will learn strategies for creating awareness and activities that help communities plan for disasters and build resilience amid the climate crisis. Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions to support communications best practices related to developing and sharing critical preparedness messaging.

    Tuesday, September 24

    9:00 AM – 4:00 PM: FEMA and EPA to Host Event: Climate Resilient Infrastructure: Building a More Sustainable Future (Virtual and In-Person Registration Required)

    What: FEMA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are partnering for a full-day summit exploring resilient infrastructure challenges and innovative solutions through discussions on the recently published National Resilience Guidance, nature-based solutions, energy efficiency, net-zero energy and sustainable disaster debris management. Attendees will get to hear from FEMA and our public, private and academic partners on several topics including nature-based solutions, net-zero energy projects, energy efficiency efforts, the use of salvaged materials and how each of these fit into nationwide resilience strategy.

    Where:  Climate Week NYC: Climate Resilient Infrastructure: Building a More Sustainable Future.

    Register: Climate Resilient Infrastructure: Building a More Sustainable Future Tickets, Tue, Sep 24, 2024 at 9:00 AM.

    2:45 PM: FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell to Speak at WSJ House 

    What: FEMA Administrator Speaks at Wall Street Journal Live on resilience.

    Where: Bryant Park Grill, 25 W 40th St, New York, NY 10018. 

    To register for this event, please contact WSJ Live.

    Wednesday, September 25

    9:20-10:00 AM: FEMA Administrator to speak at AON’s Resilience and Adaptation: Ensuring Economic Progress and Combating Climate Risk

    What:  FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell will join a panel discussion on how the unprecedented risk environment has upended the traditional balance where insurance was the dependable safeguard enabling the flow of capital across the economy. Severe weather and a changing climate are rendering historically safe investments uninsurable, sending shockwaves through the financial systems and threatening the livelihoods and progress of institutions and individuals alike. This high-level dialogue will touch on the major challenges a lack of insurance access creates for the public and private sectors, what needs to be done and the potential for new paradigms to bring the system back into balance. 

    Where: Aon Corporate Headquarters, One Liberty Plaza (165 Broadway), New York, NY 10006.

    To register for this event, please contact Aon. 

    11:00 AM: FEMA Administrator to speak at Global Citizen Addressing the Human Costs of Extreme Heat – Financing Measures to Safeguard Human Health at an International and National Level 

    What: FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell will join a panel discussion to discuss extreme heat. 

    Where: Guastavino’s located at 409 E 59th St, New York, NY 10022.

    To register for this event, please contact Global Citizen.

    Thursday, September 26

    1:30 PM-2:00 PM: FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell will speak at Bloomberg’s Sustainable Finance Forum

    What: FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell will headline the Bloomberg Sustainable Finance Forum at Bloomberg Headquarters for a fireside chat with Bloomberg Intelligence Director of ESG Research Eric Kane. 

    Where: 731 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10022.

    To register for this event, please contact Bloomberg Sustainable Finance Forum.

    3:00 PM-4:00 PM: Climate Resiliency Fireside Chat with FEMA, NASA and NOAA (Virtual Registration Required)

    What: FEMA, NASA and NOAA will be discussing climate resiliency and the importance of forward-thinking programs that equip communities for the climate challenges of today and tomorrow. Panelists include FEMA Deputy Administrator for Resilience Victoria Salinas, NASA Chief Scientist Dr. Kate Calvin and NOAA Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Deputy Administrator Jainey Bavishi. This is a unique opportunity for community leaders and members from federal, state, local, tribal and territorial governments, nonprofits, the private sector and academia to connect with subject matter experts, share knowledge and deepen understanding of how to build resilient communities in the face of a changing climate.

    amy.ashbridge

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: During Climate Week, Markey, Badum, Merkley, Barragán Lead Over 100 International Lawmakers in Urging Biden Administration to Reject New LNG Exports

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts Ed Markey

    Letter Text (PDF)

    Washington (September 23, 2024) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chair of the Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety, today partnered with Representative Lisa Badum, group coordinator in the German Bundestag’s Climate and Energy Committee and chairwoman of the Subcommittee on International Climate and Energy Policy, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Representative Nanette Barragán (CA-44), Senate and House colleagues, and leaders from around the world in sending a letter to President Joe Biden and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, urging the administration to reject new liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports amidst the global climate crisis.

    The United States is already the world’s largest exporter of LNG and is on track to exponentially increase export capacity – a full build-out that could yield hundreds of million metric tons of additional greenhouse gases at home and abroad. Pushing back on arguments that United States’ international allies need the country’s LNG, members of the U.S. Congress and Parliaments around the world are requesting that the administration reject these applications. 

    In their letter to the administration, the lawmakers wrote, “Far from being a clean ‘bridge’ fuel, LNG causes significant environmental harm. In addition to the greenhouse gas released when LNG is burned, the potent greenhouse gas effects of pervasive methane leaks throughout the LNG supply chain — which extends from initial exploration all the way through gas production, pipeline transportation, liquefaction, vessel transportation, regasification, distribution, and end-use consumption — likely eliminate any climate advantage of reduced greenhouse gas emissions.”

    The lawmakers continued, “In addition to the environmental and health benefits, limiting U.S. LNG exports will actually support global energy security, not jeopardize it. In both emerging and developed markets, overinvestment in LNG diverts resources away from cheaper, more stable, and less trade-dependent clean energy investments.”

    In Europe:

    “While Europe’s energy system was strained in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, it has since recovered. Europeans united to slash overall gas demand by 20 percent over the past two years. Gas prices are lower than before the start of the war, despite drastically lower supply from Russia.”

    In Asia:

    “China, the world’s largest LNG importer, has emerged as a major re-exporter within the region and globally, cashing in on lucrative price differentials that are facilitated by long-term agreements with the United States. Similarly, Japan, facing declining domestic demand and oversupply, is redirecting LNG trade volumes to emerging markets in South and Southeast Asia, bolstering profitable re-trading ventures.” Additionally, “South Korea, despite existing low terminal utilization and climate commitments, has invested significantly in expanding LNG infrastructure, highlighting a mismatch between capacity expansions and actual demand.”

    In Africa:

    “The expansion of LNG export infrastructure has sparked displacement, conflict, and environmental degradation, with many projects facing the risk of becoming stranded assets amid declining global demand. The African LNG export market parallels the United States in prioritizing foreign market interests over local needs amidst declining demand. U.S. participation in the LNG export market fuels this exploitative industry, undermining claims of leadership in a just global energy transition.”

    In the Americas:

    “Investments in new re-exporting infrastructure in Mexico will soon become stranded assets with poor financial viability, threatening the economic stability of the country for the benefit of short-term U.S. interests. Moreover, the export of U.S. LNG through Mexico also transfers environmental and climate justice burdens associated with LNG infrastructure, expanding the footprint of the industry’s harm to the country’s unique biodiversity and frontline communities in Mexico.”

    Cosigners in the U.S. include Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Representatives Jared Huffman (CA-02), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), and Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC). Cosigners internationally include 30 Members of the Thailand Parliament, 15 Members of the European Parliament, 10 Members of the German Parliament, 3 Members of the United Kingdom Parliament, 2 Members of the Flemish Parliament, 2 Members of the National Assembly of the Gambia, 2 Members of the South Sudan Parliament, 2 Members of the Tanzanian Parliament the Australian Senator for Victoria, Brazilian State Deputy for Para, Canadian Senator for Quebec, the Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium, 1 former Member of the Sierra Leone Parliament, 1 former Member of the Catalan Parliament, 1 former Member of the Flemish Parliament, 1 Member of the Timor-Leste Parliament, Member of Parliament and Special Envoy on Climate Change and Environment from the Republic of Vanuatu, 1 Member of the Sierra Leone Parliament, 1 Member of Tasmania’s Legislative Council, 1 Member of the Australian Parliament, 1 Member of the Austrian Parliament, 1 Member of the Cambodian Parliament, 1 Member of the Cameroon National Assembly, 1 Member of the Colombian Congress, 1 Member of the Gambian Parliament, 1 Member of the Ghanaian Parliament, 1 Member of the Liberian House of Representatives, 1 Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, 1 Member of the Scottish Parliament, 1 Member of the Swedish Parliament, 1 Member of the Swiss Parliament (National Council), 1 Member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly, 1 Member of the Ugandan Parliament, 1 Member of the UK House of Lords, and 1 Member of the Victorian Parliament in Australia on behalf of the Victorian Greens Members of Parliament.

    In July 2023, Senator Markey and several New England Senators sent a letter to the Department of Energy urging it to consider the disproportionate negative impacts of LNG on New England as the department considers updates to its underlying environmental and economic analyses to improve export authorization decisions for LNG. 

    In May 2024, Senator Markey and Representative Yvette Clarke (NY-09) announced the reintroduction of the Block All New (BAN) Fossil Fuel Exports Act, legislation that would amend the Energy Policy and Conservation Act and ban the export of American crude oil and natural gas abroad to protect frontline communities from dangerous export infrastructure, prioritize U.S. consumers against fossil fuel profiteering, and help ensure the United States meets its climate and clean energy commitments on the world stage.

    In March 2023, Senator Markey and Representatives Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) and Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) reintroduced the Fossil Free Finance Act, legislation that would direct the Federal Reserve to require major banks and other Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs) to stop financing projects and activities linked to increased greenhouse gas emissions and submit a plan on how they would meet these requirements. In October 2022, Senator Markey reintroduced the OPEC Accountability Act, legislation to require the U.S. President to initiate consultations with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and some non-OPEC countries to reduce crude oil production.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI: Amundi: Launch of the capital increase reserved for employees

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Amundi: Launch of the capital increase reserved for employees

    Amundi launches a capital increase reserved for employees (under the name We Share Amundi). This capital increase was initially decided on 6 February 2024 under the terms specified below.

    This offer reflects Amundi’s desire to involve employees not only in the Company’s development but also in the creation of economic value. This will strengthen the employees’ sense of belonging.

    The discount offered to employees will be 30%, as for the five previous capital increase reserved for employees.

    Eligible employees can subscribe to the offering between 23 September and 4 October 2024 included. The capital increase is scheduled for 31 October 2024 and the newly issued Amundi shares will be listed on Euronext Paris on 4 November 2024.

    As a reminder, employees currently own 1.41 % of Amundi’s share capital.

    The impact of this offering on the net earnings per share should be negligible. The maximum number of Amundi shares to be issued will be capped at 1,000,000 shares (i.e. less than 0.5% of the Company’s share capital and voting rights).

    Terms of the capital increase

    Issuer

    Amundi, a French limited company (société anonyme) with share capital of €511.619.085 and with its offices located at 91-93, Boulevard Pasteur, 75015 Paris, France, registered with the Paris Trade and Companies Registry under number 314 222 902 (the “Company”).

    Securities offered

    The offering is a capital increase in cash reserved for employees, employees who have taken early retirement and retired employees of Amundi Group companies that are members of the UES Amundi Company Savings Plan (“PEE”) or Amundi’s International Group Savings Plan (“PEGI”). The capital increase will be carried out pursuant to Resolution 24 of the Annual General Meeting of 12 May 2023, without preferential shareholder subscription rights.

    The capital increase will be capped at 1,000,000 shares with a par value of €2.50 per share. The newly issued shares will be fully assimilated to existing ordinary shares.

    Amundi will request that the newly issued shares under the offering be admitted for trading on Euronext Paris as soon as possible after the capital increase is completed, currently scheduled for 31 October 2024. These shares will be listed on the same line as the existing shares, under ISIN code FR0004125920.

    Terms of the 2024 offering

    We Share Amundi is being made available to employees in France and Amundi Group entities in the following countries: Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, United Kingdom and United States.

    Employees of companies that are members of the PEE or PEGI, with at least three months of employment, whether consecutive or not, between 1 January 2023 and the last day of the subscription period, as well as retired employees in France that have kept assets in the PEE, are eligible to the 2023 offering.

    The subscription price is set at 47.00 euros. This subscription price is the average of the share opening price over the 20 trading days between 23 August and 19 September 2024 (included), minus a 30% discount.

    Eligible employees can subscribe to the offering between 23 September 2024 and 4 October 2024 included. Shares can be subscribed to via the FCPE (Employment Shareholding Fund) AMUNDI ACTIONNARIAT      RELAIS 2024 or FCPE AMUNDI SHARES RELAIS 2024, with the exception of certain countries where shares will be subscribed to directly. Once the capital increase is completed, and following decisions by the funds’ Supervisory Boards and the approval of the French Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), the FCPE AMUNDI ACTIONNARIAT RELAIS 2024 will be merged into the FCPE AMUNDI ACTIONNARIAT, and the FCPE AMUNDI SHARES RELAIS 2024 will be merged into the FCPE AMUNDI SHARES.

    The voting rights attached to the shares held via the Funds will be exercised by the Fund’s Supervisory Board. The voting rights attached to the directly-held shares will be exercised by the subscribers.

    The shares subscribed to under We Share Amundi will be subject to a five-year lock-up period, unless an early-exit event occurs as described in the PEE or PEGI plan rules. Early-exit events will be adjusted where applicable for certain countries.

    An employee can invest up to a maximum of €40,000. This cap is assessed on all the employee shareholding operations of the Crédit Agricole group in which Amundi employees could participate in 2024. Employees may finance their subscription by making voluntary contributions to the plans, up to the annual cap on investments in employee savings plans which is set at 25% of their gross annual compensation. Members of the UES Amundi PEE are also entitled to use their     assets held in another specific fund of the PEE.

    Should subscription requests exceed the maximum number of shares available under the offering, the smallest subscriptions will be fully honoured while the highest subscriptions will be subject to successive caps until all available shares are subscribed. In France, any cap on subscriptions will first be applied to portions of subscriptions financed by voluntary contributions, then on the subscriptions financed by the transfer of available assets held in another specific fund of the PEE, and finally on the subscriptions financed by the transfer of unavailable assets held in another specific fund of the PEE.

    Disclaimer

    This press release is for information only and is not a solicitation to subscribe to Amundi shares.

    We Share Amundi is strictly reserved to the eligible employees mentioned in this release and shall only be available in countries where such an offer has been registered with the competent local authorities, or the latter has been notified thereof, and/or following the approval of a prospectus by the competent local authorities, or if an exemption has been granted from the obligation to publish a prospectus or to register the offering with the authorities, or to notify the latter thereof.

    More generally, We Share Amundi will only be available in countries where all required registration and/or notification procedures have been completed and the necessary authorizations obtained.

    Contact

    For any questions about We Share Amundi, eligible employees may contact their Head of Human Resources or visit the following website: www.weshare.amundi.com

    ***

    About Amundi

    Amundi, the leading European asset manager, ranking among the top 10 global players1, offers its 100 million clients – retail, institutional and corporate – a complete range of savings and investment solutions in active and passive management, in traditional or real assets. This offering is enhanced with IT tools and services to cover the entire savings value chain. A subsidiary of the Crédit Agricole group and listed on the stock exchange, Amundi currently manages more than €2.15 trillion of assets2.

    With its six international investment hubs3, financial and extra-financial research capabilities and long-standing commitment to responsible investment, Amundi is a key player in the asset management landscape.

    Amundi clients benefit from the expertise and advice of 5,500 employees in 35 countries.

    Amundi, a trusted partner, working every day in the interest of its clients and society

    www.amundi.com    

    Press contacts:        
    Natacha Andermahr 
    Tel. +33 1 76 37 86 05
    natacha.andermahr@amundi.com 

    Corentin Henry
    Tel. +33 1 76 36 26 96
    corentin.henry@amundi.com

    Investor contacts:
    Cyril Meilland, CFA
    Tel. +33 1 76 32 62 67
    cyril.meilland@amundi.com 

    Thomas Lapeyre
    Tel. +33 1 76 33 70 54
    thomas.lapeyre@amundi.com 

    Annabelle Wiriath

    Tel. + 33 1 76 32 43 92

    annabelle.wiriath@amundi.com

    1Source: IPE “Top 500 Asset Managers” published in June 2023, based on assets under management as at 31/12/2022
    2Amundi data as at 31/12/2023
    3Boston, Dublin, London, Milan, Paris and Tokyo

    Attachment

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Starmer expresses interest in Italy’s migration approach – how different is it from the Rwanda plan?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Chiara Graziani, Assistant professor, Law, Bocconi University

    One of Keir Starmer’s first actions as UK prime minister was to put an end to the controversial Rwanda asylum scheme. The plan, introduced by his predecessors, aimed to deter small boat crossings by sending those who reached the UK to Rwanda to have their claims assessed.

    So it was surprising to many observers to see Starmer visit Italy for a meeting with Giorgia Meloni about Italy’s handling of asylum seekers through an arrangement with Albania. At first glance, this approach is similar to the Rwanda plan.

    Both are examples of “externalisation” of immigration. This consists of collaborating with other countries to manage migration, often by moving immigrants who arrive on the soil of a certain country to the territory of another country. Forms of externalisation are used by several other countries, such as Australia, Canada and the US.

    The UK pursued this approach through its Rwanda scheme, under which anyone arriving irregularly in the UK to claim asylum would be moved to Rwanda to have their claims processed by Rwandan officials. In exchange, the UK had agreed to give Rwanda nearly £500 million in development funding, plus additional funds for each person moved.

    The policy faced serious political opposition and legal challenges, and ultimately never got off the ground before the general election.

    Want more politics coverage from academic experts? Every week, we bring you informed analysis of developments in government and fact check the claims being made.

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    Italy’s partnership with Albania is different in some ways. Under a protocol signed by both countries, asylum seekers rescued at sea while trying to reach Italy will be moved to Albania for their applications to be examined. This will take place in processing centres that Italy will finance and build for this purpose.

    In those areas, however, Italian – and not Albanian – law will be applied and Italian authorities will be competent for the implementation of the process. Under the Rwanda scheme, Rwandan officials (and law) would have governed the asylum procedure once seekers were moved there. This was part of why the UK supreme court said it was not a “safe” country and ruled the plan unlawful.

    Additionally, successful applicants will be granted asylum in Italy, while the Rwanda plan would have only allowed them to stay in Rwanda (not come to the UK).



    Read more:
    Is the Rwanda plan acting as a deterrent? Here’s what the evidence says about this approach

    The Albanian programme is not up and running yet, but Starmer has praised Meloni’s “remarkable progress” in reducing irregular arrivals to Italy by 60%.

    In recent years, Italy has enacted other measures to manage migration by paying North African countries to stop illegal migration to Italy. Italy financed the construction of a maritime area where Tunisian boats can intervene and bring migrants to Tunisian soil.

    Similarly, Italy has outsourced search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean to the Libyan Coast Guard, in exchange for funding to enhance Libyan migration infrastructure and a commitment to improve conditions of reception centres.

    However, human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have raised serious concerns about these arrangements. In both cases, they say, reception centres amount to fully fledged detention centres, under poor conditions potentially amounting to inhumane and degrading treatment. Meloni has called such accusations “completely groundless”.

    An investigation by The Guardian newspaper, published after Starmer’s visit to Italy, detailed harsh abuse of migrants by Tunisian coast guard and border patrol. Human rights groups have been raising concerns for years about the Libyan Coast Guard’s treatment of migrants in distress at sea, including potentially conducting illegal “pushback” operations, which involve pushing boats back across a border they have crossed.



    Read more:
    The EU’s outsourced migration control is violent, expensive and ineffective

    Potential hurdles

    Starmer has said he is “interested” in Italy’s plan with Albania, and has expressed openness to other forms of externalisation. He also wants the UK to work closer with other European states to cooperate on migration.

    One positive side to the Italian model is undoubtedly that Italy does not waive its legal jurisdiction. Italian law applies in the Albanian processing centres, although conflicts with Albanian law (whose jurisdiction can’t be eliminated totally) may arise. If the UK incorporates this aspect in any future plan, it could mitigate a key weak point of the Rwanda plan.

    The Italian scheme also explicitly guarantees that the UN refugee commissioner oversees the process taking place in Albania, in theory ensuring that international human rights standards are met. However, it is certainly possible that these safeguards might be overlooked in the practical enforcement of the agreement, for example because Italian law will need to be applied by officers of a foreign country.

    It is worth nothing that Italy and the UK currently have very different geopolitical positions. Italy is an EU member state, and bound by European asylum laws and standards. This too could cause future legal issues should any of Italy’s actions in Albania violate EU law.

    Any externalisation policy will always involve balancing several interests. First and foremost, the need to comply with human rights standards, but also the fair handling of migration, and the necessity to avoid some countries taking more people than they can support.

    These pressures will be different for the UK than for Italy, and must be carefully considered. Just as the migration of people is a thorny issue, so too is the migration of policy.

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

    – ref. Starmer expresses interest in Italy’s migration approach – how different is it from the Rwanda plan? – https://theconversation.com/starmer-expresses-interest-in-italys-migration-approach-how-different-is-it-from-the-rwanda-plan-223405

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Kaos hinges on prophecies – historian explains the real oracles that inspired the Netflix show

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Ellie Mackin Roberts, Research fellow, University of Bristol

    This article contains spoilers for series one of Kaos.

    Central to the plot of Netflix’s new series, Kaos, are four prophecies. In the lore of the series, all humans are given a prophecy, and no two can be the same. There’s just one problem – all four important prophecies in the show are identical:

    A line appears

    The order wanes

    The family falls

    and Kaos reigns.

    Each of the prophecy’s four recipients – Zeus (Jeff Goldblum), Riddy (Aurora Perrineau), Caeneus (Misia Butler) and Ari (Leila Farzad) – interprets, and therefore acts upon, the prophecy in a way that makes sense to their own lives. Their connected fates highlight the series’s theme of interconnected destinies and the inescapable nature of prophecy.

    By the end of the first series, three of the four lines of the prophecy have come true. A vertical wrinkle appears on Zeus’s forehead, driving his obsession with instilling fear of the gods into mortals once more. A hierarchy shift ends the season with Prometheus sitting on Zeus’s throne, which exemplifies the order waning. The families of each of the three mortal recipients fall apart.

    Watching the show, you may have understood the prophecies differently. After all, prophecy is open to interpretation. Or, is it?

    Priestess of Delphi by John Collier (1891), depicting Pythia.
    Art Gallery of South Australia

    In Kaos, the Fates (who the ancient Greeks called the Moirai) are responsible for making prophecies about the gods and their followers. There’s Clotho (Ché), who spins the thread of life, Lachesis (Suzy Eddie Izzard), who measures out the thread and Atropos (Sam Buttery), who cuts it off, marking the end of life.

    In ancient Greek mythology, the Moirai controlled the destiny of men and – in some instances – gods, but they were not responsible for making prophecies. This task fell to the gods, usually Apollo and Zeus, who made prophecies in response to questions people asked.

    As real people couldn’t speak to the gods directly, they went to religious officials known as oracles. The Delphic Oracle, associated with Apollo, god of music and healing as well as prophecy, was the most famous and prestigious of these oracles.

    Also known as the Pythia, she was Apollo’s high priestess and was the one who delivered the prophecies (numerous women fulfilled the role over the years). Ancient people believed the Pythia to be directly inspired by Apollo, and her words were taken to be coming from him.

    We do not fully understand how this process worked, though there have been suggestions that the Pythia went into a trance through chewing laurel leaves, which were sacred to Apollo. Another theory suggests trances were induced through toxic gasses entering the room within the temple she worked in, through a natural fissure in the rock.



    Read more:
    Hidden women of history: the priestess Pythia at the Delphic Oracle, who spoke truth to power

    Prophecies in Kaos

    It is from literary reports of oracles from Delphi that the format of Kaos’s prophecies derives.

    Although historical oracles are usually not poetic, those from literary accounts of history, such as Herodotus’s The Histories, are often presented in hexameter (a kind of poetic metrical meter consisting of six parts per line).

    One famous oracle was reportedly given to the Athenians when they were preparing to fight off the Persians:

    But a wall made of wood does farsighted Zeus to Tritogenes grant

    Alone and unravaged, to help you and your children.

    The Athenians debated the meaning of these words, just as the characters in Kaos consider the interpretations of their own prophecies. They decided that it meant one of two things: that Athens would be fine because the Acropolis used to be surrounded by hedgerows, or that they should build a fleet of ships to be a “wooden wall” against the enemy.

    Themistokles, the main proponent of the second reading, won out and the fleet was built. Athens faced the Persian fleet at the battle of Salamis (an island off the coast of Athens) in 480BC and won, therefore, in their eyes, proving that this reading of the prophecy was correct.

    Interpreting prophecy

    In Kaos, show creator Charlie Covell has presented something very true to the spirit of prophecy in ancient Greek history and mythology – even while subverting the form that prophecy takes.

    In ancient Greece, Zeus couldn’t have received an oracular prophecy, as all prophecy was thought to originate from him. But he was subject to the destinies cast by the Moirai. For example, in the Iliad, Zeus is unable to save his mortal son, Sarpedon, from his fate (dying by the hand of Patroclus) – it is ultimately out of his control.

    In Kaos, through misunderstanding, interpretation and reinterpretation, the four recipients of the Fates’ prophecy each play a crucial role in its fulfilment – but only when they (and we) read that prophecy in our own ways.

    The prophecies of ancient Greece could later be revealed to be incorrectly interpreted. When Croesus, king of Lydia, was told that if he went to war he would destroy a great kingdom, he interpreted that as the Persian kingdom, but it turned out to be his own.

    So too might our understanding of the prophecy in Kaos turn out to be a misinterpretation. By expertly weaving the Moirai and oracles into the narrative, Kaos emphasises the crucial role of fate in reshaping the destinies of people and events, emphasising their interconnectedness. In doing so, the show reflects the ancient Greek belief in the power and inescapable nature of prophecy.


    Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

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

    – ref. Kaos hinges on prophecies – historian explains the real oracles that inspired the Netflix show – https://theconversation.com/kaos-hinges-on-prophecies-historian-explains-the-real-oracles-that-inspired-the-netflix-show-238833

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: IMF Executive Board Concludes 2024 Article IV Consultation with Brunei Darussalam

    Source: IMF – News in Russian

    September 23, 2024

    Washington, DC: The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded on September 16, 2024 the Article IV consultation[1] with Brunei Darussalam on a lapse-of-time basis[2].

    Brunei’s real GDP rose by 1.4 percent in 2023 after two years of recession, mainly driven by the non-oil and gas (O&G) sector and the earlier-than-anticipated production from the new Salman oil field in Q4 2023. Inflation fell, reaching 0.4 percent in 2023 compared to 3.7 percent in 2022, supported by the easing of post-pandemic supply chain disruptions, the softening commodity prices, as well as large subsidies and price controls. The fiscal and external position deteriorated in 2023 reflecting weaker O&G production and prices. The current account was also impacted by higher service imports and net income outflows. The banking sector remains stable, liquid, and well capitalized with declining non-performing loans. 

    The recovery is anticipated to continue and risks to the outlook are broadly balanced. Growth is forecasted at about 2.4 percent in 2024 on the back of expected increase in O&G production, including from the new offshore oil fields and rebound in downstream sector, while domestic non-O&G non-tradeable sector growth is expected to plateau. Inflation is expected to remain unchanged at 0.5 percent in 2024, and fiscal and external balances would stabilize alongside O&G prices. Near-term risks tilted downward due to external factors and O&G production challenges. New O&G field discoveries would provide significant upside, while accounting for decarbonization pressures. Structural reform implementation, with product diversification and technological advancement, could boost productivity, but economic and social challenges would remain with adoption of artificial intelligence.

    Executive Board Assessment

    In concluding the 2024 Article IV consultation with Brunei Darussalam, Executive Directors endorsed staff’s appraisal, as follows:

    Growth rebounded moderately in 2023. The stronger-than-expected growth turnaround was supported by a new O&G field coming to stream in late 2023, a high interest rate environment and post-pandemic momentum boosting finance, transport, and hospitality. However, persistent O&G production challenges and maintenance related disruptions in downstream activities along with lower O&G prices weakened the fiscal and external positions in 2023. Consequently, the external position for 2023 remained substantially weaker than suggested by fundamentals and desirable policies and the output gap is assessed to be negative. Disinflation continued mainly due to easing supply chain disruptions and the softening of commodity prices, aided by continuing large scale subsidies and price controls.

    The narrowing output gap, O&G revenue uncertainty and long-term decarbonization trends warrant a prudent fiscal stance, while protecting the vulnerable and public investment. While the use of fiscal buffers in FY 2023/24 was appropriate in view of the cyclical position and to support economic recovery, restoring fiscal buffers through growth-friendly fiscal consolidation should be prioritized going forward. This will require enhanced revenue generation, and could be supported by a low-rate carbon tax, and expenditure rationalization—including via more targeted subsidies.  These efforts should be guided by a fiscal consolidation plan with clear fiscal targets. Plans to establish a MTFF and fiscal anchors, strengthening fiscal risk management and transparency are welcome.

    The currency board arrangement with Singapore is sound and has played a key role in supporting Brunei’s macroeconomic and financial sector stability. Efforts to improve monetary operations, by including Singapore’s interbank transactions in its analysis to understand the influence of Singapore’s policy rates since January 2024, and continuing to narrow the corridor by raising the SFDR, integrating I-bills into the Asset Maintenance Ratio and launching a website for better communication on monetary policies, are welcome. Enhancing inter-agency cooperation regarding the issuance and management of sukuks will be helpful. Over the medium-term, the BDCB is encouraged to build internal capacity in liquidity forecasting to calibrate the issuance of the I-bills and consider establishing a single treasury account. 

    The financial sector remained stable with strong capital and liquidity buffers. Systemic risk is assessed to be contained. Careful tracking of credit growth in both offshore and domestic personal loans is warranted, as declining oil prices could pose risks, despite low NPLs. Ensuring that that the foreign loans continue to be invested in highly credit-rated assets will help to mitigate credit risk. For domestic lending, continuing to deploy prudential measures like capping the Total Debt Service Ratio, assessing unsecured personal loan exposure, and maintaining NPL standards are welcome measures. Authorities are encouraged to stay on track with plans to implement Basel III standards for better liquidity management by the end-2024. Implementation of stress tests is recommended, while considering stress testing for climate transition and physical risks. Efforts to further strengthen prudential frameworks, develop a long-term sukuk markets, green taxonomy and unify disclosure standards, and to improve AML/CFT effectiveness will help to deepen markets, and support long-term green projects. The authorities’ commitment to continue implementing the recommended actions in the APG’s Mutual Evaluation Report is welcome.

    The authorities’ commitment  to ambitious and sustained structural reforms will be critical to ensure growth and diversification, including by transitioning to a low-carbon economy.  Reaching the authorities’ net zero emissions goal by 2050, will require continued development of  the non-O&G sector, including through adoption of green technologies. Continued skill development, while addressing AI-related challenges and closing structural gaps in the first-generation reform areas (external sector trade facilitation, improving business regulation, and governance) vis-à-vis top peers, will be key to facilitate FDI and PPPs. Completing the 2025 National Adaptation Plan and a Climate Vulnerability Assessment should support the prioritization of adaptation strategies.

    Data provided to the Fund has some shortcomings that somewhat hamper surveillance and data quality should be strengthened. Steps are needed to close the identified data gaps in national income, prices, external and fiscal sectors. Efforts for improving external sector data through a survey to better gauge trends in errors and omissions, and payables/receivables and strengthening public financial management (PFM) to build more transparent and accountable fiscal systems and aligning these further with GFSM (2014) are welcome, as are plans to enhance dissemination via the Fund’s e-GDDS portal.

    Table 1. Brunei Darussalam: Selected Economic and Financial Indicators, 2019–29

    Area: 5,765 sq. kilometers

    		                      

    Population (2023): 450,500

    		                      

    Nominal GDP per capita (2023): US$33,581.1

    		                      

    Main export destinations (2023): Australia (21.5 percent), China (16.9), and Singapore (16.7)

    		            

    Unemployment rate (2023): 5.1%

    		                      

    Labor force participation rate (2023): total 67.2; male 75.8%; female 57.3%
         

    2019

    2020

    2021

    2022

    2023

    2024

    2025

    2026

    2027

    2028

    2029
                 

    Est.

    Proj.

    Proj.

    Proj.

    Proj.

    Proj.

    Proj.

    Output and Prices

    		                      
     

    Nominal GDP (millions of Brunei dollars)

    18,375

    16,564

    18,822

    23,003

    20,319

    20,893

    22,197

    23,073

    24,081

    25,153

    26,447
     

    Nominal non-oil and gas GDP (millions of Brunei dollars)

    8,268

    8,868

    9,790

    11,043

    10,883

    11,386

    12,411

    13,620

    15,045

    16,281

    17,717
     

    Real GDP (percentage change) 1/

    3.9

    1.1

    -1.6

    -1.6

    1.4

    2.4

    2.6

    2.6

    2.7

    2.9

    3.1
       

    Oil and gas sector GDP

    3.9

    -4.9

    -4.8

    -7.3

    -2.0

    2.6

    3.1

    3.1

    1.7

    1.1

    1.0
       

    Non-oil and gas sector GDP

    3.9

    8.9

    2.0

    4.3

    4.5

    2.1

    2.0

    2.1

    3.5

    4.4

    4.7
     

    Oil production (‘000 barrels/day)

    121

    110

    107

    92

    74

    84

    94

    94

    99

    90

    90
     

    Natural gas output (millions BTUs/day)

    1,402

    1,358

    1,253

    1,151

    1,214

    1,226

    1,201

    1,220

    1,277

    1,313

    1,313
     

    Average Brunei oil price (U.S. dollars per barrel)

    68.6

    43.3

    72.1

    107.7

    87.1

    89.5

    83.3

    79.9

    77.0

    75.1

    73.8
     

    Average Brunei gas price (U.S. dollars per million BTU)

    9.1

    6.7

    9.1

    14.4

    10.9

    8.6

    9.9

    8.7

    7.8

    7.4

    7.0
     

    Consumer prices (period average, percentage change)

    -0.4

    1.9

    1.7

    3.7

    0.4

    0.5

    1.0

    1.0

    1.0

    1.0

    1.0
         

    (Fiscal Year, In percent of GDP)

    Public Finances: Budgetary Central Government

    		                      
     

    Total revenue

    26.4

    12.6

    24.0

    28.3

    17.3

    19.3

    18.9

    17.5

    16.3

    15.5

    15.1
       

    Oil and gas

    19.8

    7.7

    20.2

    24.5

    13.0

    13.6

    13.4

    12.2

    11.1

    10.1

    9.5
       

    Other

    6.5

    5.0

    3.8

    3.9

    4.3

    5.6

    5.5

    5.3

    5.2

    5.4

    5.6
     

    Total Expenditure

    31.9

    32.6

    29.1

    26.7

    29.2

    29.4

    28.6

    27.8

    26.9

    25.9

    25.1
       

    Current

    29.5

    31.3

    28.0

    25.7

    27.4

    27.0

    26.2

    25.4

    24.5

    23.6

    22.8
       

    Capital

    2.4

    1.3

    1.1

    1.0

    1.8

    2.4

    2.3

    2.3

    2.3

    2.3

    2.3
     

    Overall balance 2/

    -5.6

    -20.0

    -5.1

    1.6

    -11.8

    -10.1

    -9.6

    -10.2

    -10.5

    -10.4

    -9.9
     

    Overall primary balance excluding royalties

    -22.7

    -25.8

    -22.5

    -19.8

    -22.6

    -21.5

    -20.7

    -20.2

    -19.6

    -18.7

    -17.7
     

    Non-oil and Gas Balance (In percent of non-oil and gas GDP)

    -49.5

    -46.1

    -44.3

    -40.2

    -41.8

    -39.2

    -36.5

    -33.7

    -31.1

    -28.6

    -26.1
         

    (12-month percent change)

    Money and Banking

    		                      
     

    Private Sector Credit

    2.0

    0.2

    2.7

    6.0

    3.9

    2.0

    2.0

    2.0

    2.0

    2.0

    2.0
     

    Narrow money

    6.6

    20.8

    6.5

    1.2

    0.7

    3.8

    3.8

    3.8

    3.8

    3.8

    3.8
     

    Broad money

    4.3

    -0.4

    2.7

    1.3

    2.7

    2.6

    2.7

    2.7

    2.7

    2.7

    2.7
         

    (In millions of U.S. dollars, unless otherwise indicated)

    Balance of Payments

    		                      
     

    Goods

    2,211

    1,359

    2,679

    5,153

    3,808

    3,966

    4,264

    4,121

    3,925

    4,013

    4,131
       

    Exports

    7,210

    6,535

    11,001

    14,130

    11,264

    11,416

    11,987

    12,098

    12,024

    12,390

    12,780
       

       Of which: oil and gas

    3,244

    2,943

    4,730

    5,660

    4,185

    3,867

    4,387

    4,243

    3,798

    3,668

    3,617
       

    Imports

    4,999

    5,176

    8,322

    8,977

    7,456

    7,450

    7,723

    7,977

    8,099

    8,377

    8,649
     

    Services (net)

    -1,189

    -855

    -696

    -848

    -1,305

    -1,324

    -1,271

    -1,173

    -1,086

    -1,029

    -989
     

    Primary Income (net)

    362

    360

    90

    -370

    194

    327

    226

    193

    146

    119

    83
     

    Secondary Income (net)

    -490

    -350

    -502

    -671

    -749

    -641

    -687

    -692

    -673

    -684

    -683
     

    Current Account Balance

    894

    514

    1,570

    3,264

    1,949

    2,328

    2,532

    2,448

    2,311

    2,419

    2,541
     

    Current Account Balance (in percent of GDP)

    6.6

    4.3

    11.2

    19.6

    12.9

    15.0

    15.5

    14.4

    13.0

    13.0

    13.0
     

    Gross Official Reserves 3/

    4,273

    3,997

    4,980

    5,035

    4,485

    4,583

    4,682

    4,780

    4,879

    4,977

    5,075
       

    In months of next year’s imports of goods and services

    8.0

    5.2

    5.9

    6.6

    5.9

    5.9

    5.9

    5.9

    5.9

    5.9

    5.9
     

    Brunei dollars per U.S. dollar (period average)

    1.36

    1.38

    1.34

    1.38

    1.34

    …

    …

    …

    …

    …

    …
     

    Brunei dollar per U.S. dollar (end of period)

    1.35

    1.34

    1.36

    1.35

    1.33

    …

    …

    …

    …

    …

    …

    Sources: Data provided by the Brunei authorities; and Fund staff estimates and projections.

    1/ Non-oil and gas GDP includes the downstream sector.

    2/ In absence of government debt and interest payments, this is also primary balance.

    3/ Comprises foreign exchange assets of Brunei Darussalam Central Bank, SDR holdings, and reserve position in the Fund.

    [1] Under Article IV of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement, the IMF holds bilateral discussions with members, usually every year. A staff team visits the country, collects economic and financial information, and discusses with officials the country’s economic developments and policies. On return to headquarters, the staff prepares a report, which forms the basis for discussion by the Executive Board.

    [2] The Executive Board takes decisions under its lapse-of-time procedure when the Board agrees that a proposal can be considered without convening formal discussions.

    IMF Communications Department
    MEDIA RELATIONS

    PRESS OFFICER: Randa Elnagar

    Phone: +1 202 623-7100Email: MEDIA@IMF.org

    @IMFSpokesperson

    https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2024/09/23/pr-24340-brunei-imf-concludes-2024-article-iv-consultation

    MIL OSI

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: FACT SHEET: President  Biden Commemorates Historic Climate Legacy during Climate Week  NYC

    Source: The White House

    President Biden will deliver remarks tomorrow highlighting his climate, conservation, clean energy, and environmental justice agenda, which is lowering costs, creating good-paying and union jobs, and reducing harmful emissions

    Meanwhile, House Republicans continue reckless attempts to roll back climate, conservation, and clean energy investments

    When President Biden took office, he pledged to restore America’s climate leadership at home and abroad. Every day since, the Biden-Harris Administration has led and delivered on the most ambitious climate, conservation, clean energy, and environmental justice agenda in history, including securing the largest ever climate investment and unleashing a clean energy manufacturing boom that has attracted hundreds of billions of dollars in private sector investment; created hundreds of thousands of new clean energy jobs; and lowered energy costs for families while delivering cleaner air and water for communities across the country.

    As business leaders, government officials, young people, and other advocates from around the world gather in New York City to participate in Climate Week, tomorrow President Biden will deliver remarks in New York City highlighting his Administration’s unprecedented progress in tackling the climate crisis, cutting energy costs for everyday Americans, and creating good-paying union jobs.

    Meanwhile, as President Biden and Vice President Harris continue to implement their Investing in America agenda, many Congressional Republicans continue to deny the impacts of climate change and are actively working to roll back this Administration’s historic and urgent climate investments – in fact, House Republicans have voted more than 50 times to repeal parts of President Biden’s climate investments. The contrast couldn’t be clearer.

    From replacing toxic lead pipes and modernizing our electric grid to reducing air pollution and conserving our nation’s lands and waters, President Biden and Vice President Harris have positioned America to lead the global effort against climate change and protect the health, safety, and economic vitality of our communities and our environment for generations to come. 

    Biden-Harris Administration’s Top Climate Accomplishments

    Deploying Clean, Affordable Electricity and Strengthening America’s Power Grid
    Through the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, President Biden has secured unprecedented investments in a clean power sector, unleashing a boom in American solar, wind, battery storage, nuclear, and other clean energy technologies that are creating good-paying jobs and saving families money on utility bills. President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is supporting the U.S. offshore wind industry, transmission buildout and other power grid upgrades, residential solar for low-income households, investments in clean electricity across rural America, efficient permitting to get new projects built, and American manufacturing of clean energy technologies. Since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration, the US has added more than 100 gigawatts of new clean energy – enough to power more than 25 million homes. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, clean energy project developers get access to expanded tax incentives if they pay workers prevailing wages and employ registered apprentices,  build their projects with domestic content, or locate projects in historic energy communities—provisions that are helping make more clean energy jobs good-paying and union jobs, supporting American manufacturing, and driving clean energy investment to the places that can benefit the most.

     
    Bolstering Climate Resilience and Adaptation

    The Biden-Harris Administration is taking a whole-of-government approach to addressing climate impacts, including through Federal climate adaptation planning and integrating consideration of climate impacts into Federal policies, programs, and funding. The Administration released a National Climate Resilience Framework and President Biden secured more than $50 billion for climate resilience and adaptation investments that are upgrading aging roads and bridges, including critical evacuation routes; restoring critical waterways, forests, and urban greenspaces; building forest health and reducing wildfire risk; bolstering water infrastructure and drought resilience across the American West; reducing the risk to federal assets from future floods; and modernizing our electric grid. Through portals like Climate Mapping for Resilience and Adaptation (CMRA) and Heat.gov, the Administration is equipping communities with the information and resources they need to assess climate risks and implement adaptation actions in their communities. With historic investments from the President’s Investing in America agenda, the Administration stabilized the short-term security of the Colorado River and is making investments to ensure the long-term stability of the Colorado River Basin.
     
    Accelerating a Clean Transportation Future

    Last year, the Biden-Harris Administration released the National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization, a landmark strategy for eliminating nearly all greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S. transportation sector by 2050. The Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act invest tens of billions to decarbonize maritime,  trucking, transit, rail, and aviation, all while making communities more walkable, bikeable, and connected. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is also investing $7.5 billion to build a nationwide network of convenient, reliable electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure along corridors and within communities, and $5 billion to put clean school buses on our roads. In addition, the President rallied automakers and autoworkers around a historic goal of having electric vehicles account for at least 50% of new passenger vehicles sold by 2030. To support this goal while driving down consumer costs, the Administration secured tax credits that reduce the cost of new or used clean vehicles by thousands of dollars directly at the dealership as well as tax credits to deploy EV charging and alternative fueling infrastructure to support clean vehicle deployment needs for individuals and businesses within rural and low income communities. The Administration is also leading by example to electrify the federal vehicle fleet, including 66,000 U.S. Postal Service delivery vehicles over five years.

     
    Cutting Energy Costs and Pollution at Homes, Schools, and in Communities

    Last year, 3.4 million American families saved $8.4 billion from IRA home energy tax credits for heat pumps, insulation, solar, and other clean energy technologies, and today states across the US are rolling out IRA rebates of up to $14,000 per household to help low- and middle-income families afford cost-saving electric appliances and energy efficiency improvements. The President established a $20 billion national clean energy financing network that will support tens of thousands of clean energy projects and cost-saving retrofits, reducing or avoiding up to 40 million metric tons of carbon pollution annually over the next seven years. The Biden-Harris Administration has also strengthened energy efficiency standards to save households and businesses money, with standards updated by DOE for dozens of appliances expected to provide nearly $1 trillion in consumer savings over 30 years, saving the average household more than $100 a year while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 2 billion metric tons. Schools across the country are using IRA clean energy tax credits and elective pay to install solar, energy storage, and ground source heat pumps.

    Revitalizing American Manufacturing for the Clean Economy

    President Biden’s Investing in America agenda has helped catalyze historic manufacturing growth, with factories opening across the nation. The private sector has committed over $910 billion in investments in American manufacturing and clean energy, including sectors central to our industrial strength. The President’s agenda is helping to make U.S. manufacturing the cleanest and most competitive in the world. The Inflation Reduction Act is investing more than $6 billion to slash climate pollution and support workers and community health at U.S. factories producing the steel, aluminum, cement, and other materials that form the backbone of our economy, nearly $2 billion to support shuttered or at-risk auto facilities retain or re-hire workers to support manufacturing in the electric vehicle supply chain, over $3 billion to bolster battery manufacturing, and over $4 billion through the Federal Buy Clean Initiative to bolster markets to buy cleaner materials. The Biden-Harris Administration’s historic steps to reduce super-polluting methane and hydrofluorocarbons are also harnessing American innovation and creating good-paying union jobs. 
     
    Advancing Environmental Justice

    Since Day One, the Biden-Harris Administration has prioritized a whole-of-government approach to environmental justice. The President signed a historic Executive Order that mobilizes the federal government to bring clean energy and healthy environments to all and mitigate harm to those who have suffered from pollution and environmental burdens like climate change. Through the Justice40 Initiative, over 500 programs across 19 federal agencies are being reimagined and transformed to maximize the benefits of President Biden’s unprecedented investments – from clean energy projects to floodwater protections to wastewater infrastructure – to communities that need them most. At the same time, the Administration is taking unprecedented action to protect communities from PFAS pollution, accelerate Superfund and brownfield cleanups, tighten standards for hazardous air pollutants, and enhance air quality enforcement. To ensure the voices, perspectives, and lived experiences of communities with environmental justice concerns are heard in the White House and reflected in federal priorities, policies, investments, and decision-making, President Biden also created the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
     
    Delivering Clean Water and Replacing Lead Pipes

    President Biden and Vice President Harris are fighting to ensure a future where every American has access to clean, safe water. The President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests over $50 billion in upgrading the nation’s water infrastructure – the largest investment in clean water in American history. The Administration has already launched over 1,700 projects to expand access to clean drinking water, replace lead pipes, improve wastewater and sanitation infrastructure, and remove PFAS pollution in water. The Biden-Harris Administration invested over $1 billion from the President’s Investing in America agenda to specifically accelerate the delivery of drinking water and community sanitation infrastructure projects in Indian Country, where almost 50% of communities are lacking this basic human right. President Biden has also made a commitment to replace every toxic lead pipe in the country within a decade, protecting families from lead poisoning that can irreversibly harm brain development in children.


    Empowering Every Community to Advance Climate Solutions

    The historic set of federal actions that the Biden-Harris Administration has taken are supporting communities across the country in seizing opportunities in the clean energy economy. The Administration has mobilized billions of dollars in investment in the energy communities and workers that have powered our nation for generations. To help young people access skills-based training for good-paying careers in the clean energy and climate resilience economy, the Administration launched the American Climate Corps, which will mobilize a new, diverse generation of more than 20,000 Americans. And with direct support from the Administration’s Investing in America Agenda, more than 45 states and more than 200 Tribes, territories, and metro areas have now developed their own Climate Action Plans. All of these foundational efforts will support climate solutions in the near-term and for years to come, helping the nation achieve the goal of reducing climate pollution by 50-52% below 2005 levels in 2030 and reaching a net-zero economy by no later than 2050.

    Conserving our Lands and Waters

    President Biden’s America the Beautiful initiative is supporting and accelerating voluntary, locally led conservation and restoration efforts across the country, and with 42 million acres already protected under President Biden, the U.S. is on track to meet the first-ever national goal to conserve at least 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030. The Biden-Harris Administration has established or expanded eight national monuments and restored protections for three more; created five new national wildlife refuges and significantly expanded five more; established two new national marine sanctuaries and begun the process to designate or expand protections for five more; created one new national estuarine research reserve; protected the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, the nation’s most visited wilderness area; safeguarded Bristol Bay in southwest Alaska from the impacts of mining; protected the Arctic Ocean from oil and gas development; and withdrawn Chaco Canyon in New Mexico and Thompson Divide in Colorado from further oil and gas leasing which will protect pristine lands and thousands of sacred sites. The Administration also directed the conservation of old-growth and mature forests, put conservation on equal footing with development in managing our public lands, launched the America the Beautiful Freshwater Challenge to protect, restore, and reconnect 8 million acres of wetlands and 100,000 miles of our nation’s river and streams, protected vast areas of caribou habitat in the Western Arctic for future generations, and is advancing the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of California.
     
    Rallying Leaders of the World’s Largest Economies to Raise Global Climate Ambition

    President Biden has restored America’s climate leadership at home and abroad. Under his leadership, the Administration is securing commitments from more than 155 countries to reduce methane emissions by at least 30 percent by 2030; successfully galvanizing other countries at COP28 to commit, for the first time, to transition away from unabated fossil fuels, stop building new unabated coal capacity globally, and triple renewable energy globally by 2030 and nuclear energy by 2050; launching a new Clean Energy Supply Chain Collaborative to work with international partners to diversify supply chains that are critical to a clean and secure energy transition; mobilizing other governments to follow the U.S. lead and commit to achieve net-zero government emissions by 2050 through a new Net-Zero Government Initiative; and becoming a world leader in innovative debt-for-nature swaps that have helped countries restructure over $2 billion in debt and unlock hundreds of millions of new financing for nature and climate.

    Accelerating Federal Permitting to Deliver Clean Energy and Infrastructure More Quickly

    The Biden-Harris Administration has taken action to accelerate clean energy infrastructure and deliver other critical projects by securing and directing long overdue resources to improve and accelerate permitting and environmental reviews. The Administration also finalized the Bipartisan Permitting Reform Implementation Rule to address climate change, protect public health, encourage better environmental outcomes, and promote meaningful public input on Federal decisions and projects.

    House Republicans Continue Attempting to Roll Back Climate Protections

    As President Biden and Vice President Harris implement the most ambitious and impactful climate and conservation agenda in history, House Republicans are taking action right now that would roll back investments in climate, clean energy, and public health. House Republicans’ efforts to gut climate protections through a variety of avenues – including appropriations bills, Congressional Review Act resolutions, and other legislative actions – would raise consumer energy costs, undermine public health protections, worsen the impacts of extreme weather events, and destroy environmental safeguards for our lands and waters.

    Ongoing attempts by Congressional Republicans to roll back climate and environmental protections would:

    Raise Consumer Energy Costs, including by:

    Gut Public Health Protections, including by:

    • Trying to overturn Biden-Harris Administration rules that protect communities from coal plants’ water pollution, air pollution, and waste disposal.
    • Trying to overturn a Biden-Harris Administration rule that will reduce by 96% the number of people with elevated cancer risk near certain chemical plants, by reducing emissions of toxic chloroprene and ethylene oxide from those facilities.
    • Rolling back the Clean School Bus program that will reduce climate pollution and provide cleaner air for our nation’s children.
    • Undermining clean air progress by trying to overturn rules that reduce pollution from power plants, cars and trucks , and industrial sources.
    • Taking steps to block new Biden-Harris Administration rules to protect coal and other miners from toxic silica dust.

    Destroy Protections for Our Lands and Waters, including by:

    • Trying to eliminate Presidential authority to establish national monuments altogether.
    • Working to dismantle President Biden’s America the Beautiful Initiative.
    • Threatening to expose cherished landscapes to new drilling, including 13 million acres of special areas in the Western Arctic.
    • Planning to reduce accountability for oil and gas companies.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI: Force for Good: UN’s Sustainable Development Goals at risk of being missed – 9 urgent actions needed to unlock progress as cost of SDG gap rises by 10% to US$112-136 trillion

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    • A new report from Force for Good – “Capital as a Force for Good: Shifting the Global Order Through the Mass Mobilization of Solutions” – finds urgent action is needed now to unlock progress and achieve the SDGs
    • It identifies ‘Nine Big Ideas’ that, if scaled globally, have the potential to unlock SDG progress from less than 66% today, to nearly 90% by the end of the decade, helping correct the annual SDG funding gap of US$14-17 trillion
    • Ideas include climate transition frameworks, AI-enabled connectivity, and universal digital financial services, through coordinated action across governments, the private sector and multi-lateral institutions, proposing a high-impact roll-out across the world

    LONDON, Sept. 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Force For Good: The world is failing to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and urgent action is needed to unlock progress and overcome the growing annual SDG funding gap, which now stands at US$14-17 trillion, a new report from Force for Good finds, US$112-136 trillion in total, up 10%, due to the costs of global climate transition and development needs in the Global South.

    Today, only 16% of the goal’s 169 underlying targets are on track to be met by 2030, with 50% falling behind, and 30% regressing below their 2015 levels when the SDGs were kicked off, the report finds.

    Nine ‘Big Ideas’, including climate transition frameworks, AI-enabled connectivity, and universal digital financial services, if scaled globally, have the cumulative potential to progress SDG achievement to nearly 90%, from less than 66% today, reigniting exponential progress.

    “This report shows how the global order and the systems itself can be transformed by delivering solutions en masse across the planet, engaging everyone in this endeavour … By leveraging the strengths of governments, private companies, NGOS and mobilising the individual as an agent of change, we can create a sustainable, secure, and prosperous future,” said Ketan Patel, Chair of the Advisory Council.

    The world’s failure to meet the goals is being driven by a series of interrelated economic, political, geopolitical and environmental shocks – including the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and Gaza, the energy, cost-of-living and climate crises – interacting with one another to create a ‘polycrisis’ that is diverting attention and resources away from sustainable development.

    A mass and fast roll out of the ‘Nine Big Ideas’, sponsored by appropriate champions across government, private sector or multi-lateral institutions, working with the United Nations, can make a transformative impact on developing countries, while benefitting the global economy.

    While the mass mobilisation of solutions will take a global effort, the largest developing countries, particularly India, China, and Brazil, account for two-thirds of the world’s sustainable development potential. These countries represent the first wave of opportunity in a multi-wave project to realize the future faster.

    Meeting the SDGs is a crucial step for the world in the transition to the next era of human civilization, building a platform on which further breakthroughs and technologies can create a sustainable, secure and superior future.

    About Force for Good

    Force for Good’s mission is to mobilize capital, resources, and ideas as a force for good in the world at a time of profound change. The organization’s Capital as a Force for Good Initiative engages the world’s leading financial institutions and other stakeholders, to promote sustainable development through the deployment of capital and solutions to address global issues and enable the transition to a better future.

    The annual Capital as a Force for Good report, now in its fourth edition, is the result of collaboration with the United Nations and major global financial institutions, assessing the role of capital in addressing the world’s most pressing issues.

    Institutions actively engaged include Bank of America, BlackRock, Bridgewater Associates, Citi, Credit Suisse, Fidelity Investments, First Abu Dhabi Bank, GIC Singapore, Goldman Sachs, Great-West Lifeco, HDFC Bank, HSBC, Investec Group, Japan Post Holdings, JPMorgan Chase, Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Morgan Stanley, Nomura, Nordea, Northern Trust, OMERS, Putnam Investments, Schroders, State Street, UBS, Wellington, and others.

    For further details, please visit www.forcegood.org

    CONTACTS

    Force For Good Contact:
    Lesley Whittle
    Lesley.whittle@forcegood.org

    *ESG News is a proud supporter of Force for Good

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Dissenting Statement of Commissioner Summer K. Mersinger Regarding Settlement With Piper Sandler Hedging Services, LLC

    Source: US Commodity Futures Trading Commission

    I respectfully dissent from the Commission’s[1] enforcement action settling charges against Piper Sandler Hedging Services, LLC (“Piper Sandler” or “Respondent”).

    Despite the Commodity Futures Trading Commission imposing more than $1.1 billion in offline communication-related civil monetary penalties across more than 20 recent actions[2], I fear this particular case sends the message that everything is a business record, even if such a conclusion has no foundation in the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”) or CFTC regulations.

    Enforcement is one of many tools available in our regulatory toolbox to promote a culture of compliance with our regulated entities.  Our policy divisions can conduct targeted examinations, issue guidance, and work with our self-regulatory organizations on their compliance efforts.  Our enforcement authorities should not be our default tool and should only be wielded after ensuring our expectations for compliance with our regulations are clearly communicated to impacted entities.  Only after the Commission fulfills that fundamental responsibility should we use our enforcement function to pursue those who either have no interest in complying or who have failed in their attempts to comply.

    As I have said before, regulation through enforcement is the antithesis of regulatory clarity and transparency.[3]  Unfortunately, without providing additional clarity into how our Division of Enforcement is approaching recordkeeping requirements, including those in Regulation 1.35 which are implicated in today’s settlement, regulated entities and their associated persons are left to determine what constitutes a violation under the looming threat of a visit from our enforcement attorneys.

    Transaction-Related Records Should Be Preserved

    I do not dispute that business related records identified under the CEA and CFTC regulations must be preserved to facilitate an effective regulatory and enforcement program, and I have approved other offline communication cases when the surrounding circumstances warrant such support.  However, the mere existence of business-related communications occurring through unofficial channels is not necessarily a violation.  The threshold inquiry is whether an entity failed to preserve a record they were required to preserve.

    Conclusory statements in settlement orders that business related communications occurred via unofficial channels offer no explanation on how a particular respondent violated the CEA or CFTC regulations.  More importantly, these statements fail to offer any guidance to other similarly situated entities on compliance with these requirements to avoid becoming the next respondent in a CFTC enforcement matter.

    Recordkeeping Requirements Are Not One Size Fits All

    The CEA and CFTC regulations do not require every record of every business activity to be preserved.  Instead, Congress developed a recordkeeping framework which varies based on the category of the entity.[4]  Under this umbrella, the Commission and its staff have developed recordkeeping requirements tailored to respective market participants.

    For example, Section 4g(a) of the CEA requires introducing brokers (IBs), to “keep books and records pertaining to such transactions and positions … as may be required by the Commission.”[5]  Compare that to Section 4n of the CEA, which requires registered commodity pool operators and commodity trading advisors to “maintain books and records and file such reports in such form and manner as may be prescribed by the Commission.”  It is significant that Section 4g of the CEA, the section at issue in today’s enforcement action, is limited to records pertaining to transactions and positions, whereas Section 4n of the CEA lacks such limitation.[6]

                Regulation 1.35 – Tailored Transactional Records

    The Commission has consistently respected these statutory distinctions when adopting numerous modifications to Regulation 1.35, its principal recordkeeping rule for intermediaries, including IBs.

    Regulation 1.35 imposes categorical recordkeeping requirements on futures commission merchants, retail foreign exchange dealers, IBs and designated contract market and swap execution facility members.[7]  In fact, the basic provisions of Regulation 1.35 have remained in place since as early as 1938.[8]  Importantly, Regulation 1.35 requires preservation of records related to transactions and has never, or at least for the past 86 years, contained a general mandate to preserve all records.[9]

    Regardless of intermediary, Regulation 1.35 identifies two major types of records required to be maintained: (1) transaction records (consisting of both “commodity interest and related records” and “original source documents”); and, (2) pre-trade communications (both “oral” and “written”).[10]  All of the key record types defined in Regulation 1.35 are framed around the statutory construction discussed above and therefore, must be related to transactions—in a commodity interest and any related cash or forward transactions.[11]  Furthermore, Regulation 1.35(a) requires the records, except for pre-trade communications, to be “kept in a form and manner that allows for the identification of a particular transaction.”[12]  When the Commission first added the “particular transaction” provision to the regulation, it stated the purpose of the rule would be satisfied “when a market participant can identify those records that pertain to a particular transaction,”[13] versus requiring that all records on all transactions be maintained in a specific manner.

    The rule has been expanded several times as both new registrants have been added to the Commission’s jurisdiction and as technological changes have necessitated revised requirements.[14]  In each case, the Commission has carefully balanced the application of these requirements, not only on different market participants and intermediaries, but also by size and type within certain categories.  These revisions were done to acknowledge that for certain intermediaries, particularly IBs, the burden and costs associated with complying with Commission’s recordkeeping requirements may be significant without substantial benefit.[15] 

    Most importantly in this regard, small IBs – those earning less than $5 million in aggregate gross revenue over a three-year period – have been specifically carved out of certain recordkeeping requirements in Regulation 1.35.  Again, this was done citing the Commission’s concerns “regarding costs and the availability of relevant technology,” and further noting such a balancing would, “achieve the Commission’s objectives and the benefits of promoting market integrity and protecting customers albeit at lower cost.”[16]  Like many rules in Part 1 of the CFTC’s regulations, Regulation 1.35’s requirements vary by entity size and type, reflect the Commission’s long history of carefully weighing the cost and benefits of recordkeeping requirements, and strategically balance these policy considerations.

    Any action by the Commission should respect these important considerations made when adopting our rules around recordkeeping requirements.  Recognizing that our rules must evolve as technology and businesses evolve, the Commission’s approach to this evolution should be clear and should only occur in a public and transparent manner.  Using enforcement to influence that change is the opposite of clarity and transparency.

    The Pitfalls of Interpreting Settlements

    Despite statutory and regulatory intricacies, of the more than 20 recent settlements related to violations of both Section 4g of the CEA and Regulation 1.35, most of these settlement orders[17] include essentially the same boilerplate language in the legal discussion section of the order.  

    The sole application of law to facts in the legal discussion section of these orders is or closely mirrors the following, “[a]s a result of the widespread use of unapproved methods of communication by [firm or their] employees, which communications were not preserved and maintained, [respondent[s]] failed to keep full, complete, and systematic records of all transactions relating to its business of dealing in commodity interests, in violation of Section 4g of the Act and Regulation 1.35.”[18]

    Unfortunately, neither the fact nor the summary sections of these orders facilitate a greater understanding of the regulation, the alleged violation, or how the regulation has been applied in the settlement.  Furthermore, these orders refer to “business-related communications”, “messages related to [ the respondent’s] business as a Commission registrant”, “unapproved communication methods … to engage in firm business”, and “conducted firm business via unapproved methods.”  These generic references, such as “business” and “firm”, fail to describe the substance of the communications at issue or to explain the kind of record that serves as the basis for the alleged violation.  Without more information and context, others subject to the same regulations have limited ability to understand potential compliance risks and costs when deciding whether to remain in or to exit a line of business subject to CFTC regulation.

    No doubt, the inability to accurately gauge compliance risks and the costs of records management systems could lead to further consolidation in the industry, a trend we are already witnessing.

    A Clearer Path Forward

    Without additional context or further clarification by the Commission, entities subject to Section 4g of the CEA and Regulation 1.35 are left with little insight into how the Division of Enforcement construes violations when settling these matters.

    Unfortunately, I cannot support further settlements with IBs concerning offline communications violations until such time as the Commission as a whole, not just the Division of Enforcement, uses the actual words of the statute and the implementing regulation to clarify how an IB can properly comply with recordkeeping requirements.

    For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.

    [1] This statement will refer to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as the “Commission”, “CFTC”, or “Agency.” All web pages cited herein were last visited on September 11, 2024.

    [4] See e.g., 7 U.S.C. §§ 6(a), 6g(a), 6i, 6n(3)(A), 6r(c), 6s, 6t, 7b-3(f)(10).

    [5] 7 U.S.C. § 6g(a) (emphasis added).

    [6] Had Congress intended to impose on introducing brokers broader recordkeeping requirements as it did in Section 4n of the CEA, it could have amended Section 4g to match the preexisting language of Section 4n. Compare, 7 U.S.C. § 6g with 7 U.S.C. § 6n.  Congress had such opportunity but declined to do so when both sections of the CEA were last modified by the Futures Trading Act of 1982, which broadened Section 4g’s recordkeeping requirements to include introducing brokers (IBs).  Pub. L. 97–444, title II, §209, Jan. 11, 1983, 96 Stat. 2302.

    [7] 17 C.F.R. § 1.35.

    [8] GENERAL REGULATIONS UNDER THE COMMODITY EXCHANGE ACT, 17 CFR, 1938 ed. [901, 913].

    [10] 17 C.F.R. § 1.35(a)(1)(i), (ii) and (iii) (emphasis added).

    [11] 17 C.F.R. § 1.35(a)(1)(i) and (iii).

    [12] 17 C.F.R. § 1.35(a)(5).

    [13] Records of Commodity Interest and Related Cash or Forward Transactions, 80 FR 80247, 80249 (Dec. 24, 2015).  When the Commission modified Regulation 1.35(a)(5) to eliminate the form and manner provision, it slightly modified the particular transaction provision; however, the operative language described in the quote above was unaffected.

    [14] This includes the addition of IBs in 1982. Supra n.6.  As well as the more recent addition of members of swap execution facilities in the 2012 amendments. See Adaption of Regulation to incorporate Swap, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 76 FR 33066, 33072 (June 7, 2011).

    [15] Adaptation of Regulations to Incorporate Swaps—Records of Transactions, Final Rule,77 FR 75523, 75528 (Dec. 21, 2012).

    [16] Id.

    [17] In re JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., CFTC No. 22-07, 2021 WL 6098347 (Dec. 17, 2021) (consent order) ($75 million CMP); In re Bank of Am., N.A., CFTC No. 22-38, 2022 WL 4733591 (Sept. 27, 2022) (consent order) ($100 million CMP); In re Barclays Bank PLC, CFTC No. 22-39, 2022 WL 4733593 (Sept. 27, 2022) (consent order) ($75 million CMP); In re Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, CFTC No. 22-40, 2022 WL 4733598 (Sept. 27, 2022) (consent order) ($75 million CMP); In re Nomura Glob. Fin. Prods. Inc., CFTC No. 22-41, 2022 WL 4733602 (Sept. 27, 2022) (consent order) ($50 million CMP); In re UBS AG, CFTC No. 22-42, 2022 WL 4733603 (Sept. 27, 2022) (consent order) ($75 million CMP); In re Jefferies Fin. Servs., Inc., CFTC No. 22-43, 2022 WL 4733600 (Sept. 27, 2022) (consent order) ($30 million CMP); In re Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, CFTC No. 22-44, 2022 WL 4733603 (Sept. 27, 2022) (consent order) ($75 million CMP); In re Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., CFTC No. 22-45, 2022 WL 4733597 (Sept. 27, 2022) (consent order) ($6 million CMP); In re Citibank, N.A., CFTC No. 22-46, 2022 WL 4733594 (consent order) (Sept. 27, 2022) ($75 million CMP); In re Credit Suisse Int’l, CFTC No. 22-47, 2022 WL 4733595 (Sept. 27, 2022) (consent order) ($75 million CMP); In re Deutsche Bank AG, CFTC No. 22-48, 2022 WL 4733596 (Sept. 27, 2022) (consent order) ($75 million CMP); In re Bank of Nova Scotia, CFTC No. 23-25, 2023 WL 3455084 (May 11, 2023) (consent order) ($15 million CMP); In re HSBC Bank USA, N.A., CFTC No. 23-27, 2023 WL 3496489 (May 12, 2023) (consent order) ($30 million CMP); In re Wedbush Secs. Inc., CFTC No. 23-37, 2023 WL 5089708 (Aug. 8, 2023) (consent order) ($6 million CMP); In re Wells Fargo Bank NA, CFTC No. 23-36, 2023 WL 5089709 (Aug. 8, 2023) (consent order) ($75 million CMP); In re Société Générale, CFTC No. 23-35, 2023 WL 5089710 (Aug. 8, 2023) (consent order) ($75 million CMP); In re BNP Paribas S.A., CFTC No. 23-33, 2023 WL 5089707 (Aug. 8, 2023) (consent order) ($75 million CMP); In re Interactive Brokers Corp., CFTC No. 23-56, 2023 WL 6442571 (Sept. 29, 2023) (consent order) ($20 million CMP); In re Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., CFTC No. 24-04, 2024 WL 1236474 (Mar. 19, 2024) (consent order) ($1 million CMP); In re Cowen & Co., CFTC No. 24-11, 2024 WL 3844670 (Aug. 13, 2024) (consent order) ($3 million CMP).

    [18] Id. Both CFTC No. 24-04 and CFTC No. 24-11 omit the word widespread in front of the word use. However, the orders otherwise follow the quotation above.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Dispute panel established to review certain tax credits under US Inflation Reduction Act

    Source: World Trade Organization

    DS623: United States — Certain Tax Credits Under the Inflation Reduction Act

    China submitted its second request to establish a panel to determine whether certain tax credits under the United States Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are in line with WTO rules. The United States said it was not in a position to agree to China’s first request in July, justifying its actions as necessary to combat climate change. China stated that the IRA’s subsidies favour US goods over imports, violating WTO rules prohibiting such discrimination.

    The United States expressed disappointment over China’s decision to pursue a panel request and reiterated that the IRA is its most significant step toward clean energy, aimed at ensuring secure and sustainable supply chains for a global clean energy future.

    The DSB agreed to the establishment of the panel. Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, the European Union, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Korea, Norway, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, Türkiye, the United Kingdom and Venezuela reserved their third party rights to participate in the panel proceedings.

    DS597: United States – Origin Marking Requirement (Hong Kong, China)

    For the 12th time, the United States raised the matter of the panel ruling in DS597 at a DSB meeting. The US said it was raising the matter again as a result of recent developments in Hong Kong, China regarding free speech and human rights. The US referred back to its previous statements regarding its position on essential security and its reasons for placing this item on the DSB agenda.

    Hong Kong, China criticized the US for once again raising this matter at the DSB. It referred to previous WTO panels that dismissed US claims that invoking national security in defense of a trade-restrictive measure is entirely self-judging.  Any objections should be heard by the WTO’s Appellate Body, which remains blocked due to the US refusal to allow appointment of new Appellate Body members, said Hong Kong, China.

    China reiterated its firm belief that a restored appeal mechanism is the proper place to address claims of panel error made by the US and rejected in the strongest terms what it said was US interference in the internal affairs of another WTO member.

    Appellate Body appointments

    Speaking on behalf of 130 members, Colombia introduced for the 79th time the group’s proposal to start the selection processes for filling vacancies on the Appellate Body. The extensive number of members submitting the proposal reflects a common interest in the functioning of the Appellate Body and, more generally, in the functioning of the WTO’s dispute settlement system, Colombia said.

    The United States repeated that it does not support the proposed decision to commence the appointment of Appellate Body members as its longstanding concerns with WTO dispute settlement remain unaddressed.

    Twenty members then took the floor to comment. Many of these members referred to their previous statements made on this matter at earlier DSB meetings and underlined the urgent need to meet the mandates set out at the 12th and 13th Ministerial Conferences in 2022 and early 2024 respectively to conduct discussions with the view to having a fully and well-functioning dispute settlement system accessible to all members by 2024.

    Several members welcomed the progress being made in the formal dispute settlement reform process now underway and the need to accelerate discussions to achieve the 2024 goal.

    Colombia, speaking on behalf of the 130 members, said it regretted that for the 79th occasion members have not been able to launch the selection processes. Ongoing conversations about reform of the dispute settlement system should not prevent the Appellate Body from continuing to operate fully, and members shall comply with their obligation under the DSU to fill the vacancies as they arise, Colombia said for the group.

    The DSB chair, Ambassador Saqer Abdullah Almoqbel (Saudi Arabia), concluded by expressing his full support for the facilitator in the dispute settlement reform discussions, Ambassador Usha Dwarka-Canabady of Mauritius, in her efforts towards achieving a positive outcome within the mandated time frame.

    Other business

    Surveillance of implementation

    The United States presented status reports with regard to DS184, “US — Anti-Dumping Measures on Certain Hot-Rolled Steel Products from Japan”,  DS160, “United States — Section 110(5) of US Copyright Act”, DS464, “United States — Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Measures on Large Residential Washers from Korea”, and DS471, “United States — Certain Methodologies and their Application to Anti-Dumping Proceedings Involving China.”

    The European Union presented a status report with regard to DS291, “EC — Measures Affecting the Approval and Marketing of Biotech Products.”

    Indonesia presented its status reports in DS477 and DS478, “Indonesia — Importation of Horticultural Products, Animals and Animal Products.” 

    Next meeting

    The next regular DSB meeting will take place on 28 October.

    Share

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Translation: Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada announces appointments to the Quebec judiciary

    MIL OSI Translation. Canadian French to English –

    Source: Government of Canada – in French

    September 23, 2024– Ottawa (Ontario) – Department of Justice Canada

    The Honourable Arif Virani, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, today announced the following appointments under the judicial application process established in 2016. This process emphasizes transparency, merit and the diversity of the Canadian population, and will continue to ensure the appointment of jurists who meet the highest standards of excellence and integrity.

    Mathieu Piché-Messier, partner and national leader in commercial litigation at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP in Montreal, is appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Quebec for the district of Montreal. Justice Piché-Messier replaces Justice PH Bélanger (Montreal), who resigned effective May 24, 2024.

    Lysane Cree, an administrative judge at the Tribunal administratif de déontologie policière in Montreal, is appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Quebec for the district of Montreal. Justice Cree replaces Justice M. Lachance (Montreal), who was appointed to the Court of Appeal effective June 17, 2024.

    Horia Bundaru, a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP in Montreal, is appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Quebec for the district of Montreal. Justice Bundaru replaces Justice K. Kear-Jodoin (Montreal), who elected to become a supernumerary judge effective July 16, 2024.

    Quote

    “I wish Judges Piché-Messier, Cree and Bundaru every success in their new roles. I am confident that they will serve the people of Quebec well as members of the Superior Court of Quebec.”

    – The Honourable Arif Virani, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

    Biographies

    Judge Mathieu Piché-Messier was born and raised in Montreal. He received his Bachelor of Civil Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Sherbrooke in 1997. He was admitted to the Quebec Bar in 1998.

    Since 2000, Justice Piché-Messier has practiced commercial litigation at Borden Ladner Gervais where, after being named partner in 2006, he held the position of Head of the Commercial Litigation Group in Montreal for seven years and was then appointed National Business Leader – Commercial Litigation. His practice focused on the areas of extraordinary remedies and commercial litigation in the areas of anti-fraud, high technology, industrial espionage, privacy and identity theft, international arbitration, aeronautics, defamation and intellectual property. A litigator, author and speaker, he was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 2018, a Fellow of Litigation Counsels of America in 2021, and was named Advocatus Emeritus (Ad. E.) of the Barreau du Québec in 2022. He has also been recognized by his peers to appear in the editions of Chambers, The Best Lawyers and Benchmark Litigation as one of the 50 best litigators in Canada.

    Justice Piché-Messier has been a member of the boards of the Barreau du Québec, the Barreau de Montréal and the Canadian Bar, Québec Division. He has also been president of the Centre d’accès à l’Information juridique du Québec (CAIJ) and the Young Bar Association of Montreal. Involved in the Montreal community, he has sat on the boards of Cirque Éloize, Ballets Jazz de Montréal, Enfants-retour and Make-a-Wish.

    Judge Piché-Messier and his partner, Me Natacha Lavoie, are the happy parents of Vincent and Victoria.

    Justice Lysane Cree is originally from the Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) Nation and received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a minor in Northern Studies from McGill University in 1996, before earning a Bachelor of Civil Law and a Bachelor of Common Law from McGill University in 2000. She was called to the Quebec Bar in 2003, the New York State Bar in 2012 and the Ontario Bar in 2020.

    Justice Cree began her practice with Hutchins Legal Inc. and focused on Indigenous law issues and working with First Nations governments in several provinces and occasionally in New York State for sixteen years. While still in private practice, she began working part-time in the area of police ethics with the Police Ethics Committee (now the Tribunal), hearing cases involving Indigenous police services in the province of Quebec. She then worked as a decision-maker with the Discipline Committee of the Chambre de la sécurité financière from 2019 to 2021 before becoming a full-time administrative judge with the Tribunal administratif de déontologie policière. During this time, she was involved with the Council of Canadian Administrative Tribunals, serving as a member of the Tribunal’s Excellence Committee and the Truth and Reconciliation Committee.

    Judge Cree is an avid equestrian and enjoys spending time with her horses.

    Justice Horia Bundaru immigrated to Canada at the age of eleven with his parents and younger sister. He received a BCL/LL.B. from McGill University’s Faculty of Law in 2005 and was called to the Quebec Bar in 2006.

    Justice Bundaru spent his entire career at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, where he became a partner in 2016 and where, at the time of his appointment, he was a director of the Litigation Group in Montreal. A well-known litigator, his practice focused on commercial litigation, construction law and energy law. Since 2016, he has taught civil procedure and drafting at the École du Barreau.

    Justice Bundaru has chaired the Quebec Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, the Liaison Committee of the Montreal Bar with the Superior Court (Civil Division) and the Salon VISEZ DROIT. At the time of his appointment, he was chair of the Liaison Committee with the Court of Appeal and a member of the Conseil de la magistrature du Québec. He is listed in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, Benchmark Litigation Canada as a “litigation star”, Thomson Reuters Stand-out Lawyers, The Legal 500 Canada and Best Lawyers in Canada. In 2022, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Canadian College of Construction Lawyers.

    Judge Bundaru is passionate about literature and is an avid cross-country skier and tennis player. With his partner Maya, also a lawyer, he has two daughters, Ariane and Éloïse.

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.

    MIL Translation OSI

  • MIL-OSI USA: Duckworth, Ricketts, Bera, Wittman Launch Bipartisan, Bicameral Quad Caucus Ahead of Quad Leaders Summit

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Illinois Tammy Duckworth
    September 20, 2024
    [WASHINGTON, DC] – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Pete Ricketts (R-NE)—members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee— joined U.S. Representatives Ami Bera, M.D. (D-CA-06) and Rob Wittman (R-VA-01) in launching the bipartisan Senate and House Quad Caucuses. This announcement comes ahead of this weekend’s Quad Leaders Summit in Wilmington, Delaware, where President Biden will welcome heads of state from Australia, India and Japan. The Quad is committed to supporting the region’s development, stability and prosperity to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific. The leaders’ ambitious efforts include major initiatives on infrastructure, maritime security, public-private partnership, climate, health, critical and emerging technologies and space.
    “Over the years, the Quad has represented the United States’ steadfast commitment to the current and future prosperity, strength and stability of the Indo-Pacific region—and proof of our ability to come together with allies and partners to uphold our shared principles,” said Senator Duckworth. “In a strong display of bipartisan support for the region, I’m proud to help launch the Senate’s first-ever Quad Caucus alongside co-chair Senator Ricketts ahead of President Biden’s leaders’ summit this weekend. Together, we’re sending a strong message to our allies and partners—and our competitors—that the United States is here for the long haul.”
    “Partnerships like the Quad are our greatest strength in protecting a prosperous, free and open Indo-Pacific against coercion and malign aggression The launch of the bipartisan Senate Quad Caucus should send a clear signal about the growing importance of the United States, Australia, Japan, and India working closely together in the region. We are committed to finding tangible ways to bolster collaboration with our Quad partners,” said Senator Ricketts.
    “As the Indo-Pacific becomes increasingly important to global security and economic prosperity, it is essential that the United States continues to strengthen relationships with our Quad partners,” said Congressman Bera. “The launch of the Quad Caucus underscores our shared commitment to fostering peace, stability, and development in the region. By promoting collaboration on key issues like maritime security, infrastructure, and climate, we can ensure a safer and more prosperous future for all.”
    “Cooperation between the United States, Japan, India, and Australia is crucial for the future stability of the Indo-Pacific,” said Congressman Wittman. “The Quad’s support for the governance of emerging technologies, countering illegal fishing, and enhanced maritime domain awareness proves that we will build a better future for the region by working together. I am proud to join my colleagues to launch this bicameral, bipartisan Quad Caucus to foster stable collaboration for years to come.” 
    As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Duckworth has been a leader in strengthening relationships with countries in the Indo-Pacific. In July, Duckworth led an official Senate visit to Laos and Vietnam to reinforce America’s commitment to our partners in ASEAN and strengthen U.S.-ASEAN economic ties. In May, Duckworth led a bipartisan delegation to Singapore to participate in this year’s International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Shangri-La Dialogue, where she and other Senators reaffirmed our nation’s strong bipartisan commitment to our partners and allies in the Indo-Pacific. Last year, Duckworth met with ASEAN leaders on an official Senate visit to Indonesia to reinforce U.S. partnership throughout the region and find opportunities to increase cooperation in areas of mutual interest, such as countering climate change, increasing energy security and ensuring regional stability and freedom of navigation.
    -30-

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: The power of nostalgia: why it’s healthy for you to keep returning to your favourite TV series

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anjum Naweed, Professor of Human Factors, CQUniversity Australia

    Janet Julie Vanatko/Shutterstock

    How often do you find yourself hitting “play” on an old favourite, reliving the same TV episodes you’ve seen before – or even know by heart?

    I’m a chronic re-watcher. Episodes of sitcoms like Blackadder (1983–89), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013–21), Doc Martin (2004–22) and The Office US (2005–13) – a literal lifetime of TV favourites – are usually dependable in times of stress.

    But recently, ahead of an exceptionally challenging deadline, I found myself switching up my viewing. Instead of the escapist comedy I normally return to, I switched to Breaking Bad (2008–13), a nail-biting thriller with a complex reverse hero narrative – and immediately felt at ease.

    What do our re-viewing choices tell us about ourselves? And is it OK that we keep returning to old favourites?

    Fictional stories, real relationships

    Although one-sided, the relationships we form with characters in our favourite TV shows can feel very real. They can increase a sense of belonging, reduce loneliness – and keep pulling us back in.

    When we rewatch, we feel sadness, wistful joy and longing, all at the same time. We call the sum of these contradictions nostalgia.

    Originally coined in the 17th century to describe Swiss soldiers impaired by homesickness, psychologists now understand nostalgic reflection as a shield against anxiety and threat, promoting a sense of wellbeing.

    We all rely on fiction to transport us from our own lives and realities. Nostalgia viewing extends the experience, taking us somewhere we already know and love.

    Bingeing nostalgia

    The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a wave of nostalgia viewing.

    In the United States, audience analyst Nielsen found the most streamed show of 2020 was the American version of The Office, seven years after it ended its television run. A Radio Times survey found 64% of respondents said they had rewatched a TV series during lockdown, with 43% watching nostalgic shows.

    We were suddenly thrown into an unfamiliar situation and in a perpetual state of unease. We had more time on our hands, but also wanted to feel safe. Tuning into familiar content on television offered an escape – a sanctuary from the realities of futures unknown.

    Revisiting connections with TV characters gave us a sense of control. We knew what lay in their futures, and the calm and predictability of their arcs balanced the uncertainty in ours.

    Nostalgia as a plot point

    Nostalgia has been in the DNA of television since some of the earliest programming decisions.

    Every December, broadcasters scramble to screen one of the many versions of A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens’ much-retold and family-friendly ghost story, which also features nostalgia as a plot device.

    First screened on live TV in New York City in 1944, on the still-new technology, the broadcast continued a 100-year-old tradition of the classic appearing on stage and cinema screens.

    Settling in around the telly for A Christmas Carol connects us to the holiday period and a heartwarming metamorphosis. Ebeneezer Scrooge revisits long-lost versions of himself and turns from villain to hero and our old friend in a single night.

    For viewers, revisiting this character at the same time every year can also reconnect us with our past selves and create a predictable pattern, even in the frenzy of the silly season.

    Real-world (re)connection

    The neuroscience of nostalgic experiences is clear. Nostalgia arises when current sensory data – like what you watch on TV – matches past emotions and experiences.

    It triggers a release of dopamine, a reward-system neurotransmitter involved in emotion and motivation. Encountering nostalgia is like autoloading and hitting play on past positive experiences, elevating desire and regulating mood.

    So, nostalgia draws on experiences encoded in memory. The TV shows we choose to rewatch reflect our values, our tastes, and the phases of life we have gone through.

    Perhaps this is a reason why reboots of our favourite shows sometimes fall flat, and ultimately set fans up for disappointment.

    I still remember the crushing disillusion I felt while watching the reboot of Knight Rider (2008–09). I immediately turned to social media to find a community around my nostalgic setback

    Stronger through stress

    Going back to my challenging deadline, what was it about the nostalgic experience of watching Breaking Bad that made it different?

    Breaking Bad evokes a particular phase in my life. I binged the first three seasons when writing up my PhD thesis. Walter White’s rise and fall journey towards redemption is enmeshed in the nostalgia of a difficult time I made it through.

    The predictability of Walter White’s arc on second viewing was an unlikely haven. It’s escalating high-stakes drama mirrored my rising stress, while connecting me to who I was when I first enjoyed the show.

    The result? “Dread mode” switched off – even as my anti-heroes marched again to their dire cinematic comeuppance. Reality, past and present, could be worse.

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

    – ref. The power of nostalgia: why it’s healthy for you to keep returning to your favourite TV series – https://theconversation.com/the-power-of-nostalgia-why-its-healthy-for-you-to-keep-returning-to-your-favourite-tv-series-237753

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: In the rare event of a vaccine injury, Australians should be compensated

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Wood, Professor, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead Clinical School, University of Sydney

    PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock

    Vaccination is one of the most effective methods to protect individuals and the broader public from disease. Vaccines are typically given to healthy people to prevent disease, so the bar for safety is set high.

    People benefit from vaccination at an individual level because they’re protected from disease. But for some vaccines, strong community uptake leads to “herd immunity”. This means people who are unable to be vaccinated can be protected by the “herd”.

    As with any prescribed medicine, vaccines can cause side effects. In the rare case that COVID vaccines did cause a specified serious injury (the scheme listed certain conditions that a person could claim for), Australians have been able to claim compensation. But this ends at the end of this month.

    From then, Australians won’t be able to access no-fault compensation for any vaccine injury – from COVID or any others.

    Why compensate people for vaccine injuries?

    Fortunately, serious vaccine injuries are rare. Most are not a result of error in vaccine design, manufacturing or delivery, but are a product of a small but inherent risk.

    As a result, people who suffer serious vaccine injuries cannot get compensation through legal mechanisms. This is because they can’t demonstrate the injury was caused through negligence.

    Vaccine injury compensation schemes compensate people who have a serious vaccine injury following administration of properly manufactured vaccines.

    The COVID vaccine claims scheme

    In 2021, in recognition of the rare risk of a serious vaccine injury, and in support of the roll out of the COVID vaccine program, the Australian government introduced a COVID vaccine claims scheme.

    The aim was to provide a simple, streamlined process to compensate people who suffered a moderate to severe vaccine injury, without the need for complex legal proceedings. It was limited to TGA-approved COVID vaccines, and to specific reactions.

    The Australian government has said the scheme will close this month and claims need to be lodged before September 30 2024.

    Following its closure, Australia will not have a vaccine injury compensation scheme.

    Australia is lagging internationally

    Australia lags behind 25 other countries including the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand which have comprehensive no-fault vaccine injury compensation schemes. These cover both COVID and non-COVID vaccines.

    The schemes are based on the ethical principle of “reciprocal justice”. This acknowledges that people acting to benefit not just themselves but also the community (for the benefit of the “herd”) should be compensated by the same community if it has resulted in harm.

    The US, UK and New Zealand all have vaccine injury compensation schemes.
    Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock

    So what happens in Australia now?

    In Australia, people with non-COVID vaccine injuries or COVID vaccine injuries not covered by the current claims scheme must bear the costs associated with their injury by themselves or access publicly funded health care. They will not receive any compensation for their injury and suffering.

    Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) provides funding support to access therapies for people with a permanent and significant disability. However, it does not cover temporary vaccine-related injuries.

    Participants with vaccine injuries as a result of taking part in a clinical vaccine trial are compensated. This typically includes income-replacement, personal assistance expenses and reimbursement of expenses resulting from the incident, including medical expenses.

    In Australia, we also have strong compulsion for people to receive routine vaccines through legislative requirements such as No Jab No Pay (which requires children to be immunised to receive some government payments) and, in some states, No Jab No Play (which requires children be fully immunised to attend childcare).

    Countries such as ours that mandate vaccination without providing no-fault injury compensation schemes for rare vaccine injury could be abrogating the social contract by not protecting the individual and community.

    It’s time to set up an Australian scheme

    The Australian immunisation system is among the most comprehensive in the world. Our government-funded national immunisation program provides free vaccines for infants, children and adults for at least 15 diseases.

    We also have a whole-of-life immunisation register and comprehensive vaccine safety surveillance system.

    Australia’s immunisation program provides vaccines for at least 15 different diseases.
    sergey kolesnikov/Shutterstock

    A recent Senate committee recommended:

    the Australian government consider the design and compensation arrangements of a no-fault compensation scheme for Commonwealth-funded vaccines in response to a future pandemic event.

    Vaccines are designed to be very safe and effective. But the “insurance policy” of an injury compensation scheme, if designed and communicated appropriately, should build trust and give confidence to health workers and the general public to support our national vaccine program. This is particularly important given the reductions in uptake of routine vaccines.

    How should it work?

    A no-fault vaccine injury compensation scheme could be funded via a vaccine levy system, as is done in the US, where an excise tax is imposed on each dose of vaccine.

    An effective vaccine injury compensation scheme needs to be:

    • accessible, with low legal and financial barriers
    • transparent, with clear decision-making processes, compensation frameworks and funding responsibilities
    • timely, with short, clear timeframes for decision-making
    • fair, with people compensated adequately for the harm they’ve suffered.

    Legislation to introduce and allocate funds to support an Australian injury compensation scheme for all vaccines is overdue. The draft National Immunisation Strategy 2025–2030 hinted at the opportunity to explore the feasibility of a no fault compensation scheme for all vaccines the Australian government funds, without committing to such a program.

    An Australian vaccine injury scheme, covering all national immunisation program vaccines, not just pandemic use vaccines, should be seen as a crucial component of our public health system and a social responsibility commitment to all Australians.

    Nicholas Wood previously received funding from the NHMRC for a Career Development Fellowship and is a Churchill Fellow.

    Sophie Wen receives funding from Queensland Government for an Advancing Clinical Research Fellowship and is a Mary McConnel career boost program recipient from Children’s Hospital Foundation. Sophie Wen is an investigator for several industry-sponsored clinical vaccine trials but does not receive any direct funding.

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

    – ref. In the rare event of a vaccine injury, Australians should be compensated – https://theconversation.com/in-the-rare-event-of-a-vaccine-injury-australians-should-be-compensated-232396

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Politicians know defamation laws can silence women, but they won’t do anything about it

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Ailwood, Senior Lecturer, School of Law, University of Wollongong

    Shutterstock

    This piece is the second in a series on Australia’s defamation laws. You can read the first article here.

    Over recent years, forces like the #MeToo movement have shone a light on how Australia’s defamation laws play out for women. These laws influence whether and how women speak about their experiences of violence and harassment.

    Multiple high-profile cases have highlighted the gender dynamics at play. Both Geoffrey Rush’s successful defamation claim against the Daily Telegraph in 2018 and Bruce Lehrmann’s ongoing litigation against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson attracted much media attention. This included commentary about how defamation can silence women.

    But these laws don’t only affect women speaking out publicly and through the media. They also affect women seeking to report sexual violence to the police and sexual harassment in the workplace.

    Defamation law is weaponised against women in a variety of settings across the country. Our politicians have acknowledged this, but there’s been little appetite for fixing it.

    The difficulty of truth

    To bring a defamation claim under Australian law, a plaintiff must prove a number of things. But one thing the plaintiff does not have to prove is that the publication is false.

    Many defendants rely on the “truth defence”, which requires them to prove the substantial truth of the publication. If it’s successful, that wins them the case.

    But with allegations of sexual violence, establishing the truth is notoriously difficult. That’s even with a lower standard of proof (the balance of probabilities) than in criminal courts (beyond reasonable doubt).

    Look no further than in Lehrmann’s case against Ten. The quality and quantity of the evidence brought by the defence, including extensive audio-visual recordings and the testimony of multiple third parties, shows what’s needed to meet this very high standard.

    This means it is relatively easy for an alleged perpetrator to bring a defamation claim against a person who reports sexual violence or harassment, and relatively difficult for a victim-survivor to defend the claim.

    Discouraging coming forward

    The weaponisation of defamation law by perpetrators against women reporting sexual violence and harassment is well documented.

    In the Respect@Work Report, the Australian Human Rights Commission heard evidence that women reporting workplace sexual harassment were being threatened with and sued for defamation. The report found Australia’s defamation laws “discourage sexual harassment victims from making a complaint”.

    Recent research has revealed that threatening or commencing defamation proceedings is a widely used tactic by alleged perpetrators to silence victim-survivors and pressure them to withdraw complaints.



    Read more:
    Non-disclosure agreements are commonplace in sexual harassment cases, but they’re being misused to silence people

    The destructive effects of defamation litigation for victim-survivors are evident in a 2022 Queensland case called Sherman vs Lamb.

    A victim-survivor of coercive control in a relationship that had recently ended reported the violence to a police officer. She was then successfully sued for defamation by the perpetrator at trial.

    The judge also found the victim-survivor’s report was malicious. He found “police have no interest in or a duty to receive gossip or adverse commentary”.

    Both of these findings were overturned on appeal, but by then, the costs of the defamation litigation had forced the victim-survivor to declare bankruptcy.

    Reluctance to change

    The impact of perpetrators weaponising defamation law is both individual and structural.

    On an individual level, it targets victim-survivors reporting and complaining of sexual harassment and violence.

    Structurally, it contributes to a culture of fear of speaking out, contributing to the ongoing silencing of violence against women.

    Yet the Standing Council of Attorneys-General (the federal attorney-general and those from every state and territory) has chosen not to act to protect women reporting sexual violence and harassment from defamation claims in the workplace.

    The council did agree that absolute privilege should be extended to reporting to police. Absolute privilege means a person can’t be help liable for defamation, like in parliament.

    So far, attorneys-general in Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT have brought in legal protections for women reporting violence to police. That’s a good thing, though other state and territories are yet to follow.

    But it obscures the group’s refusal to extend those protections to the workplace, where much of this abuse occurs.

    In its review of defamation laws, the council considered how these laws affect workplace sexual harassment. In particular, it considered whether absolute privilege should apply to sexual harassment and violence in particular contexts, like work.

    The council found victim-survivors and witnesses of sexual violence, sexual harassment and other forms of unlawful personal conduct are being threatened with and sued for defamation. It found this causes victim-survivors to withdraw reports and complaints, and that it deters them from making reports and complaints in the first place.

    A key advantage of extending absolute privilege is that many defamation claim would likely be summarily dismissed without the need for a costly and lengthy trial, which is usually required. This would likely reduce the weaponisation of defamation law by perpetrators.

    The council decided not to do this in workplaces. It blamed a division of stakeholder opinion within the consultation process. It also said there weren’t enough protections for alleged perpetrators, like penalties for false reporting.

    Reinforcing myths

    The rationale appears to be that employers implementing Respect@Work and eliminating sexual harassment from their workplaces will also eliminate the need to report it, in turn removing the threat presented by defamation law.

    But the council’s decision also reinforces how important the idea of reputation is within Australian defamation law.

    Protecting the reputation of alleged perpetrators of violence is of greater value to Australia’s attorneys-general than protecting the speech of victim-survivors of sexual violence and harassment.

    It also reinforces myths about workplace sexual harassment: that men are at significant risk from women making false reports, and that sexual harassment is an individual, interpersonal problem rather than a structural issue that should be addressed by law reform.

    Australian women remain at risk of being threatened with or sued for defamation for reporting sexual harassment and violence in the workplace.

    This is yet another instance of a law reform process failing to listen and act in response to violence against women. Our chief legal officers have acknowledged the weaponisation of defamation law to silence women in the workplace and refused to do anything to prevent it.

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

    – ref. Politicians know defamation laws can silence women, but they won’t do anything about it – https://theconversation.com/politicians-know-defamation-laws-can-silence-women-but-they-wont-do-anything-about-it-238079

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Commerce and Industry Minister Shri Piyush Goyal attends series of meetings and interaction with stakeholders on first day of Australia visit

    Source: Government of India

    Posted On: 23 SEP 2024 7:50PM by PIB Delhi

    On the first day of his visit to Australia, Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Commerce & Industry had several productive engagements with various stakeholders in Sydney today, September 23, 2024.

    The Minister attended a business roundtable hosted by the Business Council of Australia in which prominent Australian and Indian CEOs participated. The Minister invited Australian business leaders to explore the opportunities presented by the high and sustained economic growth in India.  

    The Minister also met senior representatives from the Australian pension funds. Discussions focused on the robust policies and reform agenda of the Government of India which have boosted investor confidence. The Minister encouraged greater investments into the emerging sectors in the Indian market viz renewable energy, manufacturing, education, fintech, agritech etc.

    The Minister had a productive meeting with Ms Tania Constable, CEO of the Minerals Council of Australia regarding ways to strengthen collaboration in the critical minerals sector between India and Australia. The Minister also met Mr. Joel Katz, Managing Director of the Cruise Lines International Association to explore opportunities for enhancing coastal tourism in India. The Minister interacted with Mr. Robin Khuda, Founder & CEO of AirTrunk and discussed India’s digitalisation growth and the significant potential for collaboration in the data infrastructure sector between India and Australia.

    The Centre for Australia-India Relations hosted a lunch in honour of the Minister with members of their Director network. 

    The Minister interacted with the representatives of the Indian community at a reception hosted by the Consulate General of India at Sydney Cricket Ground. He offered prayers at the BAPS Swaminarayan temple in Parramatta and recalled his previous visit to the temple in 2022. The event was attended inter-alia by Hon Dr Andrew Charlton MP, Chair of Parliamentary Friends of India and Hon Warren Kirby, Member of NSW legislature and Co-chair of NSW Parliamentary Friends of India. 

    Before proceeding to Adelaide on 24th September 2024, the Minister’s official bilateral engagements include the reception hosted in his honour by Australia-India Business Council (AIBC) and NSW Parliamentary Friends of India in the Parliament of New South Wales. A number of political dignitaries and prominent business representatives are expected to attend the event. 

    ***

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    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: ANSWERS Pet Food Voluntarily Withdrawals Certain Limited Lots of Beef and Chicken Dog Foods Due to Potential Salmonella and Listeria

    Source: US Department of Health and Human Services – 3

    Lystn, LLC d.b.a./ANSWERS Pet Food of Fleetwood, PA, is voluntarily withdrawing certain lots of ANSWERS Detailed Beef Formula for Dogs, ANSWERS Straight Beef Formula for Dogs, and ANSWERS Straight Chicken Formula for Dogs out of an abundance of caution after samples collected by the U.S. Food and Dr

    MIL OSI USA News –