Category: Business

MIL-OSI: Nasdaq Appoints Brandis DeSimone as New Head of East Coast Listings

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

The appointment strengthens Nasdaq’s commitment to supporting companies throughout their corporate lifecycle

Nasdaq is the exchange of choice for new listings and exchange transfers in the US, raising $22.97 Billion in IPO proceeds across 180 listings in 2024 and celebrating over 500 transfers to Nasdaq since 2005

NEW YORK, March 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) today announced the appointment of Brandis DeSimone as Senior Vice President, Head of East Coast Listings. Under the recently established regional operational structure, this appointment further strengthens Nasdaq’s commitment to supporting companies throughout their corporate lifecycle and deepening client relationships.

DeSimone brings almost two decades of experience in the financial services industry, including over 13 years at Nasdaq. Throughout her long tenure with the organization, she has consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to the Nasdaq community and an ability to lead with deep client knowledge and trusted expertise. DeSimone has held multiple senior positions focusing on business development and client success. Most recently, she served as Vice President, Head of Americas Data Sales, where she fortified Nasdaq’s position as a leading data provider, working with various institutions across the financial sector, including traditional financial institutions and startups. With a comprehensive understanding of market trends, changing investor needs, and technological impacts on capital markets, DeSimone aims to help Nasdaq enhance its role as a strategic partner to corporate clients.

“As companies navigate the dynamic landscape of capital markets, Nasdaq’s full suite of capabilities across trading, insights, technology and visibility are critical to fuel our client’s success,” said Brandis DeSimone, SVP, Head of East Coast Listings. “I am thrilled to evolve my journey with Nasdaq and grow the Listings franchise as we strengthen our commitment to helping clients unlock opportunity.”

DeSimone will step into her new role on April 1, 2025. She is based out of Nasdaq’s New York headquarters and will report into Jeff Thomas, Executive Vice President, Chief Revenue Officer and Global Head of Listings for Capital Access Platforms.

“The evolution of Nasdaq has always been centered around our clients’ needs, and we designed our regional management structure to drive greater connectivity with our clients and accelerate growth,” said Jeff Thomas, Executive Vice President, Chief Revenue Officer and Global Head of Listings for Capital Access Platforms. “Brandis DeSimone’s well-rounded and nuanced understanding of the capital markets from her work across all client segments along with her extensive understanding of Nasdaq’s capabilities and solutions will be instrumental in helping our clients in the East Coast deliver the highest level of service for our clients and fuel their success.”

Nasdaq is home to the world’s most innovative companies. In addition to being the leading U.S. exchange, Nasdaq supports companies comprehensively through its suite of market leading solutions for investor relations, governance, index inclusion and visibility offerings. To date, over 500 companies have transferred their listings to Nasdaq, highlighting the unique proposition Nasdaq provides.

About Nasdaq
Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) is a global technology company serving corporate clients, investment managers, banks, brokers, and exchange operators as they navigate and interact with the global capital markets and the broader financial system. We aspire to deliver world-leading platforms that improve the liquidity, transparency, and integrity of the global economy. Our diverse offering of data, analytics, software, exchange capabilities, and client-centric services enables clients to optimize and execute their business vision with confidence. To learn more about the company, technology solutions and career opportunities, visit us on LinkedIn, on X @Nasdaq, or at www.nasdaq.com.

Nasdaq Media Contact

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:
Information set forth in this communication contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Nasdaq cautions readers that any forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and that actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such “will,” “plans,” “expects,” “may,” “believe” and other words and terms of similar meaning. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the Company’s growth strategy and market expectations, products and services, ability to enhance or innovate new ways for companies to join the public markets, future listing activity, and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties, or other factors beyond Nasdaq’s control. These risks and uncertainties are detailed in Nasdaq’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual reports on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q which are available on Nasdaq’s investor relations website at ir.nasdaq.com and the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Nasdaq undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

-NDAQG-

The MIL Network –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Microsoft Dragon Copilot provides the healthcare industry’s first AI assistant for clinical workflow
Source: Microsoft

Headline: Microsoft Dragon Copilot provides the healthcare industry’s first AI assistant for clinical workflow

By combining and extending the proven capabilities of Dragon Medical One (DMO) and DAX Copilot (DAX), Dragon Copilot promotes clinician well-being, increases efficiency, improves patient experiences and drives financial impact

REDMOND, Wash. — March 3, 2025 — On Monday, Microsoft Corp. is unveiling Microsoft Dragon Copilot, the first AI assistant for clinical workflow that brings together the trusted natural language voice dictation capabilities of DMO with the ambient listening capabilities of DAX, fine-tuned generative AI and healthcare-adapted safeguards. Part of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, Dragon Copilot is built on a secure modern architecture that enables organizations to deliver enhanced experiences and outcomes across care settings for providers and patients alike.

Clinician burnout in the U.S. dropped from 53% in 2023 to 48% in 2024, in part due to technology advancements. However, with an aging population, and persistent burnout felt across the profession, a significant U.S. workforce shortage is projected. In response, health systems are adopting AI to streamline administrative tasks, enhance care access, and enable faster clinical insights to improve healthcare globally.

“At Microsoft, we have long believed that AI has the incredible potential to free clinicians from much of the administrative burden in healthcare and enable them to refocus on taking care of patients,” said Joe Petro, corporate vice president of Microsoft Health and Life Sciences Solutions and Platforms. “With the launch of our new Dragon Copilot, we are introducing the first unified voice AI experience to the market, drawing on our trusted, decades-long expertise that has consistently enhanced provider wellness and improved clinical and financial outcomes for provider organizations and the patients they serve.”

“With Dragon Copilot, we’re not just enhancing how we work in the EHR — we’re tapping into a Microsoft-powered ecosystem where AI assistance extends across our organization, delivering a consistent and intelligent experience everywhere we work,” said Dr. R. Hal Baker, senior vice president and chief digital and chief information officer, WellSpan Health. “It’s this ability to enhance the patient experience while streamlining clinician workflows that makes Dragon Copilot such a game-changer.”

Dragon Copilot combines DMO’s speech capabilities, which has helped clinicians document billions of patient records, and DAX’s ambient AI technology, which has assisted over 3 million ambient patient conversations across 600 healthcare organizations in the past month alone. With these ambient AI capabilities, organizations have already realized significant outcomes, with clinicians reporting five minutes saved per encounter,[1] 70% of clinicians reporting reduced feelings of burnout and fatigue,[2] 62% of clinicians stating they are less likely to leave their organization,[3] while 93% of patients report a better overall experience.[4]

Key features of Dragon Copilot allow clinicians and other care providers across specialties to:
- Streamline documentation: Clinicians can take advantage of multilanguage ambient note creation, automated tasks and multilanguage support, personalized style and formatting, natural language dictation capabilities, speech memos, editing, customized texts, templates, AI prompts, and more in one singular user interface.
- Surface information: The embedded AI assistant functionality allows clinicians to conduct general-purpose medical information searches from trusted content sources.
- Automate tasks: New capabilities allow clinicians to automate key tasks, such as conversational orders, note and clinical evidence summaries, referral letters, and after-visit summaries, in one centralized workspace.
Clinicians working across ambulatory, inpatient, emergency departments and other care settings will benefit from Dragon Copilot’s fast, accurate, secure and intuitive speech and ambient capabilities to document care, navigate electronic health record (EHR) workflows, and perform other administrative tasks. Dragon Copilot will be generally available in the U.S. and Canada in May, followed by the U.K., Germany, France and the Netherlands. Microsoft is also committed to bringing a new Dragon experience to other key markets using Dragon Medical today.

“We are aware of the administrative burnout affecting our clinicians, and the need for improved care access for our patients, and the newest evolution of Dragon represents a significant step forward in alleviating this strain,” said Glen Kearns, EVP and CIO, The Ottawa Hospital. “We are thrilled to be one of the first customers in Canada to use Microsoft’s ambient and generative AI technology. The newest evolution of Dragon Copilot could help alleviate documentation burden for our clinical teams.”

With Microsoft’s extensive healthcare industry partner ecosystem, healthcare organizations can unlock more value from Dragon Copilot by accessing new solutions and integrated offerings. These partners include leading EHR providers, independent software vendors, system integrators and cloud service providers that each play a unique role in enabling organizations to deliver meaningful outcomes using the Dragon Copilot solution.

Embracing AI innovations with a secure data estate and responsible AI

Dragon’s new capabilities are built on a secure data estate and incorporate healthcare-specific clinical, chat and compliance safeguards for accurate and safe AI outputs. They also align to Microsoft’s responsible AI principles to help guide AI development and use —transparency, reliability and safety, fairness, inclusiveness, accountability, privacy, and security. We remain committed to developing responsible AI by design and ensuring that these technologies positively impact both the healthcare ecosystem and broader society and will share our learnings on this journey with our customers.

For more information on Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, please visit the Microsoft health and life sciences press site here. For more information on Dragon Copilot, click here or visit us at booth #2221 at HIMSS.

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) creates platforms and tools powered by AI to deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. The technology company is committed to making AI available broadly and doing so responsibly, with a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications, (425) 638-7777,
[email protected]

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit Microsoft Source at https://news.microsoft.com/source. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.

[1] Microsoft survey of 879 clinicians across 340 healthcare organizations using DAX Copilot; July 2024

[2] Microsoft survey of 879 clinicians across 340 healthcare organizations using DAX Copilot; July 2024

[3] Microsoft survey of 879 clinicians across 340 healthcare organizations using DAX Copilot; July 2024

[4] Survey of 413 patients conducted by multiple healthcare organizations whose clinicians use DAX Copilot; June 2024
MIL OSI Economics –
March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Samsung and GRUBBRR Promise Results or Clients Don’t Pay With New Guarantee Initiative

Source: Samsung

Samsung and GRUBBRR, the leader in self-ordering technology, are proud to announce their latest initiative, the GRUBBRR Guarantee. With this bold move, GRUBBRR is demonstrating its commitment to driving results for clients by offering a guarantee on the return on investment (ROI) of its solutions and demonstrating why it’s a top choice in the digital ordering space. Samsung and GRUBBRR are confident in the power of their kiosk technology to deliver positive results that they’re willing to back it up with a guarantee: Sign up for GRUBBRR’s services before May 1, 2025, and the companies will GUARANTEE an ROI. During any month in which the Samsung Kiosk powered by GRUBBRR does not generate an ROI, customers’ Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) fee for that month will be waived.
How it works:
Sign-Up deadline: Register for GRUBBRR’s services by May 1, 2025, to qualify for the guarantee.
Guarantee activation: The GRUBBRR Guarantee takes effect after customers’ first three months of service.
Guaranteed ROI: If the Samsung Kiosk powered by GRUBBRR does not generate an ROI during any month, customers’ SaaS fee that month will be waived.
Client requirements: To ensure the success of this initiative, participating clients must share their Point-of-Sale (POS) data weekly and implement GRUBBRR’s proven playbook.

“At GRUBBRR, we believe in the transformative impact our technology can have on our clients’ businesses,” said Sam Zietz, CEO of GRUBBRR. “Our Guarantee spotlights our confidence in our software as well as our commitment to delivering real results for clients. Our technology is designed to optimize business operations, and our teams are dedicated to ensuring success. We have proven that we have what it takes to help businesses with smoother transactions while improving the speed of service and customer satisfaction.”
Driving confidence in restaurant technology
The GRUBBRR Guarantee highlights the company’s dedication to creating real value for its customers. Samsung self-ordering kiosks and GRUBBRR’s automation solutions are designed to streamline operations, reduce wait times, increase order accuracy and ultimately drive higher revenue for businesses in the restaurant industry.
By offering this guarantee, Samsung and GRUBBRR aim to eliminate the risk for businesses looking to adopt new technology while providing the tools they need to enhance operational efficiency and boost profitability.
While GRUBBRR’s solutions are compatible with a variety of hardware, the Samsung Kiosk stands out as a cutting-edge, all-in-one self-ordering solution. Featuring a 24-inch high-definition touch screen, QR code/barcode scanner, receipt printer and an EMV terminal cradle, the Samsung Kiosk offers a seamless integration of functionality and design, enhancing the customer experience while driving operational efficiency. This collaboration reflects both companies’ commitments to delivering premium solutions that exceed client expectations.

“At Samsung, we’re committed to pushing the boundaries of innovation to drive business success,” said Sara Grofcsik, Head of Sales, Display Division, Samsung Electronics America. “Our partnership with GRUBBRR and the launch of the GRUBBRR Guarantee are a testament to our shared vision of empowering businesses with solutions that improve customer experiences and deliver measurable results for our retail customers.”
Why the GRUBBRR Guarantee matters:
Risk-free investment: Businesses can adopt Samsung and GRUBBRR technology with confidence, knowing a guarantee backs them.
Proven strategy: GRUBBRR’s playbook and data-driven approach ensure clients are well-positioned for success.
Commitment to client success: Samsung and GRUBBRR focus on delivering measurable results that impact the bottom line.
To learn more about how the Samsung Kiosk is shaping the future of self-service, please visit https://www.samsung.com/us/business/displays/interactive/kiosk/.
To learn more about the GRUBBRR Guarantee, visit https://grubbrr.com/grubbrr-guarantee/.

MIL OSI Economics –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI: Flexera Completes Acquisition of NetApp’s Spot FinOps Portfolio
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

ITASCA, Ill. and SAN JOSE, Calif., March 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Flexera, the global leader in technology spend and risk management, today announced it has completed the acquisition of Spot from NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP), the intelligent data infrastructure company. The acquisition is Flexera’s latest step towards offering a comprehensive set of solutions to help organizations confront growing cloud cost and usage hurdles, especially as the consumption of artificial intelligence (AI) surges and strains cloud budgets.

With this acquisition, Flexera expands its leading Cloud Financial Management offering into a suite of AI-powered FinOps technologies and enhances the value of these offerings by expanding its partner ecosystem. This newly bolstered FinOps portfolio from Flexera allows organizations and managed service providers (MSPs) to manage cloud financial commitments, automate billing and invoicing, reduce workload costs and optimize containers. Flexera FinOps aligns with the expanding scope of FinOps to include data centers, SaaS and public cloud, while also supporting enhanced use cases such as software licensing and sustainability.

“The need for FinOps and cloud cost optimization has never been greater, as critical AI initiatives create more urgency for boards and C-suites to effectively contain swelling cloud and IT spend,” said Jim Ryan, President and CEO of Flexera. “We believe that by bringing Spot and its core products into the Flexera FinOps portfolio, we are now the most comprehensive provider in the space. This also complements our leading positions in IT Asset Management and SaaS Management.”

The Spot business adds new capabilities to Flexera’s FinOps solution with Kubernetes cost management and accelerates innovation in container management, spot cloud instances and commitment management. Spot’s main product lines include:
- Spot Eco helps organizations unlock the full value of their cloud services with a series of cloud commitment management features, ensuring organizations capture critical savings from reserved instances, savings plans or committed usage discounts across Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.
- Spot Ocean is a Kubernetes infrastructure management product that provides continuous optimization of containers for cost, performance and availability.
- Spot Elastigroup allows organizations to scale their workloads and maximize the value of their cloud investments with spot instances and virtual machines.
- CloudCheckr is a powerful cloud cost management tool allowing enterprise, MSPs and distributors to manage and reduce cloud costs, optimize resources and gain operational efficiencies, manage billing and invoicing, improve governance, and strengthen security and compliance.
These solutions are accompanied by a robust portfolio of policy-based best practice checks for cost, security, governance and compliance.

“The completion of this transaction further hones our focus of our Public Cloud business. Our highly differentiated first party and marketplace cloud storage services are complemented by intelligent data and operational services such as Data Infrastructure Insights and Instaclustr. These services, in concert with our Hybrid Cloud products, enable customers to build a seamless intelligent data infrastructure across hybrid multi-cloud,” said Haiyan Song, Executive Vice President, Intelligent Operations Services, at NetApp. “We believe that Flexera is the right environment for Spot portfolio of solutions, employees and customers to thrive.”

Flexera’s integration of Spot also creates new opportunities for partners – particularly MSPs and distributors – to develop or enhance their own FinOps services. With Flexera, partners have a chance to tap into a broader portfolio of technologies and specialists, while building value-added services that cover the expanded definition of FinOps to include ITAM and software licensing, SaaS management, AI spend management and more.

“Flexera customers can expect to gain in capabilities and a richer portfolio, such as a whole slew of advanced purchase commitment automation and container cost management and optimization capabilities,” wrote Tracy Woo at Forrester in a recent blog post.¹ “The Spot acquisition is a boon for Flexera both in market presence with CloudCheckr’s dominant channel presence and with the added capabilities of Spot’s Eco (purchase commitments), Elastigroup (spot automation), and Ocean (container management), which all fill major gaps.”

Flexera recently achieved a new FinOps certification milestone, and now has the largest group of FinOps-certified practitioners in the world. The company also made a significant investment in its partner program, with an emphasis on expanding its support for MSPs. These events continue to reinforce Flexera’s proven leadership in FinOps, ITAM and SaaS Management.

For more information about Flexera One FinOps, visit www.flexera.com/products/flexera-one/finops.

¹Source: “NetApp Focuses On Storable And Exits FinOps”

Follow Flexera

About Flexera
Flexera helps organizations understand and maximize the value of their technology, saving billions of dollars in wasted spend. Powered by the Flexera Technology Intelligence Platform, our award-winning IT asset management, FinOps and SaaS management solutions provide comprehensive visibility and actionable insights on an organization’s entire IT ecosystem. This intelligence enables IT, finance, procurement, FinOps and cloud teams to address skyrocketing costs, optimize spend, mitigate risk and identify opportunities to create positive business outcomes. More than 50,000 global organizations rely on Flexera and its Technopedia reference library, the largest repository of technology asset data. Learn more at flexera.com.

About NetApp
NetApp is the intelligent data infrastructure company, combining unified data storage, integrated data, operational and workload services to turn a world of disruption into opportunity for every customer. NetApp creates silo-free infrastructure, harnessing observability and AI to enable the industry’s best data management. As the only enterprise-grade storage service natively embedded in the world’s biggest clouds, our data storage delivers seamless flexibility. In addition, our data services create a data advantage through superior cyber resilience, governance, and application agility. Our operational and workload services provide continuous optimization of performance and efficiency for infrastructure and workloads through observability and AI. No matter the data type, workload, or environment, with NetApp you can transform your data infrastructure to realize your business possibilities. Learn more at www.netapp.com or follow us on X, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

NETAPP, the NETAPP logo, and the marks listed at www.netapp.com/TM are trademarks of NetApp, Inc. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

For more information, contact:
Flexera Media Contact:
Ciri Haugh
Flexera
publicrelations@flexera.com

NetApp Media Contact:
Kenya Hayes
NetApp
kenya.hayes@netapp.com

Investor Contact:
Kris Newton
NetApp
kris.newton@netapp.com

The MIL Network –
March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Huawei Li Peng: Maximizing 5G Network Value in the Age of AI Mar 03, 2025

Source: Huawei

Headline: Huawei Li Peng: Maximizing 5G Network Value in the Age of AI
Mar 03, 2025

[Barcelona, Spain, March 3, 2025] At MWC Barcelona 2025, Li Peng, Huawei’s Corporate Senior Vice President and President of ICT Sales & Service, delivered a keynote on how carriers can make the most of AI to fully unleash the value of their networks. Li predicts that symbiosis between 5G-A and AI technologies will stimulate double-digit growth in both DOU (data of usage) and ARPU (average revenue per user) from mobile subscribers.
“We’re rapidly entering a fully intelligent world. Intelligent applications are spreading everywhere, placing new demands on networks,” said Li. “By embracing and evolving 5G, we can unlock the infinite potential of mobile networks. Huawei is willing and ready to work with carriers and industry partners around the world to promote digital enablement, reinforce network foundations, and bring AI to all. Together, we can shape the D.N.A. for an intelligent world.”
AI is changing human-machine interaction, driving different requirements for latency
With advancements in AI, HMI (human-machine interaction) is evolving from simple text-based communications to voice, gestures, and more multi-modal interactions. As a result, HMI is more real-time and convenient than ever, giving rise to a new wave of innovative applications. For example, people can interact more naturally with their devices using AI-powered voice assistants. On cloud phones, AI-powered avatars can provide visual feedback as well, creating a more personal experience for services like health monitoring, making the mobile experience far more accessible and productive for different groups of users.
To support applications like these, however, networks need to be able to provide guaranteed latency, which will require ongoing evolution from 5G NSA, to 5G SA, and eventually 5G-A. Carriers can also adopt innovative technologies like CUPS (Control and User Plane Separation) and GBR (Guaranteed Bit Rate) to reduce basic latency and ensure differentiated, deterministic latency for specific scenarios.
AI-enabled content production and distribution is raising the bar for upload & download speeds
Li went on to note that AI will transform how content is produced and distributed. For example, AIGC technology makes it possible to generate hour-long 2D and 3D videos with a single click. Meanwhile, AI recommendations are more targeted than ever, allowing the distribution of more personalized content to broader audiences across the Internet. Both of these trends will cause network traffic to surge over the next five years, placing unprecedented demands on networks. To keep up, carriers will need more spectrum, greater network capacity, and much larger uplink and downlink bandwidth.
Diverse AI services will need experience-centric network coverage
Both AI-powered cloud and mobile devices are making intelligent services more accessible, and the industry will see growing demand for experience-centric network coverage. According to third-party data, cloud phones and cloud drives will be used by over one billion people by 2030, each of whom will need fast access to cloud computing power. In addition, intelligent in-vehicle applications will require full coverage across cities, highways, and the countryside to provide a continuous and reliable mobility experience.
Moving forward, meeting these demands will require ongoing progress in network deployment, from rapid expansion of 5G NSA networks to 5G SA networks for a more seamless indoor/outdoor experience, and eventually to experience-centric 5G-A networks. This will help carriers expand network coverage and ensure a smooth experience for tens of billions of new connections for people, and hundreds of billions of new IoT connections between things.
Growing network complexity will drive evolution towards application-oriented O&M
AI will bring more complex application scenarios and a more diverse range of experience requirements. From a networking perspective, this will drive a shift from traditional, resource-oriented O&M to a more application-oriented approach.
Some carriers are already developing O&M systems based on AI agents. For operations enablement, these AI agents can use digital twins to predict personalized needs for individual users, helping shorten service time-to-market from days to minutes. For network maintenance, AI agents with self-learning capabilities can predict and locate faults in seconds, increasing troubleshooting efficiency by 30%. And for network optimization, digital sandboxes can simulate the traffic of real-world applications, allowing AI agents to analyze traffic patterns and optimize networks 24/7 based on application needs.
Early-movers are scaling up 5G-A deployment to boost monetization in the age of AI
“New network capabilities will give rise to new business models,” continued Li. “Carriers can go beyond monetizing traffic and start monetizing experience itself.”
Right now, carriers around the world are actively exploring new ways to monetize experience based on multiple factors like speed, latency, and VIP benefits. They have launched custom services for business travelers, live streamers, and AI cloud phone users. And some are already expanding into the B2B2C market by exposing network capabilities through Open APIs.
For example, Chinese carriers are working with over 100 industries, including insurance and catering companies, to provide AI New Calling services through Open APIs. This has helped them increase income from industry customers by a factor of 10.
“The opportunities are huge,” concluded Li. “And the time to act is now. Pioneers are already scaling up fast in over 200 cities around the world. They’re taking solid steps forward, unlocking incredible new value.”
MWC Barcelona 2025 is held from March 3 to March 6 in Barcelona, Spain. During the event, Huawei will showcase its latest products and solutions at stand 1H50 in Fira Gran Via Hall 1.
In 2025, commercial 5G-Advanced deployment will accelerate, and AI will help carriers reshape business, infrastructure, and O&M. Huawei is actively working with carriers and partners around the world to accelerate the transition towards an intelligent world.
For more information, please visit: https://carrier.huawei.com/en/events/mwc2025

MIL OSI Economics –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Huawei’s Yang Chaobin: AI-Centric Network Solution Helps Carriers Seize AI Opportunities

Source: Huawei

Headline: Huawei’s Yang Chaobin: AI-Centric Network Solution Helps Carriers Seize AI Opportunities

[Barcelona, Spain, March 3, 2025] At the Huawei Product & Solution Launch during MWC Barcelona 2025, Yang Chaobin, Huawei’s Director of the Board and CEO of the ICT Business Group, launched the company’s AI-Centric Network solution.
According to Yang, the emergence of high-quality, low-cost, and open-source AI models will give rise to a wide range of new innovation in applications and accelerate the advent of an intelligent world.
Advancements in AI will transform society at three levels. It will enable a truly individualized experience for consumers, drive intelligent collaboration in organizations, and lay the groundwork for more inclusive intelligence for everyone.
Yang Chaobin, Huawei’s Director of the Board and CEO of the ICT Business Group, speaking at the Huawei Product & Solution Launch

As for the ICT industry, while evolving technology and a more diverse range of application scenarios will create unprecedented growth opportunities, they will also raise the bar for network infrastructure. To make the most of these opportunities, carriers need to make sweeping breakthroughs in network bandwidth, latency, coverage, and O&M.
“Huawei’s AI-Centric Network solution is designed to address these needs,” said Yang. “It revolutionizes network capabilities to enable all-domain connectivity. It will power a shift towards application-oriented O&M, and will reshape telecom service and business models to take full advantage of new opportunities presented by AI.”
AI-centric networks – A four-layered approach
Yang expanded on the challenges carriers face moving forward, explaining how Huawei’s solution can help them better prepare for a surge of new AI-powered applications.
All-domain connectivity. With more in-depth collaboration between AI and networks, carriers will be able to optimize resource orchestration for routing, bandwidth, and so on. This will provide intelligent applications with universal network access, ultra-high uplink and downlink, and SLA assurance.
Application-oriented O&M. Advances in AI applications will give rise to more complex service scenarios and massively diverse experience requirements. This will necessitate a shift from traditional, resource-oriented network O&M to a more application-oriented approach. Huawei’s Telecom Foundation Model supports predictive and proactive O&M, experience optimization based on application-level awareness, and tailored, more fine-grained operations. Carriers will be able to significantly enhance the efficiency of network O&M while taking user experience to entirely new levels.
Enhanced AI-to-X services. At the individual user level, AI-centric networks can deliver the right experience for different AI scenarios by assigning the exact levels of bandwidth, latency, and reliability needed. At the organizational level, they can break through bottlenecks in capacity and response times configured for person-to-person interactions, evolving networks to support person-to-agent and even agent-to-agent interactivity. And at the societal level, AI-centric networks will enable ubiquitous connectivity to speed up AI adoption in public services like education and healthcare, providing more inclusive value for communities around the world.
Innovative business models. Finally, different experience requirements will give carriers the opportunity to explore new business models that monetize a broader range of metrics. Essentially, AI-centric networks will allow carriers to go beyond traditional traffic-based monetization and start monetizing experience itself. This will unleash the full potential of connectivity and open up new revenue streams.
“We need to join hands and work together across the telecom industry,” Yang Chaobin concluded. “By exposing network capabilities, collaborating with different industries, and engaging in scenario-specific innovation, we can make the most of new growth opportunities in the age of AI, and bring the world one step closer to a brighter, more intelligent future.”
MWC Barcelona 2025 is held from March 3 to March 6 in Barcelona, Spain. During the event, Huawei will showcase its latest products and solutions at stand 1H50 in Fira Gran Via Hall 1.
In 2025, commercial 5G-Advanced deployment will accelerate, and AI will help carriers reshape business, infrastructure, and O&M. Huawei is actively working with carriers and partners around the world to accelerate the transition towards an intelligent world.
For more information, please visit: https://carrier.huawei.com/en/events/mwc2025

MIL OSI Economics –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Huawei Li Peng: Maximizing 5G Network Value in the Age of AI

Source: Huawei

Headline: Huawei Li Peng: Maximizing 5G Network Value in the Age of AI

[Barcelona, Spain, March 3, 2025] At MWC Barcelona 2025, Li Peng, Huawei’s Corporate Senior Vice President and President of ICT Sales & Service, delivered a keynote on how carriers can make the most of AI to fully unleash the value of their networks. Li predicts that symbiosis between 5G-A and AI technologies will stimulate double-digit growth in both DOU (data of usage) and ARPU (average revenue per user) from mobile subscribers.
“We’re rapidly entering a fully intelligent world. Intelligent applications are spreading everywhere, placing new demands on networks,” said Li. “By embracing and evolving 5G, we can unlock the infinite potential of mobile networks. Huawei is willing and ready to work with carriers and industry partners around the world to promote digital enablement, reinforce network foundations, and bring AI to all. Together, we can shape the D.N.A. for an intelligent world.”
AI is changing human-machine interaction, driving different requirements for latency
With advancements in AI, HMI (human-machine interaction) is evolving from simple text-based communications to voice, gestures, and more multi-modal interactions. As a result, HMI is more real-time and convenient than ever, giving rise to a new wave of innovative applications. For example, people can interact more naturally with their devices using AI-powered voice assistants. On cloud phones, AI-powered avatars can provide visual feedback as well, creating a more personal experience for services like health monitoring, making the mobile experience far more accessible and productive for different groups of users.
To support applications like these, however, networks need to be able to provide guaranteed latency, which will require ongoing evolution from 5G NSA, to 5G SA, and eventually 5G-A. Carriers can also adopt innovative technologies like CUPS (Control and User Plane Separation) and GBR (Guaranteed Bit Rate) to reduce basic latency and ensure differentiated, deterministic latency for specific scenarios.
AI-enabled content production and distribution is raising the bar for upload & download speeds
Li went on to note that AI will transform how content is produced and distributed. For example, AIGC technology makes it possible to generate hour-long 2D and 3D videos with a single click. Meanwhile, AI recommendations are more targeted than ever, allowing the distribution of more personalized content to broader audiences across the Internet. Both of these trends will cause network traffic to surge over the next five years, placing unprecedented demands on networks. To keep up, carriers will need more spectrum, greater network capacity, and much larger uplink and downlink bandwidth.
Diverse AI services will need experience-centric network coverage
Both AI-powered cloud and mobile devices are making intelligent services more accessible, and the industry will see growing demand for experience-centric network coverage. According to third-party data, cloud phones and cloud drives will be used by over one billion people by 2030, each of whom will need fast access to cloud computing power. In addition, intelligent in-vehicle applications will require full coverage across cities, highways, and the countryside to provide a continuous and reliable mobility experience.
Moving forward, meeting these demands will require ongoing progress in network deployment, from rapid expansion of 5G NSA networks to 5G SA networks for a more seamless indoor/outdoor experience, and eventually to experience-centric 5G-A networks. This will help carriers expand network coverage and ensure a smooth experience for tens of billions of new connections for people, and hundreds of billions of new IoT connections between things.
Growing network complexity will drive evolution towards application-oriented O&M
AI will bring more complex application scenarios and a more diverse range of experience requirements. From a networking perspective, this will drive a shift from traditional, resource-oriented O&M to a more application-oriented approach.
Some carriers are already developing O&M systems based on AI agents. For operations enablement, these AI agents can use digital twins to predict personalized needs for individual users, helping shorten service time-to-market from days to minutes. For network maintenance, AI agents with self-learning capabilities can predict and locate faults in seconds, increasing troubleshooting efficiency by 30%. And for network optimization, digital sandboxes can simulate the traffic of real-world applications, allowing AI agents to analyze traffic patterns and optimize networks 24/7 based on application needs.
Early-movers are scaling up 5G-A deployment to boost monetization in the age of AI
“New network capabilities will give rise to new business models,” continued Li. “Carriers can go beyond monetizing traffic and start monetizing experience itself.”
Right now, carriers around the world are actively exploring new ways to monetize experience based on multiple factors like speed, latency, and VIP benefits. They have launched custom services for business travelers, live streamers, and AI cloud phone users. And some are already expanding into the B2B2C market by exposing network capabilities through Open APIs.
For example, Chinese carriers are working with over 100 industries, including insurance and catering companies, to provide AI New Calling services through Open APIs. This has helped them increase income from industry customers by a factor of 10.
“The opportunities are huge,” concluded Li. “And the time to act is now. Pioneers are already scaling up fast in over 200 cities around the world. They’re taking solid steps forward, unlocking incredible new value.”
MWC Barcelona 2025 is held from March 3 to March 6 in Barcelona, Spain. During the event, Huawei will showcase its latest products and solutions at stand 1H50 in Fira Gran Via Hall 1.
In 2025, commercial 5G-Advanced deployment will accelerate, and AI will help carriers reshape business, infrastructure, and O&M. Huawei is actively working with carriers and partners around the world to accelerate the transition towards an intelligent world.
For more information, please visit: https://carrier.huawei.com/en/events/mwc2025

MIL OSI Economics –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Nigeria’s 2025 budget has major flaws and won’t ease economic burden

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Stephen Onyeiwu, Professor of Economics & Business, Allegheny College

There are doubts as to whether Nigerian president Bola Tinubu’s N54.99 trillion (US$36.6 billion) 2025 budget will lay a solid foundation for addressing some of the country’s current economic challenges.

Economist Stephen Onyeiwu unpacks these challenges and sets out why the 2025 budget won’t change Nigeria’s economic landscape (though it has some silver linings).

What are Nigeria’s four biggest economic challenges?

Firstly, Nigeria’s economy has grown at a subdued average rate of about 3% for the past three years.

Though comparable to global economic growth, this rate of growth is insufficient to create jobs and alleviate poverty. The official unemployment rate is 4.3%.

Only 15% of those employed, however, are in the formal sector as wage earners. About 93% of Nigerians are engaged in informal sector activities. They’re doing low-income and vulnerable jobs, with no social protection.

Secondly, Nigerians are struggling with a high cost of living. Inflation has remained high for three years, as have interest rates.

The exchange rate has been elevated and volatile. The result has been rising food, fuel and housing costs.

Thirdly, the country has not been able to attract enough foreign investment to generate high-paying jobs in the formal sector. Foreign direct investment to Nigeria has been declining. It fell from US$8.6 billion in 2009 to US$1.8 billion in 2023.

Reasons for the decline are the high cost of doing business in Nigeria, insecurity, poor infrastructure and macroeconomic instability.

Fourthly, poverty rates are high. This is due to unemployment and the lack of safety nets. The poverty rate rose from 33.2% in 2020 to 47.2% in 2024. The number of poor people is expected to increase by 13 million in 2025, largely due to inflation.

Will the 2025 budget help?

There are a number of serious flaws in it which suggest it won’t.

Tinubu said the 2025 budget “was designed to ensure macro-economic stability, poverty reduction, promoting economic stability, developing human capital and addressing insecurity.”

But the allocation of funds does not reflect these priorities. The allocations to personnel and overheads far exceed allocations to capital expenditures – things that build the economy’s productive capacity.

A key challenge for Nigeria is how to shift resources from consumption to production. The 2025 budget reinforces the longstanding consumerist nature of the economy.

China spends about 45% of GDP on capital formation. This has spurred and sustained the country’s high growth rates for decades. Nigeria’s allocation to capital expenditure in the 2025 budget is about 19%.

In his budget speech the president said his administration’s goal was to

“get our manufacturing sector humming again and ultimately increase the competitiveness of our economy.”

But the federal ministries that should be driving this effort – industry and education – weren’t allocated enough for capital expenditure.

Nor did the budget prioritise things that would ease the economic burden of Nigerians.

A big chunk of the budget (about 35.4%) goes to servicing debt. Indeed, about 65% of the 2025 budget will finance debt repayment, personnel costs and overheads.

Another concern is that the government intends to borrow N9.22 trillion (US$6.2 billion) to finance the budget, higher than the N7.83 trillion (US$5.2 billion) borrowed in the previous year.

Borrowing to finance a budget increases the interest rate and makes private-sector borrowing costly. Businesses can’t access funds that would enable them to invest and boost economic growth, reduce inflation, create jobs and alleviate poverty.

Are there any silver linings?

There are some.

It is commendable that the Federal Ministry of Communications & the Digital Economy was allocated about N450 billion (US$300 million) for capital expenditure, compared to just N33 billion (US$22 million) for recurrent expenditure. The administration is signalling its commitment to building capacity in the IT sector. This is important because Nigeria needs to promote a knowledge-based economy that would diversify away from hydrocarbons.

Another encouraging aspect of the budget is that the ratio of budget deficit to GDP (3.89%) is lower than the average 5% prior to 2024. Although the administration will borrow to cover the deficit, it’s borrowing less than before relative to GDP. This signals an intention to be more financially prudent than previous administrations, assuming it won’t resort to supplementary budgets.

What needs to happen now?

The 2025 budget is anything but pro-poor. Most of its provisions benefit the elites, contractors and public employees.

Much will be used to pay politicians and their aides at the National Assembly and workers in the government ministries and agencies.

Money allocated to capital expenditure will be used to pay contractors for government projects.

Nigerians in the informal sector will not feel a direct impact. There should have been more proactive measures to address unemployment and poverty.

Sustainable development requires a strong rural economy. While the manufacturing and services sectors are critical for structural transformation and job creation, they can’t develop without a vibrant agricultural sector.

Strengthening the rural economy of Nigeria requires raising the productivity of farmers so that they can supply food to urban workers at affordable prices. This helps keep inflation and wage rates low.

Raising the productivity of rural people raises their incomes and alleviates poverty.

Higher rural incomes increase farmers’ purchasing power, leading to an increase in the demand for goods and services produced in the manufacturing sector. When rural people earn more, there’s less reason to migrate to urban areas.

Less migration implies less pressure on urban social services, the labour market and the informal sector.

More funds need to be allocated to sectors and activities that raise the productive capacity of the economy. This will involve reducing governance costs and using the savings to boost food production, agro-processing and manufacturing.

The key to stabilising the Nigerian economy is massive food production, which will reduce food inflation. Coupled with agro-processing, food production will boost exports, reduce food imports and strengthen the value of the naira.

A stronger naira will reduce inflation and interest rates.

In conclusion, the 2025 budget does not solve Nigeria’s endless cycle of deficits and debts. Neither does it lay the foundation for structural transformation, economic diversification, sustainable economic growth, employment generation and poverty alleviation.

It will leave the economic landscape unchanged.

Stephen Onyeiwu 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. Nigeria’s 2025 budget has major flaws and won’t ease economic burden – https://theconversation.com/nigerias-2025-budget-has-major-flaws-and-wont-ease-economic-burden-250713

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Video: For LOVE of COUNTRY! | U.S. Army

Source: US Army (video statements)

: AEMO

Army families are often connected from one generation to the next, and sometimes can trace their family service through the centuries! Tell us about your family’s Army history!

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

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

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bjx12k0m0bc

MIL OSI Video –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Interest rate reductions on the Court Funds Office special and basic accounts: 3 March 2025
Source: United Kingdom – Government Statements

News story

Interest rate reductions on the Court Funds Office special and basic accounts: 3 March 2025

Reduction of interest rates for Court Funds Office special and basic accounts from today (3 March 2025).
In response to the decrease in the Bank of England base rate on 6 February 2025, the Court Funds Office (CFO) rates of interest payable to clients have been reviewed and from 3 March 2025 these will change to the following:

Special Account – decreased from 4.75% to 4.50%

Basic Account – decreased from 3.56% to 3.38%

The decision was made to ensure that the running costs of the CFO service can continue to be met whilst still providing an affordable rate of interest payable to clients.

If you wish to discuss further, please contact the CFO on 0300 0200 199 or email enquiries@cfo.gov.uk.

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Updates to this page

Published 3 March 2025
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: ICE worksite enforcement operation results in multiple arrests in Mississippi

Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement

JACKSON, Miss. — On Feb. 26, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement responded to the scene of a traffic stop by state police in Jackson, Mississippi. There were two separate vehicles pulled over and seven illegal aliens from Guatemala and El Salvador were occupying the vehicles.

The individuals worked for 3 J Underground LLC located in Byhalia, a company that installs fiber optic cable for phone and Internet services. While on scene, the owner of the company, a naturalized United States Citizen, arrived along with another employee, a Lawful Permanent Resident from El Salvador. The owner of the company was asked if he knew that his employees were unlawfully present in the United States and he stated that he did not require them to complete any paperwork when they began working for him. ICE special agents explained to the owner of the company that employers are required to determine employment eligibility by having new employees complete the Form I-9 and provide supporting identity documents. ICE administratively arrested seven Guatemalan and El Salvadoran illegal aliens.

Under federal law, employers are required to verify the identity and employment eligibility of all individuals they hire, and to document that information using the Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9. ICE uses the I-9 inspection program to promote compliance with the law, part of a comprehensive strategy to address and deter illegal employment. Inspections are one of the most powerful tools the federal government uses to ensure that businesses are complying with U.S. employment laws.

ICE’s worksite enforcement strategy includes leveraging the agency’s other investigative disciplines, since worksite investigations can often involve additional criminal activity, such as alien smuggling, human trafficking, money laundering, document fraud, worker exploitation and/or substandard wage and working conditions.

MIL OSI USA News –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: SBA Relief Still Available to Oklahoma Small Businesses and Private Nonprofits Affected by Summer Rain and Flooding

Source: United States Small Business Administration

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is reminding small businesses and private nonprofit (PNP) organizations in Oklahoma of the April 3, 2025, deadline to apply for low interest federal disaster loans to offset economic losses caused by the June 18–21, 2024 heavy rain and flooding.

The disaster declaration covers the counties of Beaver, Cimarron and Texas in Oklahoma, as well as Morton, Seward and Stevens in Kansas, and Hansford, Ochiltree and Sherman in Texas.

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

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

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

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

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

Submit completed loan applications to the SBA no later than April 3, 2025.

###

About the U.S. Small Business Administration

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

MIL OSI USA News –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Security: Business Partner Brothers Sentenced to Federal Prison for their Roles in $2.8M COVID Fraud Scheme

Source: Office of United States Attorneys

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Three brothers have been sentenced to federal prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and wire fraud. Two brothers, William Chan, 40, and Siu Chan, 32, both of Georgia, pleaded guilty to a wire fraud conspiracy. The third brother, Ka Ho Chan, 33, who also resides in Georgia, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud. The brothers, along with other family members, operate a string of restaurants in the Charleston area.

Evidence obtained in the investigation revealed that beginning in March 2020, the Chan brothers applied for Paycheck Protect Program (PPP) and Emergency Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) funds using false representations and fraudulent documentation.

The evidence presented for William and Siu Chan revealed that at least 22 PPP and EIDL loans were applied for and received totaling more than $2.5 million. The investigation further revealed that a handful of the loans applied for by William and Siu were legitimate applications but the funds we not used for legitimate business purposes once funded. For example, the Government uncovered evidence that the brothers used PPP and EIDL loan funds to make personal car purchases and pay personal credit card expenses.

Ka Ha Chan pleaded to a separate information charging him with wire fraud for an EIDL loan and grant he received. Moreover, in Ka Ha Chan’s plea agreement, he agreed to a restitution figure between $300,000 to $350,000 based on his receipt of fraudulent loan proceeds applied for by his brothers during their conspiracy. The evidence revealed that all the funds received by Ka Ho, though his own wire fraud scheme, and the funds he received from his brothers were not used for legitimate business purposes and were used for personal expenses, such as vehicle purchases and personal credit cards.

“These defendants exploited a program intended to help struggling businesses during a critical time. Their greed led them to defraud the government and taxpayers, diverting millions of dollars intended for legitimate economic relief,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Brook B. Andrews for the District of South Carolina. “This sentencing sends a clear message: those who attempt to profit from pandemic aid through fraud will be held accountable.”

“We will not tolerate those who exploit programs designed to support small businesses, and these defendants are now facing the consequences for their actions,” said Steve Jensen, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Columbia field office. “The FBI remains committed to identifying, investigating, and holding accountable those who attempt undermine our financial institutions for personal gain.”

United States District Richard M. Gergel sentenced William Chan to 24 months imprisonment, to be followed by a three-year term of court-ordered supervision. Siu Chan was sentenced to 24 months imprisonment, to be followed by a three-year term of court-ordered supervision. Ka Ho Chan was sentenced to 12 months and one day imprisonment, to be followed by a three-year term of court-ordered supervision.

There is no parole in the federal system. The total amount of fraudulent loans and misuse of EIDL and PPP loan funds presented to the court during sentencing exceeded $2.8 million. In advance of sentencing, efforts had been made by the brothers to pay restitution. As a result, the outstanding restitution owed in the amount of $1,268,386.50 was ordered.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

This case was investigated by the FBI Columbia Field Office and Small Business Administration. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Bower is prosecuting the case.

###

MIL Security OSI –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Africa: Nigeria’s 2025 budget has major flaws and won’t ease economic burden

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Stephen Onyeiwu, Professor of Economics & Business, Allegheny College

There are doubts as to whether Nigerian president Bola Tinubu’s N54.99 trillion (US$36.6 billion) 2025 budget will lay a solid foundation for addressing some of the country’s current economic challenges.

Economist Stephen Onyeiwu unpacks these challenges and sets out why the 2025 budget won’t change Nigeria’s economic landscape (though it has some silver linings).

What are Nigeria’s four biggest economic challenges?

Firstly, Nigeria’s economy has grown at a subdued average rate of about 3% for the past three years.

Though comparable to global economic growth, this rate of growth is insufficient to create jobs and alleviate poverty. The official unemployment rate is 4.3%.

Only 15% of those employed, however, are in the formal sector as wage earners. About 93% of Nigerians are engaged in informal sector activities. They’re doing low-income and vulnerable jobs, with no social protection.

Secondly, Nigerians are struggling with a high cost of living. Inflation has remained high for three years, as have interest rates.

The exchange rate has been elevated and volatile. The result has been rising food, fuel and housing costs.

Thirdly, the country has not been able to attract enough foreign investment to generate high-paying jobs in the formal sector. Foreign direct investment to Nigeria has been declining. It fell from US$8.6 billion in 2009 to US$1.8 billion in 2023.

Reasons for the decline are the high cost of doing business in Nigeria, insecurity, poor infrastructure and macroeconomic instability.

Fourthly, poverty rates are high. This is due to unemployment and the lack of safety nets. The poverty rate rose from 33.2% in 2020 to 47.2% in 2024. The number of poor people is expected to increase by 13 million in 2025, largely due to inflation.

Will the 2025 budget help?

There are a number of serious flaws in it which suggest it won’t.

Tinubu said the 2025 budget “was designed to ensure macro-economic stability, poverty reduction, promoting economic stability, developing human capital and addressing insecurity.”

But the allocation of funds does not reflect these priorities. The allocations to personnel and overheads far exceed allocations to capital expenditures – things that build the economy’s productive capacity.

A key challenge for Nigeria is how to shift resources from consumption to production. The 2025 budget reinforces the longstanding consumerist nature of the economy.

China spends about 45% of GDP on capital formation. This has spurred and sustained the country’s high growth rates for decades. Nigeria’s allocation to capital expenditure in the 2025 budget is about 19%.

In his budget speech the president said his administration’s goal was to

“get our manufacturing sector humming again and ultimately increase the competitiveness of our economy.”

But the federal ministries that should be driving this effort – industry and education – weren’t allocated enough for capital expenditure.

Nor did the budget prioritise things that would ease the economic burden of Nigerians.

A big chunk of the budget (about 35.4%) goes to servicing debt. Indeed, about 65% of the 2025 budget will finance debt repayment, personnel costs and overheads.

Another concern is that the government intends to borrow N9.22 trillion (US$6.2 billion) to finance the budget, higher than the N7.83 trillion (US$5.2 billion) borrowed in the previous year.

Borrowing to finance a budget increases the interest rate and makes private-sector borrowing costly. Businesses can’t access funds that would enable them to invest and boost economic growth, reduce inflation, create jobs and alleviate poverty.

Are there any silver linings?

There are some.

It is commendable that the Federal Ministry of Communications & the Digital Economy was allocated about N450 billion (US$300 million) for capital expenditure, compared to just N33 billion (US$22 million) for recurrent expenditure. The administration is signalling its commitment to building capacity in the IT sector. This is important because Nigeria needs to promote a knowledge-based economy that would diversify away from hydrocarbons.

Another encouraging aspect of the budget is that the ratio of budget deficit to GDP (3.89%) is lower than the average 5% prior to 2024. Although the administration will borrow to cover the deficit, it’s borrowing less than before relative to GDP. This signals an intention to be more financially prudent than previous administrations, assuming it won’t resort to supplementary budgets.

What needs to happen now?

The 2025 budget is anything but pro-poor. Most of its provisions benefit the elites, contractors and public employees.

Much will be used to pay politicians and their aides at the National Assembly and workers in the government ministries and agencies.

Money allocated to capital expenditure will be used to pay contractors for government projects.

Nigerians in the informal sector will not feel a direct impact. There should have been more proactive measures to address unemployment and poverty.

Sustainable development requires a strong rural economy. While the manufacturing and services sectors are critical for structural transformation and job creation, they can’t develop without a vibrant agricultural sector.

Strengthening the rural economy of Nigeria requires raising the productivity of farmers so that they can supply food to urban workers at affordable prices. This helps keep inflation and wage rates low.

Raising the productivity of rural people raises their incomes and alleviates poverty.

Higher rural incomes increase farmers’ purchasing power, leading to an increase in the demand for goods and services produced in the manufacturing sector. When rural people earn more, there’s less reason to migrate to urban areas.

Less migration implies less pressure on urban social services, the labour market and the informal sector.

More funds need to be allocated to sectors and activities that raise the productive capacity of the economy. This will involve reducing governance costs and using the savings to boost food production, agro-processing and manufacturing.

The key to stabilising the Nigerian economy is massive food production, which will reduce food inflation. Coupled with agro-processing, food production will boost exports, reduce food imports and strengthen the value of the naira.

A stronger naira will reduce inflation and interest rates.

In conclusion, the 2025 budget does not solve Nigeria’s endless cycle of deficits and debts. Neither does it lay the foundation for structural transformation, economic diversification, sustainable economic growth, employment generation and poverty alleviation.

It will leave the economic landscape unchanged.

– Nigeria’s 2025 budget has major flaws and won’t ease economic burden
– https://theconversation.com/nigerias-2025-budget-has-major-flaws-and-wont-ease-economic-burden-250713

MIL OSI Africa –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Salford City Council confirm delegation for MIPIM 2025
Source: City of Salford
Salford City Council confirm a return to MIPIM this year.

MIPIM (in French, Le Marché International des Professionnels de L’immobilier) is held in Cannes, France and is internationally recognised as a key property and investment event.

Attendance at MIPIM provides a platform for the council to meet investors and showcase the development opportunities in Salford.

Salford City Council team will form part of Greater Manchester partnership in attendance

The Salford team confirmed for the conference as Jack Youd, Deputy City Mayor and Lead Member for Finance, Support Services and Regeneration, John Searle, Executive Director Place, Stephanie Mullenger, Interim Director Property and Housing, and Sarah Ashurst, Head of Partnerships and Investment.
Salford City Deputy Mayor Jack Youd heads up a team of senior officers from Salford City Council attending this year’s MIPIM event.

The team’s focus will be once again raising the profile of the city and positioning Salford as an innovative, forward-thinking city on a global stage. There’ll be opportunities to highlight the unique growth potential and the range of current regeneration projects in scope across the city.

Heading out to Cannes, France from 11-14 March for the event, presents the team with the chance for the team to meet with developers and public sector officials from cities and regions across the world.

Jack Youd, Deputy City Mayor and Lead Member for Finance, Support Services and Regeneration, said:

“As always, MIPIM presents an important opportunity for the city and as a first-time attendee I’m excited to experience everything the event has to offer.

Salford City Council is committed to placemaking which delivers for the existing residents of Salford and for people looking to live, work and play in our city. This vision is set out in our Corporate Plan and builds on the good growth and regeneration which has been vital to our success as a city. The connections made and developed at MIPIM are central to achieving our goals.

We need to continue to build the profile of the city further and ensuring potential investors and partners have Salford in the forefront of their minds.”

Salford City Council has long identified MIPIM as an important opportunity to share the city’s regeneration story and highlight the city’s vision for the future with those who have the potential to help deliver and achieve it.

This year, again there’s plenty to for the team to be highlighting. Salford has experienced significant growth and investment in recent years, and this is now having a positive knock-on effect. Investment attracts further investment and leads to future development opportunities throughout the city.

Current priorities include the new ambitious visions for the town centre redevelopment of Eccles and Swinton and the upcoming Strangeways and Cambridge Strategic Regeneration Framework. The new emerging Mayoral Development Zone at the Western Gateway, future plans at MediaCity and the importance of affordable social housing through Derive all present opportunities for developers and investors.

The key objectives for attending MIPIM are: raising the city’s profile on an international stage; highlighting the exciting development opportunities on the horizon; making those connections with potential developer partners.

The Salford City Council team is:

Jack Youd, Deputy City Mayor and Lead Member for Finance, Support Services and Regeneration

Jack was elected in 2021 to represent Walkden North ward also serving as the election agent for the directly elected City Mayor, Paul Dennett.

On election Jack was made the Executive Support for Procurement and Social Value, overseeing a large increase in the number of Foundation Living Wage accredited employers in Salford. In 2022 Jack was promoted to the Lead Member for Finance and Support Services.

In 2024, Jack was appointed to the position of Deputy City Mayor and added the Property and Regeneration portfolio to his roles and responsibilities. Jack also substitutes for the City Mayor at Greater Manchester Combined Authority, sits on the Greater Manchester Economy Board and Greater Manchester Pension Fund.

Jack is also chair of the Board of Directors of Salford Credit Union and has been a
non-executive director on SCU for ten years.

John Searle, Executive Director Place

John has 25 years’ experience in the public and private sector in economic development and physical regeneration across Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside with direct experience of implementing urban regeneration schemes and commercial property development. John joined Salford in November 2021 and is responsible for regeneration, property, development and investments, planning and building control, highways and technical services, operational services and employment and skills. This involves a gross revenue budget of over £90m and a capital programme of over £100m for 2022/23.

He is currently overseeing Salford’s ambitious growth plans to deliver 40,000 new jobs and homes by 2040 by building on the city’s four strategic growth locations (City Centre Salford, Salford Quays and MediaCity, Greater Manchester Western Gateway, including Port Salford and Salford’s Town Centres).

John previously worked for 15 years at Rochdale Council/Rochdale Development Agency on the £400m investment programme in Rochdale Town Centre, the development of the 420-acre Kingsway Business Park and the GM Spatial Framework proposal known as Northern Gateway.

Stephanie Mullenger, Interim Director Property and Housing

Steph has been working in Property since she was 16 and started as an estate agent in London. She completed her and RICS qualifications whilst working and has been involved with all aspects of the industry across all asset types and in several different countries.

She moved to the Northwest from London in 1997 and has over 25 years’ director and board level industry experience with a track record of success in developing multi-site retail, office leisure and residential estates and award winning, high performing teams.

She has worked for the Co-op, London Regional Transport, Global property Consultants, Banks and locally has been MD for Manchester Airport Group Property and Urban Splash. She also ran for ten years my own successful property consultancy before joining Salford City Council in 2023.

In March 2024, Steph was appointed as the Interim Director of Property and Housing.

Sarah Ashurst, Head of Partnerships and Investment, Salford City Council

Sarah has extensive experience of delivering the city’s regeneration ambitions during her time working for the council.

She leads a team of officers with on focus on driving the growth of the city, working with a range of public and private sector development partners, funding agencies, Greater Manchester partners and international investors and has a portfolio covering the whole of the city.

Full programme with Salford attended panel sessions

Tuesday 11 March

Place North Stand
- 8.30am Welcome from Northern Local Authorities
- Featuring: Stephanie Mullenger, Interim Director Property and Housing.
The Manchester Stand
- 10.30am Place based sustainable growth: How the Manchester city region is unlocking and supporting development
- Featuring John Searle, Executive Director, Place
The Manchester Stand
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- Featuring Jack Youd, Deputy City Mayor and Lead Member for Finance, Support Services and Regeneration
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- Featuring John Searle, Executive Director, Place
Wednesday 12 March

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Thursday 13 March

The Manchester Stand
- 2pm Beyond Old Trafford: Exploring wider regeneration opportunities in Trafford and Salford
- Featuring Jack Youd, Deputy City Mayor and Lead Member for Finance, Support Services and Regeneration
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Date published

Monday 3 March 2025

Press and media enquiries
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: A Palestinian-Israeli film just won an Oscar − so why is it so hard to see?

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Drew Paul, Associate Professor of Arabic, University of Tennessee

Left to right: Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal and Yuval Abraham pose with their Oscars for ‘No Other Land’ at the 2025 Academy Awards. Maya Dehlin Spach/Getty Images

For many low-budget, independent films, an Oscar win is a golden ticket.

The publicity can translate into theatrical releases or rereleases, along with more on-demand rentals and sales.

However, for “No Other Land,” a Palestinian-Israeli film that just won best documentary feature at the 2025 Academy Awards, this exposure may not translate into commercial success in the U.S. That’s because the film has been unable to find a company to distribute it in America.

“No Other Land” chronicles the efforts of Palestinian townspeople to combat an Israeli plan to demolish their villages in the West Bank and use the area as a military training ground. It was directed by four Palestinian and Israeli activists and journalists: Basel Adra, who is a resident of the area facing demolition, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor. While the filmmakers have organized screenings in a number of U.S. cities, the lack of a national distributor makes a broader release unlikely.

Film distributors are a crucial but often unseen link in the chain that allows a film to reach cinemas and people’s living rooms. In recent years it has become more common for controversial award-winning films to run into issues finding a distributor. Palestinian films have encountered additional barriers.

As a scholar of Arabic who has written about Palestinian cinema, I’m disheartened by the difficulties “No Other Land” has faced. But I’m not surprised.

The role of film distributors

Distributors are often invisible to moviegoers. But without one, it can be difficult for a film to find an audience.

Distributors typically acquire rights to a film for a specific country or set of countries. They then market films to movie theaters, cinema chains and streaming platforms. As compensation, distributors receive a percentage of the revenue generated by theatrical and home releases.

The film “Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat,” another finalist for best documentary, shows how this process typically works. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024 and was acquired for distribution just a few months later by Kino Lorber, a major U.S.-based distributor of independent films.

The inability to find a distributor is not itself noteworthy. No film is entitled to distribution, and most films by newer or unknown directors face long odds.

However, it is unusual for a film like “No Other Land,” which has garnered critical acclaim and has been recognized at various film festivals and award shows. Some have pegged it as a favorite to win best documentary at the Academy Awards. And “No Other Land” has been able to find distributors in Europe, where it’s easily accessible on multiple streaming platforms.

So why can’t “No Other Land” find a distributor in the U.S.?

There are a couple of factors at play.

Shying away from controversy

In recent years, film critics have noticed a trend: Documentaries on controversial topics have faced distribution difficulties. These include a film about a campaign by Amazon workers to unionize and a documentary about Adam Kinzinger, one of the few Republican congresspeople to vote to impeach Donald Trump in 2021.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, of course, has long stirred controversy. But the release of “No Other Land” comes at a time when the issue is particularly salient. The Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, and the ensuing Israeli bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip have become a polarizing issue in U.S. domestic politics, reflected in the campus protests and crackdowns in 2024. The filmmakers’ critical comments about the Israeli occupation of Palestine have also garnered backlash in Germany.

Locals attend a screening of ‘No Other Land’ in the village of A-Tuwani in the West Bank on March 14, 2024.
Yahel Gazit/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Yet the fact that this conflict has been in the news since October 2023 should also heighten audience interest in a film such as “No Other Land” – and, therefore, lead to increased sales, the metric that distributors care about the most.

Indeed, an earlier film that also documents Palestinian protests against Israeli land expropriation, “5 Broken Cameras,” was a finalist for best documentary at the 2013 Academy Awards. It was able to find a U.S. distributor. However, it had the support of a major European Union documentary development program called Greenhouse. The support of an organization like Greenhouse, which had ties to numerous production and distribution companies in Europe and the U.S., can facilitate the process of finding a distributor.

By contrast, “No Other Land,” although it has a Norwegian co-producer and received some funding from organizations in Europe and the U.S., was made primarily by a grassroots filmmaking collective.

Stages for protest

While distribution challenges may be recent, controversies surrounding Palestinian films are nothing new.

Many of them stem from the fact that the system of film festivals, awards and distribution is primarily based on a movie’s nation of origin. Since there is no sovereign Palestinian state – and many countries and organizations have not recognized the state of Palestine – the question of how to categorize Palestinian films has been hard to resolve.

In 2002, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rejected the first ever Palestinian film submitted to the best foreign language film category – Elia Suleiman’s “Divine Intervention” – because Palestine was not recognized as a country by the United Nations. The rules were changed for the following year’s awards ceremony.

In 2021, the cast of the film “Let It Be Morning,” which had an Israeli director but primarily Palestinian actors, boycotted the Cannes Film Festival in protest of the film’s categorization as an Israeli film rather than a Palestinian one.

Film festivals and other cultural venues have also become places to make statements about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and engage in protest. For example, at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017, the right-wing Israeli culture minister wore a controversial – and meme-worthy – dress that featured the Jerusalem skyline in support of Israeli claims of sovereignty over the holy city, despite the unresolved status of Jerusalem under international law.

Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev wears a dress featuring the old city of Jerusalem during the Cannes Film Festival in 2017.
Antonin Thuillier/AFP via Getty Images

At the 2024 Academy Awards, a number of attendees, including Billie Eilish, Mark Ruffalo and Mahershala Ali, wore red pins in support of a ceasefire in Gaza, and pro-Palestine protesters delayed the start of the ceremonies.

As he accepted his award, “No Other Land” director Yuval Abraham called out “the foreign policy” of the U.S. for “helping to block” a path to peace.

Even though a film like “No Other Land” addresses a topic of clear interest to many Americans, I wonder if the quest to find a U.S. distributor just got even harder.

This article has been updated to clarify that the film was a collaborative effort between Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers. It has also been updated to reflect the film’s win at the 2025 Academy Awards.

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

– ref. A Palestinian-Israeli film just won an Oscar − so why is it so hard to see? – https://theconversation.com/a-palestinian-israeli-film-just-won-an-oscar-so-why-is-it-so-hard-to-see-249233

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: How Holocaust films are changing as we lose the survivor generation

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Barry Langford, Professor of Film Studies, Royal Holloway University of London

The Holocaust is fast receding from living memory. Some 300 Auschwitz survivors were present at the 70th anniversary commemorations of the camp’s liberation in 2015. This year, just 50 attended, all of whom were children in 1945.

Even before this generation began to pass on, researchers of the Holocaust had begun to study the ways that memory of these events have been shaped, manipulated, or indeed fabricated. Film scholar Alison Landsberg’s influential concept of “prosthetic memory” focused attention on the ways in which film, literature and other art forms can supplement or even substitute for the experiences of those who lived through historical events.

Approaching the moment when such supplements must become the sole means for future generations to understand the Holocaust, it seems no accident that half a dozen films released in 2023 and 2024 made Holocaust memory – and its complexities – an explicit element of their narratives.

Three of these films incorporate scenes filmed on location in Poland at former Nazi death camps. Perhaps the most unexpected example is The Zone of Interest (2023). A brief documentary sequence filmed at the modern-day Auschwitz museum concludes director Jonathan Glazer’s meticulous (though highly stylised) recreation of the idyllic domestic life of camp commandant Rudolf Höss and his family.

Read more:
The Zone of Interest: new Holocaust film powerfully lays bare the mechanisms of genocide

It’s the only sequence that crosses the otherwise impermeable boundary separating the Höss family compound from the camp itself. It might be interpreted as a kind of reality check for the audience – a reminder that yes, this all did really happen. But that seems an improbably ingenuous stance for so intelligent a filmmaker.

More plausibly, the sequence is a reflexive extension of the film’s interrogation of the strategies by which atrocity can be held at arm’s length, or “managed”.

Höss (Christian Friedel) and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) manage this by fabricating a “perfect” bourgeois home, while ignoring the constant soundtrack of barked orders, shots and screams from the other side of their garden wall.

As we watch them, we are naturally appalled and repelled by their callous dissociation. Yet in the contemporary Auschwitz sequence, Glazer asks whether modern habits of Holocaust “consumption” don’t risk an all-too-similar disavowal.

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In the museum sequence we see Polish cleaners at work, wiping down the glass of the vitrines in which the infamous heaps of shoes and human hair are displayed, and mopping the floor of the Auschwitz I gas chamber (itself a postwar reconstruction).

This site of unimaginable violence is now a museum where the material evidence of mass murder is carefully preserved and curated for tourists. Perhaps not altogether unlike a historical recreation such as The Zone of Interest.

‘Managing’ Holocaust memory

Tourists are the protagonists of Treasure (2024), directed by Julia von Heinz, and A Real Pain (2024), written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg.

These films centre on survivors and their descendants travelling to modern Poland, ostensibly to commemorate their destroyed families. But it seems that, perhaps inevitably, more pressing and immediate personal issues override these acts of remembrance.

Read more:
A Real Pain is a subtle but powerful exploration of remembrance culture and personal trauma

A Real Pain, for example, centres on two cousins, dutiful family man David (Eisenberg) and mercurial, possibly bipolar Benji (Kieran Culkin). The pair join a “Holocaust tour” in honour of their late grandmother, a Polish-Jewish survivor, including a visit to Maidanek.

Clip from A Real Pain.

Dutifully and sombrely, the cousins view the barracks, the gas chamber and the vast pile of human ashes. Afterwards, however, only Benji lapses into inconsolable sobs. Is his grief an authentic reaction to the horror, a mark of his greater emotional connection? Is it histrionically excessive, performative attention-seeking? Or is it that the unfathomable tragedy of European Jewry allows Benji to access his own private agony.

If it’s the latter, is such an appropriation of the Holocaust somehow an “illegitimate” response? According to whom? Eisenberg’s deft traumedy leaves it up to us to decide.

Yet more ambiguous is the epilogue to Brady Corbett’s acclaimed The Brutalist (2024). The film retrospectively interprets the professional career of its protagonist, fictitious Hungarian-Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor László Tóth (Adrian Brody) as a response to the tragedy.

Read more:
The Brutalist: an architect’s take on a film about one man’s journey to realise his visionary building

Addressing the 1980 Venice Biennale, Tóth’s daughter declares that through his creations her father worked through the trauma of his experiences in the camps. A Holocaust memorial is among the designs briefly glimpsed in the display of Tóth’s work.

The trailer for The Brutalist.

The scene aptly captures the ways in which public discourses around the Holocaust crystallised from the 1980s onward.

In the immediate postwar period, as The Brutalist shows, the Holocaust was a rarely discussed, even shameful, topic outside of survivor communities. But with the onset of postmodernism, the Holocaust came increasingly to be understood as the defining episode in 20th-century European history, more even than the second world war itself.

The meanings of trauma

As all these films show, the ways that the Holocaust is commemorated today are far uncontested. For example, One Life (2023), the biopic of British rescuer Nicholas Winton, straightforwardly endorses mainstream assumptions about the value of remembrance.

Read more:
What One Life gets wrong about Nicholas Winton and the Kindertransport story

By contrast, in the documentary The Commandant’s Shadow (2024), Holocaust survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch is almost dismissive of what she clearly sees as her daughter’s superfluous preoccupation with a past trauma best forgotten.

The Brutalist is more ambiguous still. At one level, traumatic memory may help explain Tóth’s difficult character and relationships in the preceding three hours of the film. Yet at the same time, almost nothing in his words or actions hitherto has suggested the Holocaust is his predominant focus. Nor does Tóth make this claim himself. Stricken mute following a stroke, he can only listen as his daughter offers this account of his work.

Is it true? Or is it imposing a neat, culturally approved meaning onto the complexities of a messy, damaged life?

Together, these films make a strong case that in the “post-testimony” era, we must not only keep remembering the Holocaust, but reflect constantly on how and why we do so.

Barry Langford 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. How Holocaust films are changing as we lose the survivor generation – https://theconversation.com/how-holocaust-films-are-changing-as-we-lose-the-survivor-generation-250687

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Trump and Zelensky: when face-to-face diplomacy goes wrong it can be disastrous – especially if the whole world is watching

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Marcus Holmes, Professor of Government; Faculty Affiliate, Global Research Institute, William & Mary

When it is poorly executed, face-to-face diplomacy reinforces hostility, erodes relationships and makes diplomatic successes even harder. That is exactly what happened during the now notorious White House meeting on February 28 between the US president, Donald Trump, the vice-president, J.D. Vance, and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

Instead of a productive diplomatic exchange, the meeting descended into a highly unusual public spectacle.

Instead of culminating in the signing of a deal that would offer Ukraine some measure of security, the meeting left Zelensky shaken and isolated, and US support for Ukraine looking even more uncertain than it had done before. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, was handed a clear political win.

When leaders meet in person, it is possible for them to gain a deeper understanding of each other’s intentions, constraints and red lines – things that don’t always come through in official statements or diplomatic cables. This kind of direct engagement has historically played a key role in defusing tensions, clarifying positions and opening the door to future negotiations.

The best example was in the Reagan-Gorbachev summits of the second half of the 1980s. This handful of meetings between the two leaders deepened their personal relationship, playing a key role in ending the cold war.

Diplomatic meetings, particularly high-stakes ones, should serve at least one of three purposes. First, they should be opportunities for each side to clarify its intentions, priorities and bottom lines – even if no agreement is reached.

There might be openings for future engagement, keeping diplomacy alive. And, at the very least, face-to-face diplomacy should enable parties to prevent escalation or any deterioration in relationships.

By these measures, the meeting between Trump and Zelensky was a failure. Rather than probing positions and potential paths forward for ending the war in Ukraine, Trump and Vance used the meeting to publicly berate and belittle Zelensky.

“Have you said thank you once?” Vance demanded, framing Ukraine’s survival as a matter of gratitude rather than strategic interest. Meanwhile Trump bluntly told Zelenskyy, “You’re not winning this”, dismissing Ukraine’s resilience and reinforcing doubt about the war effort.

He went on to belittle the Ukrainian president further, saying, “You’ve talked too much” – a deliberate move to undercut Zelensky’s standing in the moment.

These were not the words of partners working toward a resolution or seeking common ground. This was a power play, an example of what some have termed a “domination ritual” – designed to make clear that Ukraine is in no position to set terms.

Zelensky is not the first leader to walk out of a face-to-face meeting with a brutally clear sense of the reality ahead. A historical parallel comes from a summit in 1961 between the then US president, John F. Kennedy, and the Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev, in Vienna.

US president John F. Kennedy meets with Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, in June 1961, just prior to the Vienna summit.
CIA/Wikimedia Commons

Kennedy later admitted that Khrushchev “beat the hell out of me”, leaving him convinced that tensions with the Soviet Union would escalate. “It’s going to be a cold winter,” he remarked afterwards.

Sure enough, within months the two superpowers were embroiled in a crisis over Berlin, and then a year later, Khrushchev tested Kennedy’s resolve by deploying medium-range ballistic missiles to Cuba, triggering the most dangerous confrontation of the nuclear age so far.

But there was a crucial difference: Kennedy and Khrushchev’s bruising exchange happened behind closed doors. Zelensky was forced to experience his own Vienna moment in front of the cameras. Trump and Vance ensured that their disdain for Ukraine’s position was publicly performed, making it even harder for Zelensky to recover politically – both at home and abroad.

The diplomatic fallout: a gift to Russia

Meetings like this don’t just shape the dynamics in the room – they send signals to allies, adversaries and the international system. And in this case, the biggest winner was Putin.

This was a propaganda victory for the Russians, which will have given the Kremlin the encouragement that Ukraine is losing support from its most powerful western backer.

For Ukraine, this was a major strategic setback. Zelensky desperately needed reassurances about a US security guarantee – instead, he left the meeting publicly weakened, making his already difficult job far harder in Kyiv and across Europe.

But it was also incredibly damaging for US diplomacy. America’s credibility as a reliable ally has taken an enormous hit at a time when its reliability was already being questioned by its friends in Europe and Asia. If the US treats a wartime partner, what message does that send to other allies who might someday need Washington’s support?

Face-to-face diplomacy still matters

Interpersonal meetings, especially ones that are broadcast to the world, shape relationships in ways that extend far beyond policy. They can build – or erode –trust, define power dynamics and send signals that can strengthen or weaken alliances.

Kennedy left Vienna shaken, but at least he left with clarity about Khrushchev’s view of him. Zelensky, too, now understands the new reality of US support. But unlike Kennedy, he was humiliated on live television, which will make it harder to rebuild relationships.

Face-to-face diplomacy is one of the most powerful tools world leaders have – when used correctly. But it only works when they use it to solve problems rather than, as we saw with Trump and Vance, perform for the cameras.

What happened in the Oval Office was not diplomacy – it was a spectacle. And the world took notice.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Trump and Zelensky: when face-to-face diplomacy goes wrong it can be disastrous – especially if the whole world is watching – https://theconversation.com/trump-and-zelensky-when-face-to-face-diplomacy-goes-wrong-it-can-be-disastrous-especially-if-the-whole-world-is-watching-251277

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Video: What Europe is good at #Davos2025 #WorldEconomicForum #ChristineLagarde

Source: World Economic Forum (video statements)

The 55th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum will provide a crucial space to focus on the fundamental principles driving trust, including transparency, consistency and accountability.

This Annual Meeting will welcome over 100 governments, all major international organizations, 1000 Forum’s Partners, as well as civil society leaders, experts, youth representatives, social entrepreneurs, and news outlets.

The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.

World Economic Forum Website ► http://www.weforum.org/
Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/worldeconomicforum/
YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/wef
Instagram ► https://www.instagram.com/worldeconomicforum/
X ► https://twitter.com/wef
LinkedIn ► https://www.linkedin.com/company/world-economic-forum
TikTok ► https://www.tiktok.com/@worldeconomicforum
Flipboard ► https://flipboard.com/@WEF

#Davos2025 #WorldEconomicForum #wef25

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwRpouvP_0M

MIL OSI Video –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Monday Morning Wins: Call It the “Trump Effect”

US Senate News:

Source: The White House
There is no better way to start the week than by celebrating more big wins for Americans under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump.
American manufacturing surges amid President Trump’s tariffs: Automaker Honda is expected to produce its next-generation Civic hybrid model in Indiana, while Wisconsin-based Clarios, a leader in low-voltage energy storage, announced a $6 billion plan to expand its U.S.-based manufacturing.
They’re only the latest major companies to announce such a move in alignment with President Trump’s Made in America agenda. Last week, Apple announced an historic $500 billion investment that will create 20,000 new U.S.-based jobs, while drug maker Eli Lilly announced a $27 billion investment in its U.S.-based manufacturing — bringing the total number of investments secured in President Trump’s second term to nearly $2 billion.

Border security drives results: President Trump announced illegal border crossings in February — his first full month in office — were the lowest ever recorded, down 94% from last February and down 96% from the all-time high of the Biden Administration.
This follows news that would-be illegal border crossers have “given up” and are returning to their own countries as ICE arrests of illegal immigrants have surged 627%.
Mexican cartel operatives say they are “genuinely” fearful “for the first time in years” amid the Trump Administration’s crackdown.

A victory for small businesses: The U.S. Department of the Treasury suspended enforcement of Biden-era Beneficial Ownership Information reporting requirements for U.S. citizens — a big win for small businesses faced with burdensome reporting requirements that increased costs and lowered productivity.

MIL OSI USA News –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Addresses the Threat to National Security from Imports of Timber, Lumber, and their Derivative Products

US Senate News:

Source: The White House
SECURING AMERICA’S LUMBER SUPPLY: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order launching an investigation into how imports of timber, lumber, and their derivative products threaten America’s national security and economic stability.
The Order directs the Secretary of Commerce to initiate a Section 232 investigation under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.
This investigation will assess the national security risks arising from the United States’ increasing dependence on imported timber, lumber, and derivative products like paper, furniture, and cabinetry, and the potential need for trade remedies to safeguard domestic industry.
The investigation will culminate in a report identifying vulnerabilities in the lumber supply chain and providing recommendations to enhance the resilience of America’s domestic wood products industry.
ADDRESSING THE THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY: President Trump recognizes that an overreliance on foreign timber, lumber, and their derivative products could jeopardize the United States’ defense capabilities, construction industry, and economic strength.
Timber and lumber are essential materials for national security, economic stability, and industrial resilience.
Lumber plays a vital role in civilian construction and military infrastructure.
The U.S. military spends over ten billion dollars annually on construction and is testing innovative wood products such as cross-laminated timber.

The United States has been a net importer of lumber since 2016, despite having the practical production capacity to supply 95% of the United States’ 2024 softwood consumption.
Foreign supply chains and major exporters increasingly fill U.S. demand, creating vulnerabilities to disruptions.
America’s reliance on imported lumber is exacerbated by foreign government subsidies and predatory trade practices, which undermine the competitiveness of the U.S. wood products industry.
STRENGTHENING AMERICAN INDUSTRY: This Executive Order builds on previous actions taken by the Trump Administration to ensure U.S. trade policy serves the nation’s long-term interests.
On Day One, President Trump initiated his America First Trade Policy to make America’s economy great again.
President Trump signed proclamations to close existing loopholes and exemptions in order to restore a true 25% tariff on steel and elevate the tariff to 25% on aluminum.
President Trump implemented a 10% additional tariff on imports from China in response to China’s role in importing illegal drugs to the United States.
President Trump unveiled the “Fair and Reciprocal Plan” on trade to restore fairness in U.S. trade relationships and counter non-reciprocal trade agreements.
President Trump signed a memorandum to safeguard American innovation, including the consideration of tariffs to combat digital service taxes (DSTs), fines, practices, and policies that foreign governments levy on American companies.
President Trump launched a Section 232 investigation into how copper imports threaten America’s national security and economic stability.

MIL OSI USA News –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: At a time of war, nations must stop global order from crumbling: UN rights chief

Source: United Nations 2

“Our world is going through a period of turbulence and unpredictability, reflected in growing conflict and divided societies,” Türk told the Human Rights Council.

“We cannot allow the fundamental global consensus around international norms and institutions, built painstakingly over decades, to crumble before our eyes.”

The weapons of war

Presenting his global update covering more than 30 countries, the High Commissioner described as “outrageous” the fact that legal safeguards for non-combatants were being repeatedly ignored.

“Civilians are deliberately attacked. Sexual violence and famine are used as weapons of war,” Mr. Türk said. “Humanitarian access is denied, while weapons flow across borders and circumvent international sanctions. And humanitarian workers are targeted. In 2024, a record 356 humanitarian workers were killed while providing aid to people in some of the world’s most appalling crises.”

Unbearable price

In Sudan, the High Commissioner once again condemned devastating bomb attacks launched in heavily built-up areas with total impunity, by the parties to the conflict.

All the while, the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe deepens, threatening regional stability, he maintained: “Civilians are paying an unbearable price, in a naked struggle for power and resources. All countries must use their influence to apply pressure on the parties and their allies, to stop the war, embark on an inclusive dialogue, and transition to a civilian-led Government.”

Ukraine’s people need peace

Turning to Ukraine, whose future material support from the United States appeared unclear following televised disagreements between Presidents Trump and Zelensky at a White House meeting on Friday, Mr. Türk opposed any peace deal that excluded Ukraine.

“Three years since the full-scale Russian invasion, people continue to suffer appallingly…Any discussions about ending the war must include Ukrainians and fully respect their human rights. Sustainable peace must be based on the United Nations Charter and international law.”

Civilian casualties in Ukraine rose by 30 per cent between 2023 and 2024, the High Commissioner continued, as he accused Russia’s armed forces of systematically targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with coordinated strikes, causing widespread disruptions to essential services.

“Relentless attacks with aerial glide bombs, long-range missiles and drones have placed civilians in a state of constant insecurity and fear,” Mr. Türk noted.

Ukrainian prisoners also continue to face summary executions and “widespread and systematic torture” by Russian forces, he continued.

Gaza ceasefire focus

In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the UN rights chief insisted that the fragile ceasefire holds in Gaza “and becomes the basis for peace”.

He also insisted that aid deliveries into Gaza should resume immediately, just as Israel announced a halt to aid flowing into the shattered enclave, having proposed extending the first phase of the ceasefire which ended at the weekend and which would allow Israeli troops to stay in Gaza.

UN aid chief Tom Fletcher responded with alarm to the Israeli decision, insisting that the ceasefire “must hold”.

In an online appeal, he added: “International humanitarian law is clear: We must be allowed access to deliver vital lifesaving aid. We can’t roll back the progress of the past 42 days. We need to get aid in and the hostages out.”

Back in the Council, Mr. Türk explained that the Gaza had been “razed” by constant Israeli bombardment in response to the “horrific” Hamas-led attacks on Israel that sparked the war in October 2023. “Any solution to the cycles of violence must be rooted in human rights, including the right to self-determination, the rule of law and accountability. All hostages must be freed; all those detained arbitrarily must be released; and humanitarian aid into Gaza must resume immediately.”

West Bank alert

Reflecting deep concerns by humanitarians and the human rights community about Israeli military raids on Palestinian settlements in the West Bank, the UN High Commissioner insisted that Israel’s “unilateral actions and threats of annexation in the West Bank, in violation of international law, must stop”.

Mr. Türk also condemned the use of “military weapons and tactics, including tanks and airstrikes, against Palestinians”. Equally worrying was “the destruction and emptying of refugee camps, the expansion of illegal settlements, the severe restrictions on movement and the displacement of tens of thousands of people”.

DR Congo devastation

Turning to the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the High Commissioner underscored that entire communities in North and South Kivu had been devastated.

“In the past five weeks, thousands of people have reportedly been killed during attacks by the M23 armed group, backed by the Rwandan Armed Forces, in intense fighting against the Armed Forces of the DRC and their allies,” the UN rights chief said, pointing to reports of rape, sexual slavery and summary executions.

“More than half a million people have been forced to flee this year, adding to almost 7.8 million people already displaced in the country,” Mr. Türk said. “The violence must stop, violations by all parties must be investigated, and dialogue must resume.”

© WFP/Michael Castofas

More than half a million people have been forced to flee DR Congo this year.

Deadliest year in Myanmar

Moving on to the ongoing escalation of violence in Myanmar sparked by the military coup on 1 February 2021, the UN rights chief noted that 2024 was the deadliest year for civilians since the junta takeover.

“The military ramped up brutal attacks on civilians as their grip on power eroded, with retaliatory airstrikes and artillery shelling of villages and urban areas…and the forcible conscription of thousands of young people,” he said, before calling for the supply of arms and finance to the country’s military’s to be “cut decisively”.

Haiti spiral

The UN rights chief also expressed deep concerns about chronic lawlessness and heavily armed clashes in Haiti involving gangs that humanitarians warned last week recruit children as young as eight. More than 5,600 people were killed last year and thousands more were injured or kidnapped, Mr. Türk told the Human Rights Council.

“Full implementation of the Security Council‘s arms embargo and support to the Multinational Security Support Mission are crucial to resolving this crisis,” he insisted.

Yemen

On Yemen, the High Commissioner noted that amid ongoing hostilities, nearly 20 million Yemenis need humanitarian support. Mr. Türk also expressed his outrage at the death of a UN World Food Programme colleague in detention earlier this month. “All 23 UN staff – including eight colleagues from my own Office – who are arbitrarily detained by the Houthis must be released immediately.”

In a half-hour address to the Council that traditionally highlights the most worrying emergencies in the world and the need to tackle their root causes, the UN rights chief issued a call for greater global solidarity and accountability for crimes as a way to push back against those who would violate fundamental freedoms.

“We all have a responsibility to act – through our consumption habits, our social media use, and our political and social engagement,” he told the Council’s 47 Member States.

“We can trace a clear line between the lack of accountability for airstrikes on hospitals in Syria in the 2010s, attacks on healthcare facilities in Yemen, and the destruction of health systems in Gaza and Sudan,” he continued.

Toys of tech oligarchs

Equally alarming is the rise of unelected and unregulated “tech oligarchs” who reflect the new global power dynamic, Mr. Türk warned, before urging governments to fulfil their primary purpose of protecting their people from unchecked power.

Today’s tech oligarchs “have our data: they know where we live, what we do, our genes and our health conditions, our thoughts, our habits, our desires and our fears…And they know how to manipulate us,” the High Commissioner insisted.

Electioneering tactics

“I have followed recent election campaigns in Europe, North America and beyond with increasing trepidation. Single-issue soundbites devoid of substance oversimplify complex issues and are often based on scapegoating, disinformation, and dehumanization,” he continued.

“Dehumanization is a well-worn step towards treating an entire group as outsiders, unworthy of the basic rights we all enjoy. It is a dangerous precursor to hate and violence and must be called out whenever it occurs.”

UN Human Rights Council/Marie Bambi

Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, presents his latest report on the obligation to ensure accountability and justice in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Toxic influence on gender equality

The High Commissioner also voiced his concern about the resurgence of toxic ideas about masculinity and efforts to glorify gender stereotypes, especially among young men.

To blame for this are “misogynistic influencers” with millions of followers on social media who “are hailed as heroes”, Mr. Türk said.

Online and offline, their ideas push back against gender equality and result in “violence and hateful rhetoric against women, women’s rights defenders, and women politicians”, the High Commissioner continued.

In a message of solidarity with people who have been left “feeling alienated and abandoned” by such malign influences, Mr. Türk insisted that the United Nations was by their side. “Your concerns are our concerns, because they are about human rights: to education, to health, to housing, to free speech, and access to justice. Human rights are about people’s daily concerns for their families and their future. We must cherish the values of respect, unity and solidarity; and work together for a safer, more just, more sustainable world. We can and will persevere,” he concluded.

MIL OSI United Nations News –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI: C.W. Williams Community Health Center Awarded $500,000 Grant for New Medical Facility in Charlotte

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — SECU Foundation has awarded a $500,000 capital grant to C.W. Williams Community Health Center (CWWCHC) to support the construction of a new medical facility that will serve low-income and uninsured residents in a nine-county region of southwest North Carolina. The new facility will expand the non-profit’s reach to 25,000 patients annually, a 92% capacity increase.

CWWCHC, a Federally Qualified Community Health Center, reports that more than 20% of their area’s population lives in poverty. Its data shows 42% of their patients are uninsured and 66% live on incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level. Through the new facility, CWWCHC will provide a comprehensive care model that integrates primary, preventative, educational, and support services in one location, reducing barriers to care.

“The C.W. Williams Community Health Center has been an important resource for southwestern North Carolina since 1981, providing reliable, high-quality care for marginalized populations,” said SECU Foundation Board Chair Chris Ayers. “We are pleased to support the construction of this state-of-the-art facility, which will help them increase capacity and meet the growing needs for their services.”

“As we continue to grow and flourish, C.W. Williams Community Health Center continues to provide the best quality health care and social services,” said CWWCHC CEO Debra Weeks. “This year, thanks in part to SECU Foundation, we will focus on nutritional health, maternal health, and behavioral health, making a positive impact in communities that are struggling. Funding is leveraged across every facet of our operations, so this grant will be reinvested in services and staffing to ensure quality healthcare to all, regardless of their ability to pay.”

About SECU and SECU Foundation

A not-for-profit financial cooperative owned by its members, and federally insured by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), SECU has been providing employees of the state of North Carolina and their families with consumer financial services for 87 years. SECU is the second largest credit union in the United States with $53 billion in assets. It serves more than 2.8 million members through 275 branch offices, 1,100 ATMs, Member Services Support via phone, www.ncsecu.org, and the SECU Mobile App. The SECU Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization funded by the contributions of SECU members, promotes local community development in North Carolina primarily through high-impact projects in the areas of housing, education, healthcare, and human services. Since 2004, SECU Foundation has made a collective financial commitment of over $300 million for initiatives to benefit North Carolinians statewide.

Contact: Jama Campbell, Executive Director, secufoundation@ncsecu.org

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/dd79a796-5f5d-42d8-be09-ee4aa3f7e78c

The MIL Network –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI: Strata Decision Technology and Snowflake Transform Healthcare Financial Analytics with Comprehensive Data Integration

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

CHICAGO, March 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Strata Decision Technology, a leader in the development of cloud-based financial planning, decision support, and performance analytics solutions for healthcare, today announced its collaboration with Snowflake, the AI Data Cloud Company, to create one of the largest comparable healthcare financial databases in the United States. This strategic initiative aims to deliver efficient access to near real-time and historical financial insights, with early adopters already beginning to access data directly through Snowflake.

The collaboration enables Strata to scale its data capabilities by unifying its diverse data assets — which include financial, operational, clinical, cost and margin, and claims data — within Snowflake’s robust, cloud-based data platform. This unified approach helps eliminate data siloes and provides healthcare organizations with a single source of truth for financial decision-making.

“Strata is rapidly innovating its data capabilities, and Snowflake is a key part of our innovation strategy,” said Jonathan Adams, Chief Technology Officer at Strata. “This collaboration strengthens Strata’s ability to deliver unique value and greater analytics horsepower for customers by offering among the largest and most diverse sets of healthcare data in the country.”

“At Snowflake, we’re committed to providing healthcare organizations with a platform that transforms how they leverage their most valuable asset — their data,” said Joe Warbington, Industry Principal, Healthcare at Snowflake. “Our work with Strata Decision Technology demonstrates how Snowflake can empower healthcare financial analytics at scale, helping providers make more informed strategic decisions that ultimately improve patient care and reduce costs.”

Ongoing integration of Strata’s data within Snowflake allows Strata to make its data more accessible to healthcare customers within StrataJazz and Axiom, its cloud-based enterprise performance management software platforms. As a result, both StrataJazz and Axiom customers get the benefits of more efficient scaling in response to organizations’ mounting data needs, and flexible data sharing to merge data from across multiple source systems and vendors. Snowflake also enables faster processing to accommodate increasingly complex data models, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities, Large Language Model (LLM) processes, and Machine Learning (ML).

Strata is creating a comprehensive healthcare intelligence ecosystem within Snowflake by strategically integrating multiple high-value datasets. This includes healthcare performance and patient volume data from StrataSphere, and hospital and physician benchmarking data from Comparative Analytics. In the coming months, Strata also will bring its proprietary 835 Remit and 837 All-Payor Claims Data (APCD) into Snowflake. To ensure data quality and consistency across these diverse datasets, Strata is leveraging AI and ML on Snowflake to ensure that common definitions and standards are applied to make the data consistent and comparable.

Strata also is leveraging Snowflake’s capabilities to advance its patient data integration strategy through secure tokenization of thoroughly cleansed and de-identified patient encounter and claims information. This innovative approach allows healthcare organizations to trace comprehensive patient journeys across multiple providers and facilities while maintaining strict privacy standards. By connecting all-payor claims data — which cover approximately 70% of patients — with granular encounter data in Snowflake’s easy, connected, and trusted data platform, Strata delivers unprecedented visibility into the complete patient care continuum. This unified view enables more personalized care planning and strategic resource allocation.

The integration also facilitates more accurate insights. For example, by combining claims data with demographic data, healthcare leaders can generate more rigorous volume projections to help guide them in making more informed strategic decisions. Similarly, merging claims and patient encounter data will help organizations identify patterns in patient behaviors, including where they may be losing patients to market competitors.

Strata’s collaboration with Snowflake emerged from Strata’s strategic initiative to future-proof its solutions amid explosive growth in customer data requirements. It is allowing Strata to move away from the limitations of its legacy StrataJazz on-premise SQL Server databases toward a highly scalable cloud architecture that meets the increasingly complex analytics needs of modern healthcare organizations.

Using Snowflake’s elasticity and performance, Strata can now scale its operations to deliver more accurate and efficient data and analytics capabilities for the customers it serves.

About Strata Decision Technology
Strata Decision Technology, LLC provides an innovative, cloud-based platform for software, and data and service solutions to help healthcare organizations acquire insights, accelerate decisions, and enhance performance in support of their missions. More than 2,300 organizations rely on Strata’s StrataJazz and Axiom solutions for market-leading service and enterprise performance management software, data, and intelligence solutions. To learn more about Strata and why the company has been named the market leader for Business Decision Support for more than 15 consecutive years, please go to www.stratadecision.com.

Strata Social Networks
LinkedIn: Strata Decision Technology

Media contact:
Sally Brown, Inkhouse
strata@inkhouse.com

The MIL Network –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI: Parker Blackwood Advisers Reports Australian Economy Showing Signs of Recovery

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

PERTH, Australia, March 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Parker Blackwood Advisers, a leading financial services provider has commented on the latest Australian economic trajectory that will be under the spotlight this week as fresh data is set to provide a critical assessment of the nation’s growth prospects. The December quarter national accounts, due for release by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Wednesday, are expected to confirm a modest acceleration in economic activity following a period of subdued expansion.

Consensus forecasts indicate that the economy likely expanded by 0.5% in the December quarter, up from 0.3% in the prior three-month period. If realized, this would translate to an annual GDP growth rate of 1.2% for 2024—a marked improvement from the 0.8% recorded in the September quarter but still well below the long-term historical average of over 3%.

“Productivity constraints and subdued private sector investment continue to weigh on economic momentum,” said Nathan Jones, Chief Investment Officer at Parker Blackwood Advisers. “While fiscal policy and household spending provide some stability, sustained growth requires stronger business investment and improvements in labour productivity—key factors the RBA will be closely monitoring in its policy deliberations.”

Investors will also scrutinize the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) February meeting minutes, scheduled for release on Tuesday. The central bank’s decision to cut interest rates for the first time in over four years signaled a shift in monetary policy, and market participants will be seeking further clarity on the likelihood of additional easing measures in the coming months.

Beyond GDP and monetary policy, Parker Blackwood Advisers note that key data releases will shed light on Australia’s property market and government finances. CoreLogic’s monthly Home Value Index, due on Monday, will reveal whether the recent housing downturn persisted into February, while building approvals data on Thursday will gauge progress toward the federal government’s ambitious 1.2 million-home construction target over five years.

Additionally, retail trade figures on Tuesday, international trade data on Thursday, and household spending indicators on Friday will offer a broader view of consumer activity and economic strength. The government’s fiscal position will also be under scrutiny, with the market anticipating a current account deficit of $13.4 billion when balance of payments data is released.

With a pivotal week ahead for economic data and central bank insights, investors and policymakers alike will be closely watching for signals on Australia’s growth trajectory and policy outlook in 2024.

About Parker Blackwood Advisers
Founded in 2013, Parker Blackwood Advisers is a premier financial services provider based in Perth, Australia. With a focus on personalised investment strategies, the firm offers a broad range of wealth management solutions, including asset allocation, investment management, and financial planning. Managing over $4.7 billion in assets, Parker Blackwood Advisers is dedicated to helping clients achieve their financial goals through tailored, expert guidance.

Disclaimer
Parker Blackwood Advisers is a trading name of PBA Corporation Pty Ltd (ABN: 98 162 183 244), holder of AFSL 434-071. Investing carries risks, including potential loss of capital. Information provided is general and not financial advice. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.

Mr. Paul Allen
Head of Marketing
paul.allen@pb-investment.com
08 6275 0960
Exchange Tower,
Level 17/2 The Esplanade
Perth WA, 6000

Source: Parker Blackwood Advisers

The MIL Network –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Video: UK Lords Science and Technology Committee talk maths education with Lynne McClure and Conrad Wolfram

Source: United Kingdom UK House of Lords (video statements)

Find out more, including who else is taking part https://committees.parliament.uk/event/23543/formal-meeting-oral-evidence-session/

Catch-up on House of Lords business:

Watch live events: https://parliamentlive.tv/Lords
Read the latest news: https://www.parliament.uk/lords/

Stay up to date with the House of Lords on social media:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/UKHouseofLords
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/UKHouseofLords/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UKHouseofLords
• Flickr: https://flickr.com/photos/ukhouseoflords/albums
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-house-of-lords
• Threads: https://www.threads.net/@UKHouseOfLords

#HouseOfLords #UKParliament #StateOpening

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk6j9otfBRo

MIL OSI Video –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Omalizumab treats multi-food allergy better than oral immunotherapy

Source: US Department of Health and Human Services – 2

News Release
Monday, March 3, 2025

High rate of oral immunotherapy side effects in NIH trial explains superiority of omalizumab.

A clinical trial has found that the medication omalizumab, marketed as Xolair, treated multi-food allergy more effectively than oral immunotherapy (OIT) in people with allergic reactions to very small amounts of common food allergens. OIT, the most common approach to treating food allergy in the United States, involves eating gradually increasing doses of a food allergen to reduce the allergic response to it. Thirty-six percent of study participants who received an extended course of omalizumab could tolerate 2 grams or more of peanut protein, or about eight peanuts, and two other food allergens by the end of the treatment period, but only 19% of participants who received multi-food OIT could do so. Researchers attributed this difference primarily to the high rate of allergic reactions and other intolerable side effects among the participants who received OIT, leading a quarter of them to discontinue treatment. When the participants who discontinued therapy were excluded from the analysis, however, the same proportion of each group could tolerate at least 2 grams of all three food allergens.
The findings were published in an online supplement to The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and presented at the 2025 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology/World Allergy Organization Joint Congress in San Diego on Sunday, March 2, 2025.
“People with highly sensitive multi-food allergy previously had only one treatment option—oral immunotherapy—for reducing their allergic response to moderate amounts of those foods,” said Jeanne Marrazzo, M.D., M.P.H., director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the study’s funder and regulatory sponsor. “This study shows that omalizumab is a good alternative because most people tolerate it very well. Oral immunotherapy remains an effective option if treatment-related adverse effects are not an issue.”
Omalizumab works by binding to the allergy-causing antibody called immunoglobulin E in the blood and preventing it from arming key immune cells responsible for allergic reactions. This renders these cells much less sensitive to stimulation by any allergen.
The current study is the second stage of a landmark clinical trial that found a 16-week course of omalizumab increased the amount of peanut, tree nuts, egg, milk and wheat that multi-food allergic children as young as 1 year could consume without an allergic reaction. This next stage of the trial was designed to directly compare omalizumab with OIT for the first time.
At 10 locations across the United States, the study team enrolled 177 children and adolescents ages 1 to 17 years and three adults ages 18 to 55 years, all with confirmed allergy to less than half a peanut and similarly small amounts of at least two other common foods among milk, egg, cashew, wheat, hazelnut or walnut. After completing the first stage of the trial, 117 individuals entered the second stage of the trial.
Upon beginning Stage 2, all participants received injections of omalizumab for eight weeks. Then the participants were randomly divided in half and placed into one of two groups. Group A received omalizumab injections and multi-allergen OIT for eight weeks, while group B received omalizumab injections and placebo OIT for eight weeks. Subsequently, group A received placebo injections and multi-allergen OIT for 44 weeks, while group B continued to receive omalizumab injections and placebo OIT for 44 weeks. Neither the participants nor the investigators knew who was in which treatment group.
Group A received omalizumab before and during their early months of OIT because data from prior studies suggested that pretreatment with the medication would significantly augment the safety of OIT, and continuing omalizumab during the early months of OIT would provide additional benefit.
During the study treatment period, 29 of 59 participants in group A discontinued therapy: 15 due to allergic reactions—some severe—or other intolerable symptoms of OIT, and 14 for other reasons, including aversion to the study foods or the burden of participating in the trial. No participants in group B had allergic reactions or other side effects from omalizumab that led them to discontinue therapy, but seven participants in group B left the study mainly due to the burden of participating in it. In all, 30 of the original 59 members of group A (51%) and 51 of the original 58 members of group B (88%) completed treatment.
After the study treatment period, the clinical trial team tested whether the participants who completed therapy could eat at least 2 grams of peanut protein and their two other study foods without an allergic reaction. Twenty-one of the original 58 participants in group B, or 36%, could tolerate at least 2 grams of all three foods, while only 11 of the original 59 participants in group A (the OIT-treated group), or 19%, could do so. When evaluating only the participants who completed therapy, however, the same proportion of each group could tolerate at least 2 grams of all three foods.
These results showed that omalizumab was more effective than OIT at treating multi-food allergy in people who originally had a very low tolerance to common food allergens. Investigators attributed this outcome mainly to the high rate of allergic reactions and other side effects leading to treatment discontinuation among the OIT-treated participants, despite receiving omalizumab before and during the early months of therapy.
The trial is called Omalizumab as Monotherapy and as Adjunct Therapy to Multi-Allergen OIT in Food Allergic Children and Adults, or OUtMATCH. The NIAID-funded Consortium for Food Allergy Research (CoFAR) is conducting the trial under the leadership of Robert Wood, M.D., and R. Sharon Chinthrajah, M.D. Dr. Wood is the Julie and Neil Reinhard Professor of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology and director of the Pediatric Clinical Research Unit at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore. Dr. Chinthrajah is an associate professor of medicine and of pediatric allergy and clinical immunology and the co-director of the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California.
NIAID funds the ongoing trial with additional financial support from and collaboration with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, and Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. The two companies collaborate to develop and promote omalizumab and are supplying it for the trial.
Further information about the OUtMATCH trial is available at ClinicalTrials.gov under study identifier NCT03881696.
NIAID conducts and supports research—at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide—to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID website.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®

Reference
RA Wood et al. Treatment of multi-food allergy with omalizumab compared to omalizumab-facilitated multi-allergen OIT. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2024.12.1022 (2025).

###

MIL OSI USA News –

March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI: Risk Strategies Appoints Melissa Lewis as Chief Operating Officer, Commercial Lines
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

BOSTON, March 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Risk Strategies, a leading national specialty insurance brokerage and risk management and consulting firm, today announced Melissa Lewis has been appointed to succeed Drew Carnase as Chief Operating Officer, Commercial Lines. Carnase is retiring after over 30 years in the industry.

Lewis came to Risk Strategies in 2023, developing a unification strategy for assimilating acquisitions and spearheading the creation of the firm’s Integration Management Office. She then built a Business Operations team designed to help leaders implement corporate initiatives, maximize time spent supporting teams and clients, and drive growth.

“Melissa is a transformational leader who has made us better with everything she’s touched,” said John Scroope, National Director of Retail Operations, Risk Strategies. “She is absolutely the right person to succeed Drew and push the Commercial Lines operations to the next level in terms of innovation, support, and growth.”

In her new role as Chief Operating officer, Commercial Lines, Lewis will focus on:
- Generating profitable growth while expanding market share for the firm
- Building out effective support systems for sales and service teams
- Ensuring consistent delivery of a market-leading client experience
- Inspiring an energized commitment to focus, ownership, and accountability
“I am excited to take on this new challenge,” said Lewis. “I feel confident that my industry experience, the groundwork Drew has laid, and the firm’s culture of collaboration and entrepreneurship will ensure success in both the near and long term.”

Prior to Risk Strategies, Lewis held increasingly responsible positions over the course of more than 30 years, including serving as Regional Operating Officer and Head of Client Service, North America for a top five broker. Based in Overland Park, Kansas, she is a native of the state and holds an associate degree in paralegal studies from Brown Mackie College.

To learn more about Risk Strategies, please visit www.riskstrategies.com.

About Risk Strategies

Risk Strategies, part of Accession Risk Management Group, is a North American specialty brokerage firm offering comprehensive risk management services, property and casualty insurance and reinsurance placement, employee benefits, private client services, consulting services, and financial & wealth solutions. The 9th largest U.S. privately held broker, we advise businesses and personal clients, have access to all major insurance markets, and 30+ specialty industry and product line practices and experts in 200+ offices – Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Grand Cayman, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Montreal, Nashville, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Toronto, and Washington, DC. RiskStrategies.com

Media Contact

Alana Bannan

Senior Account Executive

(720) 400-8025

Rsc@matternow.com

The MIL Network –
March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI: Creatd, Inc. Finalizes $8.3M Flewber Acquisition, Unveils AI-Powered Flyte to Transform the Private Air Travel Industry
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)
- $8.3M acquisition fuels strategic transformation, leveraging Creatd’s tech, data, and AI capabilities
- Streamlined operations position Flyte for rapid expansion and profitability
- Flyte redefines on-demand air travel with a focus on regional connectivity, private charters, and curated getaways
NEW YORK, March 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Creatd, Inc. (OTC: CRTD) has officially closed its acquisition of Flewber Global, Inc. for $8.3 million and is guiding its transformation into Flyte, Inc., a next-generation regional air mobility platform. Through Creatd’s strategic oversight, Flyte is optimizing operations, enhancing its AI-driven booking technology, and positioning itself for long-term profitability in the $28.5 billion regional air mobility market.

Streamlined Operations, Focused Growth

Flyte is built around three high-margin revenue verticals:
- Hops: A more visionary approach to regional business travel, leveraging underutilized airports to bypass congested commercial hubs.
- Luxe: On-demand private jet charters with white-glove service and optimized routes.
- Escapes: Curated travel experiences that combine flights with premium hospitality partners.
With a streamlined business model and enhanced operational efficiencies, Flyte has the potential to scale rapidly while maintaining financial discipline.

Leveraging Tech, Data, and AI for Profitability

Flyte’s AI-driven booking system, real-time flight analytics, and route optimization technology are designed to increase efficiency and elevate customer experience, ensuring high-margin, sustainable growth.

“Regional air mobility is entering a new era, and Flyte is positioned at the forefront of that transformation,” said Jeremy Frommer, CEO of Creatd. “By integrating our expertise in AI, data, and operational efficiency, we are driving Flyte toward cash-flow positivity and long-term market leadership.”

Expanding Partnerships & Market Reach

Flyte is actively growing its network of corporate travel programs, luxury hospitality brands, and exclusive destination partners. Secured seat-block agreements with key partners ensure consistent demand and recurring revenue.

“Flewber was just the beginning—Flyte is our future,” said Marc Sellouk, CEO of Flewber. “With Creatd’s backing, we are building a technology platform that connects travelers with their destinations more efficiently, whether for business, leisure, or a premium luxury experience.”

Investor Outlook & Next Steps

The transition from Flewber to Flyte is underway, with an updated investor presentation available here: https://www.creatd.com/presentations. 2025 marks a pivotal year as Flyte expands its footprint, strengthens profitability, and accelerates its market penetration.

About Creatd:

Creatd, Inc. is a publicly traded holding company that focuses on investments and operations across technology, media, advertising, and consumer sectors. By leveraging its expertise in structured finance and acquisitions, Creatd identifies and nurtures opportunities within small-cap companies, driving growth and innovation across its diverse portfolio. For more information, visit https://www.creatd.com/

About Flyte:

Flyte, Inc., previously Flewber Global, Inc. is a pioneering private aviation company dedicated to revolutionizing air travel through accessibility, convenience, and technology-driven innovation. By leveraging a seamless booking platform and a unique on-demand model, Flyte provides travelers with a more efficient and cost-effective alternative to traditional private jet charters. For more information, visit http://www.flewber.com/

Contact:
ir@creatd.com

Forward Looking Statements: This statement includes forward-looking statements, which are based on current expectations, beliefs, and assumptions about future events and are subject to uncertainties and risks that could cause actual results to differ materially. These statements often contain terms like “expected,” “anticipated,” and “estimated.” Factors influencing future outcomes are unpredictable and may emerge over time. We do not commit to updating any forward-looking statement post its publication date. Our SEC filings provide further details and risk disclosures.

The MIL Network –
March 4, 2025
MIL-OSI: BCMI More Than Doubles Cloud-based Dispatch Footprint

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

REDMOND, Wash., March 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In 2024, BCMI Corp. celebrated 10 years in business, and another significant milestone. The technology leader and provider of cloud-based mobile software for concrete and bulk materials producers more than doubled its cloud-based ready-mix dispatch footprint across the U.S.

Industry-leading companies, beginning with Smith Ready Mix in Valparaiso, Indiana, have adopted BCMI’s cloud-based system, including Miles Sand & Gravel, Geneva Rock and Sunroc (both Clyde Companies subsidiaries), BARD Materials and GCC. These producers have added BCMI’s dispatch as part of the end-to-end software platform that includes extensive operational and customer KPIs, quoting and sales tools, and customer invoicing.

This year, large vertical materials producers imi and Titan America will implement BCMI’s cloud-based concrete dispatch system, as well as regional leaders Consumers Concrete and Zignego, to further accelerate its expansion.

“One of the great advantages of BCMI Dispatch is that any change or update from our dispatchers and drivers is instantly shared across our company—and with our customers—through the BCMI mobile apps,” BARD Materials Vice President of Operations Chad Thier says. “BCMI truly partners with producers to shape a concrete dispatch system that leverages the best technology available, ensuring it meets the needs of the industry.”

The BCMI Dispatch system has the advantage of being cloud-native, meaning it is developed using the most current technology rather than retrofitting older dispatch systems with hardware that must be maintained by producers. BCMI integrates with related systems, such as truck GPS and accounting programs, through API (Application Programming Interface) connections entirely in the cloud. This allows materials producers to choose their own best-in-class solution set to meet their business needs.

“After an extensive, six-month evaluation, we concluded that BCMI’s combination of current product offerings, plus the opportunity to take part in the continued development of the product, was the best fit for what imi needs to service our customers and our internal teams,” imi President and CEO Pete Lyons says.

BCMI’s leadership draws on more than 100 years of collective experience in serving the concrete and bulk materials market, making the team uniquely qualified to understand and address the needs of the industry. “We have all experienced the pain of struggling with outdated technology, and it makes us even more passionate about creating better tools for producers and contractors,” BCMI Vice President of Customer Success Janeen O’Dell says. “Things like mobile apps and eTicketing are old news in other industries, and there’s no reason our industry shouldn’t use them to make our day-to-day jobs easier.”

According to BCMI Co-founder and President Craig Yeack and author of the “Tech Trends” column for Concrete Products magazine, “Our product team is laser focused on innovation, including aggressive research and development of AI tools for materials producers. In the next few years, we’ll see accelerated growth in technology, faster than we’ve seen in decades. We look forward to being the industry’s trusted partner as we navigate these changes together.”

About BCMI

BCMI Corp.’s mobile software empowers bulk construction material producers to improve business processes. BCMI’s performance analytics, interactive communication tools and AI-assisted dispatch keep materials producers and contractors aligned with real-time business solutions. For more on our cloud-based BCMI Dispatch, Material Pro and Material Now apps, visit www.bcmicorp.com.

Media Contact

Jennifer Jensen, BCMI Media and PR Specialist: Jennifer.jensen@bcmicorp.com

The MIL Network –

March 4, 2025