SAN FRANCISCO, June 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco (FHLBank San Francisco) today released its 2024 Impact Report, which shines a spotlight on the privately capitalized cooperative wholesale bank’s daily support for local financial institution members; $103.3 million in grants awarded for affordable housing, homeownership, and economic development; robust engagement with stakeholders; and a workforce empowered to meet the evolving needs of its members with agility and impact.
“Our 2024 Impact Report demonstrates the value we deliver to our members and the communities they serve,” said Joseph Amato, interim president and CEO of FHLBank San Francisco. “Because of the financial services we provide to our members every day – including advances and letters of credit – we are able to invest directly in programs and initiatives that strengthen communities by increasing the supply of affordable housing, expanding access to homeownership, and fueling economic growth and opportunity.”
In 2024, FHLBank San Francisco partnered with its members to award $103.3 million in grants for housing, economic development programs and other initiatives including:
Affordable Housing Program (AHP) General Fund and Nevada Targeted Fund: $61.3 million in grants awarded to create, preserve, or purchase nearly 3,900 affordable housing units.
WISH and Middle-Income Downpayment Assistance programs: $31.2 million in matching grants delivered to 791 first-time homebuyers.
AHEAD economic development grants: $7.3 million in grants awarded to 84 nonprofits to support innovative, community-based economic development initiatives that strengthen local communities.
FHLBank San Francisco members also accessed $1.4 billion in the Bank’s discounted advances and letters of credit products to create nearly 1,100 owner-occupied and 2,900 rental housing units and to support other community lending and economic development activities, including funding small business loans.
Together with its members – primarily community-based financial institutions – FHLBank San Francisco continues to make a positive impact across its three-state district of Arizona, California, Nevada, and other areas where its members do business. To learn more about how FHLBank San Francisco accomplishes its mission of providing members with reliable access to liquidity, essential financial services and expertise, and resources for housing and community and economic development, download the full 2024 Impact Report at www.fhlbsf.com.
About Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco
The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco is a member-driven cooperative helping local lenders in Arizona, California, and Nevada build strong communities, create opportunity, and change lives for the better. The tools and resources we provide to our member financial institutions — commercial banks, credit unions, industrial loan companies, savings institutions, insurance companies, and community development financial institutions — propel homeownership, finance quality affordable housing, drive economic vitality, and revitalize whole neighborhoods. Together with our members and other partners, we are making the communities we serve more vibrant and resilient.
Source: United States Senator for Idaho James E Risch
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) today introduced the Securing our Energy Supply Chains Act, which would establish a Department of Energy non-procurement list for critical minerals, battery production, and other related energy needs.
“Organizations that threaten our national security have no business engaging in American energy production,” said Risch. “The Securing our Energy Supply Chains Act protects the energy sector, which is critical to both our economy and security, from bad actors while advancing domestic needs.”
“Supply chains for our country’s critical minerals and battery production are a cut-and-dry national security issue. Firms that are banned from doing business with the Department of Defense and other federal agencies should face significant restrictions when working in these sensitive areas,” said Cotton.
The Securing our Energy Supply Chains Act would:
Establish a master energy non-procurement list for DOE projects prioritizing critical minerals and battery production
Establish a waiver process for contracts or projects that require exceptions
Require a federal study to pull all similar lists of entities of concern from Commerce, DOD, Energy, State, Treasury, DNI, and other agencies and make recommendations for harmonization.
Members of the Education Committee met today (Wednesday 4 June) and agreed the recommendation to proceed with the statutory public consultation for the co-location of the new St Clement’s School alongside a new Dingwall Primary School on a shared site with enhanced community facilities.
A public meeting will be held on Wednesday 2 July to discuss the Council’s proposal. There will also be the opportunity for stakeholders to submit views to the Council ahead of the meeting and subsequently prior to any final recommendation and decision being made.
At a meeting of The Highland Council on Thursday 27 March 2024, elected members unanimously agreed investment priorities for the first phase of The Highland Investment Plan (HIP), including a recommendation to co-locate St Clement’s and Dingwall Primary schools at a new Dingwall Community Point of Delivery (POD) site, on the basis that this provides the greatest educational benefits for pupils of both schools, and the maximum economic benefit for the wider community. The proposal to relocate St Clement’s School alongside a new Dingwall Primary School on a shared site will require to undergo a statutory consultation.
Education Committee Chair, Cllr John Finlayson said: “The commitment to build a new school that retains the school’s unique identity has been endorsed by Committee today. The Highland Investment Plan offers an exciting co-location option that has even greater benefits for our young learners than any other previously proposed.
“The strong collaborative working between St Clement’s School, Dingwall Primary and the wider Dingwall community has always played an integral part in our young people’s learning journey. Co-locating will enhance inclusion and equitable opportunities for success, providing the best learning environments for all our children.
“It will increase opportunities for pupils with a disability to participate in wider curriculum and social opportunities, whilst ensuring specialist support and facilities are tailored to individual needs in their own individually designed standalone school and associated outdoor spaces.
“A statutory consultation will now be undertaken for the proposed new site for St Clement’s School.”
The consultation will begin on 9 June 2025 and will end on 3 October 2025. This period allows for the statutory minimum of six weeks, including at least thirty school days.
A public meeting will be held at 6:30pm on Wednesday 2 July at St Clement’s School with an opportunity to attend virtually for those unable to be there in person.
A consultant architect with extensive experience of designing special schools and additional support needs facilities has been engaged to assist with the development of the new St Clement’s School project brief and initial floor plans and external layouts have been prepared. A series of design workshops will be held with stakeholder groups in the coming weeks to establish a clear vision for the new school. This will ensure that it provides first-rate facilities to meet the needs of every child that will attend St Clement’s in the future and maximise the benefits to be realised.
Highland Council’s dedicated road marking team has been fully mobilised to carry out road marking across the Highland region.
Chair of Highland Council’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee, Councillor Ken Gowans, said: “The Council has invested significantly in road maintenance as part of a broader program to improve Highland roads and the dedicated road marking team will help us to improve road safety for our communities. I’m delighted to see that the newly established team has made the most of the recent good weather to cover a lot of ground in the north-west and Skye, despite the challenging geography. Our new vehicles are also ensuring that the work is carried out quickly and effectively with minimal disruption for local people.”
Since April, the team has completed approx. 150km of white lines across Sutherland, Caithness and the Isle of Skye, with a further 190km of white lining works planned for over the summer months across the other areas of the Highlands, including Lochaber, Ross and Cromarty, Badenoch and Inverness. Exact timings will be weather-dependent, but we aim to give communities advance notice on social media wherever possible.
The operation requires a team of four operatives using two lorries. A feeder lorry is used to preheat and deliver the thermoplastic lining material to the lining lorry which then applies the hot material to the road surface as either an edge or centre line. Immediately after the line is applied, another nozzle adds reflective glass beads, followed by a final nozzle spraying clean water onto the line to cool the material, allowing traffic to flow immediately.
The road marking programme forms part of The Council’s £2.1 billion Highland Investment Plan which will provide 20 years of funding for roads and transport, schools, offices and community facilities throughout the Highlands.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today published a concept release soliciting public comment on the definition of foreign private issuer.
Foreign private issuers benefit from certain accommodations and exemptions from the disclosure and filing requirements of the federal securities laws. The concept release solicits public input on whether the definition of foreign private issuer should be amended in light of significant changes in the population of foreign private issuers since 2003.
“Attracting foreign companies to U.S. markets and providing U.S. investors with the opportunity to trade in those companies under U.S. laws and regulations remains an objective. That objective must be balanced with other considerations, including providing investors with material information about these foreign companies, and ensuring that domestic companies are not competitively disadvantaged with respect to regulatory requirements.” said SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins. “The first step in striking this balance is to determine which foreign companies should qualify as foreign private issuers and be able to avail themselves to the accommodations that go with that status.”
SEC concept releases are a means for the Commission to obtain public input in advance of making decisions about possible rulemaking. Concept releases typically outline a topic of concern, identify different potential approaches, and raise a series of questions for public commenters.
In this concept release, the Commission welcomes comments on the current foreign private issuer definition as well as on the costs, burdens, or benefits that may result from possible regulatory responses.
The public comment period will remain open for 90 days following publication of the comment request in the Federal Register.
Good afternoon. This is an open meeting on June 4, 2025 of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the Government in the Sunshine Act. Commissioners Caroline Crenshaw and Mark Uyeda are here with me in Washington, D.C., and Commissioner Hester Peirce is participating remotely.
Today, the Commission will consider a recommendation from the Division of Corporation Finance that the Commission issue a concept release seeking comment on whether to revise the definition of foreign private issuer.
The Commission first defined foreign private issuer in 1967.[1] Then in 1983, it developed the foundation of the current definition through a test to determine whether a foreign issuer is “essentially [a] U.S. issuer” based on percentage of U.S. ownership, nationality of the management team, and location of business operations.[2] The world, financial markets, and corporate legal structures have significantly changed over the past forty-plus years.
The U.S. capital markets have been and still are the envy of the world. Foreign companies from across the globe seek new capital from U.S. investors for their businesses and seek to have their securities listed on a U.S. exchange for a variety of potential benefits, including higher valuation, greater liquidity, and enhanced reputation.
Foreign companies that qualify as foreign private issuers receive these potential benefits while also being offered several accommodations under the federal securities laws that are not available to U.S. companies. These include provisions such as (1) not needing to file quarterly reports, proxy statements, or Section 16 reports, (2) not being subject to Regulation FD, and (3) furnishing current reports on Form 6-K, rather than filing the more prescriptive Form 8-K.[3]
As early as 1935, the Commission recognized that our rules should not treat foreign companies exactly the same as domestic companies,[4] likely because many aspects of their corporate operations, business and market practices, accounting standards, tax regimes, compensation and pension benefits, and organic corporate governance laws may be quite different from those in the United States. Yet, at the same time, the Commission has always been mindful of the paramount need for the adequacy of the disclosures provided by the foreign companies to their U.S. investors whenever it considered new accommodations under the federal securities laws for these companies. When the Commission provided foreign companies with additional regulatory relief in 1967, it noted “the improvement in the reporting of financial information by foreign issuers, resulting from changes in foreign corporate laws, stock exchange requirements, and voluntary disclosure by the companies themselves.”[5]
Today, maintaining reasonable accommodations in the federal securities laws to attract foreign companies to U.S. markets and to provide U.S. investors with the opportunity to trade in those companies under U.S. laws and regulations remains an objective. That objective must be balanced with other considerations, including providing investors with material information about these foreign companies, including their unique corporate structures, and ensuring that domestic companies are not competitively disadvantaged with respect to regulatory requirements.
The first step in striking this balance is to determine which foreign companies should qualify as foreign private issuers and be able to avail themselves to the accommodations. It has been several decades since the Commission last examined the characteristics of the foreign private issuer community. The global markets have changed significantly in those decades. It is therefore only prudent for the Commission to better understand the companies that are using the foreign private issuers accommodations today and determine if changes are needed to better protect U.S. investors. Based on the latest data from 2023, for example, almost 55% of foreign private issuers are traded exclusively, or nearly-exclusively, in the United States.[6] Among these issuers, the most common jurisdiction of incorporation is the Cayman Islands and the most common jurisdiction of headquarters is China.[7]
When the United States is effectively a foreign company’s exclusive or primary trading market and the company is not subject to meaningful disclosure requirements or securities law oversight in its jurisdiction of incorporation or headquarters, careful consideration should be given to whether the foreign company is eligible for accommodations under the federal securities laws that are unavailable to U.S. companies. This analysis begins with considering whether the current definition of a foreign private issuer is appropriately tailored. The concept release solicits public input on this issue, and I encourage market participants to submit their views and engage with my office and the other commissioners’ offices on this topic.
Before I turn the meeting over to Cicely LaMothe, Acting Director of the Division of Corporation Finance, to discuss the recommendation, I would like to thank the following staff members for their work on this concept release.
From the Division of Corporation Finance: Cicely LaMothe, Sebastian Gomez Abero, Ted Yu, Michael Coco, Kelsey Glover, Kateryna Kuntsevich, Mark Green, Ryan Milne, Wei Lu, Heather Rosenberger, Kayla Roberts, Anna Abramson, and John Fieldsend.
From the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis: Lyndon Orton, Mattias Nilsson, Evan Avila, Tara Bhandari, and Timothy Dodd. I would especially like to recognize Mattias and Evan because the data in their white paper on trends in the foreign private issuer population[8] significantly contributed to the concept release.
From the Office of International Affairs: Kathleen Hutchinson, Matthew Greiner, Morgan Macdonald, Michael Ferrario, Jordan Spain, and Katerina Ossenova.
From the Office of the General Counsel: Jeffrey Finnell, Bryant Morris, Johanna Losert, Mike Killoy and Cynthia Bien.
From the Office of the Chief Accountant: Ryan Wolfe, Shaz Niazi, Nigel James, Chauncey Martin, Mai-Khoi Nguyen-Thanh, Jill Davis, Sarah Esquivel, and Ella Karafiat.
Now I will turn the meeting over to Cicely for the staff’s recommendation.
[1] Adoption of Rules Relating to Foreign Securities, Release No. 34-8066 (Apr. 28, 1967) [32 FR 7845 (May 30, 1967)] (the “1967 Release”).
The United States is today designating a Lebanon-based sanctions evasion network that supports Hizballah’s finance team, which oversees commercial projects and oil smuggling networks that generate revenue for Hizballah.
Such evasion networks bolster Iran and Hizballah, undermining Lebanon. As part of today’s action, the United States is designating five individuals and three associated companies, including family members and close associates of prominent Hizballah officials.
This action supports the whole-of-government policy of maximum pressure on Iran and its terrorist proxies, like Hizballah, as detailed in National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 issued on February 4.
The United States is committed to supporting Lebanon by exposing and disrupting funding schemes for Hizballah’s terrorist activities and Iran’s destabilizing influence in the region. Hizballah cannot be allowed to keep Lebanon captive. The United States will continue using tools at its disposal until this terrorist group no longer threatens the Lebanese people.
Additionally, the Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program, which is administered by the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the disruption of the financial mechanisms of Hizballah.
Today’s action is being taken pursuant to counterterrorism authority Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended. The Department of State previously designated Hizballah as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, pursuant to E.O. 13224, which targets terrorist groups and their supporters, and as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. For more information, today’s designation can be found on the Recent Actions | Office of Foreign Assets Control website.
Up to $2 Million Reward Offers Each for Information Leading to Arrests and/or Convictions of Malicious Cyber Actors from China
Media Note
March 5, 2025
Today, the Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is announcing two reward offers under the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP) of up to $2 million each for information leading to the arrests and/or convictions, in any country, of malicious cyber actors Yin KeCheng and Zhou Shuai, both Chinese nationals residing in China.
Yin and Zhou were identified as associated with an advanced persistent threat group (APT27), who are also known to private sector security researchers as “Threat Group 3390,” “Bronze Union,” “Emissary Panda,” “Lucky Mouse,” “Iron Tiger,” “UTA0178,” “UNC 5221,” and “Silk Typhoon.” Yin and Zhou are longtime members of the eco-system China uses to perpetuate its malicious cyber activity. They enrich themselves financially as hackers for hire for a myriad of Chinese entities.
An FBI investigation of APT27, which began in approximately 2014, resulted in two separate indictments, announced today by the Department of Justice. Yin is charged individually for cybercrime activity occurring from roughly 2013 to 2015, while Yin and Zhou are charged together in a separate conspiracy related to computer network intrusion activity occurring from roughly 2018 to 2020. Yin and Zhou are each charged with wire fraud, money laundering, aggravated identity theft, and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Today’s reward offers are authorized by the Secretary under the TOCRP, which supports law enforcement efforts to disrupt transnational crime globally. The reward offers also complement the announcement today of a Treasury sanctions action by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) against Zhou and his company Shanghai Heiying Information Technology. The combined actions represent a whole of government effort to combat malicious cyber actors.
If you have information, please contact the FBI by email at yin_zhou_info@fbi.gov. If you are located outside of the United States, you can also visit the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate. If you are in the United States, you can also contact your local FBI field office.
ALL IDENTITIES ARE KEPT STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL. Government officials and employees are not eligible for rewards.
Thank you guys for having me. It’s an honor. I want to thank Chris for the introduction. Did you get my office? He just said – I just – the one I used to have, the one in Russell? Yeah. Did you find any cash or gold bars? No. (Laughter.)
Is there media here? There’s – (laughter) – that’s what they call – it’s a joke. It’s a joke. You guys know.
Thank you, Chris, for that introduction, and actually very proud of the work you did with us on the Small Business Committee, and then Oren and everyone here at American Compass for hosting me here tonight. A couple observations of seeing someone – we really only got to serve together for, like, 10 days, because I got confirmed pretty quickly. And by the way, the President was so – and I got 99 out of a hundred votes because the Vice President, at the time his seat had not been filled, and the President for some period of time expressed great concern about the fact that I had 99 votes in the Senate. He didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. But I told him recently, sir, you don’t have to worry about that anymore. I don’t think I’d get 99 votes now. (Laughter.)
And anyways, but thank you for this chance to speak to you, and by – one more thing I want to tell you about: I spent – now that I’m in the Executive Branch, we oftentimes have to deal with the fact that we want to do something and it’s like, well, but there’s a statute or there’s a law on the books that limit our ability to do things by executive action. It requires us to go through certain steps. And so I increasingly find myself saying who the hell wrote these laws, and in – today I was reminded it was actually me who passed a certain law that stood as an impediment to quick action. So anyways, yeah, I’ve grown in my appreciation for the Executive Branch more and more each day. And – but that’s also – the media’s going to say, oh, he’s for an authoritarian form of government. No, I just – some of these laws I passed are getting in the way of my current life, so we have to work through it. We will.
But thank you guys for this chance and the work that you’ve done, and I know that obviously you’re going to spend a lot of time focused on domestic decisions, but I want to hopefully pitch you a little bit tonight about what I’ve learned and what I already believed coming into this job, that so much about what happens domestically, economically is increasingly intertwined in geopolitics. It always has been. I think that’s one of the lessons we forgot, but I think we’ve been reminded of that here, most recently in a number of events that brought that to bear.
The first thing I would say is I think it’s always been true – one of the amazing things, one of the reasons why history repeats itself – people like to say that – is because human nature does not change. Technologies change, the clothes we wear change, even languages change, governments change. A lot of things change, but the one thing that is unchanged is human nature. It’s the same today as it was 5,000 years ago, and that’s one of the reasons why history often repeats itself.
And one of the things about human nature – I’m not trying to sound like a psychologist here, but one of the things that I think history proves is that one of the things we are programmed as people with is the desire to belong. In fact, if you notice, one of the – if you put humans anywhere, a handful of people anywhere, one of the first things they start doing is trying to create things that they can join or be a part of, and that’s true for nationhood and nation-states, the concept of nationhood.
Now, it’s a new concept. I mean, before we all – but we had something. It was like organizations, whether it was city-states or tribal organizations, but the advent of the nation-state is a normal evolution of human behavior because people think it’s important to belong to something, and being part of a nation is important. And I think that’s really true, obviously, increasingly in how geopolitical decisions are made.
I think that’s obvious and people understand that, but it’s one of the things that we forgot. And we certainly forgot it at the end of the Cold War. If I can take you back to the end of the Cold War – and understand for me these were formative years, because I grew up in the ’80s, the greatest – probably the greatest decade ever, confirmed by the – yeah. (Applause.)
You know why I know this? Because my kids – I have young – young – I say “young” and they’re, like, 24, 22, 20 – just turned 20 – and one who’s 17. Every – all they do is watch reruns from the ’80s and ’90s. They don’t make good TV anymore. Everybody wants to watch stuff from the ’80s and ’90s, so that’s just my pitch. The ’70s were a dark period of time because of disco music, but – and the ’80s just – got a disco fan back there. But the ’80s, we did – the hair was a little too big, but other than that.
But going back, the ’80s, you grew up, and I remember in 1983 – now I’m aging – I just turned 54. I feel 55, but I – and it must be 1983. Do you guys remember a movie called the – oh, gosh, what was it? It was about nuclear war. Do you remember this? It was 19 – no, War Games, that was a great movie. I’m talking about one that was on TV that scared the hell out of me. There was –
AUDIENCE: The Day After.
SECRETARY RUBIO: The Day After. Do you remember that movie, The Day After? This was traumatizing, and they had this thing on television. But basically grew up understanding that the world at any moment could end because the United States and the Soviet Union were headed for conflict and war and that maybe we wouldn’t even make it to 25 and things of this nature.
I forgot about War Games. War Games was another good movie, where this guy hacks into the computer. This was an ’80s hacker. This was not – I can remember the phone and the modem, and it was – what was that actor? It was the same – Matthew Broderick. It’s a great movie. I know I’m completely off topic – (laughter) – but let me just tell you I lived in Las Vegas at the time, and if you recall, the first city that he blows up in the war games is Las Vegas. And I was sitting in the audience and everybody was like chuckling – nothing funny about this Las Vegas strike. (Laughter.)
In any event, so this is what we grew up in. And then in 1989, in 1990 and ’91, it was my first years in college, and literally the entire world just transformed before my very eyes. Understand you grew up your whole life, and like the whole world is about the Soviet Union, and all of a sudden the Soviet Union no longer exists. My favorite memory of that is that I was actually taking a course that fall by a Soviet expert at – I think it was in Gainesville, Florida. And this poor guy’s entire career came crumbling down over a three-month period as the Soviet Union collapsed. It was like all these years of work, you have a PhD in Soviet studies, and now the Soviet doesn’t exist anymore. So I don’t know what he did after that. I need to check up on that guy.
But anyways, the point is the whole world transformed and there was this effusive exuberance, the belief that the Cold War is over, we won, and now the entire world is going to become just like us – free enterprise democracies. That was a very idealistic thing to believe.
But here’s the other conclusion they made, and that is that everybody – that it didn’t – nationhood no longer mattered when it came to economics, that right now the world would no longer have borders. It wouldn’t matter where things were made. What mattered is they were made in the most efficient place.
And it became mantra. And look, I think it became part of Republican orthodoxy for a very long time, an orthodoxy that I came up in, which was it’s okay if productive capacity moves to another country, because what that will do is it will free up our workers to do work that’s even more productive and pays them more. It was the famous or the infamous idea that who cares that you lost your job at a factory, you’re going to learn how to code, and then you’re going to be – you’re going to make a lot more money doing that.
Well, it was completely unrealistic, number one, and became incredibly disruptive that that decision was made. But here’s the other implication of it: It robbed a nation of its industrial capacity, of its ability to make things. And its industrial capacity and its ability to make things has two ramifications: The first is it hurts your economy, it hurts your country, it robs people of jobs, and the transition is not nearly as easy, but it also ends up becoming corrosive and destructive to communities. I mean, as a result we had a rust belt. We had places that were gutted and we had families that for generations that worked in a certain field or for a certain company, and all of a sudden that company or that field vanished because it moved somewhere else where it was cheaper to do. And those jobs were gone, and obviously it became incredibly destructive – not just for the United States, by the way, but for many nations in the industrialized West.
But the other thing it robbed us of is the ability to make things, which is a national security impediment – impairment – and a very significant one. If you go back to the World War – World War II, the admiral who had been tasked with planning Pearl Harbor thought it was a really bad idea. He went through and obviously followed orders, but he thought it was a very bad idea because he had spent a substantial amount of time studying in the United States when he was younger. And his conclusion was that attacking the United States was a bad idea because even though at the time militarily we were behind the Japanese, certainly technologically and otherwise, we had factories and we had access to raw material and resources. And he knew that over time, once those factories and those raw materials were put to the war machine, the Japanese would not be able to keep up.
And you could very well argue that the end of World War II, that the victory in World War II both in Europe and especially in Asia, was the result of America’s industrial capacity. When the Japanese lost a plane, they lost a plane. When we lost a plane – and their planes were better than ours for a long time. When we lost a plane, we were able to produce hundreds to replace it. Industrial capacity mattered in terms of national security, and that’s never changed. That’s always been true.
And so today, what you find is because of all of those years of neglect, because of the loss of industrial capacity, we didn’t just undermine our society, we didn’t just undermine our domestic economy, we’ve undermined our position in the world. And what you will find and what we find even now is that increasingly, on geopolitical issue after geopolitical issue, it is access to raw material and industrial capacity that is at the core both of the decisions that we’re making and the areas that we’re prioritizing.
It’s – now, the technologies are different, but nonetheless that is what we’re increasingly prioritizing. And that’s become really apparent to me. I think it was even going into this job, but in the months that I’ve been there, on place after place, every country in the world is now pitching themselves as a source of rare earth minerals. Every country in the world – by the way, they’re not that rare, so every country has access to it, but it’s become a big – but that alone is not enough because you have to have access to rare earth minerals, but then you have to have the ability to process them and you have to have – to make them into usable material.
And frankly, what the Chinese have done over the last 25 or 30 years is they’ve cornered the market. And this is one of the true challenges to sort of pure free-enterprise view of these things. You cannot compete with a nation-state who has decided they’re not interested in making money. They don’t – they’re not interested in making money in this field. They are interested in the short term in dominating the market, being the sole-source provider for the world of a certain product. Because once you establish industry dominance in any one of these fields, you can charge the world whatever you want.
Now, one thing is if we said: Well, this happened because they’re just better than us. But that’s not why it happened. It happened because we literally gave it away. Because we made the decision, we made the policy decision, that it was okay, we were okay with 80-something percent of the active ingredients in most of our generic pharmaceuticals coming from another country. We were okay with giving that away. We were okay with giving away all kinds of things like that. And now, now we are in a crunch. And I say “we.” I mean the rest of the world is in a crunch, because we have realized that our industrial capability is deeply dependent on a number of potential adversary nation-states, including China, who can hold it over our head.
And so in many ways the nature of geopolitics is now adjusted to that and is adjusting to that. And it’ll be one of the great challenges of the new century and one of the priorities of this administration under President Trump is to reorient our domestic and the way we pursue geopolitics to take into account for the fact that you can never be secure as a nation unless you’re able to feed your people, and unless you’re able to make the things that your economy needs in order to function and ultimately to defend yourself.
There is virtually none of the leading-edge industries of the 21st century in which we don’t have some level of vulnerability, and it’s become one of the highest geopolitical priorities that we now face – not simply access to raw material but figuring out how can we have more industrial capacities in these critical fields, ideally domestically, but if not here then diversify the global supply chain so that it cannot be used against us as a point of leverage at a time of potential conflict.
In fact, unless we fix it, some of these conflicts will never happen because we will never be able to enter – the amount of leverage they will have on us will begin to constrain our ability to make foreign policy. Unable to get into a tremendous amount of detail, let me just say that even as I speak to you now, there are a number of foreign policy issues in which we’re having to balance what we would ideally want to do with what we may not be able to do in the short term until we fix these problems. This is a real challenge in American geopolitics, and it’s one that’s become a priority and goes right to the heart of the decisions that were made over the last 20 or 30 years that were – that were a mistake and that we’re now trying to correct.
The other, which is more broad but I think also ties to economic policy, is the following: Part of the decisions that were made were, in the end, if something is good for the global economy, that’s really what matters. Ultimately, a lot of public policy decisions were made without the nation-state in mind. Rather, the decision was: Is this good for the global economy? Is this good for global economic growth? Is this good for prosperity in other places even if it may not be in our interest?
And we made those decisions even during the Cold War to some extent. We allowed nations to treat us unfairly in trade, but we allowed them to do it because we didn’t want those countries to become victim to a communist revolution that would overthrow them. But then we kept it going. And so today there are multiple countries around the world that are fully developed economies, but whom we have enormous trade imbalances because they want to continue that system moving along. And that has to be corrected.
But here’s the final point, and here’s why this is also critical. Because not only did we take out nation-state interest and the national interest out of our economic policies; we also took it out of the way we made foreign policy decisions. The idea that our foreign policy, depending on the place and on the issue, should be centered and focused primarily on what is good for the United States was completely lost. Time and again, we made decisions in foreign policy because of what was good for the international order or what was good for the world. And I’m not saying those things are irrelevant, but the number one priority of our foreign policy must – of the United States – the number one foreign policy priority of the United States needs to be the United States and what’s in the best interest of the United States. (Applause.)
That’s not isolationism. That’s common sense. On the contrary, in order to do that, we have to engage in the world. But we need to engage in the world in a way that prioritizes our national interest above all else. And the reason why we do that goes back to my point at the outset of this, with human nature. And that is: That’s what other countries do all the time. Virtually every single nation-state we interact with prioritizes their national interest in their interactions with us. And we need to begin to do that again, and we’re beginning to do that again – prioritizing the national interest of the United States above everything else in making these foreign policy decisions.
And I’ll close by saying that’s where foreign policy works best. As I’ve said to multiple foreign leaders, including some with whom we haven’t had engagements with for many years, I said the way foreign policy works best is when our national interests are aligned. When they’re aligned, that’s where we have incredible opportunity for partnership together. And when they’re not aligned, that’s where I expect them to pursue their national interest and us to pursue ours, and to do so peacefully if possible, and that’s the work of diplomacy.
And so I think the work you have done to reorient our thinking towards the national interest – both in our domestic economic policies as well as in our foreign policies – is critical work for 21st century conservatism. And I thank you for all the work you’ve provided. You’ve done great work. When no one else was talking about these things, when no one else was providing the material that allowed us to build public policy and challenge thinking, you were doing it. And I encourage you to continue to do it because this is going to be the work of a generation. It’s – there’s still much work to be done. We are in the midst of an important and long-overdue realignment in our thinking in American politics, and it takes organizations like American Compass to drive the innovation and the thinking. And we appreciate everything you’ve done up to this point and encourage you to continue to do that.
And one of the people who has really been a leader in this regard – someone who I actually got to know as part of this project and this thinking back when he was only a best-selling author and not even a political figure yet – is our current Vice President, who is doing a phenomenal job, and someone I’ve grown tremendous – my admiration for him has grown tremendously. I admired him before. I admired him in the Senate. I admire him a lot more now as Vice President because I think vice presidents are just more impressive than senators, Bernie. That’s all. (Laughter.) But I can say that now that I got 99 votes, see, because I don’t need their votes anymore. (Laughter.)
But the Vice President is going a phenomenal job, and I think is one of the most powerful and clearest voices in the world – really at the edge, at the leading edge of this new thinking in American politics. And it’s my honor to serve with him in this administration, and it’s my honor to invite him onto the stage now to speak to all of you.
So thank you for the opportunity to be here. Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice President of the United States, JD Vance. (Applause.)
Governor Polis joined faith leaders, statewide and local officials, and members of the Boulder community following the tragic attack on a peaceful gathering of people outside the Boulder Courthouse
BOULDER – Today, Governor Polis, Boulder Mayor Brockett, interfaith and statewide leaders came together to stand against hate and for a moment of unity after the tragic attack against a peaceful gathering of people raising awareness for the hostages still being held by Hamas.
Attendees included Boulder Run for Their Lives, Congregation Bonai Shalom, the David Merage Foundation for Confronting Antisemitism, Stop Antisemitism Colorado, Haver: The Boulder Rabbinic Council, Anti-Defamation League, Mountain States, JEWISHcolorado, Jewish Community Relations Council, Jewish Association for Death Education (JADE), Boulder Jewish Community Center, Congregation Nevei Kodesh, Congregation Har Hashem, Jewish Family Service Boulder, Israeli-American Council, Adventure Judaism, Downtown Boulder Partnership, City of Boulder, Boulder Chamber of Commerce, and the Interfaith Alliance.
“Today, I stand united and strong with the Boulder community as we recover from the devastating anti-Semitic attacks on our fellow Colordans, and wish each of the victims a speedy and healthy recovery. Violence in any form has no place in Colorado, and we know that to move forward we must join together in our common humanity to ensure peace in our communities, take care of one another, and emerge stronger. My heart is with those impacted by this devastating event, and we are continuing to actively work with local and state law enforcement to protect our communities and keep people safe,” said Governor Jared Polis.
“The whole Jewish community is reeling, shocked that this hideous hate crime could happen right here in downtown beautiful Boulder. And yet, we have seen this coming and Jews here and all over America and the world have not been feeling safe, physically or emotionally, in the face of demonizing hate speech and dangerous rhetoric. We are so grateful for the outpouring of love and support from our neighbors and friends, faith leaders from across the county, state and the world. Demonization of others has to stop. The hate speech has to stop,” said Rabbi Marc Soloway.
“To our Jewish community: You are not alone. Boulder stands with you, not just today, but every day. Antisemitism has no place in Boulder. Hate against any group of people has no place in Boulder and we recognize that the oppression you have faced is part of a disturbing historical context. Your safety is our safety. Your pain is our pain. Your resilience inspires us all,” said Boulder Mayor Aaron Brockett.
“There’s no place for antisemitism in our community. Sunday’s attack on our Jewish community was an act of hate, but Boulder County continues to stand for love and unity. As we experience yet another tragedy, please remember to check in with friends, loved ones, and neighbors, and look after your own mental health and wellbeing,” said Boulder County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann
“Every week, we walk in peace to shine a light on the hostages still held in Gaza since October 7, 2023. That a simple act of quiet solidarity made us the target of a violent, hateful, antisemitic attack has shaken the Jewish community to its core. This didn’t happen in a vacuum—it is the result of increasingly normalized hate, dehumanizing rhetoric, and silence in the face of rising antisemitism. But we will not be deterred. We will walk again—and we invite everyone to join us, not just with your feet, but with open hearts and minds. Choose humanity over hate, curiosity over judgment, and learning over condemnation. In a world growing more divided by the day, it’s time to come together around empathy, dignity, and the fundamental belief that every life matters,” said Rachel Amaru, Founder of Boulder Run For Their Lives.
“We call on all Coloradans, indeed all Americans, to stand together in outrage and solidarity to say with one voice: enough—this cannot continue,” said Laura Merage, Founder and CEO of the David Merage Foundation.
“We live in a broken world, and yet every human has choices–let us choose healing and hope, and not hatred and violence,” said Reverend Mary Kate Réjoius, St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church.
“For far too long, the Jewish community has been forced to stand alone in the face of hate—ostracized, alienated, and demonized simply for being who we are. In the wake of the most violent antisemitic terrorist attack in Colorado history, we are reminded of the profound power of standing shoulder to shoulder. True solidarity means more than showing up in moments of heartbreak—it means committing to lasting change. It starts with educating our own communities, building bridges of understanding, and centering respect as the foundation of our shared future. Let today be the beginning of a new chapter in Colorado—one where Jews no longer have to stand alone,” said Mindy Miller, Stop Antisemitism Colorado.
“The Muslim Community in our precious Boulder, in our unique state of Colorado, and quiet frankly across our beautiful country, stand firm on our Islamic shared values of neighborliness which are American values. We stand firm on that with our neighbors whether Jewish, Christian, or, Muslim , at all times and especially at times like this. Hence, We must never tolerate hatred against Jews or Muslims and attacks like this makes all our communities less safe. That’s why it is so important to help our community heal after tragedy, and we thank the Governor for bringing us together to foster unity,” said Imam Nader Elmarhoumi, Islamic Center of Boulder
The event concluded with a performance from Boulder philharmonic members: Jubal Fulks – violin, Colette Burch – violin, Brightin Schlumpf – viola and Sally Murphy – cello.
BERKELEY, Calif., June 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — PromptQL, a platform for reliable AI, today announced a strategic research collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley to develop the first comprehensive data agent benchmark for enterprise reliability specifically designed to evaluate general-purpose AI data agents in enterprise environments.
A recent McKinsey study revealed that 78% of organizations use AI in at least one business function, however, more than 80% say their organization hasn’t seen a tangible impact on enterprise-level Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT). The partnership – led by Aditya Parameswaran, Professor and Co-Director of UC Berkeley’s EPIC Data Lab, along with his students – addresses this fundamental challenge organizations face when deploying AI systems in business-critical environments.
While existing agentic data benchmarks like GAIA, Spider, and FRAMES test specific AI tasks, they overlook the complexity, reliability demands, and messy, siloed data that define real business environments. The forthcoming data agent benchmark aims to offer a solution by creating a framework that reflects real-world complexities.
“Our customer conversations reveal a clear pattern—they’re ready to move from proof-of-concepts to production AI, yet they lack the evaluation tools to make confident deployment decisions,” said Tanmai Gopal, CEO of PromptQL. “The data agent benchmark changes that by using representative datasets from our work in telecom, healthcare, finance, retail, and anti-money laundering to reflect the real complexity of enterprise AI.”
UC Berkeley’s EPIC Data Lab brings expertise to this collaboration. Professor Parameswaran is a leading authority on the use of AI for next-gen usable data analysis tools and has received numerous prestigious awards. His research group has created widely-adopted data tools with tens of millions of downloads.
“Current benchmarks suffer from what I call the ‘1% problem’—they’re built for tech giants and ignore the 99% of organizations grappling with real-world data complexity,” Parameswaran said. “The data agent benchmark marks a shift toward evaluating AI based on the reliability, transparency, and practical value enterprises actually need. This collaboration bridges academic rigor with the production insights PromptQL brings from real deployments.”
The data agent benchmark beta will be revealed later this year. Organizations interested in early access or contributing use-cases or datasets can reach out to the research team at epic-support@eecs.berkeley.edu.
PromptQL will be at AI Engineer World’s Fair, June 3-6 in San Francisco. Tanmai Gopal, PromptQL’s co-founder and CEO, will present a session, “Al Automation that Actually Works: $100M Impact on Messy Data with Zero Surprises,” on June 4 at 11:15 a.m. PT. To learn more or schedule a demo at the PromptQL booth, visit https://hasura.io/events/ai-engineer-worlds-fair-2025.
About PromptQL PromptQL is a next-generation AI platform from the makers of Hasura, the company behind the pioneering GraphQL Engine. Built for enterprise-grade reliability, PromptQL enables natural language analysis and automation on internal business data — with an industry-first accuracy SLA. By learning the unique language of your business and planning tasks before executing them deterministically, PromptQL brings human-level precision to AI agents.
About UC Berkeley EPIC Data Lab The EPIC Data Lab at UC Berkeley develops low-code and no-code interfaces for data work, powered by Gen AI. Co-Led by Professor Aditya Parameswaran, the lab follows Berkeley’s tradition of multidisciplinary systems research with emphasis on real-world impact and practical deployment. The lab’s tools, including DocETL and other widely-adopted systems, demonstrate Berkeley’s leadership in democratizing data science capabilities.
SANDY, Utah, June 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Mountain America Credit Union has announced the appointment of Rob Brough as its new senior vice president and chief marketing officer. He succeeds Sharon Cook, who recently retired after more than 15 years of visionary leadership and impactful contributions to the organization’s growth and member experience.
Brough brings with him nearly 30 years of experience in marketing, communications and community involvement. Most recently, he served as executive vice president of corporate marketing and communications at Zions Bank, where he led marketing, branding, digital strategy, and community outreach across a 10-state region. In 2021, he was named CXO of the Year by Utah Business Magazine.
“Rob’s track record of purpose-driven marketing, deep roots in community involvement and strong leadership make him the ideal person to build upon a legacy defined by innovation, integrity, and lasting impact,” said Nathan Anderson, chief operating officer at Mountain America. “We’re thrilled to welcome Rob to Mountain America and confident that his vision will further elevate how we connect with members, employees, and the community.”
Mountain America’s marketing team plays a strategic role in the organization beyond traditional campaigns to share the credit union’s story, build trust, and promote the meaningful experiences that define the brand. The marketing team at Mountain America is integral to bringing the credit union’s mission, vision and values to life.
“I have long appreciated the commitment I see from Mountain America to make a difference for members, for the community, and for employees,” Brough said. “I also have a tremendous amount of respect for those I have come to know from Mountain America over the years and admire the quality of marketing activity I have consistently seen from the marketing team. I am truly energized by this opportunity to join the Mountain America team and look forward to partnering with my new colleagues to build on the successes of the past and grow together into the future.”
For more information about Mountain America visit macu.com.
About Mountain America Credit Union With more than 1 million members and $20 billion in assets, Mountain America Credit Union helps its members define and achieve their financial dreams. Mountain America provides consumers and businesses with a variety of convenient, flexible products and services, as well as sound, timely advice. Members enjoy access to secure, cutting-edge mobile banking technology, over 100 branches across a multi-state region, and more than 50,000 surcharge-free ATMs. Mountain America—guiding you forward. Learn more at macu.com.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Greg Steube (FL-17)
June 04, 2025 | Press ReleasesWASHINGTON — U.S. Representative Greg Steube (R-Fla.) today introduced the No Loan Forgiveness for Terrorists Act to codify President Trump’s executive order prohibiting the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program from crediting employees of organizations engaged in illegal activity. “If someone accepts a job with an organization that is actively undermining U.S. national security and federal law, they shouldn’t expect a thank you note and taxpayer-funded prize for their work,” said Rep. Steube. “President Trump’s executive order to protect the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is the right policy to prevent the subsidization of illegal activity. That is why Senator Banks and I have set forward this bill to codify President Trump’s order and ensure nefarious non-profits and their employees are not rewarded with student loan forgiveness that should be reserved for law enforcement and deserving public servants.” Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.) introduced companion legislation last month in the U.S. Senate. “Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay student loans for radicals who aid terrorists, mutilate children, or promote illegal immigration,” said Senator Banks. “This bill codifies President Trump’s order to stop subsidizing anti-American extremism.” Background: This bill would amend the scope of a “public sector job” under the Higher Education Act to disqualify time spent with entities that are found to be in violation of federal immigration and tort laws, supporting terrorist activities or child abuse, or engaged in a pattern of discrimination. These changes would ensure federal law reflects President Trump’s March 7, 2025, executive order on Restoring Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Read the full bill here.
tarting today, diesel fleet and equipment owners can apply for a variety of grants to support efforts to reduce dirty transportation emissions across the state under the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s 2025 Clean Trucks and Infrastructure program.
Details on the clean truck and infrastructure grants are as follows:
Diesel Emissions Mitigation Grants and Federal Diesel Emissions Reduction Funding
Total: Approximately $9 million
Focus: To swap older diesel vehicles, engines or equipment for similar, newer, cleaner zero-emission vehicles, technologies or retrofit exhaust controls.
Eligibility: Oregon businesses, organizations, local governments and individuals with medium- and heavy-duty diesel fleets, model year 1992 – 2009.
Contact: Rhett Lawrence, AQ program analyst: rhett.lawrence@deq.oregon.gov
Oregon DEQ Clean Trucks Grant Program
Total: Approximately $4.8 million
Focus: To scrap and replace diesel vehicles with new zero-emission vehicles.
Eligibility: Oregon businesses, organizations, local governments and individuals with medium- and heavy-duty diesel fleets, model year 1992 and newer.
Contact: Rhett Lawrence, AQ program analyst: rhett.lawrence@deq.oregon.gov
Focus: To develop plans and install charging infrastructure for medium- and heavy-duty zero-emissions vehicle fleets.
Eligibility: Oregon businesses, organizations, local governments and individuals planning to install private and/or public charging infrastructure.
Contact: Tracie Weitzman, AQ program analyst: tracie.weitzman@deq.oregon.gov
More than $34 million is available to help purchase new zero-emissions trucks, replace or retrofit older, more polluting diesel engines, or develop medium- and heavy-duty zero-emission vehicle charging and fueling infrastructure projects. Total funding includes approximately $17 million available for the new Zero-Emissions Rebates for Oregon Fleets program, also known as the ZERO Fleet Program, which will announce its open application period soon. Submissions for programs opening today are due by 5 p.m. (PDT) on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025.
“We recognize that transitioning from older diesel vehicles to cleaner technologies can be challenging for many companies,” said Oregon DEQ Air Quality Transportation Strategies Section Manager Rachel Sakata. “This significant investment will support that transition, reduce harmful air pollution and help protect the health of communities across the state.”
Owners of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles requiring retrofits under DEQ’s Diesel Retrofit Compliance Program may also apply for funding to support the installation of diesel particulate filters. In addition, non-road equipment and fleet owners, i.e., those with diesel-powered machinery or vehicles involved in construction, may be interested in applying for a grant. If the project is awarded funding, it will improve the emissions profile for pursuing certification under DEQ’s Diesel Emissions Identification Program.
DEQ is offering two opportunities for applicants to learn more about the grants and process through two virtual webinars. They are as follows:
Clean Truck and Infrastructure GrantsWebinar #1
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
10 – 11 a.m. (PDT)
Microsoft Teams: Join the meeting now
Meeting ID: 234 081 780 139 3
Passcode: KB6ES9Jo
Phone #: 503-446-4951
Phone conference ID: 720 897 622#
Clean Truck and Infrastructure GrantsWebinar #2
Wednesday, June 18, 2025
3 – 4 p.m. (PDT)
Microsoft Teams: Join the meeting now
Meeting ID: 271 031 021 708 6
Passcode: 6tT9o2CC
Phone #: 503-446-4951
Phone conference ID: 925 484 402#
Attendees are encouraged to bring questions, as there will be a Q&A section.
The 2025 application period is the only opportunity this year to apply for the clean truck and infrastructure grants. Previous award recipients can apply for additional funds.
DEQ has approximately $72 million in funding assigned for grants through the Environmental Mitigation Trust Fund after Volkswagen was found to have cheated on emissions standards. There is $8 million available for this year’s Diesel Emissions Mitigation Grants. In addition, last summer, DEQ was awarded the Climate Equity and Resilience Through Action Grant, which provides additional funding for the Clean Trucks and Zero-Emission Fueling Infrastructure grants and the ZERO Fleet Rebates.
Links to a helpful User Guide on each grant’s web page. Applications, regardless of the grant, should be submitted through the DEQ Grants web portal. Submissions for programs opening today must be received by DEQ no later than 5 p.m. (PDT) on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025.
For more information specifically on the grants, please contact the program analysts listed above or email dieselgrants@deq.oregon.gov.
AUSTIN, Texas, June 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Federal Life Insurance Company has completed the acquisition of Texas Service Life Insurance Company, a leader in preneed insurance, marking a bold step forward for the industry.
This strategic move underscores Federal Life’s commitment to expanding growth pathways and forward-thinking solutions that empower families to plan with confidence.
With an A- (Excellent) rating from AM Best, and backed by leading investment firm, Bain Capital, Federal Life is in a strong financial position to collaboratively build a new future for preneed insurance.
“This is more than an acquisition, it’s a signal to the market that preneed is an essential product for families and we believe the market is underserved,” said Knut Olson, CEO of Federal Life with over 20 years of experience in the insurance industry. “We are reimagining how families prepare for the future by delivering exceptional service and innovative opportunities to access preplanning. Our team is ready to push boundaries, drive industry change, and ensure families receive the support they deserve.”
Following the acquisition, George Wise steps in as President of Texas Service Life, leading the charge toward a national expansion strategy that prioritizes accessibility, trust, and cutting-edge financial security for families across the country.
“We are evolving with purpose, ready to strengthen and scale a business designed to meet the ever-changing needs of families everywhere,” Wise stated. “The future of preneed planning is here, and we’re shaping it with fresh ideas, dynamic solutions, and a commitment to delivering lasting value.”
Federal Life and Texas Service Life are committed to building better products, exceeding service expectations, and helping funeral homes and families evolve in an ever-changing world. Together, they embody a more creative, dynamic, future-forward vision for preneed insurance.
About Federal Life Insurance Company Federal Life Insurance Company is shaping the future of insurance with innovative solutions designed to protect individuals and families at every stage of life. Rooted in financial strength and stability, Federal Life is committed to delivering reliable accident & health and life products that evolve with its clients’ changing needs. As the company expands its reach and enhances its offerings, the focus remains on providing trusted, forward-thinking coverage that empowers financial security for generations to come.
About Texas Service Life Insurance Company Texas Service Life Insurance Company has been serving customers since 1985. With a proven track record in the industry and a robust financial foundation, Texas Service Life consistently delivers the dependability families require when planning their insurance arrangements. Family1® is a Registered Trademark of Texas Service Life Insurance Company, Austin, TX.
Media Contact: Jessica Grann Chief Marketing and Culture Officer Federal Life Insurance Company jgrann@federallife.com
SAN FRANCISCO, June 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — HAProxyConf 2025 officially commenced today in San Francisco, with hundreds of passionate users, developers, customers, and partners gathering from around the world to share the future of application delivery and security. The day’s proceedings were highlighted by a pivotal keynote presentation delivered by Baptiste Assmann, Director of Product, and Andjelko Iharos, VP of Architecture, at HAProxy Technologies. Their address unveiled significant product advancements that firmly establish HAProxy One’s position as the world’s fastest application delivery and security platform and the definitive solution to modern security challenges.
“HAProxyConf shows the tech industry at its best,” said Dujko Radovnikovic, CEO, HAProxy Technologies. “We have one of the longest-lived open source ecosystems, the most influential voices, and the smartest engineering minds coming together in a unique demonstration of the power of community. This is the perfect moment to unveil the most advanced security solutions we’ve ever built.”
Key Product Highlights
The keynote presented groundbreaking innovations designed to enhance HAProxy One’s multi-layered security capabilities, directly addressing the cost and complexity of securing modern application traffic in large-scale, highly distributed environments.
HAProxy Enterprise’s Threat Detection Engine: the HAProxy Enterprise Bot Management Module provides a new Threat Detection Engine, which uses novel and proprietary techniques to detect and label a broad spectrum of complex and high-impact threats including Application DDoS attacks, brute force attacks, web scrapers, and vulnerability scanners – with more in future updates.
Exceptional accuracy is achieved by leveraging the company’s deep expertise in security, data science, and machine learning, and authority on the data plane. A more accurate security system reduces the risks faced by businesses, in particular in highly targeted industries such as financial services, healthcare, education, and utilities.
Dynamic adaptability takes into account real-time traffic data to identify anomalies and adapt to each application automatically. This leads to lower implementation costs, especially for businesses that need to secure multiple applications in multiple territories, each with a unique traffic profile.
Performance efficiency minimizes memory and CPU usage while ensuring ultra-low latency, which lowers operational costs and helps ensure a responsive user experience.
HAProxy Fusion’s Security Control Plane: HAProxy Fusion now carries a unified security control plane to orchestrate the multi-layered security capabilities in HAProxy Enterprise, including powerful modules such as the HAProxy Enterprise Bot Management Module, HAProxy Enterprise WAF, and CAPTCHA Module, and flexible security building blocks including Global Profiling Engine (GPE), ACLs, allow-lists and deny-lists, GeoIP, and more.
Centralized security policy provides consistent full-spectrum protection, orchestrating security policy on HAProxy Enterprise nodes in any environment and any form factor, with comprehensive observability. This reduces the risk of security vulnerabilities and helps ensure rapid, effective mitigation.
Security Profiles make it simple to deploy security policies to clusters of HAProxy Enterprise nodes, with the flexibility to customize policies to particular use cases. Businesses can reduce implementation costs and launch new applications faster by reducing the time needed to create and deploy effective security policies.
Threat-Response Matrix is an intuitive visual policy builder that enables administrators to combine signals and responses, leveraging all of HAProxy Enterprise’s multi-layered security capabilities. Customers may simplify and automate their policy using the threat labels generated by the Threat Detection Engine, or embrace deep customization using HAProxy Enterprise’s security building blocks, or adopt a hybrid model using a mixture of signals to suit each business’s unique priorities and threat profile – all within HAProxy Fusion’s modern UI. This approach improves operational efficiency with easier operation and clear feedback, and reduces risk by making human error significantly less likely.
HAProxy’s High-Performance SSL Library and Certificate Automation: HAProxy and HAProxy Enterprise now include a modern SSL library from AWS, which provides the highest possible SSL/TLS performance with HAProxy’s multi-threaded architecture, and important features for modern application delivery, such as full support for the QUIC transport layer. These products also provide experimental support for the ACME protocol, which helps automate the loading of TLS files from certificate authorities such as Let’s Encrypt and ZeroSSL. These enhancements keep HAProxy Technologies at the forefront of performance and operational efficiency for secure traffic encryption.
“The new features we announced at HAProxyConf 2025 underscore our commitment to delivering the world’s fastest application delivery and security platform, that is perfectly suited to tackling modern threats in the most modern way,” stated Baptiste Assmann, Director of Product, HAProxy Technologies. Andjelko Iharos, VP of Architecture, added, “The new Threat Detection Engine in HAProxy Enterprise, combined with the Threat-Response Matrix in HAProxy Fusion, empower businesses to simplify security operations, reduce risk, and achieve unparalleled performance in today’s complex threat landscape.”
Industry experts and customer testimonies demonstrate real-world value
The opening day at HAProxyConf will also feature cloud computing expert Kelsey Hightower, who will speak about the importance of core architectural fundamentals such as a high-performance gateway, and the necessary ingredients for open source project longevity and maturity. “I’m really looking forward to HAProxyConf this week,” said Hightower. “It’s great to see such a mature open source community thriving, and the technology constantly evolving.”
Some of the world’s most innovative companies will take to the stage to showcase what they accomplished using HAProxy and HAProxy One, including PayPal, Clover, Criteo, and Liftoff Mobile. On the second day of HAProxyConf, attendees will return to hear from Roblox, Dartmouth College, Infobip, Weller Truck Parts, Element Technologies, and DeepL.
Day 1 will also bring together Kelsey Hightower, community influencer Hussein Nasser, and HAProxy Technologies leaders Baptiste Assmann and Andjelko Iharos for a panel discussion on “Navigating rapid change in IT: trends and transformations.” The panelists will discuss the changing landscape of security, AI, and platform engineering.
“Our customers are our best ambassadors,” said Tim Bertrand, President, HAProxy Technologies. “Nothing is more powerful than having some of the best companies in the world get on stage and show why they chose HAProxy One as the platform for their application delivery and security, in presentations packed with real-world experience, benchmark data, and measurable improvements in their business outcomes. No one can deny the impact that HAProxy One is making on the industry.”
About HAProxyConf
HAProxyConf celebrates the thriving user community that’s made HAProxy the world’s fastest and most widely used software load balancer. Over two-plus days, expert speakers will share best practices and real-world use cases that highlight HAProxy’s next-gen approach to high-performance application delivery and security. Attendees will explore how to master their application traffic with next-gen solutions to the challenges of multi-layered security, observability, performance, and the complexities of Kubernetes and multi-cloud deployments.
HAProxy Technologies is the company behind HAProxy One, the world’s fastest application delivery and security platform, and HAProxy, the most widely used software load balancer. Leading companies and cloud providers trust HAProxy to simplify, scale, and secure modern applications, APIs, and AI services in any environment. HAProxy Technologies is headquartered in Newton, MA, with multiple offices across the US and Europe. Learn more at HAProxy.com.
San Jose, CA – After an historic strike that was halted by a court order, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) workers have voted to ratify a new contract with the transit agency. The workers Union, ATU Local 265-San Jose, CA, reached the deal after marathon contract talks.
After months of fruitless negotiations between the Union and the VTA, more than 1,500 workers went on strike on March 10, 2025, and shut down bus and rail service completely because the agency failed to address any of the Union’s common-sense demands. After 17 days on the picket lines, Santa Clara County Superior Court ruled in favor of the VTA and enjoined on the strike, effectively busting it and forcing members back to work.
“Our members have stood strong over the past few months despite the court order halting our strike and negotiations being drawn out. This contract recognizes their commitment and dedication with decent living wages, safer working conditions, updated grievance policies, and other improvements,” said ATU Local 265President/Business Agent Raj Singh. “They have put their lives on the line every day to keep this service running, to get our passengers across San Jose where they need to go safely.”
The new contract includes a 14.5% raise over four years, improved dental benefits, updated workplace policies, and other improvements.
“Congratulations to our Local 265 VTA members on this new contract. I was on the picket lines with them on the first day of their strike and saw firsthand their strength and determination,” said Costa. “It’s been a rollercoaster since they were forced to go back to work by a court order, and negotiations continued to stall. Despite these setbacks, our members remained unified. This contract is a victory for fair treatment, living wages, and for our riders.”
ATU 265 represents more than 1,500 VTA workers, including bus and light rail operators, maintenance workers, and others who ensure safe transportation for riders across San Jose County.
SBM Offshore announces it has signed a Share Purchase Agreement for the full divestment of SBM Offshore’s equity interest in the lease and operating entities of the FPSO Aseng to GEPetrol. The Company’s exit from Equatorial Guinea will take place following an operational transition phase lasting up to 12 months.
SBM Offshore’s sale of its participation in the unit in Equatorial Guinea is in line with its strategy to rationalize its Lease & Operate portfolio, as per other recent transactions.
The agreement remains subject to several conditions precedent and approvals.
Corporate Profile
SBM Offshore is the world’s deepwater ocean-infrastructure expert. Through the design, construction, installation, and operation of offshore floating facilities, we play a pivotal role in a just transition. By advancing our core, we deliver cleaner, more efficient energy production. By pioneering more, we unlock new markets within the blue economy. More than 7,800 SBMers collaborate worldwide to deliver innovative solutions as a responsible partner towards a sustainable future, balancing ocean protection with progress. For further information, please visit our website at www.sbmoffshore.com.
This press release may contain inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation.
Disclaimer
Some of the statements contained in this release that are not historical facts are statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements based on management’s current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance, or events to differ materially from those in such statements. These statements may be identified by words such as ‘expect’, ‘should’, ‘could’, ‘shall’ and / or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties. The principal risks which could affect the future operations of SBM Offshore N.V. are described in the ‘Impacts, Risks and Opportunities’ section of the 2024 Annual Report.
Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results and performance of the Company’s business may vary materially and adversely from the forward-looking statements described in this release. SBM Offshore does not intend and does not assume any obligation to update any industry information or forward-looking statements set forth in this release to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise.
This release contains certain alternative performance measures (APMs) as defined by the ESMA guidelines which are not defined under IFRS. Further information on these APMs is included in the 2024 Annual Report, available on our website Annual Reports – SBM Offshore.
Nothing in this release shall be deemed an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities. The companies in which SBM Offshore N.V. directly and indirectly owns investments are separate legal entities. In this release “SBM Offshore” and “SBM” are sometimes used for convenience where references are made to SBM Offshore N.V. and its subsidiaries in general. These expressions are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular company or companies.
“SBM Offshore®“, the SBM logomark, “Fast4Ward®”, “emissionZERO®” and “F4W®” are proprietary marks owned by SBM Offshore.
Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr. Kao Kim Hourn, met with the Minister of International Trade of Canada, H.E Maninder Sidhu, at the OECD Headquarters in Paris, France, on 4 June 2025. Their discussions explored potential opportunities to deepen ASEAN- OECD cooperation, aligned with the implementation of the OECD Southeast Asia Regional Programme (SEARP) in 2026, including specific areas to support the ASEAN Community Vision 2045.
The post Secretary-General of ASEAN meets with the Minister of International Trade of Canada appeared first on ASEAN Main Portal.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Maria Papageorgiou, Leverhulme Early Career Researcher, School of Geography, Politics, and Sociology, Newcastle University
The US president, Donald Trump, claimed he was able to secure deals totalling more than US$2 trillion (£1.5 trillion) for the US on his tour of the Gulf states in May. Trump said “there has never been anything like” the amount of jobs and money these agreements will bring to the US.
However, providing a lift for the US economy wasn’t the only thing on Trump’s mind. China’s influence in the wider Middle East region is growing fast – so much so that it was even able to mediate a detente between bitter regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran in 2023.
Trump’s attempt to strengthen ties with countries in the Middle East is probably also a deliberate attempt to contain China’s growing regional ambitions.
China has spent the past two decades building up its economic and political relations with the Middle East. In 2020, it replaced the EU as the largest trading partner to the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Bilateral trade between them was valued at over US$161 billion (£119 billion).
Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox.Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.
The Middle East has also become an important partner to China’s sprawling Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Massive infrastructure projects in the region, such as high-speed railway lines in Saudi Arabia, have provided lucrative opportunities for Chinese companies.
The total value of Chinese construction and investment deals in the Middle East reached US$39 billion in 2024, the most of any region in the world. That year, the three countries with the highest volume of BRI-related construction contracts and investment were all in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the UAE.
China has also strengthened its financial cooperation with Middle Eastern countries, particularly the UAE and Saudi Arabia. As part of China’s efforts to reduce global reliance on the US dollar for trade, it has arranged cross-border trade settlements, currency swap agreements, and is engaging in digital currency collaboration initiatives with these countries.
American security guarantees have historically fostered an alignment between the Gulf states and the west. The string of agreements Trump signed with countries there reflects an attempt to draw them away from China and back towards Washington’s orbit.
Countering China
One of the more significant developments from Trump’s trip was an agreement to deepen US technological cooperation with the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The US and UAE announced they would work together to construct the largest AI data centre outside of the US in Abu Dhabi.
Technology is one of the key areas where China has been trying to assert its influence in the region. Through Beijing’s so-called “Digital Silk Road” initiative, which aims to develop a global digital ecosystem with China at its centre, Chinese firms have secured deals with Middle Eastern countries to provide 5G mobile network technology.
Chinese tech giants Huawei and Alibaba are also in the process of signing partnerships with telecommunications providers in the region for collaboration and research in cloud computing. These companies have gained traction by aligning closely with national government priorities, such as Saudi Arabia’s initiative to diversify its economy through tech development.
American companies, including Amazon, Microsoft and Google, have spent years building regional tech ecosystems across the Gulf. Trump is looking to recover this momentum. He was joined in the Middle East by more than 30 leaders of top American companies, who also secured commercial deals with their peers from the Gulf.
US quantum computing company Quantinuum and Qatari investment firm Al Rabban Capital finalised a joint venture worth up to a US$1 billion. The agreement will see investment in quantum technologies and workforce development in the US and Qatar.
There are two other areas where Trump is trying to cut China off. American companies and Abu Dhabi’s state-run oil firm agreed a US$60 billion energy partnership. China is heavily dependent on the Middle East for energy, with almost half of the oil it uses coming from the region. Greater alignment with the US could hamper Beijing’s ability to secure the resources it needs.
Trump also signed a raft of defence deals with Qatar and Saudi Arabia. These included a US$1 billion deal for Qatar to acquire drone defence technology from American aerospace conglomerate Raytheon RTX, and a US$142 billion agreement for the Saudis to buy military equipment from US firms.
These moves underscore Washington’s intention to limit China’s influence in key defence sectors. China is a key player in the global market for commercial and military drones, providing Saudi Arabia and the UAE with a large share of their combat drones.
One final aspect of Trump’s trip was his brief meeting with Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa. Trump signalled possible sanctions relief, which has since come into effect. This constituted more than a diplomatic thaw.
With China positioning itself as a regional mediator and Russia struggling with a diminished role following the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the US is looking to reassert itself as the primary power broker in the region.
Dr Maria (Mary) Papageorgiou receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust.
Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Melise Panetta, Lecturer of Marketing in the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University
Often praised as the ‘sustainability generation,’ Gen Z has been at the forefront of calls for ethical production, environmental accountability and climate-conscious living.(Shutterstock)
As the summer shopping season kicks off, all eyes are on Gen Z — those born between 1997 and 2012 and whose purchasing power wields significant influence over market trends.
This discrepancy between belief and action, known as the “attitude-behaviour gap,” is a defining characteristic of Gen Z consumerism. While it’s not unique to Gen Z, it’s particularly pronounced due to their vocal environmentalism and their immersion in a hyper-consumerist digital world.
Understanding consumer behaviour at a deeper level means looking past stated preferences and focusing instead on the economic, technological and cultural forces that shape real-world decisions.
The rise of the eco-conscious Gen Z consumer
There’s no denying Gen Z’s pronounced environmental awareness compared to other generations.
This isn’t merely performative — Gen Z actively integrates sustainability into their lives. They’re more likely than any other generation to research a brand’s ethics and environmental impact before buying, often using social media to guide decisions.
They’re also behind the rise of the second-hand market, which is expected to hit US$329 billion globally by 2029. With 40 per cent of Gen Z — the highest rate of any age group — shopping resale, platforms like Depop and ThredUp have seen explosive growth.
Gen Z’s consumer behaviour is also influencing the spending habits of older generations. According to the World Economic Forum, increased spending on sustainable brands by groups like Generation X is being driven, in part, by Gen Z’s values, behaviours and expectations.
Gen Z’s push for sustainable consumption is shifting the market and everyone in it.
Viral phenomena like Shein hauls — videos where social media influencers flaunt dozens of ultra-cheap outfits — spotlight the contradiction.
In the first 19 weeks of 2025 alone, Shein’s app amassed over 54 million downloads, a staggering number that underscores how affordability and instant gratification often win out over sustainability. Built on rapid production and ultra-low prices, Shein’s model encourages frequent, high-volume purchases — the antithesis of the “buy less, buy better” ethos that underpins sustainable consumption.
And this pattern extends far beyond fashion. The wider consumer landscape rewards speed and low cost at every turn. Gen Z came of age with one-click ordering and next-day delivery — conveniences that are now baseline expectations for shoppers. These days, nearly half of Gen Z consumers prioritize fast shipping, despite its high environmental cost.
Meanwhile, the social media platforms where they discover new eco-conscious brands are the same ones pushing relentless trend cycles that encourage over-consumption, from gadgets to clothing and lifestyle products.
Sustainability often comes with a steep price tag, one many young Gen Z consumers simply can’t afford. Brands like Patagonia or Allbirds are aspirational, but in the context of the cost-of-living crisis, fast-fashion giants like Zara, H&M and TJX Companies offer more budget-friendly options.
Navigating the ‘attitude-behaviour’ gap
The disconnect between Gen Z’s values and their consumption patterns isn’t about hypocrisy. Rather, it’s about navigating a system where sustainable choices are harder, more expensive and often less visible.
Gen Z’s struggle shows that living sustainably in a world designed for speed, savings and social validation is an uphill battle — even for the generation most determined to make a difference.
Bridging this gap demands action on several fronts. For businesses, it means innovating to make sustainable options more affordable and accessible. Transparency in supply chain practices and clear communication about environmental impact are also key to building trust with consumers.
For Gen Z themselves, transparency about the true cost of consumption is vital. Fostering critical thinking about marketing messages and the impact of social media trends can empower them to make choices that more consistently align with their values.
As the summer unfolds and consumer spending rises, the choices made by Gen Z will be a significant indicator of our collective path towards a more sustainable economy. Their ideals are a powerful force for change, but translating those ideals into consistent action remains the critical challenge.
Melise Panetta 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.
Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Christina E. Hoicka, Canada Research Chair in Urban Planning for Climate Change, Associate Professor of Geography and Civil Engineering, University of Victoria
First Nations across British Columbia have developed renewable electricity projects for decades. Yet they’ve experienced significant barriers to implementing, owning and managing their own electricity supply. That’s because there have been few procurement policies in place that require their involvement.
These goals may include powering buildings in the community, creating economic development and local jobs, earning revenue, improving access to affordable and reliable electricity or using less diesel.
Our new study shares the story of a coalition of First Nations and organizations that advocated for changes to electricity regulations and laws to give Indigenous communities more control to develop renewable electricity projects. Our interviews with knowledge holders from 14 First Nations offer insight into motivations behind their calls for regulatory changes.
The coalition includes the Clean Energy Association of B.C., New Relationship Trust, Pembina Institute, First Nations Power Authority, Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal Council, and the First Nations Clean Energy Working Group.
Models for a First Nations power authority
Almost all electricity customers in B.C. are served by BC Hydro, the electric utility owned by the provincial government.
The coalition argues that applying DRIPA to the electricity sector should allow First Nations to form a First Nations power authority. Such an organization would provide them with control over the development of electricity infrastructure that aligns with their values and would also help B.C. meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets.
We identified six proposed First Nations power authority (Indigenous Utility) models:
A capacity building point-of-contact model streamlines the development of renewable electricity projects to sell power to the provincial utility. For example, the First Nations Power Authority in Saskatchewan was formed for this purpose by SaskPower.
This would be the most conformative model. It would provide vital networks and connections to First Nations while allowing BC Hydro and the British Columbia Utilities Commission to maintain full control over the electricity sector.
In the second model, called a “put” contract, a B.C. First Nations Power Authority represents First Nations wishing to develop renewable electricity projects. Whenever the province needs to build new electricity generation projects to meet growing electricity demand, a portion of the new generation is developed by the First Nations authority.
In the third model, First Nations build and operate electricity transmission and distribution lines to allow remote industrial facilities and communities to connect to the electricity grid. This is called “Industrial Interconnection.”
For example, the Wataynikaneyap Power Transmission line in Ontario is a 1,800-kilometre line that provides an electricity grid connection for 17 previously remote nations. Twenty-four First Nations own 51 per cent of the line, while private investors own 49 per cent.
In the fourth model, the B.C. First Nation Power Authority acts as the designated body for various opportunities in the electricity sector, such as the development of electricity transmission, distribution, generation or customer services. This model is referred to as “local or regional ‘ticket’ opportunities.”
Fifth, the First Nation Power Authority develops renewable electricity projects and distributes electricity from these projects to customers as a retailer, or under an agreement through the BC Hydro electricity grid. For example, Nova Scotia Power’s Green Choice program procures renewable electricity from independent power producers to supply to electricity customers.
Sixth, new utility is formed in B.C., owned by First Nations, that owns and operates electricity generation, transmission and distribution services and offers standard customer services in a specific region of B.C. (called a “Regional Vertically-Integrated Power Authority”).
Most of these models would require changes to regulations. The sixth and most transformative model would provide First Nations with full decision-making control over electricity generation, transmission and distribution. It would also give them the ability to sell to customers and require extensive changes in electricity regulation.
Improving living standards
First Nations knowledge-holders told us that a lack of reliable power, high electricity rates, lack of control over projects on their traditional lands and the need for resilience in the face of climate events were motivations for taking electricity planning into their own hands.
They also expressed that varied factors motivate community interest in renewable energy: improving the quality of life for community members; financial independence; mitigating climate change; protecting the environment; reducing diesel use and providing stable and safe power for current and future generations.
First Nations are already seeking to capitalize on the benefits of renewable energy by developing their own projects within the current regulatory system.
Most of those we spoke to see a First Nations power authority in B.C. as a means to provide opportunities for economic development without discrimination — and to achieve self-determination, self-reliance and reconciliation by addressing the root causes of some of the colonial injustices they face by obtaining control over the electricity sector on their lands.
This article was co-authored by David Benton, an adopted member and Clean Energy Project Lead of Gitga’at First Nation and Kayla Klym, a BSc student in Geography at the University of Victoria.
For this research project, Dr. Christina E. Hoicka received funding from Natural Resources Canada Clean Energy for Rural and Remote Communities Program (CERRC), Capacity Building Stream funding program. The research was conducted in partnership for the Clean Energy Association of British Columbia, and the New Relationship Trust. This work was also supported by the New Frontiers in Research Fund Global NFRFG-2020-00339 and the Canada Research Chair Secretariat CRC-2020-00055.
Anna Berka is affiliated with Community Power Agency, a not-for-profit workers co-operative working to ensure a fair and accessible energy transition for all.
Adam J. Regier and Sara Chitsaz do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –
At the end of May, the festival of technological presentations MIEM Tech Day was held in the atrium of the HSE building on Pokrovsky Boulevard. The event brought together the main educational, research and project tracks Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics named after A.N. Tikhonov (MIEM) HSE, carried out in close cooperation with partners – leading companies, research and financial organizations of Russia.
Engineers at the forefront of science
On this day, the festival guests were treated to an extensive program: a Technoshow from the MIEM project block, a demo Engineering and Mathematical School HSE and VK, consultations on all educational programs of the institute, presentations and stands of partner companies, quizzes, competitions, numerous interactive zones from the festival organizers, companies, student organizations.
The event was attended by students and teachers from HSE and other universities, representatives of MIEM partner companies, IT experts, and schoolchildren.
In their greetings during the short opening ceremony of MIEM Tech Day, the speakers noted the importance of the engineering direction in shaping the modern portrait of the university.
“The Higher School of Economics is a classical university, we have a wide range of areas, including engineering, which is so relevant today,” said Irina Martusevich, Vice-Rector of the National Research University Higher School of Economics. “MIEM is the heart of engineering at HSE. The university is at the forefront of scientific thought. This is also due to MIEM.”
The general partner of the event was VK.
“For MIEM, cooperation with leading representatives of the industry and business is, first and foremost, a growth point,” emphasized Dmitry Kovalenko, Vice-Rector of HSE and Director of MIEM. “We understand that we will not be able to reach a new level in education and research without our partners, both internal, representing HSE departments and campuses, and external, including VK, the Bank of Russia, the Element Group of Companies, MTS, InfoWatch, EkoNiva, MCST and others. The list is constantly expanding. Today, there are many companies that want to move into a new history, to a new stage of development, together with MIEM.”
Showcase of achievements
A striking example of the established unique joint project-based educational model is the Engineering and Mathematical School of the National Research University Higher School of Economics and VK. The annual demo of the school took place on the main stage of the festival.
“Universities provide a solid academic base, our task is to bring in a practical component by attracting experts, interacting with students, providing cases and the opportunity to work on real projects,” says Georgy Shchelkanov, Director of University Relations at VK. “For three years now, VK, together with the National Research University Higher School of Economics, has been implementing an advanced format of project laboratories: today, students of the IMS workshops are engaged not only in educational projects, but also in applied scientific research and development. This experience allows students to develop key skills and build a career in technology.”
Three workshops, six speakers and hundreds of listeners — the participants presented the final projects prepared during the training. For the first time, the demo was held in an open format; usually such presentations are held only among workshop participants.
“We are holding a demo of the HSE IMS and VK in an expanded format. Last year it took place in the chamber atmosphere of St. Petersburg, and now we have gathered in the atrium on Pokrovka,” explained Fyodor Ivanov, director Center for the organization of work on the project “Advanced Engineering and Mathematical School” HSE University. — I am glad that this event took place. For the workshop participants, studying at IMS is an opportunity to touch real projects, to try themselves in a place where the future of the IT industry is being created. In addition, we invited IMS graduates working at VK to the demo. They shared their experience of building a career track with the audience. As a result, it was a great event, in which there was a lot of communication and exchange of experience, professional and career.”
Among the presented student developments are MLSecOps tools for analyzing vulnerabilities of machine learning models, as well as a system for monitoring the security of ML models and datasets using deduplication.
In the field of speech synthesis, a model for assessing TTS metrics was presented, replacing human expertise with synthetic data, and a zero-shot TTS project with a Russian-language dataset. Attacks on multimodal vision-language models were also investigated, and Russian-language benchmarks were developed to assess their quality.
The main space of the atrium hosted the showroom of the project Technoshow, an annual exhibition of the best project developments by MIEM students. This year, Technoshow was held for the seventh time, but for the first time in the atrium of the main building of the HSE. A total of 60 products of project activity, implemented in close cooperation with MIEM partners, were presented.
Innovations, projects, developments
An important feature of MIEM projects is their practical orientation and the use of modern technological and innovative solutions.
“The IT industry is constantly being replenished with new technologies, this is a continuous process,” noted Ilya Semichasnov, head of Project Development Management Center MIEM. – Now, for example, no one is surprised by LLM programs that talk like a real person, but literally two years ago it was wow. Even if our students demonstrate something that already exists on the market in their developments, under the hood there will still be some innovation, a student invention.”
All student projects presented at the Technoshow were implemented within the framework of the unique project model operating at MIEM, focused on close interaction with the institute’s partners and the reproduction of working models and mechanics used in the work of project teams in leading IT companies. The exhibition featured partner projects with VK, the Bank of Russia, Element Group, InfoWatch Group, EkoNiva and other companies. In many ways, it is this advantage of the project environment at MIEM that allows large technology companies not only to apply their own educational practices when implementing joint projects with MIEM, but also to consider the institute as an experimental platform for testing new models of project-educational cooperation with universities.
“Our group of companies is currently a leader in the microelectronics industry, and we recognize our significant social responsibility, the need for the entire industry to develop methods for training personnel,” said Nail Vyalshin, head of education at Element Group. “In this sense, MIEM is of great importance to us: we plan to use it as a basis for building such an innovative mechanism for implementing our educational programs, including network programs, when the institute houses the head center of expertise and competencies. We plan to further broadcast this new model in the field of higher education in microelectronics when implementing educational programs at other universities.”
The key areas of project presentations were defined: a digital university with innovative educational solutions, games and interactive applications with a focus on game design, robots and gadgets with autonomous technologies, industrial technologies for production automation, business solutions and startups based on artificial intelligence, information security solutions (from antifraud to AI protection), medical technologies for improving diagnostics, space with satellite systems, video technologies using AI, as well as clusters of projects from the joint Engineering and Mathematics School of the Higher School of Economics and VK and the MIEM Student Design Bureau with applied hardware and software projects, Center for Software Development and Digital Services with IT and IB services. As a result, MIEM’s design developments filled the entire space of the largest HSE site.
“This is the first time that MIEM has presented itself so widely at Pokrovka,” said Veronika Prokhorova, Deputy Director of MIEM HSE. “It’s great that there are so many interested parties today. Students, teachers, and staff come up to us, ask questions, and are interested. For us, Technoshow and MIEM Tech Day are the tip of the iceberg. Today, we have gathered here the very best of what we do throughout the year. We are finally bringing it to the public and saying, ‘Guys, take a look and rejoice with us. We are great.’”
Most of the developments presented at Technoshow are of an applied nature. Evgeny Kruk, scientific director of MIEM, notes the importance of applied sciences for introducing students to scientific research activities: “Our projects have a lot of applied science, and this is the right track for students focused on research work. A project is an entry into applied science, and applied science is the entry into fundamental science. And there is a gigantic field for discoveries.”
The festival partners shared their impressions of the joint projects presented at Technoshow.
“Today, milk production and agriculture in general are no longer just a plough and shovels, they are artificial intelligence, they are cutting-edge technologies that need to be implemented. In this regard, cooperation with the Higher School of Economics is a priority for us,” shared Anastasia Ornova, manager for work with the personnel reserve of the EkoNiva agricultural holding. “We have several joint projects. For example, a project on soybean phenotyping, the purpose of which is to conduct research in the field. Another project is aimed at analyzing logistics in the supply of raw milk from the agro-complex to the plant. In the near future, we are planning to hold the first joint hackathon with the National Research University Higher School of Economics.”
“The event featured student projects, including those prepared by master’s students of the joint program with the Bank of Russia, “Information Security in the Credit and Financial Sphere,” says Elena Stavitskaya, consultant of the Department of Financial Cyber Literacy and Educational Initiatives of the Department of Methodology and Standardization of Information Security and Cyber Resilience of the Information Security Department of the Bank of Russia. “Some of the work is theoretical in nature, while others were presented in the form of implemented applied models. I would like to note the seriousness, depth, and, undoubtedly, practical nature of the projects, their focus on solving socially significant problems.”
Thus, a joint project with the Information Security Department of the Bank of Russia offered everyone who wanted to deceive (almost always unsuccessfully) the protected algorithm of biometric identification by photo created at MIEM. Another project with the Bank of Russia presented a method for comparing countries by the level of fraud pressure, allowing to evaluate the success of the work of the structures interested in this.
The festival also included an informal open day at MIEM HSE, as all of MIEM’s bachelor’s, specialist’s and master’s degree programs were presented in a separate area.
In addition, the festival guests were treated not only to a scientific and educational program, but also to a variety of entertainment activities for relaxation and communication, including bingo with the opportunity to win merch from MIEM and IMS, areas for bead weaving and playing chess, as well as an area with anti-stress coloring books.
The guests were also greatly interested in the stands and activities of partner companies and MIEM student communities – the MIEM Student Scientific and Technical Society and the MIEM Student Design Bureau.
“MIEM Tech Day is not only an exhibition of the best technological products, but also a platform for exchanging experience,” emphasized Karina Lebedeva, consultant of the financial market training department of the Department for the Development of New Technologies in Education of the Bank of Russia. “In addition to student projects, the event featured presentations of the best cases of MIEM HSE partners. The stands of partners deserve special attention, where a large number of necessary handouts were presented. Thank you for the high level of organization of the event and the opportunity to literally touch student developments.”
As a result, the day was filled with an atmosphere of friendly professional communication among all participants of the event – students, professionals, and those simply interested in the development of modern technologies and IT engineering.
“What is MIEM Tech Day for me? First of all, it is people, student communities, teams, those who create the atmosphere of the event. Secondly, it is innovation, and thirdly, it is fun, because it is really fun here, it is fun to look at it, it is fun to touch it all. This is a very cool event! Finally, it is the team that organized this wonderful holiday,” concluded Ilya Semichasnov.
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.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Paul Brindley, Senior Lecturer, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Sheffield
Daxiao Productions / shutterstock
Outside of the home, public playgrounds are the most common places for children to play and the fundamental right of every child to play is even recognised in a UN convention. Despite this, there has been very limited research exploring inequality in the provision of playgrounds.
To help address this, we have analysed data from almost 34,000 playgrounds in England – the largest national dataset on playgrounds yet. In particular, we looked at England’s largest 534 settlements with populations over 15,000 and mapped patterns from the 18,077 children’s playgrounds within them.
We found substantial inequalities. For example, with two places broadly comparable in population size, one might have five times the number of children per playground.
Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox.Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.
With the exception of London, deprived settlements in England tend to have fewer, smaller and further-away playgrounds – a serious social justice issue. In London however, relationships were found to be the opposite, with deprived areas tending to have more playgrounds in close proximity.
There are many different ways to measure the provision of playgrounds, but we used 21 indicators across three domains: the number of playgrounds per child, the size of playgrounds, and their closeness to where children live.
This ensured our results were not heavily influenced by a single variable, since some settlements excelled in one domain but were lacking in others.
Winners and losers
The graph below shows children’s playground provision for major settlements in England:
More deprived settlements tend to have fewer, smaller playgrounds. Brindley & Martin (2025)
Places on the left of the graph have smaller playgrounds, while in places towards the bottom of the graph kids have to travel further to a playground. Circle size indicates how many playgrounds there are per child.
Here’s the same graph for boroughs of London, where the relationship is reversed:
In London, kids in more deprived inner city boroughs have better access to playgrounds. Brindley & Martin (2025)
Comparing major settlements, Liverpool has nearly five times more children under 16 per playground than Norwich (1,104 compared to 236). In London, the difference is even greater: the borough of Redbridge has nearly eight times more children per playground than Islington (1,567 v 204).
In terms of playground size, Leicester dedicates four times more of its urban area to playgrounds than Leeds (0.30% v 0.07%), while Norwich offers seven times more playground space per child than Birmingham (4.2 metres to 0.7 metres). In London, Islington has five times the playground area of Barnet (0.64% of total urban area v 0.13%), and three times more space per child than Redbridge (2.8 metres v 0.9 metres).
Liverpool has the lowest percentage of children within 100, 300 and 500 metres of playgrounds, with Coventry having the lowest percentage at 800 metres. In contrast, Southampton, Plymouth and Reading have the highest percentages of children living close to playgrounds.
In London, Redbridge and Kingston upon Thames had the lowest percentages of children living close to playground, while Islington, Tower Hamlets and Hackney had the highest levels of provision. These distance measures will be heavily influenced by population density, especially in London (Redbridge is suburban; Islington is inner city). However, patterns outside of London appear more complex.
Different solutions for different places
Places like Norwich, Islington and Milton Keynes fared well across all three domains, while places like Liverpool, Leeds or Stockton-on-Tees did comparably poorly in all three. But most areas fell somewhere in between.
For example, places such as Portsmouth or Nottingham have good scores for distance but have poor provision in terms of size. They would, therefore, benefit most from expanding existing playgrounds.
In contrast, playgrounds in Brighton and Lincoln are bigger but tend to be further away. Places like these would benefit from a few new strategically positioned playgrounds to fill in the gaps.
As with any dataset, there are constraints. In future, we want to incorporate additional data on accessibility for disabled children, and we recognise that playgrounds are just one element across the wider spectrum of places where children play. For instance, children in outer London boroughs with few playgrounds might live nearer to woods or sports fields.
We also acknowledge that we have no data to monitor the quality of playgrounds. Is a 100 square metre playground filled with interesting and safe features? Or a single worn out slide surrounded by fencing? Ultimately, playground use rather than provision is the most important measure. After all, a bad playground will not make children more active.
Our hope is that, as people become more aware of the problem, we’ll see new policies and better placemaking for children. Already we are working with Play England (England’s national charity for play) on a “digital dashboard” capable of supporting councils to plan more strategically for play in their local areas.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Ozempic and Wegovy have been hailed as wonder drugs when it comes to weight loss. But as the drug has become more widely used, a number of unintended side-effects have become apparent – with the weight loss drug affecting the appearance of everything from your butt to your feet.
“Ozempic face” is another commonly reported consequences of using these popular weight loss drugs. This is a sunken or hollowed out appearance the face can take on in people taking weight loss drugs. It can also increase signs of ageing – including lines, wrinkles and sagging skin.
This happens because the action of semaglutide (the active ingredient in both Ozempic and Wegovy) isn’t localised to act just on the fat in places we don’t want it. Instead, it acts on fat across the whole body – including in the face.
But it isn’t just the appearance of your face that semaglutide affects. These drugs may also affect the mouth and teeth, too. And these side-effects could potentially lead to lasting damage.
Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox.Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.
Dry mouth
Semaglutide effects the salivary glands in the mouth. It does this by reducing saliva production (hyposalivation), which can in turn lead to dry mouth (xerostomia). This means there isn’t enough saliva to keep the mouth wet.
It isn’t exactly clear why semaglutide has this effect on the salivary glands. But in animal studies of the drug, it appears the drug makes saliva stickier. This means there’s less fluid to moisten the mouth, causing it to dry out.
Another species that has been shown to thrive in conditions where saliva is reduced is Porphyromonas gingivalis. This bacteria is a significant contributor to the production of volatile sulphur compounds, which cause the foul odours characteristic of halitosis.
Another factor that might explain why semaglutide causes bad breath is because less saliva being produced means the tongue isn’t cleaned. This is the same reason why your “morning breath” is so bad, because we naturally produce less saliva at night. This allows bacteria to grow and produce odours. Case report images show some people taking semaglutide have a “furry”-like or coated appearance to their tongue. This indicates a build up of bacteria that contribute to bad breath.
Some people taking the weight loss drug experience a bacterial buidl-up on their tongue. sruilk/ Shutterstock
Tooth damage
One of the major side-effects of Ozempic is vomiting. Semaglutide slows how quickly the stomach empties, delaying digestion which can lead to bloating, nausea and vomiting.
Repeated vomiting can damage the teeth. This is because stomach acid, composed primarily of hydrochloric acid, erodes the enamel of the teeth. Where vomiting occurs over a prolonged period of months and years the more damage will occur. The back surface of the teeth (palatal surface) closest to the tongue are more likely to see damage – and this damage may not be obvious to the sufferer.
Vomiting also reduces the amount of fluid in the body. When combined with reduced saliva production, this puts the teeth at even greater risk of damage. This is because saliva helps neutralise the acid that causes dental damage.
Saliva also contributes to the dental pellicle – a thin, protective layer that the saliva forms on the surface of the teeth. It’s thickest on the tongue-facing surface of the bottom row of teeth. In people who produce less saliva, the dental pellicle contains fewer mucins – a type of mucus which helps saliva stick to the teeth.
Reducing the risk of damage
If you’re taking semaglutide, there are many things you can do to keep your mouth healthy.
Drinking water regularly during the day can help to keep the oral surfaces from drying out. This helps maintain your natural oral microbiome, which can reduce the risk of an overgrowth of the bacteria that cause bad breath and tooth damage.
Drinking plenty of water also enables the body to produce the saliva needed to prevent dry mouth, ideally the recommended daily amount of six to eight glasses. Chewing sugar-free gum is also a sensible option as it helps to encourage saliva production. Swallowing this saliva keeps the valuable fluid within the body. Gums containing eucalyptus may help to prevent halitosis, too.
There’s some evidence that probiotics may help to alleviate bad breath, at least in the short term. Using a probiotic supplements or consuming probiotic-rich foods (such as yoghurt or kefir) may be a good idea.
Women are twice as likely to have side-effects when taking GLP-1 receptor agonists – including gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting. This may be due to the sex hormones oestrogen and progesterone, which can alter the gut’s sensitivity. To avoid vomiting, try eating smaller meals since the stomach stays fuller for longer while taking semaglutide.
If you are sick, don’t immediately brush your teeth as this will spread the stomach’s acid over the surface of the teeth and increase the risk of damage. Instead, rinse your mouth out with water or mouthwash to reduce the strength of the acid and wait at least 30 minutes before brushing.
It isn’t clear how long these side effects last, they’ll likely disappear when the medication is stopped, but any damage to the teeth is permanent. Gastrointestinal side-effects can last a few weeks but usually resolve on their own unless a higher dose is taken.
Adam Taylor 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.
Damien Hirst is never far from scandal. Perhaps best known for immersing animal corpses into formaldehyde and selling them as art, the “enfant terrible” of the 1990s Young British Artists (YBA) movement seems to court controversy for a living – and has made an extraordinary amount of money in the process. Reputedly worth around £700 million, this working-class lad “easily” topped a recent list of the world’s richest artists.
Money is at the root of a lot of the questions that hover around Hirst’s legacy to the art world as he reaches his 60th birthday. Few artists have stress-tested the question of artistic value (and price) more than him – not least in his 2007 work For The Love of God: a platinum cast of a human skull encrusted with thousands of flawless diamonds.
Last year, Hirst’s money-related motives were called into question again in an investigation by the Guardian which revealed he had backdated three formaldehyde sculptures to the 1990s when they were, in fact, made in 2017. The report also found he had backdated some of the 10,000 original spot paintings from his NFT project The Currency to 2016, despite them being made between 2018 and 2019.
Hirst’s company, Science Ltd, defended the artist by reminding critics that his art is conceptual – and that he has always been clear that what matters is “not the physical making of the object or the renewal of its parts, but rather the intention and the idea behind the artwork”. His lawyers pointed out:
The dating of artworks, and particularly conceptual artworks, is not controlled by any industry standard. Artists are perfectly entitled to be (and often are) inconsistent in their dating of works.
But some of the art world did not respond kindly to this approach. Writing about Hirst’s “backdating scandal”, New York’s Rehs Galleries asked not only if Hirst could be sued by buyers and investors, but whether he was in creative decline. And Jones accused Hirst of being stuck in the past, calling the Guardian’s findings a “betrayal” for the artist’s admirers which could “threaten to poison Hirst’s whole artistic biography”.
The Insights section is committed to high-quality longform journalism. Our editors work with academics from many different backgrounds who are tackling a wide range of societal and scientific challenges.
Ever since Hirst burst on the art scene in the 1990s with his macabre readymades (or “objets trouvé”) of dead animals in vitrines, he has divided art critics and the public alike. He has faced – and denied – multiple allegations of plagiarism and been censored by animal rights activists, while also being acclaimed as a “genius” and one of the leading global artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Amid all the eye-watering auction sales, he has donatedartworks to numerous charities throughout his career.
So, was the backdating incident another instance of Hirst mastering the art of the concept – and even offering a sly critique of consumerism and the art world machine, of which he is such a large cog? Or was it really just a big lie by a multi-millionaire artist seeking even more financial gain?
As philosophers of art, we think our discipline can shed light on these complex questions by exploring the nature of conceptual art, aesthetic deception and the ethics of the art market. As we contemplate the legacy of Hirst at 60, we ask: must artists always be truthful?
What only the best art can attain
Hirst had a humble upbringing. Born in the English port city of Bristol in 1959, he was raised in Leeds by his Irish mother, who encouraged him to draw. He never met his father and got in trouble with the police on a few occasions in his youth. His early artistic education was rocky too: he got a grade E in art A-Level and was rejected a handful of times by art schools.
But as a teenager, he had fallen in love with Francis Bacon’s paintings, later explaining that he admired their visceral expressions of the horror of the fragile body, and that he “went into sculpture directly in reaction … to Bacon’s work”. Hirst would also use his work experience in a morgue to hone his anatomical drawing skills.
His love of conceptual art blossomed when he began studying fine art at London’s Goldsmiths University in 1986 – taught by art world legends such as Michael Craig-Martin and catching the attention of collector and businessman Charles Saatchi. Craig-Martin had risen to fame for his conceptual artwork An Oak tree (1973), consisting of a glass of water on a pristine shelf with a text asserting that the glass was, in fact, an oak tree. Hirst has described this artwork as “the greatest piece of conceptual sculpture – I still can’t get it out of my head”.
Hirst’s fascination with death culminated in his most notorious work of art, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991) – a dead tiger shark, caught off the coast of Queensland in Australia, preserved in formaldehyde in a glass vitrine.
We encountered the work, separately and ten years apart, in London and New York. We both felt inclined to dislike and dismiss it. Instead, we were simply overwhelmed. By forcing us to stare death in the face, literally, the work put everything on its edge – awe-inspiring and horrifying, life-affirming and fatal, in your face yet somehow apart and absent.
Like it or not, Hirst’s shark achieved what only the best art can: jolting us out of our everyday registers – making us confront mortality, the value of life, and the human condition.
Video: Khan Academy.
Not everyone agreed, of course. After it was exhibited in the first YBA show at the Saatchi Gallery in 1992, there was a swarm of hate. According to the Stuckist Art Group (an anti-conceptual art movement), a dead shark isn’t art. Of Hirst’s entire oeuvre, the group’s co-founders have said: “They’re bright and they’re zany – but there’s fuck all there at the end of the day.”
After Hirst won the Turner Prize in 1995 for Mother and Child, Divided (a bisected cow and calf in glass tanks) Conservative politician Norman Tebbit asked whether the art world had “gone stark raving mad”. Art critic Brian Sewell exclaimed that Hirst’s work is “no more interesting than a stuffed pike over a pub door”.
But Hirst never seemed to care about such criticism as he tackled controversial themes ranging from death, science and religion to the unrelenting power of capitalism. Along the way, he has used his power to criticise the very art world of which he forms such an important part, and from which he has gained such enormous riches.
You might say his art reached a logical endpoint with The Currency in 2021 – a conceptual experiment in which 10,000 unique, hand-painted spot paintings were reduced to money itself, as they corresponded to 10,000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Buyers were given the choice of keeping either the physical or the digital version, while the other would be destroyed. Speaking to the actor and art enthusiast Stephen Fry, Hirst said of these paintings:
What if I made these and treated them like money? … I’ve never really understood money. All these things – art, money, commerce – they’re all ethereal. It relies not on notebooks or pieces of paper but belief, trust.
How Hirst makes his art
It’s not just what Hirst’s art supposedly means that sometimes rocks the boat, but how he makes it.
While he began his career by personally making and manipulating his chosen artistic materials – from paint and canvas to flies and maggots – he now unapologetically relies on a studio populated by numerous assistants to produce the works that bear his name. It is largely these studio workers who pour the paint on spinning canvases, handle the formaldehyde, construct the glass boxes, and source the dead animals.
Hirst has fully endorsed the conceptual artist’s mantra of “the art is the idea”. If the artwork is the idea rather than the material object, then it should suffice merely for the artist to think or conceptualise the objects for them to count as his works of art. According to this perspective, exactly who makes the objects which are exhibited, sold and debated in the media is entirely unimportant.
But to some, this adds to the ways in which they feel deceived or “had” by Hirst. After all, at least in the western artistic tradition, the connection between artist and artwork has for hundreds of years been considered unique, sacred even. If an artist doesn’t actually make the art any more, to what extent can they really be said to be an artist at all?
Except that, in this respect, Hirst is not particularly unusual. Outsourcing the physical act of making an artwork is almost standard among contemporary artists such as Anish Kapoor, Rachel Whiteread and Jeff Koons – all of whom have long relied on trainee artists, engineers, architects, constructors and more to build their large structural works.
And while Andy Warhol was the trendsetter in this regard from the early 1960s – calling his studio The Factory for its assembly line-style of production – the practice predates even him by hundreds of years. The great masters of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, having acquired sufficient fame and fortune, were rarely the sole creators of their masterpieces.
The 17th-century Flemish artist Rubens, for example, would often leave the painting of less central or prominent features in his works to his studio assistants – many of whom, including Anthony van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens, went on to highly successful artistic careers of their own. Even 14-year-old Leonardo da Vinci started out as a studio apprentice in the workshop of the Italian sculptor and painter Andrea del Verrocchio.
Unlike Rubens, however, Hirst now only rarely makes any kind of material contribution to his works, beyond adding his signature. The Currency series involved Hirst merely adding a watermark and signature to the thousands of handmade spot paintings.
Video: HENI.
Also, Hirst’s works make no formal recognition of this studio input, whereas for Rubens, the arrangement was fairly transparent. Indeed, the division of labour was sometimes even negotiated with the painting’s buyer – the more a buyer was willing to pay, the more Rubens would paint himself.
But Hirst makes no secret of his lack of physical involvement in the material process, explaining:
You have to look at it as if the artist is an architect – we don’t have a problem that great architects don’t actually build the houses … Every single spot painting contains my eye, my hand and my heart.
Hirst’s social media pages often show the artist arriving at his studio while his team are busy at work. And clearly, not all potential buyers care about his “hands-off approach” – a large part of what they value is, precisely, the signature. In 2020, Hirst told The Idler magazine’s editor Tom Hodgkinson:
If I couldn’t delegate, I wouldn’t make any work … If I want to paint a spot painting but don’t know how I want it to look, I can go to an assistant … When they ask how you want it to look, you can say: ‘I don’t know, just do it.’ It gives you something to kick against or work against.
In the past decade, though, Hirst says he has scaled back his studio, admitting his art life felt like it was out of control:
You start by thinking you’ll get one assistant and before you know it, you’ve got biographers, fire eaters, jugglers, fucking minstrels and lyre players all wandering around.
The product of a specific place and time
Hirst disrupts our beliefs about art to an extent matched by few of his contemporaries. Always in the business of fragmenting the already vague expectations of the art market – and wider general public – he continues the trajectory outlined by fellow experimental conceptual artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Beuys, Adrian Piper, Sol LeWitt, Joseph Kosuth and Yoko Ono – now well over 50 years ago.
When the making of art moves into this level of abstraction, a historical fact like the precise inception date seems harder to pin down – and it becomes much less clear which aspects of the creative process should determine when the work was “made”.
Of course, the same question arises outside the confines of this artistic genre. How should we deal with performative arts such as theatre, jazz or opera? Is it all that important to date John Coltrane’s Blue Train to its first recording in 1957, rather than any of the other dates on which the American jazz legend performed it? Surely some aesthetic and artistic qualities are added on each occasion?
However, art in general, be it Blue Train or one of Hirst’s spot paintings, is always the product of a specific place and time. It is undoubtedly a significant fact about Hirst’s Cain and Abel (1994) – one of the artworks highlighted by the Guardian misdating investigation – that it was “made” in the YBA boom of the 1990s.
Can we engage with these pieces without bringing knowledge of this fact into our experience of them? Yes. Can we grasp at least some of their wider meaning? Almost certainly. But can we fully appreciate them as cultural objects – defining a precise moment in the evolution of art and society at large, perhaps foreseeing a certain shift in our larger value systems including what art means to us? Maybe not.
But there is another possibility we need to consider – one that touches on the worries of some of Hirst’s critics. What if Hirst intentionally misled the public for financial and commercial gain, and that the dating debacle has nothing to do with his cunning conceptual practice?
Jon Sharples, senior associate at London-based law firm Howard Kennedy – one of the first UK practices to advise on art and cultural property law – observed a few reasons why an artist might deliberately fudge or mislead on the origin of their art:
The potential for commercial pressure to do so is obvious. If works from a certain period achieve higher market prices than works from other periods, there is a clear incentive to increase the supply of such works to meet the demand for them.
Another reason Sharples offered is an art-historical one – to make the artist appear more radical: “In the linear, western conception of art history – in which ‘originality’ is often elevated above all other artistic virtues, and great store is placed in being the ‘first’ artist to arrive at a particular development – artists have sometimes been given to tampering with the historical record.”
Here, Sharples referenced the famous example of “the father of abstraction”, Russian artist Kazimir Malevich, backdating the first version of his Black Square by two years.
So, has Hirst just told a big fib about the origins of some of his art?
Philosophers largely agree that lying involves asserting something you believe to be untrue; speaking seriously but not telling the truth. And most of the time, we all assume that people around us abide by the norm that everyone ought to speak truthfully to each other. If we didn’t believe this, we would barely be able to communicate with one another. Lying involves violating this “truth norm”.
Yet, the case of art seems to stand in stark contrast to this. When we ask whether an artist has lied as part of their artistic practice, it is often not clear that there is a straightforward truth norm in the art world to be violated: it’s not clear that the artist is speaking ‘seriously’ in the first place.
I (Daisy) have researched in depth the reasons why lying in the art world is such a tricky business. In many exhibitions, it is the aesthetic experience that is of primary value. If what matters is creating beauty, then straightforward truth is not the point.
Moreover, even in cases where the art is designed to convey a specific message, it’s tricky to say in what sense they ought to tell “the truth”. Many artworks represent fictional scenarios which needn’t be fully accurate.
For instance, it was quite acceptable in the 16th century for painters of religious paintings to give central biblical figures inaccurate clothing – and for portrait artists not to paint their sitter’s flaws and blemishes. And in the perplexing art world of the 21st century, many post-1960 artforms are designed to challenge and critique the very nature of truth itself.
All of which means straightforward “truth games” do not operate as smoothly in the art world as they do in the ordinary world. With its self-reflective and self-critical structure, the art world of today offers a space to think open-endedly and creatively. Do you expect everything you see in an art gallery, or even speeches by conceptual artists, to be straightforwardly “true”? We don’t think so.
The art world is hardly renowned for its straightforwardly communicated messages. To accuse Hirst of lying assumes he is playing the truth game that the rest of us are signed up to in the first place. And it’s not clear he is.
Hirst might be closer to a novelist or actor who plays with and explores the very nature of truth and falsehood. In this way, he’s maybe at most a “bullshitter” who doesn’t play – or care for – the truth game at all.
The real problem?
But this fascination with Hirst’s dating practices may overlook the more important – if equally complex – problem of how his art works were made, rather than when. Are the ethical concerns about the production of Hirst’s enormous oeuvre the real issue in assessing his legacy as an artist?
For instance, Hirst has been criticised for treating his staff as “disposable”. During the peak of the COVID pandemic, he laid off 63 of his studio assistants even though his company had reportedly received £15 million of emergency loans from the UK government.
And while Hirst’s lawyers insist his studios always adhere to health-and-safety regulations, some of the “factory line” workers producing artworks for The Currency were allegedly left with repetitive strain injuries. One artist described their year-long toil as “very, very tedious”. Another commented on the work tables being at a low level, forcing them to constantly bend down.
Hirst has publicly praised assistants such as the artist Rachel Howard, who he described as “the best person who ever painted spots for me”. Likewise, Howard described working with Hirst as “a very good symbiotic” relationship.
Hirst is famous for exhibiting slain animals … and for the use of thousands of butterflies whose wings are torn and glued on various objects. Death and the taste of the macabre serve to attract attention. Then wealthy collectors such as Saatchi and even the prestigious Sotheby’s artificially inflate the prices of Hirst’s junk. It’s a squalid commercial operation based on death and contempt for living and sentient beings.
Video: Channel 4 News.
Indeed, some of Hirst’s macabre formaldehyde pieces are known for rotting a little too much. The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living originally deteriorated due to an improper preservation technique, and had to be replaced by another shark caught off the same Australian coast. It’s not clear how many sharks have now been killed – or will need to be killed in the future – to preserve this masterpiece.
Further concerns have been raised about the environmental ethics of Hirst’s art, including that The Currency project incurred a hefty carbon footprint because of its reliance on blockchain technology. While Hirst used a more environmentally-friendly sidechain to release his NFTs, he still received payment via bitcoin, which has a far higher energy consumption.
Traditionally, art historians, critics and investors have championed an artwork’s meaning over any of its moral flaws in its production. But the ethics of artmaking are now being questioned by philosophers such as ourselves, as well as by many influential figures in the art world. Artworks that incur large carbon footprints, cause damage to ecosystems, or use and kill animals, are now considered morally flawed in these ways.
Philosophers such as Ted Nannicelli argue that these ethical defects can actually diminish the artistic value of the work of art. Meanwhile, artists such as Angela Singer and Ben Rubin and Jen Thorp use their art for animal and eco-activism, while doing no harm to creatures or the ecosystem in the process.
As we both acknowledge, Hirst’s shark expressed a laudable meaning in an arresting way. But is this enough to excuse the (repeated) killing of this awesome animal? Do we become complicit in its death by praising it as art? It is a question anybody who was impressed by its sheer aesthetic presence all those years ago should ask themselves.
In this and many other ways, Hirst’s work continues to raise fundamental questions about art – long after it was created, or dated. If nothing else, surely this confirms his enduring position in the British art establishment.
Damien Hirst’s representatives were contacted about the criticisms of Hirst that are highlighted in this article, but they did not respond by the time of publication.
To hear about new Insights articles, join the hundreds of thousands of people who value The Conversation’s evidence-based news. Subscribe to our newsletter.
Elisabeth Schellekens has received funding from Vetenskapsrådet (Swedish Funding Council) as Principal Investigator for research into Aesthetic Perception and Aesthetic Cognition (2019-22), and an AHRC Innovation Award on Perception and Conceptual Art with Peter Goldie (2003).
Daisy Dixon 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.
Source: Africa Press Organisation – English (2) – Report:
ACCRA, Ghana, June 4, 2025/APO Group/ —
Industry leaders at the Mining in Motion 2025 summit spotlighted Ghana’s ongoing efforts to formalize its artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sector.
Participants on an India Gold Metaverse-sponsored session – titled Case Studies in ASGM Formalization: Learning from Successes and Addressing Challenges – emphasized that formalization has the potential to catalyze sustainability, build stronger communities and drive long-term economic growth.
“We need regulatory and legislative changes that support small-scale miners and ensure that revenue from their contributions translates into real economic, social and communal growth,” stated Martin Ayisi, CEO of the Minerals Commission of Ghana.
Ayisi called for bold regulatory and financial interventions in the sector, stressing the urgent need for investment in geological investigations and sustainable technologies to prevent encroachment on protected areas and improve sector-wide outcomes.
From an regional perspective, Cisse Vakaba, Advisor to the President on Mining, Ivory Coast, emphasized the foundational role of geology in building a viable ASGM sector. He stressed that state support must go beyond issuing permits to include geological surveys, professional training, community engagement and digital tools for traceability.
“I really think that the basis for small mines is the geological aspect. This is the aspect where we have to work, to see the areas where they can exploit,” Vakaba stated, adding, “The State must provide support. It’s not enough to issue a title, a permit. We need to support prospecting and geological research.”
Meanwhile, Melissa Correa Vélez, Program Manager, Swiss Better Gold, highlighted the human-centered approach necessary to make formalization efforts successful. Velez – through Swiss Better Gold’s Boots on the Ground initiative – advocates for programs, including technical support and community-oriented training, that extend beyond legal structures to genuinely improve livelihoods and environmental stewardship.
“If you want to work with artisanal miners, work with them. Keep the miners interested in being responsible. If the miners lose interest because of the challenges, they will become illegal,” Velez stated.
For his part, Kwaku Afrifa Nsiah-Asare, Lawyer and Entrepreneur, Typhoon Greenfield Development, emphasized that government support will be a requisite for ASGM formalization in Ghana, speaking candidly on social and financial challenges in the sector.
“By doing everything properly, the Minerals Commission of Ghana has been extremely supportive and made it worthwhile for us to do business. It’s about partnerships and leadership in government,” Nsiah-Asare stated.
Bringing a tech-forward perspective, Lamon Rutten, Managing Director and CEO of India Gold Metaverse, spoke to the transformative potential of digital innovation in the ASGM value chain.
“Blockchain technologies and AI can help improve artisanal and small-scale mining operations. Tools like geo-tracking, radio-frequency identification-equipped machinery and internet-of-things devices allow us to trace ore sources. If you really want to develop small-scale mining, work with local banks. Let them understand the sector and they will help drive sustainable growth,” Rutten said.
During the presentation, the panelists agreed that projects including the Ghana Land Restoration and Small-Scale Mining Project – a joint initiative with the World Bank – are setting a precedent. By offering financial and technical support, simplifying license through District Mining Committees, and organizing miners into Community Mining Schemes, Ghana is building an ASGM sector that is increasingly legal, sustainable and community driven.
Organized by the Ashanti Green Initiative – led by Oheneba Kwaku Duah, Prince of Ghana’s Ashanti Kingdom – in collaboration with Ghana’s Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, World Bank, and the World Gold Council, with the support of Ghana’s Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the summit offers unparalleled opportunities to connect with industry leaders.
nited Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Major General Diodato Abagnara of Italy as Head of Mission and Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
Major General Abagnara succeeds Lieutenant General Aroldo Lázaro Sáenz of Spain. The Secretary-General extends his sincere gratitude to Lieutenant General Aroldo Lázaro Sáenz for his dedication and leadership of UNIFIL during one of the mission’s most challenging periods.
Major General Abagnara brings to the position over 36 years of military service, including extensive leadership roles within the Italian Armed Forces. Most recently, he served as Commander and Chair of the Military Technical Committee for Lebanon (MTC4L), where he oversaw multinational coordination efforts in support of the Lebanese Armed Forces. Prior to that, he held several key appointments, including Personnel Division Chief and Adviser to the Chief of Defence Staff in the Defence General Staff, Commander of an infantry brigade, and Chief of the Officers’ Employment Office. From 2018 to 2019, he was also UNIFIL Sector West Commander. In addition, he chaired the Joint Gender Perspective Council within the Defence General Staff, underscoring his commitment to inclusive leadership and institutional reform.
Major General Abagnara holds four Bachelor’s degrees: in Political Science from the University of Turin; in International and Diplomatic Sciences from the University of Trieste; in Business Management and Communication from the University of Teramo; and in Strategic Sciences from the University of Turin, all in Italy. He also holds six Master’s degrees: in Law from the University of Rome; in Strategic Sciences from the University of Turin; in International Strategic-Military Studies, Advanced Studies in Intelligence and Security, and Cybersecurity and Information Security from the University of Rome; and in Strategic Leadership and Digital Transformation from the Luiss Business School, Rome, all in Italy. He is fluent in English and Italian, and speaks French and Spanish.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) boasts one of the most secure and stable electricity supply systems in the region. Leveraging its substantial natural gas and oil reserves, among the largest globally, the UAE generates sufficient electricity to satisfy domestic consumption. The nation primarily utilizes its gas for power generation and for re-injection into oil fields to enhance production, while designating a significant portion of its oil for export. Backed by an increase in electricity demand, power capacity in the country is expected to reach 79.1GW in 2035, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.4% during 2024-35, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
Attaurrahman Ojindaram Saibasan, Power Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The power sector in the UAE offers abundant opportunities for investors, with the government poised to make significant investments in the expansion and modernization of its generation and supply infrastructure. The anticipated increase in capacity is projected to occur predominantly in gas-based thermal power, as opposed to oil, where capacity is expected to remain stable. Manufacturers of gas turbines stand to benefit from this surge in gas-fired power capacity.”
The UAE’s conditions are exceptionally conducive to solar power generation, prompting the government to allocate extensive tracts of undeveloped land for solar parks, including both photovoltaic (PV) and Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) installations. These developments will not only meet local demand but also cater to export needs.
Saibasan adds: “Over the past decade, the UAE has experienced a marked increase in electricity demand, necessitating the importation of natural gas from Qatar. In response to this growing demand and to diversify its energy portfolio, the UAE has strategically shifted away from exclusive dependence on natural gas, expanding into renewable and nuclear energy sectors.”
The UAE is experiencing a notable surge in electricity demand, driven by its expanding population and urban development. As of 2024, the current population stands at approximately 11 million and is projected to rise to 11.9 million by the year 2030. A significant factor in this increased energy consumption is the high expatriate population, which constitutes around 88% of the total and contributes to the growth in residential and commercial energy needs.
Saibasan concludes: “Additionally, the development of mega urban projects, such as Masdar City and Expo City Dubai, underscores the necessity for sustainable energy solutions. These smart cities are at the forefront of innovation, yet they also contribute to higher electricity consumption. Consequently, this trend necessitates the expansion of the electrical grid and investment in smart infrastructure to meet the evolving demands.”
The diagnosed prevalent cases of endometriosis among women ages 12–54 years in the seven major markets (7MM*) are set to register an annual growth rate (AGR) of 0.09% from 2.77 million in 2024 to 2.8 million in 2034, forecasts GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
GlobalData’s latest report, “Endometriosis – Epidemiology Forecast to 2034,” reveals that the US will have the highest number of diagnosed prevalent cases of endometriosis among the 7MM at 1.51 million cases, whereas Japan will have the lowest number at 0.09 million cases in 2034.
Antara Bhattacharya, Associate Project Manager, Epidemiology team at GlobalData, comments: “In 2024, women in ages 30–54 years accounted for almost 92% of the diagnosed prevalent cases of endometriosis in the 7MM, while younger women in ages 12–29 years accounted for approximately 8% of the cases.”
GlobalData estimates that in 2024, approximately 64% of diagnosed prevalent cases of endometriosis in the 7MM were laparoscopy confirmed, whereas 36% of diagnosed prevalent cases of endometriosis suspected cases. In 2024, approximately 28% of diagnosed prevalent cases of endometriosis were in stage IV, whereas 22% of diagnosed prevalent cases of endometriosis were in stage I.
In the 7MM, approximately 44% of diagnosed prevalent cases of endometriosis were superficial peritoneal endometriosis, whereas 19% of diagnosed prevalent cases were deep infiltrating endometriosis in 2024. Approximately 44% of diagnosed prevalent cases of endometriosis were with dysmenorrhea.
Bhattacharya concludes: “Endometriosis significantly impacts quality of life among women of reproductive age due to pain, fatigue, and other symptoms that can affect daily activities, work productivity, and relationships. This may further lead to psychological consequences. Diagnostic delay, limited capacity of health systems, and sub-optimal access to specialized surgery such as laparoscopy further exacerbate the condition, since prompt access to available treatment methods, including non-steroidal analgesics, progestin-based contraceptives, is often not achieved.
“Addressing endometriosis through various treatments and supportive care can help improve the quality of life for those affected. Additionally, capacity development of primary healthcare providers is essential to initiate treatment for patients who could benefit from medical symptomatic management.”
*7MM: The US, 5EU (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK), and Japan.
