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Category: China

  • MIL-OSI USA: 25 Canadian nationals connected to nationwide multi-million dollar “grandparent scam” charged in Vermont

    Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement

    Burlington, Vt. – Canadian law enforcement provisionally arrested 23 Canadian nationals March 4 after they were indicted by federal grand jury in Vermont for participation in a “grandparent scam” uncovered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The scam allegedly defrauded elderly individuals in more than 40 states of over $21 million.

    According to the indictment returned by the grand jury Feb. 20 and unsealed on March 4, between the summer of 2021 and June 4, 2024, the defendants engaged in a “grandparent scam” involving phone calls made from call centers in and around Montreal, Québec. During these phone calls, defendants falsely claimed to be an elderly victim’s relative, typically a grandchild, who had been arrested following a car crash and needed money for “bail.” Other defendants posed as an “attorney” representing the elderly victim’s relative. Elderly victims were often told that there was a “gag order” in place to prevent the elderly victim from telling anyone about their family member’s supposed arrest. Elderly victims were convinced to provide bail money to an individual falsely posing as a bail bondsman, who would come to the elderly victim’s home to collect the money. This money was later transmitted to Canada following cash deliveries and financial transactions, sometimes involving cryptocurrency, which, the indictment alleges, obscured the source of the money and the identities of defendants.

    When Canadian law enforcement executed search warrants on June 4, 2024, at several call centers, many of the defendants were found in the act of placing phone calls to elderly victims in Virginia. The Indictment alleges the call centers were managed by Gareth West, Usman Khalid, Andrew Tatto, Stephan Moskwyn, and Ricky Ylimaki, and also charges these five defendants with conspiring to commit money laundering. The conspiracy defrauded elderly Americans out of more than $21 million.

    “These individuals are accused of an elaborate scheme using fear to extort millions of dollars from victims who believed they were helping loved ones in trouble. Today’s arrests are the result of domestic collaboration as well as our critical international partnerships with our colleagues in Canada, Sûreté du Québec and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Tackling transnational crime is one of our greatest priorities and we’re working hand-in-hand with our neighbors to dismantle organized criminal groups that threaten our safety and security,” said ICE Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge New England Michael J. Krol.

    “Today’s operation is an excellent example of ICE Canada’s partnership with the Sûreté du Québec and resulted in the disruption of a significant transnational criminal organization. We will continue to partner with the SQ, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other law enforcement agencies to identify and dismantle criminal organizations operating throughout North America and abroad that exploit our shared border and vulnerable population for illicit gain,” said ICE HSI Attache for Ottawa Magdalena Sigur.

    “The transnational criminal conspiracy described in the Indictment preyed on vulnerable Americans throughout the United States,” observed Acting United States Attorney Michael P. Drescher. “These charges reflect the painstaking investigatory work of the Vermont-based agents from Homeland Security Investigations and the Internal Review Service-Criminal Investigations. In addition, we recognize the extensive investigative assistance provided by Sûreté du Québec and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.”

    “Today’s arrest of Gareth West and his co-conspirators demonstrates IRS-CI’s commitment to protecting the American people from bad actors, no matter where they are hiding.” said Thomas Demeo, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Boston Field Office. “West and his associates lead a transnational criminal enterprise with the sole intent of defrauding hundreds of retirees of their life savings by preying on their emotions and deceiving them into thinking that their loved ones were in peril. IRS-CI is committed to continued collaboration with our law enforcement partners, both at home and abroad, to stop and deter anyone who seeks to profit off the hard work of U.S. citizens.”

    “For the Quebec Provincial Police and Homeland Security Investigations, transnational criminal organizations are a significant concern that requires close collaboration. Criminal networks operate beyond borders; thus, it is crucial to have strong partnerships among law enforcement. Today’s arrests highlight the efficiency of our joint efforts, demonstrating that our cooperation delivers concrete results in enhancing public safety on both sides of the border,” said Chief Inspector Michel Patenaude

    An indictment contains only allegations, and defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

    West, Khalid, Tatto, Moskwyn and Ricky Ylimaki face up to 40 years of imprisonment if convicted, and the remaining defendants face up to 20 years of imprisonment if convicted.

    The investigation was led by ICE and IRS-CI with the assistance of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Quebec Provincial Police (Sûreté du Québec) in Canada. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police conducted the provisional arrests in Canada. Significant assistance was provided by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of International Affairs as well as the International Assistance Group at Justice Canada. This case was investigated under the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF). OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach.

    More information about Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces

    Individuals charged in the indictment:

    • Gareth West, a.k.a. “Buddy” and “Muscles,” (38 – Burlington, Ontario)
    • Usman Khalid, a.k.a. “Paul” and “Pauly,” (36 – Les Coteaux, Québec)
    • Andrew Tatto, a.k.a. “Chevy” and “Truck,” (43 – Pierrefonds, Québec)
    • Stephan Moskwyn, a.k.a. “HK,” (42 – Pierrefonds, Québec)
    • Ricky Ylimaki, a.k.a. “Ruffles,” (31 – Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot, Québec)
    • Richard Frischman, a.k.a. “Styx,” (31 – Montréal, Québec)
    • Adam Lawrence, a.k.a. “Carter,” (41 – Lasalle, Québec)
    • Michael Filion, a.k.a. “Elvis,” (45 – Pierrefonds, Québec)
    • Jimmy Ylimaki, a.k.a. “Coop,” (35 – Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot, Québec)
    • Nicolas Gonzalez, a.k.a. “Brady,” (27 – Kirkland, Québec)
    • Ryan Melanson, a.k.a. “Parker,” (27 – Montréal, Québec)
    • Joy Kalafatidis, a.k.a. “Blondie,” (31 – Pointe-Claire, Québec)
    • David Arcobelli, a.k.a. “Phil,” (36 – Pierrefonds, Québec)
    • Jonathan Massouras, a.k.a. “Borze,” (35 – Dollard-Des Ormeaux, Québec)
    • Nicholas Shiomi, a.k.a. “Keanu,” (42 – Montréal, Québec)
    • Antonio Iannacci, a.k.a. “DJ,” (33 – Pierrefonds, Québec)
    • Jonathan Ouellet, a.k.a. “Sunny,” (29 – Saint-Eustache, Québec)
    • Kassey-Lee Lankford, a.k.a. “Lex,” (28 – Vaudreuil-Dorion, Québec)
    • Sara Burns, a.k.a. “Ginger,” (31 – Dollard-Des Ormeaux, Québec)
    • Justin Polenz, a.k.a. “Happy,” (34 – Montréal, Québec)
    • Ryan Thibert, a.k.a. “Toast,” (37 – Vaudreuil-Dorion, Québec)
    • Michael Farella, a.k.a. “Honda,” (29 – Sainte-Geneviève, Québec)
    • Sebastian Guenole, a.k.a. “Tweeter,” (30 – Pierrefonds, Québec)
    • Ryan Bridgman, a.k.a. “Clint,” (37 – Deux-Montagnes, Québec)
    • Stephanie-Marie Samaras, a.k.a. “North” (29 – Laval, Québec)

    All but two of the above-named individuals were arrested in Canada on March 4. West and Jimmy Ylimaki remain at large.

    An additional nine individuals have previously been charged in the District of Vermont in connection with this grandparent scam, including Otmane Khalladi (32 – Miami, Florida), Jean Richard Audate (39 – New York, New York), Philippe Alvarez (34 – Montréal, Québec), Paul Conneh (37 – Guangzhou, China), Dave Leblanc (37 – Greenacres, Florida), Zavier Buchanan (27 – Wellington, Florida), William Comfort (29 – Los Angeles, California), Alejandro Garcia (34 – Miami, Florida), and Enmanuel Castillo (31 – Miami, Florida).

    If you or someone you know has been a victim of elder fraud, help is standing by at the National Elder Fraud Hotline (833-FRAUD-11). This hotline is a free resource created by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime for people to report fraud against anyone age 60 or older.

    View the indictment

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI: NCS Multistage Holdings, Inc. Schedules Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Earnings Release and Conference Call

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    HOUSTON, March 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — NCS Multistage Holdings, Inc. (“NCS” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ:NCSM) will host a conference call to discuss its fourth quarter and full year 2024 results on Tuesday March 11, 2025 at 7:30 a.m. Central Time (8:30 a.m. Eastern Time). NCS will issue its fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings release the evening prior to the conference call.

    The conference call will be available via a live audio webcast. Participants who wish to ask questions may register for the call here to receive the dial-in numbers and unique PIN. If you wish to join the conference call but do not plan to ask questions, you may join the listen-only webcast here. It is recommended that participants join at least 10 minutes prior to the event start. The replay will be available in the Investors section of the Company’s website shortly after the conclusion of the call and will remain available for approximately seven days.

    NCS Multistage Holdings, Inc. is a leading provider of highly engineered products and support services that facilitate the optimization of oil and natural gas well construction, well completions and field development strategies. NCS provides products and services primarily to exploration and production companies for use in onshore and offshore wells, predominantly wells that have been drilled with horizontal laterals in both unconventional and conventional oil and natural gas formations. NCS’s products and services are utilized in oil and natural gas basins throughout North America and in selected international markets, including the North Sea, the Middle East, Argentina and China. NCS’s common stock is traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “NCSM.” Additional information is available on the website, www.ncsmultistage.com.

    Contact:
    Mike Morrison
    Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer 
    +1 281-453-2222
    IR@ncsmultistage.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: ACM Research to Participate at the 37th Annual ROTH Conference

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    FREMONT, Calif., March 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — ACM Research, Inc. (“ACM”) (NASDAQ: ACMR), a leading supplier of wafer processing solutions for semiconductor and advanced packaging applications, today announced its participation in the 37th Annual ROTH Conference in Dana Point, California on Monday, March 17, 2025.

    Management will be available for one-on-one and small group meetings with institutional investors on Monday, March 17, 2025. For more information about the conference or to request a one-on-one meeting, please contact a Roth sales representative.

    About ACM Research, Inc.

    ACM develops, manufactures and sells semiconductor process equipment spanning cleaning, electroplating, stress-free polishing, vertical furnace processes, track, PECVD, and wafer- and panel-level packaging tools, enabling advanced and semi-critical semiconductor device manufacturing. ACM is committed to delivering customized, high-performance, cost-effective process solutions that semiconductor manufacturers can use in numerous manufacturing steps to improve productivity and product yield. For more information, visit www.acmr.com.

    © ACM Research, Inc. The ACM Research logo is a trademark of ACM Research, Inc. For convenience, this trademark appears in this press release without a ™ symbol, but that practice does not mean that ACM will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, its rights to such trademark.

    For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

    In the United States: The Blueshirt Group
    Steven C. Pelayo, CFA
    +1 (360) 808-5154
    steven@blueshirtgroup.co
       
    In China: The Blueshirt Group Asia
    Gary Dvorchak, CFA
    gary@blueshirtgroup.co

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Silvaco Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Financial Results

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Achieved record gross bookings of $65.8 million and revenue of $59.7 million in full-year 2024

    Signed 46 new customers in 2024 and expanded relationship with existing customers across key markets including power, automotive, memory, foundry, and display

    Expanded Product Portfolio with the Acquisition of Cadence’s Process Proximity Compensation Product Line

    SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Silvaco Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: SVCO) (“Silvaco” or the “Company”), a provider of TCAD, EDA software, and SIP solutions that enable innovative semiconductor design and digital twin modeling through AI software and automation, today announced its fourth quarter and full year 2024 results.

    “We are proud to close out the year with strong momentum and growing customer traction, including 46 new customer wins in 2024 and multiple bookings on our AI based, flagship FTCO platform,” said Dr. Babak Taheri, Silvaco’s Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Taheri continued, “Our first acquisition as a public company marks a significant milestone in executing our M&A strategy for talent, technology and expanding through inorganic growth. With a continued focus on innovation and execution, we are well-positioned to build on this success and drive further growth in 2025 for our EDA and TCAD product lines.”

    Fourth Quarter 2024 and Recent Business Highlights

    • Acquired 13 new customers across key markets including Photonics, Power, Automotive, Memory, and Foundry, which represented approximately 9% of gross bookings for the quarter.
    • Announced a partnership with Micon Global to expand Silvaco’s reach across the EMEA market, leveraging Micon’s expertise to deliver cutting-edge TCAD, EDA, and SIP solutions to new customers.
    • Joined the SMART USA Institute under the CHIPS Manufacturing USA program to advance digital twin technologies in semiconductor manufacturing, reinforcing Silvaco’s leadership in innovation. We received our first booking from this program.
    • Received a $5.0 million follow-on order for FTCO™ digital-twin modeling product from a strategic memory customer. This order extends the footprint of our FTCO™ product line and further validates our strategic focus on this unique technology.
    • Achieved ISO 9001 certification, underscoring Silvaco’s commitment to quality and continuous improvement across its TCAD, EDA, and SIP product portfolio.
    • On March 4, 2025, Silvaco closed the acquisition of the Process Proximity Compensation (PPC) product line from Cadence Design Systems, Inc. The addition, an optical proximity correction suite of tools, is highly complementary to Silvaco’s EDA and TCAD tool suites.

    Full Year 2024 Business Highlights

    • Acquired 46 new customers across key markets including Power, Automotive, Government/Mil-Aero, Photonics, IOT, 5G/6G, Memory, and Foundry, which represented approximately 10% of gross bookings for the year.
    • Expanded Victory TCAD and Digital Twin Modeling Platform to Planar CMOS, FinFET and Advanced CMOS Technologies which is a necessary step to enable FTCO for Advanced Process.
    • Silvaco Announced that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of all claims against Silvaco brought by Aldini AG.
    • Silvaco was added to the Russell 2000®, Russell 3000®, and Russell Microcap® indexes in September 2024.
    • Completed initial public offering in May 2024, raising $106 million net of underwriters’ fees.

    Fourth Quarter 2024 Financial Results

    GAAP Financial Results

    • Revenue of $17.9 million, up 43% year-over-year and up 63% quarter-over-quarter.
      • TCAD revenue of $12.7 million, up 65% year-over-year.
      • EDA revenue of $4.2 million, up 57% year-over-year.
      • SIP revenue of $0.9 million, down 57% year-over-year.
    • GAAP gross profit and GAAP gross margin were $15.4 million and 86%, respectively, which includes the impact of $194,000 stock-based compensation expense, $249,000 amortization of acquired intangible assets, and $80,000 payroll taxes from the RSU lockup release, up from $9.8 million and 79% in Q4 2023.
    • GAAP net income of $4.2 million, compared to a GAAP net loss of $2.2 million in Q4 2023.
    • GAAP basic and diluted net income per share of $0.14, compared to GAAP basic and diluted net loss per share of $(0.11) in Q4 2023.
    • As of December 31, 2024, cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $87.5 million.

    Key Operating Indicators and Non-GAAP Financial Results:

    • Gross bookings were $20.3 million, up 30% year-over-year.
    • As of December 31, 2024, the remaining performance obligation balance of $34.3 million, 46% of which is expected to be recognized as revenue in the next 12 months.
    • Non-GAAP gross profit and non-GAAP gross margin were $16.0 million and 89%, respectively, up from $9.8 million and 79% year-over-year.
    • Non-GAAP net income of $4.3 million, compared to Non-GAAP net loss of $(1.6) million in Q4 2023.
    • Non-GAAP diluted net income per share of $0.15, compared to Non-GAAP diluted net loss per share of $(0.08) in Q4 2023.

    Full Year 2024 Financial Results

    GAAP Financial Results

    • Revenue of $59.7 million, up 10% year-over-year.
      • TCAD revenue of $40.2 million, up 25% year-over-year.
      • EDA revenue of $14.6 million, up 4% year-over-year.
      • SIP revenue of $4.9 million, down 40% year-over-year.
    • GAAP gross profit and GAAP gross margin were $47.6 million and 80%, respectively, which includes the impact of $3.0 million stock-based compensation expense, $747,000 amortization of acquired intangible assets, and $80,000 payroll taxes from the RSU lockup release, up from $44.9 million and down from 83% in 2023.
    • GAAP net loss of $(39.4) million, compared to $(0.3) million in 2023.
    • GAAP basic and diluted net loss per share of $(1.53), compared to $(0.02) in 2023.

    Key Operating Indicators and Non-GAAP Financial Results:

    • Gross bookings were $65.8 million, up 13% year-over-year.
    • Non-GAAP gross profit and non-GAAP gross margin were $51.4 million and 86%, respectively, up from $44.9 million and 83% year over year.
    • Non-GAAP net income of $6.7 million, compared to $3.4 million in 2023.
    • Non-GAAP diluted net income per share of $0.25, compared to $0.17 in 2023.

    For a discussion of the non-GAAP metrics presented in this press release, as well as a reconciliation of non-GAAP metrics to the nearest comparable GAAP metric, see “Discussion of Non-GAAP Financial Measures” and “GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliation” in the accompanying tables below.

    Supplementary materials to this press release, including our fourth quarter 2024 financial results, can be found at https://investors.silvaco.com/financial-information/quarterly-results.

    First Quarter and Full Year 2025 Financial Outlook

    As of March 5, 2025, Silvaco is providing guidance for its first quarter of 2025 and its full-year 2025, which represents Silvaco’s current estimates on its operations and financial results. The financial information below represents forward-looking financial information and in some instances forward-looking, non-GAAP financial information, including estimates of non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating income (loss) and non-GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share. GAAP gross margin is the most comparable GAAP measure to non-GAAP gross margin, GAAP operating income (loss) is the most comparable GAAP measure to non-GAAP operating income (loss). GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share is the most comparable GAAP measure to non-GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share. Non-GAAP gross margin differs from GAAP gross margin in that it excludes items such as stock-based compensation expense, amortization of acquired intangible assets, and payroll tax from the IPO lock-up release. Non-GAAP operating income (loss) differs from GAAP operating income (loss) in that it excludes items such as acquisition-related estimated litigation claim and legal costs, stock-based compensation expense, amortization of acquired intangible assets, payroll tax from the IPO lock-up release, IPO preparation costs, and executive severance costs. Non-GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share differs from GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share in that it excludes certain costs, including IPO preparation costs, acquisition-related estimated litigation claim and legal costs, stock-based compensation expense, amortization of acquired intangible assets, payroll tax from the IPO lock-up release, executive severance costs, change in fair value of contingent consideration, foreign exchange (gain) loss, loss on debt extinguishment, and the income tax effect on non-GAAP items. Silvaco is unable to predict with reasonable certainty the ultimate outcome of these exclusions without unreasonable effort. Therefore, Silvaco has not provided guidance for GAAP gross margin, GAAP operating income or GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share or a reconciliation of the forward-looking non-GAAP gross margin or non-GAAP operating income or non-GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share guidance to GAAP gross margin or GAAP operating income or GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share, respectively. However, it is important to note that these excluded items could be material to our results computed in accordance with GAAP in future periods.

    Based on current business trends and conditions, the Company expects for first quarter 2025 the following:

    • Gross bookings in the range of $16.0 million to $19.0 million, which would compare to $16.1 million in the first quarter of 2024.
    • Revenue in the range of $14.5 million to $17.0 million, which would compare to $15.9 million in the first quarter of 2024.
    • Non-GAAP gross margin in the range of 84% to 87%, which would compare to 88% in the first quarter of 2024.
    • Non-GAAP operating income in the range of ($1.0) million loss to $1.0 million income, compared to $3.3 million in the first quarter of 2024.
    • Non-GAAP diluted net income per share in the range of ($0.03) loss to $0.03, compared to $0.12 in the first quarter of 2024.

    For full year 2025, the Company expects:

    • Gross bookings in the range of $72.0 million to $79.0 million, which would represent a 9% to 20% increase from $65.8 million in 2024.
    • Revenue in the range of $66.0 million to $72.0 million, which would represent a 11% to 21% increase from $59.7 million in 2024.
    • Non-GAAP gross margin in the range of 84.0% to 89.0%, which would compare to 86% in 2024.
    • Non-GAAP operating income in the range of $2.0 million to $7.0 million, which would compare to $5.5 million in 2024.
    • Non-GAAP diluted net income per share in the range of $0.07 to $0.19, compared to $0.25 in 2024.

    Q4 2024 Conference Call Details

    A press release highlighting the Company’s results along with supplemental financial results will be available at https://investors.silvaco.com/ along with an earnings presentation to accompany management’s prepared remarks on the day of the conference call, after market close. An archived replay of the conference call will be available on this website for a limited time after the call. Participants who want to join the call and ask a question may register for the call here to receive the dial-in numbers and unique PIN.

    Date: Wednesday, March 5, 2025
    Time: 5:00 p.m. Eastern time
    Webcast: Here (live and replay)

    About Silvaco

    Silvaco is a provider of TCAD, EDA software, and SIP solutions that enable semiconductor design and digital twin modeling through AI software and innovation. Silvaco’s solutions are used for semiconductor and photonics processes, devices, and systems development across display, power devices, automotive, memory, high performance compute, foundries, photonics, internet of things, and 5G/6G mobile markets for complex SoC design. Silvaco is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and has a global presence with offices located in North America, Europe, Brazil, China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan.

    Safe Harbor Statement

    This press release contains forward-looking statements based on Silvaco’s current expectations. The words “believe”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intend”, “anticipate”, “plan”, “project”, “will”, and similar phrases as they relate to Silvaco are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect the current views and assumptions of Silvaco and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations.

    These forward-looking statements include but are not limited to, statements regarding our future operating results, financial position, and guidance, our business strategy and plans, our objectives for future operations, our development or delivery of new or enhanced products, and anticipated results of those products for our customers, our competitive positioning, projected costs, technological capabilities, and plans, and macroeconomic trends.

    A variety of risks and factors that are beyond our control could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements including, without limitation, the following: (a) market conditions; (b) anticipated trends, challenges and growth in our business and the markets in which we operate; (c) our ability to appropriately respond to changing technologies on a timely and cost-effective basis; (d) the size and growth potential of the markets for our software solutions, and our ability to serve those markets; (e) our expectations regarding competition in our existing and new markets; (f) the level of demand in our customers’ end markets; (g) regulatory developments in the United States and foreign countries; (h) changes in trade policies, including the imposition of tariffs; (i) proposed new software solutions, services or developments; (j) our ability to attract and retain key management personnel; (k) our customer relationships and our ability to retain and expand our customer relationships; (l) our ability to diversify our customer base and develop relationships in new markets; (m) the strategies, prospects, plans, expectations, and objectives of management for future operations; (n) public health crises, pandemics, and epidemics and their effects on our business and our customers’ businesses; (o) the impact of the current conflicts between Ukraine and Russia and Israel and Hamas and the ongoing trade disputes among the United States and China on our business, financial condition or prospects, including extreme volatility in the global capital markets making debt or equity financing more difficult to obtain, more costly or more dilutive, delays and disruptions of the global supply chains and the business activities of our suppliers, distributors, customers and other business partners; (p) changes in general economic or business conditions or economic or demographic trends in the United States and foreign countries including changes in tariffs, interest rates and inflation; (q) our ability to raise additional capital; (r) our ability to accurately forecast demand for our software solutions; (s) our expectations regarding the outcome of any ongoing litigation; (t) our expectations regarding the period during which we qualify as an emerging growth company under the JOBS Act and as a smaller reporting company under the Exchange Act; (u) our expectations regarding our ability to obtain, maintain, protect and enforce intellectual property protection for our technology; (v) our status as a controlled company; (w) our use of the net proceeds from our initial public offering, and (x) our ability to successfully integrate, retain key personnel, and realize the anticipated benefits of the acquisition of Cadence’s PPC product line.

    It is not possible for us to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. Accordingly, you should not rely on any of the forward-looking statements. Additional information relating to the uncertainty affecting the Silvaco’s business is contained in Silvaco’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These documents are available on the SEC Filings section of the Investor Relations section of Silvaco’s website at http://investors.silvaco.com/. These forward-looking statements represent Silvaco’s expectations as of the date of this press release. Subsequent events may cause these expectations to change, and Silvaco disclaims any obligations to update or alter these forward-looking statements in the future, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

    Discussion of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

    We use certain non-GAAP financial measures to supplement the performance measures in our consolidated financial statements, which are presented in accordance with GAAP. These non-GAAP financial measures include non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating income (loss), non-GAAP net income (loss), and non-GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share. We use these non-GAAP financial measures for financial and operational decision-making and as a mean to assist us in evaluating period-to-period comparisons.

    We define non-GAAP gross profit and non-GAAP gross margin as our GAAP gross profit and GAAP gross margin adjusted to exclude certain costs, including stock-based compensation expense, amortization of acquired intangible assets and payroll tax from the IPO lock-up release. We define non-GAAP operating income (loss), as our GAAP operating income (loss) adjusted to exclude certain costs, including IPO preparation costs, acquisition-related estimated litigation claim and legal costs, stock-based compensation expense, amortization of acquired intangible assets, payroll tax from the IPO lock-up release, and executive severance costs. We define non-GAAP net income (loss) as our GAAP net income (loss) adjusted to exclude certain costs, including IPO preparation costs, acquisition-related estimated litigation claim and legal costs, stock-based compensation expense, amortization of acquired intangible assets, payroll tax from the IPO lock-up release, executive severance costs, change in fair value of contingent consideration, foreign exchange (gain) loss, loss on debt extinguishment, and the income tax effect on non-GAAP items. Our non-GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share is calculated in the same way as our non-GAAP net income (loss), but on a per share basis. We monitor non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating income (loss), non-GAAP net income (loss) and non-GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share as non-GAAP financial measures to supplement the financial information we present in accordance with GAAP to provide investors with additional information regarding our financial results.

    Certain items are excluded from our non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating income (loss), non-GAAP net income (loss) and non-GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share because these items are non-cash in nature or are not indicative of our core operating performance and render comparisons with prior periods and competitors less meaningful. We adjust GAAP gross profit, GAAP gross margin, GAAP operating income (loss), GAAP net income (loss), and GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share for these items to arrive at non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating income (loss), non-GAAP net income (loss), and non-GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share because these amounts can vary substantially from company to company within our industry depending upon accounting methods and book values of assets, capital structure and the method by which the assets were acquired. By excluding certain items that may not be indicative of our recurring core operating results, we believe that non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating income (loss), non-GAAP net income (loss) and non-GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share provide meaningful supplemental information regarding our performance.

    We believe these non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors and others because they allow for additional information with respect to financial measures used by management in its financial and operational decision-making and they may be used by our institutional investors and the analyst community to help them analyze our financial performance and the health of our business. However, there are a number of limitations related to the use of non-GAAP financial measures, and these non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for or in isolation from, our financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate these non-GAAP financial measures differently or not at all, which reduces their usefulness as comparative measures.

           
    SILVACO GROUP, INC.
    CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
    (Unaudited, in thousands except share and par value amounts)
      December 31,   December 31,
      2024   2023
           
    ASSETS      
    Current assets:      
    Cash and cash equivalents $ 19,606     $ 4,421  
    Short-term marketable securities   63,071       –  
    Accounts receivable, net   9,211       4,006  
    Contract assets, net   11,932       8,749  
    Prepaid expenses and other current assets   3,460       2,549  
    Deferred transaction costs   –       1,163  
    Total current assets   107,280       20,888  
    Non-current assets:      
    Non-current marketable securities   4,785       –  
    Property and equipment, net   865       591  
    Operating lease right-of-use assets, net   1,711       1,963  
    Intangible assets, net   4,369       342  
    Goodwill   9,026       9,026  
    Non-current portion of contract assets, net   12,611       6,250  
    Other assets   1,698       1,825  
    Total non-current assets   35,065       19,997  
    Total assets $ 142,345     $ 40,885  
           
    Liabilities and stockholders’ equity      
    Current liabilities:      
    Accounts payable $ 3,316     $ 2,495  
    Accrued expenses and other current liabilities   19,801       10,255  
    Accrued income taxes   1,668       1,626  
    Deferred revenue, current   7,497       7,882  
    Operating lease liabilities, current   744       735  
    Related party line of credit   –       2,000  
    Vendor financing obligations, current   1,462       –  
    Total current liabilities   34,488       24,993  
    Non-current liabilities:      
    Deferred revenue, non-current   3,593       5,071  
    Operating lease liabilities, non-current   946       1,198  
    Vendor financing obligations, non-current   2,928       –  
    Other non-current liabilities   307       221  
    Total liabilities   42,262       31,483  
    Commitments and contingencies      
    Stockholders’ equity      
    Preferred stock, $0.0001 par value; 10,000,000 shares authorized, no shares issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2024; no shares authorized as of December 31, 2023   –       –  
    Common stock, $0.0001 par value; 500,000,000 shares authorized; 28,526,615 shares issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2024; 25,000,000 shares authorized; 20,000,000 shares issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2023   3       2  
    Additional paid-in capital   130,360       –  
    (Accumulated deficit) Retained earnings   (28,012 )     11,392  
    Accumulated other comprehensive loss   (2,268 )     (1,992 )
    Total stockholders’ equity   100,083       9,402  
    Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity $ 142,345     $ 40,885  
           
    SILVACO GROUP, INC.
    CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME
    (Unaudited, in thousands except share and per share amounts)
                   
      Three months Ended December 31,   Twelve months Ended December 31,
        2024       2023       2024       2023  
                   
    Revenue:              
    Software license revenue $ 13,870     $ 8,738     $ 43,991     $ 39,331  
    Maintenance and service   3,989       3,748       15,689       14,915  
    Total revenue   17,859       12,486       59,680       54,246  
    Cost of revenue   2,422       2,682       12,042       9,354  
    Gross profit   15,437       9,804       47,638       44,892  
    Operating expenses:              
    Research and development   5,283       3,337       20,740       13,170  
    Selling and marketing   3,983       3,833       18,300       12,707  
    General and administrative   7,529       4,570       37,571       17,881  
    Estimated litigation claim   (3,782 )     –       11,306       –  
    Total operating expenses   13,013       11,740       87,917       43,758  
    Operating (loss) income   2,424       (1,936 )     (40,279 )     1,134  
    Loss on debt extinguishment   –       –       (718 )     –  
    Interest income   1,077       2       2,976       6  
    Interest and other expenses, net   (67 )     (95 )     (899 )     (630 )
    (Loss) income before income tax provision   3,434       (2,029 )     (38,920 )     510  
    Income tax provision (benefit)   (723 )     218       484       826  
    Net (loss) income $ 4,157     $ (2,247 )   $ (39,404 )   $ (316 )
    (Loss) earnings per share attributable to common stockholders:              
    Basic and diluted $ 0.14     $ (0.11 )   $ (1.53 )   $ (0.02 )
    Weighted average shares used in computing per share amounts:              
    Basic and diluted   28,734,082       20,000,000       25,672,845       20,000,000  
                   
    SILVACO GROUP, INC.
    CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
    (Unaudited, in thousands)
      Year Ended December 31
        2024       2023  
    Cash flows from operating activities:      
    Net loss $ (39,404 )   $ (316 )
    Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash (used in) provided by operating activities:      
    Depreciation and amortization   1,285       601  
    Stock-based compensation expense   26,915       –  
    Provision for credit losses   351       220  
    Accretion of discount on marketable securities, net   (1,685 )     –  
    Estimated litigation claim   11,306       –  
    Loss on debt extinguishment   718       –  
    Change in fair value of contingent consideration   (27 )     325  
    Changes in operating assets and liabilities:      
    Accounts receivable   (5,971 )     1,378  
    Contract assets   (10,293 )     (5,208 )
    Prepaid expense and other current assets   (790 )     133  
    Other assets   57       (267 )
    Accounts payable   1,326       156  
    Accrued expenses and other current liabilities   (2,160 )     2,015  
    Accrued income taxes   74       (23 )
    Deferred revenue   (1,585 )     2,268  
    Other non-current liabilities   109       (102 )
    Net cash (used in) provided by operating activities   (19,774 )     1,180  
    Cash flows from investing activities:      
    Purchases of marketable securities   (99,630 )     –  
    Maturities of marketable securities   33,600       –  
    Purchases of property and equipment   (505 )     (339 )
    Net cash used in investing activities   (66,535 )     (339 )
    Cash flows from financing activities:      
    Proceeds from initial public offering, net of underwriting fees   106,020       –  
    Proceeds from issuance of convertible note, net of debt issuance costs   4,852       –  
    Proceeds from loan facility   4,250       –  
    Repayment of loan facility   (4,250 )     –  
    Proceeds from related party line of credit   –       1,000  
    Repayment of related party line of credit   (2,000 )     (1,000 )
    Proceeds from issuance of common stock for share-based awards   315       –  
    Payroll taxes related to shares withheld from employees   (4,575 )     –  
    Deferred transaction costs   (2,649 )     (650 )
    Contingent consideration   (74 )     (1,002 )
    Payments of vendor financing obligation   (588 )     –  
    Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities   101,301       (1,652 )
    Effect of exchange rate fluctuations on cash and cash equivalents   193       (246 )
    Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents   15,185       (1,057 )
    Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period   4,421       5,478  
    Cash and cash equivalents, end of period $ 19,606     $ 4,421  
           
    SILVACO GROUP, INC.
    REVENUE
    (Unaudited)
                             
        2023   2024
        Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Year   Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Year
    Revenue by Region:                        
    Americas   35 % 29 % 31 % 29 % 31 %   27 % 51 % 31 % 40 % 38 %
    APAC   51 % 62 % 61 % 63 % 59 %   62 % 41 % 58 % 52 % 53 %
    EMEA   14 % 9 % 8 % 8 % 10 %   11 % 8 % 11 % 8 % 9 %
    Total revenue   100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 %   100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 %
                             
    Revenue by Product Line:                        
    TCAD   62 % 62 % 52 % 62 % 59 %   66 % 69 % 59 % 71 % 68 %
    EDA   29 % 20 % 31 % 22 % 26 %   30 % 20 % 24 % 24 % 24 %
    SIP   9 % 18 % 17 % 16 % 15 %   4 % 11 % 17 % 5 % 8 %
    Total revenue   100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 %   100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 %
                             
    Revenue Item Category:                        
    Software license revenue   75 % 71 % 74 % 70 % 73 %   77 % 74 % 62 % 78 % 74 %
    Maintenance and service   25 % 29 % 26 % 30 % 27 %   23 % 26 % 38 % 22 % 26 %
    Total revenue   100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 %   100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 %
                             
    Revenue by Country:                        
    United States   34 % 28 % 28 % 28 % 30 %   51 % 30 % 39 % 39 % 37 %
    China   19 % 29 % 16 % 29 % 23 %   17 % 25 % 23 % 23 % 18 %
    Other   47 % 43 % 56 % 43 % 47 %   32 % 45 % 38 % 38 % 45 %
    Total revenue   100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 %   100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 %
    SILVACO GROUP, INC.
    GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliation
    (Unaudited, in thousands except per share amounts)
                   
      Three Months Ended   Twelve Months Ended
      12/31/2024   12/31/2023   12/31/2024   12/31/2023
                   
    GAAP Cost of revenue $ 2,422     $ 2,682     $ 12,042     $ 9,354  
    Less: Stock-based compensation expense   (194 )     –       (2,974 )     –  
    Less: Amortization of acquired intangible assets   (249 )     –       (747 )     –  
    Less: Payroll tax from the IPO lock-up release   (80 )     –       (80 )     –  
    Non-GAAP Cost of revenue $ 1,899     $ 2,682     $ 8,241     $ 9,354  
    GAAP Gross profit $ 15,437     $ 9,804     $ 47,638     $ 44,892  
    Add: Stock-based compensation expense   194       –       2,974       –  
    Add: Amortization of acquired intangible assets   249       –       747       –  
    Add: Payroll tax from the IPO lockup release   80       –       80       –  
    Non-GAAP Gross profit $ 15,960     $ 9,804     $ 51,439     $ 44,892  
    GAAP Research and development $ 5,283     $ 3,337     $ 20,740     $ 13,170  
    Less: Stock-based compensation expense   (535 )     –       (5,091 )     –  
    Less: Executive severance   (215 )     –       (215 )     –  
    Less: Payroll tax from the IPO lock-up release   (397 )     –       (397 )     –  
    Less: Amortization of acquired intangible assets   (43 )     (82 )     (206 )     (339 )
    Non-GAAP Research and development $ 4,093     $ 3,255     $ 14,831     $ 12,831  
    GAAP Sales and marketing $ 3,983     $ 3,833     $ 18,300     $ 12,707  
    Less: Stock-based compensation expense   (388 )     –       (4,319 )     –  
    Less: Payroll tax from the IPO lock-up release   (85 )     –       (85 )     –  
    Less: IPO preparation costs   –       –       (178 )     –  
    Non-GAAP Sales and marketing $ 3,510     $ 3,833     $ 13,718     $ 12,707  
    GAAP General and administrative $ 7,529     $ 4,570     $ 37,571     $ 17,881  
    Less: Stock-based compensation expense   (1,410 )     –       (14,531 )     –  
    Less: Acquisition-related estimated litigation claim and legal costs   (523 )     (515 )     (4,629 )     (1,707 )
    Less: Executive severance   (200 )     –       (200 )     –  
    Less: Payroll tax from the IPO lock-up release   (163 )     –       (163 )     –  
    Less: IPO preparation costs   –       (45 )     (695 )     (1,221 )
    Non-GAAP General and administrative $ 5,233     $ 4,010     $ 17,353     $ 14,953  
    GAAP Estimated Litigation claim $ (3,782 )   $ –     $ 11,306     $ –  
    Add (Less): Acquisition-related estimated litigation claim and legal costs   3,782       –       (11,306 )     –  
    Non-GAAP Litigation claim $ –     $ –     $ –     $ –  
    GAAP Operating expenses $ 13,013     $ 11,740     $ 87,917     $ 43,758  
    Less: Stock-based compensation expense   (2,333 )     –       (23,941 )     –  
    Less: Acquisition-related estimated litigation claim and legal costs   3,259       (515 )     (15,935 )     (1,707 )
    Less: Executive severance   (415 )     –       (415 )     –  
    Less: Payroll tax from the IPO lock-up release   (645 )     –       (645 )     –  
    Less: IPO preparation costs   –       (45 )     (873 )     (1,221 )
    Less: Amortization of acquired intangible assets   (43 )     (82 )     (206 )     (339 )
    Non-GAAP Operating expenses $ 12,836     $ 11,098     $ 45,902     $ 40,491  
    GAAP Operating (loss) income $ 2,424     $ (1,936 )   $ (40,279 )   $ 1,134  
    Add: Stock-based compensation expense   2,527       –       26,915       –  
    Add (Less): Acquisition-related estimated litigation claim and legal costs   (3,259 )     515       15,935       1,707  
    Add: Payroll tax from the IPO lockup release   725       –       725       –  
    Add: Executive severance   415       –       415       –  
    Add: IPO preparation costs   –       45       873       1,221  
    Add: Amortization of acquired intangible assets   292       82       953       339  
    Non-GAAP Operating (loss) income $ 3,124     $ (1,294 )   $ 5,537     $ 4,401  
    GAAP Net (loss) income $ 4,157     $ (2,247 )   $ (39,404 )   $ (316 )
    Add: Stock-based compensation expense   2,527       –       26,915       –  
    Add: Amortization of acquired intangible assets   292       82       953       339  
    Add (Less): Acquisition-related estimated litigation claim and legal costs   (3,259 )     515       15,935       1,707  
    Add: Payroll tax from the IPO lockup release   725       –       725       –  
    Add: Executive Severance   415       –       415       –  
    Add: IPO preparation costs   –       45       873       1,221  
    Add: Loss on debt extinguishment   –       –       718       –  
    Add (Less): Change in fair value of contingent consideration   (9 )     (7 )     (27 )     325  
    Add (Less): Foreign exchange (gain) loss   (14 )     (3 )     404       335  
    Add: Income tax effect of non-GAAP adjustment   (566 )     (27 )     (831 )     (169 )
    Non-GAAP Net (loss) income $ 4,268     $ (1,642 )   $ 6,676     $ 3,442  
    GAAP Net income (loss) per share:              
    Basic and diluted: $ 0.14     $ (0.11 )   $ (1.53 )   $ (0.02 )
    Non-GAAP Net income (loss) per share:              
    Basic $ 0.15     $ (0.08 )   $ 0.26     $ 0.17  
    Diluted $ 0.15     $ (0.08 )   $ 0.25     $ 0.17  
    Weighted average shares used in GAAP and non-GAAP net income (loss) per share:              
    Basic   28,734,082       20,000,000       25,672,845       20,000,000  
    Diluted   28,849,041       20,000,000       26,841,901       20,000,000  
                   

    Investor Contact:
    Greg McNiff
    investors@silvaco.com

    Media Contact:
    Farhad Hayat
    press@silvaco.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: China files revised dispute consultations request with United States on tariff measures

    Source: World Trade Organization

    China filed an addendum to its original request for consultations of 4 February 2025 (DS633) to include the increase of the additional US ad valorem duties imposed on all goods originating in China from 10 per cent to 20 per cent.

    Further information in document WT/DS633/1/Add.1.

    Share

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Director of Hong Kong and Macao Work Office of CPC Central Committee and Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of State Council meets CE in Beijing (with photo)

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    Director of Hong Kong and Macao Work Office of CPC Central Committee and Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of State Council meets CE in Beijing (with photo)
    ******************************************************************************************

    ​The Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, Mr Xia Baolong, met the Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, who was in attendance at the opening meeting of the third session of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC), in Beijing today (March 5).     Mr Xia said that the Central Government remains committed in fully and faithfully implementing the principle of “one country, two systems”, and will continue to fully support Hong Kong and Macao in integrating into national development. Mr Xia noted that under the leadership of Mr Lee, the governance team of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has been resolutely implementing the guiding principles of important speeches by President Xi Jinping on Hong Kong and Macao affairs and the Central Government’s strategic decisions. Mr Xia said that by proactively identifying, adapting to, and driving change, the team has firmly safeguarded high-level security and strenuously promoted high-quality development, while uniting all sectors of society to focus on economic growth, pursue development and advance infrastructure, achieving good results in the areas. Mr Xia expressed his confidence that the HKSAR Government and the Hong Kong community will seize opportunities, pursue reforms and endeavour to fully leverage the institutional strengths of “one country, two systems”, consolidate and enhance Hong Kong’s status as an international financial, shipping and trade centre, establish an international hub for high-calibre talents, and in turn expedite the city’s transition from stability to prosperity, making greater contributions to the building of a great country in all respects and advancing toward national rejuvenation through Chinese modernisation.     Mr Lee expressed his gratitude for the Central Authorities’ support and recognition of the efforts of the HKSAR Government. He also expressed his gratitude for Mr Xia’s guidance and care for the HKSAR. Mr Lee said that 2025 marks the conclusion of the 14th Five-Year Plan, and is an important year in further deepening reform comprehensively. He said that since assuming office, the current term of the HKSAR Government has striven to consolidate and realise the positioning of the “eight centres” under the 14th Five-Year Plan, proactively attracting businesses and talent while expanding economic and trade networks. The Government has introduced multiple reform measures, including over 600 policy initiatives spanning diverse sectors outlined in last year’s Policy Address, specially themed “Reform for Enhancing Development and Building Our Future”. These measures aim to deepen reforms and uncover new economic growth areas, while upholding the city’s principle and embracing innovation. Mr Lee said that the measures will consolidate Hong Kong’s status as an international financial, shipping and trade centre, establish an international hub for high-calibre talents, accelerate Hong Kong’s development into an international innovation and technology centre, and advance such developments as the Northern Metropolis and the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Co-operation Zone.     Mr Lee remarked that the HKSAR Government will continue to unite all sectors of society in driving innovation and reform, and better understand, respond to and embrace changes. Giving full play to its institutional strengths under the “one country, two systems” principle and unique strengths in internationalisation, Hong Kong will further strengthen its bridging role between the Mainland and the world, actively integrate into national development, and contribute to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development and the Belt and Road Initiative, telling the good stories of the country and Hong Kong. Mr Lee highlighted that in collaboration with the community, the HKSAR Government will earnestly study and implement the spirit of the third session of the 14th NPC and the third session of the 14th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee, foster unity, and achieve greater development for Hong Kong, thereby making greater contributions to the building of a great country in all respects and advancing toward national rejuvenation.     Deputy Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council Mr Wang Linggui, and the Director of the Chief Executive’s Office, Ms Carol Yip, also joined the meeting.

    Ends/Wednesday, March 5, 2025Issued at HKT 23:01

    NNNN

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Keynote speech by SITI at GSMA Ministerial Programme of Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona (English only)

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    Keynote speech by SITI at GSMA Ministerial Programme of Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona (English only)
    ******************************************************************************************

    Following is the keynote speech by the Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, Professor Sun Dong, at the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) Ministerial Programme of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025 in Barcelona, Spain on March 5 (Barcelona time): Distinguished speakers, guests, ladies and gentlemen,      Buenas tardes! Good afternoon! It is a privilege to join you all at the MWC Barcelona 2025, Europe’s pre-eminent mobile tech summit hosted in the fascinating city of Barcelona.           Renowned for its architectural brilliance and rich cultural tapestry, Barcelona is undoubtedly a beacon of creativity in Europe. More than ten thousand kilometers away, Hong Kong shares the same dynamic spirit and strong commitment to innovation. This brings me here today to share with you Hong Kong’s innovation and technology (I&T) landscape as well as opportunities that connect people around the world. Hong Kong: Our odyssey to be an International I&T Centre      Well known for the free, international and business-friendly environment, Hong Kong ranks first in Asia and third in the world in the Global Financial Centres Index. The success of this Asia’s World City is our spirit of embracing changes and evolving with times.           The theme of this year’s MWC Barcelona, “Converge, Connect, Create”, aptly encapsulates the key directions of Hong Kong’s new mission. We are racing to become an international I&T centre, as enshrined in our I&T Development Blueprint promulgated in 2022. We strive to perfect Hong Kong’s I&T ecosystem with conducive policies to support the development of strategic tech industries, including AI and robotics, life and health technologies, new energy and advanced manufacturing industries.           The Blueprint not only converges and connects our game plan on technological innovation and talent cultivation, but also creates new impetus to Hong Kong’s high quality development and enhances our citizens’ quality of life with day-to-day convenience brought about by technology innovation. Bridging the digital divide by building a Smart City and a Digital Inclusive Society      Hong Kong is among the world’s top 20 smart cities in the Smart City Index released by the IMD (International Institute for Management Development). One of the board development direction set out in our I&T Blueprint is to promote digital economy and develop Hong Kong into a smart city. Over the years, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has rolled out various measures to make Hong Kong a more advanced and livable smart city, such as developing new digital infrastructure, opening up public data, and enhancing government services by applying advanced technologies such as blockchain and IoT (Internet of Things).           Indeed, one of the best testimonies to a city’s I&T achievement is the degree of digitalisation. In Hong Kong, all submissions and payments to the Government have electronic options. More than three millions of people are enjoying the convenience and efficiency of accessing government services and online identity verification through a mobile application called “iAM Smart”. A corporate version of “iAM Smart”, nick-named CorpID, is upcoming too.      Known for the cultural diversity and international landscape, digital inclusiveness is an area that we take pride in. In Hong Kong, where the household broadband penetration rate and smartphone penetration rate are both approximately 97 per cent, the internet usage rate among Hong Kong citizens aged 65 and above rocketed, from 56 per cent in 2018 to 84 per cent in 2023, slightly ahead of the European rate of around 78 per cent.           Hong Kong’s life expectancy has seen a steady increase over the past half century, reaching 83 years for men and 88 years for women in 2023. As society becomes so digitally knitted and increasingly mobile, we recently launched the “Smart Silver” Digital Inclusion Programme for Elders, to address the challenges of an increasingly aging society. This programme fortifies our digital inclusive efforts by providing elders with community-based training and on-the-spot helpdesks to enhance elders’ knowledge on new digital technologies and support their navigation by common mobile applications. Hong Kong’s Research and Development (R&D) Excellence driving global I&T collaboration      Global collaboration is a necessity to tackle unprecedented challenges. Hong Kong is the only city in the world housing five of the world’s top 100 universities, providing a readily available pool of R&D capabilities, know-how and talent. These favourable conditions make possible many scientific and technological breakthroughs by harnessing cutting-edge innovations from both the East and the West.           You may wish to know that our flagship R&D initiative – InnoHK has built collaboration with more than 30 world-renowned universities and research institutes from 12 economies, set up a total of 30 research laboratories. Of these, 16 of them focus on AI and robotics-related technologies. Our goal is to converge top-notch researchers from all over the world to conduct world-class and impactful collaborative researches.      The vigorous development of AI is reshaping global economic landscape. Our AI Supercomputing Centre has just commenced operation, and the computing power will be ramped up gradually to 3 000 petaFLOPS this year. Newly announced in our annual Government Budget last week, we will earmark $1 billion Hong Kong dollars, equivalent to 120 million euros, for the establishment of the Hong Kong AI Research and Development Institute. Hong Kong stands ready to play a full role in promoting global I&T collaboration. Hong Kong: an Ideal Home to I&T enterprises and start-ups      In fact, Hong Kong stands in a prime location for I&T and business collaborations. With the distinctive advantages of “one country, two systems”, over 1 400 companies from outside Hong Kong have set up regional headquarters in Hong Kong, including some global tech giants. Our strategic location and unique role as a “super-connector” and “super value-adder” empower them to tap into the vast markets of Mainland China including the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Asia-Pacific region and also the Belt-and-Road countries.           Hong Kong is also an ideal home for breeding I&T start-ups. According to the Global Start-up Ecosystem Report 2024, Hong Kong ranks first in Asia and third globally among the top 100 emerging ecosystems. As of 2024, the number of start-ups in Hong Kong has surged to about 4 700, reaching the record highs.           Our two I&T flagships, the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation and the digital tech-oriented Cyberport, provide robust support for start-ups through various incubation programmes. They also offer opportunities for start-ups to participate in I&T mega events, which include, of course, the MWC Barcelona. If you are interested in discovering Hong Kong’s vibrant I&T scene, be sure to visit the Hong Kong Tech Pavilion at Hall 6 and speak to our tech ventures there. Concluding remarks      Ladies and gentlemen, I hope my sharing just now could vividly show the colours of Hong Kong’s I&T scene, just like the beautiful city of Barcelona. Seeing is believing. I welcome you all to Hong Kong to explore more on our robust digital infrastructure, smart city initiatives and digital economy development.           Before I close, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to GSMA for inviting me to the Ministerial Programme. I wish everyone here a fruitful exchange. Gracias! Thank you!

    Ends/Wednesday, March 5, 2025Issued at HKT 23:25

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    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: China Mobile and Huawei Win the GSMA GLOMO Best Network Software Breakthrough and CTO Choice: Outstanding Mobile Technology Award

    Source: Huawei

    Headline: China Mobile and Huawei Win the GSMA GLOMO Best Network Software Breakthrough and CTO Choice: Outstanding Mobile Technology Award

    [Barcelona, Spain, March 5, 2025] At Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025, China Mobile and Huawei were honored with the prestigious GSMA GLOMO Best Network Software Breakthrough and CTO Choice: Outstanding Mobile Technology Award for their groundbreaking Autonomous Networks (AN) solution, powered by a telecom foundation model. The GSMA CTO Choice: Outstanding Mobile Technology Award, which is the highest honor in the communications industry, was first presented to Huawei in 2018. This year’s recognition underscores Huawei’s innovations in telecom foundation model and other software technologies, as well as Huawei and China Mobile’s achievements in advancing commercial practices in AN.
    China Mobile and Huawei win the GSMA GLOMO Best Network Software Breakthrough and CTO Choice: Outstanding Mobile Technology Award

    Over the past year, Huawei has applied the telecom foundation model to develop role-based copilots and scenario-specific agents for high-value scenarios in three key areas: intelligent O&M, network optimization, and user experience operations. Additionally, Huawei has developed the autonomous driving network (ADN) Level 4 solution and collaborated with China Mobile to deliver best practices in the integrated innovation project for network intelligence. The ADN Level 4 solution, powered by the telecom foundation model, has been commercially deployed across China Mobile’s live networks in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Henan, and other provinces, significantly boosting network O&M efficiency and delivering a premium user experience.
    Achievements:
    End-to-end (E2E) troubleshooting: The fault agent uses a chain-of-thought to break down complex problems, achieving automatic orchestration of the fault diagnosis process in the wireless, Slicing Packet Network (SPN), and core network domains. Copilots provide real-time information query services for network operations center (NOC) experts and field engineers, enhancing network O&M efficiency. The deployment of agents and copilots has increased the fault diagnosis automation rate from 60% to 90%, significantly reducing fault locating time.
    Core network complaint handling: The intelligent O&M copilot and complaint handling agent automatically parse and identify signaling anomalies, and analyze and handle tickets. These innovations enable process automation, significantly reducing the E2E complaint ticket handling duration and boosting efficiency by over 60%.
    Wireless network optimization: The network optimization agent monitors the network status in real time, automatically detects abnormal traffic, and predicts risks. It has also enabled the evolution from single-objective optimization toward multi-objective collaborative optimization for network optimization tasks, resolving weak coverage issues, automating network optimization, and enhancing service experience through coordination with the beam tracing unit.
    China Mobile stated: In 2025, we will continue to focus on achieving AN Level 4 in high-value scenarios. By developing E2E intelligent O&M processes and accelerating the large-scale commercial use of Level 4, we aim to deliver a superior user experience, enhance network flexibility, and reduce OPEX.
    Huawei added: Huawei’s ADN Level 4 solution is a cornerstone of network O&M in the company’s latest AI-centric network solution. Huawei will further improve the ADN Level 4 solution based on the telecom foundation model and other crucial technologies, prioritizing high-value scenarios in three key areas, including network maintenance, user experience optimization, and service enablement. We are committed to enabling communications service providers around the world to accelerate their evolution to AN Level 4.
    MWC Barcelona 2025 is held from March 3 to March 6 in Barcelona, Spain. During the event, Huawei will showcase its latest products and solutions at stand 1H50 in Fira Gran Via Hall 1. In 2025, commercial 5G-Advanced deployment will accelerate, and AI will help carriers reshape business, infrastructure, and O&M. Huawei is actively working with carriers and partners around the world to accelerate the transition towards an intelligent world. For more information, please visit: https://carrier.huawei.com/en/events/mwc2025

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya Announces Khelo India Para Games 2025; Top Paralympians to Compete in Para Games

    Source: Government of India

    Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya Announces Khelo India Para Games 2025; Top Paralympians to Compete in Para Games

    Paris 2024 gold medallists Harvinder Singh (archery) and Dharambir (club thrower) will be among 1230 athletes set to play in KIPG from March 20-27

    Posted On: 05 MAR 2025 6:28PM by PIB Delhi

    Several international para athletes will be seen in action at the upcoming Khelo India Para Games scheduled to be held in New Delhi from March 20-27, said Union Minister of youth Affairs & Sports, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya.

    This will be the second edition of the Khelo India Para Games. The first edition was also held in Delhi in December 2023. Around 1230 para athletes will compete in six disciplines in the upcoming KIPG 2025, many of them medallists from 2024 Paris Paralympics and the 2022 Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, China.

    Competitions in KIPG 2025 will be held in para archery, para athletics, para badminton, para powerlifting, para shooting and para table tennis. In the first edition, football (cerebral palsy) was also played.

    The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium will host the para athletics, para archery, para powerlifting disciplines from 21st to 26th March, while IG Stadium complex will stage the para badminton and para table tennis events from 20th to 27th March. Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range will host the para shooting events from 21st to 25th March.

    Prominent among them will be gold medal winners Harvinder Singh (archery), Dharambir (club throw) and Praveen Kumar (high jump). India finished with a record 29 medals at Paris 2024. Seven of those medals were golds. Twenty-five Khelo India athletes were part of the 84-member Indian contingent at Paris Paralympics. Five of them returned with medals from Paris.

    Para sport is a priority area for the government of India. No less than 52 para athletes are in the Target Olympic Podium Scheme core group for the 2028 LA Olympics cycle. “The phenomenal rise of our para athletes is a huge inspiration to sportspersons at large. This ‘can do’ attitude is really motivating and I am sure we will see some great performances at the upcoming Khelo India Para Games,” Dr Mandaviya.

    In 2025, the Khelo India Para Games will be the second national event conducted by the Sports Authority of India after the Khelo India Winter Games, the first part of which was held in Ladakh in January and the concluding portion scheduled in Gulmarg, Jammu & Kashmir from March 9-12.

    ABOUT KHELO INDIA PARA GAMES

    Khelo India Para Games is part of the Khelo India mission to provide a platform for talented athletes to showcase their sporting and competitive skills. The 1st edition of Khelo India Para Games, held in December 2023, was organized to enable para athletes to showcase their talent at the national level. The Games were played in seven sports disciplines across three venues in New Delhi. The second edition of KIPG, also to be held in the capital in March 2025, will be held in six sports.

    ****

    Himanshu Pathak

    (Release ID: 2108559) Visitor Counter : 54

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Answer to a written question – Global coal use at an all-time high as China tops international coal consumption rankings – P-000033/2025(ASW)

    Source: European Parliament

    The decarbonisation of energy systems is a key element of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reductions. At COP28 in 2023 in Dubai[1], parties agreed, among others, to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems.

    In the EU, the electricity used to power electric vehicles is increasingly produced from renewable sources. As a result, the amount of GHG emitted per unit of electricity has halved between 1990 and 2023, and emissions are set to decrease further. These developments will be reflected in the carbon footprint of products, as required by EU legislation[2].

    The EU does not have a trade agreement with China. The Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) concluded in principle in 2020 is put on hold.

    The Commission decided not to put the agreement to ratification when China sanctioned Members of the European Parliament, the Subcommittee on human rights, think tanks, and the Political and Security Committee of the Council.

    Those sanctions are still in place. To encourage China to decarbonise swiftly and peak their emissions before 2030, the EU continues to engage bilaterally under the High-Level Environment and Climate Dialogue, and the Energy Dialogue.

    On 26 February 2025, the Commission adopted a Clean Industrial Deal[3] to accelerate the decarbonisation of EU industry while strengthening its competitiveness. In addition, the Affordable Energy Action Plan[4] will help reduce energy costs while strengthening EU’s industrial base.

    Further, the Global Energy Transition Forum[5], launched by the President of the Commission in 2025 in Davos, seeks to unlock new clean energy investments opportunities for EU business abroad.

    In parallel, the Commission works to ensure that the EU continues playing a leading role in energy and climate diplomacy.

    • [1] Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
    • [2] As required by Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2023 concerning batteries and waste batteries, amending Directive 2008/98/EC and Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 and repealing Directive 2006/66/EC, http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1542/oj; or by implementing legislation under Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2024 establishing a framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for sustainable products, amending Directive (EU) 2020/1828 and Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 and repealing Directive 2009/125/EC (Text with EEA relevance), http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1781/oj
    • [3] https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/9db1c5c8-9e82-467b-ab6a-905feeb4b6b0_en?filename=Communication%20-%20Clean%20Industrial%20Deal_en.pdf
    • [4] The Plan has been announced most recently in the EU Competitiveness Compass: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_25_339
    • [5] https://energy.ec.europa.eu/news/president-von-der-leyen-launches-global-energy-transition-forum-davos-2025-01-23_en

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Chairman Wicker Leads SASC Hearing on Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Nominee Elbridge Colby

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Mississippi Roger Wicker

    WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today chaired a hearing reviewing the nomination of Mr. Elbridge A. Colby to be Under Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Department of Defense.

    In his opening statement, Chairman Wicker raised the need for a program of rapid reform at the Pentagon to improve deterrence against the complex threat environment posted by China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. Chairman Wicker noted that Mr. Colby shares a common understanding of the dangerous security situation in the Western Pacific. Wicker also commended Colby’s exhortations to improve the defense industrial base.

    In examining Colby’s previous writings, however, Chairman Wicker noted the importance of remaining active in multiple theaters where threats against American national security have manifested, and asked Colby to offer his grand strategic vision for the U.S. in years ahead. Chairman Wicker also asked Colby to comment on his major reports to rebuild the military and reform the Pentagon as well, which Colby offered strong concurrence with.

    “Senator…I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing [your Peace Through Strength plan], and I think we’re keying off exactly. And I am a big supporter of that kind of perspective: restoring American strength, industrial might, and getting our allies to do more, which seems to me is also the perspective of the president and the Secretary of Defense…part of that plan [for deterrence] is greater resources, like, Mr. Chairman, you have advocated for,” Colby said. “I commit to advocating for the higher defense levels that I think are consistent with what our security dictates.”

    Read Senator Wicker’s hearing opening statement as delivered below.

    The hearing will come to order.

    Thank you all for being here this morning. The committee meets to consider the nomination of Mr. Elbridge Colby to be Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.

    I want to thank Mr. Colby for his willingness to serve again. I want to thank his wife, Susanna, and their children for being here today. It also says a lot that Mr. Colby will be introduced today by two distinguished friends: Vice President JD Vance and Senator Banks.

    We are informed that the vice president is in traffic, and so after consulting to my right and left, we will proceed again because there are time constraints. And when the vice president arrives – I think he’ll be arriving just in time, so proceeding on.

    If confirmed, Mr. Colby would oversee the developments of policy and strategy for the Department of Defense. He would assume these responsibilities during the most dangerous security environment since World War II. The deepening military cooperation between China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea represents a complex and far-reaching set of threats. These threats demand a generational investment to revitalize America’s military strength. They demand rapid Pentagon reform. And they demand a fresh look at strategies needed to achieve our national security objectives.

    The American people need to understand what is at stake. We should help the country appreciate the risks imposed to our way of life. Beijing is leading an emerging alliance of countries with one clear objective: to use their economic and military power to tear down the United States and impose their will on global affairs. The new Axis of Aggressors is a greater menace than we have faced in decades.

    Under Xi Jinping’s leadership the Chinese Communist Party has undertaken one of the largest and most aggressive military buildups in history. Their speed has been astounding. In just a few short years, China has built more nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles than the U.S. has in decades. They have tested orbital bombardment weapons and unveiled what may be the world’s first sixth-generation fighter aircraft. China possesses a ship building capacity over 230 times that of the United States – over 230 times. That’s almost inconceivable.

    Over three years ago, Vladimir Putin launched the first invasion of a European country since World War II. He has barraged the Ukrainian people with constant missile and drone attacks. The Kremlin has developed a variety of new weapons capabilities, including nuclear-armed satellites. Meanwhile Russia actively provides enriched uranium to China to support Beijing’s nuclear buildup. Putin has also been suspected of aiding North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

    Moving on to North Korea, nuclear arsenal there continues to advance unchecked. Kim Jong-Un has been aiding Russia’s war machine as it terrorizes Europe. Pyongyang’s missiles could soon be capable of overwhelming our defenses – North Korea’s – especially if reports of Russian assistance are accurate.

    In the Middle East, Israel has successfully crippled Iran’s proxies in the region, but these setbacks may spur Tehran to take the final step: to build a nuclear weapon, permanently altering the balance of power in that region.

    Few really understand how this axis of aggressors is working to make Americans less safe. If confirmed, I hope Mr. Colby can help Secretary Hegseth as he makes sure the public sees these threats for what they are.

    During Secretary Hegseth’s hearing, I spoke about the importance of building a motivated and highly competent team of professionals at the Pentagon. In this regard Mr. Colby is certainly qualified for the role to which President Trump has nominated him.

    For more than two decades, he has worked on defense policy. Mr. Colby previously served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary Defense for Strategy and Force Development. In that role, Mr. Colby played a pivotal role in the formulation of the 2018 National Defense Strategy – the first real strategy in years. His leadership was crucial in helping the United States articulate the need for a new defense posture, one focused on strategic competition with China and Russia, and the overdue modernization of our military.

    Mr. Colby and I have been ringing the same bell on military unpreparedness for years, particularly as it relates to China. This committee would echo exhortations on defense policy in the Western Pacific. We should make Taiwan a porcupine and Taipei is sprinting in that direction. We should build a larger US military footprint in East Asia, and we should accelerate the most important weapons programs to deter China.

    President Trump has made it clear that he intends to rebuild the military and reform the Pentagon. He campaigned on peace through strength. We all want to keep America safe and prosperous. To secure that peace, we will enable a Golden Age for America, but we do not now have the strength that can guarantee us the peace.

    Given the threat environment facing us, I strongly believe that we cannot simply pivot our attention and resources from one threat to another. That is an approach the Obama administration tried, and it did fail. We must be focused and strategic, but we need to be clear Beijing sees its fight against America as a global fight.

    Beijing is not pivoting between theaters or among theaters. Significant American withdrawal in Europe, Africa, South America, or the Middle East will allow the Chinese Communist Party to overcome us strategically, even if we are able to prevent military conflict in East Asia in the near term.

    In the past few weeks, President Trump has killed five top Al-Qaeda and ISIS terrorists. Good for him. He’s green lit more aggressive campaigning against the Houthis, and promised to support Israel to the hilt. All these policies are in line with the president’s desire for lasting peace and prosperity in the United States, and Mr. Colby, I’m sure that is your desire too.

    Now, Mr. Colby, your views on each theater have seemingly evolved since 2018, and I’m sure there’ll be discussions about that which are worth exploring. It goes without saying that the elephant in this hearing room today is the recent developments with regard to Ukraine and Russia and this administration.

    I was disappointed and dismayed as I watched the televised meeting involving the President of the United States and President Zelenskyy. And I was distressed that the White House meeting ended without the signing of the minerals agreement, which was there to be signed, as I understand it.

    This was followed by a television appearance by President Zelenskyy, and then a visit to some of our friends in Europe, where there’s much concern about the failure of that agreement to be signed.

    It was also followed that weekend by Mr. Putin’s continued barrage of attacking apartments, civilian targets, and other areas in Ukraine. Not a good weekend for peace in Ukraine or world peace.

    The president is trying to get a peace deal in Ukraine, and I certainly hope we’ll be able to get this back on the rails. I would like to hear your views on the potential there. Your views on President Trump’s crystal-clear Iran policy seem to have hardened considerably, yet your views on Taiwan’s importance to the United States seems to have softened considerably. I hope we can clarify those views today. And your views on the relevance of nuclear weapons in the next decade remain unclear to me. I would appreciate your comments on each of those issues.

    Mr. Colby, you’ve spoken frequently to audiences who are skeptical of the idea that U.S, peace and prosperity require us to wield U.S. power abroad. I’m grateful that you have led those discussions that U.S. foreign policy professionals do not like having. I expect your points on the limits of U.S. power remain nuanced, and complimentary to the president’s peace through strength agenda. And it will be crystal clear that you will speak for the president in this regard.

    If you’re focused on finding innovative ways to blend America’s comparative advantages in this global fight against Chinese Communists, then I strongly believe you will be a boon to the president and to the United States of America. I’d like to hear your strategic vision for the next four years. I’d like to hear your comments on the plans I have released for rebuilding and reforming the military. In confirming Secretary Hegseth, we charged him with focusing on four guiding principles as he assumed office: lethality, efficiency, speed, and accountability. I also appreciate the ease of access that he and I have had in conversations with each other since his confirmation.

    As Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, I’d like to know how you plan to execute in these four areas to support President Trump’s peace through strength agenda. So, thank you very much for being here, we look forward to your testimony, and I now recognize Ranking Member Reed for his opening remarks.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Former Bank Employee Pleads Guilty to Role in International Money Laundering Conspiracy

    Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (b)

    BOSTON – A Brooklyn, N.Y. man pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston in connection with his role in a sophisticated international money laundering and drug trafficking organization.

    Rongjian Li, 38, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley scheduled sentencing for June 5, 2025.

    In May 2023, Li was among 12 individuals from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and California charged in a superseding indictment for their alleged involvement in a sophisticated international money laundering and drug trafficking organization led by Jin Hua Zhang. The investigation revealed that, for a fee, Zhang laundered bulk cash for drug dealers and laundered profits from other illegal businesses. In less than a year, Zhang and his organization laundered at least $25 million worth of drug proceeds and funds from other illegal businesses through undercover agents. Funds were eventually traced to, and seized from, accounts in Hong Kong and elsewhere in China, India, Cambodia and Brazil, among other locations.

    The investigation identified Li as a member of the money laundering conspiracy who, from 2021 through 2022, used his position as a Bank of America employee to knowingly open several accounts through which the organization laundered illicit funds. Li was also aware that some of the accounts were opened using fraudulent passports. As part of his involvement, when the bank’s financial auditing systems flagged or froze accounts for suspicious activity, Li helped Zhang circumvent the bank’s anti-money laundering protocols and move illicit funds elsewhere. In addition, Li was observed sitting next to Zhang at a dinner in New York, where Zhang discussed the different fee percentages he charged various criminal groups for drug trafficking and scams.

    Zhang pleaded guilty in September 2023 and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 15, 2025.

    The charge of money laundering conspiracy provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $500,000, or twice the amount involved, whichever is greater. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

    United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher Pohl, Brian A. Fogerty and Meghan C. Cleary of the Criminal Division are prosecuting the case.

    The details contained in the indictment are allegations. The remaining defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Growing Trump-Putin detente could spell trouble for the Arctic

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Duncan Depledge, Senior Lecturer in Geopolitics and Security, Loughborough University

    vitstudio/Shutterstock

    During a wide-ranging 90-minute speech to the US congress of March 4, Donald Trump revisited his determination to “get” Greenland “one way or the other”. Trump said his country needed Greenland “for national security”. While he said he and his government “strongly support your right to determine your own future” he added that “if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America”.

    Trump’s ambitions regarding Greenland and its considerable mineral wealth are just one of a raft of issues in the first six weeks of his second term that have plunged European global politics into disarray.

    As the White House ramps up the pressure on Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to allow the US access to Ukraine’s mineral wealth, the US president is also talking about “cutting a deal” with Russian president Vladimir Putin. That deal would not only mean territorial losses for Kyiv, but would prepare the ground for a potentially far-reaching economic partnership between the White House and the Kremlin.

    Currently, Trump and Putin are primarily focused on Ukrainian territory and mineral assets. But discussions have also begun on where else “deals” might be made, including in the Arctic.

    A carve up of the Arctic is an attractive proposition for the two countries given the importance both leaders attach to mineral resource wealth. As in the case of Ukraine, such an approach would reflect Trump’s predisposition for transactional geopolitics at the expense of multilateral approaches.

    In the Arctic, any deal would effectively end the principle of “circumpolar cooperation”. This has, since the end of the cold war, upheld the regional primacy of the eight Arctic states (A8) that have cooperated to solve common challenges.

    Since the Arctic Council was established in 1996, the A8 has worked on issues of environmental protection, sustainable development, human security and scientific collaboration. That harmony has been crucial in an era in which climate change is causing the rapid melting of Arctic ice.

    Notably, the Arctic Council played an instrumental role in negotiating several legally binding treaties. These include agreements on search and rescue (2011), marine oil pollution preparedness (2013) and scientific cooperation (2017). It also supported the Central Arctic Ocean fisheries agreement (CAO) signed in 2018 by the Arctic Ocean states with Iceland, the EU, China, Japan and South Korea.

    The Arctic Council – and more broadly, circumpolar cooperation – withstood the geopolitical aftershocks of Russia’s seizure of Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine between 2014 and 2015. But Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine left trust teetering on the precipice.

    Within a month, European and North American members had pressed pause on regular meetings of the Arctic Council and its scientific working groups, isolating Moscow. Some activity eventually resumed at the working group level in virtual formats, but full engagement with Russia has remained conditional on a military withdrawal from Ukraine. Meanwhile, hefty sanctions were imposed by the US and Europe, including targeting Russian Arctic energy projects.

    Russia’s response was to enhance its relationships with others. Countries such as Brazil, India, Turkey and Saudi Arabia now work with Russia in the Arctic on commercial and scientific projects. This pivot raised concerns among Nato allies about a stronger and challenging Russia-China presence across the Arctic. But the second Trump administration has changed the calculus. There’s now the threat of a new Arctic order based on the primacy – not of the A8 – but on a reset of US-Russia relations.

    Change of focus

    Trump’s signing of an executive order on February 4 to determine whether to withdraw support from international institutions may lead the White House to conclude there is no place for the Arctic Council. Its longstanding focus on climate change and environmental protection is anathema to the Trump administration, which has already withdrawn from the Paris agreement and is destroying domestic climate-related science programmes.

    Climate change is bringing increased competition for access to valuable resources.
    Peter Hermes Furian/Shutterstock

    The longstanding commitment of the A8 to circumpolar cooperation, or even a narrow A5 (Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the US) view of the primacy of the Arctic Ocean coastal states, is likely to be dismissed by the White House, which favours the embrace of great power politics. While many have warned that the Arctic Council can’t survive without Russia, losing US interest and support would surely be its death knell.

    In this landscape of “America first”, the prospect of Washington and Moscow dividing the Arctic and its resources seems increasingly realistic. In such a situation, the international treaties signed by the A8, and the CAO may also be at risk. Denmark may find itself excluded altogether from Arctic affairs if Trump gets his way over Greenland. At any rate, all the Nordic Arctic states are likely to struggle to make their voices in the region heard.

    A key question for European Nato and EU members is whether Trump would worry about Russian dominance in the European Arctic if it brought US-Russia economic cooperation to extract the region’s wealth? Might Trump even be supportive of Russian attempts to revisit the terms of the 1920 Spitsbergen Treaty, which ultimately gave Norway sovereignty over the Arctic archipelago (albeit with some limitations), if that too meant jointly unlocking Svalbard’s mineral resources let alone the wealth of the Arctic seabed?

    What room, if any, would a deal leave for Indigenous people to be heard, or for international scientific collaboration on critical challenges related to climate and biodiversity?

    If we have learned anything in the tumult of recent weeks, it is that European countries, individually and collectively, struggle to exercise strategic influence over contemporary geopolitical events. If Trump and Putin do begin negotiations over the Arctic, Europe may simply have to accept the end of the Arctic Council and circumpolar cooperation.

    Climate science, environmental protection, sustainable development and the ability of Indigenous people to decide their future would all suffer. The UK and Europe meanwhile will be left to consider what, if anything, can be done to defend Arctic interests.

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

    – ref. Growing Trump-Putin detente could spell trouble for the Arctic – https://theconversation.com/growing-trump-putin-detente-could-spell-trouble-for-the-arctic-251386

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Trump’s Dismantling of USAID is Anarchy Masquerading as Efficiency

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Hawaii Brian Schatz
    Nothing about Donald Trump’s hasty and illegal attempted dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)—and with it, the decapitation of American power—is remotely efficient. Just this week, USAID’s now-former Inspector General found that there is currently half a billion dollars’ worth of American-grown food stranded at ports and warehouses across the country, on the verge of spoiling. That’s corn and rice and lentils and soybeans, grown in Iowa and Kansas and Texas and Oklahoma, that would have otherwise fed children in a school in Bangladesh or famished refugees at a camp in war-torn Sudan. (The Inspector General was subsequently fired for disclosing this information.)
    Similarly, there’s no efficiency being achieved by obstructing one of the most successful global health programs in history—the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief—which has saved 26 million lives over the past two decades. PEPFAR currently provides HIV treatment to over 20 million people around the world, meaning every day aid isn’t flowing inches us closer to the very outbreaks we’ve worked so hard to prevent.
    Whether it’s delivering clean water to communities across Africa; or promoting economic development through education in Mali and small business support in El Salvador; or providing life-saving care in Thailand and Syria; or fighting human trafficking in Nepal and Liberia, thousands of USAID workers and contractors make miracles big and small happen every day.
    But USAID succeeds as more than just a moral matter. Each year, it pours billions of dollars back into the U.S. economy, supporting farmers and businesses that provide food and other supplies. It also helps fight terrorist groups and drug cartels that endanger Americans, while deepening American values and interests in every corner of the globe. But perhaps the most underappreciated aspect of USAID’s work is its singular ability to forge relationships with unlikely partners which help combat the harmful influence of adversaries like China and Russia.
    It’s no surprise, then, that Beijing and Moscow are now cheering on our sudden retreat. They’re not wasting any time filling the void, either. Within days of USAID’s closure, China sent aid and dispatched workers to take on projects we’ve abandoned in the Indo Pacific and Africa. Intended or not, that will be the enduring consequence of this episode of chaos: an emboldened China, all-too-eager to exploit American isolation to grow its own power and influence.
    Like any organization, USAID is not perfect. There are inefficiencies and redundancies, and evolving challenges and emerging technologies present opportunities for improvement. It’s also entirely legitimate to question whether U.S. funding is aligned with our current priorities and interests and seek to adjust it as needed within the four corners of the law. Doing that is one of Congress’ most fundamental responsibilities—and something I was eager to work on when I became the lead Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee overseeing foreign aid last month.
    But the abrupt and total shutdown of USAID—in defiance of multiple federal laws through which it was codified and funded—reveals a simple truth: The Department of Government Efficiency is not actually about achieving efficiency. Rather, it’s about Trump trying to wish away whichever parts of the government he doesn’t like. Were a purge of this nature to happen in a country halfway around the world, we would rightly call it an authoritarian takeover. The fact that it’s happening at our own doorstep doesn’t change that.
    Much of what DOGE claims to have newly unearthed are either outright lies or were already publicly available for all to see. Worse, there’s no telling what funding they deem unnecessary—except for vague, baseless descriptions like “woke” and “radical” and “criminal.”
    The way to make reforms is through the lawmaking process—not the lawbreaking process. If you believe that a program needs to be narrowed in scope, reformed a great deal, or even eliminated altogether, the way to do that is by proposing a law—not by rampaging the federal government and stripping it for parts. Our government with three separate but co-equal branches exists precisely to prevent this kind of anarchy operating under a thin veneer of fiscal responsibility and shrewd cost-cutting.
    Moving fast and breaking things may be an acceptable way to conduct business at a tech company. But a break now, fix later strategy doesn’t work when you’re the leader of the free world. What’s on the line is not advertising revenue and the user experience, but lives and livelihoods. Hundreds of millions of them, in fact. People will die, diseases will spread, and famine will grow. Trump is trying to hoodwink Americans into thinking the only way to achieve efficiency is by exacting maximum chaos and cruelty. It’s a false choice and we must reject it.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Schatz Condemns Trump’s Illegal Dismantling Of USAID As Internal Memos Warn Of Millions Of Deaths, Global Humanitarian Catastrophe

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Hawaii Brian Schatz
    WASHINGTON — During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing today, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, called attention to President Donald Trump’s unlawful efforts to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), warning that it puts millions of lives and American interests at risk.
    “Because we haven’t had Secretary Rubio here to talk about the evisceration of USAID, it is important for everybody to understand exactly what happened,” said Senator Schatz. “The so-called Department of Government Efficiency had said that they’re going to feed USAID to the woodchipper. That does not sound like a good faith review.”
    Citing USAID’s own internal memos, Schatz outlined the dire consequences of Trump’s closure of the agency, including up to 18 million additional cases of malaria per year leading to as many as 166,000 deaths; 200,000 children paralyzed with polio annually with hundreds of millions of infections; a million children left without treatment for severe malnutrition each year; and more than 28,000 new cases of deadly diseases like Ebola and Marburg annually.
    “Does the United States of America, under any president, support 18 million additional cases of malaria? Is that who we’ve become? Is that America first?” Senator Schatz continued. “We’re going to disagree about a lot in the foreign policy space, but we should not disagree about abiding by the law. We should not disagree that babies, when we can prevent it, should not get HIV/AIDS from their moms. I am just hoping, I am praying, I am begging that we can get back to a bipartisan consensus that we don’t cut off our nose to spite our face. We are the good guys. We do not cause death on purpose.”
    The full text of Senator Schatz’s remarks is below. Video is available here.
    I’ve been in the Senate for more than ten years. Only one other time, I’ve not asked a question. I’m not going to ask a question. I think it’s very important that all of us, because we haven’t had Secretary Rubio here to talk about the evisceration of USAID, it is important for everybody to understand exactly what happened.
    I’m just going to lay out the facts here. First of all, it’s important to understand that the so-called Department of Government Efficiency had said that they’re going to feed USAID to the woodchipper. That does not sound like a good faith review. They said it was going to be a 90-day review. And then when a federal court said that they had to not violate the Foreign Assistance Act and the appropriations law and the Prompt Payments Act and the Impoundment Act, they came back, and they eliminated 5,800 programs at AID and another 4,000 at State. Flatly illegal.
    Any administration is within their rights, maybe even obliged, to review and reform spending. The way to review and reform spending is in this building. Senator Graham, the chairman of the SFOPS committee, and myself, as the ranking member of the SFOPS committee, had a very constructive conversation about how to better align the State Department’s objectives with USAID’s objectives.
    And by the way, this has been a bipartisan complaint over many, many administrations that they are not sufficiently aligned and that we’re not targeting economic assistance, foreign military financing, and humanitarian aid as precisely as we ought to. And maybe even that some of the NGOs and for-profits that deliver the aid ought to be held accountable, just like in the Defense Department, just like any other department for reducing their overhead costs.
    I said, ‘I’m in.’ Two days later, they send 94% of employees home. Secretary Rubio reassures us multiple times, most of us on this committee on a bipartisan basis, ‘Don’t worry, there’s a waiver process.’ There is a waiver process. The problem is the building is shut down and nobody has access to their emails. You cannot process a waiver for life-saving humanitarian aid with no personnel.
    And so if there is an effort to reform USAID, to tighten up what it is that we do, to make sure that… and everybody, by the way, has, since I got on this committee and before, everybody talks about how smart China is for having Belt and Road, for making friends across the planet and how cheap it is to do this kind of diplomacy compared to the Department of Defense.
    And we admire that, and we ponder it, and we say we should do our own version of that. That’s USAID. It’s also parts of the State Department. And so I am all in for a 90-day review. But I just want everybody to understand what is happening now. A, what is happening is illegal. It is violating the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998. It is violating the Impoundment Control Act, and it is violating annual appropriations bills. So first of all, it’s illegal.
    Second of all. According to USAID’s own internal memos, this closure will result in up to 18 million additional cases of malaria per year. Because of the United States’ illegal decision to shutter this agency. I can’t believe that this has taken on some sort of partisan vibe. Does the United States of America, under any president, support 18 million additional cases of malaria? Is that who we’ve become? Is that America first?
    We’re going to disagree about a lot in the foreign policy space, but we should not disagree about abiding by the law. We should not disagree that babies, when we can prevent it, should not get HIV/AIDS from their moms. And we should not disagree about a basic premise of foreign policy and the exercise of American might, which is: sometimes the smartest thing for us to do is to show up with help. We have been doing this on a bipartisan basis, and we have to get back to that.
    This idea of a waiver process is fine, except it’s not working. This idea of a 90 day review is fine, except in the meantime, we’ve eviscerated the program. And so I understand none of you are in the government. But I am just hoping, I am praying, I am begging that we can get back to a bipartisan consensus that we don’t cut off our nose to spite our face. We are the good guys. We do not cause death on purpose.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Methane emissions are turbocharging climate change – these quick fixes could slow it down

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Euan Nisbet, Professor of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London

    Rotting food is a major source of world-warming methane. Roman Mikhailiuk/Shutterstock

    The biggest challenge to limiting climate change to 2°C, the upper target of the 2015 Paris agreement, is this: methane emissions are rising very fast.

    Methane is a greenhouse gas that, molecule for molecule, traps heat in the atmosphere more effectively than carbon dioxide, though over a much shorter timescale (decades versus centuries). Reducing emissions of methane to the atmosphere could drastically slow the rate at which Earth’s climate is warming.

    Unfortunately, a warmer and wetter atmosphere is already causing wetlands to make more methane and so exacerbate climate change. This feedback loop makes the task of cutting methane from sources under our immediate control, like agriculture, more urgent. The good news is, my colleagues and I showed that there are lots of ways we can do this in a recent study.

    Each year, about 600 million tonnes of methane are emitted to the air, very roughly 40% from natural sources and 60% from human activities. Of this latter portion, fossil fuels contribute 120-130 million tonnes. This is methane that leaks from gas pipelines, coal mines and oil wells. There has at least been some progress towards controlling these leaks: new satellite technology has excelled at finding them, while 159 countries have pledged to cut emissions by 30% by 2030.

    In contrast, roughly 210-250 million tonnes of methane come from agriculture and its products, but these emissions are much tougher to tackle. It’s easier to spot a leaky gas well from space than farm leaks that are collectively large but individually small.

    These sources include the breath of livestock animals and their manure (roughly 120 million tonnes), rice fields (about 30 million tonnes), crop waste fires (about 20 million tonnes) and organic matter rotting in landfills (about 70 million tonnes).

    Shrinking the number of animals reared for food would benefit the climate.
    Andreas Bayer/Shutterstock

    Since 2000, the UK has slashed total methane emissions, especially by covering landfills and piping out gas, but farming emissions, from manure stores for instance, have hardly changed. The methane is made by methanogens, which are microbes that live in oxygen-poor environments, like the stomachs of cows, and biodigesters (which grow bacteria to convert organic waste into fertiliser, oils and gas) and landfills.

    If the UK cuts its own agricultural emissions by importing more food from tropical nations like Brazil it may still increase climate damage on a global scale. The problem is a global one, and very few countries are successfully reducing methane emissions from farming.

    Where there’s muck, there’s methane

    Cows, pigs and chickens make vast amounts of manure. In the US, Europe and East Asia, manure is often kept in big tanks or lagoons. These are usually under covers, but still release a lot of methane.

    Gas-tight coverings can prevent this, and the captured methane can be harvested and then burned to generate electricity. This still produces CO₂, but the warming impact is smaller, while the electricity can replace new natural gas in the national grid.

    The remaining slurry can be turned into fertiliser. Though it’s not commercially feasible now, it may one day be possible to turn it into aviation fuel.

    Biodigesters are becoming common in towns and on farms, but are often very leaky. Methane doesn’t smell, but if a biodigester is releasing other gases that stink, it’s probably also releasing methane. Leaks are easily controlled but much tighter regulation is needed to ensure this happens.

    Most of the world’s cattle are in India, Africa and South America. In large parts of the tropics, rain-fed crops aren’t enough to sustain people. The difference is made up by meat and milk from cows and goats that browse trees and bushes and graze seasonal grasses.

    Smaller herds can produce the same amount of food if cattle diseases are reduced. Bovine mastitis, East Coast fever and African trypanosomiasis can be vaccinated against, for example and agricultural experts in India have even used artificial insemination to make more calves female, and so slash dairy cattle numbers. It’s possible to give drugs to cattle to reduce methane emissions, but poor countries would struggle to cover the expense.

    Rice paddies emit methane, but rice is essential for nutrition, especially in East and South Asia, and increasingly in Africa. Flooding paddies only when and for how long it is needed during the year may cut emissions by as much as a quarter.

    In China, India, Africa and many parts of the US and Europe, landfills are major methane emitters. This is where wasted food ends up. But as the UK has shown, emissions can be sharply reduced by good landfill design and gas extraction.

    Simply adding a metre of soil to the surface of a landfill creates habitat for methane-eating bacteria, and also prevents landfill fires, which are very common in Africa and India. Still inexpensive is putting a plastic liner between the waste and soil and inserting pipes to extract gas that can generate electricity.

    The widespread burning of crop waste that pollutes skies in India and tropical Africa has terrible consequences for human health, but it also includes methane emissions that contribute to climate change.

    After a harvest, farmers may burn crop residues to cheaply prepare the land for future cultivation.
    RGtimeline/Shutterstock

    Crop waste fires were once a major source of air pollution in the UK and Europe. Today they are minimal thanks to better farming practice and straw processing. To cut burning, farmers need good advice, good management, good regulation and targeted financial help.

    Cutting agricultural methane emissions involves a wide range of relatively cheap measures that need good design and management, but could cut food-related emissions substantially over the next decade. High on the list should be tackling landfills and crop waste fires in India and Africa. In the US, Europe and China, it is manure storage facilities and biodigesters. With determination and inexpensive financial carrots and sticks, much could be accomplished.

    Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 40,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

    Euan Nisbet is an honorary fellow of Darwin College at the University of Cambridge. He is a member of the science panel of the UN International Methane Emissions Observatory.

    – ref. Methane emissions are turbocharging climate change – these quick fixes could slow it down – https://theconversation.com/methane-emissions-are-turbocharging-climate-change-these-quick-fixes-could-slow-it-down-246192

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Academic freedom and democracy under siege: how a Nobel peace prize could help defend them

    Source: The Conversation – France – By Stéphanie Balme, Director, CERI (Centre de recherches internationales), Sciences Po

    A rally for science drew a big crowd during the American Geophysical Union’s meeting in San Francisco. MarcioJoseSanchez/AP, CC BY

    March 7 has been recognized as the “Day of the Stand Up for Science Movement”, launched in 2017 in response to the anti-science actions of the first Trump administration. Under the second, attacks on scientists and scientific inquiry have escalated into a systematic assault–tantamount to a coup d’Etat against science itself.

    While Donald Trump is often portrayed as erratic, his policies in this area have followed a consistent trajectory. His new administration has once again declared ‘war’ on evidence-based national policymaking and science diplomacy in foreign affairs as evidenced by several early actions. Immediately after taking office, Donald Trump issued executive orders freezing or canceling tens of billions in research funding. All National Science Foundation projects have been halted pending review, while the National Institutes of Health faces suspensions under Health and Human Services directives. The US has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement and the World Health Organization, alongside a sweeping review of 90% of USAID-funded projects, signaling a major retreat from climate and global health diplomacy. Federal agencies and universities are in turmoil, leaving thousands of research-professors in limbo amid a politically driven funding freeze. The 2025 March simply calls for the restoration of federal research funding and an end to government censorship and political interference in science.

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    The US is the world’s undisputed scientific superpower–for now

    While the Trump administration is not the sole force undermining academia worldwide, its actions are particularly striking coming from the world’s leading scientific superpower. Moreover, the situation is especially concerning because developments in the United States often have a ripple effect, shaping policies in other regions in the years that follow.

    Neither of the world’s top two scientific superpowers–Washington and Beijing–is positioned to champion academic freedom. China, having failed a liberal constitutional tradition and academic independence since the 1920s, restricts academic freedom to the confines of one-party rule. Caught between these rival scientific giants–both partners and competitors–the “old” Europe and like-minded coutries remain the only actors capable of setting new standards for academic freedom.

    A Nobel prize for academic freedom

    A decisive step toward its legal protection would be formal recognition by the Nobel Committees for Peace and Science of academic freedom’s fundamental role–both in ensuring scientific excellence and as a pillar of free, democratic societies.

    For the past decade, the Scholars at Risk association (SAR) has documented a broader global decline in academic freedom in its annual Free to Think Report. The 2024 edition highlights particularly alarming situations in 18 countries and territories (including the United States), which recorded 391 attacks on scholars, students, or institutions across 51 regions in a year. Data from the Academic Freedom Index in Berlin confirm that more than half of the world’s population lives in regions where academic freedom is either entirely or severely restricted. Some of the most concerning conditions are in emerging scientific ecosystems such as Turkey, Brazil, Egypt, South Africa, or Saudi Arabia. The overall trend is deteriorating: only 10 out of 179 countries have improved, while many democratic regimes are increasingly affected.

    Academic freedom in the European Union remains relatively high compared to the rest of the world. However, nine EU member states fall below the regional average, and in eight of them, it has declined over the past decade–signaling a gradual erosion of this fundamental value. Hungary ranks the lowest among EU countries, placing in the bottom 20–30% worldwide. Recent laws have further weakened university autonomy across the EU: financial autonomy in Austria, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Slovakia; organizational autonomy in Slovenia, Estonia, and Denmark; staffing autonomy in Croatia and Slovakia; and academic autonomy in Denmark and Estonia. Moreover, the European Parliament’s first report on academic freedom (2023) highlights emerging threats in France–political, educational, and societal–that impact the freedom of research, teaching, and study.

    Academic freedom, a professional right granted to a few for the benefit of all

    Freedom of expression, a fundamental pillar of academic freedom, has long been established as a human right, overcoming centuries of censorship and authoritarian control. In contrast, academic freedom is a more recent principle, granting scholars–recognized by their peers–the right and responsibility to research and teach freely in pursuit of knowledge. Like press freedom for journalists, it is a right granted to a few for the benefit of all.

    Rooted in medieval Europe, academic freedom has evolved from a privilege granted to students in the Quartier Latin to a recognized principle in international rights frameworks. It gained a collective and concrete dimension in the late 18th and early 19th centuries with the rise of the modern university. Wilhelm von Humboldt, founder of the modern public university in Berlin (1810), articulated the concept of ‘freedom of science’ (Wissenschaftsfreiheit), later enshrined in the Weimar Constitution of 1919, which declared that “art, science, and education are free.” The rise of American universities around the same time reshaped the concept, giving rise to “professional academic freedom.” This was formalized in the American Association of University Professors’ 1915 Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, which affirmed the scholar’s primary duty to seek and establish truth. Though its roots lie in Germany, academic freedom ultimately became a cornerstone of American academic discourse.

    In the United States, academic freedom draws from multiple sources, with its protection varying by state laws, customs, institutional practices, and the status of higher education institutions. However, U.S. Supreme Court rulings have gradually reinforced its constitutional foundation, particularly after the McCarthy era, by invoking the First Amendment. Landmark cases such as Adler v. Board of Education (1952), Wieman v. Updegraff (1952), and Sweezy v. New Hampshire (1957) helped establish a constitutional doctrine on academic freedom. Finally, Keyishian v. Board of Regents (1967) extended First Amendment protections to academia, ruling that mandatory loyalty oaths violated both academic freedom and freedom of association.

    Interestingly, the American interpretation of academic freedom is currently more restrictive than the German model in certain respects. Article 5(3) of the 1989 Basic Law affirms the “right to adopt public organizational measures essential to protect a space of freedom, fostering independent scientific activity”. In contrast, the U.S. places greater emphasis on prohibitions and prioritizing individual rights over institutional autonomy.

    The ‘right to be wrong’

    Despite local variations, academic freedom is fundamentally tied to a shared vision of the university that upholds freedom of thought, with rationality and pluralism at its core. It includes the genuine “right to be wrong”–the understanding that a scientific opinion may be incorrect or even proven so does not diminish its protection. This stands in stark contrast to the anti-science, scientistic, or techno-nationalist approach, which views knowledge as a tool of power to serve a predetermined truth and objective of dominance. Authoritarian science, driven by power interests, seeks to diminish critical humanities and social sciences while elevating religion. It tends to reject interdisciplinary work, is exclusively mathematized, and is oriented toward a centralized yet deregulated autocratic tech-utopian state model.

    Since 1945, we have operated under the illusion that academic freedom is an indispensable condition for scientific excellence. However, we have recently learned that no systematic link exists between academic freedom and breakthrough scientific innovation in our era of new technologies. Given these circumstances, this proposal advocates for a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, for the first time in its history, in recognition of academic freedom.

    The Nobel Prize Committees for Science and Peace share the responsibility of using their prestigious platforms to uphold fundamental scientific and democratic values. They are uniquely positioned to champion humanist science, reinforcing its importance for scholars, students, and civil societies worldwide. Since the 1950s, around 90% of Nobel Prize laureates in scientific fields have either been US citizens or have studied and worked at Ivy League research institutions.

    While some US scientists are contesting actions of the Trump administration in court, academics worldwide should stand in solidarity with their American colleagues in resisting the erosion of science. To strengthen their efforts, they require the support of the Nobel Prize Committees.

    Stéphanie Balme ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

    – ref. Academic freedom and democracy under siege: how a Nobel peace prize could help defend them – https://theconversation.com/academic-freedom-and-democracy-under-siege-how-a-nobel-peace-prize-could-help-defend-them-251494

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: French nuclear deterrence for Europe: how effective could it be against Russia?

    Source: The Conversation – France – By Benoît Grémare, Chercheur associé à l’Institut d’Etudes de Stratégie et de Défense, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3

    In February 2020, French President Emmanuel Macron said it was time to reflect on the European dimension of French nuclear deterrence. He proposed a strategic dialogue as well as joint nuclear exercises between European partners. Five years later, Germany’s likely next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, responded to this call, advocating an extension of the French nuclear umbrella to Germany – while a US led by President Donald Trump no longer appears to be a reliable partner for protecting Europe.

    But does France have the capacity to defend Europe? Would the deployment of the French nuclear umbrella in Eastern Europe make Europe strategically autonomous, giving it the means to defend itself independently?

    French nuclear deterrence against the Russian threat

    France originally developed its nuclear arsenal in response to the threat of Soviet invasion and to avoid any dependence on the US. According to a stable doctrine that political leaders regularly reaffirmed, the state [would use] its strategic arsenal by air and submarine in the event of an attack against its vital interests.

    But the fact remains that without US support, the balance of power appears largely unfavourable to France, which has a total of 290 nuclear warheads compared to at least 1,600 deployed warheads and nearly 2,800 stockpiled warheads on the Russian side.

    Certainly, the explosive power of thermonuclear warheads, combined with the range of the French M51 strategic sea-to-land ballistic missile, would make it possible to destroy the main Russian cities, including Moscow.

    However, the Russians would only need “200 seconds to atomise Paris”, according to an estimate given on Russian television about “Satan II” thermonuclear missiles.

    These scenarios recall the spectre of adversaries destroying enemy cities in a piecemeal atomic exchange, in which Russia could rely on its vastness to win through attrition. This potential for reciprocity must be kept in mind amid the mutual bet of nuclear deterrence.

    To boost the impact of French nuclear deterrence, a partnership could be envisaged with the United Kingdom. A nuclear power since 1952, London now only has ballistic missiles launched by submarine and has decided, since Brexit, to increase its arsenal to 260 warheads. But although they share common interests, these two European nuclear powers are not equivalent.

    Unlike the UK, which is a member of NATO’s nuclear planning group and whose warheads are designed in the US, France produces its weapons on its own territory and is not subject to any NATO obligations. This gives Paris a great deal of leeway in defining its doctrine. France can also speak on behalf of the European Union, of which it has been a part since its creation.

    French nuclear power: an alternative to US deterrence

    France officially became an atomic power in 1960 by relying on its own resources, with US support fluctuating according to events. The emergence of an independent French strategic force long annoyed Washington, which sought to restrict it by means of international accords such as the 1963 treaty limiting atmospheric nuclear tests and the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty. Since 1974, the French nuclear force has officially had a specific dissuasive role within NATO, contributing to the overall security of the transatlantic alliance by complicating the calculations of potential adversaries.

    Almost 60 years ago, US president Lyndon Johnson reinforced doubts about the White House’s determination to fully commit to the defence of Europe. Today, Trump’s desire to end US support for Ukraine confirms these suspicions. Consequently, increasingly insistent voices are calling for the acceptance of a French nuclear force that would extend to the European level.

    A French nuclear umbrella in Eastern Europe

    Merz’s call for the French nuclear umbrella to extend to Germany aligns with Paris’s proposal to establish a dialogue involving Europeans in a common approach. As France’s defence minister has pointed out, the precise definition of vital interest is up to its president. However, the use of nuclear weapons to protect Europe requires a strategic discussion to define the power to be acquired, the interests to be defended and the method of nuclear fire command.

    Moving toward a Europeanisation of nuclear force means increasing deterrent capabilities and, therefore, expanding the French arsenal so it can respond to threats affecting all 27 EU member states. This would require the creation of additional stocks of fissile material and the reactivation of production plants in Pierrelatte and Marcoule, which were dismantled in the late 1990s.

    Dogma about what constitutes a sufficient arsenal must also be questioned. If 290 nuclear warheads represent the value that France places on defending its existence, this price seems to neglect the scale of the European continent, and logic confirms it: continent-sized nuclear powers such as the US and Russia – and soon, China – are deploying an arsenal of around 1,000 thermonuclear warheads.

    Ramping up power would take time and require a budgetary effort to increase the number of missiles and carrier aircraft. In addition to the construction of new infrastructure in European partner countries, the cost could exceed €10 billion per year, not including indirect costs related to maintenance and logistics. This is a lot to take into account, especially since the political and strategic offer of extended nuclear protection evolves according to circumstances.

    Until now, Germany preferred that France assume a role that was simply complementary to the extended deterrence of the US, but Washington’s threatened abandonment of Ukraine increases the Russian threat. As Macron has indicated, France could respond by proposing the pre-positioning of its nuclear forces in Eastern European countries with the idea of eventually replacing the US.

    This French nuclear umbrella would give concrete form to European strategic autonomy through the deployment of nuclear-capable combat aircraft, a sign of European political solidarity that would make Moscow’s calculations more difficult.

    The visible presence of these aircraft in Eastern Europe could prevent Russia from attacking countries in the region with conventional means, as such an attack could provoke a French nuclear response on behalf of Europe.

    Benoît Grémare ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

    – ref. French nuclear deterrence for Europe: how effective could it be against Russia? – https://theconversation.com/french-nuclear-deterrence-for-europe-how-effective-could-it-be-against-russia-251512

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Justice Department Charges 12 Chinese Contract Hackers and Law Enforcement Officers in Global Computer Intrusion Campaigns

    Source: US State of California

    Chinese Law Enforcement and Intelligence Services Leveraged China’s Reckless and Indiscriminate Hacker-for-Hire Ecosystem, Including the ‘APT 27’ Group, to Suppress Free Speech and Dissent Globally and to Steal Data from Numerous Organizations Worldwide,

    Note: View the indictments in U.S. v. Wu Haibo et al., U.S. v. Yin Kecheng, U.S. v. Zhou Shuai et al. here.

    The Justice Department, FBI, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and Departments of State and the Treasury announced today their coordinated efforts to disrupt and deter the malicious cyber activities of 12 Chinese nationals, including two officers of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) Ministry of Public Security (MPS), employees of an ostensibly private PRC company, Anxun Information Technology Co. Ltd. (安洵信息技术有限公司) also known as “i-Soon,” and members of Advanced Persistent Threat 27 (APT27).

    These malicious cyber actors, acting as freelancers or as employees of i-Soon, conducted computer intrusions at the direction of the PRC’s MPS and Ministry of State Security (MSS) and on their own initiative. The MPS and MSS paid handsomely for stolen data. Victims include U.S.-based critics and dissidents of the PRC, a large religious organization in the United States, the foreign ministries of multiple governments in Asia, and U.S. federal and state government agencies, including the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) in late 2024.

    “The Department of Justice will relentlessly pursue those who threaten our cybersecurity by stealing from our government and our people,” said Sue J. Bai, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “Today, we are exposing the Chinese government agents directing and fostering indiscriminate and reckless attacks against computers and networks worldwide, as well as the enabling companies and individual hackers that they have unleashed. We will continue to fight to dismantle this ecosystem of cyber mercenaries and protect our national security.”

    “The FBI is committed to protecting Americans from foreign cyber-attacks,” said Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran of the FBI’s Cyber Division. “Today’s announcements reveal that the Chinese Ministry of Public Security has been paying hackers-for-hire to inflict digital harm on Americans who criticize the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). To those victims who bravely came forward with evidence of intrusions, we thank you for standing tall and defending our democracy. And to those who choose to aid the CCP in its unlawful cyber activities, these charges should demonstrate that we will use all available tools to identify you, indict you, and expose your malicious activity for all the world to see.”

    According to court documents, the MPS and MSS employed an extensive network of private companies and contractors in China to hack and steal information in a manner that obscured the PRC government’s involvement. In some cases, the MPS and MSS paid private hackers in China to exploit specific victims. In many other cases, the hackers targeted victims speculatively. Operating from their safe haven and motivated by profit, this network of private companies and contractors in China cast a wide net to identify vulnerable computers, exploit those computers, and then identify information that it could sell directly or indirectly to the PRC government. The result of this largely indiscriminate approach was more worldwide computer intrusion victims, more systems worldwide left vulnerable to future exploitation by third parties, and more stolen information, often of no interest to the PRC government and, therefore, sold to other third-parties. Additional information regarding the indictments and the PRC’s hacker-for-hire ecosystem is available in Public Service Announcements published by the FBI today.

    U.S. v. Wu Haibo et al., Southern District of New York

    Today, a federal court in Manhattan unsealed an indictment charging eight i-Soon employees and two MPS officers for their involvement, from at least in or around 2016 through in or around 2023, in the numerous and widespread hacking of email accounts, cell phones, servers, and websites. The Department also announced today the court-authorized seizure of the primary internet domain used by i-Soon to advertise its business.

    “State-sponsored hacking is an acute threat to our community and national security,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky for the Southern District of New York. “For years, these 10 defendants — two of whom we allege are PRC officials — used sophisticated hacking techniques to target religious organizations, journalists, and government agencies, all to gather sensitive information for the use of the PRC. These charges will help stop these state-sponsored hackers and protect our national security. The career prosecutors of this office and our law enforcement partners will continue to uncover alleged state-sponsored hacking schemes, disrupt them, and bring those responsible to justice.”

    The defendants remain at large and wanted by the FBI. Concurrent with today’s announcement,  the U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program, administered by the Diplomatic Security Service, announced a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of any person who, while acting at the direction or under the control of a foreign government, engages in certain malicious cyber activities against U.S. critical infrastructure in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The reward is offered for the following individuals who are alleged to have worked in various capacities to direct or carry out i-Soon’s malicious cyber activity:

    • Wu Haibo (吴海波), Chief Executive Officer
    • Chen Cheng (陈诚), Chief Operating Officer
    • Wang Zhe (王哲), Sales Director
    • Liang Guodong (梁国栋), Technical Staff
    • Ma Li (马丽), Technical Staff
    • Wang Yan (王堰), Technical Staff
    • Xu Liang (徐梁), Technical Staff
    • Zhou Weiwei (周伟伟), Technical Staff
    • Wang Liyu (王立宇), MPS Officer
    • Sheng Jing (盛晶), MPS Officer

    i-Soon and its employees, to include the defendants, generated tens of millions of dollars in revenue as a key player in the PRC’s hacker-for-hire ecosystem. In some instances, i-Soon conducted computer intrusions at the request of the MSS or MPS, including cyber-enabled transnational repression at the direction of the MPS officer defendants. In other instances, i-Soon conducted computer intrusions on its own initiative and then sold, or attempted to sell, the stolen data to at least 43 different bureaus of the MSS or MPS in at least 31 separate provinces and municipalities in China. i-Soon charged the MSS and MPS between approximately $10,000 and $75,000 for each email inbox it successfully exploited. i-Soon also trained MPS employees how to hack independently of i-Soon and offered a variety of hacking methods for sale to its customers.

    The defendants’ U.S.-located targets included a large religious organization that previously sent missionaries to China and was openly critical of the PRC government and an organization focused on promoting human rights and religious freedom in China. In addition, the defendants targeted multiple news organizations in the United States, including those that have opposed the CCP or delivered uncensored news to audiences in Asia, including China and the New York State Assembly, one of whose representatives had communicated with members of a religious organization banned in China.

    The defendants’ foreign-located targets included a religious leader and his office, and a Hong Kong newspaper that i-Soon considered as being opposed to the PRC government. The defendants also targeted the foreign ministries of Taiwan, India, South Korea, and Indonesia.

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ryan B. Finkel, Steven J. Kochevar, and Kevin Mead for the Southern District of New York and Trial Attorney Gregory J. Nicosia Jr. of the National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section are prosecuting the case.

    U.S. v. Yin Kecheng and U.S. v. Zhou Shuai et al., District of Columbia

    Today, a federal court unsealed two indictments charging APT27 actors Yin Kecheng (尹可成) and Zhou Shuai (周帅) also known as “Coldface” for their involvement in the multi-year, for-profit computer intrusion campaigns dating back, in the case of Yin, to 2013. The Department also announced today court-authorized seizures of internet domains and computer server accounts used by Yin and Zhou to facilitate their hacking activity.

    The defendants remain at large. View the FBI’s Wanted posters for Shuai and Kecheng here.

    Concurrent with today’s announcement, the Department of States 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 convictions, in any country, of malicious cyber actors Yin Kecheng and Zhou Shuai, both Chinese nationals residing in China.

    “These indictments and actions show this office’s long-standing commitment to vigorously investigate and hold accountable Chinese hackers and data brokers who endanger U.S. national security and other victims across the globe,” said Interim U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr. for the District of Columbia. “The defendants in these cases have been hacking for the Chinese government for years, and these indictments lay out the strong evidence showing their criminal wrongdoing. We again demand that the Chinese government to put a stop to these brazen cyber criminals who are targeting victims across the globe and then monetizing the data they have stolen by selling it across China.”

    The APT27 group to which Yin and Zhou belong is 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.” As alleged in court documents, between August 2013 and December 2024, Yin, Zhou, and their co-conspirators exploited vulnerabilities in victim networks, conducted reconnaissance once inside those networks, and installed malware, such as PlugX malware, that provided persistent access. The defendants and their co-conspirators then identified and stole data from the compromised networks by exfiltrating it to servers under their control. Next, they brokered stolen data for sale and provided it to various customers, only some of whom had connections to the PRC government and military. For example, Zhou sold data stolen by Yin through i-Soon, whose primary customers, as noted above, were PRC government agencies, including the MSS and the MPS.

    The defendants’ motivations were financial and, because they were profit-driven, they targeted broadly, rendering victim systems vulnerable well beyond their pilfering of data and other information that they could sell. Between them, Yin and Zhou sought to profit from the hacking of numerous U.S.-based technology companies, think tanks, law firms, defense contractors, local governments, health care systems, and universities, leaving behind them a wake of millions of dollars in damages.

    The documents related to the seizure warrants, also unsealed today, further allege that Yin and Zhou continued to engage in hacking activity, including Yin’s involvement in the recently announced hack of Treasury between approximately September and December 2024. Virtual private servers used to conduct the Treasury intrusion belonged to, and were controlled by, an account that Yin and his co-conspirators established. Yin and his co-conspirators used that same account and other linked accounts they controlled to lease servers used for additional malicious cyber activity. The seizure warrant unsealed today allowed the FBI to seize the virtual private servers and other infrastructure used by the defendants to perpetrate these crimes.

    On Jan. 17, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions against Yin for his role in hacking that agency between September and December 2024. Concurrent with today’s indictments, OFAC also announced sanctions on Zhou and Shanghai Heiying Information Technology Company Ltd., a company operated by Zhou for purposes of his hacking activity.

    Private sector partners are also taking voluntary actions to raise awareness and strengthen defenses against the PRC’s malicious cyber activity. Today, Microsoft published research that highlights its unique, updated insights into Silk Typhoon tactics, techniques, and procedures specifically its targeting of the IT supply chain.

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jack F. Korba and Tejpal S. Chawla for the District of Columbia and Trial Attorney Tanner Kroeger of the National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section are prosecuting the case.

    ***

    The above disruptive actions targeting PRC malicious cyber activities were the result of investigations conducted by FBI New York and Washington Field Offices, FBI Cyber Division, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of New York and District of Columbia and the National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section are prosecuting the case.

    The Department acknowledges the value of public-private partnerships in combating advanced cyber threats and recognizes Microsoft, Volexity, PwC, and Mandiant for their valuable assistance in these investigations.

    The details in the above-described indictments and warrants are merely allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Chinese Nationals with Ties to the PRC Government and “APT27” Charged in a Computer Hacking Campaign for Profit, Targeting Numerous U.S. Companies, Institutions, and Municipalities

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    Department Seizes Virtual Private Server Account and Domains Tied to Malicious Activity to include the U.S. Department of Treasury Hack

                WASHINGTON – A federal judge in Washington, D.C., today, unsealed two separate indictments that allege Chinese nationals Yin Kecheng, 38, (尹 可成) a/k/a “YKC” (“YIN”) and Zhou Shuai, 45, (周帅) a/k/a “Coldface” (“ZHOU”) violated various federal statutes by participating in years-long, sophisticated computer hacking conspiracies that successfully targeted a wide variety of U.S.-based victims from 2011 to the present-day. According to the documents unsealed today, the defendants targeted a multitude of U.S. victim companies, municipalities, and organizations for profit, causing millions of dollars’ worth of damages. YIN and ZHOU, who have ties to the government of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”), are alleged to have stolen and exfiltrated data from numerous U.S.-based technology companies, think tanks, defense contractors, government municipalities, and universities that they later brokered for sale. Arrest warrants have been issued for YIN and ZHOU, who both remain fugitives.

                The unsealing by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia is part of the coordinated effort by Department of Justice (the “Department”), other U.S. Attorney’s Offices, the U.S. Department of Treasury (“Treasury”), and private sector partners that highlights the Chinese government’s unique role in intentionally promoting and protecting the wide-scale computer hacking activity by its citizens. According to court documents unsealed today, the PRC Ministry of Public Security (“MPS”) and Ministry of State Security (“MSS”) directed or financed Chinese hackers, such as the defendants, to conduct computer intrusions against high-value targets in the United States and elsewhere. Victims include U.S.-based critics and dissidents of the PRC, a large religious organization in the United States, the foreign ministries of multiple governments in Asia, and U.S. federal and state government agencies, including most recently in 2024.

                According to court documents, the MPS and MSS employed an extensive network of private companies and contractors in China to hack and steal information in a manner that obscured the PRC government’s direct involvement. By employing these hackers-for-hire, the PRC government further allowed these same hackers to profit by committing additional computer intrusions around the world with impunity, and then to sell stolen data through Chinese data brokers. The PRC government’s state-sponsorship and protection of these hackers resulted in the loss of sensitive, valuable and personal identification information that was a direct harm to U.S. entities and other foreign governments and victims.

                In conjunction with the unsealing, the Department announced the judicially authorized seizure of internet domains linked to YIN that he used in facilitating the conspiracy’s network intrusion activity. In addition, the Department announced the judicially authorized seizure of a Virtual Private Server (“VPS”) account linked to ZHOU that he used to facilitate network intrusion activity. In conjunction with these actions, the Treasury announced sanctions against ZHOU and his company Shanghai Heiying Information Technology company, Limited (“Shanghai Heiying”).  YIN was previously sanctioned for his role in the recent Treasury network compromise in January 2025.

    “These indictments and actions show this Office’s long-standing commitment to vigorously investigate and hold accountable Chinese hackers and data brokers who endanger U.S. national security and other victims across the globe,” said U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr. “The defendants in these cases have been hacking for the Chinese government for years, and these indictments lay out the strong evidence showing their criminal wrongdoing. We, again, demand that the Chinese government put a stop to these brazen cyber criminals who are targeting victims across the globe and then monetizing the data they have stolen by selling it across China.”

                “The defendants allegedly waged a yearslong hacking campaign against U.S.-based organizations to steal their data and sell it to various customers, some of whom had connections to the Chinese government,” said FBI Acting Assistant Director in Charge Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI Washington Field Office. “Today’s indictment is the first step toward bringing these perpetrators to justice for endangering U.S. national security and causing significant financial losses for both U.S. and foreign companies. The FBI and our partners will continue to pursue these hostile cyber actors to the full extent of the law.”

                “The defendants’ years-long hacking conspiracy to steal data from Cleared Defense Contractors that support the U.S. military—among many other U.S.-based victims—and sell it to customers with ties to the Chinese government poses a significant threat to our national security,” said NCIS Cyber Operations Field Office Special Agent in Charge Josh Stanley. “NCIS remains committed to working with the FBI and our law enforcement partners around the world to expose malicious actors who seek to undermine the cybersecurity of the Department of the Navy.”

                “The Department of State appreciates the opportunity to collaborate with the Department of Treasury, FBI, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia in announcing today’s actions,” said Senior Bureau Official F. Cartwright Weiland of the Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). “With reward offers up to $2 million each for malicious cyber actors Zhou Shuai and Yin KeCheng under the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program, we ask the public to contact the FBI with tips to help bring these cybercriminals to justice.”

    Overview

                Today’s announcement reflects nearly a decade-long effort by the Department and the FBI.   The action targets actors that various security researchers have historically referred to as “APT27,” “Threat Group 3390,” “Bronze Union,” “Emissary Panda,” “Lucky Mouse,” and “Iron Tiger,” and more recently referred to as “UTA0178,” “UNC 5221,” and “Silk Typhoon.” 

                The Department obtained a 19-count indictment against YIN on May 2, 2018 (the “2018 Indictment”) from a grand jury sitting in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The 2018 Indictment, which alleges conduct between August 2013 and December 2015, charges wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”).

                Another federal grand jury in the District of Columbia indicted both YIN and ZHOU on March 28, 2023 (the “2023 Indictment”), with similar offenses.  Specifically, the 2023 Indictment, which alleges conduct between June 2018 and November 2020, charges conspiracy, wire fraud, various violations of the CFAA, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering. 

                On March 4, 2025, a federal magistrate judge sitting in the District of Columbia authorized FBI to seize a VPS account and multiple internet domains involved in the criminal activity.  According to the unsealed affidavits in support of those warrants, ZHOU utilized the VPS account to create additional accounts used to facilitate computer intrusion activity and to discuss the sale of access to compromised computer networks. Separately, YIN utilized his own servers and stood up the seized domains to exploit victim computer networks to include networks at Treasury.

    Computer Hacking Scheme

                As alleged in the documents unsealed today, at various points between August 2013 and December 2024, YIN, ZHOU, and their unindicted co-conspirators used sophisticated hacking tools and techniques in their efforts to overcome network defenses and avoid detection of numerous hardened targets in the United States and around the world. The defendants and their co-conspirators would routinely scan victim networks for vulnerabilities, exploit those vulnerabilities with sophisticated hacking techniques, and conduct reconnaissance once inside a victim’s network. The defendants and their co-conspirators and would install malware that would allow them to maintain persistent access and enable them to communicate with malicious external servers and other hacking infrastructure. The defendants and their co-conspirators would identify and steal data from the compromised networks by exfiltrating the data to servers under their control. The stolen data was then brokered for sale and provided to various customers, some of whom had connections to the PRC government and military.

    Targeting of U.S. Victims

                According to the 2018 Indictment, YIN targeted U.S.-based defense contractors, technology firms, and think tanks, among other victims. The 2018 Indictment alleges YIN openly discussed his preference for targeting American victims. For example, on one occasion in September 2013, YIN told an associate he wanted to “mess with the American military” and “break into a big target” so that he could earn enough money to buy a car. YIN used mapping software to identify network vulnerabilities for the purpose of gaining unlawful access to victim computer and installing malware. YIN used stolen network credentials to maintain persistent access to victim networks and utilized intermediary servers or “hop points” and malicious domains to remotely access and exfiltrate victim computer data.

                According to the 2023 Indictment, YIN, ZHOU, and others targeted U.S.-based companies like technology and defense contractors, law firms, communication service providers, local governments, health care systems, and think tanks. The 2023 Indictment charges YIN and ZHOU with scanning victim networks for access points and also exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities. Once inside the networks, YIN other conspirators would then install malware such as web shells to maintain persistent access. YIN and other conspirators would then use hop point servers to exfiltrate stolen data to servers under YIN’s control. ZHOU then brokered access to such stolen data to interested third parties for a financial profit. The indictment further alleged that YIN, ZHOU, and other conspirators laundered cryptocurrency payments for their operational infrastructure from locations outside of the United States through the U.S. financial system.

                The affidavit in support of the seizure warrant for the VPS account alleges that ZHOU used servers created by the account in order to establish a virtual private network (“VPN”) that would encrypt network traffic such that the true location and IP address of the actor or actors would be obfuscated. ZHOU also used the VPS accounts to create other accounts through which he communicated with buyers who were interested in obtaining access to computer networks compromised by YIN. ZHOU also used the accounts for victim reconnaissance purposes.

                The affidavit in support of the seizure of the domains alleges that funds used to purchase computer network infrastructure used in numerous victim network breaches ultimately connected to an account registered in YIN’s name, from China, using an email address and phone number belonging to YIN. Of particular note, a virtual private server account controlled by YIN was associated with the compromise at Treasury.

                This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) who continue to investigate malicious cyber activity associated with these defendants and threat actors and continue to notify affected victims immediately once any networks intrusions are discovered. The FBI’s Cyber Division and Department of Defense’s Cyber Crimes Center provided valuable assistance to the investigation.  Private partners from Microsoft, Volexity, Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, and Mandiant also provided valuable assistance with this investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jack F. Korba, and Tejpal S. Chawla, and National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section Trial Attorney Tanner Kroeger. Paralegal Specialist Michael Watts and former Assistant U.S. Attorneys Demian Ahn and Opher Shweiki for the United States Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia provided assistance on this case.

                An indictment is merely an allegation and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.  

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Justice Department Charges 12 Chinese Contract Hackers and Law Enforcement Officers in Global Computer Intrusion Campaigns

    Source: United States Attorneys General

    Chinese Law Enforcement and Intelligence Services Leveraged China’s Reckless and Indiscriminate Hacker-for-Hire Ecosystem, Including the ‘APT 27’ Group, to Suppress Free Speech and Dissent Globally and to Steal Data from Numerous Organizations Worldwide,

    Note: View the indictments in U.S. v. Wu Haibo et al., U.S. v. Yin Kecheng, U.S. v. Zhou Shuai et al. here.

    The Justice Department, FBI, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and Departments of State and the Treasury announced today their coordinated efforts to disrupt and deter the malicious cyber activities of 12 Chinese nationals, including two officers of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) Ministry of Public Security (MPS), employees of an ostensibly private PRC company, Anxun Information Technology Co. Ltd. (安洵信息技术有限公司) also known as “i-Soon,” and members of Advanced Persistent Threat 27 (APT27).

    These malicious cyber actors, acting as freelancers or as employees of i-Soon, conducted computer intrusions at the direction of the PRC’s MPS and Ministry of State Security (MSS) and on their own initiative. The MPS and MSS paid handsomely for stolen data. Victims include U.S.-based critics and dissidents of the PRC, a large religious organization in the United States, the foreign ministries of multiple governments in Asia, and U.S. federal and state government agencies, including the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) in late 2024.

    “The Department of Justice will relentlessly pursue those who threaten our cybersecurity by stealing from our government and our people,” said Sue J. Bai, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “Today, we are exposing the Chinese government agents directing and fostering indiscriminate and reckless attacks against computers and networks worldwide, as well as the enabling companies and individual hackers that they have unleashed. We will continue to fight to dismantle this ecosystem of cyber mercenaries and protect our national security.”

    “The FBI is committed to protecting Americans from foreign cyber-attacks,” said Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran of the FBI’s Cyber Division. “Today’s announcements reveal that the Chinese Ministry of Public Security has been paying hackers-for-hire to inflict digital harm on Americans who criticize the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). To those victims who bravely came forward with evidence of intrusions, we thank you for standing tall and defending our democracy. And to those who choose to aid the CCP in its unlawful cyber activities, these charges should demonstrate that we will use all available tools to identify you, indict you, and expose your malicious activity for all the world to see.”

    According to court documents, the MPS and MSS employed an extensive network of private companies and contractors in China to hack and steal information in a manner that obscured the PRC government’s involvement. In some cases, the MPS and MSS paid private hackers in China to exploit specific victims. In many other cases, the hackers targeted victims speculatively. Operating from their safe haven and motivated by profit, this network of private companies and contractors in China cast a wide net to identify vulnerable computers, exploit those computers, and then identify information that it could sell directly or indirectly to the PRC government. The result of this largely indiscriminate approach was more worldwide computer intrusion victims, more systems worldwide left vulnerable to future exploitation by third parties, and more stolen information, often of no interest to the PRC government and, therefore, sold to other third-parties. Additional information regarding the indictments and the PRC’s hacker-for-hire ecosystem is available in Public Service Announcements published by the FBI today.

    U.S. v. Wu Haibo et al., Southern District of New York

    Today, a federal court in Manhattan unsealed an indictment charging eight i-Soon employees and two MPS officers for their involvement, from at least in or around 2016 through in or around 2023, in the numerous and widespread hacking of email accounts, cell phones, servers, and websites. The Department also announced today the court-authorized seizure of the primary internet domain used by i-Soon to advertise its business.

    “State-sponsored hacking is an acute threat to our community and national security,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky for the Southern District of New York. “For years, these 10 defendants — two of whom we allege are PRC officials — used sophisticated hacking techniques to target religious organizations, journalists, and government agencies, all to gather sensitive information for the use of the PRC. These charges will help stop these state-sponsored hackers and protect our national security. The career prosecutors of this office and our law enforcement partners will continue to uncover alleged state-sponsored hacking schemes, disrupt them, and bring those responsible to justice.”

    The defendants remain at large and wanted by the FBI. Concurrent with today’s announcement,  the U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program, administered by the Diplomatic Security Service, announced a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of any person who, while acting at the direction or under the control of a foreign government, engages in certain malicious cyber activities against U.S. critical infrastructure in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The reward is offered for the following individuals who are alleged to have worked in various capacities to direct or carry out i-Soon’s malicious cyber activity:

    • Wu Haibo (吴海波), Chief Executive Officer
    • Chen Cheng (陈诚), Chief Operating Officer
    • Wang Zhe (王哲), Sales Director
    • Liang Guodong (梁国栋), Technical Staff
    • Ma Li (马丽), Technical Staff
    • Wang Yan (王堰), Technical Staff
    • Xu Liang (徐梁), Technical Staff
    • Zhou Weiwei (周伟伟), Technical Staff
    • Wang Liyu (王立宇), MPS Officer
    • Sheng Jing (盛晶), MPS Officer

    i-Soon and its employees, to include the defendants, generated tens of millions of dollars in revenue as a key player in the PRC’s hacker-for-hire ecosystem. In some instances, i-Soon conducted computer intrusions at the request of the MSS or MPS, including cyber-enabled transnational repression at the direction of the MPS officer defendants. In other instances, i-Soon conducted computer intrusions on its own initiative and then sold, or attempted to sell, the stolen data to at least 43 different bureaus of the MSS or MPS in at least 31 separate provinces and municipalities in China. i-Soon charged the MSS and MPS between approximately $10,000 and $75,000 for each email inbox it successfully exploited. i-Soon also trained MPS employees how to hack independently of i-Soon and offered a variety of hacking methods for sale to its customers.

    The defendants’ U.S.-located targets included a large religious organization that previously sent missionaries to China and was openly critical of the PRC government and an organization focused on promoting human rights and religious freedom in China. In addition, the defendants targeted multiple news organizations in the United States, including those that have opposed the CCP or delivered uncensored news to audiences in Asia, including China and the New York State Assembly, one of whose representatives had communicated with members of a religious organization banned in China.

    The defendants’ foreign-located targets included a religious leader and his office, and a Hong Kong newspaper that i-Soon considered as being opposed to the PRC government. The defendants also targeted the foreign ministries of Taiwan, India, South Korea, and Indonesia.

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ryan B. Finkel, Steven J. Kochevar, and Kevin Mead for the Southern District of New York and Trial Attorney Gregory J. Nicosia Jr. of the National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section are prosecuting the case.

    U.S. v. Yin Kecheng and U.S. v. Zhou Shuai et al., District of Columbia

    Today, a federal court unsealed two indictments charging APT27 actors Yin Kecheng (尹可成) and Zhou Shuai (周帅) also known as “Coldface” for their involvement in the multi-year, for-profit computer intrusion campaigns dating back, in the case of Yin, to 2013. The Department also announced today court-authorized seizures of internet domains and computer server accounts used by Yin and Zhou to facilitate their hacking activity.

    The defendants remain at large. View the FBI’s Wanted posters for Shuai and Kecheng here.

    Concurrent with today’s announcement, the Department of States 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 convictions, in any country, of malicious cyber actors Yin Kecheng and Zhou Shuai, both Chinese nationals residing in China.

    “These indictments and actions show this office’s long-standing commitment to vigorously investigate and hold accountable Chinese hackers and data brokers who endanger U.S. national security and other victims across the globe,” said Interim U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr. for the District of Columbia. “The defendants in these cases have been hacking for the Chinese government for years, and these indictments lay out the strong evidence showing their criminal wrongdoing. We again demand that the Chinese government to put a stop to these brazen cyber criminals who are targeting victims across the globe and then monetizing the data they have stolen by selling it across China.”

    The APT27 group to which Yin and Zhou belong is 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.” As alleged in court documents, between August 2013 and December 2024, Yin, Zhou, and their co-conspirators exploited vulnerabilities in victim networks, conducted reconnaissance once inside those networks, and installed malware, such as PlugX malware, that provided persistent access. The defendants and their co-conspirators then identified and stole data from the compromised networks by exfiltrating it to servers under their control. Next, they brokered stolen data for sale and provided it to various customers, only some of whom had connections to the PRC government and military. For example, Zhou sold data stolen by Yin through i-Soon, whose primary customers, as noted above, were PRC government agencies, including the MSS and the MPS.

    The defendants’ motivations were financial and, because they were profit-driven, they targeted broadly, rendering victim systems vulnerable well beyond their pilfering of data and other information that they could sell. Between them, Yin and Zhou sought to profit from the hacking of numerous U.S.-based technology companies, think tanks, law firms, defense contractors, local governments, health care systems, and universities, leaving behind them a wake of millions of dollars in damages.

    The documents related to the seizure warrants, also unsealed today, further allege that Yin and Zhou continued to engage in hacking activity, including Yin’s involvement in the recently announced hack of Treasury between approximately September and December 2024. Virtual private servers used to conduct the Treasury intrusion belonged to, and were controlled by, an account that Yin and his co-conspirators established. Yin and his co-conspirators used that same account and other linked accounts they controlled to lease servers used for additional malicious cyber activity. The seizure warrant unsealed today allowed the FBI to seize the virtual private servers and other infrastructure used by the defendants to perpetrate these crimes.

    On Jan. 17, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions against Yin for his role in hacking that agency between September and December 2024. Concurrent with today’s indictments, OFAC also announced sanctions on Zhou and Shanghai Heiying Information Technology Company Ltd., a company operated by Zhou for purposes of his hacking activity.

    Private sector partners are also taking voluntary actions to raise awareness and strengthen defenses against the PRC’s malicious cyber activity. Today, Microsoft published research that highlights its unique, updated insights into Silk Typhoon tactics, techniques, and procedures specifically its targeting of the IT supply chain.

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jack F. Korba and Tejpal S. Chawla for the District of Columbia and Trial Attorney Tanner Kroeger of the National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section are prosecuting the case.

    ***

    The above disruptive actions targeting PRC malicious cyber activities were the result of investigations conducted by FBI New York and Washington Field Offices, FBI Cyber Division, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of New York and District of Columbia and the National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section are prosecuting the case.

    The Department acknowledges the value of public-private partnerships in combating advanced cyber threats and recognizes Microsoft, Volexity, PwC, and Mandiant for their valuable assistance in these investigations.

    The details in the above-described indictments and warrants are merely allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Bringing art into classrooms can benefit students who are learning to speak English

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Chenkai Chi, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Educational Studies, University of Windsor

    For students who are learning to speak English, art can empower a shift of focus away from rote memorization to creative and meaningful inquiry (Shutterstock)

    Most English-language learning classrooms use conventional teaching methods that focus on grammar drills, vocabulary memorization, reading comprehension and structured writing tasks — all with the emphasis on language accuracy. Unfortunately, these teaching methods don’t address newcomers’ needs or build on their strengths.

    This manner of teaching also fails to acknowledge students’ diverse experiences, skills and talents — including their knowledge of other languages. These experiences and skills can be important resources in their learning.

    Our recent study suggests there’s a better way of teaching and learning English. We found that English-language learners developed confidence, a sense of belonging and deeper language skills when the arts were incorporated into teaching and learning practices.

    To develop a new way of teaching English using the arts, we used the arts-integrated Parallaxic Praxis model. This is a research framework that celebrates and values diverse perspectives. The model was developed by Pauline Sameshima, one of the authors of this story, and her colleagues.

    Creative inquiry

    According to the Parallaxic Praxis model, engaging with different modes of creative communication — such as photography and drawing — can empower students to shift their focus from rote memorization to creative and meaningful inquiry. This helps students connect their personal experiences with language learning.

    The model has three phases for learning: The data collection phase, the analysis phase (where what a person has learned is transformed into something new — such as making a painting from a text description) and the rendering phase (where knowledge is produced). The model celebrates and values diverse perspectives, ensuring that the unique experiences of English-language learners are valued and acknowledged.

    In our study, adult English-language learners in southwestern Ontario were encouraged to connect with their community through photography — recording meaningful moments and writing descriptions that explained the personal significance of each image.

    The photographs served as data. Written reflections served as translations and analysis of the data. The photos and analyses they created (their renderings) served to produce new knowledge.

    The use of photographs

    For instance, Ning (pseudonym), a graduate student from China who participated in the study, faced a significant decision: to either stay in Canada or to return home.

    Rather than writing a standard essay, she instead photographed an intersection of roads — using the image as a metaphor for her uncertainty and being at a crossroad in her life. Ning said the arts integrated activity helped “express my feelings in English, making the language more personal and meaningful.”

    A different student, Jack (pseudonym) from Saudi Arabia, photographed houses on a quiet, snowy street. The buildings were connected with each other — but the people inside were noted to be isolated from one another. Reflecting on this, Jack wrote: “Though the houses are connected; the people inside are not connected. If people do not help each other, that will be a disaster.”

    Jack said that art made him more willing to communicate in English, stating: “Art is a powerful tool that helps us express many things. I feel more comfortable sharing in English when engaging in artistic activities.” This exercise helped him express complicated emotions in English while strengthening his critical thinking and narrative skills.

    Both Ning’s and Jack’s experiences highlight one underlying premise: that making and analyzing art helps students learn English on a more personal and emotional level than traditional approaches do.

    Challenging conventional learning approaches

    Using the Parallaxic Praxis model is more than an alternative approach in teaching English. It’s a challenge to conventional thinking and the way language education is understood.

    Many English-language learning programs are still mired in a deficit model that positions non-English-speaking students as outsiders who need to quickly “catch up”. Language learning should be an empowering process — not one where students are overly concerned with correcting small technicalities.

    Most English-language learning programs focus on memorization and correcting technicalities.
    (Shutterstock)

    Instead of the language-learning approach of rote memorization, this arts-integrated approach celebrates how all students bring their diverse perspectives and cultural and linguistic knowledge to the classroom. The Parallaxic Praxis model allows for different modes of creative expression to be used in the process of language learning — such as visual storytelling and creative writing.

    This concept echoes the idea of West-East Reciprocal Learning, the mutual learning of cultures across both sides, rather than a unilateral assimilation process, where the dominant culture often expects the other to conform. Teaching within a reciprocal learning paradigm emphasizes strengths, rather than weaknesses — and teachers view students as contributors with valuable personal experiences to offer and learn from.

    The arts-integrated Parallaxic Praxis model welcomes students to be their full selves, while becoming adept English language speakers. Other research has also shown that using arts in English language learning classes can lead to higher levels of analysis and challenge students.

    There are many ways in which the arts can be incorporated into English-language classrooms, such as:

    1. Using artistic activities: Rather than doing more grammar drills, ask students to take photos and write about their photos.
    2. Encourage many types of creativity: Students can translate their knowledge into English using stories, poems, scripts or narratives from illustrations.
    3. Foster collaboration: Create group storytelling projects, peer feedback sessions and digital showcases for student work.
    4. Focus on strengths, not deficits: Value students’ diverse cultural backgrounds, skills and talents — alongside their multilingual skills. These are all important resources to their learning, rather than barriers. Encourage students to use other languages they already know together with English in order to better express themselves — a strategy known as translanguaging.
    5. Make learning real-world and personal: Give students reflective projects, such as writing letters to their future selves.

    Language is not simply literal words and rigid rules. Recognizing how words facilitate culture, meaning, identity and human connection can deepen learning engagement and experience. Incorporating the arts into English-language learning does this — and creates a collaborative learning space that’s engaging and meaningful.

    Chenkai Chi receives funding from SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship and Ontario Graduate Scholarship.

    Mehdia Hassan receives funding from the Ontario Graduate Scholarship.

    Pauline Sameshima has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

    – ref. Bringing art into classrooms can benefit students who are learning to speak English – https://theconversation.com/bringing-art-into-classrooms-can-benefit-students-who-are-learning-to-speak-english-247761

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI: Skycorp Solar Group Limited Announces Closing of Its Initial Public Offering

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Ningbo, China, March 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Skycorp Solar Group Limited (Nasdaq: PN) (the “Company”), a solar PV product provider engaged in the manufacture and sale of solar cables and solar connectors, today announced the closing of its initial public offering (the “Offering”) of 2,000,000 ordinary shares (the “Ordinary Shares”) at a public offering price of $4.00 per share for total gross proceeds of $8,000,000, before deducting underwriting discounts and other offering expenses. The Ordinary Shares commenced trading on Nasdaq Capital Market on March 4, 2025, under the ticker symbol “PN.” The Offering closed on March 5, 2025.

    In addition, the Company has granted the Underwriter (as defined below) an option, within 45 days from the closing date of the Offering, to purchase up to an additional 300,000 Ordinary Shares at the public offering price, less underwriting discounts, to cover the over-allotment option, if any.

    The Company intends to use 30% of the net proceeds for expanding product lines and services; 30% of the net proceeds for strengthening research and development capabilities; 20% of the net proceeds for improving brand recognition through multi-channel marketing; 20% of the net proceeds for working capital and general corporate matters.

    The Offering was conducted on a firm commitment basis. Cathay Securities, Inc. acted as the underwriter (the “Underwriter”) for the Offering. Ortoli Rosenstadt LLP acted as U.S. securities counsel to the Company, and Hunter Taubman Fischer & Li LLC acted as U.S. securities counsel to the Underwriter, in connection with the Offering.

    A registration statement on Form F-1 (File No. 333-282996) relating to the Offering, as amended, has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC“) and was declared effective by the SEC on March 3, 2025. The Offering is being made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the final prospectus related to the Offering may be obtained from Cathay Securities, Inc.: 40 Wall Street, Suite 3600, New York, NY 10005, United States, Attention: Shell Li, or via email at service@cathaysecurities.com or telephone at +1 (855) 939-3888, or via the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.

    Before you invest, you should read the prospectus and other documents the Company has filed or will file with the SEC for more information about the Company and the Offering. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the securities described herein, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

    About Skycorp Solar Group Limited

    Skycorp Solar Group Limited is a solar photovoltaic (PV) product provider focused on manufacturing and selling solar cables and connectors. We also partner with various IC chip manufacturers to offer new and used GPU and HPC servers. Our operations are managed through our subsidiaries, including Ningbo Skycorp Solar Co., Ltd., in China.

    The Company’s mission is to become a green energy solutions provider for data centers by utilizing solar power and delivering eco-friendly solar PV products. By leveraging the Company’s expertise in solar technologies and relationships with HPC server clients, it aims to expand offerings of solar PV products and server solutions for enterprise customers. For more information, please visit: https:// www.ir.skycorp.com.

    Forward-Looking Statement

    This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements that are other than statements of historical facts. When the Company uses words such as “may, “will, “intend,” “should,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “project,” “estimate” or similar expressions that do not relate solely to historical matters, it is making forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results to differ materially from the Company’s expectations discussed in the forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, the uncertainties related to market conditions and the completion of the initial public offering on the anticipated terms or at all, and other factors discussed in the “Risk Factors” section of the registration statement filed with the SEC. For these reasons, among others, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements in this press release. Additional factors are discussed in the Company’s filings with the SEC, which are available for review at www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date hereof.

    For more information, please contact:

    Investor Relations
    WFS Investor Relations Inc.
    Connie Kang
    Partner
    Email: ckang@wealthfsllc.com 
    Tel: +86 1381 185 7742 (CN)

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: All Intelligent Operations Enables New Growth

    Source: Huawei

    Headline: All Intelligent Operations Enables New Growth

    [Barcelona, Spain, March 5, 2025] Huawei, together with global operators, partners, and industry organizations, discussed how operators can upgrade their operations models, reimagine new experiences, and enable new growth at the Intelligent Operations Summit held during MWC Barcelona 2025. Bruce Xun, President of Huawei Global Technical Service, said, “In the next decade, operators will advance towards all intelligent operations at an unprecedented pace. Through in-depth integration of ‘digital twins’ and ‘GenAI+ Predictive AI’, a new operations model that features collaboration between human and AI agents will be built to realize value in specific scenarios along the end-user journey and operators’ value stream.”
    Bruce Xun, President of Huawei Global Technical Service, delivering a keynote speech

    Customer Journey: Rich Digital Intelligence Services with a Reimagined End-to-End NPS Journey
    Operators leverage Mobile Money and AI applications to create a digital intelligence life entry, offering users a wide range of digital and intelligent services and novel experiences. In Africa, Huawei Mobile Money helped an operator expand its business scope from mobile payment to mobile finance. In 2024, the operator’s revenue from mobile finance exceeded US$900 million. In addition, certain operators have re-energized their end-to-end NPS journey with digital twins and AI. In Asia Pacific, Huawei has helped a customer streamline the process and data breakpoints between AICC and SmartCare through multi-agent collaboration. This resulted in a 30% decrease in user complaints and an improvement in service NPS. In China, Huawei collaborated with an operator to build N-NPS leading network, reducing detractors by 20% and improving the network NPS by 8%.
    Value Stream Journey: Building a 3A Cognitive Network to Monetize Differentiated Experiences
    In addition to delivering a leading network experience, Huawei has created a 3A cognitive network that features real-time service awareness, achievable KPIs/KQIs, and differentiated experience assurance. Converged data and AI are used to accurately identify user profiles, allowing operators to promote the right offer to the right people through the right channel at the right time. This shifts the operations focus from traffic monetization to valuable traffic + experience monetization. Additionally, spatiotemporal digital twins enable transformation from best-effort to differentiated experience assurance for high-value scenarios and services. Huawei has helped an operator build the best driver experience network tailored for delivery drivers. With the network, the operator sold packages to 380,000 delivery drivers and achieved a 6% rise in revenue in only one quarter. Leveraging the SRCON spatiotemporal digital twin, Huawei assisted an operator in building the best live streamer experience network, elevating the uplink rate from 3 Mbit/s to over 5 Mbit/s.
    Value Stream Journey: Upgrading Operations Mode, Transforming from Cost-based to Value-oriented Operations
    The increasingly diverse service scenarios and complex network structures pose higher requirements on network stability and operations. The operations model, which depends on people and tools, needs to evolve to depend on people and AI agents. The ultimate goal is to improve both efficiency and effectiveness, and realize transformation from cost-based to value-orientated operations. Huawei collaborated with an operator to establish a Digital Intelligence Operation Center (DIOC). Through the synergy of Huawei NOC, SOC, NPM, traffic loss reduced by 8.4%, and the operator’s network ranked No. 1 in third-party-tested video and gaming experiences in a country of Asia. In addition, Huawei FME copilot has helped an operator reduce unnecessary site visits and shorten MTTR by 30%.
    At the end of his speech, Bruce Xun stated that, to seize the opportunities of all intelligence, operators need to build three major elements: collaboration between people and AI agents, real-time data awareness, and a high-quality chain of thought (CoT) corpus. In addition, the CoT capabilities of GenAI+ Predictive AI need to be combined with the real-time simulation capabilities of digital twins to truly solve scenario-specific problems and realize value, rather than just answering questions. The future is now. Huawei is ready to collaborate with global operators to expedite the transition towards all intelligent operations and enable new growth.
    MWC Barcelona 2025 will be held from March 3 to March 6 in Barcelona, Spain. During the event, Huawei will showcase its latest products and solutions at stand 1H50 in Fira Gran Via Hall 1. In 2025, commercial 5G-Advanced deployment will accelerate, and AI will help carriers reshape business, infrastructure, and O&M. Huawei is actively working with carriers and partners around the world to accelerate the transition towards an intelligent world. For more information, please visit: https://carrier.huawei.com/en/events/mwc2025

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Chinese student convicted of drugging and raping 10 women

    Source: United Kingdom London Metropolitan Police

    Met detectives appeal for victim-survivors to come forward after serial rapist convicted

    A serial rapist – who drugged and raped a number of women both in the UK and China – has been convicted, following one of the most complex investigations carried out by detectives in the Met.

    Zhenhao Zou, 28 (20.02.97), of Churchyard Row, Elephant and Castle, was today (Wednesday, 5 March) found guilty of a total of 28 offences, including 11 counts of rape against 10 different women.

    A jury found Zou guilty after a five-and-a-half-week trial at Inner London Crown Court. He will be sentenced at the same court on Thursday, 19 June.

    Following the conclusion of today’s court proceedings, detectives can now share they believe the scale of Zou’s offending may be much wider and are making a direct appeal for any victim-survivors who have not yet been identified to come forward and seek specialist support.

    While detectives have identified two victim-survivors, eight of the women who Zou was convicted of raping remain unidentified. Beyond this, detectives believe there may be more than 50 other women who may have been a victim and have not yet been identified by police.

    The investigation

    Zou is originally from Dongguan in the Guangdong Province of China and is believed to have lived in the UK since 2017.

    Before his arrest in January 2024, Zou was a student at University College London (UCL) since 2019 and prior to that studied at Queen’s University Belfast.

    Zou met women using online platforms and dating apps, inviting them to his home under the guise of studying or to have drinks. Officers have established that he invited women back to his address – one in central London and another in Elephant and Castle.

    Once inside he would offer them a drink which contained a substance – believed to be butanediol, which converts to GHB once in the human body.

    This would leave the victim-survivors drifting in and out of consciousness. While unconscious, he filmed himself as he raped and sexually assaulted them.

    Zou also kept items from victim-survivors, such as jewellery and clothing.

    After a woman came forward to report Zou, police searched his home and found the drugs butanediol and ketamine, as well as a number of hidden cameras. They also seized a number of laptops and mobile phones, which later uncovered the true scale of Zou’s offending.

    Officers downloaded the digital devices amounting to six and a half trillion bytes of data, which included around nine million WeChat messages.

    Met investigators spent months trawling through messages to understand Zou’s pattern of offending, painstakingly translating them into English from Simplified Chinese.

    They also watched hundreds of videos stored on his devices, which appear to show Zou filming himself raping and sexually assaulting women. It was after analysis of this graphic and disturbing material that it became apparent that he had not only committed offences in London, but also in his home country of China too.

    During the trial, officers were assisted by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, who helped to facilitate one of the brave victim-survivors giving evidence against Zou.

    As part of the investigation, the Met has also been supported by the Crown Prosecution Service, National Crime Agency and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

    The appeal

    To protect the integrity of ongoing legal proceedings after Zou was first charged with offences, detectives have not been able to publicly appeal for further potential victim-survivors until this time.

    The Metropolitan Police is now asking anyone who thinks they may have been a victim to come forward and speak with police.

    Specialist officers work closely with victim-survivors to seek justice and are available to offer support and signpost to external partners, so they can get help.

    Officers are keeping an open mind about the identities of unidentified victim-survivors, but are particularly keen to hear from women from the Chinese student community who may have met Zou and were living in and around London between 2019-2024. They also would like to speak to potential victims-survivors who may have met Zou while he was living in China.

    Women may have met Zou via online platforms, including student forums on the Chinese social media apps WeChat or Little Red Book, or may have spoken to him on dating apps, such as Bumble.

    Victim-survivors may have visited Zou at his accommodation in Woburn Place in central London or his address in Churchyard Row in Elephant and Castle in London. Others may have met Zou when he was living in China.

    Due to the nature of Zou’s offending, detectives believe that some women may not know they have been a victim-survivor and do not underestimate how distressing and difficult it may be to read or hear about his crimes following this verdict. They are reassuring potential victim-survivors that any reports will be fully investigated and dealt with the utmost sensitivity, care and compassion.

    Officers also understand that not every victim-survivor may wish to speak with the police to get support. Therefore, the charity Rape Crisis is also offering support for women to seek help and guidance from advisors who are independent to the police.

    As part of their appeal, detectives are also keen to speak to any witnesses who might have helpful information, in particular anyone who might have met Zou at parties or spoke to him on social media apps and has any concerns.

    Commander Kevin Southworth, lead for public protection at the Metropolitan Police, said: “Zhenhao Zou is a dangerous and prolific sexual predator, who manipulated and drugged women in order to prey on them in the most cowardly way.

    “I’d like to acknowledge the two women who bravely gave evidence against Zou in court – their courage and resilience has been unwavering.

    “We are determined to support all victim-survivors and are now asking women who believe they may have concerns about Zou to please come forward. I want to reassure anyone impacted that you are not alone and can seek specialist support and guidance, not only from the police, but also from independent charities and services.

    “I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the investigation team, who have shown professionalism, compassion and determination in their pursuit for justice.”

    The Met recognises the impact that this horrific case will have on Londoners, in particular Chinese students who may have lived in and around Southwark and Lambeth. Officers continue to liaise with partners to ensure anyone with concerns can access advice and specialist support from local police teams.

    How to contact the police and independent support agencies:

    Reports relating to Zhenhao Zou can be made online via the Major Incident Public Portal (MIPP): https://mipp.police.uk/operation/01MPS25X38-PO1. The MIPP is also available in Simplified Chinese (https://mipp.police.uk/operation/01MPS25X38-PO2 ), so it is as accessible as possible for potential victims and survivors.

    If you wish to speak to Met detectives or make a report relating to Zou, you can also contact police via email on survivors@met.police.uk

    You can also make a report to police by calling 101 from within the UK, quoting reference 2904/04FEB25.

    If you live in England or Wales and have been affected by this case and would like to seek support from specialist agencies, please contact the independent charity Rape Crisis via their 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line or call them on 0808 500 2222. Specially trained staff are there to listen, answer questions and offer emotional support.

    Background

    • Please consult ‘Document 1’ for a full breakdown of offences, including information relating to locations of offences
    • Please consult ‘Document 2’ for a timeline of offences

    Tackling Violence against Women and Girls

    • In 2023, the Met launched its new Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) Action Plan, working with women and girls across London to shape a new approach to keep them safe.
    • The Met has transformed the way it investigates rape and serious sexual offences. Under Operation Soteria, the Met is doing more to put victim-survivors at the heart of its response to these crimes.
    • As part of its commitment to tackling violence against women and girls, caused largely at the hands of predatory men, officers are placing more focus on suspects and offering support to those impacted alongside specialist partners.
    • Since 2021, the Met has more than doubled its charge rate for rape.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The child boss in ‘Severance’ reveals a devastating truth about work and child-rearing in the 21st century

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Anna Mae Duane, Professor of English, University of Connecticut

    Miss Huang is, in many ways, capitalism’s ideal child. Apple TV+

    In the second season of “Severance,” there’s an unexpected character: a child supervisor named Miss Huang, who matter-of-factly explains she’s a child “because of when I was born.”

    Miss Huang’s deadpan response is more than just a clever quip. Like so much in the Apple TV+ series, which has broken viewership records for the streaming service, I think it reveals a devastating truth about the role of work in the 21st century.

    As a scholar of childhood studies, I also see historical echoes: What constitutes a “child” – and whether one gets to claim childhood at all – has always depended on when and where a person is born.

    An age of innocence?

    Americans are deeply invested in the idea of childhood as a time of innocence, with kids protected by doting adults from the harsh realities of work and making ends meet.

    However, French historian Philippe Ariès famously argued that childhood, as many understand it today, simply did not exist in the past.

    The 14th-century painting ‘Madonna of Veveri’ depicts a young child with adultlike proportions.
    The Print Collector/Getty Images

    Using medieval art as one resource, Ariès pointed out that children were often portrayed as miniature adults, without special attributes, such as plump features or silly behaviors, that might mark them as fundamentally different from their older counterparts.

    Looking at baptism records, Ariès also discovered that many parents gave siblings the same name, and he explained this phenomenon by suggesting that devastatingly high child mortality rates prevented parents from investing the sort of love and affection in their children that’s now considered a core component of parenthood.

    While historians have debated many of Ariès’ specific claims, his central insight remains powerful: Our modern understanding of childhood as a distinct life stage characterized by play, protection and freedom from adult responsibilities is a relatively recent historical development. Ariès argued that children didn’t emerge as a focus of unconditional love until the 17th century.

    Kids at work

    The belief that a child deserves a life free from the stress of the workplace came along still later.

    After all, if Miss Huang had been born in the 19th century, few people would question her presence in the workplace. The Industrial Revolution yielded accounts of children working 16-hour days and accorded no special protection because of their tender age and emotional vulnerability. Well into the 20th century, children younger than Miss Huang routinely worked in factories, mines and other dangerous environments.

    To today’s viewers of “Severance,” the presence of a child supervisor in the sterile, oppressive workplace of the show’s fictional Lumon Industries feels jarring precisely because it violates the deeply held belief that children are occupants of a separate sphere, their innocence shielding them from the dog-eat-dog environs of competitive workplaces.

    Lewis Hine’s 1908 photograph of girls working at Newberry Mills in Newberry, S.C.
    Library of Congress

    Childhood under threat

    As a child worker, Miss Huang might seem like an uncanny ghost of a bygone era of childhood. But I think she’s closer to a prophet: Her role as child-boss warns viewers about what a work-obsessed future holds.

    Today, the ideal childhood – access to play, care and a meaningful education – is increasingly under threat.

    As politicians and policymakers insist that children are the future, many of them refuse to support the intensive caregiving required to transform newborns into functioning adults. As philosopher Nancy Fraser has argued, capitalism relies on someone doing that work, while assigning it little to no monetized value.

    Child-rearing in the 21st century exists within a troubling paradox: Mothers provide unpaid child care for their own children, while those who professionally care for others’ children – predominantly women of color and immigrants – receive meager compensation for this essential work.

    In other words, economic elites and the politicians they support say they want to cultivate future workers. But they don’t want to fund the messy, inefficient, time-consuming process that raising modern children requires.

    The show’s name comes from a “severance” procedure that workers undergo to separate their work memories from their personal ones. It offers a darkly comic version of work-life balance, with Lumon office workers able to completely disconnect their work selves from their personalities off the clock. Each is distinct: A character’s “innie” is the person they are at the job, and their “outtie” is who they are at home.

    I see this as an apt metaphor for how market capitalism seeks to separate the slow, patient work required to raise children and care for other loved ones from the cold-eyed pursuit of economic efficiency. Parents are expected to work as if they don’t have children and raise children as if they don’t work.

    The result is a system that makes traditional notions of childhood – with its unwieldy dependencies, its inefficient play and its demands for attention and care – increasingly untenable.

    Capitalism’s ideal child

    Plummeting global fertility rates around the world speak to this crisis in child care, with the U.S., Europe, South Korea and China falling well below the birth rate required to replace the existing population.

    Even as Elon Musk frets about women choosing not to have children, he seems eager to restrict any government aid that would provide the time or resources that raising children requires.

    Accessible health care, affordable, healthy food and stable housing are out of the reach of many. The current administration’s quest for what it calls “government efficiency” is poised to shred safety net programs that help millions of low-income children.

    In the midst of this dilemma, Miss Huang offers a surreal solution to the problems children pose in 2025.

    She is, in many ways, capitalism’s ideal child. Already a productive worker as a tween, she requires no parent’s time, no teacher’s patience and no community’s resources. Like other workers and executives at Lumon, she seems to have shed the inefficient entanglements of family, love and play.

    In this light, Miss Huang’s clever insistence that she is a child “because of when I was born” is darkly prophetic. In a world where every moment must be productive, where caregiving is systematically devalued and where human relationships are subordinated to market logic, Miss Huang represents a future where childhood survives only as a date on a birth certificate. All the other attributes are economically impractical.

    Viewers don’t yet know if she’s severed. But at least from the perspective of the other workers in the show, Miss Huang works ceaselessly and, in doing so, proves that she is no child at all.

    Or rather, she is the only kind of child that America’s economic system allows to thrive.

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

    – ref. The child boss in ‘Severance’ reveals a devastating truth about work and child-rearing in the 21st century – https://theconversation.com/the-child-boss-in-severance-reveals-a-devastating-truth-about-work-and-child-rearing-in-the-21st-century-249123

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI: Byrna Technologies Announces Preliminary Fiscal First Quarter 2025 Record Revenue of $26.2 Million

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    ANDOVER, Mass., March 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Byrna Technologies Inc. (“Byrna” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: BYRN), a technology company, specializing in the development, manufacture, and sale of innovative less-lethal personal security solutions, today announced select preliminary financial results for the fiscal first quarter ended February 28, 2025.

    Preliminary First Quarter Results
    Based on preliminary unaudited results, the Company expects total revenue for the fiscal first quarter of 2025 to be $26.2 million, representing a 57% increase compared to $16.7 million in the fiscal first quarter of 2024. The significant year-over-year growth in first quarter revenue is primarily attributable to the continued success of Byrna’s marketing strategies and increased production levels at Byrna’s Fort Wayne, Indiana factory.

    As a result, Byrna’s e-commerce channels were up $6.7 million over last year, representing 74% of Byrna’s total sales for the quarter. To meet heightened demand and support its growth initiatives for 2025, Byrna produced a record 68,916 launchers in the first quarter, a 26% increase from the fourth quarter of 2024 and a 219% increase year-over-year. Dealer sales also experienced strong growth, rising $1.9 million year-over-year.

    Management Commentary
    “We are gratified to see the growth in Q1, as this is the first year-over-year quarterly comparison where we were comparing our performance against a prior year quarter where we had implemented our celebrity endorsement strategy,” said Byrna CEO Bryan Ganz. “Historically, Q1 has been our slowest quarter, yet sales decreased only 6% sequentially from what is our seasonally strongest quarter of the fiscal year. This success is a testament to the growing brand awareness that we have built since pivoting our marketing strategy in 2023.

    “To support our ambitious growth targets, we produced a record 68,916 launchers in the quarter. With new celebrity influencers including Megyn Kelly, Lara Trump, and Donald Trump Jr., an expanding retail store presence, the kickoff of our store-within-a-store partnership with Sportsman’s Warehouse, and the launch of the Compact Launcher, we are well-positioned to continue our strong growth trajectory throughout 2025.”

    Preliminary Fiscal First Quarter 2025 Sales Breakdown:      
    Sales Channel ($ in millions) Q1 2025 Q1 2024 % Change
    Web 19.4  12.7  53 %
    Byrna Dedicated Dealers 4.4  2.5  76 %
    Law Enforcement / Schools / Pvt Security 0.0  0.0  0 %
    Retail Stores 0.3  0.2  53 %
    International 2.0  1.3  56 %
    Total Sales 26.2  16.7  57 %


    Tariff Exposure Update
    Byrna remains well-positioned to navigate evolving trade policies with minimal impact on its cost structure. As previously stated, Byrna sources no critical components from Mexico or Canada, and its limited exposure to China is mitigated by a dual-sourcing strategy. The Company is on track to move most, if not all of the current supply chain to the United States in 2025, reinforcing its commitment to domestic manufacturing. Additionally, higher tariffs on Chinese goods could benefit Byrna by raising costs for competitors that rely on China for production.

    Conference Call
    Byrna plans to report its full financial results for the fiscal first quarter in April, which will be accompanied by a conference call to discuss the results and address questions from investors and analysts. The conference call details will be announced prior to the event.

    About Byrna Technologies Inc.
    Byrna is a technology company specializing in the development, manufacture, and sale of innovative non-lethal personal security solutions. For more information on the Company, please visit the corporate website here or the Company’s investor relations site here. The Company is the manufacturer of the Byrna® SD personal security device, a state-of-the-art handheld CO2 powered launcher designed to provide a non-lethal alternative to a firearm for the consumer, private security, and law enforcement markets. To purchase Byrna products, visit the Company’s e-commerce store.

    Forward-Looking Statements
    This news release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the securities laws. All statements contained in this news release, other than statements of current and historical fact, are forward-looking. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as “plans,” “expects,” “intends,” “anticipates,” and “believes” and statements that certain actions, events or results “may,” “could,” “would,” “should,” “might,” “occur,” “be achieved,” or “will be taken.” Forward-looking statements include descriptions of currently occurring matters which may continue in the future. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, our statements related to preliminary revenue results for the first fiscal quarter 2025, the timing of the release of full financial results for the quarter, expectations for future sales growth and demand trends, the impact of marketing strategies, the anticipated performance of new products and retail store expansion, and the Company’s ability to sustain momentum throughout 2025.Forward-looking statements are not, and cannot be, a guarantee of future results or events. Forward-looking statements are based on, among other things, opinions, assumptions, estimates, and analyses that, while considered reasonable by the Company at the date the forward-looking information is provided, inherently are subject to significant risks, uncertainties, contingencies, and other factors that may cause actual results and events to be materially different from those expressed or implied.

    Any number of risk factors could affect our actual results and cause them to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements in this news release, including, but not limited to, disappointing market responses to current or future products or services; prolonged, new, or exacerbated disruption of the Company’s supply chain; the further or prolonged disruption of new product development; production or distribution or delays in entry or penetration of sales channels due to inventory constraints, competitive factors, increased shipping costs or freight interruptions; prototype, parts and material shortages, particularly of parts sourced from limited or sole source providers; determinations by third party controlled distribution channels not to carry or reduce inventory of the Company’s products; determinations by advertisers to prohibit marketing of some or all Byrna products; the loss of marketing partners or endorsers; potential cancellations of existing or future orders including as a result of any fulfillment delays, introduction of competing products, negative publicity, or other factors; product design defects or recalls; litigation, enforcement proceedings or other regulatory or legal developments; changes in consumer or political sentiment affecting product demand; regulatory factors including the impact of commerce and trade laws and regulations; import-export related matters or tariffs, sanctions or embargos that could affect the Company’s supply chain or markets; delays in planned operations related to licensing, registration or permit requirements; and future restrictions on the Company’s cash resources, increased costs and other events that could potentially reduce demand for the Company’s products or result in order cancellations. The order in which these factors appear should not be construed to indicate their relative importance or priority. We caution that these factors may not be exhaustive; accordingly, any forward-looking statements contained herein should not be relied upon as a prediction of actual results. Investors should carefully consider these and other relevant factors, including those risk factors in Part I, Item 1A, (“Risk Factors”) in the Company’s most recent Form 10-K, should understand it is impossible to predict or identify all such factors or risks, should not consider the foregoing list, or the risks identified in the Company’s SEC filings, to be a complete discussion of all potential risks or uncertainties, and should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, except as required by applicable law.

    Investor Contact:
    Tom Colton and Alec Wilson
    Gateway Group, Inc.
    949-574-3860
    BYRN@gateway-grp.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI China: China eases tech M&A loan rules in pilot program to boost innovation

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    BEIJING, March 5 — China has announced a series of relaxed rules for merger and acquisition (M&A) loans targeting tech companies in a pilot program aimed at channeling more capital into sci-tech innovation and enhancing China’s technological competitiveness, according to the country’s financial regulator on Wednesday.

    Amid efforts to address long-standing financing challenges for tech companies engaged in strategic mergers, banks participating in the pilot program are now permitted to lend up to 80 percent of transaction values for acquisitions involving controlling stakes in tech firms, up from the previous 60 percent cap, according to China’s National Financial Regulatory Administration.

    Loan repayment periods have also been extended to a maximum of 10 years, compared to the prior seven-year limit.

    Standards for cities, banks and tech firms involved in the pilot program have been formulated based on consultations with the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, according to an administration official.

    The pilot program spans 18 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chengdu, and focuses on cities with robust innovation ecosystems, such as those within the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster, the Yangtze River Delta and the Greater Bay Area, as well as regional hubs in Wuhan, the Chengdu-Chongqing area and Xi’an.

    Eligible banks include major state-owned lenders, joint-stock banks and urban commercial banks with strong risk management capabilities, while tech companies eligible for these loans must demonstrate strong research and development capabilities, clear market potential in the commercialization of technologies, and solid credit histories, according to the official.

    The regulator has pledged to monitor fund usage closely, and to cultivate specialized financial teams to ensure the effective implementation of the pilot program, offering functional financial support for tech company M&As.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: USAID’s history shows decades of good work on behalf of America’s global interests, although not all its projects succeeded

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Christian Ruth, America in the World Consortium Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Florida

    Volunteers at a camp for internally displaced people in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, carry wheat flour donated by USAID in December 2021. J. Countess/Getty Images

    The Trump administration’s sudden dismantling of nearly all foreign aid, including the work carried out by the U.S. Agency for International Development, has upended the government agency’s longtime strategic role in implementing American foreign policy.

    The Trump administration said at the end of February 2025 that it is freezing 90% of USAID’s foreign aid contracts, leaving few projects intact. It has also recalled nearly 10,000 USAID staff from countries around the world.

    USAID is a government agency that, for more than 63 years, has led the United States’ foreign aid work on disaster recovery, poverty reduction and democratic reforms in many developing and middle-income countries.

    Reuters reported that a senior USAID official wrote in a March 2 internal memo that a yearlong pause in USAID’s work on health, food and agriculture in the world’s poorest countries would raise malaria deaths by 40%, to between 71,000 and 166,000 annually. It would also result in an increase of between 28% and 32% in tuberculosis cases, among other negative effects.

    As a historian of USAID, I know well that the agency has long faced a surprisingly high degree of scrutiny for its relatively tiny portion of the national budget.

    USAID’s budget has always been small – recently, in 2023, making up a roughly US$50 billion drop in the $6 trillion ocean of the federal budget. But USAID’s projects have had an outsized effect on the world.

    From a foreign policy standpoint, USAID’s greatest contribution to American influence abroad has always been its intangible soft-power effects. It helps to create an image of the U.S. as a positive, helpful world power worth partnering with.

    A poster for USAID in Beirut marks the U.S. donation for rebuilding lighting infrastructure near a destroyed city port in August 2023.
    Scott Peterson/Getty Images

    Responding to a Soviet threat in the 1960s

    USAID dates back to 1961, born from Cold War confrontations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

    In 1961, President John F. Kennedy merged several separate foreign aid agencies and offices – including the Mutual Security Agency, the Point Four Program and the Foreign Operations Administration – into one new agency.

    Kennedy, like other American presidents in the early years of the Cold War, fretted over the spread of communism.

    A well-known development economist, Walt Rostow, who served in Kennedy’s administration, was among the experts who argued that the Soviet Union could easily influence poor countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. It was possible, Rostow argued, to help these countries grow their economies and become more modern.

    This possibility pushed Kennedy in 1961 to sign the Foreign Assistance Act, creating USAID that November.

    USAID immediately began to oversee U.S. foreign aid programs to develop farming, irrigation and dam construction projects throughout Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America, taking over the existing projects of the various other aid departments that were now defunct.

    USAID was also responsible for public works projects in Cold War conflict zones, particularly Vietnam. There, USAID struggled in its efforts to build dams, improve rural agriculture techniques and construct South Vietnamese infrastructure. There were various environmental challenges working in the dense jungles, the physical threats caused by the ongoing Vietnam War and the realities of rural poverty.

    For example, USAID introduced new farming technologies to Vietnam, including modern fertilizers and tractors. This helped some farmers produce more crops, faster. But it also created disparities between wealthy and poor farmers, as modern fertilizer and other improvements were expensive. A growing number of poor farmers simply gave up and moved to nearby cities.

    Throughout the 1960s, USAID also funded the construction of hydropower water dams in Asia and Africa. This led to higher energy production in those regions, but also resulted in environmental degradation, as recklessly dammed rivers flooded forests and arable fields.

    Rostow and other development experts had unrealistically high goals for helping poor countries grow their economies. By the end of the decade, across the board, USAID beneficiary countries in Asia and Africa fell short of the economic growth expectations the U.S. set at the beginning of the 1960s.

    Still, USAID made substantial progress in developing food production and some economic growth, and improving the health of people in rural parts of countries such as India and Ghana.

    But that progress had limits and did not magically turn these economies into modern, Western-style capitalist democracies.

    With the help of a USAID grant, people lay pipework to bring water from a mountain spring to a town called Korem in Ethiopia in 1968.
    Paul Conklin/Getty Images

    Mixed results and focus

    As a result of USAID’s uneven progress in modernizing poor countries, the agency’s approach shifted in the 1970s and ‘80s.

    In the early 1970s, Congress and development experts pushed USAID away from grand, gross domestic product-focused modernization projects like dams, which they ostracized for their high costs and lack of tangible results.

    Instead, with the support of the Carter administration, USAID began to work more on meeting poor people’s basic human needs, including food, shelter and education, so they could lift themselves out of poverty.

    The agency shifted priorities once again in 1981, after President Ronald Reagan took office. His administration created programs meant to advertise American businesses and draw developing countries into the global marketplace.

    Rather than USAID giving money to a local government to build a well in a rural village, for example, the agency increasingly started contracting local or American businesses to do so. The U.S., in other words, began outsourcing its foreign aid.

    U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Stapleton Roy, right, presents Indonesia’s food and agriculture minister, A.M. Saefuddin, with food donated by USAID in Bandar Lampung, South Sumatra, in July 1998.
    Bernard Estrade/AFP via Getty Images

    USAID’s next phase

    At the end of the Cold War in 1991, the United States’ interest in spending money on helping poorer countries develop and modernize declined around the world.

    USAID shifted priorities once again.

    Without the threat of the Soviet Union, USAID’s mission throughout the 1990s became increasingly focused on new issues. These included democracy promotion in former Soviet countries in Eastern Europe. Sustainable development – a broad term that means promoting economic growth while respecting environmental concerns and long-term natural resource usage – was another focus in different regions.

    After the U.S. invaded Iraq and Afghanistan in the early 2000s, USAID struggled to fulfill its existing international projects while also rebuilding critical infrastructure to resurrect the Iraqi and Afghani economies during wartime.

    USAID’s funding remained stagnant in the 2010s after the recession. At the time, its annual budget was roughly $25 billion.

    At the same time, China expanded its own international development program to entice governments toward its side and to tether them to the Chinese economy.

    China’s aid work in South America has expanded rapidly over the past several years, and it is now the region’s top trading partner and also a major contributor to investment, energy and infrastructure projects. China’s aid and investment work in Africa has also grown considerably over the past few decades.

    Now, with USAID’s dissolution, Chinese influence throughout poor and middle-income countries is expected to grow.

    A lasting mark

    Despite its limitations and frustrations, in my view, USAID has had an undeniable, and often massive, positive impact on the world.

    USAID’s efforts to promote American businesses and exports abroad have resulted in the creation of thousands of jobs, both domestically and abroad, in a wide variety of industries, ranging from farming to medical sciences.

    The tens of thousands of water wells and other forms of critical rural infrastructure the agency has funded, or created itself, have provided clean, safe drinking water for millions in Africa. The agency’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance has provided decades of critical disaster assistance during famines, earthquakes and hurricanes around the world.

    These humanitarian efforts cost money, however. Some Republicans, including politicians and voters, say they have found the idea of American tax dollars being sent abroad, whether during the Cold War or today, wasteful, and others have worried over how aid funds may have been [abused].

    USAID has always straddled a difficult line, as development is a messy field. But ending U.S. foreign aid will be much messier, and it could also cost millions of people who are reliant on USAID their health or lives.

    Christian Ruth receives funding from America in the World Consortium.

    – ref. USAID’s history shows decades of good work on behalf of America’s global interests, although not all its projects succeeded – https://theconversation.com/usaids-history-shows-decades-of-good-work-on-behalf-of-americas-global-interests-although-not-all-its-projects-succeeded-249337

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI China: CPPCC members commend China’s achievements

    Source: China State Council Information Office 2

    Members of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) took part in a group interview with the press in Beijing on March 4 ahead of the opening of its third session, sharing insights on China’s new milestones and prospects.

    Members of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC take part in a group interview at the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, March 4, 2025. [Photo by Zheng Liang/China.org.cn]
    Lin Songtian, deputy director of the CPPCC National Committee’s Foreign Affairs Committee, called the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) a landmark project linking five continents, promoting global prosperity and benefiting current and future generations.
    “The initiative has benefited people in over 150 countries, paving a new path for cooperation, mutual benefit and shared development worldwide,” Lin told reporters at the Great Hall of the People. He noted that the BRI has driven development in partner countries, improved investment environments and established numerous economic zones and industrial parks, creating vast employment opportunities, enhancing livelihoods and enabling Chinese enterprises to expand globally with robust infrastructure, legal and policy support.
    Since 2013, the BRI has delivered global benefits through key projects: the China-Laos Railway boosted Asia’s regional connectivity, the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway provided Ethiopia sea port access, Peru’s Chancay Port became a green, smart logistics hub, and the China-Europe Railway Express strengthened Asia-Europe ties, connecting 25 countries and over 220 cities with more than 100,000 freight trains.
    “With joint efforts from all parties, high-quality BRI cooperation will allow Chinese people to pursue their dreams worldwide with greater accessibility, while enabling more people around the globe to share in development opportunities and prosperity,” he said.
    Qiao Hong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and CPPCC member, highlighted China’s remarkable progress in humanoid robotics in recent years, noting that the country now accounts for more than half of global robot deployment and leads the world in related technologies.
    Qiao emphasized that humanoid robots, a key manifestation of artificial intelligence (AI) and a vital platform for general-purpose physical AI systems, represent the cutting edge of technological evolution. She added that the “Q-series” humanoid robots, independently developed by the CAS’ Institute of Automation, have successfully established the core technological foundation for the humanoid robot mega-factory.
    “As part of China’s national strategic technological force, we will continue to harness our technological advancements and talent resources to solidify the nation’s core technological foundation and advance China’s goal of becoming a global technological powerhouse,” Qiao said.

    Members of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC take part in a group interview at the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, March 4, 2025. [Photo by Zheng Liang/China.org.cn]
    Jin Li, vice-president of the Southern University of Science and Technology and CPPCC member, addressed challenges posed by China’s aging population, highlighting efforts to develop the silver economy and improve the well-being of elderly people.
    China’s silver economy, driven by its aging population, is set for significant growth, potentially creating 100 million jobs by 2050 and tapping into a market worth $4 trillion by 2035, boosting economic vitality. Currently, there are more than 300 million people aged 60 and above in China, with this figure expected to exceed 400 million by 2035.
    “The growing population aged 60 to 70 brings a wealth of energy and experience. A silver think tank can unlock opportunities in this demographic,” Jin said, noting that improving education and health care enables older individuals to continue making significant contributions to the workforce and society.
    Jin highlighted that the needs of China’s aging population are shifting from basic necessities like clothing, food, shelter and transportation to personal growth, including health care, elderly care, leisure and exploration, as the silver economy offers vast opportunities in terms of both supply and demand.
    Yan Jianbing, president of Huazhong Agricultural University and CPPCC member, emphasized that China’s innovation in agricultural science and technology ranks among the world’s highest, making significant contributions to agricultural progress.
    Yan expressed optimism in maintaining food security, praising the efforts of agricultural science and technology workers. In 2024, China’s grain output exceeded 700 million metric tons for the first time, with per capita availability surpassing 500 kilograms — well above the international food security threshold.

    Members of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC take part in a group interview at the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, March 4, 2025. [Photo by Zheng Liang/China.org.cn]
    Zhao Hong, chief physician at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences’ Cancer Hospital and CPPCC member, highlighted China’s remarkable progress in biopharmaceutical innovation in recent years, aimed at better safeguarding public health. Last year, the nation approved 48 novel drugs and 65 innovative medical devices, with the number of novel medicines in the pipeline ranking second globally.
    “China has shifted from imitation to innovation in the biopharmaceutical field, significantly enhancing its capabilities and demonstrating a promising future,” Zhao said.
    CPPCC member Zhou Lan also noted China’s increased efforts to renovate old residential areas, creating modern and convenient living environments. Over 66,000 urban renewal projects have been carried out, updating and renovating 250,000 old neighborhoods, benefiting more than 100 million residents.
    “These urban renewal projects have not only optimized residents’ living conditions but also attracted new, efficient investment to these cities while preserving their cultural and historical heritage,” she said.

    MIL OSI China News –