Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Norma Torres (35th District of California)
July 24, 2025
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Norma J. Torres (CA-35) announced the inclusion of 15 Community Project Funding requests in the House Appropriations Committee funding bills for Fiscal Year 2026. The bills including these projects have all been considered at the subcommittee level, and most have passed through the full Appropriations Committee and now advance to the House floor for consideration. If fully funded, these locally driven proposals would bring more than $21,772,000 in federal resources directly to communities across California’s 35th Congressional District.
“As a senior Member of the House Appropriations Committee, I am proud to advocate for strategic federal investments that reflect the real needs of our region—from clean water and safer streets to affordable housing and economic development,” said Congresswoman Torres. “Every one of these projects was developed in close partnership with our local governments, schools, and nonprofits. They will improve public safety, support small businesses, enhance critical infrastructure, and uplift the people of the Inland Empire.”
Project Include:
Autism Society Inland Empire’s Law Enforcement Training Initiative – $1,031,000
Provides training and resources for law enforcement to foster safer interactions with community members with a condition or disability that may impact communication or require additional accommodations or awareness during an interaction in several cities in the 35th District.
Chino Basin Advanced Water Purification Demonstration Facility – $1,092,000
First-of-its-kind water purification facility to increase water quality and long-term resilience.
Chino Benson Emergency Power Generator Project – $1,092,000
Backup power to ensure continued water delivery in Chino during outages.
Chino Valley Innovation Center – $2,000,000
Establishes a local entrepreneurship hub to support business growth and job creation.
City of Montclair Fire Department Tractor Tiller Truck – $850,000
Funds a high-maneuverability fire truck to enhance emergency response.
City of Upland Campus Avenue Storm Drain Improvement – $1,092,000
Upgrades storm drain system to prevent flooding and protect homes, schools, and businesses.
Cypress Grove Supportive Housing – $2,000,000
Supports the construction of permanent housing to address local homelessness in Fontana.
Eastvale Library and Innovation Center – $3,100,000
Expands access to information, education, and community programming.
Los Serranos Flood Protection Project – $1,092,000
Installs storm drain system to mitigate flood risk in Chino Hills.
Merrill Center Crisis Stabilization Unit Rehabilitation – $1,100,000
Rehabilitates critical behavioral health facilities to support those in crisis in Ontario.
Monte Vista Water District Pipeline Replacement Project –$1,092,000
Replaces aging pipeline infrastructure in Montclair to prevent leaks and improve water flow.
Ontario-Montclair School District’s Safer Schools Initiative – $1,031,000
Improves school safety infrastructure in collaboration with local law enforcement.
Ontario Section 219 Recycled Water Expansion Project – $3,200,000
Constructs 13 miles of new infrastructure to deliver recycled water to public landscapes.
The Hub on Holt: Space for Entrepreneurship, Creation, and Innovation – $1,000,000
Revitalizes a blighted corridor to support small businesses and community engagement in Ontario.
Vista Verde II Affordable Housing Development – $1,000,000
Adds affordable housing and promotes economic growth through construction jobs in Ontario.
Headline: Governor Josh Stein Announces 2025 North Carolina Awards to be Held in Western North Carolina
Governor Josh Stein Announces 2025 North Carolina Awards to be Held in Western North Carolina lsaito
Raleigh, NC
Governor Josh Stein today announced that the North Carolina Awards, the state’s highest civilian honor, will be presented on November 13 at a ceremony in Asheville. All net proceeds will go to a fund to help communities recovering from Hurricane Helene.
“I am proud that this year’s North Carolina Awards will be held in western North Carolina to help shine a light on the fact that the area is open for folks to enjoy,” said Governor Josh Stein. “This year, we will honor the very best of North Carolina while encouraging tourism and helping support the ongoing recovery out west.”
“For more than 60 years, the North Carolina Awards have celebrated the outstanding people who make North Carolina a great place to live, learn, and work,” said NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary Pamela B. Cashwell. “We are excited to host one of our state’s most prestigious events in Asheville this year and to dedicate proceeds from the event to western North Carolina recovery efforts.”
Governor Stein and Visit NC recently teamed up to encourage people to “Rediscover the Unforgettable” in western North Carolina as the region reopens to visitors after Hurricane Helene. Governor Stein announced the initiative in June at the reopening of Chimney Rock State Park. The initiative seeks to bring people from all over to western North Carolina to boost tourism, support local businesses, and highlight outdoor recreation opportunities.
The North Carolina Awards event will be held at the historic Grove Park Inn. Tickets will go on sale soon.
Created by the General Assembly in 1961 and administered by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, the award recognizes “notable accomplishments by North Carolina citizens” in the fields of literature, science, fine arts, and public service.
Past award recipients include some of the country’s most distinguished artists, poets, writers, performers, journalists, scientists, and public servants. Since the awards’ inception, more than 300 notable men and women have been honored by the state of North Carolina, including William Friday, James Taylor, Etta Baker, Maya Angelou, Lee Smith, Eric Church, Selma Burke, and Branford Marsalis.
Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s opening remarks, as prepared for delivery, on the occasion of Africa Day at the High-level Political Forum 2025:
It is a great honour to join you here today.
As we celebrate Africa Day within this High-Level Political Forum, we gather not only to take stock, but to bear witness to something extraordinary: a continent that refuses to be defined by its starting point but instead chooses to measure itself by how far it has travelled.
Make no mistake: Africa began its sustainable development journey on the back foot. Colonial legacies that took wealth and left behind fractured institutions. Climate catastrophes that wash away decades of progress in a single season. Conflicts that force entire populations to abandon everything they have built. These are daily realities that test the resolve of every African nation.
Yet here we stand, with 10 countries presenting their Voluntary National Reviews this year as testaments to resilience. Angola achieving its strongest economic growth in a decade while building over 12,000 new schools. Ethiopia sustaining remarkable growth while powering its entire electrical grid from renewable sources. The Gambia driving robust development across agriculture, tourism and services.
These efforts are part of a broader continental push to realize the vision of Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In the Voluntary National Reviews, we see that vision coming to life. More than 100 other Voluntary National Reviews have been prepared in the last decade since the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted and tell promising stories of progress across the Continent.
But let us be clear on the full scale of the challenges facing Africa. When a country like Sudan facing conflict sees the vast majority of its factories destroyed with unemployment soaring to crushing levels, we are reminded that progress is neither linear nor guaranteed.
When young people across our continent still struggle to find decent work, we know that our most precious resource — our youth — still faces barriers that deny them their rightful place in building tomorrow’s Africa.
When Africa gets the fundamentals right, like quality education for every child, the path to higher ground becomes clearer. Digital transformation, climate resilience, economic justice: these are no longer distant summits, but peaks within reach, and Africa has always been a continent of climbers.
Consider the women breaking barriers across our continent. In parliaments from Rwanda to Eswatini to Ghana, women are claiming seats of power once denied to them. Across Lesotho, widows now possess rights over family property that previous generations could never imagine. Each a seismic shift in how African societies recognize the power and potential of half their population.
Our youth, too, are not passive recipients of change — they are its architects. From Nigeria’s digital revolution to technology driven governance in Seychelles to Morocco’s role in advancing AI [artificial intelligence] research, young Africans are coding and designing the future every step of the way.
That said, we should not romanticize the road ahead. At this moment, at this rate, the SDGs are beyond reach in Africa. We have five years to 2030. Five years to transform systems that took decades to build. Five years to close gaps, and the widest gap remains finance.
Finance is the engine of progress. Without it, schools don’t get built, clinics stay empty, and peace remains out of reach. The global financial system is not working for Africa. Borrowing costs are too high, debt burdens are too heavy, and the money that could change lives is tied up in systems that are too slow, too narrow, and too risk averse.
The Sevilla Commitment is a step forward, a promise to get resources flowing faster, fairer and at the scale we need. The next five years will test not only our ambition, but our ability to deliver on the most basic promises of dignity and justice — especially in the areas where progress remains most elusive.
Many women still face gender-based violence that steals their safety, their dignity, and their dreams. We must dismantle the structural barriers that persist like shadows, following women from childhood through their adult lives. Our young people deserve more than we have given them. We must invest urgently in skills development, particularly in the digital and green sectors where Africa can lead the world.
The bigger picture also betrays an all-too-present imbalance: too often, African countries are absent from the tables where global decisions are made, yet they are first to feel the impact.
The Pact for the Future is working to change that. It calls for more inclusive, representative global governance that reflects today’s realities, not a snapshot of yesterday. It recognizes that sustainable development cannot be built on a foundation of exclusion, and by adopting the Pact, countries committed to ensuring Africa is where it belongs: at the table, shaping the decisions that shape our world. And we are taking the necessary steps to ensure that countries have the UN support and capacity needed to do just that.
The Secretary-General’s UN80 Initiative also builds on the existing reforms and plots an ambitious path forward to ensure that those we serve have the optimal level and type of capacity in country.
Africa’s journey toward 2030, 2063 and beyond is not a sprint, it’s a relay race, where each nation, each community, each individual, carries the baton forward.
The Africa Sustainable Development Report that we are launching today represents both the progress, and the challenges, from a continent still writing its greatest chapter. It is a declaration that future generations will inherit not the limitations we face, but the possibilities we create. Above all, they speak to a refusal to accept that history determines destiny.
I want to thank the African Union, the Economic Commission of Africa, the African Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for preparing this crucial piece of work. Let it be our map for the road ahead. Let us build on the foundation of commitment it represents.
The relay baton is in our hands. The finish line is in sight, and from what I have seen, African nations — resilient, determined, unstoppable — are ready to run.
Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts Ed Markey
Bipartisan legislation bolsters mental wellness & resilience to traumas caused by climate disasters
Washington (July 24, 2025) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee and co-Chair of the Environmental Justice Caucus, along with Representatives Paul D. Tonko (D-NY), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), and Don Bacon (R-NE), today introduced the Community Mental Wellness and Resilience Act, a bipartisan bill that tackles the nation’s mental health crisis by addressing the extensive community trauma caused by climate disasters. This innovative legislation will empower communities through a new federal grant program to craft their own locally specific responses to the mental health problems caused by disasters and toxic stresses.
“Communities are struggling to meet the current need for mental health services, and as the climate crisis worsens, unprecedented disasters will only cause more unprecedented harm to our physical and mental health,” said Senator Markey. “Heat waves, flash floods, wildfires, and droughts leave devastation and trauma in their wake. My Community Mental Wellness and Resilience Act would give communities the help they need to protect residents’ mental health, especially those in rural and underserved communities that are getting hit first and worst by disasters and have the fewest resources to deal with them.”
“Extreme weather disasters don’t just wreak havoc on our homes, economies, and infrastructure — they inflict lasting trauma and mental harm for those both directly impacted and far beyond the affected area,” Congressman Tonko said. “We need to provide compassionate, evidence-informed solutions to support our communities. That’s why I’m leading this bipartisan legislation in partnership with my colleagues. We’ll continue working to further mental wellness and equip our communities with the resources they need to meet and overcome these traumas.”
“For too long, our disaster response has focused solely on physical recovery, while the mental and emotional toll has gone unaddressed. This bipartisan legislation corrects that imbalance by treating mental health as a core component of our public health and emergency preparedness strategy. By investing in evidence-based, community-driven solutions, we’re not just helping communities rebuild—we’re helping them heal,” said Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick.
“The mental health crisis affecting our communities is one of the most serious challenges of our time. We need comprehensive, community-driven solutions that empower local leaders to develop and implement programs that work for their specific needs,”?said Congressman Don Bacon.?“The bipartisan Community Mental Wellness and Resilience Act puts the power back in the hands of our communities to create meaningful, lasting change in mental health care.”
In 2024, Mental Health America reported that nearly 23 percent of U.S. adults (~60 million people) experienced a diagnosed mental illness, with more than 5 percent facing severe conditions. Climate disasters only exacerbate the problem. Consequently, the number of people who experience a mental health problem as a result of a natural disaster often outweigh those with physical injuries by 40 to 1.
The Community Mental Wellness and Resilience Act will:
Establish a competitive grant program at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to create, operate, or expand community-based programs that use a public health approach to build mental wellness and resilience
Utilize these programs to enhance the capacity of all residents for mental wellness and resilience to prevent and heal mental health problems generated by disasters and toxic stresses
Incorporating a set-aside to help address rural mental health disparities
Help community initiatives build their own strategies to enhance and sustain population-level mental wellness and resilience, with specific attention to high-risk individuals
More than 110 organizations support the legislation, including: Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, American Lung Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Public Health Association, International Transformational Resilience Coalition, Mental Health America, Moms Clean Air Force, National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, National Association of Social Workers, National League for Nursing, Rural Opportunity Institute, The Kennedy Forum, and YMCA of the USA.
A fact sheet on the legislation can be found HERE.
Priority question for written answer P-002982/2025 to the Commission Rule 144 Isabella Lövin (Verts/ALE)
In July 2024, The Financial Times[1] reported that the Commission had dropped infringement proceedings launched in 2021 against France, Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium for failing to enforce the EU’s ban on discarding unwanted fish at sea. These proceedings aimed to ensure compliance with the landing obligation, requiring catches, including by-catch, to be landed and counted against quotas. The Financial Times reported that the Commission ‘quietly’ dropped the cases without explanation, and that no evidence was seen that the breaches had been addressed.
Experts have long warned that undocumented discards undermine quota monitoring and the scientific data underpinning fishing limits. Commission staff working document SWD(2025)0149 of 6 June 2025 echoed these warnings, citing a ‘lack of effective control measures adopted by Member States to date’[2], making such violations ‘very difficult to detect and confirm’. The European Fisheries Control Agency’s 2024 Annual Report[3] also found ‘low occurrence’ of detecting landing obligation infringements, while a recent report by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency[4] found ‘ineffective monitoring and enforcement’ of this rule at Member State level.
Considering the above:
1.Did the Commission receive any evidence that the identified non-compliance was corrected before closing the five cases?
2.Has it since verified that compliance has improved in the Member States concerned?
The human impact of these events alone is unfathomable. The economic price tag in the aftermath is growing ever larger. In 2024 alone, NOAA documented 27 weather or climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion, leading to $184.8 billion in total damages and 568 deaths.
While climate disasters are costing us billions we don’t have, the oil and gas industry is comfortably earning trillions. In 2023, the industry earned an estimated $2.7 trillion in income globally.
Corporate and political elites across the world have foolishly wasted decades on inaction, delay and expensive propaganda. In truth, delaying the necessary reductions in planet warming pollution is similar to refusing to pay your credit card when it is due. Before too long, the penalties and interest charges start piling up, and you can find yourself in a real mess.
Our climate bill is overdue, but the fossil fuel industry is doing everything they can to avoid paying. They want to avoid any liability for their actions, all the while pushing the rising costs off on to taxpayers; or energy ratepayers; or just ordinary families stuck with higher bills, an unhealthy environment, looming climate hazards, and a failing insurance market.
This is unjust and unacceptable. We have to make the polluters pay.
All The Ways that Fossil Fuels Take Money Out of Your Pocket
Over and over, the media and politicians have conditioned us to think that protecting the environment is a “luxury” that sadly we just can’t afford – as if a healthy biosphere that sustains life could ever be separated from “the economy.” The reality is just the opposite: saving the planet is a bargain compared to the insanely expensive climate crisis.
Fossil fuels and climate change are forcing us to spend top-dollar in multiple ways.
Direct Climate Impacts. Climate science has established that climate change is driving numerous impacts both in the U.S. and around the globe – from sea-level rise to heat waves to a melting Arctic. A 2023 report from the U.S. Treasury focused on three impacts that could harm the household finances of Americans in certain parts of the county: flooding, wildfire, and exposure to high heat.
The Treasury report found that these climate hazards can destroy property and public infrastructure, close businesses and eliminate jobs, spike gas and energy prices, interfere with banking and emergency services, and send people to the hospital. Public polling shows that more than one-third of U.S. adults say they have been affected by an extreme weather event in the past 2 years.
To top it all off, it is becoming increasingly clear that climate change is driving the insurance market toward collapse.
Insurance Collapse
Donald Trump may not believe in climate change, but your insurance company sure does. Insurance companies can’t afford to be blinded by climate denier propaganda, which is why real, physical climate damages are now being reflected in insurance premiums and decisions about coverage.
Data from the insurance industry suggests that from 2002 to 2022, over one-third of insurance losses (or $600 billion) were attributed to climate change, and that those losses were increasing. One recent study predicts that climate change could reduce American home values by a staggering $1.47 trillion over the next 30 years – with the losses concentrated in places with the largest climate impacts. As climate impacts expand, even places that were once dubbed “climate havens” are no longer safe from harm.
Industry insiders are warning that if temperatures continue to rise, the insurance industry will simply be unable to offer coverage for many risks, which would then spread through other parts of the economy. For example, if you cannot get insurance on a house, you probably can’t get a mortgage either. This could lead to “a systemic risk that threatens the very foundation of the financial sector” in the words of one expert. Such a scenario could also lead to large migration of people away from the uninsurable parts of the country.
We are already seeing parts of this dynamic play out in California. The January 2025 California fires will likely be the most expensive disaster in American history, with insured losses costing as much as $75 billion and total losses potentially greater than $250 billion. As a result, insurers have requested large rate hikes or have left the state entirely, leaving the state-run FAIR plan as the only option for many.
Good News, We’ve Found the Culprits
We don’t have to scour the planet to figure out who is to blame for these mounting crises. Independent researcher Rick Heede and colleagues have created a database ranking which coal, oil and gas corporations and state-owned companies are responsible for the majority of historic carbon emissions. Topping the list are the former U.S.S.R. and China’s coal production, but the corporations Saudi Aramco, Chevron and ExxonMobil take the #3, #4 and #5 spots on the list.
Peer-reviewed studies have taken the next step to actually attribute certain climate impacts to specific climate polluters. Studies have linked these corporate polluters to a rise in CO2 and surface temperature, sea-level rise, ocean acidification, wildfire risk, and more. A recent study has even outlined a methodology to establish “an ‘end-to-end’ attribution that links fossil fuel producers to specific damages from warming.”
At the federal level, the Trump administration is busy firing scientists, illegally ending grants, halting data collection, and reversing what progress we have made on fighting climate pollution. But even while the federal government refuses to show true climate leadership, states and local governments have an opportunity to keep hope alive for climate sanity. States such as Vermont and New York have begun passing laws to make polluters pay directly. Sometimes called “climate superfund” laws, the idea is to impose a fee, or a climate damage tax, on fossil fuel companies in order to fund needed climate adaptation programs. Other states like California, New Jersey, and Oregon have similar pieces of legislation moving through their State Congresses.
No Polluter Pardons
These lawsuits and state laws are gaining momentum, so naturally, these corporate cronies are doing everything they can to shirk their responsibilities. The fossil fuel industry may attempt to slip some form of “immunity” from liability into must-pass legislation, similar to the shield law that protects gun manufacturers.
People in positions of power, like President Trump, are even going a step further and doing what they can to shield polluters from scrutiny. Trump issued an Executive Order to protect fossil fuels against state overreach, and even directed the DOJ to try to block these lawsuits and laws in court. And infuriatingly, Trump recently eliminated NOAA’s database of climate disasters, depriving us of even basic information about the crisis. Moves like these can try to obscure the consequences of climate chaos, but they cannot erase real pain and suffering felt by communities experiencing these disasters.
It’s time we stand together, hold these brazen culprits accountable and demand they pay for the damage they’ve caused. Take action with us and sign the Polluters Pay Pact today.
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, July 24 (Xinhua) — Several regions in northern China were put on flood alert on Thursday, with weather forecasts predicting heavy rainfall in the coming days.
The Beijing People’s Government raised the rainfall alert level to yellow, the third-highest in a four-tier system, and launched a citywide flood emergency response.
The Haihe River Flood and Drought Control Headquarters and Water Resources Committee in neighboring Tianjin Municipality issued Level 4 flood emergency response and emergency protection modes at 3:00 p.m. Moderate to heavy rainfall in the Haihe River basin is expected to cause water levels in the main river and tributaries to rise from July 24 to 26.
Earlier in the day, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region raised its meteorological emergency response for heavy rainfall from Level 4 to Level 3. Rainfall of over 100 mm and up to 180 mm in some parts of the region is forecast, accompanied by thunderstorms and squalls.
Northeast China’s Jilin Province issued a Level 4 drought and flood alert at 4 p.m. Heavy rainfall could hit central and western parts of the province, creating an increased risk of flooding and inundation in some cities and several rivers.
At 3:00 p.m., a Level 4 flood alert was also issued in key cities in Hebei Province, with heavy rain and downpours expected overnight.
The authorities of the abovementioned regions have instructed the relevant departments to strengthen monitoring and forecasting, issue timely warnings, intensify inspections of dams and reservoirs, and take effective measures to ensure the safety of citizens’ lives and property. The population is advised to remain vigilant in relation to possible secondary disasters caused by extreme weather. –0–
Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source of the information. It is an accurate report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Headline: Fabric Real-Time Intelligence can turn raw signals into actionable insights, without writing complex code
How Contoso uses MQTT sensors, public weather feeds and Fabric Real-Time Intelligence to monitor smart buildings.
Jointly authored by Alicia Li and Arindam Chatterjee
Why Real-Time Stream Processing Matters
In the age of AI, as organizations embrace intelligent systems and data-driven decision-making, the ability to act on data the moment it arrives is unlocking new levels of agility and insight. From anomaly detection and operational optimization to fraud prevention and personalized experiences, real-time insights are powering the next wave of innovation. For forward-looking businesses, real-time stream processing has become a foundational capability.
In this post, we’ll explore how Contoso, a smart building operator, uses Microsoft Fabric’s Real-Time Intelligence to build a streaming data platform that connects room sensors, weather feeds, and alerting systems.
Architecture Overview
Each Contoso-operated building is equipped with room sensors that stream temperature and occupancy data to an MQTT broker. To enrich this data, Contoso also ingests a public weather feed, enabling correlation between indoor and outdoor conditions. These real-time signals drive smarter energy use, improve occupant comfort, and enable timely responses to environmental changes.
Figure 1: (End to End Data Platform Architecture)
As demonstrated in Figure 1., these real-time signals flow through Microsoft Fabric’s Real-Time Intelligence stack — from ingestion to transformation, alerting, and visualization. The architecture includes:
Eventstream for ingesting MQTT and weather data.
No-code and SQL operators for shaping the data.
Data Activator for triggering alerts.
Eventhouse for storing and analyzing the time-series data.
Real-time Dashboards for monitoring up-to date-trends, anomalies etc.
In the following sections, we will walk through the implementation of each stage of the architecture.
Can’t wait to learn more? Check out the full walkthrough demo video.
Step 1: Ingest Data with Eventstream
Contoso’s real-time journey begins with data — lots of it. Each building streams temperature and occupancy readings from room sensors to an MQTT broker. To make smarter decisions, Contoso enriches these signals with real-time weather data from Azure Maps, enabling them to correlate indoor conditions with the outdoor environment. This combination helps optimize HVAC usage, detect anomalous readings, anticipate comfort issues, and respond proactively — not reactively.
Microsoft Fabric’s Real-Time Hub makes this easy. With built-in connectors for MQTT and Azure Maps Weather, Contoso can ingest diverse data streams in just a few clicks.
Open Real-Time hub and click ‘connect data source’.
Select MQTT connector and connect
Create a new connection and fill in the topic name.
Enter Eventstream Edit mode.
Select ‘Add Source’ and ‘Connect data sources.
Select Weather Data connector
Choose the Location (e.g. London)
Enable multiple schema inference feature from the Eventstreams Settings page.
Navigate to Data preview on Default Stream:
Select Multiple Schema drop down.
Each schema is automatically inferred from the incoming data. You can switch to different schemas to review the details.
Step 2: Process & Transform Streaming Data with No-Code and SQL Operators
Once data starts to flow into a Fabric Eventstream, the next step is to shape it into a usable format. Raw sensor and weather data often needs filtering, renaming, or enrichment before it’s ready for alerts or dashboards. For Contoso, this means extracting just the fields they care about and re-shaping the data to conform to a common data model e.g. temperatures reported in Celsius instead of Fahrenheit etc.
Fabric makes this easy with built-in transformation tools. You can use no-code operators for quick filtering and shaping, or switch to SQL for more advanced logic — all within the same Eventstream canvas.
Click + Add Transformation on the Eventstream canvas (Edit)
Use visual transformations to select fields, rename columns, and change data types.
Use SQL | Edit Query to author & test queries
Send results to a Eventhouse table by connecting the SQL operator with an Eventhouse destination and finishing the Eventhouse configuration.
Using the steps we covered, Contoso can quickly build and test a complex streaming data pipeline as demonstrated in Figure 2.
Figure 2 (Eventstream topology to process MQTT & Weather data)
Step 3: Act on Streaming Data – Alerts & Real-time Dashboards
Once the sensor and weather data are ingested, processed and transformed, the next step is to act on it. In some cases, that means triggering real-time alerts when conditions exceed thresholds—like a room temperature rising above 100°F or occupancy crossing 50 people. In others, it means visualizing trends across buildings to support operational decisions. Whether it’s automated responses or human-in-the-loop monitoring, the value of streaming data comes from how quickly and clearly it drives action.
Fabric Real-Time Intelligence supports both modes of action—event-driven automation with Data Activator and real-time observability using Eventhouse Real-Time Dashboards. With Data Activator, Contoso is able to define alert conditions directly on streaming data and trigger notifications or workflows without writing code. With Eventhouse and Real-Time Dashboards, they can build live dashboards that reflect current conditions across their buildings—in real-time.
Set Alerts or Trigger Actions by adding Data Activator as a destination for the Eventstream
Define alert conditions and configure actions (e.g., Teams notifications, Emails, Notebooks)
Send data to Eventhouse and build a Real-Time Dashboard.
Use visual queries and enable auto-refresh to keep insights live.
Conclusion
Contoso’s journey shows how Fabric Real-Time Intelligence can turn raw signals into actionable insights — without writing complex code or stitching together multiple tools. From ingesting MQTT and weather data to triggering alerts and powering live dashboards, Fabric offers a unified, low-friction path to building intelligent, event-driven applications.
This approach is not limited to smart buildings; the ingest, transform, act design pattern is applicable in various industries:
Manufacturing: Monitor equipment health and trigger maintenance alerts.
Retail: Track foot traffic and optimize staffing in real time.
Logistics: Combine GPS and weather data to reroute deliveries.
Finance: Detect fraud patterns as transactions stream in.
Whether you’re managing a factory floor, a logistics network, or a digital storefront, the formula is the same: Stream it. Shape it. Act on it.
Now it’s your turn — explore what’s possible when your streaming data becomes your co-pilot.
Please refer to the following links for detailed configuration guidance:
We’d Love Your Feedback!
Feel free to reach out via email at askeventstreams@microsoft.com. You can also submit feedback or feature request on Fabric Ideas, and join the conversation with fellow users in the Fabric Community
If you haven’t already, check out the video walkthrough for the full experience in action.
We are living in an age of anxiety. People face multiple existential crises such as climate change and conflicts that could potentially escalate into nuclear war.
So how do people cope with competing threats like this? And what happens to climate anxiety when wars suddenly erupt and compete for our attention?
Climate change affects our physical and mental health, directly through extreme climate-related droughts, wildfires and intense storms. It also affects some people indirectly through so-called “climate anxiety”. This term covers a range of negative emotions and states, including not just anxiety, but worry and concern, hopelessness, anger, fear, grief and sadness.
A team of researchers led by Caroline Hickman from the University of Bath surveyed 10,000 children and young people (aged 16 to 25 years) in ten countries (Australia, Brazil, Finland, France, India, Nigeria, Philippines, Portugal, the UK and the US). They found that 45% of respondents said their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily lives. It was worse for respondents from developing countries.
Climate anxiety can potentially serve a positive function. Anger, for example, can push people to act to help mitigate the effects of climate change.
But it can also lead to “eco-paralysis”, a feeling of being overwhelmed, inhibiting people from taking any effective action, affecting their sleep, work and study, as a result of them dwelling endlessly on the problem.
Climate anxiety is not included in the American Psychiatric Association’s authoritative guide to the diagnosis of mental disorders. In other words, it is not officially recognised as a mental disorder.
Some say this is a good thing. The author and Stanford academic Britt Wray wrote: “The last thing we want is to pathologise this moral emotion, which stems from an accurate understanding of the severity of our planetary health crisis.”
But if it is not officially recognised, will people take it seriously enough? Will they just dismiss people who suffer from it as “snowflakes” – too sensitive and too easily hurt by the hard realities of life. This is a major dilemma.
I explore how climate anxiety relates to other types of clinical anxiety in my recent book, Understanding Climate Anxiety, recognising that there are adaptive and non-adaptive forms of anxiety.
According to Steven Taylor, a clinical psychologist from the University of British Columbia, adaptive anxiety can “motivate climate activism, such as efforts to reduce one’s carbon footprint”. Maladaptive anxiety, however, may “take the form of anxious passivity”, he warned, where the person feels anxious but utterly helpless.
Identifying different types of climate anxiety, understanding their precursors and how they interact with personality is a major psychological challenge. Identifying ways of alleviating climate anxiety and making it more adaptive, and focused on possible climate mitigation, is a major societal challenge.
But there’s another important issue. Some global leaders, including Donald Trump, don’t believe in human-induced climate change, claiming it’s “one of the great scams”. He seems to view climate anxiety as an overblown reaction to propaganda pumped out by a biased media.
This can make the experience much worse for those who feel anxious but then having their feelings dismissed.
Some psychologists argue that climate anxiety can be a form of pre-traumatic stress disorder. This hypothesis arose from observations of climate scientists and their growing feelings of anger, distress, helplessness and depression as the climate situation has worsened.
In 2015, researchers devised a new clinical measure to assess pre-traumatic stress reactions using items found in the diagnostic and statistical manual for post-traumatic stress disorder, but now focused on the future rather than the past, asking about “repeated, disturbing dreams of a possible future stressful experience”, for example.
They tested Danish soldiers before their deployment in Afghanistan and found that “involuntary intrusive images and thoughts of possible future events … were experienced at the same level as post-traumatic stress reactions to past events before and during deployment”.
They also found that soldiers who experienced higher levels of pre-traumatic stress before deployment had an increased risk of post-traumatic stress disorder after their return from the war zone. Their hypervigilance primed their nervous system to react more strongly when anything untoward occurred.
This would suggest that we need to take stress reactions to future anticipated events such as climate change very seriously.
The crisis response
But how important is climate anxiety in the context of these other threats? Researchers assessed the emotional state and mental health of people aged 18 to 29 years in five countries (China, Portugal, South Africa, the US and UK) focusing on three global issues: climate change, an environmental disaster (the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan), and the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
They found the strongest emotional engagement was with the ongoing wars, with climate change a close second, and the radiation leak third. The strongest emotional responses to the wars were concern, sadness, helplessness, disgust, outrage and anger. For climate change, the strongest responses were concern, sadness, helplessness, disappointment and anxiety.
All three crises made young people feel concerned, sad, and very importantly helpless, but climate change has this burning level of anxiety added into the bubbling mix.
It seems that climate anxiety still has this undiminished power regardless of all the other awful things that are currently happening in the world, and I suspect the stigma of being dismissed as “snowflakes” makes this particular fear response all the more unbearable.
Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?_
Geoff Beattie has received funding from the British Academy and the AHRC to investigate psychological barriers to climate change mitigation and the effects of climate change on emotional responses.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Travis Van Isacker, Senior Research Associate, School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol
On a cold, wet November evening, Issa Mohamed Omar and more than 30 other men, women and children set off from their informal camp near the northern French port city of Dunkirk. They walked through the darkness in near-silence for around two hours, until they reached the beach from where they hoped to start a new and better life.
As they arrived, five men were busy pumping up an inflatable dinghy and attaching an outboard engine. These people smugglers had charged each of their customers more than a thousand euros for a trip that costs someone with the right passport less than a hundred.
The travellers were given life-vests, arranged into rows and counted. “There are 33 of you,” one of the smugglers said. For many on board, this was not their first attempt at reaching England.
Most came from Iraqi Kurdistan, including Kazhal Ahmed Khidir Al-Jammoor from Erbil, who was travelling with her three children: Hadiya, Mubin and Hasti Rizghar Hussein, respectively aged 22, 16 and seven.
A father and son from Egypt were shown how the engine worked and provided a GPS device and directions to Dover, around 35 miles (60km) to the west across the Channel. Mohamed Omar would later recall:
The Egyptian man was put in charge of steering the boat by the smugglers. He was travelling with his son, who looked like he was in his late teens or maybe early 20s. I do not know how they came to be the driver and navigator.
There were also at least three Ethiopian nationals – one of whom, father-of-two Fikiru Shiferaw from Addis Ababa, sent his wife Emebet at home in Ethiopia a final WhatsApp voice message:
We have already boarded the boat. We are on the way. I will turn off my phone now. Goodnight, I will call you tomorrow morning.
These were the last words she would ever receive from her husband.
What happened to Fikiru Shiferaw and the other passengers on the night of November 23-24 2021 has been the subject of the UK’s Cranston Inquiry which, during March 2025, heard from 22 witnesses to the disaster, including officers involved in the UK’s search-and-rescue (SAR) response. Chaired by former High Court judge Sir Ross Cranston, the independent inquiry also heard from Mohamed Omar from Somalia – one of only two survivors – as well as family members of many of the dead and missing.
These hearings not only shed light on the actions of UK Border Force and His Majesty’s Coastguard officers during the failed rescue operation – designated Incident Charlie – in the early hours of November 24, but the agencies’ approach to “small boat crossings” in general dating back to 2017.
According to the testimonies, officers had been operating under extreme pressure in the months leading up to the disaster. Kevin Toy, master of the Border Force ship Valiant which was sent out to search for the missing dinghy that night, explained that in the run-up to the incident, “night after night” he could see his crew were “utterly exhausted” by the end of their shifts.
The evidence shows the British government was aware of the growing risk that Border Force and HM Coastguard could be overwhelmed by the rising number of small boat crossings – and that people might die as a result. In May 2020, a document produced by the Department for Transport acknowledged that “SAR resources can be overwhelmed if current incident numbers persist”. At least three senior HM Coastguard officers identified the same risk in August 2021.
Multiple communication failures have also been exposed by the inquiry – among British officers, with their opposite numbers in France, and between both countries’ emergency services and the increasingly desperate people aboard the sinking dinghy.
Despite numerous distress calls and GPS coordinates being shared via WhatsApp, a rescue boat failed to reach the travellers in time. Amid the confusion, when their calls stopped, the coastguard assumed Charlie’s passengers had been picked up and were safe. In fact, they were perishing in the cold waters of the Channel over more than ten hours.
The Insights section is committed to high-quality longform journalism. Our editors work with academics from many different backgrounds who are tackling a wide range of societal and scientific challenges.
As part of my research into the digital transformation of the UK-France border, I attended the inquiry and have studied the many statements, call transcripts, operational logs, emails and meeting minutes it has made public. Initially, I wanted to understand how the November 2021 disaster became a watershed moment in the UK government’s response to people trying to cross the Channel by small boat or dinghy, catalysing the transformation of the UK’s maritime border into the hyper-surveilled space it is today.
But, after speaking to representatives for Mohamed Omar and the bereaved families as well as migrant rights organisations, larger questions have emerged. In particular, given the inquiry’s singular focus on this one catastrophic event in November 2021, those I spoke to are concerned that its recommendations will be unable to prevent further deaths from occurring in the Channel, which have risen dramatically over the last 18 months.
How ‘small boat crossings’ began
Since the UK and France began operating “juxtaposed” border controls in the early 1990s (meaning border checks occur before departure), asylum seekers trying to reach England have had to make irregular journeys across the Channel. Until 2018, these were typically aboard trains and ferries – after sneaking on to a lorry or through a French port’s perimeter security.
At the time of the “Jungle” camp near Calais in 2015-16, media coverage of collective attempts by its residents to enter French ports spiked UK government investment in the border. Between 2014 and 2018, it gave its French counterpart at least £123 million to “strengthen the border and maintain juxtaposed controls”. These funds paid for French police to patrol the ports and border cities, regularly evict migrants’ living sites, and finance detention and relocation centres.
As admitted by then-home secretary Sajid Javid in 2019, this increased security led people to find other ways across the Channel. Beginning in the winter of 2018, smugglers organised journeys in small, seaworthy vessels they had stolen from marinas along the French coast. These “small boats” continue to lend their name to this migration phenomenon – yet the unseaworthy inflatable dinghies used today, with no keel or rigid hull, are not worthy of the name.
Even in the context of the usual sensationalism surrounding irregular migration to the UK, small boat journeys were met with an especially intense response, both politically and in the media.
When 101 people crossed between Christmas and New Year in 2018, Javid declared it a major incident. Ever since, “stopping the boats” has been one of the UK government’s highest priorities. Despite small boat arrivals making up only 29% of UK asylum claimants in 2018-24, billions of pounds have been spent to try and control the route.
Frosty relations and the ‘pushback’ plan
As Channel crossings rose sharply over 2020-21, worsening relations between France and the UK due to Brexit complicated how the two governments worked together to respond. In his testimony, former clandestine Channel threat commander Dan O’Mahoney – appointed by Javid’s successor, Priti Patel, to “make small boat crossings unviable” – described relations between the two countries as already “very frosty” when he began in August 2020.
After France’s then-interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, axed a plan for UK vessels to take rescued migrants back to Dunkirk, O’Mahoney was tasked by senior ministers to come up with an alternative. The resulting “pushback” plan, called Operation Sommen, involved Border Force officers on jet skis driving into migrant dinghies to turn them back as they crossed the border line into UK waters. When France learned of the plan, O’Mahoney recalled:
They thought it went counter to their and our obligations around safety of life at sea … They objected to it very strongly, and it affected our already quite strained relationship with them further.
Operation Sommen was abandoned in April 2022 before having ever been used in anger. However, preparations were said to have taken up “a very considerable amount of time and resource” at both the Home Office and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency – and had “a detrimental effect” on the UK’s overall SAR response to small boat crossings.
At a meeting of senior officials in June 2021 to discuss Operation Sommen, ministers had made clear that the “numbers of people crossing [was] a political problem” – and that improving SAR capabilities did not “fit with [the] narrative of taking back control of borders”.
Although senior HM Coastguard officers recognised “it is extremely difficult to locate small boats or communicate with those onboard”, the inquiry heard that officers did not recall receiving “any small boat training before November 2021”, other than in the procedure to allow Border Force to push them back to French waters.
The head of Border Force’s Maritime Command, Stephen Whitton, told the inquiry he was under “a huge amount of pressure” to prevent small boat crossings, while also “providing the bulk of the support to search and rescue”. Despite carrying out 90% of all small boat rescues in the Channel and “regularly being overwhelmed”, Border Force Maritime Command received “no additional assets to manage the search and rescue response” before November 2021.
‘The pressure we were under’
When the decision was taken for Border Force – a law enforcement rather than search-and-rescue organisation – to be the primary responders to small boat crossings in 2018, only around 100 people were crossing each month. Yet by the time of the disaster three years later, according to an internal Home Office document, the total for 2021 was “already more than 25,000”.
At the inquiry, O’Mahoney stated: “As 2021 went on, it became much clearer that … frankly, we just needed more [rescue] boats.” Whitton admitted that before the disaster, Border Force, HM Coastguard, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and other support organisations were all “on our knees in terms of the pressure we were under, and it was getting hugely challenging”.
The evidence shows this pressure was acutely felt inside Dover’s Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, which sits atop the port’s famous white cliffs offering a commanding view of the Channel. Inside, Coastguard officers coordinate SAR operations and control vessel traffic in the Dover Strait – one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
On the night of November 23-24, three coastguard officers were on search-and-rescue duty: team leader Neal Gibson, maritime operations officer Stuart Downs, and a trainee – unnamed by the inquiry – who was officially only present as an observer.
HM Coastguard’s Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre at Dover overlooking the Channel. Travis Van Isacker, CC BY-NC-SA
Staffing appears to have been a longstanding issue at the Dover coastguard station where, according to divisional commander Mike Bill, there was “poor retention of staff” and “experience and competence weren’t the best”. Only the day before the disaster, during a migrant red days meeting – convened when, due to good weather, the probability of Channel crossers is considered “highly likely” – chief coastguard Peter Mizen had warned that only having two qualified officers at Dover on nights “isn’t enough”.
Over recent months, as the station had become busier responding to small boat crossings and in the wake of an unsuccessful recruitment drive, staff were having to work flat-out throughout their shifts, and were being asked to come in on scheduled days off.
On the night of November 23-24, owing to staff shortages, team leader Gibson told the inquiry he had to cover traffic control duties for three hours from 10.30pm. This meant he was away from the SAR desk at 00.41am, when a message arrived from the national rescue coordination centre along the coast in Fareham, stating that the Coastguard’s scheduled surveillance aeroplanes would not be flying over the Channel that night due to fog.
The officers were told they would be “effectively blind” – and should not allow themselves “to be drawn into relaxing and expecting a normal migrant crossing night”. The message warned: “This has the potential to be very dangerous.”
‘Their boat – there’s nothing left’
According to Mohamed Omar, the sea was calm when he and the other passengers departed the French beach around 9pm UK time. Giving his evidence to the Cranston Inquiry from Paris – he still cannot travel to the UK – a ship approached them around an hour into their voyage:
They came up to us to see what we were doing, and shone a light on us. I remember seeing a French flag on the boat. It was a big boat and I am certain it was the French coastguard. I had heard from people I met in the camp in Dunkirk that this happened sometimes, and that the French boat would follow until you reached English waters.
In fact, Mohamed Omar said, the French ship left the travellers again after about an hour. Shortly after this, the problems began.
A French warship patrols the shore of Mardyck in northern France, close to where Charlie is thought to have departed. Travis Van Isacker, CC BY-NC-SA
Around 1am, seawater began entering the dinghy. By now, it was in the vicinity of the Sandettie lightvessel, around 20 miles north-east of Dover. At first, passengers managed to bail out the 13°C water – but soon the flooding became uncontrollable. The dinghy’s inflatable tube began losing pressure, and a couple of the Kurdish men used air pumps to try to keep it inflated. Others tried to prevent panic spreading among the passengers.
Many onboard began to make frantic calls for rescue. What were reported to be leaked transcripts of some of these calls were published by French newspaper Le Monde a year after the sinking. They showed the first distress call from the dinghy was received by the French coastguard at 12.48am. Speaking in English, the caller said there were 33 people on board a “broken” boat.
According to Le Monde, three minutes later, another call was transferred to the French maritime rescue coordination centre at Cap Gris-Nez by an emergency operator who reported: “Apparently their boat – there’s nothing left.” Following procedure, the French coastguard officer asked the caller to send a GPS position by WhatsApp so she could “send a rescue boat as soon as possible”. At 1.05am UK time, the GPS position arrived.
Rather than send a French boat, Le Monde reported that the officer phoned her counterparts in Dover to warn them a dinghy 0.6 nautical miles from the border line would soon be crossing into UK waters. On the other end of the line was the trainee officer, who was handling routine calls that night despite officially only being an observer.
After the call finished, according to Downs’s evidence to the inquiry, the trainee mistakenly told him the dinghy was thought to be “in good condition” – information he recorded in the log for Incident Charlie. This miscommunication may have affected the urgency of the UK’s SAR response, preventing HM Coastguard and Border Force from appreciating the severe distress the “broken” dinghy was in.
Just before 1am, the French coastguard had sent its migrant tracker spreadsheet, containing information on all small boat crossings that night, to HM Coastguard for the first time. It showed four migrant dinghies at sea – which Gris-Nez had been aware of “for many hours”, according to Gibson.
The issue of the French coastguard appearing to withhold information about active small boat crossings had been raised by HM Coastguard’s clandestine operations liaison officer during a July 2021 review. And earlier that very evening, Gibson told one of his colleagues:
Sometimes they just seem to keep it quiet. Like we’ll not get anything – then we’ll get a tracker at three in the morning with 15 incidents, and they go: ‘Mostly these are in your search-and-rescue region.’ Wonderful.
At 1.20am, Downs phoned Border Force Maritime Command in Portsmouth to request a Border Force vessel search for the dinghy Charlie. He provided the GPS position received from his French counterpart and the number of people onboard – but also the incorrect information that “they think it’s in good condition”.
Ten minutes later, the Valiant, Border Force’s 42-metre patrol ship stationed at Dover, was tasked to proceed towards the Sandettie lightvessel. At the same time, the first direct call to the Dover rescue coordination centre came in from Charlie. The distressed caller said they were “in the water” and that “everything [was] finished”.
Around 15 minutes later, at 1.48am, Gibson took a call from 16-year-old Mubin Rizghar Hussein, who spoke good English. Despite the noise and commotion, he managed to provide Gibson with a WhatsApp number – in order to share their GPS position. The transcript of this call records voices shouting in the background: “It’s finished. Finished. Brother, it’s finished.”
A ‘grave and imminent threat to life’
Gibson told the inquiry that after his call with Rizghar Hussein, he had a “gut feeling that this doesn’t feel quite as usual”. By “usual” he meant what was, according to maritime operations officer Downs, a commonly held belief at the Dover coastguard station that with “nine out of ten”“ callers from small boats: “It would generally be overstated that the boat … was sinking, people were drowning … Whatever was going on would be overstated.”
Acting on his gut feeling, at 2.27am Gibson took the unprecedented decision to broadcast a Mayday Relay – denoting a “grave and imminent threat to life”. By maritime law, this alert required other vessels to offer their assistance.
Gibson told the inquiry he did this to get the French warship Flamant to respond. He could see on his radar screen that Flamant was closest to Charlie’s position and was the best vessel to rescue the people if the dinghy really was sinking.
Why the Flamant did not respond is at the centre of an ongoing criminal investigation in France into two of the warship’s officers and five coastguards from Gris-Nez, for “non-assistance of persons in distress”. This investigation’s strict confidentiality obligation means the inquiry was unable to access any information from the French side about their operations that night.
At 2.01 and again at 2.14am, HM Coastguard had received new GPS positions via WhatsApp showing the dinghy to be more than a mile inside UK waters.
Valiant, having been tasked at 1.30am, only exited the port of Dover at 2.22am and would need at least another hour to reach the Sandettie. Despite this, no other vessel was sent to join the search. At 3.11am, when asked during a call by Border Force Maritime Command whether Charlie was “still a Mayday situation”, Gibson replied: “Well, they’ve told me it’s full of water.”
With a total of four small boats being shown in the Channel that night by the French tracker spreadsheet, Gibson suggested there could be as many as 110 people on board these dinghies – beyond Valiant’s capacity for taking on survivors. Nevertheless, Border Force and HM Coastguard opted to “wait and see what the numbers are, and whether Valiant can deal with that … We don’t want to call any other assets out just yet.”
In a call with Christopher Trubshaw, captain of the Coastguard rescue helicopter stationed at Lydd on the Kent coast, aviation tactical commander Dominic Golden explained that Border Force was “not prepared to bring in their crews who are pretty knackered” unless “we can convince them there are people in real danger”. He then asked Trubshaw to search the Channel for the small boats shown in the French tracker, as the surveillance aeroplanes had been unable to take off.
In her closing submission to the inquiry, Sonali Naik, a legal representative of the survivors and bereaved families, highlighted Golden’s “dismissive attitude” towards Charlie’s distress when he gave Trubshaw the reason for the request, which included the following:
As usual, the catalogue of phone calls is beginning to trickle in … You know, the classic ‘I am lost, I am sinking, my mother’s wheelchair is falling over the side’ etc. ‘Sharks with lasers surrounding boat’ and ‘we are all dying’ type of thing.
Nevertheless, Golden asked the helicopter crew to pack a liferaft. “I can’t imagine we’re going to need it but … potentially you get to play with one of your new toys.”
While Golden described his words as “unwise” or “flippant”, Naik said they were “more than that” – suggesting they revealed rescuers’ general perceptions of the occupants of small boats and the widely held scepticism towards their distress calls.
‘We are dying. Where is the boat?’
With the water inside rising fast and their dinghy collapsing, Charlie’s increasingly desperate passengers kept trying to get rescuers to appreciate how dire their situation was.
At 2.31am in the Dover rescue coordination centre, Gibson received a second call from Mubin Rizghar Hussein, who pleaded: “We are dying, where is the boat?”
Gibson replied: “The boat is on its way but it has to get …” only to be interrupted by Rizghar Hussein saying: “We all die. We all die.”
“I get that,” Gibson told the terrified teenager, “but unfortunately, you’re going to be patient and all stay together, because I can’t make the boat come any quicker.” He ended the call saying:
You need to stop making calls because every time you make a call, we think there’s another boat out there – and we don’t want to accidentally go chasing for another boat when it’s actually your boat we’re looking for.
Gibson broke down briefly when recounting this second call during his evidence to the inquiry, explaining:
If you don’t understand what’s fully going on and you’re getting ‘we’re all going to die’, it’s quite a distressing situation to find yourself in, sitting at the end of a phone – effectively helpless. You know where they are, you want to get a boat to them, and you can’t.
Call records also show that coastguards on both sides of the Channel passed responsibility for rescuing the sinking dinghy off to one another. According to Le Monde, during one call a passenger told the French coastguard officer he was “in the water” – to which she replied: “Yes, but you are in English waters.”
The transcript of the last call before Charlie capsized, made at 3.12am, reveals that Downs asked “where are you?” 17 times – despite the caller being unable to answer anything beyond “English waters”. The maritime operations officer finished by instructing the caller to hang up and dial 999: “If it won’t connect on 999, then you’re probably still in French waters.”
In her closing submission, Naik pointed to “discriminatory stereotypes and attitudes towards migrants on small boats which fatally affected the SAR response” for Charlie – as rescuers, in her words, “jumped to premature conclusions”. According to survivor Mohamed Omar:
Because we have been seen as refugees … that’s the reason why I believe the rescue, they did not come at all. We feel like we were … treated like animals.
Fatal assumptions
At 3.27am, Border Force’s ship Valiant arrived at Charlie’s last recorded GPS position (from 2.14am) – but found nothing. Its master, Kevin Toy, decided to head north-easterly towards the Sandettie lightvessel, the way the tide was flowing.
En route, Valiant spotted two other dinghies in the darkness using its night vision – one still making its way towards the English coast, the other stopped in the water. The stationary dinghy was in greater danger from the Channel’s shipping traffic, so Valiant went to it and began rescuing those onboard – radioing back that it had “engaged unlit migrant crafts stopped in the water” with approximately 40 people onboard.
In the Dover rescue coordination centre, Gibson assumed this dinghy could be Charlie and gave Mubin Rizghar Hussein’s name and telephone number so Valiant’s crew could verify whether he was on board. At 4.16am, Gibson himself tried calling the WhatsApp number that Rizghar Hussein had shared, but the call failed.
At 4.20am, Valiant completed its first rescue of the morning. Two more followed after the Coastguard helicopter spotted two other dinghies in the Sandettie area – but nobody in the water. A near-capacity Valiant then returned to Dover just after 8am with 98 survivors on board.
None of the three rescued dinghies matched the description of Charlie. All were in good condition, differently coloured, and with disparate numbers of people onboard – yet the misplaced assumption Charlie had been rescued persisted amid the night’s murky information environment. Gibson stated that, while he had soon received additional information matching Valiant’s first rescue to a different dinghy, he was still “fairly certain Charlie had been picked up”.
“Once Valiant had picked up these [three] boats,” he explained, “we no longer received calls from Charlie, and a call to a known phone number on Charlie failed.” As a result, neither Valiant nor the Coastguard helicopter were sent back out to continue searching for the stricken dinghy.
In fact, Gibson’s call to Rizghar Hussein’s WhatsApp number did not fail because Charlie’s passengers had been rescued – nor because they had thrown their phones into the sea when Border Force arrived. Rather, it was because the dinghy had capsized and everyone had fallen into the Channel’s freezing waters.
‘No one came to our rescue’
In harrowing evidence to the inquiry, Mohamed Omar explained how, as one side of the dinghy deflated, the passengers – “hysterical and crying” – panicked and moved to the opposite side. This shift in weight caused the dinghy to capsize:
The screaming when the boat tipped and people fell in the water was deafening. I have never heard anything as desperate as this. I was not thinking about whether we were going to be rescued any more; it was all about how to stay alive.
As the passengers were thrown into the water, the dinghy flipped on top of them. Mohamed Omar described having to swim out from underneath to catch a breath: “It was dark and I could not really see. It was extremely cold and the sea was rough.”
As he surfaced, he saw Halima Mohammed Shikh, a mother of three also from Somalia and travelling alone, struggling as she couldn’t swim. She screamed his name for help, and he tried to get her back to what was left of the dinghy – but couldn’t. “I think she was one of the first people to drown,” he told the inquiry.
Others managed to cling to the broken inflatable, hoping rescue was on its way – but “no one came to our rescue”. Pushed and pulled by the waves, some lost their grip and drifted away before dawn. Mohamed Omar recalled:
All night, I was holding on to what remained of the boat. In the morning, I could hear the people were screaming and everything. It’s something I cannot forget in my mind.
By the time the sun finally rose at 7.26am, he estimated that no more than 15 people were left clinging to the broken dinghy – adrift on the tide in a busy shipping lane:
I do not recall speaking with anyone in the water. Those who were alive were half-dead. There was nothing we could do any more. I could see bodies floating all around us in the water. I presume most people were either already dead or were unconscious.
Shortly afterwards, Mohamed Omar said he let go of the dinghy and began to swim, thinking to himself: “I am going to die [but] I don’t want to die here. At least if I die whilst swimming, I won’t feel it.”
He swam towards a boat he could see in the distance and, as he got closer, began to wave his life jacket for attention. A French woman, out fishing with her family, saw him and jumped in the water to save him.
As he finished telling his story, Mohamed Omar told the inquiry: “I’m a voice for those people who passed away.”
Bodies are found
Around 1pm on the afternoon of November 24, 12 hours after the first distress calls from Charlie, a French commercial fishing vessel began finding bodies in the sea nine miles north-west of Calais. But as the news came in, no one at HM Coastguard or Border Force appears to have made the connection with Incident Charlie.
Days later, when the accounts of Mohamed Omar’s fellow survivor, Mohammed Shekha Ahmad from Iraqi Kurdistan, and a relative of two of the deceased emerged, the Home Office refuted their claims that the dinghy had sunk in UK waters as “completely untrue”.
However, five days after the disaster, Gibson contacted the small boats tactical commander to share his concerns that the reported deaths could be from Charlie. He had read a news article in which “the survivor states a male called Mubin called the emergency services, which could possibly be the ‘Moomin’ [sic] I spoke to”.
On December 1, clandestine Channel threat commander O’Mahoney responded to a question from the UK’s Joint Committee on Human Rights, as to whether the migrants whose bodies had been found in French waters had made distress calls to the UK authorities. O’Mahoney told the committee:
We are looking into that. To manage your expectation, though, it may never be possible to say with absolute accuracy whether that boat was in UK waters [and] I cannot tell you with any certainty that the people on that particular boat called the UK authorities.
Thanks largely to their grieving families tireless pursuit of the truth, however, it is now possible to say definitively that Charlie had been in UK waters – and that a number of its passengers spoke to HM Coastguard officers.
It was only after these families raised concerns that the disaster had involved the UK authorities that the Department for Transport commissioned a safety investigation into the incident in January 2022. A lawyer for the bereaved families suggested to me that without the threat of legal action, the Department for Transport “would likely not have done anything” – despite this being Britain’s worst maritime disaster for decades. Meanwhile, according to inquiry evidence, the Home Office is understood not to have conducted an internal review or investigation into its role in the disaster.
After a frustrating two years of waiting for the survivors and bereaved families, the Marine Accidents Investigations Branch published its report – which both confirmed most of their accounts and substantiated their criticisms of the SAR response.
Soon afterwards, the Cranston Inquiry was announced. Despite no bodies having been recovered in UK waters, it has been run almost like an inquest. In his final report – to be published by the end of 2025 – Sir Ross Cranston has promised to “consider what lessons can be learned and, if appropriate, make recommendations to reduce the risk of a similar event occurring”.
A ‘crucial and unique opportunity’
HM Coastguard and Border Force officers have repeatedly told the inquiry how the UK’s approach to small boat search-and-rescue has changed since the November 2021 disaster. More officers have been hired, Border Force has contracted additional boats to conduct rescues, information sharing has improved, and cooperation with French colleagues is better. Today, there are significantly more rescue ships on both sides of the Channel which can intervene faster when dinghies come to be in distress, and have undoubtedly saved many lives.
There has also been massive investment in drones, aeroplanes and powerful shore-based cameras to reduce the risk that HM Coastguard loses “maritime domain awareness” again if some of its surveillance aircraft are unable to fly. New technology automatically translates coastguard officers’ messages into different languages and extracts live GPS locations and images from travellers’ mobile devices.
Such investments make it unlikely that another dinghy could be lost in the middle of the Channel after its passengers call for help, in the way Charlie so catastrophically was.
Nevertheless, people continue dying while attempting to cross the Channel – with 2024 having been by far the deadliest year yet. At least 69 people lost their lives, according to the Refugee Council. So far in 2025, 24 people are documented as dead or missing at the UK-France border by Calais Migrant Solidarity, amid a record number of attempted crossings for the first half of the year.
Some migrants’ rights NGOs have suggested the UK’s “stop the boats” policies, and European efforts to disrupt the supply chain of dinghies and other equipment used in crossings, has driven such deadly overcrowding.
But it is also unlikely that the circumstances surrounding more recent deaths in the Channel will ever be investigated as thoroughly as Incident Charlie, if at all. Lawyers for the bereaved families have therefore been keen to highlight the Cranston Inquiry’s “crucial and unique opportunity” not only to look back and offer answers about one of Britain’s worst maritime disasters in recent decades – but to look forwards and “prevent the further loss of life at sea”.
The survivors, families and migrants’ rights organisations who contributed their evidence thus hope the inquiry’s recommendations go beyond purely operational and administrative improvements to search-and-rescue, to address the fundamental role that UK, France and European border policies play in why more people are dying in the Channel, despite the improvements to search-and-rescue strategies and resources.
Above all, they ask why only some people are able to travel to the UK in comfort and safety while others must make the journey in precarious, overcrowded inflatable dinghies – and thus entrust their lives to the search-and-rescue services whose success can never be guaranteed. As Halima Mohammed Shikh’s cousin, Ali Areef, told the inquiry:
It makes me feel sick to think about crossing the Channel in a ferry where others including a member of my family lost their lives because there was no other way to cross. I will never take a ferry across the Channel again.
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Travis Van Isacker gratefully acknowledges the support of the Economic and Social Research Council
(UK) (Grant Ref: ES/W002639/1).
Source: United States Senator John Hickenlooper – Colorado
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators John Hickenlooper and John Curtis introduced the bipartisan Snow Water Supply Forecasting Program Reauthorization Act of 2025 to help better predict and measure water supply to manage drought in the West, including on the Colorado River. Tomorrow, July 25th, is Colorado River Day, which celebrates the day when the river was officially renamed to the Colorado River in 1921.
“You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” said Hickenlooper. “Snowmelt is Colorado’s largest reservoir. Leveraging advanced snow monitoring tech will give us more accurate water predictions and unlock a better understanding of how to make the most of our water in an era of extreme drought.”
“In the West, water is everything—our economy, our communities, and our way of life depend on it,” said Curtis. “This bill brings 21st century tools to one of the oldest challenges we face: knowing how much water we’ll have and when. By reauthorizing this program, we’re embracing new technology like airborne snow surveys and advanced modeling to give our water managers the clarity they need to prepare, allocate, and respond.”
More than 80% of Colorado’s annual surface water supply comes from snowmelt runoff. Accurate measurements of snowpack are necessary to have a clear picture of the snowmelt that feeds rivers and streams across the West.
The bipartisan legislation would reauthorize the Bureau of Reclamation’s (BOR) Snow Water Supply Forecasting Program which provides grants to advance emerging snow monitoring technology that improve water supply predictions.
Specifically, the bill would:
Reauthorize BOR’s Snow Water Supply Forecasting Program through 2031
Increase authorization from $15 million over five years to $32.5 million over five years
Update language in existing authorization to emphasize water supply forecasting activities that inform interstate water management decisions
Yesterday, Representatives Joe Neguse and Jeff Hurd’s companion legislation advanced out of the House Committee on Natural Resources.
As governor, Hickenlooper helped negotiate the 2019 Colorado River Basin Drought Contingency Plan, which helped protect critical levels at Lake Powell and Lake Mead and ensured continued compliance with the 1922 Colorado River Compact. In the Senate, Hickenlooper convened the bipartisan Colorado River Caucus to help address the Colorado River crisis.
The bipartisan Snow Water Supply Forecasting Program Reauthorization Act of 2025 is supported by American Rivers, the Southwestern Water Conservation District, Colorado River District, Denver Water, Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Colorado Water Congress, Colorado Municipal League, Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado, the Environmental Defense Fund, The Nature Conservancy, the National Ski Areas Association, the Family Farm Alliance, the National Audubon Society, and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.
Full text of the bill available HERE.
As we celebrate Africa Day within this High-Level Political Forum, we gather not only to take stock, but to bear witness to something extraordinary: a continent that refuses to be defined by its starting point but instead chooses to measure itself by how far it has traveled.
Make no mistake: Africa began its sustainable development journey on the back foot.
Colonial legacies that took wealth and left behind fractured institutions.
Climate catastrophes that wash away decades of progress in a single season.
Conflicts that force entire populations to abandon everything they have built.
These are daily realities that test the resolve of every African nation.
Yet here we stand, with ten countries presenting their Voluntary National Reviews this year as testaments to resilience.
Angola achieving its strongest economic growth in a decade while building over twelve thousand new schools.
Ethiopia sustaining remarkable growth while powering its entire electrical grid from renewable sources.
The Gambia driving robust development across agriculture, tourism, and services.
These efforts are part of a broader continental push to realize the vision of Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda in the VNRs we see that vision coming to life.
More than 100 other VNRs have been prepared in the last decade since the SDGs were adopted and tell promising stories of progress across the Continent.
But let us be clear on the full scale of the challenges facing Africa.
When a country like Sudan facing conflict sees the vast majority of its factories destroyed with unemployment soaring to crushing levels.
We are reminded that progress is neither linear nor guaranteed. When young people across our continent still struggle to find decent work, we know that our most precious resource – our youth – still faces barriers that deny them their rightful place in building tomorrow’s Africa.
When Africa gets the fundamentals right, like quality education for every child, the path to higher ground becomes clearer.
Digital transformation, climate resilience, economic justice: these are no longer distant summits, but peaks within reach, and Africa has always been a continent of climbers.
Consider the women breaking barriers across our continent.
In parliaments from Rwanda to Eswatini to Ghana, women are claiming seats of power once denied to them.
Across Lesotho, widows now possess rights over family property that previous generations could never imagine.
Each a seismic shift in how African societies recognize the power and potential of half their population.
Our youth, too, are not passive recipients of change – they are its architects.
From Nigeria’s digital revolution to technology driven governance in Seychelles to Morocco’s role in advancing AI research, young Africans are coding and designing the future every step of the way.
That said, we should not romanticize the road ahead.
At this moment, at this rate, the SDGs are beyond reach in Africa.
We have five years to 2030.
Five years to transform systems that took decades to build.
Five years to close gaps and the widest gap remains finance.
Finance is the engine of progress.
Without it, schools don’t get built, clinics stay empty, and peace remains out of reach.
The global financial system is not working for Africa.
Borrowing costs are too high, debt burdens are too heavy, and the money that could change lives is tied up in systems that are too slow, too narrow, and too risk averse.
The Sevilla Commitment is a step forward, a promise to get resources flowing faster, fairer, and at the scale we need.
The next five years will test not only our ambition, but our ability to deliver on the most basic promises of dignity and justice – especially in the areas where progress remains most elusive.
Many women still face gender-based violence that steals their safety, their dignity, and their dreams.
We must dismantle the structural barriers that persist like shadows, following women from childhood through their adult lives.
Our young people deserve more than we have given them. We must invest urgently in skills development, particularly in the digital and green sectors where Africa can lead the world.
The bigger picture also betrays an all-too-present imbalance: too often, African countries are absent from the tables where global decisions are made, yet they are first to feel the impact.
The Pact for the Future is working to change that.
It calls for more inclusive, representative global governance that reflects today’s realities, not a snapshot of yesterday.
It recognizes that sustainable development cannot be built on a foundation of exclusion, and by adopting the Pact, countries committed to ensuring Africa is where it belongs: at the table, shaping the decisions that shape our world.
And we are taking the necessary steps to ensure that countries have the UN support and capacity needed to do just that.
The Secretary-General’s UN80 Initiative also builds on the existing reforms and plots an ambitious path forward to ensure that those we serve have the optimal level and type of capacity in country.
Excellencies,
Africa’s journey toward 2030, 2063 and beyond is not a sprint, it’s a relay race, where each nation, each community, each individual, carries the baton forward.
The Africa Sustainable Development Report that we are launching today represents both the progress, and the challenges, from a continent still writing its greatest chapter.
It is a declaration that future generations will inherit not the limitations we face, but the possibilities we create.
Above all, they speak to a refusal to accept that history determines destiny.
I want to thank the African Union, the Economic Commission of Africa, the African Development Bank and the UNDP for preparing this crucial piece of work.
Let it be our map for the road ahead.
Let us build on the foundation of commitment it represents.
The relay baton is in our hands.
The finish line is in sight, and from what I have seen, African nations – resilient, determined, unstoppable – are ready to run.
First-half financial information as of June 30, 2025 IFRS – Regulated information – Not audited
Cegedim: Like-for-like revenues grew 2.8% in the first half
Revenue grew 1.1% as reported and 2.8% LFL to €322.5 million in the first half of 2025.
The HR, marketing, health insurance, and digitalization businesses delivered the most solid growth.
Boulogne-Billancourt, France, July 24, 2025, after the market close
Revenue
First half
Change H1 2025 / 2024
in millions of euros
2025
2024
Reported
Life for like(1)(2)
Software & Services
144.4
152.1
(5.1)%
(1.5)%
Flow
53.4
49.5
+7.8%
+7.7%
Data & Marketing
63.4
59.3
+6.9%
+6.8%
BPO
43.2
39.9
+8.1%
+8.1%
Cloud & Support
18.2
18.1
+0.3%
+0.3%
Cegedim
322.5
319.0
+1.1%
+2.8%
Cegedim’s consolidated first-half 2025 revenues rose to €322.5 million, up 1.1% as reported and 2.8% like for like(1) compared with the same period in 2024.
The HR, marketing, health insurance, and invoice & procurement digitalization businesses delivered the most solid growth over the first half. The deconsolidation of INPS in the UK on December 10, 2024, following its voluntary placement in administration, weighed on reported growth at the Software & Services division and Group level.
Analysis of business trends by division
Software & Services
Software & Services
First half
Change H1 2025 / 2024
in millions of euros
2025
2024
Reported
Like for like(1)
Cegedim Santé
38.4
38.9
(1.3)%
(5.7)%
Insurance, HR, Pharmacies, and other services
87.5
86.7
+0.9%
+1.0%
International businesses
18.5
26.5
(30.3)%
(3.2)%
Software & Services
144.4
152.1
(5.1)%
(1.5)%
Revenues at Cegedim Santé fell 1.3% as reported in the first half, and 5.7% like for like. Visiodent contributed over the entire first half, vs just four months in 2024. Maiia software and the Claude Bernard database both performed well, whereas orders for more established offerings were somewhat subdued. Sales mainly slowed because a data service agreement came to an end in late 2024 and was renewed in the second quarter of 2025 at a lower rate.
The division’s other French subsidiaries saw revenue growth of 0.9% as reported and 1.0% like for like. The division was propelled by a surge in HR business across all client segments and by Health insurance, thanks to robust project-based sales, with new signings and the start of projects won in 2024. On the other hand, business with pharmacists in France was a drag on growth.
International businesses posted reported revenues down 30.3% owing to the deconsolidation of INPS in the UK from December 10, 2024, following its voluntary placement in administration. Like-for-like revenues fell 3.2%. The decline was again due to the UK: the Pharmacy First program in H1 2024 created a challenging comparison for pharmacy activities and a client of Activus, a UK subsidiary selling software for health and provident insurance for expats, went out of business. Even so, both businesses have clear prospects that will reverse the downward trend in the months ahead. Other international activities had a positive quarter—particularly in Spain—and remain on track.
Flow
First half
Change H1 2025 / 2024
in millions of euros
2025
2024
Reported
Like for like(2)
e-business
32.1
30.0
7.1%
7.0%
Third-party payer
21.3
19.5
8.8%
8.8%
Flow
53.4
49.5
7.8%
7.7%
First-half growth in e-business, e-invoicing, and digitized data exchanges was 7.1% as reported and 7.0% like for like. Both of the division’s two main business lines contributed: “Invoicing & Procurement” (France and UK) and “Healthcare Flows” (notably in pharmaceutical supply chain security for hospitals).
The Third-party payer business experienced 8.8% growth in H1. It was boosted by strong growth in demand for its fraud and long-term illness detection offerings, a trend that began in the second half of 2024 and continued in H1 2025 with the signing of a fourteenth client.
Data & Marketing
Data & Marketing
First half
Change H1 2025 / 2024
in millions of euros
2025
2024
Reported
Like for like(1)
Data
28.7
28.0
2.5%
2.3%
Marketing
34.7
31.3
10.8%
10.8%
Data & Marketing
63.4
59.3
6.9%
6.8%
Data businesses were up 2.5% in the first half on the back of a strong performance in France, which offset a mixed showing abroad.
The Marketing segment posted robust H1 growth of 10.8% owing to strong sales after new client wins and brisk business with existing clients.
BPO
First half
Change H1 2025 / 2024
in millions of euros
2025
2024
Reported
Like for like(1)
Insurance BPO
31.2
28.7
8.8%
8.8%
Business Services BPO
12.0
11.2
6.4%
6.4%
BPO
43.2
39.9
8.1%
8.1%
The Insurance BPO business grew by 8.8% over the first half, chiefly owing to its overflow business, which has been flourishing because it serves a critical need for clients.
Business Services BPO (HR and digitalization) reported growth of 6.4% in the first half, again on the back of a popular compliance offering, which is winning new clients.
Cloud & Support
Cloud & Support
First half
Change H1 2025 / 2024
in millions of euros
2025
2024
Reported
Like for like(1)
Cloud & Support
18.2
18.1
0.3%
0.3%
Cloud & Support division revenues grew 0.3% in the first half. The non-renewal of a significant outsourcing contract in the second quarter was a drag on growth and obscured the fact that an expanded range of products backed by Cegedim’s sovereign cloud has been very successful.
Highlights
SBTi validates Cegedim’s decarbonization targets
The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) officially validated Cegedim Group’s greenhouse gas emission reduction targets on June 12, 2025. SBTi is the global standard for measuring companies’ carbon footprints and certifying their stated action plans for reducing emissions in line with the ambitious goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. Cegedim is now part of the select group of about 8,000 companies whose plans have been validated. This major step reflects the strong commitment of Cegedim’s senior management, also mobilizing all subsidiaries, to the sustainable development of the Group’s activities.
Switch to Euronext Growth
At its meeting on June 13, 2025, the Board of Directors decided to move forward with the resolution approved that same day by the general shareholders’ meeting to transfer Cegedim’s shares to the Euronext Growth stock exchange. The Group is currently completing formalities so it can make the switch in early September 2025. The Group discussed the rationale for the move and its impacts in a press release dated June 13, 2025.
Conversion of the credit facility into a sustainability-linked loan
On June 16, 2025, the Group negotiated an addendum with all of the parties to its loan agreement to add performance clauses related to 2030 ESG commitments, making this a sustainability-linked loan. By adhering to the annual Scopes 1 & 2 and Scope 3 decarbonization trajectory validated by SBTi, and by making progress on gender equality in senior management, the Group will be able to lower interest rate by up to 0.05 percentage points for the bank portion and by 0.10 to 0.40 percentage points for the non-bank portion. Conversely, failure to respect those commitments will increase the interest rate by a commensurate amount. The first milestone for applying this arrangement will be the 2025 ESG performance as reported in 2026.
Significant transactions and events post June 30, 2025
Workforce restructuring at the pharmacy business
The Group has decided to restructure the workforce at its pharmacy management software business in France, which will result in making around 100 positions redundant. By rethinking its organization and reconfiguring to align with market trends and client needs, the company hopes to return to a level of performance that ensures a solid foundation for its employees and allows it to innovate for its clients. After the semester close, the Group received approval from France’s regional labor and economics agency, DRIEETS, for the collective agreement it negotiated in the second quarter of 2025 with employee representatives. The Group is now determining what level of provision will be earmarked in the H1 2025 financial statements.
To the best of the company’s knowledge, apart from the impact of the above items, there were no post-closing events or changes after June 30, 2025, that would materially alter the Group’s financial situation.
Outlook
Based on the currently available information, the Group expects 2025 like-for-like revenue(3) growth to be in the range of 2-4% relative to 2024. Recurring operating income should continue to improve, following a similar trajectory as in 2024.
These targets are not forecasts and may need to be revised if there is a significant worsening of geopolitical, macroeconomic, or currency risks.
Disclaimer This press release is available in French and in English. In the event of any difference between the two versions, the original French version takes precedence. This press release may contain inside information. It was sent to Cegedim’s authorized distributor on July 24, 2025, no earlier than 5:45 pm Paris time. The figures cited in this press release include guidance on Cegedim’s future financial performance targets. This forward-looking information is based on the opinions and assumptions of the Group’s senior management at the time this press release is issued and naturally entails risks and uncertainty. For more information on the risks facing Cegedim, please refer to Chapter 7, “Risk management”, section 7.2, “Risk factors and insurance”, and Chapter 3, “Overview of the financial year”, section 3.6, “Outlook”, of the 2024 Universal Registration Document filled with the AMF on April 7, 2025, under number D.24-0233.
About Cegedim: Founded in 1969, Cegedim is an innovative technology and services group in the field of digital data flow management for healthcare ecosystems and B2B, and a business software publisher for healthcare and insurance professionals. Cegedim employs nearly 6,700 people in more than 10 countries and generated revenue of over €654 million in 2024. Cegedim SA is listed in Paris (EURONEXT: CGM). To learn more please visit: www.cegedim.fr And follow Cegedim on X: @CegedimGroup, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
Aude Balleydier Cegedim Media Relations and Communications Manager
Revenue breakdown by geographic zone, currency, and division at June 30, 2025
as a % of consolidated revenues
Geographic zone
Currency
France
EMEA ex. France
Americas
Euro
GBP
Other
Software & Services
87.2%
12.7%
0.1%
91.0%
7.0%
2.0%
Flow
91.7%
8.3%
0.0%
94.2%
5.8%
0.0%
Data & Marketing
97.7%
2.3%
0.0%
98.2%
0.0%
1.8%
BPO
100.0%
0.0%
0.0%
100.0%
0.0%
0.0%
Cloud & Support
97.2%
2.8%
0.0%
97.2%
0.0%
2.8%
Cegedim
92.3%
7.6%
0.1%
94.5%
4.1%
1.4%
(1) At constant scope and exchange rates.
(2) The positive currency impact of 0.1% was mainly due to the pound sterling. The negative scope effect of 1.8% was attributable to the deconsolidation ofINPSas of December 10, 2024, which the consolidation ofVisiodentstarting March 1, 2024, only partly offset. (2)At constant scope and exchange rates.
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
Following the meeting of the Pest Control Steering Committee yesterday (July 23), the Government and stakeholders are progressively strengthening efforts to prevent chikungunya fever (CF). The Under Secretary for Environment and Ecology, Miss Diane Wong, and Assistant Director (Operations) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) Mr Wan Chi-shun visited the area around Greig Road in the Eastern District today (July 24) to inspect the enhanced CF prevention efforts in the community.
According to the discussions at yesterday’s meeting, the intensified mosquito prevention and control measures by the Government and stakeholders include: constantly updating the list of mosquito infestation hotspots to adjust and plan their work based on the actual situation, to ensure that mosquito prevention and control work is prompt and effective; carrying out a new round of actions promptly following Typhoon Wipha to thoroughly eliminate mosquito breeding places, supplemented by fogging operations (i.e. ultra-low volume spraying) to eradicate adult mosquitoes; continuing to take proactive anti-mosquito measures including clearing potential breeding grounds at least once a week during the rainy season and timely co-ordinate fogging operations until the season ends.
The FEHD is convening meetings of inter-departmental task forces on anti-mosquito work through its District Environmental Hygiene Offices to strengthen mosquito control work with district stakeholders, including to remove accumulated water and carry out mosquito prevention and control work in target areas that have drawn particular concern, such as public markets, cooked food centres and hawker bazaars, single-block buildings, streets and back lanes, common parts of buildings, village houses, construction sites, vacant sites and road works sites. The FEHD will also call on property managements to properly repairs their premises so as to minimise mosquito breeding places. Furthermore, regular ultra-low volume fogging operations have been conducted since the onset of the rainy season. The FEHD will continue to provide departments and the industry with professional advice and technical support to assist them in formulating and implementing effective anti-mosquito measures swiftly. At the same time, the FEHD will strengthen publicity and public education.
The survey area inspected today recorded gravidtrap indices reaching Level 3 alert level in May and June this year, indicating extensive distribution of Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. The FEHD has been collaborating with relevant departments and stakeholders to strengthen mosquito prevention and control work in areas under their purview, including eliminating mosquito breeding places, applying larvicides, conducting fogging operations to eradicate adult mosquitoes, and ensuring that mosquito trapping devices at appropriate locations are operating properly. The first-phase gravidtrap index for this survey area in July has dropped to 5.8 per cent.
Apart from the co-ordination mechanism at district level, the Environment and Ecology Bureau will also convene a meeting with stakeholders under the regular meeting mechanism for pest control. During the meeting, the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health will present the latest situation of chikungunya fever and responsive measures to be taken by the public. The 15 organisations or institutions participating in this mechanism include the Hong Kong Housing Society, Link, People’s Place, the Hong Kong Property Services Alliance, the Hong Kong Association of Property Management Companies, the Federation of Hong Kong Property Management Industry, the Hong Kong Association of Property Services Agents, the Pest Control Personnel Association of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Pest Management Association, the Federation of Hong Kong, Kowloon, New Territories Hawker Associations, the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades, the Association for Hong Kong Catering Services Management, the Association of Restaurant Managers, the Hong Kong Construction Association, and the Hong Kong General Building Contractors Association.
As the hot and rainy weather approaches, the overall risk of mosquito borne diseases may rise significantly. Recently, a considerable number of CF infection cases have been reported in neighbouring regions and some overseas countries. There is also a large number of citizens and tourists frequently travelling to and from Hong Kong and different places. If people infected with CF outside Hong Kong and is bitten by mosquitoes in Hong Kong during the infectious period, and subsequently the mosquitoes bite other people, local transmission may occur. In view of this, although there have been no CF cases in Hong Kong since 2020, the industry and the public must remain vigilant and intensify mosquito prevention and control efforts to avoid the risk of local cases.
The Government again appeals to members of the public to continue working with us to take early measures to prevent and eliminate mosquitoes at home and other venues early, including inspecting their homes and surroundings to remove potential breeding places, changing water in vases, scrubbing their inner surfaces, and emptying water fromsaucers under potted plants at least once a week, properly disposing of containers such as soft drink cans and food containers, and drilling large holes in unused tyres. The FEHD also advises members of the public and property management companies to keep drains free of blockage and level all defective ground surfaces to prevent the water accumulation. They should also scrub all drains and surface sewers with alkaline detergents at least once a week to remove any mosquito eggs.
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, July 24, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Love Not War AI today announced the launch of Progressive Utility Mechanics, a newly discovered mathematical framework created by innovator Valraj Singh Mann. This groundbreaking system offers a universal method for designing economic models in which individual financial success automatically enhances social welfare. The announcement marks the first implementation of the framework in a real-world application via the LVAI cryptocurrency, positioning it as a potential tool for addressing systemic issues like poverty, climate change, and inequality at scale.
Unlike traditional economic systems that create tension between profit and purpose, Progressive Utility Mechanics create mathematically structured guarantees that individual success automatically generates increasing social benefit. The framework is going to be demonstrated through LVAI (Love Not War AI), the first cryptocurrency where charitable impact grows over time, but applications extend across all human economic organization – from corporate structures to government policy to international development.
“We’ve developed the mathematical framework that may reshape how economic systems are designed across sectors,” said Mann. “For the first time in history, we can create mathematically structured mechanisms that align individual greed with collective good automatically. This isn’t just about cryptocurrency – it’s about demonstrating that capitalism can be inherently charitable, that economic growth can systematically reduce poverty, and that success can help everyone through what we’re calling ‘Mann Mechanics.’”
Independent analysis confirms this represents the first mathematically structured mechanism demonstrating that economic systems can be designed to automatically strengthen social outcomes as they grow, potentially addressing root causes of global inequality, environmental degradation, and systemic poverty.
HUMANITY’S GREATEST ECONOMIC CHALLENGE
Throughout history, human societies have struggled with the fundamental tension between individual success and collective welfare. Traditional capitalism creates wealth but concentrates it, leading to inequality. Socialist systems promote equality but reduce prosperity. Regulatory approaches create compliance costs and economic drag. Charitable solutions depend on voluntary giving that decreases as wealth concentrates.
“Every economic system in human history has forced a choice between individual freedom and collective good,” noted Mann. “We’ve developed a mathematically structured mechanism demonstrating that choice may be false – they can be systematically unified through progressive design.”
The framework addresses systemic challenges affecting billions globally:
• Global Poverty: 700+ million people in extreme poverty despite unprecedented global wealth • Climate Change: Economic incentives that reward environmental destruction over restoration • Inequality Crisis: Wealth concentration accelerating in every developed economy • Corporate Externalities: Profit maximization creating social and environmental costs • Aid Dependency: International development creating dependency rather than self-sufficiency • Government Inefficiency: Tax systems that reduce productivity while funding bureaucracy
PROGRESSIVE UTILITY MECHANICS: THE UNIVERSAL SOLUTION
Progressive Utility Mechanics (also known as “Mann Mechanics”) create economic systems where individual market participation automatically generates increasing social benefit through mathematically structured allocation mechanisms that strengthen over time.
This framework transforms traditional zero-sum economic thinking into positive-sum systems where everyone’s success helps everyone else automatically, without coercion, regulation, or voluntary charity.
Real-world applications include:
• Progressive Impact Corporations: Business structures where shareholder profits automatically fund stakeholder benefits, making successful companies automatically beneficial to their communities
• Self-Funding Development Programs: Economic zones where business success automatically generates poverty reduction funding, creating sustainable development without foreign aid dependency
• Progressive Environmental Bonds: Investment vehicles where profit automatically funds environmental restoration, aligning financial returns with ecological recovery
• Municipal Progressive Systems: City economies where business success automatically improves public infrastructure and services, creating self-improving urban environments
• Progressive Education Funding: Systems where private success automatically enhances public education, leveling educational playing fields through market mechanisms
“This framework could eliminate the need to choose between economic growth and social good,” observed one policy researcher. “Every successful business, every profitable investment, every economic gain automatically helps solve humanity’s greatest challenges.”
GLOBAL IMPACT POTENTIAL
Progressive Utility Mechanics address the mathematical core of humanity’s most pressing challenges:
Poverty Elimination: Systems where economic success automatically generates anti-poverty funding may provide sustainable income support without government intervention or international aid dependency.
Climate Solutions: Investment structures where environmental restoration becomes systematically profitable through progressive mechanics may help reverse ecological damage while generating returns.
Inequality Reduction: Economic designs where success automatically levels playing fields may reduce wealth concentration without reducing prosperity or economic freedom. Corporate Transformation: Business models where profit maximization automatically optimizes social and environmental outcomes could revolutionize capitalism without regulatory coercion.
International Development: Self-funding development programs could replace aid dependency with sustainable economic systems that strengthen as they succeed.
“We’re not just talking about improving existing systems,” emphasized Mann. “We’re demonstrating that fundamentally different systems are possible – ones that may systematically address problems rather than creating them.”
MATHEMATICAL PROOF OF CONCEPT: LVAI IMPLEMENTATION
LVAI cryptocurrency will serve as the first mathematical proof that Progressive Utility Mechanics work in practice, demonstrating charitable impact that increases rather than decreases over time through three-phase evolution:
The implementation includes institutional-grade security (94/100 audit rating) and has been mathematically verified to create stronger charitable impact as the system matures, demonstrating that economic success can be systematically aligned with social benefit through mechanism design.
APPLICATIONS ACROSS HUMAN CIVILIZATION
The discovery provides mathematical foundations for redesigning economic organization across all sectors:
Corporate Governance: Progressive Impact Corporations where shareholders profit more as stakeholder outcomes improve, automatically aligning business success with social good.
Municipal Economics: Progressive Economic Zones where local business success automatically funds public goods, creating self-improving communities without tax burden increases.
International Relations: Progressive development frameworks where economic growth in developing nations automatically generates sustainable funding for infrastructure, education, and healthcare.
Environmental Policy: Progressive conservation systems where land preservation and restoration become more profitable over time, creating economic incentives for ecological recovery.
Educational Systems: Progressive funding mechanisms where private educational success automatically enhances public education quality, reducing inequality through market forces rather than redistribution.
Healthcare Systems: Progressive health economics where medical innovation profitability automatically funds public health improvements, aligning pharmaceutical profits with population wellness.
RESHAPING ECONOMIC THEORY
Progressive Utility Mechanics (Mann Mechanics) represent the first mathematical framework proving that Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” – the foundational concept from the 18th-century economist known as the “Father of Modern Economics” – can be engineered rather than hoped for, creating guaranteed alignment between individual rational behavior and optimal collective outcomes.
The innovation addresses fundamental questions that have challenged economists, philosophers, and policymakers:
• Can capitalism be inherently fair? YES – through progressive design • Can individual greed serve collective good automatically? YES – through mathematical alignment • Can economic growth reduce rather than increase inequality? YES – through systematic progressive allocation • Can free markets solve social problems without government intervention? YES – through proper incentive design
“This could be the most important breakthrough in economics since Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations,” noted one academic researcher. “Mann Mechanics provide the missing mathematical framework for creating automatically beneficial economic systems, potentially establishing a new field of study alongside Nash Equilibrium – developed by John Nash, the Nobel Prize-winning mathematician portrayed in ‘A Beautiful Mind’ – and Keynesian Economics, created by John Maynard Keynes, the influential British economist whose theories shaped modern government economic policy.”
POTENTIAL CIVILIZATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE
If validated and widely implemented, Progressive Utility Mechanics may represent a significant advance in human economic organization since the development of market capitalism, potentially enabling:
• Systematic poverty reduction through automatically self-funding anti-poverty systems • Climate change mitigation through profitable environmental restoration mechanisms • Inequality reduction without prosperity reduction through systematic leveling mechanisms • Corporate transformation from profit-maximizing to systematically beneficent entities • Government efficiency through market-based rather than bureaucratic social solutions
“We’re exploring the potential to address humanity’s greatest challenges not through sacrifice or coercion, but by redesigning economic systems to systematically optimize for everyone’s benefit,” concluded Mann.
PRIORITY ESTABLISHMENT
This announcement establishes Valraj Singh Mann as the inventor of Progressive Utility Mechanics (Mann Mechanics) and creator of the mathematical framework for systematically aligning individual success with collective benefit. The innovation represents the first mathematically structured mechanism demonstrating that economic systems can be designed for systematic social optimization without reducing individual incentives or economic freedom.
Comprehensive project documentation, including detailed whitepaper and technical specifications, is available at https://lovenotwar.ai
ABOUT VAL MANN
Valraj Singh Mann is the inventor of Progressive Utility Mechanics and creator of the mathematical framework for systematically aligning individual economic success with collective social benefit. Through breakthrough mathematical innovation, Mann has developed potential solutions to humanity’s greatest economic challenges while demonstrating that capitalism may be redesigned to be inherently beneficial to all participants.
ABOUT PROGRESSIVE UTILITY MECHANICS
Progressive Utility Mechanics (Mann Mechanics) represent a universally applicable mathematical framework for creating economic systems where individual success systematically generates increasing collective benefit. The principle provides potential applications across corporate governance, municipal economics, international development, environmental policy, and all forms of human economic organization.
For global implementation discussions, academic collaboration, policy consultation, or interview requests, contact info@lovenotwar.ai with “Progressive Utility Framework” in the subject line.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains forward-looking statements about potential applications of Progressive Utility Mechanics to global economic challenges. Implementation of any framework requires extensive testing, stakeholder collaboration, and adaptation to specific economic, legal, and cultural contexts. All projections represent potential applications based on mathematical modeling and require real-world validation.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Lois Frankel (FL-21)
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m going to start by recognizing the collegiality of our Chairman Mr. Diaz-Balart and the thoughtful members on both sides of the aisle. And of course, I want to thank our hardworking staff for their tireless efforts. But most of all, I want to recognize the brave and committed Americans—our diplomats, USAID workers, humanitarian teams, and public health experts and our partners around the world—who bring our country’s values to the world’s toughest places. They’re the ones who delivered vaccines to remote villages in Congo, who help girls in Ethiopia escape forced marriage and find education and safety.
I’ve seen their work up close–I know many of us have—and the impact of the programs we funded. Children who escaped the brutality of Assad’s Syria thriving in classrooms in Jordan. Mothers in Malawi learning skills to support their families. Pregnant women in Kenya staying healthy with support from HIV clinics. To all of these workers —past and present: You are the patriots. You represent the best of America. And those who are still serving deserve more than our thanks. They deserve the tools to get the job done.
Mr. Chairman, I wish we had a bipartisan bill in front of us that I could support that honored that service and reflected America’s leadership. If we had a responsible allocation and a White House that understood diplomacy, development, and humanitarian aid, we could have gotten there. But instead, here we are, questioning whether any of this matters when the President just ignores the will of Congress and the laws we pass.
So today, I strongly oppose the FY 2026 Republican bill. It’s not just a funding cut—it’s a reckless blueprint for American retreat. Our President seems to think relying on threats and bullying alone is a smart strategy. But chaotic tariffs, cruel immigration crackdowns, and this tepid foreign aid plan before us today is not going to make us more safe, secure, or more prosperous. And attention: we are ceding the world to China. And let me be clear: This bill does not lower costs for hard working families and retirees on day one as promised by President Trump—instead it puts hard earned finances at risk by hurting global stability.
And tax breaks for billionaires is not a trade-off for millions of starving children and let me just say that this bill does not make one bit of difference in making up the $4 trillion addition to our debt when the Republicans pass what they call their Big Bill their Big Beautiful Bill I call it the Big Ugly Bill And this bill is just adds to the list of troubling actions by the Administration.
Here’s what’s happened leading up: Foreign aid has been held up illegally, then justified by an inane clawback known as recission; USAID—an agency backed by Congress that fights poverty and prevents conflict—gutted; Over 10,000 development and humanitarian professionals dismissed by Elon Musk; 5,000 life-saving aid programs abruptly terminated; 1,300 State Department staff laid off; Offices shuttered. Decades of progress wiped out. How disgusting , the richest man in the world was allowed to pull the plug on programs that save the world’s poorest children.
The infrastructure and staffing is no longer present to carry out the few programs that remain. Let me say this again with emphasis: The infrastructure and staffing is no longer present to carry out the few programs that remain.
All while the world faces crisis after crisis: Wars and armed conflict, Extreme weather, Hunger and famine, Disease outbreaks, Mass migration, and Rising authoritarian regimes
These aren’t distant problems. They land right at our door: Fragile states collapse and migration surges; Trade stops and U.S. farmers and businesses lose buyers ;Climate disasters destroy crops and homes; Broken health systems allow deadly viruses to spread; And when we step back, China and Russia step in—not to help, but to expand their grip.
We’re leaving behind a gap they fill with money, weapons, and propaganda taking over the airwaves – reaching listeners who used to rely on Voice of America and our international broadcasting. They want to remake the world to fit their playbook.
Meanwhile, sadly our allies are also slashing foreign aid —pushed to spend more on weapons by Mr. Trump. As global needs explode, democracy’s soft power is vanishing. This bill fails to meet this moment.
Here’s what it really does:
Cuts 22% from the international affairs budget – that’s $13 billion, diminishing funding for development and economic assistance:
Kids kicked out of the classroom and cut off from clean water
Farmers losing seeds and tools to make a living
Violence prevention programs vanishing
Local nonprofits shut down
The bill slashes humanitarian aid by 42%:
In Nigeria, malnourished infants are dying without food
In Myanmar, hospitals are going dark
In The Gambia, support for survivors of female genital mutilation has ended—as the country debates making it legal again
In Ukraine, wounded soldiers go without care
In Ecuador, women entrepreneurs are losing lifelines and heading for our border
This is a blow to our credibility, our moral standing, and our global influence. Soft power – interestingly enough – development and diplomacy – have been secret weapons abroad. Without them, we’re losing Americans on the ground who know the terrain, see trouble coming, and keep us one step ahead.
And as always, my, my, my. Here we go again–Republicans couldn’t resist one more swipe at women: Slashing family planning programs that save hundreds of thousands of lives each year and prevent millions of unplanned pregnancies, Reinstating the Global Gag Rule—which blocks funding to foreign groups that even talk about abortion; you can’t even say the word “abortion”, not do abortion, say the word “abortion”– you lose your funding, Gutting the UNFPA—which provides basic reproductive and maternal care in over 150 countries
And while this bill guts humanitarian programs and walks away from the world’s most vulnerable, the administration is also on the road to destroying one of the smartest, most effective tools of U.S. foreign policy: the Women, Peace, and Security agenda. WPS is not some fringe idea. It’s the law, signed by guess who, Donald Trump. It passed with strong bipartisan support. And here’s why: Women experience conflict differently than men—often bearing the brunt of sexual violence, displacement, and the burden of caring for families amid chaos—yet they are too often excluded from life changing decisions. The WPS agenda has helped train diplomats, strengthen alliances, and put more women at the center of peace and security.
When women are at the table for peace talks, recovery, and crisis response, the results are better. Period. Peace lasts longer. Communities recover faster. And Missions succeed. And yet, this administration shut down the State Department’s office that leads that work—right when we need women’s leadership the most. That’s not just shortsighted. It makes the world less safe and works directly against our own interests.
The bill also abandons multilateral institutions and organizations—UNICEF, the UN Development Program, the African and Asian Development Banks, the World Bank, the World Health Organization—undermining our ability to shape the global agenda and ceding ground to autocrats. Guess who? Attention: China is going to take over this world.
So why should Americans care that these cuts are going to cost more than they save? Because these cuts hurt American families, too. When we walk away from the world: Chaos spreads; Troops are put in harm’s way; Our adversaries gain ground; And we pay the price—in dollars, and in lives.
And look, I say this not just as a lawmaker, but as a mother. My son served in the Marines. He was sent to two wars–Iraq and Afghanistan– I know what it means when diplomacy fails. The cost isn’t hypothetical—it hits our soldiers and their families the hardest.
Let me remind you: the international affairs budget was already less than 1% of our federal spending. But it delivered huge returns: Markets for American goods; Stability abroad; Protection from pandemics; Fewer troops sent into harm’s way.
Last week, we passed an $832 billion defense bill—that’s hard power. But even our top generals warn: without soft power alongside it, that number will only keep rising. So, Mr. Chairman, This bill is a lost opportunity. It’s a failure to lead. It hurts American families because when health systems collapse, people get sick. When trade stalls, jobs vanish. When diplomacy fails, our loved ones go to war. So let me close with this: Democrats aren’t giving up. We’re ready to work together with Republicans to reach a bill that reflects our values, keeps our promises, and protects American lives. Because we can’t bomb and drone our way to peace and prosperity. A strong America doesn’t hide. And it doesn’t bully. A strong America leads—with vision, with courage, and compassion. And That’s the bill we should be fighting for. Thank you. I yield back.
New flood warning service rolled out across Greater Manchester
Flood warning service expanded to provide early warning of flooding to communities in Cheadle, Stockport and Platt Bridge. Residents can register for free.
Defra
The Environment Agency has expanded its flood warning service across Cheadle, Stockport and the Platt Bridge area of Wigan to ensure more people than ever across Greater Manchester are warned about any imminent risk of flooding.
The new flood warnings cover almost 800 homes and businesses and will see a warning message issued when flooding is forecast and then again to warn users if impacts are likely.
Flood warnings tell people about the risk of flooding to their home or business, and help people make informed decisions about how to respond. There are three types of warning – Flood Alert, Flood Warning and Severe Flood Warning.
Residents can register for the new service for free and choose to receive notifications via phone call (voice recording), text or email and by fully registering, people can also sign up to receive warnings for multiple locations.
Improving the Service
The new flood warning areas have been added as part a result of new modelling and data – part of the Environment Agency’s drive to continually improve the flood warning service it provides across the country.
Several of the new locations to receive flood warnings were places that flooded over the New Year period.
Laila Berry, Flood Resilience Team Leader at the Environment Agency, said:
We know all too well the devastating impact that flooding can have, which is why protecting people and communities is our top priority.
Our staff use the latest technology to monitor rainfall, river and tide levels 24 hours a day to forecast flooding.
The extension of our flood warning service will allow even more people across Stockport, Cheadle and Wigan to take action and stay safe if flooding is likely to occur.
“We would encourage all of those people in new flood warning areas to fully register their preferred details via Gov UK or Floodline for free, for both their safety and peace of mind.”
Be Prepared for Flooding
Householders are encouraged to prepare if they receive a Flood Alert which could mean packing a bag that includes medicines, insurance documents and anything else they wouldn’t want to lose if flooding were to take place.
A Flood Warning calls on people to act now which means turning off gas, water and electricity and moving family and pets to safety. A Severe Flood Warning means you are in immediate danger and should follow advice from the emergency services.
The accuracy of flood warnings improves over time as the Environment Agency gather more data and get a better understanding of how the river reacts to heavy rainfall. In the short term in new flood warning areas, there may be a higher than normal occurrence of false alarms, due to them always being issued on the side of caution.
There are over 1.6 million users registered to receive flood warnings at the touch of a button across the country. These flood warnings are generated from river level data which is collected via an extensive monitoring network across England.
The data is combined with weather forecasts, river models and other information to produce location specific flood forecasts.
Find Out More
Home and business owners will be auto enrolled to the Flood Warning service via their mobile network. However, to get the most benefit out of the service the Environment Agency is encouraging people to register directly with them by calling Floodline on 0345 988 1188, or visiting https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/warnings where they can register preferred contact details and sign up for multiple locations if appropriate.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
2 Chinese coastal provinces activate emergency measures as Typhoon Francisco nears
HANGZHOU/FUZHOU, July 24 — East China’s coastal provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian on Thursday moved in lockstep to activate their Level-IV typhoon emergency response mechanisms as the seventh typhoon of the year approaches, expected to bring strong winds and heavy rains.
At 5 p.m. Thursday, Zhejiang upgraded its existing offshore alert to a Level-IV typhoon alert for Typhoon Francisco. Just five hours earlier, Fujian had issued the same warning, underscoring the shared threat.
At 2 p.m., Francisco’s center was located approximately 790 kilometres southeast of the Zhejiang-Fujian border, packing winds of up to 20 meters per second. It is forecast to move northwest at speeds of 15 to 20 kilometers per hour, to enter the southern East China Sea on Thursday evening, and to then approach the coast from southern Zhejiang to northern Fujian.
The situation is complicated by newly minted Typhoon Co-May — the eighth typhoon of the year.
While Co-May is expected to move northeastward late on Thursday afternoon, its proximity to Francisco could trigger a Fujiwhara interaction, which means that the two storms are likely to begin an intense dance around a shared center.
“The Fujiwhara effect could leave both systems weaker than either would have been alone,” said Mao Yanjun, a senior engineer at the Zhejiang Climate Center. “Co-May is likely to downgrade to a depression on its northward trek, and cooler sea-surface temperatures will sap Francisco’s strength once it enters the East China Sea.”
NEW YORK, July 24, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Krane Capital Management, LLC (“KraneShares”), a global asset management firm recognized for its innovative investment solutions, today announced the launch of the Krane MSCI All Country Private Company Top 10 Series.
This new offering provides accredited investors with access to a diversified portfolio of large and dynamic venture-backed global private companies, as tracked by the MSCI All Country Venture-Backed Private Company Top 10 Equal Weighted Index.
The Index is a research-driven benchmark identifying some of the most valuable and influential global private companies with secondary market trading activity. As of June 2, 2025, the Index’s constituents collectively represent over $1.5 trillion in market capitalization1, spanning industries such as artificial intelligence, fintech, aerospace, and digital media.
The fund seeks to acquire shares in leading private companies through direct purchases, secondary transactions, or derivative contracts. The portfolio will consist of the ten private companies tracked by the index, which currently are SpaceX, ByteDance, OpenAI, Stripe, xAI, Databricks, Anthropic, Revolut, Anduril, and Canva.
“Our mission at KraneShares is focused on delivering first-to-market, high-conviction strategies that provide investors with transparent and cost-effective access to groundbreaking capital market opportunities like the private markets,” said Jonathan Krane, CEO of KraneShares. “Through their newly launched index, MSCI is applying institutional-class indexing capabilities to identify some of the largest global venture-backed companies with secondary market activity, which we aim to deliver to investors through our fund.
“The MSCI All Country Venture-Backed Private Company Indexes represent a significant step forward for investors seeking transparency and actionable insights in private markets. By leveraging robust secondary market data and our decades of index construction expertise, we are enabling investors to benchmark and analyze this dynamic asset class with greater clarity and confidence,” said Christine Berg, Head of Americas Index at MSCI. “We are thrilled that KraneShares is utilizing our index to provide access to this asset class to investors.”
Krane MSCI All Country Private Company Top 10 Vintage 2025 Series 1 Fund (KC VC 1, LP)
Index Provider
MSCI
Index
MSCI All Country Venture-Backed Private Company Top 10 Equal Weighted Index
Minimum Capital Commitment
$2,500
General Partner
KCM GP, LLC
Management Company
Krane Capital Management, LLC
About KraneShares
Krane Capital Management, LLC is a subsidiary of Krane Funds Advisors, LLC (KraneShares), a specialist investment manager focused on China, Climate, and Alternative Assets. KraneShares seeks to provide innovative, high-conviction, and first-to-market strategies based on the firm and its partners’ deep investing knowledge. KraneShares identifies and delivers groundbreaking capital market opportunities and believes investors should have cost-effective and transparent tools for attaining exposure to various asset classes. KraneShares was founded in 2013 and serves institutions and financial professionals globally. The firm is a signatory of the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI).
About MSCI
MSCI is a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community. With over 50 years of expertise in research, data and technology, MSCI powers better investment decisions by enabling clients to understand and analyze key drivers of risk and return and confidently build more effective portfolios. MSCI creates industry-leading research-enhanced solutions that clients use to gain insight into and improve transparency across the investment process. To learn more, please visit www.msci.com.
Citations:
Data from MSCI as of 6/02/2025.
Risk Disclosures:
The Fund has not yet received any investments or started its operations, and it lacks any historical record or performance. This information is only a brief summary and is not exhaustive. The terms mentioned here may undergo significant changes without prior notice. It’s essential to note that certain crucial details about the stated terms are omitted, and other key Fund terms are not addressed in this summary. To gain a comprehensive understanding, potential investors should refer to the Fund’s private placement memorandum, limited partnership agreement and subscription agreement (collectively, “the Fund Documents”), which will take precedence in case of any conflicts with the general terms provided here.
An investor should base any investment decisions solely on the information contained in the Fund Documents. Furthermore, there is no assurance that the Fund will achieve its fundraising goals, which could impact its ability to carry out its objectives.
An investment in the Fund is speculative, involves a high degree of risk, and is suitable only for persons who are willing and able to assume the risk of losing their entire investment.
The Fund’s portfolio intends to invest in ten private companies tracked by the Index. The Target List does not represent all private technology companies, rather, only private technology companies listed on the MSCI All Country Venture-Backed Private Company Top 10 Equal Weighted (June 2025 Vintage) Index. The Target List may include certain companies that perform poorly or omit other companies that perform well. The Partnership may not invest in all the companies comprising the Target List and may need to expand the pool of investments to fully invest its capital. For the avoidance of doubt, the Partnership’s performance will not track the Target List, in part because the Partnership may not be able to participate in the desired amount or may be weighted differently and therefore the Fund’s performance may deviate from that of the Target List. There is no assurance that the Partnership will achieve its investment or risk management objectives or be profitable.
The Partnership may invest in portfolio companies which are significantly debt-financed by third parties. While investments in leveraged companies offer the opportunity for capital appreciation, such investments also involve a higher degree of risk.
The Partnership generally seeks to invest and may be concentrated in private, high-growth technology companies which often include the risks of, rapidly changing science and technologies; obsolescence, fierce competition and rapidly changing investor sentiments and preferences with regard to technology sector investments. Information technology companies may be smaller and less experienced companies, with limited operating history.
The Interests are being offered without registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), in reliance upon an exemption contained in Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act. Investors will generally not have the right to withdraw from the Partnership (unless permitted by the General Partner in its discretion or as otherwise set forth in the Partnership Agreement) and should be viewed as illiquid. Investors may not be able to redeem their interests in the amount or at the time desired and should only be considered by investors who can bear such risk for an indefinite period of time.
This communication is not intended by Krane or any of its affiliated funds as an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to purchase, any Security. The information set forth in the communication is provided for informational and discussion purposes only and is not intended to be, and shall not be regarded or construed as, a recommendation for a transaction or investment, financial or other advice of any kind. It does not constitute or imply any commitment whatsoever, including without limitation an offer to purchase, sell or hold any Security or to enter into or arrange any type of transaction. Any offering will be made only where permitted by law and by means of the Fund Documents that will contain detailed information about any investment to be offered; no sales will be made, and no commitments to enter into investments will be accepted, and no money is being solicited or will be accepted, until the Fund Documents are made available to prospective investors. Any indication of interest from prospective investors in response to the information provided in the communication involves no obligation or commitment of any kind. Any investment decisions should be based solely on the data in the Fund Documents and after consultation with an investor’s independent advisors.
The funds or securities referred to herein are not sponsored, endorsed, or promoted by MSCI, and MSCI bears no liability with respect to any such funds or securities or any index on which such funds or securities are based. The Private Placement Memorandum contains a more detailed description of the limited relationship MSCI has with Krane Capital Management, LLC and any related funds.
The target list of companies herein was compiled based on an MSCI index of private technology companies named “MSCI All Country Venture-Backed Private Company Top 10 Equal Weighted (June 2025 Vintage) Index”. KraneShares licenses this list from MSCI.
An investment in the Fund would not be appropriate for all investors and involves important legal, operational and tax consequences and investment risks (including, in some cases, volatility, currency and credit risk, illiquidity, and/or loss of principal), each of which should be independently assessed by investors with their professional advisors prior to transacting. This communication does not take into account individual investor circumstances, objectives, or needs. No determination has been made regarding the suitability of any securities, financial instruments, or strategies for particular investors or prospects.
The interests in the Fund have not been approved or recommended by any United States federal or state securities commission or regulatory authority. The foregoing authorities have not confirmed the accuracy or determined the adequacy of the communication. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
THIS COMMUNICATION DOES NOT DISCLOSE ALL THE RISKS AND OTHER SIGNIFICANT ISSUES RELATED TO AN INVESTMENT IN THE FUND. BEFORE INVESTING IN THE FUND, POTENTIAL INVESTORS SHOULD FULLY UNDERSTAND THE FUND’S TERMS AND ANY APPLICABLE RISKS, SOME, BUT NOT ALL, OF WHICH ARE DESCRIBED IN MORE DETAIL IN THE FUND DOCUMENTS.
Foreside Fund Services, LLC provides marketing review services. Foreside Fund Services, LLC is not affiliated with Krane Capital Management, LLC.
Rescuers searched for survivors after a flash flood in Texas Hill Country on July 4, 2025, that killed more than 130 people. Jim Vondruska/Getty Images
The National Weather Service has already issued more than 3,600 flash flood warnings across the United States in 2025, and that number is increasing as torrential downpours continue in late July. There’s a good chance the U.S. will exceed its yearly average of around 4,000 flash flood warnings soon.
Much of the central and eastern U.S. has had above-normal precipitation over the three months from April 23 through July 24, 2025. Blues are 150% to 200% of normal. Purples are even higher. NOAA National Water Prediction Service
I study extreme precipitation events along with the complex processes that lead to the devastating damage they cause.
Both the atmosphere and surface conditions play important roles in when and where flash floods occur and how destructive they become, and 2025 has seen some extremes, with large parts of the country east of the Rockies received at least 50% more precipitation than normal from mid-April through mid-July.
Excess water vapor, weaker jet stream
Flash floods are caused by excessive precipitation over short periods of time. When rain accumulates too fast for the local environment to absorb or reroute it, flooding ensues, and conditions can get dangerous fast.
During the warm season, intrusions of tropical air with excessive water vapor are common in the U.S., and they can result in intense downpours.
In addition, the jet stream and westerly winds – which move storm systems from west to east across the U.S. – tend to weaken during summer. As a result, the overall movement of thunderstorms and other precipitation-producing systems slows during the summer months, and storm systems can remain almost stationary over a location.
The combination of intense rainfall rates and extended precipitation increases the likelihood of flash flooding.
The surface rain falls on makes a difference, too
Local surface characteristics also play important roles in how flash floods develop and evolve.
When intense precipitation is combined with saturated soils, steep slopes, urban areas and sparse vegetation, runoff can quickly overwhelm local streams, rivers and drainage systems, leading to the rapid rise of water levels.
When the remnants of Hurricane Helene hit the mountains of North Carolina in October 2024, the intense rainfall on steep slopes quickly filled streams and then rivers that washed away homes in their narrow valleys. Sean Rayford/Getty Images
Because the characteristics of the surface can vary significantly along a stream or river, the timing and location of a heavy downpour pose unique risks for each local area.
What’s driving flash floods in 2025?
During the horrific flooding in Texas Hill Country on July 4, 2025, that killed more than 135 people, atmospheric water vapor in the region was at or near historic levels. The storm hit at the headwaters of the Guadalupe River, over streams that converge in the river valley.
As thunderstorms developed and remained nearly stationary over the region, they were fueled by the excessive atmospheric water vapor. That led to high rainfall rates. Hours of heavy rainfall early that morning sent the river rising quickly at a summer camp near Hunt, Texas, where more than two dozen girls and staff members died. Downstream at Kerrville, the river rose even faster, gaining more than 30 feet in 45 minutes.
Overall, a persistent atmospheric pattern in late spring and summer 2025 has included a shift of the jet stream farther to the south than normal and, along with lower atmospheric pressures, has supported excessive rainfall across the central and eastern U.S.
While the West Coast has experienced dry conditions in early summer 2025 due to a ridge of high pressure, the U.S. east of the Rockies has seen an active storm track with frontal boundaries and disturbances that produced thunderstorms and intense downpours across the region.
Warmer-than-normal ocean water can also boost rainfall. The Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean are source regions for atmospheric water vapor in the central and eastern U.S. In summer 2025, that water vapor has created extremely humid conditions, which have produced very high rainfall rates when storms develop.
The result has been flash floods in several states producing catastrophic destruction and loss of life.
Looking to the future
The U.S. has seen devastating flash floods throughout its history, but rising global temperatures today are increasing the risk of flooding.
As ocean and air temperatures rise, atmospheric water vapor increases. Higher ocean temperatures can produce more atmospheric water vapor through evaporation, and a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, fueling downpours. In some high-risk areas, meteorologists, aware of the risks, say they are becoming more proactive about warnings.
MARIETTA, Pa., July 24, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Donegal Group Inc. (NASDAQ: DGICA) and (NASDAQ: DGICB) today reported its financial results for the second quarter and first half of 2025.
Significant Items for Second Quarter of 2025 (all comparisons to second quarter of 2024):
Net premiums earned decreased 1.1% to $231.8 million
Combined ratio of 97.7%, compared to 103.0%
Net income of $16.9 million, or 46 cents per diluted Class A share, compared to $4.2 million, or 13 cents per diluted Class A share
Net investment gains (after tax) of $1.2 million, or 3 cents per diluted Class A share, compared to $0.6 million, or 2 cents per diluted Class A share, are included in net income
Annualized return on average equity of 11.3%, compared to 3.4%
Book value per share of $16.62 at June 30, 2025, compared to $14.48 at June 30, 2024
Financial Summary
Three Months Ended June 30,
Six Months Ended June 30,
2025
2024
% Change
2025
2024
% Change
(dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
Income Statement Data
Net premiums earned
$
231,775
$
234,311
-1.1
%
$
464,476
$
462,060
0.5
%
Investment income, net
12,540
11,068
13.3
24,524
22,041
11.3
Net investment gains
1,544
737
109.5
1,073
2,850
-62.4
Total revenues
247,148
246,773
0.2
491,953
487,913
0.8
Net income
16,866
4,153
306.1
42,071
10,108
316.2
Non-GAAP operating income1
15,647
3,571
338.2
41,224
7,857
424.7
Annualized return on average equity
11.3
%
3.4
%
7.9 pts
14.6
%
4.2
%
10.4 pts
Per Share Data
Net income – Class A (diluted)
$
0.46
$
0.13
253.8
%
$
1.17
$
0.31
277.4
%
Net income – Class B
0.43
0.11
290.9
1.08
0.28
285.7
Non-GAAP operating income – Class A (diluted)
0.43
0.11
290.9
1.14
0.24
375.0
Non-GAAP operating income – Class B
0.40
0.10
300.0
1.06
0.22
381.8
Book value
16.62
14.48
14.8
16.62
14.48
14.8
1The “Definitions of Non-GAAP Financial Measures” section of this release defines and reconciles data that we prepare on an accounting basis other than U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”).
Management Commentary
Kevin G. Burke, President and Chief Executive Officer of Donegal Group Inc., stated, “We are pleased with the progress we have made and the results we delivered for both the second quarter and first half of 2025, which we believe reflect the strength of our strategic execution and underwriting discipline. A meaningful improvement in our core loss ratio for both periods underscores our commitment to disciplined risk management and sustainable profitability. As expected, net premiums written1 declined this quarter, as lower new business writings and planned attrition modestly outpaced ongoing premium rate increases and solid retention levels. As a proactive measure, we intentionally slowed new business writings in our personal lines of business to protect underwriting margins and ensure we remain focused on profitable growth opportunities. We continue to identify and pursue profitable new business opportunities in states and classes that match our objectives.
“We reached a significant milestone in our multi-year systems modernization project with the successful deployment of our final major commercial lines systems release. During the second half of 2025, we will begin to roll out this enhanced platform on a state-by-state basis, enabling us to more effectively target and win key middle market accounts. When the rollout is completed in the first half of 2026, we will be operating on a single modern technology platform for all of our middle market and small business commercial product offerings.
“As we look ahead, we remain focused on disciplined execution, organizational alignment and operational excellence to further strengthen our long-term competitive position and enhance value for our stockholders.”
Insurance Operations
Donegal Group is an insurance holding company whose insurance subsidiaries and affiliates offer property and casualty lines of insurance in three Mid-Atlantic states (Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania), five Southern states (Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia), eight Midwestern states (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin) and five Southwestern states (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Utah). Donegal Mutual Insurance Company and the insurance subsidiaries of Donegal Group conduct business together as the Donegal Insurance Group.
Three Months Ended June 30,
Six Months Ended June 30,
2025
2024
% Change
2025
2024
% Change
(dollars in thousands)
Net Premiums Earned
Commercial lines
$
138,527
$
134,489
3.0
%
$
274,743
$
266,581
3.1
%
Personal lines
93,248
99,822
-6.6
189,733
195,479
-2.9
Total net premiums earned
$
231,775
$
234,311
-1.1
%
$
464,476
$
462,060
0.5
%
Net Premiums Written
Commercial lines:
Automobile
$
50,584
$
47,089
7.4
%
$
107,109
$
100,603
6.5
%
Workers’ compensation
24,243
27,591
-12.1
52,997
58,665
-9.7
Commercial multi-peril
56,478
55,870
1.1
117,268
113,373
3.4
Other
13,609
11,698
16.3
28,158
25,101
12.2
Total commercial lines
144,914
142,248
1.9
305,532
297,742
2.6
Personal lines:
Automobile
52,741
62,427
-15.5
107,933
123,808
-12.8
Homeowners
33,590
39,608
-15.2
62,378
71,367
-12.6
Other
2,568
2,906
-11.6
5,062
5,714
-11.4
Total personal lines
88,899
104,941
-15.3
175,373
200,889
-12.7
Total net premiums written
$
233,813
$
247,189
-5.4
%
$
480,905
$
498,631
-3.6
%
Net Premiums Written
The 5.4% decrease in net premiums written for the second quarter of 2025 compared to the second quarter of 2024, as shown in the table above, represents the net combination of a 1.9% increase in commercial lines net premiums written and a 15.3% decrease in personal lines net premiums written. The $13.3 million decrease in net premiums written for the second quarter of 2025 compared to the second quarter of 2024 included:
Commercial Lines: $2.7 million increase that we attribute primarily to solid retention and a continuation of renewal premium increases in lines other than workers’ compensation, offset partially by lower new business writings.
Personal Lines: $16.0 million decrease that we attribute primarily to planned attrition due to lower new business writings and non-renewal actions, offset partially by a continuation of renewal premium rate increases and solid retention.
Underwriting Performance
We evaluate the performance of our commercial lines and personal lines segments primarily based upon the underwriting results of our insurance subsidiaries as determined under statutory accounting practices. The following table presents comparative details with respect to the GAAP and statutory combined ratios1 for the three and six months ended June 30, 2025 and 2024:
Three Months Ended
Six Months Ended
June 30
June 30
2025
2024
2025
2024
GAAP Combined Ratios (Total Lines)
Loss ratio – core losses
50.1
%
55.0
%
52.1
%
56.8
%
Loss ratio – weather-related losses
11.1
10.6
7.4
7.7
Loss ratio – large fire losses
5.2
5.3
4.3
5.9
Loss ratio – net prior-year reserve development
-1.3
-0.3
-2.9
-2.0
Loss ratio
65.1
70.6
60.9
68.4
Expense ratio
32.2
31.9
33.4
33.8
Dividend ratio
0.4
0.5
0.3
0.5
Combined ratio
97.7
%
103.0
%
94.6
%
102.7
%
Statutory Combined Ratios
Commercial lines:
Automobile
97.7
%
93.5
%
94.6
%
96.6
%
Workers’ compensation
104.9
117.0
111.3
114.2
Commercial multi-peril
97.5
110.6
93.9
106.7
Other
119.8
94.3
100.6
88.3
Total commercial lines
101.0
104.9
97.8
103.3
Personal lines:
Automobile
79.3
95.6
82.2
97.7
Homeowners
115.1
103.1
99.0
102.7
Other
55.2
104.7
55.9
94.8
Total personal lines
91.7
98.6
87.5
99.4
Total lines
97.4
%
102.2
%
93.9
%
101.7
%
Loss Ratio
For the second quarter of 2025, the loss ratio decreased to 65.1%, compared to 70.6% for the second quarter of 2024. For the commercial lines segment, the core loss ratio, which excludes weather-related losses, large fire losses and net development of reserves for losses incurred in prior accident years, of 54.5% for the second quarter of 2025 decreased modestly from 54.8% for the second quarter of 2024. For the personal lines segment, the core loss ratio of 43.3% for the second quarter of 2025 decreased from 55.3% for the second quarter of 2024, due largely to the favorable impact of premium rate increases on net premiums earned for that segment.
Weather-related losses were $25.8 million, or 11.1 percentage points of the loss ratio, for the second quarter of 2025, compared to $24.7 million, or 10.6 percentage points of the loss ratio, for the second quarter of 2024. Weather-related loss activity for the second quarter of 2025 was higher than our previous five-year average of $18.9 million, or 9.2 percentage points of the loss ratio, for second-quarter weather-related losses. Atlantic States Insurance Company, our largest insurance subsidiary, incurred $3.0 million in net losses from a catastrophic wind and hail loss event in April 2025, with Donegal Mutual assuming losses that subsidiary incurred from the event in excess of its retention under an intercompany catastrophe reinsurance agreement.
Large fire losses, which we define as individual fire losses in excess of $50,000, for the second quarter of 2025 were $12.1 million, or 5.2 percentage points of the loss ratio. That amount was comparable to the large fire losses of $12.5 million, or 5.3 percentage points of the loss ratio, for the second quarter of 2024. We experienced a modest decrease in commercial property fire losses that was partially offset by a modest increase in homeowners fire losses compared to the prior-year quarter.
Net favorable development of reserves for losses incurred in prior accident years reduced the loss ratio by 1.3 percentage points for the second quarter of 2025 and had virtually no impact for the second quarter of 2024. Our insurance subsidiaries experienced favorable development primarily in the personal automobile and homeowners lines of business, partially offset by adverse development in other commercial lines that we primarily attribute to higher-than-anticipated case reserve development.
Expense Ratio
The expense ratio was 32.2% for the second quarter of 2025, compared to 31.9% for the second quarter of 2024. The increase in the expense ratio primarily reflected higher underwriting-based incentive costs for agents and employees, partially offset by the favorable impact of ongoing expense management initiatives. The impact from costs that Donegal Mutual Insurance Company allocated to our insurance subsidiaries related to its ongoing systems modernization project peaked at approximately 1.3 percentage points of the full year 2024 expense ratio, and we expect that impact to subside gradually over the next several years. Allocated costs related to that project represented approximately 1.0 percentage point of the expense ratio for the second quarter of 2025, and we expect the full year 2025 expense ratio impact will also be approximately 1.0 percentage point.
Investment Operations
Donegal Group’s investment strategy is to generate an appropriate amount of after-tax income on its invested assets while minimizing credit risk through investment in high-quality securities. As a result, we had invested 95.4% of our consolidated investment portfolio in diversified, highly rated and marketable fixed-maturity securities at June 30, 2025.
June 30, 2025
December 31, 2024
Amount
%
Amount
%
(dollars in thousands)
Fixed maturities, at carrying value:
U.S. Treasury securities and obligations of U.S.
government corporations and agencies
$
145,585
10.2
%
$
170,423
12.3
%
Obligations of states and political subdivisions
424,010
29.7
409,560
29.6
Corporate securities
441,603
30.9
440,552
31.8
Mortgage-backed securities
353,639
24.7
304,459
22.0
Allowance for expected credit losses
(1,374
)
-0.1
(1,388
)
-0.1
Total fixed maturities
1,363,463
95.4
1,323,606
95.6
Equity securities, at fair value
41,007
2.9
36,808
2.6
Short-term investments, at cost
24,764
1.7
24,558
1.8
Total investments
$
1,429,234
100.0
%
$
1,384,972
100.0
%
Average investment yield
3.5
%
3.3
%
Average tax-equivalent investment yield
3.6
%
3.4
%
Average fixed-maturity duration (years)
5.2
5.2
Net investment income of $12.5 million for the second quarter of 2025 increased 13.3% compared to $11.1 million for the second quarter of 2024. The increase in net investment income primarily reflected an increase in average investment yield relative to the prior-year second quarter.
Net investment gains of $1.5 million for the second quarter of 2025 were primarily related to unrealized gains in the fair value of equity securities held at June 30, 2025, offset partially by net realized investment losses on the sale of available-for-sale fixed-maturity securities. Net investment gains of $0.7 million for the second quarter of 2024 were primarily related to unrealized gains in the fair value of equity securities held at June 30, 2024.
Our book value per share was $16.62 at June 30, 2025, compared to $15.36 at December 31, 2024, with the increase related to net income as well as $10.7 million of after-tax unrealized gains within our available-for-sale fixed-maturity portfolio during 2025 that increased our book value by $0.31 per share, offset partially by cash dividends declared.
Definitions of Non-GAAP FinancialMeasures
We prepare our consolidated financial statements on the basis of GAAP. Our insurance subsidiaries also prepare financial statements based on statutory accounting principles state insurance regulators prescribe or permit (“SAP”). In addition to using GAAP-based performance measurements, we also utilize certain non-GAAP financial measures that we believe provide value in managing our business and for comparison to the financial results of our peers. These non-GAAP measures are net premiums written, operating income or loss and statutory combined ratio.
Net premiums written and operating income or loss are non-GAAP financial measures investors in insurance companies commonly use. We define net premiums written as the amount of full-term premiums our insurance subsidiaries record for policies effective within a given period less premiums our insurance subsidiaries cede to reinsurers. We define operating income or loss as net income or loss excluding after-tax net investment gains or losses, after-tax restructuring charges and other significant non-recurring items. Because our calculation of operating income or loss may differ from similar measures other companies use, investors should exercise caution when comparing our measure of operating income or loss to the measure of other companies.
The following table provides a reconciliation of net premiums earned to net premiums written for the periods indicated:
Three Months Ended June 30,
Six Months Ended June 30,
2025
2024
% Change
2025
2024
% Change
(dollars in thousands)
Reconciliation of Net Premiums
Earned to Net Premiums Written
Net premiums earned
$
231,775
$
234,311
-1.1
%
$
464,476
$
462,060
0.5
%
Change in net unearned premiums
2,038
12,878
-84.2
16,429
36,571
-55.1
Net premiums written
$
233,813
$
247,189
-5.4
%
$
480,905
$
498,631
-3.6
%
The following table provides a reconciliation of net income to operating income for the periods indicated:
Three Months Ended June 30,
Six Months Ended June 30,
2025
2024
% Change
2025
2024
% Change
(dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
Reconciliation of Net Income
to Non-GAAP Operating Income
Net income
$
16,866
$
4,153
306.1
%
$
42,071
$
10,108
316.2
%
Investment gains (after tax)
(1,219
)
(582
)
109.5
(847
)
(2,251
)
-62.4
Non-GAAP operating income
$
15,647
$
3,571
338.2
%
$
41,224
$
7,857
424.7
%
Per Share Reconciliation of Net Income
to Non-GAAP Operating Income
Net income – Class A (diluted)
$
0.46
$
0.13
253.8
%
$
1.17
$
0.31
277.4
%
Investment gains (after tax)
(0.03
)
(0.02
)
50.0
(0.03
)
(0.07
)
-57.1
Non-GAAP operating income – Class A
$
0.43
$
0.11
290.9
%
$
1.14
$
0.24
375.0
%
Net income – Class B
$
0.43
$
0.11
290.9
%
$
1.08
$
0.28
285.7
%
Investment gains (after tax)
(0.03
)
(0.01
)
200.0
(0.02
)
(0.06
)
-66.7
Non-GAAP operating income – Class B
$
0.40
$
0.10
300.0
%
$
1.06
$
0.22
381.8
%
The statutory combined ratio is a non-GAAP standard measurement of underwriting profitability that is based upon amounts determined under SAP. The statutory combined ratio is the sum of:
the statutory loss ratio, which is the ratio of calendar-year incurred losses and loss expenses, excluding anticipated salvage and subrogation recoveries, to premiums earned;
the statutory expense ratio, which is the ratio of expenses incurred for net commissions, premium taxes and underwriting expenses to premiums written; and
the statutory dividend ratio, which is the ratio of dividends to holders of workers’ compensation policies to premiums earned.
The statutory combined ratio does not reflect investment income, federal income taxes or other non-operating income or expense. A statutory combined ratio of less than 100% generally indicates underwriting profitability.
Dividend Information
On July 17, 2025, we declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.1825 per share for our Class A common stock and $0.165 per share for our Class B common stock, which are payable on August 15, 2025 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on August 1, 2025.
Pre-Recorded Webcast
At approximately 8:30 am ET on Thursday, July 24, 2025, we will make available in the Investors section of our website a pre-recorded audio webcast featuring management commentary on our quarterly results and general business updates. You may listen to the pre-recorded webcast by accessing the link on our website at http://investors.donegalgroup.com. A supplemental investor presentation is also available via our website.
About the Company
Donegal Group Inc. is an insurance holding company whose insurance subsidiaries and affiliates offer property and casualty lines of insurance in certain Mid-Atlantic, Midwestern, Southern and Southwestern states. Donegal Mutual Insurance Company and the insurance subsidiaries of Donegal Group Inc. conduct business together as the Donegal Insurance Group. The Donegal Insurance Group has an A.M. Best rating of A (Excellent).
The Class A common stock and Class B common stock of Donegal Group Inc. trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbols DGICA and DGICB, respectively. We are focused on several primary strategies, including achieving sustained excellent financial performance, strategically modernizing our operations and processes to transform our business, capitalizing on opportunities to grow profitably and providing superior experiences to our agents, policyholders and employees.
Safe Harbor
We base all statements contained in this release that are not historic facts on our current expectations. Such statements are forward-looking in nature (as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) and necessarily involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements we make may be identified by our use of words such as “will,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “seek,” “estimate” and similar expressions. Our actual results could vary materially from our forward-looking statements. The factors that could cause our actual results to vary materially from the forward-looking statements we have previously made include, but are not limited to, adverse litigation and other trends that could increase our loss costs (including social inflation, labor shortages and escalating medical, automobile and property repair costs, including due to tariffs), adverse and catastrophic weather events (including from changing climate conditions), our ability to maintain profitable operations (including our ability to underwrite risks effectively and charge adequate premium rates), the adequacy of the loss and loss expense reserves of our insurance subsidiaries, the availability and successful operation of the information technology systems our insurance subsidiaries utilize, the successful development of new information technology systems to allow our insurance subsidiaries to compete effectively, business and economic conditions in the areas in which we and our insurance subsidiaries operate, interest rates, competition from various insurance and other financial businesses, terrorism, the availability and cost of reinsurance, legal and judicial developments, changes in regulatory requirements, our ability to attract and retain independent insurance agents, changes in our A.M. Best rating and the other risks that we describe from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We disclaim any obligation to update such statements or to announce publicly the results of any revisions that we may make to any forward-looking statements to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events or circumstances after the date of such statements.
There’s no other way of looking at it: Sussan Ley faces a diabolical situation with the debate over whether the Coalition should abandon the 2050 net zero emissions target.
The issue is a microcosm of her wider problems. The Nationals, the minor party in the Coalition, are determined to run their own race on most things. The Liberals have become akin to two parties, split between those eyeing urban seats and younger voters, and right-wingers reflecting the party’s conservative grassroots.
Nobody misses the contrast. The Albanese government is beset by a host of actual issues around the transition to a clean energy economy. The renewables rollout is not going as fast as desirable and is meeting with resistance in some communities. Energy costs are high. But such problems are not putting any pressure on Labor’s unity.
At the same time, the opposition is fractured over an argument about a target that’s a quarter of a century away, when who knows what the technological or political landscape will look like. For the opposition, the internal debate about net zero is about symbols and signals, rather than substance.
The net zero debate exploded within the opposition this week with Barnaby Joyce’s private member’s bill to scrap Australia’s commitment to it. The timing, in parliament’s first week, was extraordinarily inconvenient for Ley. But if not now, it would have erupted later.
On present indications, the Nationals appear likely to ditch the net zero commitment. David Littleproud, anxious to avoid the issue becoming a threat to his leadership, is reading the party room and positioning himself to be in the anticipated majority.
Asked on Thursday whether he supported net zero, Littleproud told the ABC, “well, I have real concerns about it, to be candid. What net zero has become is about trying to achieve the impossible, rather than doing what’s sensible.” But, he insisted, “we’re not climate deniers”.
It is less clear how the debate will pan out in the Liberal Party, once the group under Shadow Energy Minister Dan Tehan produces its report on energy and emissions-reduction policy.
Liberal sources say the issue is now being driven by the party’s grassroots, rather than the parliamentary party. Branches are throwing up motions to get rid of the 2050 target.
The Western Australian Liberal state council will debate a motion this weekend to drop the net zero commitment. The Queensland LNP organisation will consider its position next month. A few weeks ago, the South Australian Liberal state council rejected net zero.
With a policy review underway, Ley and the parliamentary Liberals have left a vacuum on the issue. Some Liberals warn the parliamentarians risk being run over by the party outside parliament. Others point out that on policy, the parliamentarians are independent of the organisation, which often comes up with right-wing motions.
How should Ley best handle the situation? By filling the vacuum with a position sooner rather than later. That means accelerating the Tehan report. Beyond that, ideally she should be taking leadership on the issue herself. But is she in a strong enough position to do that?
One idea being floated would be for the Liberals to retain the net zero target but extend the time frame. This wouldn’t stop the criticism about the shift.
Whether the Coalition could stay as one if its two parties had different positions on net zero may be an open question but it certainly would be messy.
On the other side of politics, the government is rapidly approaching a decision on another key target – the one Australia will put up internationally for cutting emissions by 2035. Inevitably, this will be contentious.
This target must be submitted by September (it was conveniently delayed beyond the election). Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen has yet to receive advice on the target from the Climate Change Authority (advice that will be published). The target is expected to be between 65% and 75%.
The challenge will be to strike a target with sufficient ambition that doesn’t alienate business and the regions.
Next week the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Simon Stiell, will be in Canberra for talks. His comments will be carefully watched.
Last year he told the Sydney Morning Herald, “the world needs countries like Australia to take climate action and ambition to the next level, and it’s firmly in the interests of every Australian that they do so”.
Climate and energy issues will have a place at next month’s economic reform roundtable. Bowen is organising two preliminary roundtables – on electricity, with energy user stakeholders, and on climate adaptation. He told The Conversation’s podcast that adaptation will “be an increasing focus of this government and future governments because, tragically, the world has left it too late to avoid the impacts of climate change”.
The government is waiting, somewhat impatiently, for the decision on whether Australia will be given the nod to host next year’s UN climate conference. The COP meeting, which would be in Adelaide in November 2026, is an enormous event to put on, so the decision is becoming urgent.
Bowen says Australia already has the numbers over Turkey, the other contender. But “one of the things about the process to decide COPs, I’ve learnt, is it’s quite opaque and there’s no particular timeline and no particular rules to the ballot.
“It’s meant to work on a consensus, sort of an old world, sort of gentlemanly sort of approach to say whoever loses will withdraw. That’s not the way it’s panning out. I’ve had multiple meetings with my Turkish counterpart to try to find a ‘win-win’ solution. We haven’t been able to find that yet.”
Stiell’s trip includes Turkey as well as Australia. Bowen will be hoping he may provide some clarity, when they meet, about how the “opaque” process of assigning the COP meeting is going. Bowen will be emphasising how important the proposed co-hosting COP with the Pacific is to the region, with climate change already an existential issue for many Pacific countries.
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), a leading multilateral finance institution, has joined the upcoming African Mining Week (AMW) 2025 as a Silver Sponsor. Held under the theme, From Extraction to Beneficiation: Unlocking Africa’s Mineral Wealth, AMW offers a strategic platform for AFC to engage with African and global mining stakeholders to advance the continent’s mineral development agenda.
As part of the conference program, AFC will feature in a dedicated finance panel: “The Investor Perspective – Financing Africa’s Mineral Industrialization.” The session will explore how tailored financing solutions can drive local beneficiation, industrialization and inclusive economic growth across Africa’s mining value chains.
AMW serves as a premier platform for exploring the full spectrum of mining opportunities across Africa. The event is held alongside the African Energy Week: Invest in African Energies 2025 conference from October 1-3 in Cape Town. Sponsors, exhibitors and delegates can learn more by contactingsales@energycapitalpower.com.
The AFC’s involvement in AMW 2025 comes at a time of expanded capital mobilization efforts. In June 2025, the Corporation secured a €250 million, 10-year loan from Italy’s Cassa Depositi e Prestiti to catalyze Italian investment in African mining and energy infrastructure projects – particularly the strategic Lobito Corridor, enhancing mineral transport between Angola, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This initiative complements a proposed €320 million EU financing package supporting the same corridor.
In February 2025, the European Investment Bank committed $750 million to AFC’s Climate Resilient Infrastructure Fund, targeting climate-focused projects including energy transition metals and sustainable logistics infrastructure. The same month, AFC also secured a $400 million Shariah-compliant facility from Islamic financiers, following a $500 million hybrid bond issuance in January and a $30 million equity investment from the African Development Bank in December 2024.
AFC’s capital base has also grown with a $184.8 million equity injection from Angola, reflecting the country’s continued collaboration with AFC following over $1 billion in investments in mining, energy and transport. Meanwhile, a €100 million loan extended to construction group Mota–Engil is enabling the execution of three major gold mining contracts in Ivory Coast and Mali – Africa’s second- and third-largest gold producers.
Against this backdrop, AMW 2025 provides a timely opportunity for the AFC to showcase its financing strategy, highlight its role in advancing Africa’s mineral beneficiation and connect with mining ventures in search of capital.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Energy Capital & Power.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released the 2024 update of its health and environment country scorecards, assessing how countries are managing eight major environmental threats to health across sectors. These threats include air pollution, unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), climate change, loss of biodiversity, exposure to chemicals, and radiation, occupational risks, and environmental risks in and around health care facilities. This year’s edition also introduces a new summary score, offering a concise snapshot of how environmental conditions are impacting people’s health.
WHO’s health and environment country scorecards serve as a valuable tool for guiding national action. They provide detailed data across the eight key areas linking environment, climate change, and health policies, promoting cross-sectoral engagement, and helping governments prioritize evidence-based interventions.
“Tackling environmental risks isn’t optional—it’s a prescription for better health, stronger economies, and a safer future. You can’t have healthy people on a sick planet,” said Dr Maria Neira, WHO Director, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health. “We urge all countries to take bold, coordinated action across sectors to reduce environmental threats. Investing in clean air, safe water, and climate-protective policies is not just good for the planet. It’s essential for the health and future of their people.”
From among countries, Norway and Canada received the highest scores overall. Among income groups, Argentina scored highest for upper-middle-income countries, Jordan for lower-middle-income, and Malawi for low-income countries. European countries led in regional averages, followed by the Americas, Western Pacific, and Eastern Mediterranean, and other regions.
In this third round of scorecards, the introduction of the summary score marks a significant step forward in helping countries prioritize action on health and environment. The summary score is designed to condense a wide range of environmental health indicators into a single, accessible measure. Comprising 25 key indicators across environment, climate change, and health, the score enables countries to track progress at national, regional, and global levels—highlighting trends in exposures, health impacts, policy implementation, as well as identifying critical data gaps.
The scorecards support countries in conducting situation assessments and setting evidence-based priorities for action. While large disparities exist between countries, shaped in part by differing levels of economic resources, every country has an opportunity to strengthen efforts to reduce environmental health risks.
“The updated scorecards, together with the summary score, now bring new visibility to the links between environment and health at country level,” said Dr Annette Pruess, Unit Head, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health, WHO. “This is a powerful tool for governments to identify challenges and shape targeted responses.”
About 25% of the global burden of disease is linked to environmental threats that are largely preventable. By addressing these environmental risk factors through stronger policies, cleaner technologies, and sustainable practices, we can significantly reduce preventable illnesses and deaths—improving health outcomes while protecting our planet.
This will be Eni’s third biorefinery in Italy, after those in Venice and Gela.
Among the distinctive features of the project, in addition to the use of advanced technologies, there is the possibility of adapting the plant to also produce SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) in the future.
This initiative contributes to the European Union’s decarbonisation goals, with particular reference to the transport sector, and confirms Eni’s energy transition path.
The project is part of Enilive’s strategy to reach more than five million tonnes of biorefinery capacity by 2030.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Eni have signed a €500 million 15-year finance contract to support the conversion of Eni’s Livorno refinery in Tuscany into a biorefinery. The agreement was signed today at Eni’s headquarters in San Donato Milanese by EIB Vice-President GelsominaVigliotti and Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi.
Eni’s project involves the construction of new plants to produce hydrogenated biofuels at the Livorno refinery site, including a biogenic pre-treatment unit and a 500 000-tonne/year Ecofining™ plant.
Thanks to its proprietary Ecofining™ technology, Eni’s company dedicated to sustainable mobility, Enilive, produces HVO (hydrogenated vegetable oil) – a biofuel made from renewable raw materials[1] such as used cooking oil and agrifood waste. Pure HVO can now be used in approved engines and is distributed through existing infrastructure.
EIB Vice-President Gelsomina Vigliotti said: “The EIB financing is key to delivering a project of high environmental, technological and strategic value, helping to promote the decarbonisation of the transport sector. This is a concrete example of how industrial innovation can accelerate the path towards climate neutrality, while generating sustainable value for regions.”
Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said: “The agreement with the EIB confirms Eni’s concrete and high-quality commitment in the transition towards increasingly decarbonized energy. It also underscores the validity of our approach, which is to invest and leverage all available and effective initiatives and technologies for reducing emissions. This virtuous approach is now leading us to convert a third refinery into a biorefinery in Italy, following the examples of Venice and Gela.”
HVO biofuels play a key role because they can make an immediate contribution to reducing transport sector emissions generated not only on roads, but also by air traffic, maritime and rail transport (calculated along the entire value chain). The conversion of the Livorno site is in line with Enilive’s strategy to increase the production of biofuels in response to growing demand in Europe and Italy, in order to meet both emission reduction targets under RED III (Renewable Energy Directive) and the obligations to release pure biofuels for use as defined by Italian legislation. Worldwide, it is estimated that the demand for hydrogenated biofuels will increase by 65% over the period 2024-2028[2].
The Livorno biorefinery will be able to treat different types of biogenic charges, mainly waste and residues of plant origin, to produce HVO diesel, HVO naphtha and bio-LPG.
Among the distinctive features of the project, in addition to the adoption of advanced technologies, there is the possibility in the future of modifying the layout of the plant to have the flexibility to also produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which is a key element of efforts to decarbonise aviation. This gives flexibility to the investment and brings it up to speed with the environmental priorities of the European Union, broadening the potential impact.
This operation is part of the energy transition at national and European level, contributing substantially to decarbonisation of the transport sector and the reduction of CO2 emissions. It also supports the achievement of Italy’s targets for the production of pure biofuels, which under current legislation provides for a gradual increase in use from 300 000 tonnes per year in 2023 to one million tonnes by 2030.
Background information
The European Investment Bank (ElB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. It finances investments that contribute to EU policy objectives. EIB projects bolster competitiveness, drive innovation, promote sustainable development, enhance social and territorial cohesion, and support a just and swift transition to climate neutrality. In the last five years, the EIB Group has provided more than €58 billion in financing for projects in Italy. All projects financed by the EIB Group are in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. The EIB Group does not fund investments in fossil fuels. We are on track to deliver on our commitment to support €1 trillion in climate and environmental sustainability investment in the decade to 2030 as pledged in our Climate Bank Roadmap. Over half of the EIB Group’s annual financing supports projects directly contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation, and a healthier environment. Approximately half of the EIB’s financing within the European Union is directed towards cohesion regions, where per capita income is lower.
Eni is a global energy tech company operating in 64 Countries, with about 32.500 employees. Originally an oil & gas company, it has evolved into an integrated energy company, playing a key role in ensuring energy security and leading the energy transition. Eni’s goal is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 through the decarbonization of its processes and of the products it sells to its customers. In line with this goal, Eni invests in the research and development of technologies that can accelerate the transition to increasingly sustainable energy. Renewable energy sources, bio-refining, carbon capture and storage are only some examples of Eni’s areas of activity and research. In addition, the company is exploring game-changing technologies such as fusion energy – a technology based on the physical processes that power stars and that could generate safe, virtually limitless energy with zero emissions.
[1] In accordance with the EU Renewable Energy Directive
[2] IEA Renewables 2023 report, main case, analysis and forecast to 2028.
This will be Eni’s third biorefinery in Italy, after those in Venice and Gela.
Among the distinctive features of the project, in addition to the use of advanced technologies, there is the possibility of adapting the plant to also produce SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) in the future.
This initiative contributes to the European Union’s decarbonisation goals, with particular reference to the transport sector, and confirms Eni’s energy transition path.
The project is part of Enilive’s strategy to reach more than five million tonnes of biorefinery capacity by 2030.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Eni have signed a €500 million 15-year finance contract to support the conversion of Eni’s Livorno refinery in Tuscany into a biorefinery. The agreement was signed today at Eni’s headquarters in San Donato Milanese by EIB Vice-President GelsominaVigliotti and Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi.
Eni’s project involves the construction of new plants to produce hydrogenated biofuels at the Livorno refinery site, including a biogenic pre-treatment unit and a 500 000-tonne/year Ecofining™ plant.
Thanks to its proprietary Ecofining™ technology, Eni’s company dedicated to sustainable mobility, Enilive, produces HVO (hydrogenated vegetable oil) – a biofuel made from renewable raw materials[1] such as used cooking oil and agrifood waste. Pure HVO can now be used in approved engines and is distributed through existing infrastructure.
EIB Vice-President Gelsomina Vigliotti said: “The EIB financing is key to delivering a project of high environmental, technological and strategic value, helping to promote the decarbonisation of the transport sector. This is a concrete example of how industrial innovation can accelerate the path towards climate neutrality, while generating sustainable value for regions.”
Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said: “The agreement with the EIB confirms Eni’s concrete and high-quality commitment in the transition towards increasingly decarbonized energy. It also underscores the validity of our approach, which is to invest and leverage all available and effective initiatives and technologies for reducing emissions. This virtuous approach is now leading us to convert a third refinery into a biorefinery in Italy, following the examples of Venice and Gela.”
HVO biofuels play a key role because they can make an immediate contribution to reducing transport sector emissions generated not only on roads, but also by air traffic, maritime and rail transport (calculated along the entire value chain). The conversion of the Livorno site is in line with Enilive’s strategy to increase the production of biofuels in response to growing demand in Europe and Italy, in order to meet both emission reduction targets under RED III (Renewable Energy Directive) and the obligations to release pure biofuels for use as defined by Italian legislation. Worldwide, it is estimated that the demand for hydrogenated biofuels will increase by 65% over the period 2024-2028[2].
The Livorno biorefinery will be able to treat different types of biogenic charges, mainly waste and residues of plant origin, to produce HVO diesel, HVO naphtha and bio-LPG.
Among the distinctive features of the project, in addition to the adoption of advanced technologies, there is the possibility in the future of modifying the layout of the plant to have the flexibility to also produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which is a key element of efforts to decarbonise aviation. This gives flexibility to the investment and brings it up to speed with the environmental priorities of the European Union, broadening the potential impact.
This operation is part of the energy transition at national and European level, contributing substantially to decarbonisation of the transport sector and the reduction of CO2 emissions. It also supports the achievement of Italy’s targets for the production of pure biofuels, which under current legislation provides for a gradual increase in use from 300 000 tonnes per year in 2023 to one million tonnes by 2030.
Background information
The European Investment Bank (ElB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. It finances investments that contribute to EU policy objectives. EIB projects bolster competitiveness, drive innovation, promote sustainable development, enhance social and territorial cohesion, and support a just and swift transition to climate neutrality. In the last five years, the EIB Group has provided more than €58 billion in financing for projects in Italy. All projects financed by the EIB Group are in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. The EIB Group does not fund investments in fossil fuels. We are on track to deliver on our commitment to support €1 trillion in climate and environmental sustainability investment in the decade to 2030 as pledged in our Climate Bank Roadmap. Over half of the EIB Group’s annual financing supports projects directly contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation, and a healthier environment. Approximately half of the EIB’s financing within the European Union is directed towards cohesion regions, where per capita income is lower.
Eni is a global energy tech company operating in 64 Countries, with about 32.500 employees. Originally an oil & gas company, it has evolved into an integrated energy company, playing a key role in ensuring energy security and leading the energy transition. Eni’s goal is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 through the decarbonization of its processes and of the products it sells to its customers. In line with this goal, Eni invests in the research and development of technologies that can accelerate the transition to increasingly sustainable energy. Renewable energy sources, bio-refining, carbon capture and storage are only some examples of Eni’s areas of activity and research. In addition, the company is exploring game-changing technologies such as fusion energy – a technology based on the physical processes that power stars and that could generate safe, virtually limitless energy with zero emissions.
[1] In accordance with the EU Renewable Energy Directive
[2] IEA Renewables 2023 report, main case, analysis and forecast to 2028.
Cumbria project named finalist in global river restoration awards
Cumbrian River Restoration Partnership Programme selected as finalist in the Thiess International Riverprize Awards. Winner announced in Brisbane in September.
Environment Agency
The Cumbrian River Restoration Partnership Programme – led by the Environment Agency and Natural England – has been named a finalist in the prestigious Thiess International Riverprize Awards.
The winner of the award, which sees the Cumbria programme’s work compete alongside finalists Chicago River, USA; Vjosa River, Albania and Klamath River, USA will be announced at a Gala event in Brisbane in September.
The Programme has restored nearly 100km of rivers and over 150 hectares of floodplain across the Eden, Derwent and Kent catchments. By reinstating natural river processes – such as reintroducing meanders, removing obsolete weirs and planting native trees – the Partnership is helping nature recover, build climate resilience, reduce flood risk, improve water quality, and boost biodiversity and support sustainable agriculture.
This international recognition follows the Programme’s previous win of the European Riverprize in 2022, cementing Cumbria’s place on the world stage for cutting-edge nature-based solutions.
Better Habitats and Building Climate Resilience
Olly Southgate, Cumbria River Restoration Programme Manager at the Environment Agency, said:
The Cumbrian River Restoration Partnership Programme is about giving rivers room to breathe and nature the chance to recover while also supporting sustainable farming for the future.
By allowing rivers to flow more naturally, we’re not only creating better habitats for wildlife but in some cases, we’re also helping to protect our communities by building climate resilience. It’s a win for people and a win for the planet
This nomination is a huge honour and a tribute to the power of partnership. We’re proud to showcase Cumbria’s leadership on the world stage and we thank the many dedicated landowners, local communities and partner organisations who made it all possible.”
The Cumbrian River Restoration Partnership Programme is being led by the Environment Agency alongside partners including Natural England, National Trust, RSPB, Ullswater CIC, United Utilities, and the Eden, West Cumbria and South Cumbria Rivers Trusts.
100 Restoration Projects Delivered
The initiative responds to centuries of river modification, across Cumbria, for farming and development, which has led to degraded habitats, increased flood risk, and the loss of wildlife. Over 100 projects have now been delivered throughout the region, combining practical restoration with community involvement, education, and landowner collaboration.
In line with the Environment Agency’s goal to leave the environment in a better state for future generations, this work is an example of how nature-based solutions can restore ecosystems at scale and support thriving landscapes and communities.
The Thiess International Riverprize, awarded by the International River Foundation since 1999, is the world’s most esteemed prize for river restoration. Winners will be announced at a ceremony in Brisbane, Australia in September.
Yarramalong Weir is one of many barriers to the passage of fish in the Murray-Darling Basin.Geoff Reid, One Basin CRC
A report card into the A$13 billion Murray–Darling Basin Plan has found much work is needed to ensure the ecology of Australia’s largest river system is properly restored.
The assessment, by the Murray–Darling Basin Authority, is the most comprehensive to date.
The authority says the river system is doing better now than it would have without the plan, which aims to ensure sustainable water use for the environment, communities and industries. But it found there is more to be done.
We are water, economics and environmental researchers with many years of experience working in the Murray-Darling Basin. We agree more work is needed, but with a more local focus, to restore the basin to health.
This requires more than just more water for the environment. Coordinated local efforts to restore rivers and the surrounding land are desperately needed. There’s so much more to the river system than just the water it contains.
Preparing for the 2026 Basin Plan Review (Murray–Darling Basin Authority)
What’s the plan?
The Murray-Darling Basin is Australia’s food bowl. But for too long, the health of environment was in decline – rivers were sick and wildlife was suffering. The river stopped flowing naturally to the sea because too much water was being taken from it.
Poor land management has also degraded the river system over time. Floodplain vegetation has been damaged, the river channel has been re-engineered, and pest plants and animals have been introduced.
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan was established in 2012. It aimed to recover water for the environment and safeguard the long-term health of the river system, while continuing to support productive agriculture and communities. It demanded more water for the environment and then described how this water would be delivered, in the form of targeted “environmental flows”.
Since 2012, the allocation of water to various uses has gradually changed. So far, 2,069 billion litres (gigalitres) of surface water has been recovered for the environment. Combined with other earlier water recovery, a total of about 28% of water previously diverted for agriculture, towns and industry is now being used by the environment instead.
A mixed report card
The evaluation released today is the first step towards a complete review of the plan next year. The 2026 review will make recommendations to Environment and Water Minister Murray Watt. It will then be up to him to decide whether any changes are needed.
It is a mixed report card. Ecological decline has been successfully halted at many sites. But sustained restoration of ecosystems across the basin is yet to be achieved, and native fish populations are in poor condition across 19 of the basin’s 23 catchments.
Climate change is putting increasing pressure on water resources. More intense and frequent extreme climate events and an average 20–30% less streamflow (up to 50% in some rivers) are expected by mid-century.
The evaluation also called for better policy and program design. Specifically, flexible programs have proven more effective than prescriptive, highly regulated programs.
Finally, the report also highlights that the cost of water reform is increasing.
Direct buybacks of water licences, mostly from irrigators, account for around two-thirds of the water recovered for the environment under the basin plan. Buybacks are the simplest and most cost-effective way to recover water but are controversial because of concerns about social and economic impacts.
Much of the remaining water has been recovered through investment in more efficient water supply infrastructure, with water savings reserved for environmental use.
The authority suggests different approaches will be needed for additional water recovery.
Having plenty of native vegetation on river banks is important for river health. Geoff Reid, One Basin CRC
Healthy rivers need more than water
For the past two decades, measures to restore the Murray-Darling Basin have focused largely on water recovery. But research suggests attention now needs to be paid to other, more local actions.
In March, one author of this article – Samantha Capon – identified nine priority actions to restore Australia’s inland river and groundwater ecosystems at local levels. They included:
revegetating land alongside waterways
retiring some farmland
modifying barriers to fish movements
installing modern fish screens on irrigation pumps.
The study estimated such actions would cost around A$2.9 billion a year, if completed over the next 30 years.
Works to restore vegetation or other environmental conditions at these critical habitats will only occur with landholders, as well as Traditional Owners.
That’s because most of the basin’s wetlands and floodplain areas are on private property, including in irrigation districts.
Irrigator involvement is needed to place fish screens on private irrigation pumps or retire farmland. There is a growing interest and some early experience in using private irrigation channels to deliver environmental water. This also requires local partnerships.
The basin plan should include targets for environmental outcomes, not just water recovery. This will allow the benefits from local restoration measures and environmental flows to be included when tracking the plan.
Such ecosystem accounting tools already exist. Research is urgently needed to make these tools both locally relevant and suitable for the basin plan.
Time for a local approach
To date, water for the environment under the basin plan has been recovered largely through centralised government-led programs. Decisions around the delivery of environmental flows are also largely in the hands of government agencies.
But other local restoration actions are also needed.
A business-as-usual approach would leave responsible agencies struggling to complete these vital local measures with limited funding, resources and accountability.
Michael Stewardson is a member of the Advisory Committee on Social, Economic and Environmental Science, which advises the Murray Darling Basin Authority,, although he is not representing the views of this committee in this article. The committee is established under Section 203 of the Water Act 2007.
Michael Stewardson is the CEO of the One Basin CRC, which is jointly funded under the commonwealth Cooperative Research Centre Program and by its partners listed here: https://onebasin.com.au/
These partners include: state and federal government agencies including the Murray Darling Basin Authority; irrigation infrastructure operators (government owned and non-government), natural resource management agencies (government and non-government); agriculture businesses, industry organisation and R&D organisations; local government organisations; consulting companies in the water sector; technology companies; education and training organisations; and research organisation. Partners contribute to the One Basin CRC in the form of in-kind and cash contributions. The One Basin CRC is also funded by the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office under its FlowMER program. The views in this article do not necessarily represent the views of these partner and funding organisations.
Michael Stewardson has previously received research funding from the Australian Research Council and both state and federal government agencies.
Neville Crossman is a Program Leader for Adaptation and Innovation in the One Basin CRC. He is a past employee of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (2018-2024). He has worked closely with a range of State and federal government agencies and many researchers, industry and community members in the Murray-Darling Basin throughout his career.
Samantha Capon receives funding from the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy Efficiency, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), NSW DCCEEW, the Cotton Research and Development Corporation. She is a member of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s Advisory Committee for Social, Economic and Environmental Science (ACSEES), but is not representing the view of this committee in this article. Samantha has worked closely with NRM agencies, a range of State and federal government agencies and many researchers, industry and community members in the Murray-Darling Basin throughout her career.
Seth Westra is the Research Director for the One Basin CRC. He receives funding from the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy Efficiency, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), NSW DCCEEW and the South Australian Department for Environment and Water (DEW). Seth is Research Director of the One Basin Cooperative Research Centre, Director of the Systems Cooperative, and has worked closely with NRM agencies, a range of State and federal government agencies and many researchers, industry and community members in the Murray-Darling Basin throughout his career.
Climate change “imperils all forms of life” and countries must tackle the problem or face consequences under international law, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has found.
The court delivered its long-awaited advisory opinion overnight. The momentous case opens the door for countries impacted by climate disasters to sue major emitting countries for reparations.
And citizens could seek to hold governments to account for a failure to safeguard their human rights if their own or other countries fail to take adequate action to ensure a safe climate.
Here’s what the court ruled – and the global ramifications likely to flow from it.
Vanuatu’s Climate Change Minister Ralph Regenvanu delivers a speech at a demonstration before the International Court of Justice issued its first advisory opinion on state’s legal obligations to address climate change. John Thys/AFP
Climate change breaches human rights
The ICJ case was instigated by law students at the University of the South Pacific in Vanuatu in 2019. They successfully launched a campaign for the court to examine two key issues: the obligations of countries to protect the climate from greenhouse gases, and the legal consequences for failing to do so.
The court found a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is essential for the enjoyment of many other human rights. As such, it found, the full enjoyment of human rights cannot be ensured without the protection of the climate system and other parts of the environment.
The ruling confirms climate change is much more than a legal problem. Rather, the justices concluded, it is an:
existential problem of planetary proportions that imperils all forms of life and the very health of our planet.
Most nations have signed up to global human rights agreements such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The ICJ ruling means parties to those agreements must take measures to protect the climate system and other parts of the environment.
An advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice is not legally binding. But it is an authoritative description of the state of the law and the rights of countries to seek reparations if the law is breached. As such, it carries great legal weight.
Just as climate science assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have become the gold standard for understanding the causes and impacts of climate change, the court’s ruling provides a clear baseline against which to assess countries’ action, or inaction, on climate change.
Keeping 1.5°C alive?
In recent years, many states’ emissions reduction targets under the Paris Agreement have seemed to “settle” at levels which would hold global temperature increases to 2°C at best.
But the International Court of Justice ruled the much more ambitious 1.5°C goal had become the scientifically based consensus target under the Paris Agreement.
Some countries argued formal emissions targets should be left to the discretion of each government. However, the court found against this. Rather, each nation’s targets had to be in line with – and make an adequate contribution to – the global goal of holding heating to 1.5°C.
The court found each state’s emissions reduction pledges should be judged against a stringent “due diligence” standard. The standard takes into account each country’s historical contributions to emissions, level of development and national circumstances, among other factors.
The ruling means rich countries, such as Australia, will be required under international law to make more ambitious emission-reduction pledges under the Paris Agreement, such as for the 2035 target currently under consideration by the Albanese government.
The court decision also provides a measure of climate justice for small island states, which have historically low emissions but face a much higher risk of damage from climate change than other nations.
Holding states accountable for inaction
Because climate change is global, it is difficult – but not impossible – to attribute damage from extreme weather to the actions of any one nation or group of nations.
On this question, the court said while climate change is caused by the cumulative impact of many human activities, it is scientifically possible to determine each nation’s total contribution to global emissions, taking into account both historical and current emissions.
If a nation experiences damage caused by the failure of another nation, or group of nations, to fulfil international climate obligations, the ruling means legal proceedings may be launched against the nations causing the harm. It may result in compensation or other remedies.
For small, climate-vulnerable nations such as those in the Alliance of Small Island States, this opens more legal options in their efforts to encourage high-emitting nations to properly address climate change.
Importantly, the court made clear nations can be legally liable even if damage from climate change comes from many causes, including from the activities of private actors such as companies.
That means nations cannot seek an exemption because others have contributed to the problem. They must also act to regulate companies and other entities under their jurisdiction whose activities contribute to climate change.
One line of argument put to the court by Australia and other states was that climate treaties represented the only obligations to tackle climate change under international law.
But the court found this was not the case. Rather, other international laws applied.
The United States pulled out of the Paris Agreement earlier this year. The court’s opinion means the US and other nations are still accountable for climate harms under other international laws by which all countries are bound.
Could this lead to greater climate action?
The International Court of Justice has produced a truly historic ruling.
It will set a new baseline in terms what countries need to do to address climate change and opens up new avenues of recourse against high-emitting states not doing enough on climate change.
Jacqueline Peel receives funding from the Australian Research Council under her Australian Laureate Fellowship and Kathleen Fitzpatrick Award on ‘Transforming International Law for Corporate Climate Accountability’.
Climate change “imperils all forms of life” and countries must tackle the problem or face consequences under international law, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has found.
The court delivered its long-awaited advisory opinion overnight. The momentous case opens the door for countries impacted by climate disasters to sue major emitting countries for reparations.
And citizens could seek to hold governments to account for a failure to safeguard their human rights if their own or other countries fail to take adequate action to ensure a safe climate.
Here’s what the court ruled – and the global ramifications likely to flow from it.
Vanuatu’s Climate Change Minister Ralph Regenvanu delivers a speech at a demonstration before the International Court of Justice issued its first advisory opinion on state’s legal obligations to address climate change. John Thys/AFP
Climate change breaches human rights
The ICJ case was instigated by law students at the University of the South Pacific in Vanuatu in 2019. They successfully launched a campaign for the court to examine two key issues: the obligations of countries to protect the climate from greenhouse gases, and the legal consequences for failing to do so.
The court found a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is essential for the enjoyment of many other human rights. As such, it found, the full enjoyment of human rights cannot be ensured without the protection of the climate system and other parts of the environment.
The ruling confirms climate change is much more than a legal problem. Rather, the justices concluded, it is an:
existential problem of planetary proportions that imperils all forms of life and the very health of our planet.
Most nations have signed up to global human rights agreements such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The ICJ ruling means parties to those agreements must take measures to protect the climate system and other parts of the environment.
An advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice is not legally binding. But it is an authoritative description of the state of the law and the rights of countries to seek reparations if the law is breached. As such, it carries great legal weight.
Just as climate science assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have become the gold standard for understanding the causes and impacts of climate change, the court’s ruling provides a clear baseline against which to assess countries’ action, or inaction, on climate change.
Keeping 1.5°C alive?
In recent years, many states’ emissions reduction targets under the Paris Agreement have seemed to “settle” at levels which would hold global temperature increases to 2°C at best.
But the International Court of Justice ruled the much more ambitious 1.5°C goal had become the scientifically based consensus target under the Paris Agreement.
Some countries argued formal emissions targets should be left to the discretion of each government. However, the court found against this. Rather, each nation’s targets had to be in line with – and make an adequate contribution to – the global goal of holding heating to 1.5°C.
The court found each state’s emissions reduction pledges should be judged against a stringent “due diligence” standard. The standard takes into account each country’s historical contributions to emissions, level of development and national circumstances, among other factors.
The ruling means rich countries, such as Australia, will be required under international law to make more ambitious emission-reduction pledges under the Paris Agreement, such as for the 2035 target currently under consideration by the Albanese government.
The court decision also provides a measure of climate justice for small island states, which have historically low emissions but face a much higher risk of damage from climate change than other nations.
Holding states accountable for inaction
Because climate change is global, it is difficult – but not impossible – to attribute damage from extreme weather to the actions of any one nation or group of nations.
On this question, the court said while climate change is caused by the cumulative impact of many human activities, it is scientifically possible to determine each nation’s total contribution to global emissions, taking into account both historical and current emissions.
If a nation experiences damage caused by the failure of another nation, or group of nations, to fulfil international climate obligations, the ruling means legal proceedings may be launched against the nations causing the harm. It may result in compensation or other remedies.
For small, climate-vulnerable nations such as those in the Alliance of Small Island States, this opens more legal options in their efforts to encourage high-emitting nations to properly address climate change.
Importantly, the court made clear nations can be legally liable even if damage from climate change comes from many causes, including from the activities of private actors such as companies.
That means nations cannot seek an exemption because others have contributed to the problem. They must also act to regulate companies and other entities under their jurisdiction whose activities contribute to climate change.
One line of argument put to the court by Australia and other states was that climate treaties represented the only obligations to tackle climate change under international law.
But the court found this was not the case. Rather, other international laws applied.
The United States pulled out of the Paris Agreement earlier this year. The court’s opinion means the US and other nations are still accountable for climate harms under other international laws by which all countries are bound.
Could this lead to greater climate action?
The International Court of Justice has produced a truly historic ruling.
It will set a new baseline in terms what countries need to do to address climate change and opens up new avenues of recourse against high-emitting states not doing enough on climate change.
Jacqueline Peel receives funding from the Australian Research Council under her Australian Laureate Fellowship and Kathleen Fitzpatrick Award on ‘Transforming International Law for Corporate Climate Accountability’.
