NewzIntel.com

Category: Commerce

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Optus agrees to $100m penalty, subject to court approval, for unconscionable conduct

    Source: Australian Ministers for Regional Development

    Scam warning: The ACCC is aware that scammers may call, email or text to falsely offer to help get compensation from various businesses. They may use this media release about compensation to convince people their contact is real.

    STOP – Don’t give money or personal information to anyone if you’re unsure. Scammers will create a sense of urgency. Don’t rush to act. Don’t click on links even if the message appears to come from Optus. Say ‘no’, hang up, delete.

    CHECK – Ask yourself could the call, email or text be fake? Scammers pretend to be from organisations and entities you know and trust. Contact the organisation using information you source independently, so that you can verify if it is real or not.

    PROTECT – Act quickly if something feels wrong. Contact your bank immediately if you lose money. If you have provided personal information call IDCARE on 1800 595 160. The more we talk the less power they have. Report scams to the National Anti-Scam Centre’s Scamwatch service at scamwatch.gov.au when you see them.

    Optus Mobile Pty Ltd (Optus) has admitted to engaging in unconscionable conduct when selling telecommunications goods and services to hundreds of consumers, after court action brought by the ACCC.

    In many instances the consumers did not want or need, could not use or could not afford what they were sold, and in some cases consumers were pursued for debts resulting from these sales.

    Many of the affected consumers were vulnerable or experiencing disadvantage, such as living with a mental disability, diminished cognitive capacity or learning difficulties, being financially dependent or unemployed, having limited financial literacy or English not being a first language. Many of the consumers were First Nations Australians from regional, remote and very remote parts of Australia.

    As part of an agreement announced today, the ACCC and Optus will jointly ask the Federal Court to impose a total penalty of $100 million on Optus for breaching the Australian Consumer Law. It is a matter for the Court to decide whether the penalty is appropriate and to make other orders.

    Optus has admitted that its sales staff acted unconscionably when selling phones and contracts to over 400 consumers at 16 different stores across Australia between August 2019 and July 2023. Examples of the conduct engaged in by the sales staff included:

    • putting undue pressure on consumers to purchase a large number of products, including expensive phones and accessories, that they did not want or need, could not use or could not afford;
    • failing to explain relevant terms and conditions to vulnerable consumers in a manner they could understand, resulting in them not understanding their ongoing payment obligations;
    • not having regard to whether consumers had Optus coverage where they lived;
    • selling products and services which Optus knew, or ought reasonably to have known, the consumers could not afford; and
    • misleading these consumers to believe that goods were free or included as part of a bundle at no additional cost.

    Optus has also signed an undertaking, accepted by the ACCC, that it will compensate impacted consumers and improve its internal systems, the commencement of which is subject to the Court making relevant orders.

    “The conduct, which included selling inappropriate, unwanted or unaffordable mobiles and phone plans to people who are vulnerable or experiencing disadvantage is simply unacceptable,” ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said.

    “During our investigation into this case, the ACCC heard many stories of the impact of this conduct on affected consumers.”

    “Many of these consumers who were vulnerable or experiencing disadvantage also experienced significant financial harm. They accrued thousands of dollars of unexpected debt and some were pursued by debt collectors, in some instances for years,” Ms Lowe said.

    “It is not surprising, and indeed could and should have been anticipated, that this conduct caused many of these people significant emotional distress and fear.”

    “We are particularly concerned that Optus engaged debt collectors to pursue some of these consumers after it had launched internal investigations into the sales conduct,” Ms Lowe said.

    “Optus has admitted to this conduct and has appropriately committed to changing its systems. It has begun compensating affected consumers.”

    “We are grateful to the many advocates, financial counsellors and carers who assisted the impacted individuals. We also thank the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman for their role in drawing these issues to our attention.”

    Optus admits inappropriate practices, using debt collectors

    Optus has admitted that the inappropriate sales practices affected many consumers in its two Darwin stores and 24 individuals in stores around Australia.

    In respect of the Mount Isa store, which has now closed, Optus pursued debts in circumstances where its senior management knew that those debts related to contracts for goods and services that had been or might have been created without the knowledge of the affected consumers, the majority of whom were First Nations Australians from Mount Isa and the Northern Territory.

    Optus’s senior management became increasingly aware that Optus staff were engaging in the inappropriate sales practices and that Optus’s systems and controls could not stop the conduct. Optus acknowledged it failed to promptly take steps to fix deficiencies in its systems, which allowed the conduct to continue.

    Commission-based sales arrangements for Optus’s sales staff had the potential to incentivise the inappropriate sales conduct, despite the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code requiring Optus, from 17 June 2022, to have regard to the ACCC’s best practice recommendations, which recommend businesses avoid commission-based selling because of its potential to exacerbate the vulnerability of consumers.

    This case follows similar ACCC action against Telstra, which was ordered in May 2021 to pay a $50 million penalty for engaging in unconscionable conduct when it sold mobile contracts to 108 Indigenous consumers between at least 1 January 2016 and about 27 August 2018.

    Summary of the proposed Undertaking

    Optus has given an undertaking to provide remediation and has started compensating consumers. It has undertaken to address claims through a clear resolution process.

    Optus has undertaken to make a $1 million donation to an organisation facilitating digital literacy of First Nations Australians.

    Optus has undertaken to review its complaint handling, improve staff training, change its debt collection systems, and make other changes to systems and procedures.

    It has undertaken to change the remuneration structure of sales staff to disincentivise them from engaging in similar conduct.

    It has also commenced buying back 34 Optus licensee stores in the Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australia.

    Consumers who think they may have been impacted by conduct similar to that outlined in the undertaking can call Optus’s specialist customer care team on 1300 082 820 for further information or support.

    The undertaking offered by Optus, and accepted by the ACCC, is available at Optus Mobile Pty Ltd. It will come into force once the court makes final orders.

    Examples of alleged conduct

    A First Nations consumer, who speaks English as a second language and lives in a remote community with no Optus coverage, was approached by Optus staff outside an Optus store and pressured to enter. They did not want or need a new phone. They thought staff were offering them a free phone and other free products and felt pressured by staff to accept.

    They were contracted to two high-end phones, three phone plans, two Device Protect services and one accessories bundle, which had a total minimum cost of $3,808 over 24 months. The following day, the consumer was entered into a second contract for a phone plan and accessories, for a total minimum of $540. The consumer was not informed there was no coverage at their home address, and false information was entered into their credit check. The consumer had their debt referred to debt collectors and was contacted on many occasions by the debt collector. The consumer sought the assistance of a financial counsellor as they did not understand what the debt related to.

    Another consumer, who lives with an intellectual disability, attended an Optus store with a support worker to purchase a $20 pre-paid recharge for their phone. The consumer’s main source of income was the disability support pension. They were told by Optus staff that they could get a new phone and a free speaker for $30 a month, and were pressured into the purchase.

    Optus staff added a false ABN to their account and manipulated credit checks. The consumer was entered into three separate contracts for a phone, plans and a smart watch and accessories, which they could not afford and would cost over $8,000 over 36 months. The consumer went to a community legal centre who assisted them with cancelling the contracts with Optus. 

    In 2019 an internal Optus investigation into customer accounts at the Optus store in Mount Isa resulted in a report that identified that the store manager had falsified identification documents and consumer information to create services and had used the identities of First Nations consumers who were not aware that their identities had been used. The report identified 82 contracts that appeared to have been fraudulently completed without consumer knowledge.

    After Optus was notified of the conduct the subject of the report, including through its senior management, it referred and sold outstanding debts associated with some of those contracts to third party debt collection and factoring agencies. Some consumers whose identities were associated with the relevant customer accounts were subject to threats of legal proceedings being commenced against them and of reporting defaults to credit reporting bodies. Some customers continued to be pursued by third party collections agencies until as late as July 2024 and Optus had not taken steps to stop that occurring.

    Background

    Optus is Australia’s second largest telecommunications provider. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singtel Optus Pty Ltd, a foreign owned private company.

    In Australia, Optus’s retail stores are either:

    • owned and operated directly by Optus RetailCo Pty Ltd; or
    • owned and operated through third party licensees, through Retail License Agreements. For example, prior to Optus buying back certain stores, all Optus stores in the Adelaide region were owned and operated by Mavaya Pty Ltd, and all Optus stores in the Northern Territory, as well as several in regional Queensland, were owned and operated by Suntel Communications Pty Ltd.

    The ACCC commenced court action against Optus on 31 October 2024. The investigation was prompted by a referral from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI: Diversified Royalty Corp. Announces Acquisition of US-Based Cheba Hut Franchising, Inc.’s Trademarks, a 10% Dividend Increase, and an Increase in Size of its Acquisition Facility

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Diversified Royalty Corp. (TSX: DIV and DIV.DB.A) (the “Corporation” or “DIV”) is pleased to announce that it has acquired the trademarks and certain other intellectual property used by Cheba Hut Franchising, Inc. (“Cheba Hut”) of Fort Collins, Colorado, adding a ninth royalty stream (and the second based in the United States) to DIV’s portfolio. All dollar amounts in this news release, unless specifically denominated in U.S. dollars, are represented in Canadian dollars.

    Highlights

    • Acquisition of Cheba Hut’s worldwide trademark portfolio and certain other intellectual property rights for US$36 million and certain additional consideration
    • Initial annual royalty revenue from Cheba Hut of US$4 million, representing approximately 7% of DIV’s pro-forma adjusted revenue1
    • The royalty grows at a fixed rate equal to the greater of 3.5% and the U.S. Consumer Price Index (“U.S. CPI”) + 1.5% per year
    • Annual dividend on DIV’s common shares to be increased 10% from 25 cents per share to 27.5 cents per share, effective July 1, 2025
    • DIV’s strong balance sheet enabled it to fund the Transaction without the need to raise equity

    1. Pro-forma adjusted revenue is a non-IFRS financial measure and as such, does not have a standardized meaning under IFRS. For additional information, refer to “Non-IFRS Measures” in this news release.

    Acquisition Overview

    DIV and its wholly-owned subsidiary Cheeb Royalties Limited Partnership (“Cheeb LP”) entered into an acquisition agreement dated June 17, 2025 (the “Acquisition Agreement”) with Cheba Hut and an affiliate of Cheba Hut pursuant to which Cheeb LP acquired (the “Acquisition”) Cheba Hut’s worldwide trademarks portfolio and certain other intellectual property rights utilized by Cheba Hut in its fast casual, toasted sub sandwich restaurants (the “Cheba Rights”) for a purchase price (the “Purchase Price”), of US$36 million cash. The Purchase Price was funded with (i) approximately US$18 million drawn from DIV’s amended acquisition facility (further details below) (the “Acquisition Facility”), (ii) approximately US$8 million from DIV’s cash on hand, (iii) US$5 million drawn from a new senior credit facility issued to Cheeb LP (the “Cheeb Credit Facility”), and (iv) US$5 million drawn from a new senior term credit facility issued to DIV (the “Additional Term Facility”).

    Immediately following the closing of the Acquisition, DIV licensed the Cheba Rights in the United States back to Cheba Hut for 50 years, in exchange for an initial royalty payment of US$4 million per annum (the “Royalty” and together with the Acquisition, the “Transaction”). The Royalty will be automatically increased at a rate equal to the greater of 3.5% and the U.S. CPI + 1.5% per year without any further consideration payable by DIV or Cheeb LP. Cheba Hut may also increase the annual royalty payable on April 1st of each year following the closing (each an “Adjustment Date”) subject to Cheba Hut satisfying certain royalty coverage tests. The amount of each royalty increase cannot be less than US$500,000 per annum and must, in respect of amounts over that threshold, be in increments of US$100,000 per annum. In consideration for a royalty increase on an Adjustment Date, Cheeb LP will pay an amount to Cheba Hut in cash, based on a multiple between 7 and 8 times (depending on certain conditions being met) the incremental annual royalty purchased, as additional consideration for the Cheba Rights.

    Payment of the Royalty will be secured by a general security agreement granted by Cheba Hut to Cheeb LP, and by secured corporate guarantees to be granted to Cheeb LP by several affiliates of Cheba Hut.

    The Acquisition is expected to increase DIV’s tax pools by approximately $51 million to a total of approximately $424 million, which can be depreciated over time to reduce DIV’s cash taxes. Amounts paid for incremental annual royalties will also increase DIV’s tax pools.

    Founded in 1998, Cheba Hut has 77 fast casual, toasted sub sandwich restaurants in the US. All of Cheba Hut’s locations are franchised, except for two corporate stores and substantially all future growth is currently expected to result from opening additional franchised locations. Cheba Hut had US$149 million of system sales2 and SSSG2 of 5% in 2024. Cheba Hut is forecasting over US$187 million in system sales2 in the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025.

    2. System sales and same store sales growth (SSSG) are supplementary financial measures and as such, do not have standardized meanings under IFRS. For additional information, refer to “Non-IFRS Measures” in this news release.

    Sean Morrison, Chief Executive Officer of DIV, stated, “The Cheba Hut trademark acquisition and royalty agreement adds a ninth royalty stream to DIV’s portfolio, representing approximately 7% of DIV’s pro-forma adjusted revenue3 and is another step in our strategy of purchasing royalties from a diverse group of proven multi-location businesses and franchisors. We believe Cheba Hut’s impressive track record of growth is a result of its strong store-level economics, quality of its franchisees and experience of its management team. Scott Jennings, the founder of Cheba Hut, and his management team represent a great partner for DIV, as they strongly believe in the continued success of Cheba Hut over the long term and therefore partnering with DIV was far superior to selling equity ownership. We look forward to working with Scott and Cheba Hut’s management team to continue expanding the business across the U.S.

    DIV has worked to promote its royalty model in the U.S. market and now, with its second US-based royalty transaction, is building significant momentum in that market. Such continued momentum in the U.S. franchisor market will become significant to DIV as it scales its business going forward.

    Further, DIV’s strong balance sheet (cash on hand, under-levered existing royalty LP’s, an unused acquisition facility) enabled it to fund the Transaction without the need to raise equity. DIV’s less than 100% payout ratio4, automated DRIP program and ability to refinance existing LP’s will enable it to substantially pay down the acquisition facility within 12 months. This is a game-changer for DIV as all prior trademarks acquisitions have been funded concurrently, or shortly thereafter, with a sizeable equity raise.”

    Scott Jennings, stated, “DIV understands and believes that leaving us in control of our company keeps us in the best position to sustain our controlled growth. In addition, we can continue to take care of our product, partners, crew, and most importantly our CUSTOMERS the way we have for the last 27 years. We thank DIV for believing in Cheba Hut and helping us stay in excellent position to keep our soul intact for the next 50 years and beyond!!!”

    3. Pro-forma adjusted revenue is a non-IFRS financial measure, and as such, does not have a standardized meaning under IFRS. For additional information, refer to “Non-IFRS Measures” in this news release.

    Amendment to Acquisition Facility

    DIV amended its Acquisition Facility to increase the size from $50 million to $70 million and extend the maturity date to May 30, 2027, and thereafter to June 17, 2028 (if certain conditions are met).

    DIV and Cheeb LP Credit Facilities

    Cheeb LP financed US$5 million of the Purchase Price with new bank debt having a term of three years from closing. The Cheeb Credit Facility is non-amortizing and has a floating interest rate equal to SOFR + 2.5% per annum; however, DIV will have 90 days following closing to effectively fix the interest rate on 75% of the amount borrowed under this facility through an interest rate swap. The Cheeb Credit Facility is secured by the Cheba Rights and the Royalty payable by Cheba Hut, and has covenants customary for this type of a credit facility.

    DIV financed approximately US$18 million of the Purchase Price from the Acquisition Facility as amended and described above. The approximately US$18 million drawn on the Acquisition Facility is interest-only for twelve months and thereafter amortizes over a 60-month period. In connection with the Transaction, DIV financed US$5 million of the Purchase Price from an Additional Term Facility of US$5 million with a term of approximately 18 months. The Additional Term Facility is non-amortizing and has a floating interest rate based on SOFR plus a spread based on prevailing market rates. The Additional Term Facility is secured by a general security interest over the assets of the Corporation and, if requested by the lender, may be secured by specific assignments of certain material agreements entered into by the Corporation from time to time, and has covenants customary for this type of credit facility. DIV intends to pay down the Acquisition Facility through a combination of cash flows, debt refinancings and/or capital markets transactions.

    Dividend Policy Increase

    DIV’s board of directors has approved an increase in DIV’s dividend policy to increase its annualized dividend from 25.0 cents per share to 27.5 cents per share effective July 1, 2025, an increase of 10%. DIV estimates its pro-forma payout ratio4 will be approximately 94.9% (pro-forma payout ratio, net of DRIP is approximately 83.0%)4.

    4. Pro-forma payout ratio and pro-forma payout ratio, net of DRIP are non-IFRS ratios, and as such, do not have standardized meanings under IFRS. For additional information, refer to “Non-IFRS Measures” in this news release.

    Investor Conference Call

    Management of DIV will host a conference call on Wednesday, June 18, 2025, at 7:00 am Pacific Time (10:00 am Eastern Time). To participate by telephone across Canada, call toll free at 1 (800)  717-1738 or 1 (289) 514-5100 (conference ID 02753). The presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session. An archived telephone recording of the call will be available until Wednesday, September 17, 2025, by calling 1 (888) 660-6264 or 1 (289) 819-1325 (playback passcode: 02753 #). The management presentation for the conference call will be available on DIV’s website https://www.diversifiedroyaltycorp.com/investors/investor-presentation/ prior to the call. Alternatively, the link to the webcast of the conference can be found below:

    https://onlinexperiences.com/Launch/QReg/ShowUUID=AE82A2E9-8F95-4F22-BF7D-3DF54A94A39D

    About Diversified Royalty Corp.

    DIV is a multi-royalty corporation, engaged in the business of acquiring top-line royalties from well-managed multi-location businesses and franchisors in North America. DIV’s objective is to acquire predictable, growing royalty streams from a diverse group of multi-location businesses and franchisors.

    DIV currently owns the Mr. Lube + Tires, AIR MILES®, Sutton, Mr. Mikes, Nurse Next Door, Oxford Learning Centres, Stratus Building Solutions, BarBurrito and Cheba Hut trademarks. Mr. Lube + Tires is the leading quick lube service business in Canada, with locations across Canada. AIR MILES® is Canada’s largest coalition loyalty program. Sutton is among the leading residential real estate brokerage franchisor businesses in Canada. Mr. Mikes operates casual steakhouse restaurants primarily in western Canadian communities. Nurse Next Door is a home care provider with locations across Canada and the United States as well as in Australia. Oxford Learning Centres is one of Canada’s leading franchisee supplemental education services. Stratus Building Solutions is a leading commercial cleaning service franchise company providing comprehensive janitorial, building cleaning, and office cleaning services primarily in the United States. BarBurrito is the largest quick service Mexican restaurant food chain in Canada. Cheba Hut is a fast casual toasted sub sandwich franchise with locations across 19 U.S. states.

    DIV’s objective is to increase cash flow per share by making accretive royalty purchases and through the growth of purchased royalties. DIV intends to continue to pay a predictable and stable monthly dividend to shareholders and increase the dividend over time, in each case as cash flow per share allows.

    Forward Looking Statements

    Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute “forward-looking information” or “financial outlook” within the meaning of applicable securities laws that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information or financial outlook. The use of any of the words “anticipate”, “continue”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intend”, “may”, “will”, ”project”, “should”, “believe”, “confident”, “plan” and “intends” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information, although not all forward-looking information contains these identifying words. Specifically, forward-looking information or financial outlook in this news release includes, but are not limited to, statements made in relation to: the increase in DIV’s annual dividend; statements related to the expected tax implications of the Acquisition on DIV; substantially all future growth for Cheba Hut is currently expected to result from opening additional franchised locations; Cheba Hut’s forecasted system sales in the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025; the expected financial impact of the Transaction on DIV, including on its pro-forma payout ratio, pro-forma payout ratio, net of DRIP and pro-forma adjusted revenue; DIV intends to pay down the Acquisition Facility through a combination of cash flows, debt refinancings and/or capital markets transactions; the continued expansion in the U.S. franchisor market and the expected effect on DIV and its business; DIV’s intention to continue to pay a predictable and stable monthly dividend to shareholders and increase the dividend over time; and DIV’s corporate objectives. The forward-looking information and financial outlook contained herein involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events, performance, or achievements of DIV to differ materially from those anticipated or implied therein. DIV believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information and financial-outlook are reasonable but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct. In particular there can be no assurance that: DIV will realize the expected benefits of the Transaction, or that it will be accretive; the actual tax implications of the Acquisition and the Transaction on DIV will be consistent with the tax implications expected by DIV; Cheba Hut will pay the Royalty and otherwise comply with its obligations under the agreements governing the Transaction; Cheba Hut will not be adversely affected by the other risks facing its business; DIV may not complete any further royalty acquisitions; DIV may not increase its dividend in accordance with the currently expected timing or amounts; DIV will be able to make monthly dividend payments to the holders of the DIV common shares; or DIV will achieve any of its corporate objectives. Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned that forward-looking information and financial outlook included in this news release are not guarantees of future performance, and such forward-looking information and financial outlook should not be unduly relied upon. More information about the risks and uncertainties affecting DIV’s business and the businesses of its royalty partners can be found in the “Risk Factors” section of its Annual Information Form dated March 24, 2025 and the “Risk Factors” section of its management’s discussion and analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2025 that are available under DIV’s profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

    In formulating the forward-looking statements contained herein, management has assumed that, among other things, Cheba Hut will be successful in meeting its stated corporate objectives, including its growth targets; DIV will realize the expected benefits of the Transaction; the Cheba Hut business will not suffer any material adverse effect; the actual tax implications of the Acquisition, the Transaction and the payment of the Royalty will be consistent with the tax implications expected by DIV; and the business and economic conditions affecting DIV and Cheba Hut will continue substantially in the ordinary course, including without limitation with respect to general industry conditions, general levels of economic activity and regulations. These assumptions, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect.

    To the extent any forward-looking information in this news release constitute a “financial outlook” within the meaning of applicable securities laws, such information is being provided to assist investors in understanding the potential financial impact of the Transaction, the Cheeb Credit Facility, the Additional Term Facility and the dividend increase and may not appropriate for other purposes.

    All of the forward-looking information and financial outlook disclosed in this news release is qualified by these cautionary statements and other cautionary statements or factors contained herein, and there can be no assurance that the actual results or developments contemplated thereby will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, DIV contemplated by such forward-looking information and financial outlook contained herein. The forward-looking information and financial outlook included in this news release is made as of the date of this news release and DIV assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise such information to reflect new events or circumstances, except as may be required by applicable law.

    Non-IFRS Measures

    Management believes that disclosing certain non-IFRS financial measures, non-IFRS ratios and supplementary financial measures provides readers with important information regarding the Corporation’s financial performance and its ability to pay dividends, the performance of its royalty partners and the financial impacts to DIV of the Transaction. By considering these measures in combination with the most closely comparable IFRS measure, management believes that investors are provided with additional and more useful information about the Corporation, its royalty partners and the Transaction than investors would have if they simply considered IFRS measures alone. The non-IFRS financial measures, non-IFRS ratios and supplementary financial measures used in this news release do not have standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS and therefore are unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. Investors are cautioned that non-IFRS financial measures should not be construed as a substitute or an alternative to net income or cash flows from operating activities as determined in accordance with IFRS.

    The non-IFRS financial measure used in this news release is pro-forma adjusted revenue, which includes as components the following non-IFRS financial measures: DIV royalty entitlement, adjusted revenue and run-rate adjusted revenue. Run-rate adjusted revenue is calculated as the sum of DIV’s adjusted revenue for each of the three months ended December 31, 2024 and March 31, 2025, multiplied by two for purposes of annualizing such amount, plus the amount of Mr. Lube’s roll-in of royalties from 5 net new store locations on May 1, 2025. Pro-forma adjusted revenue is calculated as the run-rate adjusted revenue plus the amount of the initial adjusted revenue contribution payable by Cheba Hut. DIV management believes run-rate adjusted revenue provides useful information as it provides supplemental information regarding DIV’s consolidated revenues, and pro-forma adjusted revenue provides useful information as it provides supplemental information regarding DIV’s consolidated revenues after giving effect to the Transaction. For an explanation of the composition of DIV royalty entitlement and adjusted revenue, including a reconciliation to the most directly comparable IFRS measure, see the disclosure under the heading “Description of Non-IFRS Financial Measures, Non-IFRS Ratios and Supplementary Financial Measures” in DIV’s management discussion and analysis for the three months and year ended December 31, 2024 and three months ended March 31, 2025, copies of which are available under DIV’s profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca, which is incorporated by reference herein.

    The following table reconciles revenue for the three months ended December 31, 2024 and March 31, 2025 to pro-forma adjusted revenue and run-rate adjusted revenue:

    (Cdn$000’s)  (a)
    Q4 2024    		 (b)
    Q1 2025    		 =(a+b) x 2
    Annualized
    Revenues 17,032 15,639 65,342
    DIV royalty entitlement 1,320 1,329 5,298
    Adjusted revenue 18,352 16,968 70,640
           
    Adjustment:      
    Mr. Lube roll-in – May 1, 2025(1)     668
    Run-rate adjusted revenue      71,308
           
    Cheba Hut contribution(2)     5,600
    Pro-forma adjusted revenue     76,908
           

    1) Adjustment for Mr. Lube’s roll-in of royalties from 5 net new store locations on May 1, 2025, assuming incremental annual net system sales (system sales is a non-IFRS supplementary measure and as such, does not have a standardized meaning under IFRS – see the disclosure under the heading “Description of Non-IFRS Financial Measures, Non-IFRS Ratios and Supplementary Financial Measures” in DIV’s management discussion and analysis for the three months and year ended December 31, 2024 and three months ended March 31, 2025) of $8.4 million, multiplied by 7.95% royalty rate

    2) Cheba Hut contribution is calculated as the initial adjusted revenue contribution of USD$4,000,000 payable by Cheba Hut, multiplied by a USD to CAD exchange rate of $1.4:1

    The non-IFRS ratios used in this news release are pro-forma payout ratio and pro-forma payout ratio, net of DRIP, which include as components the following non-IFRS financial measures: EBITDA, normalized EBITDA, distributable cash, run-rate distributable cash, pro-forma distributable cash, pro-forma dividends declared and DIV royalty entitlement net of NND Royalties LP expenses. Run-rate distributable cash is calculated as the sum of DIV’s distributable cash for each of the three months ended December 31, 2024 and March 31, 2025, multiplied by two for purposes of annualizing such amount, plus the after-tax amount of Mr. Lube’s roll-in of royalties from 5 net new store locations on May 1, 2025, less adjustments for interest income and current tax. Pro-forma distributable cash is calculated as run-rate distributable cash plus the amount of the initial adjusted revenue contribution payable by Cheba Hut, less incremental operating expenses, interest expenses and taxes. DIV management believes run-rate distributable cash provides useful information as it provides supplemental information regarding DIV’s ability to generate cash available for payment of dividends after adjusting for non-recurring expenses and pro-forma distributable cash provides useful information as it provides supplemental information regarding DIV’s ability to generate cash available for payment of dividends after giving effect to the Transaction. Pro-forma dividends declared is calculated as DIV’s new annualized dividend of $0.275 per share multiplied by the number of DIV common shares issued and outstanding as of March 31, 2025. Pro-forma dividends declared is used to calculate the pro-forma payout ratio, and thus management believes that it provides useful information as to DIV’s expected future aggregate annualized dividend payments. Pro-forma payout ratio is calculated as pro-forma dividends declared divided by pro-forma distributable cash. Pro-forma payout ratio, net of DRIP is calculated as the difference of (X) pro-forma dividends declared less (Y) dividends paid by DIV in the form of DIV common shares issued under DIV’s dividend reinvestment plan (“DRIP”) at an estimated participation rate of 12.5%, divided by pro-forma distributable cash. For an explanation of the composition of EBITDA, normalized EBITDA, distributable cash and DIV royalty entitlement net of NND Royalties LP expenses, including a reconciliation to the most directly comparable IFRS measure, see the disclosure under the heading “Description of Non-IFRS Financial Measures, Non-IFRS Ratios and Supplementary Financial Measures” in DIV’s management discussion and analysis for the three months and year ended December 31, 2024 and three months ended March 31, 2025, copies of which are available under DIV’s profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca, which is incorporated by reference herein. DIV management believes that (i) pro-forma payout ratio provides useful information as it provides supplemental information regarding DIV’s ability to generate cash to pay dividends following the completion of the Transaction and the increase to the dividend, and (ii) pro-forma payout ratio, net of DRIP provides useful information as it provides supplemental information regarding DIV’s ability to generate cash to pay dividends following the completion of the Transaction and the increase to the dividend after adjusting for dividends paid by DIV in the form of DIV common shares issued under the DRIP.

    The following table reconciles net income for the three months ended December 31, 2024 and March 31, 2025, to run-rate distributable cash and pro-forma distributable cash and illustrates the calculation of pro-forma payout ratio and pro-forma payout ratio, net of DRIP:

    (Cdn$000’s) (a)
    Q4 2024    		 (b)
    Q1 2025    		 =(a+b) x 2
    Annualized
    Net income 4,015 7,993 24,016
           
    Interest expense on credit facilities 3,368 3,150 13,036
    Income tax expense 1,653 2,997 9,300
    Depreciation expense 25 24 98
    EBITDA 9,061 14,164 46,450
           
    Adjustments:      
    Share-based compensation 645 368 2,026
    Other finance costs, net (2,044) 995 (2,098)
    Fair value adjustment on financial instruments 15 (904) (1,778)
    Payment of lease obligations (28) (28) (112)
    DIV royalty entitlement net of NND Royalties LP expenses 1,314 1,325 5,278
    Impairment loss 8,204 – 16,408
    Normalized EBITDA 17,167 15,920 66,174
    Add: interest income 139 135 548
    Less: Distributions on exchangeable MRM units (34) (48) (164)
    Less: current tax expense (1,301) (1,719) (6,040)
    Less: interest expense on credit facilities (3,368) (3,150) (13,036)
    Distributable cash 12,603 11,138 47,482
           
    Adjustment:      
    Mr. Lube roll-in – May 1, 2025, net of taxes(1)     487
    Interest income adjustment     (493)
    Current tax adjustment     (2,000)
    Run-rate distributable cash     45,476
    Cheba Hut distributable cash contribution(2)     3,075
    Pro-forma distributable cash     48,551
           
    Pro-forma dividends declared(3)     46,081
    Pro-forma payout ratio     94.9%
           
    Pro-forma dividends declared, net of DRIP(4)     40,321
    Pro-forma payout ratio, net of DRIP     83.0%
           

    1) Adjustment for Mr. Lube’s roll-in of royalties from 5 net new store locations on May 1, 2025, assuming incremental annual net system sales (system sales is a non-IFRS supplementary measure and as such, does not have a standardized meaning under IFRS – see the disclosure under the heading “Description of Non-IFRS Financial Measures, Non-IFRS Ratios and Supplementary Financial Measures” in DIV’s management discussion and analysis for the three months and year ended December 31, 2024 and three months ended March 31, 2025) of $8.4 million, multiplied by 7.95% royalty rate, less marginal income taxes assumed at 27%

    2) Cheba Hut contribution is calculated as the initial adjusted revenue contribution of USD$4,000,000, multiplied by a USD to CAD exchange rate of $1.4:1, less incremental operating expenses of $50,000, interest expense of $1,890,000 and taxes of $586,000

    3) Calculated as the number of DIV common shares issued and outstanding as of March 31, 2025 (167,567,468) multiplied by the new annualized dividend of $0.275 per share

    4) Calculated as pro-forma dividends declared, multiplied by 1 minus the effective DRIP rate of 12.5%

    System Sales is a supplementary financial measure and is a reference to the top-line sales revenue reported to Cheba Hut by all Cheba Hut franchisees. System sales is a supplementary financial measure and does not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS. The Corporation believes system sales is a useful measure as it provides investors with an indication of performance of the franchisees underlying Cheba Hut’s business.

    Same store sales growth or SSSG is a supplementary financial measure and is a reference to the percentage increase in system sales over the prior comparable period for Cheba Hut locations that were in operation in both the current and prior periods, excluding stores that were permanently closed. The Corporation believes that SSSG is a useful measure as it provides investors with an indication of the change in year-over-year sales of Cheba Hut locations.

    Third Party Information

    This news release includes information obtained from third party reports and other publicly available sources as well as financial statements and other reports provided to DIV by its royalty partners and Cheba Hut. Although DIV believes these sources to be generally reliable, such information cannot be verified with complete certainty. Accordingly, the accuracy and completeness of this information is not guaranteed. DIV has not independently verified any of the information from third party sources referred to in this news release nor ascertained the underlying assumptions relied upon by such sources.

    THE TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR THE ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

    Additional Information

    Additional information relating to the Corporation and other public filings, is available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

    Contact:
    Sean Morrison, President and Chief Executive Officer
    Diversified Royalty Corp.
    (236) 521-8470

    Greg Gutmanis, Chief Financial Officer and VP Acquisitions
    Diversified Royalty Corp.
    (236) 521-8471

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Mountain America Credit Union Honored with Best of State Award for Credit Unions in Business Services

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SANDY, Utah, June 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Mountain America Credit Union is proud to announce it has been honored with the prestigious 2025 Best of State Award for Best Credit Union in the Business Services category, a recognition that reflects the credit union’s unwavering commitment to putting its members first—including its thriving community of business members.

    A Media Snippet accompanying this announcement is available in this link.

    This latest accolade underscores Mountain America’s dedication to empowering businesses with innovative financial solutions, personalized service, and a mission-driven approach that prioritizes people over profits. Whether it’s helping small businesses grow or providing expert financial advice to entrepreneurs, Mountain America remains steadfast in its core purpose: guiding members forward.

    “We are honored to receive this year’s Best of State Award for Credit Unions in business services,” said Sterling Nielsen, president and CEO of Mountain America Credit Union. “This award belongs to our incredible team and our members. It reflects our commitment to always putting our members—individuals and businesses alike—at the center of everything we do. Whether through digital innovation or one-on-one financial guidance, we strive to help our members reach their goals and build lasting success.”

    The Best of State recognition follows another significant national honor—Mountain America was recently ranked among the Top 5 Large Credit Unions in the nation for Customer Service Excellence by J.D. Power, highlighting the institution’s superior service across both individual and business banking relationships.

    Mountain America continues to invest in services that meet the evolving needs of businesses, from flexible lending options to advanced digital banking tools, all backed by the credit union’s hallmark personalized service.

    The Best of State Awards recognize individuals, businesses, and organizations that demonstrate excellence and innovation in their field, contribute positively to the quality of life in Utah, and differentiate themselves through superior performance.

    For more information on business services offered by Mountain America Credit Union, visit macu.com/business.

    About Mountain America Credit Union
    With more than 1 million members and $20 billion in assets, Mountain America Credit Union helps its members define and achieve their financial dreams. Mountain America provides consumers and businesses with a variety of convenient, flexible products and services, as well as sound, timely advice. Members enjoy access to secure cutting-edge mobile banking technology, over 100 branches across multistate region, and more than 50,000 surcharge-free ATMs. Mountain America—guiding you forward. Learn more at macu.com.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Mountain America Credit Union Honored with Best of State Award for Credit Unions in Business Services

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SANDY, Utah, June 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Mountain America Credit Union is proud to announce it has been honored with the prestigious 2025 Best of State Award for Best Credit Union in the Business Services category, a recognition that reflects the credit union’s unwavering commitment to putting its members first—including its thriving community of business members.

    A Media Snippet accompanying this announcement is available in this link.

    This latest accolade underscores Mountain America’s dedication to empowering businesses with innovative financial solutions, personalized service, and a mission-driven approach that prioritizes people over profits. Whether it’s helping small businesses grow or providing expert financial advice to entrepreneurs, Mountain America remains steadfast in its core purpose: guiding members forward.

    “We are honored to receive this year’s Best of State Award for Credit Unions in business services,” said Sterling Nielsen, president and CEO of Mountain America Credit Union. “This award belongs to our incredible team and our members. It reflects our commitment to always putting our members—individuals and businesses alike—at the center of everything we do. Whether through digital innovation or one-on-one financial guidance, we strive to help our members reach their goals and build lasting success.”

    The Best of State recognition follows another significant national honor—Mountain America was recently ranked among the Top 5 Large Credit Unions in the nation for Customer Service Excellence by J.D. Power, highlighting the institution’s superior service across both individual and business banking relationships.

    Mountain America continues to invest in services that meet the evolving needs of businesses, from flexible lending options to advanced digital banking tools, all backed by the credit union’s hallmark personalized service.

    The Best of State Awards recognize individuals, businesses, and organizations that demonstrate excellence and innovation in their field, contribute positively to the quality of life in Utah, and differentiate themselves through superior performance.

    For more information on business services offered by Mountain America Credit Union, visit macu.com/business.

    About Mountain America Credit Union
    With more than 1 million members and $20 billion in assets, Mountain America Credit Union helps its members define and achieve their financial dreams. Mountain America provides consumers and businesses with a variety of convenient, flexible products and services, as well as sound, timely advice. Members enjoy access to secure cutting-edge mobile banking technology, over 100 branches across multistate region, and more than 50,000 surcharge-free ATMs. Mountain America—guiding you forward. Learn more at macu.com.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Sharpened focus on quality economic, population stats

    Source: New Zealand Government

    Statistics Minister Dr Shane Reti has today announced a major new direction for Stats NZ, replacing the traditional paper-based census and increasing the frequency and quality of economic data to underpin the Government’s growth agenda.
    From 2030, New Zealand will move away from a traditional nationwide census and adopt a new approach using administrative data, supported by a smaller annual survey and targeted data collection.
    “This approach will save time and money while delivering more timely insights into New Zealand’s population,” says Dr Reti.
    “Relying solely on a nationwide census day is no longer financially viable. In 2013, the census cost $104 million. In 2023, costs had risen astronomically to $325 million and the next was expected to come in at $400 million over five years.
    “Despite the unsustainable and escalating costs, successive censuses have been beset with issues or failed to meet expectations.
    “By leveraging data already collected by government agencies, we can produce key census statistics every year, better informing decisions that affect people’s lives.”
    While administrative data will form the backbone of the new approach, surveys will continue to verify data quality and fill gaps. Stats NZ will work closely with communities to ensure smaller population groups are accurately represented.
    The Government will also invest $16.5 million to deliver a monthly Consumers Price Index (CPI) from 2027, bringing New Zealand into line with other advanced economies. This will provide more timely inflation data to help the Government and Reserve Bank respond quickly to cost-of-living pressures.
    “Inflation affects interest rates, benefit adjustments, and household budgets. Timely data helps ensure Kiwis are better supported in a fast-changing environment,” says Dr Reti.
    Funding is also being allocated to align Stats NZ’s reporting with updated international macroeconomic standards. These reflect shifts such as the growth of the digital economy and will ensure New Zealand is measuring what matters in today’s world.
    “Modern, internationally aligned statistics will support trade and investment, helping drive economic growth and job creation,” says Dr Reti.
    Dr Reti says these changes reflect a broader reset for Stats NZ.
    “Some outputs have not met the standard expected of a world-class statistics agency. We’re getting back to basics – measuring what matters. Our goal is a modern, efficient, and reliable data system that delivers the insights New Zealand needs now and into the future.”
    Note to editors:Administrative (admin) data is information collected by government agencies during their everyday operations — like tax records, education enrolments, or health data.  
    Admin data is already used regularly to produce some statistics, like population estimates and statistics about international migration, household income, and child poverty. It has also been used in the two most recent censuses to support the information gathered through surveying.  
    Examples of admin data and their sources include:•    ACC injury claims (ACC)•    student loan and allowances (Inland Revenue, Ministry of Social Development) •    tax and income (Inland Revenue)•    births, deaths, and marriages (Department of Internal Affairs)•    education data (Ministry of Education). 

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Mike Zank Appointed Eastern Territory Special Representative

    Source: US GOIAM Union

    IAM International President Brian Bryant has appointed Mike Zank as an Eastern Territory Special Representative, effective June 1, 2025.

    As Special Representative, Zank will support the Eastern Territory’s organizing efforts, assist with negotiations, and mentor emerging union leaders — continuing the work that has defined his career.

    “Mike has done the work, earned the trust of members, and shown the grit and integrity this role demands,” said IAM Eastern Territory General Vice President David Sullivan. “I’m proud to have him as a union brother and to have him work alongside me representing IAM Union members of the Eastern Territory. We’re lucky to have him on our team.”

    Zank’s journey in the labor movement began at O-I Glass in Auburn, N.Y., where he was hired in 2010 and became a proud member of IAM Local 2671. Over the next decade, he worked his way through multiple roles on the production floor, including Production Operator and eventually Upkeep — a skilled role that involves operating and maintaining the glass-forming machinery, troubleshooting, and ensuring safe, high-quality glass production.

    Zank quickly emerged as a leader within his Local. In 2013, he was elected Trustee. By 2014, he became Recording Secretary, and from 2017 to 2021, served as Vice President of the Local.

    Zank’s leadership continued to grow at IAM District 65, where he held roles as Recording Secretary and Vice President, before being appointed and later elected as a Business Representative from June 2021 to March 2022. In that role, Zank made headlines during negotiations on behalf of Local 2920 members at Amentum-AFM East II in Fort Drum, N.Y. The contract secured better wages and working conditions, demonstrating his dedication to protecting members’ rights.

    On April 1, 2022, Zank was appointed as an Associate Organizer for the Eastern Territory, the position he held until this recent promotion. During that time, he played an integral role in growing IAM strength across the region through organizing campaigns and strategic support for locals and districts.

    “Mike brings a wealth of frontline experience and organizing knowledge to the Eastern Territory team,” said IAM International President Brian Bryant. “His rise from the shop floor to union leadership is a testament to what it means to live IAM values. He understands the work, the people who do it, and how to get things done for our members.”

    The post Mike Zank Appointed Eastern Territory Special Representative appeared first on IAM Union.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: SBA Reinstates Rule to Return Federal Contractors to Work

    Source: United States Small Business Administration

    WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Small Business Administration announced that it would be reinstating a rule to require government contractors to return to work. Effective Oct. 1, participants in SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program will once again be required to have an actual, physical office within the geographic area in which they are bidding on federal construction contracts. The temporary COVID-era suspension of this rule ends Sept. 30.

    “The Covid-19 emergency has long been over and America is open for business – which means the SBA is requiring 8(a) contractors to return to work if they want to bid on taxpayer-funded federal construction contracts,” said SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler. “Those that seek to build in America should have boots on the ground in America – enabling them to create jobs, complete projects, and better serve U.S. taxpayers.”

    During the Covid-19 pandemic, SBA temporarily suspended the bona fide place of business rule for small business 8(a) construction contractors impacted by widespread economic shutdowns.  Under the applicable rule, 8(a) construction contractors must have a legitimate office that is within their project’s geographical boundary, have at least one full-time employee physically present, and ensure that their bona fide place of business is not a portable trailer, temporary unit, or virtual address.

    Firms participating in the 8(a) program can email questions to their local servicing district office or visit 8(a) Business Development Program.

    # # #

     

     About the 8(a) Business Development Program

    The SBA certifies small businesses considered to be socially and economically disadvantaged under its nine-year 8(a) Business Development Program. The 8(a) program helps these firms develop and grow their businesses through one-to-one counseling, training workshops and management and technical guidance. It also provides access to government contracting opportunities, allowing them to become solid competitors in the federal marketplace.

     

    About the U.S. Small Business Administration

    The U.S. Small Business Administration helps power the American dream of entrepreneurship. As the leading voice for small businesses within the federal government, the SBA empowers job creators with the resources and support they need to start, grow, and expand their businesses or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov. 

    Related programs: 8(a), Contracting

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Speech to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce: Saying yes to more housing

    Source: New Zealand Government

    Good morning and thanks to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce for hosting us.

    I have spent most of my life in either the Hutt or Wellington and I love this city and I love our region.

    Some people like to paint this city as only a public service town. The reality, as you all know, is that Wellington is much more than that.

    From innovative startups, world-leading creative industries, and high-tech manufacturing, Wellington has a huge role to play in New Zealand’s economic future.

    Wellington is so much more than the public service and we need to stop defining ourselves by the fact central government is based here.

    We also need to gently – or not so gently – push back at other people around the country who are only too willing to do the same thing.

    Like the rest of the country, Wellington faces difficult economic times. 

    The Government came to office with New Zealand in the midst of a prolonged cost of living crisis, with high inflation, high interest rates, and after years of profligate debt-fuelled government spending.

    Like all big parties, the morning after the night before hasn’t been pretty. The hangover kicked in hard, and we are now grappling with cleaning up the mess. 

    The good news is that we are making progress thanks to fiscal prudence from the government and orthodox economic policy that knows that salvation lies not in ever increasing debt, spending and taxation, but the opposite.

    The economic recovery is under way. 

    Inflation is down and is forecast to stay within the 1 to 3 per cent target band.

    Interest rates are down, and forecast to fall further. 

    The Budget forecasts GDP to rise to healthy rates of around 3 per cent in each of the next two years.

    Wages are forecast to grow faster than the inflation rate, making wage earners better off, on average, in real terms.

    The Budget also forecasts that 240,000 more people will be in work over the forecast period to mid-2029.

    Many New Zealanders may not be feeling better off now, but over time they will – provided we stay the course.

    The recovery remains fragile. Global uncertainty has caused Treasury to peg back its forecasts, especially in the near term.

    The recovery isn’t in danger, but it is likely to be slower than previously forecast.

    As a government, we’re talking straight with New Zealanders about the way ahead. 

    About getting public debt under control and nurturing the economic recovery now under way.

    About carefully managing the public purse. Making sure we’re using taxpayer dollars to pay for the must-haves, rather than the nice to haves.

    About making sure we don’t put the economic recovery at risk – because a growing economy is the route to higher living standards for everyone.

    It hasn’t been easy, but I’m proud of our work so far in government.

    This Government is taking on big challenges.

    We’re going for growth now and securing our economic recovery.

    But we’re also laying the foundations for sustained growth in the medium and long-term.

    We need to be honest with ourselves. 

    New Zealand has been slipping for years.

    Our challenge as a country isn’t just about the last few years, or even the last decade.

    We have low productivity growth, low capital intensity in our firms, low levels of competition in many sectors, challenges in attracting and retaining skills and talent, low uptake of innovation, and a growing tail of New Zealanders leaving school without basic skills.

    Stagnation and mediocrity are not our destiny.

    Not if we make the right choices and not if we have courage.

    Going for economic growth means saying “yes” to things when we’ve said “no” in the past.

    It means taking on some tough political debates that we’ve previously shied away from.

    It means bold decisions which may look difficult at the time but which in hindsight will be regarded incontrovertibly as the right thing to do.

    Managed decline is only inevitable if we let it be.

    HOUSING AND GROWTH

    Today I want to talk to you about housing as a driver of growth.

    One of the things I’ve been trying to emphasise since I became a Minister is that housing has a critical role to play in addressing our economic woes.

    Fixing our housing crisis will help grow the economy by directing investment away from property. It will help the cost of living by making renting or home ownership more affordable. It will help the government books by reducing the amount of money we spend on housing subsidies.

    Most importantly, letting our cities grow will help drive productivity growth, probably our greatest economic challenge.

    It is an irrefutable fact that cities are unparalleled engines of productivity, and the economic evidence shows bigger is better. 

    New Zealand can raise our chronically low productivity rates simply by allowing our towns and cities to grow up and out. We need bigger cities and, to facilitate that, we need more houses. 

    Ultimately, growing cities means growing opportunities – opportunities for jobs, for higher wages, and for a better future.

    Today I want to update you on the raft of reforms we have underway to tackle our housing crisis, and tell you about some additional steps we are taking. 

    OUR GOING FOR HOUSING GROWTH REFORMS

    Last year, I announced the Government’s Going for Housing Growth policy. 

    This is about getting the fundamentals of the housing market sorted.

    Going for Housing Growth consists of three pillars of work:

    Pillar 1 is about freeing up land for development and removing unnecessary planning barriers. Pillar 2 is focused on improving infrastructure funding and financing to support urban growth, and Pillar 3 provides incentives for communities and councils to support growth.

    Pillar 1 is very important. 

    Report after report and inquiry after inquiry has found that our planning system, particularly restrictions on the supply of urban land, are at the heart of our housing affordability challenge.

    We are not a small country by land mass, but our planning system has made it difficult for our cities to grow. As a result, we have excessively high land prices driven by market expectations of an ongoing shortage of developable urban land to meet demand.

    We have been working on the finer details of Pillar 1 since it was announced last year. This pillar includes our work on Housing Growth Targets requiring councils to “live-zone” for 30-years of housing demand, making it easier for cities to expand by abolishing rural-urban boundaries, strengthening the intensification rules, putting in new requirements on councils to enable more mixed-used development, and abolishing minimum floor areas and balcony requirements.

    But freeing up land is not enough on its own. We also need to ensure the timely provision of infrastructure. This is what Pillar 2 is all about, and includes replacing development contributions with a development levy system, increasing the flexibility of targeted rates, and strengthening the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Act. 

    These changes all lead to our ultimate ambition: growth paying for growth. They help create a flexible funding and financing system to match our soon-to-be flexible planning system.

    Today, however, I want to focus on Pillar 1, and the work we are doing to increase development capacity and let our cities and regions grow.

    A COMPLICATED STARTING POINT

    When we came into government, we inherited a complicated legal landscape.

    The last government introduced a thing called National Policy Statement on Urban Development – or NPS-UD – in mid-2020. This is the legal mechanism that required councils to allow greater density around rapid transit stops, in CBDs and in metro centres.

    The NPS-UD is a good tool and Phil Twyford in particular deserves great credit for getting it through. I supported its introduction at the time and I continue to support it. And we’ve committed to strengthen it.

    Then in 2021 Parliament legislated for the Medium Density Residential Standards, known as the MDRS. These are the rules that require councils to allow the development of three homes up to three storeys on each site, without the need for resource consent.

    National campaigned on making the MDRS optional for councils, rather than mandatory. We also campaigned on requiring councils to live-zone enough housing capacity for thirty years of growth at any one time through housing growth targets that would be set by government. The intent was to give councils more choice about where growth occurred, not to stop it.

    When we came to Government, Councils across the country were in the middle of implementing expensive, long-running plan changes to adopt both the NPS-UD and the MDRS.

    Almost all councils have now completed these plan changes, including here in Wellington. I signed off on the new Wellington District Plan last year, which significantly raises development capacity. There are already developers taking advantage of the new liberalised rules.

    I tip my hat to the progressive majority on the Wellington Council who wrestled with the economically perverse and wrong-headed conclusions of the Independent Hearings Panel and zoned for more housing.

    The Wellington City Council rightly gets a bad rap for many different reasons. But on housing they got it right.

    The three councils who have not yet completed their plan changes are Auckland, Christchurch and Waimakariri.

    As I say, our original policy was to let councils opt-out of the MDRS laws (but not the NPS-UD). But the practical reality is that would require councils to go through yet another round of plan changes – and all of this with more fundamental changes coming to the RMA in 2026 anyway. 

    In 2026 Parliament will legislate for completely new planning laws, due to take effect in 2027 to align with councils’ new Long Term Plans.

    It seemed ridiculous to make councils go through another round of plan changes in advance of a completely new system coming in 2027.

    We have therefore taken the pragmatic decision to remove the ability for councils to opt out of the MDRS and to work on bespoke legislative solutions for the two major cities – Auckland and Christchurch – who hadn’t yet finished their plan changes.

    SOLUTION FOR OUR BIGGEST CITIES 

    Auckland’s intensification plan change, PC78, has been underway since 2022. 

    Progress has been slow for many reasons, including the Auckland floods. The intensification plan change process does not allow Auckland to “downzone” certain areas due to natural hazard risk – only to “upzone” them – and the Council asked the government to fix this problem. 

    So we have agreed to allow Auckland to withdraw PC78. The legal mechanism for this is a RMA Amendment Bill currently before Parliament and recently reported back from the Environment Committee.

    We’ve taken two key steps to ensure development capacity is still improved in Auckland. 

    First, we directed Auckland Council to immediately bring forward decisions on the well-progressed parts of PC78 that related specially to the city centre. The Council met this requirement, finalising this part of their plan change on 22 May. 

    The Auckland CBD plan could go a lot further in my view. It is a real missed opportunity and in due course the council is going to have to have another look at it, particularly around the viewshafts which eviscerate hundreds of millions of dollars of economic value.

    Second, the law will require Auckland Council to progress a brand-new plan change urgently, notifying by 10 October this year.

    This new plan change lets Auckland Council address natural hazard risks and allows for more development capacity for housing and businesses. 

    Crucially, it directs that this plan change must enable the same or more capacity as PC78 did. We’re also requiring greater density around three key stations that will benefit from City Rail Link – Mount Eden, Kingsland, and Morningside.

    This ensures that housing capacity increases in Auckland, and that we make the most of a once-in-a-generation infrastructure investment. 

    Thankfully, Christchurch’s solution is far simpler (although all of this is relative): they are able to withdraw their plan change, provided they allow for 30 years of housing growth at the same time. 

    ENDING THE CULTURE OF NO

    With Auckland and Christchurch in the process of being sorted, and other councils – including Wellington – having completed their housing plan changes, the rules are now largely locked in until our new planning system takes over. 

    This is largely a good thing. Either the MDRS, or the capacity it unlocks, is in place across the country. That represents hundreds of thousands of additional potential homes for the coming years.

    The NPS-UD has now also been implemented nationwide, ensuring that growth will be clustered around public transit hubs and key urban centres. This means shaping our cities to reflect the way that Kiwis actually live.

    These are big, world-leading, reforms. They’re not perfect, but they are progress – and we shouldn’t take that lightly.

    I’m proud that these reforms are basically supported in a bipartisan way across Parliament. 

    National started the Auckland process with the Auckland Unitary Plan in 2016, following Auckland local government reform in 2010. The Unitary Plan has been closely studied internationally and the evidence is clear that rents are lower in Auckland because of the AUP.

    World-leading reform is exactly what we need to fix a world-leading housing crisis. We need to get as close to perfect as possible.

    That brings me to local government.

    It is an inarguable, and sometimes uncomfortable, fact that local government has been one of the largest barriers to housing growth in New Zealand.

    It took nearly five years for councils to implement the NPS-UD and MDRS. To say they dragged their feet is an understatement.

    In this time, Christchurch City Council just outright defied its legal obligations, voting to ignore the MDRS altogether. The last Government used RMA intervention powers just to make them do it. 

    The Council then spent years and a large amount of money arguing for special exemptions, ignoring clear directives from central government.

    Auckland Council wasn’t much better. Yes, the Auckland floods caused delays, and yes, the cancellation of Light Rail had an impact on their plan. But they used every excuse in the book to stall progress.

    I am convinced that if we had not come to an agreement on PC78, Auckland would still be dragging its heels — and many of these future homes would still be stuck on paper.

    Wellington isn’t perfect, either. It took the most high-profile district-plan lobbying campaign in New Zealand history, and some very committed councillors like Rebecca Matthews, to get a plan in place that actually supports and enables growth.

    Sadly, some council planning departments are basically a law unto themselves. I’ve lost count of the number of people who have told me awful stories about battles with council planners who try and micro-manage every little element of a housing development.

    Where the planter boxes on the driveway will be located. The architectural design of the new garage. Which way the living room is designed. Whether front doors should face the street in order to create “neighbourliness” or whether they should face away from the street in order to create “seclusion and privacy.” 

    We have had decades of local councils trying to make housing someone else’s problem, and we have a planning system that lets them get away with it.

    So, what do we do? We fix the system. 

    A streamlined planning system that requires housing growth – not just permits it – is the answer. Standardised zoning, housing growth targets, and less red tape solve this problem. 

    What they don’t solve, however, is the time it takes to reform our planning system. Councils won’t start work on their new plans under our new system until 2027. 

    And while we can’t legislate to fast-forward time, we can’t afford to wait either.

    That’s why today, I’m announcing that we will be adding a new tool to our growth toolkit.

    Cabinet has agreed to insert a new regulation making power into the RMA, allowing us to modify or remove provisions in local council plans if they negatively impact economic growth, development capacity, or employment.

    Prior to exercising this power, the Minister must carry out an investigation into the provision in question, consider its consistency with existing national direction under the RMA, and engage with the local authority.

    We believe this strikes the appropriate balance between the local and national interest.  

    This new regulation making power is only an interim measure, and is intended to only be in place until our new planning system comes into effect. We intend to add this as an amendment to the RMA Amendment Bill currently before Parliament, expected to pass into law in the next few weeks.

    We know that this is a significant step. But the RMA’s devolution of ultimate power to local authorities just has not worked. 

    New Zealanders elected us with a mandate to deliver economic growth and rebuild our economy, and that’s exactly what this new power will help do.

    We aren’t willing to let a single line in a district plan hold back millions or billions in economic potential. If local councillors don’t have the courage to make the tough decisions, we will do it for them.

    Let me be absolutely clear: the days of letting councils decide that growth shouldn’t happen at all are over.

    EMBEDDING A CULTURE OF YES

    That brings me back to Pillar One of our Going for Housing Growth plan, and our new planning system – designed to embed a culture of ‘yes’ in our country.

    Originally, we had intended to have these Pillar One reforms in place by now. As our plans for more fundamental, wider-reaching change to the RMA took shape, we started to realise that implementing Pillar One now would be, frankly, too difficult and too confusing. 

    So instead, we will be implementing Pillar One of Going for Housing Growth into the new planning system, where it will form the heart of our reforms to enable more housing.

    These will be crucial for creating a more flexible and responsive housing market. We will be establishing ambitious housing growth targets for councils, removing hard urban boundaries to provide more opportunities for development, and strengthening intensification provisions to make it easier to build new houses in the right places. 

    These reforms are bold and ambitious steps in solving our housing crisis. If done right, they will transform the New Zealand economy, and bring housing within reach of the next generation, like it was for ours. 

    However, the key here is doing this right. The devil is in the detail, and as I regularly say, the Government does not have a monopoly on good ideas. 

    Today I am announcing the release of our Going for Housing Growth discussion document, and the opening of consultation into these changes.

    This is the first time New Zealanders will be able to have their say on the Government’s new planning system and will help put flesh onto the bones of our plans to unlock more housing across the country. 

    I want to run through a few of the key proposals in this document, and the kind of questions we are keen to have answered.

    First, our housing growth targets will require councils to enable enough feasible and realistic development capacity to meet 30 years of demand.

    We propose that each relevant council will have its own target for its urban environment, therefore excluding rural areas. We are also asking whether councils be allowed to transfer a portion of the target between themselves by mutual agreement. 

    Unlike now, councils would be required to determine their target by using the same set of 30-year high-growth projections from Statistics NZ. Councils could choose to use a higher projection, but not lower. 

    We are also proposing a contingency margin of 20% on top of those projections. We would rather an oversupply of houses than an undersupply, and this margin protects against that. 

    This would see councils following a strictly controlled set of steps to calculate their own growth target, however, it would still leave the calculation up to them. We are especially keen to hear feedback on whether this is the right approach, or whether central government should determine each council’s growth target instead.

    Standardised zoning in the new planning system is one key mechanism we will use to strengthen and embed these Housing Growth Targets. 

    Standardised zoning essentially turns plan making into a ‘paint-by-numbers’ exercise for councils. We will have a range of pre-designed zones for councils to use – like CBD zones, medium density zones, or single house zones. We set the technical requirements of each zone, but councils chose where to apply them. 

    This approach poses huge opportunities for Housing Growth Targets, making them more impactful, easier to implement, and more transparent.

    Right now, councils spend many months and thousands of dollars modelling capacity in their plans. With standardised zones, there are opportunities to assign clear capacity assumptions for each zone. With standardised technical rules, we can standardise capacity modelling as well. We may set these capacity assumptions centrally, for example, by saying the standardised medium density zone allows for 65 homes per hectare. 

    This approach saves costs, makes plan changes faster and simpler, ensuring that the additional housing capacity they bring is in place as quickly as possible.

    Housing growth targets will ultimately mean that a lot more land is zoned for housing and businesses. The trick is going to be ensuring infrastructure and services are brought on to these areas over-time, and in a way that is truly responsive to demand. 

    We are considering agile land-release mechanisms to bring development areas online quickly, without requiring a full plan change. To achieve this, plans could be required to specify triggers for release such as infrastructure availability, developing and agreeing a detailed development plan, or land price indicators.

    Now a lot goes into this. What should these triggers be? Does the land get automatically released if they are met? How could the land price indicators be calculated in real-time? 

    We’re also considering whether we might need to provide strengthened requirements for councils to be responsive to unanticipated or out-of-sequence development proposals, with less discretion for councils about what constitutes ‘significant’ development capacity.

    Cabinet has agreed to remove councils’ ability to impose rural-urban boundary lines in their planning documents. We’re proposing that the new resource management system is clear that councils are not able to include a policy, objective or rule that sets an urban limit or a rural-urban boundary line in their planning documents for the purposes of urban containment.

    Creating efficient land markets requires creating responsive land markets. These proposals are all highly technical, but if done properly, will deliver development-ready land for housing exactly when the economics is right. 

    That’s what Pillar 1 is all about – letting the economics drive development, rather than council planners. 

    This discussion document contains a range of other questions and proposals, including how we strengthen our existing intensification requirements along public transport corridors, how we measure walkable catchments, what we do with ‘special character’, and how we enable greater mixed-use in our cities through standardised zoning. Consultation opens today and will run until 17 August.

    CONCLUSION

    This discussion document is a critical step in shaping a planning system that finally puts housing supply, economic growth, and common sense at its core. 

    It asks big questions, because the stakes are big: Can we build a system that responds to need, not NIMBYs? One that treats enabling land use as an economic necessity, not a nice to have?

    We are not interested in tinkering. We are building a planning system where housing growth is not just allowed – it’s expected. Where councils are accountable for delivering capacity, not blocking it. 

    I encourage every council, planner, business, and Kiwi who cares about housing affordability and economic prosperity to engage in this consultation. 

    We are open to ideas—but we are not open to delay. 

    The time for excuses is over. The culture of “yes” starts now. Thank you. I will now take your questions. 

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: House Democrats Defend NIH Grants Against Trump Administration’s Unlawful Termination

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (8th District of New York)

    Washington, D.C. — Today, the Litigation and Response Task Force led 152 House Democrats in filing an amicus brief challenging the Trump Administration’s illegal and devastating cuts to life-saving medical research grants at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The brief defends Congress’s Article I authority to appropriate federal funds and speaks up for every American who relies on crucial life-saving biomedical and public health research conducted at universities, medical schools, research hospitals, and other scientific institutions across the country. 

    House Democrats’ amicus brief was filed in the consolidated cases Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. NIH, Association of American Medical Colleges v. NIH, and Association of American Universities v. Department of Health and Human Services, all currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. These cases challenge the Trump Administration’s unlawful and unconstitutional efforts to reduce indirect cost reimbursements for projects funded by the NIH.

    In early February, the Trump Administration arbitrarily slashed the NIH reimbursement rate for indirect research costs. Without fair reimbursement for indirect costs, more than 300,000 scientists and researchers at 2,500 institutions that receive NIH funding will face devastating impacts, and Americans could be left without access to lifesaving and life-extending treatments. The ramifications would also ripple through global collaboration and the development of our future scientific leadership and workforce, limiting our ability to enhance health and reduce illness and disability in the future.

    The full brief is available HERE.  

    The effort was led by Task Force Co-Chair Joe Neguse and Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Ranking Members of the Appropriations and Energy and Commerce Committees, Representatives Rosa DeLauro and Frank Pallone. 

    See what they had to say below: 

    “The unconstitutional decision by the Trump administration to gut the NIH should shock the conscience. Donald Trump and Elon Musk are illegally destroying our public health infrastructure and canceling research programs—including pediatric cancer research—in order to hand massive tax breaks to billionaires,” said Leader Hakeem Jeffries. “Congress appropriated these funds and only Congress has the power to claw them back. House Democrats will continue to push back on this blatant disregard of science and the Constitution, and I thank Reps. Neguse, Raskin, DeLauro and Pallone and the Rapid Response Task Force and Litigation Working Group for their leadership.”

    “The Trump Administration’s reckless and illegal cuts to NIH grants, funded through congressionally appropriated dollars, not only violate Congress’s Article I powers, but also represent an affront to Americans across the country who are left reeling without access to lifesaving and life-extending treatments. This directive has upended critical medical research at our nation’s leading labs, hospitals, research centers, and scientific institutions—and has immediate consequences, including canceled clinical trials and patients losing access to treatments,” said Assistant Democratic Leader Joe Neguse. “In filing this brief, House Democrats are pushing back against the harm being inflicted on everyday Americans and reinforcing the constitutional authority of Congress.”

    “Trump’s latest attack on science is dangerous, cruel, and unconstitutional,” said Ranking Member Jamie Raskin. “By slashing NIH grant funding appropriated by Congress, the Trump Administration is jeopardizing lifesaving research conducted by scientists across the country and all the patients who depend on it. He’s also trampling Congress’s clear constitutional authority over federal spending. As president, Trump’s job is to faithfully execute the laws enacted by Congress, not rewrite them and not impound them. Therefore, NIH funds must be delivered exactly as directed by Congress. I’m proud to join my colleagues in defending both the Constitution and the future of essential American biomedical progress.”

    “Once again, President Trump and OMB Director Russ Vought are acting in direct violation of the law. In this case, they are causing irreparable damage to ongoing research to develop cures and treatments for cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, ALS, Diabetes, Mental Health disorders, opioid abuse, genetic diseases, rare diseases, and other diseases and conditions affecting American families. The Trump Administration is stealing critical funds promised to scientific research institutions funded by the NIH, despite an explicit legal prohibition against this action. By taking an axe to our efforts to find cures to diseases and disorders that are tearing apart families across the country, President Trump and Russ Vought are risking lives and putting the United States on a path to decline,” said Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro. 

    “The Trump Administration’s NIH grant funding cuts are not only illegal, they’re also incredibly harmful to the American people,” said Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. “Stealing these funds that support research will further interrupt clinical trials and patient care, delay medical research for new cures and treatments, and undermine America’s scientific research institutions. Democrats are fighting to ensure this critical funding is restored and to protect Americans’ access to lifesaving treatment and innovations.”

    Background on the Litigation and Rapid Response Task Force:

    The Litigation and Rapid Response Task Force first took the unprecedented step of filing a trial court amicus brief to defend American consumers from predatory lenders and bad actors. They were successful in this case after a federal judge blocked efforts to dismantle the CFPB, citing the group’s argument multiple times throughout the 112-page ruling. The Task Force was also able to effectively prevent the Trump Administration from dismantling the Department of Education, filing another such brief that led to a federal court demanding the immediate rehiring of unlawfully terminated staff. House Democrats have so far filed nine amicus briefs in cases against Administration lawlessness. 

    For more information on House Democrats efforts to protect Americans against the unlawful actions of the Trump Administration, visit litigationandresponse.house.gov. 

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Booker, Padilla, Reed, Huffman, Pallone, Castor Lead Charge to Block Trump’s Dangerous Offshore Drilling Plan

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for New Jersey Cory Booker

    WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Jack Reed (D-RI) along with U.S. House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-CA), U.S. House Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ), and Representative Kathy Castor (D-FL) led 40 Democratic Colleagues in the Senate and House to submit formal comments to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), opposing any new or expanded offshore oil and gas leasing in the Trump administration’s proposed updates to the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas leasing program. 

    In their letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the lawmakers warned that more offshore drilling would threaten our national security, coastal communities, marine life, and local economies – all while handing more giveaways to an industry already sitting on millions of acres of unused leases. They urged the agency to exclude any new leasing in the final program. 

    “New or expanded oil and gas leasing poses risks to the health and livelihoods of our constituents, jeopardizes our tourism, fishing, and recreational economies, and threatens the marine life that inhabits our coastlines” the members wrote. “New, unnecessary lease sales will lock in decades more of pollution and climate impacts from an industry that already holds more than 2,000 offshore leases covering more than 12 million acres of federal water, of which only 469 leases are currently producing oil and gas. The United States is already the number one producer of oil and gas in the world. There is no need for increased leasing, especially when oil and gas companies continue to impose environmental and climate consequences, public health risks, and billions of dollars in cleanup costs on the American people.”

    Members also reminded the Secretary of the long-standing legal restrictions that prevent the administration from offering lease sales in protected areas. 

    “We remind the agency that it cannot offer sales in areas permanently protected under Section 12(a) of OCSLA, including areas off the Atlantic coast, the Pacific off the coast of California, Oregon, and Washington, the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, and portions of the Arctic Ocean, including the Beaufort Sea and Chukchi Sea planning areas. In 2017, during his first term, President Trump attempted to reverse President Obama’s Arctic and Atlantic withdrawals, but Judge Sharon Gleason for the District Court of Alaska determined that Section 12(a) does not give the president authority to revoke prior withdrawals. President Trump does not have the authority to reverse the Obama and Biden withdrawals, and his Executive Order of January 2025, which attempts to do so, is unlawful,” the members continued.

    During his first term, the Trump administration proposed 47 lease sales over five years, covering nearly every U.S. coastline. Fortunately, this program was never finalized due to litigation and strong bipartisan opposition. But now, with the Biden administration’s leasing plan under review and Secretary Burgum signaling that protections may be on the chopping block, lawmakers are raising the alarm once again.

    At a budget hearing last week, Secretary Burgum refused to commit to protecting Florida’s Gulf Coast from new oil and gas leasing, saying only that “the administration may be considering opportunities.” This region has long been protected by both bipartisan legislation and administrative withdrawals – protections that are now under threat. 

    To read the full text of the letter, click here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Defence Secretary RUSI Land Warfare Conference 2025 speech

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Speech

    Defence Secretary RUSI Land Warfare Conference 2025 speech

    Defence Secretary John Healey MP addressed the RUSI Land Warfare Conference on 17 June 2025

    David, thank you very much. Thank you all for inviting me here.

    Under your leadership, this institution RUSI really has gone from strength to strength in your last five years despite your first two years as Chair being that very tough period for us all during Covid.

    So David let me thank you this afternoon, to Rachel and the hugely impressive team here at RUSI, not just for this conference, for hosting us for these two days but also for serving as not just simply a long-standing critical friend to government – yes long standing but much needed critic of the government.

    And really in the way that the world changing the way as it is and defence is changing in the way that it is – I think we need this institution’s expert independent voice to be heard more loudly now than ever.

    So thank you for the work that you have done and thank you all of you involved in RUSI.

    At the outset now perhaps I can take the opportunity to say a few words on the deteriorating situation in the Middle East.

    Because this is a dangerous moment for the entire region. And we as a government have been consistent, clear and strong.

    We have always supported Israel’s right to security and we have had grave concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme.

    And I repeat the call on all sides to show restraint this afternoon.

    Because a diplomatic resolution rather than military action is the only route to lasting stability in the region.

    And in terms of our UK operational response, the military assets including the additional Typhoon jets announced by the Prime Minister have begun arriving – the first wave have already arrived and the rest will follow in coming days.

    And I have ensured that force protection is now at its highest level.

    So this operational response is to protect our personnel, it is to reassure our partners and it is to reinforce the urgent need for de-escalation.

    Returning to today, to your programme – I remember last year’s Land Warfare Conference – I think it was one of if not the first public speech I gave after having the privilege of taking up this job. And it came just a week after the Prime Minister kicked off the Strategic Defence Review.

    And I told you in this room actually back then that it would be a Review that would be done with the Army, and not to the Army.

    And I hope with General Walker giving the SDR what he called his “unequivocal support and commitment” this morning – you’re confidence that we met that promise.

    And some of you in the room here, you were part of dozens of submissions that we had from serving personnel, for which we are really grateful.

    And not just the submissions including formal discussions with senior Army officers but actually I hope you see in the SDR the proposals in the core submissions from the Army have been accepted in the review by the reviewers almost in full.

    And this is an SDR that will transform our Army – transform it to meet the challenges and threats in the decades ahead.

    And it will do so by combining the future technology of drones and AI with the heavy metal of our tanks and artillery to the deter threats we may face.

    Many of you have been around for long enough to have seen previous reviews. Many of you have been around for long enough probably to be thinking – well great promises but we’ve seen so many of these reviews put on shelves and gather dust next to the previous reviews that came before.

    The point that I stress today is that for me and everyone in defence, the ten months of hard work to get to the point where we have launched the SDR is just the start not the end of the work that is needed.

    So our adversaries aren’t hanging around and nor are we.

    And have a plan now in government to make Britain safer, secure at home and strong abroad.

    2.6 per cent of GDP on defence in 2027 as the Chancellor confirmed last week in the Spending Review. This gives us the means to implement the SDR.

    And the SDR is a review, a defence review – the first for a generation – which aims to build out rather than hollow out our armed forces.

    A review that is backed by an ambition to hit 3 per cent of GDP spending in the next parliament. And a review that is matched and underwritten by the prospect of a decade of rising defence investment.

    It will bring big changes to our armed forces.

    You discussed it this afternoon with that top level distinguished panel – the SDR will see an integrated force – greater than the sum of its parts – but that does not mean a lessening the importance of the Army.

    The SDR made promises of an Army that is larger in size and greater in lethality.

    And today, I’ll speak about how I’ll play a role as Defence Secretary alongside General Roly to deliver on those pledges.

    Let me start with what matters most to me and that’s our people.

    To maintain advantage, every Army must evolve with the times. Technologies emerge. Tactics advance but the one thing that stays constant is the need for talent.

    Ultimately, it is people who win, it’s the people who prevail, it’s the people who win wars.

    The British Army has in its ranks some of the finest soldiers the world over.

    But for too long, our Army has been asked to do more with less.

    And like most things in life, building up is actually harder than cutting down.

    But we are acting already to stem the losses that we’ve seen long term in recent years, and while reversing that long-term decline can’t be done overnight – that will take time – but I want the number of full-time soldiers to rise to at least 76,000 into the next parliament.

    And let me set out some of the elements of how we will do that.  

    First, I really don’t recognise the claims that you often hear in the media and from the commentators that somehow the next generation don’t want to fight for their country.

    In the last decade, one million young people applied to join the military. They are the very lifeblood of the Army.

    Every day, young men and women stepping forward in search of the opportunity, the sense of purpose and pride, in search of something greater than they have in their lives at present.

    And yet of that million, more than 3 in 4 simply gave up in large part because of long delays in the process.

    They gave up before they were even recruited or rejected.

    So in response, we’ve set new targets, we’ve scrapped old policies and red tape and we’re starting to turn those numbers around.

    And my pledge to you is that the Army will have the pipeline of people it needs to defend our nation and our nation’s interests.

    And just as we’ll encourage more people to join, we’ll persuade more people to stay. And we’ll do that by renewing the nation’s contract with those who serve and the families who support them as they serve.

    Better pay, better housing, better conditions, better kit.

    The thing that really has troubled me most in the last month was the Continuous Attitude Survey that found that only 1 in 4 service personnel believe that they’re valued by society.

    That has plummeted over the last 12 years. The best way to prove to those people, to our personnel that the nation cares is not just what we say but it’s what we do.

    And that’s why it was important to me that last year we were able to award our service personnel the biggest pay increase for over 20 years. It was important to me that we could follow it up this year with another above inflation pay award.  

    Homes with mould, damp and leaks are a betrayal of their service and we’re starting to put that right.

    We’ve bought back now 36,000 military family homes from a private funds into public control. We’ve pledged an extra £1.5 billion to put into military family homes in this Parliament as part of £7 billion investment that will go into military accommodation in the next few years.

    We’re introducing a new Consumer Charter – the basics that any of us would expect from any home that we occupy, any home that we rent – we’re doing that for our forces families.

    We’re extending Wraparound Childcare to those deployed overseas just to help make family life a little easier.

    We’ve legislated in Parliament for a new independent voice – the Armed Forces Commissioner that will help improve service life and I’m happy to say that from last week applications for that post are now open.

    Me, the ministerial team, General Roly, we all share a determination to make life better for members of our armed forces and the families that support them.

    And in doing so, we will – for the first time in a generation – grow the British Army.

    Warfighting and the welfare of our forces are not in conflict or competition. They go hand in hand.

    We cannot have our soldiers worried about a broken boiler or how they’ll make ends meet if we want the Army’s organising principle to be – as General Roly said – “warfighting at scale”.

    And in a more dangerous world, this is a shift we simply have to make.

    Before I go further, I want to note that at least 15 people were killed and more than 100 injured last night in Kyiv, a grim reminder that whatever else is happening in the world, Putin’s war still rages on eastern flank of Europe.

    Ukrainians are continuing to fight with huge courage – civilians and military alike and I just say to you that the UK and the UK Government’s commitment to those Ukrainians remains as steadfast as it has been from the start and we will stand with the Ukrainian people for as long as it takes.

    We will stand with them and we will work with them and for the purposes of this conference we will also learn from them.

    Because the revolutionary technology in Ukraine – helped by the UK – has been the drone.

    So lethal in force, they’re now killing more people than artillery – the first time Offensive Support has been overtaken since World War One.

    So systemic to strategy and tactics as the invention of the machine gun or to the heavy armour specialists in the audience – the tank.

    So effective in targeting, that the Russian military has swapped armour for motorbikes to evade detection.

    And so maximum in impact that we saw a little over 100 drones destroy or damaged more than 50 of Putin’s strategic bombers in Operation Spider Web.

    This is why the SDR calls for that tenfold increase in the Army’s lethality. Credit must go to Roly for his foresight and his ambition in setting that out.

    He set the ambition. He set the vision. And I’m backing that as Defence Secretary with the funding to deliver it.

    So today I’m announcing and confirming that we from this year will be investing more than £100 million in new, initial funding to develop land drone swarms.

    Our Autonomous Collaborative Platforms will fly alongside the Apache attack helicopters and enhance the Army’s ability to strike, survive and win on the battlefield.

    You’ve seen the vision in the SDR, you’ve heard the plan from Roly earlier – this will be a game-changer. It will be applying the lessons from Ukraine in a world-leading way, it will be putting the UK at the leading edge of innovation in NATO.

    Alongside our ability to move forward with greater combat mass, we’re investing in AI and drones to strike further and faster through Project ASGARD.

    In well under a year, we’ve developed and procured these recce-strike systems that allow our soldiers to connect the sensor to the shooter in record beating time.

    These are systems already tested. These are systems that in part are already in Estonia. These are systems that we plan to deploy in 2027 as part of NATO’s Steadfast Defender Exercise.

    The lessons from ASGARD will inform our new integrated Digital Targeting Web as recommended in the SDR. The SDR has challenged us to develop this over the next two years. And so in order to meet that challenge, I’ve also made the commitment that we will back that by £1 billion of new investment.

    Finally, this isn’t just about the world-leading programmes that I’ve mentioned, but it’s also about embedding drones into our training, in our psyche and in our culture.

    And by doubling spending to £4 billion on uncrewed systems in this Parliament through the SDR and by establishing a new Drone Centre we’ll accelerate the use of uncrewed air systems across all of our services.

    The Army will train thousands of operators on First Person View, Surveillance and Dropper drones.

    This summer, the Army will begin the rollout of 3,000 strike drones followed by a further rollout of over 1,000 surveillance drones.

    And we will equip every Section with a drone.

    And together, this work marks a crucial shift in our deterrence. It sends a clear signal to anyone seeking to do us or our allies harm and sets the pathway to an Army that can indeed be ten times more lethal.

    Let me draw if I may to an end by saying that the British Army has always been a force feared by our adversaries and respected by allies.

    And in this new era of threat, we will be asking more of our soldiers. And it is only right our soldiers expect more of their government.

    In return, they’ll be members of an Army with better pay, with better housing, with better kit. They’ll be members of an Army greater in lethality, greater in size.

    An Army that makes Britain safer – secure at home and strong abroad.

    Updates to this page

    Published 17 June 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Spanish National Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Export U.S. Military-Grade Radios to Russian Government End Users

    Source: US State of North Dakota

    Bence Horvath, 47, a Spanish national living in the United Arab Emirates, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in connection with conspiring to illegally export U.S.-origin radio communications technology to Russian end users without a license.

    Horvath pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to unlawfully export goods to Russia. U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates scheduled sentencing for Sept. 30.

    According to court documents, beginning at least around January 2023, Horvath and others initiated discussions with a small U.S. radio distribution company about procuring and exporting to Russia U.S.-manufactured military-grade radios and related accessories. Over the next several months, Horvath continued his efforts to secure those items, which he intended to transship to Russia via a freight forwarder in Latvia.

    As part of the conspiracy, Horvath purchased 200 of the military-grade radios and intended to export them to Russia. But he was not successful, as U.S. Customs and Border Protection detained the shipment, preventing the radios from falling into the hands of prohibited Russian end users.

    Assistant Attorney General John A. Eisenberg of the Justice Department’s National Security Division and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro for the District of Columbia made the announcement.

    This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations New Orleans, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service Southeast Field Office, and the Department of Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California provided valuable assistance.

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher Tortorice and Maeghan Mikorski for the District of Columbia and Trial Attorney Sean Heiden of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Spanish National Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Export U.S. Military-Grade Radios to Russian Government End Users

    Source: United States Attorneys General 13

    Bence Horvath, 47, a Spanish national living in the United Arab Emirates, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in connection with conspiring to illegally export U.S.-origin radio communications technology to Russian end users without a license.

    Horvath pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to unlawfully export goods to Russia. U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates scheduled sentencing for Sept. 30.

    According to court documents, beginning at least around January 2023, Horvath and others initiated discussions with a small U.S. radio distribution company about procuring and exporting to Russia U.S.-manufactured military-grade radios and related accessories. Over the next several months, Horvath continued his efforts to secure those items, which he intended to transship to Russia via a freight forwarder in Latvia.

    As part of the conspiracy, Horvath purchased 200 of the military-grade radios and intended to export them to Russia. But he was not successful, as U.S. Customs and Border Protection detained the shipment, preventing the radios from falling into the hands of prohibited Russian end users.

    Assistant Attorney General John A. Eisenberg of the Justice Department’s National Security Division and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro for the District of Columbia made the announcement.

    This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations New Orleans, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service Southeast Field Office, and the Department of Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California provided valuable assistance.

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher Tortorice and Maeghan Mikorski for the District of Columbia and Trial Attorney Sean Heiden of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Former Postal worker indicted for mail fraud aimed at duping thousands with mass mailings

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    Used scam letters leading thousands of intended victims to believe they owed state filing fees for businesses – defendant allegedly pocketed nearly $100,000

    Seattle – A San Jose, California resident was arrested today on an indictment from the Western District of Washington for his scheme to steal from thousands of businesses and charities with scam letters that appeared to be from state agencies, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller. Johnny Q. Nguyen, 49, is charged in an eleven-count indictment with multiple counts of mail fraud and money laundering. Nguyen was indicted May 28, 2025, and will appear in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California today.

    According to the indictment, in the fall of 2024, Nguyen allegedly sent mass mailings on fake government letterhead to thousands of entities. The mailings were fraudulent billing statements directing the recipients to send checks to a post office box Nguyen had rented in Olympia, Washington. The letters instructed recipients to pay registration and filing fees for their businesses. Nguyen created a limited liability company called “Business Entities” and induced the victims to make their checks payable to that entity. 

    Thousands of Washington and California victims sent checks, cashier’s checks, and money orders. Nguyen deposited some 350 from Washington victims totaling $82,210.  He cashed 60 from California victims totaling $8,640.  Investigators were able to seize an additional 1,711 pieces of mail that contained checks and money orders totaling $395,295.

    Nguyen is charged with three different types of money laundering: concealment because he deposited the checks and money orders into accounts he controlled, transactions designed to conceal the source of the money; Promotion – because the deposits were to promote his mail fraud scheme; and spending because of his transfers of the money out for his personal use.

    The indictment calls for Nguyen to forfeit $90,851 that he profited from the scheme.

    Mail fraud and money laundering are punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

    The charges contained in the indictment are only allegations.  A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

    Nguyen is scheduled to appear in the Western District of Washington on July 1, 2025.

    As a helpful reminder, if you receive a communication in any form purporting to be from a government agency, the best way to verify the source is to call the agency directly using a publicly available phone number on the agency’s website.

    The case is being investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).

    The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jehiel Baer. 

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Feenstra Leads Legislation to Lower Broadband Costs for Rural Iowa Communities

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Randy Feenstra (IA-04)

    HULL, IOWA – Today, U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Hull) introduced the Lowering Broadband Costs for Consumers Act to help construct broadband in rural Iowa.

    This legislation would require that the largest financial beneficiaries of the networks, also known as “edge providers” – such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and Netflix – contribute their fair share toward the networks that are built and maintained by the Universal Service Fund (USF) and by consumers who own landlines throughout the country. 

    Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM) is the co-lead of this legislation.

    “Access to high-speed internet is critical to our economic growth in rural communities. Families, farmers, and businesses across rural Iowa go to great lengths to collect and deploy the necessary funds to build reliable, affordable broadband. However, Big Tech companies use these networks once completed but rarely contribute their fair share towards the cost. It is completely unfair,” said Rep. Feenstra. “It’s why I introduced legislation to ensure that Big Tech companies contribute to the full cost of building high-speed broadband in rural Iowa. Connecting our schools, farms, businesses, homes, and hospitals to the internet is an important priority for me, and this bill will help achieve this mission more affordably and effectively.”

    “Strong broadband networks are vital to connect Americans to the internet and to each other,” said Rep. Leger Fernandez. This bipartisan bill will help sustain our rural broadband networks and make sure that the big corporations that profit from those networks also contribute to them. Let’s close the digital divide.”

    “A strong and sustainable Universal Service Fund is mission-critical to connecting rural America,” said Brandon Heiner, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at US Telecom – The Broadband Association. “Representative Feenstra’s proposal is a step toward modernizing the USF to meet the demands of today’s communications landscape. Congress should act with urgency to secure and strengthen this essential national commitment.”

    “WTA supports the Lowering Costs for Broadband Consumers Act and applauds Representatives Feenstra and Leger Fernadez for introducing this bipartisan legislation,” said Derrick Owens, WTA’s Senior Vice President of Government & Industry Affairs. “The Universal Service Fund is an important tool for ensuring rural residents and businesses have access to affordable broadband. This legislation provides the FCC the authority it needs to engage in needed modernization of USF to ensure that all businesses that profit from the broadband network support the construction, maintenance, and upgrades of the network. We look forward to working with Congress to make sure this modernization takes place.”

    “NTCA applauds the introduction of the Lowering Broadband Costs for Consumers Act and thanks Representatives Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) and Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.) for their leadership. This legislation would promote more predictable and stable funding to preserve and advance the statutory mission of universal service,” said Shirley Bloomfield, Chief Executive Officer of NTCA. “As traditional telecommunications revenues decline, the assessment on the remaining consumers of such services increases, resulting in a disproportionate burden on those consumers even though they are not the most significant users of services or beneficiaries of underlying networks. Common-sense reforms like those directed by this legislation will shore up the foundation of universal service funding, spread contribution obligations more equitably among all of those that use and benefit from broadband networks, and ultimately help the low-income and rural consumers and schools, libraries, and rural health care facilities that depend on critical universal service programs.”

    “Rural Americans deserve access to affordable, high-quality broadband, and that requires a USF contribution system that is both fair and sustainable. For too long, the burden of supporting our nation’s broadband infrastructure has fallen disproportionately on consumers and small and rural providers, including RWA members. This legislation appropriately requires that the largest beneficiaries of our digital economy—edge providers and big tech companies—pay their fair share,” said Carri Bennet, General Counsel for the Rural Wireless Association.

    “On behalf of the National Tribal Telecommunications Association, I need to thank Congressman Feenstra and Congresswoman Leger Fernandez for their introduction of the Lowering Broadband Costs for Consumers Act of 2025. It is gratifying to know that they are trying to reduce the financial burden that Native American families have every day. Rural broadband in the remote parts of our country is very expensive. We do expect those that financially benefit from the networks pay something towards the construction and operation of our networks to help reduce that burden. Therefore, NTTA endorses this federal bill,” said Godfrey Enjady, President of the National Tribal Telecommunications Association.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: U.S. Senate Approves Reed’s Bill to Reign in Abusive Mortgage “Trigger Leads” & Cut Down on Unwanted Spam Calls, Texts and Emails

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Rhode Island Jack Reed

    WASHINGTON, DC – Buying or refinancing a home can be a fraught and stressful experience, and now the U.S. Senate is one step closer to making it a little easier by preventing your personal information from being sold and triggering a title wave of unsolicited spam credit offers.

    In an effort to give prospective homebuyers more control over their personal information and crackdown on unfair and deceptive lending practices, the U.S. Senate passed the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act (S.1467) to dramatically reduce spam calls, texts, and emails from irresponsible players in the mortgage industry.

    The bipartisan bill, led by U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN), would halt the misuse of mortgage “trigger leads” – which occur when a consumer’s credit inquiry “triggers” the sale of their information to third-party lenders and businesses.  When a mortgage lender runs a credit check during the process to buy a home, it appears on the consumer’s credit report. The major credit reporting bureaus (including Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) may then sell that information to other lenders or brokers, which then use it to contact consumers unprompted, often in a predatory manner, to solicit business.

    According to the National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB) president Jim Nabors: “It is not unusual for bank customers to receive 100+ misleading texts, phone calls and emails within the first 24 hours of applying for a mortgage and the passage of this bill will go a long way in relieving this burden to homebuyers.”

    Prospective homebuyers who are bombarded by these kinds of solicitations typically have no idea their information was sold without their consent.

    The Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act would limit the ability of credit reporting bureaus to sell trigger leads to mortgage brokers and lenders when the bureaus learn that a consumer has applied for a mortgage. This legislation would amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to include specific restrictions on the use of trigger leads in the residential mortgage lending space, with very limited exceptions for institutions that a consumer currently knows and trusts.

    “Buying a home is already a complex and stressful process. Consumers should not have their private information sold to spammers who then target them with unsolicited, predatory offers.  Passing this bill is a smart, bipartisan solution to halt abusive trigger leads,” said Senator Reed, a senior member of the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. “This is a rare data privacy win.  The Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act will put consumers back in the driver’s seat and help cut down on the spam.  It will help reduce predatory practices and provide much needed relief from unwanted industry calls, texts, and emails.”

    “Unsolicited phone calls caused by trigger leads have become an intolerable nuisance to many Tennesseans,” said Senator Hagerty. “I’m pleased that the Senate has passed this bipartisan, bicameral legislation that will protect Americans’ data and help reduce endless spam calls.”

    This bill would prohibit credit reporting bureaus from selling a trigger lead unless a mortgage broker or lender certifies to the bureau that they already have a deep financial relationship with the consumer, such as an existing mortgage loan or a deposit account.  Trigger leads would also be permitted if a consumer affirmatively opts in to receiving them.

    There are currently eight states — Rhode Island, Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin – that restrict the use of trigger leads in some fashion, and Idaho (new law effective July 2025) and Arkansas (new law effective August 2025) have also recently passed trigger lead laws that will soon take effect.

    Cosponsors in the U.S. Senate include Senators: Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tom Tillis (R-NC), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Tina Smith (D-MN), Katie Britt (R-AL), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), James E. Risch (R-ID), Angus King (I-ME), Tommy Tuberville, Tommy (R-AL), John Fetterman (D-PA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Peter Welch (D-VT), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Gary Peters (D-MI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Ed Markey (D-MA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Bernie Moreno (R-OH), Jim Banks (R-IN), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), John Hoeven (R-ND), Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Rick Scott (R-FL).

    At the federal level, the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act is supported by a broad coalition of consumer advocacy groups and financial trades, including the Mortgage Bankers Association, the Independent Community Bankers of America, the American Bankers Association, the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, the Broker Action Coalition, Community Home Lenders of America, the National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients), the Consumer Federation of America, Americans for Financial Reform, and others.

    Identical bipartisan legislation (H.R.2808) has been introduced in the House by Congressman John Rose (R-TN-06) and Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-NY-15) and has support from over 80 cosponsors.  On June 10 it was unanimously advanced by the House Financial Services Committee to the full House for debate and consideration.  The bill must be approved by both chambers of Congress before it can be sent to the president’s desk to be signed into law.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: U.S. Senate Approves Reed’s Bill to Reign in Abusive Mortgage “Trigger Leads” & Cut Down on Unwanted Spam Calls, Texts and Emails

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Rhode Island Jack Reed

    WASHINGTON, DC – Buying or refinancing a home can be a fraught and stressful experience, and now the U.S. Senate is one step closer to making it a little easier by preventing your personal information from being sold and triggering a title wave of unsolicited spam credit offers.

    In an effort to give prospective homebuyers more control over their personal information and crackdown on unfair and deceptive lending practices, the U.S. Senate passed the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act (S.1467) to dramatically reduce spam calls, texts, and emails from irresponsible players in the mortgage industry.

    The bipartisan bill, led by U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN), would halt the misuse of mortgage “trigger leads” – which occur when a consumer’s credit inquiry “triggers” the sale of their information to third-party lenders and businesses.  When a mortgage lender runs a credit check during the process to buy a home, it appears on the consumer’s credit report. The major credit reporting bureaus (including Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) may then sell that information to other lenders or brokers, which then use it to contact consumers unprompted, often in a predatory manner, to solicit business.

    According to the National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB) president Jim Nabors: “It is not unusual for bank customers to receive 100+ misleading texts, phone calls and emails within the first 24 hours of applying for a mortgage and the passage of this bill will go a long way in relieving this burden to homebuyers.”

    Prospective homebuyers who are bombarded by these kinds of solicitations typically have no idea their information was sold without their consent.

    The Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act would limit the ability of credit reporting bureaus to sell trigger leads to mortgage brokers and lenders when the bureaus learn that a consumer has applied for a mortgage. This legislation would amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to include specific restrictions on the use of trigger leads in the residential mortgage lending space, with very limited exceptions for institutions that a consumer currently knows and trusts.

    “Buying a home is already a complex and stressful process. Consumers should not have their private information sold to spammers who then target them with unsolicited, predatory offers.  Passing this bill is a smart, bipartisan solution to halt abusive trigger leads,” said Senator Reed, a senior member of the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. “This is a rare data privacy win.  The Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act will put consumers back in the driver’s seat and help cut down on the spam.  It will help reduce predatory practices and provide much needed relief from unwanted industry calls, texts, and emails.”

    “Unsolicited phone calls caused by trigger leads have become an intolerable nuisance to many Tennesseans,” said Senator Hagerty. “I’m pleased that the Senate has passed this bipartisan, bicameral legislation that will protect Americans’ data and help reduce endless spam calls.”

    This bill would prohibit credit reporting bureaus from selling a trigger lead unless a mortgage broker or lender certifies to the bureau that they already have a deep financial relationship with the consumer, such as an existing mortgage loan or a deposit account.  Trigger leads would also be permitted if a consumer affirmatively opts in to receiving them.

    There are currently eight states — Rhode Island, Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin – that restrict the use of trigger leads in some fashion, and Idaho (new law effective July 2025) and Arkansas (new law effective August 2025) have also recently passed trigger lead laws that will soon take effect.

    Cosponsors in the U.S. Senate include Senators: Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tom Tillis (R-NC), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Tina Smith (D-MN), Katie Britt (R-AL), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), James E. Risch (R-ID), Angus King (I-ME), Tommy Tuberville, Tommy (R-AL), John Fetterman (D-PA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Peter Welch (D-VT), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Gary Peters (D-MI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Ed Markey (D-MA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Bernie Moreno (R-OH), Jim Banks (R-IN), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), John Hoeven (R-ND), Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Rick Scott (R-FL).

    At the federal level, the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act is supported by a broad coalition of consumer advocacy groups and financial trades, including the Mortgage Bankers Association, the Independent Community Bankers of America, the American Bankers Association, the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, the Broker Action Coalition, Community Home Lenders of America, the National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients), the Consumer Federation of America, Americans for Financial Reform, and others.

    Identical bipartisan legislation (H.R.2808) has been introduced in the House by Congressman John Rose (R-TN-06) and Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-NY-15) and has support from over 80 cosponsors.  On June 10 it was unanimously advanced by the House Financial Services Committee to the full House for debate and consideration.  The bill must be approved by both chambers of Congress before it can be sent to the president’s desk to be signed into law.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Fact Sheet: Implementing the General Terms of the U.S.-UK Economic Prosperity Deal

    US Senate News:

    Source: US Whitehouse
    IMPLEMENTING A HISTORIC TRADE DEAL: Yesterday, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order implementing American commitments under the General Terms of the United States-United Kingdom Economic Prosperity Deal.
    This historic trade deal provides American companies unprecedented access to British markets while bolstering U.S. national security.
    The deal will include billions of dollars of increased market access for American exports, especially for beef, ethanol, and certain other American agricultural exports.
    The UK will reduce or eliminate numerous non-tariff barriers that unfairly discriminate against American products, hurt the U.S. manufacturing base, and threaten our national security.
    The U.S. and UK will negotiate preferential treatment outcomes for UK pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients contingent on the findings of a Section 232 investigation.
    The U.S. and UK have also committed to adopting a structured, negotiated approach to addressing U.S. national security concerns regarding sectors that may be subject to future Section 232 investigations and UK compliance with certain supply chain security standards.
    This Executive Order addresses automobiles, aerospace, and steel and aluminum.
    For automobiles, the Order provides that the first 100,000 vehicles imported into the U.S. by UK car manufacturers each year will be subject to a total tariff rate of 10% (7.5% plus 2.5% most-favored-nation rate) and any additional imported vehicles each year will be subject to the automobile Section 232 tariff rate of 25%.
    Additionally, automotive parts that are products of the UK and are for use in UK vehicles will be subject to a total tariff rate of 10%.

    For aerospace, the Order provides that certain UK products will no longer be subject to tariffs, thus strengthening aerospace and aircraft manufacturing supply chains.
    For steel and aluminum articles and their derivatives, the Order provides that the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the U.S. Trade Representative, will establish tariff-rate quotas for UK products consistent with the General Terms of the Economic Prosperity Deal and pursuant to certain principles outlined in the Order. Products outside those quotas or that do not meet certain requirements will remain subject to existing Section 232 tariffs.
    Today’s action strengthens our bilateral relationship with the UK and sets the tone for other trading partners to promote reciprocal trade with the United States.
    ADVANCING RECIPROCAL TRADE: This U.S.-UK trade deal will usher in a golden age of new opportunity for U.S. exporters and level the playing field for American producers.
    On April 2, 2025, Liberation Day, President Trump imposed a 10% tariff on all countries to address unfair trade practices that have contributed to America’s trade deficit in order to better protect American workers, manufacturers, and our national security. 
    In 2024, the U.S. total goods trade with the UK was an estimated $148 billion.
    The UK average applied agricultural tariff was 9.2%, while the U.S. average applied agricultural tariff (prior to April 2) was 5%.

    On April 18, President Trump had a call with Prime Minister Starmer to discuss our bilateral trade relationship.
    On May 8, President Trump and Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced this historic Economic Prosperity Deal.
    USHERING IN A NEW ERA OF PROSPERITY: Since Day One, President Trump has challenged the assumption that American workers and businesses must tolerate unfair trade practices that disadvantage our workers and businesses and contribute to our historic trade deficit.
    President Trump continues to advance the interests of the American people, enhancing market access for American exporters and lowering tariff and non-tariff barriers to protect our economic and national security.
    The Economic Prosperity Deal with the United Kingdom is a critical step toward promoting reciprocal trade with a key ally and partner.
    President Trump: “The deal includes billions of dollars of increased market access for American exports, especially in agriculture, dramatically increasing access for American beef, ethanol, and virtually all of the products produced by our great farmers.”
    “The UK will reduce or eliminate numerous non-tariff barriers that unfairly discriminated against American products.”
    “This is now turning out to be, really, a great deal for both countries.”

    Prime Minister Starmer: “This is going to boost trade between and across our countries. It’s going to not only protect jobs, but create jobs, opening market access.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI: Cority’s 2025 Sustainability Report: Double‑Digit Drop in Cloud‑Hosting Emissions and Record Community Engagement

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    TORONTO, June 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Cority, the global leader in enterprise Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) and Sustainability software, has published its 2025 Sustainability Report, detailing how the cloud‑software leader simultaneously shrank its environmental footprint and amplified employee impact during 2024.

    Powered by the CorityOne platform’s ESG data collection and GHG calculation engine, the company traced its most significant progress closely. The Cority Sustainability Cloud underpinned every metric in the report, giving leadership accurate and auditable insight to steer next‑step actions. 2024 highlights include:

    • Volunteerism takes off. Adoption of Cority’s two‑day Volunteer Program, which launched in 2023, soared. Employees dedicated 106.5 workdays to local tree plantings, food drives, charity support and community initiatives.
    • Full Scope 3 visibility. Cority broadened its greenhouse‑gas inventory improving data quality and expanding coverage of key Scope 3 categories — Purchased Goods & Services, Business Travel, Home‑working and Commuting—using primary data where available.
    • Hosting emissions slashed. Migrating EU and Americas servers to renewable‑energy data centers drove a 42% absolute reduction (47% per‑customer) in hosting‑related emissions year‑over‑year.

    In 2025, Cority has committed to setting an official science-based target with the SBTi. To inform that commitment, the company will deepen its measurement of business travel, commuting, and supply‑chain emissions and layer primary data into event‑impact tracking. Cority is also streamlining internal processes in 2025 so every employee can more easily use their two Volunteer Days, multiplying the grassroots energy already on display.

    “Sustainability has been a cornerstone of Cority for many years, and its importance has only grown as the world increasingly demands accountability, transparency, and action from the global business community,” said Ryan Magee, CEO of Cority. “The momentum captured in this report proves that transparency plus action delivers real‑world results.”

    The complete Sustainability Report 2025 can be downloaded at cority.com/sustainability-report.

    About Cority
    Cority gives every employee from the field to the boardroom the power to make a difference, reducing risks and creating a safer, healthier, and more sustainable world. For over 35 years, Cority’s people-first software solutions have been built by EHS and sustainability experts who know the pressures businesses face. Time-tested, scalable, and configurable, CorityOne is the responsible business ecosystem that combines datasets from across the organization to enable improved efficiencies, actionable insights, data-driven decisions, and more accurate reporting on performance. Trusted by over 1,500 organizations worldwide, Cority deeply cares about helping people work toward a better future for everyone. To learn more, visit www.cority.com

    Media Contact
    Natalie Rizk
    RiotMind
    natalier@theriotmind.agency

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI USA: IAM District 751 Celebrates Grand Opening of New Everett Training Center

    Source: US GOIAM Union

    IAM District 751 marked a significant milestone with the grand opening of its new training center in Everett, Washington. International President Brian Bryant and Western Territory General Vice President Robert “Bobby” Martinez joined district and local leaders, members, and community allies to cut the ribbon on the cutting-edge facility, designed to meet the evolving needs of today’s aerospace workforce.

    “We didn’t build this just to keep up, we built it to lead,” said IAM District 751 Directing Business Representative Jon Holden. “This center ensures our members have access to the same high-tech tools and instruction as the industries they serve.”

    The new training center spans more than 20,000 square feet and features a suite of state-of-the-art tools and classrooms. Among the highlights are hands-on training equipment, including computer-numerical-control (CNC) simulators, paint and welding virtual reality simulators, advanced metrology tools, 3D printers, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), and augmented reality technology to enhance industrial applications.

    “This new facility represents our deep commitment to investing in our members,” said International President Brian Bryant. “It’s a place where careers begin, skills are strengthened, and the future of aerospace is built.”

    The facility also includes real-world, shop-ready machinery, such as mills and lathes, and fully outfitted welding rigs that allow members to train on actual equipment used in today’s aerospace manufacturing. This practical, hands-on instruction ensures IAM members gain experience with the same tools and standards found on the shop floor at companies like Boeing.

    “This center is a game changer,” said IAM Western Territory General Vice President Robert “Bobby” Martinez. “Investing in training and skills is how we strengthen our union, grow our industries, and empower the next generation of IAM Union members.”

    To view photos, click here.

    The center also includes flexible classroom space and a large union hall for meetings and events. By combining traditional classroom learning with hands-on training and community partnerships, the facility positions members for long-term success.

    U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell attended the ribbon cutting and praised the union’s investment in workforce development.

    “By 2030, we may have a shortfall of over 2 million machinists. Can you imagine? America’s competitiveness is at stake,” said Cantwell. “751 is answering the call, not just with this new facility, but in integrating the Machinists Institute to train, skill, and attract people. That is why this building and the Machinists Institute — with a training capacity of over 700 machinists, to be trained right here — is such a great facility.”

    The post IAM District 751 Celebrates Grand Opening of New Everett Training Center appeared first on IAM Union.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: UK-Ukraine TechBridge: London Tech Week 2025 Communiqué

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    News story

    UK-Ukraine TechBridge: London Tech Week 2025 Communiqué

    UK-Ukraine TechBridge Investment Accelerator at London Tech Week 2025

    9 – 11 June 2025 

    During London Tech Week, UK Government, in collaboration with 1991 Ventures and Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation (MDT), strengthened the UK-Ukraine bilateral relationship through a series of key meetings and events under the UK-Ukraine TechBridge programme, a component of the 100 Year Partnership agreement. 

    9 June 

    On the Startup Stage at London Tech Week, the UK-Ukraine TechBridge Investment Accelerator project concluded with a pitching session. Ukrainian Deputy Minister for Digital Transformation, Oleksandr Bornyakov (MDT), and Denis Gursky of 1991 Ventures joined Rodney Berkeley, Director of Infrastructure and Technology at the Department for Business & Trade (DBT), in delivering opening remarks. Pitches were delivered by 11 high potential Ukrainian tech start-ups providing innovative solutions from databases to support clinical trials, AI-powered Software as a Service (SaaS), and direct air carbon capture technology for agriculture. The Investment Accelerator project aimed at upskilling Ukrainian tech founders to scale up their businesses in the UK. 

    10 June 

    A breakfast event was hosted by the Embassy of Ukraine focused on promoting Ukraine’s CodeUA (B2B platform) initiative and connecting highly skilled Ukrainian tech companies with global business representatives. The event provided valuable insights into Ukraine’s tech ecosystem and facilitated new, collaborative opportunities for those wanting to invest in innovative, and secure technology partnerships. 

    The day concluded with an evening reception at the London Stock Exchange Group, supported by the UK-Ukraine TechBridge and DiiaCity Utd. This event celebrated the global potential of Ukraine’s tech ecosystem, bringing together Ukrainian and UK government representatives, investors, tech companies, and thought leaders to deepen cooperation between our two nations.

    Updates to this page

    Published 17 June 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI USA: ICYMI—Hagerty Joins Mornings With Maria on Fox Business to Discuss Conflict in Middle East, Budget Reconciliation, GENIUS Act

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Tennessee Bill Hagerty

    WASHINGTON—Today, United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Appropriations, Banking, and Foreign Relations Committees and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, joined Mornings With Maria on Fox Business to discuss the conflict in the Middle East, the ongoing negotiations of the budget reconciliation package, and final passage of the GENIUS Act.

    *Click the photo above or here to watch*

    Partial Transcript

    Hagerty on Trump preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon: “It’s not surprising. President [Donald] Trump has been entirely clear this entire period that Iran needs to come to the table, that he will not allow them to have a nuclear weapon. Yet what does Iran do? Continues to tap the ball. They go past the 60-day window that they’d been given, and they continue to advance their nuclear program. It’s no surprise that Israel has taken the action that they have, Maria. I think they have no choice. This is an existential decision on behalf of [Israel Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu. He cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon because Iran’s been very clear: death to Israel and also death to America. We have to take them at their word. This regime has been nothing but using every tactic in the book to, basically, buy more time to ‘negotiate’ while, in the background, they continue to develop this weapon. This capability is something we can’t let them finalize. President Trump has been, again, extraordinarily clear. He will not let that happen.”

    Hagerty on the U.S. standing with Israel: “I think President Trump has been very clear. He’s not for these forever wars that go on. I agree with that. At the same time, he’s also been very clear that we stand with Israel. I think most people in America feel the same way. I think President Trump has a spectrum of options before him. I’m not going to get ahead of him and try to predict what he might do, but I’ll say this: Israel’s doing an incredible job. Their intelligence has been impeccable, and I think the Iranians need to wake up and realize they’re on their back foot. They’re on their back heel, and they need to get to the table quickly to get this resolved because they are not winning.”

    Hagerty on China supporting Iran’s terror regime: “They have been supporting Iran, Maria, over time. If you think about it, who’s been buying this illicit oil? Iran’s been evading sanctions. How? They’re selling their oil to China. China’s been providing the funds. The funds have been used, therefore, to build up Hamas, to build up Hezbollah, to build up Houthis. It’s Iranian technology, Iranian knowhow, that’s being used, along with Iranian funds, which are being, basically, funneled from China through Iran, back into these zones of terror. China needs to bring this to a complete halt. They need to join us, and we need to see this come to an end.”

    Hagerty on the ongoing budget reconciliation negotiations: “There’s a lot in that that, I think, is going to be refined. There’s going to be more deficit reduction orientation in what the Senate is working on right now. I’m not going to get in the middle of negotiations, but just take SALT, for example, the state and local tax exemption. It came over from the House with a $40,000 exemption per year. The Senate’s come back with a $10,000 exemption. That’s a negotiation that’s underway. Again, I’m not going to try to get ahead of the negotiators, but this is what’s going to take place. This is how it gets done here in Washington. Overall, though, I’d say this: we have to keep in mind that to not address this, to not address the extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, would deliver north of $4 trillion of tax increases to the American people. The White House budget model predicts that there would be a six percent decline in GDP next year, were that to happen. We’re not going to let that happen either, Maria. So, we’re in the process of fine-tuning. Everybody wants this to be as conservative as it can be, but also, it’s imperative that we get this passed and passed quickly, so the capital expenditure plans can firm up, so that the investments that we want to see happen in America do begin to get plans. The 2026 is the best year we’ve seen on record.”

    Hagerty on SALT provisions: “I think you look at the Senate, we don’t have a SALT constituency in the Senate. We don’t have [Republican] senators from California, New York, Illinois. We’re trying to address this, but we’re trying to do this in a fiscally responsible manner. Again, we’re in the middle of a negotiation. [Representative] Mike [Lawler] is at $40,000, the U.S. Senate right now is at $10,000. Again, I’m sure Mike will be clear in his point tomorrow, but we’re in the middle of a negotiation. We’ll see where it lands.”

    Hagerty on the IRA subsidies: “I think they’re going to be scrutinized very, very carefully, Maria. I understand the arguments that is that certain companies are relied, to their detriment, on the tax subsidies that were there, but I think we’re going through this with a fine-tooth comb. Certainly, we don’t want to see anymore new utilization of these types of tools, and I think they’re trying to minimize the disruption in the damage that might have occurred from those companies that have already relied upon it and started projects.”

    Hagerty on final passage of the GENIUS Act: “I’m very enthusiastic about the stablecoin legislation that I’ve led. We’ve been working on this for months. We have a strong bipartisan product. We will deliver that midday today. We’ll have it ready, and I think it’s got a tremendous amount of input from the industry, from my colleagues here. We’ve involved the administration. I think we’re going to have a great product that actually sets the stage for moving into a modern-day payment system into the 21st century. Getting us off the old system that was designed in the 1970s and eighties, making the dollar the key element in the digital arena. And frankly, it will stimulate more demand for U.S. treasuries. It will strengthen the dollar’s position as a reserve currency. We’re going to see that advance in a way that, again, takes a lot of friction out of an old, clunky system, reduces counterparty risk, reduces currency risk, and will bring a lot of working capital back to the companies that need it and back into the economy. With respect to the [Securities and Exchange Commission], I couldn’t ask for a better partner than [SEC Chairman] Paul Atkins. He’s doing a terrific job already. We’re going to be working arm-in-arm to try to help advance the entire cryptocurrency industry, the entirety of this industry, that’ll keep us on the cutting edge of the 21st century. As you mentioned, I want to make my state a hub. We’ve got Bitcoin miners there. We’ve got Bitcoin Park there. We had the great Bitcoin Conference there that President Trump attended. That’s where he announced that he would be firing [Former SEC Chairman] Gary Gensler. I think that received great applause, and I think everybody’s extremely happy to see someone, strong conservative, hard-nosed fellow, like Paul Atkins, coming into office. I’m looking forward to working, arm-in-arm, together with him.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: In Memoriam: Former Athletics Administrator and Trustee Phil Barry

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    Phil Barry ’54, who dedicated over 60 years of his life to the University of Connecticut as a student, Division of Athletics administrator, and later as a member of the Board of Trustees, passed away June 14 at the age of 96.

    Born Philip Paul Barry in Willimantic on March 30, 1929, to the late Patrick and Rosa (Giraca) Barry, he leaves his beloved wife of 68 years, Lena (Gray) Barry, of Brooklyn, Conn. A lifelong resident of eastern Connecticut, Barry was a friend to all, a dedicated family man, loyal associate, and collaborator to organize good times.

    Phil Barry (Contributed photo)

    A 1947 graduate of Windham High School, he was class president of his freshman and senior classes. He excelled in sports – particularly basketball and baseball.

    Barry enrolled at UConn and his academic career was interrupted by service in the United States Army, in which he completed officer training for two years during the Korean War. Following his military discharge, he graduated from UConn in 1954 and worked for two years at the former Willimantic Trust Company, where he met his wife when she came in to cash her nursing payroll checks.

    Barry was hired in the UConn Division of Athletics as ticket manager and worked for 31 years in the department. His career in athletics progressed to business manager and later assistant to the director of athletics. In August 1970, he was named assistant director of athletics and in 1983 was named associate director of athletics for operations, before retiring in 1987. At UConn, he served on many search committees to fill staff and team coaching vacancies.

    Barry served as the first treasurer of the Big East Conference at the league’s inception in 1979 and was also secretary-treasurer of the Yankee Conference.

    He was active for many years in the Collegiate Athletic Business Management Association, serving that national group as president in 1974 and being named National Athletic Business Manager of the Year in 1975.

    Following retirement, Barry was a member of UConn’s Board of Trustees from 2001-09 and the Board of Directors of the UConn Alumni Association. Barry was elected and served two terms as a member of the Mansfield Town Council. During his tenure, he focused on the Downtown Storrs project and worked to foster closer ties between the Town of Mansfield and UConn.

    Phil Barry accepts the National Athletic Business Manager of the Year Award in 1975 from the College Athletic Business Managers Association. (Contributed photo)

    In the community, Barry had many interests, including membership in the Willimantic Country Club, Elks Club, and Irish Club of Willimantic. He was one of the last living members of Roy’s Boys – a dedicated group of Willimantic area baseball players who benefited as teens under the guidance and teaching of Willimantic YMCA Director Roy Dissinger.

    Barry was predeceased by his brother, John (Eloise) Barry; his sister, Pauline (Ben) Nault; and his son-in-law, John Geissler.  In addition to his wife, Lena, Phil leaves four children: Patricia Geissler, David (Lori) Barry, Douglas (Pamela) Barry, and Daniel (Julie) Barry. He had nine grandchildren, which include Kristin (Phillippe and their children, Daysia, Mariah, and Devin), Alyssa (Michael), Sean, Nikki, Jessica, Anna, Emma, Ryan, and Bradley.

    Barry’s family will receive relatives and friends Tuesday, July 1, 2025, from 4 p.m. to 7p.m. at First Baptist Church of Mansfield, 945 Storrs Road, Storrs. A memorial service will be celebrated Wednesday, July 2, 2025, at 1 p.m. at First Baptist Church of Mansfield in Storrs. The family invites those attending to wear UConn blue and white.

    The family would like to thank the kind and compassionate staff at Creamery Brook and Pierce Home in Brooklyn for its extraordinary care since 2019. Donations may be made in Barry’s honor to either St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or Pierce Memorial Baptist Home Recreation Fund (checks made payable to PMBH, noting Recreation), 44 Canterbury Road, Brooklyn, CT 06234.

    Potter Funeral Home Obituary

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: 2025 World Elder Abuse Awareness Day Announcement

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    BILLINGS — In recognition of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced yesterday that it has reinvigorated efforts to protect American seniors from transnational schemes that cost seniors billions of dollars, often stealing their life savings. In the past few weeks alone, DOJ prosecutors have arrested and filed cases against foreign fraudsters and domestic actors who have knowingly facilitated foreign-based crimes.

    “Our office will continue to vigorously prosecute those who would exploit our elderly friends, neighbors, and family members. We appreciate the efforts of our federal, state, local, and tribal partners to identify elder abuse in all its forms, physical, psychological, and financial.  But we also need everyone’s help by checking on older adults, especially those with few family members close by, and watching for signs and abuse or unusual financial transactions.  U.S. Attorney Alme said.

    See the U.S. Attorney’s Office Public Service Announcement on Elder Fraud: https://www.justice.gov/usao-mt/video/district-montana-elder-fraud-psa-60-seconds.

    The DOJ is highlighting a number of recent prosecutions, including one here in Montana, to protect American seniors. These include cases against those who engage in, and knowingly facilitate, romance fraud, lottery fraud, tech support fraud, and grandparent scams. Romance fraud is a confidence scheme where a perpetrator feigns romantic interest with a victim only to later extract money or property under false pretenses. Lottery fraud schemes trick victims into believing they have won a non-existent lottery or sweepstakes prize in order to extract fake fees, taxes, or other fabricated charges from the victim. Tech support fraud scams involve perpetrators tricking victims into believing that their computer or phone has a problem, often through fake pop-up messages, and to later seek funds from the victims in order to “fix” the “problem.” Grandparent scams, another type of confidence scheme, involve scammers impersonating a grandchild or close family member who experiences a fictitious emergency and needs money from the victim as soon as possible.

    Recently in Montana, an FBI and Missoula County Sheriff’s Office investigation resulted in the arrested a man allegedly involved in an India-based scheme that claimed to be U.S. Marshals targeting the elderly and resulted in the theft of over $1 million from an elderly victim. https://www.justice.gov/usao-mt/pr/india-based-amazon-scam-leads-almost-1-million-dollar-loss-elderly-victim-missoula

    Recovering Victim Loss

    Victims face many challenges in financially recovering from fraud schemes—and that is even more true for elderly victims. Many retired seniors are no longer earning income and cannot count on market appreciation to grow their retirement savings. Perpetrators may have already spent or forwarded victim funds beyond the reach of United States law enforcement. Victims may not have the resources to pursue legal action or hire legal representation. These, and other reasons, make it critically important that the DOJ work hard to achieve substantial victim restitution in cases we investigate and prosecute.

    National Elder Fraud Hotline 2025 WEAAD Campaign

    The National Elder Fraud Hotline is a free, national resource for older adults and their loved ones experiencing financial fraud. Supported by the DOJ Office for Victims of Crime, the National Elder Fraud Hotline is staffed by professionals who have experience working with older adults. Staff are continuously updated on the latest scams, are trained to make referrals and warm hand-offs for resources and services in the older adult’s local area and can assist older adults in placing a report with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a report which has the potential to freeze funds (although freezing funds cannot be guaranteed).

    The DOJ urges individuals to be on the lookout for fraudulent lottery, prize notification, sweepstakes, and psychic scams. If you receive a phone call, letter or email promising a large prize in exchange for a fee, do not respond. Fraudsters often will use official-sounding names or the names of real lotteries or sweepstakes or pretend to be a government agent purportedly helping to secure a prize.

    If you or someone you know is age 60 or older and has been a victim of financial fraud, help is standing by at the National Elder Fraud Hotline: 1-833-FRAUD-11 (1-833-372-8311). This DOJ hotline, managed by the Office for Victims of Crime, is staffed by experienced professionals who provide personalized support to callers by assessing the needs of the victim and identifying relevant next steps. Case managers will identify appropriate reporting agencies, provide information to callers to assist them in reporting, connect callers directly with appropriate agencies, and provide resources and referrals, on a case-by-case basis. Reporting is the first step. Reporting can help authorities identify those who commit fraud and reporting certain financial losses due to fraud as soon as possible can increase the likelihood of recovering losses. The hotline is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET. English, Spanish, and other languages are available.

    More information about the DOJ’s efforts to help American seniors is available at its Elder Justice Initiative webpage. For more information about the Consumer Protection Branch and its enforcement efforts, visit its website at www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch. Elder fraud complaints may be filed with the FTC at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/  or at 877-FTC-HELP. The DOJ provides a variety of resources relating to elder fraud victimization through its Office for Victims of Crime, which can be reached at www.ovc.gov.

    The DOJ notes that for all cases discussed above, facts included in a Complaint, Information, or Indictment are only allegations, and all defendants are innocent until proven guilty by evidence beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Ernst Lays Out Six “Big Beautiful” Options to Save Tens of Billions

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA)
    WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate DOGE Caucus Chair Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) rolled out six proposals for the One Big Beautiful Bill based on her decade of work to make Washington Squeal, reduce reckless spending, and save taxpayers’ money.
    Ernst’s proposals would save tens of billions of dollars by eliminating bogus payments, snapping back SNAP overpayments, ending unemployment for millionaires, defunding welfare for politicians, stopping subsidies for union bosses, and selling vacant buildings.
    Here is some of the coverage of the proposals:
    Fox News | Republican senators roll out DOGE budget proposals for Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’
    “While a $9.4 billion rescissions package, a formal request from the executive branch to codify its DOGE cuts, is in the works, proponents of the Senate DOGE package say their total estimated savings would accentuate that and also surpass it in value.”
    National Review |Ernst Pushes Plan to End Food Stamp Overpayments to Cut Spending in ‘Big, Beautiful’ Bill
    “Senator Joni Ernst (R., Iowa) is rolling out a series of measures to cut spending in the GOP’s ‘big, beautiful,’ bill including a proposal for ending mismanagement in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps.”
    New York Post | Sen. Joni Ernst pushes to ban taxpayer-funded union time in One Big Beautiful Bill Act
    “Sen. Joni Ernst wants to tweak the House-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act to eliminate the longstanding practice of taxpayer-funded union time. Approximately $160 million of your money went toward fed workers’ union time as of 2019, the last time such data was available, and Ernst (R-Iowa) has been on a quest for more recent information.”
    Breitbart | Sen. Joni Ernst Aims to Stop Fraudulent Payments as Pay-For in Big Beautiful Bill
    “The Hawkeye State senator, as the chair of the Small Business Committee, aims to have her bill, the Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) in Spending Act, as a pay-for in Trump’s marquee bill to stop fraudulent and improper federal payments. The legislation could have a significant effect, as more than $160 billion in improper payments occurred in fiscal year 2024.”
    The six proposals are:
    Saving billions in bogus payments
    Snapping back overpayments
    Ernst’s Snap Back Inaccurate SNAP Payments Act strengthens the integrity of the important Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by identifying all errors, clawing back overpayments, and holding states with high payment inaccuracies accountable.
    In 2023, there were approximately $10.73 billion in overpayments. However, the true cost is unknown because errors totaling $56 or less are excluded.
    Ending unemployment for millionaires
    Eliminating welfare for politicians
    The ELECT Act eliminates the Presidential Election Campaign Fund, which utilizes tax dollars to fund presidential campaigns.
    This fund has been dipped into previously to reduce spending. Last year, $320 million was allocated to Secret Service and $25 million was given to the Department of Justice.
    Ending the absurd practice of taxpayer-funded union time
    Ernst’s Protecting Taxpayers’ Wallet Act ends the absurd policy of taxpayer-funded union time which allows federal employees to engage in union activities when they are supposed to be serving the American people.
    It cost taxpayers at least $160 million per year according to the most recent report from 2019.
    Selling vacant buildings
    Ernst has exposed how it costs billions every year to maintain thousands of vacant government buildings and empty offices.
    Selling just a handful of these buildings would generate hundreds of millions of dollars.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Plymouth’s 2025 local climate legends revealed

    Source: City of Plymouth

    Residents across Plymouth have been nominating their local climate heroes, and the winners have now been unveiled. 

    Plymouth local climate legends winners

    Ranging from an eco-friendly school on a mission to change their school culture, a dedicated business finding innovative solutions, and youth, community and citizen legends who have been using their voice to empower others to make change.  

    Over 70 nominations were submitted uncovering amazing stories and triumphs showing the breadth of work going on. 

    The winners will be celebrated at The Big Green Trail on Saturday 21 June, a free event full of fun activities to take part in. 

    The winners are:  

    Business Legend 

    Stiltskin Children’s Theatre 

    Stiltskin Theatre have gone above and beyond ‘business as usual’ to reduce the carbon footprint of the theatre and has found endlessly creative insulation solutions to regulate heating and cool the building by 10 degrees! They have installed hot compost bins, created an award-winning community garden and implemented a zero to landfill waste solution, reusing materials at every opportunity. 

    Employee Legend 

    Sarah Lee 

    Sarah is a Senior Associate at Stride Treglown Architects where she advocates for carbon reduction in the built environment promoting opportunities for learning, upskilling and collaboration across the city. Sarah founded Future Plymouth 2030 and works tirelessly with schools; she actively empowers people with the knowledge and tools to make change and take positive climate action. 

    Citizen Legend 

    Ricky Lowes 

    Ricky, an active member of Climate Action Plymouth, has demonstrated her unwavering passion for looking after our world at a local level. From pursuing accessible active travel for all to challenging others to think differently, she is a leader inspiring those around her to take action for our city.  

    Rob Wick 

    Rob opened the social enterprise THINQTANQ over eight years ago and is a pioneer of several climate initiatives. Rob is always looking to find new community solutions and has since been supporting other social enterprises and collaborating with Fab City, all with a passion for making Plymouth a greener place. 

    Young Person Legend 

    Eva Wakeham 

    Eva, aged 10 years old, is a member of the Ocean City influencers group and has been using her voice to champion our ocean and the importance of climate change action in the home of Plymouth Sound National Marine Park. As part of the group, she has been involved in beach cleans, online blogging and filming. Eva is an inspiring role model and is always sharing her skillset with others to drive change. 

    School Legend 

    Heles Secondary School 

    Mike and Helen, two colleagues at Heles School have built an extraordinary sustainable school culture. Beyond teaching, they empower students to protect the planet, to think bigger, act bolder and care deeper. They have developed an outdoor classroom, been a part of rewilding projects, champion cycling to work and have joined the Green Schools Revolution. 

    Councillor Tom Briars-Delve, Cabinet Member for the Environment and Climate Change, said: “Huge congratulations to our winners, who have been recognised for all their contributions to helping Plymouth on its journey to net zero and the fact they go above and beyond for our planet. 

    “Thanks to the panel of judges for taking the time to select the winners and to all of those who nominated friends, neighbours and colleagues to highlight our worthy unsung heroes. 

    “This really is a huge achievement, and we will all come together to celebrate their awards at the Big Green Trail.” 

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Grothman and Cruz Introduce Bicameral CREATE JOBS Act

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Glenn Grothman (R-Glenbeulah 6th District Wisconsin)

    Congressman Glenn Grothman (R-WI) joins Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) in introducing the CREATE JOBS Act, a bicameral bill which will restore key pro-manufacturing provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), incentivizing domestic production and creating over one million full-time jobs for hardworking Americans.
    The CREATE JOBS Act would reinstate and make permanent two expired TCJA provisions that were vital in driving manufacturing growth and attracting investment back to the U.S. In addition, the bill applies neutral cost recovery for structures, such as factories. Taken together, these provisions will bolster manufacturing, raise wages, and create good-paying jobs.
    “The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) delivered major wins for American families and workers, but some of its most powerful tools for growth have already expired, hurting the competitiveness of the manufacturing industry,” said Grothman. “Wisconsin’s Sixth District is the most manufacturing intensive district in the country, so I’ve seen directly how this affects the hardworking men and women at home.
    “The bottom line is we must make these provisions permanent to support our manufacturers, restore what we know works, and expand policies that strengthen our economy and create jobs across the nation. After our workforce has suffered through inflation and economic turmoil over the past four years, I’m proud to join Senator Ted Cruz in introducing the CREATE JOBS Act to invest in American workers and grow our industrial base.”

    “As Congress considers extending immediate deductions for research and equipment, it’s long past time to give structures similar treatment. The 2017 tax cuts were a leap forward for investment, but they left buildings behind. By fixing that omission, the CREATE JOBS Act levels the playing field for all types of investment and unlocks capital for American manufacturing. Updating cost recovery for all investments is the single most pro-manufacturing, pro-growth reform Congress could include in reconciliation,” said Adam Michel, Director of Tax Policy Studies at the Cato Institute.

     

    “WMC thanks Rep. Grothman for his leadership making the Wisconsin and American economies pro-business.  One-hundred percent bonus deprecation and full-expensing of R&D costs were boons for economic growth across Wisconsin and the country following the passage of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.   Making these provisions permanent will provide predictability for business investments, make America more attractive for growth, and ultimately strengthen our economy.  The CREATE JOBS Act is common-sense policy that is positively pro-business and promotes job creation right here in Wisconsin and across America,” said Kurt Bauer, President & CEO at Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC).

     

    Background Information

     

    The CREATE JOBS Act would make permanent two key pro-manufacturing provisions of the TCJA and create further incentives to produce domestically.

    Specifically, the bill would make the bonus-depreciation and full-expensing for research and development (R&D) provisions of the TCJA permanent and apply neutral cost recovery to rental units and commercial structures, like factories.

    According to the Tax Foundation, these provisions would increase long-run GDP by 5.1 percent, increase wages by 4.3 percent, and create over one million full-time jobs for American workers.

    Senator Ted Cruz previously introduced this bill in 2020, 2021, and 2023.

    U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Glenbeulah) is serving his fifth term representing Wisconsin’s 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Postal summit held

    Source: Hong Kong Information Services

    The 6th Mainland-Hong Kong-Macao Postal Summit was held in Hong Kong today where representatives from the three places engaged in business exchanges and in-depth discussions on key topics.

     

    Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Algernon Yau delivered opening remarks at the summit.

    ​

    State Post Bureau Director General Zhao Chongjiu, China Post Group Co Chairman Liu Aili, Macao Post & Telecommunications Bureau Director Lau Wai Meng, and Postmaster General Leonia Tai gave speeches respectively, and joined Mr Yau in officiating at the summit’s opening ceremony.

     

    Seven important consensus were reached at the meeting, including collaboratively ensuring service support for the 15th National Games and jointly launching special products.

     

    In his opening remarks, Mr Yau said it is highly significant for the postal summit to be held in Hong Kong for the first time. Under the leadership of the State Post Bureau, the summit provides a sustainable and effective platform for the postal services of the three places to deepen communication and co-operation, enhance policy co-ordination and resource sharing, and promote integration and exchange in postal development.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Business Owner Sentenced After Receiving More than $1.6 Million in Funds from the CARES Act

    Source: United States Small Business Administration

    Click Here to View the Original U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Press Release

    A former Oklahoma man with business ties in Florida was sentenced today after pleading guilty to four counts of bank fraud, announced U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson.

    U.S. District Judge Sara E. Hill sentenced Shawn Ray Murnan, 57, of Windemere, Florida, to 33 months imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release. Judge Hill further ordered Murnan to pay $1,641,796.47 in restitution to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

    “In 2020, the CARES Act funding was established to provide emergency financial assistance to help businesses that were disrupted,” said U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson. “Investigators and prosecutors are committed to finding those like Murnan who steal government funding and prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law.”

    From April 2020 through October 2021, Murnan admitted to falsifying several CARES Act applications to the SBA. Murnan was the owner of numerous business ventures in Oklahoma, Florida, and other states. He submitted 14 applications on behalf of his businesses, including Blujett, LLC, which was based in Broken Arrow. He submitted applications claiming to have several employees and falsified his payroll expenses. Murnan requested more than two million and successfully received $1,641,796.47 from seven Paycheck Protection Program loans and two Economic Injury Disaster Loans. After receiving the funds, Murnan applied for the loans to be forgiven.

    Previously released on bond, Murnan was taken into custody following the sentencing today, where he will remain pending transfer to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

    The Office of Inspector General for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Office of Inspector General for the Small Business Administration, and the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Whipple prosecuted the case.

    The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s prosecution of fraud schemes that exploit the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Since the inception of the CARES Act, the Fraud Section has prosecuted over 150 defendants in more than 95 criminal cases and has seized over $75 million in cash proceeds derived from fraudulently obtained PPP funds, as well as numerous real estate properties and luxury items purchased with such proceeds. More information can be found at Justice.gov/OPA/pr/justice-department-takes-action-against-covid-19-fraud.

    Related programs: COVID EIDL, Disaster, Pandemic Oversight, PPP

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: South Africa Accelerates Drive to Expand Intra-African Trade through African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)

    South Africa has reaffirmed its commitment to harnessing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to unlock new growth opportunities for local businesses and strengthen regional integration. Opening the IATF2025 South Africa Business Roadshow in Johannesburg, Mr. Humphrey Nwugo, Regional Director (Southern Africa) at Afreximbank (https://www.Afreximbank.com/), emphasised the urgency of mobilising concrete action. “This is the time to ensure that South Africa’s public and private sectors are not only present but strategically positioned to seize the immense opportunities that IATF2025 will present.”  

    Mr. Nwugo underscored South Africa’s pivotal role in the continent’s integration journey, citing its strong economic foundations, entrepreneurial energy, and institutional capacity – well positioned to integrate into African value chains. 

    “We are here to invite South Africa to lead. We want to see the country’s private sector on full display in Algiers,” he added. The Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2025), set to take place in Algiers from 4–10 September 2025, is poised to be a landmark market event and gateway to unprecedented trade and investment prospects across Africa. 

    E. Wamkele Mene, Secretary General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, highlighted the critical importance of IATF2025, taking place amid global instability, climate change, and shifting trade dynamics. 

    “Despite these headwinds, Africa has the capacity to navigate the challenges, accelerate industrial development, and realise the vision of a fully integrated continent,” he said. 

    He stressed the urgency of building regional value chains in sectors like automotive and agribusiness, which offer vast potential for inclusive growth. Strengthening these interconnected ecosystems will support technology transfer, diversify intra-African trade, and create new opportunities for small and medium enterprises across the continent. 

    Speaking at the event, the Honourable Sihle Zikalala, Deputy Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, noted South Africa’s strong positioning to drive industrialisation, innovation, and regional value chain development.  

    “South Africa views the AfCFTA as a historic opportunity to deepen economic ties with our neighbours, expand market access for our goods and services, and promote inclusive, job-rich growth,” said Minister Zikalala.  

    “The IATF2025 must be viewed as more than just a marketplace, and rather as a strategic tool for implementation, where policy meets practice. South Africa has a critical role to play in driving this vision, underpinned by entrepreneurial spirit, institutional strength, and a dynamic SMME ecosystem. Through partnerships and public-private collaboration, we can develop world-class infrastructure across Africa while reducing our reliance on foreign exchange by trading in our own currencies,” he added. 

    H.E Ms. Baleka Mbete, founder NaLHISA and former Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa was also in attendance. 

    The Roadshow convened over 350 business leaders, policymakers, creatives, and investors, as well as senior representatives from African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), the African Union Commission (AUC), and the AfCFTA Secretariat. Themed “Harnessing Regional and Continental Value Chains: Accelerating Africa’s Industrialisation and Global Competitiveness under the AfCFTA,” the event spotlighted strategies to build resilient supply chains and boost intra-African trade. 

    Accelerating intra-African trade is pivotal to unlocking industrial opportunities tailored to the continent’s strengths. It reduces dependence on external markets, builds economic resilience, and enables value addition within Africa. When African nations trade more with one another, they retain more wealth, create higher-quality jobs, and foster inclusive growth through regional value chains. 

    With the AfCFTA creating a single market of 1.4 billion people, Africa gains the scale and efficiency needed to compete globally. A stronger internal market also improves the continent’s bargaining power in international negotiations, strengthens its integration into global supply chains, and sets the stage for long-term economic transformation. 

    South Africa’s strong industrial base, advanced financial sector, and world-class infrastructure position it as a regional anchor for AfCFTA implementation. According to South African Revenue Service (SARS) and UN COMTRADE, South Africa recorded merchandise exports of $110.5 billion and imports of $113.2 billion in 2023, resulting in a modest trade deficit of $2.7 billion. Trade made up 65.7% of GDP (World Bank, 2023), demonstrating South Africa’s deep integration into global markets. 

    Notably, intra-African trade remained a national strength. As reported in Afreximbank’s 2024 African Trade Report, South Africa exported $29.6 billion and imported $9.6 billion from African partners, with intra-African exports comprising 26.8% of total exports. Key sectors such as automotive, agro-processing, and financial services are already benefiting and poised to grow further through regional integration and value chain expansion. 

    Dr. Gainmore Zanamwe, Director, Trade Facilitation and Investment Promotion, Afreximbank, highlighted ongoing efforts to enable seamless intro-Africa trade: “Afreximbank is deeply committed to unlocking Africa’s industrial and trade potential by building enabling ecosystems from financing to infrastructure and standards. Through platforms like the Africa Trade Gateway and Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), we are removing long-standing barriers to intra-African trade, allowing businesses to transact in local currencies and access real-time market intelligence.”  

    Dr. Zanamwe also emphasised the growing role of South Africa and Algeria in regional value chains, especially in manufacturing and automotive sectors. He encouraged South African companies to participate actively in IATF2025, pointing to over $13 billion in EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contracts facilitated by Afreximbank. He also highlighted funding vehicles such as the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), the Africa Direct Investment Initiative, and the $2 billion Export Agriculture for Food Security programme. 

    “IATF2025 is not just an exhibition – it’s a business gateway. With 2,000+ exhibitors, 35,000 visitors, and 140+ participating countries, we project over $44 billion in trade and investment deals. This is South Africa’s opportunity to lead,” he said. 

    In closing, H.E. Ambassador Ali Achoui, Algeria’s Ambassador to South Africa, extended a warm invitation to South African businesses: 

    “Welcome to Algeria – a country with the third-largest GDP in Africa, no external debt, and ranked first in Africa and the Arab world in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We are proud to host IATF2025 and are committed to facilitating streamlined visa processes by reducing documentation requirements to ease access for all African participants.” 

    Since 2018, IATF has secured more than $100 billion in trade deals, welcomed over 70,000 visitors, more than 4500 exhibitors and has become Africa’s most influential trade and investment platform. 

    The event will feature: 

    • A trade exhibition 
    • The Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX) showcase of fashion, music, film, sports, gastronomy, arts and craft, and literature 
    • A four-day Trade and Investment Forum 
    • The Africa Automotive Show 
    • Special Country Days and Global Africa Day celebrations 
    • B2B and B2G matchmaking 
    • The AU Youth Start-Up programme 
    • The Africa Research & Innovation Hub 
    • AfSNET to promote sub-national trade and cultural exchange 
    • IATF virtual. 

    To register for IATF2025 or learn more, please visit: www.IntrAfricanTradeFair.com 

    Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Afreximbank.

    Media Contact: 
    media@intrafricatradefair.com  
    press@afreximbank.com

    About the Intra-African Trade Fair:
    Organised by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC) and the AfCFTA Secretariat, the Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF) is designed to boost intra-African trade and investment. It provides a unique platform for businesses to connect, exchange trade and market information, and explore opportunities to scale across Africa. IATF is open to African and global companies committed to supporting the continent’s industrialisation and transformation. 

    About The Johannesburg Tourism Company (JTC):  
    JTC, the official sponsor of the IATF2025 South Africa Business Roadshow, is focused on promoting Johannesburg as a business and leisure destination and often supports various events within the city.  

    MIL OSI Africa –