Category: Covid 19

MIL-OSI Economics: Gender in Focus: African Development Bank’s support ignites the entrepreneurial spirit within Zimbabwean women

Source: African Development Bank Group

Turning Crisis into Opportunity: How Two Zimbabwean Women Entrepreneurs Are Building Thriving Businesses

When the Covid-19 pandemic brought much of the world to a standstill, Yollanda Mambeu saw an opportunity in the crisis. Amid the strict lockdowns that shuttered countless businesses, she launched her dream venture —a cake shop in a high-density suburb of Mutare, Zimbabwe’s third-largest city.

Since then, her ovens have rarely cooled. What began as a modest baking business has expanded into a thriving enterprise. Today, Mambeu supplies a wide range of baking products and accessories, from cake-making tools and spices to balloon stands, cake toppers, and edible image printing. She also offers baking lessons to aspiring entrepreneurs, aged 20 to 40, in smaller towns around Mutare.

Mambeu now earns an average of $4,000 in monthly profit, with peaks of up to $5,000 during national holidays and festive periods. She attributes her success to training received under the Sustainable Enterprise Development of Women and Youth – Business Growth for Young Entrepreneurs project, funded by the African Development Bank. The programme, which promotes entrepreneurship and job creation, has reached 984 beneficiaries to date—over 68% of them women.

Mambeu took part in two key training programmes: Sustainable and Resilient Enterprise and Improve Your Business, both funded by the Bank’s Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Multi-Donor Trust Fund and delivered by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in partnership with the Government of Zimbabwe.

“Before the training, I struggled with market visibility and branding,” she said. “I learned how to position my business, and now everything is branded—from shop windows to refrigerators. People immediately know what we offer. That change boosted our monthly profits from $1,000 to $4,000.”

In January 2024, Mambeu formally registered her business as Yoyo’s Yummy Cakes and Baking Supplies and began advertising on local radio. The strategy paid off—by September, her customer base had quadrupled to 1,200 clients.

Her growing brand has attracted the attention of large corporates. One of Zimbabwe’s largest milk producers appointed her as a brand ambassador, supplying her with baking milk. She now provides confectioneries to a commercial bank, the national revenue authority, and a local NGO, among other clients. To meet rising demand, she invested $2,500 in heavy-duty baking equipment and is planning to open both a bakery and a wholesale outlet.

Mambeu’s story is echoed by Violet Mhute, a 44-year-old entrepreneur based in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city. Like Mambeu, she benefited from Bank-supported training—this time to help women entrepreneurs break into the male-dominated leather industry.

Mhute founded Soko Genuine Leather in 2008 but initially struggled to establish herself in Zimbabwe’s $32 million leather sector. For years, she exported semi-processed hides to South Africa and the UK for low returns. Now, her business boasts a catalogue of high-quality leather goods—shoes, sandals, wallets, and belts—sold across Africa and beyond.

“Entering the leather industry as a woman was tough. Accessing the right information was a constant battle,” Mhute said. “But the training gave me the tools and confidence to navigate those challenges.”

With support from the African Development Bank and government policies that support local value addition, Mhute shifted from exporting raw materials to selling premium finished products. Her goods are now certified by the Standards Association of Zimbabwe, enabling her to participate in international expos and tap into new markets, including the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region and the UK.

She was also trained on how to expand her business under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) framework. The impact has been significant: monthly profits rose from $800 to $3,100.

Violet Mhute, founder of Soko Genuine Leather, a leather production company.

Mhute says she now employs five young people in her growing leather business.

Dr. Martha Phiri, Director of Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development at the African Development Bank, says the success stories of Mambeu and Mhute reflect the Bank’s sustained commitment to private sector development—particularly micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

“These efforts prioritize inclusion, with targeted support for underserved groups such as women and youth, ensuring equitable access to resources and opportunities,” said Phiri. “Through the Bank’s initiatives, we empower women entrepreneurs by providing technical assistance, skills training, and business development support.”

Both Mambeu and Mhute say they are optimistic about the future and aim to grow their businesses further while creating jobs for others.

“My dream goes beyond expanding my business,” said Mhute. “I want to establish an entrepreneurship institute that will help others break through the barriers in male-dominated industries—just as I have.”

Since its launch in 2017, the Youth Entrepreneurship and Innovation Multi-Donor Trust Fund has been a key catalyst for entrepreneurs like Mambeu and Mhute. The fund supports the African Development Bank’s Jobs for Youth in Africa Strategy, providing grants to empower youth-led start-ups and MSMEs operating in both the formal and informal sectors.

MIL OSI Economics –

April 1, 2025
MIL-OSI New Zealand: 100 million milestone leaves NZ increasingly isolated

Source: ACT Party

“Data collected by Bloomberg shows the milestone of 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine administered worldwide has been passed, leaving big questions for the Government about where New Zealand will stand relative to other countries as the worldwide programme continues,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“If the medical regulator gives the all-clear to New Zealand’s first vaccine today it won’t change anything, we still won’t have any vaccine for months.

“A very effective spin campaign is being waged whereby commentators well-disposed to the Government tell us we should actually be thankful to be at the back of the queue for rolling out coronavirus vaccines.

“We’re being told we’ve done so well we can afford to wait, but the opposite is true.

“Despite well publicised issues with supply, there are almost as many people being vaccinated every day across the planet as there are people in New Zealand – 4.25 million in the latest count – and the figure is rising daily.

“A week ago in was little more than 3 million.

“Being at the back of the queue for vaccination means being at the back of the queue re-integrating with the countries we want to travel to, trade with and invest in.

“It’s inevitable that by the middle of the year there will be essentially open borders between the countries that have moved fastest to vaccinate, and that network will grow exponentially.

“A Covid-19 vaccination passport will become your ticket to freedom, yet New Zealanders are going to be forced to watch on, locked down in a largely Covid free country.

“Just how is that a good outcome?

“Shouldn’t our Government have done a better job of prioritising our recovery from the pandemic?”

ENDS

MIL OSI New Zealand News –

April 1, 2025
MIL-OSI New Zealand: $10m a month wasted on redundant contact tracing

Source: ACT Party

“ACT can reveal that taxpayers are footing the bill for pointless contact tracing that should have been scrapped when Omicron made it redundant,” says ACT’s Leader David Seymour.

“Written parliamentary questions show the Government is still spending $10.2 million a month on contact tracing, despite contact tracers being unable to reach enough potential contacts or fast enough to ever be of any use in light of Omicron’s higher transmissibility.

“The Government’s response to COVID has become increasingly costly and ineffective as the virus has evolved they’ve failed to change with it. Now we’re stuck with redundant policies that were designed for a different variant and exist only as a financial burden.

“The reality is that most people don’t even report their positive results anyway.

“$10 million would fund 33 cystic fibrosis patients with Trifakta for a year, 71,000 mental health counselling sessions, and is ten times more than what Hospice NZ needs – but this Government seems to think it is better off spent on empty call centres that are providing no benefit to New Zealanders.

“ACT says that any COVID restrictions or services that aren’t protecting our health system in any tangible way should just go. They’re a needless expense at a time when reckless Government spending is fuelling out of control domestic inflation.

“Getting rid of contact tracing would save taxpayers millions and is an important symbol that we’re moving on and getting our way of life back. It should be done immediately.”

The Written Parliamentary Question can be found here.

MIL OSI New Zealand News –

April 1, 2025
MIL-OSI New Zealand: 24 day isolation rule non-announcement unprofessional and unworkable

Source: ACT Party

“New COVID isolation rules for Omicron are unworkable, and the way they were dumped on the Ministry of Health website on a Friday afternoon is unprofessional,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Late on Friday, rules appeared on the Ministry of Health website to the effect that a person who tests positive must isolate for 14 days, and household members must isolate for a further 10 days.

“The way this has been announced, or rather not announced, echoes the cancellation of the 20 January MIQ lottery. That lottery was cancelled on the website of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, that was deleted and later confirmed in the form of a tweet. This is not leadership of communication in the middle of a pandemic.

“A Government prepared for Omicron would make clear announcements, rather than slipping critical details about isolation onto websites on Friday afternoon. Instead they have buried the rules on the Ministry of Health website with no formal announcement.

“The rules announced are unworkable, they will lead to a domino effect where a household can be down for a month. The Ministry of Health website says ‘The isolation period for COVID-19 cases in the community is at least 14 days, including 72 hours symptom-free,’ and ‘Your household members will need to remain in isolation for at least 10 days after you have been released as a case. This means they will need to be in isolation for longer than you as the case will [sic].’

“The effect is that if you test positive, members of your household may have to isolate for 24 days. People who cannot afford that will have a strong incentive not to get tested, defeating the purpose of the policy. If the advice is taken seriously, it will cripple the health workforce and supply chains more generally.

“New Zealand’s advantage with COVID is that we can learn from other countries, but we are doing the opposite here. Other countries are loosening their isolation requirements to keep hospitals opening and supermarkets shelves full, but we are tightening ours.

“By contrast, isolation rules in the UK were changed on Monday so that all people in the household of a case can leave isolation after five days if they have negative tests on two consecutive days. They have done this because their previous isolation rules devastated supply chains.

“In New South Wales, cases are required to isolate for 14 days but critical workers can leave earlier. Unlike New Zealand, New South Wales does not automatically deem household members as close contacts and require them to isolate. It allows people to use their judgement.

“The Government badly needs to front on this issue. It needs to explain why these rules are put in place, and why it believes the benefits of an isolation regime stricter than any other country bar China is justified. It should release the modelling it has relied on in an open and transparent way, the way this Government once promised to act.”

MIL OSI New Zealand News –

April 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: How to talk with children about Canada-U.S. tensions

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jean-François Bureau, Professor, School of Psychology, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

Mainstream public discourse in the first months of 2025 have been dominated by tensions between Canada and United States. These include references to Canada becoming annexed as the 51st American state and the trade war, with threats and the application of tariffs by the U.S. and counter-tariffs by Canada.

While this political climate brings uncertainty at an international level, it comes with fear of job loss for many Canadians at a time when the cost of living is already straining many families’ finances.

Read more:
Canadians are feeling increasingly powerless amid economic struggles and rising inequality

These topics may appear to be concerns for adults, but children may also feel the effects. As psychology researchers studying parent-child relationships and child mental health, we believe it is important to consider children’s potential fears and anxiety in the current political climate.

Here, we explain why it’s important to address this topic with children, and how parents can do so in a reassuring and informative manner.

Children’s concerns and emotions

While the economy and politics could seem like topics that children would not really care about, recent research suggests that many children and youth actually worry about these topics.

Back in 2020, American parents of children aged six to 17 years old were asked to rate their child’s anxiety about political news, in terms of voting issues covered in media since the 2016 election. According to the study by psychology researcher Nicole E. Caporino and colleagues, 36 per cent of children worried about the U.S. getting into war, and 37 per cent worried about their family’s finances.

Studies suggest children worry about issues affecting their families.
(Shutterstock)

Similarly, studies elsewhere suggest children and youth worry about issues affecting their families. Based on these numbers, we can assume that many Canadian children also worry about the current Canada-U.S. political climate.

Of course, it’s worth remembering not all families experience political and economic events in the same way. For example, children whose families face economic precarity are likely already living with stressors affecting their households like unemployment or food insecurity. Current tensions may also exacerbate children’s existing concerns.

Given that children may be concerned and worried, some parents may intuitively seek to avoid the topic with children to avoid provoking more distress. However, discussing a stressful event can actually decrease the distress felt towards it.

When children are able to talk about what concerns them with their parents, they learn important emotional regulation and coping skills. For example, they learn how to identify and understand their emotions, and how to regulate those emotions. Discussions between parents and children also help foster a climate of trust, in which children feel like they can rely on their parents in moments of need.

Noticing, tackling children’s anxiety and fears

Children may not always have the words to articulate their concerns in the same way that adults do. Parents should watch for anxiety symptoms in their children, which may manifest in various ways, including having mood changes, being more irritable or sad, having difficulty sleeping, being more clingy than usual, or withdrawing from activities. There are also signs that may be harder to spot.

We present five ways to address the situation with your children:

1. Use direct questions to understand how children feel. Direct questions can help understand how children feel. For example, you may ask: “What have you heard about what’s happening?” or “How do you feel about it?” These questions can help understand what specifically is scary to them.

Children could be worried about no longer seeing family in the U.S., or some may even fear a military clash.
(Shutterstock)

This is especially important given that children tend to worry about different things than adults. For example, younger children with family in the U.S. may worry they will no longer be able to see their family members anymore. Older children may be worried about a parent losing a job, the country’s economic instability or environmental impacts. Some children may even fear a military clash.

2. Be sensitive to how the conflict is presented. In the media, it is common to refer to the diplomatic and economic tensions as a “trade war.” While adults understand that trade wars do not involve military attacks, this concept is much more abstract for children.

Hearing the word “war” may trigger difficult images for them, including armed soldiers, weapons and devastation. This is especially true for children with lived experience of war, political conflict or displacement.

Read more:
Coronavirus isn’t the end of ‘childhood innocence,’ but an opportunity to rethink children’s rights

It’s important to reframe the conflict in ways that children can understand. For example, parents can compare the conflict between two children. Parents might say: “You know when there are two children upset with each other at school, and they have a big disagreement. Sometimes it can take a lot of time to find a solution that works for everyone. The conflict between Canada and the U.S. is a bit like that. It could take a lot of time and trouble to find a solution.”

3. Avoid misinformation. When discussing these topics, parents should seek to clarify any misinformation and provide reassurance. They should also help ensure children receive information from credible sources rather than social media or peers, who may sensationalize or misinterpret events. Providing factual but age-appropriate explanations is a key ingredient in mitigating fear and uncertainty.

4. Focus on co-operation and opportunities instead of boycotting.

Many Canadian families are choosing to boycott American products. In order to ease the emotional burden on children, it can be helpful to reframe the boycott as an opportunity for co-operation. For instance, parents can highlight how they are trying to support local businesses.

Similarly, for families with resources to travel, changes in travel plans can be framed as a way to discover new places. A parent might frame it as: “This year, instead of going to the beach, we’re going to be exploring some incredible places closer to home. We’re going to have so much fun trying new things!” This approach creates curiosity and control, not anxiety. It can also be beneficial for children’s development to learn to be more flexible with change.

Read more:
When Canadian snowbirds don’t flock south, the costs are more than financial

5. Create a sense of normalcy and routine. As important as it is to validate children’s fears, it is equally important to help them maintain a sense of normalcy. Families should strive to balance discussions about the trade war and its potential ramifications with more light, mundane topics. Similarly, limiting the time that children watch the news or when it is audible can help limit further concerns from developing.

Routines are also beneficial for children’s development and well-being. Maintaining a predictable schedule, such as a bedtime routine, can help children feel safe and less anxious. Focus on adding fun and soothing activities to the daily routine. This lets children know life goes on.

Navigating turbulent times

As the trade war with the U.S. plays out, parents should consider how it may impact their children’s emotions and sense of safety. Even serious conflicts such as this one don’t last forever, and solutions will come.

In the meantime, parents can help children cope with these challenging times by offering age-appropriate explanations and encouraging resilience.

Jean-François Bureau receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Consortium National de Formation en Santé.

Audrey-Ann Deneault receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Centre de recherche universitaire sur les jeunes et les familles.

– ref. How to talk with children about Canada-U.S. tensions – https://theconversation.com/how-to-talk-with-children-about-canada-u-s-tensions-252435

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

April 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: How to talk to children about the Canada-U.S. tensions

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jean-François Bureau, Professor, School of Psychology, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

Mainstream public discourse in the first months of 2025 have been dominated by tensions between Canada and United States. These include references to Canada becoming annexed as the 51st American state and the trade war, with threats and the application of tariffs by the U.S. and counter-tariffs by Canada.

While this political climate brings uncertainty at an international level, it comes with fear of job loss for many Canadians at a time when the cost of living is already straining many families’ finances.

Read more:
Canadians are feeling increasingly powerless amid economic struggles and rising inequality

These topics may appear to be concerns for adults, but children may also feel the effects. As psychology researchers studying parent-child relationships and child mental health, we believe it is important to consider children’s potential fears and anxiety in the current political climate.

Here, we explain why it’s important to address this topic with children, and how parents can do so in a reassuring and informative manner.

Children’s concerns and emotions

While the economy and politics could seem like topics that children would not really care about, recent research suggests that many children and youth actually worry about these topics.

Back in 2020, American parents of children aged six to 17 years old were asked to rate their child’s anxiety about political news, in terms of voting issues covered in media since the 2016 election. According to the study by psychology researcher Nicole E. Caporino and colleagues, 36 per cent of children worried about the U.S. getting into war, and 37 per cent worried about their family’s finances.

Studies suggest children worry about issues affecting their families.
(Shutterstock)

Similarly, studies elsewhere suggest children and youth worry about issues affecting their families. Based on these numbers, we can assume that many Canadian children also worry about the current Canada-U.S. political climate.

Of course, it’s worth remembering not all families experience political and economic events in the same way. For example, children whose families face economic precarity are likely already living with stressors affecting their households like unemployment or food insecurity. Current tensions may also exacerbate children’s existing concerns.

Given that children may be concerned and worried, some parents may intuitively seek to avoid the topic with children to avoid provoking more distress. However, discussing a stressful event can actually decrease the distress felt towards it.

When children are able to talk about what concerns them with their parents, they learn important emotional regulation and coping skills. For example, they learn how to identify and understand their emotions, and how to regulate those emotions. Discussions between parents and children also help foster a climate of trust, in which children feel like they can rely on their parents in moments of need.

Noticing, tackling children’s anxiety and fears

Children may not always have the words to articulate their concerns in the same way that adults do. Parents should watch for anxiety symptoms in their children, which may manifest in various ways, including having mood changes, being more irritable or sad, having difficulty sleeping, being more clingy than usual, or withdrawing from activities. There are also signs that may be harder to spot.

We present five ways to address the situation with your children:

1. Use direct questions to understand how children feel. Direct questions can help understand how children feel. For example, you may ask: “What have you heard about what’s happening?” or “How do you feel about it?” These questions can help understand what specifically is scary to them.

Children could be worried about no longer seeing family in the U.S., or some may even fear a military clash.
(Shutterstock)

This is especially important given that children tend to worry about different things than adults. For example, younger children with family in the U.S. may worry they will no longer be able to see their family members anymore. Older children may be worried about a parent losing a job, the country’s economic instability or environmental impacts. Some children may even fear a military clash.

2. Be sensitive to how the conflict is presented. In the media, it is common to refer to the diplomatic and economic tensions as a “trade war.” While adults understand that trade wars do not involve military attacks, this concept is much more abstract for children.

Hearing the word “war” may trigger difficult images for them, including armed soldiers, weapons and devastation. This is especially true for children with lived experience of war, political conflict or displacement.

Read more:
Coronavirus isn’t the end of ‘childhood innocence,’ but an opportunity to rethink children’s rights

It’s important to reframe the conflict in ways that children can understand. For example, parents can compare the conflict between two children. Parents might say: “You know when there are two children upset with each other at school, and they have a big disagreement. Sometimes it can take a lot of time to find a solution that works for everyone. The conflict between Canada and the U.S. is a bit like that. It could take a lot of time and trouble to find a solution.”

3. Avoid misinformation. When discussing these topics, parents should seek to clarify any misinformation and provide reassurance. They should also help ensure children receive information from credible sources rather than social media or peers, who may sensationalize or misinterpret events. Providing factual but age-appropriate explanations is a key ingredient in mitigating fear and uncertainty.

4. Focus on co-operation and opportunities instead of boycotting.

Many Canadian families are choosing to boycott American products. In order to ease the emotional burden on children, it can be helpful to reframe the boycott as an opportunity for co-operation. For instance, parents can highlight how they are trying to support local businesses.

Similarly, for families with resources to travel, changes in travel plans can be framed as a way to discover new places. A parent might frame it as: “This year, instead of going to the beach, we’re going to be exploring some incredible places closer to home. We’re going to have so much fun trying new things!” This approach creates curiosity and control, not anxiety. It can also be beneficial for children’s development to learn to be more flexible with change.

Read more:
When Canadian snowbirds don’t flock south, the costs are more than financial

5. Create a sense of normalcy and routine. As important as it is to validate children’s fears, it is equally important to help them maintain a sense of normalcy. Families should strive to balance discussions about the trade war and its potential ramifications with more light, mundane topics. Similarly, limiting the time that children watch the news or when it is audible can help limit further concerns from developing.

Routines are also beneficial for children’s development and well-being. Maintaining a predictable schedule, such as a bedtime routine, can help children feel safe and less anxious. Focus on adding fun and soothing activities to the daily routine. This lets children know life goes on.

Navigating turbulent times

As the trade war with the U.S. plays out, parents should consider how it may impact their children’s emotions and sense of safety. Even serious conflicts such as this one don’t last forever, and solutions will come.

In the meantime, parents can help children cope with these challenging times by offering age-appropriate explanations and encouraging resilience.

Jean-François Bureau receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Consortium National de Formation en Santé.

Audrey-Ann Deneault receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Centre de recherche universitaire sur les jeunes et les familles.

– ref. How to talk to children about the Canada-U.S. tensions – https://theconversation.com/how-to-talk-to-children-about-the-canada-u-s-tensions-252435

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

April 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: How viruses blur the boundaries of life

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Heshmat Borhani, Lecturer in Bioinformatics, University of Nottingham

Cryptographer/Shutterstock

When people talk about the coronavirus, they sometimes describe this invisible entity as if it has a personality and even a conscience. If you ask a biology or medical student what a virus is, they will tell you that a virus is not a living organism, or at most that it exists at the border between living and dead – a kind of walking dead.

For biologists who specialise in virology, however, this view is not clear-cut. Scientists still disagree on whether viruses are truly alive or not.

What scientists can agree on is that a virus adapts to new conditions, evolves and sometimes harms humans. It is also an infectious agent that can only replicate within a host organism such as bacteria, plants or animals.

The boundary between being alive and dead is a concept with no specific criteria. So to help you think about whether viruses are alive, I will talk you through some of the different definitions of life in science.

Throughout history, scientists have debated the definition of life and researchers from different fields still disagree. This debate shapes scientific understanding and influences public health decisions – for example, defining whether viruses are “alive” affects how we design vaccines and strategies to stop their spread.

Biologists may refer you to Erwin Schrödinger’s definition of life. Schrödinger was an Austrian Nobel-prize winning physicist who published a book in 1944 called What is Life? He was one of the first scientists to try to define life and is perhaps better known in popular culture for his “Schrödinger’s cat” thought experiment.

He proposed that life is a form of negative “entropy”, a scientific concept that explains how disordered something is. A physical system will always increase in entropy/disorder unless we insert energy to change this process. Schrödinger thought living things create and maintain order by using energy.

For example, a messy bedroom doesn’t clean itself, but a person can tidy it. Organisms do something similar at the molecular level. DNA is highly structured, allowing it to store genetic information. Proteins fold into specific shapes to function properly. In contrast, after an organism dies, its molecules break down, increasing disorder.

Schrödinger later revised his view – around the 1950s – suggesting that life depends on free energy. Free energy is the energy that drives chemical reactions in living things. This marked a shift from focusing on order (negative entropy) to emphasising energy as essential for life.

The coronavirus took on a personality for many people.
creativeneko/Shutterstock

In the mid-20th century, scientists switched from defining life to describing its key characteristics. Studying organisms such as bacteria, plants and animals, they identified common traits, setting a precedent still followed today.

Rather than seeking a single definition, researchers classify entities based on these traits. To decide whether a virus is alive, researchers assess how well it meets these criteria.

According to biology, the smallest unit of life is the cell. A cell is an independent unit which makes functional molecules (such as proteins and enzymes). Cells can use their own molecules to replicate genetic material independently. A virus also has genetic material but needs to use the host cell’s enzymes to make functional molecules or replicate its genetic material.

Put simply, a virus does not replicate or function independently. So by the biological definition, a virus cannot be categorised as a living organism.

But from a genetic and evolutionary point of view a living organism is defined by its ability to reproduce. A person who does not have children is still considered to be alive as they are part of the gene pool and descended from people who did have children. From this view a virus is alive, since it can produce similar offspring.

Some scientists also focus on metabolism and energy production as criteria for life. Metabolism includes catabolism (breaking down molecules like sugars during digestion) and anabolism (building molecules like muscle tissue), linking energy and material. These reactions require molecular structures to generate or use energy – structures viruses lack.

Does that mean viruses aren’t alive? An amoeba, for instance, uses nutrients and enzymes to sustain itself, while viruses rely entirely on a host. From this perspective, viruses don’t meet the metabolic criteria for life. However, some argue that since viruses hijack a host’s metabolism to replicate, they show life-like behaviour.

If we consider nutrients to be sources of free energy, a cell uses energy from the environment to build what it needs. As the cell absorbs energy from the environment, it builds and maintains its internal structures – like proteins and membranes.

It also releases a byproduct – carbon dioxide – that contributes to disorder in the external environment. Viruses also do this. They make their structures by using the external environment, a host cell in this case. The viruses’ byproducts may be what makes us sick.

As we explore the complexities of biology, it becomes clear that defining life itself is anything but straightforward. Viruses display both life-like and non-living traits, which influences how we approach treatments like antiviral drugs designed to block their replication inside host cells.

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

– ref. How viruses blur the boundaries of life – https://theconversation.com/how-viruses-blur-the-boundaries-of-life-230802

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

April 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Doctor shortages have hobbled health care for decades − and the trend could be worsening

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Rochelle Walensky, Bayer Fellow in Health and Biotech, American Academy in Berlin, Senior Fellow in the Women and Public Policy Program, Harvard Kennedy School

Specialists across numerous fields of medicine are in short supply. sudok1/iStock via Getty Images

Americans are increasingly waiting weeks or even months to get an appointment to see a health care specialist.

This delay comes at a time when the population of aging adults is rising dramatically. By 2050, the number of adults over 85 is expected to triple, which will intensify the strain on an already stretched health care system. We wrote about this worsening challenge and its implications for the health care workforce in a January 2025 report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

We are health care scholars who are acutely aware of the severe shortfall of specialists in America’s health care system. One of us, Rochelle Walensky, witnessed the consequences of this shortage firsthand as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from January 2020 to June 2023, during the critical early years of the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the physician and overall health care workforce shortage to the forefront. Amid the excess daily deaths in the U.S. from COVID-19, many people died of potentially preventable deaths due to delayed care for heart attacks, deferred cancer screenings and overwhelmed emergency departments and intensive care units.

Even before the pandemic, 80% of U.S. counties lacked a single infectious disease physician. Before going to the CDC, I – Dr. Walensky – was chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital. When COVID-19 hit our hospitals, we were in desperate need of more infectious disease expertise. I was just one of them.

At the local level, these infectious disease-trained subspecialists provide essential services when it comes to preventing and controlling transmissible outbreaks, carrying out diagnostic testing, developing treatment guidelines, informing hospital capacity planning and offering resources for community outreach. Each of these experts plays a vital role at the bedside and in systems management toward effective clinical, hospital and community responses to infectious disease outbreaks.

Uneven health care outcomes and access

For decades, experts have warned of an impending decline in the physician workforce.

Now, Americans across all regions, specialties and socioeconomic backgrounds are experiencing that decline firsthand or personally.

The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis projects a national shortage of 140,000 physicians by 2036, with that shortfall spanning multiple specialties, including primary care, obstetrics, cardiology and geriatrics.

However, some geographic areas in the country – especially some of those with the poorest health – are disproportionately affected. The brunt of the effect will be felt in rural areas: An estimated 56% shortage is predicted in nonmetro areas, versus only 6% in metro areas.

States such as Massachusetts, New York and Maryland boast the highest density of physicians per 100,000 people, while states such as Idaho, Mississippi and Oklahoma rank among those with the lowest. And even in states with the highest physician density, demand may still overwhelm access.

Although doctor shortages do not necessarily cause poor health outcomes, regions with fewer physicians tend to have lower life expectancy. The mean life expectancy in Mississippi is six years lower than that of Hawaii and more than four years below the national average. This underscores the substantial differences in health outcomes depending on where you live in the U.S.

Notably, areas with fewer doctors also see higher rates of chronic conditions such as chronic pulmonary disease, diabetes and poor mental health. This crisis is further exacerbated by the aging baby boomer population, which places increasing demand on an already strained health care system due to rising rates – especially among those over 85 – of multiple chronic diseases, complex health care needs and the concurrent use of multiple medications.

Rural areas have always had lower access to medical care compared with urban centers, and this divide could get far worse with the looming physician shortage.
Chalabala/iStock via Getty Images Plus

How the US reached this point

Some of these workforce challenges stem from the unintended consequences of policy changes that were originally aimed at improving the rigor of medical education or curtailing a once-anticipated physician glut.

For example, the 1910 Flexner Report was commissioned to restructure American medical education with the goals of standardizing curricula and improving quality. While the report succeeded at those goals, it was shortsighted in important ways. For instance, it recommended closing rather than strengthening 89 of the 155 existing medical schools at the time. This created medical school deserts that persist in some U.S. regions to this day.

Additionally, the report further divided the study of medicine, focused on disease, from the study of public health, which is focused on health care systems, populations and society. This separation has led to siloed communication and data systems that continue to hinder coordinated responses to public health crises.

Decades after the Flexner Report, in 1980, policymakers anticipated a physician oversupply based on medical school enrollment projections and government investments in the medical workforce. In response, funding constraints were introduced by Congress to limit residency and fellowship training slots available after medical school.

But by the early 2000s, discussions shifted to concerns about physician shortages. Despite the calls for reforms to address the issues more than a decade ago, the funding and training constraints have remained largely unchanged. These have created a persistent bottleneck in postgraduate medical training that requires acts of Congress to reverse.

Primary care doctors provide continuity for patients; without them, people tend to experience more complex health care needs and poorer outcomes.

Forces shaping the physician bottleneck

In the wake of the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, states with restrictive abortion policies are now facing an emerging and troubling workforce challenge: It may get more difficult to recruit and retain tomorrow’s medical school grads.

Research surveys suggest that 82% of future physicians, not just obstetricians, prefer to train and work in states that uphold abortion access. While it may seem obvious that obstetricians would want to avoid the increasing liabilities associated with the Dobbs decision, another point is less obvious: Most medical trainees are between the ages of 25 and 35, prime childbearing years, and may themselves want access to a full range of obstetric care.

And given that 20% of physicians are married to other physicians and an additional 25% to other health professionals, marriage within the health care workforce may also play a substantial role. A physician choosing not to practice in one of the 14 states with limited abortion access, many of which already rank among the poorest in health outcomes and lowest in physician densities, may not only take their expertise but also their partner’s elsewhere.

Shifting the trajectory

The doctor shortage requires a combination of solutions, starting with addressing the high cost of medical education and training. Medical school enrollment has increased by only 10% over the past decade, far insufficient to address both the shortage today and the projected growth of the aging population needing care.

In addition, many students carry large amounts of debt, which frequently limits who can pursue the profession. And existing scholarship and compensation programs have been only modestly effective in incentivizing providers to work in high-need areas.

In our New England Journal of Medicine report, we laid out several specific strategies that could help address the shortages and the potential workforce crisis. For instance:

Rather than the traditional medical education model – four years of broad medical training followed by three to seven years of residency – medical schools could offer more specialized training pathways. These streamlined programs would focus on the skills needed for specific medical specialties, potentially reducing training duration and costs.

Reforming physician compensation could also help address imbalances in the health care system. Specialists and subspecialists typically earn substantially more than primary care doctors, despite the high demand for primary care. Raising primary care salaries and offering incentives, such as student loan forgiveness for physicians in high-need areas, could encourage more doctors to practice where they are needed most.

Additionally, addressing physician burnout is crucial, particularly in primary care, where administrative burdens such as billing and charting contribute to stress and attrition. Reducing these burdens, potentially through novel AI-driven solutions, could allow doctors to focus more on patient care and less on paperwork.

These are just an assortment of strategies we propose, and time is of the essence. One thing is certain: The U.S. urgently needs more doctors, and everyone’s health depends on it.

Dr Rochelle P. Walensky is the Bayer Fellow in Health and Biotech, American Academy in Berlin. She reported receiving personal fees from Madryn Asset Management for serving as a senior policy advisor, Consonance Capital for serving as a senior advisory board member, and Doris Duke Foundation for serving as a trustee; consulting fees from Infectious Diseases Society of America; and nonfinancial support from The Carter Center for being a member of the board of directors outside the submitted work.

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

– ref. Doctor shortages have hobbled health care for decades − and the trend could be worsening – https://theconversation.com/doctor-shortages-have-hobbled-health-care-for-decades-and-the-trend-could-be-worsening-251222

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

April 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: How viruses blur the the boundaries of life

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Heshmat Borhani, Lecturer in in Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Nottingham

Cryptographer/Shutterstock

When people talk about the coronavirus, they sometimes describe this invisible entity as if it has a personality and even a conscience. If you ask a biology or medical student what a virus is, they will tell you that a virus is not a living organism, or at most that it exists at the border between living and dead – a kind of walking dead.

For biologists who specialise in virology, however, this view is not clear-cut. Scientists still disagree on whether viruses are truly alive or not.

What scientists can agree on is that a virus adapts to new conditions, evolves and sometimes harms humans. It is also an infectious agent that can only replicate within a host organism such as bacteria, plants or animals.

The boundary between being alive and dead is a concept with no specific criteria. So to help you think about whether viruses are alive, I will talk you through some of the different definitions of life in science.

Throughout history, scientists have debated the definition of life and researchers from different fields still disagree. This debate shapes scientific understanding and influences public health decisions – for example, defining whether viruses are “alive” affects how we design vaccines and strategies to stop their spread.

Biologists may refer you to Erwin Schrödinger’s definition of life. Schrödinger was an Austrian Nobel-prize winning physicist who published a book in 1944 called What is Life? He was one of the first scientists to try to define life and is perhaps better known in popular culture for his “Schrödinger’s cat” thought experiment.

He proposed that life is a form of negative “entropy”, a scientific concept that explains how disordered something is. A physical system will always increase in entropy/disorder unless we insert energy to change this process. Schrödinger thought living things create and maintain order by using energy.

For example, a messy bedroom doesn’t clean itself, but a person can tidy it. Organisms do something similar at the molecular level. DNA is highly structured, allowing it to store genetic information. Proteins fold into specific shapes to function properly. In contrast, after an organism dies, its molecules break down, increasing disorder.

Schrödinger later revised his view – around the 1950s – suggesting that life depends on free energy. Free energy is the energy that drives chemical reactions in living things. This marked a shift from focusing on order (negative entropy) to emphasising energy as essential for life.

The coronavirus took on a personality for many people.
creativeneko/Shutterstock

In the mid-20th century, scientists switched from defining life to describing its key characteristics. Studying organisms such as bacteria, plants and animals, they identified common traits, setting a precedent still followed today.

Rather than seeking a single definition, researchers classify entities based on these traits. To decide whether a virus is alive, researchers assess how well it meets these criteria.

According to biology, the smallest unit of life is the cell. A cell is an independent unit which makes functional molecules (such as proteins and enzymes). Cells can use their own molecules to replicate genetic material independently. A virus also has genetic material but needs to use the host cell’s enzymes to make functional molecules or replicate its genetic material.

Put simply, a virus does not replicate or function independently. So by the biological definition, a virus cannot be categorised as a living organism.

But from a genetic and evolutionary point of view a living organism is defined by its ability to reproduce. A person who does not have children is still considered to be alive as they are part of the gene pool and descended from people who did have children. From this view a virus is alive, since it can produce similar offspring.

Some scientists also focus on metabolism and energy production as criteria for life. Metabolism includes catabolism (breaking down molecules like sugars during digestion) and anabolism (building molecules like muscle tissue), linking energy and material. These reactions require molecular structures to generate or use energy – structures viruses lack.

Does that mean viruses aren’t alive? An amoeba, for instance, uses nutrients and enzymes to sustain itself, while viruses rely entirely on a host. From this perspective, viruses don’t meet the metabolic criteria for life. However, some argue that since viruses hijack a host’s metabolism to replicate, they show life-like behaviour.

If we consider nutrients to be sources of free energy, a cell uses energy from the environment to build what it needs. As the cell absorbs energy from the environment, it builds and maintains its internal structures – like proteins and membranes.

It also releases a byproduct – carbon dioxide – that contributes to disorder in the external environment. Viruses also do this. They make their structures by using the external environment, a host cell in this case. The viruses’ byproducts may be what makes us sick.

As we explore the complexities of biology, it becomes clear that defining life itself is anything but straightforward. Viruses display both life-like and non-living traits, which influences how we approach treatments like antiviral drugs designed to block their replication inside host cells.

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

– ref. How viruses blur the the boundaries of life – https://theconversation.com/how-viruses-blur-the-the-boundaries-of-life-230802

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

April 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Ghana’s e-levy: 3 lessons from the abolished mobile money tax

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Max Gallien, Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies

The first budget speech of Ghana’s new government on 11 March painted a picture of an economy in crisis, facing high debt and fiscal mismanagement. The finance minister, Cassiel Ato Forson, acknowledged that key International Monetary Fund performance targets would be missed and announced drastic spending cuts.

However, most Ghanaians just wanted to know whether the minister would announce the scrapping of the country’s electronic transfer levy (or e-tax), as he’d indicated he would.

He did, a decision parliament endorsed unanimously the next day.

The e-levy, a fee on mobile money transactions, was introduced in 2022. Ghanaians immediately united around the issue in fierce opposition, a sentiment that grew as the tax took effect.

Read more:
Ghana’s e-levy is unfair to the poor and misses its revenue target: a lesson in mobile money tax design

Both major parties had campaigned for its removal in the run-up to elections held in December 2024.

How did the e-levy become so unpopular, and what will repealing it mean?

Over three years, researchers from the International Centre for Tax and Development worked with partners in Ghana to study the e-levy as part of our Digitax research programme. This study generated knowledge and evidence at the interface of digital financial services, digital identities and tax.

The e-levy’s intense politicisation and complex design made it an interesting case of a wider trend of mobile money taxes in the region. We learned more about the e-levy’s impact on informal sector workers in Accra, knowledge and sentiments, registered merchant exemptions and mobile money usage.

Based on this research, three key lessons emerge.

Firstly, like other taxes on mobile money, the e-levy has come to be an important source of revenue in Ghana, even if it did not live up to initial optimistic estimates of its potential.

Secondly, beyond the revenue it raised directly, the real potential of the e-levy – and loss if it is completely abolished – lay in the data it produced. It was enabling the Ghana Revenue Authority to uncover users with significant incomes who were not registered for income tax.

Thirdly, the new consensus against the e-levy has arisen because important stakeholders such as mobile money providers and public opinion were not adequately managed from the start.

A difficult birth

Much like its departure, the e-levy was announced during a time of fiscal distress. Mobile money transactions had expanded rapidly, particularly after COVID-19, making it an attractive tax target, especially for the informal sector.

Given this growth in the digital financial sector coupled with the need for revenue, the e-levy targeted the value of electronic financial transactions.

Introduced in the 2022 budget at 1.75%, with a 100 cedi (US$10) daily exemption, it was met with strong resistance. The budget was rejected, protests erupted, and negotiations ensued. The government attempted to win public support through town hall meetings, eventually reducing the rate to 1.5% and adding exemptions.

It went ahead with implementation in May 2022, however.

Negative sentiment persisted, fuelled by confusion and concerns about its implementation.

The government framed the tax as being essential for national development and investment attraction. But efforts to justify the necessity and benefit of the tax seemed to fall short.

Read more:
New data on the e-levy in Ghana: unpopular tax on mobile money transfers is hitting the poor hardest

Several International Centre for Tax and Development studies, nationally representative and one focusing on informal markets, found an overwhelming sense of dissatisfaction among Ghanaians.

The studies also showed the grievances had less to do with the tax and its rates per se and more to do with how people viewed government and its trustworthiness to collect and spend money.

Did Ghana’s e-levy work?

New taxes are often unpopular, but that alone should not determine their fate.

Other key indicators of performance include:

Revenue: The e-levy met only 12% of the initial revenue target of GH₵6.96 billion (US$380 million). But, based on our research, we have concluded that this reflects poor forecasting rather than implementation failure. It still contributed about 1% of total tax revenue, which equated to about US$129 million annually.

Mobile money usage: Many critics feared negative effects on financial inclusion. However, one study of this impact shows that while transactions initially dropped, they soon rebounded and continued to grow. Another International Centre for Tax and Development study found that exempted payments values and volumes increased, with registered merchants who benefited from this exemption developing greater trust in government policies.

Equity and distributional effects: Despite exemptions, an International Centre for Tax and Development study focusing on the intended target of the e-levy, the informal sector, found that the e-levy as a whole was highly regressive. While the poorest were somewhat protected by the 100 cedi daily threshold, low-income mobile money users still bore the greatest tax burden. Additionally, with the high rate of inflation in Ghana, the unchanged daily threshold became less effective with time.

This result is striking given that in its design, the e-levy is potentially less regressive than most mobile money taxes in Africa.

Will it be missed?

Given public hostility, its removal may be widely celebrated. However, it leaves a revenue gap that must be addressed. Ghana’s fiscal history suggests this could lead to new, potentially unpopular taxes.

The bigger loss may be the dismantling of systems built to administer the e-levy. These new advances in tax administration allowed the country’s revenue authorities to track high-volume users who were not registered for income tax, offering a path towards more efficient taxation.

As governments face mounting revenue pressures in an era of high debt and declining aid, careful attention must be paid to the politics of tax reform. Perhaps the e-levy’s greatest flaw was the haste with which it was introduced, without adequate stakeholder engagement. Uganda faced similar backlash from rushed mobile money taxation in 2018.

Evidence shows that perceptions affect how users respond to taxes, and first impressions can be hard to overcome. So, it is essential to make sure they are seen as fair and appropriate from the start, so that they are sustainable.

Max Gallien is a Research Lead at the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD). Through the ICTD, the research described in this article has been supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and the Gates Foundation.

Martin Hearson is a Research Director at the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD). Through the ICTD, the research described in this article has been supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and the Gates Foundation.

Mary Abounabhan is a Researcher at the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) Through the ICTD, the research described in this article has also been supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and the Gates Foundation.

– ref. Ghana’s e-levy: 3 lessons from the abolished mobile money tax – https://theconversation.com/ghanas-e-levy-3-lessons-from-the-abolished-mobile-money-tax-253285

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 31, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Trump’s tariffs could push grocery prices even higher, but there are steps Canada could take to protect consumers

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Mathew Iantorno, Doctoral Candidate, Faculty of Information,, University of Toronto

The first months of Donald Trump’s presidency have been defined by a single word: tariffs. He has framed tariffs as a panacea to the woes of the American economy, promising they will restore the country’s manufacturing sector and reduce the national deficit.

As the United States’ largest trading partner, Canada’s smaller economy is poised to suffer the most from a prolonged trade war. Although the price of all consumer goods will be affected, the grocery aisle has become a particular battleground.

Canadians have remained defiant, with vows to “buy Canadian” already spurring rapid drops in the sale of American products.

But with calls for the country to strengthen its economic backbone and reduce dependence on the U.S., perhaps it’s also time to consider rebooting Canada’s grocery sector to better serve Canadians as well.

Read more:
Canada is now in a trade war with the U.S. — here’s what you need to know to prepare for it

Canada’s supermarket problem

Rising grocery bills have been an ongoing concern for Canadians long before Trump’s inauguration. Today, an estimated 18 per cent of Canadians are struggling with food insecurity owing to persistent inflation and the rising cost of living. Food banks saw a record number of monthly visits in 2024 as a result.

Yet, even as consumers feel the squeeze, Canada’s grocery giants have been posting record profits. Loblaw Companies Limited, whose supermarkets hold a dominant 28 per cent share of the sector, has become the poster child for this trend.

In the final quarter of 2022, as Canadians were grappling with rapid inflation on their grocery bills, Loblaw posted $529 million in profits — up 30 per cent from the previous year.

This has led customers to accuse Loblaw and other large grocery chains of profiteering, provoking both a 100,000 signature petition against “greedflation” and a month-long boycott of Loblaw chains. All this while Loblaw was still reeling from a bread price-fixing scandal yielding a $500 million antitrust settlement.

Read more:
Food giants reap enormous profits during times of crisis

In response to the mounting concerns, the federal government met with the heads of Loblaw, Sobeys, Metro, Costco and Walmart in 2023 to discuss stabilizing grocery prices in Canada. Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would threaten and later implement amendments to the Competition Act through Bill C-56, although these reforms were focused less on immediately lowering grocery bills and more on giving new tools to Canada’s competition watchdog.

Investing in the future

Another area of concern is the initiatives supermarket chains such as Loblaw and Metro have been investing their profits in.

Since 2020, supermarkets in Canada have invested heavily in self-checkout aisles. While initially a concession to the social distancing measures of the COVID-19 pandemic, these kiosks have become a ubiquitous — and often unwelcome — part of the retail experience for both workers and consumers.

Beyond the concern that self-checkouts pressure customers to perform more work, they have also increased the precarity of supermarket employees. These technologies generally reduce total worker hours and eliminate well-paying full-time positions, all with an eye towards boosting profit margins.

Read more:
The rise of robo-retail: Who gets left behind when retail is automated?

Loblaw has also invested in automating their fleet of delivery vehicles, jeopardizing jobs in the logistics sector at a time when Canada’s unemployment rate, already struggling to recover, is expected to rise due to Trump’s tariffs.

There is also the looming concern of dynamic pricing. Following the lead of American grocery stores such as Kroger, chains run by Loblaw, Metro and Sobeys have begun to implement electronic price tags. These tags enable retailers to instantaneously update prices based on supply and demand, similar to surge pricing on ride-sharing apps like Uber.

Electronic price labels seen at a Walmart in Los Angeles in 2024.
(Shutterstock)

While online commentators were quick to mock fast food chain Wendy’s for potentially using dynamic pricing to charge more for a Frosty on a hot day, this practice becomes more problematic as the availability of family staples like baby formula, which already experiences perennial scarcity, are affected by the trade war.

The sector won’t reform itself

There is little reason to believe Canada’s grocery industry will reform itself. Many of the pro-consumer and pro-worker initiatives put forth by these chains have amounted to little more than public relations moves.

The much-lauded COVID hero pay for front-line grocery workers disappeared only months into the pandemic, despite pressure from unions and MPs during the Omicron wave.

Loblaw’s widely publicized price freeze on No Name products was similarly criticised for its short duration and for merely repackaging seasonal price freezes as a pro-consumer initiative.

When Loblaw froze prices on No Name products in 2022, its competitor Metro quickly pointed out that seasonal price freezes are in fact a standard industry practice. (CBC News)

The company’s promise to create a discounted version of its already discounted grocery chain No Frills drew further scepticism, with the stock being entirely sourced from Loblaw brands that generate higher revenue for the company.

The question remains: what concrete measures can be implemented to safeguard Canadian grocery bills as our country navigates this next crisis?

Lowering grocery bills for Canadians

A report from the Broadbent Institute suggests the idea of a windfall profit tax, which would incentivize grocery companies to invest excess profits into price reductions or higher wages.

A more durable reform would involve creating a central bank-style regulatory entity to oversee the grocery industry, instead of relying on industry-born measures such as Canada’s recently introduced grocery code of conduct.

Read more:
The new Grocery Code of Conduct should benefit both Canadians and the food industry

Federal or provincial legislation could be also passed that places guardrails on dynamic pricing in the grocery aisle, if not banning the controversial practice altogether. Government grants and tax incentive programs could be withheld from companies that invest heavily into automating workforces so the government isn’t inadvertently subsidizing job losses.

The Competition Bureau’s 2023 report highlights another key issue: there is a need for all levels of government to shift from subsidizing large chains and encourage the growth of independent grocers in the Canadian market, driving down prices for consumers through meaningful, local competition.

Trump’s trade war has filled Canadians with a newfound pride and motivation to buy local to support the economy. Perhaps it’s time our grocery chains showed the same commitment to the people they serve.

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

– ref. Trump’s tariffs could push grocery prices even higher, but there are steps Canada could take to protect consumers – https://theconversation.com/trumps-tariffs-could-push-grocery-prices-even-higher-but-there-are-steps-canada-could-take-to-protect-consumers-252879

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 31, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Spring Covid-19 vaccine roll out to start in the Black Country
Source: City of Wolverhampton

Similar to last year’s spring Covid-19 vaccine roll out, those eligible for a vaccine include:
- adults aged 75 years and over
- residents in a care home for older adults
- individuals aged 6 months and over who have a weakened immune system.
Those who turn 75 years old between 1 April and 17 June, 2025 can also have the jab.

Appointments can be booked now via the NHS website, the NHS App or by calling 119, with first appointments available from Tuesday 1 April until Tuesday 17 June.

Sally Roberts, Chief Nursing Officer for the NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board (ICB), said: “The vaccine has been our most effective tool against Covid-19, saving countless lives and helping thousands of people to stay out of hospital.

“However, protection against Covid-19, from either catching the virus or from a previous vaccination, can fade over time and the circulating strain of the virus can change. That’s why if you are at higher risk of severe illness from the virus, it is important that you top up your protection and come forward for a vaccine this spring.

“If you know you’re eligible, you don’t need to wait to be contacted, you can book an appointment via the NHS website, the NHS App or by calling 119 today.”

While having the spring vaccine around 6 months after your last dose is the usual timeframe, eligible people can have it as soon as 3 months after a previous Covid-19 vaccine dose.

If you are eligible, you can get protection from a spring Covid-19 vaccination even if you have not taken up a Covid-19 vaccine offer in the past.

For more information about the spring Covid-19 vaccine, visit the NHS website.
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
March 31, 2025
MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Viksit Bharat Youth Parliament 2025 to Kick Off in New Delhi from April 1st to 3rd, 2025
Source: Government of India

Viksit Bharat Youth Parliament 2025 to Kick Off in New Delhi from April 1st to 3rd, 2025

A Landmark Moment in Youth-Led Nation-Building and Governance

From Debate to Resolution: Youth to Deliberate on One Nation, One Election and Viksit Bharat

Youth to Experience Parliamentary Proceedings Firsthand: A Transformative Insight into Governance

Posted On: 30 MAR 2025 3:25PM by PIB Delhi

Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, under the leadership of Union Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports and Labour & Employment Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, is organizing the Viksit Bharat Youth Parliament from 1^st – 3^rd April 2025. This event, a reimagination of the traditional Youth Parliament, serves as a powerful platform to connect young individuals with politics and public policy, fostering their engagement in governance and nation-building.

For the first time since COVID-19, all District Nodal Rounds (300) were conducted in person, ensuring greater participation and direct engagement. Over 75,000 young people from every State and Union Territory submitted their video entries through the MY Bharat portal, showcasing their enthusiasm and commitment to shaping the nation’s future. The entire selection process was conducted digitally, reflecting the growing integration of technology in governance initiatives.

The Viksit Bharat Youth Parliament is structured into three key stages:

District Nodal Rounds:
- The discussion on One Nation, One Election reached every town and village through massive dialogues held at 300 district nodes.
- To qualify, candidates uploaded a 1-minute video answering the question: “What does Viksit Bharat mean to you?”
State Rounds:
- Held in over 17 State assemblies and other government establishments, these rounds marked a historic milestone in bridging the gap between youth and governance.
- Sessions were presided over by State Speakers and Governors, lending credibility and significance to youth discussions.
National Round (1^st – 3^rd April 2025):
- The top 3 candidates from each State/UT (totaling 108 youth) have been selected to participate at the national level.
- Participants will engage in high-level discussions and activities, including
1. Question Hour: Focused on One Nation, One Election and Viksit Bharat, culminating in a resolution.
2. Masterclass: Conducted by a senior Member of Parliament, equipping youth with essential oratory and leadership skills.
3. Parliamentary Experience: Attending sessions in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha for firsthand exposure to governance.
4. PM Sangrahalaya Visit: Providing insights into India’s political journey and leadership stories.
5. Awards Ceremony: On 3^rd April, the Viksit Bharat Youth Parliament Awards and National Youth Awards will be conferred.
The Viksit Bharat Youth Parliament is more than just a programme—it is a transformative movement. The ideas and discussions generated through this initiative will extend far beyond Central Hall, resonating across the nation and paving the way for a new era of youth-led policy engagement and national progress.

*****

Himanshu Pathak

(Release ID: 2116802) Visitor Counter : 132

MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –
March 31, 2025
MIL-OSI Australia: Commissioner puts children’s rights in the spotlight

Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services

Jodie Griffiths-Cook wants to help children and young people access information they can trust and understand.

ACT Children and Young People Commissioner Jodie Griffiths-Cook is on a mission to help Canberra’s children and young people understand their rights.

In her role – which is independent from government and part of the ACT Human Rights Commission – she consults and speaks with kids every day.

“My role principally involves being able to engage directly with children and young people and find out what is important to them, then using that to try to influence public policy and create change that will hopefully make Canberra a better place for children and young people generally,” Jodie said.

She does this in a variety of ways, including creating simply written resources that can be used in schools and more broadly.

She regularly updates a dedicated section of the commission’s website with targeted, trustworthy information for kids, teens and young people.

Jodie also distributes the monthly Rights in ACTion newsletter to further inform ACT children and young people about their rights and wellbeing.

From school visits to Instagram posts, finding ways to tailor sometimes complex information for different age groups is important.

“Children and young people have a right to access information they can trust and understand,” she said.

“It really humanises things when you’re able to speak in a language that is clearly understood by kids.”

The Covid lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 highlighted a particular need for this.

“We saw a lot of communications going out to adults but very little being targeted to children and young people. For us, that really started the process of thinking mindfully about what we can do to shift that, both in terms of direct communications and modelling – trying to encourage others to do the same,” she said.

“If we actually think about some of the decision-making that happens – so many of our decisions impact young people in ways that we perhaps don’t consider,” she said.

Having been Commissioner for eight years now, Jodie says the discussions she has with children and young people are most rewarding.

“Some of those conversations are just absolute gold when it comes to what young people already intrinsically understand about their rights and about those sometimes competing rights that we all grapple with,” she said.

“I can almost take off my own commissioner hat and give it to some of them!”

Particularly engaged young people can also get directly involved with the commission. This in turn provides important feedback.

“We started a new youth advisor role, pitched for young people aged 16–25 years who have left school. We bring young people in for six months where they are looking for opportunities that will help them decide and pursue their career direction. From them we get a lot of intel about the kind of language to use, and the kind of things that are of interest to young people. We also take in work experience students in years 9-12,” she said.

A range of child-friendly resources to help children and young people understand the Human Rights Act will be launched in March this year – on the Act’s 20^th anniversary.

Visit actkids.act.gov.au for more information.

Jodie wants all Canberra children and young people to know her door is always open – whatever they have to say.

Get ACT news and events delivered straight to your inbox, sign up to our email newsletter:

MIL OSI News –

March 31, 2025
MIL-OSI Africa: Ghana’s e-levy: 3 lessons from the abolished mobile money tax

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Max Gallien, Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies

The first budget speech of Ghana’s new government on 11 March painted a picture of an economy in crisis, facing high debt and fiscal mismanagement. The finance minister, Cassiel Ato Forson, acknowledged that key International Monetary Fund performance targets would be missed and announced drastic spending cuts.

However, most Ghanaians just wanted to know whether the minister would announce the scrapping of the country’s electronic transfer levy (or e-tax), as he’d indicated he would.

He did, a decision parliament endorsed unanimously the next day.

The e-levy, a fee on mobile money transactions, was introduced in 2022. Ghanaians immediately united around the issue in fierce opposition, a sentiment that grew as the tax took effect.

Read more: Ghana’s e-levy is unfair to the poor and misses its revenue target: a lesson in mobile money tax design

Both major parties had campaigned for its removal in the run-up to elections held in December 2024.

How did the e-levy become so unpopular, and what will repealing it mean?

Over three years, researchers from the International Centre for Tax and Development worked with partners in Ghana to study the e-levy as part of our Digitax research programme. This study generated knowledge and evidence at the interface of digital financial services, digital identities and tax.

The e-levy’s intense politicisation and complex design made it an interesting case of a wider trend of mobile money taxes in the region. We learned more about the e-levy’s impact on informal sector workers in Accra, knowledge and sentiments, registered merchant exemptions and mobile money usage.

Based on this research, three key lessons emerge.

Firstly, like other taxes on mobile money, the e-levy has come to be an important source of revenue in Ghana, even if it did not live up to initial optimistic estimates of its potential.

Secondly, beyond the revenue it raised directly, the real potential of the e-levy – and loss if it is completely abolished – lay in the data it produced. It was enabling the Ghana Revenue Authority to uncover users with significant incomes who were not registered for income tax.

Thirdly, the new consensus against the e-levy has arisen because important stakeholders such as mobile money providers and public opinion were not adequately managed from the start.

A difficult birth

Much like its departure, the e-levy was announced during a time of fiscal distress. Mobile money transactions had expanded rapidly, particularly after COVID-19, making it an attractive tax target, especially for the informal sector.

Given this growth in the digital financial sector coupled with the need for revenue, the e-levy targeted the value of electronic financial transactions.

Introduced in the 2022 budget at 1.75%, with a 100 cedi (US$10) daily exemption, it was met with strong resistance. The budget was rejected, protests erupted, and negotiations ensued. The government attempted to win public support through town hall meetings, eventually reducing the rate to 1.5% and adding exemptions.

It went ahead with implementation in May 2022, however.

Negative sentiment persisted, fuelled by confusion and concerns about its implementation.

The government framed the tax as being essential for national development and investment attraction. But efforts to justify the necessity and benefit of the tax seemed to fall short.

Read more: New data on the e-levy in Ghana: unpopular tax on mobile money transfers is hitting the poor hardest

Several International Centre for Tax and Development studies, nationally representative and one focusing on informal markets, found an overwhelming sense of dissatisfaction among Ghanaians.

The studies also showed the grievances had less to do with the tax and its rates per se and more to do with how people viewed government and its trustworthiness to collect and spend money.

Did Ghana’s e-levy work?

New taxes are often unpopular, but that alone should not determine their fate.

Other key indicators of performance include:

Revenue: The e-levy met only 12% of the initial revenue target of GH₵6.96 billion (US$380 million). But, based on our research, we have concluded that this reflects poor forecasting rather than implementation failure. It still contributed about 1% of total tax revenue, which equated to about US$129 million annually.

Mobile money usage: Many critics feared negative effects on financial inclusion. However, one study of this impact shows that while transactions initially dropped, they soon rebounded and continued to grow. Another International Centre for Tax and Development study found that exempted payments values and volumes increased, with registered merchants who benefited from this exemption developing greater trust in government policies.

Equity and distributional effects: Despite exemptions, an International Centre for Tax and Development study focusing on the intended target of the e-levy, the informal sector, found that the e-levy as a whole was highly regressive. While the poorest were somewhat protected by the 100 cedi daily threshold, low-income mobile money users still bore the greatest tax burden. Additionally, with the high rate of inflation in Ghana, the unchanged daily threshold became less effective with time.

This result is striking given that in its design, the e-levy is potentially less regressive than most mobile money taxes in Africa.

Will it be missed?

Given public hostility, its removal may be widely celebrated. However, it leaves a revenue gap that must be addressed. Ghana’s fiscal history suggests this could lead to new, potentially unpopular taxes.

The bigger loss may be the dismantling of systems built to administer the e-levy. These new advances in tax administration allowed the country’s revenue authorities to track high-volume users who were not registered for income tax, offering a path towards more efficient taxation.

As governments face mounting revenue pressures in an era of high debt and declining aid, careful attention must be paid to the politics of tax reform. Perhaps the e-levy’s greatest flaw was the haste with which it was introduced, without adequate stakeholder engagement. Uganda faced similar backlash from rushed mobile money taxation in 2018.

Evidence shows that perceptions affect how users respond to taxes, and first impressions can be hard to overcome. So, it is essential to make sure they are seen as fair and appropriate from the start, so that they are sustainable.

– Ghana’s e-levy: 3 lessons from the abolished mobile money tax
– https://theconversation.com/ghanas-e-levy-3-lessons-from-the-abolished-mobile-money-tax-253285

MIL OSI Africa –

March 31, 2025
MIL-OSI Security: Texas Insurance Broker Sentenced in Scheme to Defraud Paycheck Protection Program

Source: Office of United States Attorneys

NASHVILLE – Shelby Lynn Hill, 54, of Crystal Beach, Texas, was sentenced earlier this week to one year and a day in prison for fraudulently obtaining and misusing Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans guaranteed under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, announced Robert E. McGuire, Acting United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. Hill also was ordered to repay $264,645 in restitution and a forfeiture money judgment, and she will be on supervised release for one year after she serves her sentence. Hill pled guilty in June 2024 to one count of wire fraud.

Hill obtained several fraudulent PPP loans while living in Crossville, Tennessee. According to court documents and evidence presented to the court, Hill fraudulently obtained a $220,645 PPP loan for a fictitious business, Plateau Angus Farms, in 2020. She claimed to be the owner and operator of a cattle farm in Crossville. Hill told the PPP lender that Plateau Angus Farms employed 14 people and that its monthly payroll expenses exceeded $88,000. Hill submitted fake documents, including Forms W-2, and Tennessee Secretary of State records, as proof of her business. Hill received a $42,700 PPP loan for a second fictitious company, Premium Persians of the Plateau. She also misused the PPP loan proceeds awarded to a third company, Shelby Lynn Hill, MD PLLC, using a portion of the PPP loan to begin installation of a personal swimming pool.

Hill was employed as a health insurance broker at the time she applied for the PPP loans. Some of the individuals she listed as employees on the Plateau Angus Farms PPP loan application were potential health insurance customers. Hill admitted that she was not authorized to use their names or personal identifiers to obtain PPP loans.

The Paycheck Protection Program was created under the CARES Act and was intended to incentivize small businesses to keep their employees on payroll during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The PPP program was administered and guaranteed by the Small Business Association, a federal government entity.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cookeville Resident Agency, Nashville Field Office, investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie N. Toussaint prosecuted the case.

# # # # #

MIL Security OSI –

March 29, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Cuts to science research funding cut American lives short − federal support is essential for medical breakthroughs

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Deborah Fuller, Professor of Microbiology, School of Medicine, University of Washington

Divesting from the next generation of researchers means cutting the lifeblood of science and medicine. J Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Nearly every modern medical treatment can be traced to research funded by the National Institutes of Health: from over-the-counter and prescription medications that treat high cholesterol and pain to protection from infectious diseases such as polio and smallpox.

The remarkable successes of the decades-old partnership between biomedical research institutions and the federal government are so intertwined with daily life that it’s easy to take them for granted.

However, the scientific work driving these medical advances and breakthroughs is in jeopardy. Federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation are terminating hundreds of active research grants under the current administration’s direction. The administration has also proposed a dramatic reduction in federal support of the critical infrastructure that keeps labs open and running. Numerous scientists and health professionals have noted that changes will have far-reaching, harmful outcomes for the health and well-being of the American people.

The negative consequences of defunding U.S. biomedical research can be difficult to recognize. Most breakthroughs, from the basic science discoveries that reveal the causes of diseases to the development of effective treatments and cures, can take years. Real-time progress can be hard to measure.

Medical breakthroughs are built on years of painstaking research.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

As biomedical researchers studying infectious diseases, viruses and immunology, we and our colleagues see this firsthand in our own work. Thousands of ongoing national and international projects dedicated to uncovering the causes of life-threatening diseases and developing new treatments to improve and save lives are supported by federal agencies such as the NIH and NSF.

Considering a few of the breakthroughs made possible through U.S. federal support can help illustrate not only the significant inroads biomedical research has made for preventing, treating and curing human maladies, but what all Americans stand to lose if the U.S. reduces its investment in these endeavors.

A cure for cancer

The hope and dream of curing cancer unites many scientists, health professionals and affected families across the U.S. After decades of ongoing NIH-supported research, scientists have made significant progress in realizing this goal.

The National Cancer Institute of the NIH is the world’s largest funder of cancer research. This investment has led to advances in cancer treatment and prevention that helped reduce the overall U.S. cancer death rate by 33% from 1991 to 2021.

Basic science research on what causes cancer has led to new strategies to harness a patient’s own immune system to eliminate tumors. For example, all 12 patients in a 2022 clinical trial testing one type of immunotherapy had their rectal cancer completely disappear, without remission or adverse effects.

Cuts in NIH funding will directly affect patients.

Another example of progress is the 2024 results of an ongoing clinical trial of a targeted therapy for lung cancer, showing an 84% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death. Similarly, in a study of women who were immunized against the human papillomavirus at age 12 or 13, none developed the disease later. Since the widespread adoption of HPV vaccination, cervical cancer deaths have dropped 62%.

Despite these incredible successes, there is still a long way to go. In 2024, over 2 million people in the U.S. were estimated to be newly diagnosed with cancer, and 611,720 were expected to die from the disease.

Without sustained federal support for cancer research, progress toward curing cancer and reducing its death rate will stall.

Autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases

Nearly every family is touched in some way by autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases. Government-funded research has enabled major advances to combat conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

For example, approximately 1 in 5 Americans have arthritis, an autoimmune disease that causes joint swelling and stiffness. A leading cause of disability and economic costs in the U.S., there is no cure for arthritis. But new drugs in development are able to significantly improve symptoms and slow or prevent disease progression.

Researchers are also gaining insight into what causes multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks the protective covering of nerves and can result in paralysis. Scientists recently found a link between multiple sclerosis and Epstein-Barr virus, a pathogen estimated to infect over 90% of adults around the world. While multiple sclerosis is currently incurable, identifying its underlying cause can provide new avenues for prevention and treatment.

The NIH’s BRAIN Initiative has invested more than $3 billion in neuroscience research since it began in 2013.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Alzheimer’s disease causes irreversible nerve damage and is the leading cause of dementia. In 2024, 6.9 million Americans ages 65 and older were living with Alzheimer’s. Most treatments address cognitive and behavioral symptoms. However, two new drugs developed with NIH-supported research and clinical trials were approved in July 2023 and July 2024 to treat early-stage Alzheimer’s. Federal funding is also supporting the development of blood tests for earlier detection of the disease.

None of these breakthroughs are a cure. But they represent important steps forward on the path toward ultimately reducing or eliminating these devastating ailments. Lack of funding will slow or block further progress, leading to the continued rise of the incidence and severity of these conditions.

Infectious diseases and the next pandemic

The world’s capacity to combat infectious disease will also be weakened by cuts to U.S. federal support of biomedical research.

Over the past 50 years, medical and public health advances have led to the eradication of smallpox globally and the elimination of polio in the U.S. HIV/AIDS, once a death sentence, is now a disease that can be managed with medication. Moreover, a new version of treatments called preexposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, offers complete protection against HIV transmission when taken only twice per year.

Similarly, the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the critical role biomedical research plays in responding to public health threats. Increased federal support of science during this time allowed the United States to emerge with new drugs, vaccine platforms with the potential to treat a variety of chronic diseases, and insights on how to effectively detect and respond to pandemic threats.

The ongoing avian influenza outbreak and its spillover into American dairy herds and poultry farms is another pandemic threat looming on the horizon. Rather than build upon infrastructure for outbreak surveillance and preparedness, grants that would allow scientists to better understand long COVID-19, vaccines and other pandemic-related research are being cut. Decreased funding of biomedical research will hamper the U.S.’s ability to respond to the next pandemic, putting everyone at risk.

Research across the country has ground to a halt as grants remain in limbo or have been terminated altogether.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

Losses from defunding biomedical research

The National Institutes of Health contributed over $100 billion to support research that ultimately led to the development of all new drugs approved from 2010 to 2016 alone. Over 90% of this funding was for basic research into understanding the causes of disease that provides the foundation for new treatments.

Under the new directive to eliminate projects that support or use terms associated with diversity, equity and inclusion, the NIH and other federal agencies have made deep cuts to biomedical research that will directly affect patient lives.

Already, nearly 41% of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lifetime, and nearly 11% with Alzheimer’s. About 1 in 5 Americans will die from heart disease, and nearly 1.4 million will be rushed to an emergency room due to pneumonia from an infectious disease.

Defunding biomedical research will result in a cascade of effects. There will likely be fewer clinical trials, fewer new treatments and fewer lifesaving drugs. Labs will likely shut down, jobs will be lost, and the process of discovery will stall. The U.S.’s health care system, economy and standing as the world’s leader in scientific innovation will likely decline.

Moreover, when the pipelines of scientific progress are turned off, they will not so easily be turned back on. These consequences will affect all Americans and the rest of the world for decades.

University shortfalls directly resulting from cuts to research support will dramatically reduce the capacity of American institutions to educate and provide opportunities for the next generation. Funding cuts have led to the shuttering or heavy reduction of training programs for future scientists.

Graduate students and postdoctoral trainees are the lifeblood of biomedical research. Supporting these young people committed to public service through research and health care is also an investment in medical advancements and public health. But the uncertainty and instability resulting from the divestment of federally funded programs will likely severely deplete the biomedical workforce, crippling the United States’ ability to deliver future biomedical breakthroughs.

By cutting biomedical research funding, Americans and the rest of the world stand to lose new cures, new treatments and an entire generation of researchers.

Deborah Fuller receives funding from the National Institutes Health. The personal views expressed here are those of the authors.

Patrick Mitchell receives funding from the National Institutes of Health. The personal views expressed here are those of the authors.

– ref. Cuts to science research funding cut American lives short − federal support is essential for medical breakthroughs – https://theconversation.com/cuts-to-science-research-funding-cut-american-lives-short-federal-support-is-essential-for-medical-breakthroughs-252150

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 29, 2025
MIL-OSI Security: Nearly 60,000 drink and drug tests conducted in seasonal crackdown
Source: United Kingdom National Police Chiefs Council

Double number of drivers arrested than previous years
- 8,648 arrests made for drink and drug driving offences
- Positive results for drink driving remain below 10%
- Breath tests following a collision show nearly 15% motorists testing positive for alcohol, at its highest since 2019
- Drug wipes result in positive test results of over 42%
Police officers proactively undertook 58,675 roadside tests for drink and/or drugs on drivers across the UK over the festive period in 2024 (1 Dec 2024 – 1 Jan 2025) as part of the nationally coordinated Operation Limit crackdown which sees 45 police forces across England, Wales and Northern Ireland working together.

Intelligence and hotspot-led, roadside breath tests for alcohol saw nearly 10% of drivers testing positive (9.7%) with drug wipes resulting in 42.2% positive tests.

Shockingly, 2,782 drivers were arrested for both drink and drug driving offences, almost double the number from previous years’ national operations. While many tests during Op Limit are proactive stops, tests following a collision showed 14.5% motorists testing positive for alcohol, the highest in these circumstances since 2019. Unfortunately this trend aligns with data from the Department for Transport (DfT) which also shows a rise in alcohol-related collisions.

The figures prompt warnings from senior officers about the risks of driving under the influence, a ‘selfish and reckless’ decision that costs too many lives each year.

Men continue to be disproportionately represented, making up 85% of the offences for driving under the influence of drink or drugs and 79% of offenders were 25 years of age or older.

Chief Superintendent Marc Clothier is National Police Chiefs’ Council Operational Lead for Operation Limit. He said:

“In 2023, 19.6% of fatal collisions were assigned at least one drink or drugs related factor. That’s pretty much 20% of road deaths caused by drink or drugs, with a significant number occurring in December – two facts which are completely unacceptable and which make Op Limit so important.

“Now in its third year of running as a national operation, the Christmas drink and drug driving crackdown brings together all police forces in a positive coordinated effort to tackle this driving behaviour.

“The statistics of positive results and the demographics of offenders remain consistent and what is encouraging is to see the dedication and innovation which policing puts into this operation across the country. Many forces collaborate on a regional level, working cross border and strengthening their resources as a result.

“In addition, we are seeing the numbers of collisions in December specifically as a result of drink or drug driving reduce each year, remaining consistently at the levels experienced during Covid when far less drivers were on the roads. While there will be many factors impacting this fall, we can certainly draw a link between policing’s increased focus and enforcement activity to tackle drink and drug driving over this time of year.

“The decision to get behind the wheel under the influence of alcohol or drugs is reckless and selfish and it will not be tolerated. Not only do you risk your own life but you seriously endanger everyone else on the road and the tragic impact of your decision will be felt by individuals, families, friends and whole communities.”

Collisions in December where drink and drug driving is a factor

Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) lead for drink and drug driving, Police and Crime Commissioner for Durham, Joy Allen said:

“With responsibility for supporting victims, PCCs see and deal with the devastating impact of drink and drug driving.

“The Operation Limit results show that more intensive enforcement works. We want to see more resource invested in roads policing and the appropriate use of tougher penalties for drink and drug driving, including immediate bans and full cost recovery of the costs from offenders, to act as a greater deterrent and protect the public.”

Key statistics not included in report
- A total of 8,203 drivers were caught drink or drug driving during the period of enforcement activity, with 60% (4,940) drink drive offences detected and 40% (3,263) drug drive offences detected. A total of 74,456 vehicles were stopped during this campaign with 50,948 breath tests administered, resulting in 4,940 drivers testing positive, failed or refused to provide.
- A total of 7,112 breath tests were administered following a collision, with 1,030 drivers committing a drink drive offence following a collision. 14.5% motorists tested positive for alcohol following a collision. This percentage is the highest it has been since 2019.
Contextual data

Drug driving:
- In 2022, most drivers with detected drugs had illegal substances in their system (127), followed by query drugs (61) and prescribed drugs (27). Query drugs refer to substances that may have been administered medically after a collision but also have potential for abuse.
- Illegal drugs were primarily found in deceased drivers aged 20 to 39, while medicinal drugs were more common in those aged 30 and older.
- Among drivers aged 70 and above, medicinal drugs were detected more often than illegal drugs, though the overall numbers in this group were small.
- The five most frequently detected substances were cocaine, benzoylecgonine (a cocaine metabolite), cannabis, morphine, and ketamine, highlighting cocaine and cannabis as the most common illegal drugs in road fatalities.
- From 2014 to 2022, approximately two-thirds of casualties in drug-impaired collisions were fatalities. Of these, 91% were drivers with drugs detected in their system, indicating that most fatalities were drug-impaired drivers themselves. The majority of other casualties were passengers of the impaired driver.
Drink driving
- The central estimate of fatalities for 2022 is the highest level since 2009, and an increase compared to the previous year.
- The central estimate of the number of deaths in collisions with at least one driver over the alcohol limit for 2022 is 300. This represents about 18% of all deaths in reported road collisions in 2022.
- Overall, an estimated 6,800 people were killed or injured when at least one driver was over the drink-drive limit. This represents an increase of 1% from 6,740 in 2021.
- DfT collisions data where drink/drugs were reported as a key factor:
MIL Security OSI –
March 29, 2025
MIL-OSI Banking: Assessing the Enabling Environment for Disaster and Pandemic Risk Financing: A Country Diagnostics Tool Kit

Source: Asia Development Bank

Designed as a tool kit, it considers the impacts of COVID-19, analyzes the enabling environment for disaster risk financing, and considers the role capital markets, insurance, and other risk transfer instruments can play. Providing questionnaires and resources to calculate financial protection against disasters and identify gaps, the publication shows how a layered risk strategy can help bolster financial resilience and protect development gains.

MIL OSI Global Banks –

March 28, 2025
MIL-OSI New Zealand: Education – Ara graduation speaker shares triumph over ‘tricky times’

Source: Ara Institute of Canterbury

Jessica Westley and Shaun Raddock signed up for matching qualifications during Covid lockdowns while raising four “wonderful, energetic, neurodiverse children” then aged 3 to 13.

Four years later, Jessica took centre stage to share her study experience at Ara Institute of Canterbury’s autumn graduation, with Shaun, just two papers behind her cheering her on.

She paid tribute to the ‘incredibly understanding tutors and department heads’ who helped her achieve her Bachelor of International Tourism and Hospitality Management degree.

“Those who have experience with neurodiversity know that every day can be a challenge, however, with their support we’ve managed to navigate the tricky times and appreciate the easier moments better,” she told those gathered.

She said the degree was geared towards her ultimate dream to own and manage a tiny home tourist venture. “The boost to my confidence that achieving study awards and this qualification has given me is huge – proving to myself and my children that no matter your age or past experiences, if you set your mind to something, you can achieve anything.”

Staff, students but also Ara’s partners and stakeholders in local industry were front of mind for Ara Executive Director Darren Mitchell.

“We sincerely thank you for your ongoing support as we seek to transform lives through vocational education,” he said. “I know these graduates will be super keen to get out there and show our community how talented they really are.”

Well over 900 attended Ara’s two Autumn ceremonies in the Wolfbrook Arena including hundreds receiving bachelor’s degrees, dozens of post-graduate qualifications, 19 master’s degrees and hundreds more diplomas and certificates.

The biggest cohort was in Health Practice with 233 nurses, midwives, medical imaging professionals and other related graduates now equipped to contribute to New Zealand’s vital healthcare sector.

They include Ara’s largest ever contingent of Māori and Pacific midwives, four of whom have already set up Ōhua Midwives, a practice specialising in the care of whānau Māori.

One of the group, Toni Wiesler, said their plans formed while in their second year of study.

“We all wanted to work together but couldn’t find a way and then we had a ‘lightbulb moment’ to start our own practice which was exciting and terrifying all at once.”

Wiesler said the classmates added plans to the Ōhua Midwives kete over time and by the end of their study they were ready to go.

“We had to rise above the doubts, but it was the best decision we ever made. We are looking to grow, and we can’t wait.”

MIL OSI New Zealand News –

March 28, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: SBC Advances Pair of Commonsense Bills to Crack Down on Fraudsters, Support Rural Small Businesses

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA)

Published: March 27, 2025

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, led by Chair Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), advanced a pair of bipartisan bills to crack down on fraud and expand rural small businesses’ access to critical resources.
“The Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship continues to enact commonsense solutions to help Main Street,” said Chair Ernst.
Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Ernst’s Assisting Small Businesses Not Fraudsters Act prevents criminals convicted of defrauding the Small Business Administration (SBA) from receiving future assistance from the agency.
“After the previous administration failed to pursue pandemic fraud, we are making up for lost time by holding criminals accountable,” said Chair Ernst.
“Covid-era programs meant to support small businesses were repeatedly taken advantage of by fraudsters, depriving businesses of much-needed relief. I’m leading this effort to ensure that those convicted of defrauding the SBA will no longer be able to access future financial assistance from taxpayers,” said Young.
The Coordinated Support for Rural Small Businesses Act led by Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and John Kennedy (R-La.) increases coordination between the SBA and U.S. Department of Agriculture to support rural small businesses.
“In towns across Iowa, small businesses are the lifeblood of the local economies. This bipartisan measure will streamline coordination between government agencies and help ensure that these job creators have access to the resources they need to succeed,” Chair Ernst.
“Louisiana’s small businesses provide good paying jobs to folks throughout our state and support local economic growth. I’m thankful to my colleagues for advancing this bill to improve support for job creators and I look forward to full Senate consideration,” said Kennedy.
Background:
A recent Government Accountability Office report exposed jaw-dropping incompetence by the Biden SBA in pursuing fraudsters that stole more than $200 billion in pandemic relief designated for small businesses.

MIL OSI USA News –

March 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Security: Florida Man Who Bought Diamond-Studded “Grills” With Fraud Cash Sentenced to 71 Months in Federal Prison

Source: Office of United States Attorneys

MIAMI – A federal district judge in South Florida has sentenced an Orlando man to almost six years in prison for leading a scheme that defrauded California’s Employment Development Department of over $4 million in state and federal unemployment insurance benefit money. The judge also ordered him to pay over $1.2 million in restitution.

Zachary Kameron Ramyard, 23, of Orlando, Fla. pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy in October 2024.

From August 2020 to August 2022, Ramyard and others submitted fraudulent unemployment insurance (UI) claims to California’s Employment Development Department (EDD). UI payments are intended to provide temporary financial assistance to lawful workers who are unemployed through no fault of their own. They purchased the personally identifiable information (PII) of victims (including names, dates of birth, and social security numbers), created counterfeit driver licenses with it, and submitted at least 68 fraudulent UI benefits applications using the victims’ PII.

Ramyard also withdrew hundreds of thousands of dollars in UI funds from Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in different states using fraudulent debit cards. (The EDD typically distributed UI benefits electronically to debit cards that were mailed to claimants.) Ramyard used the cash to buy luxury items like the diamond-studded teeth jewelry, also known as “grills,” pictured above.

U.S. Attorney Hayden P. O’Byrne, Acting Special Agent in Charge José R. Figueroa of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Miami and Special Agent in Charge Mathew Broadhurst of the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG), Southeast Region announced the sentence.

HSI Miami and DOL-OIG investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Egozi prosecuted the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Paster is handling asset forfeiture.

Additional Background Information: Beginning in or around March 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, several federal programs expanded UI eligibility and increased UI benefits, including the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program (PUA), Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation Program (FPUC), and the Lost Wages Assistance Program (LWAP). In the State of California, the EDD administered the UI program.

In March 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act was enacted. It was designed to provide emergency financial assistance to the millions of Americans suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Among other sources of relief, the CARES Act authorized and provided funding to the SBA to provide Economic Injury Disaster Loans (“EIDLs”) to eligible small businesses, including sole proprietorships and independent contractors, experiencing substantial financial disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic to allow them to meet financial obligations and operating expenses that could otherwise have been met had the disaster not occurred. EIDL applications were submitted directly to the SBA via the SBA’s on-line application website, and the applications were processed, and the loans funded for qualifying applicants directly by the SBA.

COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force: On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.

On September 15, 2022, the Attorney General selected the Southern District of Florida’s U.S. Attorney’s Office to head one of three national COVID-19 Fraud Strike Force Teams. The Department of Justice established the Strike Force to enhance existing efforts to combat and prevent COVID-19 related financial fraud. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please click here.

Reporting: Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-20382.

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MIL Security OSI –

March 28, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: How can I tell if my child is too sick to go to school?

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liz Sturgiss, Professor of Community Medicine and Clinical Education, Bond University

Chay_Tay/Shutterstock

As a GP and mum to two boys I have many experiences of trying to navigate the school morning when my boys aren’t feeling well. It always seems to happen on the busiest days.

None of us want to send our child to school when they are not well – I hate the thought of my kids feeling sick in the classroom and also the idea they might make other children sick.

Lots of families have someone for whom illnesses are more dangerous. They might have a weakened immune system because they are going through cancer treatment or suffer from another illness.

But it can be hard to tell. A child might be dramatically crying “my tummy HURTS” one minute and racing around with their sibling the next. Or you might wonder if they are angling for some time off in front of the TV.

How can you tell if your child is too sick to go to school?

None of us want to send our child to school when they are not well.
Pixel Shot/ Shutterstock

Symptoms to look out for

In school-aged children here are some symptoms to consider.

Fever: if your child feels hot to touch, or you have a thermometer showing a fever (a temperature above 38 degrees), then they shouldn’t attend school.

This is even if you are giving them regular paracetamol or ibuprofen to keep their temperature down. Your child won’t feel comfortable at school with a fever and they have a high chance of making others unwell.

Vomiting and diarrhoea: children should stay home until it is at least 24 hours since their last vomit or runny poo. This is to reduce the spread of viral gastroenteritis (or stomach flu) and to make sure your child can stay hydrated and well. If your child is vomiting or has diarrhoea, it also is important to keep a close eye on them to make sure they are improving and to seek medical care if they are getting worse.

Runny noses: a runny nose without a fever might be a sign of hayfever, especially if your child has other symptoms like itchy eyes or sneezing. On its own, this is not a reason to stay home.

But a new runny nose with a fever is a reason to stay home. Many infections, including influenza, COVID and even measles can start with a fever and runny nose, although usually it signals a common cold.

The common cold needs rest, fluids and encouraging your child to keep their nose clear with gentle blowing or saline sprays. And a reminder, the annual flu vaccine is an excellent way to protect your family from the serious consequences of the “proper flu”.

Cough: there are many different reasons for a child to cough. This includes infections such as COVID, whooping cough and influenza and non-infectious reasons such as hayfever and reflux. If your child has developed a new cough, and especially if they are also feverish, this is a reason to keep them at home. A cough that doesn’t go away after two weeks should also be checked out by your GP.

Tiredness: mostly on Fridays, my kids are tired after a busy week – much like me! Tiredness can be an early sign of a lurking infection or some other health issue. But on its own is probably not a reason to keep your child home. However, ongoing tiredness is a good reason to have your child checked out by your GP as there are many causes from poor sleep to iron deficiency.

Poor appetite: kids’ appetites can vary so wildly, especially when they move into growing phases. Not wanting to eat breakfast in the morning might be an early gastro infection, a sign of constipation or nervous butterflies for the day ahead. If your child is otherwise OK, with no tummy pain, fever or tiredness, then a lack of appetite for breakfast is not a solid reason to stay home.

It’s common for kids to feel tired, but this on its own is not a reason to skip school.
Andrew Will/ Shutterstock

Watch out for school refusal

I find it helpful to let my child know if they stay home, they will need to stay in bed with no screens to rest and get well. This tends to separate the “truly feeling unwell” days from the “just hoping to have a rest” days.

But feeling unwell in the morning – particularly in the tummy, tiredness or unexplained headaches – can be an early sign something might not be going smoothly for your child at school or home.

School refusal is a serious problem where a child is completely overwhelmed and unable to attend school. It can come on gradually or suddenly. Talking with your child’s school is a critical first step if you are concerned about school refusal – it should be a conversation that happens promptly and your school should have procedures for helping you to manage it.

Read more:
Is it school reluctance or refusal? How to tell the difference and help your child

Phone a friend

If you’re not sure, consider giving a trusted friends or family member a quick call to talk things over.

You can also contact Healthdirect on 1800 022 222 (or 13 Health if you are in Queensland). This is a national phone service open 24 hours for anyone who has symptoms and needs advice on what to do next.

Liz Sturgiss receives funding from the NHMRC, MRFF, RACGP Foundation, Diabetes Australia and VicHealth that is unrelated to this article. She is affiliated with Australian Journal of Primary Health (CSIRO), Australian Prescriber, RACGP, NAPCRG, Guidelines Development Committee for the review and update of the Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Overweight and Obesity in Adults, Adolescents and Children in Australia and Australasian Association for Academic Primary Care.

– ref. How can I tell if my child is too sick to go to school? – https://theconversation.com/how-can-i-tell-if-my-child-is-too-sick-to-go-to-school-252731

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

March 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Why it’s a critical time for Canada to renew its commitment to global health co-operation
Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Kelley Lee, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Health Governance; Scientific Director, Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics and Society, Simon Fraser University

As the United States moves to end longstanding commitments to global health co-operation — punctuated by its withdrawal from World Health Organization (WHO) — a new report by the joint Expert Panel of the Royal Society of Canada and Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, which we co-chaired, offers guidance on how Canada can strategically position itself in this fast-changing context.

Traditionally, Canada has taken pride in being a good global health citizen through distinct contributions as a middle power. Active participation in multilateral institutions such as the WHO, close co-operation with like-minded states and research partnerships led by low- and middle-income countries have defined Canada’s global health brand.

Since the early 2000s, Canada has also initiated and funded major initiatives on reproductive, maternal and child health, nutrition and the control of infectious diseases. The International Development Research Centre and Grand Challenges Canada, alongside researchers and civil society organizations, have generated further tangible benefits for the health and well-being of populations worldwide, while also elevating Canada’s standing on the world stage.

Pandemic stress test

However, the COVID-19 pandemic has since triggered seismic changes in the global health landscape. The pandemic itself stress-tested Canada’s global health role, earning the country mixed reviews.

While the federal government provided billions of dollars to collectively fight SARS-CoV-2, through initiatives such as the COVAX Facility and ACT-Accelerator (Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator), these important contributions were overshadowed by Canada’s failure to champion global vaccine equity. Rather than bringing countries together, the pandemic prompted many to prioritize national interests.

Since the end of the emergency phase, governments have struggled to agree to a pandemic treaty and there has been a shift in attention to other pressing needs. Calls to decolonize global health have instead been met with a decline in financial commitments by the U.S. and other donor countries.

This concerning shift in the global health landscape signals an important need for Canada to reflect on its role in global health. Key findings of our panel’s report directly challenge the outdated notion that global health is simply about development assistance.

Instead, we identify where domestic and global health needs intersect in an interconnected world of shared risks and opportunities. We conclude that domestic health and well-being cannot be advanced without a robust commitment to global health co-operation. The key is to urgently identify these win-wins as points of navigation in an era of what’s known as polycrisis.

Priority issues

To renew Canada’s global health role, the panel identifies four priority issue areas that bring together domestic and global health needs:
- Champion an accelerated and equity-focused universal health coverage strategy with particular emphasis on primary care and the rights of women and girls;
- Advance a One Health security approach to pandemic readiness that emphasizes the interconnectedness of all life, need for primary prevention and central importance of sustainability and equity; spans upstream risks as well as downstream preparedness and response measures; and builds core capacities such as a standing emergency workforce;
- Renew Canadian leadership in health promotion and protection by advancing a well-being economy focused on serving people and the planet, rather than the generation of wealth as an end goal; and prevents the harms and promotes the benefits from for-profit businesses, their activities and the economic systems that sustain them, known as the commercial determinants of health;
- Initiate a Canadian Emergency Workforce for Health Innovation Program to urgently tackle the domestic and global health workforce crisis including a commitment to zero poaching of international health-care workers by 2035.
Taking action

Microscopic view of H5N1 avian influenza particles. The growing threat from highly pathogenic avian flu offers a clear example of how a retreat from global health co-operation directly weakens the capacity of all countries to protect domestic populations.
(CDC and NIAID), CC BY

The panel recommends that three strategic actions are needed to take forward these priority issue areas:
- A Canadian Global Health Strategy that sets out a renewed rationale for global health engagement, key priorities for federal, provincial/territorial and local levels of government, targeted investments and clear metrics to monitor progress;
- A coherent and targeted plan to bolster public and private investments in science and innovation for critical priorities such as the health workforce, One Health Security, along with research capacity in Indigenous communities and the developing world; and
- A commitment to ensuring Canadian capacity to engage in global health decision-making, diplomacy and partnerships through the appointment of a Global Health Ambassador; establishment of a Canadian Global Health Hub (CG2H) that brings together available expertise, talent and resources; and a training program for our next-generation of leaders.
The growing threat from highly pathogenic avian influenza and the health impacts of climate change are looming examples of how a retreat from global health co-operation at this time would directly weaken Canada’s capacity to protect health and well-being at home.

From the World Health Organization’s tracking of the ever-changing influenza virus to the rapid development and deployment of medical countermeasures and the joint tackling of the causes of global warming, a retreat behind national borders makes little sense. Building on a storied history of engagement that supersedes partisan politics, there is no time to lose for Canada to strategically renew its role in global health.

Kelley Lee receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, New Frontiers in Research Fund, Canadian Biomedical Research Fund, Canada Foundation for Innovation, and British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

Tim Evans is a Board member of the not-for-profit group CanWaCH.

– ref. Why it’s a critical time for Canada to renew its commitment to global health co-operation – https://theconversation.com/why-its-a-critical-time-for-canada-to-renew-its-commitment-to-global-health-co-operation-251894
MIL OSI – Global Reports –
March 28, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Environment Secretary Steve Reed – Circular Economy speech

Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

Speech

Environment Secretary Steve Reed – Circular Economy speech

Speech by Environment Secretary Steve Reed at the Dock Shed in London, setting out his vision for a circular economy

Thanks to British Land and Mace for hosting us at the Dock Shed today.

The views up here are absolutely spectacular.

I don’t think any of us can ever tire of looking at that iconic London skyline. No matter how many times you’ve seen it before.

Or seeing the city shift and grow as buildings go up and down, as spaces are developed. As communities are created.

When I was Lambeth Council Leader, I was co-chair of the Vauxhall Nine Elms Redevelopment – that’s the biggest regeneration project in Europe.

But what people don’t always see is the waste that kind of development can produce.

62% of all waste generated in the United Kingdom comes from construction.

That’s resources lost from our economy.

Lost economic value.

As we meet our commitment as a Government to build 1.5 million homes, the infrastructure for clean green energy and a reliable and clean water supply, the datacentres to make the UK an AI superpower, we can and we must get better use out of our materials and eradicate waste.

Mace and British Land – and many others in the room – are already rising to the challenge.

In this building alone, thousands of tonnes of carbon were saved by smarter material choices, meaning every structure has a smaller carbon footprint.

The stone floor beneath your feet is completely recycled.

And in new buildings across the development, British Land and Mace are using material passports to digitally track all components so they can be adapted and reused in the future.

Later this morning I’m looking forward to visiting the Paper Garden, just a few minutes from here, transformed from an old printworks into an education centre and a garden, where 60% of materials have been retained or reclaimed, including railway sleepers and the logs of fallen trees from Epping Forest.

The principles of a Circular Economy are embedded in these designs.

That’s what I want to talk about today.

Not just in construction but across all sectors.

We have an opportunity to end the throwaway society and move to a futureproofed economy.

Where things are built to last.

Where products are designed to be reused and repaired. And materials given new life again and again.

This isn’t about merely modifying the way we currently manage waste.

I want to work with all of you to fundamentally transform our economy so we get more value from it.

When I was in opposition, this is what business leaders told me they wanted a Labour Government to do.

So when I became Secretary of State for Defra, I made creating a Circular Economy one of my five core priorities for that department.

British businesses want to make this change.

So now it’s part of the Government’s national Plan for Change.

But it needs long-term direction on how regulation will develop.

So you can plan with certainty, so we can build the infrastructure we need, and financial institutions and businesses can invest with confidence.

Today I want to set that direction so, together, we can make the Circular Economy a reality.

Turn back the years and the things Britain made were built to last.

Washing machines would be fixed, clothes mended, broken pieces of furniture repaired.

But in recent times we’ve become trapped in a throwaway culture.

It’s easier and quicker to replace something on Amazon than get it fixed.

Our lives follow a ‘take, use and throw’ model that is economically unsustainable, creates mountains of waste that we have to bury or burn, and leaves our supply chains vulnerable and exposed.

Yet we know the British public support change.

Carrier bags sold by the main supermarkets have reduced by over 98% since 2014.

We’ve cleaned up streets, rivers and beaches by banning single-use plastic items like cutlery and polystyrene cups.

Both policies had huge public support.

But we are falling behind the rest of the world.

This Government is changing that.

Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility will begin later this year, incentivising businesses to remove unnecessary packaging and make their products more recyclable and refillable.

Simpler Recycling for the workplace starts next week.

And a standardised, national approach to household recycling – paper, card, plastic, glass, metals and food waste – will be introduced next year so everyone understands more clearly what they can recycle and how they recycle it.

This will end postcode confusion about bin collections and make sure households, workplaces and businesses never have to deal with the madness of 7 separate bin collections which the previous Conservative Government legislated to inflict on us.

And this April, we will appoint the business-led organisation that will launch the UK’s first Deposit Management Scheme for drinks containers starting in 2027.

Less than 60% of waste electricals are collected for reuse or recycling.

4 in 5 of our plastic products are still made from virgin materials.

Our household recycling rates haven’t improved in 15 years.

UK landfill sites absolutely astonishingly cover an area almost as big as Greater London.

We burn 12 million tonnes of waste collected by councils every year.

We throw away £22 billion in edible food annually. Four and a half billion in clothes. 2 and a half billion in usable furniture.

This is bad for the environment, bad for society and it’s bad for the economy.

We are literally shovelling money down the drain.

Under Michael Topham’s leadership at the Environmental Services Association, our biggest recycling companies are stepping up to the challenge.

Our reforms are giving them the confidence to invest £10 billion pounds in the UK’s recycling infrastructure over the next decade, creating over 21 thousand jobs right across the country.

I know parts of the industry have concerns around the impacts of some of these reforms.

We are listening. And we’ll keep listening to make sure the changes work for businesses.

Based on businesses’ feedback, we’ll appoint a producer-led organisation to lead our packaging reforms, building on the successful business-led board that steered them to this stage.

We’ve published estimated base fees for year one of the scheme, rather than ranges, to give businesses more certainty.

And we have stopped mandatory labelling requirements to avoid any trade friction or increased costs within the UK and with the EU.

We’ve also worked with the Food Standards Agency to confirm they will take up the role of competent authority, carrying out the checks to verify the suitability of recycling processes producing food-grade recycled plastics for trade, so we can uphold the value of high-quality UK recycled plastics on export markets.

Beyond our packaging changes, our ban on disposable plastic vapes comes into force in June.

We are changing the law so online marketplaces and vape producers pay their fair share to recycle the electricals that they put on the market – encouraging them to consider other options like reuse.

We’ve set aside £15 million to reduce food waste from farms and ensure it reaches families in need.

And we’ve set strict conditions for new energy-from-waste plants so they work better for local communities and maximise the value of resources that can’t be re-used or recycled.

I’m proud of where we’ve got to so far. But I know these reforms are still not enough.

We need a bigger shift to an economic system that encourages repair, reuse and innovation, where resources are used again and again, and waste is designed out of the system right from the start.

I worked in business for 16 years, with responsibility for driving up profit and driving down cost.

To make this bigger shift, I know we must help you unlock innovation and technologies that will open new revenue streams.

Work with local government to ensure the right infrastructure is in place.

And show the public that the circular economy is not some abstract concept, but something that will bring real benefits to them, their families, small businesses and communities right across the UK.

A Circular Economy makes sense.

In the Netherlands, financial organisations like InvestNL and innovations such as the Denim Deal for textiles are stimulating innovation in every corner of their economy.

I want the UK to match this. And then go further.

Moving from our current throwaway society is vital to grow the economy and deliver our Plan for Change, so we can give working people economic security, and give our country national security.

Towns and cities in every region will benefit from new investment that keeps materials in use for longer, whether in manufacturing and product design, processing or recycling facilities, or in the rental, repair and resale sectors.

This will provide thousands of high quality, skilled jobs right across the country, getting more people into work, wages into pockets, and driving the regional economic growth this Government was elected to deliver.

If you want to put a figure on it, external analysis suggests circular economy policies have the potential to boost the economy by £18 billion a year, every year.

A Circular Economy is also a more resilient economy.

Recent disruptions to global supply chains from the Covid 19 pandemic to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine make it clear we can no longer rely on importing 80% of our raw materials from abroad.

These include the materials and components essential to our phones, computers, electric vehicles, hospital equipment and clean energy infrastructure. And that’s to name just a few.

To ensure our national security in an increasingly unstable world, we have no choice.

We must embrace circular, local supply chains to reduce our exposure to global shocks and prevent us running out of critical resources.

As the Chancellor has said, we need to remove barriers for British businesses, investors and entrepreneurs and grow the supply-side of our economy.

It’s not just the economy though.

Extracting resources and processing them is responsible for over half of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Moving away from the linear make, use and throw model is vital to meeting our Net Zero and Environment Targets.

It will mean less rubbish ending up in landfill. Fewer plastics under our feet and choking the seas, taking hundreds of years to break down.

We can make better use of that land, whether for agriculture, housing, nature or green energy infrastructure.

It will mean burning less waste. Less litter on our streets. Less fly tipping on the side of our roads.

It will mean people can feel more pride in their communities.

British businesses are already showing us what’s possible.

From innovative tech startups turning waste into valuable materials, to social enterprises giving used goods a second life.

Like SUEZ working with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to give hundreds of tonnes of pre-loved items like furniture, bikes and toys a brand new lease of life.

Reselling them to the local community at affordable prices or donating them to local charities.

Too Good to Go, established in Copenhagen and spanning multiple global cities including here in London, which has over 100 million users and saved over 400 million meals.

Low Carbon Materials in Durham, using alternative construction materials to decarbonise roads across the country.

Or Ecobat Solutions’ in Darlaston recovering valuable materials from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries through their innovative recycling plant.

I want to support businesses like these to succeed.

By facilitating the transition you told me this sector wants to make.

That’s why I set up the Circular Economy taskforce, bringing together experts from government, industry, academia and civil society to work with businesses on what they want to see so we create the best possible conditions for investment.

I’m delighted to have so many members of the taskforce here with us in the room this morning.

Under the leadership of Andrew Morlet and Professor Paul Ekins, the taskforce will work with businesses to develop the first ever Circular Economy Strategy for England.

We will publish the Strategy in the coming Autumn.

It will include the long-term regulatory roadmaps that businesses asked for, showing the journey to circularity, sector by sector, so you have the certainty and direction to invest in the future.

We will start with five sectors that have the greatest potential to grow the economy: chemicals and plastics; construction; textiles; transport; and agrifood.

This includes exploring how we can protect our battery supply so we can electrify the UK’s vehicle fleet, working with the Chancellor to make sure levers including the Plastics Packaging Tax help support the stability and growth of our plastics reprocessing sector, or how we harness new technologies to stop burning materials like the plastic films on packs of strawberries or mushrooms, but instead give them a new life.

We’re already seeing innovation in plastic films by the company Quantafuel based in Denmark, and Viridor who are here today, alongside others, want to develop chemical recycling plants following that model here in the UK.

It includes how we build on the industry led coalition ‘Textiles 2030’ to transform our world-leading fashion and textiles industry, tackle food waste to improve food security and bring benefits for consumers, businesses and the environment, and lower construction costs and emissions as we build 1.5 million homes during the lifetime of the current Parliament.

In these roadmaps, we’ll learn from international best practice, including from the European Union.

Until now, countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany have led the way on circularity.

Our Strategy will give British businesses the support they need so we can put the UK back in the race.

It will provide the freedom for businesses to harness the entrepreneurial spirit and innovation that Britain has long been known for.

Those of you here today are the champions for this change.

You were the first off the start line. You’ve battled to do what’s right for the environment, the economy, and the future of our country.

I want to thank you for that.

Businesses will lead the transition to a Circular Economy.

It’s up to us to work together to bring the wider business community and society with us.

We need to show the country that the Circular Economy is not just a diagram on a page.

It’s cleaner streets, greener parks, and less fly-tipping in communities we’re proud to call home.

It’s new income for businesses, thousands of skilled jobs, and economic growth in every region of the country.

It’s resilience in the face of global supply chain shocks, and it’s essential for our national security.

The Circular Economy is our chance to improve lives up and down the country. To grow our economy.

And protect our beautiful environment for generations to come.

I’m genuinely excited about what we can achieve together.

My ask from you is simple.

Please tell the taskforce, and tell me, what you need from us.

Then work with us so we can make it happen.

Thank you.

Updates to this page

Published 27 March 2025

MIL OSI United Kingdom –

March 28, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Kennedy welcomes debarment of doctor who facilitated gain-of-function research in Wuhan: “We now have justice”
US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator John Kennedy (Louisiana)

Watch Kennedy’s comments here.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) commended the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for debarring and defunding EcoHealth Alliance and its president, Dr. Peter Daszak, for their role in facilitating gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China, which likely caused the coronavirus pandemic.

Key excerpts of the speech are below:

“Many commentators and many news accounts say that what Dr. Daszak—with the money from American taxpayers that he had gotten from Dr. Fauci and Dr. Collins—what they were doing was conducting gain-of-function research. . . . Gain-of-function research just means taking, in this context, an animal virus, a bat virus, altering it genetically so it would jump into a human—pretty dangerous stuff.

“Now Dr. Fauci has said that didn’t happen, Dr. Collins says that didn’t happen, and Dr. Daszak says that didn’t happen, but everybody else says it did. The FBI says it did. The CIA says it did. The top spy agency in Germany says it did. The Department of Energy says it did.

“So what happened? What happened? Well, we do know that the first two people that we know of in the world who got the coronavirus—the first two humans—were not people in the city of Wuhan; they were workers in the Wuhan lab. . . . We also know that when the virus became really contagious, other than these two people who were working in the Wuhan lab, it became contagious in Wuhan, China, a few miles away from the Wuhan lab—pretty curious.

“We also know that when word first broke of the coronavirus, Dr. Fauci learned about it. Do you know one of the first persons he called was Dr. Peter Daszak and said: What is going on?

“We also know that Dr. Daszak was trying to convince the American people and the people of the world that the virus started naturally—that it didn’t start from his gain-of-function research. We know that he rounded up a bunch of epidemiologists to write a fake article and start publishing it and others in a lot of professional scientific magazines to try to convince the world that the bat virus jumped to human beings naturally. We know that. That has all come out.”

. . .

“It took a while, and some will call this only partial justice, but we now have justice—at least for 5 years. I hope forever Dr. Peter Daszak and any company with which he is affiliated will no longer receive taxpayer dollars from the National Institutes of Health because he was doing—according to many people smarter than me and many news reports—he was funding gain research in Wuhan. . . . Pretty scary stuff, and we know how it all turned out.

Background:
- On Jan. 17, 2025, HHS announced that it would be defunding and debarring EcoHealth Alliance Inc. and Dr. Daszak for at least five years due to their role in facilitating irresponsible gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
- HHS determined that Dr. Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance violated the terms of their gain-of-function grant to conduct experiments that modified novel bat coronaviruses to make them 10,000 times more infectious in mice.
- Dr. Daszak, former National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins and former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci coordinated with other public health officials to propel the theory that COVID-19 originated in nature.
Watch Kennedy’s full speech here.
MIL OSI USA News –
March 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Ecological disruptions are a risk to national security

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Bradley J. Cardinale, Professor, Ecosystem Science and Management, Penn State

Illegal deforestation is one way terrorist groups fund their activities. Amaury Falt-Brown/AFP via Getty Images

When the natural environment is stretched beyond its ability to meet basic human needs for food, clean air, drinkable water and shelter, it is not just a humanitarian concern for the world community. Research shows that these crises are a matter of national security for the U.S. and other countries.

The Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community have long paid close attention to the influence of climate change on national security. Although recent intelligence reports of the Trump administration have omitted any mention of climate change, prior intelligence reports have shown how climate change can generate flash points for global conflict, affect how troops and equipment work, and influence which defense locations are vulnerable.

The effects of ecological disruptions on national security get less attention. But they, too, can cause social and political instability, economic strife and strained international relations. Ecological disruptions occur when ecosystems that provide natural resources are compromised and can no longer meet basic human needs. Examples include overfishing, human disease and environmental crime.

Protecting access to fish

Some 3.2 billion people worldwide rely on fisheries as a major source of protein. Overexploitation of ocean fisheries is a common root of international conflict.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, intermittent conflict broke out between British and Icelandic fishermen over the Icelandic cod fisheries, which had been depleted by overfishing. The Icelandic government sought to ban British trawlers from a broader area around the country’s coast, but the British continued to fish. The result was standoffs between fishing boats and Icelandic gunboats, and even the intervention of the British Royal Navy.

These “Cod Wars” broke diplomatic relations between Iceland and the United Kingdom for a time. Iceland even threatened to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and close a U.S. military base in Iceland. The U.K. ultimately agreed to abide by a 200-mile territorial limit on fishing around Iceland. Decades later, in 2012, the British government issued an apology and offered £1,000 each in compensation to 2,500 British fishermen for the loss of jobs and livelihoods that resulted from abiding by the 200-mile limit.

More recently, China’s rampant overfishing of its own coastal waters has meant expanding fishing in the South China Sea and using fishing fleets to assert new territorial claims. Indonesia has responded by blowing up more than 40 Chinese vessels accused of fishing illegally in its waters and stealing more than US$4 billion per year in Indonesian profits.

The United States, Australia, New Zealand and Britain have stepped up naval patrols against illegal fishing in the waters of Pacific island nations. Conflicts have arisen with Chinese coast guard vessels that routinely escort fishing fleets entering other countries’ waters without permission.

China’s fishing fleets have also expanded their activities off the coasts of Africa and South America, depleting fish stocks and creating political instability in those regions, too. In 2024, the U.S. Coast Guard and Argentine navy began joint exercises to combat illegal Chinese fishing in the Atlantic Ocean.

Public health crises

The best-known examples of ecologically related public health crises that jeopardize national security involve what are called zoonotic diseases, which spread from animals to humans as a result of close contact between people and wildlife. More than 70% of the world’s emerging infectious diseases – uncommon or newly identified infectious diseases – stem from contact with wild animals.

The risks of animal-to-human disease transmission are especially high for those who handle or eat wild meat.

A recent example is the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 global pandemic. Epidemiological and genetic studies suggest that SARS-CoV-2 first spilled over to humans from wild animals sold in the Huanan live animal market in Wuhan, China. Although the specific animal that served as the original host is still under investigation, bats and other mammals are considered likely natural reservoirs of SARS-CoV-2 because they harbor other coronaviruses with closely related genomes.

Following the zoonotic spillover event, the pathogen spread rapidly across the globe, killing more than 7 million people and causing acute disruptions not only to global markets and supply chains but also to social cohesion and political stability. Countries with high COVID-19 mortality rates had elevated levels of civil disorder and fatalities caused by political violence as the trust of citizens in the ability of governments to protect them eroded.

Many other zoonotic diseases caused by human-wildlife contact, such as Zika, Ebola, SARS and West Nile virus, have similarly generated international political and economic crises that have activated security measures within the U.S. government.

Environmental crime

International Anti-Poaching Foundation rangers, seen here demonstrating a patrol in Zimbabwe, seek to protect natural resources from criminals.
Gianluigi Guercia/AFP via Getty Images

Illegal poaching and trade of wildlife and forest products is valued at $91 billion to $258 billion per year. That makes environmental crime one of the world’s largest crime sectors, comparable with drug trafficking, at $344 billion, and human trafficking, at $157 billion.

Exorbitant black market prices for rare wildlife specimens and body parts provide funding for terrorist groups, drug cartels and criminal organizations.

Illegal logging helps finance terrorist groups such as Al-Shabaab in Somalia, where trade in charcoal has become a critical revenue source. Money from illegally cut trees turned into charcoal and sold to markets in the Middle East has funded al-Shabab-linked suicide bombings in Mogadishu, the 2013 Westgate mall attack in Nairobi that killed 67 Kenyan and non-Kenyan nationals, and the 2015 massacre of 147 university students in Garissa, Kenya.

Those and other terrorist activities funded through environmental crime have contributed to the destabilization of countries throughout the Horn of Africa.

These examples make clear how ecological disruptions to nature increase national security risks.

National security is not just a matter of military strength. It also depends on the ability of a nation to maintain productive and stable ecosystems, resilient biological communities and sustainable access to natural resources. Sovereign nations already develop and protect physical infrastructure that is essential to security, such as roads, communication networks and power grids. The natural world plays an equally vital role in social and political stability and, we believe, deserves more attention in planning for national security.

Bradley J. Cardinale has received funding from the US National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and US Department of Agriculture.

Emmett Duffy has received funding from the US National Science Foundation, US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Lenfest Ocean Program.

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

– ref. Ecological disruptions are a risk to national security – https://theconversation.com/ecological-disruptions-are-a-risk-to-national-security-248754

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 28, 2025
MIL-OSI: Drone Manufacturers Racing to Introduce Latest Technology as Global Aerial Survey Services Market Projected to Reach $790 Billion By 2031

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

PALM BEACH, Fla., March 27, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FN Media Group News Commentary – Many investors have been watching the drone industry consistently growing over the past years and are expecting the same expansions to continue. The popularity of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for aerial imagery is quickly expanding this market. A report from Verified Market Research said that the Aerial Survey Services Market size, which was valued at USD 22.67 Billion in 2024, is projected to reach USD 791.21 Billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 55.90% during the forecast period 2024-2031. The report added: “The rising use of drone services for industry-specific solutions, improved regulatory framework, and increased demand for qualitative data in various industries are projected to boost the expansion of the Drone Aerial Survey Services Market. Aerial imaging is being more widely used in defense applications. Natural calamities are becoming more common. Aerial camera systems have been improving steadily. Drone technology has attracted venture capital investment. During the forecast period, the enterprise segment of the Aerial Survey Services Market is expected to grow at the fastest rate. All industries benefit from enterprise solutions because they provide end-to-end services. The enterprise solution segment is being driven by the rising demand for analytical services and software solutions in the Aerial Survey Services Market.” Active Companies in the drone industry today include ZenaTech, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZENA), AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc. (NYSE: UAVS), Red Cat Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: RCAT), AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV), KULR Technology Group, Inc. (NYSE American: KULR).

Verified Market Research continued: “A rise in demand from a variety of industries is fueling the growth of the Drone Aerial Survey Services Market. Aerial photography is used in agriculture to track effective changes in yield production, crop health management, and soil improvement. Aerial imaging services are needed by the defense sector to protect border areas and prepare map structures. Aerial imaging services are also being used more widely in research and exploration, archaeological surveys, mining, oil and gas, and resource management. The Drone Aerial Survey Services Market is still in its early stages of development, and the expansion of application areas is expected to accelerate market growth over the forecast period. During the coronavirus pandemic, aerial imaging helped the construction industry. The benefits of aerial imaging for contracted surveying, onsite inspections, and design planning applications have been augmented by the construction, roofing, and solar industries.”

ZenaTech (NASDAQ:ZENA) Signs LOI to Acquire Eighth Land Survey Company Advancing Drone as a Service in a $2.5 Billion US Drone Survey Market by 2033 – ZenaTech, Inc. (FSE: 49Q) (BMV: ZENA) (“ZenaTech”), a technology company specializing in AI (Artificial Intelligence) drone, Drone as a Service (DaaS), enterprise SaaS and Quantum Computing solutions, announces that it has signed an LOI (Letter of Intent) to acquire an eighth land survey engineering company which marks the second LOI located in Arizona. Upon completion, these locations will serve as a launchpad to further Southwest regional development and contribute to the Company’s national DaaS business model intended to bring the speed and precision of ZenaDrone’s AI drone solutions in a convenient subscription or pay-per-use model for businesses and government users.

“Arizona is strategic to our US operations as the base of our subsidiary ZenaDrone where our second drone manufacturing facility will be. Our vision with Drone as a Service is to capture part of the drone survey market that is growing by double-digits and is expected to reach USD $2.5 billion by 2033. We plan to build our national presence offering ZenaDrone products and services for land surveys and many other applications,” said CEO Shaun Passley, Ph.D.

According to Fact.MR, the global drone surveying market is poised for substantial growth and is expected to be worth over USD $8 billion globally by 2033 of which North America is expected to represent 35%. This market is expanding at a CAGR of over 19%, driven by increasing demand from industries such as construction, agriculture, and infrastructure development. Within the drone surveying market, land surveys represent 53%, with significant adoption in real estate, urban planning, environmental applications and infrastructure projects.

Drones as a Service or DaaS works similarly to Software as a Service (SaaS), but instead of providing software over the internet, this business model offers drone technology solutions and services on a subscription or pay-per-use basis. With DaaS, businesses and government customers can conveniently access drones for tasks such as surveying, inspections, security, law enforcement, or precision agriculture solutions without having to buy, operate or maintain the drones themselves.

ZenaTech’s DaaS model offers customers including government agencies, builders and real estate developers, construction firms and farmers reduced upfront costs as there is no need to purchase expensive drones, and convenience as the company manages maintenance and operation. DaaS also offers scalability to companies to use more often or less often based on their needs and enables access to advanced drone technology and applications without the need for specialized training or equipment.

Accurate land surveys are essential for the planning, design, and execution of roads, bridges, and building projects for cities, commercial, and residential projects, and are required for legal purposes. Remotely piloted drones with an array of sensors and cameras, LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), and GPS systems for capturing high-resolution pictures and data are revolutionizing the land survey industry gathering aerial data across expansive terrains in a matter of hours instead of weeks or months using more traditional photogrammetry methods. Continued… Read this full release by visiting: https://www.financialnewsmedia.com/news-zena/

In Additional ZENA News: ZenaTech’s (NASDAQ:ZENA) ZenaDrone Developing Indoor Drone Swarm Application for Inventory Management and Security with Auto Parts Manufacturer Customer – ZenaTech, Inc. this week also announced its subsidiary ZenaDrone is developing a drone swarm application using multiple indoor IQ Nano drones for inventory management and security applications. ZenaDrone is conducting this development with its auto parts manufacturer customer where it is currently engaged in a paid trial.

A drone swarm is a coordinated group of autonomous drones that communicate and work together using AI and real-time data sharing, to perform tasks collaboratively without direct human control. Drone swarms can enhance efficiency, accuracy, automation and performance compared to a single drone.

“We are pioneering the development of autonomous drone swarm technology, revolutionizing indoor inventory management and warehouse security by providing real-time, more accurate stock tracking and surveillance with reduced manual processes. We believe this technology will enable warehouses to operate more efficiently, reduce costs, and enhance safety and security while setting a new industry standard for AI drones,” said CEO Shaun Passley, Ph.D. Continued… Read this full release by visiting: https://www.zenatech.com/newsroom/

Other recent developments in the drone industry include:

Red Cat Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: RCAT), a drone technology company integrating robotic hardware and software for military, government, and commercial operations, recently announced that financial results for the 2024 Stub Period (as of December 31, 2024 and the eight months then ended) will be reported on Monday, March 31, 2025 at the market close.

Company management will host an earnings conference call at 4:30p.m. ET on Monday, March 31, 2025 to review financial results and provide an update on corporate developments. Following management’s formal remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session.

Interested parties can listen to the conference call by dialing 1-844-413-3977 (within the U.S.) or 1-412-317-1803 (international). Callers should dial in approximately ten minutes prior to the start time and ask to be connected to the Red Cat conference call. Participants can also pre-register for the call using the following link: https://dpregister.com/sreg/10198203/fecb0dc7ae

AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV) recently reported financial results for the fiscal third quarter ended January 25, 2025. “We faced a number of short-term challenges in the third quarter, including the unprecedented high winds and fires in Southern California, which impacted our ability to meet our goals,” said Wahid Nawabi, AeroVironment chairman, president and chief executive officer. “Nevertheless, we made significant progress towards executing our long-term growth strategy and building resiliency for the future.

“This quarter, we booked record Switchblade and Jump-20 orders, which helped expand our backlog to a record $764 million. We also announced our new Utah manufacturing facility, which will more than double our Switchblade capacity and provide resiliency against regional weather events. Finally, we made significant progress towards completing our BlueHalo acquisition, which we now expect to close in the second quarter of calendar year 2025. While this has been a transition year pivoting away from Ukraine demand, we still expect a strong fiscal year 2025 including record fourth quarter revenue.”

KULR Technology Group, Inc. (NYSE American: KULR) recently announced will hold a conference call on Thursday, March 27th at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time (1:30 p.m. Pacific time) to discuss its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2024. The financial results will be issued in a press release prior to the call.

KULR management will host the conference call, followed by a question-and-answer period. Interested parties can submit relevant questions prior to the call to Stuart Smith at SmallCapVoice.Com, Inc. via email: ssmith@smallcapvoice.com by 5:00 p.m. ET on Friday, March 21st, 2025. Mr. Smith will compile a list of questions and submit them to the Company prior to the conference call. The questions that will get addressed will be based on the relevance to the shareholder base, and the appropriateness of the questions in light of public disclosure rules.

AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc. (NYSE: UAVS) recently announced the appointment of Steve Mathias as Vice President of Global Sales and Business Development and Erik de Badts as Global Head of MicaSense Sales. AgEagle CEO Bill Irby commented, “As we execute a multi-faceted strategic growth plan focused on expanding our global footprint, the addition of both Steve and Erik’s impressive pedigrees will drive innovation, foster collaboration, and ensure that we remain agile in an evolving UAS marketplace. Steve brings multi-decade expertise in military and commercial aviation, both crewed and uncrewed, while Erik is a true subject matter expert in multi-spectral sensing. We are confident their leadership will help strengthen key partner relationships, unlock new opportunities, and accelerate revenue growth.”

Steve Mathias is an aerospace business executive with over 30 years of senior leadership experience in both the military and aerospace industry. Prior to joining AgEagle, he served as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Growth at GKN Aerospace Defense, a leading global technology company specializing in advanced aerostructures and engine systems. Before his role at GKN Aerospace, Mr. Mathias was Vice President of Global Sales and Strategy at Bell Helicopter, where he led all domestic and international vertical lift defense sales, including both crewed and uncrewed systems. His background as a U.S. Army Officer includes significant special operations and conventional aviation experience with both manned and unmanned systems. In his final Army assignment, Steve served as the Deputy Chief of Staff G-8 for the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, overseeing the requirements and Program Objective Memorandum (POM) processes for over 200 Army and Special Operations air and land programs.

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The MIL Network –

March 28, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: expert reaction to New York Times reporting that the Trump administration intends to end funding for Gavi

Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

March 26, 2025

Scientists comment on news that the Trump administration are intending to stop funding for Gavi (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation).

Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, University of Oxford, said:

“The funding cuts in the first 3 months of this year affecting USAID, ODA, WHO and now Gavi are suffocating global health. With this scale of withdrawal of funding some estimates indicate that millions could die from hunger and vaccine-preventable infections. Institutions are reluctant to speak out in case they are targeted and individuals are self-censoring to protect themselves. We must wake up to the moral case for supporting the remarkable global health efforts that help the poor of the world, but also remember that it is in our own interest to defend global health. As the Covid19 pandemic reminds us, infectious diseases cross borders and put all of us at risk. “

Dr David Elliman, Honorary Senior Associate Professor in Child Health at University College London, said:

“GAVI has enabled many low income countries to deliver vaccinations to children where they would not otherwise be affordable. This is an important contribution to the prevention of millions of deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases around the world. It is estimated that vaccine programmes save something like 6 lives every minute. The withdrawal of funding from GAVI would inevitably lead to a loss of lives, that could otherwise have been saved. This is not only cruel, but is not in the interests of anyone. If diseases such as measles and TB increase anywhere in the world, it is a hazard to us all. Measles is already on the increase in many parts of the world, including Europe and USA. This could easily happen to other diseases. Ensuring that children “the other side of the world” are protected, contributes substantially to the protection of our own children in high income countries.

“Similar to the reduction in other forms of aid, this would add to the misery of millions of children. It is an utterly misguided measure, whether considered on ethical grounds or out self interest. Let us hope that this rumour is just that and does not become action.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/health/usaid-cuts-gavi-bird-flu.html

Declared interests

Professor Sir Andrew Pollard: “Professor Pollard is chair of JCVI which provides independent scientific advice on vaccines to DHSC. The comment above is given in a personal capacity.”

Dr David Elliman: I have no conflicts of interest

MIL OSI United Kingdom –

March 27, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: How Australia’s government is spending less on consultants – and trying to rebuild the public service
Source: The Conversation – France – By Emmanuel Josserand, Enseignant-chercheur, Pôle Léonard de Vinci

The post-Covid era has been marked by a global crackdown on government spending on consultants. This phenomenon hasn’t only concerned France, where the “McKinsey-gate” episode concerning President Emmanuel Macron’s 2017 campaign for the Élysée led to a Senate inquiry and spending cuts.

Public debates, government inquiries and new laws emerged in many countries, including the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand, Germany and South Africa. Australia has been particularly active and achieved significant savings in consultant and contractor spending. Here’s how it did it.

Nearly €2 billion in savings

To understand why the use of consultants has become highly politicized in Australia, we need to go back at least to the 2018 federal elections. The right-wing coalition government was focusing on cutting public spending by reducing public jobs. The Labour opposition argued that this led to the more costly use of consultants.

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The controversy continued through the 2022 federal elections, when a newly elected Labour government pledged to save 3 billion Australian dollars (around €1.9 billion) on consultants and the use of external labour. This was also pursued at the regional level. For instance, the state of New South Wales announced savings of over 55% in consultants’ fees for the fiscal year 2023-24.

The case of Australia highlights four main reasons for reducing consulting costs and improving governance – reasons that are also found in other countries.
- Expenses exceeding needs
First, a dramatic increase in government spending on consultants attracted attention. In Australia, it almost tripled between 1988-89 and 2016-17 (after adjustment for inflation) and then tripled again to reach 3.2 billion Australian dollars for management advisory services alone in 2022-23. There is a concern that such costs are far more than what might be justified by a temporary rise in workload or the need for very specific technical expertise, even accounting for the exceptional case of Covid.
- Hollowing out of the public service
Second, there is the related question of the hollowing out of the public service. The increase in the use of consultants can trigger a vicious circle in which the government loses its skills, thus becoming even more dependent on consultants. This was the core argument of a recent critique by economists called The Big Con.
- Lack of assessment
Third, there are reasons to doubt the overall efficiency and effectiveness of consultants’ interventions, especially in the absence of appropriate assessment by clients of the outcomes of the services provided. Despite the claims of consultants and their paying clients that consulting adds value, it is often impossible to measure value precisely, and, therefore, identify who deserves credit or blame.

Beyond comparing rates of pay, it is hard to know whether internal options would be more effective than using external consultants. Overall, research provides a very mixed picture, with some work showing external consulting being associated with increased inefficiency.
- Significant conflicts of interest
Finally, the capacity of consultants to provide independent advice has been broadly criticised after a series of scandals. This is partly because of conflicts of interest for consultants working for both public and private sector clients that are also often undeclared.

This concern became especially salient in Australia with the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) tax scandal. The Treasury had hired PwC, one of the “Big 4” consulting firms, to help devise legislation to restrict tax evasion by multinationals. Some PwC partners then shared this information with their private sector clients to help them prepare to avoid the new laws. Such cases are linked to broader concerns about the lack of transparency and professionalism in consulting and the failure of self-regulation, both linked to a reward system in the sector that prioritises generating fee income over ethics and the wider public interest.

Recommendations from the Senate inquiry

With a dependency on consulting that was proportionally greater than any other country’s and the resulting diminishment of its public service, Australia was facing a significant challenge and pressure to cut costs. But because of the diminishment of the public service, these cuts risked leaving it unable to fulfil its missions.

A recent Senate inquiry into the matter provided recommendations on how to improve the contracting process, public reporting on consultant contracts and a new regulatory framework for the consulting industry. It also recommended that any external consulting contract include an approach to transferring knowledge to the Australian public service.

However, these measures wouldn’t have been enough to reconstruct the capacity of the public service to compensate for significant cuts in their consulting and contractor spending. To solve this problem, the Australian government has started a major rebuilding of the public service.

Thousands of reallocated roles

Since 2022, Canberra has reallocated 8,700 roles formerly performed by consultants and external labour hires to public servants across all the major public service agencies. This will be supported by the Australian Public Service Commission’s strategy to develop a flexible workforce that is prepared for the challenges the public service will be facing – notably that of digitalization, an area that has been over-reliant on consultants.

Another interesting initiative in New South Wales is the establishment of a unit that will aim to redirect government agencies toward in-house expertise instead of consultants. Indeed, recourse to internal consulting units is common in the private sector. The government will also undertake long-term capability and skills planning, notably to identify core public service skills and address competency gaps.

Will this bring lasting results?

Australia’s solution is thus a strong commitment to redeveloping the public service with a flexible and planned approach to the management of its human resources. This is a key part of the way forward if cuts to consulting budgets are to be sustained. It is, however, too early to judge if the challenge of redeveloping the public service workforce and making it flexible enough will be met.

We should also keep in mind that this long-term objective is subject to political changes. With the current opposition leader promising a cut of 10,000 civil servants if his coalition is elected later this year, Labour’s plans for the public workforce might be short-lived.

Indeed, in Australia and elsewhere, there is a long history of short-lived and failed government efforts to contain the use of external consulting. This is in part because of a lack of civil service capacity to respond to change, but also because consulting firms are adept at persuading those in power – politicians and senior civil servants – that they can solve their problems (and let them take the credit).

Emmanuel Josserand is affiliated with the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney and the Business Insight Institute, Wiltz, Luxembourg.

Andrew Sturdy et Emmanuel Josserand ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur poste universitaire.

– ref. How Australia’s government is spending less on consultants – and trying to rebuild the public service – https://theconversation.com/how-australias-government-is-spending-less-on-consultants-and-trying-to-rebuild-the-public-service-252748
MIL OSI – Global Reports –
March 27, 2025