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  • MIL-OSI Global: ‘He’d only have to show proof of life once in a while’: Joe Biden’s advisors hid his decline – and the media didn’t dig hard enough

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Matthew Ricketson, Professor of Communication, Deakin University

    Last week, President Donald Trump ordered an investigation into “who ran the United States while President Biden was in office”, alleging top aides masked the “cognitive decline” of his predecessor. The announcement referenced revelations in a new book by journalists Jake Tapper (CNN) and Alex Thompson (Axios).

    Original Sin made headlines last month for revealing that Biden’s declining physical and cognitive health had been hidden from the public by his closest aides and his loyal but overly protective wife, Jill Biden.

    Whatever merit there is in Trump’s order must be seen alongside his bottomless cynicism. He seizes on the two authors’ investigative journalism to continue tarnishing his predecessor’s reputation, while doing everything in his power to bully news companies such as CBS over almost meritless defamation cases and to cut the funding of public media organisations PBS and NPR.

    Review: Original Sin – Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson (Hutchinson Heinemann)

    In November 2020, Biden was seen by many as a hero. He won the American election and saved the country from Donald Trump, who scholars judged among the worst presidents in the nation’s history, not least because just over 384,500 people died from COVID-19 that year.

    Today, just as many see Biden as a villain. He said he would be a “bridge” president. He knew he would have ended his second term aged 86 if he had won and served it, so said he would hand over to a successor well in time for the 2024 election. But he didn’t. Not until three and a half weeks after his wincingly bad performance in a debate with Trump last June.

    By then it was too late for his Democratic Party to go through its usual primaries process. Biden anointed his vice president Kamala Harris as his successor, but with only 107 days to campaign before the election, it is more accurate to say he gave her what football commentators call a “hospital pass”.

    Donald Trump regained the presidency. Four months into his second term, all but his most loyal supporters (and this time he has made sure to surround himself only with loyal supporters) think it is already much worse than his first.

    Whatever Biden achieved in his presidency is being forgotten amid the horror at watching America’s democratic institutions assaulted by an authoritarian leader determined to undo Biden’s policies, especially on climate change.

    What on earth happened? How much responsibility does Biden bear? Did the news media subject Biden to sufficient scrutiny before the debate last June? Was everyone except the MAGA base suffering from a new variant of what conservative commentators long ago dubbed “Trump derangement syndrome”?

    In short order, the answers are: Biden declined faster and worse than had been anticipated; a lot; the media possibly didn’t scrutinise him enough, but it’s more complicated than that – and, yes, “Trump derangement syndrome” was a factor, though not quite in the way conservative commentators thought.

    Clooney’s alarm

    Original Sin’s most spectacular revelation was that at a Democrat fundraising event last year, Biden did not appear to recognise George Clooney – who as well as being an actor, is a longtime Democrat supporter and a friend of the president.

    Clooney was shocked by Biden’s frail appearance. “Holy shit,” he thought, according to the authors, as he watched Biden enter the room, taking tiny steps with “an aide guiding him by his arm”. The book describes the excruciating moment in detail:

    “You know George,” the assisting aide told the president, gently reminding him who was in front of him.
    “Yeah, yeah,” the president said to one of the most recognizable men in the world, the host of this lucrative fundraiser. “Thank you for being here.”
    “Hi, Mr. President,” Clooney said.
    “How are ya?” the president replied.
    “How was your trip?” Clooney asked.
    “It was fine,” the president said.
    It was obvious to many standing there that the president did not know who George Clooney was. […]
    “George Clooney,” the aide clarified for the president.
    “Oh, yeah!” Biden said. “Hi, George!”

    A Hollywood VIP who witnessed the moment told the authors “it was not okay”, describing it as “uncomfortable”. Clooney felt he had to sound the alarm publicly, which he did in an impassioned opinion piece for The New York Times a few weeks later, on July 10. He wrote about how he loved and respected Biden, but

    the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can. It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.

    Just days after publicity about the book began, news broke that Biden has stage four prostate cancer – and that he had not had a prostate test for more than a decade.

    The ‘loyalty police’

    Tapper and Thompson’s book derives not only from their day jobs, but from reporting they have done since last November’s election, including interviews with 200 people. Some of them, even now, prefer to speak on background rather than be named.

    Through them, they tell a bracing story with three main themes.

    First, there is the unblinking loyalty of close aides. Chief strategist Mike Donilon had been with Biden since 1981. Bruce Reed was a speechwriter and longtime political consultant. Steve Ricchetti had been Biden’s chief of staff when he was vice president, and was also a friend who would watch the morning political shows with him. All four of Richetti’s children worked in the Biden administration, the authors write.

    Jill Biden’s longtime aides, Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal, were fiercely protective of the Bidens as much as the office of the president. “Are you a Biden person?” they would ask, leading other aides to label them the “loyalty police”.

    Collectively, the close aides were known as The Politburo. Kamala Harris’ aides called them a “cabal of the unhelpful”. Time and again, they responded to queries about Biden’s health with firm assurances he was doing fine – even though the president needed to be supplied with cue cards when he was meeting his cabinet secretaries.

    Biden, like previous presidents, had an annual medical check-up and was given a clean bill of health. But doctors outside the White House noted that his cognitive abilities were not tested. Asked about this, aides – and Biden himself – would say he passed a cognitive test every day of his presidency, which was a superficially plausible but practically meaningless statement.

    Some aides genuinely believed in Biden, while others harboured doubts. The latter suppressed those to focus on the task of defeating Trump in 2024. One told Tapper and Thompson: “He just had to win, and then he could disappear for four years – he’d only have to show proof of life every once in a while.” Which sounds pretty much like the plot of the 1989 movie, Weekend at Bernie’s, except the situation was anything but comic.

    Biden’s aides admonished journalists, including Alex Thompson, for even raising the issue of the president’s health. Worse, they shielded Biden from what his own pollsters were saying about his dire prospects for re-election.

    The oldest presidential candidates

    For Biden, work usually began at 9am, included two hours in the afternoon for “POTUS time”, and finished at 4.30pm when he had dinner. Availability for evening events was limited. By 2024, cabinet secretaries in the Biden administration told Tapper and Thompson that Biden could not be relied upon to be available at 2am for the kind of emergency the presidency can require.

    Everyone knew, or at least suspected this. In 2020, Biden and Trump were the two oldest people to contest the presidency. When the 78-year-old Biden won, he became the oldest serving president in a country that has no upper age limits in the congress or the senate.

    After the Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, born the same year as Biden, froze in public a second time, in 2023, his fellow Republican Nikki Haley said, “The Senate is the most privileged nursing home in the country […] You have to know when to leave.”

    When the Democrats did unexpectedly well at the 2022 midterm elections, Biden’s aides took that as a sign he should run again, rather than note the level of protest in the midterm vote, which came soon after the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade decision on abortion.

    The opinion polls, though, were telling. An early November 2022 Ipsos poll had the president’s approval rating at a low 39%, Tapper and Thompson report. Two thirds of those surveyed said they thought the country was on the wrong track. When Ipsos ran a poll after the midterm election, 68% said Biden might not be up for the challenge of running in 2024. Worse, almost half of Democrats agreed.

    Biden’s aides may have been right to marvel at what their boss could still do, and to resent the media harping on about Biden’s age while turning a blind eye to his cheeseburger-chomping, Coke-slurping political nemesis, only four years younger. The bitter fact for them is that by 2020 Biden looked and sounded frail while Trump looked and sounded commanding.

    Trump may have lied repeatedly during the debate last June, but in a real sense that was not news; Trump lies as easily as he breathes. What was news was watching a mumbling, open-mouthed US president freeze on live television.

    Grisly anecdotes and Hunter Biden

    Original Sin is replete with grisly anecdotes about Biden’s decrepitude. “The guy can’t form a fucking sentence”, thought one aide attending to him onboard Air Force One. This leads to the second main theme: the tragic circumstances that appear to have accelerated the decline.

    It is well known that personal tragedy has scarred – and in crucial ways shaped – Biden’s life and career. He lost his first wife, Neilia, and their one-year-old daughter, Naomi, in a car accident in 1972. Their young sons, Beau and Hunter, were in the car. They survived but Hunter suffered a fractured skull, an injury with lifelong effects, according to Tapper and Thompson.

    Beau served as an army officer in the Iraq war. On his return, he was elected attorney-general of Delaware in 2006 and 2010. He planned to run for governor in 2016. But a year earlier, the brain cancer for which he was first treated in 2013 recurred; he died in May 2015. In a worrying precursor to later actions, the Bidens kept Beau’s illness a secret. “Beau’s death aged him significantly,” a longtime Biden confidant told Tapper and Thompson. “His shoulders looked smaller. His face looked more gaunt. In his eyes, you could just see it.”

    A year later, Hunter Biden became addicted to crack cocaine. Ashley, Biden’s daughter by his second wife Jill, also struggled with addiction. Both spiralled downwards after Beau’s death, which weighed heavily on their father. As the authors write:

    After Beau’s death in 2015, Biden desperately and understandably clung to Hunter. He would privately refer to him as ‘my only living son.’ But Biden aides felt that Hunter manipulated his father’s blind love for his own aims. The president struggled to say no to Hunter. Aides felt that he had tragically become Hunter’s chief enabler.


    In 2021 Hunter published a memoir, Beautiful Things, and travelled round the country in an effort to provide hope to others struggling with addiction. The memoir’s candour provided valuable information to David Weiss, a special counsel appointed by Attorney-General Merrick Garland in 2023.

    Weiss had been previously appointed by the first Trump administration to investigate the contents of a laptop Hunter Biden left at a repair shop. Biden had not interfered with Garland’s decision, as he did not want to be seen as behaving the way his predecessor had.

    Weiss charged Hunter Biden over his possession of a handgun while being addicted to cocaine. A plea deal broke down and Hunter faced trial in 2024. The Biden family attended each day of the trial. Biden felt guilty, believing Hunter would never have been on trial if he wasn’t the president’s son.

    There is little doubt the Republicans weaponised Hunter Biden’s actions, but he gave them plenty of ammunition. He had had an extramarital affair with his brother’s widow and had introduced her to cocaine, to which she became addicted. There is more, but you get the (tawdry) picture.

    Then, after the election in November, Biden did what he had repeatedly said he wouldn’t, exercising his power as president to pardon his son. It may have been the understandable action of a besieged father, but Biden did not frame it that way, blaming Garland, wrongly, for pursuing the case.

    Equally to the point, the authors report that Trump’s lawyers took note, believing the Hunter Biden pardon “gave them a great deal of leeway on whether they could pardon and free from prison the hundreds of convicted January 6 insurrectionists” from the 2021 Capitol riot. Which of course Trump did as soon as he took office in January 2025.

    The old adage has it that two wrongs don’t make a right. But for a politician who had won the presidency promising to be everything Trump was not, it was a fatal, final blow to Biden’s credibility.

    The media ‘missed a lot’

    The third theme of the book asks how much of all this the news media reported during Biden’s presidency. Some, but not all of it – including some by Thompson, who recently won a White House Correspondents’ Association award for his disclosures.

    Both he and his co-author acknowledge they and other journalists did not dig hard enough to reveal the extent to which the Biden administration was hampered by the president’s declining health. Said Thompson:

    Being truth-tellers also means telling the truth about ourselves. We – myself included – missed a lot of this story, and some people trust us less because of it […] We should have done better.“

    It is worth keeping this in perspective. The news media’s failings in the lead up to the Iraq war in 2003 were more significant. Then, too many journalists swallowed the administration’s lines justifying its decision to invade a country, while the work of those who did report sceptically was buried well inside the newspaper. There, it “played as quietly as a lullaby”, as The New York Times’ first public editor, Daniel Okrent, wrote in 2003.

    The war’s reporting led to a lot of soul searching in American newsrooms. If there was a coverup in the media about the Biden administration, it wasn’t very effective, wrote media critic Jon Allsop in the New Yorker. “Not least because the majority of the public thought Biden was too old long before the debate.”

    The other element infecting both the mainstream media and social media is divisiveness, rancour and hostility. It is hard, for journalists and the public, to see political information other than through a hyper-partisan lens. I felt this acutely when reading the section in Original Sin about Biden getting drawn into the FBI’s investigation of Trump for withholding classified documents – when the FBI found Biden had done essentially the same thing. (Though it should be stressed Biden, unlike Trump, cooperated at all times.)

    ‘Well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory’

    It was through this investigation that special counsel Robert Hur’s recording of a long interview with Biden came to light. Journalists were backgrounded that Hur was a right-wing operative; he was anything but that, write Tapper and Thompson. He treated Biden fairly and respectfully. In the interview, excerpts of which run to seven pages of the book, Biden rambles and needs regular reminding of facts – including the year his son Beau died.

    In Hur’s report, released in 2024, he found Biden had inappropriately retained classified documents but he did not recommend pressing charges. To a jury, Hur concluded, Biden would present “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”. He was making the kind of decision prosecutors routinely make about the likelihood of a conviction.

    Hur was attacked by the White House and much of the media as a partisan warrior who had brought up the death of the president’s son in the interview, when it was Biden who mentioned it himself. If Hur really had been a partisan warrior, the authors write, he would have recommended continuing with the prosecution.

    Several months later, after the disastrous Biden-Trump debate, friends and colleagues texted Hur saying he must have felt vindicated. “Hur told them that all he felt was sad. How could anyone look at Joe Biden at that debate and not feel bad?”

    It is true that aides, and sometimes the news media, have covered up previous presidents’ health issues, such as Franklin Roosevelt’s paralysis from polio, John Kennedy’s debilitating back pain that required heavy doses of painkillers, and Ronald Reagan’s Alzheimer’s disease.

    Tapper and Thompson argue the coverup of Biden’s health problems is the most consequential in presidential history.

    Underplays Biden’s achievements

    The authors successfully prosecute their case about Biden’s responsibility for his own demise. Perhaps worried they may not be believed by Democrat supporters, they continue amassing evidence well beyond that point, which means the minutiae of aides continuing to deny the reality of Biden’s decline becomes repetitive.


    Their relentless focus on Biden’s decline also means they underplay both his achievements as a president and the breadth of his character. At one point, they admiringly refer to Richard Ben Cramer’s book about the 1988 presidential campaign, What it Takes, which includes Biden’s failed attempt to win the Democratic nomination for the presidency.

    Cramer’s book is a massive 1,047 pages. He interviewed more than a thousand people and took so long on the book it came out during the next presidential campaign, in which Bill Clinton was elected.

    One reviewer, Richard Brownstein, wrote of it: “Presidential elections are the white whale of American journalism – and in Cramer they have found a manic Melville.” But it is written in an intimate, novelistic style, taking the reader deep into the lives and thoughts and feelings of the candidates, George H.W Bush, Bob Dole, Michael Dukakis, Richard Gephardt, Gary Hart and Biden.

    Cramer told Robert Boynton in an interview for his 2005 book, The New New Journalism, he was amazed political journalists spend so little time talking to childhood friends, family and early colleagues.

    If you want to understand how someone got to the point where he [sic] is a credible candidate for president of a nation of 250 million people, you’d better godamn-well know how he is wonderful. But most journalists don’t care about that.

    As such, Cramer provides a deeper, richer portrait of Biden as an idiosyncratic and flawed, but also impressive politician, who was a force of nature in his youth. By comparison, Original Sin reads like an autopsy: which in a way, it is. If you want to remember why Biden became an effective politician in the first place, seek out a copy of What it Takes.

    In the end, though, whatever achievements Biden had as president are being overtaken by his disastrous decision to try to hang on for a second term. By the evidence presented in Original Sin, “Honest Joe” was, like many politicians, prey to ego and overvaulting ambition, and prone to secrecy when it suited him.

    He and his aides thought – and astonishingly still do think – he was the person best able to repel the return of a person they feared (with good reason) would do enormous damage to the country. Biden said this after the November election, earning Harris’s ire, for which he apologised, and Donilon affirmed it in an interview with the authors early this year.

    The savage irony is, by their actions, Biden and his team eased Trump’s path to victory last November. Now, it is not just Americans but the rest of the world who are left to deal with the second Trump administration.

    Matthew Ricketson 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. ‘He’d only have to show proof of life once in a while’: Joe Biden’s advisors hid his decline – and the media didn’t dig hard enough – https://theconversation.com/hed-only-have-to-show-proof-of-life-once-in-a-while-joe-bidens-advisors-hid-his-decline-and-the-media-didnt-dig-hard-enough-257010

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Those ‘what I eat in a day’ TikTok videos aren’t helpful. They might even be harmful

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Catherine Houlihan, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, University of the Sunshine Coast

    Iren_Geo/Shutterstock

    You may have come across those “what I eat in a day” videos on social media, where people – usually conventionally attractive influencers wearing activewear – list everything they consumed that day.

    They might seem like harmless fun but in fact they can reinforce dangerous ideas about food, weight and body image.

    I’ve worked with people with eating disorders who watch these videos and have seen first hand how harmful this content can be.

    Here’s what the research says and what you need to know.

    Videos that promote ‘health’ can be unhealthy

    “What I eat in a day” videos have been popular for over a decade, with views reaching in the billions.

    They target both men and women and many claim to promote health and nutrition. Yet videos such as these can do more harm than good.

    Very few of these creators have formal qualifications in health or nutrition, increasing the potential for misinformation.

    They often depict low calorie diets, exclude entire food groups or promote “clean eating” (a problematic idea at best).

    Some even encourage dangerous behaviours such as skipping meals, eating very little or using laxatives to purge food.

    They can also send harmful messages about body image. Many such videos use beauty filters to create images promoting unrealistic body ideals.

    These videos often feature shots of how the person looks from the front, the side, in the gym, and in tight, form-fitting clothes. There may even be some “before and after” weight loss pics, sending the harmful message this should be everyone’s goal.

    The subtext is clear: “eat what I eat in a day and you can look like me”.

    But that’s not just a dangerous idea – it’s a totally false and erroneous one.

    Knowing what a certain person “eats in a day” doesn’t mean you’ll look like them if you follow their lead.

    In fact, a 24-hour rundown of one person’s food intake doesn’t even provide accurate information about that person’s nutritional health – let alone yours.

    These videos can target both men and women.
    Veja/Shutterstock

    You are not them

    Like our health, our nutritional needs are unique to us and can vary day to day.

    What constitutes a “healthy” choice for one person might be totally different for another depending on things such as:

    Links between health and diet are best examined over time, not in a single day.

    Basing our food intake on a brief snapshot of what someone else eats is unlikely to lead to better health. It might leave you worse off overall.

    5 ways these videos can affect mental health

    What we watch online can affect our mood, behaviour and body image.

    Alarm bells should ring if you frequently see these videos and notice you’re doing or experiencing these five things:

    1. disordered eating. Eating less than your body needs, skipping meals, cutting out entire food groups, binge eating and purging are all signs of disordered eating that can lead to serious mental health problems such as eating disorders

    2. low mood. Watching videos promoting low-calorie diets can worsen our mood; you might find yourself feeling deflated after comparing yourself to others (or rather, to the version of themselves they promote online)

    3. poor body image. Research shows watching “what I eat in a day” videos can leave people feeling worse about their bodies and appreciating them less

    4. obsessive thinking and anxiety. Obsessing over the “perfect” diet can increase anxiety about food and eating. Diets that encourage a very detailed approach to nutrition – including breaking meals down into components such as carbohydrates and proteins or weighing food – can further fuel obsessive thoughts

    5. narrow life focus. Having your social media feed filled with these types of videos can create an overemphasis on the importance of food, eating and body image on your self-worth. This ultimately affects your health and wellbeing.

    What we watch online can affect our mood, behaviour, and body image.
    GaudiLab/Shutterstock

    OK, so what can I do?

    If you’re encountering “what I eat in a day” videos often and find they’re affecting your mood, eating behaviour or sense of self-worth you can try to:

    • understand that these videos are not tailored to your individual health or nutritional needs and that many contain harmful messaging
    • avoid engaging with videos that promote disordered eating, idealised beauty standards or that make you feel bad after you watch them
    • unfollow accounts that regularly post such videos, or tap “not interested” on the TikTok video to stop the algorithm showing you more of them
    • balance your social media feed with content focused on other areas of life besides food and eating (such as art, design, animals, books, sports or travel). Fill your feed with interests that improve your personal sense of wellbeing
    • consider taking regular breaks from social media and seeing if you feel better overall.

    If you do want to view posts about food, seek out creators attempting to buck these negative trends by focusing more on fun and taste.

    And if you’re experiencing low mood, disordered eating or body image issues, seek help from your local GP. They can connect you with practitioners who provide evidence-based therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy.

    If you have a history of an eating disorder or suspect you may have one, you can contact the Butterfly Foundation’s national helpline on 1800 334 673 (or via their online chat).

    Ultimately, “what I eat in a day” videos aren’t really helpful. They contain very little useful information to guide your health or nutritional goals.

    If you are considering making changes to your diet, it’s important to consult a qualified professional, such as an accredited practising dietitian, who can learn about your situation and monitor any risks.

    Catherine Houlihan consults with an eating disorders service owned and operated by the Butterfly Foundation.

    – ref. Those ‘what I eat in a day’ TikTok videos aren’t helpful. They might even be harmful – https://theconversation.com/those-what-i-eat-in-a-day-tiktok-videos-arent-helpful-they-might-even-be-harmful-257127

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Do you talk to AI when you’re feeling down? Here’s where chatbots get their therapy advice

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Centaine Snoswell, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Health Services Research, The University of Queensland

    Pexels/Mikoto

    As more and more people spend time chatting with artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots such as ChatGPT, the topic of mental health has naturally emerged. Some people have positive experiences that make AI seem like a low-cost therapist.

    But AIs aren’t therapists. They’re smart and engaging, but they don’t think like humans. ChatGPT and other generative AI models are like your phone’s auto-complete text feature on steroids. They have learned to converse by reading text scraped from the internet.

    When someone asks a question (called a prompt) such as “how can I stay calm during a stressful work meeting?” the AI forms a response by randomly choosing words that are as close as possible to the data it saw during training. This happens so fast, with responses that are so relevant, it can feel like talking to a person.

    But these models aren’t people. And they definitely are not trained mental health professionals who work under professional guidelines, adhere to a code of ethics, or hold professional registration.

    Where does it learn to talk about this stuff?

    When you prompt an AI system such as ChatGPT, it draws information from three main sources to respond:

    1. background knowledge it memorised during training
    2. external information sources
    3. information you previously provided.

    1. Background knowledge

    To develop an AI language model, the developers teach the model by having it read vast quantities of data in a process called “training”.

    Where does this information come from? Broadly speaking, anything that can be publicly scraped from the internet. This can include everything from academic papers, eBooks, reports, free news articles, through to blogs, YouTube transcripts, or comments from discussion forums such as Reddit.

    Are these sources reliable places to find mental health advice? Sometimes.
    Are they always in your best interest and filtered through a scientific evidence based approach? Not always. The information is also captured at a single point in time when the AI is built, so may be out-of-date.

    A lot of detail also needs to be discarded to squish it into the AI’s “memory”. This is part of why AI models are prone to hallucination and getting details wrong.

    2. External information sources

    The AI developers might connect the chatbot itself with external tools, or knowledge sources, such as Google for searches or a curated database.

    When you ask Microsoft’s Bing Copilot a question and you see numbered references in the answer, this indicates the AI has relied on an external search to get updated information in addition to what is stored in its memory.

    Meanwhile, some dedicated mental health chatbots are able to access therapy guides and materials to help direct conversations along helpful lines.

    3. Information previously provided

    AI platforms also have access to information you have previously supplied in conversations, or when signing up to the platform.

    When you register for the companion AI platform Replika, for example, it learns your name, pronouns, age, preferred companion appearance and gender, IP address and location, the kind of device you are using, and more (as well as your credit card details).

    On many chatbot platforms, anything you’ve ever said to an AI companion might be stored away for future reference. All of these details can be dredged up and referenced when an AI responds.

    And we know these AI systems are like friends who affirm what you say (a problem known as sycophancy) and steer conversation back to interests you have already discussed. This is unlike a professional therapist who can draw from training and experience to help challenge or redirect your thinking where needed.

    What about specific apps for mental health?

    Most people would be familiar with the big models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, or Microsofts’ Copilot. These are general purpose models. They are not limited to specific topics or trained to answer any specific questions.

    But developers can make specialised AIs that are trained to discuss specific topics, like mental health, such as Woebot and Wysa.

    Some studies show these mental health specific chatbots might be able to reduce users’ anxiety and depression symptoms. Or that they can improve therapy techniques such as journalling, by providing guidance. There is also some evidence that AI-therapy and professional therapy deliver some equivalent mental health outcomes in the short term.

    However, these studies have all examined short-term use. We do not yet know what impacts excessive or long-term chatbot use has on mental health. Many studies also exclude participants who are suicidal or who have a severe psychotic disorder. And many studies are funded by the developers of the same chatbots, so the research may be biased.

    Researchers are also identifying potential harms and mental health risks. The companion chat platform Character.ai, for example, has been implicated in ongoing legal case over a user suicide.

    This evidence all suggests AI chatbots may be an option to fill gaps where there is a shortage in mental health professionals, assist with referrals, or at least provide interim support between appointments or to support people on waitlists.

    Bottom line

    At this stage, it’s hard to say whether AI chatbots are reliable and safe enough to use as a stand-alone therapy option.

    More research is needed to identify if certain types of users are more at risk of the harms that AI chatbots might bring.

    It’s also unclear if we need to be worried about emotional dependence, unhealthy attachment, worsening loneliness, or intensive use.

    AI chatbots may be a useful place to start when you’re having a bad day and just need a chat. But when the bad days continue to happen, it’s time to talk to a professional as well.

    Aaron J. Snoswell previously received research project funding from OpenAI in 2024-2025 to develop new evaluation frameworks for measuring moral competence in AI agents.

    Laura Neil receives funding through the Australian government Research Training Program Scholarship.

    Centaine Snoswell 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. Do you talk to AI when you’re feeling down? Here’s where chatbots get their therapy advice – https://theconversation.com/do-you-talk-to-ai-when-youre-feeling-down-heres-where-chatbots-get-their-therapy-advice-257732

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: NSU scientists patent photocatalyst for air purification from carbon monoxide

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –

    Scientists from NSU have patented a catalyst for photooxidation of carbon monoxide (CO) under the influence of radiation of a wide spectral range. It effectively cleans gas-air mixtures and air from carbon monoxide at room temperature and is activated not only by ultraviolet radiation, like traditional photocatalysts used in this field, but also by natural light and by room light sources. The new catalyst also prevents the formation of carbon monoxide as a by-product during photocatalytic oxidation of a number of organic pollutants. In addition, it is capable of destroying chemicals, macromolecules, including DNA and RNA, and inactivating viruses and bacteria. Such a combined catalyst can be used in air purification systems and used as a photoactive coating for walls and other surfaces in office and residential premises. The authors of the invention emphasize that they created it in order to protect the environment and human health, since carbon monoxide is one of the most common pollutants.

    — As a result of human activity, (350–600) 106 tons of CO enter the atmosphere annually, with more than half of this amount (56–62%) coming from motor vehicles, since the CO content in the exhaust gases of mobile vehicles can reach 12%. Carbon monoxide is dangerous for humans, since when its molecules interact with blood hemoglobin, carboxyhemoglobin is formed, which blocks the processes of oxygen transport and cellular respiration. A person’s presence in a closed space with a CO concentration in the air of more than 1250 mg/m3 for an hour leads to death. Fortunately, the concentrations of these pollutants in residential and work areas are usually low, but air purification is still necessary, because prolonged contact with these substances can lead to a deterioration in people’s well-being and harm their health, — the research fellow said. Scientific and Educational Center of the Institute of Chemical Technologies (INHIT) NSU, leading researcher of the photo- and electrocatalysis group of the Institute of Catalysis SB RAS Dmitry Selishchev.

    Different approaches are used to solve the problem of removing molecular impurities from gas-air mixtures, but the most effective way to clean the air from small concentrations of pollutants under room conditions is photocatalytic oxidation. This oxidation method is based on the fact that under the action of light quanta with an energy exceeding the width of the forbidden zone of the semiconductor photocatalyst, electron-hole pairs are formed in the volume of the photocatalyst. The resulting electron and hole can migrate to the surface of the photocatalyst and participate in oxidation-reduction reactions with adsorbed compounds. This ensures a high oxidation rate even in the case of small concentrations of pollutants under room conditions.

    — The photocatalytic method is one of the effective ways to clean indoor air from various types of pollutants. It is based on the use of special substances (photocatalysts), which, under the influence of light, provide oxidation of various types of pollutants, as a result of which they are transformed from the original state, when they are capable of harming human health, into harmless substances, such as, for example, carbon dioxide and water. This method is very effective in cleaning the air from organic types of pollutants. Traditional photocatalysts practically do not solve the problem of its purification from carbon monoxide, showing very low efficiency. To increase it to the desired level, we carried out a number of modifications of the photocatalysts we had previously developed by applying nanoparticles of noble metals – platinum and palladium – to their surface. These particles provide intermediate adsorption of carbon monoxide molecules, due to which the rate of their oxidation significantly increases, — explained Dmitry Selishchev.

    The most famous semiconductor photocatalyst is titanium dioxide, which is inexpensive and virtually non-toxic, but at the same time allows for the complete oxidation of virtually any substance due to the formation of highly reactive particles. The main disadvantage of titanium dioxide as a photocatalyst is its fairly large band gap (3.0–3.2 eV), as a result of which it is activated only by ultraviolet radiation and is unable to absorb visible light quanta, which limits its area of application.

    As Dmitry Selishchev explained, the most active photocatalysts are based on nanocrystalline titanium dioxide of a certain phase composition. In order to shift its spectrum of action along the wavelength scale to the visible light region, they proposed a synthesis method that provides for the introduction of additional nitrogen impurities, which lead to the appearance of additional energy levels and thus reduce the width of the forbidden zone. In this case, the catalyst is activated under the influence of light radiation of lower energy, i.e. with a longer wavelength.

    — First-generation photocatalytic air purifiers were based on ultraviolet sources, such as low-pressure mercury lamps. Currently, mercury light sources are completely banned in a number of countries, while in other countries, restrictions are being introduced with the prospect of completely abandoning their use. Therefore, there was a need to transfer catalytic air purifiers from ultraviolet radiation sources to more efficient and safe, affordable LED sources. We set ourselves the task of creating a catalyst capable of activation in a wide spectral range. Other researchers had previously worked on it, using different approaches. We proposed combining the main advantages of titanium oxide catalysts, which provide high efficiency, with a modification of their structure by introducing a nitrogen impurity into it through the use of certain reagents and treatments, — explained Dmitry Selishchev.

    The modified catalyst obtained in this way can be distinguished from its predecessor by color. The original catalyst is a white powder. This color indicates that it does not absorb, but reflects visible light. The modified catalyst turns yellow during manipulations. This means that it absorbs visible spectrum radiation. Such a catalyst is activated not only by visible light, but also by ultraviolet radiation, and can be used in new generations of devices for cleaning air from molecular impurities.

    Another important disadvantage of titanium dioxide, like other traditional semiconductor photocatalysts, is its low adsorption capacity for carbon monoxide molecules, resulting in a low rate of photocatalytic oxidation and a low rate of air purification from impurities of this type. This is also important because CO can be formed as a by-product during photocatalytic oxidation of organic pollutants, especially aromatic compounds. This can result in secondary air pollution.

    Since CO molecules are poorly sorbed on the surface, it was necessary to create additional centers for their absorption, as well as centers for the transfer of photogenerated charges. For this purpose, nanoparticles of noble metals – platinum and palladium – were introduced into the composition of the new photocatalyst, using certain reagents that ensure uniform distribution of nanoparticles over the surface of the photocatalyst.

    — The new catalyst will find application in air purification systems. There are several large manufacturers on the Russian market who are interested in using a new type of catalyst to improve the efficiency of their products. NSU scientists work in cooperation with them and offer their developments for use in creating new generations of air purifiers. Also, the researchers of our laboratory are working on creating self-cleaning coatings for various materials and surfaces. These coatings consist of a photoactive component and binders. We intend to use the modernized catalyst in this area as well, in order to continuously provide passive cleaning of premises from carbon monoxide. Currently, testing of a wall coating based on a catalyst for photooxidation of carbon monoxide is underway in laboratory conditions, — said Dmitry Selishchev.

    Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Director General David Cheng-Wei Wu Welcomed “Renewable Energy and Industrial Development” from Miaoli County

    Source: Republic of China Taiwan

    Director General David Cheng-Wei Wu warmly welcomed Secretary-General Chen Pin-Shan of Taiwan’s Miaoli County Government, who led the expedition team on “Renewable Energy and Industrial Development” to Sydney.
    We had lively discussions on Australia’s energy transition, green energy and solar power development, and on organizing large cultural and tourism events.
    Miaoli County will host the Taiwan Lantern Festival again in 2027. This trip included a visit to Vivid Sydney for inspiration. The county government aims to offer a unique experience for domestic and international visitors.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Christine Lagarde: Drawing a common map: sustaining global cooperation in a fragmenting world

    Source: European Central Bank

    Speech by Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, at the People’s Bank of China in Beijing

    Beijing, 11 June 2025

    It is a pleasure to be back here in Beijing.

    Some years ago, I spoke about how a changing world was creating a new global map of economic relations.[1]

    Maps have always reflected the society in which they are produced. But in rare instances, they can also capture historical moments when two societies meet at the crossroads.

    This was evident in the late 1500s during the Ming Dynasty, when Matteo Ricci, a European Jesuit, travelled to China. There Ricci went on to work with Chinese scholars to create a hybrid map that integrated European geographical knowledge with Chinese cartographic tradition.[2]

    The result of this cooperation – called the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu, or “Map of Ten Thousand Countries” – was historically unprecedented. And the encounter came to symbolise China’s openness to the world.

    In the modern era, we saw a similar moment when China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. The country’s accession to the WTO signified its integration into the international economy and its openness to global trade.

    China’s entry into the WTO went on to reshape the global map of economic relations at a time of rapid trade growth, bringing significant benefits to countries across the world – particularly here in China.

    Since that time, the global economy has changed dramatically. In recent years, trade tensions have emerged and a geopolitically charged landscape is making international cooperation increasingly difficult.

    Yet the emergence of tensions in the international economic system is a recurring pattern across modern economic history.

    Over the last century, frictions have surfaced under a range of international configurations – from the inter-war gold exchange standard, to the post-war Bretton Woods system, to the subsequent era of floating exchange rates and free capital flows.

    While each system was unique, two common lessons cut across this history.

    First, one-sided adjustments to resolve global frictions have often fallen short, regardless of whether deficit or surplus countries carry the burden. In fact, they can bring with them either unpredictable or costly consequences.

    Such adjustments can be especially problematic when trade policies are used as a substitute for macroeconomic policies in addressing the root causes.

    And second, in the event that tensions do emerge, durable strategic and economic alliances have proven critical in preventing tail risks from materialising.

    In contrast to eras when ties of cooperation were weak, alliances have ultimately helped to prevent a broader surge in protectionism or a systemic fragmentation of trade.

    These two lessons have implications for today. Frictions are increasingly emerging between regions whose geopolitical interests may not be fully aligned. At the same time, however, these regions are more deeply economically integrated than ever before.

    The upshot is that while the incentive to cooperate is reduced, the costs of not doing so are now amplified.

    So the stakes are high.

    If we are to avoid inferior outcomes, we all must work towards sustaining global cooperation in a fragmenting world.

    Tensions across history

    If we look at the history of the international economic system over the past century, we can broadly divide it into three periods.

    In the first period, the inter-war years, major economies were tied together by the gold exchange standard – a regime of fixed exchange rates, with currencies linked to gold either directly or indirectly.

    But unlike the pre-war era, when the United Kingdom played a dominant global role[3], there was no global hegemon. Nor were there impactful international organisations to enforce rules or coordinate policies.

    The system’s flaws quickly became apparent.[4] Exchange rate misalignments caused persistent tensions between surplus and deficit countries. Yet the burden of adjustment fell overwhelmingly on the deficit side.

    Facing outflows of gold, deficit countries were forced into harsh deflation. Meanwhile, surplus countries faced little pressure to reflate. By 1932, two surplus countries accounted for over 60% of the world share of gold reserves.[5]

    One-sided adjustments failed to resolve the underlying problems. And without strong alliances to contain tail risks, tensions escalated. Countries turned to trade measures in an attempt to reduce imbalances in the system – but protectionism offered no sustainable solution.

    In fact, if current account positions narrowed at all, it was only because of the fall-off in world trade and output. The volume of global trade fell by around one-quarter between 1929 and 1933[6], with one study attributing nearly half of this fall to higher trade barriers.[7] World output declined by almost 30% in this period.[8]

    During the Second World War, leaders took the lessons to heart. They laid the groundwork for what became the Bretton Woods system in the early post-war era: a framework of fixed exchange rates and capital controls.

    This marked the beginning of the second period.

    The new regime was anchored by the US dollar’s convertibility into gold, with the International Monetary Fund acting as a referee. Trade flourished during this era. Between 1950 and 1973[9], world trade expanded at an average rate of over 8% per year.[10]

    But again, frictions emerged.

    In particular, the United States had shifted from initially running balance of payments surpluses to persistent deficits. At the heart of this shift was the role of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency and source of liquidity for global trade.

    While US deficits provided the world with vital dollar liquidity, those very same deficits strained the dollar’s gold convertibility at USD 35 per ounce, threatening confidence in the system.

    By the late 1960s, foreign holdings of US dollars – amounting to almost USD 50 billion – were roughly five times the size of US gold reserves.[11]

    Ultimately, these tensions proved unsustainable as the United States was unwilling to sacrifice domestic policy goals – which generated fiscal deficits – for its external commitments.

    The Bretton Woods system ended abruptly in 1971, when President Nixon unilaterally suspended the US dollar’s convertibility into gold and imposed a 10% surcharge on imports.

    The goal behind the surcharge was to force US trading partners to revalue their currencies against the dollar, which was perceived as being overvalued.[12] As in earlier periods, this was a one-sided adjustment – though now aimed at shifting the burden onto surplus countries.

    Crucially, however, the downfall of Bretton Woods unfolded within the context of the Cold War. Countries operating under the system were not just trading partners – they were allies.

    And so, everyone had a strong geopolitical incentive to pick up the pieces and forge new cooperative agreements that could facilitate trade relationships, even in moments of pronounced volatility.

    We saw this several months after the “Nixon Shock”, when Western countries negotiated the Smithsonian Agreement.

    This agreement was a temporary fix to maintain an international system of fixed exchange rates. It devalued the US dollar by over 12% against the currencies of its major trading partners and removed President Nixon’s surcharge.[13]

    And we saw a strong geopolitical incentive at work again with the Plaza Accord in the 1980s – an era of floating exchange rates and free capital flows – when deficit and surplus countries in the Group of Five[14] sat down to try and resolve tensions.

    Of course, neither agreement ultimately succeeded in addressing the root causes of tensions. But critically, the risk of a broader turn toward protectionism – which was rising at several points[15] – never materialised.

    The contrast is telling.

    Both the inter-war and post-war eras revealed that one-sided adjustments cannot sustainably resolve economic frictions – whether on the deficit or surplus side.

    Yet the post-war system proved far more resilient, because the countries within it had deeper strategic reasons to cooperate.

    Frictions threatening global trade today

    In recent decades, we have been moving into a third period.

    Since the end of the Cold War, we have seen the rapid expansion of truly global trade.

    Trade in goods and services has risen roughly fivefold to over USD 30 trillion.[16] Trade as a share of global GDP has increased from around 38% to nearly 60%.[17] And countries have become much more integrated through global supply chains. At the end of the Cold War, these chains accounted for around two-fifths of global trade.[18] Today, they account for over two-thirds.[19]

    Yet this globalisation has unfolded in a world where – increasingly – not all nations are bound by the same security guarantees or strategic alliances. In 1985 just 90 countries were party to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Today, its successor – the WTO – counts 166 members, representing 98% of global trade.[20]

    There is no doubt that this new era has amplified the benefits of trade.

    Some originally lower-income countries have experienced remarkable gains – none more so than China.

    Since joining the WTO, China’s GDP per capita has increased roughly twelvefold.[21] The welfare impact has been equally profound: almost 800 million people in China have been lifted out of poverty, accounting for nearly three-quarters of global poverty reduction in recent decades.[22]

    Advanced economies, too, have benefited, albeit unevenly. While some industries and jobs have faced pressure from heightened import competition[23], consumers have enjoyed lower prices and greater choice. And for firms able to climb the value chain, the rewards have been substantial – especially in Europe.

    Today, EU exports to the rest of the world generate more than €2.5 trillion in value added – nearly one-fifth of the EU’s total – and support over 31 million jobs.[24]

    But the weakening alignment between trade relationships and security alliances has left the global system more exposed – a vulnerability now playing out in real time.

    According to the International Monetary Fund, trade restrictions across goods, services and investments have tripled since 2019 alone.[25] And in recent months, we have seen tariff levels imposed that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.

    This fragmentation is being driven by two forces.

    The first is geopolitical realignment. As I have outlined in recent years, geopolitical tensions are playing an increasingly decisive role in reshaping the global economy.[26] Countries are reconfiguring trade relationships and supply chains to reflect national security priorities, rather than economic efficiency alone.

    The second force is the growing perception of unfair trade – often linked to widening current account positions.

    Current account surpluses and deficits are not inherently problematic, particularly when they reflect structural factors such as comparative advantage or demographic trends.

    But these imbalances become more contentious when they do not resolve over time and create the perception that they are being sustained by policy choices – whether through the blocking of macroeconomic adjustment mechanisms or a lack of respect for global rules.

    Indeed, while in recent decades the persistence of current account positions has remained fairly constant, the dispersion of those positions – that is, how widely surpluses and deficits are spread across countries – has shifted significantly.

    In the mid-1990s current account deficits and surpluses were similarly dispersed within their respective groups: both were relatively evenly distributed among several countries.[27]

    Today, that balance has changed. Deficits have become far more concentrated, with just a few countries accounting for the bulk of global deficits. In contrast, surpluses have become somewhat more dispersed, spread across a wider range of countries.

    These developments have recently led to coercive trade policies and risk fragmenting global supply chains.

    Making global trade sustainable

    Given national security considerations and the experience during the pandemic, a certain degree of de-risking is here to stay. Few countries are willing to remain dependent on others for strategic industries.

    But it does not follow that we must forfeit the broader benefits of trade – so long as we are willing to absorb the lessons of history. Let me draw two conclusions for the current situation.

    First, coercive trade policies are not a sustainable solution to today’s trade tensions.

    To the extent that protectionism addresses imbalances, it is not by resolving their root causes, but by eroding the foundations of global prosperity.

    And with countries now deeply integrated through global supply chains – yet no longer as geopolitically aligned as in the past – this risk is greater than ever. Coercive trade policies are far more likely to provoke retaliation and lead to outcomes that are mutually damaging.

    The shared risks we face are underscored by ECB analysis. Our staff find that if global trade were to fragment into competing blocs, world trade would contract significantly, with every major economy worse off.[28]

    This leads me to the second conclusion: if we are serious about preserving our prosperity, we must pursue cooperative solutions – even in the face of geopolitical differences. And that means both surplus and deficit countries must take responsibility and play their part.

    All countries should examine how their structural and fiscal policies can be adjusted to reduce their own role in fuelling trade tensions.

    Indeed, both supply-side and demand-side dynamics have contributed to dispersion of current accounts positions we see today.

    On the supply side, we have witnessed a sharp rise in the use of industrial policies aimed at boosting domestic capacity. Since 2014, subsidy-related interventions that distort global trade have more than tripled globally. [29]

    Notably, this trend is now being driven as much by emerging markets as by advanced economies. In 2021, domestic subsidies accounted for two-thirds of all trade-related policies in the average G20 emerging market, consistently outpacing the share seen in advanced G20 economies.[30]

    On the demand side, global demand generation has become more concentrated, especially in the United States. A decade ago, the United States accounted for less than 30% of demand generated by G20 countries. Today, that share has risen to nearly 35%.

    This increasing imbalance in demand reflects not only excess saving in some parts of the world, but also excess dissaving in others, especially by the public sector.

    Of course, none of us can determine the actions of others. But we can control our own contribution.

    Doing so would not only serve the collective interest – by helping to ease pressure on the global system – but also the domestic interest, by setting our own economies on a more sustainable path.

    We can also lead by example by continuing to respect global rules – or even improving on them. This helps build trust and creates the foundation for reciprocal actions.

    That means upholding the multilateral framework which has so greatly benefited our economies. And it means working with like-minded partners to forge bilateral and regional agreements rooted in mutual benefit and full WTO compatibility.[31]

    Central banks, in line with their respective mandates, can also play a role.

    We can stand firm as pillars of international cooperation in an era when such cooperation is hard to come by. And we can continue to deliver stability-oriented policies in a world marked by rising volatility and instability.

    Conclusion

    Let me conclude.

    In a fragmenting world, regions need to work together to sustain global trade – which has delivered prosperity in recent decades.

    Of course, given the geopolitical landscape, that will be a harder challenge today than it has been in the past. But as Confucius once observed, “Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbours”.

    Today, to make history, we must learn from history. We must absorb the lessons of the past – and act on them – to prevent a mutually damaging escalation of tensions.

    In doing so, we all can draw a new map for global cooperation.

    We have done it before. And we can do it again.

    Thank you.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: NSU scientists have discovered that an archaeological site in Krasnoyarsk is 10,000 years older than previously thought

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –

    The age of the archaeological site “Stoyanka Solnechny” (Krasnoyarsk) was determined by scientists from the Center for Collective Use “Accelerator Mass Spectrometry of the Novosibirsk State University and the Novosibirsk Scientific Center”. Radiocarbon analysis was performed on the bone remains of herbivores, which were discovered during large-scale rescue excavations conducted by researchers from Krasnoyarsk Geoarchaeology LLC and ANO “Archaeological Research of Siberia”. Based on the stratigraphic position of the finds in the deposits, types and technologies of manufacturing stone tools, they determined that the ancient hunters’ camp dates back to the early Holocene, namely the Mesolithic era, the general chronology of which is determined within 8-12 thousand years ago. The results obtained by Novosibirsk scientists using the accelerator mass spectrometry method came as a surprise to them – it turned out that the monument is 10 thousand years older and is not a continuation of the Paleolithic traditions in the subsequent geological era, as was previously believed, but a reflection of the earliest stages of the formation of the Afontovo culture. The results of the study were published in the International Peer-Reviewed Scientific Journal “Stratum plus. Archaeology and cultural anthropology”, which is published by the University “Higher Anthropological School”.

    The Afontovskaya culture is an archaeological culture of the Upper Paleolithic (20-12 thousand years ago) on the Yenisei. It is characterized by stone tools on pebbles and flake chips, a developed technology for producing microplates, and a variety of tools made of horn and bone. The culture received its name from the archaeological site of Afontova Gora, a group of sites on the left bank of the Yenisei, within the boundaries of the modern city of Krasnoyarsk.

    — We received 12 samples of bone material and analyzed them for the content of the rare isotope 14C using accelerator mass spectrometry. Sample preparation was carried out in advance — collagen was isolated, graphitization and subsequent measurements were carried out on a Micadas accelerator mass spectrometer. We analyzed the bone remains of herbivores that could have been the prey of ancient hunters who regularly used this site for a long time. The samples mainly included bones and teeth of reindeer, a tubular bone of a roe deer, a phalanx of a fossil horse, two bones of a fossil bison and one bone of a bird — a corncrake, which was found in a pit trap. The age of the finds varied due to the fact that the main cultural layer was partially disturbed and the site itself included evidence of ancient activity and natural events of various eras. The most ancient bones were those of fossil bisons — they were 29-30 thousand years old, and the “youngest” were those of roe deer — 1600-1900 years old. The most numerous were the bones of reindeer, whose age averaged 19-21 thousand years. We had no difficulties in studying the samples and interpreting the data obtained, but the results were unexpected for the research staff of the ANO “Archaeological Research of Siberia,” said Alexey Petrozhitsky, engineer at the UMS NSU-NNC Collective Use Center and research fellow at the G.I. Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics.

    The archaeological site “Solnechny Parking Lot” is located in the Yenisei Valley on the northern outskirts of Krasnoyarsk within the city limits. The ancient site got its name from the Solnechny microdistrict, on whose territory it is located. It is currently being actively built up, housing complexes and urban infrastructure facilities are being erected.

    “Solnechny Parking Lot” was discovered in 2017 by a detachment of OOO NPO “Archeological Design and Surveying” during a survey of the site of the planned construction of a highway. In 2019 and 2020, a detachment of OOO “Krasnoyarsk Geoarcheology” carried out security and rescue excavation work on the monument within the boundaries of the territory allocated for the construction of the road. The territory of the monument was significantly affected by anthropogenic activity. In the early 2000s, there was an arable field here. Ten years later, due to the expansion of the urban development zone, construction infrastructure facilities appeared on this territory, quarrying and embankment construction began. Also, the upper cover deposits over the entire area were disturbed during terrain planning, laying and operation of field roads. Most of it was covered with man-made deposits from fill and redeposited soil. Over a large area of the monument, artifacts were moved from their original position and mixed up, which significantly complicated the work of researchers and the dating of the monument.

    — An important feature of the Solnechny Parking lot is its location. Archaeologists traditionally look for Paleolithic sites on river banks, and this site is located about 7 kilometers from the Yenisei and there are no small rivers nearby. Despite the presence of individual such sites, this was unusual for us. We were interested in understanding how Stone Age people moved around the area and what places they inhabited. This was a campsite arranged on some unknown hunting routes of Paleolithic hunters. People came here periodically and their stay at the site was short-lived – despite the fact that the excavations affected significant areas, we were unable to find the remains or even traces of permanent dwellings or any objects indicating long-term residence in this place. We also did not find human remains. From all this, the conclusion was made: people did not live here permanently. They came to the camp to process hunting trophies, as well as other economic activities, the remains of which, in fact, are garbage, we recorded there. Unfortunately, it is difficult to say for sure why they were attracted to this particular place. Perhaps the key to the solution will be further research on new archaeological sites in this part of the Krasnoyarsk archaeological region – said Dmitry Gurulev, senior researcher at the ANO “Archaeological Research of Siberia”.

    Initially, archaeologists determined the age of this monument in the range of 9-12 thousand years. However, among the supposed finds of this period there were also later artifacts. For example, a pitfall trap. According to radiocarbon dating conducted later, its age was about 6 thousand years. Also found were an arrowhead, the so-called srezen, from the Middle Ages, bullets and a coin from the 19th century. However, these artifacts were isolated and uninformative, indicating that in subsequent times people no longer visited this place regularly and systematically until it was occupied by the modern city of Krasnoyarsk.

    The contents of the Solnechny Site artifact collection were quite typical for the Afontovo archaeological culture sites. It consisted mainly of stone tools that were used by Paleolithic people for all basic household needs. Quite simple tools were made from river pebbles – choppers, hammers, planers. These finds were combined with objects made using more complex and advanced technologies, such as squeezing stone splitting and obtaining micro-plate chips that were used as replaceable blades in composite cutting tools. These small and thin stone plates 6-7 mm wide were inserted into grooves of horn or wooden bases. When such an inserted blade became dull or split, it was replaced with a new one. Also among the finds were stone tools used to select such grooves – cutters. Since the site was a hunting site, archaeologists found various scrapers and piercers here, which were probably used to process skins. In total, more than 1,700 stone objects and about 1,000 fragments of animal bones were found at the excavation site, among which the remains of reindeer, which was the main object of hunting, predominate.

    -The dating of the monument, established by the scientists of the Central Committee of the SMS NSU-NNC, was a complete surprise for us. And for us these results are important for three reasons. Firstly, earlier we attributed the sunny parking to the early Golocene, but it turned out that it was much older and belongs to the very origin of the Athos culture of the upper Paleolithic. We evaluated the age of the object on the basis of his position in the stratigraphic context. In this case, he lay almost on the surface, at the minimum depth of about 20-30 cm. Of course, the depth of the occurrence depends on the type of deposits and the features of their accumulation, but usually the cultural layers of the Paleolithic are much deeper, in some cases at a depth of several meters. Here we are faced with a different situation, and now we can extrapolate the experience gained on other monuments in further excavation work. Secondly, the sunny parking is one of the few monuments with a reliably confirmed age, which shows us the stage of the formation of the Athos archaeological culture. Thanks to this, we know that at the very early stage of its existence, it was already formed in the form in which we know it according to later evidence: a set of stone guns and features of hunting fishing remained practically unchanged, namely, hunting for the northern deer. From all this, we can conclude that this archaeological culture was quite homogeneous throughout its existence, which is very important. Thirdly, it was important for us to explore a monument remote from a river network that did not have a clear binding to the landscape. Similar monuments are present in the vicinity of Krasnoyarsk, but today they are known only by separate random finds, and the sunny parking is the only object that was excavated on a wide area of ​​more than 3000 m2, and therefore may act as a standard in such research, Dmitry Gurulev explained.

    The specialists of the ANO “Archaeological Research of Siberia” have been working together with the UMS NSU-NNC Collective Use Center for years. Every year they send several dozen samples to determine their age using an accelerator mass spectrometer. Krasnoyarsk archaeologists intend to continue their joint work in the future, since there is a constant need to determine the age of new archaeological sites excavated annually, and the ability to conduct this kind of research in Russia is only available at the UMS NSU-NNC Collective Use Center.

    Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: China Develops Measures to Control E-Commerce Streaming

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –

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

    BEIJING, June 11 (Xinhua) — China’s State Administration for Market Regulation on Tuesday launched a public opinion solicitation procedure on the supervision and management rules of online trading.

    The department said the draft rules were developed in cooperation with the State Internet Information Office of China to strengthen supervision and administration of streaming activities, protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and operators, and promote the healthy development of the e-commerce sector.

    The rules require streaming e-commerce platform operators to strengthen verification of the identity and qualifications of streaming studio operators, marketing agencies and marketers in the sector.

    Marketing personnel in the live broadcasting sector within the framework of e-commerce have a duty to provide real, accurate and comprehensive information about products or services and not to provide false or misleading information to consumers.

    E-commerce platform operators should cooperate with relevant authorities to take action against violators of market supervision rules and Internet-related laws and regulations, the department said, stressing the legal liability that will follow for failure to comply with relevant obligations.

    The regulator said it would improve the content of the regulations based on the results of the public opinion request and implement them as soon as possible. -0-

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI China: China unveils guidelines to deepen reforms in Shenzhen

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

    A visitor experiences an immersive interactive project during the 21st China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair (ICIF) in Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong province, May 22, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

    China will further advance comprehensive reforms in the vibrant southern city of Shenzhen, and push for greater innovation and opening-up in the city, according to a set of guidelines unveiled Tuesday.

    The guidelines, issued by the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, highlighted a new batch of reform measures for Shenzhen to break institutional barriers in education, science, and talent development. They emphasize strengthening the integration of innovation, industrial, capital, and talent chains, while exploring new pathways, scenarios, and platforms for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) cooperation. They aim to pioneer modernization in the construction of a globally oriented, innovation-driven city.

    By advancing reforms and opening-up at a higher starting point, to a higher level, and for higher goals, Shenzhen will generate more replicable and scalable best practices. It will further amplify its role as a key engine in the GBA and as a radiating hub in the national development strategy. These efforts will contribute to building China into a modern socialist country in all respects, the guidelines said.

    Among the reform measures, overseas investors are encouraged to establish vocational training institutions in Shenzhen in compliance with regulations and introduce advanced training programs, faculty, and teaching methodologies.

    Employers in Shenzhen shall be granted greater autonomy in recruiting overseas talent and their management, according to the guidelines.

    To support financing for the real economy, insurance funds are supported to invest in private equity funds and venture capital funds that are established in Shenzhen with a primary focus on specific sectors. GBA enterprises listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange are permitted to also list on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in accordance with applicable policies.

    Shenzhen will carry out reforms to enhance data security governance and regulatory capabilities, and explore efficient, convenient and secure cross-border data flow mechanisms in compliance with laws, regulations, and relevant requirements, the guidelines said.

    The progress made in the comprehensive reform pilot programs will be closely monitored, the achievements be consolidated, and the proven experiences and effective practices be solidified and promoted on a larger scale, according to the guidelines.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Dortmund sign Jobe Bellingham from Sunderland

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

    Borussia Dortmund has confirmed the signing of English midfielder Jobe Bellingham from Premier League side Sunderland, the club confirmed on Tuesday.

    The 19-year-old has signed a contract until June 2030 and will join the squad traveling to the United States later this week for the FIFA Club World Cup.

    Bellingham, who has played for the England U21 squad, follows in the footsteps of his older brother Jude, who played for Dortmund between 2020 and 2023 before moving to Real Madrid.

    Like Jude, Jobe started his career at Birmingham City, before moving to Sunderland in 2023. During his two seasons at the Stadium of Light, he made 90 league appearances and played a key role in the team’s promotion to the Premier League in May.

    “Jobe is an exceptionally talented player who combines maturity, technical skill, and ambition at a young age,” said Dortmund managing director Lars Ricken. “He embodies the values we believe in development, discipline and drive. We are confident he will grow into a key figure for our future.”

    Sporting director Sebastian Kehl expressed similar sentiments, emphasising Bellingham’s leadership and adaptability. “He made significant progress last season, maturing into a central figure for Sunderland. His presence in midfield offers us greater flexibility, and we’re excited to see how he can elevate our game.”

    Bellingham is set to wear the number 77 jersey during the Club World Cup, where he could make his first appearance for the Black and Yellows under head coach Niko Kovac.

    “I’m thrilled to be part of Borussia Dortmund,” said Bellingham. “This club has a special place in my heart, and I want to contribute to its success. Playing in front of these incredible fans and competing for titles is something I’ve dreamed of.”

    Despite being named in England’s preliminary U21 Euro squad, he will instead join Dortmund in the U.S., highlighting the club’s desire to integrate him into the team quickly.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Tome names Spain squad for Women’s Euros

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

    There were few surprises as Spain women’s team coach Montse Tome on Tuesday announced the 23-player squad for next month’s Women’s European Championships.

    Spain travels to Switzerland as the reigning world and UEFA Nations League champion, and will play Portugal, Belgium and Italy in the group stage.

    “The players have done an incredible job to be here, I am happy with the selection and I also remember the players who have been with us, who haven’t made the 23, but I was thinking about what will be needed in the Euros,” said Tome.

    Tome has included 10 players from FC Barcelona in her squad, including Aitana Bonmati and Alexia Putellas, along with goalkeeper Cata Coll and defender Irene Paredes.

    “We have experience at club and international level and also young players, so I don’t worry about a lack of experience, we have players who can play in different positions and I think we have the capacity to do well,” added the coach, who insisted she was confident the players would arrive in good condition for the tournament.

    One player who missed out is Jenni Hermoso, who made headlines after the 2023 World Cup after she was the victim of an unsolicited kiss by former Spanish Football Federation President Luis Rubiales.

    “I have spoken to her and with her coach and we carried out the work we did with the other players. We have looked at our season and we valued what we need and what we don’t need.”

    “Every squad is difficult and this is the hardest for me as coach and the technical staff,” revealed Tome. 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Man City sign Cherki in time for Club World Cup

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

    Manchester City has announced the signing of Rayan Cherki from Lyon in deal worth 34 million pounds (46 million U.S. dollars).

    Pascal Gross (L) of Germany vies with Rayan Cherki of France during the UEFA Nations League A third-place match between Germany and France in Stuttgart, Germany, June 8, 2025. (Photo by Philippe Ruiz/Xinhua)

    “Manchester City has completed the signing of Rayan Cherki from Lyon. The 21-year-old attacking midfielder has put pen to paper on a five-year deal, which keeps him at the Etihad Stadium until the summer of 2030,” the club announced on its official website just moments before the transfer window allowing players to compete in the FIFA Club World Cup closed.

    Cherki made 20 appearances for Lyon last season, scoring 12 goals, and made his debut for the France national team in last week’s 5-4 UEFA Nations League defeat to Spain.

    “I would only leave Lyon for a project I really believe in and everything at City suggests I can develop my game and help the team be successful in the future. I can’t wait to show City fans what I can do,” Cherki was quoted as saying on the Manchester City website.

    “I have worked so hard for this all my life. I love this sport, and I can’t wait to develop further here in Manchester with [head coach] Pep [Guardiola] and his backroom staff.”

    City’s Director of Football, Hugo Viana, also expressed his satisfaction at the news.

    “He’s a player our scouts have watched for a long time, and we have all been impressed with his skill and creativity. I am convinced our fans will be excited to see him play,” commented Viana.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Christchurch Police renew call for help in search for Elisabeth Nicholls

    Source: New Zealand Police

    Attribute to Detective Sergeant Lucy Aldridge of Christchurch Police:

    Today marks a week since Elisabeth “Lis” Nicholls was last seen, and we are making a further appeal to the people of Christchurch for help. 

    Lis is 79 and has dementia and the last confirmed sighting of her was at the Chateau on the Park in Riccarton, at 7.54pm on Wednesday 4 June.

    Searchers and Police have gone door to door, reviewed CCTV footage and made extensive enquiries, but we have not been able to find Lis.

    We do not know where she travelled to after the Chateau and have not been able to locate any items that would lead us closer to her.

    Police have grave concerns for Lis’s welfare and need the help of the Christchurch community to bring her home.

    At the time she disappeared, Lis was wearing a black and grey checked long-sleeved shirt, a maroon long-sleeved top underneath, navy blue jeans and black leather shoes.

    She also has distinctive grey shoulder-length hair.

    Police are asking members of the public to please search your backyards, sheds and sleepouts, and look under anything where a person could seek shelter.

    For anyone with CCTV, Police would like you to review any footage you have from 6.40pm on Wednesday 4 June to 8am on Thursday 5 June. While Lis went missing in the Riccarton area, she is physically strong, and may have walked some distance.

    Finally, this past week has been extremely difficult on Lis’s family.

    While they have requested privacy, Gary Nicholls, Lis’s husband of nearly 60 years, has provided this statement on behalf of their family:

    “Lis is an adored wife, mother, grandmother, friend and colleague, who has always put other people first.

    “Her life has been about helping people, through nursing, Plunket and social work. She has been there for people when they needed help, and her influence has touched all our lives for the better.

    “We are deeply concerned and have been living with painful uncertainty for a week, but we have been grateful for the love and support that has been shown for Lis.

    “On behalf of Lis, our family and friends, I would like to sincerely thank the people of Christchurch for their help and concern, and for the information they have been providing.

    “We are also grateful to Police, the Search and Rescue teams, Canterbury University students and the Victoria Neighbourhood Association, who have been dedicating so much time and resource to help us find Lis.

    “You have been working in the cold, the rain, and the darkness to bring Lis home to us, and we are incredibly grateful.”

    • Anyone who sees Lis should ring 111 immediately and use the reference number 250604/5465. Non-urgent information can be provided online at 105.police.govt.nz, using “Update Report”, quoting the same reference number.

    ENDS

    Issued by the Police Media Centre

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Government invites tenders for short-term tenancy in Tsz Wan Shan for fee-paying public car park with installation of automated parking system

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    Government invites tenders for short-term tenancy in Tsz Wan Shan for fee-paying public car park with installation of automated parking system Prospective tenderers must pay attention to all the requirements set out in the tender notice and the tenancy agreement of the tender document.

    Tenders must be deposited in the Public Works Tender Box situated in Room 503, 5/F, Low Block, Queensway Government Offices, 66 Queensway, Hong Kong, before noon on July 25 (Friday). Late tenders will not be accepted.
    Issued at HKT 11:00

    NNNN

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI China: More Chinese provinces extend marriage leave in family support push

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

    China is rolling out extended marriage leave in at least 27 provincial-level regions as part of ongoing efforts to foster a more family-friendly society.

    The government of Sichuan Province, one of the country’s most populous regions, has unveiled a plan to extend marriage leave from three to 20 days, with an additional five days for those who opt for a premarital medical checkup.

    The proposal is currently open for public comment throughout June.

    “Previously, with only three days off, it could be a challenge to get home for a wedding itself — forget about a honeymoon!” said Wang Mengdi, an employee at a Sichuan-based human resources firm. “But with 25 days, you have ample time to enjoy a decent honeymoon.”

    Shandong Province in east China, the ancestral home of Confucius, with a permanent population exceeding 100 million, further reinforced its cultural emphasis on family bonds by extending marriage leave from three days to a maximum of 18 days through legislative action in January.

    Currently, China grants newlyweds a three-day marriage leave at the national level, a tradition that dates back to 1980.

    “The one- to three-day marriage leave can barely meet the needs of today’s young couple for wedding preparation and ceremonies. This has even impacted marriage registration and fertility rates to some extent,” said Xu Jinmei, a senior legislator in Shandong.

    Amid rapid industrialization and urbanization, millions of young adults have migrated from their hometowns in pursuit of education and career opportunities. Despite this mobility, the deeply rooted tradition of returning home for wedding celebrations remains strong.

    The custom requires substantial time investments, as many must travel a long way back home to hold their weddings.

    Provincial-level regions in China have the autonomy to determine the length of marriage leave, often influenced by local customs and demographic policies. The provinces of Shanxi and Gansu offer the most generous policies, allowing up to 30 days of paid leave for newlyweds.

    The incentive measures were rolled out amid marriage registration declines in China. Official data show that 1.81 million couples registered to tie the knot in the first quarter of 2025, down 8 percent year on year. After a brief rebound in 2023, registrations fell again last year, reaching the lowest level since 1980.

    Scholars attribute the drop to several factors, including a shrinking pool of marriage-age adults and waning enthusiasm for matrimony.

    “In the 1980s, more than 20 million people were born each year in China. But since 2000, that number has dropped to just over 10 million annually. So naturally, the base number for marriage registrations is much lower now,” said Jiang Quanbao, a professor at the institute for population and development studies at Xi’an Jiaotong University.

    Li Ting, a demographer at Renmin University of China in Beijing, noted that higher levels of education and a growing sense of individualism have combined to significantly challenge traditional views on marriage.

    “In the past, young people got married around the time they graduated or started working, but now many won’t consider marriage until they’re planning to have children,” Li added.

    In a country where the traditional belief is that marriage should precede childbearing, declining marriage rates have become one of the factors behind falling birth rates.

    In response to these challenges, authorities across the country have introduced various measures to foster a newlywed-friendly society.

    China streamlined marriage registration. Since May, couples have been able to register their marriage anywhere in the country without presenting a household registration booklet.

    Local authorities have also extended maternity leave and paternity care leave to support family planning.

    However, some worry that extended marriage leave, maternity leave, and other benefits could end up becoming empty promises due to the economic pressures faced by enterprises.

    Zhai Zhenwu, president of the China Population Association, noted that the overall extension of marriage leave and maternity leave is not that costly. “This should not be a barrier to extending maternity leave,” he said.

    Zhai also proposed that local budgets help enterprises to offset some of the costs of maternity and marriage leave policies.

    The suggestion appears to have resonated with policymakers, as reflected in the draft policy statement from Sichuan provincial authorities.

    The policy document open for public consultation noted that governments at or above the county level should coordinate multi-channel funding to establish a reasonable cost-sharing mechanism for marriage and parental leave, striving to guarantee the full implementation of the leave. 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: China set to build future workforce with new tech-centric college majors

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

    With the grueling college entrance exams behind them, over 13 million Chinese students will begin exploring university options this year, amid an expanding array of tech-focused study programs.

    As China’s economy shifts toward high-tech manufacturing and services, new courses are part and parcel of its latest push to ensure the future workforce is equipped with the skills needed to support sustained growth and global competitiveness in an increasingly technology-driven world.

    The Ministry of Education has announced the addition of 29 new undergraduate majors across the country’s universities, many of them aligned with its strategic priorities in emerging sectors including artificial intelligence, carbon neutrality and low-altitude economy.

    One of the new majors is carbon neutrality science and engineering, with graduates likely to support the country’s ambitious climate goals of fulfilling its pledge to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

    The low-carbon program at University of Science and Technology Beijing, known for its steel programs, will integrate materials science with metallurgy to facilitate the transition of smoke-heavy traditional industries like steel.

    Institutions including Beihang University have designed programs that target China’s burgeoning drone and urban air mobility sectors, which hold trillion-yuan (about 140 billion U.S. dollars) market potential.

    Engineering disciplines like integrated circuits, marine technology, industrial software, intelligent molecular engineering, biomass, and medical device and equipment have also begun enrolling students, closely aligning with China’s national industrial development objectives.

    To drive digital transformation across consumer industries, China is also planning to cultivate next-generation professionals through new disciplines including intelligent emergency management, smart cities and intelligent imaging art.

    “China is essentially predicting what talent it will need five years from now,” explained Xiong Bingqi, an education researcher. “These new majors consider three key factors: national strategic development, technological advancement and social needs.”

    More than 500 universities now offer AI-related majors or have launched dedicated schools related to the field. Tsinghua University and Renmin University of China included AI into their 2025 enrollment expansion plans.

    However, some AI programs are affiliated with computer science colleges and lack faculty experienced in AI practice and application.

    Zhaopin.com data shows that in the month after the 2025 Spring Festival, AI instructor job postings doubled year-on-year, revealing a severe shortage of AI teaching staff.

    Xiong likened some superficial rebranding of existing programs with “smart” or “digital,” to “putting on a new coat without changing the essence.”

    This year, Beijing Normal University will launch a new major in AI education to address the shortage of AI teaching professionals.

    China’s education authorities have also approved 23 vocational undergraduate institutions, with programs focused technical workforce training for emerging industries, with practical training required to account for 50 percent of total class hours.

    Two vocational undergraduate institutions in Anhui, an eastern Chinese province, have set up majors in fields like new energy and intelligent connected vehicles, with a professional alignment rate to regional industries exceeding 90 percent.

    China wants vocational undergraduate enrollment to reach at least 10 percent of all higher vocational education admissions by 2025. 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Bornstein Seafoods Inc Recalls Cooked & Peeled Ready-To-Eat Coldwater Shrimp Meat Because of Possible Health Risk

    Source: US Department of Health and Human Services – 3

    Summary

    Company Announcement Date:
    June 10, 2025
    FDA Publish Date:
    June 10, 2025
    Product Type:
    Food & BeveragesFoodborne Illness
    Reason for Announcement:

    Recall Reason Description
    Potential Foodborne Illness – Listeria monocytogenes

    Company Name:
    Bornstein Seafoods Inc.
    Brand Name:

    Brand Name(s)
    Bornstein Seafoods

    Product Description:

    Product Description
    Coldwater Shrimp Meat

    Company Announcement
    June 10, 2025, Bornstein Seafoods of Bellingham, Washington is recalling 44,550 Lbs. of Cooked & Peeled Ready-To-Eat Coldwater Shrimp Meat (see table below for multiple lot codes) because it has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.
    Product was distributed directly to distributors and retailers in California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia of Canada. Products may have been further distributed and sold at retailers nationwide.
    Product can be identified under Bornstein Seafoods branded packaging in 1 lb. or 5 lb. plastic bag. The market name is Shrimp. The affected product has the lot code printed at the lower left corner of master case label and at the bottom on the back side of 1 lb. or 5 lb. bag:

    Item No.

    UPC Code 

    Master Case Label Description 

    Lot No. 

    ZMU41-1003

    614133200246

    Fzn Shrimp Meat 250/350 Ct 15 X 1 Lb Bag Bsi Msc

    A19008

    ZMU41-1007

    614133200239

    Fzn Shrimp Meat 250/350 Ct 4 X 5 Lb Bag Bsi Msc

    A19009

    ZMU41-1007

    614133200239

    Fzn Shrimp Meat 250/350 Ct 4 X 5 Lb Bag Bsi Msc

    P11710

    ZMU41-1015

    614133200246

    Fzn Shrimp Meat 350/500 Ct 15 X 1 Lb Bag Bsi Msc

    A19009

    ZMU41-1015

    614133200246

    Fzn Shrimp Meat 350/500 Ct 15 X 1 Lb Bag Bsi Msc

    A19019

    ZMU41-1015

    614133200246

    Fzn Shrimp Meat 350/500 Ct 15 X 1 Lb Bag Bsi Msc

    A19026

    ZMU41-1015

    614133200246

    Fzn Shrimp Meat 350/500 Ct 15 X 1 Lb Bag Bsi Msc

    A19030

    ZMU41-1015

    614133200246

    Fzn Shrimp Meat 350/500 Ct 15 X 1 Lb Bag Bsi Msc

    A19032

    ZMU41-1015

    614133200246

    Fzn Shrimp Meat 350/500 Ct 15 X 1 Lb Bag Bsi Msc

    A19037

    ZMU41-1015

    614133200246

    Fzn Shrimp Meat 350/500 Ct 15 X 1 Lb Bag Bsi Msc

    A19039

    ZMU41-1019

    614133200239

    Fzn Shrimp Meat 350/500 Ct 4 X 5 Lb Bag Bsi Msc

    A18989

    ZMU41-1019

    614133200239

    Fzn Shrimp Meat 350/500 Ct 4 X 5 Lb Bag Bsi Msc

    A19006

    ZMU41-1019

    614133200239

    Fzn Shrimp Meat 350/500 Ct 4 X 5 Lb Bag Bsi Msc

    A19007

    ZMU41-1019

    614133200239

    Fzn Shrimp Meat 350/500 Ct 4 X 5 Lb Bag Bsi Msc

    P11709

    ZMU41-1019

    614133200239

    Fzn Shrimp Meat 350/500 Ct 4 X 5 Lb Bag Bsi Msc

    P11710

    No illnesses have been reported to date.
    The recall was the result of the firm’s routine sampling program and Listeria monocytogenes was detected in an in-process shrimp sample in a food production environment. The company has ceased the distribution of the product as the company continues our root cause investigation as to what caused the problem.
    This recall is being made with the knowledge of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
    Consumers who have purchased the affected product are urged to return it to the place of purchase for a full refund. Consumers with questions may contact the company by email at Andrew@bornstein.com.

    Company Contact Information

    Product Photos

    Content current as of:
    06/10/2025

    Regulated Product(s)

    Topic(s)

    Follow FDA

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Booker Commends Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and NJ TRANSIT After Successful Contract Negotiations

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for New Jersey Cory Booker

    NEWARK, N.J. – This afternoon, members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) voted 398 to 21 to ratify their contract with NJ TRANSIT. In response, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) commended both parties, saying:

    “The labor of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen moves our entire region. This afternoon, BLET members ratified their contract with NJ TRANSIT, affirming a deal that sets workers, their families, hundreds of thousands of commuters, and our state’s economy up for the future. I applaud the efforts of both parties to ensure the operation of our public transportation system and support the well-being of New Jersey families.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: WICKER, HYDE-SMITH DEMAND AN END TO BIDEN-ERA FLOOD INSURANCE PREMIUMS

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Mississippi Roger Wicker

    WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) have joined colleagues in demanding the Federal Emergency Management Agency end Risk Rating 2.0, the Biden-era flood insurance policy that has caused premiums to skyrocket and thousands of homeowners to abandon their policies.

    Wicker and Hyde-Smith signed a letter, led by U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.), that calls for halting further Risk Rating 2.0 premium increases and demanding greater transparency from FEMA.  The lawmakers have long questioned the pricing methodology used by FEMA in setting Risk Rating 2.0 premiums, which have increased for an estimated 84 percent of Mississippi flood insurance policyholders.

    “Since the Biden Administration’s rollout of Risk Rating 2.0, premiums under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) increased in every state.  By FEMA’s own estimates, 77 percent of all NFIP policies now pay more than under the old system,” the Senators wrote.

    “The lack of transparency surrounding Risk Rating 2.0 is beyond troubling.  FEMA has never allowed for meaningful public comment nor has it published the underlying data or assumptions used to justify the steep premium increases and refuses to disclose its actuarial model.  Without transparency, communities cannot plan mitigation projects, lenders cannot accurately underwrite mortgages, and citizens cannot appeal punitive rate increases.  Worse still, rising costs encourage policy lapses—shifting risk back to taxpayers when disasters strike,” the Senators continued.

    “Time is of the essence.  Each month that Risk Rating 2.0 continues unchecked, more families are forced to abandon their insurance coverage, neighborhoods face economic strain, and entire communities risk collapse after the next disaster.  We respectfully urge you to act now—before further harm is done—to protect vulnerable Americans, preserve homeownership, and ensure the NFIP fulfills its mission as Congress intended,” the Senators concluded.

    The letter sent to FEMA Acting Administrator David Richardson was also signed by U.S. Senators John Kennedy (R-La.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), and John Cornyn (R-Texas).

    Read the full letter here or below.

    Dear Acting Administrator Richardson,

     

    We write to draw your urgent attention to the increasingly untenable flood insurance premiums paid by American homeowners as a result of the Biden-era policy, Risk Rating 2.0, administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  We respectfully ask for your leadership to halt further premium increases under Risk Rating 2.0 and implement much needed transparency from FEMA.

     

    On January 20, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order (EO) 13990, directing every federal agency to target and modify Trump-era regulations under the auspice of combating climate change.  A few months later, Biden signed EO 14030, requiring agencies to integrate up-to-date flood risk considerations into federal actions.  Collectively, both of these EOs laid the groundwork for FEMA’s implementation of a new rating system known as Risk Rating 2.0, which was enacted on October 1, 2021.

     

    Since the Biden Administration’s rollout of Risk Rating 2.0, premiums under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) increased in every state.  By FEMA’s own estimates, 77 percent of all NFIP policies now pay more than under the old system.  According to a 2023 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, premiums on primary residences under Risk Rating 2.0 are subject to a maximum 18 percent increase each year until such premiums reflect “the full risk loss of the insured property,” as determined by FEMA.

     

    Families in the following Republican states are especially hard-hit.

     

    Louisiana:

    • It is estimated that 80% of Louisiana NFIP policyholders experienced monthly premium increases in 2025 as a result of Risk Rating 2.0.
    • In 2023 alone, the average flood insurance premium in our state jumped by 234%, forcing more than 52,000 Louisianans—many of them seniors on fixed incomes—out of the program.
    • Coastal parishes, which depend on flood insurance to secure mortgages and rebuild after storms, are now facing premiums that exceed 2% of median household income—a threshold that federal guidance deems “cost prohibitive.”

     

    West Virginia:

    • It is estimated that 83% of West Virginia NFIP policyholders experienced monthly premium increases in 2025 as a result of Risk Rating 2.0.
    • As of August 2023 (the latest available FEMA data), Risk Rating 2.0 would increase annual NFIP premiums for homeowners in West Virginia by ~176%
    • Over the last 12 months, ~600 West Virginians have left the NFIP as a result of premium increases.

     

    Texas:

    • It is estimated that 86% of Texas NFIP policyholders experienced monthly premium increases in 2025 as a result of Risk Rating 2.0.
    • As of August 2023 (the latest available FEMA data), Risk Rating 2.0 would increase annual NFIP premiums for homeowners in Texas by ~53%.
    • Over the last 12 months, ~26,300 Texans have left the NFIP as a result of premium increases.

     

    Alabama:

    • It is estimated that 79% of Alabama NFIP policyholders experienced monthly premium increases in 2025 as a result of Risk Rating 2.0.
    • As of August 2023 (the latest available FEMA data), Risk Rating 2.0 would increase annual NFIP premiums for homeowners in Alabama by ~106%.
    • Over the last 12 months, ~1,200 Alabamians have left the NFIP as a result of premium increases.

     

    Mississippi:

    • It is estimated that 84% of Mississippi NFIP policyholders experienced monthly premium increases in 2025 as a result of Risk Rating 2.0.
    • As of August 2023 (the latest available FEMA data), Risk Rating 2.0 would increase annual NFIP premiums for homeowners in Mississippi by ~103%.
    • Over the last 12 months, ~2,200 Mississippians have left the NFIP as a result of premium increases.

     

    Rural and low-income homeowners, along with high-risk coastal areas, are being priced out at far higher rates than urban or wealthier communities.  In ten states, full risk NFIP premiums today exceed 2 percent of median household income.  This undermines home values, depresses property tax revenues, and ultimately inflates federal disaster assistance costs when uninsured homeowners cannot rebuild.

     

    The lack of transparency surrounding Risk Rating 2.0 is beyond troubling. FEMA has never allowed for meaningful public comment nor has it published the underlying data or assumptions used to justify the steep premium increases and refuses to disclose its actuarial model.  Without transparency, communities cannot plan mitigation projects, lenders cannot accurately underwrite mortgages, and citizens cannot appeal punitive rate increases.  Worse still, rising costs encourage policy lapses—shifting risk back to taxpayers when disasters strike.

     

    The President has long championed policies that reduce federal overreach and protect everyday Americans from burdensome costs.  To limit the damage caused by this harmful Biden era policy, we urge you to:

     

    1. Direct FEMA to terminate the Risk Rating 2.0 pricing methodology.
    2. Require FEMA to publish all actuarial inputs and outputs of future flood insurance premium increases exceeding the 5% statutory minimum so stakeholders can verify fairness and accuracy.
    3. Restore targeted affordability measures for coastal, low income, and historically underinsured communities—ensuring NFIP remains accessible to those who need it most.

     

    Time is of the essence.  Each month that Risk Rating 2.0 continues unchecked, more families are forced to abandon their insurance coverage, neighborhoods face economic strain, and entire communities risk collapse after the next disaster.  We respectfully urge you to act now—before further harm is done—to protect vulnerable Americans, preserve homeownership, and ensure the NFIP fulfills its mission as Congress intended.

     

    Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: WATCH: Baldwin Presses NIH Director on Trump Administration’s Deep Cuts to Lifesaving Research

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Wisconsin Tammy Baldwin

    WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS), led a hearing on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget and questioned NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya about why the Trump administration is ripping away NIH funding that supports lifesaving research into cures for cancer, Alzheimer’s, and other diseases. Baldwin pressed Dr. Bhattacharya on both why he has effectively delayed or cut thousands of NIH grants in the first few months of 2025, and also how his proposal for next year would slash the NIH budget and lifesaving research by 40%. Senator Baldwin also specifically pressed Dr. Bhattacharya on a new policy scheme that the administration is implementing right now that hides even deeper cuts to research.

    “If Donald Trump gets his way, billions in funding for lifesaving research will be ripped away to fund tax breaks for the rich, and it’s American families that will pay the price with their health,” said Senator Baldwin. “It’s not just wrong – it’s cruel. I won’t stop fighting on behalf of the millions of families who are holding out hope their loved one battling cancer, ALS, or Alzheimer’s disease has a fighting chance.”

    Dr. Bhattacharya testified in front of the Senate LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee today to defend President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal for the NIH, which would rip away $18 billion – a 40% cut – in NIH funding for lifesaving breakthroughs. The budget request shows that it plans to cut the number of grants NIH awards by 4,000 this year and 15,000 next year, which would be a devastating blow for research institutions, scientists, and patients nationwide. A recent report found that nearly 2,500 NIH grants have been ended or delayed. In addition to terminating $4.9 billion in active research grants, the NIH has awarded 3,288 fewer disease studies and research projects compared to the same time period last year. Senator Baldwin pressed Director Bhattacharya specifically about the disastrous new forward funding policy that would dramatically reduce the number of grants NIH awards next year, and the need for Congress to step in and stop NIH from implementing it.

    Senator Baldwin led a forum earlier this year to spotlight how cuts are impacting researchers and Americans in clinical trials. Senator Baldwin also sent a letter, together with Senator Murray and Representative DeLauro, to Director Bhattacharya pressing him for information about the thousands of NIH grants that have been terminated under his watch.

    A full recording of Senator Baldwin’s opening remarks is available here.

    A full recording of Senator Baldwin’s questions is available here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Padilla, Schiff Demand Answers From Trump Administration on Reckless Decision to Deploy Hundreds of Marines to Los Angeles

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)

    Padilla, Schiff Demand Answers From Trump Administration on Reckless Decision to Deploy Hundreds of Marines to Los Angeles

    Senators: “We strongly oppose this deployment and request you clarify the legal authority that purports to grant the President and you the ability to deploy active-duty personnel on American streets under these circumstances.”

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) demanded answers regarding the Trump Administration’s decision to deploy approximately 700 Marines to Los Angeles. In their letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of the Navy John Phelan, the Senators requested that the Administration clarify and provide the legal authority that purports to grant the President and the Department of Defense the ability to deploy active-duty military personnel on American streets.  

    “The presence of the Marines was not requested by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors, or California Governor Gavin Newsom. Moreover, local and state law enforcement officers are carrying out their missions to protect the public amid ongoing immigration raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel. We strongly oppose this deployment and request you clarify the legal authority that purports to grant the President and you the ability to deploy active-duty personnel on American streets under these circumstances,” wrote the Senators.  

    “A decision to deploy active-duty military personnel within the United States should only be undertaken during the most extreme circumstances, and these are not them. That this deployment was made over the objections of state authorities is all the more unjustifiable. In this instance, this extraordinary action was also irresponsibly rushed and lacked clear communication to government officials or the U.S. public. The notification from NORTHCOM did not provide critical information to understand the legal authority, mission, or rules of engagement for Marines involved in this domestic deployment,” continued the Senators.  

    Senator Padilla has been outspoken in slamming the Los Angeles ICE raids and Trump’s misguided mobilization of the National Guard and U.S. Marine Corps. Earlier today, Padilla spoke on the Senate floor to blast President Trump for manufacturing a crisis by launching indiscriminate ICE raids across Los Angeles and deploying the National Guard and active-duty servicemembers to the region. Yesterday, Padilla, Schiff, and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) demanded answers from top Trump Administration officials regarding the arrest and detention of David Huerta, President of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California and SEIU-United Service Workers West. Padilla has joined national and local TV and radio broadcasts in the past few days to condemn the Trump Administration’s cruel immigration enforcement in Los Angeles and across the country.

    Full text of the letter is available here and below: 

    Dear Secretary Hegseth,

    According to a U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) notification to Congress on June 9, 2025, approximately 700 Marines have been deployed in support of Task Force 51, the unit comprised of National Guard troops called into federal service by President Trump and operating in Los Angeles. You explained subsequently that these “… active-duty U.S. Marines from Camp Pendleton are being deployed to Los Angeles to restore order.”

    The presence of the Marines was not requested by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors, or California Governor Gavin Newsom. Moreover, local and state law enforcement officers are carrying out their missions to protect the public amid ongoing immigration raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel. We strongly oppose this deployment and request you clarify the legal authority that purports to grant the President and you the ability to deploy active-duty personnel on American streets under these circumstances.

    A decision to deploy active-duty military personnel within the United States should only be undertaken during the most extreme circumstances, and these are not them. That this deployment was made over the objections of state authorities is all the more unjustifiable. In this instance, this extraordinary action was also irresponsibly rushed and lacked clear communication to government officials or the U.S. public. The notification from NORTHCOM did not provide critical information to understand the legal authority, mission, or rules of engagement for Marines involved in this domestic deployment. As such, we ask that you provide immediate answers to the following questions:

    What is the legal authority for the Marine deployment and any activity they will be authorized to undertake? Please provide any Department of Defense analysis on the legal authority for this action. What is the specific mission for the Marine deployment and how has that mission been communicated to the Marines?

    Will the Marines engage in, and have legal authority to engage in, law enforcement activities?

    Please also clarify any requests made of the Department of Defense by other federal entities, such as the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, regarding the scope of the Marines’ mission and duties.

    What are the rules of engagement for the Marines while deployed to Los Angeles? The NORTHCOM notification indicates that “Task Force 51 forces have been trained in de-escalation, crowd control, and standing rules for the use of force.” How much training was provided to the Marines involved and at what time? What crowd control equipment was issued to the Marines prior to or during their deployment, and what training have they received on proper use of that equipment? Given that the Marines, who are trained to be among the most lethal forces in the U.S. military, may have direct contact with U.S. civilians as part of the domestic deployment, please clarify the precise rules of engagement that have been provided to them or under which they are expected to operate.

    Given the significant questions about the role of the Marines as part of this operation, we respectfully request answers to these questions within 48 hours or a stand down of their mobilization.

    Sincerely,

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: WATCH: Padilla Slams Trump’s Unprecedented Mobilization of Marines and National Guard in LA, Pushes for Permanent DACA Protections

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)

    WATCH: Padilla Slams Trump’s Unprecedented Mobilization of Marines and National Guard in LA, Pushes for Permanent DACA Protections

    WATCH: Padilla: “Immigrants are not political pawns for his agenda. Just as servicemembers … are not political pawns for his agenda.”

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, spoke on the Senate floor to condemn President Trump’s move to federalize the California National Guard and mobilize U.S. Marine Corps elements, sending 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 active-duty Marines to Los Angeles. Padilla delivered remarks ahead of the 13th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, pushing for permanent protections for Dreamers rather than indiscriminate Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.

    Padilla called out President Trump for trying to scapegoat immigrants to distract from Republicans’ unpopular billionaire-first budget bill, which would deliver tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy at the expense of working families. As part of this manufactured crisis, Trump has caused a chaotic escalation of the conflict in Los Angeles while ignoring fundamental due process rights.

    • “Time and time again, we’ve seen one of the most frequently called plays out of the Trump playbook. When everything else is going wrong, shift the narrative, scapegoat immigrants, blame immigrants for whatever your failure is at the moment.”
    • “Well today, between his failing trade wars that are raising the cost of living on working families across the country, to his losses in federal court and delays in Congress on their efforts to give billionaires even bigger tax breaks, and even the embarrassing breakup recently with his former BBFF, billionaire best friend forever, Elon Musk, it’s safe to say that Donald Trump is grasping for anything he can do to change the narrative, to distract us of the damage that his political agenda is going on.”
    • “In order to distract the country from his failures and his efforts to ‘flood the zone,’ Donald Trump is expanding his deportation agenda far beyond the focus and targeting of violent and dangerous criminals that he claimed would be the strategy.”
    • “He’s so desperate to show quick results that he’s even throwing due process rights out the window for so many. The due process rights, by the way, that I know most of you, if not all of you, should agree are paramount, foundational to our democracy.”

    Padilla emphasized that the Trump Administration’s cruel immigration enforcement in Los Angeles is deeply personal for him, and that he would keep fighting against Trump’s mass deportation agenda and demonizing of immigrant communities.

    • “It’s personal for me not just because Los Angeles is home — I was born and raised in Los Angeles — but as a proud son of immigrants, I know the true story of the vast majority of immigrants and immigrant families in Los Angeles, throughout California and throughout the country.”
    • “But instead of honoring those contributions … Donald Trump is manufacturing a crisis to once again, not just distract us, but divide us. And just as he’s always done, he’s using immigrants to do it.”
    • “So I can’t help but speak up and remind us, immigrants are not political pawns for his agenda. Just as servicemembers — women and men — are not political pawns for his agenda.”

    As the nation approaches the 13th anniversary of the DACA program, Padilla pushed his Republican colleagues to finally pass permanent protections for DACA recipients, including over 160,000 in California alone. He highlighted that most Dreamers have been contributing to our communities and economy for years, and underlined that if DACA ended, it could cost the country nearly $650 billion while potentially cutting over 400,000 workers.

    • “As we should be celebrating the 13th anniversary of DACA this week, hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients and Dreamers are actually now worried that they are at risk, at further risk. That they could be next as President Trump struggles to find enough violent criminals to detain and deport to meet a campaign promise. Since he can’t get his numbers there, he’ll look elsewhere. So I want to take this moment to make very clear: Dreamers are our neighbors. Dreamers are our loved ones.”
    • “These are young people who are Americans in every sense of the word, except for one important piece of paperwork. … Yet because of Congressional Republicans’ refusal to act, Dreamers live at a minimum in a constant state of uncertainty, but oftentimes in a constant state of fear. They deserve better. Mr. President, they deserve permanent protections.”
    • “If through the President or through Republicans’ actions in Congress, you were to take away work authorization for hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients, that’s reducing our workforce at a time when we’re trying to grow the workforce and grow the economy.”
    • “I’m talking about Dreamers who work as teachers, as caregivers, as nurses and doctors, as construction workers, as food service workers, and so many other key industries for our economy. And they’re hardworking community members who pay taxes just like the rest of us and just want a chance to work hard and raise a family in the country that they love. They deserve peace of mind, the piece of mind to know that they are safe here at home.”

    Padilla concluded by pushing his colleagues to pass the DREAM Act to finally provide permanent protections for Dreamers who have long contributed to our economy and communities, yet are forced to live in uncertainty.

    • “For my Republican colleagues who may be caught up in the heat of the moment and trapped in this anti-immigrant rhetoric in our current political climate on the right, I’ll say this: Dreamers make our communities better. Dreamers make our economy stronger. And Dreamers make our nation stronger.”
    • “The DREAM Act is a commonsense bill that has enjoyed bipartisan support. So I urge you to join me in supporting the DREAM Act now and giving these young people the certainty and the protections that they deserve, and strengthen our nation in the process.”

    Video of Padilla’s full remarks is available here.

    Senator Padilla has been outspoken in calling out the Los Angeles ICE raids and Trump’s misguided mobilization of the National Guard and U.S. Marine Corps. Earlier today, Padilla and U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) demanded answers regarding the Trump Administration’s decision to deploy approximately 700 Marines to Los Angeles. Padilla also spoke on the Senate floor today to blast President Trump for manufacturing a crisis by launching indiscriminate ICE raids across Los Angeles and deploying the National Guard and active-duty servicemembers to the region. Yesterday, Padilla, Schiff, and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) demanded answers from top Trump Administration officials regarding the arrest and detention of David Huerta, President of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California and SEIU-United Service Workers West. Padilla has joined national and local TV and radio broadcasts in the past few days to condemn the Trump Administration’s cruel immigration enforcement in Los Angeles and across the country.

    Senator Padilla is a leading voice in Congress for immigration reform. To commemorate the 12th anniversary of DACA, Padilla joined immigration advocates, DACA recipients, and other lawmakers to urge Congress to pass a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and call on former President Biden to protect Dreamers and long-term undocumented communities through executive action. He previously joined his Senate colleagues and directly impacted immigrant youth leaders for a press conference calling on Republicans in Congress to work with Democrats to pass permanent protections for DACA recipients after the 5th Circuit’s 2022 ruling left these recipients in limbo.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Speaker of the House to visit Japan on official delegation

    Source: New Zealand Parliament –

    Media Release

    6 June 2025

    Rt Hon Gerry Brownlee, Speaker of the House of Representatives, will travel to Japan from 8–13 June to meet with his counterpart, Hon Fukushiro Nukaga, Speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan. He will be accompanied by a cross-party delegation consisting of Greg O’Connor, Maureen Pugh, Teanau Tuiono, and Mariameno Kapa-Kingi.

    During the visit, Mr Speaker will hold official talks with Speaker Nukaga and engage with other senior parliamentary leaders, including the President of the House of Councillors and members of the National Diet of Japan

    The delegation will begin its programme in Tokyo before travelling to Hokkaido. Alongside parliamentary engagements, the visit will include meetings with business and community leaders, as well as organisations with strong connections to New Zealand.

    ENDS

    Inter-Parliamentary Relations are a way for members of New Zealand’s Parliament to keep Parliament relevant, effective, and innovative. Dialogue between members of different parliaments increases mutual understanding between countries, develops best practice, and ensures New Zealand is playing an active part in the international community. Members’ active participation in inter-parliamentary activities improves their knowledge and insights as legislators, which in turn improves parliamentary scrutiny of Government

    For media inquiries, please contact communications.team@parliament.govt.nz

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Rural News – Federated Farmers president gets rural wellbeing fund across the line

    Source: Federated Farmers

    A $4 million Rural Wellbeing Fund announced today at the Federated Farmers Advocacy Hub at Fieldays is a great win for rural advocacy groups, Wayne Langford says.
    The Federated Farmers president has led the way in pushing the Government to deliver increased investment into rural mental health – an issue close to his heart.
    “It’s hugely rewarding to get this across the line. I’m absolutely stoked the Government are making such a meaningful investment in the mental health of our rural communities.
    “Federated Farmers have been involved every step of the way – but we haven’t been alone. The likes of DairyNZ, Beef + Lamb, Young Farmers and Rural Women have been right there with us.”
    Langford says the extra $4 million from both Ministers Todd McClay and Matt Doocey to expand the investment in community-based wellbeing initiatives may be matched by industry partners, for a total pool of $8 million.
    “The investment is significant in terms of the dollar amount, but the real value will come in having a much more coordinated approach that brings all the energy and focus into one place.
    “In practice, we’re going to see the sector coming together to ensure we’re investing in the initiatives that bring the best results and make a real difference in people’s lives.
    “That will cut out a whole heap of waste, remove all the duplication, and make sure every dollar invested in rural mental health is working as hard as it possibly can.”
    Langford says, as a country, we’ve moved past the stage of simply acknowledging and building awareness of the importance of strong mental health.
    “It’s great that we’ve come such a long way with rural mental health awareness, but now it’s time for action.
    “Supporting groups like Surfing for Farmers, Farmstrong, FirstMate and NZ Young Farmers, who are doing the mahi on the ground, is so important.”
    A five-member panel with representation from the primary sector will be established to assess project applications.
    Projects must demonstrate strong local delivery, provide clear benefits to rural people, and ability to attract co-investment from industry and sector partners.
    In announcing the funding, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay paid particular tribute to advocacy by Langford, who he described as a long-time champion of rural wellbeing and mental health.
    However, Langford says a strength of the initiative is that all the primary industry groups are united in the desire for action.
    “With funding in place, we can now get some changes happening and make a real difference.” 

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for June 11, 2025

    ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on June 11, 2025.

    Former Congress staffer allowed to return to Kanaky New Caledonia
    By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk One of seven people transferred to mainland France almost a year ago, following the May 2024 riots in New Caledonia, has been allowed to return home, a French court has ruled. Frédérique Muliava, a former Congress staffer, was part of a group of six who were

    Jacaranda, black locust and London plane: common street trees show surprising resilience to growing heat in Australia
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Manuel Esperon-Rodriguez, Senior Lecturer in Ecology, Western Sydney University Kokkai Ng/Getty Images As Australian cities heat up and dry out, street trees are emerging as frontline defenders of urban liveability. Street trees make city life more bearable during heatwaves. They also improve human health and wellbeing, filter

    ‘Gutting the Ponsonby community’: Locals say post office should stay open
    By Aisha Campbell, RNZ News intern Ponsonby’s post office is shutting shop next month despite push back from the local community. A sign on the storefront, which is at the College Hill end of Ponsonby Road, said the closure would take place on 4 July but the post boxes would be “staying put”. Ponsonby local

    Fiji coup culture and political meddling in media education given airing
    Pacific Media Watch Taieri MP Ingrid Leary reflected on her years in Fiji as a television journalist and media educator at a Fiji Centre function in Auckland celebrating Fourth Estate values and independence at the weekend. It was a reunion with former journalism professor David Robie — they had worked together as a team at

    The AI hype is just like the blockchain frenzy – here’s what happens when the hype dies
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gediminas Lipnickas, Lecturer in Marketing, University of South Australia Izf/Shutterstock In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has taken centre stage across various industries. From AI-generated art to chatbots in customer service, every sector is seemingly poised for disruption. It’s not just in your news feed every day

    Why does the US still have a Level 1 travel advisory warning despite the chaos?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Cornell, PhD Candidate in Public Health & Community Medicine, School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney No travel can be considered completely safe. There are inherent risks from transportation, criminal activity, communicable diseases, injury and natural disasters. Still, global travel is booming — for those who can

    Those ‘what I eat in a day’ TikTok videos aren’t helpful. They might even be harmful
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Houlihan, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, University of the Sunshine Coast Iren_Geo/Shutterstock You may have come across those “what I eat in a day” videos on social media, where people – usually conventionally attractive influencers wearing activewear – list everything they consumed that day. They might

    The ASX is shrinking – a plan to get more companies to float does not go far enough
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Humphery-Jenner, Associate Professor of Finance, UNSW Sydney Whenever a high-profile company lists on the Australian stock market it attracts much excitement. Employees and founders enjoy some financial gains and investors get a chance to invest in a potentially exciting stock. For these reasons, fast-food chain Guzman

    NZ and Gaza – Peters appearing to do something, when doing nothing
    COMMENTARY: By Steven Cowan, editor of Against The Current The New Zealand Foreign Minster’s decision to issue a travel ban against two Israeli far-right politicians is little more than a tokenistic gesture in opposing Israel’s actions. It is an attempt to appease growing opposition to Israel’s war, but the fact that Israel has killed more

    US criticises allies as NZ bans two top far-right Israeli ministers
    RNZ News The United States has denounced sanctions by Britain and allies — including New Zealand and Australia — against Israeli far-right ministers, saying they should focus instead on the Palestinian armed group Hamas. New Zealand has banned two Israeli politicians from travelling to the country because of comments about the war in Gaza that

    The Project really did do news differently. Its demise is our loss
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dodd, Professor of Journalism, Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne The most unsettling thing about the closure of Network Ten’s The Project is that it might come to be seen as the moment commercial network television gave up on young audiences

    Novelty, negativity and no politicians: research reveals what makes some images more engaging than others
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University T.J. Thomson We see hundreds or thousands of images each day – but not all of them stand out to us. Why are some visuals more engaging than others? In an attention economy, where creators

    Visual feature: Scanning Australia’s bones
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vera Weisbecker, Associate Professor in Evolutionary Biology, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University ➡️ View the full interactive version of this article here. Vera Weisbecker receives funding from the Australian Research council. She is member of the Australian Greens Party and the Australian Mammal Society. Erin

    Family law changes will better protect domestic violence victims – and their pets
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meri Oakwood, Lecturer in Law, Southern Cross University Zivia Kerkez/Shutterstock Welcome changes to family law come into effect this week to better support victims of domestic violence in property settlements. Importantly, the Family Law Amendment Bill 2024 will provide a new framework for determining ownership of the

    Do you talk to AI when you’re feeling down? Here’s where chatbots get their therapy advice
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Centaine Snoswell, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Health Services Research, The University of Queensland Pexels/Mikoto As more and more people spend time chatting with artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots such as ChatGPT, the topic of mental health has naturally emerged. Some people have positive experiences that make AI

    Assessment in the age of AI – unis must do more than tell students what not to do
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Corbin, Research fellow, Center for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning, Deakin University Matheus Bertelli/ Pexels , CC BY In less than three years, artificial intelligence technology has radically changed the assessment landscape. In this time, universities have taken various approaches, from outright banning the use

    Resisting Dependency: U.S. Hegemony, China’s Rise, and the Geopolitical Stakes in the Caribbean
    Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage By Tamanisha J. John Toronto, Canada Introduction The Caribbean region is an important geostrategic location for the United States, not only due to regional proximity, but also due to the continued importance of securing sea routes for trade and military purposes. It is the geostrategic location of the

    With so many parties ‘ruling out’ working with other parties, is MMP losing its way?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Shaw, Professor of Politics, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University There has been a lot of “ruling out” going on in New Zealand politics lately. In the most recent outbreak, both the incoming and outgoing deputy prime ministers, ACT’s David Seymour and NZ First’s Winston

    French Polynesia president announces huge highly protected marine area
    RNZ Pacific French Polynesia’s president has announced his administration will establish one of the world’s largest networks of highly protected marine areas (MPAs). The highly protected areas will safeguard 220,000 sq km of remote waters near the Society Islands and 680,000 sq km near the Gambier Islands. Speaking at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice,

    Te Pāti Māori condemns Israel for Gaza ‘horrific violence’ over Madleen arrest
    Asia Pacific Report Aotearoa New Zealand’s Te Pāti Māori has condemned the Israeli navy’s armed interception of the Madleen, a civilian aid vessel attempting to carry food, medical supplies, and international activists to Gaza, including Sweden’s climate activist Greta Thunberg. In a statement after the Madleen’s communications were cut, the indigenous political party said it

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Belarus Opens National Football Stadium Built with Chinese Support

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –

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

    The National Football Stadium in Belarus, built with the support of China, was officially opened on June 7. On this day, a friendly match between the youth teams of China and Belarus was held here. The President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko attended the opening ceremony and watched the match. This stadium is one of the key projects within the framework of the One Belt, One Road initiative, it is located in the industrial area of Minsk. The facility occupies an area of 12.43 hectares, and the development area is 48 thousand square meters. This stadium, designed for 33,145 spectators, is a professional football arena of international level, as well as a cultural and sports complex for the population.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Tīeke return! Remote Hauraki Gulf Island thriving after rat eradication

    Source: NZ Department of Conservation

    Date:  11 June 2025

    It is the first official re-introduction of a native species since DOC and Ngāti Rehua eradicated rats from Rakitū in 2018.

    “The Department of Conservation and Ngāti Rehua have a goal of more translocations with tieke being the first species to return,” says DOC Aotea Operations Manager Fletcher Beazley.

    Formed from the remains of an eroded volcano, Rakitū was first discovered by Ngāti Rehua ancestors 800 years ago and has been a place of significance ever since.

    Since 2018 when rats were eradicated, the island has seen a strong return of its unique flora and fauna including native birds and rare large-leaved forms of rangiora, tawa and kawakawa.

    DOC and Ngāti Rehua are working together on restoring the nature of Rakitū says Fletcher. This work is making a difference, with clear evidence of nature bouncing back.

    “Since rats were eradicated, we’ve seen the mauri/lifeforce returning to the motu. Without rats eating the seed, groves of young taraire trees are now appearing.

    “As skink and gecko populations recover, DOC staff are now finding the tracking cards used for rodent surveillance are covered in lizard footprints.

    “More translocations will only be possible if we restore the mauri of the forest, control predators and pests and by DOC, Council, Iwi and Community working together as one. By doing this the Mana of Aotea and Rakitū will be restored and the sounds of birdsong will be preserved for our mokopuna to enjoy,” says Fletcher.

    Tīeke were once abundant through Aotearoa, including on Rakitū but are very susceptible to predation by rats. By 1964 Taranga/Hen Island was home to the last remaining population of North Island tīeke.

    After several successful translocations from Taranga (Hen Island) in the 1960s, North Island tīeke now live on several island and mainland sanctuaries.

    On Taranga (Hen Island), these taonga are cared for by Patuharakeke and Ngatiwai. The successful eradication of rats from Taranga (Hen Island) in 2011, with the support of both iwi and hapu, has created an environment where taonga species can thrive and has made a translocation like this possible.

    The birds were carefully transported between Taranga (Hen Island) and Rakitū by helicopter.

    Contact

    For media enquiries contact:

    Email: media@doc.govt.nz

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Partnership approach to FMD signed and sealed

    Source: New Zealand Government

    A new agreement between the Government and key livestock industry groups marks a major milestone in New Zealand’s readiness for a potential foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard announced today.
    “The Foot and Mouth Disease Operational Agreement confirms how Government and industry will jointly prepare for, and respond to, a possible outbreak – including how costs will be shared,” Mr Hoggard said.
    Six industry organisations – DairyNZ, the Dairy Companies Association, Beef + Lamb New Zealand, NZPork, Deer Industry New Zealand, and the Meat Industry Association – have signed the agreement with MPI, which takes effect from 1 July 2025 for five years.
    “An outbreak could cost up to $3 billion to eradicate, but doing nothing would be far worse – potentially slashing export values by $14.3 billion per year until it’s controlled,” said Mr Hoggard.
    “Through this agreement, we’re locking in a truly collaborative approach. Industry will contribute 40% of readiness costs and 15% of response costs – capped at $450 million – and in return, they’ll have a formal seat at the decision-making table.”
    Mr Hoggard says the agreement reflects years of work and a shared commitment to protecting New Zealand’s vital livestock sector.
    “This is a significant and practical step forward for our national biosecurity system.”

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Public consultation begins on legal aid review

    Source: New Zealand Government

    Public consultation begins today aimed at improving the legal aid scheme for those who cannot afford advice and representation, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says.
    “We have a duty to ensure all New Zealanders have access to justice by means of a fair and open process. 
    “To do so, we need a scheme that is efficient and sustainable. However, we know it’s no longer fit for purpose. 
    “We’ve heard from the judiciary, lawyers, and others that changes are needed to address difficulties facing providers and those who need assistance.
    “The scheme was last reviewed in 2018 and a lot has changed since then. This will provide an opportunity to ensure the scheme is efficient, is of good quality, and promotes access to justice in a way that is sustainable and cost-effective.
    “I encourage everyone to make a submission and ensure their voice is heard. This feedback will help frame the advice on options for the future of the scheme.”
    Submissions close with the Ministry on 23 July and can be made at: https://consultations.justice.govt.nz/policy/triennial-review-of-legal-aid
    Further information about the review, including the discussion document, can be found here: Legal aid scheme review | New Zealand Ministry of Justice 

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Stock damage to stopbanks puts community at risk

    Source: Environment Canterbury Regional Council

    Date:

    With the winter months here, we’re urging landowners to keep stock off stopbanks in wet conditions.

    Stopbanks are our primary defence against river flooding in many areas of our region, protecting communities and preventing property and infrastructure damage.

    The structural integrity of a stopbank is vital to its function, and livestock trampling and overgrazing can cause significant damage and lessen protection against floodwaters, particularly in wet conditions. 

    “Our stopbanks play an essential role in keeping us safe, managing river flows and minimising flood risks to prevent widespread damage, distress and even loss of life,” Rivers Manager David Aires said.

    “It’s crucial stopbanks can do the job they are designed to do.”

    Stock access weakens stopbanks

    Animals can make ruts in the stopbank, particularly when it’s wet, or reduce grass cover through overgrazing. This creates weak spots that allow water to enter the stopbank, which may lead to the complete failure of the asset. 

    While we do permit some light grazing of sheep on stopbanks and adjacent land when conditions are suitable, we encourage landowners to keep their stopbanks free of all stock for the remainder of winter or when conditions are wet, and to let us know of any damage, so we can rectify. 

    “We appreciate that most farmers and lifestyle block owners are aware of their responsibilities when it comes to protecting our stopbanks and are doing the right thing,” David said. 

    “We want to ensure we get the message out to the few that are allowing this damage to occur so we can protect these vital community assets moving forward.” 

    What to do if you see damaged stopbanks

    Stopbanks are one of the most important tools in Environment Canterbury’s flood protection toolkit, and we manage and maintain over 600 kilometres of them across the region.

    No matter how well they are constructed and maintained, they are only as strong as the weakest link and vulnerable to damage from numerous sources. Landowners can be held responsible for damage and asked to pay for repairs under the Flood Protection and Drainage Bylaw.

    “These stopbanks not only protect property and production worth billions of dollars but also ensure the safety of thousands of people,” David said.

    If you see a damaged stopbank, please report it to us as soon as possible. You can call our customer advisory team on

    0800 324 636 or email floodbylaw@ecan.govt.nz

    Learn more about flood protection

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –