Category: DJF

MIL-OSI Security: DHS Sends Administrative Subpoenas to Harvard University

Source: US Department of Homeland Security

After many previous requests to hand over relevant information concerning foreign students, DHS will now send subpoenas forcing Harvard to comply

WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would send administrative subpoenas to Harvard University regarding its Student Visitor and Exchange Program.

This comes after the university repeatedly refused past non-coercive requests to hand over the required information for its Student Visitor and Exchange Program certification.

“We tried to do things the easy way with Harvard. Now, through their refusal to cooperate, we have to do things the hard way,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “Harvard, like other universities, has allowed foreign students to abuse their visa privileges and advocate for violence and terrorism on campus. If Harvard won’t defend the interests of its students, then we will.” Given the allegations of disciplinary disparity involving nonimmigrant students, the documents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) demand that Harvard turn over relevant records, communications, and other documents relevant to the enforcement of immigration laws since January 1, 2020.

On April 16, 2025, Secretary Noem demanded Harvard provide information about the criminality and misconduct of foreign students on its campus. Secretary Noem warned refusal to comply with this lawful order would result in SEVP termination. On May 22, she ordered DHS to terminate the Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification.

As Secretary Noem explained in a recent op-ed at the Washington Post, Harvard was given multiple chances to submit the requested information voluntarily and on its own timeline. Because of the university’s repeated refusals, these subpoenas are the only option left for the Department.

Other universities and academic institutions that are asked to submit similar information should take note of Harvard’s actions, and the repercussions, when considering whether or not to comply with similar requests.

# # #

MIL Security OSI –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI Submissions: How the Catholic Church helped change the conversation about capital punishment in the United States

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College

Helen Prejean has been one of the most high-profile opponents of the death penalty for decades. Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma via Getty Images

Thirty years ago, the film “Dead Man Walking” had its debut in movie theaters around the United States. It was a box office hit, and critics lavished it with praise. Lead actress Susan Sarandon won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Sister Helen Prejean, the spiritual adviser to a death row inmate played by Sean Penn.

But the film’s impact went far beyond the artistic realm. It exposed a mass audience to a perspective on the death penalty informed by the Catholic faith of a devout, if somewhat unconventional, nun.

The actual Sister Helen had published her memoir, “Dead Man Walking,” two years before, raising her profile as an activist against the death penalty. Recalling her experience outside the execution chamber of Elmo Patrick Sonnier, one of the people she counseled, Prejean later wrote, “I touched him in the only way I could. I told him: ‘Look at my face. I will be the face of Christ, the face of love for you.’”

She made it her mission to show that “everybody’s worth more than the worst thing they’ve ever done in their life.” As she once told an interviewer, “Jesus said, ‘Love your enemy.’ Jesus didn’t say, ‘Execute the hell out of the enemy.’”

That belief was featured prominently in the film and offered a counterpoint to the popular tough-on-crime rhetoric of the 1990s. Back then, 80% of the American public supported capital punishment.

Today, that is no longer true. Support for the death penalty has declined to around 50%.

As a death penalty scholar, I have studied those changes. The church’s anti-death penalty teaching has helped provide both a moral foundation and political respectability for those working to end the death penalty.

The 1995 film was inspired by Prejean’s memoir.

Church teachings

But that teaching is relatively new in the church, dating back to the past half-century. For most of its history, the Catholic Church did not oppose the death penalty.

During the Middle Ages, the church endorsed the execution of heretics and held firm that secular authorities could and should put people to death for serious crimes. And in the early 20th century, Vatican City’s penal code permitted the death penalty for anyone who attempted to kill a pope. Pope Paul VI changed that in 1969.

When John Paul II became pope a decade later, he pushed the church further away from its historic embrace of the death penalty, calling it “cruel and unnecessary.” And in 2018, under Pope Francis, the Vatican revised the section on capital punishment in the Catechism, the summary of Catholic doctrine.

The death penalty “is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” and deprives “the guilty of the possibility of redemption,” the new version says. This teaching committed the church to work for its abolition.

In his 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti, Francis stated that the death penalty is “inadequate from a moral standpoint and no longer necessary from that of penal justice.” In 2024, he again called for “the abolition of the death penalty, a provision at odds with Christian faith and one that eliminates all hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation.”

Impact in the US

The changed situation of capital punishment in this country is largely attributable to a change in the strategy and tactics of the abolitionist movement. Instead of talking about the death penalty in abstract terms, activists began to focus on the day-to-day realities of its administration.

Today, advocates in what I have called the “new abolitionism” focus on the prospect of executing the innocent, racial discrimination in capital sentencing, and the financial costs associated with the death penalty. Among Catholics working to end the death penalty, however, the moral questions about state killing have long been a central focus.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops focused on morality in its own campaign to end capital punishment, which was launched in 2005. And from time to time, popes have made special appeals to government officials in the U.S., asking them to spare the life of someone awaiting execution.

A seminarian attends a public hearing in Connecticut in 2011 on legislation to replace capital punishment with life in prison for certain murders.
AP Photo/Jessica Hill

Legal historian Sara Mayeux argues that Catholic anti-death penalty activism in the U.S. has been less intense than anti-abortion work. Nevertheless, the impact of the church is reflected in the fact that in the past 50 years, Catholic support for capital punishment fell more than it did among evangelicals, mainline Protestants, Black Protestants and other religious groups.

In December 2024, as the term of President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was coming to a close, the Catholics Mobilizing Network, which advocates against capital punishment, called on the president to commute the sentences of the 40 people then on federal death row. Francis, too, publicly prayed for their sentences to be commuted.

Biden did so for 37 federal death row inmates, changing their sentences to life in prison without parole.

Anti-death penalty superstar

As the church’s official position against capital punishment has evolved, Prejean has been a consistent voice asking Americans to recognize and respond to the humanity of all those touched by murder. She is, in words I am sure she would resist, a superstar in the movement, thanks to her countless public appearances, interviews, protests and actions to lobby legislators.

Sister Helen Prejean talks to detainees during a discussion of ‘Dead Man Walking’ at Department Of Corrections Division 11 in Chicago.
AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

In 2021, she wrote, “I’m on fire to abolish government killing because I’ve seen it far too close-up, and I have a pretty good idea by now how it works – or doesn’t.”

Thirty years ago, “Dead Man Walking” gave its viewers a chance to see capital punishment “close-up.” It didn’t preach or hit anyone over the head with an overtly abolitionist message. Instead, it asked viewers to see the death penalty from many sides and make up their own minds about whether anyone should be put to death, even for the most horrible crimes.

Between then and now, America has undertaken precisely the kind of conversation about capital punishment that the film exemplified and inspired.

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

– ref. How the Catholic Church helped change the conversation about capital punishment in the United States – https://theconversation.com/how-the-catholic-church-helped-change-the-conversation-about-capital-punishment-in-the-united-states-260481

MIL OSI –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI Submissions: How the Catholic Church helped change the conversation about capital punishment in the United States

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College

Helen Prejean has been one of the most high-profile opponents of the death penalty for decades. Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma via Getty Images

Thirty years ago, the film “Dead Man Walking” had its debut in movie theaters around the United States. It was a box office hit, and critics lavished it with praise. Lead actress Susan Sarandon won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Sister Helen Prejean, the spiritual adviser to a death row inmate played by Sean Penn.

But the film’s impact went far beyond the artistic realm. It exposed a mass audience to a perspective on the death penalty informed by the Catholic faith of a devout, if somewhat unconventional, nun.

The actual Sister Helen had published her memoir, “Dead Man Walking,” two years before, raising her profile as an activist against the death penalty. Recalling her experience outside the execution chamber of Elmo Patrick Sonnier, one of the people she counseled, Prejean later wrote, “I touched him in the only way I could. I told him: ‘Look at my face. I will be the face of Christ, the face of love for you.’”

She made it her mission to show that “everybody’s worth more than the worst thing they’ve ever done in their life.” As she once told an interviewer, “Jesus said, ‘Love your enemy.’ Jesus didn’t say, ‘Execute the hell out of the enemy.’”

That belief was featured prominently in the film and offered a counterpoint to the popular tough-on-crime rhetoric of the 1990s. Back then, 80% of the American public supported capital punishment.

Today, that is no longer true. Support for the death penalty has declined to around 50%.

As a death penalty scholar, I have studied those changes. The church’s anti-death penalty teaching has helped provide both a moral foundation and political respectability for those working to end the death penalty.

The 1995 film was inspired by Prejean’s memoir.

Church teachings

But that teaching is relatively new in the church, dating back to the past half-century. For most of its history, the Catholic Church did not oppose the death penalty.

During the Middle Ages, the church endorsed the execution of heretics and held firm that secular authorities could and should put people to death for serious crimes. And in the early 20th century, Vatican City’s penal code permitted the death penalty for anyone who attempted to kill a pope. Pope Paul VI changed that in 1969.

When John Paul II became pope a decade later, he pushed the church further away from its historic embrace of the death penalty, calling it “cruel and unnecessary.” And in 2018, under Pope Francis, the Vatican revised the section on capital punishment in the Catechism, the summary of Catholic doctrine.

The death penalty “is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” and deprives “the guilty of the possibility of redemption,” the new version says. This teaching committed the church to work for its abolition.

In his 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti, Francis stated that the death penalty is “inadequate from a moral standpoint and no longer necessary from that of penal justice.” In 2024, he again called for “the abolition of the death penalty, a provision at odds with Christian faith and one that eliminates all hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation.”

Impact in the US

The changed situation of capital punishment in this country is largely attributable to a change in the strategy and tactics of the abolitionist movement. Instead of talking about the death penalty in abstract terms, activists began to focus on the day-to-day realities of its administration.

Today, advocates in what I have called the “new abolitionism” focus on the prospect of executing the innocent, racial discrimination in capital sentencing, and the financial costs associated with the death penalty. Among Catholics working to end the death penalty, however, the moral questions about state killing have long been a central focus.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops focused on morality in its own campaign to end capital punishment, which was launched in 2005. And from time to time, popes have made special appeals to government officials in the U.S., asking them to spare the life of someone awaiting execution.

A seminarian attends a public hearing in Connecticut in 2011 on legislation to replace capital punishment with life in prison for certain murders.
AP Photo/Jessica Hill

Legal historian Sara Mayeux argues that Catholic anti-death penalty activism in the U.S. has been less intense than anti-abortion work. Nevertheless, the impact of the church is reflected in the fact that in the past 50 years, Catholic support for capital punishment fell more than it did among evangelicals, mainline Protestants, Black Protestants and other religious groups.

In December 2024, as the term of President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was coming to a close, the Catholics Mobilizing Network, which advocates against capital punishment, called on the president to commute the sentences of the 40 people then on federal death row. Francis, too, publicly prayed for their sentences to be commuted.

Biden did so for 37 federal death row inmates, changing their sentences to life in prison without parole.

Anti-death penalty superstar

As the church’s official position against capital punishment has evolved, Prejean has been a consistent voice asking Americans to recognize and respond to the humanity of all those touched by murder. She is, in words I am sure she would resist, a superstar in the movement, thanks to her countless public appearances, interviews, protests and actions to lobby legislators.

Sister Helen Prejean talks to detainees during a discussion of ‘Dead Man Walking’ at Department Of Corrections Division 11 in Chicago.
AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

In 2021, she wrote, “I’m on fire to abolish government killing because I’ve seen it far too close-up, and I have a pretty good idea by now how it works – or doesn’t.”

Thirty years ago, “Dead Man Walking” gave its viewers a chance to see capital punishment “close-up.” It didn’t preach or hit anyone over the head with an overtly abolitionist message. Instead, it asked viewers to see the death penalty from many sides and make up their own minds about whether anyone should be put to death, even for the most horrible crimes.

Between then and now, America has undertaken precisely the kind of conversation about capital punishment that the film exemplified and inspired.

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

– ref. How the Catholic Church helped change the conversation about capital punishment in the United States – https://theconversation.com/how-the-catholic-church-helped-change-the-conversation-about-capital-punishment-in-the-united-states-260481

MIL OSI –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI Submissions: ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ will have Americans paying higher prices for dirtier energy

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Daniel Cohan, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University

Congress passed Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill on July 3, 2025. Kevin Carter/Getty Images

When congressional Republicans decided to cut some Biden-era energy subsidies to help fund their One Big Beautiful Bill Act, they could have pruned wasteful subsidies while sparing the rest. Instead, they did the reverse. Americans will pay the price with higher costs for dirtier energy.

The nearly 900-page bill that President Donald Trump signed on July 4, 2025, slashes incentives for wind and solar energy, batteries, electric cars and home efficiency while expanding subsidies for fossil fuels and biofuels. That will leave Americans burning more fossil fuels despite strong public and scientific support for shifting to renewable energy.

As an environmental engineering professor who studies ways to confront climate change, I think it is important to distinguish which energy technologies could rapidly cut emissions or need a financial boost to become viable from those that are already profitable but harm the environment. Unfortunately, the Republican bill favors the latter while stifling the former.

The Spring Creek Mine in Decker, Mont., is just one mine in the Powder River Basin, the most productive coal-producing region in the U.S.
AP Photo/Matthew Brown

Cuts to renewable electricity

Wind and solar power, often paired with batteries, provide over 90% of the new electricity added nationally and around the world in recent years. Natural gas turbines are in short supply, and there are long lead times to build nuclear power plants. Wind and solar energy projects – with batteries to store excess power until it’s needed – offer the fastest way to satisfy growing demand for power. Recent technological breakthroughs put geothermal power on the verge of rapid growth.

However, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act rescinds billions of dollars that the Inflation Reduction Act, enacted in 2022, devoted to boosting domestic manufacturing and deployments of renewable energy and batteries.

It accelerates the phaseout of tax credits for factories that manufacture equipment needed for renewable energy and electric vehicles. That would disrupt the boom in domestic manufacturing projects that had been stimulated by the Inflation Reduction Act.

Efforts to build new wind and solar farms will be hit even harder. To receive any tax credits, those projects will need to commence construction by mid-2026 or come online by the end of 2027. The act preserves a slower timeline for phasing out subsidies for nuclear, geothermal and hydrogen projects, which take far longer to build than wind and solar farms.

However, even projects that could be built soon enough will struggle to comply with the bill’s restrictions on using Chinese-made components. Tax law experts have called those provisions “unworkable,” since some Chinese materials may be necessary even for projects built with as much domestic content as possible. For example, even American-made solar panels may rely on components sourced from China or Chinese-owned companies.

Princeton University professor Jesse Jenkins estimates that the bill will mean wind and solar power generate 820 fewer terawatt-hours in 2035 than under previous policies. That’s more power than all U.S. coal-fired power plants generated in 2023.

That’s why BloombergNEF, an energy research firm, called the bill a “nightmare scenario” for clean energy proponents.

However, one person’s nightmare may be another man’s dream. “We’re constraining the hell out of wind and solar, which is good,” said U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican who is backed by the oil and gas industry.

Federal tax credits for homeowners who install solar panels will now expire at the end of 2025.
AP Photo/Michael Conroy

Electric cars and efficiency

Cuts fall even harder on Americans who are trying to reduce their carbon footprints and energy costs. The quickest phaseout comes for tax credits for electric vehicles, which will end on Sept. 30, 2025. And since the bill eliminates fines on car companies that fail to meet fuel economy standards, other new cars are likely to guzzle more gas.

Tax credits for home efficiency improvements such as heat pumps, efficient windows and energy audits will end at the end of 2025. Homeowners will also lose tax credits for installing solar panels at the end of the year, seven years earlier than under the previous law.

The bill also rescinds funding that would have helped cut diesel emissions and finance clean energy projects in underserved communities.

Federal tax credits for buying electric vehicles will end on Sept. 30, 2025.
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

Support for biofuels and fossil fuels

Biofuels and fossil fuels fared far better under the bill. Tens of billions of dollars will be spent to extend tax credits for biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel.

Food-based biofuels do little good for the climate because growing, harvesting and processing crops requires fertilizers, pesticides and fuel. The bill would allow forests to be cut to make room for crops because it directs agencies to ignore the effects of biofuels on land use.

Meanwhile, the bill opens more federal lands and waters to leasing for oil and gas drilling and coal mining. It also slashes the royalties that companies pay to the federal government for fuels extracted from publicly owned land. And a new tax credit will subsidize metallurgical coal, which is mainly exported to steelmakers overseas.

The bill also increases subsidies for using captured carbon dioxide to extract more oil and gas from the ground. That makes it less likely that captured emissions will only be sequestered to combat climate change.

Summing it up

With fewer efficiency improvements, fewer electric vehicles and less clean power on the grid, Princeton’s Jenkins projects that the law will increase household energy costs by over $280 per year by 2035 above what they would have been without the bill. The extra fossil fuel-burning will negate 470 million tons of anticipated emissions reductions that year, a 7% bump.

The bill will also leave America’s clean energy transition further behind China, which is deploying more solar and wind power and electric vehicles than the rest of the world combined.

No one expected President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to escape unscathed with Republicans in the White House and dominating both houses of Congress, even though many of its projects were in Republican-voting districts. Still, pairing cuts to clean energy with support for fossil fuels makes Trump’s bill uniquely harmful to the world’s climate and to Americans’ wallets.

This article includes some material previously published on June 10, 2025.

Daniel Cohan receives research funding from the Carbon Hub at Rice University. He previously received research funding from Project InnerSpace, the Mitchell Foundation, the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

– ref. ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ will have Americans paying higher prices for dirtier energy – https://theconversation.com/big-beautiful-bill-will-have-americans-paying-higher-prices-for-dirtier-energy-260588

MIL OSI –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI Submissions: ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ will have Americans paying higher prices for dirtier energy

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Daniel Cohan, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University

Congress passed Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill on July 3, 2025. Kevin Carter/Getty Images

When congressional Republicans decided to cut some Biden-era energy subsidies to help fund their One Big Beautiful Bill Act, they could have pruned wasteful subsidies while sparing the rest. Instead, they did the reverse. Americans will pay the price with higher costs for dirtier energy.

The nearly 900-page bill that President Donald Trump signed on July 4, 2025, slashes incentives for wind and solar energy, batteries, electric cars and home efficiency while expanding subsidies for fossil fuels and biofuels. That will leave Americans burning more fossil fuels despite strong public and scientific support for shifting to renewable energy.

As an environmental engineering professor who studies ways to confront climate change, I think it is important to distinguish which energy technologies could rapidly cut emissions or need a financial boost to become viable from those that are already profitable but harm the environment. Unfortunately, the Republican bill favors the latter while stifling the former.

The Spring Creek Mine in Decker, Mont., is just one mine in the Powder River Basin, the most productive coal-producing region in the U.S.
AP Photo/Matthew Brown

Cuts to renewable electricity

Wind and solar power, often paired with batteries, provide over 90% of the new electricity added nationally and around the world in recent years. Natural gas turbines are in short supply, and there are long lead times to build nuclear power plants. Wind and solar energy projects – with batteries to store excess power until it’s needed – offer the fastest way to satisfy growing demand for power. Recent technological breakthroughs put geothermal power on the verge of rapid growth.

However, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act rescinds billions of dollars that the Inflation Reduction Act, enacted in 2022, devoted to boosting domestic manufacturing and deployments of renewable energy and batteries.

It accelerates the phaseout of tax credits for factories that manufacture equipment needed for renewable energy and electric vehicles. That would disrupt the boom in domestic manufacturing projects that had been stimulated by the Inflation Reduction Act.

Efforts to build new wind and solar farms will be hit even harder. To receive any tax credits, those projects will need to commence construction by mid-2026 or come online by the end of 2027. The act preserves a slower timeline for phasing out subsidies for nuclear, geothermal and hydrogen projects, which take far longer to build than wind and solar farms.

However, even projects that could be built soon enough will struggle to comply with the bill’s restrictions on using Chinese-made components. Tax law experts have called those provisions “unworkable,” since some Chinese materials may be necessary even for projects built with as much domestic content as possible. For example, even American-made solar panels may rely on components sourced from China or Chinese-owned companies.

Princeton University professor Jesse Jenkins estimates that the bill will mean wind and solar power generate 820 fewer terawatt-hours in 2035 than under previous policies. That’s more power than all U.S. coal-fired power plants generated in 2023.

That’s why BloombergNEF, an energy research firm, called the bill a “nightmare scenario” for clean energy proponents.

However, one person’s nightmare may be another man’s dream. “We’re constraining the hell out of wind and solar, which is good,” said U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican who is backed by the oil and gas industry.

Federal tax credits for homeowners who install solar panels will now expire at the end of 2025.
AP Photo/Michael Conroy

Electric cars and efficiency

Cuts fall even harder on Americans who are trying to reduce their carbon footprints and energy costs. The quickest phaseout comes for tax credits for electric vehicles, which will end on Sept. 30, 2025. And since the bill eliminates fines on car companies that fail to meet fuel economy standards, other new cars are likely to guzzle more gas.

Tax credits for home efficiency improvements such as heat pumps, efficient windows and energy audits will end at the end of 2025. Homeowners will also lose tax credits for installing solar panels at the end of the year, seven years earlier than under the previous law.

The bill also rescinds funding that would have helped cut diesel emissions and finance clean energy projects in underserved communities.

Federal tax credits for buying electric vehicles will end on Sept. 30, 2025.
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

Support for biofuels and fossil fuels

Biofuels and fossil fuels fared far better under the bill. Tens of billions of dollars will be spent to extend tax credits for biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel.

Food-based biofuels do little good for the climate because growing, harvesting and processing crops requires fertilizers, pesticides and fuel. The bill would allow forests to be cut to make room for crops because it directs agencies to ignore the effects of biofuels on land use.

Meanwhile, the bill opens more federal lands and waters to leasing for oil and gas drilling and coal mining. It also slashes the royalties that companies pay to the federal government for fuels extracted from publicly owned land. And a new tax credit will subsidize metallurgical coal, which is mainly exported to steelmakers overseas.

The bill also increases subsidies for using captured carbon dioxide to extract more oil and gas from the ground. That makes it less likely that captured emissions will only be sequestered to combat climate change.

Summing it up

With fewer efficiency improvements, fewer electric vehicles and less clean power on the grid, Princeton’s Jenkins projects that the law will increase household energy costs by over $280 per year by 2035 above what they would have been without the bill. The extra fossil fuel-burning will negate 470 million tons of anticipated emissions reductions that year, a 7% bump.

The bill will also leave America’s clean energy transition further behind China, which is deploying more solar and wind power and electric vehicles than the rest of the world combined.

No one expected President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to escape unscathed with Republicans in the White House and dominating both houses of Congress, even though many of its projects were in Republican-voting districts. Still, pairing cuts to clean energy with support for fossil fuels makes Trump’s bill uniquely harmful to the world’s climate and to Americans’ wallets.

This article includes some material previously published on June 10, 2025.

Daniel Cohan receives research funding from the Carbon Hub at Rice University. He previously received research funding from Project InnerSpace, the Mitchell Foundation, the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

– ref. ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ will have Americans paying higher prices for dirtier energy – https://theconversation.com/big-beautiful-bill-will-have-americans-paying-higher-prices-for-dirtier-energy-260588

MIL OSI –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Derailment at Denbigh Hall South Junction
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

News story

Derailment at Denbigh Hall South Junction

Investigation into a derailment at Denbigh Hall South Junction, near Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, 26 June 2025.
The derailed train at Denbigh Hall South Junction (image courtesy of Network Rail).

At around 12:27 on 26 June 2025, the front bogie of an out-of-service London Northwestern Railway passenger train derailed at Denbigh Hall South Junction on the West Coast Main Line. The derailment occurred on a switch diamond crossing at approximately 15 mph (24 km/h) as the train travelled north on the up slow line shortly after leaving Bletchley station. There were no reported injuries to the four members of staff on the train, however some lines through the junction remained out of use until 16:05 on 29 June 2025 for train recovery and infrastructure repair.

The train had earlier encountered a technical problem, while forming a southbound passenger service, making it unable to depart southwards from platform 4 at Bletchley. However, it was operational if driven northwards from the opposite end, allowing it to be moved away from the platform. A failed on-track machine had been stabled earlier that day on the only signalled route from the north end of platform 4, so staff at Rugby Rail Operating Centre decided to allow the train to travel in the wrong direction on the up (southbound) slow line. This wrong direction movement required the signaller to instruct the driver to pass the north end platform signal at danger and travel to Denbigh Hall South Junction without the protection normally afforded by the signalling interlocking. The intention was the train would then cross onto the down slow line at the junction and return it to normal signal control for its onward journey northwards to Kings Heath depot near Northampton.

Our investigation will determine the sequence of events which led to the derailment and will include consideration of:

the actions of those involved and any factors that may have influenced them

how out of course movements are determined and validated

the management of the staff involved in the accident, including the preparation through training and assessment of those undertaking such movements

any relevant underlying factors which might have contributed to the derailment.

Our investigation is independent of any investigation by the railway industry or by the industry’s regulator, the Office of Rail and Road.

We will publish our findings, including any recommendations to improve safety, at the conclusion of our investigation. This report will be available on our website. You can subscribe to automated emails notifying you when we publish our reports.

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Published 9 July 2025
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: INNOPROM-2025: New Horizons of Industrial Development

Translation. Region: Russian Federal

Source: Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University –

An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

The 15th anniversary industrial exhibition INNOPROM continues its work in Yekaterinburg. Today the pavilions opened their doors to all categories of visitors, and the flow of guests has noticeably increased. The trend of this year’s exhibition is the demonstration of advanced developments that have already proven their effectiveness in real production conditions.

The delegation of the Polytechnic University takes part in key events of the business program, where current issues of industrial development, innovative technologies and scientific and technical cooperation are discussed.

Thus, at the Polytechnic stand, a cooperation agreement was signed between the Federal State Autonomous Institution “Digital Industrial Technologies” and Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University.

The document, which envisages cooperation between the parties in order to implement joint expert and analytical activities aimed at highlighting the results and stimulating the development and effective application of advanced digital and production technologies, artificial intelligence technologies in industrial sectors of the Russian Federation economy, was signed by the director of the organization Eduard Shantayev and the chief designer for the key scientific and technological development area of SPbPU “System Digital Engineering”, director of the Advanced Engineering School of SPbPU “Digital Engineering” Alexey Borovkov.

Alexey Borovkov also took part in the events of the INNOPROM business program, including the session “Fast. Complex. Precise. How additive technologies accelerate industrial development.” The participants discussed the prospects for industry growth due to increased demand for additive technologies and materials, tools for interaction between business, science and the state, as well as successful cases of implementing such technologies in industry.

During his speech, Alexey Ivanovich spoke about a world-class project carried out in the interests of the Fuel Division of the Rosatom State Corporation – the development of a digital twin of a VVER-1000 fuel assembly (FA) with an anti-debris filter and mixing grids.

The optimized design of the anti-debris filter and the geometry of the mixing grids of the fuel assembly was developed in six months and, in contrast to the original product, is 10 times more efficient, the speaker emphasized.

Alexey Borovkov also presented the developments of the Polymer Composite Materials laboratory of the Advanced Engineering School of SPbPU “Digital Engineering”, including demonstrators of overprinting and induction welding technologies for thermoplastic composite materials, as well as automated laying out of thermoplastic unidirectional prepregs.

According to Alexey Borovkov, overprinting technology is ideal for working with engineering polymers due to the absence of a number of technological limitations and is of great interest for integration into large technological chains: laying out – stamping – printing.

An award ceremony was held at the Polytechnic stand. For his great contribution to the development of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, the General Director of the Union of Defense Industry Enterprises of the Sverdlovsk Region Vladimir Shchelokov received the “For Merits” badge of distinction. The honorary award was presented to him by the Scientific Secretary of SPbPU Dmitry Karpov.

SPbPU is an active member of the Union. The University improves the quality of personnel training in the military-industrial complex, as well as in the field of scientific research and educational services. The Union participates in the implementation of federal target programs and technology platforms to achieve leadership in the leading high-tech sectors of the economy: aviation and engine building, rocket and space industry, nuclear power complex, shipbuilding, electronic and radio-electronic industry and others. The Union includes more than 100 enterprises and organizations.

It is a great honor for me to receive this award. I would like to express my gratitude for the fruitful cooperation with the Polytechnic University. A distinctive feature of your university is the ability to implement projects, and visual confirmation of this can be seen at the exhibition stand. There is much to learn from the Polytechnic University. And I am sincerely proud of our friendship, – said Vladimir Shchelokov.

In turn, Vladimir Shchelokov awarded the director of the Center for Scientific and Technological Partnership and Targeted Training of SPbPU Oleg Ipatov with a commemorative medal “80 Years of the Great Victory”.

This year, INNOPROM pays special attention to machines, units, machine tools and robotic systems that are actively used in various industries today. The technological potential of SPbPU is presented at a separate stand. Here, visitors can get acquainted with innovative developments that have undergone practical testing and are ready for implementation in industrial production.

At the exhibition, a team from the Laboratory of Light Materials and Structures (LLMS) of IMMiT demonstrated electric arc 3D printing. Right before the eyes of the audience, a “Laval nozzle” was created – a gas channel of a special profile designed to accelerate the gas flow to supersonic speeds.

The printing technology is based on melting metal wire using an electric arc. This approach allows for high-speed production of products: up to 2.2 kg/h for aluminum alloys and up to 6 kg/h for steel. The key advantage is the absence of restrictions on the shape of the part: the manipulator easily moves along the rail system and follows the growth of the product, which allows for the implementation of the concept of an open production cell.

The laboratory carries out a full cycle of implementation of additive technologies – design and launch of 3D printing installations, personnel training, technical support and production support.

Mikhail Kuznetsov, Head of the Laser and Additive Technologies Research Laboratory at the Institute of Metallurgy and Metallurgy at St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, spoke about the laboratory’s work at INNOPROM: At the exhibition, we presented the “Nomad” laser cladding complex, samples made using laser welding and additive technologies. Of particular interest are the hip joint cups. The samples were made as part of R&D in close cooperation with the Armalit JSC company with the participation of the Vreden Institute of Traumatology and are evidence of how modern solutions can effectively work to address the challenges of import substitution and technological sovereignty of the country. We held a number of productive meetings with industry representatives and engineering centers from different regions of Russia. It is especially valuable that enterprises from a wide variety of industries, from aircraft manufacturing to medicine, are interested in our technologies. This indicates a high degree of versatility and applied significance of our solutions.

The Polytechnic University was also represented in the international agenda of the forum. Candidate of Technical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Higher School of Computer Technology and Information Systems of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Leading Researcher of the Gazpromneft-Polytech Scientific and Educational Center, Analyst in the project “Automation of Seismic Data Processing Using Artificial Neural Networks” Sergey Khlopin took part in the round table “Russian-Chinese Scientific and Technical Cooperation in the Field of Development and Implementation of High Technologies”. As part of the session “Projects and Technologies in the Field of Intellectual Production”, he made a report “Current Models for the Implementation of Digital Technological Projects in the Field of Geological Exploration”. Sergey Vladimirovich spoke about the cooperation between SPbPU and Chinese partners.

Sergey Khlopin, commenting on the results of his speech, noted: This year, INNOPROM-2025 became a platform for demonstrating the start of the work process of Gazpromneft-Polytech REC specialists in the field of AI application for geological exploration. One of the key tasks that the models being created will be aimed at solving in the future is the labor-intensive manual processing of seismic information. In tests, the model shows accuracy comparable to classical methods on linear data, but significantly exceeds them in cases with nonlinear dependencies, which are more common in practice. However, the project has just started, so the team faces various difficulties during development. Neural networks do not always give the correct result. We are solving the problem of the relevance of the data received.

Since 2018, Polytech has implemented more than 20 contracts for research and development work with 12 of the largest industrial and research companies in China. The most active cooperation is in the field of telecommunications and IT technologies, aviation industry, automotive industry and new materials. During the discussion of the interaction of the Gazpromneft-Polytech REC with an industrial partner, Sergey Khlopin demonstrated the successful experience of implementing a scientific project aimed at the practical application of the results of industrial operation. He also emphasized the importance of further developing cooperation and expressed confidence in the formation of reliable partnerships with representatives of the PRC in an alliance with an industrial partner.

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source of the information. It is an accurate report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

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MIL OSI Russia News –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI China: From resilient economy to wider opening up, China’s 14th five-year plan delivers remarkable results

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

From resilient economy to wider opening up, China’s 14th five-year plan delivers remarkable results

BEIJING, July 9 (Xinhua) — With the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) nearing conclusion, China has clocked up a series of landmark achievements, including a resilient economy, solid steps in green transition and unwavering opening up.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), described the five years as a period of “pioneering progress, transformative breakthroughs, and historic achievements.”

“China has become the most stable, reliable, and dynamic force in global development,” he said.

RESILIENCE

According to Zheng, China’s economic increment is projected to exceed 35 trillion yuan (4.89 trillion U.S. dollars) in the five-year period, contributing about 30 percent annually to global economic growth.

Over the first four years of the period, the economy expanded at an average annual growth rate of 5.5 percent, Zheng said, noting that despite the shocks of the pandemic and trade bullying, the growth of China, given its vast economic scale, is an unprecedented achievement.

The steady economic performance has also translated into tangible livelihood improvements. Urban job creation stood at more than 12 million each year, reflecting the populous country’s stable labor market.

The growth has especially been driven by deepening economic transformation. Domestic demand accounted for 86.4 percent of the GDP increase on average, with final consumption contributing 56.2 percent — an 8.6 percentage point increase over the previous planning period.

Innovation played a key role in driving development. The country’s total R&D expenditure surged nearly 50 percent, or 1.2 trillion yuan, from 2020 to 2024, and its R&D intensity reached 2.68 percent, approaching the average of OECD economies.

China’s national strength has been significantly enhanced during the five-year period, which will also offer opportunities for global development, Zheng said, adding that no matter how the international landscape evolves, the country will manage its own affairs well and push forward Chinese modernization.

GREEN TRANSITION

The five-year period also marked a leap forward in China’s ecological transformation, with more efficient energy utilization and a better natural environment.

China has fulfilled its green promises and shouldered the responsibility of a major country. From 2021 to 2024, energy consumption per unit of GDP fell 11.6 percent, cutting carbon emissions by around 1.1 billion tonnes, nearly half the European Union’s total emissions in 2024.

As a global leader in renewable energy, China’s installed renewable energy capacity reached 2.09 billion kilowatts by May 2025, more than doubling that in 2020. One in three kilowatt-hour of electricity nationwide is now from green sources.

The adoption of green lifestyles has surged, with new energy vehicle ownership soaring to 31.4 million in 2024, up significantly from 4.92 million in 2020.

Looking ahead, Zhou Haibing, a deputy head of the NDRC, said the next five-year period from 2026 to 2030 will be critical for achieving China’s 2030 target to peak carbon emissions.

“We will redouble efforts and implement more pragmatic measures to promote the green transition in economic and social development and accelerate the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature,” he said.

WIDER OPENING UP

According to the press conference, foreign direct investment into China totaled 4.7 trillion yuan from 2021 through May 2025. Foreign-invested enterprises now account for one-third of China’s imports and exports, one-quarter of its industrial output, and one-seventh of its tax revenue, while creating more than 30 million jobs.

Zhou hailed the success of foreign firms as a vivid testament to China’s improving business environment, which is becoming more market-oriented, law-based and internationalized.

China has twice reduced its negative list for foreign investment since 2021. All restrictions on foreign access to the manufacturing sector have been lifted, and further liberalization has occurred in agriculture and services. Pilot initiatives in healthcare and value-added telecommunications have opened new opportunities for foreign businesses.

Solid efforts have been made to ensure foreign firms receive national treatment and enjoy strong intellectual property protection.

“China’s policies on attracting and utilizing foreign investment are consistent,” Zhou said, noting that China will continue to ease market access and expand openness in an orderly way, ensuring foreign companies have equal access to policy benefits, from public procurement to standard-setting.

China remains and will continue to be an ideal, safe and promising destination for global investors, he said.

MIL OSI China News –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI China: China-Europe Railway Express (Chengdu-Chongqing) in regular operation

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

China-Europe Railway Express (Chengdu-Chongqing) in regular operation

Updated: July 9, 2025 19:31 Xinhua

The China-Europe Railway Express (Chengdu-Chongqing) Middle Corridor Ultra-Express Block Train awaits departure at Tuanjiecun Station in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, July 9, 2025. A freight train fully loaded with communication equipment, auto parts and other goods left Chongqing on Wednesday, marking the regular operation of the China-Europe Railway Express (Chengdu-Chongqing) Middle Corridor Ultra-Express Block Train. After exiting China through the Khorgos port in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, it will pass Azerbaijan and Georgia before arriving in Türkiye and other European countries. [Photo/Xinhua]

The China-Europe Railway Express (Chengdu-Chongqing) Middle Corridor Ultra-Express Block Train awaits departure at Tuanjiecun Station in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, July 9, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

The China-Europe Railway Express (Chengdu-Chongqing) Middle Corridor Ultra-Express Block Train departs from Tuanjiecun Station in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, July 9, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

The China-Europe Railway Express (Chengdu-Chongqing) Middle Corridor Ultra-Express Block Train awaits departure at Tuanjiecun Station in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, July 9, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

MIL OSI China News –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI China: China issues orange alerts for rainstorms, mountain torrents

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

BEIJING, July 9 — China’s national observatory issued an orange alert on Wednesday, warning of downpours in some regions of the country.

From 8:00 p.m. Wednesday to 8:00 p.m. Thursday, heavy rains and rainstorms are forecast to hit parts of the provincial-level regions of Fujian, Guangdong, Taiwan, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing, Hubei, Henan, Hebei and Inner Mongolia, the National Meteorological Center said.

Parts of Fujian in east China and Guangdong in south China are expected to experience torrential rains — with precipitation of up to 300 mm, the center added.

The center has advised local authorities to take precautions for heavy rainstorms, and suggested that necessary drainage measures be implemented in urban areas and across farmlands.

The Ministry of Water Resources and the China Meteorological Administration, meanwhile, issued an orange alert for mountain torrents in Fujian, east China’s Jiangxi and Guangdong on Wednesday.

Authorities in the above-mentioned regions are urged to strengthen real-time monitoring work, issue timely warnings and carry out evacuations, if necessary.

China has a four-tier weather warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

MIL OSI China News –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI China: China completes 2025 Grand Canal water replenishment project

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

BEIJING, July 9 — A water replenishment project for the Grand Canal, which runs through northern and southern China, began in February 2025 and was completed in early July, the Ministry of Water Resources said Wednesday.

Since 2022, the Grand Canal has maintained uninterrupted water flow along its entire length for four consecutive years, according to the ministry.

As of July 1, a total of 788 million cubic meters of water had been supplied to the section of the canal located north of the Yellow River, reaching 142 percent of the planned target.

The ministry said it will continue ecological water replenishment efforts for rivers and lakes in northern China, optimize water scheduling, and manage sluice and dam operations to extend the periods when the Grand Canal has flowing water — thereby further revitalizing this waterway.

The Grand Canal, which connects Beijing in northern China and the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, has a history of more than 2,500 years and is known as the world’s longest artificial waterway. It served as a significant transportation artery in ancient China and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014.

MIL OSI China News –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI China: Agricultural development boosts rural revitalization in Fengnan District of Tangshan

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

Agricultural development boosts rural revitalization in Fengnan District of Tangshan

Updated: July 9, 2025 21:10 Xinhua

Farmers harvest watermelons in a field in Dawuzhuanghu Village of Dongtianzhuang Town in Fengnan District, Tangshan City, north China’s Hebei Province, July 9, 2025. In recent years, Fengnan District of Tangshan has guided local villages to cultivate specialty crops such as potatoes, watermelons, and tomatoes based on local conditions. This initiative aims to transform traditional agriculture into specialized and high-efficiency agriculture, enhancing agricultural productivity and increasing farmers’ income, thereby contributing to rural revitalization. [Photo/Xinhua]

An aerial drone photo taken on July 9, 2025 shows farmers harvesting watermelons in a field in Dawuzhuanghu Village of Dongtianzhuang Town in Fengnan District, Tangshan City, north China’s Hebei Province. [Photo/Xinhua]

An aerial drone photo taken on July 9, 2025 shows farmers harvesting potatoes in a field in Dalingzi Village of Daxinzhuang Town in Fengnan District, Tangshan City, north China’s Hebei Province. [Photo/Xinhua]

An aerial drone photo taken on July 9, 2025 shows farmers harvesting potatoes in a field in Dalingzi Village of Daxinzhuang Town in Fengnan District, Tangshan City, north China’s Hebei Province. [Photo/Xinhua]

MIL OSI China News –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: FALQs: The 80th Anniversary of the Arab League

Source: US Global Legal Monitor

The following is a guest post by George Sadek, a senior foreign law specialist at the Law Library of Congress covering covering laws of Arabic-speaking countries and Islamic law. George has written numerous posts for In Custodia Legis, including the New Multinational Report on the Acquisition of Citizenship through International Adoption, FALQS: Qatar’s New Counterterrorism Law, and FALQ: Saudi Arabia Imposes Enhanced Penalties on Violators of Hajj Regulation. This post is part of our Frequently Asked Legal Questions series.

The Arab League, also known as the League of Arab States, was formed in Cairo on March 22, 1945, initially with seven members: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen. This year (2025), it celebrates its 80th anniversary. I thought this occasion would be a good opportunity to address the purpose of the Arab League, its members, its headquarters, Secretary General, and charter.

Who are the members of the Arab League?

The Arab league has 22 members. In addition to the founding members listed above, the members include Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, and United Arab Emirates.

What is the purpose of the Arab League?

The main purpose of the Arab League is to enhance cooperation among Arab countries. For instance, in April 1950, members of the Arab League signed a joined defense agreement among themselves. Additionally, in April 1983, members of the Arab League signed the Riyadh Arab Agreement for judicial cooperation.

Article 3 of the charter of the Arab League provides that the league assists member states to cooperate in the following matters:

1-Economic and financial affairs, including commercial relations, customs, currency and questions of agriculture and industry;

2-Communications, railroads, roads, aviation, navigation, and telegraphs;

3-Cultural affairs;

4- Passports, visas, execution of judgments, and extradition of criminals;

5-Social and health affairs.

Who is the current secretary general of the Arab League?

Ahmed Aboul Gheit is the current secretary general of the Arab League. He assumed this position in July 2016. He is the former minister of foreign affairs of the Arab Republic of Egypt from between 2004 and 2011.

Where is the Arab League headquarters located?

According to article 10 of the charter of the Arab League, the headquarters of the Arab League is in Cairo, Egypt. However, there has been a recent debate among Arab countries as to whether the headquarters should moved to Saudi Arabia or Qatar.

Where can I find additional resources?

For legal developments taking place in countries that are members of the Arab League, please consult the Law Library resource, the Global Legal Monitor.

If you have a question regarding laws of Arab countries, you can also submit it using the Ask a Librarian form on our website.

MIL OSI USA News –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI Africa: Ambassador Chen Mingjian Meets with the United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator in Tanzania Susan Ngongi Namondo

Source: APO

On July 7, Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania H.E. Chen Mingjian met with UN Resident Coordinator in Tanzania Susan Ngongi Namondo at the Embassy. They exchanged views on furthering tripartite cooperation among China, Tanzania and UN.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the United Republic of Tanzania.

Media files

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MIL OSI Africa –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI Africa: Ethiopia: Nejashi Tomb and Mosque Restored After Civil War Damage

Source: APO

Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) has successfully completed the restoration of the Nejashi Tomb and Mosque, located in the village of Nejashi in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, widely regarded as the first Muslim settlement in Africa.

The project, carried out with TİKA’s support, enabled the restoration of this historically significant site, which had suffered considerable damage during the recent civil war.

The Nejashi Tomb and Mosque, believed to be the first destination of Muslim migration and a symbol of the hospitality shown by the Abyssinian King Najashi, stands as one of TİKA’s most esteemed restoration efforts. Originally restored in 2019, the complex sustained damage during the civil conflict between 2020 and 2022.

As part of the renewed renovation works led by TİKA, key structural components, including the tomb’s dome, the mosque’s minaret, as well as the walls and wooden elements of the multipurpose hall, were repaired. Additional restoration addressed deterioration caused by time and weather throughout the site.

Thanks to this initiative, the Nejashi Tomb and Mosque, one of the most cherished examples of our shared historical and cultural heritage abroad, has been preserved for future generations. Through this project, TİKA has not only safeguarded an important symbol of Islamic history in Africa but also reinforced bonds of friendship and cultural solidarity.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA).

Media files

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MIL OSI Africa –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Southsea beach set to double in size

Source: City of Portsmouth

Southsea’s beach between the Pyramids and the Coffee Cup café in Eastney will be rebuilt this winter when more than one million tonnes of shingle is imported by dredger between October 2025 and March 2026.

The significant increase will see the beach double in size when shingle is dredged locally from the Solent near the Isle of Wight and deposited onto the beach by a pipeline from the dredger.

Similar work was undertaken on a smaller scale earlier this year during beach import work along the beach in front of Southsea Common.

Southsea Coastal Scheme Project Executive Marc Bryan said:

“We’ve chosen to build a larger shingle beach in this area because they’re great at absorbing wave energy which in turn helps reduce erosion and protects homes and businesses from coastal flooding.

“The new beach will adapt to rising seas and our changing climate while still providing the required standard of protection.

“It will be easily maintained and can be topped up if needed in the future.”

Initial works will start in October 2025 with the installation of a new outfall extension from Canoe Lake.

From November 2025, a one metre diameter pipeline will be laid across the beach to the west of South Parade Pier to discharge the new shingle.

During the shingle discharging, access to the beach will be limited for safety reasons with some stepped access over the pipeline available.

MIL OSI United Kingdom –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: HSE and Zhejiang Communication University Strengthen Partnership in Creative Education

Translation. Region: Russian Federal

Source: State University “Higher School of Economics” –

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Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source of the information. It is an accurate report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

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MIL OSI Russia News –

July 10, 2025
Lord’s Test: Jofra Archer makes hotly-anticipated return to England team for 3rd Test against India

Source: Government of India

Source: Government of India (4)

England’s Jofra Archer has been named in the team to face India in the third test of the series at Lord’s, England’s cricket board (ECB) announced on Wednesday, as the fast bowler prepares for his first test in more than four years.

Archer will replace fellow seamer Josh Tongue, the only change England have made, for the third test that starts on Thursday. Tongue picked up only four wickets and conceded more than 200 runs in the two innings.

Archer has not played in the longest format since England faced India in Ahmedabad in February 2021. The 30-year-old has taken 42 wickets in 13 tests and although he was added to the squad for the second test, he was not included in the team.

However, England coach Brendon McCullum said Archer was in the frame for the third test after putting his fitness woes behind him.

A series of physical problems kept delaying his return to red-ball cricket, including elbow injuries, back issues and a thumb injury.

“Really exciting, it’s great for English fans, but also for Jof. It’s been a long time coming for him. I think the way in which he’s handled the injury setbacks over that period has been very commendable,” England skipper Ben Stokes told reporters.

“And then the way in which he’s got himself back onto the field and playing cricket over a long period of time now. It was exciting to have him back in the squad and in contention for last week, but now we can say he’s in the playing 11.

“Jof’s going to be pretty proud of himself that he’s managed to get himself back here after two pretty big injury scares.”

Stokes had also said they would consider fresh legs with such a quick turnaround time between the second and third test, especially after England’s bowlers bowled 234 overs in the second test that India won by 336 runs.

England struggled to take wickets against India, who scored more than 1,000 runs in a test match for the first time in history in the second match and the hosts will hope Archer’s pace can be a lethal weapon at Lord’s.

England will also be wary of India’s record at Lord’s, where they have more wins (three) than any other venue in England.

The series is tied at 1-1 after England won the first test at Headingley before India won a test for the first time at Edgbaston on Sunday.

ENGLAND TEAM

Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jamie Smith (wicketkeeper), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Shoaib Bashir.

-Reuters

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI Africa: Teen pregnancy a threat to social and economic development

Source: Government of South Africa

Deputy Minister in the Presidency responsible for Women, Youth, and Persons with Disabilities Steve Letsike says the scourge of teenage pregnancy is not only a health concern but a threat to the nation’s social and moral fibre and future prosperity.

“Teenage pregnancy is robbing too many of our girls of their childhood and their future, and it will take all of us working together to turn the tide,” Letsike said.

Addressing a stakeholder engagement in Pretoria earlier today aimed at addressing the persistent ongoing scourge of teenage pregnancy in South Africa, Letsike said in 2024 alone, over 90 000 pregnancies were recorded among girls aged 10 to 19 and 2 328 of those pregnancies were in girls between 10 and 14 years old.

“To call this alarming would be an understatement. These are children, some barely in their teens, some not even teenagers, now forced into motherhood,” Letsike said.

Letsike said a child as young as 10 becoming pregnant was not just a statistic but evidence of a profound societal failure and a horrific crime because a girl that young cannot legally give consent.

“This crisis threatens the very foundation of our social and economic development as teenage pregnancy poses a serious threat to the health, rights, education and socio-economic well-being of girls.

“When a young girl becomes a mother, her chances of finishing school plummet, her job prospects diminish and she often becomes trapped in a cycle of poverty.

“In other words, today’s teen pregnancy is tomorrow’s poverty and inequality. We must recognise this as not only a public health issue but a social justice emergency,” the Deputy Minister said.

Letsike said the high incidence of adolescent pregnancy in the country was interlinked with other scourges of HIV and other STI infection rates, child sexual abuse, statutory rape, gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF), poverty, educational exclusion, substance abuse and even toxic elements of popular culture.

“To craft effective solutions, we must honestly confront how and why so many young girls are getting pregnant,” Letsike said.

Deputy Minister in the Presidency Nonceba Mhlauli said teenage pregnancy in South Africa has reached deeply concerning levels with more than 90 000 births recorded among girls aged 10 to 19.

“These are not just numbers, they are a stark reflection of our socio-economic challenges and a call to action. Teenage pregnancy is more than a health crisis,” she said.

Mhlauli said the response to teenage pregnancy must be urgent, coordinated and compassionate.

“Government cannot do this work alone. We need the support of all pillars of society, parents, faith leaders, educators, civil society, the media and the private sector.

“As the Presidency, we are committed to supporting this cause through improved coordination, targeted interventions and policy coherence because the future of our country depends on the safety, empowerment and well-being of our children,” she said.

Chairperson of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) Board Asanda Luwaca said “young girls are our sisters, our classmates, our cousins, our peers and children”.

“It is an indictment of our inability, as a collective, to fully protect the bodies, rights and dreams of girls, especially those from poor, rural and marginalised communities, especially differently abled.

“We know that teenage pregnancy is not a standalone issue. It is deeply interwoven with child sexual abuse, gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF), educational exclusion, toxic gender norms, substance abuse, and the predatory dynamics of poverty,” she said.

Luwaca said teenage pregnancy was not just about health, but injustice.

“It is about gender inequality, poverty, exploitation, broken family systems, absent accountability and a dangerous silence that protects perpetrators more than it protects girls.

“And until we confront these intersecting issues head-on with honesty, bravery and unflinching determination, we will continue to fail the young women of this nation. South Africa has the policies. We have the frameworks. What we need now is unapologetic implementation across every level of society,” Luwaca said.

The engagement with stakeholders is part of an initiative to establish a Roadmap to South Africa’s Teenage Pregnancy Prevention and Management Response. – SAnews.gov.za

MIL OSI Africa –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI Security: Mexican Man Pleads Guilty to Violating Federal Kingpin Statute and Money Laundering in Connection with Arizona-Based Transnational Drug Trafficking Organization

Source: US FBI

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – A Mexican national illegally residing in Phoenix, Arizona, pleaded guilty in federal court on July 7, 2025, to charges of violating the federal “Kingpin” statute for operating a continuing criminal enterprise as well as money laundering, Acting United States Attorney Troy Rivetti announced today.

Marcos Monarrez-Mendoza, 55, pleaded guilty before United States District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan. Monarrez-Mendoza was among 35 individuals charged through a Second Superseding Indictment unsealed in January 2024 for their participation in a domestic and international narcotics and money laundering conspiracy involving substantial quantities of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine (read the Second Superseding Indictment news release here).

In connection with the guilty plea, the Court was advised that, at various times from September 2022 to November 2022, Monarrez-Mendoza—a co-leader, along with his son Marcos Monarrez Jr., of the Phoenix-based Monarrez Drug Trafficking Organization—was intercepted over a federal wiretap obtaining hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine, millions of fentanyl pills, and kilograms of cocaine from a Mexican national drug supplier. Monarrez-Mendoza provided the drugs to a network of subordinate drug distributors who redistributed them throughout the country, including into western Pennsylvania. Additionally, Monarrez-Mendoza provided over $100,000 in proceeds from the drug sales to couriers who smuggled the money into Mexico to promote the drug trafficking operation.

Judge Ranjan scheduled sentencing for December 5, 2025. The law provides for a sentence of not less than 20 years and up to life in prison, a fine of up to $2 million, or both. Under the federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence imposed is based upon the seriousness of the offenses and the prior criminal history, if any, of the defendant.

Assistant United States Attorneys Arnold P. Bernard Jr. and Tonya S. Goodman are prosecuting this case on behalf of the government.

Homeland Security Investigations and the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the investigation that led to the prosecution of Monarrez-Mendoza.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, combat illegal immigration, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN). OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

MIL Security OSI –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI Security: McKeesport Felon Sentenced to Prison for Illegal Possession of Firearms and Ammunition

Source: US FBI

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – A resident of McKeesport, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced in federal court to 37 months of imprisonment on his conviction of illegally possessing firearms and ammunition as a convicted felon, Acting United States Attorney Troy Rivetti announced today.

United States District Judge Christy Criswell Wiegand imposed the sentence on Richard L. Edwards Jr., 49.

According to information presented to the Court, Edwards was serving probation following a 2023 conviction for which he was sentenced to five years of county probation and 18 months of electronic home monitoring. While on approved grocery windows on both May 25, 2024, and June 1, 2024, Edwards stopped with his wife at a local firearms store, where his wife purchased a firearm on each occasion. In light of the two unauthorized stops, Westmoreland County Adult Probation conducted a search of Edwards’ residence on August 9, 2024, where they located multiple firearms and ammunition in Edwards’ bedroom and requested the assistance of the McKeesport Police Department. In total, law enforcement seized four firearms, including a sawed-off shotgun, and numerous rounds of ammunition from Edwards’ bedroom. Edwards is prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition based upon his prior convictions for robbery and simple assault—both of which involved his use and threatened use of a firearm.

Assistant United States Attorney Rebecca L. Silinski prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

Acting United States Attorney Rivetti commended Westmoreland County Adult Probation, the McKeesport Police Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Edwards.

MIL Security OSI –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI Security: Fatal fire in Lewisham

Source: United Kingdom London Metropolitan Police

Met Officers are supporting the London Fire Brigade in an investigation following the death of a boy in a fire in Lewisham.

Police were called to Lewisham Road, SE13 at 23:54hrs on Tuesday, 8 July following a report of a fire in a flat.

Officers attended with the London Fire Brigade and London Ambulance Service.

Sadly, despite the best efforts of the emergency services, a 12-year-old boy died at the scene. His family have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers.

A woman, aged 54, was taken to hospital by paramedics. Her injuries are not believed to be life-threatening or life-changing.

Detective Chief Inspector Danian Reid, from the Met’s local investigations team in south east London, said: “This is a tragic incident and our thoughts are with everyone involved.

“We continue to work alongside investigators from the London Fire Brigade to establish the cause of the fire.

“We understand the impact this will have on the community and there will be local neighbourhood officers, and other emergency services, in the area as enquiries continue.”

The cause of the fire is being investigated by the London Fire Brigade but is not believed to be suspicious at this stage.

MIL Security OSI –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI Security: Chinese State-Sponsored Hacker Arrested on U.S. Warrant

Source: US FBI

China’s Ministry of State Security allegedly directed theft of COVID-19 research and confidential information regarding American policy makers

HOUSTON – A 33-year-old Chinese national has been taken into custody for his alleged involvement in U.S. computer intrusions between February 2020 and June 2021, including the reckless and indiscriminate HAFNIUM campaign that compromised thousands of computers worldwide.

Authorities took People’s Republic of China (PRC) national Xu Zewei (徐泽伟) into custody in Milan, Italy, as he departed a plane from China at the request of the United States.

Xu is charged along with PRC national Zhang Yu (张宇), 44, in a now unsealed nine-count indictment returned in November 2023. They were both involved in computer intrusions between February 2020 and June 2021 at the direction of officers of the PRC’s Ministry of State Security’s (MSS) Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB), according to the indictment.

The charges allege MSS and SSSB are PRC intelligence services responsible for PRC’s domestic counterintelligence, non-military foreign intelligence and aspects of the PRC’s political and domestic security. When conducting the computer intrusions, Xu worked for Shanghai Powerock Network Co. Ltd., one of many “enabling” companies in the PRC that conducted hacking for the PRC government, according to the charges.

“The indictment alleges that Xu was hacking and stealing crucial COVID-19 research at the behest of the Chinese government while that same government was simultaneously withholding information about the virus and its origins,” said Nicholas Ganjei, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas. “The Southern District of Texas has been waiting years to bring Xu to justice and that day is nearly at hand. As this case shows, even if it takes years, we will track hackers down and make them answer for their crimes. The United States does not forget.”

“This arrest underscores the United States’ patient and tireless commitment to pursuing hackers who seek to steal information belonging to U.S. companies and universities,” said John A. Eisenberg, Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division. “The Justice Department will find you and hold you accountable for threatening our cybersecurity and harming our people and institutions.”

“While the world was reeling from a virus that originated in China, the Chinese government plotted to steal U.S. research critical to vaccine development,” said FBI Houston Special Agent in Charge Douglas Williams. “Xu Zewei, an alleged hacker acting on behalf of China’s primary spy agency, targeted COVID-19 data using sophisticated cyber techniques and tradecraft. His landmark arrest by FBI Houston agents in Italy proves that we will scour the ends of the Earth to hold criminal foreign adversaries accountable.”

According to court documents, in early 2020, Xu and his co-conspirators hacked and otherwise targeted U.S. based universities and leading immunologists and virologists conducting ground-breaking research into COVID-19 vaccines, treatment and testing. The charges allege Xu and others reported their activities to officers in the SSSB who were supervising and directing the hacking activities. For example, on or about Feb. 19, 2020, Xu allegedly provided an SSSB officer with confirmation that he had compromised the network of a research university located in SDTX. On or about Feb. 22, 2020, the SSSB officer directed Xu to target and access specific email accounts (mailboxes) belonging to virologists and immunologists engaged in COVID-19 research for the research university, according to the allegations. Xu later allegedly confirmed for the SSSB officer he acquired the contents of the researchers’ mailboxes.

Beginning in late 2020, Xu and his co-conspirators exploited certain vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server, a widely used Microsoft product for sending, receiving and storing email messages, according to the charges. Their exploitation of Microsoft Exchange Server was allegedly at the forefront of a massive campaign targeting thousands of computers worldwide and known publicly as “HAFNIUM.”

In March 2021, Microsoft publicly disclosed the intrusion campaign by state-sponsored hackers operating out of China. In July 2021, the United States and foreign partners attributed the HAFNIUM campaign to the PRC’s MSS, which they and private sector cybersecurity leaders condemned as “indiscriminate,” “reckless,” “irresponsible” and “destabilizing.”

The charges allege victims of Xu’s exploitation of Microsoft Exchange Server were a university located in SDTX and a law firm with offices worldwide, including in Washington, D.C. After exploiting computers running Microsoft Exchange Server, Xu and his co-conspirators allegedly installed web shells on them to enable their remote administration. According to the indictment, these web shells were specific to HAFNIUM actors at the time. As with the earlier COVID-19 research intrusions, Xu and Zhang allegedly worked together on the HAFNIUM intrusions under the supervision and direction of SSSB officers. For example, on or about Jan. 30, 2021, Xu confirmed to Zhang that he had compromised the university’s network, according to the charges, and on or about Feb. 28, 2021, updated an SSSB officer on his successful intrusions. This SSSB officer then directed Xu to obtain a list of other, successful intrusions from a second SSSB officer, according to the allegations. The charges allege unauthorized access to the law firm’s network allowed Xu and his co-conspirators to steal information from mailboxes and search them for information regarding specific U.S. policy makers and government agencies. Their search terms allegedly included “Chinese sources,” “MSS” and “HongKong.”

The announcement of charges against Xu is the latest describing the PRC’s use of an extensive network of private companies and contractors in China to hack and steal information in a manner that obscured the PRC government’s involvement. Operating from their safe haven and motivated by profit, this network of private companies and contractors in China allegedly cast a wide net to identify vulnerable computers, exploit those computers, and then identify information that it could sell directly or indirectly to the PRC government. This largely indiscriminate approach can result in more victims in the United States and elsewhere, more systems worldwide left vulnerable to future exploitation by third parties, and more stolen information, often of no interest to the PRC government and, therefore, sold to other third-parties.

In April 2021, the Justice Department announced a court-authorized operation to remediate hundreds of computers in the United States left vulnerable by HAFNIUM actors.

Xu is charged with two counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to do which all carry possible prison terms of up to 20 years in federal prison. The indictment also includes conspiracy to cause damage to and obtain information by unauthorized access to protected computers, to commit wire fraud and to committing identity theft as well as two counts of obtaining information by unauthorized access to protected computers. If convicted on any of those charges, he could receive up to five years, while intentional damage to a protected computer carries a maximum 10-year-possible sentence on either of two counts as charged. For the aggravated identity theft, he could receive another two years which must be served consecutively to any other prison term imposed. All convictions would also have the potential of up to $250,000 as a possible fine.

Zhang remains at large. Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to contact the FBI 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).

The FBI’s Houston Field Office is conducting the investigation.

SDTX Assistant U.S. Attorneys S. Mark McIntyre and John Marck and Deputy Chief Matthew Anzaldi of the National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence. A defendant is presumed innocent unless convicted through due process of law.

MIL Security OSI –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI Analysis: AI and art collide in this engineering course that puts human creativity first

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Francesco Fedele, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

A Georgia Tech University course links art and artificial intelligence. Yuichiro Chino/Moment via Getty Images

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.

Title of course:

Art and Generative AI

What prompted the idea for the course?

I see many students viewing artificial intelligence as humanlike simply because it can write essays, do complex math or answer questions. AI can mimic human behavior but lacks meaningful engagement with the world. This disconnect inspired the course and was shaped by the ideas of 20th-century German philosopher Martin Heidegger. His work highlights how we are deeply connected and present in the world. We find meaning through action, care and relationships. Human creativity and mastery come from this intuitive connection with the world. Modern AI, by contrast, simulates intelligence by processing symbols and patterns without understanding or care.

In this course, we reject the illusion that machines fully master everything and put student expression first. In doing so, we value uncertainty, mistakes and imperfection as essential to the creative process.

This vision expands beyond the classroom. In the 2025-26 academic year, the course will include a new community-based learning collaboration with Atlanta’s art communities. Local artists will co-teach with me to integrate artistic practice and AI.

The course builds on my 2018 class, Art and Geometry, which I co-taught with local artists. The course explored Picasso’s cubism, which depicted reality as fractured from multiple perspectives; it also looked at Einstein’s relativity, the idea that time and space are not absolute and distinct but part of the same fabric.

What does the course explore?

We begin with exploring the first mathematical model of a neuron, the perceptron. Then, we study the Hopfield network, which mimics how our brain can remember a song from just listening to a few notes by filling in the rest. Next, we look at Hinton’s Boltzmann Machine, a generative model that can also imagine and create new, similar songs. Finally, we study today’s deep neural networks and transformers, AI models that mimic how the brain learns to recognize images, speech or text. Transformers are especially well suited for understanding sentences and conversations, and they power technologies such as ChatGPT.

In addition to AI, we integrate artistic practice into the coursework. This approach broadens students’ perspectives on science and engineering through the lens of an artist. The first offering of the course in spring 2025 was co-taught with Mark Leibert, an artist and professor of the practice at Georgia Tech. His expertise is in art, AI and digital technologies. He taught students fundamentals of various artistic media, including charcoal drawing and oil painting. Students used these principles to create art using AI ethically and creatively. They critically examined the source of training data and ensured that their work respects authorship and originality.

Students also learn to record brain activity using electroencephalography – EEG – headsets. Through AI models, they then learn to transform neural signals into music, images and storytelling. This work inspired performances where dancers improvised in response to AI-generated music.

The Improv AI performance at Georgia Tech on April 15, 2025. Dancers improvised to music generated by AI from brain waves and sonified black hole data.

Why is this course relevant now?

AI entered our lives so rapidly that many people don’t fully grasp how it works, why it works, when it fails or what its mission is.

In creating this course, the aim is to empower students by filling that gap. Whether they are new to AI or not, the goal is to make its inner algorithms clear, approachable and honest. We focus on what these tools actually do and how they can go wrong.

We place students and their creativity first. We reject the illusion of a perfect machine, but we provoke the AI algorithm to confuse and hallucinate, when it generates inaccurate or nonsensical responses. To do so, we deliberately use a small dataset, reduce the model size or limit training. It’s in these flawed states of AI that students step in as conscious co-creators. The students are the missing algorithm that takes back control of the creative process. Their creations do not obey AI but reimagine it by the human hand. The artwork is rescued from automation.

What’s a critical lesson from the course?

Students learn to recognize AI’s limitations and harness its failures to reclaim creative authorship. The artwork isn’t generated by AI, but it’s reimagined by students.

Students learn chatbot queries have an environmental cost because large AI models use a lot of power. They avoid unnecessary iterations when designing prompts or using AI. This helps reducing carbon emissions.

The Improv AI performance on April 15, 2025, featured dancer Bekah Crosby responding to AI-generated music from brain waves.

What will the course prepare students to do?

The course prepares students to think like artists. Through abstraction and imagination they gain the confidence to tackle the engineering challenges of the 21st century. These include protecting the environment, building resilient cities and improving health.

Students also realize that while AI has vast engineering and scientific applications, ethical implementation is crucial. Understanding the type and quality of training data that AI uses is essential. Without it, AI systems risk producing biased or flawed predictions.

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

– ref. AI and art collide in this engineering course that puts human creativity first – https://theconversation.com/ai-and-art-collide-in-this-engineering-course-that-puts-human-creativity-first-256673

MIL OSI Analysis –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI NGOs: ‘Do not invest in US gas exports’ Greenpeace warns EU, backed by new report

Source: Greenpeace Statement –

‘Do not invest in US gas exports’ Greenpeace warns EU, backed by new report

Brussels – As European leaders and companies are pushing for increased imports of US liquefied gas (LNG), a new report by Greenpeace USA, Earthworks, and Oil Change International highlights the climate threats and financial risks posed by five major new liquefied gas export projects proposed for the US Gulf Coast, most of them still awaiting a final investment decision.[1]

“What we found was crystal clear – any further investment in LNG is not compatible with a livable climate,” said Andres Chang, Senior Research Specialist at Greenpeace USA and lead author of the report. “The massive growth in infrastructure along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast has already created significant public health and ecosystem impacts, threatening entire coastal communities. But it doesn’t stop there. We believe this report shows that, if built, these projects would put global climate goals even further out of reach.”

The report analyses five major US LNG projects – Venture Global CP2, Cameron LNG Phase II, Sabine Pass Stage V, Cheniere Corpus Christi LNG Midscale 8-9, and Freeport LNG Expansion – and finds that each would fail the climate test derived from models in the US Department of Energy’s 2024 LNG Export public interest studies.[2] Each would increase greenhouse gas emissions by edging out renewable energy and driving up global fossil fuel use, undermining the world’s ability to meet the Paris Agreement targets and driving more frequent and intense extreme weather events. The report suggests that future US administrations could therefore revoke export authorisations issued under current US President Trump.

Pressured by Trump and facing the threat of sweeping tariffs, the EU Commission is proposing increased LNG imports.[3] It has also agreed to look into direct public investments by the EU and its member states in gas export facilities outside the EU – including potentially the five US LNG projects analysed in this report – in its Affordable Energy Action Plan released in February 2025.[4]

“Increasing US gas imports will deepen Europe’s dependence on the US, making the EU and national governments even more vulnerable to Trump’s political extortion. EU leaders must break free from fossil fuel dependency and take control of Europe’s future by investing in a renewable, secure and peaceful energy system. A ban on all new fossil fuel projects in the EU would be the right first step, certainly not funding projects abroad,” said Thomas Gelin, Greenpeace EU climate and energy campaigner.

Another result of Trump’s pressure is the calls by some Member States and other EU policymakers to weaken the EU methane regulation, which was adopted just last year, in order to continue importing US liquefied gas despite the fact that its production – mostly coming from fracking – is associated with particularly high methane emissions.[5][6]

“This report adds to a rapidly growing body of evidence that financing U.S. LNG is not a sound decision for insurers, investors, or purchasers – something the EU and America’s Asian allies must keep in mind as President Trump pressures them to increase their imports of U.S. LNG under threat of sweeping tariffs. Countries with climate commitments, such as those in the EU, should be very wary of the climate cost of importing US LNG,” said Dr Dakota Raynes, Senior Manager of Research, Policy, and Data at Earthworks.

European energy companies have already signed long-term purchase agreements for four of the projects analysed in the report. These contracts extend well beyond 2035, the year by which Europe must phase-out fossil gas if it is serious about meeting its international climate commitments. These companies include SEFE (Germany), BASF (Germany), GASTRADE S.A. (Greece), DTEK (Ukraine), TotalEnergies (France), PKN Orlen (Poland), Gap (Portugal) and Equinor (Norway) – several of which are fully or partially state-owned.[7]

“Fossil fuel dependency has long externalized its true costs, forcing communities to bear the burden of pollution, sickness, and economic instability,” says James Hiatt, founder and director of For a Better Bayou. “For decades the oil and gas industry has known about the devastating health and climate impacts of its operations, yet it continues to expand, backed by billions in private and public financing. These harms are not isolated – they’re systemic, and they threaten all of us. This report is a call to conscience. It’s time we stop propping up deadly false solutions and start investing in a transition to energy systems that sustain life, not sacrifice it.”

Greenpeace calls on EU leaders to stop new long-term purchase agreements for liquefied gas and drop the proposal for direct financial investments in gas export facilities. Instead, the EU should impose a ban on all new fossil fuel projects, including new liquefied gas import terminals, stop all public investments in fossil fuel infrastructure and agree to end fossil gas by 2035 at the latest.

ENDS

Notes

Read the full report: Failing the climate test: LNG projects awaiting final investment decision do not stand up to US Government analysis

Read the European media briefing

Watch the press conference recording

[1] At the time of drafting of the report, all five were awaiting a final investment decision. On June 24, 2025, Cheniere Corpus Christi LNG announced a positive final investment decision.

[2] December 2024 | ENERGY, ECONOMIC, AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF US LNG EXPORTS

[3] Trump says EU must buy $350B of US energy to get tariff relief – POLITICO

[4] Action Plan for Affordable Energy

[5] The Member States are: Bulgaria, Czechia, Greece, Hungaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

[6] Liquefied natural gas carbon footprint is worse than coal | Cornell Chronicle

[7] Source: Sierra Club US LNG Export Tracker, date as of 4 June 2025

Contacts

Greenpeace International Press Desk: [email protected], +31 (0) 20 718 2470 (available 24 hours)

Katie Nelson, Senior Communications Specialist, Greenpeace USA, [email protected], +1 (678) 644-1681, (GMT -8)

MIL OSI NGO –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI Analysis: Exploring questions of meaning, ethics and belief through Japanese anime

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Ronald S. Green, Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Coastal Carolina University

A still from the Japanese anime ‘Spirited Away.’ Choo Yut Shing via Flickr, CC BY

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.

Title of course:

Anime and Religious Identity: Cultural Aesthetics in Japanese Spiritual Worlds

What prompted the idea for the course?

As a scholar who studies Japanese religion and has a lifelong love of visual storytelling, I started using anime in my class to spark conversations around the Buddhist ideas of karma and Shintō notions of “kami,” or spirits in nature.

When I introduced the idea of karma, a scene from “Mob Psycho 100” – a Japanese manga and anime series from 2016 to 2022 about a shy teenage boy with powerful psychic abilities – came up in discussion. It sparked a conversation about how our intentions and actions carry real moral weight. In Buddhism, karma is not just about punishment or reward in a future life. It is believed to play out in the present – shaping how we relate to others and how we grow or get stuck as people.

Later, when I explained kami in Shintō, a quiet moment from “Mushishi” helped students think differently about the world around them. “Mushishi” is a slow-paced, atmospheric anime about a wandering healer who helps people affected by mysterious spiritlike beings called mushi. These beings are not gods or monsters but part of nature itself – barely seen, yet always present. The series gave students a visual language for imagining how spiritual forces might exist in ordinary places.

The Japanese animation movie ‘Mushishi.’

Over the years, two moments convinced me to create a full course. First was my students’ strong reaction to Gyōmei Himejima, the Pure Land Buddhist priest in “Demon Slayer.” He is a gentle but powerful guardian who refuses to hate the demons he must fight. His actions lead to honest and thoughtful conversations about compassion, fear and the limits of violence.

One student asked, “If Gyōmei doesn’t hate even the demons, does that mean violence can be compassionate?” Another pointed out that Gyōmei’s strength does not come from anger, but from grief and empathy. These kinds of insights showed me that anime was helping students think through complex ethical questions that would have been harder to engage through abstract theory alone.

The second moment came from watching “Dragon Ball Daima.” In this 2024 series, familiar heroes are turned into children. This reminded me of Buddhist stories about being reborn and starting over, and it prompted new questions: If someone loses all the strength they had built up over time, are they still the same person? What, if anything, remains constant about the self, and what changes?

What does the course explore?

This course helps students explore questions of meaning, ethics and belief that anime brings to life. It examines themes such as what happens when the past resurfaces? What does it mean to carry the weight of responsibility? How should we act when our personal desires come into conflict with what we know is right? And how can suffering become a path to transformation?

What materials does the course feature?

We start with “Spirited Away,” a 2001 animated film about a young girl who becomes trapped in a spirit world after her parents are transformed into pigs. The story draws on Shintō ideas such as purification, sacred space and kami. Students learn how these religious concepts are expressed through the film’s visual design, soundscape and narrative structure.

Later in the semester, we watch “Your Name,” a 2016 film in which two teenagers mysteriously begin switching bodies across time and space. It’s a story about connection, memory and longing. The idea of “musubi,” a spiritual thread that binds people and places together, becomes central to understanding the film’s emotional impact.

“Attack on Titan,” which first aired in 2013, immerses students in a world marked by moral conflict, sacrifice and uncertainty. The series follows a group of young soldiers fighting to survive in a society under siege by giant humanoid creatures known as Titans. Students are often surprised to learn that this popular series engages with profound questions drawn from Buddhism and existential thought, such as the meaning of freedom, the tension between destiny and individual choice, and the deeper causes of human violence.

The characters in these stories face real struggles. Some are spirit mediums or time travelers. But all of them must make hard decisions about who they are and what they believe.

As the semester goes on, students develop visual or written projects such as short essays, podcasts, zines or illustrated stories. These projects help them explore the same questions as the anime, but in their own voices.

Why is this course relevant now?

Anime has become a global phenomenon. But even though millions of people watch it, many do not realize how deeply it draws on Japanese religious traditions. In this course, students learn to look closely at what anime is saying about life, morality and the choices we make.

Through these characters’ journeys, students learn that religion is not just something found in ancient texts or sacred buildings. It can also live in the stories we tell, the art we create and the questions we ask about ourselves and the world.

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

– ref. Exploring questions of meaning, ethics and belief through Japanese anime – https://theconversation.com/exploring-questions-of-meaning-ethics-and-belief-through-japanese-anime-260035

MIL OSI Analysis –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI Analysis: My city was one of hundreds expecting federal funds to help manage rising heat wave risk – then EPA terminated the grants

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Brian G. Henning, Professor of Philosophy and Environmental Studies and Science, Gonzaga University

The Pacific Northwest heat wave of 2021 left cities across Washington state sweltering in dangerous temperatures. AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

In June 2021, a deadly heat wave pushed temperatures to 109 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius) in Spokane, Washington, a northern city near the Idaho border where many homes weren’t built with central air conditioning.

As the heat lingered for over a week, 19 people died in Spokane County and about 300 visited hospitals with signs of heat-related illnesses.

Scientists say it’s not a matter of if, but when, another deadly heat wave descends on the region. To help save lives, the city teamed up with my university, Gonzaga, to start preparing for a hotter future.

A chart of all deaths, excluding COVID-19, shows the extraordinary impact the 2021 heat dome had in Washington.
‘In the Hot Seat’ report, 2022

We were excited and relieved when the community was awarded a US$19.9 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to help it take concrete steps to adapt to climate change and boost the local economy in the process. The grant would help establish resilience hubs with microgrids and help residents without air conditioning install energy-efficient cooling systems. The city doesn’t have the means to make these improvements on its own, even if they would save lives and money in the long run.

Less than a year later, the Trump administration abruptly terminated the funding.

Spokane’s grant wasn’t the only one eliminated – about 350 similar grants that had been awarded to help communities across the country manage climate changes, from extreme heat and wildfire smoke to rising seas and flooding, were also terminated on the grounds that they don’t meet the White House’s priorities. Many other grants to help communities have also been terminated.

Many of the communities that lost funding are like Spokane: They can’t afford to do this kind of work on their own.

Why cities like Spokane need the help

Like many communities in the American West, Spokane was founded in the late 19th century on wealth from railroads and resource extraction, especially gold, silver and timber.

Today, it is a city of 230,000 in a metro area of a half-million people, the largest on the I-90 corridor between Minneapolis and Seattle. In many ways, Spokane could be on the cusp of a renaissance.

In January 2025, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced a $48 million grant to develop a tech hub that could put the Inland Northwest on a path to become a global leader in advanced aerospace materials. But then, in May, the Trump administration rescinded that grant as well.

The lost grants left the economy – and Spokane’s ability to adapt fast enough to keep up with climate changes – uncertain.

Heat waves are becoming a growing risk in Spokane, known for its river and falls that tumble near downtown.
Roman Eugeniusz/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

This is not a wealthy area. The median household income is nearly $30,000 less than the state average. More than 13 out of every 100 people in Spokane live in poverty, above the national average, and over 67% of the children are eligible for free or reduced lunch.

The city is a light blue island in a dark red sea, politically speaking, with a moderate mayor. Its congressional district has voted Republican by wide margins since 1995, the year that then-House Speaker Tom Foley lost his reelection bid.

Lessons from the 2021 heat dome

The 2021 heat wave was a catalyzing event for the community. The newly formed Gonzaga Institute for Climate, Water and the Environment brought together a coalition of government and community partners to apply for the EPA’s Climate and Environmental Justice Community Change Grant Program. The grants, funded by Congress under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, were intended to help communities most affected by pollution and climate change build adaptive capacity and boost the safety of their residents.

A key lesson from the 2021 heat dome was that temporary, or pop-up, cooling centers don’t work well. People just weren’t showing up. Our research found that the best approach is to strengthen existing community facilities that people already turn to in moments of difficulty.

Half the $19.9 million award was for outfitting five resilience hubs in existing libraries and community centers with solar arrays and battery backup microgrids, allowing them to continue providing a safe, cool space during a heat wave if the power shuts down.

The locations and plans for five resilience hubs to serve Spokane, and the infrastructure they would receive.
Gonzaga Institute for Climate, Water and the Environment

Another $8 million in grant funding was meant to provide 300 low- to moderate-income homeowners with new high-efficiency electric heat pump heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, providing more affordable utility bills while improving their ability to cool their homes and reducing fossil fuel emissions.

Communities are left with few options

Now, this and other work is at risk in Spokane and cities and towns like it around the country that also lost funding.

According to the Trump administration, the program – designed to help hundreds of communities around the country become safer – was “no longer consistent with EPA funding priorities.”

A class action lawsuit was recently filed over the termination of the grants by a coalition that includes Earth Justice and the Southern Environmental Law Center. If the case is successful, Spokane could see its funding restored.

Meanwhile, the city and my team know we have to move fast, with whatever money and other resources we can find, to help Spokane prepare for worsening heat. We formed the Spokane Climate Resilience Collaborative – a partnership between community organizations, health officials and the city – as one way to advance planning for and responding to climate hazards such as extreme heat and wildfire smoke.

As concentrations of heat-trapping gasses accumulate in the atmosphere, both the frequency and severity of heat waves increase. It is only a matter of time before another deadly heat dome arrives.

Brian G. Henning receives funding from the Environmental Protection Agency.

– ref. My city was one of hundreds expecting federal funds to help manage rising heat wave risk – then EPA terminated the grants – https://theconversation.com/my-city-was-one-of-hundreds-expecting-federal-funds-to-help-manage-rising-heat-wave-risk-then-epa-terminated-the-grants-259009

MIL OSI Analysis –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI Analysis: Trump administration’s lie detector campaign against leakers is unlikely to succeed and could divert energy from national security priorities

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Brian O’Neill, Professor of Practice, International Affairs, Georgia Institute of Technology

The Department of Homeland Security and FBI are reportedly using polygraphs aggressively to identify dissenters. standret/Getty Images

The Trump administration has recently directed that a new wave of polygraphs be administered across the executive branch, aimed at uncovering leaks to the press.

As someone who has taken roughly a dozen polygraphs during my 27-year career with the CIA, I read this development with some skepticism.

Polygraphs carry an ominous, almost mythological reputation among Americans. The more familiar and unofficial term – lie detector tests – likely fuels that perception. Television crime dramas have done their part, too, often portraying the device as an oracle for uncovering the truth when conventional methods fail.

In those portrayals, the polygraph is not merely a tool – it’s a window into the soul.

Among those entering government service, especially in national security, the greater anxiety is not the background check but passing the polygraph. My advice is always the same: Don’t lie.

It’s the best – and perhaps only – guidance for a process that most assessments have concluded is a more subjective interpretation than empirical science.

Why the polygraph persists

Polygraphs are “pseudo-scientific” in that they measure physiological responses such as heart rate, blood pressure and perspiration. The assumption is that liars betray themselves through spikes in those signals. But this presumes a kind of psychological transparency that simply doesn’t hold up. A person might sweat and tremble simply from fear, anger or frustration – not deceit.

There also are no specific physiological reactions associated with lying. The National Academy of Sciences in 2003, and the American Psychological Association in a 2004 review, concluded that the polygraph rests more on theater than fact. Recent assessments, published in 2019, have reached the same conclusion.

Accordingly, polygraph results are not generally admissible in U.S. courts. Only a handful of states – such as Georgia, Arizona and California – permit their use even under limited conditions. And they typically require that both parties agree to admission and a judge to approve it. Unconditional admissibility remains the exception, not the rule.

And yet, inside many national security agencies, polygraphs remain central to the clearance process – a fact I observed firsthand during my time overseeing personnel vetting and analytic hiring within the intelligence community.

While not treated as conclusive, polygraph results often serve as a filter. A candidate’s visible discomfort – or the examiner’s subjective judgment that a response seems evasive – can stall or end the hiring process. For instance, I know that government agencies have halted clearances after an examiner flagged elevated reactions to questions about past drug use or foreign contacts, even when no disqualifying behavior was ultimately documented.

The FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover headquarters building in Washington in 2016.
AP Photo/Cliff Owen

In some cases, an examiner’s suggestion that a chart shows an anomaly has led otherwise strong applicants to volunteer details they hadn’t planned to share – such as minor security infractions, undeclared relationships, or casual drug use from decades earlier – that, while not disqualifying on their own, reshape how their trustworthiness is perceived.

The polygraph’s power lies in creating the conditions under which deception is confessed.

A predictable pattern

No administration has been immune to the impulse to investigate leaks. The reflex is bipartisan and familiar: An embarrassing disclosure appears in the press – contradicting official statements or exposing internal dissent – and the White House vows to identify and punish the source. Polygraphs are often part of this ritual.

During his first term, Trump intensified efforts to expose internal dissent and media leaks. Department guidelines were revised to make it easier for agencies to obtain journalists’ phone and email records, and polygraphs were reportedly used to pressure officials suspected of talking to the press. That trend has continued – and, in some areas, escalated.

Recent policies at the Pentagon now restrict unescorted press access, revoke office space for major outlets and favor ideologically aligned networks. The line between legitimate leak prevention and the surveillance or sidelining of critical press coverage has grown increasingly blurred.

At agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, polygraphs are reportedly being used more frequently – and more punitively – to identify internal dissenters. Even “cold cases,” such as the leak of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs opinion ahead of its overturning of Roe v. Wade, have been reopened, despite prior investigations yielding no definitive source.

Government reaction varies

Not all leaks are treated the same. Disclosures that align with official narratives or offer strategic advantage may be quietly tolerated, even if unauthorized. Others, especially those that embarrass senior officials or reveal dysfunction, are more likely to prompt formal investigation.

In 2003, for example, the leak of CIA officer Valerie Plame’s identity – widely seen as retaliation for her husband’s criticism of the Iraq War – triggered a federal investigation. The disclosure embarrassed senior officials, led to White House aide Scooter Libby’s conviction for perjury, later commuted, and drew intense political scrutiny.

Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, rides in the backseat of a limousine on Oct. 27, 2005, in McLean, Va.
Win McNamee/Getty Images

Leaks involving classified material draw the sharpest response when they challenge presidential authority or expose internal disputes. That was the case in 2010 with Chelsea Manning, whose disclosure of diplomatic cables and battlefield reports embarrassed senior officials and sparked global backlash. Government reaction often depends less on what was disclosed than on who disclosed it – and to what effect.

A narrow set of disclosures, such as those involving espionage or operational compromise, elicit broad consensus as grounds for prosecution. But most leaks fall outside that category. Most investigations fade quietly. The public rarely learns what became of them. Occasionally, there is a vague resignation, but direct accountability is rare.

What the future holds

Trump’s polygraph campaign is not likely to eliminate leaks to the press. But they may have a chilling effect that discourages internal candor while diverting investigative energy away from core security priorities.

Even if such campaigns succeed in reducing unauthorized disclosures, they may come at the cost of institutional resilience. Historically, aggressive internal enforcement has been associated with declining morale and reduced information flow – factors that can hinder adaptation to complex threats.

Some researchers have suggested that artificial intelligence may eventually offer reliable tools for detecting deception. One recent assessment raised the possibility, while cautioning that the technology is nowhere near operational readiness.

For now, institutions will have to contend with the tools they have – imperfect, imprecise and more performative than predictive.

As a former US intelligence officer, I am required to submit any written draft, before sharing it with other persons, for prepublication review. I submitted this draft to CIA’s Prepublication Review Board, which responded on 11 June: “No classified information was identified. Therefore, no changes are required for publication or sharing with others.”

– ref. Trump administration’s lie detector campaign against leakers is unlikely to succeed and could divert energy from national security priorities – https://theconversation.com/trump-administrations-lie-detector-campaign-against-leakers-is-unlikely-to-succeed-and-could-divert-energy-from-national-security-priorities-259128

MIL OSI Analysis –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Greens join protest to shut down Glasgow company shipping gas for Russia

Source: Scottish Greens

09 Jul 2025 External Affairs

Putin’s enablers are not welcome in Scotland.

More in External Affairs

Scottish Green MSP Ross Greer has joined members of the Ukrainian community in Scotland and the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign at a protest outside the Glasgow HQ of shipping company Seapeak, over their role in helping Russia to export gas despite the sanctions placed on it over Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

Seapeak has been found to still ship over $5.5 billion of Russian Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) each year.

Ross Greer will be speaking at the rally in Glasgow today. He has previously demanded that the UK Government sanction Seapeak, but Labour Ministers have so far refused to take action.

Ross said:

“It is appalling that the UK Labour government refuses to shut Seapeak down. People across Scotland are horrified when they learn that a company based here continues to fund Russia’s war machine. For as long as Seapeak remains untouched from sanctions, they will continue to ship gas out of Russia, throwing a lifeline to Putin’s war economy as a result.”

In 2022, Ross was sanctioned by the Russian government for his work in solidarity with Ukraine.

Ross said:

“Earlier this year, I wrote to UK Ministers, demanding that they shut down Seapeak’s UK operations. Despite the overwhelming evidence shared with them, they would not take action. They continue to allow Russia to profit from shipping operations here in the UK whilst claiming to stand with Ukraine.

“Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have been killed and much of their country is left in ruins from Putin’s illegal invasion. If we were in Ukraine’s position, we would rightly be furious that our so-called allies were allowing complicit businesses like Seapeak to stay open. It is time to end this scandal and prove that Putin’s enablers are not welcome in Scotland.”

MIL OSI United Kingdom –

July 10, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Regeneration of 291 Harrow Road secures planning consent | Westminster City Council
Source: City of Westminster
- Westminster City Council’s 291 Harrow Road development secured planning approval from the planning committee last night (Tuesday July 8^th).
- 144 new homes will be developed in the centre of London. Of these, 50% will be affordable or for Adult Social Care at social rent, with the remaining homes available for the market.
- The development will comprise three buildings at 15, 10 and five storeys in height and will embrace passive principles in design, creating a highly efficient, low-carbon scheme.
- Those principles will help to achieve a 70% sitewide carbon reduction over the baseline.
- The site was part of the former Harrow Road wing of St Mary’s Hospital prior to its redevelopment in the 1980s.
The latest housing development from Westminster City Council received approval from planning committee last night, the latest phase in the creation of more than 100 new homes.

Across three separate buildings, the 291 Harrow Road development will deliver 144 homes with 50% affordable housing. A total of 48 will be affordable homes, 24 will be Adult Social Care units at social rent and 72 homes will be available for private sale.

The site was part of the former Harrow Road wing of St Mary’s Hospital prior to a period of redevelopment in the 1980s.

At the Westminster City Council planning committee on July 8, the development secured approval by three votes to two.

Cllr Ellie Ormsby, Westminster City Council Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Renters, said:

“291 Harrow Road presents a fantastic opportunity for us to deliver a greater number of high-quality homes for social rent – a necessary step considering there are over 6,000 households on Westminster’s housing waiting list – while also delivering on our ambitious sustainability commitments as one of the capital’s greenest developments.

“Moreover, a large proportion of these homes, a sixth of the total number, are allocated for use by adult social care services, where we are seeing growing demand. We’re excited to develop a building which embraces inclusivity and delivers for the diverse needs across our community.”

Designs for 291 Harrow Road embrace the ‘Be Lean, Clean, Green and Seen’ energy hierarchy which utilises a fabric first approach to maximise reduction in energy through passive design measures. New, high efficiency servicing equipment and efficient façades will minimise the energy usage of the building.

The scheme will make use of air source heat pumps and solar photo photovoltaic panels to maximise the use of renewable energy. It is anticipated that across the site build, and once occupied, 291 Harrow Road will achieve a 70% sitewide reduction over the baseline for the proposed development, far exceeding the Greater London Authority target of 35%.

Westminster City Council has committed to 50% affordable housing across its development projects, made up of social rent and London Living Rent.
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
July 10, 2025