NewzIntel.com

Category: DJF

  • MIL-OSI USA: Information Concerning the Budgetary Effects of H.R. 1, as Passed by the Senate on July 1, 2025

    Source: US Congressional Budget Office

    On a preliminary basis, the Congressional Budget Office and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation estimate that enacting H.R. 1, as passed by the Senate on July 1, 2025, would decrease deficits by $0.4 trillion, relative to the budget enforcement baseline for consideration in the Senate. Compared with CBO’s January 2025 baseline budget projections, it would increase deficits over the 2025‑2034 period by $3.4 trillion.

    On June 27, 2025, the Senate filed an amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 1, as passed by the House of Representatives on May 22, 2025. On June 28, 2025, CBO published its estimate for that amendment relative to the budget enforcement baseline for consideration in the Senate. On June 29, 2025, CBO published its estimate for the amendment relative to CBO’s January 2025 baseline projections.

    The language of the substitute amendment was subsequently modified during consideration on the floor of the Senate.

    CBO estimates that the amendments adopted during consideration on the Senate floor, relative to the language filed on June 27, would:

    • Increase outlays by about $90 billion;
    • Decrease revenues by roughly $20 billion; and
    • Increase deficits by about $110 billion.

    Those estimated changes are the same compared with either the budget enforcement baseline for consideration in the Senate or CBO’s January 2025 budget baseline projections.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Hagerty Applauds Braden Boucek, Trump’s Nominee to be U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, and Mike Dunavant, Trump’s Nominee to be U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Tennessee Bill Hagerty

    July 1, 2025

    NASHVILLE, TN—Today, United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) applauded Braden Boucek, President Donald Trump’s Nominee to be U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, and Mike Dunavant, President Donald Trump’s Nominee to be U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee.

    “I applaud President Trump for his strong nominee to be U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, Mike Dunavant,” said Senator Hagerty. “In President Trump’s first administration, Mike gave exemplary service to the people of Memphis and West Tennessee, and now will build on that success by continuing to aggressively work to put violent criminals behind bars.”

    “I also strongly support Braden Boucek, President Trump’s excellent nominee to be U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. I am confident he will serve the people of Nashville and Middle Tennessee well, bringing a standout combination of experience as a federal prosecutor and innovative constitutional litigator.”

    “By nominating Braden and Mike, President Trump has demonstrated his commitment to uphold the rule of law, and crush violent crime in our major cities.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Freeman’s Bay homicide: Update

    Source: New Zealand Police

    Police is continuing the investigation launched following the discovery of human remains in Freeman’s Bay overnight.

    Further information is being released in the early stage of the investigation.

    “Sadly, I can confirm the deceased is a newborn baby, and they were discovered in a wheelie bin outside an address,” Detective Inspector Scott Beard, of Auckland City CIB, says.

    “A woman is in custody and Police are speaking with her to establish the circumstances around what has occurred.”

    Police is not looking for anyone else in connection with the matter.

    “This is a tragedy for everyone concerned and there is a person’s wellbeing to consider here alongside the investigation, so we will ensure the woman gets the support she needs.

    “Police acknowledge this will understandably be quite confronting information for the community to grapple with.”

    A post-mortem is ongoing today to determine the next steps in the investigation.

    “The result is not yet known, and Police will provide further updates as the investigation allows,” Detective Inspector Beard says.

    “We would ask the public to avoid speculation given what has occurred and allow investigators to carry out their work.”

    Police will be carrying out an area canvass as part of the investigation.

    “We will be seeking CCTV from residents in the street and also searching other wheelie bins in order to secure any additional evidence that may be relevant to the investigation.”

    If you have any information that could assist the investigation, please make a report via 105, using the file number 250630/9878 and quote ‘Operation Yarrow’.

    Alternatively, information can be provided anonymously to Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111 or crimestoppers-nz.org.

    ENDS.

    Amanda Wieneke/NZ Police

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Hong Kong enjoys broad prospects, a promising future: FM spokesperson

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

    Citizens interact with cruising fishing vessels on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront in Hong Kong, south China, July 1, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

    With the firm support of the motherland, the protection of the “one country, two systems” policy, the dedication of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government, and the concerted efforts of all sectors of society, Hong Kong has broad prospects and a promising future, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.

    Spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks at a regular press briefing, noting that over the past five years since the promulgation and implementation of the Law on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong SAR, Hong Kong’s legal framework has been strengthened, social stability and unity have improved, and the rights and freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong residents in accordance with the law have been fully protected.

    Mao said that the baseless and malicious smears by certain Western politicians and anti-China organizations against the “one country, two systems,” along with their attacks on Hong Kong’s rule of law, fully expose their ill intent to undermine stability in Hong Kong.

    She noted that with a high level of security, Hong Kong is able to achieve high-quality development and the city’s GDP has grown for nine consecutive quarters. It has ranked among the top three international financial centers in the world, and has reclaimed a spot among the top three in global competitiveness rankings.

    As the world’s third-largest recipient of foreign direct investment, Hong Kong tops the world in terms of fundraising from IPOs since the beginning of this year, ranks first in the world in air cargo shipping and fourth in the International Shipping Center Development Index, and is among the top 10 in talent competitiveness, with many foreign chambers of commerce recommending increased investment in the city, Mao said.

    These data show that Hong Kong’s economy is highly resilient and vibrant, and its international appeal continues to grow, she added.

    “Today marks the 28th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland. We believe that with the steadfast support of the motherland, the safeguard of ‘one country, two systems,’ the dedication of the government of the HKSAR and the joint efforts of the whole society, Hong Kong enjoys broad prospects and a promising future,” Mao said.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: USAID officially shuts down

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

    The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) officially shut down on Tuesday, which was criticized by former U.S. Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

    Meanwhile, the USAID will be merged into the U.S. State Department from Tuesday.

    According to an earlier statement of the U.S. State Department, the reorganization of the USAID involves realigning certain USAID functions with the State Department by Tuesday. Other USAID functions, which do not align with incumbent President Donald Trump’s policy priorities, will be terminated.

    In separate statements, Obama called the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID “a colossal mistake,” while Bush quoted an AIDS relief program, whose future remains unclear, like much of U.S. foreign aid, as an example.

    Trump had previously slammed the USAID as being run by “a bunch of radical lunatics.”

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Hostilities, displacements, restrictions threaten survival of Gazans: UN

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

    Palestinians fleeing from the northern Gaza Strip city of Beit Hanoun are seen on a road in Gaza City, on March 18, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

    Intensifying military operations in northern Gaza, together with displacement orders and dwindling basic humanitarian services, are depriving Gazans of the means to survive, UN humanitarians said Tuesday.

    Since the latest Israeli evacuation orders were issued for northern regions of the strip on Sunday, at least 1,500 families have been displaced, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), quoting its partners on the ground.

    Five school buildings sheltering displaced families in northern Gaza were reportedly hit, with deaths and injuries. Initial assessments by OCHA partners indicate that many families who fled from the schools after the attack have returned to northern Gaza, mainly due to the lack of alternatives and limited shelter space elsewhere, said the office.

    Humanitarians said health care is also under attack.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that in central Gaza, a tent sheltering displaced people in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah was reportedly hit on Monday, with five people injured. The agency added that the hospital’s internal medicine department also sustained some damage, and its oxygen supply line was affected.

    Since the outbreak of the new round of Gaza conflict in October 2023, the WHO has documented 734 attacks on health care in Gaza. The health agency reiterated its call for the protection of civilians and health care facilities.

    OCHA said that movement restrictions remain a major challenge, preventing its partners from having a predictable and sustainable way to provide critical services and assistance.

    “Only eight out of 15 attempts to coordinate humanitarian movements inside Gaza were facilitated by the Israeli authorities, including to remove debris,” OCHA said. “Three other missions were outright denied, while two missions were impeded, and two others had to be canceled due to security or logistical challenges.”

    The office said that the decrease in humanitarian assistance and basic services is a red flag that demands urgent action to secure the opening of all crossings and facilitate all humanitarian operations, including a meaningful flow of necessary life-saving supplies.

    OCHA said fuel supplies are rapidly depleting, with devastating consequences for civilians.

    The Gaza health authorities reported that Al-Shifa Medical Complex suspended its kidney dialysis services due to fuel shortages and that intensive care services would be limited to a few hours each day.

    “Ensuring sustained access to fuel is essential to avoid a collapse of the logistics backbone underpinning the humanitarian response,” OCHA said, noting that no fuel has entered Gaza since the ceasefire broke down over 17 weeks ago.

    The World Food Programme (WFP) said the window to push back starvation in Gaza is closing fast.

    The agency said its teams are adapting in real time, setting up new distribution points, navigating extreme constraints and using every safe route to reach people where they are. However, to sustain these efforts, the agency reiterates its call for multiple points of access and safe routes to reach people, support from the international community and a sustained ceasefire.

    On its ReliefWeb, OCHA said 169 non-governmental organizations are calling for immediate action to end the deadly Israeli-U.S. militarized distribution scheme known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

    They signed a statement asking for the Israeli-approved plan to revert to the existing UN-led coordination mechanism and lift the Israeli government’s blockade on aid and commercial supplies.

    They alleged that 400 UN-led aid distribution points operating during the temporary ceasefire across Gaza were replaced by just four military-controlled U.S.-operated distribution sites, forcing 2 million people into overcrowded, militarized zones where they face daily gunfire and mass casualties while trying to access food and are denied other life-saving supplies.

    “Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families,” the ReliefWeb appeal said. “The weeks following the launch of the Israeli distribution scheme have been some of the deadliest and most violent since October 2023.”

    OCHA said that in less than four weeks, more than 500 Palestinians were killed and almost 4,000 injured just trying to access or distribute food. Israeli forces and armed groups, some reportedly operating with backing from Israeli authorities, routinely open fire on desperate civilians risking everything just to survive.

    “The humanitarian system is being deliberately and systematically dismantled by the government of Israel’s blockade and restrictions, a blockade now being used to justify shutting down nearly all other aid operations in favor of a deadly, military-controlled alternative that neither protects civilians nor meets basic needs,” said the statement.

    OCHA said that experienced humanitarian actors remain ready to deliver life-saving assistance on a large scale. Yet more than 100 days since Israeli authorities reimposed a near-total blockade on aid and commercial goods, Gaza’s humanitarian condition is collapsing faster than at any point in the past 20 months.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Belgium, China vow to deepen ties, boost mutual trust

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

    Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Brussels on Tuesday, pledging to deepen exchanges and enhance mutual trust with China.

    De Wever noted that Belgium and China have enjoyed a long history of exchanges, with vibrant local-level friendly communications, and that Belgium plays a gateway role in Europe-China cooperation.

    Recalling his multiple visits to China, De Wever said he was deeply impressed by China’s development achievements. Despite differing perspectives, he stressed the importance of enhancing exchanges and increasing mutual trust in the face of the current complex geopolitical landscape.

    Moreover, he reaffirmed Belgium’s commitment to multilateralism and support for a greater autonomous Europe while expressing the hope that the upcoming EU-China leaders’ meeting will yield positive results.

    De Wever also stressed that Belgium firmly adheres to the one-China policy, and this stance will not change.

    Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, highlighted Belgium’s unique role in the European integration process and China-EU relations as a founding member of the European Union (EU) and host of the EU headquarters.

    Wang said that China appreciates the rational and pragmatic China policy pursued by the new Belgian government and is willing to work with Belgium to carry forward the traditional friendship and advance the all-round partnership of friendly cooperation between the two countries in a steady and sustained manner.

    Meanwhile, Wang said China remains committed to high-quality development and high-level opening-up, welcoming more Belgian enterprises to China to develop their businesses and hoping that Belgium will likewise provide Chinese companies investing in Belgium with a fair, secure, and predictable business environment.

    Wang also said this year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the EU, which carries significant meaning as a bridge between the past and the future. The half-century-long journey of China-EU engagement has fully demonstrated that the two sides can achieve mutual respect and win-win cooperation, he added.

    Amid a complex and volatile international landscape, Wang said, China and the EU, as two major forces, markets, and civilizations in the world, should uphold the positioning as partners and the main theme of win-win cooperation, strengthening communication, enhancing understanding and consolidating mutual trust to jointly safeguard multilateralism and the free trade system. Together, they should serve as an “anchor of stability” of the world and act as reliable and strong partners who support and empower each other.

    The two sides also exchanged views on issues including Ukraine.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: US ramps up trade pressure on multiple fronts as 90-day tariff deadline approaches

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

    Days after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to halt trade talks and impose tariffs, Canada scrapped its planned digital services tax on Sunday. The White House praised the move, saying talks would resume immediately and declaring that Canada had “caved” to the United States.

    The United States is scrambling to wind up trade talks with a large number of trading partners as the self-imposed deadline of July 9 is approaching. Following Canada’s concession, Trump is continuing his efforts to press multiple trade partners.

    While the EU stood firm on protecting its digital sovereignty and rejected U.S. demands to include digital laws in trade talks, Trump moved on to Japan on Sunday, accusing it of refusing to buy American rice amid a shortage and threatening a formal trade complaint shortly after labeling U.S.-Japan trade “unfair.”

    U-turn on talks  

    Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne announced Sunday that Canada will rescind its digital services tax as it prepares for a broader trade agreement with the United States.

    The tax, which was designed to take effect on Monday, would impose a 3 percent levy on the revenue of U.S. multinational companies like Amazon, Google and Meta earned from Canadian users.

    “It’s very simple: Canadian Prime Minister (Mark) Carney and Canada caved to President Trump and the United States of America,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday at a briefing.

    Leavitt’s comments followed remarks by National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, who said the United States will restart trade negotiations with Canada immediately.

    According to him, the White House is likely to push other countries to abandon their digital services taxes in future trade negotiations, building on Canada’s recent reversal.

    “My expectation is that the digital services taxes around the world will be taken off, and that that will be a key part of the … ongoing trade negotiations that we have,” Hassett was quoted by CNBC as saying.

    Hassett suggested that countries planning to maintain or introduce digital services taxes could face the “wrath” from U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer over what he called “unfair trade practices.”

    Ineffective strategy 

    Washington’s pressure tactics didn’t prove effective with the EU, where officials have firmly rejected including digital legislation in trade talks with the United States.

    “Our legislation will not be changed. The Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) are not on the table in the trade negotiations with the U.S.,” European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier told a briefing Monday.

    Washington has repeatedly slammed the EU’s digital regulations, including the DMA and DSA, as unfair and called for looser oversight of American tech firms. In February, the White House warned it might retaliate if EU regulators targeted U.S. companies under those rules.

    Regnier emphasized that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has made it clear that EU legislation is not up for negotiation, “and this also includes, of course, our digital legislation,” he said.

    “We’re not going to adjust the implementation of our legislation based on the actions of third countries. If we started to do that, then we would have to do it with numerous third countries,” Regnier added.

    Nevertheless, the spokesperson said that the Commission remains committed to reaching a trade deal with the United States by July 9.

    Trump had earlier said the talks were “going nowhere” and threatened a 50 percent tariff on all EU imports starting June 1. After a call with von der Leyen, he agreed to postpone the hike until July 9.

    European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic said on Monday that he would travel to Washington on Tuesday to try to avoid higher U.S. tariffs and reach a deal “fair for both sides.”

    Currently, the EU faces 50 percent U.S. tariffs on steel, aluminum and 25 percent on automobiles, alongside 10 percent baseline duties on most other exports.

    Next on list 

    In a Truth Social post on Monday afternoon, Trump claimed that the Japanese people and their government were “spoiled” because they wouldn’t buy American rice.

    “To show people how spoiled Countries have become with respect to the United States of America, and I have great respect for Japan, they won’t take our RICE, and yet they have a massive rice shortage,” Trump wrote. “In other words, we’ll just be sending them a letter.”

    Yet rice, like the EU’s digital regulations, is not on the Japanese menu for trade talks with the United States.

    On Tuesday, Japanese Economic Revitalization Minister Ryosei Akazawa, who is also the chief representative in tariff negotiations with the U.S. administration, said that his country will not sacrifice the agricultural sector as part of its tariff talks with the United States, adding that he would continue to negotiate with his U.S. counterparts to protect Japan’s national interests.

    “I have repeatedly stated that agriculture is the foundation of the nation,” he told a press conference.

    Trump’s rice complaint followed another swipe at Tokyo’s trade practices. In an interview aired on Fox News a day earlier, he slammed Japan for importing too few American cars, saying, “They won’t take our cars, and yet we take millions and millions of their cars into the United States. It’s not fair,” he said.

    “I could send one (letter) to Japan: ‘Dear Mr. Japan, here’s the story. You’re going to pay a 25 percent tariff on your cars,’” Trump said during the interview. 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: China’s EVE Energy launches Shenyang battery base targeting cold climates

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

    Chinese lithium battery manufacturer EVE Energy on Monday put into operation its production base in Shenyang, capital of northeast China’s Liaoning Province, aiming to develop batteries capable of withstanding extreme cold, and marking a milestone for the region’s new energy sector.

    The Shenyang facility, backed by a 10-billion-yuan (about 1.4 billion U.S. dollars) investment from the Huizhou-based company in south China’s Guangdong Province, will mainly produce low-temperature resistant, high-density and highly reliable energy storage and power batteries, aiming at addressing the critical industry challenge of poor battery performance in frigid regions.

    EVE Energy’s research center on the application of lithium batteries in cold climates was concurrently unveiled. According to its director Li Wei, the center will leverage the company’s technology and regional partnerships to develop new materials and technologies, significantly boosting battery performance in low temperatures including charge-discharge efficiency.

    The center is also committed to becoming a national-level energy innovation platform, providing strong support for the green energy transformation of northeast China’s old industrial base, Li noted.

    Tiexi District, where the base is located, is home to Shenyang’s new energy vehicle industrial cluster and is pursuing high-end, smart, and green manufacturing. The district has amassed 450 key projects worth 181.6 billion yuan this year, including 185 new and 265 ongoing constructions. 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Two killed in training plane crash in southeastern Brazil

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian –

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

    SAO PAULO, July 1 (Xinhua) — A light training aircraft crashed in Brazil’s southeastern Sao Paulo state on Tuesday, killing two people, local fire officials said.

    The plane crashed in a deserted area of the city of Sao Jose do Rio Preto after taking off from the local airport.

    Globo TV reported, citing firefighters, that there were two people on board the plane, both of whom died.

    Local police and the Brazilian Air Force’s Accident Investigation and Prevention Center are investigating the cause of the crash. –0–

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Cope Angel 2025: U.S and Japan sharpen search and rescue skills

    Source: United States INDO PACIFIC COMMAND

    KADENA AIR BASE, Japan – U.S. Air Force Airmen assigned to the 33rd and 31st Rescue Squadrons partnered with Japan Air Self-Defense Force members from the Naha Air Rescue Squadron for exercise Cope Angel 25-1, June 23-27, 2025 at Kadena and Naha Air Bases.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: System integration: Airmen and Marines collaborate to broaden air defense capabilities

    Source: United States INDO PACIFIC COMMAND

    KADENA AIR BASE, Japan — U.S. Air Force Airmen assigned to the 623rd Air Control Squadron partnered with the U.S. Marine Corps Marines from the 12th Littoral Anti-Air Battalion to conduct a systems integration and joint air surveillance training, June 22–30, 2025.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Trade in a mythical fish is threatening real species of rays that are rare and at risk

    Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By James Marcus Drymon, Associate Extension Professor in Marine Fisheries Ecology, Mississippi State University

    These ‘pez diablo,’ or devil fish, are actually guitarfishes that have been caught, killed, dried and carved into exotic shapes. Bryan Huerta-Beltrán, CC BY-ND

    From the Loch Ness monster to Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, to the jackalope of the U.S. West, mythical animals have long captured human imagination.

    Some people are so fascinated with mythical creatures that they create their own, either working from pure fantasy or by modifying real animals. In a newly published study, we show that in countries such as Mexico, people are catching, drying and shaping guitarfishes – members of the rhino ray family, one of the most threatened groups of marine fishes – to create mythical specimens called “pez diablo,” or devil fish.

    Depending on where these curios are sold, they might also be referred to as Jenny Hanivers, garadiávolos or rayas chupacabras. The origin and meaning of the term “Jenny Haniver” is unclear, but the most accepted explanation is “Jeune d’Anvers,” or “young girl from Antwerp” in French.

    We found that pez diablo are made for many reasons, including as curios for the tourist trade and as purported cures for cancer, arthritis and anemia. Some are simply used for hoaxes. Regardless, the pez diablo trade could threaten the survival of guitarfishes.

    Young guitarfishes on display at the New England Aquarium in Boston.

    Fishy talismans

    Skates and rays, including guitarfishes, are flat-bodied fishes related to sharks and are found worldwide. Together, they make up a group known as elasmobranchs, which are characterized by their unique skeletons made of cartilage rather than bone like most other fishes.

    Skates have long been used to craft mythical creatures. The earliest known examples date back to 1558 in Europe, where they were fashioned to resemble dragons. These objects were thought to offer pathways to the divine or medicinal cures.

    In the mid-20th century, dried guitarfishes emerged as a new generation of mythical creatures. This may be because their unique shape can be fashioned into more humanlike forms. Their long nostrils, which are positioned just above their mouths, can resemble eyes.

    The ‘eyes’ of these dried guitarfishes are actually nostrils on top of the fishes’ long, pointed snouts.
    Bryan Huerta-Beltrán, CC BY-ND

    The first known case of a modified guitarfish was described in 1933. Since then, specimens have made their way into museums, and dozens of North American newspapers have published stories featuring modified guitarfishes.

    A real and endangered fish

    Guitarfishes are one of the most threatened vertebrate groups on the planet: Without careful management, they are at risk of global extinction. As many as two-thirds of all guitarfishes are classified as threatened on the IUCN Red List, a global inventory that assesses extinction risks to wild species.

    Guitarfishes are found in warm temperate and tropical oceans around the world. Fishers target them as an inexpensive source of protein. Guitarfishes may also be caught accidentally or collected live for the aquarium trade.

    Ultimately, however, these species are worth more as pez diablo than for other uses. For example, an entire fresh guitarfish in Mexico is worth approximately US$2, whereas guitarfish that have been killed, dried and carved into pez diablo can be worth anywhere from $50–$500 on eBay and other e-commerce sites.

    Curbing the pez diablo trade

    Internationally, the guitarfish trade is regulated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, an international agreement between governments. This agreement requires member countries to manage guitarfish trade across international borders.

    Most countries where guitarfishes occur, however, do not have national regulations to protect these species. As a result, people who create or sell pez diablo are likely unaware that these fishes are threatened.

    There are as many as 37 species of guitarfish, some of which are at higher risk of extinction than others. Yet to the untrained eye, it can be hard to distinguish one guitarfish species from another. It’s especially hard to identify dried and mutilated guitarfishes that have been processed into pez diablo and look very different from their natural form.

    An intact guitarfish, left, and a carved, dried version.
    Bryan Huerta-Beltrán, CC BY-ND

    This is a common challenge for agencies that monitor trade in animal products. The global wildlife trade is an enormous market, involving billions of animals moving through both legal and illegal channels. Many wildlife products are heavily altered, which makes it hard to identify the species and determine where the product came from.

    Another source of confusion is that many people in Mexico also refer to an invasive freshwater fish that has overrun lakes and rivers across the nation as pez diablo. This “other” pez diablo is actually a suckermouth catfish and is not at all related to any of the threatened guitarfishes. Local education efforts need to distinguish clearly between these two species, since the desired outcome is to protect guitarfish while removing the invasive catfish.

    A dried and modified guitarfish, left, compared with an invasive suckermouth catfish.
    Bryan Huerta-Beltrán, CC BY-ND

    Guitarfish CSI

    Fortunately, advances in wildlife forensics offer a way to distinguish between species. Molecular techniques have been used to identify many illegally traded species, including guitarfishes. By taking a small skin sample, scientists can use DNA to identify the species of individual pez diablo. This method can help protect endangered species by helping to ensure that laws against wildlife trafficking are followed.

    Refining this kind of molecular tool is the most promising way to improve traceability in the trade of guitarfishes. By documenting where and how pez diablo are traded, scientists and conservationists can help clarify the threats to these species. The pez diablo is an imaginary creature, but it is doing real harm to threatened guitarfishes in the world’s warm oceans.

    Bryan Huerta-Beltran receives funding from Save Our Seas Foundation.

    Nicole Phillips is affiliated with the Sawfish Conservation Society and receives funding from the Save Our Seas Foundation.

    James Marcus Drymon and Peter Kyne do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Trade in a mythical fish is threatening real species of rays that are rare and at risk – https://theconversation.com/trade-in-a-mythical-fish-is-threatening-real-species-of-rays-that-are-rare-and-at-risk-247433

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Trade in a mythical fish is threatening real species of rays that are rare and at risk

    Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By James Marcus Drymon, Associate Extension Professor in Marine Fisheries Ecology, Mississippi State University

    These ‘pez diablo,’ or devil fish, are actually guitarfishes that have been caught, killed, dried and carved into exotic shapes. Bryan Huerta-Beltrán, CC BY-ND

    From the Loch Ness monster to Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, to the jackalope of the U.S. West, mythical animals have long captured human imagination.

    Some people are so fascinated with mythical creatures that they create their own, either working from pure fantasy or by modifying real animals. In a newly published study, we show that in countries such as Mexico, people are catching, drying and shaping guitarfishes – members of the rhino ray family, one of the most threatened groups of marine fishes – to create mythical specimens called “pez diablo,” or devil fish.

    Depending on where these curios are sold, they might also be referred to as Jenny Hanivers, garadiávolos or rayas chupacabras. The origin and meaning of the term “Jenny Haniver” is unclear, but the most accepted explanation is “Jeune d’Anvers,” or “young girl from Antwerp” in French.

    We found that pez diablo are made for many reasons, including as curios for the tourist trade and as purported cures for cancer, arthritis and anemia. Some are simply used for hoaxes. Regardless, the pez diablo trade could threaten the survival of guitarfishes.

    Young guitarfishes on display at the New England Aquarium in Boston.

    Fishy talismans

    Skates and rays, including guitarfishes, are flat-bodied fishes related to sharks and are found worldwide. Together, they make up a group known as elasmobranchs, which are characterized by their unique skeletons made of cartilage rather than bone like most other fishes.

    Skates have long been used to craft mythical creatures. The earliest known examples date back to 1558 in Europe, where they were fashioned to resemble dragons. These objects were thought to offer pathways to the divine or medicinal cures.

    In the mid-20th century, dried guitarfishes emerged as a new generation of mythical creatures. This may be because their unique shape can be fashioned into more humanlike forms. Their long nostrils, which are positioned just above their mouths, can resemble eyes.

    The ‘eyes’ of these dried guitarfishes are actually nostrils on top of the fishes’ long, pointed snouts.
    Bryan Huerta-Beltrán, CC BY-ND

    The first known case of a modified guitarfish was described in 1933. Since then, specimens have made their way into museums, and dozens of North American newspapers have published stories featuring modified guitarfishes.

    A real and endangered fish

    Guitarfishes are one of the most threatened vertebrate groups on the planet: Without careful management, they are at risk of global extinction. As many as two-thirds of all guitarfishes are classified as threatened on the IUCN Red List, a global inventory that assesses extinction risks to wild species.

    Guitarfishes are found in warm temperate and tropical oceans around the world. Fishers target them as an inexpensive source of protein. Guitarfishes may also be caught accidentally or collected live for the aquarium trade.

    Ultimately, however, these species are worth more as pez diablo than for other uses. For example, an entire fresh guitarfish in Mexico is worth approximately US$2, whereas guitarfish that have been killed, dried and carved into pez diablo can be worth anywhere from $50–$500 on eBay and other e-commerce sites.

    Curbing the pez diablo trade

    Internationally, the guitarfish trade is regulated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, an international agreement between governments. This agreement requires member countries to manage guitarfish trade across international borders.

    Most countries where guitarfishes occur, however, do not have national regulations to protect these species. As a result, people who create or sell pez diablo are likely unaware that these fishes are threatened.

    There are as many as 37 species of guitarfish, some of which are at higher risk of extinction than others. Yet to the untrained eye, it can be hard to distinguish one guitarfish species from another. It’s especially hard to identify dried and mutilated guitarfishes that have been processed into pez diablo and look very different from their natural form.

    An intact guitarfish, left, and a carved, dried version.
    Bryan Huerta-Beltrán, CC BY-ND

    This is a common challenge for agencies that monitor trade in animal products. The global wildlife trade is an enormous market, involving billions of animals moving through both legal and illegal channels. Many wildlife products are heavily altered, which makes it hard to identify the species and determine where the product came from.

    Another source of confusion is that many people in Mexico also refer to an invasive freshwater fish that has overrun lakes and rivers across the nation as pez diablo. This “other” pez diablo is actually a suckermouth catfish and is not at all related to any of the threatened guitarfishes. Local education efforts need to distinguish clearly between these two species, since the desired outcome is to protect guitarfish while removing the invasive catfish.

    A dried and modified guitarfish, left, compared with an invasive suckermouth catfish.
    Bryan Huerta-Beltrán, CC BY-ND

    Guitarfish CSI

    Fortunately, advances in wildlife forensics offer a way to distinguish between species. Molecular techniques have been used to identify many illegally traded species, including guitarfishes. By taking a small skin sample, scientists can use DNA to identify the species of individual pez diablo. This method can help protect endangered species by helping to ensure that laws against wildlife trafficking are followed.

    Refining this kind of molecular tool is the most promising way to improve traceability in the trade of guitarfishes. By documenting where and how pez diablo are traded, scientists and conservationists can help clarify the threats to these species. The pez diablo is an imaginary creature, but it is doing real harm to threatened guitarfishes in the world’s warm oceans.

    Bryan Huerta-Beltran receives funding from Save Our Seas Foundation.

    Nicole Phillips is affiliated with the Sawfish Conservation Society and receives funding from the Save Our Seas Foundation.

    James Marcus Drymon and Peter Kyne do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Trade in a mythical fish is threatening real species of rays that are rare and at risk – https://theconversation.com/trade-in-a-mythical-fish-is-threatening-real-species-of-rays-that-are-rare-and-at-risk-247433

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Trauma is carried in your DNA. But science reveals a more complicated story

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Tara-Lyn Camilleri, Postdoctoral researcher of transgenerational effects, Monash University

    Radu Bercan/Shutterstock

    As war continues to rage in Gaza and Ukraine, there is concern about how the related trauma might be transmitted to future generations of people in those regions.

    More generally, interest in the idea of transgenerational trauma has recently surged. For example, earlier this year, National Geographic magazine asked whether genes carry past family trauma.

    But while this might be a catchy question, it’s also slightly misleading. Because while trauma can ripple across generations, shaped by how our bodies respond to their environments, its effects aren’t hard-coded in our genes.

    Plastic minds and bodies

    At the heart of this process is what’s known as phenotypic plasticity.

    This is the capacity for organisms to produce different outcomes from the same genes, depending on their environment. These outcomes, called phenotypes, can include stress sensitivity and body shape.

    One way different phenotypes can arise from the same genes is via epigenetics: small chemical changes to the DNA molecule that make particular genes more or less active. Think of these like a director’s notes on a script. These notes guide the cell on which lines to emphasise or soften, without changing the script itself.

    But epigenetics is just one way this plasticity is expressed.

    Understanding how trauma is passed across generations means looking beyond genes and cells to the environments that shape and influence them.

    Human development is sculpted by lived experience, from caregiving and community to stress, safety and belonging.

    These factors interact to produce lasting – but not always fixed – effects. By focusing on how they interact, rather than on single causes, we can better understand why trauma echoes across generations. This also helps us identify how that cycle might be disrupted.

    Widespread in nature

    Phenotypic plasticity is widespread in nature.

    In honeybees, genetically identical larvae become queens or workers depending on what they eat while developing. In three-spined stickleback fish, early exposure to predators reshapes their stress physiology and body shape, making them harder for predators to grasp.

    These aren’t genetic differences – they’re environmental effects on development.

    In humans, early-life conditions similarly shape development. A child raised in an unsafe setting may develop heightened vigilance or stress sensitivity – traits that help in danger but can persist as anxiety or chronic stress in times of safety. This is known as environmental mismatch.

    Across generations, plasticity becomes more complicated. In some of my past research, I studied how diet in one generation of fruit flies shaped health, reproduction and longevity in their offspring and grand offspring.

    The results varied depending on diet, generation and trait. Traits that appeared to be useful in one generation weren’t always so in the next. This highlights how difficult transgenerational effects are to predict – precisely because of this plasticity.

    In three-spined stickleback fish, early exposure to predators reshapes their stress physiology and body shape.
    drakiragavon/iNaturalist, CC BY-ND

    Too narrow an explanation

    Epigenetics often reflect environmental exposures – such as stress, trauma, nutrition or caregiving. But they’re not necessarily permanent “scars”. Many are dynamic and can shift with changing environments – especially early in life.

    Studies show that epigenetic patterns linked to early childhood adversity vary depending on later environments such as family stability and social support. This suggests the biological imprint of early stress is shaped by what happens next.

    It’s tempting to treat epigenetics as the key to explaining inherited trauma – but that’s too narrow. Trauma can influence the next generation through altered hormones, immune function or in utero conditions – all of which shape brain development and stress reactivity.

    Genetic variation also plays a major role. It doesn’t encode trauma itself, but it shapes traits such as sensitivity to threat or emotional regulation. These traits aren’t chosen – they arise from a web of biological and social influences beyond our control.

    But how they unfold, and whether they’re amplified or softened, depends on the systems that surround us.

    Connection to culture

    Connection to culture plays an important role too.

    In Aotearoa New Zealand, Māori-led initiatives that centre land, language and whakapapa (ancestral lineage) have shown promise in restoring wellbeing after generations of colonisation-related trauma.

    For Holocaust survivors and descendants, connection to cultural identity through ritual and shared narrative can reduce the psychological burden of transmitted trauma.

    But not all trauma is collective or institutional. Interventions such as trauma-informed parenting and early relational therapies have been shown to improve outcomes in the next generation.

    These psychological supports affect biology. Feeling safe in our relationships, having stable routines and a sense of meaning can reduce stress hormones, modulate immune function, and buffer against long-term disease risk.

    In this way, culture, caregiving and connection are all biological interventions. When they soften the effects of earlier stress, they may help interrupt its transmission.

    Trauma-informed parenting has been shown to improve outcomes in the next generation.
    fizkes/Shutterstock

    Reframing inherited vulnerability

    This matters, because it changes how we understand inherited vulnerability.

    Rather than a permanent wound passed down through DNA, the effects of trauma are better understood as changeable responses shaped by context.

    Thanks to plasticity, our biology is always in conversation with the environment – and when we change the context, we can change the outcome.

    Tara-Lyn Camilleri receives funding from from Australian Graduate Women, a not-for-profit organisation that advocates for education and supports women in postgraduate education with scholarships. Her research has also been supported by Australian Research Council grants and Royal Society funding. She is a volunteer committee member for Graduate Women Victoria.

    – ref. Trauma is carried in your DNA. But science reveals a more complicated story – https://theconversation.com/trauma-is-carried-in-your-dna-but-science-reveals-a-more-complicated-story-259057

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Trauma is carried in your DNA. But science reveals a more complicated story

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Tara-Lyn Camilleri, Postdoctoral researcher of transgenerational effects, Monash University

    Radu Bercan/Shutterstock

    As war continues to rage in Gaza and Ukraine, there is concern about how the related trauma might be transmitted to future generations of people in those regions.

    More generally, interest in the idea of transgenerational trauma has recently surged. For example, earlier this year, National Geographic magazine asked whether genes carry past family trauma.

    But while this might be a catchy question, it’s also slightly misleading. Because while trauma can ripple across generations, shaped by how our bodies respond to their environments, its effects aren’t hard-coded in our genes.

    Plastic minds and bodies

    At the heart of this process is what’s known as phenotypic plasticity.

    This is the capacity for organisms to produce different outcomes from the same genes, depending on their environment. These outcomes, called phenotypes, can include stress sensitivity and body shape.

    One way different phenotypes can arise from the same genes is via epigenetics: small chemical changes to the DNA molecule that make particular genes more or less active. Think of these like a director’s notes on a script. These notes guide the cell on which lines to emphasise or soften, without changing the script itself.

    But epigenetics is just one way this plasticity is expressed.

    Understanding how trauma is passed across generations means looking beyond genes and cells to the environments that shape and influence them.

    Human development is sculpted by lived experience, from caregiving and community to stress, safety and belonging.

    These factors interact to produce lasting – but not always fixed – effects. By focusing on how they interact, rather than on single causes, we can better understand why trauma echoes across generations. This also helps us identify how that cycle might be disrupted.

    Widespread in nature

    Phenotypic plasticity is widespread in nature.

    In honeybees, genetically identical larvae become queens or workers depending on what they eat while developing. In three-spined stickleback fish, early exposure to predators reshapes their stress physiology and body shape, making them harder for predators to grasp.

    These aren’t genetic differences – they’re environmental effects on development.

    In humans, early-life conditions similarly shape development. A child raised in an unsafe setting may develop heightened vigilance or stress sensitivity – traits that help in danger but can persist as anxiety or chronic stress in times of safety. This is known as environmental mismatch.

    Across generations, plasticity becomes more complicated. In some of my past research, I studied how diet in one generation of fruit flies shaped health, reproduction and longevity in their offspring and grand offspring.

    The results varied depending on diet, generation and trait. Traits that appeared to be useful in one generation weren’t always so in the next. This highlights how difficult transgenerational effects are to predict – precisely because of this plasticity.

    In three-spined stickleback fish, early exposure to predators reshapes their stress physiology and body shape.
    drakiragavon/iNaturalist, CC BY-ND

    Too narrow an explanation

    Epigenetics often reflect environmental exposures – such as stress, trauma, nutrition or caregiving. But they’re not necessarily permanent “scars”. Many are dynamic and can shift with changing environments – especially early in life.

    Studies show that epigenetic patterns linked to early childhood adversity vary depending on later environments such as family stability and social support. This suggests the biological imprint of early stress is shaped by what happens next.

    It’s tempting to treat epigenetics as the key to explaining inherited trauma – but that’s too narrow. Trauma can influence the next generation through altered hormones, immune function or in utero conditions – all of which shape brain development and stress reactivity.

    Genetic variation also plays a major role. It doesn’t encode trauma itself, but it shapes traits such as sensitivity to threat or emotional regulation. These traits aren’t chosen – they arise from a web of biological and social influences beyond our control.

    But how they unfold, and whether they’re amplified or softened, depends on the systems that surround us.

    Connection to culture

    Connection to culture plays an important role too.

    In Aotearoa New Zealand, Māori-led initiatives that centre land, language and whakapapa (ancestral lineage) have shown promise in restoring wellbeing after generations of colonisation-related trauma.

    For Holocaust survivors and descendants, connection to cultural identity through ritual and shared narrative can reduce the psychological burden of transmitted trauma.

    But not all trauma is collective or institutional. Interventions such as trauma-informed parenting and early relational therapies have been shown to improve outcomes in the next generation.

    These psychological supports affect biology. Feeling safe in our relationships, having stable routines and a sense of meaning can reduce stress hormones, modulate immune function, and buffer against long-term disease risk.

    In this way, culture, caregiving and connection are all biological interventions. When they soften the effects of earlier stress, they may help interrupt its transmission.

    Trauma-informed parenting has been shown to improve outcomes in the next generation.
    fizkes/Shutterstock

    Reframing inherited vulnerability

    This matters, because it changes how we understand inherited vulnerability.

    Rather than a permanent wound passed down through DNA, the effects of trauma are better understood as changeable responses shaped by context.

    Thanks to plasticity, our biology is always in conversation with the environment – and when we change the context, we can change the outcome.

    Tara-Lyn Camilleri receives funding from from Australian Graduate Women, a not-for-profit organisation that advocates for education and supports women in postgraduate education with scholarships. Her research has also been supported by Australian Research Council grants and Royal Society funding. She is a volunteer committee member for Graduate Women Victoria.

    – ref. Trauma is carried in your DNA. But science reveals a more complicated story – https://theconversation.com/trauma-is-carried-in-your-dna-but-science-reveals-a-more-complicated-story-259057

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Trump demands an end to the war in Gaza – could a ceasefire be close?

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Marika Sosnowski, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Melbourne

    Anas-Mohammed/Shutterstock

    Hopes are rising that Israel and Hamas could be inching closer to a ceasefire in the 20-month war in Gaza.

    US President Donald Trump is urging progress, taking to social media to demand:

    MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!

    Trump further raised expectations, saying there could be an agreement between Israel and Hamas “within the next week”.

    But what are the prospects for a genuine, lasting ceasefire in Gaza?

    Ceasefires are generally complicated to negotiate because they need to take into account competing demands and pressures. They usually (but not always) require both sides to compromise.

    Gaza is no exception. In a conflict that has been going on for more than 70 years, compromise and concession have become a game of cat and mouse.

    Israel is the cat that holds the military strength and the majority of the political power. Hamas is the mouse that can dart and delay, but in the end has little choice but to accept the terms of a ceasefire if it wants to halt the violence currently being inflicted on Palestinians.

    Trump the peacemaker?

    Trump appears buoyed by what he perceives as the recent success of his efforts to broker a truce in the Israel–Iran war. He may think he can use similar tactics to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into making a ceasefire deal for Gaza.

    US President Donald Trump has posted on social media that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is negotiating a deal with Hamas ‘right now’.
    noamgalai/Shutterstock

    Netanyahu will return to Washington next week for talks at the White House. This is a good sign some US pressure is being brought to bear.

    Trump’s current push for a Gaza ceasefire may also signal he is keen for a return to the normalisation of economic ties previously delivered by the Abraham Accords between Israel and various Arab states. A ceasefire could unlock frozen regional relationships, potentially boosting the US economy (and Trump’s own personal wealth).

    Israeli opportunities

    Another positive sign a ceasefire may be on the cards is Netanyahu’s recent comments that the war with Iran had created opportunities for Israel in Gaza.

    During its 12-day war with Iran, Israel assassinated 30 Iranian security chiefs and 11 nuclear scientists. Iran’s weakened security apparatus might disrupt its support for Hamas and help advance Israeli objectives.

    Similar to what happened in Iran, this might enable Netanyahu to publicly declare Israeli victory in Gaza and agree to a ceasefire without losing face or political backing from his government’s right wing.

    Domestic Israeli politics have also played a role in the Gaza ceasefire negotiations. As part of the current round, Trump reportedly demanded the cancellation of Netanyahu’s ongoing trial on corruption charges. The idea is to enable Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire without the threat of criminal conviction, and potentially prison, awaiting him afterwards.

    Given there are no political or legal prescriptions or rules around what terms need to be included in a ceasefire, it is possible for such a demand to be made, although it is unclear how it would be accommodated by Israeli law.

    Difficult terms

    The current ceasefire deal, as proposed by Qatar and Egypt, seems to pick up where the deal negotiated in January fell apart – with a 60-day ceasefire.

    Reports suggest it requires Hamas’ leadership to go into exile and that four Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, would be tasked with jointly governing Gaza.

    Hamas has said for many months that it is open to a
    more permanent ceasefire deal that Israel has so far refused. However, the proposed terms appear too far-reaching to make it likely Hamas would accept them in their current form.

    The uptick in Israel’s military bombardment, as well as recent evacuation orders for parts of northern Gaza, suggest that even if there is a deal it may well mean Israel retains permanent territorial control of the northern Gaza Strip.

    As part of any ceasefire, it also seems likely Israel would retain control over all Gaza crossings.

    This, and the ongoing highly problematic promotion by Israel and the United States of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as the only organisation authorised to deliver and administer aid in Gaza, will be difficult for Hamas, and Palestinians, to accept.

    Displaced Palestinians carrying bags of flour distributed by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
    Haitham Imad/Shutterstock

    There have also been reports a deal would enable Gazans wishing to emigrate to be absorbed by several as-yet-unnamed countries. Such a term would continue the Trump administration’s earlier calls for the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, as well as Israel’s insistence such displacement would be a humanitarian initiative rather than a war crime.

    It would also not be the first time the terms of a ceasefire were used to forcibly displace civilian populations.

    Hope for the future?

    Many dynamics are wrapped up in getting to a ceasefire in Gaza.

    They include US allyship and pressure, domestic Israeli politics, and the recent war between Israel and Iran. There is also the international opprobrium of Israel’s actions in Gaza which, for public (if not legal) purposes, amount to a genocide.

    Ideally, any negotiated ceasefire would have detailed terms to ensure the parties know what they should do and when. Detailed terms would also enable international actors and other third parties to denounce any violations of the deal.

    However, a ceasefire would only ever be a short-term win. In the best case, it would enable a reduction in violence and an increase of aid into Gaza, and the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.

    However, amid the deep-seated sense of injustice and anxiety in the region, any ceasefire that does not address historic oppression and is forced on the parties would inevitably have deleterious consequences in the months and years to come.

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

    – ref. Trump demands an end to the war in Gaza – could a ceasefire be close? – https://theconversation.com/trump-demands-an-end-to-the-war-in-gaza-could-a-ceasefire-be-close-260185

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Trump demands an end to the war in Gaza – could a ceasefire be close?

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Marika Sosnowski, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Melbourne

    Anas-Mohammed/Shutterstock

    Hopes are rising that Israel and Hamas could be inching closer to a ceasefire in the 20-month war in Gaza.

    US President Donald Trump is urging progress, taking to social media to demand:

    MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!

    Trump further raised expectations, saying there could be an agreement between Israel and Hamas “within the next week”.

    But what are the prospects for a genuine, lasting ceasefire in Gaza?

    Ceasefires are generally complicated to negotiate because they need to take into account competing demands and pressures. They usually (but not always) require both sides to compromise.

    Gaza is no exception. In a conflict that has been going on for more than 70 years, compromise and concession have become a game of cat and mouse.

    Israel is the cat that holds the military strength and the majority of the political power. Hamas is the mouse that can dart and delay, but in the end has little choice but to accept the terms of a ceasefire if it wants to halt the violence currently being inflicted on Palestinians.

    Trump the peacemaker?

    Trump appears buoyed by what he perceives as the recent success of his efforts to broker a truce in the Israel–Iran war. He may think he can use similar tactics to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into making a ceasefire deal for Gaza.

    US President Donald Trump has posted on social media that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is negotiating a deal with Hamas ‘right now’.
    noamgalai/Shutterstock

    Netanyahu will return to Washington next week for talks at the White House. This is a good sign some US pressure is being brought to bear.

    Trump’s current push for a Gaza ceasefire may also signal he is keen for a return to the normalisation of economic ties previously delivered by the Abraham Accords between Israel and various Arab states. A ceasefire could unlock frozen regional relationships, potentially boosting the US economy (and Trump’s own personal wealth).

    Israeli opportunities

    Another positive sign a ceasefire may be on the cards is Netanyahu’s recent comments that the war with Iran had created opportunities for Israel in Gaza.

    During its 12-day war with Iran, Israel assassinated 30 Iranian security chiefs and 11 nuclear scientists. Iran’s weakened security apparatus might disrupt its support for Hamas and help advance Israeli objectives.

    Similar to what happened in Iran, this might enable Netanyahu to publicly declare Israeli victory in Gaza and agree to a ceasefire without losing face or political backing from his government’s right wing.

    Domestic Israeli politics have also played a role in the Gaza ceasefire negotiations. As part of the current round, Trump reportedly demanded the cancellation of Netanyahu’s ongoing trial on corruption charges. The idea is to enable Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire without the threat of criminal conviction, and potentially prison, awaiting him afterwards.

    Given there are no political or legal prescriptions or rules around what terms need to be included in a ceasefire, it is possible for such a demand to be made, although it is unclear how it would be accommodated by Israeli law.

    Difficult terms

    The current ceasefire deal, as proposed by Qatar and Egypt, seems to pick up where the deal negotiated in January fell apart – with a 60-day ceasefire.

    Reports suggest it requires Hamas’ leadership to go into exile and that four Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, would be tasked with jointly governing Gaza.

    Hamas has said for many months that it is open to a
    more permanent ceasefire deal that Israel has so far refused. However, the proposed terms appear too far-reaching to make it likely Hamas would accept them in their current form.

    The uptick in Israel’s military bombardment, as well as recent evacuation orders for parts of northern Gaza, suggest that even if there is a deal it may well mean Israel retains permanent territorial control of the northern Gaza Strip.

    As part of any ceasefire, it also seems likely Israel would retain control over all Gaza crossings.

    This, and the ongoing highly problematic promotion by Israel and the United States of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as the only organisation authorised to deliver and administer aid in Gaza, will be difficult for Hamas, and Palestinians, to accept.

    Displaced Palestinians carrying bags of flour distributed by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
    Haitham Imad/Shutterstock

    There have also been reports a deal would enable Gazans wishing to emigrate to be absorbed by several as-yet-unnamed countries. Such a term would continue the Trump administration’s earlier calls for the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, as well as Israel’s insistence such displacement would be a humanitarian initiative rather than a war crime.

    It would also not be the first time the terms of a ceasefire were used to forcibly displace civilian populations.

    Hope for the future?

    Many dynamics are wrapped up in getting to a ceasefire in Gaza.

    They include US allyship and pressure, domestic Israeli politics, and the recent war between Israel and Iran. There is also the international opprobrium of Israel’s actions in Gaza which, for public (if not legal) purposes, amount to a genocide.

    Ideally, any negotiated ceasefire would have detailed terms to ensure the parties know what they should do and when. Detailed terms would also enable international actors and other third parties to denounce any violations of the deal.

    However, a ceasefire would only ever be a short-term win. In the best case, it would enable a reduction in violence and an increase of aid into Gaza, and the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.

    However, amid the deep-seated sense of injustice and anxiety in the region, any ceasefire that does not address historic oppression and is forced on the parties would inevitably have deleterious consequences in the months and years to come.

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

    – ref. Trump demands an end to the war in Gaza – could a ceasefire be close? – https://theconversation.com/trump-demands-an-end-to-the-war-in-gaza-could-a-ceasefire-be-close-260185

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Distressed by all the bad news? Here’s how to stay informed but still look after yourself

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Reza Shabahang, Research Fellow in Human Cybersecurity, Monash University and Academic Researcher in Media Psychology, Flinders University

    KieferPix/Shutterstock

    If you’re feeling like the news is particularly bad at the moment, you’re not alone.

    But many of us can’t look away – and don’t want to. Engaging with news can help us make sense of what’s going on and, for many of us, is an ethical stance.

    So, how can you also take care of your mental health? Here’s how to balance staying informed with the impact negative news can have on our wellbeing.

    Why am I feeling so affected by the news?

    Our brains are wired to prioritise safety and survival, and respond rapidly to danger. Repeatedly activating such processes by consuming distressing news content – often called doomscrolling – can be mentally draining.

    Unfiltered or uncensored images can have an especially powerful psychological impact. Graphic footage of tragedies circulating on social media may have a stronger effect than traditional media (such as television and newspapers) which are more regulated.

    Research shows consuming negative news is linked to lower wellbeing and psychological difficulties, such as anxiety and feelings of uncertainty and insecurity. It can make us feel more pessimistic towards ourselves, other people, humanity and life in general.

    In some cases, consuming a lot of distressing news can even cause vicarious trauma. This means you may experience post-traumatic stress symptoms such as flashbacks and trouble sleeping despite not being directly involved in the traumatic events.

    But this doesn’t stop us seeking it out. In fact, we are more likely to read, engage with, and share stories that are negative.

    Is there a better way to consume news?

    Switching off may not be an option for everyone.

    For example, if you have friends or family in areas affected by conflict, you may be especially concerned and following closely to see how they’re affected.

    Even without personal ties to the conflict, many people want to stay informed and understand what is unfolding. For some, this is a moral decision which they feel may lead to action and positive change.

    This is why, in research I co-authored, we suggest simply restricting your exposure to negative news is not always possible or practical.

    Instead, we recommend engaging more mindfully with news. This means paying attention to shifts in your emotions, noticing how the news makes you feel, and slowing down when needed.

    How to consume news more mindfully

    When you plan to engage with news, there are some steps you can take.

    1. Pause and take a few deep breaths. Take a moment to observe how your body is feeling and what your mind is doing.

    2. Check in. Are you feeling tense? What else do you have going on today? Maybe you’re already feeling worried or emotionally stretched. Think about whether you’re feeling equipped to process negative news right now.

    3. Reflect. What is motivating you to engage right now? What are you trying to find out?

    4. Stay critical. As you read an article or watch a video, pay attention to how credible the source is, the level of detail provided and where the information comes from.

    5. Tune into how it’s making you feel. Do you notice any physical signs of stress, such as tension, sweating or restlessness?

    6. Take time. Before quickly moving on to another piece of news, allow yourself to process the information you’ve received as well as your response. Has it changed your emotions, thoughts or attitudes? Did it fulfil your intention? Do you still have energy to engage with more news?

    It may not always be possible to take all these steps. But engaging more mindfully before, during and after you’re exposed to negative news can help you make more informed decisions about how and when to consume it – and when to take a break.

    Signs the news is affecting your mental health

    If you’re feeling emotionally overwhelmed, you’re more likely to have an automatic and emotion-driven response to what you’re reading or watching.

    Signs your negative news consumption may be affecting your mental health include:

    • compulsive engagement, feeling like you can’t stop checking or following negative news

    • experiencing feelings of despair, hopelessness, or lack of motivation

    • feeling irritable

    • difficulty concentrating

    • fatigue

    • strong physical symptoms (such as an upset stomach)

    • trouble sleeping

    • an increase in rash or risky behaviours, or behaviours you don’t usually display when you’re calm, such as panic shopping and hoarding following news about bad events.

    What should I do when I’m feeling upset?

    First, take a break. This could be a few minutes or a few days – as long as it takes you to feel emotionally steady and ready to re-engage with negative news.

    You might find it useful to reflect by writing down observations about how news is making you feel, and keeping track of intense fluctuations in emotions.

    It can also be helpful to connect with supportive people around you and do activities you enjoy. Spending time outdoors and doing hands-on tasks, such as gardening, painting or sewing, can be particularly helpful when you’re feeling anxious or emotional.

    But if you’re feeling overwhelmed and it’s affecting your work, life or relationships, it’s a good idea to seek professional help.

    In Australia, the government provides free mental health support at walk-in Medicare Mental Health Centres, Kids Hubs or via phone.

    Other free resources – including a symptom checker and links to online chat support – are available at Health Direct.

    If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

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

    – ref. Distressed by all the bad news? Here’s how to stay informed but still look after yourself – https://theconversation.com/distressed-by-all-the-bad-news-heres-how-to-stay-informed-but-still-look-after-yourself-259913

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  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Antarctic summer sea ice is at record lows. Here’s how it will harm the planet – and us

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Edward Doddridge, Senior Research Associate in Physical Oceanography, University of Tasmania

    An icebreaker approaches Denman Glacier in March, when there was 70% less Antarctic sea ice than usual. Pete Harmsen AAD

    On her first dedicated scientific voyage to Antarctica in March, the Australian icebreaker RSV Nuyina found the area sea-ice free. Scientists were able to reach places never sampled before.

    Over the past four summers, Antarctic sea ice extent has hit new lows.

    I’m part of a large group of scientists who set out to explore the consequences of summer sea ice loss after the record lows of 2022 and 2023. Together we rounded up the latest publications, then gathered new evidence using satellites, computer modelling, and robotic ocean sampling devices. Today we can finally reveal what we found.

    It’s bad news on many levels, because Antarctic sea ice is vital for the world’s climate and ecosystems. But we need to get a grip on what’s happening – and use this concerning data to prompt faster action on climate change.

    Sea ice around Antarctica waxes and wanes with the seasons, growing in the cold months and melting in warm ones. But this rhythmic cycle is changing.

    What we did and what we found

    Our team used a huge range of approaches to study the consequences of sea ice loss.

    We used satellites to understand sea ice loss over summer, measuring everything from ice thickness and extent to the length of time each year when sea ice is absent.

    Satellite data was also used to calculate how much of the Antarctic coast was exposed to open ocean waves. We were then able to quantify the relationship between sea ice loss and iceberg calving.

    Data from free-drifting ocean robots was used to understand how sea ice loss affects the tiny plants that support the marine food web.

    Every other kind of available data was then harnessed to explore the full impact of sea ice changes on ecosystems.

    Voyage reports from international colleagues came in handy when studying how sea ice loss affected Antarctic resupply missions.

    We also used computer models to simulate the impact of dramatic summer sea ice loss on the ocean.

    In summary, our extensive research reveals four key consequences of summer sea ice loss in Antarctica.

    1. Ocean warming is compounding

    Bright white sea ice reflects about 90% of the incoming energy from sunlight, while the darker ocean absorbs about 90%. So if there’s less summer sea ice, the ocean absorbs much more heat.

    This means the ocean surface warms more in an extreme low sea ice year, such as 2016 – when everything changed.

    Until recently, the Southern Ocean would reset over winter. If there was a summer with low sea ice cover, the ocean would warm a bit. But over winter, the extra heat would shift into the atmosphere.

    That’s not working anymore. We know this from measuring sea surface temperatures, but we have also confirmed this relationship using computer models.

    What’s happening instead is when summer sea ice is very low, as in 2016, it triggers ocean warming that persists. It takes about three years for the system to fully recover. But recovery is becoming less and less likely, given warming is building from year to year.

    Comparing an average sea ice summer (a) to an extreme low sea ice summer (b) in which there is less sea ice for wildlife and more sunlight is absorbed by the ocean. The ice shelf is more exposed to ocean waves, calving more icebergs. The ocean is also less productive and tourist vessels can make a closer approach.
    Doddridge, E., W., et al. (2025) PNAS Nexus., CC BY-NC-ND

    2. More icebergs are forming

    Sea ice protects Antarctica’s coast from ocean waves.

    On average, about a third of the continent’s coastline is exposed over summer. But this is changing. In 2022 and 2023, more than half of the Antarctic coast was exposed.

    Our research shows more icebergs break away from Antarctic ice sheets in years with less sea ice. During an average summer, about 100 icebergs break away. Summers with low sea ice produce about twice as many icebergs.

    Antarctic ice sheets without sea ice are more exposed to waves.
    Pete Harmsen AAD

    3. Wildlife squeezed off the ice

    Many species of seals and penguins rely on sea ice, especially for breeding and moulting.

    Entire colonies of emperor penguins experienced “catastrophic breeding failure” in 2022, when sea ice melted before chicks were ready to go to sea.

    After giving birth, crabeater seals need large, stable sea ice platforms for 2–3 weeks until their pups are weaned. The ice provides shelter and protection from predators. Less summer sea-ice cover makes large platforms harder to find.

    Many seal and penguin species also take refuge on the sea ice when moulting. These species must avoid the icy water while their new feathers or fur grows, or risk dying of hypothermia.

    4. Logistical challenges at the end of the world

    Low summer sea ice makes it harder for people working in Antarctica. Shrinking summer sea ice will narrow the time window during which Antarctic bases can be resupplied over the ice. These bases may soon need to be resupplied from different locations, or using more difficult methods such as small boats.

    Supply ships typically unload their cargo directly onto the sea ice, but that may have to change.
    Jared McGhie, Australian Antarctic Division

    No longer safe

    Anarctic sea ice began to change rapidly in 2015 and 2016. Since then it has remained well below the long-term average.

    The dataset we use relies on measurements from US Department of Defense satellites. Late last month, the department announced it would no longer provide this data to the scientific community. While this has since been delayed to July 31, significant uncertainty remains.

    One of the biggest challenges in climate science is gathering and maintaining consistent long-term datasets. Without these, we don’t accurately know how much our climate is changing. Observing the entire Earth is hard enough when we all work together. It’s going to be almost impossible if we don’t share our data.

    Antarctic sea ice extent anomalies (the difference between the long-term average and the measurement) for the entire satellite record since the late 1970s.
    Edward Doddridge, using data from the US NSIDC Sea Ice Index, version 3., CC BY

    Recent low sea ice summers present a scientific challenge. The system is currently changing faster than our scientific community can study it.

    But vanishing sea ice also presents a challenge to society. The only way to prevent even more drastic changes in the future is to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels and reach net zero emissions.

    Edward Doddridge receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    – ref. Antarctic summer sea ice is at record lows. Here’s how it will harm the planet – and us – https://theconversation.com/antarctic-summer-sea-ice-is-at-record-lows-heres-how-it-will-harm-the-planet-and-us-256104

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  • MIL-OSI Submissions: ‘Shit in, shit out’: AI is coming for agriculture, but farmers aren’t convinced

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Tom Lee, Senior Lecturer, School of Design, University of Technology Sydney

    David Gray / AFP / Getty Images

    Australian farms are at the forefront of a wave of technological change coming to agriculture. Over the past decade, more than US$200 billion (A$305 billion) has been invested globally into the likes of pollination robots, smart soil sensors and artificial intelligence (AI) systems to help make decisions.

    What do the people working the land make of it all? We interviewed dozens of Australian farmers about AI and digital technology, and found they had a sophisticated understanding of their own needs and how technology might help – as well as a wariness of tech companies’ utopian promises.

    The future of farming

    The supposed revolution coming to agriculture goes by several names: “precision agriculture”, “smart farming”, and “agriculture 4.0” are some of the more common ones.

    These names all gesture towards a future in which the relationships between humans, computing and nature have been significantly reconfigured. Perhaps remote sensing technology will monitor ever more of a farm system, autonomous vehicles will patrol it, and AI will predict crop growth or cattle weight gain.

    But there’s another story to tell about the way technological change happens. It involves people and communities creating their own future, their own sense of important change from the past.

    AI, country style

    Our research team conducted more than 35 interviews with farmers, specifically livestock producers, from across Australia.

    The dominant themes of their responses were captured in two pithy quotes: “shit in, shit out” and “more automation, less features”.

    “Shit in, shit out” is an earthier version of the “garbage in, garbage out” adage in computer science. If the data going into a model is unreliable or overly abstract, then the outputs will be shaped by those errors.

    This captured a real concern for many farmers. They didn’t feel they could trust new technologies if they didn’t understand what knowledge and information they had been built with.

    A different kind of automation

    On the other hand, “more automation, less features” is what farmers want: technologies that may not have a lot of bells and whistles, but can reliably take a task off their hands.

    Australian farmers have a ready appetite for labour-saving technologies. When human bodies are scarce, as they often are in rural Australia, machines are created to fill the void.

    Windmills, wire fences, and even the iconic Australian sheepdog have been a crucial part of the technological narrative of settler colonial farming. These things are not “autonomous” in the same way as computer-powered vehicles and drones, but they offer similar advantages to farmers.

    What these classic farm technologies have in common is a simplicity that derives from a clarity of purpose. They are the opposite of the “everything apps” that fuel the dreams of many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

    “More automation, less features” is in this sense a farmer envisaging a digital product that fits with their image of a useful technology: transparent in its operations, and a reliable replacement for or an addition to human labour.

    The lesson of the Suzuki Sierra Stockman

    When speaking with one farmer about favoured technologies of her lifetime, she mentioned the Suzuki Sierra Stockman. These small, no-frills, four-wheel-drive vehicles became something of an icon on Australian sheep and cattle farms through the 1970s, ‘80s and ’90s.

    By the 1990s, the Suzuki Sierra Stockman had an iconic status among Australian farmers.
    Turbo_J / Flickr

    Reflecting on her memories of first using the vehicle, the farmer said:

    Once I learnt that I could actually draft cattle out with the Suzuki, that changed everything. You could do exactly what you did on a horse with a vehicle.

    It seems unlikely that Suzuki’s engineers in Japan envisaged their little jeep chasing cattle in the paddocks of Central West of NSW. The Suzuki was in a sense remade by farmers who found innovative uses for it.

    Future technology must be simple, adaptable and reliable

    The combustion engine was a key technological change on farms in the 20th century. Computers may play a similar role in the 21st.

    We are perhaps yet to see a digital product as iconic as wire fences, windmills, sheepdogs and the Suzuki Stockman. Computers are still largely technologies of the office, not the paddock.

    However, this is changing as computers get smaller and are wired into water tanks, soil monitors and in-paddock scales. More data input from these sensors means AI systems have more scope to help farmers make decisions.

    AI may well become a much-loved tool for farmers. But that journey to iconic status will depend as much on how farmers adapt the technology as on how the developers build it. And we can guess at what it will look like: simple, adaptable and reliable.

    This article is based on research conducted by the Foragecaster project, led by AgriWebb and supported by funding from Food Agility CRC Ltd, funded under the Commonwealth Government CRC Program. The CRC Program supports industry-led collaborations between industry, researchers and the community. This project was also supported by funding from Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA).

    – ref. ‘Shit in, shit out’: AI is coming for agriculture, but farmers aren’t convinced – https://theconversation.com/shit-in-shit-out-ai-is-coming-for-agriculture-but-farmers-arent-convinced-259997

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  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Gum disease, decay, missing teeth: why people with mental illness have poorer oral health

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Bonnie Clough, Senior Lecturer, School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University

    mihailomilovanovic/Getty Images

    People with poor mental health face many challenges. One that’s perhaps lesser known is that they’re more likely than the overall population to have poor oral health.

    Research has shown people with serious mental illness are four times more likely than the general population to have gum disease. They’re nearly three times more likely to have lost all their teeth due to problems such as gum disease and tooth decay.

    Serious mental illnesses include major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. These conditions affect about 800,000 Australians.

    People living with schizophrenia have, on average, eight more teeth that are decayed, missing or filled than the general population.

    So why does this link exist? And what can we do to address the problem?

    Why is this a problem?

    Oral health problems are expensive to fix and can make it hard for people to eat, socialise, work or even just smile.

    What’s more, dental issues can land people in hospital. Our research shows dental conditions are the third most common reason for preventable hospital admissions among people with serious mental illness.

    Meanwhile, poor oral health is linked with long-term health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, some cancers, and even cognitive problems. This is because the bacteria associated with gum diseases can cause inflammation throughout the body, which affects other systems in the body.

    Why are mental health and oral health linked?

    Poor mental and oral health share common risk factors. Social factors such as isolation, unemployment and housing insecurity can worsen both oral and mental health.

    For example, unemployment increases the risk of oral disease. This can be due to financial difficulties, reduced access to oral health care, or potential changes to diet and hygiene practices.

    At the same time, oral disease can increase barriers to finding employment, due to stigma, discrimination, dental pain and associated long-term health conditions.

    It’s clear the relationship between oral health and mental health goes both ways. Dental disease can reduce self-esteem and increase psychological distress. Meanwhile, symptoms of mental health conditions, such as low motivation, can make engaging in good oral health practices, including brushing, flossing, and visiting the dentist, more difficult.

    And like many people, those with serious mental illness can experience significant anxiety about going to the dentist. They may also have experienced trauma in the past, which can make visiting a dental clinic a frightening experience.

    Separately, poor oral health can be made worse by some medications for mental health conditions. Certain medications can interfere with saliva production, reducing the protective barrier that covers the teeth. Some may also increase sugar cravings, which heightens the risk of tooth decay.

    Some medications people take for mental health conditions can affect oral health.
    Gladskikh Tatiana/Shutterstock

    Our research

    In a recent study, we interviewed young people with mental illness. Our findings show the significant personal costs of dental disease among people with mental illness, and highlight the relationship between oral and mental health.

    Smiling is one of our best ways to communicate, but we found people with serious mental illness were sometimes embarrassed and ashamed to smile due to poor oral health.

    One participant told us:

    [poor oral health is] not only [about] the physical aspects of restricting how you eat, but it’s also about your mental health in terms of your self-esteem, your self-confidence, and basic wellbeing, which sort of drives me to become more isolated.

    Another said:

    for me, it was that serious fear of – God my teeth are looking really crap, and in the past they’ve [dental practitioners] asked, “Hey, you’ve missed this spot; what’s happening?”. How do I explain to them, hey, I’ve had some really shitty stuff happening and I have a very serious episode of depression?

    What can we do?

    Another of our recent studies focused on improving oral health awareness and behaviours among young adults experiencing mental health difficulties. We found a brief online oral health education program improved participants’ oral health knowledge and attitudes.

    Improving oral health can result in improved mental wellbeing, self-esteem and quality of life. But achieving this isn’t always easy.

    Limited Medicare coverage for dental care means oral diseases are frequently treated late, particularly among people with mental illness. By this time, more invasive treatments, such as removal of teeth, are often required.

    It’s crucial the health system takes a holistic approach to caring for people experiencing serious mental illness. That means we have mental health staff who ask questions about oral health, and dental practitioners who are trained to manage the unique oral health needs of people with serious mental illness.

    It also means increasing government funding for oral health services – promotion, prevention and improved interdisciplinary care. This includes better collaboration between oral health, mental health, and peer and informal support sectors.

    Amanda Wheeler is an investigator on a MetroSouth Health 2025 grant exploring use of Queensland Emergency Departments for people with mental ill-health seeking acute care for oral health problems.

    Steve Kisely has received a grant on oral health from Metro South Research Foundation and one from the Medical Research Future Fund.

    Bonnie Clough, Caroline Victoria Robertson, and Santosh Tadakamadla do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Gum disease, decay, missing teeth: why people with mental illness have poorer oral health – https://theconversation.com/gum-disease-decay-missing-teeth-why-people-with-mental-illness-have-poorer-oral-health-258403

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  • MIL-OSI Submissions: What did ancient Rome smell like? Honestly, often pretty rank

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Thomas J. Derrick, Gale Research Fellow in Ancient Glass and Material Culture, Macquarie University

    minoandriani/Getty Images

    The roar of the arena crowd, the bustle of the Roman forum, the grand temples, the Roman army in red with glistening shields and armour – when people imagine ancient Rome, they often think of its sights and sounds. We know less, however, about the scents of ancient Rome.

    We cannot, of course, go back and sniff to find out. But the literary texts, physical remains of structures, objects, and environmental evidence (such as plants and animals) can offer clues.

    So what might ancient Rome have smelled like?

    Honestly, often pretty rank

    In describing the smells of plants, author and naturalist Pliny the Elder uses words such as iucundus (agreeable), acutus (pungent), vis (strong), or dilutus (weak).

    None of that language is particularly evocative in its power to transport us back in time, unfortunately.

    But we can probably safely assume that, in many areas, Rome was likely pretty dirty and rank-smelling. Property owners did not commonly connect their toilets to the sewers in large Roman towns and cities – perhaps fearing rodent incursions or odours.

    Roman sewers were more like storm drains, and served to take standing water away from public areas.

    Professionals collected faeces for fertiliser and urine for cloth processing from domestic and public latrines and cesspits. Chamber pots were also used, which could later be dumped in cesspits.

    This waste disposal process was just for those who could afford to live in houses; many lived in small, non-domestic spaces, barely furnished apartments, or on the streets.

    A common whiff in the Roman city would have come from the animals and the waste they created. Roman bakeries frequently used large lava stone mills (or “querns”) turned by mules or donkeys. Then there was the smell of pack animals and livestock being brought into town for slaughter or sale.

    Animals were part of life in the Roman empire.
    Marco_Piunti/Getty Images

    The large “stepping-stones” still seen in the streets of Pompeii were likely so people could cross streets and avoid the assorted feculence that covered the paving stones.

    Disposal of corpses (animals and human) was not formulaic. Depending on the class of the person who had died, people might well have been left out in the open without cremation or burial.

    Bodies, potentially decaying, were a more common sight in ancient Rome than now.

    Suetonius, writing in the first century CE, famously wrote of a dog carrying a severed human hand to the dining table of the Emperor Vespasian.

    Deodorants and toothpastes

    In a world devoid of today’s modern scented products – and daily bathing by most of the population – ancient Roman settlements would have smelt of body odour.

    Classical literature has some recipes for toothpaste and even deodorants.

    However, many of the deodorants were to be used orally (chewed or swallowed) to stop one’s armpits smelling.

    One was made by boiling golden thistle root in fine wine to induce urination (which was thought to flush out odour).

    The Roman baths would likely not have been as hygienic as they may appear to tourists visiting today. A small tub in a public bath could hold between eight and 12 bathers.

    The Romans had soap, but it wasn’t commonly used for personal hygiene. Olive oil (including scented oil) was preferred. It was scraped off the skin with a strigil (a bronze curved tool).

    This oil and skin combination was then discarded (maybe even slung at a wall). Baths had drains – but as oil and water don’t mix, it was likely pretty grimy.

    Scented perfumes

    The Romans did have perfumes and incense.

    The invention of glassblowing in the late first century BCE (likely in Roman-controlled Jerusalem) made glass readily available, and glass perfume bottles are a common archaeological find.

    Animal and plant fats were infused with scents – such as rose, cinnamon, iris, frankincense and saffron – and were mixed with medicinal ingredients and pigments.

    The roses of Paestum in Campania (southern Italy) were particularly prized, and a perfume shop has even been excavated in the city’s Roman forum.

    The trading power of the vast Roman empire meant spices could be sourced from India and the surrounding regions.

    There were warehouses for storing spices such as pepper, cinnamon and myrrh in the centre of Rome.

    In a recent Oxford Journal of Archaeology article, researcher Cecilie Brøns writes that even ancient statues could be perfumed with scented oils.

    Sources frequently do not describe the smell of perfumes used to anoint the statues, but a predominantly rose-based perfume is specifically mentioned for this purpose in inscriptions from the Greek city of Delos (at which archaeologists have also identified perfume workshops). Beeswax was likely added to perfumes as a stabiliser.

    Enhancing the scent of statues (particularly those of gods and goddesses) with perfumes and garlands was important in their veneration and worship.

    An olfactory onslaught

    The ancient city would have smelt like human waste, wood smoke, rotting and decay, cremating flesh, cooking food, perfumes and incense, and many other things.

    It sounds awful to a modern person, but it seems the Romans did not complain about the smell of the ancient city that much.

    Perhaps, as historian Neville Morley has suggested, to them these were the smells of home or even of the height of civilisation.

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

    – ref. What did ancient Rome smell like? Honestly, often pretty rank – https://theconversation.com/what-did-ancient-rome-smell-like-honestly-often-pretty-rank-257111

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  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Our memories are unreliable, limited and suggestible – and it’s a good thing too

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Nick Haslam, Professor of Psychology, The University of Melbourne

    Shutterstock

    Milan Kundera opens his novel The Book of Laughter and Forgetting with a scene from the winter of 1948. Klement Gottwald, leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, is giving a speech to the masses from a palace balcony, surrounded by fellow party members. Comrade Vladimir Clementis thoughtfully places his fur hat on Gottwald’s bare head; the hat then features in an iconic photograph.

    Four years later, Clementis is found guilty of being a bourgeois nationalist and hanged. His ashes are strewn on a Prague street. The propaganda section of the party removes him from written history and erases him from the photograph.

    “Nothing remains of Clementis,” writes Kundera, “but the fur hat on Gottwald’s head.”

    Review: Memory Lane: The Perfectly Imperfect Ways We Remember – Ciara Greene & Gillian Murphy (Princeton University Press)

    Efforts to enforce political forgetting are often associated with totalitarian regimes. The state endeavours to control not only its citizens, but also the past. To create a narrative that glorifies the present and idealises the future, history must be rewritten or even completely obliterated.

    In a famous article on “the totalitarian ego”, the social psychologist Anthony Greenwald argued that individual selves operate in the same way. We deploy an array of cognitive biases to maintain a sense of control, and to shape and reshape our personal history. We distort the present and fabricate the past to ensure we remain the heroes of our life narratives.

    Likening the individual to a destructive political system might sound extreme, but it has an element of truth. Memory Lane, a new book by Irish psychology researchers Ciara Greene and Gillian Murphy, shows how autobiographical memory has a capacity to rewrite history that is almost Stalinesque.

    There is no shortage of books on memory, from self-help guides for the anxiously ageing to scholarly works of history. Memory Lane is distinctive for taking the standpoint of applied cognitive psychology. Emphasising how memory functions in everyday life, Greene and Murphy explore the processes of memory and the influences that shape them.

    What memory is not

    The key message of the book is that the memory system is not a recording device. We may be tempted to see memory as a vault where past experience is faithfully preserved, but in fact it is fundamentally reconstructive.

    Memories are constantly revised in acts of recollection. They change in predictable ways over time, moulded by new information, our prior beliefs and current emotions, other people’s versions of events, or an interviewer’s leading questions.


    According to Greene and Murphy’s preferred analogy, memory is like a Lego tower. A memory is initially constructed from a set of elements, but over time some will be lost as the structure simplifies to preserve the gist of the event. Elements may also be added as new information is incorporated and the memory is refashioned to align with the person’s beliefs and expectations.

    The malleability of memory might look like a weakness, especially by comparison to digital records. Memory Lane presents it as a strength. Humans did not evolve to log objective truths for posterity, but to operate flexibly in a complex and changing world.

    From an adaptive standpoint, the past only matters insofar as it helps us function in the present. Our knowledge should be updated by new information. We should assimilate experiences to already learned patterns. And we should be tuned to our social environment, rather than insulated from it.

    “If all our memories existed in some kind of mental quarantine, separate from the rest of our knowledge and experiences,” the authors write, “it would be like using a slow, inefficient computer program that could only show you one file at a time, never drawing connections or updating incorrect impressions.”

    Simplifying and discarding memories is also beneficial because our cognitive capacity is limited. It is better to filter out what matters from the deluge of past experiences than to be overwhelmed with irrelevancies. Greene and Murphy present the case of a woman with exceptional autobiographical memory, who is plagued by the triggering of obsolete memories.

    Forgetting doesn’t merely de-clutter memory; it also serves emotional ends. Selectively deleting unpleasant memories increases happiness. Sanding off out-of-character experiences fosters a clear and stable sense of self.

    “Hindsight bias” boosts this feeling of personal continuity by bringing our recollections into line with our current beliefs. Revisionist history it may be, but it is carried out in the service of personal identity.

    ‘Forgetting doesn’t merely de-clutter memory; it also serves emotional ends.’
    Shutterstock

    Eyewitness memories and misinformation

    Memory Lane pays special attention to situations in which memory errors have serious consequences, such as eyewitness testimony. Innocent people can be convicted on the basis of inaccurate eyewitness identifications. An array of biases make these more likely and they are especially common in interracial contexts.

    Recollections can also be influenced by the testimony of other witnesses, and even by the language used during questioning. In a classic study, participants who viewed videos of car accidents estimated the car’s speed as substantially faster when the cars were described as having “smashed” rather than “contacted”. These distortions are not temporary: new information overwrites and overrides the original memory.

    Misinformation works in a similar way and with equally dire consequences, such as vaccination avoidance. False information not only modifies existing memories but can even produce false memories, especially when it aligns with our preexisting beliefs and ideologies.

    Greene and Murphy present intriguing experimental evidence that false memories are prevalent and easy to implant. Children and older adults seem especially susceptible to misinformation, but no one is immune, regardless of education or intelligence.

    Reassuringly, perhaps, digital image manipulation and deepfake videos are no more likely to induce false memories than good old-fashioned verbiage. A doctored picture may not be worth a thousand words when it comes to warping memory.

    Memory Lane devotes some time to the “memory wars” of the 1980s and 1990s, when debate raged over the existence of repressed memories. Greene and Murphy argue the now mainstream view that many traumatic memories supposedly recovered in therapy were false memories induced by therapists. Memories for traumatic events are not repressed, they argue, and traumatic memories are neither qualitatively different from other memories, nor stored separately from them.

    Here the science of memory runs contrary to the wildly popular claims of writers such as psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk, author of the bestseller The Body Keeps the Score.



    Read more:
    The Body Keeps the Score: how a bestselling book helps us understand trauma – but inflates the definition of it

    Psychology researchers Ciara Greene (left) and Gillian Murphy (right) want us to be humbler about our fallible memories.
    Princeton University Press

    Misunderstanding memory

    The authors of Memory Lane contend that we hold memory to unrealistic standards of accuracy, completeness and stability. When people misremember the past or change their recollections, we query their honesty or mental health. When our own memories are hazy, we worry about cognitive decline.

    Greene and Murphy argue that it is in the very nature of memory to be fallible, malleable and limited. This message is heartening, but it does not clarify why we would expect memory to be more capacious, coherent and durable in the first place. Nor does it explain why we persist with this wrongheaded expectation, despite so much evidence to the contrary.

    The authors hint that our mistake might have its roots in dominant metaphors of memory. If we now understand the mind as computer-like, we will see memories as digital traces that sit, silent and unchanging, in a vast storage system.

    “Many of the catastrophic consequences of memory distortion arise not because our individual memories are terrible,” they argue, “but because we have unrealistic expectations about how memory works, treating it as a video camera rather than a reconstruction.”

    In earlier times, when memory was likened to a telephone switchboard or to books or, for the ancient Greeks, to wax tablets, memory errors and erasures may have seemed less surprising and more tolerable.

    These shifting technological analogies, explored historically in Douwe Draaisma’s Metaphors of Memory, may partly account for our extravagant expectations for memory. Expecting silicon chip performance from carbon-based organisms, who evolved to care more about adaptation than truth, would be foolish.

    But there is surely more to this than metaphor. All aspects of our lives are increasingly recorded and datafied, a process that demands objectivity, accuracy and consistency. The recorded facts of the matter determine who should be rewarded, punished and regulated. The bounded and mutable nature of human memory presents a challenge to this digital regime.

    Human memory is also increasingly taxed by the overwhelming and accelerating volume of information that assails us. Our frustration with its limitations reflects the desperate mismatch we feel between human nature and the impersonal systems of data in which we live.

    Greene and Murphy urge us to relax. We should be humbler about our memory, and more realistic and forgiving about the memories of others. We should not be judgemental about the errors and inconsistencies of friends, or overconfident about our own recollections. And we should remember that, although memory is fallible, it is fallible in beneficial ways.

    A person whose memory system always kept an accurate record of our lives would be profoundly impaired, Greene and Murphy argue. Such a person “would struggle to plan for the future, learn from the past, or respond flexibly to unexpected events”. Brimming with insights such as these, Memory Lane offers an informative and readable account of how the apparent weaknesses of human memory may be strengths in disguise.

    Nick Haslam receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    – ref. Our memories are unreliable, limited and suggestible – and it’s a good thing too – https://theconversation.com/our-memories-are-unreliable-limited-and-suggestible-and-its-a-good-thing-too-258682

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  • MIL-OSI Russia: The project “Kila – the national sport of Russia” became the winner of the Grand Prix in the competition “You are in the game”

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    On July 1, the winners of the fifth season of the All-Russian competition of sports projects “You’re in the Game” were announced and awarded. The competition is held by the ANO “National Priorities” with the support of the Ministry of Sports. The ceremony, which took place in the National Center “Russia”, was attended by the finalists and experts of the competition, as well as honored guests, including the Minister of Sports, President of the Olympic Committee Mikhail Degtyarev, General Director of the ANO “National Priorities” Sofia Malyavina, Olympic champion in speed skating Svetlana Zhurova, five-time Olympic champion in synchronized swimming, Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Sports of the Kaliningrad Region Natalya Ishchenko, Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics Liliya Akhaimova. The award ceremony was held by Dmitry Guberniev.

    “The All-Russian competition “You’re in the Game” has become a large-scale movement uniting sports enthusiasts from all regions of the country. Over five seasons, more than 21 thousand projects have been submitted to the competition. The competition contributes to achieving an important goal set by President Vladimir Putin – to ensure that by 2030 at least 70% of citizens regularly engage in physical education and sports. “You’re in the Game” supports a variety of initiatives – from family sports and running movements to national sports, such as the winner of this season’s Grand Prix – the traditional Russian game Kila, which develops strength, ingenuity and team spirit. With the support of the state, the competition helps to create a society of equal opportunities and form a culture of an active and healthy lifestyle, making sports accessible to everyone,” Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko emphasized in his address to the competition participants.

    Regional initiatives that unite people of all ages and professions are of particular importance. It is these projects that become role models and set new standards of involvement.

    “Friends, I am very pleased to be here today. We launched this competition together in the anniversary fifth season. I want to thank our partners, the jury, and, most importantly, all the participants. They submitted their applications from all over our Mother Russia, from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad, from Murmansk to Crimea. And today, those who won, the laureates, I congratulate you with all my heart, on behalf of our entire sports community. Together, we are helping Russia, helping our President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin achieve national goals in developing sports and promoting a healthy lifestyle. I thank all the laureates for your contribution. Because indifference and laziness are not our method. But activity and energy – that’s about us. Thank you very much!” – said the Minister of Sports and the President of the Russian Olympic Committee Mikhail Degtyarev.

    The fifth season of the competition demonstrated noticeable changes: the number of applications increased, the geography of participants expanded, new formats and directions appeared. Each of the finalists of the competition is a success story, behind which there is enthusiasm, work and a desire to make sports accessible to everyone.

    “The fifth season of “You’re in the Game” was a breakthrough for us and confirmation of how the competition is changing the sports landscape of Russia. Over five years, we have almost doubled the number of applications: if in the first season there were just over 2.5 thousand projects, then this year there are already 5,582 initiatives from all corners of the country. We see how participants of “You’re in the Game” become real ambassadors of sports: every third comes on the recommendation of friends, and after the competition, many return with new ideas and scale up their projects several times. It is especially gratifying that our finalists do not just compete, but actively exchange experiences, conduct joint master classes, support each other and launch new areas. “You’re in the Game” is about people who change the life around them and make sports accessible to everyone,” said Sofia Malyavina, General Director of ANO “National Priorities”.

    ***

    The winner of the Grand Prix of 1 million rubles was the project “Kila – the national sport of Russia” from the Moscow region.

    The winners in the main nominations were:

    • “Mashtab” – “Kila is the national sport of Russia” (Moscow region);

    • “Starting point” – “Cyber ice. Play in the future” (Oryol region);

    • “Unlimited Possibilities” – “Inclusive Athletics” (Belgorod Region);

    • “Children in Sports” – “Konubri – Family Sports” (Republic of Crimea);

    • “Transformation in sports” – “Foncode” (Moscow).

    The winners in special partner nominations were:

    • “Corporate Sports” – “Sports Festival Zavodd Fest 4.0 – transformation in motion” (Republic of Karelia);

    • “Sports tourism” – “Eskimo Games in Khibiny” (Murmansk region);

    • “Media” – “The most athletic girl in Russia” (Moscow).

    ***

    The competition included a public vote, in which 280 semi-finalists of “You’re in the Game” participated. The winner with 480 votes was the “School Rowing League” project from Moscow, which received 30 thousand points from the “Another Thing” development program of the ANO “Russia – Land of Opportunities”. In second place was the “With Football for Health!” festival from the Kemerovo Region (384 votes), whose team was awarded a certificate for one of the short-term offline courses of the Russian International Olympic University. In third place was the “Seven Winds” sailing project from the Ulyanovsk Region (319 votes), whose authors received a course on modern presentation design from the Bonnie Presentation Academy.

    Over five seasons, more than 21,000 projects from all over the country have entered the “You’re in the Game” competition. The authors of a record number of initiatives – 5,582 – took part in the anniversary season.

    The expert council of “You’re in the Game” in the fifth season included: Olympic champion in speed skating Svetlana Zhurova, five-time Olympic champion in synchronized swimming, Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Sports of the Kaliningrad Region Natalia Ishchenko, Secretary General of the Paralympic Committee Andrei Strokin, President of the Continental Hockey League Alexei Morozov, World and European champion in figure skating Ilya Averbukh, Honored Journalist Dmitry Guberniev and other authoritative representatives of the sports sphere.

    The leaders in the number of participants are Moscow (315), Krasnodar Krai (287), the Republic of Tatarstan (240) and St. Petersburg (224). Also among the most active were Sverdlovsk, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov and Chelyabinsk regions, whose representatives submitted more than 100 applications each.

    The most popular of the main nominations of the competition this time was “Starting Point” (1,400 applications), slightly ahead of “Children in Sports” (1,363). Next came “Scale” (1,046), “Limitless Possibilities” (583) and “Transformation in Sports” (450). In the nominations from the competition partners, the traditional leader was “Sports Tourism” (340 applications), in second place was “Corporate Sports” (233), and in third place was “Media” (167).

    34 projects reached the final of the fifth season of the All-Russian competition of sports projects “You’re in the Game”. The winners in each of the five main nominations received 300 thousand rubles, and the Grand Prix was 1 million rubles.

    ***

    Main nominations

    1. “Starting Point” – projects at the local, municipal, regional level, the activities of which involve up to 500 participants. Nomination partner – OOO “Sveza-Les”/Sveza.

    2. “Children in Sports” – areas of project activity: sports training, infrastructure creation, educational process and organization of special sports events for children under 18. Nomination partner – NOBF “Mantera”.

    3. “Unlimited Possibilities” – projects to promote an active lifestyle, create an accessible environment and inclusive education in the field of sports. Nomination partner – Iron King LLC.

    4. “Transformation in Sports” – areas of activity of the projects: software, applications, aggregators and other digital solutions for organizing sports training, analyzing the training process, promoting sports culture and involving people in an active lifestyle; innovative inventions and devices for practical and mass use in the field of sports.

    5. “Scale” – federal-level projects implemented on a national scale, or whose activities involve more than 500 participants. Nomination partner – OOO “Lestate” (RANK brand).

    Nominations from competition partners

    1. “Corporate Sports” is a special nomination for projects and programs to attract employees to physical education and sports. The nomination partners are ARKS and StayFitt.

    2. “Sports Tourism” is a special nomination for projects in the field of sports tourism. The partners of the nomination are Rosgosstrakh Life Insurance Company and the Federation of Sports Tourism.

    3. “Media” is a special partner nomination for authors who cover sports events on their own information resources (podcasts, blogs, online publications, channels, publics with an audience of 1,000 users). The partner of the nomination is “Sport Business Consulting”.

    ***

    Description of the winning projects

    Main nominations:

    • “Kila – the national sport of Russia” from the Moscow region (“Mashtab”)

    The project was born from a dream to revive the ancient Russian team ball game “kilá” and transform it into a modern mass sport that would contribute to the development of physical and mental qualities of a person, strengthening our cultural identity and sense of patriotism.

    • “Cyber Ice. Play in the Future” from the Oryol Region (“Starting Point”)

    The main goal of the authors is to make hockey in Orel a popular sport for both professionals and amateurs of all ages. The project combines elements of traditional games and modern technologies.

    • “Inclusive Athletics” from the Belgorod Region (“Unlimited Possibilities”)

    One of the elements of adaptation of people with disabilities and disabilities through regular participation in group classes in adaptive motor activity.

    • “Konubri – Family Sports” from the Republic of Crimea (“Children in Sports”)

    “Konubri Games” is an adaptation of obstacle races for a family start for unprepared and poorly prepared athletes.

    • “Foncode” from Moscow (“Transformation in sports”)

    A platform for holding competitions in sports programming.

    Special partner nominations:

    • “Sports Festival Zavodd Fest 4.0 – transformation in motion” from the Republic of Karelia (“Corporate Sports”)

    A large family sports event that has evolved from a corporate event into a large multi-format sports festival.

    • “Eskimo Games in Khibiny” from the Murmansk region (“Sports Tourism”)

    A 5-day competition for children’s teams and anyone who wants to master winter survival skills in the Arctic, promoting active family recreation.

    • “The most athletic girl in Russia” from Moscow (“Media”)

    A reality show created for ordinary girls and women of different professions, without age restrictions, who dream of changing themselves both physically and spiritually.

    ***

    Other competition partners

    Fitmost, Continental Hockey League (KHL), Russian Football Union (RFU), Tricolor (its own nomination –

    ***

    The All-Russian competition of sports projects “You’re in the Game” is held by the ANO “National Priorities” with the support of the Ministry of Sports under the state program “Sport of Russia”. Detailed information about the fifth season of “You’re in the Game” is available on the official website of the competition tyvigre.rf.

    For reference:

    Since 2019, with state support, more and more opportunities for sports have appeared: sports infrastructure is developing, sports events are held, the All-Russian physical education and sports complex “Ready for Labor and Defense” is being implemented, children’s sports are progressing, adaptive sports and resocialization of veterans of the SVO are developing.

    Since 2025, the state program “Sport of Russia” has been in effect, aimed at popularizing mass sports and improving the quality of life and satisfaction of Russians. One of the most important goals of the state program is to involve up to 70% of Russians in sports by 2030 (currently this percentage is 60.3%).

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Financial News: New Regulation Promotes Transparency in CPC Market

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Central Bank of Russia –

    The number of CPCs in the first quarter decreased by 6%, to 1247 cooperatives. 86 CPCs were excluded from the register, 45 of them for repeated violations of the law.

    Significantly reduced cases of fictitious build-upnumber of shareholders to obtain the right to work with maternity capital. The number of credit cooperatives operating in this segment, stabilized.

    Activity in the CPC market continued to decline in Q1. The volume of loans issued has been declining over the past three quarters and approached 2020 levels, amounting to 13 billion rubles. The loan portfolio decreased following the reduction in issuances — to 45.6 billion rubles. Market concentration is increasing — the top 50 companies form 73% of the total loan portfolio.

    Read more in the publication “Trends in the consumer credit cooperative market” for the first quarter of 2025.

    Preview photo: Anna_Kim / Shutterstock / Fotodom

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

    Please Note; This Information is Raw Content Directly from the Information Source. It is access to What the Source Is Stating and Does Not Reflect

    HTTPS: //VVV.KBR.ru/Press/Event/? ID = 24745

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Marat Khusnullin: Over two years, participants in the free economic zone have created 10,000 new jobs and invested over 46.5 billion rubles in the development of enterprises

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    During a meeting on the socio-economic development of the DPR, LPR, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, the President pointed out the need to pay special attention to supporting all sectors of the economy, industry and agriculture, financial, banking infrastructure and entrepreneurship. Among the mechanisms that operate in the territory of the reunited regions, he noted the free economic zone. To date, the FEZ regime has been operating for exactly two years, having a positive impact on the revival of the economy of the new regions and the growth of the well-being of residents. Within the framework of the FEZ, over 10 thousand new jobs have been created, more than 46.5 billion rubles have been invested in the creation, restoration, modernization of companies and enterprises, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin reported.

    “Two years ago, on July 1, 2023, a free economic zone was created on the territory of Donbass and Novorossiya by order of the President. During this time, it has proven its relevance, becoming one of the most effective mechanisms of state support aimed at restarting the economy, increasing business activity and, accordingly, increasing investment. Over two years, the SEZ has attracted 365 investors who are implementing 400 projects. That is, one participant in the SEZ, especially developers, can carry out several projects at once. The volume of their investments is more than 46.5 billion rubles out of the total planned 257 billion, the number of new jobs is over 10 thousand, and in total, more than 100 thousand people will be involved in the implementation of the projects,” said Marat Khusnullin.

    The authorized body for regulating the free economic zone is the Ministry of Construction, and the functions of the management company are assigned to the PPK “Territorial Development Fund”.

    “The SEZ provides comfortable investment conditions, provides tax benefits, preferential lending, and preferential provision of land plots for rent for participants. These preferences are already used by 144 companies in the LPR, 141 in the DPR, and in the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions – 54 participants and 40, respectively. Project support, attention to the problems and questions of investors is one of the priorities of the fund’s work within the framework of the SEZ management. For the effective functioning of the SEZ, a special portal is in place, consulting and methodological support is provided to participants in person at the FRT offices directly in the reunited regions,” said Vasily Kupyzin, General Director of the PPC “Fund for Development of Territories”.

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Video: One Day, I Will: Hopes and Dreams of Children in Crisis | United Nations

    Source: United Nations (video statements)

    One Day, I Will is an ongoing series by photographer Vincent Tremeau, capturing children in crisis-affected settings as they dress up as who they want to become in the future.

    In 2025, one year after a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck Japan’s Noto Peninsula on New Year’s Day, Vincent brought the project to local schools, inviting children to share their dreams, fears, and hopes in the wake of disaster.

    These portraits and testimonies are more than dress-up — they reveal resilience, imagination, and the enduring strength of children who continue to dream, despite difficult circumstances. Each of them reminds us: hope can grow even from the most challenging places. “One Day I Will” is one of the exhibits in the UN Pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka, Kansai.

    The project was made available by OCHA (UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) with support from KUMON, a global after-school math and reading programme.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjoOiq9fK_s

    MIL OSI Video –

  • MIL-OSI Video: One Day, I Will: Hopes and Dreams of Children in Crisis | United Nations

    Source: United Nations (video statements)

    One Day, I Will is an ongoing series by photographer Vincent Tremeau, capturing children in crisis-affected settings as they dress up as who they want to become in the future.

    In 2025, one year after a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck Japan’s Noto Peninsula on New Year’s Day, Vincent brought the project to local schools, inviting children to share their dreams, fears, and hopes in the wake of disaster.

    These portraits and testimonies are more than dress-up — they reveal resilience, imagination, and the enduring strength of children who continue to dream, despite difficult circumstances. Each of them reminds us: hope can grow even from the most challenging places. “One Day I Will” is one of the exhibits in the UN Pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka, Kansai.

    The project was made available by OCHA (UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) with support from KUMON, a global after-school math and reading programme.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjoOiq9fK_s

    MIL OSI Video –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: DOC deals to over 1000 wilding pines on Rangitoto

    Source: NZ Department of Conservation

    Date:  02 July 2025

    State of the art drone mapping and laser rangefinders were used to identify and map the wilding pines. 

    “Rangitoto is an ecosystem different from anywhere in the world, and wilding pines are one of the greatest threats to it,” says Dr Leigh Joyce, DOC Senior Biodiversity Ranger. 

    Wilding pines would eventually take over the island’s native vegetation if left uncontrolled – as they have at many locations around New Zealand. 

    Located in the Hauraki Gulf/Tīkapa Moana, Rangitoto has the largest pōhutukawa and rātā dominated forest in the world and is home to many taonga bird and lizard species, says Leigh.  

    It’s also the only volcano in Auckland with an intact indigenous ecosystem. 

    “The maps provided accurate GPS locations of the wilding pines which allowed ground crews to work at pace to remove the threat.” 

    “A huge thank you to Island Solutions for their expert drone surveying and mapping, and Tree King for their excellent and efficient work felling the trees,” says Leigh. 

    The island has been predator free since 2011. It’s home to a variety of native bird species, including kākāriki, korimako/bellbird, kākā, tūī, pīwakawaka/fantail, riroriro/grey warbler, and ruru/morepork, as well as five species of native lizards.

    Unlike native New Zealand bush, where a wide variety of plant species exist together, wilding pines produce dense overgrowth which supports only other wilding pines.

    “If wilding pine numbers increase, they will also have a significant visual impact. Control is needed to prevent them from becoming a dominant weed species on Rangitoto,” says Leigh.

    Wilding pines currently affect more than 2 million hectares of New Zealand. Without large scale funding and control, experts estimate that within thirty years, 25% of New Zealand could be covered with wilding pines.  

    The Rangitoto effort is part of the National Wilding Conifer Control Programme, led by Biosecurity New Zealand in partnership with DOC and many other organisations across the country. The programme has delivered control operations on more than 3 million hectares, or just over 12% of New Zealand, preventing the spread into even more vulnerable land.  

    Funding to remove wilding pines on Rangitoto was announced by the Minister of Conservation in November 2024 as part of the International Visitor Levy (IVL). 

    Thanks to additional IVL funding, there is also weed control work underway or planned for several other conservation islands in the Hauraki Gulf. 

    As part of this funding, DOC and Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki will now carry out ground control weeding on Rangitoto and neighbouring Te Motutapu-a-Taikehu. This work will target moth plant, gorse, and rhamnus.   

    As well as being an ecologically and culturally significant site for DOC’s iwi partners, Rangitoto is a tourism and economic drawcard with over 100,000 visitors a year. 

    Related link

    National Wilding Conifer Control Programme

    Contact

    For media enquiries contact:

    Email: media@doc.govt.nz

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –