NewzIntel.com

Category: Economy

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Federated Farmers – Poll shows Aucklanders back farmers on export growth

    Source: Federated Farmers

    A new poll shows strong public support – especially in Auckland – for cutting green tape to boost agricultural exports and help grow the economy.
    The independent poll asked 1000 New Zealanders if regulations, including environmental regulations, should be reduced to allow increases in agricultural production, in line with the Government’s ambition to double exports over the next decade.
    Nationwide, 47% of respondents said yes, 35% said no, and 18% were unsure – but the biggest surprise came from Auckland.
    “In Auckland, 62% of people backed cutting regulation to enable export growth. Only 23% were opposed,” Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford says.
    “That’s a huge vote of confidence from New Zealand’s largest city – and from the block of voters who often decide elections.”
    The poll results should challenge some of the old assumptions about urban-rural divisions, Langford says.
    “Sometimes we hear people in the provinces grumbling about the ‘JAFAs’ not understanding farming, but these numbers tell a different story.
    “It turns out Aucklanders do understand where their bread is buttered, quite literally.”
    He says the poll result s

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Economic Reform Roundtable agenda

    Source: Australian Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry

    Today we are releasing the agenda for the government’s Economic Reform Roundtable.

    This is all about bringing people together and building consensus around the big challenges and opportunities in our economy.

    The Roundtable agenda released today reflects the government’s agenda for long term economic reform, with a focus on resilience, productivity and budget sustainability.

    It’s a packed schedule.

    From competition to capital attraction, AI to approvals, innovation to better regulation – there’s a lot to cover.

    Each day will be divided into three sessions, and the core group of 23 attendees will participate in all sessions over the 3 days. More invitations will soon be issued for participants to attend specific sessions.

    This is a targeted agenda that has been deliberately designed to give us the best possible chance of building consensus on the direction of economic reform.

    Economic Reform Roundtable agenda:

    Day 1 – Resilience

    Presentation – Some perspectives on productivity trends by RBA Governor Michele Bullock

    Session 1 – International risks, opportunities and trade

    Session 2 – Skills attraction, development and mobility

    Session 3 – Capital attraction and business investment

    Day 2 – Productivity

    Presentation – Productivity and reform by Productivity Commission Chair Danielle Wood

    Session 1 – Better regulation and approvals

    Session 2 – Competition and dynamism across the federation

    Session 3 – AI and innovation

    Day 3 – Budget sustainability and tax reform

    Presentation – Role of budget sustainability by Treasury Secretary Jenny Wilkinson PSM

    Session 1 – Efficient and high-quality government services, spending and care

    Presentation – A better tax system by Grattan Institute CEO Dr Aruna Sathanapally

    Session 2 – A better tax system

    The full Economic Reform Roundtable agenda can be found on the Treasury website.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: How can I tell if I am lonely? What are some of the signs?

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Marlee Bower, Senior Research Fellow, Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney

    gremlin/Getty Images

    Without even realising it, your world sometimes gradually gets smaller: less walking, fewer days in the office, cancelling on friends. Watching plans disintegrate on the chat as friends struggle to settle on a date or place for a catch-up.

    You might start to feel a bit flat or disconnected. Subtle changes in habit and mood take hold. Could you be … lonely?

    It’s not a label many of us identify with easily, especially if you know you’ve got friends, or are in a happy relationship.

    But loneliness can happen to us all from time to time – and identifying it is the first step to fixing it.

    So, what is loneliness?

    Loneliness is the distress we feel when our relationships don’t meet our needs – in quality or quantity.

    It’s not the same as being objectively alone (otherwise known as “social isolation”).

    You can feel deeply lonely even while surrounded by friends, or totally content on your own.

    Loneliness is subjective; many people don’t realise they’re lonely until the feeling becomes persistent.

    What are some of the signs to look for?

    You may feel a physical coldness, emptiness or hollowness (I’ve heard it described as feeling like you are missing an organ). Some research shows social pain is experienced similarly in the brain to physical pain.

    Behavioural signs may include:

    • changes in routine
    • trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep
    • changed appetite (maybe you’re eating more or less than you normally would, or have less variety in your diet)
    • withdrawing from plans you would usually enjoy (perhaps you’re skipping a regular exercise class, or going to shows or sports events less often).

    Emotionally, you may feel:

    • a persistent sadness
    • tired
    • disconnected
    • like you don’t belong, even when you are with others.

    You may also feel more sensitive to rejection or criticism.

    Sometimes, your world shrinks so gradually you barely notice it – until things get quite bad.
    francescoch/Getty Images

    But you’re not alone and you’re not broken.

    Loneliness is a normal response to disconnection.

    The late US neuroscientist John Cacioppo described loneliness as an evolutionary alarm system.

    In the past, being separated from your tribe meant danger and risk from predators, so our brains developed a way to push us back towards connection.

    The pain of loneliness is designed to keep us connected and safe.

    Why is it often hard to recognise loneliness?

    Sadly, there’s still a lot of stigma around admitting loneliness, especially for men.

    Many people resist identifying as lonely, or feel this marks them as a “loser”.

    But this silence can make the problem worse.

    When no one talks about it, it becomes harder to break the cycle of loneliness, and the stigma remains.

    While passing loneliness is normal, chronic or persistent loneliness can hurt our health.

    Research shows chronic loneliness is associated with:

    • depression
    • anxiety
    • weakened immunity
    • heart disease
    • earlier death.

    Loneliness can also become self-reinforcing. When loneliness feels normal, it can start to shape how you see the world: you expect rejection, withdraw more and the cycle deepens.

    The earlier you notice you’re lonely, the easier it is to break.

    But I’m in a relationship, have loads of friends and a rewarding job

    Yes, but you can still be lonely.

    Most of us need different kinds of relationships to thrive. It’s not about how many people you know, but whether you feel connected and have a meaningful role in these relationships.

    You may feel lonely even with strong friendships if you are lacking deeper connection, shared identity or a sense of community.

    This doesn’t mean you’re ungrateful, or a bad friend.

    It just means you need more or different kinds of connection.

    OK, I’ve realised I am lonely. Now what?

    Start by asking yourself: what kind of connection am I missing?

    Is it one-to-one friendships? A partner? Casual social interactions? A shared purpose or community?

    Then reflect on what’s helped you feel more connected in the past. For some, it’s joining a choir, a book club or a sports group. For others, it may be volunteering or just saying “yes” to small social moments, like chatting with your local barista or learning the name of the local butcher.

    If you’re still struggling, a psychologist can help with tailored strategies for building connection.

    The structural causes of loneliness

    It’s also important to remember loneliness is often not because of personal failings or overall mental health.

    My own research shows loneliness is often shaped by structural factors, such as poor planning in our local neighbourhood environments, financial inequality, work pressures, social norms, or even long-term effects of restrictions from the COVID pandemic.

    We are also learning more about how climate change can disrupt social connection and worsen loneliness due to, for example, higher temperatures or bushfires.

    Loneliness is normal, common, human and completely solvable.

    Start by noticing it in yourself and reach out if you can.

    Let’s start talking about it more, so others can feel less alone too.

    Marlee Bower receives funding from the Henry Halloran Urban and Regional Research Initiative, the BHP Foundation, AHURI and NHMRC. She is affiliated with the University of Sydney Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use and Australia’s Mental Health Think Tank.

    – ref. How can I tell if I am lonely? What are some of the signs? – https://theconversation.com/how-can-i-tell-if-i-am-lonely-what-are-some-of-the-signs-261262

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Friday essay: libertarian tech titan Peter Thiel helped make JD Vance. The Republican kingmaker’s influence is growing

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Luke Munn, Research Fellow, Digital Cultures & Societies, The University of Queensland

    The money is easy to trace. Scroll back through tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel’s political donations and you’ll soon hit US$15 million worth of transfers sent to Protect Ohio Values, JD Vance’s campaign fund. The donations, made in 2022, are a staggering contribution to an individual senate race, and helped put Vance (Thiel’s former employee at tech fund Mithril Capital) on a winning trajectory.

    But if money matters, so do ideas. Scroll back through Vance’s speeches, and you’ll hear echoes of Thiel’s voice. The decline of US elites (and by extension, the nation) is supposedly a result of technological stagnation: declining innovation, trivial distractions, broken infrastructure. To make the nation great again, Thiel believes, tech should come first, corporates should be unshackled, and the state should resemble the startup. For Vance, who has now risen to the office of US vice-president, a Thiel talk on these topics at Yale Law was “the most significant moment” of his time there.

    Thiel’s influence on politics is at once financial, technical and ideological. In the New York Times, he was recently described as the “most influential right-wing intellectual of the last 20 years”. And his potent cocktail of networks, money, strategy and support exerts a rightward force on the political landscape. It establishes a powerful pattern for up-and-coming figures to follow.

    To “hedge fund investor” and “tech entrepreneur”, Thiel has recently added a new label: Republican kingmaker.

    Who is Peter Thiel?

    Thiel was born in Germany but grew up in the United States, with a childhood sojourn in apartheid South Africa. Max Chafkin’s critical but balanced biography, The Contrarian, claims Thiel was bullied growing up and protected himself by becoming resolutely “disdainful”. He studied philosophy and then law at Stanford, where he founded The Stanford Review, a libertarian–conservative student paper that signalled his early interest in controversial politics and culture wars.

    While difficult to pin down precisely, Thiel’s Christianity shapes his belief in a declining or even apocalyptic world that can only be countered with unapologetic interventions and technological innovations. God helps those who help themselves – but could always use additional help from ambitious tech elites.

    In 1998, Thiel cofounded his first tech company, Confinity, which launched its flagship product PayPal in 1999 and merged with Elon Musk’s X.com in 2000. In 2002, eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion and Thiel became a multimillionaire. He invested in several startups, including Facebook, and established his hedge fund, Clarium, and his venture capital firm, Founders Fund.

    In their own ways, each of these developments is a response to Thiel’s thesis that the world is stuck. In his 2011 essay The End of the Future, he decries the “soft totalitarianism of political correctness in media and academia” and the “sordid world” of entertainment. The result is “50 years of stagnation” that has transformed humanity “into this more docile kind of a species”.

    Thiel’s answer is more risk, more tech and more ambition. It’s exemplified most clearly by Palantir Technologies, the data analytics firm he cofounded in 2004.

    Palantir has worked closely with US armed forces and intelligence agencies for 14 years. It is currently working closely with the Trump administration to create a “super-database” of combined data from all federal agencies, and building a platform for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “to track migrant movements in real time”.

    Investing in right-wing politics

    Thiel’s political interventions have ramped up over time. Libertarianism generally takes an arms-length approach to politics in favour of individual freedom and market determination. But even in “purely” financial spaces, politics creeps in.

    Clarium’s macroeconomic approach meant the political landscape had to be factored in: “high-conviction, directional investments based on key drivers of the global economy and fundamental themes underappreciated by the marketplace”.

    If politics, like technology, had stagnated – into a non-choice between similar parties – how could it be “disrupted”? Thiel began making political donations in December 2011, with contributions totalling at least $2.6 million, to the third presidential campaign of Ron Paul, a longstanding conservative congressman in Texas.

    While Paul would ultimately be unsuccessful, Thiel recognised something others had missed. Voters had not been attracted to some idealistic libertarian, as the media portrayed him, but to the old Ron Paul, a neoconservative whose newsletters published in his name in the 1980s and ‘90s suggested 95% of Black men in Washington DC were criminals. (He denied writing them in 2011, calling the statements “terrible”.) His appeal was never “merely” about economic freedom, but about race and class, fear and grievance.

    Donald Trump took this dark undercurrent, a strain that has always underpinned parts of US politics, and ran with it. Dog-whistles were dispensed with in favour of overt claims that most illegal immigrants were rapists, certain Latin American countries were shitholes, women were bitches, and white supremacists were “very fine people”. Trump, noted one article, was “weaponizing the conservative id”.

    In these visions, multiculturalism and progressivism are not just cultural threats, but economic ones. They undermine the ability of company founders to exploit labour, blow past regulations, and obey the brutal logic of the market.

    “A world safe for capitalism is presumably one of monopoly companies and patriarchal networks,” note media scholars Ben Little and Alison Winch in their profile of Thiel. It’s a world “where ‘the multiculture’ has been transformed into racialised domination”.

    Thiel has certainly contributed to the rise of Trump and the new breed of right-wing politicians through his vast wealth. In 2016, Thiel contributed $1.25 million to Trump’s campaign, thinking “he had a 50-50 chance of winning”. This earned him a speaking slot at the Republican convention. But his influence extends beyond mere money.

    Thiel’s endorsement of Trump at the 2016 Republican convention was hugely significant for garnering support. So was his famous declaration there that he was proud to be gay, Republican and American. After Trump won his first term, Thiel continued to be involved. He joined the transition team and recommended aligned individuals for key positions, such as Michael Kratsios, who would become chief technology officer.

    So, Thiel’s support of Trump should be understood as an investment, just like his early investments in PayPal and Facebook. As Chafkin notes, Thiel’s bet on Trump is a wager with high upsides and low risk. Thiel’s outspoken views in favour of “seasteading” (floating independent city-states) and against immigration and women’s emancipation had already alienated the more progressive sectors of Silicon Valley.

    If the bet paid off, Thiel and his empire could benefit handsomely. And this is exactly what has played out. Since Trump has taken office in his second term, Palantir has already netted more than $113 million in federal government spending.

    Palantir: from information to domination

    Palantir’s origin story reflects its blend of technical expertise and political ambition. To combat rising fraud, members of PayPal developed a software tool that could mine vast amounts of transactions and find the connections between them, homing in on a handful of culprits in a deluge of data.

    Thiel was prescient in spinning this core idea from finance to intelligence, where analysts were searching for patterns and anomalies amid the noise – a needle in a haystack. Palantir commercialised and expanded this concept, bringing a leaner, data-driven Silicon Valley approach to a sector dominated by established Washington incumbents.

    Thiel and Palantir chief executive Alex Karp believe Silicon Valley has lost its way, frittering away its vast talents and ingenuity on trivial pursuits: advertising, gaming, social media. For them, the era of ambitious scientific projects and unapologetic military industrial collaborations – the Manhattan Project, the Moon landing — needs to be revived.

    In his book, the Technological Republic, Karp calls for a state that looks more like a startup – lean, technology-driven, and led authoritatively by a founder-like figure who is not afraid to “move fast and break stuff” (the Silicon Valley motto), especially when it comes to dominating enemies and ensuring the safety of a nation’s citizens.

    Palantir, of course, answers this call. It combines machine learning with military spending, data-driven “intelligence” with naked violence. This is most clear in its longstanding collaboration with ICE, which is now carrying out notorious immigration raids at the behest of the Trump administration. “On the factory floor, in the operating room, on the battlefield,” states a recent Palantir recruitment ad placed across US college campuses, “we build to dominate.”

    Palantir’s blueprint has been emulated by a growing array of others. Anduril, Skydio and Shield AI are all founded on developing information technologies for military and intelligence use. Last week, Rune Technologies closed a $24 million Series A round of funding to move warfare logistics away from the “Excel era” and towards AI-augmented tools.

    Answering Karp’s call, these startups are unapologetic in leveraging engineering expertise for more substantial, authoritarian and historically controversial areas.

    Playing the scapegoat

    One of the clearest outlines of Thiel’s political philosophy is laid out in the Straussian Moment, a 30-page essay he published in 2007.

    For Thiel, the spectacular violence of the September 11 terrorist attacks was a wake-up call, rousing the citizenry from that “very long and profitable period of intellectual slumber and amnesia that is so misleadingly called the Enlightenment”.

    Curtis Yarvin.
    David Merfield/Wikipedia, CC BY

    In Thiel’s view, the Enlightenment project – to advance knowledge, cultivate tolerance, and elevate humanity as a whole – rested on a naive understanding of human nature. Like Curtis Yarvin and other influential Silicon Valley political thinkers, he asserts that humanity is brutal and a shift from Enlightenment optimism to Dark Enlightenment pessimism is required.

    It is unsurprising, then, that Thiel looks to René Girard (once called “the new Darwin of the human sciences”) for inspiration; he even organised a symposium at Stanford with Girard in attendance. Girard begins from a bleak view of human nature, a Hobbesian world where life is nasty, brutish and short. For Girard, mimesis or imitation is at the heart of the human. This mirroring quality means violence is always threatening to escalate, to constantly ramp up with no inherent limit.

    To corral this violence, ancient cultures created the scapegoat, a sacrificial system where all-against-all was replaced by all-against-one. Yet the scapegoat is no longer viable – the revelation of Christ is that the scapegoat is an innocent victim.

    Thiel takes Girard’s insights and twists them to his own ends. First, Thiel asserts that even if violence begets more violence, nonviolence is not an option. Enemies must not be allowed to prevail. In the face of uncompromising adversaries, such as the 9/11 attackers, who threaten to dismantle some idealised way of life, preemptively responding to violence is “urgently demanded”.

    Second, Thiel takes the concept of the scapegoat and flips it. In this judo-like manoeuvre, the real victims are not the marginalised or the minority, but the hegemonic class (whites, males, liberals, conservatives), who are being pressured by cancel culture, political correctness, diversity initiatives and so on.

    Shortly after graduating, Thiel coauthored a book, The Diversity Myth, about alleged political intolerance at Stanford. In it, he rails against a rampant multiculturalism that he claims stifles freedom of speech and derails education and entrepreneurialism. Here, scapegoating is weaponised. It’s mobilised toward a conservative advance in the ongoing cultural wars, which are always also political wars.

    Contradiction or evolution?

    Thiel is a walking paradox. He bemoans cancel culture and political correctness, while waging a highly expensive and clearly personal war to bankrupt a media outlet that offended him. (After Gawker printed the “open secret” of Thiel’s gay status in 2007, Thiel funded lawsuits against them until they were shut down.)

    He calls himself a libertarian, but has founded a company that derives millions in contracts from the bloated budgets of the many military agencies (the National Security Agency, the FBI, the US Army) that now comprise the sprawling state.

    He celebrates capitalism and the free hand of the market, but always stresses that the path to business success rests on establishing monopolies with no real competition. He is a German-born immigrant who actively supports technologies (Palantir) and candidates (Trump) that establish xenophobic environments and seek to deport those deemed “other”. And, most personally, he is both a conservative Republican and an openly gay man.

    At a purely logical level, these elements are incompatible. There is a perceived gap between Thiel’s words and actions, a gulf between his ideologies and his activities. For staunch libertarians at Thiel’s companies, his manoeuvrings at the state level make no sense. For queer scholars, Thiel’s exclusionary rather than liberatory politics mean he is a man who has sex with other men, rather than being gay.

    For these critics, both things cannot be true; therefore, some labels, identities and activities are fake, marginal or impossible. Yet one of Thiel’s many lessons is that contradiction is a strength rather than a weakness.

    Thiel’s philosophy, which journalists have called techno-fascism, recalls philosopher Umberto Eco, who described fascism as a “beehive of contradictions” and “a collage of different philosophical and political ideas”. The radical right, in particular, has no problem mashing together many views that at face value should not fit: scavenger ideologies that are opportunistic in grabbing elements that work for them.

    Instead of contradictions, these hybrid forms need to be understood as evolutions. They are tensions, held within the body and the mind of the subject, that push monolithic frameworks like conservatism beyond their existing limits. Thiel’s power – and his political blueprint for others – is insisting you can be a philosophical entrepreneur, an illiberal patriot, and a queer conservative.

    Luke Munn 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. Friday essay: libertarian tech titan Peter Thiel helped make JD Vance. The Republican kingmaker’s influence is growing – https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-libertarian-tech-titan-peter-thiel-helped-make-jd-vance-the-republican-kingmakers-influence-is-growing-261856

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Retirement Commission – Sorted Money Month kicks off today – boost your emergency savings this August

    Source: Retirement Commission
    The Retirement Commission’s annual Sorted Money Month campaign starts today and is putting the spotlight on emergency savings.

     
    Research has found that 64% of people who had set up an emergency savings fund in the last three months felt confident about their future (almost identical to those with established funds at 65%) in comparison to only 22% of those without a fund. However, 44% of New Zealanders do not have an emergency savings fund, which threatens their financial resilience.
     
    Sorted Personal Financial Lead Tom Hartmann says, “Building up your emergency savings this Sorted Money Month will help you to deal with financial challenges when they arise.” 

    “Having emergency savings in place can be the difference from feeling stressed or sorted when the unexpected happens. It can then be used for a variety of situations, such as trips to the vet, urgent home repairs, car breakdowns, or sudden job loss. Having this financial cushion ensures that you are prepared for life’s uncertainties and can handle them without undue stress.” 
    Alongside the national marketing activity which includes billboards, radio ads and social media, the financial services sector involved with the National Strategy for Financial Capability are hosting events, workshops, and sharing resources aimed at promoting emergency savings and encouraging saving habits. Details of what’s taking place can be found on the Sorted event calendar.    
    Sorted is also hosting two free webinars during Money Month providing independent financial information on starting an emergency savings fund. The first one, ‘Stressed to Sorted – Emergency Savings 101,’ is on 12 August. Then, on 26 August, there’s 
    ‘How an Emergency Fund Can Save Your Life,’ featuring a panel of experts from community and financial organisations sharing their tips on building and keeping emergency savings.
    There’s also a range of in-person events to choose from, including in Auckland Vaiola Pacific Island Budgeting Service: Empowering Pasifika mums event; Tamaki Budgeting: Beating the emergency event, (an Amazing Race-style experience with stations providing information on a range of common emergencies) and Ngā Tāngata Microfinance Trust’s Build Your Buffer event.  
    Waikato events include Kainga Aroha Community House is giving away the chance to win free butter as part of its Money Month event and Waihi Budget Services is offering free pork buns and a chat with a financial mentor every Tuesday in August.
    Tom Hartmann knows that economic conditions are tough for many people.
     
    “But if you can take one action today to protect your future, open an emergency savings account and start regularly putting aside money to help deal with the unexpected,” he says.  
     
    “Having your own emergency money at the ready keeps you from sliding into debt and paying heaps in interest and fees. The more you have saved for the unexpected, the easier it is when things go wrong.”

    About Sorted

    Sorted is a free service run by Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission, the government-funded, independent agency dedicated to helping New Zealanders get ahead financially.  
    As New Zealand’s trusted personal finance site, Sorted has the information needed to tackle debt, plan and budget, save and invest, dial up your KiwiSaver, plan for retirement, protect what’s important, and manage a mortgage. Providing tools, guides and blogs, Sorted can help no matter where you are at when it comes to money.  
    About Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission  
    Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission aims to help New Zealanders to retire with confidence. Retiring with confidence means New Zealanders feel secure they’ll have resources to live and the know-how to make

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Property Market – Doors wide open for first home buyers

    Source: New Zealand Property Report July 2025

    National stock levels drop by almost 2,000 listings for third consecutive month
    Around 60% of new listings on realestate.co.nz priced below the national average asking price

    Latest data from realestate.co.nz shows a steady drain on housing stock is tightening the property pool for buyers across Aotearoa. Stock has fallen by almost 2,000 properties for the third month in a row to 30,430, a 0.4% decline on July last year.

     Stock listed on realestate.co.nz

    Jan-25 

    Feb-25 

    Mar-25 

    Apr-25 

    May-25 

    Jun-25 

    Jul-25 

    32,412 

    35,712 

    36,870 

    35,924 

    34,415 

    32,384 

    30,430

    Vanessa Williams, spokesperson for realestate.co.nz, says despite the seasonal slowdown, buyer demand remains steady, and opportunities are waiting for those ready to act.

    “Although we’re seeing fewer homes coming onto the market, that doesn’t mean buyers have disappeared,” says Williams. “The real estate industry is telling us that vendors who are realistic with their price expectations are selling, and with less competition, it can actually be a smart time to list your property if you’re ready.”

    First home buyers in with a chance

    During July, 58.5% of all properties listed on realestate.co.nz were under $850,000 – well clear of the national average asking price for July of $858,189. Williams says for first home buyers and investors, this represents a window of opportunity before the traditional spring surge.

    “First home buyers have a prime opportunity to look at their options with a solid band of homes listed for under $850,000,” says Williams. “For buyers who have their finances in order and a clear idea of what they’re after, now is a great time to secure a foothold before competition heats up again.”

    Price variation in the regions

    The national average asking price was up 0.6% year-on-year and while this marks continued price stability, several regions showed a different story.

    Asking prices in the West Coast rose 25.3% year-on-year, reaching $500,000 for the first time since January 2025. It is one of just three regions to record growth month-on-month and year-on-year alongside Nelson & Bays, which rose to $874,818 (up 2.6% YoY and 1.0% MoM), and Northland, which increased to $843,362 (up 9.8% YoY and 9.2% MoM).

    In contrast, four regions saw declines both month-on-month and year-on-year, a notable drop from seven regions last month. These included:

    • Central Otago/Lakes District $1,437,577 – down 8.5% YoY and 2.3% MoM
    • Marlborough, $725,377 – down 13.6% YoY and 1.4% MoM
    • Wairarapa $711,778 – down 3.2% YoY and 1.5% MoM
    • Wellington $807,503 – down 3.0% YoY and 2.7% MoM.

    “Nationally, prices are holding steady, but when you zoom in, the picture becomes more dynamic,” says Williams “We’re seeing some standout regional growth which is a clear reminder that every region has its own rhythm, and local conditions matter more than ever.”

    Buyers encouraged to act while stock remains tight

    Despite a decline in total stock there were pockets of the motu to buck the trend. Gisborne (up 35.5% with 123 properties listed) and the West Coast (up 20.6% with 316 properties listed) topped the leaderboard for year-on-year stock growth.

    “We have just 31 days until spring, and traditionally we see a surge of properties come to the market at that time,” says Williams. “For buyers who are ready now, there’s a window of opportunity, especially with so many homes priced below the national average.”

    New listings down year-on-year but realistic pricing gets results

    While the total number of new listings nationally (7,737) was down 4.2% year-on-year, Northland, Gisborne, and Taranaki all showed year-on-year increases of 26.3%, 54.5%, and 34.3%, respectively.

    Williams says while the number of new listings coming onto the market has slowed, vendors who align their price expectations with buyers are more likely to get their sale across the line.

    “As spring approaches, our attention will turn to whether sellers come to the market in greater numbers and how buyers respond. For now, buyers remain active, and the market continues to reward those ready to move, but it will be interesting to see what happens in September as we move into the expected spring surge.”

    About realestate.co.nz

    We’ve been helping people buy, sell, or rent property since 1996. Established before Google, realestate.co.nz is New Zealand’s longest-standing property website and the official website of the real estate industry.

    Dedicated only to property, our mission is to empower people with a property search tool they can use to find the life they want to live. With residential, lifestyle, rural and commercial property listings, realestate.co.nz is the place to start for those looking to buy or sell property.  

    Whatever life you’re searching for, it all starts here.

    Want more property insights?

    Market insights: Search by suburb to see median sale prices, popular property types and tr

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Is Australia becoming a more violent country?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samara McPhedran, Principal Research Fellow, Violence Research and Prevention Program, Griffith University

    Almost every day, it seems we read or hear reports another family is grieving the murder of a loved one in a street brawl, another business owner is hospitalised after trying to fend off armed robbers, or shoppers simply going about their business are confronted by knife-wielding thugs.

    The way media and politicians talk, it seems as if we are in the middle of an unprecedented violent crime crisis.

    But are we?

    The short answer is: no.

    Comparing today with the past

    Although the numbers fluctuate from year to year, Australia is less violent today than in previous years.

    It is difficult to make direct comparisons over decades, because the way crimes are defined and recorded changes (especially for assault).

    Weapons and violence are rarely out of the media cycle in Australia, leading many to fear this country is becoming less safe for everyday people. Is that really the case, though? This is the first story in a four-part series.

    For crimes like domestic violence, the statistics are extremely hard to compare over time but even so, prevalence appears to have declined (although only about half of all women who experience physical and/or sexual violence from their partners seek advice or support).

    However, if we consider homicide and robbery (which have been categorised much the same way over time), the numbers have been falling for decades.

    Yes, knives and bladed weapons have been in the news recently, but this does not mean they are being used more often.

    Reliable, long-term statistics are not always available but the ones we have show the use of weapons has declined over time.

    Interestingly, this seems to have nothing to do with the weapons themselves. For instance, armed robbery and unarmed robbery both rise and fall in about the same way, at about the same time. Homicide follows a similar pattern.

    Not all crimes are reported to police but self-reported statistics show the same trends.

    Relative to ten years ago, Australians now are less likely to say they have experienced physical or threatened face-to-face assault in the previous 12 months.

    Places with greater socioeconomic disadvantage typically experience more violence. In Queensland, for instance, Mt Isa has higher violent crime rates than affluent areas of Brisbane.

    Despite differences between places, there is generally less violence than there used to be.

    Why is violence declining?

    Nobody knows quite why violence is decreasing. This is not just happening in Australia but across many developed nations.

    Suggestions include better social welfare, strong economies, improved education, low unemployment, women’s rights and stable governance. Also, new avenues have opened up that carry less risk than violent crime – such as cyberfraud instead of robbing a bank.

    There is no clear, compelling explanation.

    Yet when we consider Australia’s responses when violence does occur, measures such as bans (for example, on machetes), more police powers and more (or longer) prison sentences have become the fallback.

    Evidence shows these types of reactions achieve little, but in an environment of endless “crisis” it is almost impossible to make good decisions. This is made even harder in circumstances where victims and activists push politicians to implement “feel-good” policies, regardless of how ultimately fruitless those will be.

    Who are the people being violent?

    One thing remains the same: violent crime is primarily committed by younger men (who are also likely to be victims).

    Ethnicity and migration are also recurrent themes. Just as young Italians with switchblades were the focus of moral panic in the 1950s and 60s, migrants from places such as Africa and the Middle East are now held up as a danger.

    Ethnicity/migration history data is not always recorded in crime statistics, but the information we do have suggests a more complex picture.

    Factors such as exposure to warfare and civil strife can certainly play a role in people’s use of violence.

    However, unemployment, poverty, poor education and involvement with drugs and/or gangs tend to play a much larger part.

    Reactions versus reality

    If society is less violent, why are public reactions to violence seemingly becoming more intense?

    Incidents that would have received little attention a decade ago now dominate public debate and single incidents – no matter how rare or isolated – are enough to provoke sweeping legislative and policy changes.

    Violence is political currency. The more the spectre of violence is emphasised and exaggerated, the more power people are willing to give to authorities to do something to fix it.

    This is also about psychology: the better things get, the more sensitive people tend to be to whatever ills remain and resilience can crumble when something bad does happen.

    Pandering to this by rushing to make people feel safer – while politically irresistible – has unintended consequences. When another incident occurs, as it always does, people feel even more vulnerable because they were led to believe the problem had been “fixed”.

    This creates a never-ending cycle of superficial responses while underlying issues are ignored.

    We cannot legislate or politicise our way out of violence. The best responses are ones that identify and address actual root causes and look at the circumstances that surround violence – rather than fixating on the violence itself.

    This means moving away from emotional reactions and taking a clear look at why violence occurs in the first place.

    Until this happens, any further reductions in violence are more likely to be good luck than good management.

    Samara McPhedran has received funding from various Australian and international government grant programs, including the Australian Research Council and Criminology Research Council, for a number of projects relating to violence. She has been appointed to various advisory panels and committees, including as a member of the Queensland Ministerial Advisory Panel on Weapons. She does not receive any financial remuneration or other reward for these activities. She is the Executive Director (Analysis, Policy and Strategy) of the Violence Prevention Institute Australia. She is not, and has never been, a member of any political party. The views expressed are those of the author alone.

    – ref. Is Australia becoming a more violent country? – https://theconversation.com/is-australia-becoming-a-more-violent-country-260102

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Wood fires, warm drinks, hot water bottles: 5 expert tips on how to avoid burns this winter

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Martin, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, School of Biomedical Sciences, Pathology and Laboratory Science, The University of Western Australia

    Alex P/Pexels

    It’s a cold, crisp evening and the air carries a chill that bites. As temperatures drop and houses get colder, we turn to trusted sources of warmth such as wood fires, heaters, hot water bottles and warm drinks.

    But these winter comforts come with the risk of burns.

    Staying warm in winter is important, but so is staying safe. So, a little caution can go a long way to prevent serious injury.

    Let’s start with children

    Young children are naturally curious, and in winter, their explorations often take them dangerously close to sources of heat. One common scenario involves toddlers reaching out to touch a glowing wood-fired heater.

    These are attractive to curious children because they are bright, warm and often within reach. Tragically, these burns can cause significant injuries to small hands and fingers, often requiring long recovery times and specialist care.

    Scalds from hot drinks are also very common in young children. These accidents tend to happen during everyday moments, such as when a parent is trying to juggle a hot drink with a sick, unsettled child on their lap.

    Seasonal colds and viruses mean children often need more comfort and physical contact, increasing the likelihood of accidents. A hot drink, even one that has cooled slightly, can cause deep burns to a child’s skin if spilled.

    In many parts of Australia at this time of year, bonfires, fire pits and campfires become common. Extinguishing a fire with sand may seem safe, but embers underneath can retain enough heat to burn skin hours later.

    Children running in light shoes can be unaware of where a fire has been and step directly onto it, resulting in severe burns to their feet.

    Beware of hot water bottles, wheat bags

    Hot water bottles are one of the most common causes of scalding and burns in both adults and children.

    Hot water bottles can cause scald burns from spills when being filled, can leak or burst if cuddled or rolled on, or cause contact burns if placed directly on the skin. Always check the bottle for wear, use hot tap water instead of boiling water, and keep a layer between the bottle and the skin.

    Wheat bags can also cause burns over winter, particularly when overheated or applied directly to skin without a cover. Rarely, wheat bags have caught fire, especially when overheated or re-heated repeatedly without allowing them to fully cool between use.

    Older people can also be at risk

    Elderly people face a unique set of risks in winter. For some, underlying health issues, such as diabetes or poor circulation, can reduce sensitivity to heat, making them unaware they have been burnt.

    A classic example is burns to the lower legs caused by sitting too close to a bar heater for extended periods. These burns may go unnoticed until they become painful or infected.

    In some cases, financial strain plays a role. Many older adults live on fixed incomes and may hesitate to heat their entire home to save on energy bills. Instead, they may rely on small portable heaters in closed rooms or heated blankets and hot water bottles. These workarounds are cost-effective, but can increase the risk of burns.

    How can I stay safe?

    Burns are preventable injuries. Here’s how to reduce the risk:

    1. use a barrier around heaters to protect exploring hands

    2. keep hot drinks out of reach when holding a child, and consider using mugs with lids for added safety

    3. supervise young children closely around campfires, bonfires and fire pits, and extinguish with water not sand

    4. ensure hot water bottles are in good condition. Never fill a hot water bottle with boiling water, use the hot tap, and do not use if there are signs of wear or damage. Don’t overheat wheat bags

    5. regularly check your heater is safe and is working as it should. Sit at least a metre away.

    When should I seek medical care?

    If a burn happens, run the burn under cool running water for at least 20 minutes, while keeping the person warm. Don’t apply ice, creams or ointments, as they can cause more damage by trapping in the heat. Remove tight clothing or jewellery. Cover the burn with a loose, clean cloth or non-stick dressing.

    Seek medical attention if the burn:

    • is deep, even if the person isn’t in pain

    • is larger than a 20c piece or has blisters

    • involves the airway, face, hands or genitals

    • looks leathery, or there are patches of brown, black or white

    • if the person has trouble breathing.

    Lisa Martin receives funding from Perth Children’s Hospital Foundation, Perron Foundation, The Kids Research Institute, and is employed by The Fiona Wood Foundation.

    – ref. Wood fires, warm drinks, hot water bottles: 5 expert tips on how to avoid burns this winter – https://theconversation.com/wood-fires-warm-drinks-hot-water-bottles-5-expert-tips-on-how-to-avoid-burns-this-winter-261254

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI China: Steps to spur consumption, enhance vitality

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

    A State Council executive meeting presided over by Premier Li Qiang on Thursday called for stepping up efforts to improve the effectiveness of macroeconomic policies, while arranging the implementation of interest subsidies on personal consumption loans and loans to service sector businesses to better stimulate consumption and enhance market vitality.

    As the country’s latest step to boost innovation-driven growth, the State Council executive meeting approved a guideline on deeply implementing the AI Plus initiative, calling for promoting the large-scale, commercial application of artificial intelligence and advancing its accelerated adoption and deep integration across various fields of economic and social development.

    On Thursday, the National Bureau of Statistics released the latest purchasing managers index, or PMI, data, which suggested the necessity to consolidate the resilience of the manufacturing sector and overall economic momentum in the second half of the year.

    Economists called for further reinforcing support for domestic demand and employment, as the nation’s manufacturing activity cooled in July amid unfavorable weather and the traditional off-season. The official PMI for the manufacturing sector stood at 49.3 in July, down from 49.7 in June, the NBS said on Thursday.

    Despite the moderation, high-tech manufacturing continued to gain traction in July, highlighting the vitality of the country’s industrial upgrading and reinforcing the sector’s ability to withstand ongoing external challenges, experts said.

    Wang Qing, chief macroeconomic analyst at Golden Credit Rating International, said, “With both domestic and external demand softening, the manufacturing PMI ended its two-month rebound and declined within the contraction territory in July.”

    The official manufacturing PMI has stayed below the 50 mark that separates expansion from contraction for the fourth consecutive month. In July, the subindex of new orders — a barometer of market demand — dropped to 49.4 from 50.2 in June, while that of new export orders went down to 47.1 from 47.7 in the previous month.

    External headwinds dampened export momentum, while the effect of earlier policies to boost domestic demand started to wane in July, Wang said, adding that high temperatures, heavy rains and flooding in some regions disrupted production.

    Downward pressures on economic growth may intensify in the third quarter, said Wang, who expects additional measures to boost domestic demand as China’s relatively low levels of sovereign debt and inflation have offered ample policy room to offset a slowdown in external demand.

    The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee held a meeting on Wednesday that made arrangements for economic work in the second half, emphasizing that macro policies should continue to exert force and be strengthened at an appropriate time.

    New economic drivers

    Xiong Yi, Deutsche Bank’s chief economist for China, said, “If GDP growth slows faster than expected, a budget deficit increase may become necessary in the fourth quarter.”

    He said he anticipates that the Chinese economy will grow 4.8 percent in 2025, following its strong resilience in the first half of the year.

    According to Xiong, service consumption is expected to become a new driver of economic growth and employment in the second half of the year. China is enhancing its support for service consumption, with a particular focus on cultural tourism, elderly care, healthcare and domestic services.

    Despite the overall decline, the PMI for high-tech manufacturing came in at 50.6 in July, while that for equipment manufacturing was at 50.3, the NBS said, indicating the sectors’ capability to thrive despite challenges.

    For instance, Nantong Haixing Electronics Co, an electronic energy storage materials producer based in Nantong, Jiangsu province, saw its export value exceeding 50 million yuan ($6.95 million) in the first half of 2025, marking a year-on-year increase of 67.23 percent, data from Nanjing Customs showed.

    Jin Wenhui, the head of the company’s foreign trade unit, said that despite intense worldwide competition, sustained investment in innovation has enabled the company to pursue industrial upgrading and remain resilient in a rapidly evolving global landscape.

    Guangdong Greenway Technology Co, a manufacturer of electric motorcycles and bicycles, as well as mobile energy storage systems, based in Dongguan, Guangdong province, shipped its products to more than 80 countries and regions across Europe and the Americas in the first half of the year, according to Huangpu Customs in Guangdong.

    Wu Jing, head of the company’s foreign trade unit, said, “With years of development in lithium battery manufacturing, we’ve steadily increased our supply of high-quality, eco-friendly products amid the global shift toward energy transition, while actively exploring new markets and opportunities overseas.”

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Hong Kong’s economy expands 3.1 percent in Q2

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

    Hong Kong’s economy continued expansion in the second quarter of 2025, with real gross domestic product (GDP) up 3.1 percent year on year, local data showed on Thursday.

    The growth rate picked up from 3 percent registered in the first quarter, according to advance GDP estimates from the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government.

    In breakdown, private consumption expenditure increased by 1.9 percent in real terms over a year earlier, rebounding from a decline of 1.2 percent in the previous quarter.

    On a seasonally adjusted quarter-to-quarter comparison basis, GDP increased by 0.4 percent in real terms from the first quarter.

    A spokesperson for the HKSAR government said that the solid Q2 growth was boosted by strong export performance and improved domestic demand.

    Total exports of goods saw accelerated growth amid resilient external demand, while the bullish local stock market buoyed services export, the spokesperson added.

    Private consumption expenditure resumed moderate growth after four consecutive quarters of decline, supported by sanguine consumer sentiments.

    Looking ahead, steady economic growth in Asia, particularly in the Chinese mainland, as well as the HKSAR government’s policy efforts, will continue to bolster growth, said the spokesperson, while cautioning against potential impacts from U.S. tariff policies and the pace of U.S. interest rate cuts. 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Hong Kong’s economy grows for 10th straight quarter as consumer, investor sentiment perks up

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

    Hong Kong’s economy continued expansion in the second quarter of 2025, the 10th consecutive quarter of growth, as consumer and investor sentiment warmed, local data showed on Thursday.

    Advance estimates from the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government showed that Hong Kong’s real gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 3.1 percent year on year in Q2, picking up from the 3-percent rate registered in the first quarter.

    Analysts and industry insiders said that the solid Q2 growth was boosted by strong export performance and improved domestic demand, pointing to notable economic resilience.

    Total exports of goods measured in national accounts terms recorded an increase of 11.5 percent over a year earlier as external demand retained steam, while bullish local stock market buoyed export of financial and business services, said a spokesperson for the HKSAR government.

    “The strong goods export figure is a result of Hong Kong forging closer ties with the Chinese mainland market as well as other markets around the world. Its role as a global trade hub remains unchanged,” said Liang Haiming, chairman and chief economist of the China Silk Road iValley Research Institute.

    Hong Kong boasts the world’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) market and one of the best-performing stock markets by mid-July. The 52 IPOs raised 124 billion Hong Kong dollars (15.8 billion U.S. dollars) in total.

    Total market capitalization of the Hong Kong bourse came in at 42.7 trillion Hong Kong dollars in the first half of this year, up 33 percent year on year.

    “The rising valuation of Chinese assets showed that global investors appreciate Chinese companies’ ability to innovate,” said Zhao Yang, managing director of CICC Global Institute.

    Another token of renewed investor confidence is capital inflow into the city. The number of registered funds reached 976 as of March 2025, with overall net inflows exceeding 44 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 285 percent.

    “Continued capital inflow, stock market upticks, as well as the HKSAR government’s efforts to land mega events and high value-added tourism, have bolstered consumer sentiment,” said Financial Secretary of the HKSAR government Paul Chan.

    Private consumption expenditure in Q2 increased by 1.9 percent after four consecutive quarters of decline, Thursday’s data showed.

    The long streak of steady GDP growth affirms global confidence toward Hong Kong’s economy and creates a nurturing environment for its economic upgrade, especially in exploring new drivers like green finance, sci-tech innovation and high-end services, said Liang.

    A report released by the HKSAR government on Wednesday showed that Hong Kong’s core competitiveness is solid and new strengths are emerging. 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Apple announces Q3 results with 10 pct revenue increase

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

    Apple on Thursday announced financial results for its fiscal 2025 third quarter that ended on June 28, with quarterly revenue of 94 billion U.S. dollars, up 10 percent year over year.

    The company posted quarterly diluted earnings per share of 1.57 dollars, up 12 percent year over year. Its net income for the quarter increased to 23.43 billion dollars from 21.45 billion dollars a year ago.

    Sales of iPhones rose to 44.58 billion dollars from 39.3 billion dollars a year ago. Its Mac sales increased to 8.05 billion dollars from 7.01 billion dollars a year ago.

    The company’s services income was 27.42 billion dollars, up from 24.21 billion dollars the previous year.

    The sales of wearables, home and accessories products decreased to 7.4 billion dollars from 8.1 billion dollars a year ago.

    “Today Apple is proud to report a June quarter revenue record with double-digit growth in iPhone, Mac and Services and growth around the world, in every geographic segment,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

    “We are very pleased with our record business performance for the June quarter, which generated EPS (earnings per share) growth of 12 percent,” said Kevan Parekh, Apple’s CFO.

    Apple’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of 0.26 dollars per share of the company’s common stock. 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senator Murray Objects to Mike Lee’s Exclusion of Wild Olympics Bill from Public Lands Package, Makes the Case for Her Bill to Permanently Protect Wild Olympics

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray

    ICYMI: Senator Murray & Representative Randall Reintroduce Wild Olympics Bill to Permanently Protect Wild Olympics Wilderness and Rivers

    ***WATCH: Senator Murray’s remarks on Senate Floor***

    Washington, D.C. —Today,U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, blocked an attempt on the Senate floor by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) to pass a package of public lands bills that excluded Senator Murray’s Wild Olympics Wilderness & Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, legislation with widespread grassroots support in Washington state from a broad coalition that includes Republican and Democratic elected officials, local businesses and economic leaders, Tribes, hunters, fisherman, conservationists, outdoor industry groups, farms, loggers, and countless others. Senator Murray made clear she would be glad to consider a revised package that did include her Wild Olympics legislation.

    The Wild Olympics Wilderness & Wild and Scenic Rivers Act would permanently protect more than 126,500 acres of Olympic National Forest as wilderness and 19 rivers and their major tributaries—a total of 464 river miles—as Wild and Scenic Rivers. Designed through extensive community input to conserve ancient forests and pristine rivers, protect clean water and salmon habitat, and enhance outdoor recreation, the legislation would set aside the first new wilderness on Olympic National Forest in over four decades and the first-ever protected wild and scenic rivers on the Olympic Peninsula. Senator Murray most recently reintroduced the legislation alongside Representative Emily Randall (D, WA-06) in May. The legislation has passed the House with bipartisan support several times before and passed the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last Congress for the first time in the bill’s history.

    Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered on the Senate Floor, are below:

    “Mr. President, reserving the right to object, and I appreciate the senator from Utah being here tonight to offer this package. But I believe there needs to be a more bipartisan and thoughtful way to consider how we protect the future of our public lands.

    “For example, the legislation that the senior senator from Utah wants to pass tonight does not include my Wild Olympics bill. Now, this is a bill that will help to preserve the wild and scenic rivers of the Olympic Peninsula, that has very strong support from Democrats and Republicans in my state.

    “There is a strong nonpartisan coalition of support for this bill: from Tribes, hunters, fisherman, conservationists, and even loggers.

    “And that is because my bill supports the Peninsula economy, and ensures continued access to our world-class outdoor recreation on the Olympic Peninsula, and it conserves critical habitat for salmon and water resources for our very rural communities.

    “Moreover, this bill has passed the House several times now with bipartisan support. In fact, Mr. President, I have been working on this for well over a decade to build support and consensus around this bill.

    “It is a carefully drafted, it’s a thoughtful piece of legislation and the grassroots support for this bill has only grown over the years. That is exactly the kind of bill which should be included in a bipartisan public lands package.

    “I would invite the Senior Senator of Utah to visit the land this bill covers to help protect our Olympic National Forest. I think you would find out why I am here tonight objecting to this because it doesn’t include it.  I want the senator from Utah to know, my door is always open.

    “I hope in the future we can work together in drafting a public lands bill that does include legislation like my Wild Olympics bill.

    “And I know I’m not alone—many of our colleagues have worked on important legislation for their respective states.

    “So for now, I object, but I do, Mr. President, with my hand outstretched ready to work with the senator together on a public lands package that is comprehensive.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senate Appropriations Committee Approves Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Bills

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray

    Committee approves Defense funding bill in a 26-3 vote — BILL SUMMARY HERE

    Committee approves LHHS bill in a 26-3 vote — BILL SUMMARY HERE

    ***WATCH and READ: Senator Murray’s opening remarks***

    Washington, D.C. – Today, the Senate Appropriations Committee met for a full committee markup to consider its draft fiscal year 2026 Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations acts.

    “These are not the bills I would have written on my own—but they nevertheless represent serious bipartisan work to make some truly critical investments in families and our country’s future. From defense funding that supports our military and keeps our country safe to funding for health care, child care, schools, seniors, medical research, public health, workforce training and safety—and so many other programs that keep our communities strong,” said Vice Chair Patty Murray in her opening remarks. “So I’m glad this Committee was able to reach a bipartisan compromise to write bills that deliver essential funds to help people, solve problems, and reject so many of the absolutely devastating cuts and so much of the chaos that President Trump is pushing for.”

    Speaking on the path ahead for appropriations, Senator Murray said: “It remains clear as ever to me that we cannot afford to go down the path Trump and Russ Vought want to push us down. Their vision is one where this Committee becomes less bipartisan and less powerful. Where the president and the OMB director call the shots and Republicans in Congress spend their time cutting what they are told to cut, even at the expense of their own constituents. Where instead of securing new investments for folks back home through bipartisan agreements, lawmakers have to plead their case to this administration to unlock funds we’ve already delivered or secure special exceptions for spending cuts. Where biomedical research and education funding gets held up for no reason at all. Where we gut investments in working families while letting Trump’s corruption run rampant.That’s what Trump and Vought want. And we can—and must—reject it.”

    In her opening remarks, Senator Murray also discussed the importance of accountability for this administration as it ignores existing laws and betrays working families nationwide: “I am clear-eyed: the investments we make in these bills today are really only half of the equation. Because the fact of the matter is we have an administration right now that is intent on ignoring Congress, breaking the law, and doing everything it can without any transparency to dismantle programs and agencies that help families. There is no magic bullet that will change that unfortunate reality. Our bills reject devastating cuts—and reject so many of this administration’s absurd proposals—to dismantle the Department of Education, destroy HHS, and more. But I still want to see us to do much more when it comes to demanding accountability, demanding transparency, and demanding the administration actually follow our laws. …. We need more members across the aisle to not only reject these [President Trump’s proposed] cuts but to speak up and speak out against what this administration is already doing to defy our laws and hurt the folks we represent.”

    In a 26-3 vote, the Committee approved the draft fiscal year 2026 Defense appropriations bill.

    “I’m proud of this bipartisan bill. First and foremost, it takes care of our troops with pay raises and quality of life improvements. It also recognizes that we are confronting a world more dangerous today than at any time since the Cold War, and that we all need to sober up, put politics aside, and get to work. This bill focuses on deterring China, and it strengthens our allies—our asymmetric advantage worldwide—from Ukraine to the Pacific to Africa. The strong bipartisan vote is also a powerful rebuke to Trump’s idea that we can run our national security apparatus, or any other part of our nation, on full-year continuing resolutions. I am committed to completing the appropriations process and getting all 12 of these bills across the finish line,” said Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), ranking member of the Defense Subcommittee.

    “Thank you, Chair McConnell and Ranking Member Coons, for working to put together a bill that makes crucial investments in our military—and not just in weapons and infrastructure, though we do have important investments to modernize our military and strengthen our defense base, but we also have investments to support our allies and strengthen partnerships across globe,” said Vice Chair Murray in comments on the bill. “This bill makes crucial investments in the Indo-Pacific, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East—and it rejects dangerous Trump cuts to support our allies in Ukraine and the Baltics. And this legislation invests in our most important security asset: our brave men and women in uniform—from a pay increase for servicemembers to robust child care funding to new investments in preventing suicide, and sexual assault, and conducting lifesaving medical research.”

    The following amendments to the bill were considered during today’s mark up:

    • Manager’s package offered by Chair McConnell.
      • Adopted unanimously.
    • Shaheen amendment to prevent the use of taxpayer funds appropriated in this or any other act from being used to operate or modify a Boeing 747-8i from Qatar.
      • Debated; withdrawn.
    • Durbin amendment to prohibit DOD from providing support to DHS on a non-reimbursable basis to conduct immigration enforcement—ensuring that funds provided by Congress for our national defense are used for our national defense.
      • Republicans rejected the amendment in a 15-14 party line vote.
    • Murphy amendment to prevent the transfer of any presidential aircraft to a non-governmental entity—ensuring President Trump cannot take the plane gifted by Qatar with him after leaving office and the plane cannot be transferred to a future Trump presidential library.
      • Republicans rejected the amendment in a 15-14 party line vote.
    • Merkley amendment to require DOD to produce a report on the use of the chemical 6PPD in the design and production of tires procured by DOD—with a listing of any relevant DOD initiatives researching potential alternatives.
      • Adopted by voice vote.
    • Merkley amendment to prohibit funds provided in any fiscal year 2026 appropriations act from being eligible for rescissions or deferrals under the Impoundment Control Act’s fast-track procedures, ensuring they can only be considered through annual appropriations bills.
      • Republicans rejected the amendment in a 15-14 party line vote.

    A summary of the bill is available HERE.

    Final bill text, report, and adopted amendments are available HERE.

    In a 26-3 vote, the Committee approved the draft fiscal year 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill.

    “At the end of the day, my North Star is delivering for the people of Wisconsin. While no one got everything they wanted in this bill, I’m proud to say we found common ground and are doing just that to address the challenges facing working families across the country. From investing in cancer and Alzheimer’s research, to protecting the Department of Education and early education funding, to strengthening my 988 Suicide Lifeline, we came together to deliver for our constituents. This bill not only puts Donald Trump’s budget in the trash, it also reins in this President’s efforts to dismantle and withhold funding for critical programs our constituents rely on. This bill takes on the kitchen table issues families face by addressing childcare costs, connecting more Americans with good-paying jobs, and taking on the mental health and opioid epidemics. While it is not perfect, I look forward to getting it over the finish line on behalf of Wisconsinites who want to see a Washington that works for them,” said Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Ranking Member of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee.

    “This bill rejects Trump’s cuts that would devastate our work to fight substance use disorders, HIV, and pandemics, eliminate women’s health investments like Title X funding and the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program and essentially saw CDC in half. It rejects backward proposals from Trump that would hurt our students and workers—like eliminating preschool grants, slashing PELL, gutting public school funding, and ending Job Corps and AmeriCorps. It rejects efforts to gut agencies that protect the rights of patients, students, and workers. And, I’m especially pleased to note it rejects Trump’s 40% cut to lifesaving medical research—and increases the NIH budget by $400 million so that we continue making progress against cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and so much more,” Vice Chair Murray said in comments on the bill. “At the end of the day, this isn’t about rejecting Trump, it is about investing in families—investing in schools, investing in medical research, investing in workforce training, and community health. In fact, this bill even increases funding for crucial programs with new investments to allow the Social Security Administration to actually help people and undo some of the damage Trump and DOGE have so recklessly caused—and increased investments in child care, something I will never stop fighting to make more progress on.”

    The following amendments to the bill were considered during today’s mark up:

    • Manager’s package offered by Chair Capito.
      • Adopted unanimously.
    • Baldwin amendment to restore funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) after Republicans single-handedly rescinded funding for CPB earlier this month.
      • Debated; withdrawn.
    • Durbin amendment to reinstate grants and other awards that have been terminated by the Trump administration at agencies—like NIH—that are funded by the bill—and to require disbursements to be made to payees within 72 hours of a request. The amendment contains an exception for cases of a finding of financial mismanagement, fraud, or malfeasance.
      • Republicans rejected the amendment in a 15-14 party line vote.
    • Hyde Smith amendment to require CMS to notify the Committee, conduct an analysis, and consult with States prior to terminating critical access hospital (CAH) status for any hospital that met certain distance requirements prior to the 2022 CMS rulemaking. Senator Durbin and Appropriations Democrats voiced support for updating the amendment to provide better support for all rural hospitals, not just those impacted by the 2022 rules.
      • Adopted in a 16-13 vote.
    • Van Hollen amendment to claw back the $100 million slush fund Republicans provided for Russ Vought’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in their reconciliation bill earlier this month and instead provide $95 million for the Social Security Administration to improve customer service for Americans seeking to access the benefits they are owed.
      • Republicans rejected the amendment in a 15-14 party line vote.
    • Murphy amendment to withhold funds from the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights until the Department’s Inspector General certifies that all enforcement actions taken against colleges since January 20 are in accordance with existing laws. Since taking office, President Trump has withheld federal funding from colleges over claims of discrimination on campuses and other infractions. Instead of following established procedures under civil rights laws to thoroughly investigate such claims, President Trump continues to withhold federal funding from certain colleges unless they submit to his administration’s demands.
      • Republicans rejected the amendment in a 15-14 party line vote.

    A summary of the bill is available HERE.

    Final bill text, report, Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) projects, and adopted amendments are available HERE.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: From Coast to Coast, Americans Are Seeing the Benefits of President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill

    Source: US Whitehouse

    Americans will see the benefits of President Donald J. Trump’s landmark One Big Beautiful Bill for years to come through historic tax relief, strengthened public programs, secure borders, military investments, and much more.

    Here is some of what is being written in local news outlets across the country:

    KCRG-TV (Cedar Rapids, IA): Small businesses say ‘no tax on tips’ a step in the right direction

    “Some business owners in eastern Iowa say new ‘no tax on tips’ provisions will help grow local businesses … It’s a relief some businesses say will make a huge difference with their employees.

    ‘More money in their pocket which will mean more money in the community,’ said Crystal Blin. Blin owns 319 social house, a bowling alley in Independence. She said small businesses can struggle to recruit employees against bigger companies, but no tax on tips means higher take home pay, which could help close the gap. …

    Some view no tax on tips as a reinvestment in their workers and a way to offer some stability. ‘In the service industry too, you’re always constantly worried about what that end of the year number is going to be, and now with this we kind of have some relief with that,’ said Cora Krueger. Krueger is the assistant general manager of Denali’s on the River … ‘The more money we can put in our employees pockets, that means that they can take those dollars and support our local community and surrounding communities,’ Blin said.”

    WENY-TV (Elmira, NY): Seniors Get a Boost: What to Know about the New Senior Tax Break Included in “One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act”

    “A new tax break is heading to seniors’ wallets. It comes in the form of a new deduction tucked into the ‘One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act,’ recently signed into law by President Donald Trump … Starting next year, the IRS is cutting many retirees a bit more slack. Under the new law, individuals age 65 and older can claim an additional $6,000 deduction—on top of the existing standard senior deduction. Married couples where both qualify? That’s a $12,000 tax break.”

    KSTP-TV (Saint Paul, MN): How the new US federal government $1,000 ‘baby bonus’ can help children

    “President Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ includes a new savings plan for children with a one-time deposit of $1,000 from the federal government for newborns … For new parents, it’s being called a ‘baby bonus.’ Every baby born this year, next year, and in 2027 will get the bonus, which parents can add to the account.”

    The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, NC): How the “Big Beautiful Bill” boosts QSBS benefits for startup employees and founders

    “The new GOP budget legislation includes a massive win for startup employees and founders: dramatically expanded Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) benefits that could save qualifying investors from paying 28% capital gains taxes on millions of dollars in returns. The changes increase the maximum tax exclusion from $10 million to $15 million while allowing partial benefits after just three years instead of the current five-year minimum.”

    WCMH-TV (Columbus, OH): Anduril, the company behind Ohio’s new megaproject, favored in ‘Big Beautiful Bill’

    “As Anduril Industries ambitiously hopes to open its central Ohio-based drone and vehicular weapons manufacturing plant by July 2026, the defense systems manufacturer is already securing business. Trump’s new government spending bill allocates several billion dollars to border security and includes favorable policies for Anduril.”

    Anchorage Daily News (Anchorage, AK): Alaska has the chance to seize prosperity with the Big Beautiful Bill

    “These investments strengthen Alaska’s role in domestic energy production and in Arctic policy. At a time when global energy markets are uncertain and international competition is increasing, this legislation ensures Alaska is part of the solution. It’s also worth emphasizing that the bill doesn’t relax standards or bypass environmental oversight. It supports development within existing regulatory frameworks and honors Alaska’s history of balancing economic activity with environmental responsibility.”

    Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Forth Worth, TX): Trump signs ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ into law. How much money will Texans save?

    “Right now, taxpayers can deduct up to $10,000 in state and local taxes from their federal income tax bill. The One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act raises that to $40,000 for 2025. The amount will go up 1% each year in 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029. There are additional limitations for people earning more than $500,000 a year.”

    Startland News (Kansas City, MO): KC Tech Council celebrates tax fix in Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ that boosts growing businesses

    “A tax fix included in the recently signed ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ — sprawling legislation meant to overhaul taxes in the United States — marks a major win for Kansas City’s tech and innovation economy, said Kara Lowe. At issue: a long-awaited change to Section 174 research and development expensing that now allows businesses to fully and permanently expense such investments, explained Lowe, CEO of KC Tech Council, which championed the fix alongside TECNA (Technology Councils of North America).”

    WCAU-TV (Philadelphia, PA): Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ locks in key tax breaks for homeowners—here’s what to know

    “President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill revives and expands homeowner tax breaks — while making the current mortgage interest deduction cap permanent. The $750,000 limit on deductible mortgage debt ($375,000 for single filers) had been set to expire after 2025 and revert to the previous $1 million cap. Under the new law, that change is off the table.

    The bill also temporarily raises the SALT deduction cap from $10,000 to $40,000 per household for tax years 2025 through 2029, with a phaseout beginning at $500,000 of income in 2025. The deduction cap reverts to $10,000 in 2030. The change could be especially impactful for homeowners in high-tax states like New York, New Jersey and California, where deductible state and local taxes often exceed the previous $10,000 cap.”

    The Orange County Register (Irvine, CA): Big Beautiful bill delivers win for HSAs

    “Starting Jan. 1, 2026, Americans enrolled in Bronze or Catastrophic Affordable Care Act plans may contribute to HSAs — around 7.3 million people who previously lacked access in 2025. The bill also allows HSA funds to pay for direct primary care memberships — modernizing how Americans can save for and manage health care expenses — and makes permanent the ability of high-deductible health plans to waive the deductible for telehealth visits.”

    KARK-TV (Little Rock, AR): New federal budget includes relief for Arkansas farmers

    “Reference prices — set federal rates that trigger support payments when market prices drop — are one of the most relied-on tools in the farm safety net. For Arkansas rice producers, who say they’ve been using outdated prices from 2012, the new adjustment is expected to make a meaningful difference in margins.

    ‘We hope that this gives us some stability and some consistency where we can make better decisions,’ Coker said. ‘That affects everything — labor, equipment, fertilizer — it all depends on what we can afford.’”

    The Tennessean (Nashville, TN): Big Beautiful Bill includes tax credit for school vouchers: Here’s how much, how it works

    “As an example, if someone donates $1,000, they can later receive a $1,000 credit on their federal tax return, so long as they itemize their tax return and have a tax liability to apply the credit toward. That means the federal government absorbs the cost of the scholarships, essentially making them federal school vouchers.

    The tax credit far outweighs the benefits of a typical tax-deductible, charitable donation. At most, people are allowed to deduct 50% of their adjusted gross income for charitable donations, according to the IRS. In some cases 20% and 30% limits apply.

    ‘This is an unprecedented tax break, at the federal level,’ he said. ‘It’s just a super-sized incentive.’”

    Antelope Valley Press (Los Angeles, CA): President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is a step ahead for America

    “President Donald Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ is the latest political victory in an action-packed first six months in office. The bill restores some good governance that protects taxpayers and citizens and is a huge boost to working families and entrepreneurs. The bill should increase prosperity and start to slow our unsustainable growth in government spending.”

    MageeNews.com (Mendenhall, MS): The “OBBB” Puts Americans and Farmers First

    “For working Americans including our farmers, ranchers and landowners, the OBBB was and is a series of HUGE ‘wins.’ Perhaps the greatest win was the significant tax relief delivered to all hardworking Americans. Recognizing that ‘Farm Security is National Security,’ these wins through the OBBB will strengthen our American producers for years – for generations – of future farm families.”

    The Berkeley Independent (Summerville, SC): 529 updates in ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ give families even more flexibility for educational savings

    “As administrator of South Carolina’s Future Scholar 529 Plan, I’m happy to share that the recent passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act spells good news for South Carolina families who are using tax-advantaged 529 savings plans to save for their children’s education. The bill expands qualified uses for 529 funds, providing greater flexibility for families and making an already effective program even more beneficial.”

    Agweek (Fargo, ND): ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ enhances farm program safety net

    “The large reconciliation bill, or the so-called ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ was passed by Congress and signed into law in early July … there are some adjustments and enhancements in the legislation that could be very beneficial to farmers, including increased reference prices and improved crop insurance provisions. … Approximately 90% of the added funding for ag-related programs in the reconciliation bill is targeted to farm ‘safety net’ programs, such as PLC, ARC-CO, crop insurance, and the Dairy Margin Coverage Program.”

    Sen. Marsha Blackburn (The Chronicle of Mt. Juliet, Mt. Juliet, TN): One Big Beautiful Bill is a victory for American people

    “On Independence Day, President Trump made history. He signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill—a once-in-a-generation victory that fulfills his promise to Make America Great Again. By providing the largest tax cut in our nation’s history, it will supercharge our economy. Tennessee households will save an average of $2,600 in taxes next year and see an average annual take-home pay increase of over $10,000. With the largest-ever investment in border security, it empowers the Department of Homeland Security to complete President Trump’s border wall and hire thousands of new Border Patrol agents. It also bolsters our military, enacts common-sense permitting reforms to make America energy dominant again and eliminates hundreds of billions of dollars in far-left, Green New Deal spending, putting our nation on a more sustainable fiscal path.”

    Sen. Katie Britt (The Alexander City Outlook, Alexander City, AL): The one big beautiful bill delivers for Alabama

    “There’s been a lot of national conversation about how transformational this bill is. But let’s talk about what it means for Alabama. To start, Alabamians can expect to keep more of their hard-earned money because of this bill. We extended President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and, as a result, prevented the largest tax hike in modern history. Alabama families were staring down an average of a $2,200 tax increase—we made sure that didn’t happen. We made sure to take care of our seniors as well, who will now be able to deduct up to $6,000 – $12,000 for couples filing jointly – from their taxes annually.”

    Sen. Mike Crapo (The Post Register, Idaho Falls, ID): A stronger future for Idahoans

    “Responsibility to Idaho taxpayers: The law also achieves the most significant spending reductions in history by slashing Green New Deal spending, eliminating tax loopholes, and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in federal spending programs. When combined with the pro-growth elements of President Trump’s economic agenda, the Council of Economic Advisers estimates the United States will achieve nearly $4.5 trillion in deficit reduction over ten 10 years.”

    Sen. Steve Daines (Clark Fork Valley Press, Plains, MT): Big Beautiful Bill is a win for Montana

    “President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is a tremendous win for Montana. It will spur economic growth, strengthen border security as well as expand Montana’s energy sector and provide much-needed funding for our military. And thanks to the diligent work of the entire Montana congressional delegation, we defeated attempts to sell our public lands.”

    Sen. Deb Fischer (Syracuse Journal-Democrat, Syracuse, NE): How the One Big, Beautiful Bill Delivers Tax Relief to Nebraska Families

    “When Americans went to the polls last November, they sent a clear message. They want a government that prioritizes safer neighborhoods, more affordable energy, and real economic relief — especially for working families. Earlier this month, Congress responded with a tangible solution. We stopped a $4 trillion tax hike and advanced a law that locks in the economic policies that have helped families and small businesses thrive. This new law cements the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) into permanent policy, preserving critical tax benefits for families across the country. For the average Nebraska household, that means $2,400 a year in savings — money that can help pay for groceries, utilities, or a child’s education.”

    Rep. Ken Calvert (The Desert Sun, Palm Springs, CA): Tax Relief on the way for Coachella Valley taxpayers

    “The Coachella Valley is home to a unique mix of residents, including large populations of retired senior citizens and employees who support the region’s tourism economy. Despite the different demographics of these two groups, they will both see targeted benefits from the recent working family tax law I voted to pass earlier this month. Retired Americans who live on a fixed income rely heavily on the Social Security and Medicare benefits. Protecting those benefits is a top priority for our seniors – and it’s one of my top priorities, too. I promised the seniors I represent that I would not cut their benefits, and the recent tax and spending bill that was signed into law honors that commitment. There are no cuts to either Social Security or Medicare benefits in the bill.”

    Rep. Jeff Crank (The Colorado Springs Gazette, Colorado Springs, CO): Why I voted in favor of the One Big, Beautiful Bill

    “The One Big, Beautiful Bill, some of the most conservative legislation worked on in Congress, delivers the largest tax cuts in American history, ensures no tax on tips or overtime, protects Medicaid for our nation’s most vulnerable, increases defense spending, secures our borders and more. The bill promises a prosperous future for our country, yet there are some who continue to promote falsehoods about what this bill does. As the Representative for Colorado’s 5th Congressional District, it is my duty to outline why I voted for this bill. Let’s get this straight: the One Big, Beautiful Bill protects the Medicaid system for the most vulnerable and those that truly need it; benefits for pregnant women, children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities would see no changes with their Medicaid plans.”

    Rep. Randy Feenstra (The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, IA): ’Big Beautiful Bill’ grows our economy

    “For farmers and small businesses, the ‘One, Big, Beautiful Bill’ protects millions of smaller operations and businesses from excessive taxation by raising the death tax exemption. These entities also will benefit from doubled small business expensing, immediate R & D expensing, and deductions on qualified business income. It also increases reference prices for corn and soybeans, strengthens crop insurance, and fully funds foreign animal disease prevention, mitigation, and response.”

    Rep. Brett Guthrie (The Owensboro Messenger and Inquirer, Owensboro, KY): Here’s the truth: The One Big Beautiful Bill actually strengthens Medicaid

    “The Medicaid provisions included in the One, Big Beautiful Bill ensure our most vulnerable Americans continue receiving the support they need. It strengthens the program by removing deceased recipients from the Medicaid rolls, requiring states to conduct more frequent eligibility checks for the expansion population, ensuring that individuals are not enrolled in multiple states and enacting commonsense work requirements for able-bodied Americans who choose not to work. Additionally, our bill expands access to Home and Community Based Services for low-income seniors and individuals living with a disability.”

    Rep. Lisa McClain (The Detroit News, Detroit, MI): Big Beautiful Bill is a win for Michiganians

    “This landmark legislation combines common-sense reforms with bold investments in our communities. At its heart, the bill is about rebuilding the American dream from the ground up; making it more affordable to live, work and raise a family in Michigan. Whether you’re running a small business, working long shifts at a restaurant or raising kids, this bill will make your life better.”


    Rep. Tom Tiffany (Wausau Pilot & Review, Wausau, WI): What the One Big Beautiful Bill means for you

    “The bill also raises the Child Tax Credit to $2,200 per child and establishes a $1,000 investment account for American newborns, helping give every child a head start. It also supports working parents by expanding the Employer-Provided Child Care Credit, encouraging more businesses to offer affordable child care.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Facing Earthquakes and Extremes, Asia-Pacific Deepens Disaster Cooperation Incheon, Republic of Korea | 01 August 2025 Issued by the APEC Emergency Preparedness Working Group The meeting’s agenda covered digital-based disaster risk management strategies, community leadership in disaster response and strengthening multi-layered governance.

    Source: APEC – Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation

    A powerful earthquake off the coast of Kamchatka jolted the Asia-Pacific just hours before emergency officials from APEC economies convened in Incheon for the 21st meeting of the APEC Emergency Preparedness Working Group (EPWG), a timely reminder of how disasters can ripple across the region without warning.

    “Disasters know no borders, and they affect not only local communities but have long-term consequences for entire economies,” said Kim Gwang-yong, Vice Minister of Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety, in his welcome address. “Cooperation and solidarity among APEC economies are more important than ever.”

    Vice Minister Kim highlighted Korea’s recent experiences with typhoons, heavy rainfall and wildfires, noting that the country has continuously improved its disaster management systems. 

    He also emphasized Korea’s commitment to sharing these best practices with fellow APEC economies and expanding cooperation in ICT-based early warning systems, disaster prediction models using artificial intelligence (AI), and community-centered disaster resilience strategies.

    The meeting’s agenda covered digital-based disaster risk management strategies, community leadership in disaster response and strengthening multi-layered governance. 

    Experts and officials discussed enhancing early warning systems, leveraging big data and satellite technologies and developing resilient infrastructure that can support disaster-affected communities. 

    Sessions also focused on advancing collaborative governance, bridging gaps in disaster risk management, and preparing communities for emerging risks.

    EPWG co-chair Dayra Carvajal of the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency, urged members to recognize the compounding risks affecting the region’s interconnected systems. 

    “From devastating earthquakes to wildfires and catastrophic flooding, this year has once again underscored the interconnected impacts of disasters in Asia-Pacific,” she said. “These compounding stressors that ripple through shared infrastructure remind us that events in one economy are frequently felt elsewhere.”

    “This year, we must endeavor to identify concrete and practical ways in which to strengthen the systems that sustain regional economic growth and prosperity: our infrastructure, markets and supply chains.”

    The agenda featured project updates and best practice exchanges by member economies including on topics such as disaster risk prediction and whole-community preparedness in urban, coastal and inland areas. Delegates examined how to bridge gaps in early warning systems, scale agile and adaptable governance across central and local levels and enable technology-driven disaster leadership.

    “The more we prepare, the more we can reduce disaster damage. And the more we cooperate, the stronger our response can become,” Vice Minister Kim concluded.

    Looking ahead, the group emphasized that continued collaboration under the newly launched EPWG Strategic Plan 2025–2027 will be essential to turn this momentum into durable systems of protection and preparedness. 

    The EPWG meeting is a key platform for promoting APEC’s vision of a resilient and prosperous future, with discussions expected to result in actionable policies and collaborative projects that can mitigate disaster risks, enhance regional preparedness and protect the lives and livelihoods of the 2.9 billion people who call the APEC region home.

    For more information or media inquiries, please contact:
    [email protected]

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Grassley Questions Treasury Nominee on Biofuels, Wind and Solar Provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Iowa Chuck Grassley

    WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a senior member and former chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, today questioned Treasury Department nominee Derek Theurer on the implementation of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

    Grassley asked whether Theurer would advise the Treasury Department to maintain its longstanding interpretation of “began construction.” Grassley requested a timeline on formal guidance for implementing the clean fuels tax credit to provide Iowa’s biofuels industry greater certainty.

    Grassley also questioned Bryan Switzer, nominee to be Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, about America’s trade balance with China. 

    [embedded content]

    VIDEO

    On Wins on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

    The One Big Beautiful Bill was an historic achievement. We averted the largest tax increase in history. It made pro-growth business provisions permanent. It unlocked business investment that will create jobs. The bill also provides additional middle-class tax relief.

    Implementing the Bill as Congress Intended

    As Treasury works to implement the bill, the agency must work with members to ensure the provisions are implemented according to the statute and faithful to congressional intent.

    So, the first question is a very general one. Can we count on you to keep Congress well informed during the implementation process and consult with [relevant] members of Congress where questions arise as to what was congressional intent?

    Wind and Solar Provisions, 45Z Implementation

    There are several provisions that I’m particularly interested in, in seeing faithfully implemented. This includes the structure of the phase-out for the wind and solar credits and modifications to the Clean Fuels Production Credit. And, remember, you’re talking to the father of the Wind Energy Tax Credit.

    I worked with my colleagues to provide wind and solar an appropriate glide path for the orderly phase-out of the tax credits. Ultimately, Congress enshrined in statute a 12-month transition period based on when projects “begin construction.”

    What it means for a project to “begin construction” has been very well established by Treasury guidance for more than a decade. Moreover, Congress specifically references current Treasury guidance to set that term’s meaning in law. It seems to me, this is a case where both the law and congressional intent are very, very clear.

    So, Mr. Theurer, will you commit to advising the Department that both the law and congressional intent are clear and that the “beginning of construction” – those official words – means what it has meant for more than a decade?

    Impact of the Clean Fuels Credit on Biofuels

    The reconciliation bill includes an extension and modification of [the] Clean Fuel[s] Production Tax Credit under 45Z. Implementing this credit properly and quickly is important for the biofuels industry and its participants, especially farmers. The Biden administration failed to meaningfully address 45Z regulations, which has caused major market disruptions, including plant closures.

    When can we expect to see guidance formally implementing the clean fuels credit so the biofuels industry can confidently move forward with operations?

    America’s Trade Balance with China

    You will be handling areas of international trade, and I’m interested in China. Based on your personal history, you know how challenging this will be. Do you think that the whole United States economy needs to decouple completely from China, or only certain sectors of our economy?

    -30-

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI China: SCO summit poised for fruitful outcomes

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

    This aerial view taken on June 16, 2023 shows a view of north China’s Tianjin Municipality. [Photo/Xinhua]

    The upcoming summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Tianjin will mark the largest gathering the SCO has ever seen, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Thursday, highlighting China’s readiness to host a summit of friendship, unity and fruitful results.

    The SCO Summit, which is scheduled for Aug 31 and Sept 1, will bring together leaders of more than 20 countries and heads of 10 international organizations, spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a regular news conference.

    China, which assumed the SCO’s rotating presidency in July 2024, will work with other member states to ensure the summit yields rich outcomes and injects more solidarity, coordination and vitality into the organization, Guo said.

    Looking back on the year, he said that China has made concrete efforts to advance its work as the SCO chair and achieved progress.

    China has hosted more than 100 events as the SCO chair, he said, adding that nearly half of them were institutional and covered multiple areas such as politics, security, economy and trade, investment, energy, the digital economy and people-to-people exchanges.

    These events strengthened solidarity and mutual trust among SCO countries, and allowed them to learn more from each other and achieve win-win outcomes, Guo said.

    China has worked with other member states to advance SCO reform and innovation in various fields to ensure smoother and more efficient operation of the organization, he added.

    Member states are accelerating consultations regarding the establishment of a comprehensive center for dealing with security threats and challenges, an information security center, a center for fighting transnational organized crime and a counternarcotics center, in order to build a new paradigm for regional security cooperation, the spokesman said.

    Over the past year, the SCO has further promoted the “Shanghai Spirit”, Guo said, noting that the organization has spoken up about major international and regional issues to uphold justice, firmly upheld the multilateral trading system and strongly condemned the abuse of armed force.

    The “Shanghai Spirit”, which is an underlying value for the SCO, promotes mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diversity of civilizations and pursuit of common development.

    In mid-July, foreign ministers of the 10 SCO member states and officials of the organization gathered in Tianjin to make preparations for the summit.

    Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who hosted that meeting, called for the organization to carry forward the “Shanghai Spirit” and strengthen cooperation to boost security and growth.

    Wang, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, encouraged all member states to get along well with each other and uphold international justice.

    Zhao Huirong, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies, said that China has made significant contributions to the development of the SCO, and the more than 100 events the country hosted over the past year reflect the great importance it attaches to the organization.

    Noting that the SCO is expected to adopt a strategy in Tianjin guiding its development through 2035, Zhao said the summit will become a historical moment for the organization. It will also help the SCO better address its member states’ call for cooperation to tackle international and regional challenges, she added.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Enduring legacy of anti-Japanese guerrilla base in northeast China

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

    Meng Qingxu, leader of the Hongshilazi Site excavation team, introduces a historical site at the ancient forests of Hongshilazi in Panshi City, northeast China’s Jilin Province, June 26, 2025. (Xinhua/Yan Linyun)

    Winding through the ancient forests of Hongshilazi in Panshi City, northeast China’s Jilin Province, wooden boardwalks overlook faint semi-subterranean house foundations, the remnants of a secret network once housing a field hospital, arsenal and command post for the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army.

    In the autumn of 1932, 27-year-old Communist Party of China (CPC) member Ma Shangde, under the alias Zhang Guanyi, arrived in the dense forests of Hongshilazi, which means “red rocks.” His mission was urgent and perilous: to unite scattered anti-Japanese militias into a single front against the formidable invaders. He carried a rallying cry that echoed through the trees, clear, simple and powerful: “Chinese don’t fight Chinese; save the bullets for the enemies.”

    He reorganized Panshi’s anti-Japanese volunteer forces into the South Manchuria Guerrilla Force of the CPC-led Red Army, achieving several victories against enemy encirclement and suppression campaigns. As one of the founders and key leaders of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, Ma would later be immortalized by history under his heroic name: General Yang Jingyu.

    These mountains, once the frontlines of guerrilla resistance, now tell a different story. As the CPC’s first anti-Japanese base in northeast China, Hongshilazi and the wider Panshi region have transformed from battlegrounds into a thriving hub of “red tourism,” where history lives on through footsteps and stories rather than ruins.

    For decades, the heroic struggle of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army existed mostly in scattered documents and fading memories, a legacy historians often called “recorded in text, but absent on the ground.” That began to change with the arrival of archaeologists, as their work has uncovered the long-lost physical traces missing from the historical record.

    “Telling the story of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army inevitably leads you to Hongshilazi,” said Wang Zhongshi, deputy director of the Hongshilazi Site protection center.

    The earliest archaeological survey of the Hongshilazi Site began in 1958, carried out jointly by the history department of Jilin University and the Jilin provincial cultural relics management committee. In 2019, the site was designated as a major national cultural heritage unit under protection.

    Launched in 2021, a five-year archaeological initiative — the first systematic excavation of a nationally protected site linked to the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army — has yielded remarkable results.

    By the end of 2024, archaeologists had identified more than 3,300 ruins scattered across the mountainous terrain and unearthed 938 artifacts tied to the guerrilla force, including locally-made Jingal muskets, single swords used by the youth battalion, and even a Japanese-made iron box containing gun repair tools.

    “No one really knew what the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army’s sites looked like or what their hidden camps were like until now,” said Meng Qingxu from the Jilin provincial institute of cultural relics and archaeology, who is leading the Hongshilazi Site excavation team.

    “These five years of work have resolved a long-standing issue: a history well recorded in writing but lacking physical evidence,” he said. Today, Hongshilazi stands as the largest, best-preserved, richest in content, and most fully functional complex of Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army sites in China.

    This file photo provided by the interviewee shows the scenery of Hongshilazi Mountain in Panshi City, northeast China’s Jilin Province, Dec. 12, 2023. (Xinhua)

    Preservation efforts at Hongshilazi extend far beyond excavation. A comprehensive master plan spanning 6,115 hectares divides the area into core protection zones, construction control zones and environmental buffer zones. While experimental backfilling protection is implemented in certain excavated areas, 2,400 meters of gravel paths and 600 meters of elevated wooden boardwalks now guide visitors through the terrain, offering access without disturbing the fragile ruins.

    To bring history to life, five key structures, including sentry posts and a clothing factory, have been rebuilt. Surrounding them, nine themed squares and 13 interpretive signs bring to life the arduous years of struggle endured by the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army.

    According to Meng, the next phase of site preservation faces significant hurdles, foremost among them the harsh climate of the forested region, marked by relentless freeze-thaw cycles that threaten the integrity of exposed remains.

    “We’re working with Jilin University to run long-term monitoring experiments, tracking surface temperature, humidity, pressure and watching how these variables shift across all four seasons,” Meng said. “Only with that data in hand can we develop future protection strategies.”

    The smoke of battle has long since cleared, yet the spirit of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, rooted in the forests of Hongshilazi, lives on in Panshi.

    Dozens of kilometers to the east, in Guanma New Village, tourists are arriving in growing numbers. In recent years, the village has embraced red tourism as a pillar of its rural revitalization, with the spirit of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army becoming a driving force for local development. A themed education exhibition hall now stands at the heart of the village, alongside a newly opened bookstore and cinema, transforming history into both a living classroom and a magnet for visitors.

    Once a primarily agricultural mountain village, Guanma is now charting a new path of diversified development, with red tourism and history education at its core, according to Zhang Hongqiu, director of the Panshi municipal bureau of culture, radio, television and tourism. In 2024, Panshi welcomed 1.7 million tourists, generating 850 million yuan (about 118.9 million U.S. dollars) in tourism revenue, with more than 70 percent of visitors drawn by red tourism.

    Panshi’s red heritage now threads through diverse sectors, from dining and homestays to local specialty agricultural products, enriching both the local economy and cultural landscape.

    As cultural tourism flourishes, Panshi’s agricultural development is keeping pace. On the hillsides above Beiguokui Village in Baoshan Township, 300 hectares of Jinxiu crabapple orchards burst into full bloom.

    Village Party secretary Luan Rensheng noted that the village’s unique blend of water and mountainous terrain is ideal for fruit tree cultivation. After years of varietal refinement, Jinxiu crabapples have emerged as the premier choice for large-scale planting, now cultivated as a premium product.

    Not far from the village, in a bustling factory, young entrepreneur Yang Shangbin is gearing up to add two new production lines. Since returning home in 2016, he has set up cold chain facilities, invested in cutting-edge equipment, and driven research and development, all with strong support from the local government. His company’s products, like crabapple wine, dried crabapples and crabapple tea, have quickly gained traction, with strong market demand.

    “We’re about to double our crabapple procurement this year,” Yang said. “There’s immense potential here at home. Starting a business brings promising opportunities.”

    Ma Chengming, Yang Jingyu’s great-grandson, now in his late 20s, chose to work in Panshi after graduating from university. “In my senior year, Panshi was the first stop on my journey retracing the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army’s route. Along the way, elders shared stories about their sacrifices,” he recalled.

    While working at the grassroots level in rural Panshi, Ma actively led initiatives to boost local prosperity. Beyond his primary responsibilities, he regularly gave talks on the red spirit in schools and communities, and volunteered as a docent at the village history museum. In sharing Panshi’s story, Ma speaks not only as a local resident but also as the great-grandson of a national hero who once fought there.

    Once, deep within the forests of Hongshilazi, fighters of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army laid down their lives to defend this land. Today, across the wide stretches of Panshi, a new generation is shaping its future with wisdom and hard work.

    “The spirit of my great-grandfather has long been woven into this land,” Ma said. 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Thriving under pressure: Chinese companies build resilience, boost innovation amid headwinds

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

    Thriving under pressure: Chinese companies build resilience, boost innovation amid headwinds

    Merchant Sun Lijuan (R) introduces products to an Indian merchant inside her shop at the Yiwu International Trade Mart in Yiwu, east China’s Zhejiang Province, May 20, 2025. (Xinhua/Han Chuanhao)

    “It’s hot and wet today,” chirped a doll in a clear, childlike voice, dressed in a pink floral blouse and a rainbow tulle skirt. The doll was on display at a toy stall in Yiwu City, a bustling trade hub in east China often dubbed the “world’s supermarket.”

    The question — “What’s the weather like today?” — came from stall owner Sun Lijuan, who has worked in the doll business in Yiwu for over a decade.

    Her latest model, now powered by AI, marks a major shift from the talking toys of the past. “It’s no longer just a doll that sings, tells stories, or answers basic questions,” Sun said. “Now it can respond to almost anything. For kids, it’s more like a companion — a friend.”

    Sun is currently developing Spanish-language versions and has asked long-time clients to take the new AI dolls’ smart modules to South America to test server connectivity.

    Amid global tariff headwinds, innovation is unfolding daily in Yiwu across a wide range of industries and products. Local businesses are steadily strengthening both resilience and innovation capacity, driving a 24.5 percent year-on-year increase in the city’s exports in the first half of the year.

    Visits by foreign buyers in Yiwu jumped 18.6 percent from a year earlier in the first five months, underscoring growing interest in the city’s expanding and evolving product lines.

    The resilience of the “world’s supermarket” echoed a robust 5.3 percent year-on-year growth in China’s GDP in the first half of the year. Behind this hard-won result against the global backdrop of economic and trade headwinds, businesses like Sun’s tell inspiring stories of agility and enterprise.

    Merchants participate in a language learning session at the Yiwu International Trade Market in Yiwu, east China’s Zhejiang Province, May 16, 2025. (Xinhua/Chen Shuo)

    WEATHERING GLOBAL UNCERTAINTIES

    The rapid rollout of new products, Sun said, owes much to China’s strengths in innovation and talent. “Since the rapid ascent of DeepSeek earlier this year, we’ve been approached by many integrated circuit chip developers eager to collaborate on next-generation dolls,” she said. “I’ve never had so much contact with PhDs from top universities and tech firms.”

    This year has also been one of personal growth for Sun. After DeepSeek gained attention, the Yiwu International Trade Market began offering free AI training and she managed to pick up several software skills.

    In March, a long-time client from Mexico visited her shop and requested adjustments to the doll’s facial features and clothing. Sun made the edits on her computer within minutes, impressing the client and securing an order on the spot.

    “Many people have asked me whether external uncertainties have hit my factory hard, and I always say the impact has been limited,” Sun said, noting her factory has, over the years, developed talking dolls in multiple languages, including Spanish, English, Arabic and Russian, for more than 50 markets such as Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

    “Entrepreneurs in Yiwu who’ve made it this far have been tested by the market repeatedly. Without foresight, they would’ve been pushed out of the market long ago,” she added.

    The new AI-powered dolls cost three to four times as much to produce as older talking models, but they also bring higher profit margins, according to Sun.

    Sun Lijuan said the production cost of the new AI-powered dolls is three to four times that of traditional talking models — but the added technology also brings higher profit margins.

    Sun’s toy business offers a glimpse into a broader trend. Across China, companies are drawing on the country’s institutional strengths, vast market potential, resilient supply chains, a deep talent pool, and growing innovation and openness to sharpen their resilience and adaptability in an increasingly complex global landscape.

    SHARPENING INNOVATION

    On the vast Gobi Desert in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, towering high-voltage power lines form a striking “forest of steel.” Between the power lines, drones flit in and out of view like birds patrolling their territory, detecting minor faults or unusual objects on the towers and cables.

    This photo taken on Aug. 13, 2024 shows a 750-kilovolt (kV) power transmission line under construction in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Ma Yuan/Xinhua)

    This is a fully autonomous drone inspection system developed by technology company I-KINGTEC in north China’s Tianjin Municipality. A young tech firm founded just eight years ago is helping to solve one of the toughest challenges of power line inspections in uninhabited regions.

    Its “Orca” drone can autonomously take off, fly missions and collect data. Serving as its all-weather base, the “Tiger Den” station can automatically replace the drone’s battery pod — a task that once depended almost entirely on manual labor.

    “How to make drones truly unmanned throughout the entire workflow has been the question we sought to answer from the very beginning,” said Zhu Shengli, co-founder of the company. He noted that the firm’s technological breakthroughs have been made possible by China’s supportive policies for the low-altitude economy and a strong talent pool.

    At Zhu’s company, the average age of employees is just 27, and R&D staff make up 70 percent of the workforce. The company has filed more than 600 IP applications to date.

    It posted over 200 million yuan (28 million U.S. dollars) in revenue last year, and its first-quarter earnings this year have already exceeded the full-year total for 2024.

    China’s tech firms like Zhu’s have seen strong momentum this year. In the first half of 2025, the country’s high-tech sectors posted rapid gains, with value-added industrial output in high-tech manufacturing rising 9.5 percent, 3.1 percentage points higher than the overall industrial growth during the same period.

    Sheng Laiyun, deputy head of the National Bureau of Statistics, described the “accumulation of new growth momentum” as a key feature of China’s economic performance. He noted an accelerating integration of technological and industrial innovation, which is high on policymakers’ agendas.

    To boost innovation, China has introduced a series of policy measures this year, including setting up a national venture capital guidance fund expected to mobilize 1 trillion yuan, expanding re-lending for tech innovation and upgrades from 500 billion to 800 billion yuan, and launching a dedicated “sci-tech board” in the bond market. The measures aim to channel more financial resources into early-stage, small-scale, long-term, and hard-tech ventures.

    TAPPING VAST DOMESTIC MARKET

    At a time when global demand is uneven, China’s vast domestic market of over 1.4 billion people continues to serve as a powerful anchor. Consumer demand is evolving rapidly, driving the emergence of new business models and product innovations.

    Despite pressures on the broader food service sector, Xibei, a leading Chinese catering chain brand with nearly 400 outlets and around 17,000 employees, is charting a different course by upgrading its children’s meals and offering higher-quality options to attract family diners, a strategy that has helped lift overall sales.

    The chain now offers four kids’ meal set options. One standout is a 69-yuan set featuring a whole yellow croaker, organic vegetables, corn soup, shrimp and egg custard, mousse, and hand-rolled oat noodles. To ensure it’s safe for children to eat, each fish goes through three rounds of machine inspection followed by manual deboning.

    “Kids’ meals are emerging as a powerful driver of family dining. Parents are willing to invest in quality for their children,” said Song Xuan, vice president of Xibei.

    Sales of Xibei’s children’s meals rose 7.4 percent year on year last year. Families dining with children now make up about 50 percent of total tables across its outlets on average.

    Despite skepticism over China’s consumer momentum and concerns about weak market demand, Xibei offers a snapshot of the country’s evolving spending power.

    China’s consumer market continued to gain momentum in the first half of the year, with retail sales of consumer goods rising 5 percent year on year, 0.4 percentage points faster than in the first quarter. Consumption contributed 52 percent to GDP growth during the period, making it the main driver of the economy.

    The vast Chinese market is also a shared market for the world, with consumer goods imports totaling 7.4 trillion yuan between 2021 and 2024, according to the Ministry of Commerce. In terms of actual purchasing power, China’s retail sales of consumer goods surpassed those of the United States last year, reaching 1.6 times the U.S. level, based on World Bank data and calculations.

    Xiong Yi, China Chief Economist at Deutsche Bank, noted strong potential for further growth in services consumption. “China has likely reached a development stage where its population will have increasing demand for higher-quality services,” he said.

    To better meet differentiated demand and tap deeper into China’s growing dining market, Xibei plans to roll out lightly salted meal sets for toddlers as young as one or two years old.

    “We are confident in the long-term prospects of China’s catering industry, given its vast growth potential. To stay competitive in such a rapidly evolving market, we must continue to transform and upgrade,” said Jia Guolong, chairman and founder of Xibei.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Legal and Finance Sectors – MinterEllisonRuddWatts advises Camco on innovative blended finance fund

    Source: MinterEllisonRuddWatts

    MinterEllisonRuddWatts is proud to have assisted Camco, a leading UK-based impact fund manager, with the establishment of an innovative blended finance fund called TIDES (Transforming Island Development through Electrification and Sustainability).
    TIDES is an innovative fund aiming to help unlock USD100 million of public and private sector finance to support renewable energy developments in the Pacific Islands. The fund has received contributions from the New Zealand and UK governments in the form of first loss equity.
    This first-of-its-kind fund for the region is designed to deliver deep impact by strengthening the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors. It will provide flexible financing to local renewable energy developers behind zero-emissions projects across a full range of sizes, from mini-grids to large grid-connected systems.
    Partner Lloyd Kavanagh and Senior Associate Ken Ng attended the signing ceremony of TIDES at the British High Commission in Wellington yesterday, alongside Minister for Climate Change, the Honourable Simon Watts, British High Commissioner HE Ms Iona Thomas OBE, and the Managing Director of Camco Management Limited, Geoff Sinclair.
    Lloyd Kavanagh commented: “We are delighted to support Camco in launching the TIDES fund, a pioneering initiative that bl

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: New Caledonia’s oldest party for independence rejects ‘Bougival’ deal

    By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific Desk

    New Caledonia’s oldest pro-independence party, the Union Calédonienne (UC), has officially rejected a political agreement on the Pacific territory’s political future signed in Paris last month.

    The text, bearing the signatures of all of New Caledonia’s political parties represented in the local Congress — a total of 18 leaders, both pro-France and pro-independence — is described as a “project” for an agreement that would shape politics.

    Since it was signed in the city of Bougival, west of Paris, on July 12, after 10 days of intense negotiations, it has been dubbed a “bet on trust” and has been described by French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls as a commitment from all signing parties to report to their respective bases and explain its contents.

    The Bougival document involves a series of measures and recognition by France of New Caledonia as a “State” which could become empowered with its own international relations and foreign affairs, provided they do not contradict France’s key interests.

    It also envisages dual citizenship — French and New Caledonian — provided future New Caledonian citizens are French nationals in the first place.

    It also describes a future devolution of stronger powers for each of the three provinces (North, South and Loyalty Islands), especially in terms of tax collection.

    Since it was published, the document, bearing a commitment to defend the text “as is”, was hailed as “innovative” and “historic”.

    New Caledonia’s leaders have started to hold regular meetings — sometimes daily — and sessions with their respective supporters and militants, mostly to explain the contents of what they have signed.

    The meetings were held by most pro-France parties and within the pro-independence camp, the two main moderate parties, UPM (Union Progressiste en Mélanésie) and PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party).

    Over the past two weeks, all of these parties have strived to defend the agreement, which is sometimes described as a Memorandum of Agreement or a roadmap for future changes in New Caledonia.

    Most of the leaders who have inked the text have also held lengthy interviews with local media.

    Parties who have unreservedly pledged their support to and signed the Bougival document are:

    Pro-France side: Les Loyalistes, Rassemblement-LR, Wallisian-based Eveil Océanien and Calédonie Ensemble

    Pro-independence: UNI-FLNKS (which comprises UPM and PALIKA).

    But one of the main components of the pro-independence movement, the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) — as its main pillar — the Union Calédonienne, has held a series of meetings indicating their resentment at their negotiators for having signed the contested document.

    UC held its executive committee on July 21, its steering committee on July 26, and FLNKS convened its political bureau on July 23.

    A ‘lure of sovereignty’
     All of these meetings concluded with an increasingly clear rejection of the Bougival document.

    Speaking at a news conference in Nouméa yesterday, UC leaders made it clear that they “formally reject” the agreement because they regard it as a “lure of sovereignty” and does not guarantee either real sovereignty or political balance.

    FLNKS chief negotiator Emmanuel Tjibaou, who is also UC’s chair, told local reporters he understood his signature on the document meant a commitment to return to New Caledonia, explain the text and obtain the approval of the political base.

    “I didn’t have a mandate to sign a political agreement, my mandate was to register the talks and bring them back to our people so that a decision can be made . . . it didn’t mean an acceptance on our part,” he said, mentioning it was a “temporary” document subject to further discussions.

    Tjibaou said some amendments his delegation had put on the table in Bougival “went missing” in the final text.

    Union Calédonienne chair and chief FLNKS negotiator Emmanuel Tjibaou . .. some amendments that his delegation had put on the table in Bougival “went missing” in the final text. Image: RNZ Pacific

    ‘Bougival, it’s over’
     “As far as we’re concerned, Bougival, it’s over”, UC vice-president Mickaël Forrest said.

    He said it was now time to move onto a “post-Bougival phase”.

    Meanwhile, the FLNKS also consulted its own “constitutionalists” to obtain legal advice and interpretation of the document.

    In a release about yesterday’s media conference, UC stated that the Bougival text could not be regarded as a balance between two “visions” for Kanaky New Caledonia, but rather a way of “maintaining New Caledonia as French”.

    The text, UC said, had led the political dialogue into a “new impasse” and it left several questions unanswered.

    “With the denomination of a ‘State’, a fundamental law (a de facto Constitution), the capacity to self-organise, and international recognition, this document is perceived as a project for an agreement to integrate (New Caledonia) into France under the guise of a decolonisation”.

    “The FLNKS has never accepted a status of autonomy within France, but an external decolonisation by means of accession to full sovereignty [which] grants us the right to choose our inter-dependencies,” the media release stated.

    The pro-independence party also criticised plans to enlarge the list of people entitled to vote at New Caledonia’s local elections — the very issue that triggered deadly and destructive riots in May 2024.

    It is also critical of a proposed mechanism that would require a vote at the Congress with a minimum majority of 64 percent (two thirds) before any future powers can be requested for transfer from France to New Caledonia.

    Assuming that current population trends and a fresh system of representation at the Congress will allow more representatives from the Southern province (about three quarters of New Caledonia’s population), UC said “in other words, it would be the non-independence [camp] who will have the power to authorise us — or not — to ask for our sovereignty”.

    They party confirmed that it had “formally rejected the Bougival project of agreement as it stands” following a decision made by its steering committee on July 26 “since the fundamentals of our struggle and the principles of decolonisation are not there”.

    Negotiators no longer mandated
     The decision also means that every member of its negotiating team who signed the document on July 12 is now de facto demoted and no longer mandated by the party until a new negotiating team is appointed, if required.

    “Union Calédonienne remains mobilised to arrive at a political agreement that takes into account the achievement of a trajectory towards full sovereignty”.

    On Tuesday, FLNKS president Christian Téin, as an invited guest of Corsica’s “Nazione” pro-independence movement, told French media he declared himself “individually against” the Bougival document, adding this was “far from being akin to full sovereignty”.

    Téin said that during the days that led to the signing of the document in Bougival “the pressure” exerted on negotiators was “terrible”.

    He said the result was that due to “excessive force” applied by “France’s representatives”, the final text’s content “looks like it is the French State and right-wing people who will decide the (indigenous) Kanak people’s future”.

    Facing crime-related charges, Téin is awaiting his trial, but was released from jail, under the condition that he does not return to New Caledonia.

    The leader of a CCAT (field action coordinating cell) created by Union Calédonienne late in 2023 to protest against a proposed French Constitutional amendment to alter voters’ rules of eligibility at local elections, was jailed for one year in mainland France. However, he was elected president of FLNKS in absentia in late August 2024.

    CCAT, meanwhile, was admitted as one of the new components of FLNKS.

    In a de facto split, the two main moderate pillars of FLNKS, UPM and PALIKA, at the same time, distanced themselves from the pro-independence UC-dominated platform, opening a rift within the pro-independence umbrella.

    The FLNKS is scheduled to hold an extraordinary meeting on August 9 (it was initially scheduled to be held on August 2), to “highlight the prospects of the pursuit of dialogue through a repositioning of the pro-independence movement’s political orientations”.

    French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls (centre) shows signatures on the last page of New Caledonia’s new Bougival agreement earlier this month . . . “If tomorrow there was to be no agreement, it would mean the future, hope, would be put into question” Image: FB/RNZ Pacific

    Valls: ‘I’m not giving up’
     Reacting to the latest UC statements, Valls told French media he called on UC to have “a great sense of responsibility”.

    “If tomorrow there was to be no agreement, it would mean the future, hope, would be put into question. Investment, including for the nickel mining industry, would no longer be possible.”

    “I’m not giving up. Union Calédonienne has chosen to reject, as it stands, the Bougival accord project. I take note of this, but I profoundly regret this position.

    “An institutional void would be a disaster for [New Caledonia]. It would be a prolonged uncertainty, the risk of further instability, the return of violence,” he said.

    “But my door is not closed and I remain available for dialogue at all times. Impasse is not an option.”

    Valls said the Bougival document was “‘neither someone’s victory on another one, nor an imposed text: it was built day after day with partners around the table following months of long discussions.”

    In a recent letter specifically sent to Union Calédonienne, the French former Prime Minister suggested the creation of an editorial committee to start drafting future-shaping documents for New Caledonia, such as its “fundamental law”, akin to a Constitution for New Caledonia.

    Valls also stressed France’s financial assistance to New Caledonia, which last year totalled around 3 billion euros because of the costs associated to the May 2024 riots.

    The riots caused 14 dead, hundreds of injured and an estimated financial cost of more than 2 billion euros (NZ$5.8 billion) in damage.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Banking: Money Market Operations as on July 31, 2025

    Source: Reserve Bank of India
    (Amount in ₹ crore, Rate in Per cent)
      Volume
    (One Leg)    		 Weighted
    Average Rate    		 Range
    A. Overnight Segment (I+II+III+IV) 6,02,930.30 5.44 4.00-5.85
         I. Call Money 18,011.87 5.49 4.75-5.55
         II. Triparty Repo 3,98,426.75 5.43 5.00-5.55
         III. Market Repo 1,83,826.13 5.45 4.00-5.75
         IV. Repo in Corporate Bond 2,665.55 5.58 5.55-5.85
    B. Term Segment      
         I. Notice Money** 171.24 5.26 4.95-5.40
         II. Term Money@@ 1,211.00 – 5.30-5.75
         III. Triparty Repo 8,544.05 5.53 5.40-5.55
         IV. Market Repo 879.12 5.47 4.50-5.62
         V. Repo in Corporate Bond 0.00 – –
      Auction Date Tenor (Days) Maturity Date Amount Current Rate /
    Cut off Rate
    C. Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF), Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) & Standing Deposit Facility (SDF)
    I. Today’s Operations
    1. Fixed Rate          
    2. Variable Rate&          
      (I) Main Operation          
         (a) Repo          
         (b) Reverse Repo          
      (II) Fine Tuning Operations          
         (a) Repo          
         (b) Reverse Repo Thu, 31/07/2025 1 Fri, 01/08/2025 13,075.00 5.49
    3. MSF# Thu, 31/07/2025 1 Fri, 01/08/2025 1,649.00 5.75
    4. SDFΔ# Thu, 31/07/2025 1 Fri, 01/08/2025 1,14,195.00 5.25
    5. Net liquidity injected from today’s operations [injection (+)/absorption (-)]*       -1,25,621.00  
    II. Outstanding Operations
    1. Fixed Rate          
    2. Variable Rate&          
      (I) Main Operation          
         (a) Repo          
         (b) Reverse Repo          
      (II) Fine Tuning Operations          
         (a) Repo          
         (b) Reverse Repo Tue, 29/07/2025 3 Fri, 01/08/2025 46,058.00 5.49
      Fri, 25/07/2025 7 Fri, 01/08/2025 1,25,008.00 5.49
    3. MSF#          
    4. SDFΔ#          
    D. Standing Liquidity Facility (SLF) Availed from RBI$       10,299.21  
    E. Net liquidity injected from outstanding operations [injection (+)/absorption (-)]*     -1,60,766.79  
    F. Net liquidity injected (outstanding including today’s operations) [injection (+)/absorption (-)]*     -2,86,387.79  
    G. Cash Reserves Position of Scheduled Commercial Banks          
         (i) Cash balances with RBI as on July 31, 2025 9,96,170.04  
         (ii) Average daily cash reserve requirement for the fortnight ending August 08, 2025 9,56,146.00  
    H. Government of India Surplus Cash Balance Reckoned for Auction as on¥ July 31, 2025 0.00  
    I. Net durable liquidity [surplus (+)/deficit (-)] as on July 11, 2025 5,38,578.00  

    @ Based on Reserve Bank of India (RBI) / Clearing Corporation of India Limited (CCIL).

    – Not Applicable / No Transaction.

    ** Relates to uncollateralized transactions of 2 to 14 days tenor.

    @@ Relates to uncollateralized transactions of 15 days to one year tenor.

    $ Includes refinance facilities extended by RBI.

    * Net liquidity is calculated as Repo+MSF+SLF-Reverse Repo-SDF.

    Ajit Prasad          
    Deputy General Manager
    (Communications)    

    Press Release: 2025-2026/820

    MIL OSI Global Banks –

  • ‘Kashmir to Kevadia’: PM Modi welcomes Omar Abdullah’s Gujarat visit

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday lauded former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for visiting Gujarat’s Sabarmati Riverfront and the Statue of Unity, calling it a gesture that sends a powerful message of national unity.

    “Kashmir to Kevadia! Good to see Shri Omar Abdullah Ji enjoying his run at the Sabarmati Riverfront and visiting the Statue of Unity. His visit to SoU gives an important message of unity and will inspire our fellow Indians to travel to different parts of India,” PM Modi posted on X.

    The Prime Minister was responding to Abdullah’s post about his morning run at the riverfront during a two-day visit to Ahmedabad for a tourism promotion event.

    “While in #Ahmedabad for a tourism event, I took advantage of being here to get my morning run at the famed Sabarmati River Front promenade. It’s one of the nicest places I’ve been able to run, and it was a pleasure to get to share it with so many other walkers/runners. I even managed to run past the amazing Atal Foot Bridge,” Abdullah wrote.

    His visit comes amid efforts by the Jammu and Kashmir administration to revive tourism in the Union Territory, following the recent terror attack in Pahalgam that affected tourist inflow.

    During his Gujarat visit, Abdullah is meeting with tour operators and industry stakeholders to rebuild confidence in Kashmir as a safe and attractive travel destination.

    “Gujarat, along with Maharashtra and West Bengal, has always played a major role in Kashmir’s tourism economy,” he said, expressing optimism about the return of Gujarati tourists in large numbers.

  • Cabinet approves ₹2,000 crore grant to NCDC; Amit Shah thanks PM Modi for strengthening cooperative sector

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Amit Shah, on Thursday expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the Cabinet approved a grant assistance of ₹2,000 crore to the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) for the next four years.

    The grant will be disbursed at ₹500 crore per year, with the objective of boosting the cooperative sector, particularly in rural areas. Shah highlighted the move as a step forward in realising the Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Sahkar Se Samriddhi’ (Prosperity through Cooperation).

    “In line with PM Modi ji’s mantra of ‘Sahkar Se Samriddhi’, the NCDC is playing a crucial role in strengthening the rural economy. This financial support will help cooperatives launch new projects, expand existing infrastructure, and offer loans, thereby benefiting crores of members,” Shah said in a post on X. He added that the initiative would empower women to become self-reliant and generate employment opportunities for the youth.

    In another post, the Home Minister also welcomed the Cabinet’s decision to approve an expenditure of ₹6,520 crore under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana’ (PMKSY), including an additional allocation of ₹1,920 crore. As part of the scheme, 50 multi-product food irradiation units and 100 food testing laboratories will be set up across the country. Shah stated that these facilities will aid in food preservation, ensure better safety and quality standards, and help farmers fetch higher prices for their produce.

    Further, Shah lauded the Cabinet’s approval of four railway multi-tracking projects covering 13 districts in six states from the eastern, central, and western regions. These projects, with a total outlay of ₹11,169 crore, will add 574 km to the country’s railway network. According to the minister, this will not only improve connectivity but also boost trade and industry, while opening up fresh avenues for employment.

  • MIL-OSI USA: Markey Builds Bipartisan Momentum with Reintroduction of His Warehouse Worker Protection Act

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts Ed Markey

    Bill Text (PDF)

    Washington (July 31, 2025) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, along with Senators Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Representatives Donald Norcross (NJ-01), Mike Lawler (NY-17), and Haley Stevens (MI-11), today reintroduced the bipartisan, bicameral Warehouse Worker Protection Act, legislation to prohibit dangerous speed quotas and that threaten warehouse worker safety and lead to high injury rates. The legislation is cosponsored by Senators Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).

    Major corporations often institute speed and productivity quotas for warehouse workers that force workers past their physical limits, leading to high injury rates. One in 15 Amazon warehouse workers is injured at work seriously enough to need days off or light duty to recover. Nearly 2 million Americans work in warehouses nationwide.

    The Warehouse Worker Protection Act would institute the basic standards necessary to ensure all workers experience a safe and dignified workplace. The bill would prohibit the use of dangerous speed quotas that rely on intrusive surveillance, interfere with workers’ ability to use the bathroom and take guaranteed breaks, and push workers past safe physical limits. The bill would also prohibit measures that prevent workers from exercising their right to unionize.

    “Workers deserve to clock in knowing they will return home safe and healthy at the end of their shift. The Warehouse Worker Protection Act would protect the basic health and dignity of workers from corporate bosses who time and again have prioritized unfettered greed and profit over their own people,” said Senator Markey. “I am proudly in solidarity with nearly two million warehouse workers nationwide in the fight to ensure that their rights, safety, and dignity are protected.”

    “Corporations need to prioritize their workers’ safety and well-being over profits. This bipartisan legislation will hold the warehouse industry accountable while combatting the industry’s worst practices. It’s time to put workers’ safety first and treat them with the dignity they deserve,” said Senator Hawley.

    “Corporate profits should never be placed above the safety and dignity of American workers,” said Senator Smith. “The Warehouse Worker Protection Act ends secret, aggressive productivity metrics and surveillance methods used by major companies, and instead puts power back in the hands of the workers who experience these conditions every day. Workers should never have to choose between their health and their next paycheck, and should not be harmed in service of corporate greed – this bill takes an important step in establishing safe, just workplaces for all.”

    “In 2022, three New Jersey warehouse workers tragically died on the job within weeks of each other, bringing attention to working conditions and injury rates in warehouses. Businesses can keep workers safe and earn a profit, but that’s only possible with more transparency and accountability,” said Congressman Norcross. “As a former electrician, I know firsthand what it’s like to lose a coworker on the job. The Warehouse Worker Protection Act takes necessary steps to ensure everyone can come home from work safely.”

    “Amid the vast expansion of shipping and online shopping, the warehouse workers keeping this economy moving have been left behind,” said Senator Marshall. “For too long, companies have been implementing outlandish quotas, cutting into workers’ rights and leading to injuries. That ends with this bill. I’m proud to support Senator Markey in providing proper protections for workers, ending the fear of abusive quotas.”

    “Amazon and other abusive warehouse employers are squeezing their workers for every penny of profit, leaving behind tired and broken bodies,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien. “These corporate criminals are destroying good jobs in an industry that once supported a strong middle class. But one thing stands in their way—that’s the Teamsters Union, along with a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers who understand what’s at stake. It’s time to pass the Warehouse Worker Protection Act and put workers’ safety over corporate profits.”

    “Everyone deserves a guarantee of safety and dignity on the job, but retail giants like Amazon are raking in record profits on the backs of their workers, subjecting them to incredibly high rates of injury, unsustainable pace pressures, and punitive surveillance systems,” said Patricia Stottlemyer, Labor Rights Policy Lead at Oxfam America. “The re-introduction of the Warehouse Worker Protection Act is a critical step toward finally securing the safeguards and protections that these workers desperately need.”

    “Every day, we face unrealistic quotas and unsafe conditions just to keep our jobs at Amazon. The Warehouse Worker Protection Act gives us hope that our lives and safety will finally matter more than productivity rates. We fought for this law — and with support from Awood Center and national coalitions like Athena, we made it happen. Now we need Amazon to comply with the law or face consequences. It’s been in effect for a year, and they’re still falling short,” said an Amazon warehouse worker, supported by Awood Center, a worker center in Minnesota that uplifts East African immigrant workers.

    “At a time when Amazon warehouse workers like me are being injured at twice the rate as workers at other warehouses, this bill is a monumental step forward to holding companies like Amazon accountable and finally getting the workplace protections we deserve,” said Ronald “Mr. Ron” Sewell, an Amazon associate at ATL6 in Georgia and leader with United for Respect. “My coworkers and I are constantly putting our safety at risk to meet Amazon’s backbreaking productivity quotas, and we’ve had enough. Our lives are not expendable – we need real change to improve safety on the job, and this bill will help make that a reality.”

    “For too long, multi-billion dollar corporations like Walmart and Amazon have gotten away with forcing warehouse workers to meet unreasonable daily quotas — leading to countless injuries on the job — just so they can grow their profits. It’s long past time for that to change,” said Terrysa Guerra, Co-Executive Director of United for Respect. “These protections for warehouse workers will usher in a new era of accountability for these companies, and most importantly, will help improve workplace safety for hundreds of thousands of low-wage warehouse workers. United for Respect is thrilled to support this legislation.”

    “We’ve seen that when workers try to meet unattainable distribution center quotas, they get hurt; when they file for workers comp for their injuries, they get denied or fired. The Warehouse Worker Protection Act will protect workers from harm and blatant violation of their rights in an industry that treats them as expendable, and lead to safer, more dignified working conditions for the people who make life easier for the rest of us. Since New York’s version of this law went into effect in June, warehouse workers have already been feeling more secure in their rights. That’s something every single worker in the country deserves to feel—and why it’s so important that we pass the federal Warehouse Worker Protection Act as soon as possible,” said Vanessa Cid, Labor Organizer at For the Many.

    “Amazon’s greed has created a nationwide worker injury crisis as they put profit over people time and time again,” said Theodore A. Moore, Executive Director of ALIGN, leader of the New Yorkers for a Fair Economy coalition. “We’re proud of the work we’ve done to regulate warehouse safety in New York, but it’s time to take federal action and ensure that one of the richest companies in the world keeps their workers safe everywhere. We applaud Senator Markey’s leadership and urge Governor Hochul to lead the way with strong enforcement of New York’s Warehouse Worker Injury Reduction Act.”

    “We are facing a workplace injury crisis in warehouses across America,” said Irene Tung, Senior Researcher and Policy Analyst at the National Employment Law Project. “NELP’s research has found that the digital surveillance and disciplinary practices at companies like Amazon create a climate of fear for workers and astronomically high injury rates at warehouses. We urgently need the Warehouse Worker Protection Act to rein in these abuses and support workers’ right to organize for autonomy and safety on the job.”

    The Warehouse Worker Protection Act is endorsed by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the National Employment Law Project (NELP), the Athena Coalition, and Oxfam America.

    In May 2024, Senator Markey, along with Senator Smith and then Senator Bob Casey (D-Pa.), first introduced the Warehouse Worker Protection Act. In September 2024, Senator Markey celebrated the bipartisan momentum growing behind the bill.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Statement by Minister McClay following US tariff announcement

    Source: New Zealand Government

    The United States has confirmed that tariffs on New Zealand exports will increase from 10 per cent to 15 per cent from 7 August, placing us alongside other key US trading partners including Japan and South Korea.

    Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay says, this decision appears to be based on a calculation of trade deficits, with countries running a surplus with the US moved to the higher rate. In New Zealand’s case, the surplus is modest, around US$500 million, and is not overly significant in the context of the US economy.

    Over the past decade, our trade relationship with the US has seen periods where the US enjoyed a significant surplus and times, like now, when New Zealand has a modest one. Overall, our trade is balanced and complementary, reflecting the strength of a long-standing partnership.

    “I am seeking an urgent call with the US Trade Representative to make New Zealand’s position clear: this increase risks harming exporters and consumers of both countries. The US currently faces an average tariff of just 0.8 per cent when exporting to New Zealand, far lower than what we face into their market,” Mr McClay says. 

    “New Zealand exports around $9 billion of goods to the US annually. At 15 per cent, the impact will be considerable for exporters, many of whom absorbed or passed on the earlier 10 per cent rate. At 15 per cent, that becomes much harder.  

    “Our focus now moves to engaging directly with the US on this current announcement to seek changes to this decision.

    “New Zealand has always stood for open, rules-based trade. We will continue to advocate strongly for a resolution that supports our exporters and maintains the strength of our trading relationship with the United States.”

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI: BW Energy: Second quarter and first half 2025 results 

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    BW Energy delivered strong operational performance in the first half of 2025, driven by high production uptime, competitive cost levels, and a solid safety record with zero lost time incidents. The Company’s project portfolio continues to advance, with final investment decisions taken on both the Maromba development and the Golfinho Boost project. In addition, a substantial oil discovery was made at the Bourdon prospect in the Dussafu area, further expanding BW Energy’s resource base. Backed by strong cash generation and a resilient financial structure, BW Energy is well placed to drive growth and create long-term shareholder value. 

    HIGHLIGHTS 

    Strong operational performance 

    • H1 2025 net production of 6.2 (4.6) million barrels, equal to 34.2 (25.4) kbopd  
    • Operating cost1 of USD 18.3 (26.2) per barrel and zero lost time incidents 
    • Assumed operatorship of the BW Adolo FPSO 

     Successfully developing and increasing the resource base 

    • Final investment decision made on Maromba and Golfinho Boost projects 
    • Substantial oil discovery of 25 mmbbls in the Bourdon prospect  

    Robust financial results 

    • H1 2025 EBITDA of USD 281.1 (185.8) million and net profit of USD 109.7 (61.9) million 
    • Q2 2025 EBITDA of USD 99.0 million and net profit of USD 26.7 million 
    • Operating cash flow of USD 162.0 (85.1) million  
    • Cash position of USD 192.9 (244.2) million at 30 June 
    • New and upsized RBL facility up to USD 500 million


    2025 guidance unchanged 

    • Production: 11-12 mmbbls (30-32 kbopd) 
    • Operating cost1: USD 18-22 per barrel 
    • CAPEX: USD 650-700 million 
    • G&A: USD 19-22 million 

     (Numbers in parenthesis refer to H1 2024) 

    1) Operating costs exclude royalties, tariffs, workovers, crude oil purchases for domestic market obligations, production sharing costs in Gabon, and incorporates the impact of IFRS 16 adjustments 

    Comment from the CEO of BW Energy, Carl Arnet:  

    “BW Energy delivered a strong first half of 2025, with production above the upper end of our guidance range and operating costs at significantly more competitive levels than in 2024. This reflects continued focus on safe, efficient operations and disciplined cost management across the portfolio.

    During the period, we moved key development projects into execution, marking an important step forward in our growth strategy. The Maromba development in Brazil is now underway and will be transformative for BW Energy, increasing production to more than 90,000 barrels per day in 2028.

    Furthermore, we strengthened our portfolio, confirming new resources at the Bourdon prospect in the Dussafu licence. These are highly profitable barrels that highlight our strategy of leveraging existing infrastructure and pursuing fast‑track developments to accelerate value creation.

    Our financial foundation remains robust, with low leverage and strong underlying cash generation. This gives us the resilience to navigate market volatility while continuing to deliver growth and long‑term value for our shareholders.”


    Please find attached the report for the first half of 2025 and the second quarter presentation. 

    The report, presentation, excel data book and webcast will be available on:

    www.bwenergy.no/investors/reports-and-presentations 

    CONFERENCE CALL/WEBCAST  

    BW Energy will today hold a conference call followed by a Q&A hosted by CEO Carl K. Arnet and CFO Brice Morlot at 14:00 CEST.  

    The presentation may also be followed via webcast on:  

    https://events.webcast.no/viewer-registration/qQC1bQEB/register  

    Please note, that if you follow the webcast via the above URL, you will experience a 30 second delay compared to the main conference call. The web page works best in an updated browser – Chrome is recommended. 

    Conference call information:  

    To dial in to the conference call where the second quarter results and Q&A will be hosted, please dial in to one of the following numbers:  

    Participants dial in numbers: 

    DK: +45 7876 8490 
    SE: +46 8 1241 0952 
    NO: +47 2195 6342 
    UK: +44 203 769 6819 
    US: +1 646-787-0157 
    Singapore: 65-3-1591097 
    France: 33-1-81221259 
     
    Conference code: 980877  

    For further information, please contact: 

    Martin Seland Simensen, VP Investor Relations

    +47 416 92 087  

    Martin.simensen@bwenergy.no 

    About BW Energy: 

    BW Energy is a growth E&P company with a differentiated strategy targeting proven offshore oil and gas reservoirs through low risk phased developments. The Company has access to existing production facilities to reduce time to first oil and cashflow with lower investments than traditional offshore developments. The Company’s assets are 73.5% of the producing Dussafu Marine licence offshore Gabon, 100% interest in the Golfinho and Camarupim fields, a 76.5% interest in the BM-ES-23 block, a 95% interest in the Maromba field in Brazil, a 95% interest in the Kudu field in Namibia, all operated by BW Energy. In addition, BW Energy holds approximately 7% of the common shares in Reconnaissance Energy Africa Ltd. and a 20% non-operating interest in the onshore Petroleum Exploration License 73 (“PEL 73”) in Namibia. Total net 2P+2C reserves and resources were 599 million barrels of oil equivalent at the start of 2025.  

    This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.  

    Attachments

    The MIL Network –

  • Manufacturing to research, India playing key role in new foldable series: Samsung

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    From local manufacturing to research and development, India has a significant role in the development of the new foldable series, JB Park, President and CEO, Samsung Southwest Asia, said on Friday.

    According to him, the company engineers from the Bengaluru R&D facility have contributed significantly in the development of new Z Fold7 and the Z Flip7 devices.

    “I am happy to share that these new phones are being manufactured at our Noida factory,” Park said.

    “Our latest foldables represent the next leap in smartphone innovation. They are the thinnest and lightest Galaxy Z series designs yet. They deliver cutting-edge performance and come with seamless Galaxy AI integration,” added Park.

    The company received a record 210,000 pre-orders for its seventh generation foldables – Galaxy Z Fold7, Galaxy ZFlip7 and Galaxy Z Flip7 FE – in just 48 hours in India – signalling rapid mainstreaming of the foldable form factor in the country.

    The ‘Made in India’ Galaxy Z Fold7 is surprisingly gaining significant traction from not only tier 3 markets, but also tier 4 and beyond, amid a resilient economy and rising aspirations across the country, the company informed.

    Park said the new devices will “help us mainstream the foldables in India”.

    “Galaxy Z Fold7 delivers the Ultra experience in the thinnest, lightest and most advanced Fold yet. Galaxy Z Flip7 packs flagship power, intelligence and personality into a compact and iconic form,” he mentioned.

    On AI, he said that today, on-device AI is independent of being in the cloud or a third-party source.

    “But tomorrow, I think it’s more of how people are using the AI. Like in India, you have so many dialects that you need someone to interpret. Tomorrow, it will all be done simultaneously on the devices. So you don’t have to memorise things. You don’t have to have an opinion of a lawyer or doctor. You just can have a massive intelligence that’s connected on your device to a cloud that can guide you to a better solution. I think that’s how the technology will evolve,” said Park.

    (IANS)

  • Trying to convince people to visit J&K, says Omar Abdullah to PM Modi’s praise of his Gujarat visit

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday responded warmly to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s praise for his recent visit to Gujarat, reaffirming the critical role tourism plays in J&K’s economy and national integration.

    In a post on X, Abdullah wrote: “I’m a firm believer that travel broadens the horizons & the mind, @narendramodi ji. It’s especially important for us in J&K, as tourism is a crucial part of our economy and has the potential to gainfully employ lakhs of people. That’s why my colleagues and I are trying to convince more of our fellow Indians to visit J&K, especially after the tragic events earlier this year.”

    His remarks came in response to a message from PM Modi, who had lauded Abdullah’s visit to the Sabarmati Riverfront and the Statue of Unity during a recent tourism event in Ahmedabad.

    “Kashmir to Kevadia! Good to see Shri Omar Abdullah Ji enjoying his run at the Sabarmati Riverfront and visiting the Statue of Unity. His visit to SoU gives an important message of unity and will inspire our fellow Indians to travel to different parts of India,” the Prime Minister posted on X.

    Abdullah had earlier shared his experience from Gujarat, where he went for a morning run along the Sabarmati Riverfront.
    “While in #Ahmedabad for a tourism event, I took advantage of being here to get my morning run at the famed Sabarmati River Front promenade. It’s one of the nicest places I’ve been able to run, and it was a pleasure to share it with so many other walkers and runners. I even managed to run past the amazing Atal Foot Bridge,” he wrote.

    The J&K Chief Minister was on a two-day visit to Gujarat aimed at promoting the Union Territory as a travel destination, particularly in the aftermath of the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, which led to a temporary decline in tourist activity.

    During his visit, Abdullah met with tour operators and travel industry stakeholders to rebuild trust and attract more domestic tourists to the region. He also held a meeting with Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel.

    -IANS