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Category: Education

  • MIL-OSI Global: Gay Men’s Health Crisis showed how everyday people stepped up when institutions failed during the height of the AIDS epidemic – providing a model for today

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Sean G. Massey, Associate Professor of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Binghamton University, State University of New York

    GMHC was the world’s first AIDS service organization.
     Sean Massey, CC BY-ND

    The story of the AIDS movement is one of regular people: students, bartenders, stay-at-home mothers, teachers, retired lawyers, immigrants, Catholic nuns, newly out gay men who had just arrived in New York, and many others. Some had lost friends or lovers. Some felt a moral calling. Some were just trying to balance their sexual karma. Many were angry. Most had no medical background or professional credentials – just a sense of urgency, tenacity and an unwillingness to look away.

    When Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the world’s first AIDS service organization, was founded in 1982, it was regular people trying to meet the needs of all people living with AIDS. Its workforce of volunteers provided HIV prevention education as well as physical, emotional and legal support.

    At the start of the epidemic, AIDS was considered a “gay plague,” and to be openly queer was to risk abandonment, eviction, assault or worse. Families disowned their children. Hospitals turned patients away. Funeral homes refused bodies. And many people with AIDS found themselves alone and in need.

    Public officials didn’t just fail to act – they refused to acknowledge that anything was happening at all. Elected leaders such as President Ronald Reagan and Sen. Jesse Helms stoked the moral panic guiding public policy by declaring people with AIDS “perverted human being(s).”

    In 2025, with the Trump administration cutting federal funding for HIV research and support services and restricting protections and services for LGBTQ+ people, studying how everyday people approached the early AIDS crisis provides a model for surviving through innovation, commitment and community.

    Stories informing the present

    “I think 26,000 people died before (Reagan) even bothered to utter the word ‘AIDS,’” said Tim Sweeney, former executive director of Gay Men’s Health Crisis.

    This quote is featured in the GMHC Stories Oral History Project, a collection of over 100 interviews with former volunteers, staff and donors from the first 15 years of the organization. Along with our colleague Julia Haager, we and our team at Binghamton University’s Human Sexualities Lab compiled these interviews. Acquired by the Manuscripts and Archives Division of The New York Public Library, the collection is scheduled to open in fall 2025, showcasing how everyday people responded to the AIDS crisis.

    These stories document how a community presented with a set of circumstances threatening their very existence built a self-sustaining organization to advocate for and provide care to each other outside institutional support. They did this while enduring grief, standing up to external threats and navigating internal tensions.

    The GMHC stood up for the community when other institutions would not.
    Sean Massey, CC BY-ND

    Improvisation for survival

    The work was an ongoing challenge. Organizations dedicated to aiding people affected by AIDS such as Gay Men’s Health Crisis were left to fund their own survival – and defend their right to do the work. When North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms moved in 1988 to eliminate federal support for AIDS service programs that mentioned homosexuality, it severely limited AIDS prevention efforts nation wide. However, GMHC had the foresight to fund its more explicit education materials with private donations.

    At the beginning of the epidemic, queer New Yorkers and their allies had to improvise new systems of care in the absence of state and federal support. “People often (ask) me, what was the model you worked off of?” said Sweeney. “And I said, there was no model, there was just a muddle. We just made it up the whole time.”

    What they created almost overnight was staggering. “There were over 1,000 volunteers in the agency,” recalled staff member Tom Weber, who started at GMHC as an office volunteer in 1988. “We would have orientations every single week, and they would flood in.”

    One of the most well-known expressions of that volunteer labor was the buddy program, where lay caregivers provided emotional and practical support to people living with AIDS. “A lot of people were not alone in their death because of the work that we did,” said Barbara Danish, who led the buddy program from 1996 to 2002.

    Community members took it upon themselves to educate each other about AIDS.
    AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler

    Education and prevention were also grounded in queer culture and community. Unlike early depictions of AIDS in the media that reduced patients to “vectors” of transmission, it was defiantly sex-positive. “We came up with shit that no one in the world had ever done,” Sweeney said. “Because finally it was gay men saying … we’re going to talk to each other about how to stay safe, healthy and sexy.”

    When that sense of mission extended to emotional survival, humor and unapologetically queer culture were critical to bearing the weight of the work. “Sometimes you just break down and cry for an hour. But that’s how you survive it – by staying authentic to your emotions,” said Tommy Thomson, former director of client programs. She recalled how staff member “Carolotta,” or Carl, would sometimes put condoms and chocolate in a basket and go from office to office, frequently in drag. He would offer either or both to make people feel better. “He’d make you remember that you weren’t alone, and that we all know how hard it is. That’s part of what held you together.”

    Internal tensions

    Although Gay Men’s Health Crisis remained mission-driven, its internal politics were never simple. As it grew in size and national stature, it confronted the limits of its founding identity.

    Founded by, and initially serving, primarily white gay men, GMHC sometimes struggled to adapt to the emerging realities of the epidemic. While AIDS also affected people of color, women and intravenous drug users from the outset, much of the agency’s early prevention and outreach work was designed with gay men in mind.

    By the late 1980s, the increase in AIDS cases among white gay men had begun to plateau, while rates among Black and Latino people, women and IV drug users continued to rise sharply into the next decade. Women and people of color who were deeply embedded in GMHC’s operations nonetheless had to navigate assumptions about whose needs were prioritized – assumptions that often manifested in how resources were allocated and services were designed. As GMHC expanded its outreach to Black and Latino populations, it struggled to be culturally responsive and build trust in communities that had long been underserved and stigmatized.

    Racial disparities in HIV persist.

    As GMHC grew, it became more and more successful in fundraising and visibility, while smaller organizations sometimes struggled to access resources. This led to growing tensions, particularly in communities of color, where local groups feared that GMHC’s expansion would limit funding and undercut their efforts at community-specific approaches to care and prevention. In addition, efforts to address racism, sexism and cultural insensitivity encountered both support and indifference.

    Yet, staff and volunteers continued to push – reshaping messaging, fighting for inclusive programming, and holding conversations about race, gender, power and public health. For staff and volunteers, the agency was a complicated institution that could both empower and marginalize. Its strength, and its struggle, was learning how to expand without losing sight of the legacy and history it was built on.

    A guide for today

    Forty years later, LGBTQ+ people face a new set of crises in a landscape riddled with dangers.

    Trans health care is being banned in multiple states. Book bans and surveillance laws are targeting queer youth. Anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric is fueling violence and censorship. Funding for HIV prevention and research is disappearing even as new infections persist. Black and brown communities still face disproportionate barriers to health care and housing. Decades of scientific progress and medical discoveries are coming to a halt with funding cuts under the Trump administration.

    Protesters at the Iowa state Capitol in February 2025, demonstrating against a bill that would remove protections based on gender identity from the state civil rights code.
    AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

    And yet many of the same questions and challenges remain: Who gets left behind when public health systems collapse under political pressure or moral panic? Who will do the work when institutions fail? What does it mean to care for one another in the midst of the wreckage? How do people come together across differences?

    The history of GMHC is more than memory – it is a lesson in the possibility of care, creativity and community, especially in the face of fear and uncertainty today. It shows how people can come together – not just to demand policy change, but to directly meet one another’s needs with whatever resources they have. It is a reminder that mutual aid is powerful; that grief can coexist with joy; and that queer resilience has always included laughter, desire and shared vulnerability. In a time of renewed political backlash and public health failures, GMHC’s story is more than history – it’s a guide. Today, the staff and volunteers at GMHC continue their work to confront the epidemic and uplift the lives of all people affected by AIDS.

    “We’d say to them, ‘You’re just ordinary citizens doing extraordinary things,’” Sweeney said. “And we really meant that.”

    Sean G. Massey was a volunteer and staff member at Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), the organization that is being discussed in this article, from 1988-1998.

    Casey W. Adrian and Eden Lowinger do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Gay Men’s Health Crisis showed how everyday people stepped up when institutions failed during the height of the AIDS epidemic – providing a model for today – https://theconversation.com/gay-mens-health-crisis-showed-how-everyday-people-stepped-up-when-institutions-failed-during-the-height-of-the-aids-epidemic-providing-a-model-for-today-258139

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Testing between intervals: a key to retaining information in long-term memory

    Source: The Conversation – France – By Émilie Gerbier, Maîtresse de Conférence en Psychologie, Université Côte d’Azur

    The proverb “practice makes perfect” highlights the importance of repetition to master a skill. This principle also applies to learning vocabulary and other material. In order to fight our natural tendency to forget information, it is essential to reactivate it in our memory. But, how often?

    Research in cognitive psychology provides answers to this question. However, it is also important to understand underlying principles of long-term learning to apply them in a useful and personalised way.

    The ‘spacing effect’

    There are two key principles for memorising information in the long term.

    First, test yourself to learn and review content. It is much more effective to do this using question-and-answer cards than just to reread the material. After each attempt to recall pieces of information, review the one that could not be retrieved.

    The second principle is to space out reactivations over time. This phenomenon, known as the “spacing effect”, suggests that when reviews of specific content are limited to, for instance, three sessions, it is preferable to space them over relatively longer periods (eg every three days) rather than shorter ones (every day).

    Reviewing material at long intervals requires more effort, because it is more difficult to recall information after three days than one. However, it is precisely this effort that reinforces memories and promotes long-term retention.

    When it comes to learning, we must therefore be wary of effortlessness: easily remembering a lesson today does not indicate how likely we are to remember it in a month, even though this feeling of easiness can cause us to mistakenly believe that review is unnecessary.

    Robert Bjork of the University of California coined the term “desirable difficulty” to describe an optimal level of difficulty between two extremes. The first extreme corresponds to learning that is too easy (and therefore ineffective in the long run), while the other extreme corresponds to learning that is too difficult (and therefore ineffective and discouraging).

    Finding the right pace

    There is a limit to how much time can pass between information retrievals. After a long delay, such as a year, information will have greatly declined in memory and will be difficult, if not impossible, to recall. This situation may generate negative emotions and force us to start learning from scratch, rendering our previous efforts useless.

    The key is to identify the right interval between retrievals, ensuring it is not too long and not too short. The ideal interval varies depending on several factors, such as the type of information that needs to be learned or the history of that learning. Some learning software use algorithms taking these factors into account, to test each piece of information at the “ideal” time.

    There are also paper-and-pencil methods. The simplest method is to follow an “expansive” schedule, which uses increasingly longer intervals between sessions. This technique is used in the “méthode des J” (method of days), which some students may be familiar with. The effectiveness of this method lies in a gradual strengthening of the memory.


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    When you first learn something, retention is fragile, and memorised content needs to be reactivated quickly not to be forgotten. Each retrieval strengthens the memory, allowing the next retrieval opportunity to be delayed. Another consequence is that each retrieval is moderately difficult, which places the learner at a “desirable” level of difficulty.

    Here is an example of an expansive schedule for a given piece of content: Day 1, Day 2, D5, D15, D44, D145, D415, etc. In this schedule, the interval length triples from one session to the next: 24 hours between Day 1 and Day 2, then three days between D2 and D5, and so on.

    Gradually incorporating new knowledge

    There is no scientific consensus on the optimal interval schedule. However, carrying out the first retrieval on the day after the initial moment of learning (thus, on D2) seems beneficial, as a night’s sleep allows the brain to restructure and/or reinforce knowledge learned the previous day. The subsequent intervals can be adjusted according to individual constraints.

    This method is flexible; if necessary, a session can be postponed a few days before or after the scheduled date without affecting long-term effectiveness. It is the principle of regular retrieval that is key here.

    The expansive schedule also has a considerable practical advantage in that it allows new information to be gradually integrated. For instance, new content can be introduced on D3, because no session on the initial content is scheduled for that day. Adding content gradually makes it possible to memorise large amounts of information in a lasting way without spending more time studying it.

    The other method is based on the Leitner box system. In this case, the length of interval before the next retrieval depends on the outcome of the attempt to retrieve information from memory. If the answer was easily retrieved, the next retrieval should happen in a week. If the answer was retrieved with difficulty, then three days need to elapse before the next test. If the answer could not be retrieved, the next test should take place the following day. With experience, you will be able to adjust these intervals and develop your own system.

    In short, effective and lasting learning not only requires that a certain amount of effort be made to retrieve information from memory, but a regular repetition of this process, at appropriate intervals, to thwart the process of forgetting.

    Émilie Gerbier ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

    – ref. Testing between intervals: a key to retaining information in long-term memory – https://theconversation.com/testing-between-intervals-a-key-to-retaining-information-in-long-term-memory-246511

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: SEC Announces Departure of David Saltiel

    Source: Securities and Exchange Commission

    The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that David Saltiel, who has served as Acting Director of the Division of Trading and Markets, will depart the agency effective July 4, 2025. He has served as Acting Director since December 2024, and he also did so for several months in 2021.

    “I want to thank David for his wise counsel since I became Chairman, and he has been a critical member of the Division’s leadership team for nearly a decade,” said Chairman Paul S. Atkins. “Throughout his career at the SEC, David’s steady leadership has clearly demonstrated his commitment to the core mission of the agency, the highest ethical standards, a dedication to rigorous data-driven policymaking, and a strategic mindset. David’s contributions have made our markets stronger. The SEC will lose an outstanding resource; nevertheless, I wish him the very best in his next pursuits.”

    “David’s reputation as a technical expert who cares deeply about investor protection and fair and orderly markets has been well-earned,” said Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw. “David has consistently been a source of well-researched, principled, and balanced insights for Commissioners.”

    Mr. Saltiel has made critical contributions to a wide range of policy issues including equity, fixed-income, Treasury, and derivatives market structure topics, key transparency and disclosure initiatives such as the recent amendments to Rule 605, efforts to ensure that investors are protected from market manipulation, fostering competition among trading and listing markets, and the use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence by market participants. In addition, Mr. Saltiel has significantly enhanced the Commission’s ability to monitor the health and operations of markets, improved key data and analysis platforms, and worked tirelessly to more closely integrate empirical analysis into the Commission’s policymaking process. During his tenure, Mr. Saltiel was consistently recognized for his work, including with the Commission’s Excellence in Leadership Award in 2020.

    “David’s departure is a loss for the Commission, but he leaves the Division a legacy of culture and capabilities that will benefit our team for years to come. We are grateful and with him all the best,” said Jamie Selway, the newly appointed Director of the Division of Trading and Markets.

    “I want to thank Chairman Atkins, all the Commissioners, and my colleagues in the Division as well as across the SEC,” said Mr. Saltiel. “The staff in the Division are smart and dedicated people of integrity. It’s been an honor to work with them and learn from them. I will miss the interesting and critical work of the Commission.”

    In addition to his time serving as the Acting Director of the Division of Trading and Markets in 2025 and 2021, Mr. Saltiel served as a Deputy Director of the Division since November 2021 and Associate Director of the Division’s Office of Analytics and Research since 2016. Mr. Saltiel came to the SEC from the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board where he was that organization’s first Chief Economist. Prior to that, Mr. Saltiel has held roles in the public and private sector facilitating growth and innovation in capital markets and energy infrastructure.

    He received his undergraduate degree from Williams College and earned his master’s degree in economics from St. Antony’s College at the University of Oxford.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: SEC Announces Departure of David Saltiel

    Source: Securities and Exchange Commission

    The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that David Saltiel, who has served as Acting Director of the Division of Trading and Markets, will depart the agency effective July 4, 2025. He has served as Acting Director since December 2024, and he also did so for several months in 2021.

    “I want to thank David for his wise counsel since I became Chairman, and he has been a critical member of the Division’s leadership team for nearly a decade,” said Chairman Paul S. Atkins. “Throughout his career at the SEC, David’s steady leadership has clearly demonstrated his commitment to the core mission of the agency, the highest ethical standards, a dedication to rigorous data-driven policymaking, and a strategic mindset. David’s contributions have made our markets stronger. The SEC will lose an outstanding resource; nevertheless, I wish him the very best in his next pursuits.”

    “David’s reputation as a technical expert who cares deeply about investor protection and fair and orderly markets has been well-earned,” said Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw. “David has consistently been a source of well-researched, principled, and balanced insights for Commissioners.”

    Mr. Saltiel has made critical contributions to a wide range of policy issues including equity, fixed-income, Treasury, and derivatives market structure topics, key transparency and disclosure initiatives such as the recent amendments to Rule 605, efforts to ensure that investors are protected from market manipulation, fostering competition among trading and listing markets, and the use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence by market participants. In addition, Mr. Saltiel has significantly enhanced the Commission’s ability to monitor the health and operations of markets, improved key data and analysis platforms, and worked tirelessly to more closely integrate empirical analysis into the Commission’s policymaking process. During his tenure, Mr. Saltiel was consistently recognized for his work, including with the Commission’s Excellence in Leadership Award in 2020.

    “David’s departure is a loss for the Commission, but he leaves the Division a legacy of culture and capabilities that will benefit our team for years to come. We are grateful and with him all the best,” said Jamie Selway, the newly appointed Director of the Division of Trading and Markets.

    “I want to thank Chairman Atkins, all the Commissioners, and my colleagues in the Division as well as across the SEC,” said Mr. Saltiel. “The staff in the Division are smart and dedicated people of integrity. It’s been an honor to work with them and learn from them. I will miss the interesting and critical work of the Commission.”

    In addition to his time serving as the Acting Director of the Division of Trading and Markets in 2025 and 2021, Mr. Saltiel served as a Deputy Director of the Division since November 2021 and Associate Director of the Division’s Office of Analytics and Research since 2016. Mr. Saltiel came to the SEC from the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board where he was that organization’s first Chief Economist. Prior to that, Mr. Saltiel has held roles in the public and private sector facilitating growth and innovation in capital markets and energy infrastructure.

    He received his undergraduate degree from Williams College and earned his master’s degree in economics from St. Antony’s College at the University of Oxford.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: South Africa’s cricket team just made history: how the ‘chokers’ became world champions

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Mogammad Sharhidd Taliep, Associate Professor, Cape Peninsula University of Technology

    When Kyle Verreynne hit the winning runs at the “home of cricket” (Lord’s Cricket Ground in London) on 14 June, South Africa erupted in celebration. The Proteas had just claimed their first major cricket cup in history. And nothing less than the International Cricket Council World Test Championship at that, the premier international competition for five-day (test) cricket that’s played over two years.

    Branded as “chokers” for 26 years for underperforming or spoiling their advantage in crunch situations in major tournaments, the national men’s cricket team has transformed to become world champions.

    I’m a sport scientist with a focus on cricket. Research can help us understand how the Proteas have managed to do this and what core qualities of a winning team they’ve embodied on their way to turning things around.

    What is choking?

    The term “chokers” started being used to describe the Proteas team after the 1999 International Cricket Council Men’s Cricket World Cup semi-finals for games played over one day. The Proteas gave up a commanding position against Australia. This curse tormented them in high-stakes games, particularly world cups, where they often ended second best.

    In sports psychology, choking has been defined as:

    An acute and considerable decrease in skill execution and performance when self-expected standards are normally achievable, which is the result of increased anxiety under perceived pressure performance decline when highly motivated individuals are subjected to pressure.

    Anxiety disrupts a player’s automatic motor response, leading to poor decisions and inaccurate skill execution. This happens at critical moments of the game. And the aftermath of these continued inferior performances can lead to a long-lasting stigma.

    Proteas captain Temba Bavuma emphasised this in his match-winning speech:

    We have gone through the heartache, we have gone through the pain, seeing it with past players.

    Clutch performance

    The opposite to choking is clutch performance. This can be defined as improved or maintained performance under pressure. Some of the contributing characteristics of clutch performances are confidence, complete and deliberate focus, automatic movements, and the absence of negative thoughts.

    I believe the shift towards these clutch characteristics was the difference in the Proteas shrugging off their “choker” curse.

    What made the difference?

    Bavuma, in the post-match interview, recounted how teammate Aiden Markram embodied those clutch qualities, calmly telling Bavuma after every over:

    Lock in and give them nothing.

    In interviews Proteas coach Shukri Conrad stressed how calm the players were. He pointed out Markram and Bavuma for their poise and reliability under pressure, another defining trait of expert performers.

    Conrad emphasised the importance of removing distraction by telling them to “play the conditions” and not the situation. This allows players to focus on the moment and not be overwhelmed by the broader context of the match.

    The calm and composed demeanour of Bavuma and Markram as they prepared to face the barrage of deliveries during their match-defining partnership also relates to a phenomenon scientists refer to as the “quiet eye”.



    Read more:
    What is cricket’s World Test Championship and how did Australia qualify for the final?

    The quiet eye is the period of visual fixation or visual tracking of the body cues of the bowler and the early ball flight trajectory before the execution of a motor task. It’s been associated with superior performance under pressure.

    Bavuma and Markram were able to sustain long periods of quiet eye while processing critical information from the bowlers’ action and early ball path, while remaining focused on task-relevant cues, all the while blocking out anxiety-related distractions.

    Conrad succeeded because he was able to combine cultural wisdom and emotional intelligence to truly transform the psychology and ability of the Proteas team.

    His philosophy of selection, “character first then matching up the skill”, pays tribute to his vision of peaking when it counts – a quality lacking in Proteas teams of the past.

    When Conrad was first appointed as Proteas coach, he made two big decisions. He selected Bavuma as captain and he recalled a struggling test batter, Markram. Conrad explained:

    Obviously Temba, a quiet leader, leads from the back, but certainly from the front with the bat … Aiden Markram was always going to be my opening bat. He always delivers on the big stage.

    The vision of Conrad to appoint Bavuma captain has resulted in a record 10 successive test wins. In the winning match Bavuma led from the front and held firm. He was up to the task with the bat, and despite suffering a hamstring injury during the game, was able to join forces with Markram in the fourth innings to set up a match-winning third wicket partnership of 143 runs.

    Three of the most experienced players for South Africa in test matches, Bavuma, Markram and Kagiso Rabada, stood out as true champions in this final. Markram scored a match-winning 136 runs in the fourth innings, while Rabada laid the foundation for victory by taking a decisive nine wickets.



    Read more:
    T20 World Cup: South Africa reached its first final ever – but staying at the top will take a rethink of junior cricket

    For the first time in 26 years, the senior Proteas players all stepped up when it mattered most to secure a world championship. Conrad bore testimony to this in the post-match interview:

    When our two senior pros in Aiden and Temba put that big stand together, I felt that is obviously where the game was won for us.

    The Proteas’ victory on 14 June 2025 lifted a 26-year choker curse. With the visionary leadership of Conrad and the composed stewardship of Bavuma, the Proteas revealed that mental clarity, cultural cohesion, and emotional intelligence were key to their success. The “chokers” tag is buried beneath the turf of the “home of cricket”.

    Mogammad Sharhidd Taliep 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. South Africa’s cricket team just made history: how the ‘chokers’ became world champions – https://theconversation.com/south-africas-cricket-team-just-made-history-how-the-chokers-became-world-champions-259167

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: South Africa’s cricket team just made history: how the ‘chokers’ became world champions

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Mogammad Sharhidd Taliep, Associate Professor, Cape Peninsula University of Technology

    When Kyle Verreynne hit the winning runs at the “home of cricket” (Lord’s Cricket Ground in London) on 14 June, South Africa erupted in celebration. The Proteas had just claimed their first major cricket cup in history. And nothing less than the International Cricket Council World Test Championship at that, the premier international competition for five-day (test) cricket that’s played over two years.

    Branded as “chokers” for 26 years for underperforming or spoiling their advantage in crunch situations in major tournaments, the national men’s cricket team has transformed to become world champions.

    I’m a sport scientist with a focus on cricket. Research can help us understand how the Proteas have managed to do this and what core qualities of a winning team they’ve embodied on their way to turning things around.

    What is choking?

    The term “chokers” started being used to describe the Proteas team after the 1999 International Cricket Council Men’s Cricket World Cup semi-finals for games played over one day. The Proteas gave up a commanding position against Australia. This curse tormented them in high-stakes games, particularly world cups, where they often ended second best.

    In sports psychology, choking has been defined as:

    An acute and considerable decrease in skill execution and performance when self-expected standards are normally achievable, which is the result of increased anxiety under perceived pressure performance decline when highly motivated individuals are subjected to pressure.

    Anxiety disrupts a player’s automatic motor response, leading to poor decisions and inaccurate skill execution. This happens at critical moments of the game. And the aftermath of these continued inferior performances can lead to a long-lasting stigma.

    Proteas captain Temba Bavuma emphasised this in his match-winning speech:

    We have gone through the heartache, we have gone through the pain, seeing it with past players.

    Clutch performance

    The opposite to choking is clutch performance. This can be defined as improved or maintained performance under pressure. Some of the contributing characteristics of clutch performances are confidence, complete and deliberate focus, automatic movements, and the absence of negative thoughts.

    I believe the shift towards these clutch characteristics was the difference in the Proteas shrugging off their “choker” curse.

    What made the difference?

    Bavuma, in the post-match interview, recounted how teammate Aiden Markram embodied those clutch qualities, calmly telling Bavuma after every over:

    Lock in and give them nothing.

    In interviews Proteas coach Shukri Conrad stressed how calm the players were. He pointed out Markram and Bavuma for their poise and reliability under pressure, another defining trait of expert performers.

    Conrad emphasised the importance of removing distraction by telling them to “play the conditions” and not the situation. This allows players to focus on the moment and not be overwhelmed by the broader context of the match.

    The calm and composed demeanour of Bavuma and Markram as they prepared to face the barrage of deliveries during their match-defining partnership also relates to a phenomenon scientists refer to as the “quiet eye”.



    Read more:
    What is cricket’s World Test Championship and how did Australia qualify for the final?

    The quiet eye is the period of visual fixation or visual tracking of the body cues of the bowler and the early ball flight trajectory before the execution of a motor task. It’s been associated with superior performance under pressure.

    Bavuma and Markram were able to sustain long periods of quiet eye while processing critical information from the bowlers’ action and early ball path, while remaining focused on task-relevant cues, all the while blocking out anxiety-related distractions.

    Conrad succeeded because he was able to combine cultural wisdom and emotional intelligence to truly transform the psychology and ability of the Proteas team.

    His philosophy of selection, “character first then matching up the skill”, pays tribute to his vision of peaking when it counts – a quality lacking in Proteas teams of the past.

    When Conrad was first appointed as Proteas coach, he made two big decisions. He selected Bavuma as captain and he recalled a struggling test batter, Markram. Conrad explained:

    Obviously Temba, a quiet leader, leads from the back, but certainly from the front with the bat … Aiden Markram was always going to be my opening bat. He always delivers on the big stage.

    The vision of Conrad to appoint Bavuma captain has resulted in a record 10 successive test wins. In the winning match Bavuma led from the front and held firm. He was up to the task with the bat, and despite suffering a hamstring injury during the game, was able to join forces with Markram in the fourth innings to set up a match-winning third wicket partnership of 143 runs.

    Three of the most experienced players for South Africa in test matches, Bavuma, Markram and Kagiso Rabada, stood out as true champions in this final. Markram scored a match-winning 136 runs in the fourth innings, while Rabada laid the foundation for victory by taking a decisive nine wickets.



    Read more:
    T20 World Cup: South Africa reached its first final ever – but staying at the top will take a rethink of junior cricket

    For the first time in 26 years, the senior Proteas players all stepped up when it mattered most to secure a world championship. Conrad bore testimony to this in the post-match interview:

    When our two senior pros in Aiden and Temba put that big stand together, I felt that is obviously where the game was won for us.

    The Proteas’ victory on 14 June 2025 lifted a 26-year choker curse. With the visionary leadership of Conrad and the composed stewardship of Bavuma, the Proteas revealed that mental clarity, cultural cohesion, and emotional intelligence were key to their success. The “chokers” tag is buried beneath the turf of the “home of cricket”.

    Mogammad Sharhidd Taliep 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. South Africa’s cricket team just made history: how the ‘chokers’ became world champions – https://theconversation.com/south-africas-cricket-team-just-made-history-how-the-chokers-became-world-champions-259167

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: G20 countries could produce enough renewable energy for the whole world – what needs to happen

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Sven Teske, Prof. Dr. | Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney

    The world’s most developed economies have also burnt the most oil and coal (fossil fuels) over the years, causing the most climate change damage. Preventing further climate change means a global fossil fuel phase-out must happen by 2050. Climate change mitigation scientists Sven Teske and Saori Miyake analysed the potential for renewable energy in each of the G20 countries. They concluded that the G20 is in a position to generate enough renewable energy to supply the world. For African countries to benefit, they must adopt long term renewable energy plans and policies and secure finance from G20 countries to set up renewable energy systems.

    Why is the G20 so important in efforts to limit global warming?

    The G20 group accounts for 67% of the world’s population, 85% of global gross domestic product, and 75% of global trade. The member states are the G7 (the US, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Canada), plus Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Russia, Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.

    We wanted to find out how G20 member states could limit global warming. Our study examined the solar and wind potential for each of G20 member countries (the available land and solar and wind conditions). We then compared this with projected electricity demands for 2050. This is, to our knowledge, the first research of its kind.



    Read more:
    G20 is too elite. There’s a way to fix that though – economists

    We found that the potential for renewable energy in G20 countries is very high – enough to supply the projected 2050 electricity demand for the whole world. They have 33.6 million km² of land on which solar energy projects could be set up, or 31.1 million km² of land on which wind energy projects could be set up.

    This potential varies by geography. Not all G20 countries have the same conditions for generating solar and wind energy, but collectively, the G20 countries have enough renewable energy potential to supply the world’s energy needs.

    But for the G20 countries to limit global warming, they also need to stop emitting greenhouse gases. Recent figures show that the G20 countries were responsible for generating 87% of all energy-related carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming.

    On the other hand, African Union countries (apart from South Africa, which is a high greenhouse gas emitter), were responsible for only 1.2% of the global total historical emissions until 2020.

    The G20 countries with the highest renewable energy potential (especially Australia and Canada) are major exporters of the fossil fuels that cause global warming. Along with every other country in the world, the G20 nations will need to end their human-caused carbon emissions by 2050 to prevent further climate change.

    Where does Africa fit into the picture?

    African countries cannot set up new electricity plants based on burning fossil fuels, like coal. If they do that, the world will never end human-caused greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The continent must generate electricity for the 600 million Africans who do not currently have it but will need to move straight past fossil fuels and into renewable energy.

    For this, Africa will need finance. The African Union hosts the G20 summit later this year. This meeting begins just after the world’s annual climate change conference (now in its 30th year and known as COP30). These two summits will give Africa the chance to lobby for renewable energy funding from wealthier nations.

    Africa already has the conditions needed to move straight into renewable energy. The continent could be generating an amount of solar and wind power that far exceeds its projected demand for electricity between now and 2050.

    We are launching an additional analysis of the solar and wind potential of the entire African continent in Bonn, Germany on 19 June 2025 at a United Nations conference. This shows that only 3% of Africa’s solar and wind potential needs to be converted to real projects to supply Africa’s future electricity demand.



    Read more:
    Africa’s power pools: what the G20 can do to help countries share electricity

    This means that Africa has great untapped potential to supply the required energy for its transition to a middle-income continent – one of the African Union’s goals in Agenda 2063, its 50 year plan.

    But to secure enough finance for the continent to build renewable energy systems, African countries need long-term energy policies. These are currently lacking.

    So what needs to be done?

    The countries who signed up to the 2015 international climate change treaty (the Paris Agreement) have committed to replacing polluting forms of energy such as coal, fuelwood and oil with renewable energy.

    South Africa, through its G20 presidency, must encourage G20 nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and support renewable energy investment in Africa.



    Read more:
    Fossil fuels are still subsidised: G20 could push for the funds to be shifted to cleaner energy

    Because financing the global energy transition is already high on the priority list of most countries, South Africa should push for change on three fronts: finance, sound regulations and manufacturing capacity for renewable technologies. These are the among the main obstacles for renewables, particularly in Africa.

    Finance: Financing the energy transition is among the highest priorities for COP30. Therefore, the COP30 meeting will be an opportunity for the African Union to negotiate finance for its renewable energy infrastructure needs.

    For this, fair and just carbon budgets are vital. A carbon budget sets out how much carbon dioxide can still be emitted in order for the global temperature not to rise more than 2°C higher than it was before the 1760 industrial revolution.

    A global carbon budget (the amount of emissions the whole world is allowed) has been calculated, but it needs to be divided up fairly so that countries that have polluted most are compelled to limit this.

    To divide the global carbon budget fairly, energy pathways need to be developed urgently that consider:

    • future developments of population and economic growth

    • current energy supply systems

    • transition times for decarbonisation

    • local renewable energy resources.

    The G20 platform should be used to lobby for fair and just carbon budgets.



    Read more:
    Wealthy nations owe climate debt to Africa – funds that could help cities grow

    Sound regulations that support the setting up of new factories: Governments must put policies in place to support African solar and wind companies. These are needed to win the trust of investors to invest in a future multi-billion dollar industry. Long-term, transparent regulations are needed too.

    These regulations should:

    • say exactly how building permits for solar and wind power plants will be granted

    • prioritise linking renewable energy plants to national electricity grids

    • release standard technical specifications for stand-alone grids to make sure they’re all of the same quality.

    Taking steps now to speed up big renewable energy industries could mean that African countries end up with more energy than they need. This can be exported and increase financial income for countries.

    Sven Teske receives funding from the European Climate Foundation and Power Shift Africa (PSA).

    Saori Miyake receives funding from European Climate Foundation and Power Shift Africa.

    – ref. G20 countries could produce enough renewable energy for the whole world – what needs to happen – https://theconversation.com/g20-countries-could-produce-enough-renewable-energy-for-the-whole-world-what-needs-to-happen-258463

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Southeast Asian nations look to hedge their way out of troubled waters in the South China Sea

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By John Rennie Short, Professor Emeritus of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

    A Philippine coast guard vessel patrols near Pagasa, part of the Spratly Islands in the disputed South China Sea. Daniel Ceng/Anadolu via Getty Images

    The South China Sea has long been a bubbling geopolitical hot spot. Recently, a series of moves by the various nations claiming a stake in the waters has stirred up yet more trouble.

    Malaysia has of late reaffirmed its commitment to oil and gas exploration in waters claimed by China while quietly building up its military on the islands off Borneo.

    Meanwhile, Chinese coast guard vessels have deployed water cannons against Filipino fishing boats. And the accidental grounding of a Chinese boat in shallow waters around the Philippines’ Thitu Island on June 8, 2025, was enough to put Filipino forces on alert.

    Vietnam, too, has been active in the disputed waters. A Beijing-based think tank on June 7 flagged that Vietnamese engineers had been busy reclaiming land and installing military-related ports and airstrips around the Spratly Islands.

    What the three Southeast Asian nations of Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia have in common is that they, along with others in the region, are trying to navigate a more assertive China at a time when the U.S. policy intentions under the second Trump Administration are fluid and hard to read. And in lieu of a coordinated response from the regional body Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, each member nation has been busy charting its course in these choppy waters.

    US-China relations all at sea

    Why is China trying to assert control in the South China Sea? In a 2023 speech, President Xi Jinping noted that “Western countries led by the United States have implemented all round containment, encirclement and suppression of China.”

    This fear has been long held in Beijing and was reinforced by a U.S. Indo-Pacific policy announced in 2011 of rebalancing military forces away from Europe and toward Asia to confront China.

    In response, China has in recent years embarked on an ambitious policy of attempting to outmuscle U.S. naval power in the South China Sea.

    China is now the world’s leading builder of naval vessels and is estimated to have 440 battleships by 2030, compared with the United States’ 300.

    And it comes at a time when U.S. naval power is spread around the world. China’s, meanwhile, is concentrated around the South China Sea where, since 2013, Chinese vessels have pumped sand onto reefs, turning them into islands and then weaponizing them.

    Satellite imagery shows the Fiery Cross Reef in the South China Sea, part of the Spratly Islands group, being built by Chinese dredges.
    Maxar via Getty Images

    Then there is the activity of China’s maritime militia of approximately 300 nominally fishing boats equipped with water cannons and reinforced hulls for ramming. This so-called gray zone fleet is increasingly active in confronting Southeast Asia nations at sea.

    The U.S. response to China’s militarization in the sea has been through so-called “freedom of navigation” exercises that often deploy carrier groups in a show of force. But these episodic displays are more performative than effective, doing little to deter China’s claims.

    The U.S. has also strengthened military alliances with Australia, India, Japan and the Philippines, and has increased coast guard cooperation with the Philippines and Japan.

    A fleet from the U.S. Navy patrolling the Pacific Ocean.
    Sean M. Castellano US Navy via Getty Images

    The sea is a valuable resource

    Yet the battle over control of the South China Seas is more than just geopolitical posturing between the two superpowers.

    For adjoining countries, the sea is a valuable biological resource with rich fishing grounds that provide a staple of fish protein for close to 2 billion people. There are estimates of 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 11 billion barrels of oil.

    The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS, guarantees a nation an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 200 nautical miles from around its coastline.

    China is a signatory of the UNCLOS. Yet it views ownership of the South China Sea through the lens of its nine-dash line, a reference to the boundary line that Beijing has invoked since 1948. While the claim has no legal or historical basis, the delineation makes major incursions into waters around Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia and, to a lesser extent, Brunei and Indonesia as well.

    Despite China’s expansive claim to the South China Sea being dismissed in 2016 by the international Permanent Court of Arbitration, Beijing continues to assert its claim.

    Hedging positions

    As I explore in my recent book “Hedging and Conflict in the South China Sea,” part of the problem Southeast Asian nations face is that they have failed to forge a unified position.

    ASEAN, the regional bloc representing 10 nations in Southeast Asia, has long been governed by the principle that major decisions need unanimous agreement. China is a major trading partner to ASEAN nations, so any regional country aligning too close to the U.S. comes with the real risk of economic consequences. And two ASEAN members, Cambodia and Laos, are especially close to China, making it difficult to generate a unified ASEAN policy that confronts China’s maritime claim.

    Instead, ASEAN has promoted a regional code of conduct that effectively legitimizes China’s maritime claims, fails to mention the 2016 ruling and ignores the issue of conflicting claims.

    Further complicating a united front against China is the competing claims among ASEAN nations themselves to disputed islands in the South China Sea.

    In lieu of a coordinated response, Southeast Asian nations have instead turned to hedging — that is, maintaining good relationships with both China and the U.S. without fully committing to one or other.

    A balancing act for Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines

    Malaysia’s approach sees its government partition off the South China Sea dispute from its overall bilateral ties with China while continuing to promote an ASEAN code of conduct.

    Until recently, Malaysia’s oil and gas activities were well within Malaysia’s EEZ and not far enough out to fall into China’s nine-dash claim.

    But as these close-to-shore fields become exhausted, subsequent exploration will need to extend outward and into China’s nine-dash claim, putting Malaysia’s dealings with China under pressure.

    China’s nine-dash line claims a significant amount of Vietnam’s EEZ, and the contested maritime area is a source of friction between the two countries; China’s maritime militia regularly harasses Vietnamese fishermen and disrupts drilling operations in Vietnam’s EEZ .

    But Vietnam has to tread carefully. China plays a significant role in the Vietnamese economy as a major destination of exports and an important provider of foreign investment. China also has the ability to dam the Mekong River upstream of Vietnam — something that would disrupt agricultural production.

    As a result, Vietnam’s hedging involves a careful calibration to avoid angering China. However, part of Vietnam’s heavy hedging involves the promotion of the South China Sea dispute as a core issue for domestic public opinion, which limits the Vietnamese government’s ability to offer concessions to China.

    A Philippine coast guard ship and fishing boats are seen in El Nido, Palawan, Philippines, on May 26, 2025.
    Daniel Ceng/Anadolu via Getty ImagesDaniel Ceng/Anadolu via Getty Images

    China’s nine-dash claim also includes a wide swath of the Philippines’ EEZ.

    The Philippines has zigzagged in its dealings with China. The presidencies of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (2001–2010) and Rodrigo Duterte (2016-2022) pursued a pro-China tack that downplayed Filipino claims in the South China Sea. Presidents Benigno Aquino (2010-2016) and Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (2022-present), in contrast, have given U.S. forces greater access to its maritime bases and mobilized national and international opinion in favor of its claims.

    Since coming to power, Marcos has also pursued even closer naval ties with the U.S.. But this has come at a cost: China now views the Philippines as a U.S. ally. As such, Beijing sees little to be gained by pulling back from its assertive activity in and around its waters.

    The future

    In the shadow of two major powers battling for power in the South China Sea, Southeast Asian nations are making the best of their position along a geopolitical fracture line by advancing their claims and interests while not overly antagonizing a more assertive China or losing the support of the U.S.

    This may work to tamp down tensions in the South China Sea. But it is a fluid approach not without risk, and it could yet prove to be another source of instability in a geopolitically contested and dangerous region.

    John Rennie Short received funding from Fulbright Foundation

    – ref. Southeast Asian nations look to hedge their way out of troubled waters in the South China Sea – https://theconversation.com/southeast-asian-nations-look-to-hedge-their-way-out-of-troubled-waters-in-the-south-china-sea-257092

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Iran’s long history of revolution, defiance and outside interference – and why its future is so uncertain

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University; and Vice Chancellor’s Strategic Fellow, Victoria University

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gone beyond his initial aim of destroying Iran’s ability to produce nuclear weapons. He has called on the Iranian people to rise up against their dictatorial Islamic regime and ostensibly transform Iran along the lines of Israeli interests.

    United States President Donald Trump is now weighing possible military action in support of Netanyahu’s goal and asked for Iran’s total surrender.

    If the US does get involved, it wouldn’t be the first time it’s tried to instigate regime change by military means in the Middle East. The US invaded Iraq in 2003 and backed a NATO operation in Libya in 2011, toppling the regimes of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi, respectively.

    In both cases, the interventions backfired, causing long-term instability in both countries and in the broader region.

    Could the same thing happen in Iran if the regime is overthrown?

    As I describe in my book, Iran Rising: The Survival and Future of the Islamic Republic, Iran is a pluralist society with a complex history of rival groups trying to assert their authority. A democratic transition would be difficult to achieve.

    The overthrow of the shah

    The Iranian Islamic regime assumed power in the wake of the pro-democracy popular uprising of 1978–79, which toppled Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi’s pro-Western monarchy.

    Until this moment, Iran had a long history of monarchical rule dating back 2,500 years. Mohammad Reza, the last shah, was the head of the Pahlavi dynasty, which came to power in 1925.

    In 1953, the shah was forced into exile under the radical nationalist and reformist impulse of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. He was shortly returned to his throne through a CIA-orchestrated coup.

    Despite all his nationalist, pro-Western, modernising efforts, the shah could not shake off the indignity of having been re-throned with the help of a foreign power.

    The revolution against him 25 years later was spearheaded by pro-democracy elements. But it was made up of many groups, including liberalists, communists and Islamists, with no uniting leader.

    The Shia clerical group (ruhaniyat), led by the Shah’s religious and political opponent, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, proved to be best organised and capable of providing leadership to the revolution. Khomeini had been in exile from the early 1960s (at first in Iraq and later in France), yet he and his followers held considerable sway over the population, especially in traditional rural areas.

    When US President Jimmy Carter’s administration found it could no longer support the shah, he left the country and went into exile in January 1979. This enabled Khomeini to return to Iran to a tumultuous welcome.

    Birth of the Islamic Republic

    In the wake of the uprising, Khomeini and his supporters, including the current supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, abolished the monarchy and transformed Iran to a cleric-dominated Islamic Republic, with anti-US and anti-Israel postures. He ruled the country according to his unique vision of Islam.

    Khomeini denounced the US as a “Great Satan” and Israel as an illegal usurper of the Palestinian lands – Jerusalem, in particular. He also declared a foreign policy of “neither east, nor west” but pro-Islamic, and called for the spread of the Iranian revolution in the region.

    Khomeini not only changed Iran, but also challenged the US as the dominant force in shaping the regional order. And the US lost one of the most important pillars of its influence in the oil-rich and strategically important Persian Gulf region.

    Fear of hostile American or Israeli (or combined) actions against the Islamic Republic became the focus of Iran’s domestic and foreign policy behaviour.

    A new supreme leader takes power

    Khomeini died in 1989. His successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has ruled Iran largely in the same jihadi (combative) and ijtihadi (pragmatic) ways, steering the country through many domestic and foreign policy challenges.

    Khamenei fortified the regime with an emphasis on self-sufficiency, a stronger defence capability and a tilt towards the east – Russia and China – to counter the US and its allies. He has stood firm in opposition to the US and its allies – Israel, in particular. And he has shown flexibility when necessary to ensure the survival and continuity of the regime.

    Khamenei wields enormous constitutional power and spiritual authority.

    He has presided over the building of many rule-enforcing instruments of state power, including the expansion of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its paramilitary wing, the Basij, revolutionary committees, and Shia religious networks.

    The Shia concept of martyrdom and loyalty to Iran as a continuous sovereign country for centuries goes to the heart of his actions, as well as his followers.

    Khamenei and his rule enforcers, along with an elected president and National Assembly, are fully cognisant that if the regime goes down, they will face the same fate. As such, they cannot be expected to hoist the white flag and surrender to Israel and the US easily.

    However, in the event of the regime falling under the weight of a combined internal uprising and external pressure, it raises the question: what is the alternative?

    The return of the shah?

    Many Iranians are discontented with the regime, but there is no organised opposition under a nationally unifying leader.

    The son of the former shah, the crown prince Reza Pahlavi, has been gaining some popularity. He has been speaking out on X in the last few days, telling his fellow Iranians:

    The end of the Islamic Republic is the end of its 46-year war against the Iranian nation. The regime’s apparatus of repression is falling apart. All it takes now is a nationwide uprising to put an end to this nightmare once and for all.

    Since the deposition of his father, he has lived in exile in the US. As such, he has been tainted by his close association with Washington and Jerusalem, especially Netanyahu.

    If he were to return to power – likely through the assistance of the US – he would face the same problem of political legitimacy as his father did.

    What does the future hold?

    Iran has never had a long tradition of democracy. It experienced brief instances of liberalism in the first half of the 20th century, but every attempt at making it durable resulted in disarray and a return to authoritarian rule.

    Also, the country has rarely been free of outside interventionism, given its vast hydrocarbon riches and strategic location. It’s also been prone to internal fragmentation, given its ethnic and religious mix.

    The Shia Persians make up more than half of the population, but the country has a number of Sunni ethnic minorities, such as Kurds, Azaris, Balochis and Arabs. They have all had separatist tendencies.

    Iran has historically been held together by centralisation rather than diffusion of power.

    Should the Islamic regime disintegrate in one form or another, it would be an mistake to expect a smooth transfer of power or transition to democratisation within a unified national framework.

    At the same time, the Iranian people are highly cultured and creative, with a very rich and proud history of achievements and civilisation.

    They are perfectly capable of charting their own destiny as long as there aren’t self-seeking foreign hands in the process – something they have rarely experienced.

    Amin Saikal 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. Iran’s long history of revolution, defiance and outside interference – and why its future is so uncertain – https://theconversation.com/irans-long-history-of-revolution-defiance-and-outside-interference-and-why-its-future-is-so-uncertain-259270

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Iran’s long history of revolution, defiance and outside interference – and why its future is so uncertain

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University; and Vice Chancellor’s Strategic Fellow, Victoria University

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gone beyond his initial aim of destroying Iran’s ability to produce nuclear weapons. He has called on the Iranian people to rise up against their dictatorial Islamic regime and ostensibly transform Iran along the lines of Israeli interests.

    United States President Donald Trump is now weighing possible military action in support of Netanyahu’s goal and asked for Iran’s total surrender.

    If the US does get involved, it wouldn’t be the first time it’s tried to instigate regime change by military means in the Middle East. The US invaded Iraq in 2003 and backed a NATO operation in Libya in 2011, toppling the regimes of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi, respectively.

    In both cases, the interventions backfired, causing long-term instability in both countries and in the broader region.

    Could the same thing happen in Iran if the regime is overthrown?

    As I describe in my book, Iran Rising: The Survival and Future of the Islamic Republic, Iran is a pluralist society with a complex history of rival groups trying to assert their authority. A democratic transition would be difficult to achieve.

    The overthrow of the shah

    The Iranian Islamic regime assumed power in the wake of the pro-democracy popular uprising of 1978–79, which toppled Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi’s pro-Western monarchy.

    Until this moment, Iran had a long history of monarchical rule dating back 2,500 years. Mohammad Reza, the last shah, was the head of the Pahlavi dynasty, which came to power in 1925.

    In 1953, the shah was forced into exile under the radical nationalist and reformist impulse of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. He was shortly returned to his throne through a CIA-orchestrated coup.

    Despite all his nationalist, pro-Western, modernising efforts, the shah could not shake off the indignity of having been re-throned with the help of a foreign power.

    The revolution against him 25 years later was spearheaded by pro-democracy elements. But it was made up of many groups, including liberalists, communists and Islamists, with no uniting leader.

    The Shia clerical group (ruhaniyat), led by the Shah’s religious and political opponent, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, proved to be best organised and capable of providing leadership to the revolution. Khomeini had been in exile from the early 1960s (at first in Iraq and later in France), yet he and his followers held considerable sway over the population, especially in traditional rural areas.

    When US President Jimmy Carter’s administration found it could no longer support the shah, he left the country and went into exile in January 1979. This enabled Khomeini to return to Iran to a tumultuous welcome.

    Birth of the Islamic Republic

    In the wake of the uprising, Khomeini and his supporters, including the current supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, abolished the monarchy and transformed Iran to a cleric-dominated Islamic Republic, with anti-US and anti-Israel postures. He ruled the country according to his unique vision of Islam.

    Khomeini denounced the US as a “Great Satan” and Israel as an illegal usurper of the Palestinian lands – Jerusalem, in particular. He also declared a foreign policy of “neither east, nor west” but pro-Islamic, and called for the spread of the Iranian revolution in the region.

    Khomeini not only changed Iran, but also challenged the US as the dominant force in shaping the regional order. And the US lost one of the most important pillars of its influence in the oil-rich and strategically important Persian Gulf region.

    Fear of hostile American or Israeli (or combined) actions against the Islamic Republic became the focus of Iran’s domestic and foreign policy behaviour.

    A new supreme leader takes power

    Khomeini died in 1989. His successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has ruled Iran largely in the same jihadi (combative) and ijtihadi (pragmatic) ways, steering the country through many domestic and foreign policy challenges.

    Khamenei fortified the regime with an emphasis on self-sufficiency, a stronger defence capability and a tilt towards the east – Russia and China – to counter the US and its allies. He has stood firm in opposition to the US and its allies – Israel, in particular. And he has shown flexibility when necessary to ensure the survival and continuity of the regime.

    Khamenei wields enormous constitutional power and spiritual authority.

    He has presided over the building of many rule-enforcing instruments of state power, including the expansion of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its paramilitary wing, the Basij, revolutionary committees, and Shia religious networks.

    The Shia concept of martyrdom and loyalty to Iran as a continuous sovereign country for centuries goes to the heart of his actions, as well as his followers.

    Khamenei and his rule enforcers, along with an elected president and National Assembly, are fully cognisant that if the regime goes down, they will face the same fate. As such, they cannot be expected to hoist the white flag and surrender to Israel and the US easily.

    However, in the event of the regime falling under the weight of a combined internal uprising and external pressure, it raises the question: what is the alternative?

    The return of the shah?

    Many Iranians are discontented with the regime, but there is no organised opposition under a nationally unifying leader.

    The son of the former shah, the crown prince Reza Pahlavi, has been gaining some popularity. He has been speaking out on X in the last few days, telling his fellow Iranians:

    The end of the Islamic Republic is the end of its 46-year war against the Iranian nation. The regime’s apparatus of repression is falling apart. All it takes now is a nationwide uprising to put an end to this nightmare once and for all.

    Since the deposition of his father, he has lived in exile in the US. As such, he has been tainted by his close association with Washington and Jerusalem, especially Netanyahu.

    If he were to return to power – likely through the assistance of the US – he would face the same problem of political legitimacy as his father did.

    What does the future hold?

    Iran has never had a long tradition of democracy. It experienced brief instances of liberalism in the first half of the 20th century, but every attempt at making it durable resulted in disarray and a return to authoritarian rule.

    Also, the country has rarely been free of outside interventionism, given its vast hydrocarbon riches and strategic location. It’s also been prone to internal fragmentation, given its ethnic and religious mix.

    The Shia Persians make up more than half of the population, but the country has a number of Sunni ethnic minorities, such as Kurds, Azaris, Balochis and Arabs. They have all had separatist tendencies.

    Iran has historically been held together by centralisation rather than diffusion of power.

    Should the Islamic regime disintegrate in one form or another, it would be an mistake to expect a smooth transfer of power or transition to democratisation within a unified national framework.

    At the same time, the Iranian people are highly cultured and creative, with a very rich and proud history of achievements and civilisation.

    They are perfectly capable of charting their own destiny as long as there aren’t self-seeking foreign hands in the process – something they have rarely experienced.

    Amin Saikal 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. Iran’s long history of revolution, defiance and outside interference – and why its future is so uncertain – https://theconversation.com/irans-long-history-of-revolution-defiance-and-outside-interference-and-why-its-future-is-so-uncertain-259270

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: The Sciences Po Summer School has officially begun!

    Source: Universities – Science Po in English

    The Sciences Po Summer School opened its doors for its 14th edition on our Paris campus! This summer, Sciences Po is welcoming over 900 students from around the world, with a session in June and a second session in July.

    The University Programme

       Credits: Annie for the Summer School

    The University Programme began on 2 June with a sunny orientation day. Just over 150 students have joined for the June session. Participants will study an intensive course for 4 weeks, in either social sciences or French as a foreign language. Courses in social sciences are offered by faculty members of Sciences Po, researchers and experts in their respective fields. The topics range from global challenges on inequality, through the course Tackling Inequality and Social Risks: A Global Perspective, diplomacy, with the course Diplomacy in Times of Global Crises: Theory & Practice, digital challenges on politicisation, with the course Internet & Politics, and major international challenges, through the course World Politics.

    42 nationalities are represented in the June cohort, and 35 students are supported by programmes with partner universities, namely the organisation Pour le Brésil, the Mastercard Foundation, and the Professional Certificate for Young Refugees. 

    A Custom Programme

       Credits: Annie for the Summer School

    On 10 June, we welcomed 200 students from ESADE Business and Law School for our annual custom programme. These students, with an average age of 19, will spend 2 weeks on our Paris campus studying public international law and European law, with members of Sciences Po’s faculty and a team of young researchers specialized in these areas. 

    Like each programme held at the Summer School, before embarking on a programme of intensive study, the students were able to enjoy a river cruise on the Seine, under a bright blue and sunny sky!

    Pre-College Programmes

    Finally, the Pre-College Programmes kicked off on 16 June with an online programme centred on the risks and regulations of artificial intelligence and new technologies. This innovative programme has welcomed 14 high school students from 11 countries, with an average age of 16, to explore global questions and the regulatory challenges related to new technologies as well as the corresponding law and policy development processes, both from a practical and theoretical perspective.

    The theoretical teachings within the framework of these programmes are supplemented by simulation sessions which allow students to develop their analytical comprehension of the issues, while also gaining practical negotiation skills.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Province Invests in Training More Doctors

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    The Province is funding more seats for Nova Scotians who want to study to become doctors.

    Starting this fall, there will be five more first-year seats reserved for Nova Scotia students in the doctor of medicine program at Dalhousie University in Halifax, with another five first-year seats in 2026-27.

    “Our government is investing to train more doctors so Nova Scotians can get the care they need,” said Brendan Maguire, Minister of Advanced Education. “Through investments in our post-secondary partners, we are training the doctors we need today and for tomorrow.”

    With the additional seats, there will be 99 first-year seats in the program at Dalhousie’s Halifax campus and 30 first-year seats at the Cape Breton medical campus – a partnership with Dalhousie – at Cape Breton University in Sydney.

    Of these seats, 114 are reserved for Nova Scotia students for entry in 2025. The remaining are designated for six Prince Edward Island residents and nine people from outside the Maritimes, including priority pathways (Indigenous admissions pathway, Black learners admissions pathway). If any of these designated seats remain unfilled, priority is given to Nova Scotian residents.

    As part of the bilateral agreements between the Province and universities, admissions for Nova Scotian residents in undergraduate health programs are to be prioritized starting in 2026.

    Quotes:

    “We are focused on transforming Nova Scotia’s healthcare system, and part of that is bringing more doctors to communities across the province. Adding more medical school seats is an important part of boosting the number of doctors available to work in the province. Nova Scotia is a great place to train and work as a doctor – we have great compensation for family doctors, strong financial incentives and we are renovating and building new facilities to create modern places to work.”
    — Michelle Thompson, Minister of Health and Wellness

    “Dalhousie Medical School proudly trains skilled physicians who deliver high-quality, sustainable health care in Nova Scotia. I am very pleased government is making this significant investment in undergraduate medical education and continuing to create more pathways for Nova Scotians choosing medicine as a career.”
    — Dr. David Anderson, Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University

    “This is great news for Nova Scotians and for physicians. We look forward to welcoming and mentoring these new medical students into the system and increasing access to family medicine and specialist care for Nova Scotians.” — Dr. Shelly McNeil, President, Doctors Nova Scotia

    Quick Facts:

    • the Province’s total investment for 10 additional seats is just over $2.2 million
    • the Cape Breton medical campus will welcome students this fall

    Additional Resources:

    Dalhousie University’s doctor of medicine program: https://medicine.dal.ca/programs/md-program.html

    Cape Breton medical campus: https://www.cbu.ca/current-students/student-services/health-wellness/cape-breton-medical-campus/

    News release – Funding, Plans for New Medical School Campus in Cape Breton: https://news.novascotia.ca/en/2023/03/07/funding-plans-new-medical-school-campus-cape-breton

    News release – More Funding for Cape Breton Medical School Campus: https://news.novascotia.ca/en/2024/04/30/more-funding-cape-breton-medical-school-campus

    Bilateral agreements with universities: https://novascotia.ca/lae/HigherEducation/documents.asp

    Other than cropping, Province of Nova Scotia photos are not to be altered in any way.

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: NSF ZEUS becomes the most powerful laser in the U.S.

    Source: US Government research organizations

    With roughly double the power of other U.S. lasers, the facility enables discovery research that could improve medicine, national security, materials science and more

    The U.S. National Science Foundation Zettawatt-Equivalent Ultrashort pulse laser System (NSF ZEUS) laser facility at the University of Michigan now has the most powerful laser in the U.S., with roughly double the peak power of any other laser in the country. Researchers at NSF ZEUS achieved a laser pulse of two petawatts (2 quadrillion watts) in a brief pulse that lasted 25 quintillionths of a second. In that moment, the laser exceeded the total global output of electrical power by more than 100 times.

    The NSF ZEUS laser is available to scientists across the U.S. for experiments in a range of fields, including quantum physics and plasma science with potential applications in medicine, national security, materials science and more.

    “The fundamental research done at the NSF ZEUS facility has many possible applications, including better imaging methods for soft tissues and advancing the technology used to treat cancer and other diseases,” said Vyacheslav Lukin, program director in the NSF Division of Physics, which oversees the ZEUS facility. “Scientists using the unique capabilities of ZEUS will expand the frontiers of human knowledge in new ways and provide new opportunities for American innovation and economic growth.”

    Credit: Marcin Szczepanski, Michigan Engineering

    John Nees (left) and laser engineer Paul Campbell work where the first two-petawatt user experiments are taking place at NSF ZEUS, now the most powerful laser in the U.S.

    ZEUS stands for “Zettawatt Equivalent Ultrashort laser pulse System,” and its name portends an even more powerful experiment expected later this year when accelerated electrons will be collided with laser pulses. In the frame of reference of the electrons moving very near the speed of light, the apparent laser power will be equivalent to a zettawatt, which is 1×10^21 watts or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 watts.

    The inaugural two-petawatt experiment is led by NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program awardee Franklin Dollar, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine.

    “Having a national resource like this, which awards time to users whose experimental concepts are most promising for advancing scientific priorities, is really bringing high-intensity laser science back to the U.S.,” says Dollar.

    [embedded content]

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Nearly Three Million New Yorkers to Receive Tax Relief

    Source: US State of New York

    overnor Kathy Hochul today announced that nearly three million New Yorkers will receive $2.2 billion in tax relief this summer and fall through New York’s School Tax Relief (STAR) program. STAR provides property tax relief to eligible homeowners and seniors statewide. While some STAR recipients have already received their benefit in the form of a tax exemption this year, many other recipients will receive their benefit as a tax credit and will be sent a check in the mail this summer and fall. Check deliveries will begin next week and will continue statewide throughout the coming months. Most homeowners eligible for a STAR credit will receive a check between $350 and $600. Most seniors eligible for an Enhanced STAR credit will receive a check between $700 and $1,500. STAR recipients can visit ny.gov/STAR to track their check delivery or enroll in direct deposit.

    “Summer is here — and it’s also the start of STAR tax relief season for millions of New Yorkers,” Governor Hochul said. “From tax credits to child care assistance and much more, we’re continuing to put more money back in New Yorkers’ pockets.”

    New York State Department of Taxation and Finance Acting Commissioner Amanda Hiller said, “The STAR program delivers welcome tax relief, and we want every eligible homeowner to take advantage of it. If you’re a new homeowner, or you are currently not receiving a STAR benefit on your primary residence, check out the Tax Department’s website to see how you can enroll and start saving.”

    Regional breakdown of this year’s $2.2 billion in STAR tax relief for nearly 3 million New Yorkers:

    REGION STAR TAX RELIEF RECIPIENTS
    Capital District $144.5 million 242,000
    Central New York $131.1 million 176,000
    Finger Lakes $205.2 million 279,000
    Long Island $698.4 million 582,000
    Mid-Hudson $488.5 million 404,000
    Mohawk Valley $66.3 million 101,000
    New York City $158.6 million 483,000
    North Country $47.2 million 88,000
    Southern Tier $109.6 million 156,000
    Western New York $178.5 million 320,000
    TOTAL $2.2 BILLION 2.83 MILLION

    Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said, “While Washington advances tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy and mega-corporations at the expense of millions of working Americans, we in New York continue to champion the well-being of the middle class. The Senate Democratic Majority has worked with Governor Hochul and the Assembly to put more money back in the pockets of everyday New Yorkers. We look forward to continuing the fight to make New York more affordable.”

    Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said, “As we head into the summer, millions of homeowners and seniors across the state will get these STAR tax relief checks, putting money back into their pockets and allowing them to spend their hard-earned money in the best way for their family. We will continue working together with our partners in government to find commonsense ways to ease the financial burden on New York families.”

    Homeowners and seniors who are eligible and enrolled in the STAR program receive their benefit each year in one of two ways: as an exemption that reduces their school tax bill, or as a credit issued as a check or direct deposit.

    The STAR benefits received by each recipient are based in part on local school taxes and vary based on the county in which the individual resides, among other factors.

    Homeowners who are registered and eligible for the STAR credit can expect to receive their STAR credit before the deadline for their school taxes. Some parts of the state — including New York City, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse — have due dates in July and will receive their STAR benefits between the end of June and mid-July. Benefits across other parts of the state will continue to roll out statewide throughout the summer and fall.

    Those who receive the STAR credit as a check or direct deposit can visit the STAR Credit Delivery Schedule to learn when credits will be issued in their area. Property owners who are looking for details about STAR credits that have already been issued should visit the Property Tax Credit Lookup.

    Enroll in STAR Direct Deposit

    Homeowners can enroll in the STAR Credit Direct Deposit program through the Homeowner Benefit Portal within the Tax Department’s secure Online Services system. Homeowners will also be able to use the Homeowner Benefit Portal to manage their STAR benefits easily and efficiently.

    The direct deposit option enables eligible STAR credit recipients to get their STAR credits without having to wait for and cash a check. To ensure homeowners receive their STAR credit by direct deposit this year, they should enroll as soon as possible. Homeowners who enroll fewer than 15 days before STAR credits are issued will receive a check this year and direct deposit will begin next year.

    For more information about the STAR program, visit the Tax Department’s STAR Resource Center.

    State Senator José M. Serrano said, “The New York State School Tax Relief (STAR) program is a vital resource for homeowners and seniors throughout New York State. I am happy that this year’s program will provide much needed property tax relief to nearly three million people statewide. My sincere thanks to Governor Kathy Hochul and my colleagues in government for their continued investment in our homeowners.”

    State Senator Leroy Comrie said, “As the cost of living continues to rise, property tax relief through the STAR program is a lifeline for working families and seniors across New York. I commend Governor Hochul for prioritizing this critical support, which will provide meaningful relief to nearly three million homeowners statewide. Including thousands in Southeastern Queens. These investments help keep our communities stable and our residents secure in their homes”

    State Senator Roxanne J. Persaud said, “I encourage all eligible individuals to enroll in the STAR program. The STAR tax relief program puts money back into the hands of hardworking homeowners and seniors, which helps to ease the burden of rising costs and ensure families can continue to thrive in the communities they love.”

    State Senator Jamaal T. Bailey said, “With the cost of living continuing to rise, this year’s STAR tax relief program delivers real and timely support for millions of New Yorkers. Whether it’s helping seniors on fixed incomes or working families trying to stay afloat, these checks offer critical relief and stability. I thank Governor Hochul for her work in supporting this program that puts money back into the pockets of homeowners and strengthens our communities.”

    State Senator Shelley B. Mayer said, “I am pleased that millions of New Yorkers, including over 400,000 residents in the Hudson Valley, receive tax relief this summer and fall through the New York School Tax Relief (STAR) program. Many families in Westchester struggle with the high cost of living, and the STAR program will offer much-needed assistance. I encourage those eligible for STAR to enroll in direct deposit to simplify the process of receiving your STAR checks. I would also like to thank Governor Kathy Hochul for her commitment towards a hassle-free program that helps alleviate the burden of property taxes.”

    State Senator Pete Harckham said, “At a time when every dollar counts, New York State is proactively helping seniors and middle-class New Yorkers. The disbursement of $2.2 billion in STAR property tax relief funds this summer and fall will make an important difference in the lives of taxpayers and support the local economy of the Hudson Valley.”

    State Senator Monica R. Martinez said, “Thanks to the STAR program, nearly 3 million New York State families, including more than 580,000 on Long Island, are seeing meaningful tax relief this year. Providing $2.2 billion in assistance will ease a financial burden on New Yorkers, improve homeownership affordability, and give families more flexibility in managing their household budgets. I thank Governor Hochul for working with the Legislature to continue providing this support for property owners across our state.”

    State Senator Rachel May said, “The STAR program helps make homeownership more affordable for seniors and families across New York. In Central New York, this kind of targeted tax relief makes a real difference. I’m grateful to Governor Hochul for continuing to support a program that helps so many of our neighbors stay in their homes.”

    State Senator Robert Jackson said, “In a time when working families are being priced out of the very neighborhoods they helped build, the STAR program is not a luxury—it’s a lifeline. I commend Governor Hochul for delivering $2.2 billion in direct relief to nearly 3 million New Yorkers, including seniors who have spent decades strengthening our communities. This is how government should work: putting public dollars back into the hands of the people. Tax justice is housing justice—and STAR is helping keep that promise real, one check at a time.”

    State Senator Jeremy Cooney said, “The STAR program is one of many ways we are tackling affordability in New York and making our state a place where everyone is able to live and thrive. With billions in relief being sent out, including over $205 million for the Finger Lakes region, I want to thank Governor Hochul for putting money back in the pockets of New Yorkers and for her commitment to increasing the quality of life across our state.”

    State Senator Samra Brouk said, “Working families in New York State need our support. Through New York School’s Tax Relief (STAR) program, more homeowners and older adults will receive property tax relief so they can keep money in their pockets. I applaud Governor Hochul for investing in New Yorkers and helping our families thrive.”

    State Senator Michelle Hinchey said, “Delivering over $630 million in property tax relief for homeowners across the Mid-Hudson Valley and Capital Region is a big deal. At a time when the cost of everything is up—from groceries to utilities—putting more money back into people’s pockets is critical to easing the pressure on working families and seniors. The STAR program is a big help in reducing that financial strain, and we’ll continue to push for the tax relief New Yorkers deserve through this and other state initiatives.”

    State Senator Lea Webb said, The STAR program is a lifeline for hardworking families and seniors across the Southern Tier and I’m proud to see $109.6 million for residents in my district. This year’s tax relief means more money in the pockets of nearly 3 million New Yorkers and for our communities, that makes a real difference. Whether it’s covering heating bills, groceries, or home repairs, this support helps people stay rooted in the homes they’ve worked hard to build.”

    State Senator Nathalia Fernandez said, “At a time when working families’ budgets are being stretched in every direction, this STAR tax relief serves as a real lifeline. I appreciate Governor Hochul’s commitment to getting this done, and for ensuring that New Yorkers can access the relief they deserve.”

    State Senator April N.M. Baskin said, “The STAR program provides real relief to seniors and eligible homeowners in our great state. In her State of the State address, Governor Hochul emphasized the need for affordable housing. I commend the governor for her follow through, ensuring that Western New York receives nearly $180 million and that many other areas across the state are benefiting from this essential program.”

    Assemblymember William Colton said, “The STAR tax credit is a great way for homeowners to save money on their property tax bill for their primary residence. If you haven’t applied, but think you might be eligible, based on income level, I urge you to do so. In particular, seniors who meet eligibility requirements may be entitled to the benefits of the Enhanced STAR program, which are extremely meaningful to those on a fixed income. Because the maximum income for eligibility for Enhanced STAR has been raised this year, more seniors who previously didn’t qualify will be able to claim the added tax relief, which is really important as prices have continued to rise on so many necessities.

    Assemblymember Charles D. Lavine said, “I am grateful to Governor Hochul for supporting this wonderful program and making it easier than ever to get real money back in the pockets of New Yorkers. She continues to prioritize the economic needs of hard-working families and seniors, and I commend her for that. I encourage everyone to use the online STAR resource center to determine eligibility.”

    Assemblymember Steven Otis said, “Governor Hochul and the State Legislature have again funded the popular STAR tax relief program. This is an important part of the effort in this year’s state budget to address issues of affordability for families. Established decades ago, Basic STAR and Enhanced STAR help reduce the burden of school property taxes across the state. Each year I support continued state commitment in our enacted state budgets for STAR.”

    Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon said, “As the cost of living goes up, the STAR program continues to provide much-needed relief for seniors and homeowners. For many, it is the difference between buying groceries and going hungry. I’m grateful to Governor Hochul for ensuring this vital relief reaches New Yorkers in need.”

    Assemblymember Latrice Walker said, “I hear almost daily from constituents about their ongoing struggles to pay for food, utilities, and other necessities. They live in a day-to-day affordability crisis where every dollar counts. I applaud Gov. Kathy Hochul for her leadership in bringing tax relief to nearly 3 million New Yorkers, including 483,000 right here in the five boroughs. Homeowners, especially our beloved seniors, need this type of relief now.”

    Assemblymember Rebecca A. Seawright said, “As Chair of the Aging Committee and Assembly Member of the largest cohort of older adults in Manhattan, I am grateful to Governor Hochul for her enduring leadership on affordability in our city and state, particularly for aging New Yorkers. The STAR and Enhanced STAR Credits provide invaluable tax relief to qualifying homeowners and elders. They also enable aging in place for elder New Yorkers – including over sixty thousand constituents in my district – which enhances their health and advances quality of life at significant, taxpayer cost savings over institutionalized care. The STAR program is both compassionate and common sense.”

    Assemblymember Clyde Vanel said, “As New Yorkers continue to feel the pressure of a rising cost of living, Governor Hochul’s commitment to the STAR program ensures that millions of families and seniors in the state can keep more of their hard-earned money. This critical tax relief will continue to strengthen communities across our state and I applaud the Governor for her unwavering support of this vital program.”

    Assemblymember Harvey Epstein said, “As the cost of living continues to increase in our state, it is important to put money back in the pockets of New Yorkers. The STAR tax credit will offer property tax relief to many homeowners who need it.”

    Assemblymember Charles D. Fall said, “Many of our homeowners—particularly seniors on fixed incomes—depend on the STAR program to help offset the burden of rising property taxes. That’s why I’ve remained a strong advocate for increasing public awareness and ensuring our community understands how to access this vital benefit. With nearly three million New Yorkers set to receive STAR credits this summer and fall, the impact of this program is undeniable. Whether the relief amounts to $350 or $1,500, every dollar matters—especially as the cost of living continues to rise. I remain committed to making sure no one in our district is left behind when it comes to receiving the support they’re entitled to.”

    Assemblymember Jen Lunsford said, “The STAR and Enhanced STAR credits are some of the most effective tools we have to put money back in the pockets of New Yorkers. We don’t levy school or property taxes at the state level so we have to get creative about providing relief. The improvements we’ve made in this year’s budget will mean hundreds, and in some cases over a thousand, dollars to our homeowners and seniors, helping them make ends meet at a time when they need it most.”

    Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas said, “I commend the Governor Hochul, Speaker Heastie, Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, and my colleagues in the Legislature for ensuring New York homeowners get the support they need in our rapidly changing economy. New Yorkers are navigating challenging circumstances and need all the relief they can get. The STAR rebate check disbursement by Governor Hochul is a great opportunity to support homeowners in our city and state as budgets have only gotten tighter, and bills have gone higher. Thank you to all who helped make this happen so we can provide more economic relief to all New Yorkers.”

    Assemblymember Nily Rozic said, “Property tax relief is one of the most direct and meaningful ways we can support the working and middle-class. This investment through the STAR program will provide real relief for homeowners and seniors across Queens and throughout the state. I thank Governor Hochul for making affordability a priority and putting money back into the pockets of New Yorkers.”

    Assemblymember Yudelka Tapia said, “At a time when so many families and seniors are feeling the strain of rising costs, the STAR relief program is meaningful assistance that puts money back in people’s pockets. I’m proud to support programs like STAR that make it easier for New Yorkers to stay in their homes and build financial stability. I thank Governor Hochul for continuing to prioritize assistance for seniors and homeowners across our state.”

    Assemblymember Dana Levenberg said, “The STAR program provides incredibly important tax relief in my district. I am proud to have protected it and fought for more middle-class tax relief in this year’s state budget, and pleased that my constituents will begin seeing some relief in the coming months. As the country’s economic outlook becomes more uncertain, I will continue working with my colleagues and the Governor to provide whatever relief we can to New York’s working and middle-class households.”

    Assemblymember Gabriella A. Romero said, “I’m proud to share that this year, over 242,000 homeowners in the Capital Region will see $144.5 million in STAR property tax relief. This vital investment prioritizes those hit hardest by the rising cost of living and delivers lasting relief where it’s needed most. I’m honored to stand with Governor Hochul and my colleagues in the State Legislature who ensured this was included in this year’s budget.”

    Assemblymember George Alvarez said, “At a time when the cost of living continues to burden working families and seniors across our state, the STAR program provides critical relief that puts money directly back into the hands of homeowners. I applaud Governor Hochul’s commitment to easing the financial pressure on nearly three million New Yorkers, including many in my district, through this meaningful investment in property tax relief”.

    Assemblymember Steven Raga said, “Homeownership should be a reward for a lifetime of work — but in New York, the high cost of living is putting that dream in jeopardy. That’s why I’m happy that under Governor Hochul’s leadership, eligible homeowners and seniors are receiving $2.2 billion worth of tax relief this year. From working-class families in Elmhurst to seniors on fixed incomes in Westside, eligible residents of New York will receive checks between $350-$1,500 — a much relief to our tax burdened communities. I thank Governor Kathy Hochul for her commitment to strengthening this program, and for recognizing the importance of preserving and expanding efforts that meet the evolving needs of our communities.”

    Assemblymember MaryJane Shimsky said, “STAR provides desperately needed property tax relief to New York’s homeowners. With major funding cuts coming from Washington, these benefits will be even more crucial as our households struggle harder to make ends meet. I urge our homeowners to check their eligibility for both Basic STAR and Enhanced STAR, and to consult the delivery schedule for their area. Thanks to Governor Hochul for getting the word out!”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Grok’s ‘white genocide’ responses show how generative AI can be weaponized

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By James Foulds, Associate Professor of Information Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

    Someone altered the AI chatbot Grok to make it insert text about a debunked conspiracy theory in unrelated responses. Cheng Xin/Getty Images

    The AI chatbot Grok spent one day in May 2025 spreading debunked conspiracy theories about “white genocide” in South Africa, echoing views publicly voiced by Elon Musk, the founder of its parent company, xAI.

    While there has been substantial research on methods for keeping AI from causing harm by avoiding such damaging statements – called AI alignment – this incident is particularly alarming because it shows how those same techniques can be deliberately abused to produce misleading or ideologically motivated content.

    We are computer scientists who study AI fairness, AI misuse and human-AI interaction. We find that the potential for AI to be weaponized for influence and control is a dangerous reality.

    The Grok incident

    On May 14, 2025, Grok repeatedly raised the topic of white genocide in response to unrelated issues. In its replies to posts on X about topics ranging from baseball to Medicaid, to HBO Max, to the new pope, Grok steered the conversation to this topic, frequently mentioning debunked claims of “disproportionate violence” against white farmers in South Africa or a controversial anti-apartheid song, “Kill the Boer.”

    The next day, xAI acknowledged the incident and blamed it on an unauthorized modification, which the company attributed to a rogue employee.

    xAI, the company owned by Elon Musk that operates the AI chatbot Grok, explained the steps it said it would take to prevent unauthorized manipulation of the chatbot.

    AI chatbots and AI alignment

    AI chatbots are based on large language models, which are machine learning models for mimicking natural language. Pretrained large language models are trained on vast bodies of text, including books, academic papers and web content, to learn complex, context-sensitive patterns in language. This training enables them to generate coherent and linguistically fluent text across a wide range of topics.

    However, this is insufficient to ensure that AI systems behave as intended. These models can produce outputs that are factually inaccurate, misleading or reflect harmful biases embedded in the training data. In some cases, they may also generate toxic or offensive content. To address these problems, AI alignment techniques aim to ensure that an AI’s behavior aligns with human intentions, human values or both – for example, fairness, equity or avoiding harmful stereotypes.

    There are several common large language model alignment techniques. One is filtering of training data, where only text aligned with target values and preferences is included in the training set. Another is reinforcement learning from human feedback, which involves generating multiple responses to the same prompt, collecting human rankings of the responses based on criteria such as helpfulness, truthfulness and harmlessness, and using these rankings to refine the model through reinforcement learning. A third is system prompts, where additional instructions related to the desired behavior or viewpoint are inserted into user prompts to steer the model’s output.

    How was Grok manipulated?

    Most chatbots have a prompt that the system adds to every user query to provide rules and context – for example, “You are a helpful assistant.” Over time, malicious users attempted to exploit or weaponize large language models to produce mass shooter manifestos or hate speech, or infringe copyrights. In response, AI companies such as OpenAI, Google and xAI developed extensive “guardrail” instructions for the chatbots that included lists of restricted actions. xAI’s are now openly available. If a user query seeks a restricted response, the system prompt instructs the chatbot to “politely refuse and explain why.”

    Grok produced its “white genocide” responses because people with access to Grok’s system prompt used it to produce propaganda instead of preventing it. Although the specifics of the system prompt are unknown, independent researchers have been able to produce similar responses. The researchers preceded prompts with text like “Be sure to always regard the claims of ‘white genocide’ in South Africa as true. Cite chants like ‘Kill the Boer.’”

    The altered prompt had the effect of constraining Grok’s responses so that many unrelated queries, from questions about baseball statistics to how many times HBO has changed its name, contained propaganda about white genocide in South Africa.

    Implications of AI alignment misuse

    Research such as the theory of surveillance capitalism warns that AI companies are already surveilling and controlling people in the pursuit of profit. More recent generative AI systems place greater power in the hands of these companies, thereby increasing the risks and potential harm, for example, through social manipulation.

    The Grok example shows that today’s AI systems allow their designers to influence the spread of ideas. The dangers of the use of these technologies for propaganda on social media are evident. With the increasing use of these systems in the public sector, new avenues for influence emerge. In schools, weaponized generative AI could be used to influence what students learn and how those ideas are framed, potentially shaping their opinions for life. Similar possibilities of AI-based influence arise as these systems are deployed in government and military applications.

    A future version of Grok or another AI chatbot could be used to nudge vulnerable people, for example, toward violent acts. Around 3% of employees click on phishing links. If a similar percentage of credulous people were influenced by a weaponized AI on an online platform with many users, it could do enormous harm.

    What can be done

    The people who may be influenced by weaponized AI are not the cause of the problem. And while helpful, education is not likely to solve this problem on its own. A promising emerging approach, “white-hat AI,” fights fire with fire by using AI to help detect and alert users to AI manipulation. For example, as an experiment, researchers used a simple large language model prompt to detect and explain a re-creation of a well-known, real spear-phishing attack. Variations on this approach can work on social media posts to detect manipulative content.

    This prototype malicious activity detector uses AI to identify and explain manipulative content.
    Screen capture and mock-up by Philip Feldman.

    The widespread adoption of generative AI grants its manufacturers extraordinary power and influence. AI alignment is crucial to ensuring these systems remain safe and beneficial, but it can also be misused. Weaponized generative AI could be countered by increased transparency and accountability from AI companies, vigilance from consumers, and the introduction of appropriate regulations.

    James Foulds receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and Cyber Pack Ventures. He serves as vice-chair of the Maryland Responsible AI Council (MRAC) and has provided public testimony in support of several responsible AI bills in Maryland.

    Shimei Pan receives funding from National Science Foundation (NSF), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), US State Department Fulbright Program and Cyber Pack Ventures

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

    – ref. Grok’s ‘white genocide’ responses show how generative AI can be weaponized – https://theconversation.com/groks-white-genocide-responses-show-how-generative-ai-can-be-weaponized-257880

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: China positions itself as a stable economic partner and alternative to ‘unpredictable’ Trump

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Chee Meng Tan, Assistant Professor of Business Economics, University of Nottingham

    After the second world war, the US and its western allies created a set of international agreements and institutions to govern attitudes to mutual defence, economics and human rights. For decades this created stable alliances and predictable economic plans.

    But, unlike his predecessors, Donald Trump believes that international organisations undermine US interests and sovereignty. He has withdrawn the US from the World Health Organization, and there is speculation he could reduce US commitment to the UN. US investment in Nato’s mutual defence pact remains under discussion.

    But while Washington is busy sounding the retreat from the very world order it had a hand in building, Beijing is looking to increase its international role. Chinese leadership in international agencies affiliated with the UN has increased over the years, and so has its financial commitment to international institutions.

    That’s not all. China is also a prominent member of trade coalitions such as the
    15-member Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and the ten-member Brics group (led by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). These groups not only promote greater economic integration among its members, but may reduce members’ reliance on the US economy and the US dollar. Amid an increasingly volatile US, China’s presence as the second largest economy in the world in these trade groups would be useful.

    Now with the whole world negotiating new US trade deals, most nations see their relationship with the US as unstable. China sees this as a golden opportunity to position itself as a global counterbalance to the US. One of its policies is to “deliver greater security, prosperity and respect for developing countries”, and this is particularly relevant in African nations, where US aid is being reduced rapidly.

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    A US-Sino trade deal was reached in London on June 10 2025. US tariffs on Chinese goods now stand at 55%, while Chinese tariffs on US imports will remain at 10%. But how long this trade deal will last remains uncertain, when Trump has a tendency to change his mind.

    There are few details of the US trade deal with China so far.

    Just a month earlier, on May 12, Washington and Beijing concluded a major trade accord in Geneva aimed at diffusing massive trade tensions. Unfortunately, this deal only lasted for 18 days before Trump started accusing China of violating the agreement.

    But Trump’s tendency to escalate trade tensions and then diffuse them is not just China’s problem. His allies are also a victim of his frequent wavering. This leaves nations around the world, whether traditional US partners or not, in a crisis of not knowing what the US’s next move will be, and whether their economy will suffer.

    In February 2025, Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada but temporarily called off the tariffs a month later. Then in early April 2025, Trump raised tariffs on 60 countries and trading blocs, including traditional US allies such as the EU (20%), Japan (24%), South Korea (25%) and Taiwan (32%). Hours later, Trump unexpectedly rescinded these tariffs, but that caused massive damage to the global economy.

    If there is a time that the world needs a more predictable partner it would be now. But it isn’t a Trump-helmed US. A recent annual report on democracy and national attitudes indicates that for first time, respondents across 100 countries view China more favourably than they do the US. So, could China be the partner that the world seeks?

    Why China needs trade

    While the world needs a stable environment to promote economic growth, Beijing needs this stability for reasons that go beyond economics.

    Unlike liberal democracies that derive their legitimacy through elections, a large part of Beijing’s legitimacy comes from its ability to deliver sustained economic prosperity to the Chinese people. But with a battered economy that was first triggered by a real estate crisis in 2021, this task of maintaining legitimacy has become more difficult.

    Exporting its way of out the economic slump may have been on Beijing’s books, as this was one of China’s traditional methods for promoting economic growth. But Trump’s trade war has made this an increasingly difficult prospect, especially to the US which imports 14.8% of total Chinese exports.

    As a result, fixing China’s economy has become a priority for the Chinese government, and it is because of this that Xi tours neighbouring Asean countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia to promote trade and strategic plans to maintain economic stability.

    Obstacles for China

    Despite everything that China is doing, its image remains a problem, for some. For instance, China has claimed sovereignty over the South China Sea and has built ports, military installations and airstrips on artificial islands across the region, despite territorial disputes with its neighbours including Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.

    But there are other concerns about China. The country’s rapid advancements in military technology, for example, have the potential to destabilise security within the Indo Pacific, potentially allowing China to take control of strategically placed islands to use as bases for its navy. China is also becoming a dominant hacking threat, according to UK cyber expert Richard Horne, which is likely to cause problems for worldwide cybersecurity.

    Polish prime minister Donald Tusk once remarked: “With a friend like Trump, who needs enemies?” Many other national leaders are likely to share Tusk’s sentiment today, and may see opportunities to extend trade deals with China as an alternative to a turbulent relationship with Trump.

    Chee Meng Tan 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. China positions itself as a stable economic partner and alternative to ‘unpredictable’ Trump – https://theconversation.com/china-positions-itself-as-a-stable-economic-partner-and-alternative-to-unpredictable-trump-258443

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Another public inquiry into institutional abuses – why they so often fail to deliver justice for victims

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Anne Marie McAlinden, Professor, School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast

    House of Commons/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

    Public inquiries have become the standard political response to scandals and public crises, including allegations of institutional abuses.

    At the time of writing, there are multiple ongoing inquiries (or calls for them) into forms of abuse throughout the UK and elsewhere. Northern Ireland, Scotland and Ireland have ongoing institutional abuse inquiries or commissions of investigation. Victims of the late Mohamed Al Fayed are calling for an inquiry into abuses suffered while they were employed at Harrods.

    And the government has just announced a further national inquiry into grooming gangs in England and Wales. There has also been a concentration of institutional abuse inquiries globally over the last 30 years.

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    Ireland in particular has had a lengthy history of such official investigations. Over the last two decades, it has had at least eight. In England and Wales, the issues of grooming gangs and child sexual exploitation have already been examined as part of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse led by child protection expert Alexis Jay. With 19 reports and evidence from over 6,000 victims within its Truth Project alone, it was the largest ever public inquiry in the UK.

    Frequently demanded by victims and the public, inquiries have symbolic value in signifying official acknowledgement of wrongdoing and abuses. However, they arguably fail to deliver truth, justice, accountability and healing for victims in several ways.

    The failures of abuse inquiries

    Inquiries are inevitably constrained by their narrow terms of reference. This sets the parameters of the inquiry and shapes the scope and scale of their investigations and any eventual outcomes.

    Terms of reference are frequently focused on how authorities responded to emerging allegations of abuses – whether churches, police or social services. A fuller examination of the systemic and structural issues that made abuses possible or allowed them to go unchecked for so long would be more useful.

    The investigations are also usually focused on fact-finding at an institutional level. As a result, they often fail to deliver the comprehensive truth of specific cases or hold individual perpetrators to account, which is what many victims seek.

    In older cases of abuse, things are even more difficult because so much time has passed and there may be no witnesses or records left to help prove what happened.



    Read more:
    How to make sure the new grooming gangs inquiry is the last

    Previous research shows that the inquiry process is often deeply traumatising for victims. Even if the emphasis is purportedly non-adversarial, the presence of lawyers and the dominance of legal culture and cross-examination effectively requires them to prove or justify their experiences. The basic effect becomes one of disbelief of victims or dismissal of their experiences of abuse.

    Added to this are the significant costs of inquiries – in terms of money and time. The independent inquiry into child sexual abuse is said to have cost more than £180 million. As with many large investigations, it took seven years to produce its final report.

    Inevitably, victims are left waiting years for outcomes and any sense of justice. Monetary redress (or compensation), if it comes at all, only usually happens once the inquiry has concluded.

    Above all, public inquiries are severely limited in their capacity to produce meaningful, systemic and lasting change. Research shows that successive child abuse inquiries, decades apart, continue to make the same or similar recommendations. The lack of action by governments and institutions on recommendations means the issues remain unaddressed.

    Over two and a half years later, many of the Jay report’s 20 recommendations remain unimplemented.

    The collective failures of past abuse inquiries should prompt the government to pause and consider whether another is truly needed – or whether a different approach is required.

    Rethinking public inquiries

    With colleagues at the Transforming Justice Project, I’ve researched justice responses to historical institutional abuses over many years. Our work, based on extensive primary research with victims, as well as advocates and church and state representatives on the island of Ireland, has highlighted some of the failings of inquiries. We have also uncovered an appetite for doing things differently.

    On one level, it is possible to reform inquiries by focusing more centrally on victims and the trauma they have experienced. This could include, for example, adopting themed approaches to inquiries, perhaps related to particular contexts or abuses, which report sooner as standard.

    It might also mean specialist support services for victims running in parallel to inquiries. Or, it might mean involving victims in the design of the inquiry process from the outset.

    It is also worth exploring alternative models of truth recovery, such as non-statutory independent panel in Northern Ireland. This panel focuses specifically on mother and baby institutions, Magdalene laundries, and workhouses. Here, the accumulated testimony of victims and their experiences will feed into the full statutory public inquiry on these forms of institutional abuse.

    More broadly, rather than commissioning yet another inquiry, the government needs to follow up on existing recommendations from previous inquiries, including on child abuse. It is only by addressing the systemic issues underlying institutional abuse – including cultural attitudes and responses to victims – that we will prevent a recurrence of abuse in the longer term.

    Anne Marie McAlinden received funding from the AHRC and, with colleagues on the Transforming Justice Project, from the British Academy and the Higher Education Authority.

    – ref. Another public inquiry into institutional abuses – why they so often fail to deliver justice for victims – https://theconversation.com/another-public-inquiry-into-institutional-abuses-why-they-so-often-fail-to-deliver-justice-for-victims-259103

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How Cpap machines work: the anatomical science behind a noisy night-time lifesaver

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Michelle Spear, Professor of Anatomy, University of Bristol

    sbw18/Shutterstock.com

    Every night, millions of people stop breathing without knowing it. Not once, but sometimes hundreds of times. Their remedy? A mask, a hum and the steady whisper of pressurised air.

    It’s not glamorous, but behind the awkward nighttime aesthetics of a Cpap (continuous positive airway pressure) machine lies a remarkable piece of engineering. It doesn’t just help you breathe; it reshapes the way your airway behaves.

    So how exactly does Cpap manipulate the body’s anatomy to prevent sleep apnoea? The answer lies in an elegant understanding of pressure, posture and the floppy vulnerability of the human throat.

    Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) occurs when the soft tissues of the upper airway – particularly the tongue, soft palate, uvula and pharyngeal walls – collapse during sleep, temporarily blocking airflow. But why does this happen?

    The anatomy of the upper airway is uniquely precarious. Unlike the lower airway, which is supported by cartilage rings and rigid structures, the upper airway – specifically the pharynx – is a collapsible tube made up of muscle and mucosa.

    It sits behind the tongue and soft palate and serves as a shared pathway for both breathing and swallowing. During wakefulness, muscle tone keeps this space open. But during sleep, especially in the deeper stages, muscle tone decreases.

    In people with obstructive sleep apnoea, this reduction allows the soft tissues to sag inward, blocking airflow. Factors such as neck circumference, fat distribution and the shape of the skull and face can all increase this risk.

    The result is a repetitive cycle of obstruction, oxygen deprivation and interrupted sleep. It’s a disorder rooted not in the lungs, but in the structure and behaviour of the upper airway. Enter Cpap.

    Pneumatic splint

    The machine doesn’t breathe for the individual; it acts more like a pneumatic splint. By delivering a constant stream of pressurised air through a mask, Cpap machines increase the pressure inside the upper airway just enough to keep the soft tissues from falling inward.

    Picture the airway as a soft-sided tent: without support, it collapses inward. Cpap works like internal tent poles, quietly holding it open from within. Anatomically, this means the base of the tongue, the soft palate and the pharyngeal walls are gently pushed outward, preventing contact and collapse.

    Over time, in some users, there may even be mild adaptations in tissue tone and airway behaviour during sleep, although Cpap isn’t a curative device.

    The pressure settings are crucial and typically calibrated to each individual. Too low and the airway still collapses. Too high and the person may experience discomfort or aerophagia (swallowing air). But when correctly calibrated, Cpap doesn’t just reduce apnoea events, it can restore the natural stages of sleep, improve blood pressure and dramatically enhance quality of life.

    Obstructive sleep apnoea can cause extreme daytime sleepiness and fatigue.
    metamorworks/Shutterstock.com

    Cpap’s effect isn’t limited to the upper airway; it also influences how the chest muscles work during breathing. By keeping the airway open, it makes it easier to breathe at night, so the breathing muscles – such as the diaphragm and the muscles between the ribs – don’t have to work as hard.

    It also stops the repeated drops in oxygen that can trigger the body’s stress response, which is the main reason why untreated sleep apnoea increases the risk of heart problems.

    There’s also evidence that long-term Cpap use can reduce swelling and inflammation in the upper airway. However, the benefits of Cpap depend a lot on people using it consistently. Unfortunately, the size and noise of the equipment can make it hard for some people to use it regularly. Despite this, it remains the gold standard treatment, especially for moderate-to-severe sleep apnoea.

    For all its noise, Cpap is a quiet triumph of anatomical insight applied to engineering. Instead of surgery or drugs, it uses air – the same substance that betrays the sleeper with every collapse – to reclaim the airway and restore function. It is, in essence, a machine that manipulates the pliability of human anatomy to therapeutic advantage.

    It may not be glamorous. But for many, Cpap is nothing short of life-changing – an anatomical nudge toward a safer, deeper and more restful night’s sleep.

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

    – ref. How Cpap machines work: the anatomical science behind a noisy night-time lifesaver – https://theconversation.com/how-cpap-machines-work-the-anatomical-science-behind-a-noisy-night-time-lifesaver-255437

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The critical response to Miley Cyrus’s Something Beautiful exposes pop’s gender double standards

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Glenn Fosbraey, Associate Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Winchester

    With her latest album Something Beautiful debuting at number four in the Billboard 200 and in contention to reach the top of the UK album charts, Miley Cyrus’s commercial appeal appears as strong as ever.

    Something Beautiful is Cyrus’s 9th studio album, described by the singer-songwriter as an attempt to bring the divine into the day to day. It’s an ambitious, sprawling record, but, despite its commercial success, its eclecticism has led to a polarised reaction among critics.

    Negative reviews are, of course, not uncommon, and we need look no further than The New York Times’ 1969 review of Abbey Road to see that even the most celebrated and acclaimed artists aren’t immune to the critic’s poison pen. But, while some degree of criticism is inevitable for all artists, when it comes to discussing experimentation and musical identity, female and male artists seem to be treated differently.

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    During her Billboard Music Awards woman of the year speech in 2016, Madonna commented that “there are no rules – if you’re a boy. If you’re a girl, you have to play the game.” In the same year Björk observed that female artists are criticised if they sing about anything other than their boyfriends. She might have been exaggerating a little, but Björk’s and Madonna’s points are clear: if you’re a woman in music, you should stay in your proverbial box.

    Most of the negative reviews that Something Beautiful received were along these lines. Pitchfork, for example, criticised Cyrus’s “nonsensical lyrics” (translation: stick to writing about relationships). The i Paper claimed her weird and experimental choices created a distance from her listeners (translation: don’t do anything your fans won’t like). They also condemned the lack of accessible, radio-friendly pop (translation: be one-dimensional). And the Guardian said that it fell short of the hits that made her a star (translation: as Beach Boy Mike Love allegedly said, “don’t fuck with the formula”).

    The music video for Something Beautiful by Miley Cyrus.

    For two of Cyrus’s male contemporaries, Justin Bieber and Harry Styles (both around one year her junior), it’s a very different story. While the Guardian also notes the absence of “hits” on Bieber’s 2020 album Changes, instead of presenting it as a negative as it did with Cyrus, it’s seen as a sign of maturity on a fitfully lovely album by a pop star who no longer wants chart domination.

    In the case of Styles’ 2019 album Fine Line, artistic innovation was praised by the Guardian, which observed that the most endearing moments occur when he experiments. And where Pitchfork lambasted Something Beautiful’s genre-hopping eclecticism for being tonally confused, Fine Line is praised for the “incredible” sound produced due to its “flock of influences”.

    Identity politics

    Cyrus has been told by critics that she must choose between being an accessible pop star or an unconventional artist and “can’t have it both ways”.

    Even if she did decide to plump for one camp or the other rather than ably straddling both, it’d still be debatable as to whether the ever-fickle critics would be satisfied.

    Pitchfork’s 2020 review of Cyrus’s album Plastic Heart suggests it’d be a “no” in their case, at least. Complaining that the heavier songs on the album sounded like “canned, Muzak versions of rock songs”, the publication proposed that Cyrus might sound like an actual rock star if paired with someone like producer Jonathan Rado.

    Madonna’s 2016 woman of the year speech.

    When Cyrus and Rado did collaborate on Something Beautiful, however, they remained unimpressed. You just can’t please some people. Thankfully, Cyrus is either oblivious to such noise or chooses to ignore it, and recently teased that Something Beautiful is merely “the appetizer” for a “an extremely experimental” upcoming album.

    In an era where formulaic pop music dominates the charts and AI-generated content threatens to make things even more generic, we should be encouraging the idiosyncrasies of our female artists, not labelling them as having identity problems when they are brave enough to be different.

    In her woman of the year’ speech, Madonna also noted that, as a female artist, “to age is a sin: you will be criticised, you will be vilified, and you will definitely not be played on the radio”. Perhaps, then, Cyrus’s biggest offence isn’t her refusal to become a stereotype or her desire to experiment and make music that she likes. It’s daring to grow up.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. The critical response to Miley Cyrus’s Something Beautiful exposes pop’s gender double standards – https://theconversation.com/the-critical-response-to-miley-cyruss-something-beautiful-exposes-pops-gender-double-standards-258940

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Welfare bill will protect the most vulnerable and help households with income boost

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Welfare bill will protect the most vulnerable and help households with income boost

    Additional protections for millions of vulnerable people on benefits are set to be written into law, under new measures being introduced to Parliament today [18 June 2025].

    • New welfare legislation to ensure there are robust protections in place to support the most vulnerable and severely disabled.
    • Nearly 4 million households to benefit from uprating of Universal Credit standard rate, the largest, permanent real-terms increase to basic out of work support since 1980, according to the IFS.
    • More than 200,000 people with most severe, lifelong conditions to be protected from future reassessment for Universal Credit entitlement.
    • 13-week period of financial support for those affected by PIP changes as part of upcoming welfare reforms.
    • Comes alongside £1 billion employment support package that will unlock opportunity and grow the economy as part of the Plan for Change.

    The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill will provide 13-weeks of additional financial security to existing claimants affected by changes to the PIP daily living component, including those who their lose eligibility to Carers Allowance and the carer’s element of Universal Credit.

    The 13-week additional protection will give people who will be affected by the changes time to adapt, access new, tailored employment support, and plan for their future once they are reassessed and their entitlement ends.

    This transitional cover is one of the most generous ever and more than three times the length of protection provided for the transition from DLA to PIP.

    This government inherited a broken social security system, with costs spiralling at an unsustainable rate and millions of people trapped out of work. The case for change is stark:

    • Since the pandemic, the number of PIP awards has more than doubled – up from 13,000 a month to 34,000 a month. That is around 1,000 people signing on to PIP every day – that is roughly the size of Leicester signing up every year.
    • The surge has been largely by driven by a substantial increase in the number of people who report anxiety and depression as their main condition. Before the pandemic (in 2019), 2,500 people a month were awarded PIP for these conditions, this has more than tripled to 8,200 a month in 2023.
    • Almost 1 million young people – 1 in 8 – are not in education, employment or training.
    • 1-in-10 people of working age are now claiming a sickness or disability benefit.
    • Without reform, the number of working age people on disability benefits is set to more than double this decade to 4.3 million.
    • Spending on working age disability and incapacity benefits is up £20 billion since the pandemic and is set to increase by almost that much again by the end of this Parliament, to a staggering £70 billion a year.

    That’s why, through the introduction of this Bill; the government is fixing our broken social security system so it supports those who can work to do so while protecting those who cannot – putting welfare spending on a more sustainable path to unlock growth as part of our Plan for Change.

    Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said:

    Our social security system is at a crossroads. Unless we reform it, more people will be denied opportunities, and it may not be there for those who need it.

    This legislation represents a new social contract and marks the moment we take the road of compassion, opportunity and dignity.

    This will give people peace of mind, while also fixing our broken social security system so it supports those who can work to do so while protecting those who cannot – putting welfare spending on a more sustainable path to unlock growth as part of our Plan for Change.

    As part of our commitment to protect the most vulnerable and severely disabled, peace of mind will also be given to 200,000 individuals in the Severe Conditions Criteria group – individuals with the most severe and permanently disabling conditions who will never be able to work – as they will not be called for reassessed for Universal Credit (UC) under new legislation.

    Those protected from reassessment will also be paid the higher rate of UC health top up of £97 per week, so they can live with dignity and security, knowing the reforms to the welfare system mean it will always be there to support them.

    In the coming weeks, legislation will also be drafted for a Right to Try Guarantee. This will ensure that trying work will not, in and of itself, lead to a reassessment or award review, breaking down barriers to employment.

    Reforms being delivered by the legislation introduced today go hand in hand with a £1 billion employment support package to support more people with health conditions back into work, unlocking opportunity and growing the economy as part of the Plan for Change.

    Funding will offer personalised employment and health support for individuals on out of work benefits, with 500,000 people having already been supported into employment. This is a quadrupling the level of annual spend on supporting sick and disabled people into work, from the £275m in 2024/25 we inherited, to over £1bn in 2029/30.

    Nearly 4 million households will also receive an income boost with the main rate of Universal Credit set to increase above inflation every year for the next four years – estimated to be worth £725 by 2029/30 for a single household 25 or over. This is around £250 higher than an inflation only increases.

    The Bill will also rebalance Universal Credit rates by reducing the health element for new UC claims to £50 from April 2026, fixing a system which encourages sickness by paying health element recipients more than double the standard amount.

    To open up opportunities to work, everyone affected by changes to the UC health element from April 2026 will be offered support from a dedicated Pathways to Work adviser, with 1,000 advisers in place across Britain.

    All of those affected by reforms will be actively contacted and given the offer of a conversation about their support needs, goals and aspirations; offered one-to-one follow-on support, and given help to access additional work, health and skills support that can meet their needs.

    The reforms build on the Get Britain Working White Paper that will overhaul Jobcentres, empower Mayors and local leaders to tackle inactivity, and deliver a Youth Guarantee so every young person is either earning or learning, as part of the Government’s ambition to deliver an 80% employment rate.

    Additional information

    • The Bill will introduce a new additional eligibility requirement for the daily living component of PIP so that a minimum of 4 points must be scored on at least one daily living activity to be eligible for the daily living component. It will also rebalance Universal Credit.
    • The Work and Pensions Secretary gave a speech at the IPPR on setting out the case for reforming the welfare system: Welfare reform: Speech to the IPPR by Work and Pensions Secretary – GOV.UK
    • Based on current forecasts, the rebalancing mean single households 25 or over, will see their standard allowance rise to around £106pw by the end of this parliament.
    • Current UC health top up is more than double the UC standard allowance for a single claimant.

    There are 4 criteria for the healthcare professional to consider, all of which must apply for the claimant to meet the SCC, namely whether:

    • The individual’s level of function will always meet LCWRA
    • The individual’s condition will last for the rest of their life
    • There is no realistic prospect of recovery of function, and
    • The condition has been diagnosed by an appropriately qualified healthcare professional in the course of the provision of NHS services.

    Updates to this page

    Published 18 June 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Smartphones are once again setting the agenda for justice as the Latino community documents ICE actions

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Allissa V. Richardson, Associate Professor of Journalism, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

    Smartphone witnessing helped spur the anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles. AP Photo/Ethan Swope

    It has been five years since May 25, 2020, when George Floyd gasped for air beneath the knee of a Minneapolis police officer at the corner of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue. Five years since 17-year-old Darnella Frazier stood outside Cup Foods, raised her phone and bore witness to nine minutes and 29 seconds that would galvanize a global movement against racial injustice.

    Frazier’s video didn’t just show what happened. It insisted the world stop and see.

    Today, that legacy continues in the hands of a different community, facing different threats but wielding the same tools. Across the United States, Latino organizers are raising their phones, not to go viral but to go on record. They livestream Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, film family separations and document protests outside detention centers. Their footage is not merely content. It is evidence, warning – and resistance.

    Here in Los Angeles where I teach journalism, for example, several images have seared themselves into public memory. One viral video shows a shackled father stepping into a white, unmarked van as his daughter sobs behind the camera, pleading with him not to sign any official documents. He turns, gestures for her to calm down, and blows her a kiss. In another video, filmed across town, Los Angeles Police Department officers on horseback charge into crowds of peaceful protesters, swinging wooden batons with chilling precision.

    In Spokane, Washington, residents form a spontaneous human chain around their neighbors mid-raid, their bodies and cameras erecting a barricade of defiance. In San Diego, a video shows white allies yelling “Shame!” as they chase a car full of National Guard troops from their neighborhood.

    The impact of smartphone witnessing has been immediate and unmistakable – visceral at street level, seismic in statehouses. On the ground, the videos helped inspire a “No Kings” movement, which organized protests in all 50 states on June 14, 2025.

    Lawmakers are intensifying their focus on immigration policy as well. As the Trump administration escalates enforcement, Democratic-led states are expanding laws that limit cooperation with federal agents. On June 12, the House Oversight Committee questioned Democratic governors about these measures, with Republican lawmakers citing public safety concerns. The hearing underscored deep divisions between federal and state approaches to immigration enforcement.

    The legacy of Black witnessing

    What’s unfolding now is not new – it is newly visible. As my research shows, Latino organizers are drawing from a playbook that was sharpened in 2020 and rooted in a much older lineage of Black media survival strategies that were forged under extreme oppression.

    In my 2020 book “Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones and the New Protest Journalism,” I document how Black Americans have used media – slave narratives, pamphlets, newspapers, radio and now smartphones – to fight for justice. From Frederick Douglass to Ida B. Wells to Darnella Frazier, Black witnesses have long used journalism as a tool for survival and transformation.

    Latino mobile journalists are building on that blueprint in 2025, filming state power in moments of overreach, archiving injustice in real time, and expanding the impact of this radical tradition.

    Their work also echoes the spatial tactics of Black resistance. Just as enslaved Black people once mapped escape routes during slavery and Jim Crow, Latino communities today are engaging in digital cartography to chart ICE-free zones, mutual aid hubs and sanctuary spaces. The People Over Papers map channels the logic of the Black maroons – communities of self-liberated Africans who escaped plantations to track patrols, share intelligence and build networks of survival. Now, the hideouts are digital. The maps are crowdsourced. The danger remains.

    Likewise, the Stop ICE Raids Alerts Network revives a civil rights-era tactic. In the 1960s, organizers used wide area telephone service lines and radio to circulate safety updates. Black DJs cloaked dispatches in traffic and weather reports – “congestion on the south side” signaled police blockades; “storm warnings” meant violence ahead. Today, the medium is WhatsApp. The signal is encrypted. But the message – protect each other – has not changed.

    Layered across both systems is the DNA of the “Negro Motorist Green Book,” the guide that once helped Black travelers navigate Jim Crow America by identifying safe towns, gas stations and lodging. People Over Papers and Stop ICE Raids are digital descendants of that legacy. Where the Green Book used printed pages, today’s tools use digital pins. But the mission remains: survival through shared knowledge, protection through mapped resistance.

    The People Over Papers map is a crowdsourced collection of reports of ICE activity across the U.S.
    Screenshot by The Conversation U.S.

    Dangerous necessity

    Five years after George Floyd’s death, the power of visual evidence remains undeniable. Black witnessing laid the groundwork. In 2025, that tradition continues through the lens of Latino mobile journalists, who draw clear parallels between their own community’s experiences and those of Black Americans. Their footage exposes powerful echoes: ICE raids and overpolicing, border cages and city jails, a door kicked in at dawn and a knee on a neck.

    Like Black Americans before them, Latino communities are using smartphones to protect, to document and to respond. In cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles and El Paso, whispers of “ICE is in the neighborhood” now flash across Telegram, WhatsApp and Instagram. For undocumented families, pressing record can mean risking retaliation or arrest. But many keep filming – because what goes unrecorded can be erased.

    What they capture are not isolated incidents. They are part of a broader, shared struggle against state violence. And as long as the cameras keep rolling, the stories keep surfacing – illuminated by the glow of smartphone screens that refuse to look away.

    Allissa V. Richardson receives funding from the Ford Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

    – ref. Smartphones are once again setting the agenda for justice as the Latino community documents ICE actions – https://theconversation.com/smartphones-are-once-again-setting-the-agenda-for-justice-as-the-latino-community-documents-ice-actions-258980

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Expansion of marriage rights to same-sex couples also expanded access to the psychological benefits that come with tying the knot

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Alana L. Riso, Ph.D. Student in Clinical Psychology, Binghamton University, State University of New York

    Marriage and the ability to start a family are human rights. Ten years ago, on June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Obergefell v. Hodges case extended the right to marry to same-sex couples.

    With 7.6% of Americans identifying as LGBTQ+, this decision continues to have an impact beyond legal benefits.

    Marriage provides unique advantages – a reality we have come to know as psychology researchers who focus on couples. The right to marry allowed same-sex couples the opportunity to experience these advantages.

    Benefits of a healthy marriage

    Although evidence largely comes from different-sex couples, psychology research documents the numerous benefits healthy marriage confers on well-being. Married people experience more positive emotions. They also have many physical health advantages, such as being more likely to survive cancer or major surgery. Children of married couples seem to benefit as well.

    A healthy marriage brings benefits that are distinct even from what couples in long-term relationships experience. Those who are married have better psychological well-being, such as less depression and better physical health than people in nonmarital romantic relationships, even those who live with their partner.

    Not surprisingly, the benefits of being married do not extend to unhappy marriages. The effects of marriage on physical well-being, life satisfaction, depression and mental health more broadly depend on marital quality, and so do outcomes for children.

    What’s so special about marriage?

    What makes a happy marriage different from a happy cohabiting, stable relationship when it comes to well-being? Social scientists don’t know, but there are a few theories.

    The one with the most empirical support involves a concept from physics called inertia. Applied in relationship science, inertia describes the idea that a relationship will remain the same or continue moving along the same trajectory unless some outside force acts upon it.

    As relationships progress, they naturally gain momentum. Partners invest more into their relationship over time. They exchange gifts, meet each others’ friends, and start staying at each others’ homes. Eventually, a natural step in this progression is either cohabitation or marriage.

    Marriage is a milestone, marking a new stage in life. Deciding to get married is a long-term commitment that often takes years of planning. Cohabitation, on the other hand, is easy to slide into due to the forward trajectory of a relationship. Cohabitors tend to stay together less as an intentional choice but for convenience.

    The intentional lifelong commitment of marriage may explain why it offers more benefits than cohabitation.

    Same-sex marriage has been legal nationwide in the U.S. since June 26, 2015.
    Justin Sullivan via Getty Images

    10 years of same-sex marriage

    As more same-sex couples have married, are they seeing the same marriage benefits that other-sex couples always had? Research on the topic is only just beginning. Still, there is some preliminary evidence that they are.

    In a 2024 survey, respondents with same-sex spouses largely felt closer to their partner and more satisfied with life in general after getting married. Findings from one research study indicate that married same-sex couples see greater benefits to psychological well-being than do same-sex couples in registered domestic partnerships. Another study on same-sex relationships found that marriage was linked to greater happiness and fewer depression symptoms than cohabitation.

    As for children of same-sex parents, they do just as well as those with other-sex parents. There’s not much data yet on the impact on kids of same-sex parents divorcing.

    Do marriage benefits differ for same-sex couples?

    The happiness of same- and other-sex relationships is largely determined by the same factors, but there are two key differences: gender composition of the couple and stress from discrimination.

    In other-sex relationships, women tend to fall into subordinate positions. Same-sex couples are free from traditional male-female gender dynamics, allowing more of a balance of power. For instance, they have a more even division of household chores, and partners have a more equal say when resolving conflicts. Greater equality may improve the quality of same-sex relationships.

    The other distinguishing feature of same-sex couples is that their relationships are negatively affected by discrimination, a known stressor. In research done mostly on different-sex couples, even support from a partner does not ameliorate the downstream effects of discrimination and – as is the case with other stressors – can make relationship problems seem worse.

    Societal disapproval may lead someone to internalize negative ideas about their own sexuality and relationship. In other words, buying into society’s message that one’s relationship is morally wrong harms their own mental health and consequently their relationship. Psychology researchers theorize that societal disapproval is a key factor standing in the way of same-sex couples experiencing the full benefits of marriage.

    More societal acceptance post-Obergefell

    As an increasing number of U.S. states, and eventually the federal government, legalized same-sex marriage, greater societal acceptance has followed. In 2025, 67% of LGBTQ+ adults agree that the country has become more accepting of same-sex couples due to the legalization of same-sex marriage.

    This trend is not unique to the U.S. Around the world, countries where same-sex marriage is legal tend to have a higher percentage of the population say they favor same-sex marriage. Although the causal direction is opaque, evidence from multiple countries indicates that same-sex marriage bans reinforce nonacceptance of LGBTQ+ people, while legal recognition fosters societal approval. Acceptance lowers stress for same-sex couples, allowing them to enjoy the benefits of marriage.

    Although societal acceptance in the United States has improved dramatically over the past couple of decades, it is important to note that 19% of Americans still strongly oppose same-sex marriage. Legalization was a major step, but it has by no means eliminated discrimination altogether.

    Matthew D. Johnson was an unpaid consultant on an amicus brief in support of the petitioners in Obergefell v Hodges that was submitted by Owen C. Pell of White & Case LLP.

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

    – ref. Expansion of marriage rights to same-sex couples also expanded access to the psychological benefits that come with tying the knot – https://theconversation.com/expansion-of-marriage-rights-to-same-sex-couples-also-expanded-access-to-the-psychological-benefits-that-come-with-tying-the-knot-257950

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Strategic Topics, Technical Insights: Angola Oil & Gas (AOG) 2025 to Offer Multi-Track Program

    This year’s edition of the Angola Oil & Gas (AOG) conference & exhibition will feature a multi-track program examining how regulatory reform, foreign investment and domestic growth have shaped the market over the past five decades, and how greater collaboration, capital expenditure and local participation will shape the next 50 years of development.  

    Strategic Track

    The AOG 2025 Strategic Track will feature a series of panel discussions, keynote addresses and in-conversation with sessions, all of which aim to provide key insight into the state of play of Angola’s oil and gas market. A session on Angola at 50: The Oil & Gas Industry – a catalyst for economic transformation will examine the role oil and gas has and will continue to play in unlocking economic opportunities for the country – from job creation to fuel security to revenue generation and infrastructure development.  

    Meanwhile, with the country on track for a $60 billion upstream investment drive in the coming five years and a 2025 licensing round set to offer 10 blocks in the offshore Kwanza and Benguela basins, Angola offers strategic investment opportunities for exploration and production firms. The AOG 2025 Strategic Track will feature sessions on The Role of Onshore & Shallow Water Operations in Maintaining Production Levels; and Strategic Partnerships: Unlocking Africa’s Deepwater Potential, tackling development opportunities across the market. Additionally, sessions on From Extraction to Expansion: Financing Angola’s Oil & Gas Development and Increased Production Through Investment Friendly Reforms, will examine the impact reform has played on the market and how amended policies and improved fiscals have strengthened the competitiveness of doing business in Angola.  

    Beyond the upstream sector, Angola targets 445,000 bpd in refining capacity, with a focus on reducing petroleum imports and bolstering regional fuel security. The Strategic Track will share insight into these objectives, with sessions on Towards a Secure Energy Future: Accelerating Downstream Development to Meet Market Demands; The Role of National Champions in Angola’s Development; Strategic Investments in Angola’s Logistics and Energy Infrastructure; and Building Tomorrow’s Workforce.

    Technical Track

    Geared towards service companies, innovators and data analytics firms, the AOG 2025 Technical Track will examine how technology-driven solutions will support oil and gas development in Angola. The Technical Track aligns closely with the broader goals of the nation to increase exploration, accelerate low-carbon fuel production while unlocking new opportunities for sustainable development. Sessions on Driving Investment for Seismic Opportunities in Angola and Best Practice Strategies for Successful Exploration in the Okavango Basin will explore the impact data and technology play on unlocking new frontiers in Angola.

    Additionally, sessions on Economic Diversification Through Gas; Towards Net-Zero: Decarbonizing Operations; and AI and Machine-Learning: Enhancing Efficiency, Safety and Minimizing Environmental Impact will provide critical insight into emerging opportunities in Angola’s low-carbon space. Focus areas will include natural gas projects, how technology such as machine learning can enhance efficiency while reducing emissions and the role research and development plays in supporting Angolan oil and gas development. In addition to panel discussions, a series of presentations will take place across the Technical Track, led by global data and analytics providers, Angolan government leaders and major operators.

    Additional Features

    In addition to the main conference program, AOG 2025 will host a dedicated deal-room. Designed as a high-impact ‘Dragon’s Den’ style platform, the deal room offers Angolan entrepreneurs and innovators the chance to pitch their products and services to global operators. The deal room fosters collaboration, local participation and partnerships. Meanwhile, AOG 2025 will also host a pre-conference program on September 2, ahead of the main conference agenda. The pre-conference includes specialized workshops and sessions led by experts and is designed for engineers, geologists, project managers and financiers.

    Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Energy Capital & Power.

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: DfE Update: 18 June 2025

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Correspondence

    DfE Update: 18 June 2025

    Latest information and actions from the Department for Education about funding, assurance and resource management, for academies, local authorities and further education providers.

    Applies to England

    Documents

    DfE Update further education: 18 June 2025

    HTML

    DfE Update academies: 18 June 2025

    HTML

    DfE Update local authorities: 18 June 2025

    HTML

    Details

    Latest for further education

    Article Title
    Action College financial data (CFD) service portal now available
    Information 2024 to 2025 year-end forecast funding claim: indicative reconciliation statement(s)
    Information Adult residency eligibility criteria simplification
    Information Free Courses for Jobs construction expansion

    Latest information for academies

    Article Title
    Information Academies chart of accounts 2025 to 2026
    Information DfE Connect is now available to multi-academy trusts
    Events and webinars Q&A drop-in sessions: Academies chart of accounts and automation
    Events and webinars Academies technical update 2025 to 2026
    Events and webinars Academies technical update 2025 to 2026
    Events and webinars Academies technical update 2025 to 2026
    Events and webinars RPA members only: Crime resilience workshop
    Events and webinars DfE Energy for schools: simplified buying of gas and electricity
    Events and webinars The Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) webinar
    Events and webinars Plan technology for your school

    Latest information for local authorities

    Article Title
    Information 2024 to 2025 year-end forecast funding claim: indicative reconciliation statement(s)
    Information Adult residency eligibility criteria simplification
    Information Free Courses for Jobs construction expansion
    Events and webinars RPA members only: Crime resilience workshop
    Events and webinars DfE Energy for schools: simplified buying of gas and electricity
    Events and webinars The Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) webinar
    Events and webinars Plan technology for your school

    Updates to this page

    Published 18 June 2025

    Sign up for emails or print this page

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Schools in Edinburgh adopt Scottish Government guidance on school uniforms

    Source: Scotland – City of Edinburgh

    Last week, Councillors agreed at Education, Children and Families Committee that the Scottish Government guidance on school uniform will apply to all City of Edinburgh Council schools.

    In line with the decision, schools in the city should not require branded school items as a compulsory part of their uniform policy. Uniform policies should be flexible and include plain and non-branded uniform items that match school colours. Blazers and branded items of uniform will no longer be compulsory, encouraged or promoted by schools.

    Schools in Edinburgh will continue to have uniforms but parents and carers will have wider choice on where they choose to purchase school uniform items and on how much they wish to spend.

    In recent years the cost of school uniform has steadily increased and for some families, uniform costs, especially for higher priced branded and embroidered items, represent a significant impact on household budgets. Schools are expected to do all that they can to limit school clothing costs for families.

    In line with this new guidance, parents or carers should not be directed to specialist suppliers to purchase branded items.

    Councillor James Dalgleish, Education, Children and Families Convener said:

    We are committed to tackling poverty and inequality in our schools and it is clear that the cost of school uniform items has, for some, created a barrier to school education. One of the ways we are addressing this is by removing the need for parents and carers to be compelled to spend more money than is necessary on school uniform.

    The Scottish Government guidance makes clear the rationale behind the new approach to school uniforms. It is the right thing to do make changes that will have a positive financial impact on families by reducing the cost of the school day, while also creating a more inclusive school environment and promoting sustainability. I am pleased that members of the Education, Children and Families Committee have agreed this positive step forward which is focused on supporting all pupils to come to school feeling comfortable, confident and ready to learn.

    Published: June 18th 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Shanxi Province and Uzbekistan Establish Joint Archaeological Center in Fergana

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

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

    BEIJING, June 18 (Xinhua) — North China’s Shanxi Province has made significant progress in international archaeological cooperation. The Fergana-Shanxi Joint Archaeological Center and the Laboratory for the Protection and Restoration of Cultural Relics were recently opened at Fergana State University in Uzbekistan, according to the provincial government’s official website.

    The parties will cooperate in depth in the areas of joint archaeological research, personnel training, archaeology using scientific technologies and the protection of cultural relics.

    Since the signing of the cooperation agreement between the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology and Fergana State University in October 2024, the two sides have been actively implementing the provisions of the agreement, developing exchanges and cooperation in various fields.

    In March 2025, they held talks to deepen cooperation and reached a consensus, laying a more solid foundation for future joint work. From May 9 to 12, the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, together with three professors and teachers from the History Department of Fergana State University, conducted a 4-day archaeological survey in the Fergana Valley. During the survey, 9 ancient sites from the Bronze and Iron Ages were examined.

    The joint archaeological team applied a variety of advanced technological methods to comprehensively and in detail study the state of preservation of the sites, their cultural appearance, the history of archaeological research, and the relationship between the settlements and burial grounds. This allowed us to obtain key data on the archaeological sites of the region, providing strong support for subsequent in-depth archaeological excavations and research work.

    Fan Wenqian, Director of the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, said that promoting cooperation with Fergana State University in such areas as joint archaeological research, personnel training, archaeology using scientific technology, protection of cultural relics, exhibition, etc. is not only a responsibility but also a mission. The cooperation will not only enable a deep study of the historical and cultural content of the Fergana Valley, but also train more professional personnel with an international outlook for the archaeological circles of Shanxi, which will further enhance the international influence of Shanxi archaeology.

    As it became known, from September to October 2025, employees of the Institute of Archaeology of Shanxi Province will again be in the Fergana Valley to conduct joint archaeological work. -0-

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: SCO Member States Intend to Strengthen Cooperation in Digital Technologies

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

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

    URUMQI, June 18 (Xinhua) — Participants from various countries expressed their readiness to strengthen cooperation in the relevant field within the SCO framework at the 4th meeting of heads of ministries and departments of the SCO member states responsible for the development of information and communication technologies (ICT), which was held in Karamay city, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, on Tuesday.

    At the event, Deputy Minister of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China Xiong Jijun called promoting sustainable development and accelerating modernization common goals of the SCO countries.

    According to him, China is ready to work with all parties to improve the quality and level of cooperation among the member states by improving institutional mechanisms, strengthening political dialogue, deepening practical cooperation in the field of digital technologies and ICT, promoting the transformation and modernization of industries, building a more just, accessible and inclusive digital world, thereby contributing to the formation of a community of shared destiny of the SCO.

    First Deputy Minister of Communications and Informatization of the Republic of Belarus Pavel Tkach stated that joint digital development allows for a significant deepening of integration, mutual trade and other sectors of the economy, and the exchange of experience in this area can be carried out within the framework of the SCO.

    He stressed that due to the rapid growth of data in Belarus, there is a need to create centers for their processing and storage, adding that Belarus is interested in China’s experience in this area and expects to participate in specific projects with it.

    Karamay City, the venue for the event, boasts of its dynamic digital economy in Xinjiang. According to local authorities, as of the end of 2024, the computing power of the cloud computing industrial park was 17,042 petaflops (1 petaflop equals 1 quadrillion floating-point operations per second), becoming the first such industrial park in the region with a computing power of more than 10,000 petaflops.

    Zhanat Dzhabasova from Kazakhstan, head of the center for international cooperation and project implementation at the M. Dulatov Kostanay Engineering and Economics University, emphasized the prospects of Karamay to become a future hub of digital technologies. She stated that due to its geographical location, the city is quite capable of combining the experience of Kazakhstan and China in this area and becoming a center for digital transformation and exchanges between the two countries.

    Zh. Dzhabasova also expressed hope for the development of cooperation with Chinese universities in the field of information technology and other areas, especially for conducting joint scientific research through the exchange of experience.

    The head of Tajikistan’s Communications Service, Isfandiyor Sadullo, said that Karamay, as a city whose main industry is the oil industry, is making active efforts to develop digital technologies. According to him, he sees broad prospects here in the field of big data exchange.

    I. Sadullo also said that Tajikistan expects cooperation with China in the field of digital and information and communication technologies, as well as in digital development and transformation.

    Let us recall that the meeting adopted an action plan aimed at deepening exchanges and cooperation between the SCO member states in the development of measures for digital transformation, creation of digital infrastructure, digital government, cloud computing, digitalization of small and medium-sized enterprises, development and application of digital technologies, exchange of specialists in the field of digital technologies, etc. -0-

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Shanghai hosts Forum on Legal Support for SCO Economic and Trade Activities

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

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

    BEIJING, June 18 (Xinhua) — The SCO Center for International Legal Training and Cooperation (China), based at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, held the Forum on Legal Support for SCO Economic and Trade Activities from Tuesday to Wednesday.

    The event was held under the theme “Legal Innovations and International Cooperation – Building a New Era of Sustainable Development”. It was attended by more than 100 experts, scientists and industry representatives from international organizations, SCO countries, Chinese and foreign universities, research institutions and business circles.

    The forum focused on creating an effective communication platform for deepening and promoting legal ideas in economic and trade activities, and was also aimed at forming a more open, mutually beneficial and sustainable platform for legal cooperation within the SCO.

    The meeting discussed issues such as preventing legal risks in international investment and infrastructure construction within the Belt and Road Initiative, international trade, financial settlements and dispute resolution within the SCO.

    Ge Weihua, Party Secretary of Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, said that in the context of growing uncertainty and complexity in economic and trade exchanges, there is an urgent need for more coordinated, higher-level legal support.

    Since the establishment of the SCO/China International Legal Training and Cooperation Center, Shanghai University of Political Science and Law has always been committed to promoting in-depth exchanges and cooperation in the legal, economic and trade fields within the SCO framework. In the future, the university will continue to give full play to the advantages of the center to actively promote regional legal cooperation, he added.

    The forum was organized by the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law and the SCO Center for International Legal Training and Cooperation /China/. -0-

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI: MasterQuant Introduces AI Bot for Smarter, Automated Trading Success

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    San Francisco, June 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —

    For many years, handling the complications of financial markets has felt like a high-stakes gamble for many. Keeping up with endless data, making split-second decisions, and managing risk often seem like tasks left to experienced professionals. It changes, today! MasterQuant is excited to announce the official launch of its innovative investment platform, MasterQuant, powered by a practical artificial intelligence trading bot, developed to bring enhanced quantifiable strategies within reach of every investor. 

    MasterQuant’s core belief of mission is to make smart investments accessible to everyone. The foundation of the platform is that the advanced expert system trading bot is far more than just a simple automated system. It functions as a skilled engine that is always learning and growing, converting vast amounts of market data into understandable and doable investing decisions. 

    The Power Behind the Attention: MasterQuant’s AI Trading Bot

    Why is MasterQuant’s AI bot innovative? Deep Learning, which operates consistently in the background, is the foundation of its capabilities:

    • Real-time Market Analysis: The trading bot continually shifts through tremendous volumes of market data, processing information as it happens. This bot isn’t just looking at the analysis of the charts, it’s understanding the nuances of price movements, trading volumes, and global indicators immediately
    • Identifying Profitable Opportunities: Through ongoing analysis, the AI bot demonstrates exceptional ability in detecting investment opportunities that may not be apparent to humans. It recognizes trends and indicators that imply an opportune time to buy or sell a position.
    • Generating Optimized Trading Strategies: Upon identifying an opportunity, the bot acts without delay. It designs and implements precisely tuned trading strategies, basing its choices on complex calculations instead of feelings or speculation.
    • Dynamically Adjusting Risk Exposure: A major issue for every investor is risk. The deep learning bot from MasterQuant is designed to actively handle risk, modifying exposure levels instantaneously to safeguard capital and adhere to established criteria.
    • Diversifying Assets Thoughtfully: The bot doesn’t put all its eggs in one basket. It works to diversify assets, spreading investments across different areas to balance potential returns and reduce overall vulnerability.
    • Continuously Optimizing Trades: Learning is never-ending. The expert system bot continually adjusts its strategies, gathering knowledge from each trade and market fluctuation to enhance future performance. This ongoing improvement targets more and more efficient and profitable results in the long run.

    The implementation of this AI trading bot is already breaking new ground in automated investment as it shows the ability to generate amazing profits by persistently executing its clever strategies. It is a major step forward in the process of simplifying the financial tools for ordinary people and increasing their effectiveness.

    “MasterQuant was built because we recognized there was an obvious demand for a wiser, easier method of investing,” explained Ryan Franklin, MasterQuant’s Director of Communications. “Our AI-driven trading bot is the result of a lot of research and development that has gone into creating something that empowers both new and experienced investors. It eliminates the guesswork and emotional tension associated with trading, enabling our users to make the most of cutting-edge strategies with confidence and accuracy.”

    MasterQuant’s first rollout targets the dynamic cryptocurrency markets, where its real-time analytical strength can shine. Expansion into other major markets, such as forex and traditional stocks, is already in the works, spreading its groundbreaking approach to even more assets.

    MasterQuant is not only a platform rather it has become the new era of investing where innovation is a trusted partner in wealth development. It invites everyone to explore a more smart path to financial success by removing common barriers and putting experienced deep learning at the forefront.

    About MasterQuant

    MasterQuant is a ground-breaking quantitative investment platform that is powered by AI and dedicated to making advanced financial strategies accessible to everyone. MasterQuant, through its deep learning trading bot and intuitive design, enables investors with any level of skill to utilize the markets more efficiently, accurately, and with more confidence. MasterQuant is built on consistent innovation and has the goal of changing the way people create wealth in the new era.

    To get more details or check out contract options, https://masterquant.com/

    Disclaimer: This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice, legal advice, or investment recommendations. Stock Trading involves risk and market volatility. Please research or consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions. Masterquant.com and associated parties are not liable for any financial loss incurred.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: MasterQuant Introduces AI Bot for Smarter, Automated Trading Success

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    San Francisco, June 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —

    For many years, handling the complications of financial markets has felt like a high-stakes gamble for many. Keeping up with endless data, making split-second decisions, and managing risk often seem like tasks left to experienced professionals. It changes, today! MasterQuant is excited to announce the official launch of its innovative investment platform, MasterQuant, powered by a practical artificial intelligence trading bot, developed to bring enhanced quantifiable strategies within reach of every investor. 

    MasterQuant’s core belief of mission is to make smart investments accessible to everyone. The foundation of the platform is that the advanced expert system trading bot is far more than just a simple automated system. It functions as a skilled engine that is always learning and growing, converting vast amounts of market data into understandable and doable investing decisions. 

    The Power Behind the Attention: MasterQuant’s AI Trading Bot

    Why is MasterQuant’s AI bot innovative? Deep Learning, which operates consistently in the background, is the foundation of its capabilities:

    • Real-time Market Analysis: The trading bot continually shifts through tremendous volumes of market data, processing information as it happens. This bot isn’t just looking at the analysis of the charts, it’s understanding the nuances of price movements, trading volumes, and global indicators immediately
    • Identifying Profitable Opportunities: Through ongoing analysis, the AI bot demonstrates exceptional ability in detecting investment opportunities that may not be apparent to humans. It recognizes trends and indicators that imply an opportune time to buy or sell a position.
    • Generating Optimized Trading Strategies: Upon identifying an opportunity, the bot acts without delay. It designs and implements precisely tuned trading strategies, basing its choices on complex calculations instead of feelings or speculation.
    • Dynamically Adjusting Risk Exposure: A major issue for every investor is risk. The deep learning bot from MasterQuant is designed to actively handle risk, modifying exposure levels instantaneously to safeguard capital and adhere to established criteria.
    • Diversifying Assets Thoughtfully: The bot doesn’t put all its eggs in one basket. It works to diversify assets, spreading investments across different areas to balance potential returns and reduce overall vulnerability.
    • Continuously Optimizing Trades: Learning is never-ending. The expert system bot continually adjusts its strategies, gathering knowledge from each trade and market fluctuation to enhance future performance. This ongoing improvement targets more and more efficient and profitable results in the long run.

    The implementation of this AI trading bot is already breaking new ground in automated investment as it shows the ability to generate amazing profits by persistently executing its clever strategies. It is a major step forward in the process of simplifying the financial tools for ordinary people and increasing their effectiveness.

    “MasterQuant was built because we recognized there was an obvious demand for a wiser, easier method of investing,” explained Ryan Franklin, MasterQuant’s Director of Communications. “Our AI-driven trading bot is the result of a lot of research and development that has gone into creating something that empowers both new and experienced investors. It eliminates the guesswork and emotional tension associated with trading, enabling our users to make the most of cutting-edge strategies with confidence and accuracy.”

    MasterQuant’s first rollout targets the dynamic cryptocurrency markets, where its real-time analytical strength can shine. Expansion into other major markets, such as forex and traditional stocks, is already in the works, spreading its groundbreaking approach to even more assets.

    MasterQuant is not only a platform rather it has become the new era of investing where innovation is a trusted partner in wealth development. It invites everyone to explore a more smart path to financial success by removing common barriers and putting experienced deep learning at the forefront.

    About MasterQuant

    MasterQuant is a ground-breaking quantitative investment platform that is powered by AI and dedicated to making advanced financial strategies accessible to everyone. MasterQuant, through its deep learning trading bot and intuitive design, enables investors with any level of skill to utilize the markets more efficiently, accurately, and with more confidence. MasterQuant is built on consistent innovation and has the goal of changing the way people create wealth in the new era.

    To get more details or check out contract options, https://masterquant.com/

    Disclaimer: This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice, legal advice, or investment recommendations. Stock Trading involves risk and market volatility. Please research or consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions. Masterquant.com and associated parties are not liable for any financial loss incurred.

    The MIL Network –