NewzIntel.com

Category: Education

  • MIL-OSI Global: Air India crash: what do we know about the Boeing 787 Dreamliner involved? Expert Q&A

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Ali Elham, Professor of Design Optimisation, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, University of Southampton

    Motive56 / Shutterstock

    An Air India plane bound for London Gatwick airport crashed shortly after take-off on 12 January in Ahmedabad, western India. Flight AI171 was carrying 242 people, including 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.

    Here, Professor Ali Elham, from the University of Southampton’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, speaks to The Conversation’s Paul Rincon about the plane involved in the crash, Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.

    How does Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner differ from other passenger planes?

    The Dreamliner was a huge breakthrough in aircraft design. For example, it was the first Boeing aircraft with more than 50% composite material in its structure. In this case, composite material refers mainly to carbon fibre. This carbon fibre was replacing parts of the structure that would have been made from aluminium in previous types of aircraft. This contributed to a huge reduction in aircraft weight.

    There were many innovations in the 787, making it very different from previous iterations of Boeing aircraft, such as the 747 and 767.

    The combination of new engines, improved aerodynamics, and significant weight reduction – largely due to the use of composite materials – resulted in notable reductions in both fuel consumption and carbon emissions compared to previous-generation aircraft. Another feature was the greatly increased electrification of the plane, with more use of batteries for onboard power systems.

    What is the Dreamliner’s safety record like?

    The Dreamliner has a very good safety record and has been flying for many years without significant problems. But when the plane was new, in 2013 or so, there were a few incidents in which the aircraft’s lithium-ion batteries overheated, in some cases resulting in smoke or even catching fire, both on the ground and during flight. There were no casualties and the aircraft were all able to land safely. But Boeing grounded all Dreamliners for a few months.

    Boeing intensively investigated the problem. They redesigned the batteries, they redesigned the battery containers and then they ran tests and an extensive certification process that allowed them to return the Dreamliners to flight. Since then, there have been no incidents with batteries as far as I am aware.

    Batteries were used instead of getting power from the gas turbines in the engines. The power is used for instruments, for electronics and many other aircraft systems. Increased electrification – getting more of the aircraft’s power from batteries – contributes to reducing carbon emissions, because the gas turbines run on kerosene.

    Do any details currently known about the crash narrow down the search for the cause?

    It’s too early to say anything about the cause of the crash, and as far as I’m aware no official details have been released about the cause.

    Generally speaking, however, when you investigate air crashes, they often involve a chain of problems. One thing happens, then a number of events follow from that. So it might not be one cause here.

    This crash occurred shortly after takeoff. While flying is statistically the safest form of transport, the takeoff and landing phases are generally considered the most critical. This is because aircraft operate closer to the ground, with less time and altitude to respond to technical issues or sudden changes. Although not inherently dangerous, these phases carry a higher risk of incidents compared to cruising at altitude.

    What will the crash investigation focus on?

    They will investigate everything. They will search for the data recorders (black boxes), which are designed to survive a crash. If these are recovered, investigators will be able to view all the flight data, hear all the cockpit conversations. They will take all the information from the control tower. Sometimes clues can be found from all this data. They will also examine the wreckage of the aircraft in detail.

    It’s a different situation from the Boeing 737 Max groundings, which followed two crashes linked to a specific and repeatable software flaw. Similarly, when the Dreamliner first entered service, a series of battery overheating incidents revealed a systemic issue that led regulators to temporarily ground the fleet.

    In the current case, unless investigators identify a recurring technical problem that poses an immediate risk to other 787s, a fleet-wide grounding would be unlikely. Safety is always the top priority, but regulatory responses typically depend on whether an issue appears to be isolated or part of a broader pattern.

    It must be said that the 787 Dreamliner has a very good safety record. It had a very long certification period with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US.

    Ali Elham 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. Air India crash: what do we know about the Boeing 787 Dreamliner involved? Expert Q&A – https://theconversation.com/air-india-crash-what-do-we-know-about-the-boeing-787-dreamliner-involved-expert-qanda-258853

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Tornado is a Scottish samurai-western film – genres with a long-shared history

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jonathan Wroot, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, University of Greenwich

    Tornado fuses aspects of the western and samurai-style action in atmospheric 18th-century Scotland. Critics have praised the performances of Tim Roth, Jack Lowden and newcomer Kôki who plays the titular Tornado.

    Director John Maclean’s appreciation of both westerns and samurai films is undeniable in Tornado, a stylistic tale of revenge, violence and stolen gold. Any filmmaker’s visual flair and storytelling choices stand out against these conventions. This was also the case with Maclean’s excellent revisionist take on the western genre, Slow West, which was released in 2015.

    The western and the samurai film are not as popular as they once were, especially in the 1960s and 70s. But their characteristics are still hugely influential, as Tornado demonstrates. The film highlights specific parallels between the two genres. In particular, tales of lone warriors, gangs of greedy bandits, violent revenge and stolen treasure, are recurring motifs in both cinematic traditions.

    Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

    In most Hollywood films, any character who wields a samurai sword is referred to as a samurai. However, a samurai sword might be wielded by a soldier, a yakuza or a ronin (a wandering lone swordsman).

    The real samurai were salaried warriors, who swore loyalty to a local lord in Japan’s medieval era, in return for money, food and shelter. They typically use a long sword (katana) and two shorter swords, known as the wakizashi and the tanto.

    But as Japanese swords are most often associated with samurai in western culture, the name has stuck. In Japan, such films are more likely to be called chanbara (sword-action) films. This includes Tornado, which will most likely be marketed as a chanbara title if it is released in Japan.

    In Japan, Fujin (Takehiro Hira) and his daughter Tornado will be seen as closer to wandering swordsman characters from long-running series, like the Zatoichi franchise, than samurai.

    The trailer for Tornado.

    Western-samurai influences

    One of the most influential Japanese films to have samurai in the title is clearly a touchstone for Tornado. Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954) has produced many remakes, including two film versions of The Magnificent Seven (released in 1960 and 2016), and intergalactic adaptations such as Battle Beyond The Stars (1980).

    The antagonists in Seven Samurai were bandits, which is also the case in Tornado. The unlikely gang is made up of characters with various deadly skills, as were the heroes in the 1954 epic.

    Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950) and Yojimbo (1961) were also remade as westerns. The Outrage and A Fistful of Dollars were released in 1964. Some of the most famous and popular samurai films involve stories of swordsmen banding together, or taking on villains alone – plots which can be easily adapted to the wild west setting.

    Still, influence works both ways. Akira Kurosawa was an admirer of John Ford’s western films before his own work was remade in Hollywood. Various other Japanese pictures, from The Rambling Guitarist (1959) to Sukiyaki Western Django (2007), have paid homage to westerns over the years. And in 2013, Japanese actor Ken Watanabe starred in a Japanese remake of Clint Eastwood’s award-winning film Unforgiven (originally released in 1992).

    Nine films that were inspired by Seven Samurai.

    Similarly to Japanese period films, westerns continue to be made, though far fewer. With lower budgets often comes revisionist takes on their historical setting, alongside the reduced chances of actually making a western in the US. Slow West (2015) and The Power of the Dog (2021) were predominantly filmed in New Zealand.

    In Australia there is also a long history of the outback western, often set in the 19th century. The Proposition (2005) is a celebrated 21st century example.

    So Tornado is in good company. And Maclean has made a sound decision to take samurai and western cinematic influences to Scotland. At the time of writing, no historical evidence confirms the possibility of wandering Japanese swordsmen in this part of the world in the 18th century. But in film history, samurai and gunslingers have travelled around the world many times.

    Jonathan Wroot 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. Tornado is a Scottish samurai-western film – genres with a long-shared history – https://theconversation.com/tornado-is-a-scottish-samurai-western-film-genres-with-a-long-shared-history-258251

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The UK’s small businesses should be fuelling the country’s growth ambitions. Here’s why that’s not happening

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Danny Buckley, Workplace Learning Director, Loughborough University

    Today a van, tomorrow the world … with the right support. jgolby/Shutterstock

    The UK government’s spending review has set out its priorities for the next three years. But behind the rhetoric about boosting growth lies growing concern about small businesses being locked out of the wider UK economy. Government funding and regulation are increasingly out of step with the reality of micro-enterprises and sole traders, shutting off their potential to boost GDP growth.

    These businesses already punch above their weight, accounting for 60% of private-sector employment and more than half of total business turnover. Yet while recent budgets have pushed up costs through higher employer national insurance (NI) contributions and minimum wage rises, little meaningful relief has been offered in return.

    As a result, a recent British Chambers of Commerce survey found that 82% of businesses expect the NI hike to damage their business. More than half say it will affect recruitment plans, prices and day-to-day operations.

    Working with small businesses, apprentices and local enterprise leaders, we have seen how government support schemes often fail to reach those who need them most. Our research into informal work and legitimacy shows that many micro-businesses (ten employees or fewer) and sole traders operate in a space where regulatory demands feel misaligned with their economic reality.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    Across the UK, many micro-businesses already operate on a thin margin. For some, formal compliance with tax, labour and reporting obligations is simply out of reach. This is not due to unwillingness, but rather to a lack of manpower and time. In short, it is not about criminality, but survival.

    And when formality becomes unviable, the government loses out too through reduced tax receipts, lower NI contributions and missed opportunities for growth.

    In our research, we’ve found that formal and informal business owners don’t reject regulation outright. They reject complex systems that demand compliance without offering security. When the risks of being “seen” by the taxman outweigh the benefits, informality becomes a rational, even morally justifiable, choice.

    Informality is a significant global issue. According to the 2025 report by the International Labour Organization, even in high-income countries like the UK around one in ten workers are informally employed. And more than 60% of these people are working within formal enterprises, typically as undeclared workers.

    Informal work is most common in service and construction industries, and despite high education levels, nearly one in four informal workers lives below the poverty line. This compares to just 14% of formal workers.

    Barriers to growth

    In the UK, regulatory structures can make matters worse. The VAT threshold, recently raised to £90,000, may appear generous. But it can act as a cliff edge, discouraging small businesses from growing.

    Evidence from the International Monetary Fund shows that firms often intentionally limit turnover to avoid registration. Compliance costs and administrative burdens create a clear disincentive to scaling up.

    The slowdown is measurable. Small businesses reduce growth by up to 25% as they near the threshold, with no rebound in performance post-registration. This suggests a structural effect rather than temporary caution. Around one in five firms reports actively avoiding VAT registration by turning down work or restructuring operations. It’s a clear sign that the system discourages formal expansion.

    ‘Off-the-books’ workers – even those employed by big firms – are more likely to live in poverty.
    Irene Miller/Shutterstock

    These structural barriers don’t end with taxation. Even when support schemes are well designed and effective on paper, many small firms find themselves excluded by eligibility criteria or overwhelmed by the administrative requirements. For example, the Help to Grow: Management programme has delivered clear value, equipping thousands of SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) with vital skills in strategy, finance and innovation.

    However, it is limited to businesses with five or more employees. This excludes sole traders, some micro-businesses and early-stage entrepreneurs, among others. These smaller firms, often operating informally or semi-formally, are arguably those most in need of accessible, flexible support. By overlooking them, even well-intentioned programmes risk reinforcing the gaps they aim to close.



    Read more:
    How much for cash? Why the informal economy is bad for business, consumers and society

    Apprenticeship policy highlights another example of unintended exclusion. While apprenticeships are promoted as a win-win for employers and learners, the funding rules and regulations are typically geared towards larger organisations.

    For micro-businesses, the system often feels impenetrable. The administrative burden and cash-flow implications of taking someone away from their role to train them frequently outweigh the perceived benefits.

    Adding to these challenges are the recent changes to Level 7 apprenticeship funding rules, in the form of age restrictions. This raises concerns about whether smaller employers will continue investing in leadership and skills development.

    As a result, some of the smallest firms, particularly in personal services, trades, and early-stage startups, miss leadership development opportunities. This is not because they lack interest in training, but because the system was not designed with their scale or reality in mind.

    If the government wants to support small businesses, it must move beyond one-size-fits-all tax tweaks and headline grants. It has signalled a commitment to fiscal efficiency and targeted growth. What’s needed is a new model of support – one that recognises the complexity of informality, business growth and builds trust and opens routes into formal economic participation.

    This means creating tailored support and offering incentives to grow and develop for sole traders, self-employed people, and micro-businesses rather than penalising them. The government must simplify support mechanisms and ensure they are genuinely accessible – particularly for time-poor micro-businesses.

    It should move beyond rigid digital portals and offer relationship-based support through local networks, trusted intermediaries or one-to-one guidance. Crucially, access to skills programmes, including apprenticeships, should be guaranteed for businesses of all sizes, not just those large enough to navigate complex eligibility criteria or absorb upfront costs.

    Without these measures, the UK will only deepen its two-tier economy – where formality becomes a privilege rather than a pathway. Building a fairer, more dynamic business environment starts by including those already doing the work, even if they are not yet on the books.

    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 UK’s small businesses should be fuelling the country’s growth ambitions. Here’s why that’s not happening – https://theconversation.com/the-uks-small-businesses-should-be-fuelling-the-countrys-growth-ambitions-heres-why-thats-not-happening-258451

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why can’t we stop feeding monkeys? Experts explain the reasons behind a dangerous habit

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sian Waters, Research fellow at the Department of Anthropology, Durham University

    A monkey waits for food from tourists in Thailand.
     Miroslaw Gierczyk/Shutterstock

    We’ve seen it happen. For example, a visit to the Ouzoud waterfalls in Morocco’s High Atlas led to an encounter with a group of nearby tourists feeding chips – supplied by the tour guide – to some waiting Barbary macaques. Pointing to a nearby sign that read “do not feed the monkeys” was met with complaints about spoiling their fun.

    Scenes like this play out across the globe. Feeding wild primates is common in many countries. Scientists have spent years studying its effects on primate behaviour. But much less attention has been paid to the other side of the interaction – the people doing the feeding.

    Our recent research explores not just the effects on animals, but why people feed monkeys in the first place. Understanding that is essential if we want to change behaviour and keep both humans and primates safe.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    As tourism expands and infrastructure develops, humans and primates are living in closer quarters than ever before. Some species like macaques and baboons readily adapt to living in developed areas by foraging in rubbish bins and dumps.

    Habitat loss also plays a major role. The wide scale destruction of primate habitat means they come to rely on human food waste or people feeding them.

    In some tourism hot spots, feeding the primates, known as “provisioning”, is deliberate but regulated, ensuring tourists see the monkeys but cannot feed them. In others, tourists feed even endangered species freely, with little oversight. That’s when problems arise.

    Thieving monkeys steal from tourists and barter for treats on BBC’s Planet Earth.

    Uncontrolled feeding brings animals and humans into unusually close contact, and not always in welcome ways. Primates can become aggressive, resulting in bites, scratches and potential disease transmission. They may enter homes and shops, damage property, or intimidate people. Some primates even learn to beg or to steal valuables, returning them only when a food bribe is offered in exchange.

    When food sources suddenly disappear, this type of behaviour can escalate. For example, during the pandemic, some macaque populations in Thailand made headlines as “gangs” that caused chaos when tourists stopped visiting. When animals are seen as a public nuisance, calls for culling or relocation often follow.



    Read more:
    Why monkeys attack people – a primate expert explains

    Nutrition is another issue. The types of foods given to primates are usually calorie-rich and highly processed. Excess consumption of these foods can make primates obese or lead to chronic disease like diabetes. The extra calories allow some species to reproduce every year, leading to larger group sizes and compounding human-wildlife conflict.

    Feeding of packaged foods also results in large amounts of plastic and other litter left behind by people. New roads contribute to this problem by offering opportunities to vendors to sell food to road users. The resulting food waste can attract monkeys to the roadside where passing motorists throw them more food. This puts both people and primates at risk of road accidents.

    Some societies have fed monkeys for centuries and these interactions can be neutral or positive. However, many instances of people feeding primates causes negative interactions, so understanding why people feed monkeys is vital.

    Feeding wildlife often results in plastic waste.
    maxontravel/Shutterstock

    Why people do it

    As primate experts, we deal with the negative effects of uncontrolled monkey feeding all the time and know the complexities of this common human behaviour. Our recent review of the relevant research coupled with our own field experiences found a surprising range of motivations for why people feed primates.

    We found that feeding primates could be a religious obligation, a way to perform a good deed or obtain good fortune. It may be helpful in managing a person’s mental health. Many people feed primates for emotional reasons like pity, or to feel a connection to the animals.

    At some sites, residents have a vested interest in the continued practice of monkey feeding as it provides them with an income. Tour guides often receive higher tips when they can provide close animal encounters. Bus and taxi drivers can benefit from taking tourists to sites where they can observe and feed wild primates.



    Read more:
    Three surprising reasons human actions threaten endangered primates

    Attempting to stop people from feeding primates is difficult as most perceive it as an enjoyable and carefree activity. Campaigns must be carefully designed and relevant to the local context. This includes understanding why people are feeding primates in the first place.

    As scientists we need to better communicate the negative effects of feeding primates to a wider audience. We also need to prevent it from becoming an accepted activity, particularly in areas that could prove dangerous to both people and primates, such as roadsides.

    Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. But talking to people who feed primates to understand why they do it is fundamental for designing effective management strategies in future.

    Sian Waters is affiliated with the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group’s Section for Human-Primate Interactions (SHPI) and receives funding from

    Artis Zoo, Amsterdam, NL
    Ouwehand Zoo Foundation NL
    Re:Wild

    Tracie McKinney is affiliated with the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group’s Section for Human-Primate Interactions (SHPI).

    – ref. Why can’t we stop feeding monkeys? Experts explain the reasons behind a dangerous habit – https://theconversation.com/why-cant-we-stop-feeding-monkeys-experts-explain-the-reasons-behind-a-dangerous-habit-257485

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Brian Wilson’s visionary songwriting held unmatched emotional power. And in person he never disappointed

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By David Scott, Head of Division, School of Business and Creative Industries, University of the West of Scotland

    Brian Wilson, the Beach Boy and visionary composer whose groundbreaking music reshaped the sound of American pop, died on June 11. I had the pleasure of meeting Wilson several times, but first met with the great man through my friend David Leaf, whose writing is key to understanding Wilson’s music and humanity.

    Wilson never disappointed. He was always unpredictable, always quirky and always delightfully Brian. On one occasion some friends and I interviewed him in a Mayfair hotel where – ever the trouper – he was helping promote a not-very-good Beach Boys collaboration with Status Quo.

    We took him a side of Scottish smoked salmon as a gift against the advice of his wife Melinda who smiled sagely as he ripped the packet open and devoured it on the spot while patiently answering questions on Beach Boys minutiae.

    Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

    The legend of Wilson’s songwriting and production genius is often said to rest on two albums. First the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds (1966) and then its intended follow up SMiLE! which he started in 1966 and eventually finished in 2004.

    Sometimes overlooked, though, is the fact that Pet Sounds was preceded by 11 hit Beach Boys albums, many hit singles on both sides of the Atlantic, and worlds of innovation and influential new studio practices.

    Wilson’s self-taught, monastic, note-by-note transcriptions of performances by The Four Freshmen and the orchestral works of George Gershwin were key to this innovation. As was his willingness to push the boundaries of recorded sound, layering complex and dynamic musical ideas by directing several musicians in hallowed Los Angeles recording studios such as Gold Star, Capitol and Western Recorders.

    Wilson the hitmaker

    Early Wilson productions reveal a contemporary hitmaker who was willing to embrace unusual structures and non-standard rock instrumentation (marimba, harpsichord, harp and bass harmonica) while leaving oceans of space for the Beach Boys’ peerless harmonies. These rich, jazz-influenced vocal arrangements were often double- and triple-tracked (a recording technique that layers the same parts of the song to create a fuller sound).

    But Wilson also had the hitmakers’ instinct for collaboration. A series of lyricists including Gary Usher, Roger Christian, Tony Asher and fellow Beach Boy Mike Love helped further elevate his music, either in terms of its thematic commercial appeal or (as in his work with Van Dyke Parks) as a series of conceptual artworks.

    Brian Wilson in the studio recording Good Vibrations in 1966.

    While albums such as The Beach Boys Today! (1965) pointed a clear path to the introspection of Pet Sounds in songs like In the Back of My Mind and Please Let Me Wonder (both 1965), it is the latter album that remains one of the most famous examples of sustained artistry in 20th-century popular music. It solidified the idea of Wilson not just as a “genius” (a tag originated by publicist Derek Taylor) but more substantially as an expressionistic auteur.

    After announcing the shelving of his experimental album SMiLE! in 1967, Wilson famously withdrew from public life. But I would argue that that well-known retreat was less of a withdrawal than the 20-years-in-bed legend would have it.

    Although increasingly in poor health, he made important contributions to Beach Boys albums throughout the 1970s, most famously his fully-fledged return as songwriter and producer in the cult classic The Beach Boys Love You (1977). He also played a major role in projects like the beautiful American Spring album, which Wilson produced with his collaborator David Sandler for his first wife Marilyn and her sister Diane in 1972.

    My encounters with Wilson

    The late 1980s saw Wilson’s substantial second act eventually begin with a highly regarded eponymous 1988 solo album. Later – freed from the control of abusive psychotherapist Eugene Landy and with the support of second wife Melinda and the amazing musicians that became the Brian Wilson band – he enjoyed one of the great third acts in music history from the 2000s onwards.

    During this period, he recorded acclaimed solo albums (including a revisiting of the works of his greatest hero in the wonderful Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin) and toured extensively.

    Around this time, composer Duglas T. Stewart and I interviewed him for the liner notes of our tribute album Caroline Now! (2000) down the phone from his home in Los Angeles, where Wilson grappled comically with multiple phone lines. In response to a question about the influence of Wendy Carlos’s Switched On Bach album (1968) on his 1970s synthesiser arranging he yelped: “You know what, I have this in my CD player RIGHT NOW!”

    The subsequent clatter of him trying to locate the CD with many barking dogs in the background seemed like a magical sound moment. And a very Brian sound moment.

    People tend to define Wilson primarily through his fragility or his long struggle with poor mental health. Those are important factors in any life and put a clear stamp on the music he created. But I would challenge you to think again. Instead, think about this great artist through the lens of his strength, resilience and commitment to the creative act.

    The full performance of SMiLE! at The Royal Festival Hall in February 2004.

    In later years he joked about his name and the connection between “Wilson” and “willpower”, but it’s a joke that reveals something deeper. At the opening of SMiLE! at the Royal Festival Hall February 20 2004, Wilson walked onto the stage to present a work he had abandoned 37 years previously – a work that by some accounts had nearly killed him.

    At the end of the performance of this beautiful and unique album Wilson repeatedly attempted to silence the rapt applause before sighing wearyingly and accepting it. It was not just recognition for the achievement of the music, but the defiance of the artist himself.

    In later touring years, Wilson’s physical fragility was sometimes in evidence, but there were always moments – often in songs like Surfer Girl (1963) or the hymnal Love & Mercy (1988) – where his intent, to make himself and others feel better through the art of songmaking, retained an unmatched emotional power. It was a reminder that the love and mercy you need tonight would always exist in the music of Brian Douglas Wilson.

    David Scott 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. Brian Wilson’s visionary songwriting held unmatched emotional power. And in person he never disappointed – https://theconversation.com/brian-wilsons-visionary-songwriting-held-unmatched-emotional-power-and-in-person-he-never-disappointed-258864

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The transatlantic race to create the television

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Donald McLean, Honorary Lecturer in Early Television, University of Glasgow

    Number 1519 Connecticut Avenue lies just north of Dupont Circle, just over a 20-minute walk from the White House in Washington DC. In 1921, the inventor Charles Francis Jenkins set up his laboratory and offices there, upstairs from a car dealership.

    Today there are no obvious external indications of this famous resident, nor of his exceptional achievements, awards and numerous patents. A hundred years ago at his laboratory, on June 13 1925, Jenkins gave a demonstration of a televised film sent by radio waves from a building 10km away at what is now the US Naval Research Laboratory in Bellevue, DC.

    The invited group of mostly government officials included the secretary of the navy, Curtis D. Wilbur. They watched with fascination a film that showed a silhouette of a toy windmill with its blades in motion. The television picture comprised 48 lines, refreshed at the silent-movie rate of 16 per second.

    The Washington newspaper headlines the following day hailed the demonstration as the “first motion pictures transmitted by radio”. Hobbyist magazines reported fervently that “television is here!”, calling Jenkins the “father of television”.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    Today those announcements seem over-enthusiastic. Television as an operational service still had a long way to go to have the quality and range to make consumer devices feasible. All the same, they were right in anticipating where Jenkins’ demonstration might lead.

    By that July, Jenkins had demonstrated vision and sound transmitted together on a single short-wave radio frequency. The published technical details indicate a high degree of sophistication in his designs, as might be expected from someone with a background in precision phototelegraphy (transmitting images over wires).

    Parallel development

    Jenkins had an impressive track record as an inventor. He and his business partner, Thomas Armat, are generally accepted as the originators of the intermittent drive system for motion picture film projectors in the early 1910s. This made it possible to move films one frame at a time through a projector, enabling smooth playback without any flickering.

    For this landmark work, Jenkins won the prestigious Elliott Cresson Medal from the Franklin Institute and became the founder and first president of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers in 1916.

    In the early 1920s he then developed a practical means of sending images of weather charts by radio to ships at sea. It was this phototelegraphy work that led him into experiments in televising silhouettes of live and filmed scenes. He claimed that he first demonstrated the technology to witnesses in June 1923.

    Nevertheless, the Scottish inventor John Logie Baird beat him to become the first to do a public demonstration, in London over three weeks in March and April 1925. Baird, who had been working on the technology since early 1923, showed live moving images in reflected light transmitted by radio to enthusiastic crowds in Selfridges department store. With only eight lines per picture, he carefully chose simple objects that would be easily identifiable.

    In the US, Jenkins had doubled down on improving the image quality for his demonstration. His persistence with back-lit silhouettes today seems odd considering most TV programmes would come to be televised in reflected light. Baird’s preference for showing recognisable facial features in reflected light gained him widespread recognition for his demonstration of 30-line television in January 1926.

    Jenkins nevertheless launched his silent silhouette video service for hobbyists on the radio station W3XK in July 1928, around the same time as similar offerings from companies that included General Electric (GE) and the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). By the end of that year, there were thought to have been as many as 15 television stations operating in the US.

    Like Baird and Jenkins’ methods, many of these early stations relied on mechanically rotating disks with patterns of holes to scan images line by line. They were all very low on detail, but were still heralded as proof of concept for television. A key factor in their acceptance was the uncanny ability of human vision to recognise facial expressions along with natural body motion in poor quality images.

    Later in 1928, Baird went on to demonstrate colour, early 3D (stereoscopic), and transatlantic television all for the first time, though more as a way of attracting financial backing than presenting prototypes of future offerings. Unlike Jenkins, who earned money from his earlier inventions and patents, Baird relied largely on funding from investors to grow his business, which aimed to develop and commercialise his mechanical television technology.

    What came next

    Mechanical television was short-lived. Around 1931 RCA and EMI (Electric and Musical Industries), soon to become the key players in broadcasting infrastructure in the US and UK, had independently predicted insufficient public interest in this technology. With its inherently limited image quality, they thought it couldn’t support a viable business.

    Swift advances in electronics continued unabated throughout the interwar years. This allowed successful development of alternative, superior television systems using ideas from scientists such as Boris Rosing in Russia and Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton in the UK.

    RCA and EMI focused their respective resources on developing vastly superior electronic television systems. These scanned and reproduced images using electron beams that are fired inside a glass unit known as a cathode ray tube to capture and show the transmitted moving picture on the screens of people’s TV sets. Those pictures had around 100 times the information content of the earlier mechanical equivalents.

    This made the many early mechanical television services attain one more “first”: becoming obsolete. In just over 15 years from Jenkins’ 1925 demonstration, first the UK and then the US would launch new operational broadcast television services for the public that completely overshadowed the earlier pioneering work.

    Jenkins did not live to see those new systems. His health deteriorated from late 1930 and he died in 1934 aged 66, leaving behind a superb legacy of a full career in inventions.

    John Logie Baird operating his mechanical television system in 1931.
    Wikimedia, CC BY-SA

    Baird continued to work as a TV pioneer in the 1930s and 1940s, dedicated to exploring colour television and cinema projection. He died in 1946 at the age of just 57.

    Jenkins’ and Baird’s original pioneering efforts, and the excitement they generated, are still rightly heralded by many people today. We can now only imagine how it must have felt to see moving images transmitted from miles away for the first time. It’s incredible to reflect that what was once considered magic so quickly became mundane.

    Donald McLean 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. The transatlantic race to create the television – https://theconversation.com/the-transatlantic-race-to-create-the-television-258726

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: France’s final nuclear tests in the South Pacific, 30 years on

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Roxanne Panchasi, Associate Professor, Department of History, Simon Fraser University

    Former French President Jacques Chirac encounters a protest from members during an official visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg in July 1995.
     (European Parliament)

    In recent months, the viability of France’s nuclear arsenal has been making headlines with talk of a French “nuclear umbrella” that might shield its allies on the European continent. In the face of the Russia-Ukraine war, and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statements regarding the possibility of deploying nuclear weapons in that conflict, the question of how to best defend Europe has taken on an urgency not seen since the height of the Cold War.

    Despite its more robust nuclear weapons capabilities, the United States in the Donald Trump era appears less committed to the defence of its NATO allies. Debates about a French nuclear umbrella aside, these discussions — combined with increased military spending worldwide and resurgent fears of nuclear war — make the history of France’s nuclear readiness and weapons testing feel uneasily current.

    In June 1995, French President Jacques Chirac announced that France would resume testing nuclear weapons in the South Pacific. Just weeks after being elected to office, Chirac ended a three-year moratorium on testing that his predecessor, François Mitterrand, had put into effect in April 1992.

    Chirac insisted this additional series of weapons tests was essential to France’s national security and the continued independence of its nuclear deterrent. The eight planned detonations scheduled to take place over the next several months would, he claimed, provide the data needed to move from real-world detonations to computer simulations in the future. He also said it would enable France to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban-Treaty (CTBT) banning all nuclear explosions, for military or other purposes, by the fall of 1996.

    France’s history of nuclear tests

    A report on France’s nuclear tests in the South Pacific. (Disclose)

    Chirac’s June 1995 announcement, followed by the first new detonation in September that year, provoked intense opposition from environmental and peace groups, and protests from Paris to Papeete, throughout the Pacific region and across the globe.

    Representatives from the world’s other nuclear-armed states expressed concern that France was choosing to conduct further tests so close to a comprehensive ban. The governments of Australia, New Zealand and Japan also registered their staunch opposition, issuing diplomatic statements, calling for the boycott of French goods and pursuing other measures of rebuke.

    A defensive posture had been a pillar of France’s nuclear weapons policy since the nation first entered the atomic club in 1960 with the detonation of Gerboise Bleue, a 70-kiloton bomb, at Reggane in Algeria. The following three atmospheric and 13 underground Saharan tests resulted in serious long-term health and environmental consequences for the region’s inhabitants.

    In 1966, France’s nuclear testing program relocated to Maō’hui Nui, colonially known as “French Polynesia.”

    The next 26 years saw a further 187 French nuclear and thermonuclear detonations above and beneath the Pacific atolls of Moruroa and Fangataufa. They exposed the local population to dangerous levels of radiation, contaminating food and water supplies, and harming corals and other forms of ocean life.

    These experiments — along with the final six underground detonations the French carried out in 1995 and 1996 — left a toxic legacy for generations to come.

    Inadequate compensation for lingering harm

    When Chirac shared his rationale for France’s latest nuclear test series with a room full of journalists gathered at the Elysée Palace in June 1995, he was adamant that these planned tests, and all of France’s nuclear detonations, had absolutely no ecological consequences.

    Today, we know this claim was more than incorrect. It was a falsehood reliant on data and conclusions that grossly underestimated the harmful impact that France’s nuclear testing program had on the health of French soldiers and non-military personnel onsite, inhabitants in the surrounding areas and the environments where these explosions took place.

    Most recently, during the 2024 Paris Olympics, there was an evident deep contradiction between “French Polynesia” as a tourist paradise and idyllic location for the Games’ surf competitions and a space of continuing injustice for test victims that highlights the history of France’s nuclear imperialism in the region.

    In 2010, the French government passed the Morin law ostensibly aimed at addressing the suffering of those significantly harmed by radiation during France’s nuclear weapons detonations from 1960 through 1996.

    The number of people who have been successful in their applications for recognition and compensation remains inadequate, particularly in Algeria. Out of the 2,846 applications submitted by only a fraction of the thousands of estimated victims, just over 400 people in Maō’hui Nui and only one Algerian have received compensation since 2010.

    In 2021, French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged that France “owes a debt” to the people of Maō’hui Nui. He has since called for the opening up of key archives pertaining to this history, but there is much more work to be done on all fronts.

    The findings of a recent French parliamentary commission on the effects of testing in the Pacific, scheduled to be released soon, may contribute to greater transparency and justice for victims in the future.

    In Maō’hui Nui, demands for acknowledgement and restitution have been intertwined with the independence movement, while confronting the impact and legacies of the nuclear detonations in Algeria has been fraught with tensions between Algeria and France over the colonial past.

    Future of the test ban treaty

    In January 1996, France conducted its last nuclear test by detonating a 120-kiloton bomb underground in the South Pacific. In September, France added its signature to the CTBT, joining the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, China and 66 other states without nuclear weapons in their commitment not to engage in further nuclear explosions in any context.

    Almost 30 years later, the CTBT has still not come into force. While most signatories have ratified the treaty, China, Egypt, Iran, Israel and the U.S. are among the nine that have not. Meanwhile, Russia withdrew its own ratification in 2023. Key non-signatories include India, North Korea and Pakistan — all nuclear-armed states that have conducted their own tests since 1996.

    Given these crucial exceptions to a test ban, the prospects for something as ambitious as the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which not a single nuclear weapons state has signed to date, remain uncertain, to say the least.

    Roxanne Panchasi has previously received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

    – ref. France’s final nuclear tests in the South Pacific, 30 years on – https://theconversation.com/frances-final-nuclear-tests-in-the-south-pacific-30-years-on-256439

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Mitigating AI security threats: Why the G7 should embrace ‘federated learning’

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Abbas Yazdinejad, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Artificial Intelligence, University of Toronto

    Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the world, from diagnosing diseases in hospitals to catching fraud in banking systems. But it’s also raising urgent questions.

    As G7 leaders prepare to meet in Alberta, one issue looms large: how can we build powerful AI systems without sacrificing privacy?

    The G7 summit is a chance to set the tone for how democratic nations manage emerging technologies. While regulations are advancing, they won’t succeed without strong technical solutions.

    In our view, what’s known as federated learning — or FL — is one of the most promising yet overlooked tools, and deserves to be at the centre of the conversation.



    Read more:
    6 ways AI can partner with us in creative inquiry, inspired by media theorist Marshall McLuhan

    As researchers in AI, cybersecurity and public health, we’ve seen the data dilemma firsthand. AI thrives on data, much of it deeply personal — medical histories, financial transactions, critical infrastructure logs. The more centralized the data, the greater the risk of leaks, misuse or cyberattacks.

    The United Kingdom’s National Health Service paused a promising AI initiative over fears about data handling. In Canada, concerns have surfaced about storing personal information — including immigration and health records — in foreign cloud services. Trust in AI systems is fragile. Once it’s broken, innovation grinds to a halt.

    Why is centralized AI a growing liability?

    The dominant approach to training AI is to bring all data into one centralized place. On paper, that’s efficient. In practice, it creates security nightmares.

    Centralized systems are attractive targets for hackers. They’re difficult to regulate, especially when data flows across national or sectoral boundaries. And they concentrate too much power in the hands of a few data-holders or tech giants.

    But instead of bringing data to the algorithm, FL brings the algorithm to the data. Each local institution — whether it’s a hospital, government agency or bank — trains an AI model on its own data. Only model updates — not raw data — are shared with a central system. It’s like students doing homework at home and submitting only their final answers, not their notebooks.

    This approach dramatically lowers the risk of data breaches while preserving the ability to learn from large-scale trends.

    Where is it already working?

    FL could be a game-changer. When paired with techniques like differential privacy, secure multiparty computation or homomorphic encryption, it could dramatically reduce the risk of data leaks.

    In Canada, researchers have already used FL to train cancer detection models across provinces — without ever moving sensitive health records.

    Artificial intelligence has been used to train cancer detectiom models.
    (Shutterstock)

    Projects like those involving the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network have demonstrated how FL can be used to predict chronic diseases such as diabetes, while keeping all patient data securely within provincial boundaries.

    Banks are using it to detect fraud without sharing customer identities.Cybersecurity agencies are exploring how to co-ordinate across jurisdictions without exposing their logs.



    Read more:
    Health-care AI: The potential and pitfalls of diagnosis by app

    Why the G7 needs to act now

    Governments around the world are racing to regulate AI. Canada’s proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act, the European Union’s AI Act, and the Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy AI in the United States are all major steps forward. But without a secure way to collaborate on data-intensive problems — like pandemics, climate change or cyber threats — these efforts may fall short.

    FL allows different jurisdictions to work together on shared challenges without compromising local control or sovereignty. It turns policy into practice by enabling technical collaboration without the usual legal and privacy complications.

    And just as importantly, adopting FL sends a political signal: that democracies can lead not just in innovation, but in ethics and governance.

    Hosting the G7 summit in Alberta isn’t just symbolic. The province is home to a thriving AI ecosystem, institutions like the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute and industries — from agriculture to energy — that generate vast amounts of valuable data.

    Picture a cross-sector task force: farmers using local data to monitor soil health, energy companies analyzing emissions patterns, public agencies modelling wildfire risks — all working together, all protecting their data. That’s not a futuristic fantasy — it’s a pilot program waiting to happen.

    A foundation for trust?

    AI is only as trustworthy as the systems behind it. And too many of today’s systems are based on outdated ideas about centralization and control.

    FL offers a new foundation — one where privacy, transparency and innovation can move together. We don’t need to wait for a crisis to act. The tools already exist. What’s missing is the political will to elevate them from promising prototypes to standard practice.

    If the G7 is serious about building a safer, fairer AI future, it should make FL a central piece of its plan — not a footnote.

    Abbas Yazdinejad 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.

    Jude Kong 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. Mitigating AI security threats: Why the G7 should embrace ‘federated learning’ – https://theconversation.com/mitigating-ai-security-threats-why-the-g7-should-embrace-federated-learning-258670

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Congressman Valadao Reintroduces Legislation to Improve VA Claims Processing Times

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman David G. Valadao (California)

    WASHINGTON – Congressman David Valadao (CA-22) reintroduced the Modernizing All Veterans and Survivors Claims Processing Act. This bill would standardize the software the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) uses to process benefit claims and streamline the process to ensure no veterans or survivors are left behind when seeking the benefits they have earned.

    “Our veterans have made great sacrifices fighting for our freedom, and when they return home, they shouldn’t be waiting months to receive their benefits because of outdated technology at the VA,” said Congressman Valadao. “I’m proud to reintroduce this bill which will expand the use of automation tools for processing VA claims to ensure veterans get the benefits they deserve in a more timely and efficient matter.”

    The Modernizing All Veterans and Survivors Claims Act would:

    • Require the VA to develop a plan to provide automation tools for purposes of claims processing, information sharing between federal agencies, and generating correspondence to VA program offices other than Compensation Service.
    • Require the VA to implement a plan to provide an automated letter-drafting tool to program offices that process veterans’ pension claims and survivors’ benefits claims. 
    • Require the VA to implement policies, processes, and technological capabilities to ensure that when a veteran or school-age child is awarded benefits based on a child attending school, VBA’s Compensation Service and Education Service are each automatically updated so that timely action can be taken to decrease overpayments of dependent benefits.
    • Require the VA to develop a plan to ensure that documents in VA’s electronic claims processing system are correctly labeled when they are uploading into that system, including when they are automatically labeled using AI technology.

    Background:

    The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has several offices that handle different types of benefits claims. The Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) processes claims, the Board of Veterans’ Appeals reviews denied claims, and the Debt Management Center handles debts caused by VA overpayments. Throughout the claims and appeals process, VA employees gather evidence, send letters to veterans and survivors, and make decisions based on the evidence. To speed up disability claims, the VA has used AI tools to draft letters and gather key documents. However, these tools haven’t been extended to other claims like pensions or survivors’ benefits which leads to long delays—sometimes years—for those decisions. Claims processing is also slowed by mislabeled documents in VA’s electronic system which can cause delays or even missed evidence that could support a veteran’s claim.

    Read the full bill here.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Duckworth, Murray, Booker, Schumer Renew Push to Protect IVF Amid Ongoing GOP Attacks Against Reproductive Freedom

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Illinois Tammy Duckworth

    June 11, 2025

    [WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Patty Muray (D-WA), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today led 25 of their Senate Democratic colleagues in introducing legislation that would establish a nationwide right to in-vitro fertilization (IVF). Ever since Roe was repealed by Donald Trump’s Supreme Court majority, Republicans’ ongoing assault against reproductive freedom has threatened Americans’ access to IVF services—as evidenced by the Alabama Supreme Court ruling last year that shut down state clinics and painted IVF parents and their doctors as criminals. The Protect IVF Act would protect against such attacks by creating a statutory right for patients to access IVF services, a right for doctors to provide IVF treatment in accordance with medical standards as well as a right for insurance carriers to cover IVF without prohibition, limitation, interference or impediment. By establishing a statutory right, this would preempt any state effort to limit such access and help ensure no hopeful parent—or their doctors—are punished for trying to start or grow a family.

    “Donald Trump loves to tell everyone how strongly he supports IVF—but the reality is, he’s the reason IVF is at risk in the first place,” said Senator Duckworth. “If Trump really cares about protecting IVF, then the choice is simple: instead of signing toothless executive orders, he should call on Republicans to support my bill to establish a nationwide right to IVF. Otherwise, all the pro-IVF talk is just more lip-service from people who have proven time and again they have no interest in actually taking any meaningful action to protect IVF access.”

    “The anti-choice movement has never been about protecting life—it has always been about controlling women. Republicans’ efforts to rip away women’s reproductive rights and enshrine fetal personhood bit by bit are having catastrophic consequences for women across America and putting access to IVF in jeopardy,” said Senator Murray. “Trump is full of empty talk when it comes to IVF, but he’s refused to take any action that would meaningfully improve access, and he’s empowering the very same anti-abortion activists who are working to ban IVF nationwide. The Protect IVF Act would establish a statutory right to access IVF and other assisted reproductive technology, so that all Americans can grow their families on their own terms, free from Republican interference.”

    “Donald Trump and Senate Republicans have repeatedly jeopardized American families’ fundamental right to make their own decisions about when and how to start a family,” said Senator Booker. “Congress must act to ensure that the freedom to start and grow a family using IVF treatment is protected and accessible to everyone in the United States.”

    “Despite all the smoke and mirrors and hollow Executive Orders, Donald Trump and Republicans have led an unrelenting crusade against reproductive rights for years, refusing to support legislation that would truly protect access to IVF. Senate Democrats are united in protecting access to pro-family fertility treatment and giving every American the freedom to decide when and how to build a family. We will continue to fight extreme rightwing Republicans threatening access to IVF across the country, going against scientific evidence, and accelerating their ideologically-driven crusade,” said Leader Schumer. 

    In addition to Duckworth, Murray, Booker and Schumer, the legislation is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-RI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) Alex Padilla (D-CA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), John Fetterman (D-PA), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Mark Warner (D-VA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Chris Coons (D-DE), Angus King (I-ME), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Gary Peters (D-MI), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Chris Murphy (D-CT).

    The Protect IVF Act is endorsed by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, Endocrine Society, MomsRising, Indivisible, What to Expect Project, Legal Momentum: The Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, National Center for Lesbian Rights, Center for Reproductive Rights and the National Women’s Law Center.

    “In February 2024, a single court ruling in Alabama put providers’ ability to offer standard-of-care fertility treatments at immediate risk,” said Sean Tipton, ASRM Chief Advocacy and Policy Officer. “Since then, we have only seen an uptick in government leaders on both sides of the aisle expressing their support for medical procedures like IVF that make it possible for millions of Americans to start and grow their families. As a result, our federal lawmakers should rally behind legislation that would protect patients’ rights to reliable access to high quality fertility care and providers’ rights to deliver IVF in accordance with scientific and evidence-based clinical guidelines. We thank Senators Duckworth, Murray, Booker, and Schumer for their tireless leadership on the Protect IVF Act and urge immediate passage of this important bill.”

    “The path to parenthood is often filled with emotional and financial challenges, and for too many Americans, uncertainty about the future of IVF only adds to that burden,” said Barbara Collura, President/CEO, RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association. “No one should have to wonder if accessing medical care to build their family will be legal in their state. We can solve this right now by passing the Protect IVF Act, championed by Senator Tammy Duckworth. This legislation offers a clear solution to protect access to IVF nationwide. It’s time to give people the peace of mind they deserve and ensure that the ability to build a family is protected—once and for all.”

    Full text of the legislation can be found on the Senator’s website.

    Throughout her time in the Senate, Duckworth has made protecting reproductive freedom a top priority in the face of Republicans’ anti-choice crusade. Duckworth has long pushed to pass her Right to IVF Act—which Senate Republicans blocked not once, but twice last year—that would both establish a right to IVF and other assisted reproductive technology (ART), expand access for hopeful parents, Veterans and federal employees, as well as lower the costs of IVF for middle class families across the country. Last September’s vote marked the fourth time Senate Republicans blocked Duckworth-led legislation that would protect access to IVF nationwide—Duckworth’s Access to Family Building Act, which builds on previous legislation she introduced in 2022.

    Duckworth was the first Senator to give birth while serving in office and had both of her children with the help of IVF. In 2018, she advocated for the Senate to change its rules so she could bring her infant onto the Senate floor.

    -30-

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Budd, Blumenthal Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Award MACV-SOG Elite Special Operations Units with Congressional Gold Medal

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Ted Budd (R-North Carolina)

    Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Ted Budd (R-N.C) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, introduced bipartisan legislation to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observation Group (MACV-SOG). The bill recognizes the service members of MACV-SOG, one of the most distinguished and elite special operations units in United States military history, for their achievements in conducting rescue missions for downed pilots, deep-penetration reconnaissance, sabotage, and direct-action missions against the North Vietnamese.

    “MACV-SOG operators rank among the most elite special operations forces in U.S. military history. During the Vietnam War, they carried out highly classified, extraordinarily dangerous missions to combat communist insurgencies by obtaining vital intelligence for critical military operations, setting the gold standard for U.S. special operations. In North Carolina, there are fifty-nine living members of this unit, and many more across the country. Their devotion to duty deserves our deepest respect and recognition. I hope my colleagues will join Senator Blumenthal and I in our effort to honor these service members with a Congressional Gold Medal for their unparalleled bravery, sacrifice, and enduring contributions to our nation’s security,” said Senator Budd.

    “The servicemembers who were a part of MACV-SOG played a vital role in protecting and defending our great nation. Performing highly covert operations, facing incredible dangers, and gathering invaluable intelligence, members of MACV-SOG displayed a bravery and dedication to our country that is profoundly inspiring. Awarding these servicemembers a Congressional Gold Medal rightfully recognizes their great contributions to our nation and shines a light on the pivotal roles they played in our military history,” said Senator Blumenthal.

    Read the full bill text HERE.

    Background

    MACV–SOG was established in January 1964 as a dedicated joint military task force to conduct high-risk and special activities in the denied areas of North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

    These covert operations remained unacknowledged by military leadership and unknown to the United States public until their existence began to be declassified decades later. This secret war denied MACV–SOG members their just recognition and deprived the families of deceased and wounded operators from knowing the full extent of the sacrifice of their loved ones to the United States.

    To date, twelve MACV–SOG operators have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: King, New England Colleagues Urge Coast Guard to Delay Removal of Navigational Buoys

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Maine Angus King

    WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Angus King and a bipartisan cohort of the New England Senate Delegation are urging the United States Coast Guard (USCG) to delay the removal of navigational buoys off the coast of New England so they can better engage with stakeholders and understand the impacts of the proposal. In a letter to Coast Guard Commandant Kevin Lunday, the Senators ask for USCG to extend the comment period for public input, undertake more extensive outreach and enhance the compilation of data before making any final decisions on the removal of the navigational buoys.

    The USCG launched the Coastal Buoy Modernization Initiative in April 2025, a component of its broader Short-Range Aids-to-Navigation Modernization effort. This initiative proposed the discontinuation of 351 coastal buoys across New England (Maine accounts for the largest share at 145 buoys). In parallel, an additional 2,349 buoys and beacons are under review for future removal as part of the Harbor Buoy Modernization Initiative and the Shallow Water Level of Service Study (SWLOSS), scheduled for phased implementation from 2026 through 2029. In total, some 2700 buoys are up for consideration for removal along the New England coast.

    These efforts collectively represent a significant reconfiguration of the region’s maritime navigational infrastructure affecting both commercial and recreational mariners; despite the technical justifications for the initiative, the USCG approach has raised concerns throughout New England’s maritime community.

    “We write regarding our concerns with the First District Coastal Buoy Modernization Initiative and related efforts. Principally, we have reservations about how this would affect the safety of mariners throughout District One, the timeline the agency is proposing and the sufficiency of the agency’s communications with stakeholders of the proposed changes. We understand the need to modernize the Aids-to-Navigation (ATON) system, and we commend the agency for proactively initiating a program to assess current systems and to propose appropriate changes. However, we urge the agency to slow down this effort to ensure that the agency understands the needs of the communities and mariners in our states. Therefore, we urge you to extend the public comment period and increase public and Congressional engagement as outlined in this letter,” the Senators began.

    “We understand that Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), Electronic Navigation Charts (ENC), Electronic Charting Systems (ECS) and smartphone navigation applications have changed many facets of navigation,” they continued. “However, prudent mariners continue to depend on non-electronic and traditional means of navigating, including charts and visual navigation aids like buoys and related ATON.”

    The Senators concluded, “With respect to the First District Coastal Buoy Modernization Initiative, we are troubled that the current proposal would discontinue 916 buoys and beacons (309 Coastal and 607 Harbor buoys) in District One as soon as this year and into 2026. We appreciate the need to modernize, but the Coast Guard and other stakeholders need to maximize navigation safety utilizing all available means – electronic and visual. As you are well aware, mishaps continue to show the need for mariners to competently pilot their vessels, and effective coastal piloting relies on GPS, Radar and visual navigational aids including buoys, beacons, lights, ranges and lighthouses.”

    Joining King on the letter are Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Richard Blumental (D-CT), Jack Reed (D-RI), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ed Markey (D-MA) and Susan Collins (R-ME).

    The full of the text of the letter can be found here and below.

    +++

    Dear Acting Commandant Lunday:

    We write regarding our concerns with the First District Coastal Buoy Modernization Initiative and related efforts. Principally, we have reservations about how this would affect the safety of mariners throughout District One, the timeline the agency is proposing and the sufficiency of the agency’s communications with stakeholders of the proposed changes. We understand the need to modernize the Aids-to-Navigation (ATON) system, and we commend the agency for proactively initiating a program to assess current systems and to propose appropriate changes. However, we urge the agency to slow down this effort to ensure that the agency understands the needs of the communities and mariners in our states. Therefore, we urge you to extend the public comment period and increase public and Congressional engagement as outlined in this letter.

    We understand that Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), Electronic Navigation Charts (ENC), Electronic Charting Systems (ECS) and smartphone navigation applications have changed many facets of navigation. However, prudent mariners continue to depend on non-electronic and traditional means of navigating, including charts and visual navigation aids like buoys and related ATON. Indeed, the agency’s regulations on ATON acknowledges that “The Coast Guard maintains systems of marine aids to navigation consisting of visual, audible, and electronic signals which are designed to assist the prudent mariner in the process of navigation.”

    With respect to the First District Coastal Buoy Modernization Initiative, we are troubled that the current proposal would discontinue 916 buoys and beacons (309 Coastal and 607 Harbor buoys) in District One as soon as this year and into 2026. We appreciate the need to modernize, but the Coast Guard and other stakeholders need to maximize navigation safety utilizing all available means – electronic and visual. As you are well aware, mishaps continue to show the need for mariners to competently pilot their vessels, and effective coastal piloting relies on GPS, Radar and visual navigational aids including buoys, beacons, lights, ranges and lighthouses.

    Because the scope of the proposed effort is significant and will have a lasting impact, we request that the Coast Guard extend the comment period for public input on the District One initiative until September 1, 2025, undertake more extensive outreach and enhance the compilation of data on which the agency is relying.  Specifically, we request a dedicated public website on this initiative, an extension to the comment period, a briefing after the agency has winnowed its list of ATON to discontinue and a commitment to implement the District One ATON effort no earlier than October 1, 2026. The extension of the public comment period will allow the Coast Guard to conduct outreach, enhance public comment via additional means other than a single email address (e.g. a dedicated website) and allow mariners to practically consider these changes during peak recreational and commercial seasons.  Lastly, we also are seeking a delay in implementing the actual changes by approximately one year to allow for sufficient review and collaboration ahead of implementation.

    We appreciate your attention to this matter and request a follow-up discussion with you regarding this matter by June 26th, 2025.

    Sincerely,

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Third Strategic Dialogue between the State of Qatar and the French Republic

    Source: Government of Qatar

    Paris,  June 12, 2025

    The Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar, His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, and the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of the French Republic, Mr Jean-Noël Barrot, co-chaired the third annual Qatar-France Strategic Dialogue in Paris on June 12 2025. 

    Qatar and France welcomed the holding of their third Annual Strategic Dialogue and reviewed the important progress made since the State Visit of His Highness the Amir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to France in February 2024 which resulted in new cooperation initiatives within the fields of security, defence, economy, trade, investment and education. Both countries affirmed the strength of their bilateral relationship and pledged to further develop it by expanding strategic partnership on key files.

    POLITICAL AND DIPLOMATIC COOPERATION

    Both Ministers reaffirmed the commitment of Qatar and France to upholding a rules-based international order and international law, the promotion of peace, stability and prosperity in the Middle East, and to close cooperation in relation to regional and global crises.

    Palestine-Israel: Both Ministers called for a ceasefire, the release of all remaining hostages and a long-term political solution that will offer the best hope for the victims of this conflict on all sides and achieving a pathway to a two-state solution. The Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs expressed France’s deep appreciation for all Qatar’s mediation efforts, including those to secure an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

    Both Ministers called for full, unhindered humanitarian access allowing aid for the Palestinian population to enter Gaza. The Ministers further stated that politicising of humanitarian assistance, threats of forced displacement, or Israel’s plans to remain in Gaza after the war are unacceptable. The two Ministers stated that the Israeli government’s restrictions of essential humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population of Gaza are totally deplorable and breach International Humanitarian Law.  They further highlighted that Israel is duty-bound to meet all its obligations to ensure immediately a massive and unhindered flow of aid to Gaza – this includes engaging with the UN to ensure aid delivery is in line with humanitarian principles. 

    Both ministers reiterated their opposition to any forced displacement of Gaza’s Palestinian population, which would be a serious violation of international law and a major destabilizing factor for the entire region.

    Qatar welcomes the endorsement by France of the Gaza Reconstruction plan formulated by the League of Arab States in March as a serious, credible basis for immediately meeting reconstruction, governance and security needs in the aftermath of the war in Gaza. It guarantees the respect of international law and maintains Gaza’s future within the framework of a future Palestinian State.

    HE Prime Minister Al Thani welcomed the French-Saudi jointly chaired international meeting on June 18 for the implementation of a two-state solution. Both Ministers declared such efforts as the only way to bring durable peace and security to Israelis and Palestinians while ensuring the stability of the wider region.   

    They stressed that the High-Level International Conference on the peaceful resolution of the question of Palestine and the implementation of the two-State solution, decided by UNGA resolution A/RES/79/81, would contribute to this goal by designing a credible roadmap for the implementation of this solution in which the two countries would be able to live side-by-side in peace within their internationally recognized borders. Both ministers stressed that the future Palestinian state would have sole responsibility for rule of law, including policing primacy. 

    Syria: Both Ministers acknowledged the historic transition process underway in Syria. They emphasised the importance of an inclusive political dispensation that protects the rights of all irrespective of ethnicity, sect, religion or gender. They reiterated their support for the reconstruction of a new Syria – free, stable, sovereign, that respects all components of society. They agreed that stability and security in Syria is paramount for all its citizens as well as the surrounding region. To that end both Ministers committed to work together wherever possible to provide humanitarian assistance, as well as support economic development, and long-term reconstruction. They welcomed the lifting of international sanctions on Syria’s economy and encouraged foreign investments in the country. Qatar welcomed French support for the recent EU decision to lift economic sanctions on Syria and the recent meeting between President Macron and Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa. Such support and initiatives enable Syria and the Syrian people to undertake a transition to stability, peace and prosperity. The Ministers condemned violations of Syria’s territorial integrity and warned of escalation tactics designed to de-stabilize the region.  

    Lebanon: Qatar welcomed the hosting by France of the International Conference in Support of Lebanon’s People and Sovereignty in October 2024. Progress to political and economic reform in Lebanon is welcomed by both countries. 

    Qatar and France support the territorial integrity and sovereign rights of the Lebanese people, both Ministers called on all parties to honour the commitments made under the ceasefire reached in November 2024. To this end they called for a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon, the complete deployment of the Lebanese Armed Forces and their ongoing support to ensure security and achieve State monopoly on arms, assisted by UNIFIL and the supervision mechanism of the November 2024 ceasefire agreement, of which France alongside the U.S. participates in. 

    They emphasized their support to the process of change that has begun under the new Lebanese government, aimed at putting Lebanon back on the path of reconstruction, recovery and stability. They expressed their continuing support to the Lebanese Armed Forces and to the UN interim force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) whose action is essential to guarantee the stability of South Lebanon.

    Iran: Both Ministers reaffirmed Qatar and France’s support for a diplomatic solution leading to an agreement that addresses and resolves all international concerns related to Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief, in order to preserve the non-proliferation global architecture as well as stability and de-escalation in the Gulf region. They reiterated their support to the ongoing talks between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America.  They also called on Iran to fully and effectively cooperate with the legitimate requests and work of the International Atomic Energy Agency.   

    Rwanda and eastern DRC: Both ministers emphasised their shared commitment to peace, stability and security in the Great Lakes region. France commended Qatar’s mediation efforts between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and between Congolese authorities and AFC/M23. They stressed the need for parties to continue working towards the conclusion of a ceasefire, as called upon by United Nations Security Council Resolution 2773 (2025). Following its participation, along with the U.S., DRC, Rwanda and Togo, to the Doha meeting on April 30, France recalled its continued support to Qatar’s peace efforts.

    Sudan: Both Ministers resolved to further work together to address the devastating conflict in Sudan. Qatar and France recalled the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2736 (2024) demanding that the Rapid Support Forces halt the siege of El Fasher and calling for an immediate de-escalation. They reaffirmed their support to the unity of the country and called on the warring parties to immediately cease hostilities, abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law, protect civilians, and guarantee full, safe and unhindered humanitarian access. 

    UNOC: Both ministers welcomed the organization of the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France, from 9 to 13 June 2025, inter alia to support a blue carbon economy and the fight against illicit fishing. They praised the treaty on marine biodiversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction on the high seas (BBNJ) as a milestone in the collective protection of the high seas.

    ECONOMY, TRADE AND INVESTMENTS

    Qatar and France emphasized the importance of their growing economic, trade and investment partnership, with a total trade of more than €1.3 billion in 2024. The Ministers highlighted that bilateral trade makes a significant contribution to supporting jobs, innovation, and economic development in both countries.

    The two Ministers reviewed progress on Qatar’s 2024 landmark engagement to invest 10 billion euros into key sectors of the French economy. Qatar’s investment will cover mutually beneficial sectors ranging from food security, digital economy, AI and IT, semiconductors, energy transition, space, Intellectual Property, health, tourism and hospitality and culture. They also welcomed the forthcoming Qatar-France Business Forum as an opportunity for mutual trade growth and investment. They discussed ways to further strengthen their investment partnership and underlined their willingness to facilitate cooperation between the Qatari and French private sectors. They also explored areas of common interest, such as fiscal policy, sustainable finance and public-private partnerships (PPPs).

    Qatar’s innovative investment in France’s semiconductor industry highlights its role in key technology subsectors, including supply chain developments that are also propelling digital and green transformations across vital industries such as AI, mobility, and consumer technology. 

    Both sides discussed ways to further develop their trade and investment partnership, through a Roadmap focused on strategic areas in alignment with the framework of the economic diversification goals stated by Qatar’s National Vision 2030 and in accordance with the economic plan “France 2030.” 

    The French Minister praised Qatar’s ongoing commitment to ensure continued and reliable supplies of energy to Europe, including France and thus contributing to the country’s energy security. 

    DEFENSE, SECURITY AND COUNTERTERRORISM 

    Qatar and France reaffirmed the importance of the defence and security as a foundation stone of their partnership.  This was illustrated by the increase in official-level visits in the last 12 months, and the deepening coordination on an operational level.  

    The Ministers welcomed the implementation of joint defence operational partnership including joint planning, training and military exercises, most recently the Pegase, Al Salam, Al Koot exercises, as well as joint projects in defence industries and innovation and ongoing defence acquisitions including cooperation through both nations’ air forces, facilitated by the common possession of Rafale combat aircrafts. 

    They praised the strategic convergences between Qatar and France, which contribute to enhancing bilateral interactions between the two military institutions. Qatar and France are keen to explore ways to develop new synergies between their armed forces for future defence capabilities. 

    They also explored ways to build on existing links and expand activities on common strategic interests particularly as they contribute to de-escalation and security in the Gulf and the Red Sea.  

    Both Ministers welcomed the robust and long-lasting partnership between their respective security forces, including cooperation and important knowledge-sharing on Mega Sports Events, Crisis Management and Major Event Management, Air and Aviation Security, Cybersecurity and Digital Investigations, and mutual professionalization and capacity-building. 

    They commended the friendship and trust between the French Gendarmerie and the Qatari Lekhwiya celebrating in 2025 the 20th anniversary of their cooperation. They also welcomed the development of a strategic partnership between the French and Qatari national police forces and the establishment of a High Police Committee. They also emphasised building on this cooperation. 

    Both Ministers emphasised that the fight against terrorism remains a key bilateral realm for cooperation. They said that such cooperation is crucial in prevention and countering terrorism and ensuring the safety of their citizens. These efforts reflect the need for a coordinated approach to deal with an ever-evolving set of terrorist threats that transcend national borders. They also agreed to continue their strong partnership in cybersecurity and in combating terrorism, countering violent extremism and illicit financial flows. 

    HUMANITARIAN AND DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION

    On humanitarian and international development cooperation, both Ministers affirmed the continuing success of programmatic bilateral cooperation and coordination between their respective implementing agencies including QFFD, EAA, Silatech and AFD.

    Regarding development, both Ministers welcomed the renewal of their bilateral cooperation in this field, building on the signing of two major agreements between the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Qatar Fund for Development, the Education Above All (EAA) foundation and Silatech in February 2024. They expressed their appreciation concerning the first cooperation between AFD and QFFD for an ambitious project to renovate and expand Saint Joseph’s Hospital in East Jerusalem. They welcomed that QFFD and the AFD Group (AFD, Proparco and Expertise France) renewed their commitment to cofinance development projects and agreed to raise the cofinancing target from $50 million to $100 million for the duration of the MoU. In the short term, QFFD and the AFD Group commit to operationalizing the partnership in the following countries where there are pressing needs and discussions have already started on joint priorities: Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. They welcomed that QFFD and AFD Group will also, in the medium term, work on joint global advocacy activities and expand the partnership to innovative finance.

    Both Ministers praised the ongoing discussions between the Crisis and Support Centre of the French ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Qatar Fund for Development to explore possible new areas of dialogue and joint funding, including in the Middle East, Africa and Asia as well as in the field of humanitarian logistics. 

    Following the joint commitment by the Emir of Qatar and the President of the French Republic to dedicate 200 million dollars in 2024 to humanitarian relief in Gaza both Ministers expressed the necessity of answering without delay the urgent needs for aid there. The Ministers also commended the humanitarian impact of joint health relief efforts in Gaza, including medical evacuations, delivery and flow of humanitarian aid, medicines and ambulances. Additionally, they highlighted joint relief efforts in Lebanon to support conflict-affected populations. Recalling these recent successful joint humanitarian operations, both Ministers support a new joint emergency operation to supply medical equipment and medicine to Afghanistan.

    Such cooperation is the embodiment of the longstanding strategic partnership as well as the commitment of Qatar and France to stand by conflict-affected populations.  

    EDUCATION, HEALTH AND SPORTS 

    Both Ministers lauded the strong cooperation in the fields of education, health and sports. On education the Ministers addressed the growing partnership in the field of education, in particular knowledge sharing and research agreements between Qatari and French Institutions of Higher Education (HEI), including Sciences Po and Doha Institute. 

    Cooperation on research and innovation has been boosted by the strong collaboration between Qatar Research Development and Innovation Council (QRDI) and French HEI’s including Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux energies alternatives (CEA), Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (INSERM) and HEC Paris. Under the Qatar Open Innovation Scheme French companies have also received QRDI awards and are working in collaboration with Qatar-based SME’s and institutions to make strides in Agricultural Sciences and Medical Healthcare.  

    Qatar and France are looking forward to the signing of the 8th executive program enhancing bilateral cooperation particularly in French language learning, technical, professional and higher education, and mobility of students and teachers. This agreement aims at establishing a steering committee dedicated to learning French from the 9th (third French) class in Qatari public institutions, as well as a steering committee related to the development of university cooperation. Both sides expressed their mutual intention to strengthen their cooperation in higher education and research, promoting exchanges of students and researchers, as well as further exploring joint training and programmes that enable students to achieve their personal and professional goals.

    Qatar and France also expressed their wish to strengthen the sharing of expertise between the medical communities of the two countries, through the rapprochement or exchange of researchers. The minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs expressed his appreciation for the help of Qatar for the recent opening of the World Health Organization Academy in Lyon.The Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Al Thani congratulated the Republic of France on its hugely successful hosting of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.  Both sides expressed their willingness to share expertise and knowledge and to continue their cooperation on the positive impact and the legacy of hosting mega sporting events.  In particular, they addressed the ways in which strong commitments in terms of social and environmental issues, including on emissions reduction and carbon absorption, opportunities to promote inclusion and diversity, and combat hate speech, racism and other forms of prejudice and discrimination, is offered by sport. 

    CULTURE, ART, HERITAGE COOPERATION

    Both Ministers welcomed the deep institutional and people-to-people connections forged through shared ties on culture, art and heritage. They recalled the visit in April, at the invitation of the Qatari authorities and HE Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums, of HE Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture of the French Republic. 

    The visit came as part of framework commitments made in the MoU signed in June 2024 between HE Rachida Dati, on behalf of the Ministry of Culture, and HE Sheikha Al Mayassa, Chairperson of Qatar Museums. Both Ministers welcomed the signing of 6 partnership agreements in April 2025 between the French Ministry of Culture, Qatar Museums and the cultural institutions of both countries, and pertaining to a broad range of areas of cooperation, in particular training, exhibitions, loans, research, artist residencies, development of image education workshops for young audiences, development of co-productions, support in the creation of a cinematheque. Qatari and French cultural institutions are currently working on the implementation of these agreements.

    The accords include a framework agreement between the French Ministry of Culture and Qatar Museums for professional training in the cultural sector; an agreement between Qatar Museums and the Etablissement public du musée d’Orsay et du musée de l’Orangerie – Valérie Giscard d’Estaing, including research projects, joint exhibition projects, and academic and educational projects. Qatar Museums and the Musée Guimet will proceed on collaboration that includes research, conservation and educational projects dedicated to Asian arts. Qatar Museums also proceeded with a partnership agreement with Manufactures nationales – Sèvres and Mobilier national dedicated to the design and crafts sectors, aiming to strengthen links between French and Qatari designers and craftspeople. Under the framework further Qatar-France agreements include a Memorandum of Understanding between the Doha Film Institute and the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée as well as a Memorandum of understanding between the National Library of Qatar and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. 

    They also welcomed the increased cooperation between the Qatari and French Ministries of Culture, in particular through the forthcoming renewal of the cooperation agreement between the two ministries of Culture.

    Both Ministers reiterated the commitment of their nations to heritage protection, especially in conflict areas, and respect for all relevant international agreements of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

    A SHARED AND RESPONSIBLE FUTURE 

    The State of Qatar and France emphasize the importance of their continued partnership which benefits the interests of both countries and consolidates coordination towards a shared and responsible future.

    Qatar and France look forward to reviewing progress in these areas at the fourth Strategic Dialogue to be held in Doha in 2026.

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Security: FBI Philadelphia Recognizes World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

    Source: US FBI

    World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is recognized each year on June 15, and FBI Philadelphia is taking this time to continue the dialogue on the issue of elder fraud and the effects it has on our community. The abuse of older Americans can come in various forms, to include physical, emotional, mental, or financial exploitation. According to the 2024 Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) Elder Fraud Report, the FBI received over 147,000 complaints from victims over the age of 60, with reported losses of approximately $4.8 billion. In 2024, Pennsylvanians over the age of 60 field over 6,300 complaints of various frauds and scams with over $151 million in reported losses. “Elder abuse—whether through fraud, neglect, or exploitation—has a devastating impact on victims, their families, and the broader community,” said Wayne A. Jacobs, special agent in charge of FBI Philadelphia. “World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is a reminder of our responsibility to protect older Americans. It’s a chance to reaffirm our commitment to investigating those who prey on the vulnerable, to educate the public on how to safeguard themselves and their loved ones, and to encourage victims to come forward and report scams and abuse to the FBI.”

    Education and outreach are vital in bringing awareness to these crimes, protecting against victimization, and reinforcing the importance of reporting. FBI Philadelphia Community Outreach and field office personnel frequently engage with community groups and partners to bring awareness to the scams impacting our community. Some ways to protect yourself and your loved ones include:

    • Recognize scam attempts and end all communication with the perpetrator. This includes the very simple step to hang up the phone!
    • Resist the pressure to act quickly. Scammers create a sense of urgency to lure victims into immediate action, typically by instilling trust and inducing empathy or fear, or the promise of monetary gains, companionship, or employment opportunities.
    • Be cautious of unsolicited phone calls, mailings, and door-to-door services offers.
    • Never give or send any personally identifiable information, money, jewelry, gift cards, checks, or wire information to unverified people or businesses.
    • Make sure all computer anti-virus and security software and malware protections are up to date. Use reputable anti-virus software and firewalls.
    • Be careful what you download. Never open an e-mail attachment from someone you don’t know and be wary of e-mail attachments forwarded to you.

    Combatting elder fraud continues to be a priority for the Department of Justice, which operates the Elder Justice Initiative. The Elder Justice Initiative supports and coordinates the DOJ’s enforcement and programmatic efforts to combat elder abuse, neglect, and financial fraud and scams that target our nation’s seniors. FBI Philadelphia has Victim Specialists who work to ensure victims have the resources they need, as well as support in navigating the criminal justice process. If you think or someone you know may have been a victim of elder fraud, contact FBI Philadelphia at (215) 418-4000 or submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov. You can also file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI: Mountain America Credit Union and Keys to Success Empower Utah Youth with $10,000 in Scholarships

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SANDY, Utah, June 12, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Mountain America Credit Union, in partnership with the Keys to Success program, awarded $2,000 scholarships to five high school students to support their educational aspirations. The scholarships, totaling $10,000, were presented to students who demonstrated college readiness by engaging in career exploration, applying for scholarships, and taking proactive steps toward higher education—criteria established by Keys to Success.

    “This partnership with Keys to Success highlights Mountain America’s continued dedication to educational advancement and community enrichment,” said Nathan Anderson, EVP and chief operating officer at Mountain America. “By investing in students’ futures, we’re helping build stronger communities and opening doors to lifelong opportunity.”

    Keys to Success, a program of the Success in Education Foundation, serves students across Utah’s middle schools, high schools, and higher education institutions. By promoting goal setting and celebrating individual achievements, the program fosters confidence and motivation in students preparing for their futures.

    “Education is the foundation for a brighter tomorrow, and through our Keys to Success program, we are proud to champion the next generation of leaders,” said Hailey Mishler, senior program manager at the Success in Education Foundation. “Our collaboration with Mountain America Credit Union reflects a shared mission to help students succeed—both academically and financially.”

    Rob Brough, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Mountain America, led the scholarship presentation alongside distinguished guests John Garff, CEO of Ken Garff Automotive Group, and Josh Fox, Vice President at Success in Education.

    For more information on Keys to Success scholarships and how to apply, visit www.ktsutah.org.

    To learn more about the Success in Education Foundation, visit www.sieutah.org.

    About Mountain America Credit Union
    With more than 1 million members and $20 billion in assets, Mountain America Credit Union helps its members define and achieve their financial dreams. Mountain America provides consumers and businesses with a variety of convenient, flexible products and services, as well as sound, timely advice. Members enjoy access to secure, cutting-edge mobile banking technology, over 100 branches across multiple states, and more than 50,000 surcharge-free ATMs. Mountain America—guiding you forward. Learn more at macu.com.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Ngũgi wa Thiong’o and the African literary revolution

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Simon Gikandi, Professor of English and Chair of the English Department, Princeton University

    The passing of celebrated Kenyan writer and scholar Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o on 28 May 2025 marks the end of a remarkable period in African literary history – the fabulous decades in the second half of the 20th century when African writers came to command the world stage.



    Read more:
    Five things you should know about Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, one of Africa’s greatest writers of all time

    This was the time of what I call the African literary revolution. As a scholar of African literature and the author of many books and papers on Ngũgĩ, I have raised several questions about this period. Why and how did this revolution happen? What motivated this turn to the imagination as a tool of decolonisation? And what was Ngũgĩ’s role in this drama?

    To answer these questions one must think of Ngũgĩ inside and outside a generational cultural project.

    The African literary revolution

    Accounting for this project is not difficult. One can say for certain that in the late 1950s and early 1960s, as the African continent entered the last phase of decolonisation, writers and intellectuals became important actors in the fight for independence. They did so by quietly entering and occupying the spaces and knowledge systems that had until then been the preserve of colonial agents.

    They used the work of the imagination to challenge colonial systems of thought and imagine decolonial alternatives. And what made this a period like no other in African literary history was a powerful sense of newness and the possibilities of a world yet to come. As the Nigerian writer and critic Chinua Achebe once put it:

    There was something in the air.

    Literature was asked to herald the possibilities and perils of freedom and Ngũgĩ was to play a major role in chaperoning the language of African being and becoming.

    In the memoirs he wrote about his education, he would often return to his mental imprisonment in English literature and the mythology of Englishness.

    Hidden in these narratives of colonial miseducation, however, was the discovery of the gift of African fiction brought by precursors. Nigeria’s Achebe and Cyprian Ekwensi and South Africa’s Peter Abrahams gave Ngũgĩ a model of how English could be used against Englishness.

    Coming after these writers provided him with an alternative to the “Great Tradition” of English letters.

    Reimagining Africa

    As a student at Alliance High School in Kenya and later at Makerere University College in Uganda, Ngũgĩ positioned himself as part of a literary vanguard that was reimagining Africa.

    His first major fiction was published in Penpoint, a pioneering journal of literature edited by students at the Makerere English department. He was a delegate to the 1962 Conference of African Writers held at the university, sharing the podium with writers who were to define the African culture of letters for several decades. He was one of the few writers at this historic conference without a major publication, but his presence seemed to signal the promise of the future.

    Something else made this period distinctive: this was a time when African intellectuals, writers and politicians shared a common belief in the redemptive work of art and literature. At Makerere, Ngũgĩ had been preceded by Julius Nyerere, a translator of Shakespeare in Swahili who was to become president of Tanzania. At the same college, Apollo Milton Obote, future president of Uganda, had appeared in a 1948 production of Julius Caesar, the first performance of Shakespeare at the university.

    And the contributors represented in Origin East Africa, an anthology of creative writing at Makerere, provide the most vivid example of the role writing and a literary education could come to play in the making of the postcolonial public sphere. Ngũgĩ had four stories published in the anthology, coming just after a short story by Ben Mkapa, future president of Tanzania.

    Ngũgĩ belonged to a generation that saw literature as a forum for critique, of questioning dominant ideas and beliefs. In this context, creative writing was asked to perform at least four tasks:

    • to reimagine an African past whose resources might be rehearsed for the future

    • to rehearse the drama of decolonisation

    • to account for postcolonial failure

    • to produce fictions that might help readers rethink a global African identity.

    Ngũgĩ’s novels rose to fulfil these tasks with conviction and courage. The River Between and Weep Not, Child dealt with the wounds of history. A Grain of Wheat and Petals of Blood were positioned in a zone where the figure of the new nation was caught between its aspirations and desires and the possibility of failure and betrayal. Wizard of the Crow was simultaneously an allegory of postcolonial failure and the possibility of its transcendence.

    And then came banishment and exile.

    The late career

    Although he barely acknowledged it in his writings or in public, Ngũgĩ’s late career was defined by the realities of exile and an awareness of his own displacement from his primary audience and the Gĩkũyũ language that had energised his poetics.

    He was celebrated and honoured in powerful American universities and institutions including the Library of Congress. He was recognised in the global African world and cited by the few African leaders like Ghana’s John Dramani Mahama who understood the need for a forceful response to racial ideologies.



    Read more:
    Drama that shaped Ngũgĩ’s writing and activism comes home to Kenya

    But he was a persona non grata in the one place – Kenya – where recognition mattered most to him.

    In the end, there was a certain kind of belatedness in Ngũgĩ’s later fictions. The subject of these works and their points of reference were distinctly Gĩkũyũ, Kenyan, African, pan-African, and global. Nonetheless, these gestures of being African were enacted far away from the homelands in which Ngũgĩ’s writing and thinking was both intelligible and functional.

    Imagining and writing about Africa away from Africa was a promise and debt. It was an obligation to a place but also a measure of one’s distance from it.



    Read more:
    3 things Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o taught me: language matters, stories are universal, Africa can thrive

    I reflected on this problem as I reviewed Ngũgĩ’s 2006 novel set in an imaginary autocratic country, Murogi wa Kagogo (Wizard of the Crow), in its original Gĩkũyũ edition and later in its translation.

    I was reading the same book, but it was pointing in two different directions – towards home and away from it.

    In our many encounters, Ngũgĩ made fun of the fact that I seemed to have adopted alienation as the essential condition for thinking and writing. What he sought to do until the last minute of his life was carry within himself and his fictions that place that used to be home, its politics and poetics.

    Simon Gikandi 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. Ngũgi wa Thiong’o and the African literary revolution – https://theconversation.com/ngugi-wa-thiongo-and-the-african-literary-revolution-258428

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: 5 great reads by South African writers from 30 years of real-life stories

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Hedley Twidle, Associate Professor and head of English Literary Studies, University of Cape Town

    Across three decades of democracy, South Africa has – like many places undergoing complex and uneven social change – seen an outpouring of remarkable nonfiction. The Interpreters is a new book that collects the work of 37 authors, all of it writing (plus some drawing) concerned with actual people, places and events.

    The anthology is the product of many years of reading and discussion between my co-editor Sean Christie (an experienced journalist and nonfiction author) and me (a writer and professor who teaches literature, including creative nonfiction).

    The book is a work of homage to the many strains of ambitious and artful writing that shelter within the unhelpful term “nonfiction”. These include: narrative and longform journalism; essays and memoir; reportage, features and profiles; life writing, from private diaries to public biography; oral histories, interviews and testimony.

    To give an idea of the range, energy and risk of the pieces collected in the anthology, here I discuss five of them.

    1. Fighting Shadows by Lidudumalingani

    We debated for a long time which piece to start the anthology with, and ultimately went for this one, which begins:

    One afternoon my father and the other boys from the Zikhovane village decided to walk across a vast landscape, two valleys and a river, to a village called Qombolo to disrupt a wedding.

    It’s a quietly compelling opening. First of all, there is intrigue: why the disruption? It could also easily be the first sentence of a novel (maybe even one by famous Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe). And so we begin with a reminder of how storytelling is such a deep, ancient and fundamental part of societies – an impulse that long predates writing and moves across and beyond the fiction/nonfiction divide. (Lidudumalingani won the 2016 Caine Prize for a short story, so he works across both.)

    Fighting Shadows is about the tradition of stick fighting, and how it’s transported from rural areas to urban ones. But it’s also about so much more, about “the dance between then and now”, as the writer puts it later on. The prose is so deft and graceful, as if the author is trying to match the “dance” of expert stick fighters with his own verbal arts. For me it’s a story that could only have emerged from this part of the world: it has a distinct voice, precision and poetry to it.

    2. The End of a Conversation by Julie Nxadi

    This is the shortest piece in the anthology, but for me one of the most affecting. It traces how a young girl comes to realise that the (white) family she is being brought up with are not really her family. She is the daughter of the housekeeper, the domestic worker:

    I was not ‘the kids’.
    I was not their kin.

    It’s probably best described as autofiction, a kind of writing that lies somewhere in the borderlands between autobiography and fiction. Nxadi has spoken of how she decided to write in a way that contained her own life story – the “heartbreak” of that moment – but was also able to carry and represent the experience of others who had gone through something similar.

    The piece is also a product of the #FeesMustFall student protests (2015 onwards), when many young South Africans felt able to share unresolved, awkward or shameful stories for the first time.

    The End of a Conversation is such a deft, wise and subtle handling of a difficult subject, with no easy targets or easy resolutions. Somehow the writer has found just the right distance – emotionally and aesthetically – from this moment of childhood realisation.

    3. South African Pastoral by William Dicey

    I co-own a pear farm with my brother. I attend to finances and labour relations, he oversees the growing of the fruit.

    This essay by William Dicey thinks hard, very hard, about what it means to manage a fruit farm in the Boland (an agricultural region still shaped by South Africa’s divided past). It is one of the most frank and unflinching accounts of land and labour I’ve ever come across. The writer makes the point that he could easily have stayed in the city, lived in “liberal” circles and not thought about these issues much.

    But becoming a farmer confronts him with all kinds of difficult questions (How much should he intervene in the lives of his employees? In family and financial planning, in matters of alcohol abuse?) as he is drawn into an awkward but meaningful intimacy with others on the farm.

    The US essayist Philip Lopate suggests that scepticism is often the tool for moving towards truth in personal nonfiction writing:

    So often the “plot” of a personal essay, its drama, its suspense, consists in watching how the essayist can drop past his or her psychic defences toward deeper levels of honesty.

    This is very much what happens in South African Pastoral, and why it is such a mesmerising piece (even while written in such a plain and restrained style).

    4. Hard Rock by Mogorosi Motshumi

    My co-editor said from the start we should include graphic nonfiction (drawn stories and comics) and I’m so grateful he did. Mogorosi Motshumi’s warm, zany but also harrowing account is about coming of age under apartheid and then the heady days of the 1990s transition.

    In his early career, Motshumi was widely known for his comic strips and political cartooning, but this graphic autobiography is far more ambitious. The style of drawing changes and evolves as the protagonist gets older; also, there is something intriguing about seeing weighty subjects like detention, disability, substance abuse and HIV/AIDS stigma approached through the eyes of a wry cartoonist with a keen sense of the absurd.

    Hard Rock is a prologue to the graphic nonfiction memoir that he has been working on for many years, the 360 Degrees Trilogy. The first two instalments have appeared – The Initiation (2016) and Jozi Jungle (2022) – and I would urge anyone to seek them out. Mogorosi’s work is a major achievement in South African autobiography and life writing (or life “drawing”).

    5. The Interpreters by Antjie Krog, Nosisi Mpolweni and Kopano Ratele

    This co-authored piece is what gave the anthology its name. The Interpreters is a reflection on being a language interpreter during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings (1996-1998) into gross human rights violations during white minority rule.

    A series of individuals recall the challenges of that process. Sitting in glass booths in the middle of proceedings, they had to move across South Africa’s many official languages in real time, translating the words of victims, perpetrators, grieving families, lawyers and commissioners.

    The chapter is also a reminder of how our English-language anthology faces the challenge of doing justice to a multilingual, multivocal society where all kinds of cultural translations happen all the time.

    The piece is a blend of many people’s voices, testimonies and reminiscences. As such, it also seemed to symbolise the larger project of The Interpreters: trying to record, render and honour the many voices that make up our complex social world.

    Hedley Twidle worked with Soutie Press in the creation of this anthology.

    – ref. 5 great reads by South African writers from 30 years of real-life stories – https://theconversation.com/5-great-reads-by-south-african-writers-from-30-years-of-real-life-stories-258340

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Khartoum before the war: the public spaces that held the city together

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Ibrahim Z. Bahreldin, Associate Professor of Urban & Environmental Design, University of Khartoum

    What makes a public space truly public?

    In Khartoum, before the current conflict engulfed Sudan, the answer was not always a park, a plaza or a promenade.

    The city’s streets, tea stalls (sitat al-shai), protest sites and even burial spaces served as dynamic arenas of everyday life, political expression and informal resilience.

    In a recently published article, I studied 64 public spaces across pre-war Greater Khartoum, revealing a landscape far richer – and more contested – than standard urban classifications suggest. Specifically, I uncovered four classifications: formal, informal, privately owned and hybrid spaces – each alive with negotiation and everyday use.

    While some spaces were planned by colonial engineers or municipal authorities, many were carved out by communities: claimed, adapted and reimagined through use.

    My research offers valuable insights into the design and planning of Africa’s cities. As they grow and face mounting political and environmental pressures, it’s time to rethink how public spaces are defined and designed – not through imported models, but by listening to the ways people already make cities public.



    Read more:
    Sudan needs to accept its cultural diversity: urban planning can help rebuild the country and prevent future conflict

    Across the African continent, cities are growing fast – but not always fairly. Urban expansion often privileges gated developments, mega-projects and high-security zones while neglecting the everyday spaces where most people live, work and gather.

    In Sudan, these dynamics have been further complicated by conflict, displacement and economic instability. The ongoing war has disrupted not only governance, but also the spatial fabric of urban life.

    My paper aims to invite those involved in planning policies and post-conflict reconstruction to move beyond formal, western-centric models that often overlook how publicness actually unfolds in African cities: through informality, negotiation and social improvisation.

    Khartoum’s public spaces, as documented in my study, serve as diagnostic tools for understanding how cities survive crises, express identity and contest inequality.

    In the wake of war and displacement, these spaces will play a role in shaping how Sudan rebuilds not just infrastructure, but social cohesion.

    Pre-war Khartoum

    Khartoum’s public spaces cannot be understood through conventional categories – like formal squares and urban parks – alone. These formal squares represent only one layer of a much more plural and negotiated urban reality.

    Drawing on fieldwork and the documentation of 64 public spaces across Greater Khartoum, I identify four overlapping types that reflect how space is produced, accessed and contested.

    1. Formal public spaces: These include planned parks, ceremonial squares, civic plazas and administrative open spaces, often relics of colonial or postcolonial urban planning. They are defined by order, visibility and regulation. Mīdān Abbas, originally an active civic space in the centre of Khartoum, repeatedly reclaimed by informal traders and protesters, is one example, illustrating how even the most formal spaces can become contested. It was notably active during Sudan’s April 1985 uprising, serving as part of a wider network of civic spaces used for political mobilisation. Informal traders consistently transformed it into a bustling marketplace, embedding everyday commerce and social exchange into the formal urban fabric.

    2. Informal and insurgent spaces: These emerge beyond or against official planning logics – riverbanks used for gatherings, neglected lots transformed into social nodes or bridges appropriated by traders. They include spiritual sites like Sufi tombs, and protest spaces such as the sit-in zone outside the city’s army headquarters. These spaces reveal the city’s capacity for bottom-up urbanism and collective adaptation.

    3. Privately owned civic spaces: Shopping malls, privately managed parks and cultural cafés fall into this category. While they appear public, they are often classed, surveilled (monitored through cameras or security presence) or exclusionary. The rise of these spaces coincides with the decline of state-managed urban infrastructure, reflecting the turn in Sudanese urban governance.



    Read more:
    Sudan: the symbolic significance of the space protesters made their own

    4. Public “private” spaces: These spaces blur lines between ownership and use. They include mosque courtyards, school grounds, building frontages or underutilised university lawns that serve as informal gathering points. Access here is governed less by law and more by social codes, trust or class.

    Together, these typologies highlight that “publicness” in Khartoum is relational. It depends not only on who planned a space, but who uses it, how and under what conditions.

    Planning in African cities must therefore move beyond fixed zoning maps to embrace the layered, fluid and lived nature of urban space.

    Rebuilding, rethinking, resisting

    Post-conflict reconstruction in Sudan – and elsewhere in Africa – must resist the allure of “blank slate” master plans. Those involve rebuilding cities from scratch with sweeping, top-down designs that ignore existing social and spatial dynamics.

    Imported models, often guided by bureaucratic thinking or commercial incentives, risk erasing the very spaces where public life already thrives, albeit informally or invisibly.

    Rather than imposing formality, planners should recognise and strengthen the informal and hybrid systems that sustain civic life, especially in times of instability.

    Urban theorists working in and on the global south, such as AbdouMaliq Simone and the late Vanessa Watson, have long argued for planning frameworks that centre on everyday practices, adaptive use and spatial justice.

    Khartoum offers a compelling case.

    From the sit-ins of 2019 to tea stalls run by displaced women, public spaces in Sudan are not inert backdrops. They are active platforms of everyday life, resistance, care and community-making.

    Reconstruction must begin by asking: what spaces mattered to people before the war? Which ones fostered inclusion, dignity and visibility? Only then can new urban futures emerge, ones that are rooted in the practices of those who have always made the city public, even when the state did not.

    What makes spaces truly public?

    The public realm in Sudan has always been shaped through negotiation, sometimes with the state, often despite it.

    Rebuilding after war is not only about reconstructing buildings but also about reimagining the terms of belonging.

    This requires a shift from viewing public space as a fixed asset to understanding it as a dynamic process. Who gets to gather, to speak, to rest, to protest – these are the true measures of publicness.

    Understanding Khartoum’s pre-war public spaces isn’t a nostalgic exercise. It’s a necessary step towards building more inclusive, resilient and locally grounded cities in the wake of crisis.

    Ibrahim Bahreldin is a member of the Sudanese Institute of Architects and the City Planning Institute of Japan, and is registered as a professional architect and urban planner with the Sudanese Engineering Council and the Saudi Council of Engineers. He is also affiliated with the King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia.

    The Author receives funding from KAU Endowment (WAQF) at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

    – ref. Khartoum before the war: the public spaces that held the city together – https://theconversation.com/khartoum-before-the-war-the-public-spaces-that-held-the-city-together-258632

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Endometriosis: difficult childhood linked with greater likelihood of being diagnosed – new research

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Marika Rostvall, PhD Candidate, Epidemiology, Karolinska Institutet

    Our study of over a million Swedish women revealed a link between difficult childhood circumstances and a higher likelihood of being diagnosed with endometriosis. Drazen Zigic/ Shutterstock

    Around one in ten women worldwide have endometriosis. This common condition causes tissue similar to the lining of the uterus to grow in other parts of the body. This can result in painful periods, chronic pain and even infertility.

    Yet despite how common endometriosis is, there’s currently no cure for it. This may partly be due to the fact that researchers still aren’t entirely sure what triggers endometriosis.

    But one factor that might increase a woman’s likelihood of developing endometriosis is their early life experiences. Recent research published by my colleagues and I has revealed a link between difficult childhood circumstances and a higher likelihood of being diagnosed with endometriosis.

    Our study included all women born in Sweden between 1974 and 2001, totalling over a million women. We then followed them from birth using the Swedish register system, which allowed us to track each participants’ health data.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    We also looked at different indicators of childhood adversity that had been captured through the registers. We focused specifically on experiences which previous studies have shown can lead to negative mental or physical health later in life.

    This included having a parent with substance abuse problems, having had to spend a night in the care of child-protection services, having to move around a lot or being exposed to violence. In total, we included 11 indicators of childhood adversity in our analysis.

    We then compared the likelihood of receiving an endometriosis diagnosis in women who had experienced each specific type of childhood adversity with women who had not. We controlled for factors that might have influenced the results, including the womens’ ages, the year they were born, their county of birth and if they had been been smaller than average at birth.

    Our results showed that having experienced some form of adversity between birth to 15 years of age was associated with a higher risk of being diagnosed with endometriosis later in life. The only adverse childhood event that wasn’t linked with a greater risk of being diagnosed with endometriosis was familial death.

    Women who had been exposed to violence had the highest risk increase, with an over twofold greater likelihood of being diagnosed with endometriosis compared with all other women.

    The likelihood of being diagnosed with endometriosis increased the more adversity a woman had experienced in their childhood. Women who had experienced one type of adversity in childhood had a 20% greater likelihood of being diagnosed with endometriosis. But women who had experienced five or more types of adversity had a 60% greater likelihood.

    We also ran a separate analysis that included women who experience painful periods (dysmenorrhea) to see if it affected the results. Many women who are diagnosed with endometriosis initially seek help from their doctor because they experience painful periods. We included women who had dysmenorrhea to capture women who might have endometriosis, but had not yet received a proper diagnosis. The results were similar even when we included women with dysmenorrhea in our analysis.

    Having experienced some form of adversity between birth and 15 years of age was associated with a higher likelihood of being diagnosed with endometriosis.
    DimaBerlin/ Shutterstock

    Previous studies which have looked at self-reported early childhood trauma have seen a link with endometriosis. But our study looked not only at remembered experiences of trauma, but also at other indicators of stress.

    Endometriosis and immune function

    Our findings may be explained, at least in part, by immune system processes and chronic inflammatory responses.

    Having experienced adversity during childhood has previously been linked to higher levels of chronic inflammation, as well as an increased risk for autoimmune disorders. Greater levels of inflammation in the body could worsen endometriosis symptoms or even trigger endometriosis to develop.

    Another possible way childhood adversity could affect endometriosis is through increased pain. Childhood adversity has been linked to a higher risk for chronic pain conditions. This could lead to women in our study who had gone through childhood adversity experiencing more painful symptoms on average, and therefore being more likely to seek medical help and receive a diagnosis.

    Further research might dig into these possible mechanisms. This would improve our understanding of how and why the disease develops. A better understanding of the mechanisms behind the pain experienced by women with endometriosis might also allow researchers to develop more effective treatments than those currently available.

    Our study reinforces the conclusions of previous studies which show a link between early childhood adversity and poor health in later life. This kind of research suggests a connection between mental and physical health, and indicates that we need to re-examine our view of the mind and body as separate entities.

    It should be noted that our study is observational, which means it cannot prove that adverse events in childhood cause endometriosis, it can only show an association between the two things.

    However, our study does highlight the importance of devoting resources to help parents and children. Helping families escape poverty, treating parental addiction or providing stable housing could lead to a healthier population in the future.

    Marika Rostvall receives funding from Karolinska Institutet, Region Stockholm and Karolinska University Hospital.

    – ref. Endometriosis: difficult childhood linked with greater likelihood of being diagnosed – new research – https://theconversation.com/endometriosis-difficult-childhood-linked-with-greater-likelihood-of-being-diagnosed-new-research-258369

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Remembering Frederick Forsyth: my encounters with the spy who stayed out in the cold

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Paul Lashmar, Reader in Journalism, City St George’s, University of London

    One of the great British purveyors of the spy and cold-war genres, Frederick Forsyth, who has died at the age of 86, was best known for his novels The Day of the Jackal (1971), The Odessa File (1972) and The Dogs of War (1974).

    He wrote another 22 books, which together have sold 75 million copies worldwide, and spawned several successful films. In his 2015 memoirs, Forsyth revealed he had been a spy for the British government.

    My encounters with “Freddie” came late in his life. Back in 2023 my former colleagues at Brunel University were launching a project called Writers in Intelligence. Having no contacts in the murky world of spookery, they approached me for help.

    They needed a high-profile writer who had worked in intelligence for their first event. I suggested Forsyth, as he had admitted to being an MI6 asset between 1968 and 1988. I wrote to him, and he agreed to an interview.

    Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

    It was not my finest hour. I had carefully created a narrative arc of questions and outlined my plan to Forsyth in the green room. He nodded. After we sat down in front of a packed audience Forsyth proceeded to ignore my first question and launched into his own well-practised narrative.

    “What is the point of espionage in the first place?” he asked rhetorically. “I would sum it up in a single word: forewarning – what the bad guys are doing,” he said, launching into his spiel. He was particularly good on the need for a cover story when working abroad, “where the very nasty secret police ruled the roost”. His cover was being a foreign correspondent.

    For the rest of his “talk”, I tried to predict his direction of travel and lob the occasional question to justify my existence. Relief for me came with the Q&A.

    Inevitably a question came up about the Nigerian civil war in which he had a controversial role. Independent from 1960, Nigeria is a creation of the British empire and in broad terms combines three different colonial and ethnic areas. The Muslim north, mostly the Haus-Fulani people; the mixed religions of the Yoruba west; and the Christian Igbo people of the east in the area known then as Biafra, rich in oil reserves. In 1966, an attempted military coup sparked civil war and anti-Igbo pogroms in the north, forcing 1.2 million Igbo refugees to return to the Biafra region.

    Refugees complained that the Lagos-based Nigerian government under General Yakubu Gowon had failed to protect them. Secessionists under the military commander of the east, Colonel Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, declared Biafra a separate republic in May 1967. Gowon ordered the Nigerian army to retake Biafra. Initially the Biafran forces countered attacked but Gowan’s troops, reinforced by secretly delivered British munitions, created a lengthy stalemate.

    Forsyth, aged 29 and now a BBC correspondent (after stints as the RAF’s youngest fighter pilot and a Reuters journalist) was posted to Biafra to cover the war. With few of his reports being used despite him being on the frontline (at one point a bullet grazed his head), he grew increasingly disillusioned. He considered the BBC’s reports from its west Africa correspondent in Lagos hundreds of miles away, to be pro-Gowon.

    Angering BBC bosses by making the case for Biafra, Forsyth was ordered out, after which he said he resigned, although this contradicts the tweet made by the BBC’s John Simpson, who this week said that Forsyth was sacked after “introducing Biafran propaganda into his reports”.

    In 1968 Forsyth reported independently from Biafra on the deliberate starvation of people that shocked the world, and became close to Colonel Ojukwu. Eventually, after three years, Biafra was overwhelmed and reintegrated into Nigeria in 1970.

    In the Brunel audience was Nigerian novelist and journalist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani who is of Igbo heritage. I asked her this week what she recalled of the evening having travelled to see Forsyth whose books “had been a staple” during her teenage years. She asked Forsyth whether his assessment of the war back then was valid. Forsyth did not really give an opinion but, describing what he had seen, clearly thought his reporting had stood the test of time.

    The Brunel evening was deemed a success as Forsyth had lived up to his reputation as a charismatic raconteur. Even in his eighties he cut an imposing figure – decidedly alpha male and a hard-living world traveller. On the thriller-writer spectrum, he combined the spirit of Hemingway with the cool detached air of le Carré. It was not hard to believe that Forsyth had been a little too close to some of the unsavoury events he wrote about.

    We meet again, Mr Forsyth

    A few months later I asked him for a one-to-one interview and was invited to his house in a Buckinghamshire village. I explained that for nearly 50 years I had been intermittently researching the foreign office’s cold-war covert propaganda operation, the Information Research Department (IRD).

    Set up in 1948 to attack communism, by the late 1960s the IRD was a huge operation and had extended its secret remit from anti-communism to covertly attacking anybody or anything its mandarins perceived as anti-British. I had been reading recently released IRD files on Biafra that had long been withheld.

    The first thing that was clear was that Forsyth was still angry over what he saw as the British betrayal of the Biafran people. He cursed the then prime minister Harold Wilson. As a result of Forsyth’s reporting on Biafra – which he saw as objective – he had come under personal attack.

    Who was responsible, I asked. Forsyth identified the high commissioner in Lagos at the time, Sir David Hunt, “a very unpleasant man” whom he held in very low regard. Indeed Hunt had written in one internal memo that Forsyth was “an ardent Ibo partisan and is now employed by them”, and who “spread the most alarming and exaggerated reports”. The memo is now held in the National Archives.

    I was able to tell Forsyth that the foreign office had deployed the full arsenal of the IRD’s propaganda skills to support Gowon’s government – and made a huge effort to neuter Forsyth’s reporting from Biafra. Wilson’s government did not want to lose access to cheap oil supplied by Nigeria, or for it to be known that Britain was secretly supplying Gowan with arms.

    The IRD’s role was all the more curious in that the Soviet Union was pro-Gowon and Ojukwa was anti-communist. In our meeting Forsyth was surprised at what I had to say; he had never heard of IRD, which in turn surprised me. What was all the more puzzling was that IRD was close to MI6 and, as Forsyth revealed in his memoir, he had been an unpaid MI6 asset for 20 years, beginning in Biafra in 1968.

    He thought his targeting might explain the breadth of the personal attacks any against him. In another memo held in the National Archives, this time written in 1969, another British diplomat said he had met Forsyth and bemoaned it was “hard to understand” how the BBC had employed him as correspondent.

    The war ended in January 1970. The number of deaths is still disputed but claimed to be between one and two million – mostly civilians many of whom starved to death. On his return to the UK Forsyth wrote his first book, a non-fiction account called The Biafran Story, which did not sell.

    By the beginning of 1971 Forsyth was unemployable as a journalist and struggling financially. He sat down and over 35 days wrote The Day of the Jackal, a novel set in 1963 about an assassination plot against the French President, which went on to sell ten million copies. In 1973 it was turned into a film starring Edward Fox and was a huge box office hit. Forsyth never had to worry about money again.

    Paul Lashmar is affiliated with the Labour Party

    – ref. Remembering Frederick Forsyth: my encounters with the spy who stayed out in the cold – https://theconversation.com/remembering-frederick-forsyth-my-encounters-with-the-spy-who-stayed-out-in-the-cold-258762

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Many Russian speakers in Ukraine have switched language – but changing perceptions may be much harder

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Oleksandra Osypenko, PhD researcher in linguistics, Lancaster University

    After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a lot of Ukrainians who would normally have used Russian as their first language started instead to speak only in Ukrainian. It was part of a cultural shift, particularly in areas close to Russia. Streets were renamed, statues of Russians taken down and Russian literature taken off the shelves of bookshops.

    But language does more than merely signal a person’s identity. We wanted to find out whether a change in the language a person uses could influence they way they think in their everyday lives. Our research suggests encouraging people to speak more Ukrainian in public isn’t enough to shift the influence of the Russian language on people’s perceptions.

    In a study published in 2024, Ukrainian linguistics expert Volodymyr Kulyk documented a marked decline in the everyday use of Russian by Ukrainians since the invasion in February 2022. Many individuals, Kulyk found, were voluntarily abandoning Russian in response to the invasion, often viewing the language itself as a symbol of Putin’s aggression.

    His survey found that only 44% of Ukrainians reported using Ukrainian as their primary language in 2012, compared to 34% who said they primarily spoke Russian, and 22% had used both. By December 2022, the percentage of people who said they primarily spoke Ukrainian had risen to 57.4% and Russian use had dropped to just 14.8%, with the remaining 27.8% reporting using both languages.

    Kylyk found that this was even more pronounced in public spaces. In the workplace, use of Ukrainian increased from 41.9% in 2012 to 67.7% in December 2022. Online, the consumption of Ukrainian-language content by Ukrainians soared from 11.6% to 52.2%, while that of Russian-language content fell from 48.6% to just 6%

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    The idea that language shapes thought, known as the “linguistic relativity principle” was first articulated by American linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1950s. Numerous subsequent studies have since provided evidence supporting the principle.

    Researchers have shown that learning a new language or increasing the use of one can subtly reshape the way a person views the world.

    One way to test this is by looking at grammatical gender. In 40% of the world’s languages – including Ukrainian and Russian – objects are assigned a gender. For example, the word for “sock” is masculine in Russian and referred to using a pronoun “he” (носок – nosok), while in Ukrainian it is feminine and referred to using as “she” (шкарпетка – shkarpetka). Using grammatical gender allows us to examine how such purely linguistic categories influence our perception.

    Previous studies have shown that people tend to associate grammatically masculine nouns with stereotypically male qualities such as strength or aggression and feminine nouns with softness or gentleness. These are associations that can shape real-world judgments in unexpected ways.

    For example, a 2020 study led by French linguist Alican Mecit found that French and Spanish speakers perceived the pandemic as less threatening when it was referred to as la COVID-19 (feminine), and more dangerous when called le coronavirus (masculine), affecting how cautious they were in daily life.

    Masculine or feminine?

    To explore these effects in context of Ukraine’s ongoing language shift, we conducted a study in late 2023 to examine whether speaking Ukrainian or Russian affects people’s perception of everyday things, by asking our participants to rate objects as more masculine or feminine.

    Our participants also completed Ukrainian and Russian proficiency tests and filled out a questionnaire about their language habits. We asked them about what languages they used on a daily basis, with family and friends, and which language they considered their dominant one. After analysing this data, we discovered an interesting trend.

    Some of our results showed exactly what we had thought. Participants with higher proficiency in Russian showed a statistically significant influence of Russian on the way they viewed the world. The same was true for those more proficient in Ukrainian.

    This suggested that the language a person is most skilled in – as measured by tests, not just their own reports – has a strong influence of their perception, even when they are not consciously using that language.

    In other words, the deeper your knowledge of a language, the more it shapes your unconscious patterns of thought.

    But when we looked at participants’ self-reported language use, we unexpectedly found that even those people who said they used Ukrainian more than Russian day-to-day, with their family and friends, still showed perceptual patterns aligned with Russian. These were Ukrainians whose first language was Russian but who had made a deliberate switch to Ukrainian.

    For example, when rating gendered objects as more masculine or feminine, these participants made choices that reflected Russian grammatical gender rather than Ukrainian – so, to use our example from earlier in this article, they saw a sock as being inherently a male thing.

    This suggested one of two possibilities. Either they had overstated their use of Ukrainian, possibly due to social pressure. Or they were genuinely switching to Ukrainian, but Russian continued to unconsciously influence their thinking. This mismatch was especially common among those who claimed to use Ukrainian in informal settings, like at home or with friends.

    So, even as more Ukrainians shift away from using the Russian language because of the war, the influence of Russian can still be found in how they perceive the world.

    What does this mean for language policy?

    Ukraine’s language policies have been a matter for debate event before the 2022 invasion. In fact, one of the reasons Vladimir Putin gave for launching his “military operation” was because of what he claimed was a “genocide” against Russian speakers in Ukraine, something the Ukrainian government strenuously denied.

    But it should be noted that Ukraine passed a law in 2019 (which came into force at the beginning of 2021, titled On ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language. This required the use of Ukrainian in all spheres of public life, including education, science, culture, media, advertising and customer service. The law drew some international criticism as possibly discriminatory and caused considerable disquiet in Russian-speaking communities.



    Read more:
    Ukraine: how a controversial new language law could help protect minorities and unite the country

    So while language policy in Ukraine has focused on promoting Ukrainian language in public and professional settings, including schools and workplaces, our findings suggest that these formal uses of language do not necessarily change the way people think.

    The bigger shifts seem to come from informal, everyday language use, especially at home. It is in those personal, emotionally rich contexts that language appears to shape thought most deeply.

    Oleksandra Osypenko 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. Many Russian speakers in Ukraine have switched language – but changing perceptions may be much harder – https://theconversation.com/many-russian-speakers-in-ukraine-have-switched-language-but-changing-perceptions-may-be-much-harder-257765

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Wales is overhauling its democracy – here’s what’s changing

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Stephen Clear, Lecturer in Constitutional and Administrative Law, and Public Procurement, Bangor University

    Wales’ Senedd will expand and change as of May 2026. Mareks Perkons/Shutterstock

    Next May’s Senedd (Welsh parliament) election won’t just be another trip to the polls. It will mark a major change in how Welsh democracy works. The number of elected members is increasing from 60 to 96, and the voting system is being overhauled. These changes have now passed into law.

    But what exactly is changing – and why?

    When the then assembly was first established in 1999, it had limited powers and just 60 members. Much has changed since then and it now has increased responsibility including primary law-making powers over matters such as health, education, environment, transport and economic development.

    The Wales Act 2014 also bestowed a number of new financial powers on the now Senedd, including taxation and borrowing powers. But its size has stayed the same.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    This led to concerns about capacity and effectiveness. In 2017, an independent expert panel on electoral reform concluded that the Senedd was no longer fit for purpose. It warned that 60 members simply weren’t enough to scrutinise the Welsh government, pass legislation and respond to constituents. A bigger chamber, it argued, would improve both the quality of lawmaking and democratic accountability.

    Wales also has fewer elected politicians per person than any other UK nation. Scotland has 129 MSPs, while Northern Ireland has 90 MLAs. Even with next year’s changes, Wales will still have fewer elected members per citizen compared with Northern Ireland.

    It’s a similar picture when Wales is compared with other small European nations.

    More Senedd members could ease workloads, improve local representation and importantly, may encourage a more diverse pool of people to stand for office.

    How is the voting system changing?

    Alongside expansion will be a change in how Senedd members are elected.

    Since its inception, Wales has used the “additional member system”, which is a mix of first-past-the-post for constituency seats and proportional representation for regional ones.

    From 2026, that system will be replaced by a closed list proportional system, using the D’Hondt method. It’s a system which is designed to be fairer, ensuring that the proportion of seats a party wins more closely reflects the votes they get. But it also means voters will have less say over which individuals get elected.

    Wales will be divided into 16 constituencies, each electing six MSs. Instead of voting for a single candidate, voters will choose one party or independent candidate.

    Parties will submit a list of up to eight candidates per constituency. Seats will then be allocated based on the overall share of the vote each party gets, with candidates elected in the order they appear on their party’s list.

    For example, if a party wins a percentage share of the vote equating to three seats, the top three people on their party list will be elected. The calculation for this is defined by the D’Hondt formula. The decision to adopt this method in Wales was one of the recommendations of the special purpose committee on Senedd reform in 2022.

    Jeremy Vine explains just how the D’Hondt system of proportional representation works.

    Several countries across Europe use this system for their elections, including Spain and Portugal. In countries with small constituency sizes, D’Hondt has sometimes favoured larger parties and made it harder for smaller parties to gain ground. That’s something observers in Wales will be watching closely.

    An alternative method, Sainte-Laguë, used in Sweden and Latvia, is often seen as more balanced in its treatment of small and medium-sized parties, potentially leading to more consensual politics. But it too has its downsides. In countries which have many smaller parties, it can lead to fragmented parliaments and make decision-making more difficult.

    In sum, no system is perfect. But D’Hondt was chosen for its balance between proportionality, simplicity and practicality.

    The Senedd chamber will house 36 more members from May 2026 onwards.
    Senedd Cymru

    Could this confuse voters?

    One concern is the growing differences between electoral systems across the UK, and even within Wales itself.

    At the UK level, first-past-the-post (FPTP) is the method used for Westminster elections. Meanwhile, some Welsh councils are experimenting with the single transferable vote method, which lets voters rank candidates in order of preference.

    So, some people in Wales could find themselves navigating three different voting systems for three different elections. Obviously, this raises the risk of confusion. Voters who are used to one vote and the “winner takes all” nature of FPTP may be confused by how seats are allocated in Wales come 2026.

    With numerous different systems, the risk is that people do not fully understand how their vote translates into representation. In turn this risks undermining confidence and reducing voter turnout.



    Read more:
    Wales wants to punish lying politicians – how would it work?

    Voters will need clear, accessible information on how their vote works – and why it matters. But this is particularly challenging when UK-wide media often defaults to FPTP-centric language and framing surrounding debates, which can shape public expectations. News about Wales often barely registers beyond its borders, while news about politics in Wales barely registers within.

    Electoral reform often prompts broader conversations. As Welsh voters adjust to the new proportional system, some may begin to question Westminster’s FPTP model, especially if the Senedd better reflects the diversity of votes cast. FPTP is frequently criticised for producing “wasted votes” and encouraging tactical voting, particularly in safe seats.

    Under a more proportional system, tactical voting becomes less necessary, which has the potential to shift voter habits in Wales.

    If the 2026 reform leads to a more representative and effective Senedd, it may not only reshape Welsh democracy, but reignite debates about electoral reform across the UK.

    Stephen Clear 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. Wales is overhauling its democracy – here’s what’s changing – https://theconversation.com/wales-is-overhauling-its-democracy-heres-whats-changing-256640

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Tornado: this samurai-western immigrant revenge tale tries to be many things – but runs out of ammo

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Chi-Yun Shin, Senior Lecturer, Film Studies, Sheffield Hallam University

    Tornado is many things: a British period drama, a western, a samurai film, a coming-of-age story and an origin story. Set in the windswept moorland of Britain in 1790, the film offers a lawless backdrop fit for a western, with no visible sign of the industrial revolution that began some three decades prior.

    Its Wuthering Heights-esque wilderness, serenely captured by the cinematographer Robbie Ryan conjures up an almost otherworldly look.

    The film is also a revenge story. Tornado (Kōki), the 16-year-old Anglo-Japanese heroine, seeks to avenge her father’s death, armed with a samurai sword. First, though, she has to escape the clutches of some ruthless highwaymen.

    We begin in the middle of this action, with Tornado being pursued across a desolate landscape by Sugarman’s (Tim Roth) gang, who just killed her father, Fujin (Takehiro Hira).

    They are looking for their ill-gotten sacks of gold, which they believe she stole from them. What they don’t know is that Fujin, a former samurai who was reduced to a travelling puppeteer in Britain, taught his daughter to fight and hid the gold. These archetypal components of western genre, gold and revenge are mashed up with a samurai-sword-wielding heroine.

    Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

    The cross-pollination of western and samurai films has a long history. There is the well-known influence of John Ford’s westerns on the samurai films of Akira Kurosawa. Meanwhile, Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954) in turn directly inspired the classic Hollywood western, The Magnificent Seven (1960).

    Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (1961) practically started the whole sub-genre of spaghetti western, providing a template for the narrative and character arc. Both Sergio Leone’s influential A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and Sergio Corbucci’s Django (1966) feature a lone man, seemingly a mercenary, entering a town with two warring gangs where he uses his skills (swapping samurai-sword-wielding for gun-slinging) to manipulate the situation.

    Tornado’s influences

    Tornado pays homage to Leone’s epic spaghetti western Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). This is most obvious in a scene where the vicious gang arrives at the circus troupe’s trailer site where Tornado is taking refuge.

    A knife thrower (Jude Cranston) is practising his techniques, and his steady throwing actions make rhythmic noises as his knives hit the target board in succession. This creates a soundscape reminiscent of the masterful sound design of the opening sequence of Once Upon a Time in the West.



    Read more:
    Tornado is a Scottish samurai-western film – genres with a long-shared history

    The sole black member of the gang, named Psychotic Bandit (Dennis Okwera) is conspicuously dressed in all black, complete with a black cowboy hat. This costuming is almost identical to one of the three outlaws played by Woody Strode (one of the first black American players in the NFL, turned actor) in Once Upon a Time in the West.

    As he approaches the knife thrower and silences him, his out-of-place look (too dandy for a rural bandit) suddenly makes sense and serves a purpose. Like the Strode character, Psychotic Bandit doesn’t speak, but he doesn’t quite pull off the formidable calm menace of Strode.

    The trailer for Tornado.

    Tornado is also a typical immigrant family story that deals with the generational gap. The father tries his best to pass on his culture and knowledge (samurai skill in this case) to Tornado, but his teenage daughter, while reluctantly participating in the family business (a samurai puppet show) wants to have a lie-in and go to town. She speaks to him in perfect English as opposed to his accented English.

    Although the presence of Japanese samurai as a travelling showman in 1790s Scotland is unlikely (considering that the first Japanese visitors set foot on British soil in 1832), director John Maclean’s interest in outsiders and marginalised communities is evident.

    In one scene, now-wounded Sugarman faces Tornado and makes a fatherly suggestion that she go home, to which she answers: “I am home.” It’s a knowing exchange, even if it’s a bit of cliche. Through the course of the film, Tornado grows to accept her father’s teachings and comes of age, as she declares: “I’m Tornado; remember my name.” Though it feels a little contrived, it is fitting for an origin story of a self-assured samurai.

    This coming-of-age story of a young female samurai, set in a desolate landscape, offers a downbeat antidote to the romanticised stories of a westerner who goes to Japan and becomes a samurai, as seen in The Last Samurai (2003) and Shōgun (2024).

    In the end, however, Tornado tries to be too many things, and can’t quite cut it as a satisfying samurai film. It lacks the introspection of Twilight Samurai (2002) or the exhilaration of Zatoichi (2003) and 13 Assassins (2010). It amounts to an unconventional, but underwhelming, execution of a classic genre mash-up.

    Chi-Yun Shin 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. Tornado: this samurai-western immigrant revenge tale tries to be many things – but runs out of ammo – https://theconversation.com/tornado-this-samurai-western-immigrant-revenge-tale-tries-to-be-many-things-but-runs-out-of-ammo-258733

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Ricketts Introduces Legislative Package to Protect American Way of Life from Communist China

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Pete Ricketts (Nebraska)
    WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) introduced a legislative package of four bills that would counter malicious efforts to disrupt American prosperity by Communist China and other adversaries. The package includes the No Capital Gains Allowance for Americans Adversaries Act, the PRC Military and Human Rights Capital Markets Sanctions Act, the No China in Index Funds Act, and the Protecting Endowments from our Adversaries Act (PEOAA). This legislative package limits the ability of adversaries like Communist China from taking advantage of America’s economic strength and tax benefits intended for Americans.
    “Communist China is the greatest threat to the American way of life,” said Ricketts. ”Communist China is actively threatening a rules-based system that has maintained peace and prosperity for over 80 years. America’s markets are supposed to benefit Americans. We can’t allow our markets to fund our adversaries like Communist China.”
    The No Capital Gains Allowance for Americans Adversaries Act would:
    Treat capital gains on all Chinese, Russian, Belarusian, Iranian, and North Korean stocks as ordinary income. Such investments would then not be eligible for the lower capital gains tax rates.
    Eliminate the “step-up in basis” for Chinese, Russian, Belarusian, Iranian, and North Korean assets inherited at death – which reduces an heir’s tax liability by ignoring gains that occurred before inheritance.
    Direct the Securities and Exchange Commission to maintain a public list of securities covered by this Act and require that sellers of covered securities disclosure to customers that sales of those securities will be treated as ordinary income.
    The PRC Military and Human Rights Capital Markets Sanctions Act would:
    Direct the President to compile and maintain a single public list of sanctioned companies and their affiliates.
    These lists include those that target human rights violators, including companies that utilize coerced labor in production, companies that proliferate dangerous technologies, and those that have connections to the Chinese military and intelligence services.

    Prevent U.S. persons from purchasing, selling, or holding:
    A publicly-traded security issued by a sanctioned company or affiliate of the sanctioned company;
    A publicly-traded security that is a derivative of a publicly issued security issued by a sanctioned company or affiliate of the sanctioned company;
    A security that provides investment exposure to a publicly-traded security issued by a sanctioned company or affiliate of the sanctioned company.

    Give a U.S. person 180 days after enactment to divest from the prohibited securities.
    The No China in Index Funds Act would:
    Prohibit index funds from investing in Chinese companies and require them to divest from such investments within 180 days after date of enactment.
    The Protecting Endowments from Our Adversaries Act (PEOAA) would:
    Apply to private college and university endowments over $1,000,000,000
    Disincentivize endowments from investing (directly or indirectly) in adversarial entities that are on any of the following US Government Lists (USG):
    Entity List
    Military End User (MEU) List
    Unverified List
    FCC Covered List

    Impose a 50% excise tax on the principal investment at the time of acquisition if an endowment invests in a company that is listed.
    Impose a 100% excise tax on the realized gains derived from listed investments one year after an entity is listed.
    BACKGROUND:
    Other countries have investment incentives not applicable to some foreign investments. For instance, China provides investment incentives through its tax code, but foreign investments are eligible only with the pre-approval of the Chinese government.
    Companies that have their business relations with the United States cut off or strictly restricted should not be allowed to sell securities in the U.S., or to U.S. persons, whether directly or indirectly through a mutual fund or ETF.
    Index mutual funds minimize their expenses by simply investing in all the companies in a certain market sector, without looking closely at the individual companies. There are unique difficulties in evaluating the risks of investing in Chinese companies. Americans should not invest in these companies without carefully evaluating the risk. This bill will keep these hard-to-evaluate Chinese stocks out of index mutual funds.
    University and college endowments are funds or assets donated to support various activities of the institution. These institutions often invest billions from their endowments into organizations and companies listed on the Department of Commerce’s Entity List. While maintaining a tax advantage, endowments can fund these entities even if they pose national security concerns.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: CONGRESSWOMAN WATERS AND SENATOR DURBIN INTRODUCE CLASS ACT TO GIVE STUDENTS CHEATED BY FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES THEIR DAY IN COURT

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Maxine Waters (43rd District of California)

    WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA-43) today reintroduced bicameral legislation designed to strengthen students’ ability to hold for-profit colleges accountable in court for their misconduct.  The Court Legal Access and Student Support (CLASS) Act would enhance accountability for for-profit colleges and safeguard taxpayer dollars by prohibiting an institution of higher education from receiving Title IV federal student aid if the school’s enrollment agreement requires mandatory arbitration or otherwise restricts students’ ability to pursue claims against the school in court.

    “For decades, for-profit colleges have used the fine print in student enrollment agreements to force students to give up their rights to go to court over the predatory behavior of these institutions,” said Durbin.  “Students should have the right to hold for-profit colleges responsible for defrauding them in court.  I’m reintroducing the CLASS Act with Congresswoman Waters to end the for-profit college industry’s ability to use this shady practice to evade accountability.”

    “I am proud to reintroduce the CLASS Act with Senator Durbin to hold predatory for-profit colleges accountable when they defraud students,”said Waters, the Ranking Member of the Financial Services Committee.  “The for-profit college industry is rife with bad actors that lure potential students into expensive academic programs, while knowingly and fraudulently misrepresenting the quality of the programs.  These unscrupulous schools then use mandatory arbitration clauses to prevent students from taking them to court, thereby shielding themselves from being held responsible for wrongdoing.  Our legislation will ensure that defrauded students retain the right to sue predatory schools and have their day in court.”

    Specifically, the CLASS Act would enhance the accountability of for-profit colleges and safeguard taxpayer dollars by:

    1. Prohibiting an institution of higher education from receiving federal student aid if the school’s enrollment agreement requires mandatory arbitration or restricts students’ ability to pursue claims against the school in court; 
       
    2. Ensuring that the Federal Arbitration Act, which governs the enforcement of arbitration proceedings, would not apply to student enrollment agreements;
       
    3. Taking effect one year after enactment to allow schools to make any necessary changes; and
       
    4. Exempting legitimate non-profit colleges and universities because these institutions do not include mandatory arbitration clauses in their enrollment agreements.  The CLASS Act thus squarely focuses on schools that might seek to profit off of students while hiding from accountability in a court of law.

    Along with Durbin, the CLASS Act is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Jack Reed (D-RI), Ed Markey (D-MA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), John Fetterman (D-PA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).  

    The bill has earned the endorsement of Consumer Action; The Institute for College Access and Success; National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low income clients); National Association for College Admission Counseling; Veterans Education Success; National Association of Consumer Advocates; American Association for Justice; Center for Justice and Democracy; Woodstock Institute; Public Justice; Earthjustice; Public Citizen; The National Employment Lawyers Association; Americans for Financial Reform; National Consumers League; Consumer Federation of America; Young Invincibles; and Center for Responsible Lending.
     

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Ngũgi wa Thiong’o and the African literary revolution

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Simon Gikandi, Professor of English and Chair of the English Department, Princeton University

    The passing of celebrated Kenyan writer and scholar Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o on 28 May 2025 marks the end of a remarkable period in African literary history – the fabulous decades in the second half of the 20th century when African writers came to command the world stage.

    Read more: Five things you should know about Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, one of Africa’s greatest writers of all time

    This was the time of what I call the African literary revolution. As a scholar of African literature and the author of many books and papers on Ngũgĩ, I have raised several questions about this period. Why and how did this revolution happen? What motivated this turn to the imagination as a tool of decolonisation? And what was Ngũgĩ’s role in this drama?

    To answer these questions one must think of Ngũgĩ inside and outside a generational cultural project.

    The African literary revolution

    Accounting for this project is not difficult. One can say for certain that in the late 1950s and early 1960s, as the African continent entered the last phase of decolonisation, writers and intellectuals became important actors in the fight for independence. They did so by quietly entering and occupying the spaces and knowledge systems that had until then been the preserve of colonial agents.

    They used the work of the imagination to challenge colonial systems of thought and imagine decolonial alternatives. And what made this a period like no other in African literary history was a powerful sense of newness and the possibilities of a world yet to come. As the Nigerian writer and critic Chinua Achebe once put it:

    There was something in the air.

    Literature was asked to herald the possibilities and perils of freedom and Ngũgĩ was to play a major role in chaperoning the language of African being and becoming.

    In the memoirs he wrote about his education, he would often return to his mental imprisonment in English literature and the mythology of Englishness.

    Hidden in these narratives of colonial miseducation, however, was the discovery of the gift of African fiction brought by precursors. Nigeria’s Achebe and Cyprian Ekwensi and South Africa’s Peter Abrahams gave Ngũgĩ a model of how English could be used against Englishness.

    Coming after these writers provided him with an alternative to the “Great Tradition” of English letters.

    Reimagining Africa

    As a student at Alliance High School in Kenya and later at Makerere University College in Uganda, Ngũgĩ positioned himself as part of a literary vanguard that was reimagining Africa.

    His first major fiction was published in Penpoint, a pioneering journal of literature edited by students at the Makerere English department. He was a delegate to the 1962 Conference of African Writers held at the university, sharing the podium with writers who were to define the African culture of letters for several decades. He was one of the few writers at this historic conference without a major publication, but his presence seemed to signal the promise of the future.

    Something else made this period distinctive: this was a time when African intellectuals, writers and politicians shared a common belief in the redemptive work of art and literature. At Makerere, Ngũgĩ had been preceded by Julius Nyerere, a translator of Shakespeare in Swahili who was to become president of Tanzania. At the same college, Apollo Milton Obote, future president of Uganda, had appeared in a 1948 production of Julius Caesar, the first performance of Shakespeare at the university.

    And the contributors represented in Origin East Africa, an anthology of creative writing at Makerere, provide the most vivid example of the role writing and a literary education could come to play in the making of the postcolonial public sphere. Ngũgĩ had four stories published in the anthology, coming just after a short story by Ben Mkapa, future president of Tanzania.

    Ngũgĩ belonged to a generation that saw literature as a forum for critique, of questioning dominant ideas and beliefs. In this context, creative writing was asked to perform at least four tasks:

    • to reimagine an African past whose resources might be rehearsed for the future

    • to rehearse the drama of decolonisation

    • to account for postcolonial failure

    • to produce fictions that might help readers rethink a global African identity.

    Ngũgĩ’s novels rose to fulfil these tasks with conviction and courage. The River Between and Weep Not, Child dealt with the wounds of history. A Grain of Wheat and Petals of Blood were positioned in a zone where the figure of the new nation was caught between its aspirations and desires and the possibility of failure and betrayal. Wizard of the Crow was simultaneously an allegory of postcolonial failure and the possibility of its transcendence.

    And then came banishment and exile.

    The late career

    Although he barely acknowledged it in his writings or in public, Ngũgĩ’s late career was defined by the realities of exile and an awareness of his own displacement from his primary audience and the Gĩkũyũ language that had energised his poetics.

    He was celebrated and honoured in powerful American universities and institutions including the Library of Congress. He was recognised in the global African world and cited by the few African leaders like Ghana’s John Dramani Mahama who understood the need for a forceful response to racial ideologies.

    Read more: Drama that shaped Ngũgĩ’s writing and activism comes home to Kenya

    But he was a persona non grata in the one place – Kenya – where recognition mattered most to him.

    In the end, there was a certain kind of belatedness in Ngũgĩ’s later fictions. The subject of these works and their points of reference were distinctly Gĩkũyũ, Kenyan, African, pan-African, and global. Nonetheless, these gestures of being African were enacted far away from the homelands in which Ngũgĩ’s writing and thinking was both intelligible and functional.

    Imagining and writing about Africa away from Africa was a promise and debt. It was an obligation to a place but also a measure of one’s distance from it.

    Read more: 3 things Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o taught me: language matters, stories are universal, Africa can thrive

    I reflected on this problem as I reviewed Ngũgĩ’s 2006 novel set in an imaginary autocratic country, Murogi wa Kagogo (Wizard of the Crow), in its original Gĩkũyũ edition and later in its translation.

    I was reading the same book, but it was pointing in two different directions – towards home and away from it.

    In our many encounters, Ngũgĩ made fun of the fact that I seemed to have adopted alienation as the essential condition for thinking and writing. What he sought to do until the last minute of his life was carry within himself and his fictions that place that used to be home, its politics and poetics.

    – Ngũgi wa Thiong’o and the African literary revolution
    – https://theconversation.com/ngugi-wa-thiongo-and-the-african-literary-revolution-258428

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Khartoum before the war: the public spaces that held the city together

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Ibrahim Z. Bahreldin, Associate Professor of Urban & Environmental Design, University of Khartoum

    What makes a public space truly public?

    In Khartoum, before the current conflict engulfed Sudan, the answer was not always a park, a plaza or a promenade.

    The city’s streets, tea stalls (sitat al-shai), protest sites and even burial spaces served as dynamic arenas of everyday life, political expression and informal resilience.

    In a recently published article, I studied 64 public spaces across pre-war Greater Khartoum, revealing a landscape far richer – and more contested – than standard urban classifications suggest. Specifically, I uncovered four classifications: formal, informal, privately owned and hybrid spaces – each alive with negotiation and everyday use.

    While some spaces were planned by colonial engineers or municipal authorities, many were carved out by communities: claimed, adapted and reimagined through use.

    My research offers valuable insights into the design and planning of Africa’s cities. As they grow and face mounting political and environmental pressures, it’s time to rethink how public spaces are defined and designed – not through imported models, but by listening to the ways people already make cities public.

    Read more: Sudan needs to accept its cultural diversity: urban planning can help rebuild the country and prevent future conflict

    Across the African continent, cities are growing fast – but not always fairly. Urban expansion often privileges gated developments, mega-projects and high-security zones while neglecting the everyday spaces where most people live, work and gather.

    In Sudan, these dynamics have been further complicated by conflict, displacement and economic instability. The ongoing war has disrupted not only governance, but also the spatial fabric of urban life.

    My paper aims to invite those involved in planning policies and post-conflict reconstruction to move beyond formal, western-centric models that often overlook how publicness actually unfolds in African cities: through informality, negotiation and social improvisation.

    Khartoum’s public spaces, as documented in my study, serve as diagnostic tools for understanding how cities survive crises, express identity and contest inequality.

    In the wake of war and displacement, these spaces will play a role in shaping how Sudan rebuilds not just infrastructure, but social cohesion.

    Pre-war Khartoum

    Khartoum’s public spaces cannot be understood through conventional categories – like formal squares and urban parks – alone. These formal squares represent only one layer of a much more plural and negotiated urban reality.

    Drawing on fieldwork and the documentation of 64 public spaces across Greater Khartoum, I identify four overlapping types that reflect how space is produced, accessed and contested.

    1. Formal public spaces: These include planned parks, ceremonial squares, civic plazas and administrative open spaces, often relics of colonial or postcolonial urban planning. They are defined by order, visibility and regulation. Mīdān Abbas, originally an active civic space in the centre of Khartoum, repeatedly reclaimed by informal traders and protesters, is one example, illustrating how even the most formal spaces can become contested. It was notably active during Sudan’s April 1985 uprising, serving as part of a wider network of civic spaces used for political mobilisation. Informal traders consistently transformed it into a bustling marketplace, embedding everyday commerce and social exchange into the formal urban fabric.

    2. Informal and insurgent spaces: These emerge beyond or against official planning logics – riverbanks used for gatherings, neglected lots transformed into social nodes or bridges appropriated by traders. They include spiritual sites like Sufi tombs, and protest spaces such as the sit-in zone outside the city’s army headquarters. These spaces reveal the city’s capacity for bottom-up urbanism and collective adaptation.

    3. Privately owned civic spaces: Shopping malls, privately managed parks and cultural cafés fall into this category. While they appear public, they are often classed, surveilled (monitored through cameras or security presence) or exclusionary. The rise of these spaces coincides with the decline of state-managed urban infrastructure, reflecting the turn in Sudanese urban governance.

    Read more: Sudan: the symbolic significance of the space protesters made their own

    4. Public “private” spaces: These spaces blur lines between ownership and use. They include mosque courtyards, school grounds, building frontages or underutilised university lawns that serve as informal gathering points. Access here is governed less by law and more by social codes, trust or class.

    Together, these typologies highlight that “publicness” in Khartoum is relational. It depends not only on who planned a space, but who uses it, how and under what conditions.

    Planning in African cities must therefore move beyond fixed zoning maps to embrace the layered, fluid and lived nature of urban space.

    Rebuilding, rethinking, resisting

    Post-conflict reconstruction in Sudan – and elsewhere in Africa – must resist the allure of “blank slate” master plans. Those involve rebuilding cities from scratch with sweeping, top-down designs that ignore existing social and spatial dynamics.

    Imported models, often guided by bureaucratic thinking or commercial incentives, risk erasing the very spaces where public life already thrives, albeit informally or invisibly.

    Rather than imposing formality, planners should recognise and strengthen the informal and hybrid systems that sustain civic life, especially in times of instability.

    Urban theorists working in and on the global south, such as AbdouMaliq Simone and the late Vanessa Watson, have long argued for planning frameworks that centre on everyday practices, adaptive use and spatial justice.

    Khartoum offers a compelling case.

    From the sit-ins of 2019 to tea stalls run by displaced women, public spaces in Sudan are not inert backdrops. They are active platforms of everyday life, resistance, care and community-making.

    Reconstruction must begin by asking: what spaces mattered to people before the war? Which ones fostered inclusion, dignity and visibility? Only then can new urban futures emerge, ones that are rooted in the practices of those who have always made the city public, even when the state did not.

    What makes spaces truly public?

    The public realm in Sudan has always been shaped through negotiation, sometimes with the state, often despite it.

    Rebuilding after war is not only about reconstructing buildings but also about reimagining the terms of belonging.

    This requires a shift from viewing public space as a fixed asset to understanding it as a dynamic process. Who gets to gather, to speak, to rest, to protest – these are the true measures of publicness.

    Understanding Khartoum’s pre-war public spaces isn’t a nostalgic exercise. It’s a necessary step towards building more inclusive, resilient and locally grounded cities in the wake of crisis.

    – Khartoum before the war: the public spaces that held the city together
    – https://theconversation.com/khartoum-before-the-war-the-public-spaces-that-held-the-city-together-258632

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: 5 great reads by South African writers from 30 years of real-life stories

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Hedley Twidle, Associate Professor and head of English Literary Studies, University of Cape Town

    Across three decades of democracy, South Africa has – like many places undergoing complex and uneven social change – seen an outpouring of remarkable nonfiction. The Interpreters is a new book that collects the work of 37 authors, all of it writing (plus some drawing) concerned with actual people, places and events.

    Soutie Press

    The anthology is the product of many years of reading and discussion between my co-editor Sean Christie (an experienced journalist and nonfiction author) and me (a writer and professor who teaches literature, including creative nonfiction).

    The book is a work of homage to the many strains of ambitious and artful writing that shelter within the unhelpful term “nonfiction”. These include: narrative and longform journalism; essays and memoir; reportage, features and profiles; life writing, from private diaries to public biography; oral histories, interviews and testimony.

    To give an idea of the range, energy and risk of the pieces collected in the anthology, here I discuss five of them.

    1. Fighting Shadows by Lidudumalingani

    We debated for a long time which piece to start the anthology with, and ultimately went for this one, which begins:

    One afternoon my father and the other boys from the Zikhovane village decided to walk across a vast landscape, two valleys and a river, to a village called Qombolo to disrupt a wedding.

    It’s a quietly compelling opening. First of all, there is intrigue: why the disruption? It could also easily be the first sentence of a novel (maybe even one by famous Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe). And so we begin with a reminder of how storytelling is such a deep, ancient and fundamental part of societies – an impulse that long predates writing and moves across and beyond the fiction/nonfiction divide. (Lidudumalingani won the 2016 Caine Prize for a short story, so he works across both.)

    Lidudumalingani has the stick fighting tradition at the centre of his piece. Soutie Press

    Fighting Shadows is about the tradition of stick fighting, and how it’s transported from rural areas to urban ones. But it’s also about so much more, about “the dance between then and now”, as the writer puts it later on. The prose is so deft and graceful, as if the author is trying to match the “dance” of expert stick fighters with his own verbal arts. For me it’s a story that could only have emerged from this part of the world: it has a distinct voice, precision and poetry to it.

    2. The End of a Conversation by Julie Nxadi

    This is the shortest piece in the anthology, but for me one of the most affecting. It traces how a young girl comes to realise that the (white) family she is being brought up with are not really her family. She is the daughter of the housekeeper, the domestic worker:

    I was not ‘the kids’. I was not their kin.

    It’s probably best described as autofiction, a kind of writing that lies somewhere in the borderlands between autobiography and fiction. Nxadi has spoken of how she decided to write in a way that contained her own life story – the “heartbreak” of that moment – but was also able to carry and represent the experience of others who had gone through something similar.

    Julie Nxadi. Soutie Press

    The piece is also a product of the #FeesMustFall student protests (2015 onwards), when many young South Africans felt able to share unresolved, awkward or shameful stories for the first time.

    The End of a Conversation is such a deft, wise and subtle handling of a difficult subject, with no easy targets or easy resolutions. Somehow the writer has found just the right distance – emotionally and aesthetically – from this moment of childhood realisation.

    3. South African Pastoral by William Dicey

    I co-own a pear farm with my brother. I attend to finances and labour relations, he oversees the growing of the fruit.

    This essay by William Dicey thinks hard, very hard, about what it means to manage a fruit farm in the Boland (an agricultural region still shaped by South Africa’s divided past). It is one of the most frank and unflinching accounts of land and labour I’ve ever come across. The writer makes the point that he could easily have stayed in the city, lived in “liberal” circles and not thought about these issues much.

    William Dicey. Soutie Press

    But becoming a farmer confronts him with all kinds of difficult questions (How much should he intervene in the lives of his employees? In family and financial planning, in matters of alcohol abuse?) as he is drawn into an awkward but meaningful intimacy with others on the farm.

    The US essayist Philip Lopate suggests that scepticism is often the tool for moving towards truth in personal nonfiction writing:

    So often the “plot” of a personal essay, its drama, its suspense, consists in watching how the essayist can drop past his or her psychic defences toward deeper levels of honesty.

    This is very much what happens in South African Pastoral, and why it is such a mesmerising piece (even while written in such a plain and restrained style).

    4. Hard Rock by Mogorosi Motshumi

    My co-editor said from the start we should include graphic nonfiction (drawn stories and comics) and I’m so grateful he did. Mogorosi Motshumi’s warm, zany but also harrowing account is about coming of age under apartheid and then the heady days of the 1990s transition.

    Mogorosi Motshumi. Soutie Press

    In his early career, Motshumi was widely known for his comic strips and political cartooning, but this graphic autobiography is far more ambitious. The style of drawing changes and evolves as the protagonist gets older; also, there is something intriguing about seeing weighty subjects like detention, disability, substance abuse and HIV/AIDS stigma approached through the eyes of a wry cartoonist with a keen sense of the absurd.

    Hard Rock is a prologue to the graphic nonfiction memoir that he has been working on for many years, the 360 Degrees Trilogy. The first two instalments have appeared – The Initiation (2016) and Jozi Jungle (2022) – and I would urge anyone to seek them out. Mogorosi’s work is a major achievement in South African autobiography and life writing (or life “drawing”).

    5. The Interpreters by Antjie Krog, Nosisi Mpolweni and Kopano Ratele

    This co-authored piece is what gave the anthology its name. The Interpreters is a reflection on being a language interpreter during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings (1996-1998) into gross human rights violations during white minority rule.

    Kopano Ratele. Soutie Press

    A series of individuals recall the challenges of that process. Sitting in glass booths in the middle of proceedings, they had to move across South Africa’s many official languages in real time, translating the words of victims, perpetrators, grieving families, lawyers and commissioners.

    Antjie Krog and co-authors write about interpreting language. Brenda Veldtman

    The chapter is also a reminder of how our English-language anthology faces the challenge of doing justice to a multilingual, multivocal society where all kinds of cultural translations happen all the time.

    The piece is a blend of many people’s voices, testimonies and reminiscences. As such, it also seemed to symbolise the larger project of The Interpreters: trying to record, render and honour the many voices that make up our complex social world.

    – 5 great reads by South African writers from 30 years of real-life stories
    – https://theconversation.com/5-great-reads-by-south-african-writers-from-30-years-of-real-life-stories-258340

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Congressman Ben Cline Announces Winner of 2025 Congressional Art Competition

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Ben Cline (VA-06)

    Congressman Ben Cline (R-VA) announced that Brooke Justus, an 11th-grade student at the Burton Center for Arts and Technology in Salem, has been named the winner of the 2025 Congressional Art Competition for Virginia’s Sixth District. Her piece, titled “A Roanoke Forest,” will be displayed in the United States Capitol for the next year.

    The Congressional Art Competition is a nationwide initiative to showcase the creativity and talent of high school students. In Virginia’s Sixth District, students from across the region submitted impressive works of art. In addition to the winning entry, artwork from the three runners-up will be displayed in the Congressman’s district offices.

    As part of her recognition, Brooke traveled to Washington, D.C., this week, where she met with Congressman Cline and saw her artwork on display in the U.S. Capitol.

    “Each year, the Congressional Art Competition is a great opportunity to recognize the talent of students across Virginia’s Sixth District, and Brooke’s piece, ‘A Roanoke Forest,’ is a proud representation of our region,” said Rep. Cline. “It was a pleasure to meet her in Washington and see her artwork displayed in the Capitol for visitors from across the country to enjoy.”

    Below are the winners of the 2025 Congressional Art Competition:

    First Place: Brooke Justus

    School: 11th Grade, Burton Center for Arts and Technology

    Title: “A Roanoke Forest”

    Southern Regional Runner-Up: Maddie Grow

    School: 10th Grade, Grow Classical School

    Title: “Downtown Lexington”

    Central Regional Runner-Up: Claudia Allemeier

    School: 11th Grade, Harrisonburg High School

    Title: “Crowned Cranes”

    Northern Regional Runner-Up: Mariska Sharma

    School: 9th Grade, John Handley High School

    Title: “Vivaldi”

    For more information about the Congressional Art Competition, click here.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: IAEA and FAO Conduct First Atoms4Food Assessment Mission to Burkina Faso

    Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

    The joint IAEA and FAO Assessment Mission team examine new rice varieties during the first Atoms4Food Initiative Assessment Mission in Burkina Faso. (Photo: Victor Owino/IAEA)

    In a critical step toward addressing food insecurity in West Africa, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations have launched their first joint Atoms4Food Initiative Assessment Mission in Burkina Faso. 

    This mission aims to identify key gaps and opportunities for delivering targeted technical support to Burkina Faso for food and agriculture in a country where an estimated 3.5 million people—nearly 20% of the population—are facing food insecurity. By leveraging nuclear science and technology, Atoms4Food seeks to bolster agricultural resilience and agrifood systems in one of the region’s most vulnerable nations.

    The mission, conducted from 26 May to 1 June, assessed how nuclear and related technologies are being used in Burkina Faso to address challenges in enhancing crop production, improving soil quality and in animal production and health, as well as human nutrition.

    The Atoms4Food Initiative was launched jointly by IAEA and FAO in 2023 to help boost food security and tackle growing hunger around the world. Atoms4Food will support countries to use innovative nuclear techniques such as sterile insect technique and plant mutation breeding to enhance agricultural productivity, ensure food safety, improve nutrition and adapt agrifood systems to the challenges of climate change. Almost €9 million has been pledged by IAEA donor countries and private companies to the initiative so far.

    As part of the Atoms4Food initiative, Assessment Missions are used to evaluate the specific needs and priorities of participating countries and identify critical gaps and opportunities where nuclear science and technology can offer impactful solutions. Based on the findings, tailored and country-specific solutions will be offered.

    Burkina Faso is one of 29 countries who have so far requested to receive support under Atoms4Food, with more expected this year. Alongside Benin, Pakistan, Peru and Türkiye, Burkina Faso was among the first countries to request an Atoms4Food Assessment Mission in 2025.

    A large proportion of Burkina Faso’s population still live in poverty and inequality.  Food insecurity has been compounded by rapid population growth, gender inequality and low levels of educational attainment. In addition, currently, 50% of rice consumed in Burkina Faso is imported. The government aims to achieve food sovereignty by producing sufficient rice domestically to reduce reliance on imports.

    “Hunger and malnutrition are on the rise globally, and Burkina Faso is particularly vulnerable to this growing challenge,” said IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi. “This first Atoms4Food assessment mission marks a significant milestone in our collective efforts to harness the power of nuclear science to enhance food security. As the Atoms4Food Initiative expands worldwide, we are committed to delivering tangible, sustainable solutions to reduce hunger and malnutrition.”

    The mission was conducted by a team of ten international experts in the areas of crop production, soil and water management, animal production and health and human nutrition. During the mission, the team held high-level meetings with the Burkina Faso Ministries of Agriculture, Health and Environment and conducted site visits to laboratories including the animal health laboratory and crop breeding facility at the Institute of Environment and Agricultural Research, the crop genetics and nutrition laboratories at the University Joseph Ki-Zerbo, and the bull station of the Ministry of Agriculture in Loumbila.

    “The Government of Burkina Faso is striving to achieve food security and sovereignty, to supply the country’s population with sufficient, affordable, nutritious and safe food, while strengthening the sustainability of the agrifood systems value-chain,” said Dongxin Feng, Director of the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre for Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture and head of the mission to Burkina Faso. “Though much needs to be done, our mission found strong dedication and commitment from the Government in developing climate-resilient strategies for crops, such as rice, potato, sorghum and mango, strengthening sustainable livestock production of cattle, small ruminants and local poultry, as well as reducing malnutrition among infants and children, while considering the linkages with food safety.”

    The Assessment Mission will deliver an integrated Assessment Report with concrete recommendations on areas for intervention under the Atoms4Food Initiative. This will help develop a National Action Plan in order to scale up the joint efforts made by the two organizations in the past decades, which will include expanding partnership and resource mobilization. “Our priority now is to deliver a concrete mission report with actionable recommendations that will support the development of the National Action Plan aimed at improving the country’s long term food security,” Feng added.

    MIL Security OSI –