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  • MIL-OSI Global: FDA will approve COVID-19 vaccine only for older adults and high-risk groups – a public health expert explains the new rules

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Libby Richards, Professor of Nursing, Purdue University

    Older adults will continue to receive yearly COVID-19 shots, but lower-risk groups will not, says the FDA. dusanpetkovic via iStock / Getty Images Plus

    On May 20, 2025, the Food and Drug Administration announced a new stance on who should receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

    The agency said it would approve new versions of the vaccine only for adults 65 years of age and older as well as for people with one or more risk factors for severe COVID-19 outcomes. These risk factors include medical conditions such as asthma, cancer, chronic kidney disease, heart disease and diabetes.

    However, healthy younger adults and children who fall outside of these groups may not be eligible to receive the COVID-19 shot this fall. Vaccine manufacturers will have to conduct clinical trials to demonstrate that the vaccine benefits low-risk groups.

    FDA Commissioner Martin Makary and the agency’s head of vaccines, Vinay Prasad, described the new framework in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine and in a public webcast.

    The Conversation U.S. asked Libby Richards, a nursing professor involved in public health promotion, to explain why the changes were made and what they mean for the general public.

    Why did the FDA diverge from past practice?

    Until the May 20 announcement, getting a yearly COVID-19 vaccine was recommended for everyone ages 6 months and older, regardless of their health risk.

    According to Makary and Prasad, the Food and Drug Administration is moving away from these universal recommendations and instead taking a risk-based approach based on its interpretation of public health trends – specifically, the declining COVID-19 booster uptake, a lack of strong evidence that repeated boosters improve health outcomes for healthy people and the fact that natural immunity from past COVID-19 infections is widespread.

    The FDA states it wants to ensure the vaccine is backed by solid clinical trial data, especially for low-risk groups.

    Was this a controversial decision or a clear consensus?

    The FDA’s decision to adopt a risk-based framework for the COVID-19 vaccine aligns with the expected recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, an advisory group of vaccine experts offering expert guidance to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine policy, which is scheduled to meet in June 2025. But while this advisory committee was also expected to recommend allowing low-risk people to get annual COVID-19 vaccines if they want to, the FDA’s policy will likely make that difficult.

    Although the FDA states that its new policy aims to promote greater transparency and evidenced-based decision-making, the change is controversial – in part because it circumvents the usual process for evaluating vaccine recommendations. The FDA is enacting this policy change by limiting its approval of the vaccine to high-risk groups, and it is doing so without any new data supporting its decision. Usually, however, the FDA broadly approves a vaccine based on whether it is safe and effective, and decisions on who should be eligible to receive it are left to the CDC, which receives research-based guidance from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

    Change is coming to COVID-19 vaccine policy.
    Rock Obst, CC BY-SA

    Additionally, FDA officials point to Canada, Australia and some European countries that limit vaccine recommendations to older adults and other high-risk people as a model for its revised framework. But vaccine strategies vary widely, and this more conservative approach has not necessarily proven superior. Also, those countries have universal health care systems and have a track record of more equitable access to COVID-19 care and better COVID-19 outcomes.

    Another question is how health officials’ positions on COVID-19 vaccines affect public perception. Makary and Prasad noted that COVID-19 vaccination campaigns may have actually eroded public trust in vaccination. But some vaccine experts have expressed concerns that limiting COVID-19 vaccine access might further fuel vaccine hesitancy because any barrier to vaccine access can reduce uptake and hinder efforts to achieve widespread immunity.

    What conditions count as risk factors?

    The New England Journal of Medicine article includes a lengthy list of conditions that increase the risk of severe COVID-19 and notes that about 100 million to 200 million people will fall into this category and will thus be eligible to get the vaccine.

    Pregnancy is included. Some items on the list, however, are unclear. For example, the list includes asthma, but the data that asthma is a risk factor for severe COVID-19 is scant.

    Also on the list is physical inactivity, which likely applies to a vast swath of Americans and is difficult to define. Studies have found links between regular physical activity and reduced risk of severe COVID-19 infection, but it’s unclear how health care providers will define and measure physical inactivity when assessing a patient’s eligibility for COVID-19 vaccines.

    Most importantly, the list leaves out an important group – caregivers and household members of people at high risk of severe illness from COVID-19 infection. This omission leaves high-risk people more vulnerable to exposure to COVID-19 from healthy people they regularly interact with. Multiple countries the new framework refers to do include this group.

    Why is the FDA requiring new clinical trials?

    According to the FDA, the benefits of multiple doses of COVID-19 vaccines for healthy adults are currently unproven. It’s true that studies beyond the fourth vaccine dose are scarce. However, multiple studies have demonstrated that the vaccine is effective at preventing the risk of severe COVID-19 infection, hospitalization and death in low-risk adults and children. Receiving multiple doses of COVID-19 vaccines has also been shown to reduce the risk of long COVID.

    The FDA is moving to risk-based access for COVID-19 vaccines.

    The FDA is requiring vaccine manufactures to conduct additional large randomized clinical trials to further evaluate the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 boosters for healthy adults and children. These trials will primarily test whether the vaccines prevent symptomatic infections, and secondarily whether they prevent hospitalization and death. Such trials are more complex, costly and time-consuming than the more common approach of testing for immunological response.

    This requirement will likely delay both the timeliness and the availability of COVID-19 vaccine boosters and slow public health decision-making.

    Will low-risk people be able to get a COVID-19 shot?

    Not automatically. Under the new FDA framework, healthy adults who wish to receive the fall COVID-19 vaccine will face obstacles. Health care providers can administer vaccines “off-label”, but insurance coverage is widely based on FDA recommendations. The new, narrower FDA approval will likely reduce both access to COVID-19 vaccines for the general public and insurance coverage for COVID-19 vaccines.

    The FDA’s focus on individual risks and benefits may overlook broader public health benefits. Communities with higher vaccination rates have fewer opportunities to spread the virus.

    What about vaccines for children?

    High-risk children age 6 months and older who have conditions that increase the risk of severe COVID-19 are still eligible for the vaccine under the new framework. As of now, healthy children age 6 months and older without underlying medical conditions will not have routine access to COVID-19 vaccines until further clinical trial data is available.

    Existing vaccines already on the market will remain available, but it is unclear how long they will stay authorized and how the change will affect childhood vaccination overall.

    Libby Richards has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, the American Nurses Foundation, and the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute

    – ref. FDA will approve COVID-19 vaccine only for older adults and high-risk groups – a public health expert explains the new rules – https://theconversation.com/fda-will-approve-covid-19-vaccine-only-for-older-adults-and-high-risk-groups-a-public-health-expert-explains-the-new-rules-257226

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: WHO is finalizing a new treaty that prepares for the next pandemic − but the US isn’t signing

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Nicole Hassoun, Professor of Philosophy, Binghamton University, State University of New York

    The 78th World Health Assembly is taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, from May 19-27, 2025. Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images

    On March 20, 2025, members of the World Health Organization adopted the world’s first pandemic agreement, following three years of “intensive negotiations launched by governments in response to the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.” The U.S., however, did not participate, in part because of its intention to withdraw from the WHO.

    Global health experts are hailing the agreement as a historic moment.

    What does the agreement mean for the world, and how can it make everyone safer and more prepared for the next pandemic?

    The Conversation asked Nicole Hassoun, a professor at Binghamton University and executive director of Global Health Impact, to explain the pandemic accord, its prospects for advancing global health, and the significance of the U.S.’s absence from it.

    What will the pandemic agreement do?

    The accord will bolster pandemic preparation within individual countries and around the world.

    Countries signing onto the agreement are committing to improve their disease surveillance and grow their heath care workforces, strengthen their regulatory systems and invest in research and development. It encourages countries to strengthen their health regulations and infrastructure, improve communication with the public about pandemics and increase funding for preparation and response efforts.

    It also includes new mechanisms for producing and distributing vaccines and other essential countermeasures. Finally, it encourages countries to coordinate their responses and share information about infectious diseases and intellectual property so that vaccines and other essential countermeasures can be made available more quickly.

    The agreement will take effect once enough countries ratify it, which may take several years.

    Why isn’t the US involved?

    The Biden administration was broadly supportive of a pandemic agreement and was an active participant in negotiations.

    Prior to Donald Trump’s reelection, however, Republican governors had signed a letter opposing the treaty, echoing a conservative think tank’s concerns about U.S. sovereignty.

    The U.S. withdrew from negotiations when President Trump signed an executive order to withdraw from the WHO on the day he was inaugurated for his second term.

    Why could the lack of US involvement be beneficial for the world?

    The lack of U.S. involvement likely resulted in a much more equitable treaty, and it is not clear that countries could have reached an agreement had the U.S. continued to object to key provisions.

    It was only once the U.S. withdrew from the negotiations that an agreement was reached. The U.S. and several other wealthy countries were concerned with protecting their pharmaceutical industry’s profits and resisted efforts aimed at convincing pharmaceutical companies to share the knowledge, data and intellectual property needed for producing new vaccines and other essential countermeasures.

    Other negotiators sought greater access to vaccines and other treatments during a pandemic for poorer countries, which often rely on patented technologies from global pharmaceutical companies.

    While most people in wealthy countries had access to COVID-19 vaccines as early as 2021, many people in developing countries had to wait years for vaccines.

    How could the agreement broaden access for treatments?

    One of the contentious issues in the pandemic agreement has to do with how many vaccines manufacturers in each country must share in exchange for access to genetic sequences to emerging infectious diseases. Countries are still negotiating a system for sharing the genetic information on pathogens in return for access to vaccines themselves. It is important that researchers can get these sequences to make vaccines. And, of course, people need access to the vaccines once they are developed.

    Still, there are many more promising aspects of the agreement for which no further negotiations are necessary. For instance, the agreement will increase global vaccine supply by increasing manufacturing around the world.

    The agreement also specifies that countries and the WHO should work together to create a mechanism for fairly sharing the intellectual property, data and knowledge needed to produce vaccines and other essential health products. If financing for new innovation requires equitable access to the new technologies that are developed, many people in poor countries may get access to vaccines much more quickly in the next pandemic. The agreement also encourages individual countries to offer sufficient incentives for pharmaceutical companies to extend access to developing countries.

    If countries implement these changes, that will benefit people in rich countries as well as poor ones. A more equitable distribution of vaccines can contain the spread of disease, saving millions of lives.

    What more should be done, and does the US have a role to play?

    In my view, the best way to protect public health moving forward is for countries to sign on to the agreement and devote more resources to global health initiatives. This is particularly important given declining investment and participation in the WHO and the contraction of other international health initiatives, such as USAID.

    Without international coordination, it will become harder to catch and address problems early enough to prevent epidemics from becoming pandemics.

    It will also be imperative for member countries to provide funding to support the agreement’s goals and secure the innovation and access to new technologies. This requires building the basic health infrastructure to ensure shots can get into people’s arms.

    Nicole Hassoun has receive funding from the WHO and worked as a consultant for the UN.

    – ref. WHO is finalizing a new treaty that prepares for the next pandemic − but the US isn’t signing – https://theconversation.com/who-is-finalizing-a-new-treaty-that-prepares-for-the-next-pandemic-but-the-us-isnt-signing-256191

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Billions of cicadas are emerging, from Cape Cod to north Georgia – here’s how and why we map them

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Chris Simon, Senior Research Scientist of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut

    Three cicadas in North Carolina during the 2003 Brood IX emergence Chris Simon, CC BY-ND

    If they’re in your area, you’ll know it from their loud droning, chirping and buzzing sounds. Cicadas from Brood XIV – one of the largest groups of cicadas that emerge from underground on a 13-year or 17-year cycle – are surfacing in May and June 2025 across 12 states. This large-scale biological event reaches from northern Georgia up into Indiana and Ohio and eastward through the mid-Atlantic, extending as far north as Long Island, N.Y. and Massachusetts.

    Through mid-June, wooded areas will ring with cicadas’ loud mating calls. After mating, each female will lay hundreds of eggs inside small tree branches. Then the adult cicadas will die. When the eggs hatch six weeks later, new cicada nymphs will fall from the trees and burrow back underground, starting the cycle again.

    We are evolutionary ecologists who study periodical cicadas to understand questions about the natural history, genetics and geographic distribution of life. This work starts with mapping where they appear.

    We’ve been doing this for decades, updating a process begun by entomologists in the mid-1800s. Our latest maps are published online and searchable.

    Periodical cicadas emerge on 13- or 17-year cycles in enormous numbers, which increases their odds of finding mates and avoiding predators long enough to reproduce.

    Mapping the presence of such a noisy species might seem straightforward, but it’s actually complex. And accuracy matters because there are seven species of periodical cicadas — four with 13-year life cycles and three with 17-year cycles. Different broods can share boundaries, and some cicadas that emerge this year may be members of broods other than XIV, coming out early or late.

    A lot of work goes into verifying the data in our maps so that they show the status of these unique insects as accurately as possible. Here’s a look at the process, and at how you can contribute:

    Refining past records

    We first started creating our maps on paper by collecting all known specimen records of 13- and 17-year periodical cicadas from past scientific studies and museums large and small across the eastern U.S., where these broods are located. For centuries, museum specimens have been the gold standard for documenting the presence of a species.

    But past standards for labeling specimens were different. Many old museum labels simply noted very approximate locations where specimens were collected. Sometimes they just recorded the city, county or state.

    Today we collect our records along roads. We listen for species-specific songs and then record the cicada species identity on computers, with their GPS locations. Often we’ll stop to examine a patch of forest. If the cicadas are singing, we note whether the chorus is light, moderate, loud or distant.

    If stormy weather damps down the cicada songs, we look for signs of emergence, such as cast-off skins, adult cicadas on plants, or egg scars on branches.

    Dozens of small brown cicadas climb grass stems during a Brood VIII emergence in Rector, Pa.
    Chris Simon, CC BY-ND

    Connecting the data dots

    In some regions, such as the U.S. Midwest, roads are arranged on a grid that reflects land survey lines. Networks like these can be ideal for mapping species distributions. Delineating an area that’s occupied by a specific cicada brood may be as simple as connecting the dots that represent our positive sightings.

    In other places, such as Appalachia, roads often follow ridges or valleys and miss many areas. Here, it’s harder to infer where cicadas are present between data points, especially when those data points are located on different roads.

    Drawing a boundary that contains every data point in a survey area usually will end up overstating the area where periodical cicadas are emerging. We intentionally design our maps to be conservative, so we display our information as point data and do not attempt to draw brood boundaries or generalize our data to counties.

    It’s equally important to record absence points – places where no cicadas are present. Otherwise, an area might be blank either because a species is absent or simply because no one looked for cicadas there.

    A cicada nymph from Brood X sheds its skin during an emergence in Herndon, Va.
    Chris Simon, CC BY-ND

    We have been verifying periodical cicada records and updating maps since the late 1980s. Our more recent maps include geographic information for data collection points.

    Where our maps show the presence of cicadas, a senior member of our project has verified that cicadas were present at that place and date. The insects may have been just emerging, singing loudly, or on their way out.

    Where our maps show the absence of cicadas, that means that one of us or a collaborator visited that location under appropriate conditions and verified that no cicadas were present. Where our maps show no records, we have no information on presence or absence.

    Each color on this map represents a different periodical cicada brood. Brood XIV is the darker green extending from the Midwest to eastern Massachusetts.
    University of Connecticut, used with permission., CC BY-ND

    Crowdsourcing the emergence

    In recent years, citizen scientists – members of the public collecting data for scientific research – have revolutionized mapping efforts, using apps and the internet. Apps such as iNaturalist and Cicada Safari allow users to submit geolocated photos, sounds and videos with a few clicks.

    When we receive these records, our colleague Gene Kritsky, an emeritus entomologist at Mount St. Joseph University, vets them with his team. Then they are uploaded to a map on Cicada Safari.

    Citizen science maps have different biases from those that are created by our expert teams. Members of the public tend to collect their data in areas where residents are familiar with cicadas, there is good internet connectivity and media stories have piqued volunteer reporters’ interest. These maps don’t show absence records or all localities, especially in sparsely populated areas.

    Even records supported by sounds or photographs may not be accurate. They may capture “stragglers” from broods that are not part of the current year’s cycle but are emerging one to four years early or late.

    This phenomenon may become more commonplace in response to changing climates. Warming temperatures create longer growing seasons, which can enable at least some fraction of a periodical cicada population to develop faster and be ready to emerge earlier.

    For this reason, maps based on citizen science reports are most valuable if the same observers report back from the same locations repeatedly over several weeks. The longer-term presence of periodical cicadas indicates that what’s being tallied is a non-straggler population, or a straggler population on its way to permanently shifting the timing of its emergence.

    An evolving story

    Maps are valuable tools for understanding how species fit into their environment, how they interact with other species and how they respond to change. However, it is important to be aware of any map’s biases and limitations when interpreting it. Research requires dedication and repetition over many years.

    Our research suggests that climate warming has resulted in more four-year-early straggling events that are increasingly dense, widespread and likely to leave offspring. The result is a mosaic of broods that makes the jigsaw puzzle of periodical cicada distribution more complicated, but more interesting. Understanding how these four-year shifts are encoded in cicadas’ genes is a mystery that remains to be solved.

    Chris Simon has received funding from The National Science Foundation, The National Geographic Society, The Marsden Fund of New Zealand, and the University of Connecticut.

    John Cooley has received funding in the past from NSF and National Geographic Society. There are no current grants funding this work.

    – ref. Billions of cicadas are emerging, from Cape Cod to north Georgia – here’s how and why we map them – https://theconversation.com/billions-of-cicadas-are-emerging-from-cape-cod-to-north-georgia-heres-how-and-why-we-map-them-255461

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: A decade after the release of ‘The Martian’ and a decade out from the world it envisions, a planetary scientist checks in on real-life Mars exploration

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Ari Koeppel, Postdoctoral Scientist in Earth and Planetary Science, Dartmouth College

    ‘The Martian’ protagonist Mark Watney contemplates his ordeal. 20th Century Fox

    Andy Weir’s bestselling story “The Martian” predicts that by 2035 NASA will have landed humans on Mars three times, perfected return-to-Earth flight systems and collaborated with the China National Space Administration. We are now 10 years past the Hollywood adaptation’s 2015 release and 10 years shy of its fictional timeline. At this midpoint, Mars exploration looks a bit different than how it was portrayed in “The Martian,” with both more discoveries and more controversy.

    As a planetary geologist who works with NASA missions to study Mars, I follow exploration science and policy closely. In 2010, the U.S. National Space Policy set goals for human missions to Mars in the 2030s. But in 2017, the White House Space Policy Directive 1 shifted NASA’s focus toward returning first to the Moon under what would become the Artemis program.

    Although concepts for crewed missions to Mars have gained popularity, NASA’s actual plans for landing humans on Mars remain fragile. Notably, over the last 10 years, it has been robotic, rather than crewed, missions that have propelled discovery and the human imagination forward.

    NASA’s 2023 Moon to Mars Strategy and Objectives Development document lays out the steps the agency was shooting for at the time, to go first to the Moon, and from there to Mars.
    NASA

    Robotic discoveries

    Since 2015, satellites and rovers have reshaped scientists’ understanding of Mars. They have revealed countless insights into how its climate has changed over time.

    As Earth’s neighbor, climate shifts on Mars also reflect solar system processes affecting Earth at a time when life was first taking hold. Thus, Mars has become a focal point for investigating the age old questions of “where do we come from?” and “are we alone?”

    The Opportunity, Curiosity and Perseverance rovers have driven dozens of miles studying layered rock formations that serve as a record of Mars’ past. By studying sedimentary layers – rock formations stacked like layers of a cake – planetary geologists have pieced together a vivid tale of environmental change that dwarfs what Earth is currently experiencing.

    Mars was once a world of erupting volcanoes, glaciers, lakes and flowing rivers – an environment not unlike early Earth. Then its core cooled, its magnetic field faltered and its atmosphere drifted away. The planet’s exposed surface has retained signs of those processes ever since in the form of landscape patterns, sequences of layered sediment and mineral mixtures.

    Layered sedimentary rocks exposed within the craters of Arabia Terra, Mars, recording ancient surface processes. Photo from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment.
    NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

    Arabia Terra

    One focus of scientific investigation over the last 10 years is particularly relevant to the setting of “The Martian” but fails to receive mention in the story. To reach his best chance of survival, protagonist Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon, must cross a vast, dusty and crater-pocked region of Mars known as Arabia Terra.

    In 2022 and 2023, I, along with colleagues at Northern Arizona University and Johns Hopkins University, published detailed analyses of the layered materials there using imagery from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey satellites.

    By using infrared imagery and measuring the dimensions of surface features, we linked multiple layered deposits to the same episodes of formation and learned more about the widespread crumbling nature of the terrain seen there today. Because water tends to cement rock tightly together, that loose material indicates that around 3.5 billion years ago, that area had a drying climate.

    To make the discussions about this area easier, we even worked with the International Astronomical Union to name a few previously unnamed craters that were mentioned in the story. For example, one that Watney would have driven right by is now named Kozova Crater, after a town in Ukraine.

    More to explore

    Despite rapid advances in Mars science, many unknowns remain. Scientists still aren’t sure of the precise ages, atmospheric conditions and possible signatures of life associated with each of the different rock types observed on the surface.

    For instance, the Perseverance rover recently drilled into and analyzed a unique set of rocks hosting organic – that is, carbon-based – compounds. Organic compounds serve as the building blocks of life, but more detailed analysis is required to determine whether these specific rocks once hosted microbial life.

    The in-development Mars Sample Return mission aims to address these basic outstanding questions by delivering the first-ever unaltered fragments of another world to Earth. The Perseverance rover is already caching rock and soil samples, including ones hosting organic compounds, in sealed tubes. A future lander will then need to pick up and launch the caches back to Earth.

    Sampling Mars rocks could tell scientists more about the red planet’s past, and whether it could have hosted life.

    Once home, researchers can examine these materials with instruments orders of magnitude more sensitive than anything that could be flown on a spacecraft. Scientists stand to learn far more about the habitability, geologic history and presence of any signs of life on Mars through the sample return campaign than by sending humans to the surface.

    This perspective is why NASA, the European Space Agency and others have invested some US$30 billion in robotic Mars exploration since the 1960s. The payoff has been staggering: That work has triggered rapid technological advances in robotics, telecommunications and materials science. For example, Mars mission technology has led to better sutures for heart surgery and cars that can drive themselves.

    It has also bolstered the status of NASA and the U.S. as bastions of modern exploration and technology; and it has inspired millions of students to take an interest in scientific fields.

    A selfie from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover with the Ingenuity helicopter, taken with the rover’s extendable arm on April 6, 2021.
    NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

    Calling the red planet home?

    Colonizing Mars has a seductive appeal. It’s hard not to cheer for the indomitable human spirit while watching Watney battle dust storms, oxygen shortages and food scarcity over 140 million miles from rescue.

    Much of the momentum toward colonizing Mars is now tied to SpaceX and its CEO Elon Musk, whose stated mission to make humanity a “multi-planetary species” has become a sort of rallying cry. But while Mars colonization is romantic on paper, it is extremely difficult to actually carry out, and many critics have questioned the viability of a Mars habitation as a refuge far from Earth.

    Now, with NASA potentially facing a nearly 50% reduction to its science budget, the U.S. risks dissolving its planetary science and robotic operations portfolio altogether, including sample return.

    Nonetheless, President Donald Trump and Musk have pushed for human space exploration to somehow continue to progress, despite those proposed cuts – effectively sidelining the robotic, science-driven programs that have underpinned all of Mars exploration to date.

    Yet, it is these programs that have yielded humanity’s richest insights into the red planet and given both scientists and storytellers like Andy Weir the foundation to imagine what it must be like to stand on Mars’ surface at all.

    Ari Koeppel receives funding from NASA.

    – ref. A decade after the release of ‘The Martian’ and a decade out from the world it envisions, a planetary scientist checks in on real-life Mars exploration – https://theconversation.com/a-decade-after-the-release-of-the-martian-and-a-decade-out-from-the-world-it-envisions-a-planetary-scientist-checks-in-on-real-life-mars-exploration-255752

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Lifecycle of a research grant – behind the scenes of the system that funds science

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Kelly S. Mix, Associate Dean for Research, Innovation, and Partnerships in the College of Education, University of Maryland

    Without grants for salaries, supplies and more, many research labs would be empty. Solskin/DigitalVision via Getty Images

    Science funding is a hot topic these days and people have questions about how grants work. Who decides whether a researcher will receive funds? What’s the decision-making process? How is the money spent once a grant proposal has been approved?

    As a veteran academic researcher, department chairperson and associate dean for research, I have seen this process play out from multiple perspectives – as a grant recipient, grant reviewer and university administrator.

    Research organizations and major federal funders, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), all rely on careful systems of checks and balances to ensure high standards of scholarship and financial integrity at every stage of a grant’s lifecycle. Here’s how it all works.

    The birth of a grant application

    To receive research funding, scientists submit grant applications to specific programs. A cancer researcher might apply to the Bioengineering Research Grants program at NIH. Someone investigating sustainable fishing in freshwater habitats could seek funding from the Population and Community Ecology program at the NSF.

    Applications must be responsive to the funding program’s specific request for proposals, or RFP. The RFP tells researchers what the agency wants to fund. For example, the NSF’s Education Core Research program currently only funds projects focused on STEM learning.

    RFPs might have other application requirements, too, like explaining how a project will contribute to the public good, or supporting training for new scientists.

    Grant applications have two main parts. First, the researcher presents an extensive literature review to explain why the new project is needed and what it will add to the existing knowledge base. Next, they write up a detailed description of the proposed research plan. This basic two-part structure ensures that funded research will yield important information that is both new and trustworthy.

    Reviewers read the grant applications and compare them to the RFP. Applications that don’t address all the topics and research priorities listed there are unlikely to be funded. I once had a proposal rejected without further review because I left out a paragraph addressing one of the items in the agency’s new RFP. This initial review for RFP compliance is called “triage” and, believe me, nobody wants to see their hard work triaged out of the running.

    A panel of anonymous content experts carefully reviews applications to see if they’re worth funding.
    PeopleImages/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    Merit review: How funding decisions are made

    Federal funding decisions are made through rigorous merit review.

    For each round of funding, agencies assemble a panel of anonymous content experts who will look for strengths and weaknesses in the proposals – anything from innovation in the question posed to logical flaws in the hypotheses or technical problems with the planned data analyses. With a group of experts looking for every possible weakness, having your grant reviewed is a bit like running a gauntlet.

    This careful review might help explain why 70% to 80% of grant applications typically go unfunded at agencies like the NIH and the NSF. But this level of scrutiny is necessary to prevent funding poorly designed or low-impact research.

    Several safeguards head off bias or unethical influences during merit review.

    First, reviewers must disclose any conflicts of interest with the pool of applicants before they can access the applications. Conflicts of interest can include situations like the reviewer having been the student of an applicant, the applicant and reviewer being divorced, or the proposal coming from the reviewer’s current institution.

    When conflicts are identified, the reviewer can remain on the panel, but they are completely excluded from decisions related to that application. They cannot even be in the room when it is discussed.

    Second, reviewers usually attend a meeting, supervised by program staff from the funding agency, where everyone debates the proposal’s merits before they score it. Sometimes panel members disagree in their initial critiques and use the meeting to hash out their differences. Other times, a reviewer might raise an important concern that others missed.

    Group discussion helps ensure a transparent and thorough review. It also stops any single reviewer from dictating the fate of a proposal because everyone hears the discussion and then scores the proposal individually. Whether a reviewer thinks an application is outstanding or fatally flawed, they must convince the rest of the experts in the room for the group’s overall scores to be greatly affected.

    Third, these discussions, along with the applications themselves and any written critiques, are strictly confidential. Reviewers sign written confidentiality agreements under penalty of perjury. This practice stops panelists from scoring political points by telling an applicant they defended their proposal, or divulging trade secrets and proprietary information.

    Following the meeting, final decisions are made by program staff using the reviewers’ evaluations. Some agencies adhere closely to the reviewers’ numeric scores – like a grade – when making these decisions. Others ask reviewers to sort applications into “fundable” or “non-fundable” piles; program staff then have some discretion on the final decision. But all decisions are rooted in the peer critiques.

    Researchers and their institutions keep careful records of where every penny gets spent.
    krisanapong detraphiphat/Moment

    Spending the funds

    Headlines about universities receiving large grants may leave the impression that such funds are simply added to the institution’s general coffers. But research funds are granted to support specific research projects, and agencies have strict rules about spending the money.

    For example, if a researcher wants to present their findings at a conference, they can charge the grant for their travel costs, but they may not charge above a certain amount for their lodging or purchase business class airplane tickets. Similarly, if a researcher wants to have more time to devote to a funded project, they can use part of the money to pay their own salary in the summer, but there are precise limits on the amount of funding that can be used for this purpose.

    It’s not up to the researcher alone to follow these rules. The organization that employs the researcher, usually a university, enforces the agency rules because it’s the employing organization that controls the grant accounts.

    Returning to the conference travel example, a university researcher who wants to attend a conference must request permission and provide a budget for the trip before purchasing tickets. If the travel request is approved by their department chair, dean and the university travel office, they may go ahead with their reservations. However, if they don’t produce receipts when they return, they will not be allowed to charge the grant. The same process applies to buying new computers for the lab, ordering standardized tests for a study or purchasing gift cards for study participants.

    Research organizations are highly motivated to enforce spending rules properly, because everyone in the organization is at risk of losing access to federal funds in the future if they let things slide. Funding agencies also require periodic reports and sometimes conduct audits to ensure compliance. These practices help guard against any misuse of funds.

    The way agencies issue grants to researchers isn’t perfect. But processes like issuing detailed RFPs, conducting merit reviews and monitoring financial compliance go a long way toward protecting the integrity of the research funding process.

    Kelly S. Mix currently receives research funding from the Institute of Education Sciences (U.S. Dept. of Education) and has previously received research funding from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and various foundations. The opinions and positions expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the opinions and positions of these funders. She has volunteered for the Democratic Party.

    – ref. Lifecycle of a research grant – behind the scenes of the system that funds science – https://theconversation.com/lifecycle-of-a-research-grant-behind-the-scenes-of-the-system-that-funds-science-255163

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Teachers to benefit from pay boost

    Source: United Kingdom – Government Statements

    Press release

    Teachers to benefit from pay boost

    Teachers in England set to receive a 4% pay award from September.

    Teachers will receive a 4% pay boost from September, after the Education Secretary accepted the teachers’ pay body recommendation in full today (22 May) marking a major step toward delivering 6,500 teachers by the end of Parliament.

    The independent School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) recommended a pay award of 4% for 2025/26 academic year, building on the 5.5% pay award made last year.

    Like the rest of the public sector, schools will need to play their part in getting maximum value from every pound of public money. Schools will be expected to find the first 1% of the pay award through improved productivity and smarter spending with the government providing significant additional investment of £615 million. Many schools are already making savings and driving costs down including the 400 schools who took part in the department’s new energy deal which will save them 36% on average.

    The government has also taken tough but fair choices to afford the above inflation pay award – ending tax breaks for private schools, as well as programmes offering poor value for money and driving efficiency through boosting digital capability, so every pound is spent on driving high and rising standards for our children.

    The pay boost builds on the work already underway to deliver on the government’s commitment as part of its Plan for Change to drive high and rising standards for every child, in every school. This includes a stronger accountability system through reforms to Ofsted inspection, new regional improvement teams to tackle poorly performing schools, and a new, rich and broad curriculum so pupils are set up for life, work and the future.

    £160 million will also be provided to colleges and providers of 16-19 education. The cash will help them to address immediate priorities, including recruiting and retaining expert teachers in subject areas such as construction and manufacturing so more young people gain the skills needed to drive economic growth and deliver the workforce which businesses and public services need.

    Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said:

    Teachers have been overstretched and undervalued for far too long but from my first day in office, I have made it my priority to back them so that teaching is restored as the highly valued profession it should be.

    This pay award for schools backed by major investment alongside funding for further education is in recognition of the crucial role teachers play in breaking the link between background and success and will support schools and colleges to invest in the workforce they need, so every young person achieves and thrives.  

    As part of our Plan for Change, we are already seeing green shoots, with two thousand more secondary school teachers training this year than last and more teachers forecasted to stay in the profession.

    Through its Plan for Change the government is determined to ensure there are more expert teachers in front of classrooms, so every child and young person has access to an excellent education.

    Hundreds of millions of pounds are also being invested to offer tax free financial incentives and professional development to attract and keep the best and brightest teachers across the country, alongside targeted action to improve teachers’ workload and wellbeing.

    There are encouraging signs that this is working with two thousand more secondary school teachers training this year than last, a 25% increase in the number of people accepting teacher training places in STEM subjects, and more teachers forecasted to stay in the profession.

    Alongside the significant investment announced today the government has been clear that it will support leaders to get best value from their funding including by offering schools a suite of productivity initiatives to help them slash the costs on things like energy, banking and recruitment so every penny is invested on delivering opportunities for young people.

    Through its landmark Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, the government is also legislating so every parent can be confident of a core high quality education offer for their child – ensuring that all children learn from a cutting-edge curriculum and are taught by an excellent qualified teacher.

    DfE media enquiries

    Central newsdesk – for journalists 020 7783 8300

    Updates to this page

    Published 22 May 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Rector of SPbPU Andrey Rudskoy awarded with Gratitude from the President of Russia

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –

    At the 20th St. Petersburg International Book Fair, which is taking place in our city, the rector of the Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University Andrei Rudskoy was awarded the Gratitude of the President of Russia for his participation in the creation of the book “Putin in the Mirror of Time. Biography Milestones and Chronicles of the Era.” The award was presented by the Governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov and the President of the Russian Book Union Sergei Stepashin.

    The book, co-authored by historian Alexander Myasnikov and journalist Sergei Dmitriev, is a biography of Vladimir Putin, supplemented with unique photographs and historical information.

    Andrey Rudskoy noted: It is a great honor to receive the Gratitude of the President of Russia from the hands of the Governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Dmitrievich Beglov and the President of the Russian Book Union Sergey Vadimovich Stepashin. Our joint work with Sergey Nikolaevich Dmitriev and Alexander Leonidovich Myasnikov “Putin in the Mirror of Time” has found a worthy assessment among a wide range of readers, and for us this is the main indicator that we are making our contribution to the creation of the chronicle of modern Russia, telling about the key events and achievements of the country. It is undoubtedly pleasant that the award ceremony took place within the framework of the XX St. Petersburg International Book Salon, where the Polytechnic Publishing House is traditionally represented.

    The book “Putin in the Mirror of Time. Milestones of the Biography and Chronicles of the Era” is a large-scale work covering key moments in the life and political career of Vladimir Putin. The publication not only covers biographical milestones, but also offers a deep analysis of the era in which the Russian president managed to return the country to its status as a great power. Through the prism of presidential documents, speeches and messages to the Federal Assembly, the authors recreate a vivid and dynamic chronicle of the events that defined modern Russia.

    Let us recall that the 20th anniversary St. Petersburg International Book Fair opened today on Palace Square. It will last four days. Last year, it was visited by more than half a million people.

    The SPbPU Publishing and Printing Center (POLITEKH-PRESS) traditionally becomes an active participant in the Book Salon. At the stand, the company presents a wide range of products: new books of the current year, exclusive series of postcards and flip calendars with picturesque views of St. Petersburg and the Polytechnic University. Guests can also purchase a variety of souvenirs.

    This year, special attention is paid to the current topics of the Book Salon. The events and exposition of POLITEKH-PRESS are dedicated to the Year of the Defender of the Fatherland and the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory. This is reflected in the special design of the stand with information posters called “Polytechnicians for Victory”, which tell about the role of the university staff and students during the war.

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: More Than $50M Awarded By Restore NY Communities

    Source: US State of New York

    overnor Kathy Hochul today announced that more than $50 million has been awarded to 50 projects through the State’s Restore New York Communities Initiative. Restore New York supports municipal revitalization efforts with funds to help remove and reduce blight, reinvigorate communities and generate new residential and economic opportunities statewide. The program, administered by Empire State Development, is designed to help local governments encourage new commercial investments through community revitalization, growing local housing, and putting properties back on the tax rolls to increase the local tax base.

    “Revitalizing and rehabilitating vacant and blighted areas of our communities for housing or development is vital to make downtowns thrive,” Governor Hochul said. “Restore New York helps our municipalities plan for the future by catalyzing economic growth and supporting housing, businesses and cultural spaces. We are further unlocking the potential of these sites and communities across New York.”

    Two applications were awarded a Special Project designation because, if left undeveloped, the parcel or property causes severe economic injury or creates a depressing effect on the overall economic development potential of the community. The City of Rome was awarded $3.5 million to rehabilitate two buildings that were destroyed by the tornado that touched down in Rome on July 16, 2024. Upon completion, these buildings will add an additional 180,000 square feet of commercial manufacturing space to the community. Additionally, the City of Ogdensburg was awarded $3.5 million to rehabilitate several historic mill buildings on the St. Lawrence River waterfront into a mixed-use complex.

    Empire State Development President, CEO and Commissioner Hope Knight said, “Under Governor Hochul’s leadership, New York State is building for the future by supporting projects that advance statewide priorities like increasing housing and revitalizing communities. Through the Restore New York Communities Initiative, we are working together with municipalities to remove blight and generate new investments to promote sustainable economic growth.”

    A full list of Restore New York projects awarded funding in this round is available below, or online here.

    The Capital Region was awarded more than $4.45 million to support four projects:

    • Village of Colonie – $999,934: This project involves demolishing an abandoned, deteriorating building at 1579 Central Avenue, making the property readily available for future development opportunities.
    • City of Glens Falls – $1 million: The “Lofts at Warren” project, located at 109 and 115-117 Warren Street, will involve the demolition of two garages and the redevelopment of two vacant lots. The resulting mixed-use building will consist of 3,000 square-feet of first-floor commercial space and 65 one- and two-bedroom apartments on three floors. The commercial space will be utilized by retail and office storefront space leased to small businesses serving the City’s distressed First Ward and high-traffic Warren Street Corridor.
    • Village of Hoosick Falls – $985,000: This project involves the rehabilitation of a vacant warehouse at 1 Center Street into a mixed-use property with commercial opportunities and one- and two-bedroom residential units. It will provide incubator space at fixed rates, with plans for a locally owned brewery and gym/fitness center.
    • City of Schenectady – $1.5 million: The St. Clare’s Hospital redevelopment project will rehabilitate one of the largest buildings in the city – a 400,000 square foot building at 600 McClellan Street – on a 17-acre site. The building will be repurposed into a mixed-use property with approximately 236 apartments with on-site daycare and is part of a targeted redevelopment effort by the City and Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority.

    Central New York was awarded $6 million to support seven projects:

    • Village of Cayuga – $1 million: This project will transform a 20,000 square-foot vacant and deteriorated office building into a waterfront lodging destination. Located at the Beacon Bay Marina, 6255 Water Street, this redevelopment will include the creation of 10-15 one or two-bedroom suites, and a small outdoor rooftop event space with scenic views.
    • City of Cortland – $242,000: This project involves the demolition of a property, formerly known as the Roundhouse Mill, at 41 Elm Street. Set in an otherwise largely residential neighborhood, the mill has been vacant and deteriorating for several years, and demolition will allow for the future redevelopment of the 1.5-acre site, part of the City’s Brownfield Opportunity Area.
    • City of Fulton – $1 million: This project will redevelop the blighted former Nestle Building at 533 South 4th Street into a 30,000 square-foot advanced manufacturing incubator, targeting startup companies and fostering regional economic growth. The new facility will serve as a hub for innovation, supporting the needs of emerging manufacturers and leveraging opportunities created by the Micron semiconductor plant being developed in nearby Clay. The outcome will be a state-of-the-art facility, designed to drive job creation, industrial innovation and sustained regional development.
    • City of Oneida – $1 million: This project involves the partial demolition and rehabilitation of two vacant and severely dilapidated structures at 136 and 138 Madison Street. The buildings will retain their historic character, with each accessible to the other via a common elevator and stairwell, and new spaces added on the upper floors. Parking will be constructed to service the project. The redevelopment will include 15 live/work units and is across the street from a previous Restore New York project at 155 Madison Street.
    • Onondaga County – $1 million: The Milton Corner Development project consists of the reconstruction of five contiguous lots at 2281, 2273, 2263, 2259 and 2243 Milton Avenue in Solvay that were previously developed, but lost to a fire several years ago. The developer plans to demolish remaining walls and foundations and build a mixed-use building with parking and storage in the basement area. On the street level, the building will offer 12,000 square feet of new retail space and 33 apartments on the upper three floors.
    • City of Oswego – $700,000: The Oswego Freight House redevelopment will transform the historic 7,200-square-foot rail freight house at 20-24 West Utica Street into a 10-brewer barrel brewery, taproom, and retail space. The project will preserve the building’s 175-year-old character while addressing years of structural decay and blight. Located near the City’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative projects, this redevelopment will leverage completed and ongoing investments to further revitalize the Utica Street corridor.
    • City of Syracuse – $1.058 million: This project aims to transform two vacant, underutilized and blighted properties at 366 and 615 West Onondaga Street into approximately 31 new housing units, including both market-rate and affordable options, alongside six office suites. This project falls within the City’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative zone.

    The Finger Lakes was awarded $5.94 million to support six projects:

    • Village of Dansville – $710,000: This project involves a historic, three-story building at 154-162 Main Street that has been vacant for years and mostly uninhabitable. Phase one is nearing completion and includes the restoration of five first-floor commercial units returning the façade to its original design. Restore New York funding will support Phase Two, which includes the creation of four affordable, one-bedroom and four market-rate two-bedroom apartments on the vacant second and third floors. Windows, doors, and historic features such as trim work will be restored and reused wherever possible.
    • City of Geneva – $1 million: The DeSales High School Revitalization Project will consist of the comprehensive renovation of the interior and exterior of the long vacant school at 136 and 138 Madison Street. The renovated property will feature 17 market-rate residential units and four commercial offices while retaining the existing gym, which will continue to be leased to a local school.
    • Town of Macedon – $480,000: This project involves the renovation and restoration of 103 Main Street, which has been left underutilized and vacant. The first-floor commercial unit will be rehabilitated into restaurant space, and the walk-out basement transformed into storage and utility space. Three loft-style apartment units will be built on the upper floor. The project will include electrical, HVAC, and plumbing upgrades; construction of an elevator shaft and elevator; accessibility upgrades; and a new side entrance that will provide easy access to the Trolley Town Square public park.
    • Monroe County – $2 million: Built in 1929, the Genesee Valley Trust Building (now the Times-Square Building) at 45 Exchange Street is one of Rochester’s most iconic high-rises. Post-COVID the building has become mostly vacant. This project intends to convert the vacant floors into market-rate apartments, while refreshing 15,000 square feet of existing space into modern, attractive commercial and retail suites. This project in total will convert over 100,000 square feet of space into a certified historic rehabilitation project, approved by the New York State Historic Preservation Office and the National Parks Service.
    • Village of Medina – $850,000: This project intends to re-activate a historic mixed-use building at 409-13 Main Street, known as the Waters Building, by creating two commercial units in the rear-facing, sub-grade space; a new commercial flex kitchen at street-level; and four new residential units in the structure’s fully vacant upper story. This project will provide an enhanced destination and add an amenity to a planned waterfront destination.
    • Village of Phelps – $900,000: This project will restore and revitalize the 1892-era Phelps Hotel at 90 Main Street, which has been vacant for approximately 40 years. In an effort to restore the interior to its historic roots, the project will involve significant renovations in order for the building to be considered habitable. The reconstruction will include installing plumbing, electrical and HVAC systems, and creating eight upper-story residential units alongside a restaurant and speakeasy on the first floor and basement.

    Long Island– The Long Island Region was awarded $1.79 million to support two projects:

    • Village of Port Jefferson – $790,000: This project includes the demolition and redevelopment of 1506 and 1510-1512 Main Street. This will allow for the future redevelopment of an approximately 35,290 gross square foot, four-story mixed-use building consisting of 42 multi-family residential units, and approximately 1,800 square feet of commercial space.
    • Suffolk County – $1 million: This project is the development of a multi-family, mixed income rental housing at 309 Merritt Avenue in the Hamlet of Wyandanch in the Town of Babylon. The development will include 81 residential units in a 4-story, 82,000 square foot building with proximity to transit. This location is the site of a former cream distributor that has already been demolished. The ground floor of the development will include parking, a lobby, management office, common laundry and a fitness center.

    The Mid-Hudson Region was awarded more than $4.24 million to support six projects:

    • City of Kingston– $477,000: Located at the entrance of the Cornell Street arts corridor, the long-dormant commercial property at 289 Foxhall Avenue will be rehabilitated for the purchase and use by Headstone, Inc., creating new opportunities for jobs, apprenticeships and job shadowing for high school students. Studio spaces will be available to lease by local independent artisans and will provide administrative spaces for local arts organizations. Parking lots will be landscaped to anticipate planned street redesign and provide a welcoming space on a street that has become an arts destination.
    • City of Poughkeepsie– $1 million: The project will renovate the upper floors of the historic Bardavon Opera House at 31 Market Street and the adjacent three-story building at 39 Market Street into a single 35,000 square-foot, five-story mixed-use development. This will create 49 new residential units, that range from studio to two-bedroom apartments, and make improvements to the building’s mechanical systems and structural stability. The entire ground level will be rehabilitated, activating retail space that has been vacant for years.
    • Town of Cornwall – $800,000: The project will transform a long vacant former car dealership at 317 Main Street into a new, upscale 52-unit boutique hotel with a full-service restaurant and bar in the heart of the town. The project will create 35 new full-time hospitality positions and address a significant shortfall in Orange County lodging options, as determined by a study completed by the Orange County Department of Tourism and Film.
    • Town of Fallsburg – $755,450: The proposed project involves the demolition of a condemned schoolhouse at 36 Laurel Avenue and site preparation for the future construction of a 5,000-square-foot healthcare facility. The cleared, shovel-ready site and enhanced infrastructure will support the construction of a permanent medical home for underserved residents.
    • Town of Rockland – $1 million: The Livingston Legacy Holdings Project will transform seven long vacant, formerly commercial structures on 10 Pleasant Street into a bustling multi-use hospitality campus, featuring a restaurant, a sake brewery and tasting room, open air market, public gardens and multi-use spaces for other community-defined needs. Once complete, this campus will feature a much-needed venue suitable for large gatherings and social events requiring large spaces, parking, and catering capabilities.
    • Village of Sleepy Hollow –$211,500: This project is for site deconstruction, cleanup and improvements for 64/68 Beekman Avenue. This vacant and neglected site is located at the heart of the Village’s main commercial corridor, squarely within its NY Forward boundary. Revitalization of the site will increase access to services and make the Village’s downtown more livable. The building at these properties burned down years ago and the site has been overgrown with scattered debris for more than a decade.

    The Mohawk Valley was awarded nearly $8 million to support six projects:

    • City of Rome – $3.5 million – Special Project: This project will repair, rehabilitate, and modernize two tornado-damaged vacant properties at 220 South Madison Street and 522 Henry Street. The EF-2 tornado that swept through the region on July 16, 2024 extensively damaged the 180,000-square-foot facility, collapsing portions of the roof, shattering windows, blowing out entire exterior walls and damaging critical electrical infrastructure. One building will be developed for mixed use with first-floor commercial and event space, and the other will become the largest available industrial space in the Utica-Rome metropolitan statistical area.
    • City of Amsterdam – $1 million: This project will involve the conversion of the former Sonoco Paper Mill at 58-62 Forest Road into a bakery, brewpub and retail location. Upon completion the site will serve as the production and distribution center for Boogie Lab Bakery. The conversion of this abandoned factory into a new production facility for the Bakery and a Brewpub is expected to bring at least 150 jobs to the city.
    • Village of Boonville – $1 million: The Boone Building at 133, 135 and 139 Main Street suffered a devastating fire in 2020, hollowing out the core of the village’s downtown. Reconstruction is planned that will create three first-floor commercial spaces to house a sporting goods store, artisanal meat market, and jewelry store/boutique gift shop. The two upper floors will be ten residential one- and two-bedroom units.
    • Village of Cooperstown – $1 million: This project will demolish 217 Main Street, the site of a former cheese factory, furniture store and baseball bat factory that has sat vacant for years. After demolition, a 50-unit, elevator serviced three-story apartment building will be constructed. This development will yield sorely needed accessible, affordable, and permanent supportive housing, featuring energy efficiency and green building practices, with on-site parking and amenities.
    • Village of Herkimer – $1 million: This project involves the rehabilitation of the historic former Masonic Temple, a 17,524-square-foot property on 415 N. Main Street, into a vibrant commercial hub addressing long-term vacancy and structural decline. The project will develop spaces for diverse business uses, including the region’s only certified kitchen to support food-based enterprises. This project resolves safety and aesthetic concerns, mitigates blight, and leverages the Village’s $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative to drive economic growth.
    • Village of Richfield Springs – $469,593: The total project includes the rehabilitation and renovation of 241 Main Street into an inn with guest rooms, an event center, and re-establishing the historic mineral spas. Outside renovations include securing the building’s envelope by replacing the roof, repairing the chimney and steps, installing gutters, and updating the fire escape. Inside renovations include transforming the fourth floor into an apartment, renovating the third-floor bathrooms and laundry room, upgrading electrical and HVAC, and repairing the plumbing.

    The North Country was awarded more than $8.6 million to support eight projects:

    • City of Ogdensburg – $3.5 Million – Special Project: This project includes the adaptive reuse of 119 W. River Street, a long-abandoned former waterfront hotel property situated along the St. Lawrence River. This transformative downtown initiative focuses on restoring two historic stone mill buildings to create a vibrant mixed-use destination, including 10 residential apartments. The redevelopment will breathe new life into a blighted area, enhance the local economy, and provide unique retail, residential, recreational, and dining opportunities for residents and visitors alike.
    • Village of Canton – $749,997: This project will demolish 6,400 square feet of vacant buildings and reconstruct 4,500 square feet of commercial and event space at 15 Gouverneur Street. The objective is to create a welcoming, functional mixed-use space that restores the beauty and history of Canton’s downtown waterfront and increases economic activity and opportunities.
    • Town of Elizabethtown – $500,000: The project involves two buildings on a single parcel of land at 13 Lawrence Way. The Hale House is a 6,500 square foot, 200-year-old building that was once a single-family home, but today is mostly vacant. It will be rehabilitated into four apartments – each approximately 1,650 square feet – aimed to attract young families and professionals. Additionally, the Law Library is completely vacant and lacks heat, water, and wastewater, and will be rehabilitated into a single unit.
    • Town of Lowville – $560,000: The project will redevelop approximately 6,500 square-feet of vacant space at 7623 North State Street, a historic brick block building in Downtown. Funding will assist with the costs for the installation of electrical and plumbing throughout the building, the construction of an ADA-compliant elevator, a stairwell, masonry repairs, and the construction of eight market-rate housing units and amenities.
    • Town of Martinsburg – $1 million: The General Martin Apartments project repurposes the former Glenfield Elementary School at 5960 Main Street into 63 affordable housing units. This adaptive reuse will include 55 one-bedroom, six two-bedroom, and two studio apartments. The building will undergo substantial renovations, incorporating community amenities like a fitness center, laundry facilities, a community room and an outdoor garden.
    • City of Ogdensburg – $914,355: Small City Brewing Company will transform a vacant building at 110 Lake Street into a craft brewery, advancing the development of Ogdensburg’s Marina District – a Brownfield Opportunity Area. The project will include a manufacturing facility with a commercial grade five-barrel brewing system and the addition of a 400 square foot grain room. SCBC plans to wholesale to restaurants and bars and open a retail tasting room on-site with a commercial kitchen and event space.
    • City of Plattsburgh – $405,000: The 5500 Peru Street project is aimed at revitalizing a multi-use building in a key area within the community. This project involves the reconstruction of a building that has been mostly vacant since 2006 into two residential units and more than 4,300 square feet of renovated commercial space.
    • Village of Waddington – $1 million: The former St. Paul’s Episcopal Church at 129 Lincoln Avenue is a 5,120-square-foot stone Georgian structure built in 1818. The now-vacant structure faces severe decay, threatening its place within the historic district. The Village plans to stabilize and rehabilitate the site, comprising the church, the adjoining brick rectory, and a rear wooden garage, to create a multi-use, non-sectarian recreational hub. This transformation will preserve its architectural heritage while drawing new residents, fostering community engagement and providing entertainment options.

    The Southern Tier was awarded $5.4 million to support seven projects:

    • City of Corning – $600,000: The project involves the historic rehabilitation and adaptive re-use of the former Steuben County Courthouse at 10 West First Street into seven apartment-style, market-rate residential units.
    • City of Elmira – $1 million: The Carriage House Inn Project consists of the complete renovation and adaptive reuse of 254 Baldwin Street, transforming the property into a boutique-style hotel to support and develop Elmira’s tourism arts and cultural industries. The finished site will house the Tommy Hilfiger Archive, event space, and 12 hotel rooms.
    • Village of Franklin – $1 million: Funds will support the rehabilitation of three adjoining, vacant, commercial/mixed-use properties at 438-444 Main Street in the heart of the Village’s Historic District totaling 13,500 square feet. The vacant and under-utilized space will be redeveloped into five new commercial businesses and a new apartment. The businesses include a restaurant, café/art studio, arcade & lounge, retail shop and commercial office space, seeking to fill the void of commercial businesses/services that are being sought by visitors.
    • Village of Hammondsport – $1 million: Restore funds will advance the redevelopment of the Curtiss School on 15 Bauder Avenue into 24 apartments, providing workforce housing ideal for young professionals and older adults. The redevelopment will also address the deteriorating building structure, particularly the roof. The building’s gymnasium will be adapted into commercial space ideal for retail, office or other community focused use.
    • City of Hornell – $300,000: The Landman Building is prominently located at 83-93 Main Street in downtown Hornell across from City Hall. The proposed project includes a full adaptive reuse of the existing building, with the addition of a third story. Once completed, the building will be a mixed-use development that will bring more residents and business opportunities into the downtown.
    • Village of Johnson City – $500,000: The proposed project consists of selective internal demolition and rehabilitation at the vacant former David College at 400 Riverside Drive to accommodate 62 apartments, five single-family homes and approximately 22,000 square feet of commercial space.
    • City of Norwich – $1 million: This two-story, 12,400-square-foot former office building at 23 East Main Street will be repurposed to meet critical community needs. The first floor will become a childcare center for 46 children, addressing Chenango County’s childcare desert. The second floor will house Commerce Chenango offices with a reception area, boardroom and conference space, supporting local businesses. The site’s emergency generator and location also position it for FEMA shelter designation, further strengthening community resilience.

    Western New York was awarded more than $6.1 million to support six projects:

    • Village of Almond – $1 million: This project includes the partial demolition and complete rehabilitation of a condemned, vacant and previously abandoned property known as “The Old Coslo’s Building” at 59 Main Street. The project proposes to rehabilitate this parcel into a mixed-use facility with five retail stores, 14 offices and four low-income apartments.
    • City of Jamestown – $721,704: The proposed Prendergast Landing redevelopment project aims to revitalize a historic, vacant building at 106-8 Fairmount Avenue and two adjacent lots into a vibrant, family-friendly destination. The refurbished three-story building will foster local economic growth by featuring a small café, a retail outfitter for outdoor activities, and a boutique showcasing local small businesses on the ground floor. The second floor will offer flexible office spaces ideal for entrepreneurs and a multipurpose room for community events. The third floor will provide three residential lofts that enhance the living experience close to recreational amenities.
    • Town of Niagara – $890,000: This project will redevelop a commercial site at 3505 Hyde Park Boulevard by rehabbing a 62,000 square foot building for future potential manufacturing, as well as demolishing other dilapidated buildings on the site to make way for more than 15 acres of industrial space.
    • Niagara County – $1.25 million: This project will rehab property along Cayuga Creek at 519 Cayuga Drive in Niagara Falls to create a mixed-use complex. They will be focused on the restoration of the retail space, the rehab of the apartments upstairs and the buildout of the dock with 15 new slips for recreational boaters to visit the neighborhood via the water.
    • City of Niagara Falls – $1.25 million: Funding will support a portion of the Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center Community Initiative. The Medical Center parking garage located at 620 10th Street is in bad condition and several sections are no longer accessible due to structural damage. Medical offices located on the top floor of this garage will be moved to the existing hospital across the street. Once demolished, the open space will be reconstructed into a flat parking area and a new parking garage will be constructed across the street at 621 10th Street.
    • City of North Tonawanda – $1 million: The Riverfront Vista project includes redevelopment of the former Metzger Removal site, a 3.1-acre brownfield site that encompasses 235 River Road and 190 Main Street. The $33.3 million project consists of a mixed-use residential and commercial project comprised of a four-story multi-family building with 48 apartment units and a mixed-use building with 39 apartments along with over 7,600 square-feet of commercial space and 2,690 square feet of community space.

    State Senator Sean Ryan said, “Restore NY is one of New York’s most impactful economic development programs. It encourages new business by reducing vacancy and paving the way for new commercial development. These awards will help turn underutilized properties into assets for the surrounding communities.”

    Assemblymember Al Stirpe said, “This round of awards, made possible by Governor Hochul and Restore New York, takes smart and strategic steps to breathe life back into our communities. Mitigating damage and restoring blighted structures will attract new business and restore the character of local towns in a sustainable way — conserving resources and building materials in the process. By bolstering local revitalization efforts, these projects open municipalities to economic, environmental, and residential opportunities that enhance quality of life for all New Yorkers.”

    These awards complement Governor Hochul’s economic development vision by making strategic investments in communities across the State which revitalize the economy and create more opportunities for New Yorkers. The FY2026 Budget invests $100 million for the Downtown Revitalization Initiative and $100 million for NY Forward. These programs help municipalities promote quality of life, foster socio-economic development and create walkable, livable and safer neighborhoods in every corner of the state. Additionally, the $400 million Championing Albany’s Potential initiative, a collaborative, State-led effort to revitalize Albany’s downtown core. The Budget also includes funding for the state’s Regional Economic Development Council initiative; new this year, the 10 councils will compete, in part, for $150 million in funding as part of the new ACHIEVE initiative to advance catalytic economic development projects backed by enhanced implementation funding to jump-start regional growth.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Govt should defuse NZ’s social timebomb – but won’t

    We have been handed a long and protracted recession with few signs of growth and prosperity. Budget 2025 signals more of the same, writes Susan St John.

    ANALYSIS: By Susan St John

    With the coalition government’s second Budget being unveiled, we should question where New Zealand is heading.

    The 2024 Budget laid out the strategy. Tax cuts and landlord subsidies were prioritised with a focus on cuts to social and infrastructure spending. Most of the tax package went to the well-off, while many low-income households got nothing, or very little.

    Even the tiny bit of the tax package directed to low-income people fell flat. Family Boost has significantly helped only a handful of families, while the increase of $25 per week (In Work Tax Credit) was denied all families on benefits, affecting about 200,000 of the very poorest children.

    In the recession, families that lost paid work also lost access to full Working for Families, an income cut for their children of about $100 per week.

    No one worked out how the many spending cuts would be distributed, but they have hurt the poor the most. These changes are too numerous to itemise but include increased transport costs; the reintroduction of prescription charges; a disastrous school lunch system; rising rents, rates and insurance; fewer budget advisory services; cuts to foodbank funding and hardship grants; stripping away support programmes for the disabled; inadequately adjusted benefits and minimum wage; and reduced support for pay equity and the living wage.

    The objective is to save money while ignoring the human cost. For example, a scathing report of the Auditor General confirms that Oranga Tamariki took a bulldozer to obeying the call for a 6.5 percent cut in existing social services with no regard to the extreme hurt caused to children and struggling parents.

    Budget 2025 has already indicated that Working for Families will continue to go backwards with not even inflation adjustments. The 2025 child and youth strategy report shows that over the year to June 2024 the number of children in material poverty continued to increase, there were more avoidable hospitalisations, immunisation rates for babies declined, and there was more food insecurity.

    Human costs all around us
    We can see the human costs all around us in homelessness, food insecurity, and ill health. Already we know we rank at the bottom among developed countries for child wellbeing and suicide rates.

    Abject distress existing alongside where homes sell for $20 million-$40 million is no longer uncommon, and neither are $6 million helicopters of the very rich.

    Changes in suicide rates (three-year average), ages 15 to 19 from 2018 to 2022 (or most recent four-year period available). Source: WHO mortality database

    At the start of the year, Helen Robinson, CEO of the Auckland City Mission, had a clear warning: “I am pleading with government for more support, otherwise what we and other food relief agencies in Auckland can provide, will dramatically decrease.

    “This leaves more of Auckland hungry and those already there become more desperate. It is the total antithesis of a thriving city.”

    The theory held by this government is that by reducing the role of government and taxes, the private sector will flourish, and secure well-paid jobs will be created. Instead, as basic economic theory would predict, we have been handed a long and protracted recession with few signs of growth and prosperity.

    Budget 2025 signals more of the same.

    It would be a mistake to wait for simplistic official inequality statistics before we act. Our current destination is a sharply divided country of extreme wealth and extreme poverty with an insecure middle class.

    Underfunded social agencies
    Underfunded and swamped social agencies cannot remove the relentless stress on the people who are invisible in the ‘fiscally responsible’ economic narrative. The fabricated bogeyman of outsized net government debt is at the core, as the government pursues balanced budgets and small government-size targets.

    A stage one economics student would know the deficit increases automatically in a recession to cushion the decline and stop the economy spiralling into something that looks more like a depression. But our safety nets of social welfare are performing very badly.

    Rising unemployment has exposed the inadequacy of social protections. Working for Families, for instance, provides a very poor cushion for children. Many “working” families do not have enough hours of work and face crippling poverty traps.

    Future security is undermined as more KiwiSavers cash in for hardship reasons. A record number of the talented young we need to drive the recovery and repair the frayed social fabric have already fled the country.

    The government is fond of comparing its Budget to that of a household. But what prudent household would deliberately undermine the earning capacity of family members?

    The primary task for the Budget should be to look after people first, to allow them to meet their food, dental and health needs, education, housing and travel costs, to have a buffer of savings to cushion unexpected shocks and to prepare for old age.

    A sore thumb standing
    In the social security part of the Budget, NZ Super for all at 65, no matter how rich or whether still in full-time well-paid work, dominates (gross $25 billion). It’s a sore thumb standing out alongside much less generous, highly targeted benefits and working for families, paid parental leave, family boost, hardship provisions, accommodation supplement, winter energy and other payments and subsidies.

    Given the political will, research shows we can easily redirect at least $3 billion from very wealthy superannuitants to fixing other payments to greatly improve the wellbeing of the young. This will not be enough but it could be a first step to the wide rebalancing needed.

    New Zealand has become a country of two halves whose paths rarely cross: a social time bomb with unimaginable consequences. It is a country beguiled by an egalitarian past that is no more.

    Susan St John is an associate professor in the Pensions and Intergenerational Equity hub and Economic Policy Centre, Business School, University of Auckland. This article was first published by Newsroom before the 2025 Budget and is republished with permission.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: M&S cyber-attack: how to protect yourself from sim-swap fraud

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Alan Woodward, Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Surrey

    Our mobile phone numbers have become a de facto form of identification, but they can be hijacked for nefarious purposes. Just such an attack may have been involved in the recent very damaging cyber-attack on Marks & Spencer (M&S).

    The hack happened in April and forced M&S to stop taking online orders. It also caused disruption to some of its stores. The company has said that its online business could be disrupted into July and could result in an estimated £300m hit to profits.

    The M&S incident is being widely reported as an example of what is known as “sim swap”. It’s a form of fraud that is on the rise and understanding how to protect against it will help limit its impact.

    Our mobile numbers are unique and we have them for years. This means that users generally want to keep hold of their number when they change they phones, or lose them. When a user buys a new phone, or just a new sim card for a spare device they might have, they might call their service provider to transfer their longstanding mobile number to the new sim card.

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    The problem is that the service provider doesn’t know if it is really them calling to transfer the number. Hence, they launch into a series of questions to make sure they are who they say they are.

    But what if someone else has the answers to the questions the service provider asks? Is your mother’s maiden name or that of your first pet really that secret?

    Easy pickings

    The rise of social media has made it easier than ever for scammers to piece together what was once considered private information. But this might not even be necessary. What if the service provider simply takes pity and falls for a tale of woe as to why you need to transfer the number but cannot remember an answer?

    Suddenly, someone else can make and receive calls and SMS messages using your
    number. This means they could make calls at your expense. However, it might seem logical that as soon as the service provider is informed of this, the provider should be able to stop it, and is likely to refund any fraudulent charges.

    However, there’s a catch. Remember when you created your email, bank account or even online grocery shopping account and you were encouraged to set up two-factor authentication (2FA)? You listened, but the system set your “second factor” as your mobile phone number. You input your username and password, and it asks for a time-limited code that it sends to you as an SMS message.

    If someone has managed to obtain your login username and password, typically through a phishing email or even a data breach, and they have control over your phone number, they now have everything they need to login to your account.

    This so-called sim-swap fraud is complex to pull off, but it is on the rise. Attacks rose by 1,055% in 2024, according to the National Fraud Database, and it has allegedly been used in many high-profile hacks such as that of former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in 2019.

    Effective counter-measures

    It is often used to target users who have high system privileges that gives them to access to systems that most users don’t have permissions for. Imagine such a sim swap was carried out on a system administrator. These are the very people who set and reset passwords, grant access to computer systems and, most dangerously, can upload further software to the network and its attached systems.

    This has proved such a useful hack that some services are switching to sending that time-limited code to you to messaging services such as WhatsApp. However, this approach is not foolproof, and so there is a rising adoption of authentication apps, which display a synchronised code that matches one held by the service to ensure authenticity.

    Nothing is 100% secure, and the security of authentication apps, assumes that you have a separate, strong password to prevent those who have stolen your phone number from accessing these authentication checks.

    Efforts to improve login security have led to the rise of what are known as passkeys, which are long sequence of random digits called cryptographic keys that are stored on your device, such as a smartphone or computer. It is only shown to your online account when you unlock your phone.

    A key step in authentication is therefore the method the person uses to access their device. This could be a biometric authenticator like a fingerprint or face scan, or a screen lock pin number. Passkeys are more resistant to phishing attacks and data breaches than traditional passwords.

    So, the next time you phone your mobile service provider and they insist on asking a host of questions to prove your identity, don’t complain, just think what could happen if they didn’t do sufficient checks and someone carried out a sim-swap scam on your number.

    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. M&S cyber-attack: how to protect yourself from sim-swap fraud – https://theconversation.com/mands-cyber-attack-how-to-protect-yourself-from-sim-swap-fraud-256611

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Helen Chadwick: Life Pleasures – a rich and witty retrospective that smells like chocolate

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Kerry Harker, PhD Candidate, Feminism and the Visual Arts , University of Leeds

    A bubbling Jacuzzi-sized fountain of molten chocolate greets visitors at the entrance to Life Pleasures, a major retrospective of British artist Helen Chadwick at the Hepworth gallery in Wakefield. The piece, named Cacao, was made in 1994, two years before the artist’s sudden death of a heart attack aged just 42.

    The installation encourages visitors to engage their senses of smell and sound as well as sight. These faculties are critical in approaching Chadwick’s sensorially and materially rich body of work. The sounds of the work’s electric motor and tantalising smell of its gurgling chocolate are everywhere throughout the show.

    The exhibition is the largest survey of Chadwick’s work yet, and her first since A Retrospective at the Barbican in London in 2004.

    Chadwick’s student work, Knitted Lillet Blood Cycle (1975) – a collection of ten life-sized, delicately knitted tampons depicted at various stages of crimson saturation – is the earliest work in the show.

    Between this and Cacao – two moments in the arc of her life and artistic practice – lie a multitude of rich, often witty and still fresh innovations with materials and forms in two and three dimensions.

    Collectively, they form an evolving self-portrait whether explicitly depicting the artist’s own body or representing it by other means. Carcass (1986) is a case in point.

    Helen Chadwick talks about Carcass.

    A tower of glass and Perspex, it mimics the vertical posture of an upright human body for which it is a proxy. Filled with organic matter – waste from the gallery cafe downstairs – it will continue to decay and be topped up over the course of the exhibition, performing the cyclical process of the human digestive system.

    Chadwick’s greatest hits

    Some of the pieces in the show will be familiar to those who know the artist’s work. This includes a series of photographs documenting Chadwick’s 1977 performance work In the Kitchen, for which she produced soft, wearable sculptures of domestic white goods including a washing machine and cooker.

    Piss Flowers (1991-92) are also on show, in which the artist and her husband David Notarius urinated into snow that was densely packed into a large flower-shaped cookie cutter. The resulting hollows were cast in bronze before being coated in white lacquer.

    Inverted, they appear as surreal oversized flowers, performing an unexpected gender reversal due to the deeper – and therefore taller once inverted – effect produced by the female urinary pattern which is recast as a suggestively phallic stamen.

    Other works similarly question gender norms and stereotypes.

    Self-portrait (1991) is a wall-mounted and back-lit transparent photograph. It depicts the artist’s hands gently cradling a human brain against a backdrop of ruched velvet. It is impossible to assign gender to this organ, denuded of the external bodily signifiers from which any socially inscribed concept of identity might normally be read.

    The sculptural installations The Oval Court (1984-86) and Ego Geometria Sum (1983) also explore the construction of narratives about the self.

    Both works have been reconstructed for Life Pleasures. The latter has been reassembled from individual works held in several public and private collections and the Arts Council Collection.

    In both of these installations, as with many others on show here, the artist experimented with photographic processes – a touchstone throughout her career. She was pushing the boundaries of the medium materially through processes such as photocopying, and conceptually by exploring its three-dimensional properties. That’s demonstrated through the series of wall-mounted sculptures that combine slick photographic images with various timbers, glass, aluminium and light.

    Chadwick’s enduring relevance

    In part, Life Pleasures restages many of the works included in Effluvia, Chadwick’s 1994 exhibition at London’s Serpentine Gallery.

    I was lucky enough to experience that exhibition just as my fine art studies at the University of Leeds were coming to an end. By 1994 Chadwick could be described in the exhibition’s catalogue as “one of Britain’s most prominent and provocative contemporary artists”.

    Her work as an artist and educator has been as influential for subsequent generations of female practitioners, in particular, as it was for me as a young art student then.

    Life Pleasures again reveals Chadwick as a sculptor of exactitude and thrilling inventiveness. Her unique work combines glossy, seductive precision with a delicate, tactile mastery of materials. Even as it explores the inescapable realities of the human body: its vulnerability, impurity and mutability.

    Seen in tandem with the fascinating Helen Chadwick: Artist, Researcher, Archivist now on show at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, Life Pleasures provides a very welcome opportunity to reassess Chadwick’s legacy and the enduring relevance of her work in the context of contemporary debates on sex and gender. Her often-cited status as an explicitly feminist artist, however, remains largely unexplored in deeper terms here.

    Helen Chadwick: Life Pleasures is at the Hepworth, Wakefield until October 27.

    Kerry Harker 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. Helen Chadwick: Life Pleasures – a rich and witty retrospective that smells like chocolate – https://theconversation.com/helen-chadwick-life-pleasures-a-rich-and-witty-retrospective-that-smells-like-chocolate-257155

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Anti-environmentalism is on the rise but it’s full of contradictions

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Alastair Bonnett, Professor of Geography, Newcastle University

    Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock

    Anti-environmentalism is gaining ground. Attacks on the net zero goal and hostility to conservation measures and anti-pollution targets are becoming more common. And, as recent election results have shown, these tactics are reshaping politics in Britain and across the west.

    Anti-environmentalism is a rejection of both environmental initiatives and activism. But despite its sudden rise and bold rhetoric, it is built on shaky foundations. The messages it offers are often contradictory and row against the tide of everyday experience.

    Take the US president, Donald Trump. He dismantled many environmental protections in his last term of office, and is now removing those that are left – including support for research that even mentions the word climate. Yet he told a rally in Wisconsin in 2024: “I’m an environmentalist. I want clean air and clean water. Really clean water. Really clean air.”

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    Some of the contradictions of anti-environmentalism reflect its departure from traditional conservatism. Although routinely identified as “conservative”, the populist anti-green politics of Republicans in the US and Reform in the UK, along with the AfD in Germany and National Rally in France, represent a radical challenge to the ideals of continuity and conservation that were once at the heart of conservatism.

    The Conservative Environment Network is an organisation which pitches itself as an “independent forum for conservatives in the UK and around the world who support net zero, nature restoration and resource security”. Much of this network’s work involves reminding people that important environmental protections, from America’s national parks to controls on pollution and climate change in Britain and elsewhere, were introduced by conservatives.

    But few on the right appear to be listening. A populist tide is washing this conservative tradition away, despite the fact that support for environmental protection remains very popular.

    Polling indicates that 80% of people in the UK worry about climate change. Public backing for the work of the US Environmental Protection Agency is also overwhelming, including among Republican voters.

    In part, this support reflects the fact that environmental damage is an everyday reality: unpredictable weather, the collapse of animal and insect populations, and a range of other challenges are not just on the TV, they are outside the window.

    In my research for a forthcoming book on environmental nostalgia across the world, I keep bumping into an irony. In western nations, voices from the right say they want their country back, yet appear hostile to environmental policies that would protect their country and ensure its survival.

    There are many reasons for this disconnect, including resentment against initiatives that require lifestyle and livelihood changes. However, the enmity and disengagement is more complicated than a simple rejection of nature.

    Many people – including Trump himself – claim they are environmentalists even when the evidence suggests otherwise. The signs and symbols of environmental care are knitted into every aspect of our commercial and cultural life: if wildlife could sue for copyright, there would a lot of rich bears.

    I argue that a distinction can be made between what I call “cold” and “hot” forms of environmentalism. The former values and mourns the loss of nature, but as a spectacle to be observed – a set of appealing images of flora and fauna – while the latter feels implicated and anxious.

    The former position allows people to claim they love nature yet be indifferent or even hostile to initiatives to save it. However, the line between cold and hot, or between anti- and pro-environmentalist, is neither fixed nor hard.

    Another quality of anti-environmentalism is that its beliefs are changeable, even quixotic. Climate change is an example.

    Reform’s leaders have long flirted with climate change denial. “Climate change has happened for millions of years,” explained former Reform UK leader Richard Tice in 2024, adding that “the idea that you can stop the power of the Sun or volcanoes is simply ludicrous”. Tice has not changed his views but later the same year, the party’s new leader, Nigel Farage, told the BBC that he was “not arguing the science”.

    Like other populist parties, Reform adopts a mobile position on the environment, moving between denying that climate change is happening or that humans are causing it, and the very different contention that anthropogenic climate change is real but that environmental targets are unreachable and unfair, given that other nations (China is often mentioned) supposedly do so little.

    A post-western paradox

    Researchers are only just starting to think about anti-environmentalism. One key analysis is environmental politics researcher John Hultgren’s The Smoke and the Spoils: Anti-Environmentalism and Class Struggle in the United States. This new book explains how Republicans managed to convince working-class voters that there is “zero-sum dichotomy between jobs and environmental protection, workers and environmentalists”.

    This kind of binary has also been found by contributors to The Handbook of Anti-Environmentalism, who identify and critique the stereotyping of environmentalism as middle-class and elite in several western countries.

    Yet the geographical focus of these pioneering works misses yet another of the paradoxes of anti-environmentalism: that although its rhetoric often accuses China and other non-western countries of doing little, there has been a significant environmental turn in both policy and public attitudes beyond Europe and the US.

    Environmentalism is becoming post-western. This is partly because the realities of environmental damage are so stark across much of Asia and Africa.

    Extreme temperatures and unpredictable rainfall are leading to food insecurity and community displacement. Environmentalism in the African Sahel and south Asia might better be called “survivalism”.

    And despite its continuing reliance on fossil fuels, China’s state-led vision of a transition to a conservationist and decarbonised “ecological civilisation” is positioning it as a global environmental leader.

    Stereotypes of environmentalism being primarily a western concern are crumbling. Because of this, along with the many contradictions that beset it, the rise of anti-environmentalism appears not only complex, but curious and unsustainable.

    Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

    Alastair Bonnett 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. Anti-environmentalism is on the rise but it’s full of contradictions – https://theconversation.com/anti-environmentalism-is-on-the-rise-but-its-full-of-contradictions-256911

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why gait quality matters as you age

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Helen Dawes, Professor of Clinical Rehabilitation, College of Medicine and Health, University of Exeter

    Studio Romantic/Shutterstock

    Walking is one of the most important things we do for our quality of life. In fact, research shows it contributes more than any other physical activity to how well we live day to day. Yet one in three people over the age of 60 report having some difficulty walking.

    As we age, gradual changes in our bodies and health can alter how we walk, often without us realising. But the way we walk, known as our gait pattern, matters more than we might think. Poor gait doesn’t just make walking harder and more tiring; it can lead to joint strain, instability, and a greater risk of falls.

    Think of your gait like a heart rhythm. Just as an electrocardiogram (ECG) shows whether your heart is functioning properly, your gait also has a rhythm. When that rhythm is off, it may be one of the earliest signs that you’re not ageing as well as you could be.

    Thanks to new technology, we can now measure gait quality more easily and precisely. One promising tool is the Heel2Toe wearable sensor. This small device attaches to your shoe and tracks the movement of your ankle as you walk, capturing your gait cycle in real time.

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    A healthy step begins with a strong heel strike. Your weight then rolls across the sole of your foot, ending with a push-off from the toes. As your foot lifts, it swings forward cleanly – no dragging or scuffing. This smooth sequence creates a rhythm in your ankle movements, one that, when consistent, resembles a kind of “walking ECG”.

    But over time, many people unconsciously adopt less efficient movement patterns. These altered gaits may feel normal, but they’re often unstable, tiring or unsafe.

    Poor gait can increase the risk of falls.
    https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/asian-senior-male-falling-on-ground-2147078055

    Poor gait reduces confidence, increases fall risk, and can discourage people from walking at all. And the less we walk, the weaker our muscles become – making the problem worse. It’s a vicious cycle.

    Relearning to walk well

    The good news is that we can retrain our gait.

    The Heel2Toe sensor doesn’t just monitor your movements – it also encourages better walking. When it detects a good step (one that begins with a strong heel strike), it delivers an audio cue as positive feedback. Over time, these cues help you rediscover a stronger, steadier walking pattern. Good gait becomes your new normal. Tools like Heel2Toe help people tune in to their body’s signals and make sustainable progress.

    The goal isn’t just to move more – it’s to move better.

    Of course, being physically active is only one aspect of what it means to live well as we grow older.

    To get a more complete picture of healthy ageing researchers have developed a tool that measures how often older adults experience key aspects of wellbeing. This tool – the Opal measure (Older Persons for Active Living) – goes beyond tracking what people do. It asks how they feel about their lives.

    Opal can help people understand their own wellbeing and it offers policymakers and communities a way to evaluate how well their services support older citizens – not just physically, but socially and emotionally too.

    For people, this means that even small improvements, like better gait, can lead to meaningful changes in how you feel: more confident, more mobile and more independent.

    For communities, it’s a reminder that promoting physical activity is important – but not enough. We also need programs, spaces and services that foster connection, purpose, creativity and joy.

    What does ‘active living’ really mean?

    In a 2024 international study, older adults in Canada, UK, US and the Netherlands shared what “active living” means to them – across four languages and cultural contexts.

    They identified 17 distinct “ways of being” that contribute to feeling active. Physical health was just one part. Others included feeling: confident, connected, creative, energised, encouraged, engaged, happy, mentally healthy, independent, interested, mentally sharp, motivated, resilient and self-sufficient.

    In other words, active living isn’t just about taking (or counting) steps, it’s about how you feel while taking them.

    Ageing is inevitable. But ageing well? That’s something we can shape – step by step.

    Helen Dawes is Director of International Affairs of PhysioBiometrics Inc. she receives funding from NIHR Exeter Biomedical Resarch Council and NIHR Exeter Sustainable Health Technology Centre.

    Nancy Mayo is co-founder and President of PhysioBiometrics Inc. a company that commercializes the Heel2Toe sensor to make it available for all. She has received funding from Healthy Brains for Health Lives (HBHL), McGill University, to develop and test the Heel2Toe sensor.

    – ref. Why gait quality matters as you age – https://theconversation.com/why-gait-quality-matters-as-you-age-256636

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Gov. Kemp: Mercedes-Benz Establishing North American Headquarters, new Research & Development Hub in Metro Atlanta

    Source: US State of Georgia

    ATLANTA – Governor Brian P. Kemp today announced that Mercedes-Benz will establish Atlanta as Mercedes-Benz’s headquarters in North America by centralizing and uniting key corporate functions. The company will move up to 500 jobs to the existing Mercedes-Benz facility, known as “1MB,” in Fulton County, and make a multi-million dollar investment in a future state-of-the-art Research & Development (R&D) facility to also be located nearby.

    “Georgia continues to lead the way in the future of mobility and technical innovation, attracting world-class companies like Mercedes-Benz that are driving the automotive industry forward,” said Governor Brian Kemp. “We’re excited that a job creator that already has close ties to Georgia is doubling down on that choice and growing their presence here in the best state for business and opportunity.”

    Mercedes-Benz opened its “1MB” facility in 2018 in Sandy Springs, which currently supports approximately 800 jobs in Georgia.

    “We thank the State of Georgia for its support in deepening Mercedes-Benz’s roots in the Atlanta area as we bring even more talented team members to this world-class city,” said Jason Hoff, CEO of Mercedes-Benz North America.  “This strengthens our position for continued growth and reinforces our established commitment to the U.S. market. Bringing our teams closer together will enable us to be more agile, increase speed to market, and ensure the best customer experience.” 

    The ”1MB” facility located in Sandy Springs will house the existing sales teams as well as financial services teams and corporate functions. The new state-of-the-art Research & Development hub will be located near Sandy Springs. The company anticipates that the move to metro Atlanta will be completed by August 2026. To learn more about Mercedes-Benz, visit www.mbusa.com/en/careers or group.mercedes-benz.com/careers.

    “We’re excited to see Mercedes-Benz expanding in Sandy Springs,” said Mayor Rusty Paul, City of Sandy Springs. “Since establishing their headquarters here in 2018, they have been outstanding corporate partners. Their decision to grow in Sandy Springs highlights the success of the city’s recent infrastructure and capital investments which are now clearly paying dividends. This expansion represents a wonderful opportunity and a significant milestone for our continued development.”

    “Having a globally recognized brand like Mercedes-Benz reaffirm its commitment by investing and growing here in Fulton County is a testament to the strength and vitality of our community,” said Chairman Robb Pitts, Fulton County Board of Commissioners. “It proves Fulton County continues to be a destination for corporate solutions, providing major companies an accessible, vibrant, and growing community for their business to thrive in.”

    “This expansion is a testament to both Mercedes-Benz’s commitment to excellence and metro Atlanta’s strength as a hub for innovation and talent. When the 1MB facility opened in 2018, it quickly became an integral part of our business landscape, driving economic growth and elevating the region’s global presence,” said Katie Kirkpatrick, President & CEO of the Metro Atlanta Chamber. “We are proud to see this partnership deepen as Mercedes-Benz continues to invest in our future shared success.”

    Assistant Director of Statewide Projects Elizabeth McLean represented the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s (GDEcD) Global Commerce team on this competitive project in partnership with the City of Sandy Springs, Select Fulton, Metro Atlanta Chamber, and Georgia Power.

    “Since the strategic decision to relocate Mercedes-Benz USA to Sandy Springs in 2018, we have watched Mercedes-Benz become an integral part of our business community. Their continued growth and community involvement are a prime example of why we recruit industry leaders such as Mercedes-Benz to Georgia,” said GDEcD Commissioner Pat Wilson. “This expansion and commitment to R&D in the metro Atlanta area will further strengthen the company’s long-term success, and highlights the talent and collaborative partnerships fostered by the University System of Georgia.”

    About Mercedes-Benz AG

    Mercedes-Benz AG is part of the Mercedes-Benz Group AG with a total of around 175,000 employees worldwide and is responsible for the global business of Mercedes-Benz Cars and Mercedes-Benz Vans. Ola Källenius is Chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz AG. The company focuses on the development, production, and sales of passenger cars, vans, and vehicle-related services. Furthermore, the company aspires to be the leader in the fields of electric mobility and vehicle software. The product portfolio comprises the Mercedes-Benz brand with Mercedes AMG, Mercedes Maybach, and G Class with their all-electric models as well as products of the smart brand. Mercedes-Benz AG is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of high-end passenger cars.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Eight years after arena attack, Manchester bee commercialisation has unsettled some Mancunians

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Ashley Collar, PhD Candidate in Sociology & Associate Lecturer in Criminology at MMU, University of Manchester

    espesorroche/Shutterstock

    If you visit Manchester, one of the first things you’ll notice is the great number of bee images throughout the city. Born in the Industrial Revolution, the “worker bee” symbol captured the city’s tireless spirit and its legacy as a buzzing hive of industry. Today, the symbol is more often associated with collective resilience and remembrance following the Manchester Arena attack on May 22 2017.

    The bee became a powerful symbol of the “Mancunian spirit”, emerging almost instantly on murals, on bodies as tattoos and on public memorials. Over the last eight years, it has become a core part of Manchester’s identity.

    A memorial at Manchester’s Victoria station in May 2024.
    Ashley Collar

    As part of my ongoing PhD research, I set out to understand why the bee is everywhere in Manchester and what it means to people. I interviewed 24 Mancunians who were living in the city at the time of the attack, including some who were directly affected.

    Conducted in 2023, seven years after the attack, these interviews aimed to capture how the symbol’s meaning had evolved as the city continued to process and commemorate the event.

    For many, the bee still stands as a symbol of resilience, a reminder of how the city came together in the face of tragedy. But for others, its presence throughout Manchester has become more of a burden than a comfort.

    Appearing on buses, shop windows and public spaces, it serves as a constant and eerie reminder of the events and aftermath of the attack. Eight of my interviewees described these as memories of “trauma”. Over time, what once felt comforting has become more unsettling.

    Manchester City Council coat of arms, with bees buzzing around the Earth.
    By IndysNotHere – Self – Made / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-NC-SA

    Fifteen of my interviewees expressed discomfort with how the bee has become more commercialised in the years since the attack. Some described feelings of “exploitation”.

    Both independent businesses and large companies have embraced the symbol, integrating it into their branding in public spaces. Many sell bee-themed gifts and souvenirs, such as fridge magnets, coasters and beanies.

    Manchester city council has played a key role in this commercialisation, promoting the image through various initiatives, including the Bee Network transport system and the Bee Cup – a reusable takeaway cup launched in 2023.

    In June 2017, shortly after the attack, the council moved to trademark several versions of the bee as an official city symbol. This was made public in March 2018, after the period for objections had passed.

    Initially, the council allowed people and businesses to use the symbol for free, but later introduced a licensing scheme. Now, anyone wishing to use the trademarked versions of the bee must apply for permission from the council, and commercial use comes with a £500 fee. Businesses that want to use the bee are also asked to donate to charity.

    The bee appears on souvenirs like fridge magnets.
    Ashley Collar

    The council described the trademarking of the bee symbol as a way to protect its use and support local good causes, such as the We Love MCR Charity, which helps fund community projects and youth opportunities across the city.

    But some of my participants noted that this transformed the bee from something personal and meaningful to something more corporate. In their view, it is as if the city itself is commodifying the attack rather than honouring it.

    This can be viewed as an element of “dark tourism”, which involves visiting places where tragedy has been memorialised or commercialised. In Manchester this manifests not through visits to the attack site but through the bee symbol, which has been commodified in murals, merchandise and public spaces. Tourists buy into collective grief through consumption, turning remembrance into a marketable experience and the bee as a managed and profitable commodity.

    M&S: One of many shop windows that now incorporate the Manchester bee.
    Ashley Collar

    Some Manchester Arena bombing survivors I spoke to feel that their personal grief has been repackaged into a public identity, one that does not necessarily reflect the complexity of their experiences.

    The use of the bee in products and souvenirs raises questions about how the city commercialises its identity, especially when considering the layered histories that the symbol carries.

    Uncomfortable history

    For some, the discomfort around Manchester’s bee goes even deeper. Today, the bee symbolises resilience and unity, but it originally represented hard work during Manchester’s industrial boom.

    This era wasn’t just about progress — it also involved exploitation and colonial trade especially through cotton produced by enslaved people in the Americas. Manchester’s role in the industrial revolution would have never been possible without slavery.

    My participants pointed out this hidden history, noticing that these stories rarely appear in Manchester’s public commemorations in the city. The bee’s visibility today reveals how cities tend to highlight positive histories, while uncomfortable truths remain hidden.

    A painted window in Manchester’s Victoria station.
    Ashley Collar

    Focusing solely on resilience risks creating a simplified version of Manchester’s past. This can exclude some people in the present, overlooking how historical injustices, like the city’s links to the transatlantic slave trade, still shape their lives today.

    This selective storytelling makes it harder for some communities to commemorate Manchester’s identity. They can’t do so without acknowledging past legacies of slavery and the city’s history of division.

    While some see the bee as a proud symbol of unity, others feel it erases their history. As the bee continues to dominate public spaces, Manchester faces an important challenge: making sure this symbol genuinely acknowledges the varied experiences and histories of all residents.

    This might be through dedicated plaques or exhibits that explore some of these hidden histories, and the bee’s complex meaning. Only by confronting its past can the city ensure that commemoration includes everyone.

    Ashley Collar receives funding from ESRC (Economic Social and Research Council) as part of her PhD Doctoral Scholarship.

    – ref. Eight years after arena attack, Manchester bee commercialisation has unsettled some Mancunians – https://theconversation.com/eight-years-after-arena-attack-manchester-bee-commercialisation-has-unsettled-some-mancunians-256753

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Chinese and Central Asian Youth Discuss Friendship and Cooperation in Shaanxi Province

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

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

    BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) — Representatives of Chinese youth and Central Asian students studying in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province recently gathered to share their experiences and deepen mutual understanding and friendship, the Sanqing Dushibao newspaper reported.

    The event took place on May 17 in Xi’an (the capital of Shaanxi Province). More than 20 young people from China and Central Asian countries took part in it.

    Nastya from Kazakhstan, who is studying Business Chinese at Xi’an Jiaotong University, noted that intercultural exchanges bring her new knowledge.

    “I enjoy experiencing the charm of different cultures through humanitarian exchange events and actively organizing sports competitions so that young people from different countries have more opportunities for deep interaction,” she said.

    Elnura Mambetova from Kyrgyzstan, a doctoral student in Chinese language and Chinese culture dissemination at Shaanxi Normal University, has been fascinated with Chinese culture since childhood. After graduating from university in Kyrgyzstan, she worked as a Chinese language teacher at one of the universities in Kyrgyzstan, and then moved to China for further education.

    “I can personally feel how the friendship between the countries of Central Asia and China is becoming deeper and deeper,” she said.

    Wang Lewei, a student at Xi’an Foreign Studies University, spent a year in Kazakhstan as an exchange student. “In Kazakhstan, my local friends took me sightseeing and invited me to traditional festivals. I realized that language is the key to culture,” he said, expressing his desire to become an envoy of friendship between China and Kazakhstan.

    Shaanxi Province, relying on its rich educational resources, has been actively developing humanitarian exchanges with Central Asian countries in recent years. -0-

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Governor Pillen Signs Budget, Announces Line Item Vetos

    Source: US State of Nebraska

    . In his letter, the Governor thanked members of the Appropriations Committee and the legislative body for its work in developing a fiscally conservative budget. He noted that those efforts solved the $432 million reported shortfall and honored the state’s commitment to providing tax relief for Nebraskans. 

    The Governor went on to say that he was disappointed that LB170 failed to pass, which would have provided additional property tax relief to Nebraskans, and would have built on the work undertaken over the last two and a half years to provide such relief.

    Gov. Pillen identified the following vetoes, which he said are “necessary to honor our commitment to fiscal restraint.” 

    In summary, they include:

    • Reducing the Supreme Court’s budget increase to mirror the rate of increase provided to the University of Nebraska
    • Using existing agency funds to cover Fire Marshal salary and health insurance premium increases
    • Reducing the additional appropriation provided to public health departments, thereby, bringing funding back to a pre-pandemic level
    • Cutting an $18 million cash fund reappropriation for recreational upgrades at Lake McConaughy

    “As with all current decisions sunounding our state budget, as stewards of the public’s resources we must prioritize what is necessaiy over what would be nice to have. We must be conservative in good times as well as during fiscally challenging times. Reducing spending is hard work, but Nebraskans expect us to exercise common sense and discretion in achieving a balanced, fair and operative budget,” said Gov. Pillen.

    The full letter is attached. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: China to Establish 23 More Professional Universities

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

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

    BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) — China’s Ministry of Education on Thursday announced a plan to approve the establishment of 32 undergraduate higher education institutions, including 23 vocational universities.

    The move underscores China’s increased focus on developing technical and vocational education to produce skilled professionals, as outlined in a national education development plan released earlier this year.

    The policy document calls for the creation of more high-quality professional undergraduate universities with unique specializations, as well as a gradual increase in the number of applicants.

    The Chinese Ministry of Education also called on the public to express their suggestions on the establishment of these educational institutions. -0-

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: SAMOA TRAINS 30 ECO-GUARDIANS TO LEAD ENVIRONMENTAL CAMPAIGN

    Source:

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    [PRESS RELEASE 25 April 2025] – Conservation International (CI) and the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) co-hosted a comprehensive Training of Teachers (TOT) workshop at the Elisa Hotel Conference Room in Sogi from the 22 – 25 April. The event equipped 35 educators from Sagaga and Anoamaa districts and partners, for the next implementation sites for the Guardians Environmental Education Campaign, with innovative tools and strategies to promote environmental stewardship among students and communities.

    The workshop focused on familiarizing participants with the Guardians Manual, experiential teaching techniques, and practical methods to deliver engaging environmental education programs. Key sessions included interactive modules on multiple learning styles, effective teaching practices, and trial runs of campaign themes such as Trash Star, Coral Champion, Wise Fisher, Tree Guardian, and Samoa Voyager. Participants collaborated to design activity plans, resource materials, and delivery methods tailored to their communities.

    A dedicated session on social and environmental safeguards emphasized child protection, prevention of exploitation, and logistical best practices to ensure safety during campaign activities. The workshop concluded with certificate presentations, recognizing participants’ commitment to advancing environmental education.

    “This workshop was very valuable and important and I appreciate the generous resources invested in us as educators to be able to support the Guardians Environmental Education modules” said Maria Fonofili from Sauano Primary School. “I am very grateful to the organizers for the past four days for all the informative sessions and knowledge shared which have greatly expanded our understanding for the benefit of teaching our children .”

    The training and campaign ahead is made possible through foundational funding from the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) Manaaki Programme, with additional support from the Blackmore Foundation, Waitt Foundation and the Blue Nature Alliance. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) and the Samoa Voyaging Society (SVS) were also able to support the facilitation of the programme modules and strengthening its impact. Conservation International and the Ministry of Education and Culture, extend their deepest gratitude to these partners for their commitment to environmental education and sustainable development in Samoa.

    “We’re deeply grateful to our partners and donors for their continued support of the Guardians Programme,” says Le’ausalilo Leilani Duffy-Iosefa, Director of Conservation International. “Our goal is to ensure the programme leaves a lasting impact on Samoa’s children by helping protect their environmental and cultural heritage for generations to come”

    The Guardians Campaign, now in its fifth year, continues to engage schools and communities in hands-on conservation efforts, building a generation of environmental Guardians, enhancing Samoa’s Ocean Strategy.

    For more information about the Guardians programme, please contact Samantha Kwan on 21593.

    END.

    SOURCE – Conservation International Pacific Islands

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  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: FOR YOUTH, FOR SAMOA AND CHINA-SAMOA RELATIONS

    Source:

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    REMARKS by H.E. Fei Mingxing at Alo Paopao Academy (April 19 2025)

    Reverend Tuia Peseta,

    Hon Minister of Sports and Recreation Laumatiamanu Ringo Purcell,

    Hon Tuuu Anasii Leota,

    President Schuster of Alo Paopao Academy,

    Parents, boys and girls and friends,

    My colleagues and I are very pleased to join you on the beautiful beach on such a lovely day. First of all, my arm congratulations on the opening of Le Miti Aito International 2025. We are proud to be associated with the return of the international solo paddling competition and the official launch of the Village and Va’a Scholarship Program.

    Seeing so many young faces today, I cannot help quoting Chairman Mao Zedong, the founding father of the People’s Republic of China: “The world is yours, as well as ours, but in the last analysis, it is yours. You young people, full of vigor and vitality, are in the bloom of life, like the sun at eight or nine in the morning. Our hope is placed on you.” This has inspired generations and generations of young Chinese. I hope it could

    be inspirational to our young Samoans too.

    Actually, young people have been the backbone for China-Samoa relations. The first Chinese arrived in Samoa was a young sailor in 1876. Early 1900s, thousands young Chinese laborers were employed by owners of coconut plantations in Samoa.

    Some of them stayed and married with local girls. That is why 20% Samoan population could trace their roots to China and our relations runs deep and sound.

    In 1975, Samoa and China established diplomatic ties. Since then, our young people of both countries have been builders of our close relations. In 2024 for example, more than 20 young Samoans went to China for study under the Chinese government scholarship scheme; most of 110 plus officials and professionals who traveled to China for training are young men and women.

    In Samoa, all Chinese medical specialists working in the national hospital are young ones. So are teachers of the Confucius Institute in NUS and most of SCATAP experts.

    This year, while celebrating the 50th anniversary of establishment of our diplomatic ties, we count on our young Samoan and Chinese people, to bring our two countries closer and more benefits to our two peoples. President Xi Jinping said, “I care about young people wherever I go.”

    This is why since my arrival in Samoa early last year, I have been trying my best to work with the Samoan government and institutions, to help young people in Samoa whenever possible. The sports is strength of individuals and the nation. The youth is the wealth of the community and the country.

    When young people are more capable, our countries have better hope, and China-Samoa relations are more promising. I wish Alo Paopao Academy and the Siumu community as well as wider regions of Samoa good luck.

    I wish you all a nice day.

    Thank you.

    Fa’afetai!谢谢！

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  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: LE MITI AITO INTERNATIONAL 2025 – OPENING CEREMONY & MITI VAA SCHOLARSHIP FUND

    Source:

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    KEYNOTE ADDRESS by the Minister of Sports and Recreation Hon. Laumatiamanu Ringo Purcell (Saturday 19 April 2025)

    Lau susuga Taitai o le Sauniga

    Your Excellencies and Esteemed Guests

    Your Excellency Fei Mingxing, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Samoa

    Your Excellency Will Robinson, Australian High Commissioner

    Your Excellency Si’alei Van Toor, New Zealand High Commissioner

    Esteemed village leaders of Siumu, Maninoa, and A’aga Ulugia Jay Schuster and the Alo Paopao Committee Distinguished paddlers, supporters, families, and guests

    Talofa lava and warm greetings to you all.

    Ua motu i le vasa le su’igaula nai le papa. O loo ua musa foi i Foga’a le Sanalaala. O Talaleomalie le alo o le Tuiatua, ae ta’alo i le vai le ataata o le tama o Samoanagalo.

    E matagofie, ē latou te aumaia le Talalelei ma le finagalo o le Atua, e le tau faailo ina foi le lupe ua mua, auā ua mua mea i Matautu Sa, ua motu i le lagi ona vi’i, auā ua lele malie le siufofoga o le Auauna a le Atua i lenei taeao fou. Viia le Atua soifua.

    Talitonu ua fa’afofoga le lagi i talosaga molia ma ua nofo fale foi ia Satuiama’a le feau mo tatou i lenei aso. Malō le folau i lagimā. Ae manatu ona o lo o filogia la tatou mafutaga, o le a faaaoga ai le gagana faafaigofie mo a tatou Malō.

    It is with great honor that we convene today to formally inaugurate the Le Miti Aito International 2025. More significantly, we embark on a new journey of community, culture, and opportunity for our youth through the establishmentof the Miti Va’a Scholarship Fund.

    This event, which originated in 2016 as Le Aito Samoa in collaboration with Tahiti’s Te Aito Race, returns today with profound significance, reborn as Le Miti Aito International in tribute to the late Miti Cheung Fuk.

    Miti was not merely a business leader; she was a mother who transformed adversity into hope. When her son faced challenges in his youth, she recognized the ocean as his sanctuary and source of strength.

    Her decision to uplift him and others in similar circumstances led to her support of paddling programs for over two decades. Her benevolence extended beyond her own child, reaching every young individual in need of guidance and belonging.

    Her compassion for children, her vision for community, and her unwavering support of paddling are the reasons we honour her name today. This race perpetuates her spirit.

    In furtherance of her legacy, we are proud to introduce the Miti Va’a Scholarship Fund, commencing here in the District of Siumu. Forty young paddlers from the villages of Siumu, Maninoa, and A’aga will receive comprehensive scholarships covering: School fees, Uniforms, Equipment and; Training

    This marks only the beginning, with plans to expand to Apia and Vaiala, and eventually across Samoa. This initiative transcends paddling; it is about cultivating confident leaders, reconnecting with our heritage, and fortifying our villages through teamwork, resilience, and identity.

    The Ministry of Sports and Recreation is dedicated to elevating sports and recreational activities of all types, recognizing their pivotal role in the development of our people and our nation. This program and the scholarships offered align with the Ministry’s goals and objectives by fostering personal growth, community engagement, and national pride through sports.

    I am therefore especially delighted to witness this important milestone in your journey. We have already witnessed the potential of this program, as it has nurtured paddlers who achieved bronze and silver medals at the 2023 World Distance Championships held here in Samoa.

    Today, we are privileged to welcome World Champion Anne Cairns and Carl Barnes, both exemplary role models for our youth.

    To our partners, we extend our deepest gratitude to the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China for supporting the growth of this program. To Ulugia Jay Ah Fook Schuster, we thank you for your leadership in paddling since 1987.

    To all our paddlers today, race with heart, race with courage, and race with pride in your culture.

    With that, I hereby officially declare Le Miti Aito International 2025 open and launch the Village and Va’a Scholarship Program.

    Fa’afetai tele lava.

    Soifua ma ia manuia.

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  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: USP SAMOA CAMPUS AND MNRE FORESTRY DIVISION JOIN FORCES FOR THE 3 MILLION TREE PLANTING CAMPAIGN AT USP POP-UP MARKET

    Source:

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    [PRESS RELEASE 25 April 2025] – The University of the South Pacific (USP) Samoa Campus, in collaboration with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) Forestry Division, is thrilled to announce a special event promoting environmental sustainability. On Saturday, April 26th, 2025, from 8 AM to 1 PM, the USP Samoa Campus will host a Pop-up Market dedicated to bringing the community together and supporting the MNRE’s 3 Million Tree Campaign.

    This family-friendly event invites community members to bring the family to the campus and will have the opportunity to receive free tree seedlings as part of the campaign efforts to encourage tree planting across Samoa.

    The USP Pop-up Market promises a vibrant atmosphere with an array of attractions including fresh vegetables, root plants, fresh flowers, kombucha drinks, BBQ food stalls, and handmade crafts by local artisans. Additionally, there will be fun activities for children like a bouncy castle and more.

    Visitors can also look forward to a variety of delicious food from Vanuatu and Fiji, locally made and freshly baked goodies, fresh local produce, and an array of pre-loved clothing and household goods.

    Event Details:

     Date: Saturday, April 26th, 2025

     Time: 8 AM – 1 PM

     Location: USP Samoa Campus Front Lawn

    Join us at this special event where you can enjoy a delightful family day while contributing positively towards our environment by planting trees!

    For further inquiries: Contact: Ronna Lee Email: ronna.lee@usp.ac.fj

    END.

    SOURCE – The University of the South Pacific – Samoa Campus, Apia and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Samoa

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  • MIL-OSI Global: Eight years after arena attack, the commercialisation of Manchester’s bee symbol has unsettled some Mancunians

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Ashley Collar, PhD Candidate in Sociology & Associate Lecturer at MMU, University of Manchester

    espesorroche/Shutterstock

    If you visit Manchester, one of the first things you’ll notice is the great number of bee images throughout the city. Born in the Industrial Revolution, the “worker bee” symbol captured the city’s tireless spirit and its legacy as a buzzing hive of industry. Today, the symbol is more often associated with collective resilience and remembrance following the Manchester Arena attack on May 22 2017.

    The bee became a powerful symbol of the “Mancunian spirit”, emerging almost instantly on murals, on bodies as tattoos and on public memorials. Over the last eight years, it has become a core part of Manchester’s identity.

    A memorial at Manchester’s Victoria station in May 2024.
    Ashley Collar

    As part of my ongoing PhD research, I set out to understand why the bee is everywhere in Manchester and what it means to people. I interviewed 24 Mancunians who were living in the city at the time of the attack, including some who were directly affected.

    Conducted in 2023, seven years after the attack, these interviews aimed to capture how the symbol’s meaning had evolved as the city continued to process and commemorate the event.

    For many, the bee still stands as a symbol of resilience, a reminder of how the city came together in the face of tragedy. But for others, its presence throughout Manchester has become more of a burden than a comfort.

    Appearing on buses, shop windows and public spaces, it serves as a constant and eerie reminder of the events and aftermath of the attack. Eight of my interviewees described these as memories of “trauma”. Over time, what once felt comforting has become more unsettling.

    Manchester City Council coat of arms, with bees buzzing around the Earth.
    By IndysNotHere – Self – Made / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-NC-SA

    Fifteen of my interviewees expressed discomfort with how the bee has become more commercialised in the years since the attack. Some described feelings of “exploitation”.

    Both independent businesses and large companies have embraced the symbol, integrating it into their branding in public spaces. Many sell bee-themed gifts and souvenirs, such as fridge magnets, coasters and beanies.

    Manchester city council has played a key role in this commercialisation, promoting the image through various initiatives, including the Bee Network transport system and the Bee Cup – a reusable takeaway cup launched in 2023.

    In June 2017, shortly after the attack, the council moved to trademark several versions of the bee as an official city symbol. This was made public in March 2018, after the period for objections had passed.

    Initially, the council allowed people and businesses to use the symbol for free, but later introduced a licensing scheme. Now, anyone wishing to use the trademarked versions of the bee must apply for permission from the council, and commercial use comes with a £500 fee. Businesses that want to use the bee are also asked to donate to charity.

    The bee appears on souvenirs like fridge magnets.
    Ashley Collar

    The council described the trademarking of the bee symbol as a way to protect its use and support local good causes, such as the We Love MCR Charity, which helps fund community projects and youth opportunities across the city.

    But some of my participants noted that this transformed the bee from something personal and meaningful to something more corporate. In their view, it is as if the city itself is commodifying the attack rather than honouring it.

    This can be viewed as an element of “dark tourism”, which involves visiting places where tragedy has been memorialised or commercialised. In Manchester this manifests not through visits to the attack site but through the bee symbol, which has been commodified in murals, merchandise and public spaces. Tourists buy into collective grief through consumption, turning remembrance into a marketable experience and the bee as a managed and profitable commodity.

    M&S: One of many shop windows that now incorporate the Manchester bee.
    Ashley Collar

    Some Manchester Arena bombing survivors I spoke to feel that their personal grief has been repackaged into a public identity, one that does not necessarily reflect the complexity of their experiences.

    The use of the bee in products and souvenirs raises questions about how the city commercialises its identity, especially when considering the layered histories that the symbol carries.

    Uncomfortable history

    For some, the discomfort around Manchester’s bee goes even deeper. Today, the bee symbolises resilience and unity, but it originally represented hard work during Manchester’s industrial boom.

    This era wasn’t just about progress — it also involved exploitation and colonial trade especially through cotton produced by enslaved people in the Americas. Manchester’s role in the industrial revolution would have never been possible without slavery.

    My participants pointed out this hidden history, noticing that these stories rarely appear in Manchester’s public commemorations in the city. The bee’s visibility today reveals how cities tend to highlight positive histories, while uncomfortable truths remain hidden.

    A painted window in Manchester’s Victoria station.
    Ashley Collar

    Focusing solely on resilience risks creating a simplified version of Manchester’s past. This can exclude some people in the present, overlooking how historical injustices, like the city’s links to the transatlantic slave trade, still shape their lives today.

    This selective storytelling makes it harder for some communities to commemorate Manchester’s identity. They can’t do so without acknowledging past legacies of slavery and the city’s history of division.

    While some see the bee as a proud symbol of unity, others feel it erases their history. As the bee continues to dominate public spaces, Manchester faces an important challenge: making sure this symbol genuinely acknowledges the varied experiences and histories of all residents.

    This might be through dedicated plaques or exhibits that explore some of these hidden histories, and the bee’s complex meaning. Only by confronting its past can the city ensure that commemoration includes everyone.

    Ashley Collar receives funding from ESRC (Economic Social and Research Council) as part of her PhD Doctoral Scholarship.

    – ref. Eight years after arena attack, the commercialisation of Manchester’s bee symbol has unsettled some Mancunians – https://theconversation.com/eight-years-after-arena-attack-the-commercialisation-of-manchesters-bee-symbol-has-unsettled-some-mancunians-256753

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Secretary-General of ASEAN meets with the President of ERIA and the Dean of the ERIA School of Government

    Source: ASEAN

    Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr. Kao Kim Hourn, this afternoon held a meeting with President of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) Professor Tetsuya Watanabe and Dean of the ERIA School of Government Professor Nobuhiro Aizawa, at the ASEAN Headquarters/ASEAN Secretariat. The meeting discussed ERIA’s ongoing work and its strategic direction. Both sides emphasised their continued collaboration to promote regional integration, peace, and prosperity. ERIA also expressed its appreciation to Dr. Kao for his leadership in facilitating the official visit of Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, President of the Senate of Cambodia, to the ERIA School of Government’s Leadership Lecture, on 6 May 2025.

    The post Secretary-General of ASEAN meets with the President of ERIA and the Dean of the ERIA School of Government appeared first on ASEAN Main Portal.

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  • MIL-Evening Report: Legal academic says Samoa’s criminal libel law should go after charge

    By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist

    An Auckland University law academic says Samoa’s criminal libel law under which a prominent journalist has been charged should be repealed.

    Lagi Keresoma, the first female president of the Journalists Association of Samoa (JAWS) and editor of Talamua Online, was charged under the Crimes Act 2013 on Sunday after publishing an article about a former police officer, whom she asserted had sought the help of the Head of State to withdraw charges brought against him.

    JAWS has already called for the criminal libel law to be scrapped and Auckland University academic Beatrice Tabangcoro told RNZ Pacific that the law was “unnecessary and impractical”.

    “A person who commits a crime under this section is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding 175 penalty units or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months,” the Crimes Act states.

    JAWS said this week that the law, specifically Section 117A of the Crimes Act, undermined media freedom, and any defamation issues could be dealt with in a civil court.

    JAWS gender representative to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said Keresoma’s arrest “raises serious concerns about the misuse of legal tools to independent journalism” in the country.

    Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson called on the Samoan government “to urgently review and repeal criminal defamation laws that undermine democratic accountability and public trust in the justice system”.

    Law removed and brought back
    The law was removed by the Samoan government in 2013, but was brought back in 2017, ostensibly to deal with issues arising on social media.

    Auckland University’s academic Beatrice Tabangcoro . . . reintroduction of the law was widely criticised at the time. Image: University of Auckland

    Auckland University’s academic Beatrice Tabangcoro told RNZ Pacific that this reintroduction was widely criticised at the time for its potential impact on freedom of speech and media freedom.

    She said that truth was a defence to the offence of false statement causing harm to reputation, but in the case of a journalist this could lead to them being compelled to reveal their sources.

    The academic said that the law remained unnecessary and impractical, and she pointed to the Samoa Police Commissioner telling media in 2023 that the law should be repealed as it was used “as a tool for harassing the media and is a waste of police resources”.

    Tonga and Vanuatu are two other Pacific nations with the criminal libel law on their books, and it is something the media in both those countries have raised concerns about.

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

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Professor Beth Lord appointed to REF role The University of Aberdeen’s Professor Beth Lord has been appointed as deputy chair of an expert sub-panel that will assess research in REF 2029.

    Source: University of Aberdeen

    Professor Beth Lord

    The University of Aberdeen’s Professor Beth Lord has been appointed as deputy chair of an expert sub-panel that will assess research in REF 2029.
    The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a process of academic review. UK institutions make submissions into units of assessment (UoAs) each of which is assessed by an expert sub-panel , working under the guidance of four main panels.
    Professor Lord is deputy chair of the Philosophy sub-panel (UoA 30) working with Professor Bill Child from the University of Oxford as chair.
    They are now working to appoint a team of sub-panellists, ensuring that membership reflects the full range of required expertise. These appointments will be announced in summer 2025.
    The sub-panel chairs and deputy chairs will lead their members through the criteria-setting phase, beginning later this year, and on through to the assessment phase in 2029 when sub-panellists will evaluate submissions from universities across the UK.
    Professor Lord, Head of the School of Divinity, History, Philosophy & Art History, said: “I’m honoured to have been invited to serve as deputy chair for the Philosophy sub-panel.
    “REF is an important exercise in assessing the quality of UK university research and provides governments, funders and the public with confidence that research is world-class and impactful.
    “Leading this process is a great opportunity to serve the profession, and I am looking forward to getting started.”
    REF Director Rebecca Fairbairn said: “I’m delighted to welcome this outstanding group to lead the REF 2029 sub-panels. Their deep expertise and broad perspectives will be central to building an assessment process that is fair, rigorous, and trusted by the research community. We have been working in partnership with the sector throughout this process, and I’m grateful to everyone who expressed interest – your engagement is what strengthens the credibility and value of the REF across our research landscape.”
    The list of appointed chairs and deputy chairs can be found on the REF webpages.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Sunderland welcomes a new Mayor and Mayoress – Councillor Ehthesham Haque and Councillor Lynda Scanlan.

    Source: City of Sunderland

    Sunderland’s new Mayor and Mayoress were officially sworn in at the meeting of full council yesterday (Wednesday 21 May).

    They took over the ceremonial chains of office from the retiring Mayor and Consort, Councillor Allison Chisnall and Consort Mr Alistair Thomson.

    Sunderland’s new Mayor Councillor Ehthesham Haque is the cities youngest Mayor at 28-years-old and first Mayor of Asian descent.

    Cllr Haque has lived in Sunderland since the age of 10, after relocating with his family from London. A former pupil of Richard Avenue Primary and Thornhill Comprehensive, he continued his studies at Sunderland College, the University of Sunderland, and later Cambridge University.

    Elected as a Ward Councillor for Barnes in 2023, he works as a Civil Servant and has a strong passion for politics and community service. He served on the Health and Scrutiny Committee and was Governor at his former primary school prior to becoming Deputy Mayor.

    Cllr Haque lives with his wife and family in Sunderland and is committed to working hard for his constituents and the wider city.

    New Mayor, Cllr Haque said: “To have been elected Mayor of Sunderland is the proudest achievement of my life so far and I am honoured to serve the City of Sunderland. I am looking forward to celebrating the people of this city and its businesses, charities and communities.”

    Cllr Haque’s Chaplain will be The Reverend Canon Clare MacLaren, Provost of Sunderland Minster, High Street West, Sunderland.

    Sunderland’s new Mayoress Cllr Scanlan has served in both Millfield and Hendon Wards after first being elected councillor for Millfield in 2011. She also served as Mayor in 2018 to 2019 and is no stranger to mayoral duties.

    New Mayoress, Cllr Scanlan said: “I have been a member of council for over a decade, and I am thrilled to be elected Mayoress of Sunderland. There are so many fantastic opportunities coming up in the year ahead to showcase this city, and support events such as Active Sunderland sports events, the Christmas light switch on, and Remembrance Day parades.”

    The new Mayor and Mayoress, will be supporting Love, Amelia and Hopespring charities, which both support children and families.

    Also sworn in by full Council as Deputy Mayor for 2025-2026 is Councillor Melanie Thornton and the Deputy Mayoress will be Councillor Thornton’s mother, Carol Hopps.

    Cllr Thornton has lived in Sunderland’s Coalfield area all her life, growing up in East Rainton and Hetton. She now lives in Hetton Downs and supports local groups including Friends of Hetton Lyons Country Park and Coalfields Pride, which she chairs. Elected as a City Councillor for Copt Hill in 2019, she previously chaired the Planning and Highways Committee and is honoured to now serve as Deputy Mayor of Sunderland.

    The outgoing Mayor, Cllr Chisnall said: “It has been an honour and privilege to serve as Mayor of Sunderland. I have enjoyed working with Councillor Haque as Deputy Mayor and Councillor Scanlan. I wish the new Mayor and Deputy Mayor the best of luck for this coming year.

    “I will look back at my time in office with such fondness. Taking part in events like the Mayor’s Civic Ball, The Christmas Light Switch On, and VE Day has been an honour.

    “We are also incredibly grateful to have been able to raise around £20,000.00 for our chosen charities Castletown Scouts Group, Hylton Castle Trust, and The Royalty Theatre.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Scientists Develop Efficient Lasers the Size of a Speck of Dust

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –

    Researchers HSE University in Saint Petersburg have found a way to create efficient microlasers with a diameter of only 5–8 micrometers. They operate at room temperature, do not require cooling, and can be built into microchips. The scientists used the whispering gallery effect to confine light and buffer layers to reduce energy leakage and stress. The approach is promising for integrating lasers into chips, sensors, and quantum technologies. Study published in “Letters to the Journal of Technical Physics”.

    The devices around us are becoming more compact without losing functionality. Smartphones solve problems that previously required a computer, and small cameras shoot almost like professional ones. Miniaturization has also affected lasers — sources of directed light radiation that are built into optical chips, sensors, medical devices, and communication systems.

    But it is not easy to reduce the size of a laser while maintaining its optical properties, efficiency and reliability. Developing a laser 5–8 micrometers in size (roughly the diameter of a red blood cell) requires complex calculations, and its production requires high precision. The main difficulty lies in the design of the laser itself. Unlike conventional light sources, lasers amplify radiation inside a resonator – a structure where light is repeatedly reflected and amplified. And the more compact the laser, the more difficult it is to contain the light inside it so that it is repeatedly reflected, amplified and does not lose energy – this is what is important for its stable operation.

    Another difficulty is defects in the material. Lasers use crystals that can amplify light. But when they are grown, microscopic defects often arise that reduce the efficiency of light generation. To minimize such disturbances, scientists carefully select the synthesis conditions and model the properties of the crystals in advance in different modes. At the same time, solving one problem often causes others to appear, and laser development becomes a constant search for balance.

    Scientists from the National Research University Higher School of Economics have created microlasers with a diameter of only 5–8 micrometers that operate at room temperature. They used a crystalline structure of indium, gallium, nitrogen, and aluminum compounds grown on a silicon substrate. To confine the light in a tiny space, the scientists used the whispering gallery effect.

    “This phenomenon is well known in acoustics: in some churches and cathedrals, you can whisper words near one wall, and the sound will be clearly heard near the opposite wall, despite the fact that under normal conditions the sound would not travel such a distance. A similar effect allows light to be reflected multiple times inside a disk microlaser, thereby minimizing losses,” explains the senior researcher. International Laboratory of Quantum Optoelectronics HSE University in St. Petersburg Eduard Moiseev.

    However, even under such conditions, light waves can partially escape into the substrate and be lost. To avoid this, the researchers added a stepped buffer layer. It compensates for mechanical stress between the silicon and nitride layers and reduces radiation leakage, allowing the laser to operate stably even at small sizes.

    “Our microlasers operate stably at room temperature, without cooling systems, which makes them convenient for real use. In the future, such devices will allow the creation of more compact and energy-efficient optoelectronic devices,” explains Natalia Kryzhanovskaya, head of the International Laboratory of Quantum Optoelectronics at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg.

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • North Korean leader Kim Jong Un condemns warship accident as ‘criminal’

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    A major accident occurred on Wednesday during the launch of a new North Korean warship while Kim Jong Un was attending the event, with the isolated state’s leader calling it a “criminal act” that could not be tolerated, state media KCNA reported.

    Kim, who witnessed the failed launch of the 5,000-ton destroyer, excoriated the accident as caused by “carelessness” that tarnished national dignity, and ordered the ship restored before a ruling party meeting in June, KCNA said on Thursday.

    The report did not say whether there were any casualties.

    The accident happened when the destroyer was being eased into the water in a so-called side launch, a manoeuvre that was risky for a ship that size given the technical and financial challenges the North faced, military analysts said.

    The mishap likely occurred in front of a large crowd at the northeastern port of Chongjin, increasing the public humiliation for Kim, they said.

    KCNA said the incident was caused by a loss of balance while the vessel was being launched and sections of the bottom of the warship were crushed, but did not give more details of damage sustained.

    “Kim Jong Un made stern assessment saying that it was a serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism … and could not be tolerated,” KCNA reported.

    The accident “brought the dignity and self-respect of our state to a collapse”, Kim said, adding an immediate restoration of the destroyer was “not merely a practical issue but a political issue directly related to the authority of the state.”

    South Korea’s military said the ship was now lying on its side in the water.

    The North fired multiple cruise missiles from an area south of the port around the time the accident was reported, Seoul’s military said.

    “DEEPLY HUMILIATING”

    The rare public disclosure of an accident follows a report of the launch of another destroyer of a similar size in April, also attended by Kim, at the west coast shipyard of Nampho.

    North Korea has previously experienced accidents such as a satellite launch failure and apartment building collapse that have been subsequently used to promote the role of the leadership in correcting the problems.

    The 5,000-ton destroyers launched by North Korea this year are the country’s largest warships yet, part of leader Kim’s push to upgrade its naval power with vessels capable of carrying and launching dozens of missiles.

    In a report last week on preparations for the latest launch, U.S.-based 38 North said it appeared the ship would be side-launched from the quay.

    Such a method has not been previously observed in launching warships in North Korea, but it was likely chosen because the shipyard did not have enough space or an incline to direct the vessel’s stern first into the water, military analysts said.

    The North also lacked floating or dry docks that are common in advanced shipbuilding states, with a stern launch normally requiring more sophisticated equipment, retired South Korean submarine commander Choi Il said.

    “Pushing from the side is the most basic, simplest and cheapest” if done right, he said.

    Yang Wuk, an Asan Institute for Policy Studies military expert, said the botched launch of the country’s largest warship was embarrassing for the country.

    “The fact that this kind of accident occurred and became public would be deeply humiliating for North Korea,” Yang said.

    Commercial satellite imagery of the shipyard the day before the launch showed the destroyer positioned on the quay with support vessels by its side and its missile tube magazines exposed.

    (Reuters)

  • MIL-OSI USA: Governor Newsom announces appointments 5.21.25

    Source: US State of California 2

    May 21, 2025

    SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the following appointments:

    Armen Meyer, of San Francisco, has been appointed Senior Deputy Commissioner for the Division of Consumer Financial Protection at the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. Meyer has held several positions at the American Fintech Council since 2021 including Co-Founder, Advisor, and Board Member. He has held several positions at Millenia Capital since 2021, including Advisor and General Partner. Meyer held multiple positions at LendingClub and LendingClub Bank from 2017 to 2023, including Head of the Public Policy and Government Affairs Team and Vice President of Regulatory Strategy and Policy. He held multiple positions at PriceWaterhouseCoopers from 2011 to 2017, including Managing Director for Financial Services Advisory, Director of Regulatory Strategy, and Chief of Staff for Financial Services Regulatory. Meyer held multiple positions at the New York Banking Department from 2009 to 2011, including Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the Superintendent. He held multiple positions in the New York Executive Office from 2007 to 2009, including Assistant Secretary for Economic Development and Communications Director to the Lieutenant Governor. Meyer is an Advisor to FS Vector, FairplayAI, Spring Labs, Pontoro, Raido Capital, University of California Berkeley SkyDeck, The AI Education Project, and Fordham University’s College at Lincoln Center. He is a Board Member of the Gaidz Foundation for Armenian heritage and Valt. Meyer is Head of Partnerships for the Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of Northern California, and a member of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s Innovation Council, the Exchequer Club of Washington DC, Armenian Assembly and Armenians in Banking and Finance, and supporter of The Mechanicals Theater Company. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School, a Master of Public Administration degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Math from Fordham University. This position does not require Senate confirmation, and the compensation is $195,564. Meyer is a Democrat.

    Jacob Arkatov, of Los Angeles, has been appointed to the Medical Board of California. Arkatov has been an Associate at O’Melveny & Myers since 2022. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from Georgetown University. This position requires Senate confirmation, and the compensation is $100 per diem. Arkatov is a Democrat.

    Peter Brierty, of Highland, has been appointed to the Southwestern Low-Level Radioactive Waste Commission. Brierty has been a Retired Annuitant at the San Bernardino County Fire Department since 2025. He was a Project Manager at Pacific Heritage, Inc. from 2017 to 2023. Brierty held multiple positions at the San Bernardino County Fire Department from 1978 to 2013, including Fire Marshal, Assistant Chief, and Division Manager. Brierty is the President of the Childhood Cancer Foundation of Southern California and a Member of the Fire and Burn Foundation at the San Bernardino County Arrowhead Regional Medical Center. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Health Science from California State University, San Bernardino. This position requires Senate confirmation, and the compensation is $100 per diem. Brierty is a Democrat.

    Tom Hallinan, of Modesto, has been appointed to the California Board of Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists. Tom has been a Deputy District Attorney at the Stanislaus County District Attorney Office since 2024 and a Partner at White Brenner LLP since 2012. Hallinan earned a Juris Docter degree from Lincoln School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from California State University, Fresno. He is a member of the Central Valley City Attorney’s Association. This position does not require senate confirmation, and the compensation is $100 per diem. Hallinan is a Democrat.

    Amanda Steidlmayer, of Woodland, has been appointed to the California Architects Board. Steidlmayer has been the Director of Professional Development at the University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine since 2022. She was a Program Manager for the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine from 2018 to 2022. She was a Strategic Initiatives Coordinator for the University of California, Davis Graduate Studies Office from 2013 to 2018. She was the Director of Academic Operations and Planning at the University of Davis, California Graduate School of Management from 2013 to 2016. Steidlmayer earned a Master of International Public Policy degree from the University of California, San Diego and a Bachelor of Science degree in Community and Regional Development from University of California, Davis. This position does not require senate confirmation, and the compensation is $100 per diem. Steidlmayer is a Democrat.

    Pamela Brief, of La Crescenta, has been reappointed to the Landscape Architects Technical Committee, where she has served since 2020. Brief has been President of Pamela Studios since 2012. She was Senior Principal at NUVIS from 2019 to 2020. Brief was Senior Principal at Jerde Partnership from 2007 to 2008. She was President of Schirmer Design from 2004 to 2007. Brief was a Landscape Designer and Principal at Walt Disney Imagineering from 1992 to 2004. Brief earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Landscape Architecture from Ohio State University. She is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, Association of Women in Architecture + Design, and Friends of the LA River. This position does not require Senate confirmation, and the compensation is $100 per diem. Brief is a Democrat.

    Press releases, Recent news

    Recent news

    May 20, 2025

    News SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the following appointments:Matthew Read, of Sacramento, has been appointed Chief Counsel at the Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation. Read has been Acting Chief Counsel at the Governor’s Office of…

    May 20, 2025

    News What you need to know: Governor Newsom issued a statement today after U.S. Senate Republicans announced plans for an illegal vote this week that would undo California’s clean cars and trucks program. SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today issued a statement on…

    May 20, 2025

    News What you need to know: State and local law enforcement partners seized $123.5 million in illegal cannabis in the Central Valley. SACRAMENTO – In its largest operation to date, the state’s task force dedicated to eradicating illegal cannabis operations conducted a…

    MIL OSI USA News –