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Category: Education

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Sir Martyn Oliver’s speech at the Guildhall

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government Non-Ministerial Departments 2

    Speech

    Sir Martyn Oliver’s speech at the Guildhall

    Martyn Oliver, Ofsted’s Chief Inspector, spoke to educational leaders from the City of London and further afield. He talked about the importance of education and how Ofsted’s inspection improvement proposals will drive ever higher standards for children.

    Thank you. It’s really wonderful to be here in the City, and to be talking about education.

    The square mile in which we stand has contributed so much to our nation’s history, values, and of course our economy.

    The power of education

    But, even that mighty influence, pales in comparison to the power of education. I’m sure you’re not surprised to hear that from a former teacher, headteacher, and the Ofsted Chief Inspector.

    In a world of difficult choices, or trade-offs and compromises, education is one of those rare things that can solve so many problems whilst causing no new ones.

    The journey towards any target, milestone, or mission that a government, any government, can set, will be made quicker and easier through education. There are no silver bullets however, but education is probably the closest thing we have.

    It can contribute to rising growth, and falling unemployment. To reducing crime, and to increasing opportunities. To more innovation and to cutting emissions. To greater happiness and to less deprivation. To a stronger health service and less inequality. To a fairer society and a more secure nation.

    I could go on for the whole speech! But you hopefully get the idea!

    In short, education can help us achieve almost every goal we have for our young people, our society, and our country.

    Difficult choices

    But as I’ve said, we do live in a time of difficult choices. When every single penny has to be carefully considered and justified, even if there were silver bullets, there just simply isn’t enough silver.

    But it’s also important to say that just throwing more money at education is not the answer. Any money needs to be carefully targeted and justified. It needs to go where it will make the biggest difference. Where it will help the most children and particularly the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. Where it will make sure that the most able, whatever their background, can soar. And where those who need it the most will get that help.

    So, it’s not just about more money, and it can’t be.

    Ofsted’s new proposals

    That’s the context in which Ofsted is proposing a whole new approach to inspection.

    So, we have built a system to drive ever higher and rising standards for children. To deliver better information for parents to help inform choices and engage them in their children’s education. To help governors and boards, authorities and trusts, to support and guide improvement. To deliver better information to government so they can make choices about where they assign resources and support. And to reduce pressure on all those working in education so they can get on with their vital work.

    So that’s the ambition and the context in which we have designed our proposals. We want a better system, that improves the education of all children, with all the myriad benefits that that brings.

    I believe our proposals will do this in a number of ways.

    Focus on what matters

    Firstly, we are focusing on the things that really matters to a good education. We have proposed a number of evaluation areas, of different things that we will look at on inspection. And these are informed by what we know, what my experience informs me, will make a difference to a child’s education, and by what we heard from parents and children in our biggest ever survey last year, the Big Listen.

    This includes maintaining our strong focus on curriculum, on the substance of learning. It includes the achievements and the personal development of children. It includes the leadership of the school or educational provider, and how they develop their teachers and staff.

    It includes making sure children are prepared for their next step, not least for working life. Obviously, there are many purposes of education, and being ready for work is not the only one, but it is a very important part and we will not shy away from that.

    So, our inspections will specifically look at careers programmes in secondary schools. We want to see impartial advice from well-trained staff, engagement with employers, colleges and universities, and opportunities for work-experience.

    On that note, we recently had, in Ofsted, a year 12 student on work experience for a week in our London office. She experienced a wide range of activities in our communications team. She actually helped me write this speech, and I encouraged her to do so. She told us how exciting it was to work within a professional office, meet people and see the variety of jobs which keep Ofsted running. Opportunities like this show students the outcomes of hard work, what working life is like, while also giving them ideas for future careers. They are invaluable and it was fantastic to support it from the employer side as well as in schools.

    Returning to our inspections, they will also include the vital topics of behaviour and of attendance. We’re proposing, for the first time, to look at these areas separately to really get into the detail. Obviously, a school with better behaviour is more likely to have better attendance, but there is a lot more to it than that, and we want to identify what’s working and what’s not. And we want to empower schools to tackle the problems that they have in a way that works for them. Autonomy and innovation will be recognised and supported.

    We want to avoid the problem where one issue, bullying for example, causes a sort of ‘double jeopardy’ situation where it has a knock-on impact on grades in other areas. Let me give you an example, an issue about bullying could impact leadership and management, safeguarding, the quality of education, specifically the curriculum, personal development and behaviour and attitudes. But it is entirely possible that it was a behavioural management issue alone and it should be treated as such. So, as much as possible, we want to isolate our areas and shine a laser like focus on just them.

    Our proposals also include a new evaluation area for inclusion. This is something I’m particularly proud of. I’ve always said that if you get it right for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children, you get it right for everyone. And we now have the data at Ofsted to back that up.

    Schools that get it right for children with SEND, children who are young carers, children in poverty, children facing an educational or personal setback, they’re not doing it at the expense of the other children. That’s just not how it works. So, Ofsted will recognise schools doing great work for all children through our inclusion evaluation area and by threading inclusion through all our other areas too.

    And by reporting on each individual area, not on overall effectiveness or aggregated sub judgements, we hope to paint a far clearer picture of a school. To recognise what they do well and what they could do better. Because no school is perfect, and no school is without merit. Great schools can still have weaknesses, and poor schools can still do things really well. We will recognise this complexity, and respect the intelligence of those reading our reports to understand this.

    By maintaining this focus on what matters, and by reporting on it in detail, we hope to drive ever higher standards in education. And we hope to make sure that, as standards rise, no child is left behind. No child’s potential is wasted. They only get one childhood, and they deserve every chance and opportunity.

    Built around existing standards

    As well as making sure we focus on what really matters, to children, to parents, and to the best possible education, we want to make sure that we’re not asking schools to do anything beyond what is already expected and asked of them. We don’t want leaders or teachers to be doing anything just for us, anything ‘for Ofsted’. If you’re doing the right things for your children, then you’re already doing the right things ‘for Ofsted’. Now, Ofsted has been saying this for years, but I know some of you may still be sceptical. But with this new approach, we have done all that we can to make it as clear and unambiguous as possible.

    We have built the entire toolkit, all the documents setting out clearly what we look for, on the existing professional standards teachers and leaders should be working to. On the qualified teacher standards, on the statutory and non-statutory guidance, which already set out what schools should be doing. I hope, if you take a look, you will see nothing in there that a good school, a great school leader isn’t already doing, or at least aspires to be doing.

    Let me give you an example, the Qualified Teacher Professional standards currently asks teachers to:

    “Demonstrate good subject and curriculum knowledge [and] have a secure knowledge of the relevant subject(s) and curriculum areas, foster and maintain pupils’ interest in the subject, and address misunderstandings.”

    That’s the qualified teacher standards that teachers in England should work to. So, Ofsted is going to ask:

    “Teachers explain new content clearly, connecting new information with what pupils already know and/or introducing new content and concepts in a meaningful context. Teachers revisit important content and concepts regularly so that pupils learn them securely and remember them. Teachers check pupils’ understanding systematically, identifying and remedying any gaps or misconceptions. They give effective feedback that supports pupils to improve.”

    And this is also true for any other type of educational provision. I’ve mainly talked about schools today, because I know that’s the background of many of you in the audience. But almost everything I’ve mentioned also applies to nurseries, to childminders and to further education providers and colleges. To all the education provision we inspect. About 92,000 institutions.

    We have proposed toolkits for each type of provision, tailored to what they do, to the age of their children, and to the relevant existing professional standards that they work to.

    Again, I hope this will drive higher standards in education. It will make it clearer than we ever have, that schools shouldn’t be doing anything just for the days that our inspectors come in. They shouldn’t be spending a single minute or penny on anything that isn’t in the best interests of their, your, children. That’s what we want to see. That’s all.

    And if we get this right, it will relieve pressure on teachers and leaders. By basing our standards around everything you should already be doing, and by spelling this out clearly, I hope we can eliminate some of these myths, some of the guesswork, and some of the confusion about what you should be doing. Children aren’t best served by stressed teachers, and educational standards aren’t improved when schools can’t recruit or retain the high-quality staff they need. So Ofsted wants to do its bit to help, and to again drive higher standards.

    Recognise those going above and beyond

    So, we are proposing to recognise when schools are meeting the standards expected of them through our new ‘secure’ grade. And I know there are some who want us to stop there and to say, this school has met the required standard, and that’s good enough.

    But I don’t want to just say ‘that’s good enough.’ I don’t think parents want to hear that. And I don’t think leaders and governors, like many of you, really want to say that either. I don’t think that sort of model benefits children, helps parents, or drives higher standards.

    So, we are proposing to have two additional grades above ‘secure.’ We are proposing a ‘strong’ grade, for those not just meeting the core standards but going beyond them. Schools will achieve this in areas where they’re really excelling for their children.

    And then we are proposing a new top grade of ‘exemplary.’ This will be for truly exceptional practice. For a school or other provider doing something that we believe is worthy of national recognition, that others can learn from or be inspired by.

    I believe, through these grades, we will encourage schools to always seek to improve. We will give parents a far more detailed picture of a school’s strengths and the areas to work on. And we will highlight practice that schools could look to, to inform their own improvement journeys.

    Once again, I believe this will drive higher standards in education, and all of the benefits that brings.

    Recognise uniqueness

    Of course, every school is unique. Every set of circumstances is unique. And every set of challenges is also unique. And we will recognise this too. Our proposals will do much more to recognise the context in which a school is operating.

    Because it is important to recognise what a school is achieving both in spite of and because of the picture around them, the community that they are a part of, the resources and relationships that they can draw on.

    Because a school does not operate in a bubble. The quality of the feeder nurseries or primary schools has an impact. The quality of the secondary school and the colleges has an impact. The support they get from the local authority or trust, the corporation or the liveries, their governors and their PTA, has an impact. The level of education, the relative incomes, and the languages spoken by their community has an impact. The engagement of the parents and carers has an impact. The amount of support available locally for pupils with SEND has an impact. The availability of high-quality teachers and staff in the area has an impact too.

    We will consider all of this and more. To recognise what a school has been able to achieve in that context, to place accountability for successes and weaknesses in the right place, and to highlight examples of great practice against the toughest backdrops.

    Again, through proper and proportional accountability, we hope to drive higher standards for all children, in all areas.

    Help to guide government

    We also want to help to guide government, to better target their support, their resources, and their interventions.

    To make sure that the right people and institutions are recognised for their success. And make sure improvements are targeting the root of the problem, not the just the symptoms.

    For example, think about a secondary school with poor attendance. Obviously, that might be something government wants to offer support to the school to improve. But if all of the local primaries also have poor attendance, if the school is actually doing a bit better than other local secondaries, well then the picture changes.

    If a primary school has lower than desired outcomes for their children, that obviously needs rectifying. But if many of their children are arriving unprepared for school, with little or no experience reading, perhaps not even potty trained, again the picture changes.

    If a school is struggling with behaviour, then government support, behaviour experts and other interventions could be the answer. But if the local area has problems with gangs, or very few activities and resources for children, or limited support from the local authority, again the picture changes.

    Of course, we cannot and will not lower standards. We must and we will expect the best for all children. But I believe our proposals will allow us to follow the threads, get to the root of the problem, and help government target limited resources where they will have the biggest impact. We again hope to drive higher standards for all.

    Conclusion

    I hope that I have given you a flavour of the content but also the ambition of our proposals. To focus on what matters. To make sure schools are able to dedicate everything to their children. To recognise those going beyond. To recognise every unique school in their context. And to make sure, no minute, pound, or resource is spent in the wrong place or on the wrong problem.

    But I hope you will also help us make these proposals that I’ve just outlined even better. There are some fantastic educators in this room, and many more who recognise the transformative power of education. So please take part in our consultation. It’s open until 28th April and it’s available on our website.

    But I hope you have also seen the ambition that we have and that I have for education in this country.

    In many ways, it is already remarkable. It is already something we can be proud of as a nation. Something we should thank everyone, and I thank you, for working in education.

    We are outperforming many other countries, in many ways. But we can always do better. We should never stop striving to do better. Especially for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable. That’s an area where we can and must do better.

    Our children deserve that. Thank you.

    Updates to this page

    Published 1 April 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Mansfield Is Updating Its 10-Year Plan, and These Sophomores Want the UConn Community to Help

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    We encounter surveys all the time.

    On the bottom of a purchase receipt. While scrolling through social media feeds. On flyers with QR codes, and inside official-looking letters that show up in mailboxes.

    But how often do you actually take one of those surveys?

    What incentives would encourage you to take a survey?

    And would it be enough just knowing that your feedback on a survey could help shape the direction of a community or even an entire town – like the one that you live in, or work in, each and every day?

    A group of sophomores from the Innovation House Learning Community at UConn are hoping that a mix of incentives, outreach, enthusiasm, and good old-fashioned civic mindedness will encourage members of the UConn community to take a survey that will do just that: help shape the direction of the Connecticut town that UConn Storrs calls home.

    ‘Our Strategic Plan’

    “Anyone who thinks people will respond to a survey vastly, vastly overestimates,” says Michael Stankov ’17 (CLAS) ’18 MS, an environmental planner and inland wetlands agent for the town of Mansfield. “People don’t like surveys. They don’t do them.”

    But if you can effectively encourage people to take them, surveys still represent a good way to get valuable information and feedback from a large number of people.

    Mansfield Tomorrow is the town of Mansfield’s 10-year strategic plan.

    Which is why Stankov and his supervisor, Jennifer Kaufman – Mansfield’s director of planning and development – have spent a good portion of the past six months developing, promoting, and encouraging participation in a town-wide survey to help support the 2025 update to Mansfield’s plan of conservation and development.

    “Every town in Connecticut needs to update their plan of conservation and development, and that has to be done every 10 years,” explains Kaufman. “In Mansfield, our plan of conservation and development also serves as our strategic plan. Not only does it include items such as land use, where we want to grow, and what we want to preserve, it also includes other things, like budgetary considerations for our town council.”

    Mansfield’s last strategic plan, developed in 2015, is a wide-ranging 458-page document known as Mansfield Tomorrow, and it lays out priorities for the town that range from the amenities that influence people choosing to live in Mansfield to the economic and physical development of the community.

    The 2025 plan isn’t meant to be a complete rewrite, but rather an update that reflects changes in priorities and strategies that will naturally occur over the course of a decade, Kaufman says. An ad hoc committee as well as three working groups have been active since last fall, garnering feedback from the Mansfield community to help contribute to the update.

    “We have the town-wide survey that we’ve sent out,” Kaufman says. “We’ve done a mailing to everyone that has a mailbox in town. We’re having a public workshop. We’re going to the Senior Center for pop-up events. I’m going to the library’s story time, the library’s game night. We’re going to be doing door-to-door door hangers.

    “So, we feel like we’ve got the town’s community engagement, the town’s people.”

    But the engagement they haven’t really been able to get?

    It’s from UConn.

    ‘Very Intentional’

    In the fall of 2025, UConn Storrs will house an estimated 13,800 students, Kaufman explains, and under census guidelines, those students residing on campus at UConn are considered Mansfield residents.

    “In addition, besides people who are living in on-campus housing, we have about 4,000 students who live in the community in apartments, in single-family homes, and in condos,” she says. “So, the UConn population, while they only live in our town for four years, they’re a key part of the population. And they’re not necessarily plugged in to come to a town meeting, or they may not be using our library, or coming to our Mansfield Community Center, or going to the Senior Center.”

    And even beyond the students who live on and around the Storrs campus, there are thousands of additional members of the UConn community – including faculty and staff – who commute to Mansfield; who visit the downtown area; who enjoy Mansfield restaurants or frequent Mansfield businesses; or who make use of Mansfield’s parks, trails, and recreation services.

    The town wants to hear from those people, too.

    “It’s all too easy to fragment our lives into – ‘I live in a town and that’s the only town that I should have input in,’” says Stankov. “But we live in communities that are complex and that cross lots of towns, so we need to hear what people who don’t just live and pay taxes here want, because that helps us understand how to provide more services for more people.”

    But while UConn represents more than half Mansfield’s population, engagement from UConn in the 2015 strategic planning process wasn’t what Kaufman and Stankov would hope, and they want to change that this time around.

    “We’re trying to be very intentional about our outreach to the UConn population,” Kaufman says. “We need to kind of crack that nut of how we can reach out to the UConn community.”

    “Because of our weak penetration of the UConn bubble in 2015, we’ve really doubled down on trying to make sure that we understand what folks at UConn are thinking of,” says Stankov.

    But how do you get busy students – not to mention faculty and staff, who might not even live in town – to pay attention to and take a municipal survey?

    That’s where 18 undergraduates from Innovation House are playing an important part.

    ‘What Students Think’

    Innovation House is a multidisciplinary community that brings together entrepreneurial-minded students and offers mentorship opportunities and exposure to programs that help support entrepreneurship.

    That multidisciplinary nature is what drew Alishia Thompson ’27 (SFA), a digital media and design student from Putnam, to the community.

    “I wanted a mix of a bunch of different people from different majors and schools in the University and from all sorts of different backgrounds,” Thompson says.

    Michael Bossi ’27 (BUS), a business management major from Bristol, was drawn to the community through an interest in innovation and entrepreneurship.

    “I love thinking strategically about business and really just any kind of problem that you have to think critically to solve,” Bossi says. “That’s just always what’s been fun to me. That’s why I went into business management in the first place as well, and that led me to the Innovation House this past year.”

    For Carter Gay ’27 (CLAS), a double major in mathematics and physics from Canton, Innovation House seemed to align with his interests.

    Mansfield’s strategic plan sets out the town’s vision for not just conservation and development but for all of the municipality’s priorities.

    “You get to be part of a community of people, and they all live on the same floor,” Gay says. “I thought that was kind of cool. In the building where the housing is, there’s a maker’s space in the bottom, that’s pretty cool.”

    Despite their difference in majors, the three students – and many of their fellow sophomores in Innovation House – have something in common beyond their interest in innovation.

    None of them had ever really thought much about municipal planning.

    Last year, the Werth Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation took over responsibility for the Innovation House Learning Community. Kathy Rocha, the institute’s associate director, and Katie Britt, it’s director of leadership development, co-teach a required course with the community’s sophomore class that’s focused on the design thinking process – ideation, creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

    “The plan for this semester was to come up with a project based in our area, in the Mansfield area, that the students could work on creatively to solve a problem,” says Rocha. “We didn’t know what the problem was, but it was a general idea.

    “I was talking with David Ouimette, and I told him about this, and he asked me if I had ever met Jennifer Kaufman. And I hadn’t. He said you should reach out to her.”

    So, she did.

    “Kathy made contact with me at the beginning of the semester,” says Kaufman, “and she said, ‘Hey, I want to work on a project for the town.’ And we said, ‘This is great.’”

    As the semester has progressed, Stankov has visited the class a few times, taking feedback from the students about how they thought the Mansfield Tomorrow survey might be improved, and learning about and helping them refine their plans for how to engage with other member of the UConn community encourage participation in the survey.

    “The goal is to figure out what students think about the surrounding area, whether that be that there’s not enough stores, not enough shops, or there’s not enough housing, there’s not enough public walkways, that sort of thing,” says Gay. “How we can develop the area better, not only to suit the needs of everybody, but really to help UConn students?”

    ‘Our Whole Story’

    The students, who divided themselves into teams focused on each different UConn demographic – students, faculty, and staff – have developed creative plans utilizing their diverse experiences and skills in order to engage the UConn community on Mansfield’s behalf.

    With the ideation phase of their project complete, they’ll soon be shifting into action, putting flyers around campus and asking their own professors and the University staff they work with to complete the survey, which is online and only takes five-to-10 minutes, before working on broader outreach to faculty and staff.

    In addition to the gift-card giveaways that the town has for anyone who completes the survey, some student-only incentives will be on offer as well, including a UConn jersey, a basketball signed by Coach Auriemma, and gift cards to Barnes & Noble.

    And, they’ll be out on campus on April 1 and 2 offering free cookies to any student who takes the survey.

    Conn sophomores in the Innovation House will be sharing flyers around campus at events detailing incentives for students to complete the Mansfield Tomorrow survey.

    “We all agreed that, if there’s one thing we know that can get college students to participate in things, it’s free food,” Thompson says.

    Every response, says Bossi, adds to crucial data that the town needs to help guide its decision-making.

    “Our goal is to help the town of Mansfield, really, and more measurable in our class is to get as many responses as possible,” Bossi says. “My goal is to shoot for the stars with the amount of responses we can get – I want thousands of responses on that survey, from every demographic.”

    Thousands of responses might be a lofty goal, says Stankov – hundreds might be more realistic. For Kaufman, their overarching aim is to strike a balance between understanding the needs of the UConn community and building a plan that addresses the whole of Mansfield’s population.

    “We value the UConn community – we, personally, have great relationships with people at UConn, like Nathan Fuerst, John Armstrong, and Phil Hunt – and I think the town and the University, over the past few years, have really done a great job in working together,” Kaufman says. “We know that UConn students make up over half of our residents, and so we are, again, being intentional so that we’ll be able to tell that as just a part of our whole story.”

    ‘Such An Impact’

    Though it’s unlikely that most of the Innovation House students – including Bossi, Gay, and Thompson – will go on to pursue a career in municipal planning, the learning opportunities from this project go far beyond any future plans, explains Rocha.

    “It’s about creative thinking,” she says. “They’re working on collaboration with each other, as well as with the town of Mansfield. Adaptability – they’ve had to be very flexible in what they’re doing. And then finally, it’s the execution, the project management, and that’s the one that students really don’t often get a chance to do.

    “They get into all of this stuff, and then putting together the plan and seeing the plan through –that’s a big one.”

    That aspect of the project hasn’t been lost on Thompson, the digital media and design major.

    “While I’m not necessarily going to be a municipal planner in my future, there’s still a lot of skills and aspects of this that are really critical for a job in the DMD department, especially in the animation field,” Thompson says. “Animation is all about collaboration, communication, and teamwork and, in some cases, leadership as well. This project and this program, that we’re trying to – it is literally asking for all of those skills.”

    For Gay, the math and physics major, and for Bossi, the business management major, participating in the project has given them a new empathy for the work that town officials are doing and a new appreciation for the role that they get to play in the process.

    “I think it’s really meaningful, because it’s something real,” Gay says. “In a lot of classes, you’ll do something like this, and it’ll be a ‘mock’ something, not real. But this is legitimate, real-world. And the town really just wants information on how they can improve and help make things better.”

    “I can even see myself skipping out on a survey like this,” says Bossi. “But I really, truly do mean – from the bottom of my heart – that this whole project is done with very good intentions. We aren’t seeking a financial gain; we’re just seeking to help the place that houses all of our students. Mansfield houses UConn, and taking just five minutes or less to fill out a survey can make such an impact.”

    All members of the UConn Storrs community – students, faculty, and staff, regardless of town of residence – are encouraged to contribute to Mansfield’s strategic planning by completing the Mansfield Tomorrow survey at MansfieldTomorrow.org.

    UConn students are invited to join the Innovation House class on Fairfield Way on April 1, 2025, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., and in the Student Union on April 2, 2025, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., to take the Mansfield Tomorrow survey, get a free cookie, and be entered for a chance to win a raffle prize.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI: Study Finds Brain Training Also Helps Caregivers of Dementia Patients

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SAN FRANCISCO, April 01, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — While a particular brain training app —BrainHQ from Posit Science — has already been shown to prevent cognitive decline and improve brain health in older adults, researchers at the University of Rochester and Stanford University have now found that the same app can improve cognitive health in family members who are providing care to loved ones with Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias.

    “Anyone who has been a family caregiver knows how mentally demanding and exhausting that vital role is,” observed Dr. Henry Mahncke, CEO of Posit Science. “We applaud the independent researchers who designed and ran this new study for taking these issues seriously and for recognizing that the benefits of BrainHQ shown in studies of other populations could also address the brain health challenges experienced by caregivers.”

    According to the Alzheimer’s Association, each year more than 11 million Americans are providing an estimated 18.4 billion hours of unpaid care (valued at more than $346 billion) to people living with dementia.

    The chronic stress of caregiving, this new study notes, is known to be associated with many health risks for caregivers, including accelerated cognitive aging (declines in attention, processing speed, and memory), greater risks of ill health and mortality, as well as diminished emotional well-being. Family caregivers are often older adults themselves, with challenges in adapting to the ongoing stressors of caregiving. Such stressors include watching a family member’s declining functional ability and increasing neuropsychiatric symptoms (apathy, mood disturbance, and agitation), as well as behavioral changes. Those stressors are often compounded by feelings of loss of a significant relationship with a loved one, as well as by family conflict around care.

    In this randomized controlled study published in Innovation and Aging, a peer-reviewed journal of the Gerontological Society of America, the researchers reported they had enrolled 195 caregivers (aged 55-85) and randomized them into either the intervention group, which was assigned five exercises organized as a regimen on the BrainHQ app, or into an active control group, which was assigned educational videos (e.g., public television series on cooking, travel, or history, and other documentaries) that participants self-selected from a study website. Participants in both groups were asked to engage in their assigned activity for 30 minutes per session, across 3 sessions per week, for 8 weeks (12 hours, in total).

    All participants were assessed (at baseline, after 8 weeks, and at 6- and 12-month follow-ups) on measures of processing speed and attention, working memory under stress, and emotion reactivity to laboratory and caregiving stressors.

    The researchers found that the BrainHQ group had significantly improved processing speed and attention performance as compared to the active control group, and these differences persisted through the 6-month follow-up. In the 6-month follow-up, working memory performance under stress was significantly better among the BrainHQ compared to the active control group. At 12 months, caregivers in the BrainHQ group reported less negative emotion in response to behavioral symptoms of their care recipient. There were no group differences on acute emotion reactivity to the laboratory stressor at any time point.

    The researchers conclude, “Evidence from this clinical trial suggests that with continued development, targeted, neuroplasticity-based cognitive training has strong potential to strengthen stress adaptation and emotional resilience in caregivers of a family member with ADRD” [Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias].

    BrainHQ exercises have shown benefits in more than 300 studies. Such benefits include gains in cognition (attention, speed, memory, decision-making), in quality of life (depressive symptoms, confidence and control, health-related quality of life) and in real-world activities (health outcomes, balance, driving, workplace activities). BrainHQ is offered by leading health and Medicare Advantage plans, by leading medical centers, clinics, and communities, and by elite athletes, the military, and other organizations focused on peak performance. Consumers can try a BrainHQ exercise for free daily at https://www.brainhq.com.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Farmers of Salem Proudly Spotlights Employee Jenni Eber for Her Generous Charitable Giving Work

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    WILMINGTON, Del., April 01, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Property and Casualty insurer, Farmers of Salem, is proud to support employee involvement in community activities that improve the quality of life in those communities where our employees live. Today, we spotlight Jenni Eber, Claims Customer Service Supervisor, who will be celebrating her 20-year career with Farmers later this year.

    Jenni has always had a close relationship with military veterans. Her brother, Glenn Cherry Jr, is a Navy veteran. It has always been his dream to retire, run a farm and help his military brothers and sister. Jenni says, “My love language has always been Acts of Service.” So, it was natural for the close brother and sister to team up in 2017 and give their time and energy to Gallant Heart of NJ (GH). Glenn is a founding member, and Jenni is currently the COO.

    GH hopes to bring awareness to the aftercare of our military veterans. They often attend veteran sponsored events and chip in wherever needed. “Being involved for some years now, I still struggle with the words, but I feel more passionate than ever to help in any way I can.” Jenni continued, “The basic premise is to reduce veteran suicide.” 

    Gallant Heart is a non-profit that focuses on providing leisure activities to our nation’s heroes. The non-profit prides itself on creating a supportive environment for veterans and first responders to experience camaraderie, brotherhood and relaxation through hunting and social events. It is our mission to provide a cost-free experience and to play a role in their continued healing and quality of life.

    Each GH founding member involves their children to ensure the acts of service live beyond expectations. This past summer Jenni took her 14-year-old daughter, Blair and her field hockey teammates to a Veterans picnic. They served the veterans lunch, escorted them to locations they needed to go, and cleaned up the entire event with a smile. “It was very eye opening for them, and I’m extremely grateful I was able to provide that opportunity.”

    The organization recently completed their 2025 Flagship Event: The Wounded Veteran Pheasant Hunt. The weekend event hosted 24 Purple Heart recipients and/or 100% disabled veterans. This is an all-inclusive program for wounded and injured veterans which utilizes the therapeutic effects of the outdoors, camaraderie, and social engagement to help improve everyday quality of life. All food, equipment, lodging, and travel was provided.

    Regarding Jenni’s career at Farmers, she stated: “I’ve worked my way up in the claims department, starting as a part time clerk. I now handle Property Loss claims and manage our Customer Service Representatives. I truly love my job, as I’ve said before, Acts of Service is my love language. Knowing that I’m helping people in their time of need is truly fulfilling.”

    “When I started at Farmers, I was a 24-year-old in college. Now I’m married, with two beautiful kids, and have a beautiful home, all while building a career with Farmers of Salem. I’ve also been able to coach sports for over 20 years and never missed a school event due to Farmers of Salem believing in putting family first.”

    For more information about Gallant Heart of NJ, visit wwwgallantheartnj.org

    About Farmers of Salem
    Founded in 1851, Farmers of Salem provides insurance coverage to homeowners and businesses in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland through a network of independent agents. Rated A- Excellent by A.M. Best Company and has received a Financial Stability Rating of A Exceptional by Demotech, Inc. We pride ourselves in providing Superior Service with Personal Attention.

    Farmers of Salem provides compensated Volunteer Time Off (VTO) to full-time employees for use during their regular workday. Farmers’ recognizes volunteering provides employees with a valuable opportunity to meaningfully support their chosen charitable missions and is very proud of their employee’s service to others.

    For more information about Farmers of Salem, visit farmersofsalem.com

    As a mutual corporation, fundamentally rooted in serving our community, we engage in corporate philanthropy, giving annually to an array of organizations and causes. Through our giving, in local markets where we have a presence, Farmers of Salem has supported educational development, physical education, and health and wellness programs that provide communities in most need with essential services, opportunities to improve the quality of their lives and provide them with assets to create a better future.

    A partial list of events and organizations that Farmers of Salem supports annually:

    • Autism Delaware
    • Serviam Girls Academy
    • Vehicles for Veterans
    • Salem County Humane Society
    • Habitat for Humanity
    • VFW Post #253
    • Operation Legacy
    • Keeping Hope Alive, Inc.
    • Temple University 
    • Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts
    • Holiday Service Project – Thanksgiving Food Baskets – Salvation Army
    • Make A Wish
    • American Red Cross
    • American Cancer Society
    • Longwood Gardens
    • Bo Lends a Paw Pet Pantry
       
    Contact: Kim Lorenzini
      856-628-0150
      klorenzini@fosnj.com

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/422aee69-f48d-4b0e-a4ae-4e587dea06dd

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: NANO Nuclear Energy Bolsters its Regulatory Licensing Team with the Addition of Veteran Nuclear Professional Brent Hamilton as Director of Quality Assurance

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    New York, N.Y., April 01, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — NANO Nuclear Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: NNE) (“NANO Nuclear” or “the Company”), a leading advanced nuclear energy and technology company focused on developing clean energy solutions, today announced the appointment Brent Hamilton as its Director of Quality Assurance.

    This appointment continues a series of important additions to NANO Nuclear’s engineering, scientific and regulatory licensing personnel as the Company seeks to progress its proprietary, advanced nuclear micro reactor designs through construction, demonstration, regulatory licensing and ultimately commercialization.

    Mr. Hamilton has over 26 years of quality control, quality engineering, and quality assurance experience, primarily in nuclear construction for commercial nuclear, Department of Energy projects, and nuclear fuel manufacturing. In these roles, he gained extensive experience in the development of Quality Management Systems and their implementation. Each were focused on meeting key regulatory licensing regulatory requirements, including those included as part 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix B; 10 CFR Part 70; 10 CFR Part 830; DOE O 414.1D; and/or CSA N286. His experience and knowledge are expected to be of great benefit in the identification of critical project attributes and the development of processes to validate them.

    “It is an honor to assume this role and contribute my expertise in implementing robust quality assurance programs for NANO Nuclear’s reactors in development,” said Brent Hamilton, Director of Quality Assurance of NANO Nuclear. “My background spans multiple nuclear initiatives, and I firmly believe that the U.S. nuclear industry’s future depends on innovative, dedicated teams like the one at NANO Nuclear. I look forward to helping ensure that all of NANO Nuclear’s technologies are built to the highest quality standards as we advance our plans.”

    Figure 1 – NANO Nuclear Energy Inc. Appoints Brent Hamilton as its Director of Quality Assurance.

    Mr. Hamilton is expected to bring invaluable insight and guidance as NANO Nuclear’s reactor development projects move forward. Mr. Hamilton has held quality leadership positions in projects such as: early site work for the Plutonium Processing Facility at the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL); development of manufacturing scale processes for TRISO fuel and establishment of a pilot facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and construction of the Spent Fuel Handing Project (SFHP) for the Naval Reactors Facility in Idaho. Mr. Hamilton has spent many years involved with the construction of the AP1000 reactor projects in Georgia and South Carolina and the Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride Conversion Facility in Kentucky.

    “NANO Nuclear is rapidly expanding its roster with veteran nuclear energy professionals who have in-depth experience working closely with the U.S. Department of Energy, and Brent’s arrival reflects that trend and our commitment to retaining the best talent we can,” said Jay Yu, Founder and Chairman of NANO Nuclear. “His expertise aligns perfectly with our vision to advance our reactor designs to the next stage of development and I’m confident he will be a key contributor to NANO Nuclear’s growth.”

    “Brent is a highly experienced professional who brings a comprehensive understanding of nuclear reactor development, particularly our newly acquired KRONOS MMR™ Energy System and portable LOKI MMR™ from his tenure at Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation,” said James Walker, Chief Executive Officer of NANO Nuclear. “His continuity in this area will be essential as we work to quickly move our reactors through the next stages of development. I am pleased to welcome a professional of his caliber to our expanding team.”

    About NANO Nuclear Energy, Inc.

    NANO Nuclear Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: NNE) is an advanced technology-driven nuclear energy company seeking to become a commercially focused, diversified, and vertically integrated company across five business lines: (i) cutting edge portable and other microreactor technologies, (ii) nuclear fuel fabrication, (iii) nuclear fuel transportation, (iv) nuclear applications for space and (v) nuclear industry consulting services. NANO Nuclear believes it is the first portable nuclear microreactor company to be listed publicly in the U.S.

    Led by a world-class nuclear engineering team, NANO Nuclear’s reactor products in development include patented KRONOS MMR™ Energy System, a stationary high-temperature gas-cooled reactor that is in construction permit pre-application engagement U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in collaboration with University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U. of I.), “ZEUS”, a solid core battery reactor, and “ODIN”, a low-pressure coolant reactor, and the space focused, portable LOKI MMR™, each representing advanced developments in clean energy solutions that are portable, on-demand capable, advanced nuclear microreactors.

    Advanced Fuel Transportation Inc. (AFT), a NANO Nuclear subsidiary, is led by former executives from the largest transportation company in the world aiming to build a North American transportation company that will provide commercial quantities of HALEU fuel to small modular reactors, microreactor companies, national laboratories, military, and DOE programs. Through NANO Nuclear, AFT is the exclusive licensee of a patented high-capacity HALEU fuel transportation basket developed by three major U.S. national nuclear laboratories and funded by the Department of Energy. Assuming development and commercialization, AFT is expected to form part of the only vertically integrated nuclear fuel business of its kind in North America.

    HALEU Energy Fuel Inc. (HEF), a NANO Nuclear subsidiary, is focusing on the future development of a domestic source for a High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) fuel fabrication pipeline for NANO Nuclear’s own microreactors as well as the broader advanced nuclear reactor industry.

    NANO Nuclear Space Inc. (NNS), a NANO Nuclear subsidiary, is exploring the potential commercial applications of NANO Nuclear’s developing micronuclear reactor technology in space. NNS is focusing on applications such as the LOKI MMR™ system and other power systems for extraterrestrial projects and human sustaining environments, and potentially propulsion technology for long haul space missions. NNS’ initial focus will be on cis-lunar applications, referring to uses in the space region extending from Earth to the area surrounding the Moon’s surface.

    For more corporate information please visit: https://NanoNuclearEnergy.com/

    For further NANO Nuclear information, please contact:

    Email: IR@NANONuclearEnergy.com
    Business Tel: (212) 634-9206

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    Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements

    This news release and statements of NANO Nuclear’s management in connection with this news release contain or may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In this context, forward-looking statements mean statements related to future events, which may impact our expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as “expects”, “anticipates”, “intends”, “plans”, “believes”, “potential”, “will”, “should”, “could”, “would” or “may” and other words of similar meaning. In this press release, forward-looking statements include those related to the anticipated benefits to NANO Nuclear of the appointment of Mar. Hamilton, as well as the Company’s regulatory plans in general, as described herein. These and other forward-looking statements are based on information available to us as of the date of this news release and represent management’s current views and assumptions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, events or results and involve significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may be beyond our control. For NANO Nuclear, particular risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in our forward-looking statements include but are not limited to the following: (i) risks related to our U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) or related state or non-U.S. nuclear fuel licensing submissions, (ii) risks related the development of new or advanced technology and the acquisition of complimentary technology or businesses, including difficulties with design and testing, cost overruns, regulatory delays, integration issues and the development of competitive technology, (iii) our ability to obtain contracts and funding to be able to continue operations, (iv) risks related to uncertainty regarding our ability to technologically develop and commercially deploy a competitive advanced nuclear reactor or other technology in the timelines we anticipate, if ever, (v) risks related to the impact of U.S. and non-U.S. government regulation, policies and licensing requirements, including by the DOE and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, including those associated with the recently enacted ADVANCE Act, and (vi) similar risks and uncertainties associated with the operating an early stage business a highly regulated and rapidly evolving industry. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which apply only as of the date of this news release. These factors may not constitute all factors that could cause actual results to differ from those discussed in any forward-looking statement, and NANO Nuclear therefore encourages investors to review other factors that may affect future results in its filings with the SEC, which are available for review at www.sec.gov and at https://ir.nanonuclearenergy.com/financial-information/sec-filings. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as a predictor of actual results. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this news release, except as required by law.

    Attachment

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Canada a 51st state? Here’s how American annexation could actually favour Canada

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Felix Arndt, Professor and John F. Wood Chair in Entrepreneurship, University of Guelph

    When United States President Donald Trump first floated the idea of annexing Canada, many observers rolled their eyes. The common assumption was that this proposal, like much of Trump’s bombast, amounted to little more than a fleeting soundbite.

    Yet, amid continuing public remarks about Canada becoming the 51st state and suggestions of genuine intent, the idea has become part of a broader conversation about North America’s future.

    The idea of the U.S. merging with Canada outright has not been received well in Canada, especially because Trump’s threats have been accompanied by economic warfare aimed at forcing Canada into submission. After all, the U.S. already has 50 states. Canada, with its population of about 40 million and its immense geographic size, would be an outsized “51st” by any comparison.

    But any serious analysis of this proposition quickly reveals that annexation would be far more complicated — and far less one-sided — than the label “51st state.”

    Our analysis is premised on an assumption that the U.S. remains a democratic system that has not turned into a pseudo-monarchy, in keeping with a Trump social media post in early February proclaiming “long live the King.”

    The most important takeaway from our analysis is that a unified country would need to inaugurate a new president and Parliament. The path towards the integration of the countries would have to start with closer economic integration, not the alienation currently in place.

    A multi-state reality

    As we argue in our newest self-published book Make America Greater? A Scenario of a Friendly Canada-U.S. Merger, Canada would not simply become part of the U.S. as a single state under the provisions of the American Constitution.

    Based on population and the distribution of power in U.S. Congress, Canada’s 10 provinces and three northern territories would almost certainly be carved into multiple states, perhaps nine or more.

    This is no small detail.

    America’s unique electoral arithmetic grants each state two senators, while seats in the House of Representatives depend on population size. With around 40 million new citizens, a unified North America would reshape the balance of power in both the Senate and the House.



    Read more:
    Canada as a 51st state? Republicans would never win another general election

    Critically, the new country formed via unification might end up looking far more like Canada than many Americans imagine.

    Why? Canadian voters lean more centrist — or even centre-left — than the average American does. Over time, that could tilt congressional priorities in favour of policies reflecting Canada’s taste for universal health care, stricter gun control and robust social welfare.

    The longstanding political tug-of-war in the U.S. could see its centre of gravity shift, likely to the chagrin of some more conservative segments of the existing union.

    Tariffs, politics and tensions

    Officials on both sides of the border are already locked in a dance of retaliatory tariffs.

    Each new measure escalates anxieties, threatening to derail one of the world’s largest bilateral trading relationships.

    Some might argue that if tariffs are putting negative pressures on the economy and roiling the markets, perhaps deeper integration — or even full-blown unification — could serve as a release valve. But the path towards a friendly merger is best taken step-by-step and starts with stronger economic integration, not alienation.



    Read more:
    Canada’s response to Trump’s tariffs was strategic, but there is room for improvement

    Forging a genuine union goes well beyond removing trade barriers. Canada and the U.S. differ on far more than just economics: from bilingualism laws to gun regulations, from health care to environmental policy, the two countries embody contrasting visions of how society should function.

    Canadians would expect to preserve elements of their social contract that many regard as superior to American norms — particularly their single-payer health-care system and comparatively strict firearms restrictions.

    A process genuinely aimed at integrating the two countries would take this into account. It would extend the United States-Mexico-Canada trade deal further to strengthen economic integration, elevate the rights of French and Spanish speakers in the U.S. in order to signal compatible cultural values and extend Medicare to show an appreciation of the common denominators of the two societies.

    Trump’s current rhetoric, however, does not seem to indicate a genuine desire for a unification.

    Why a merger could favour Canada

    As surprising as it seems, our analysis suggests that a unified North America could lean Canada’s way over time.

    Even if the American Electoral College were reimagined — or scrapped — Canadian provinces transformed into states would wield significant power, influencing everything from budget allocations to Supreme Court appointments.



    Read more:
    As Joe Biden becomes president, here’s an easy proposal for Electoral College reform

    What’s more, cultural convergence has an asymmetrical pull. Younger Americans show a growing appetite for social safety nets, while Canadians remain broadly wedded to their publicly funded health-care model.

    Over a few election cycles, these forces could converge into a more expansive welfare regime, something that would astonish traditional conservatives across the current 50 states.

    A combined North America would boast one of the largest economies on Earth, including abundant natural resources and technological innovation.

    The promise of frictionless trade, a single currency and vast internal markets might delight big business and certain multinational interests. Yet the path would be fraught.

    Constitutional arrangements, Indigenous rights, linguistic protections and environmental regulations — all areas in which Canadian norms diverge significantly from American precedents — would have to be reconciled.

    Canadians, proud of their universal healthcare, progressive climate policies and lower rates of gun violence, would worry about being subsumed by a more rambunctious, militarized neighbour. Americans, meanwhile, would fear they would be forced to adopt new taxes and policies at odds with their historic emphasis on individual freedoms.

    A country more closely resembling Canada

    Regardless of whether Trump’s annexation talk proves more than just bluster, the notion of a friendly U.S.–Canada merger invites reflection. It reminds us that North America’s two largest nations remain economically interlocked and geographically co-located, though culturally distinct.

    With tariffs in place and cross-border tensions mounting, creative solutions are worth examining, even if a merger can — at best — be seen as a long-term vision.

    A genuine offer of a merger would require that Canadians to be assured that if such a union did transpire, their voices might echo far more loudly than expected in the halls of Washington, D.C.

    And Americans — facing shifting demographics and changing societal values — may discover that the annexation Trump initiated could bring surprises that tilt the new country much closer to its northern neighbour’s ideals than to the status quo below the 49th parallel.

    Felix Arndt is an author of a book referred to in this article.

    Barak Aharonson is an author of a book with a similar topic.

    – ref. Canada a 51st state? Here’s how American annexation could actually favour Canada – https://theconversation.com/canada-a-51st-state-heres-how-american-annexation-could-actually-favour-canada-251547

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Cannabis retail expansion in Canada came with only a small uptick in the number of consumers

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Michael J. Armstrong, Associate Professor, Operations Research, Brock University

    Ever since recreational cannabis was legalized across Canada in 2018, researchers have been studying what that decision changed for Canadians.

    We’ve learned, for example, that some patients immediately left the medical cannabis system, presumably to use recreational products instead. Conversely, legalization appeared to have no effect on Canadian alcohol sales.

    We’ve similarly seen how cannabis retailing has evolved since it became legal.

    Retailers suffered from product shortages during legalization’s first six months, but steadily expanded soon after. Canada went from having some 210 stores in April 2019 to 3,500 in April 2023. The ensuing competition pushed prices down 28 per cent during that period.

    Meanwhile, provincial governments have tried various regulatory approaches. Some initially restricted the number of stores to avoid tempting non-users. Québec still has 10 times fewer stores per capita than Ontario does as a result. Other provinces have set minimum prices to discourage people from overindulging. For example, Ontario won’t let wholesale prices drop below $2.28 per gram.

    These developments in business and government policy prompted my latest research. I wanted to understand what effect retail expansion had on cannabis use. To do this, I analyzed consumer responses on government surveys collected between 2019 to 2023. I then compared these responses to the recreational cannabis consumer price index and the numbers of licensed stores in each province.

    Did Canadians consume cannabis more widely, more frequently and at younger ages as it became more accessible and affordable? The answer was mostly no.

    More women and older adult consumers

    The percentage of men who used cannabis stayed around 28 per cent between 2019 and 2023 — despite retailers’ massive store growth and notable price cuts.

    But usage did grow slightly among women — rising from 21 per cent in 2019 to 23 per cent in 2023. My analysis suggests this was related to the increasing affordability of cannabis, not its retail convenience. More women consumed cannabis when prices fell, not when more shops opened.

    A similar contrast appeared between younger and older adults. Cannabis use among Canadians aged 25 and over crept upward from 21 to 23 per cent. That increase again seemed related to falling prices rather than expanding stores. Meanwhile, usage among those aged 16 to 24 varied year-to-year, but remained around 46 per cent.

    The average age of first-time use consequently rose from 19.2 in 2019 to 20.8 years old in 2023. This finding also seemed correlated with both falling prices and expanding stores.

    Same frequency, more edibles

    One thing that didn’t change much was frequency of use. About one-quarter of cannabis consumers used it five or more days per week in both 2019 and 2023.

    However, their product preferences shifted. The percentage who smoked dried cannabis decreased while the percentage of consumers who consumed edibles increased. Some consumers used both types of products, or used other products entirely — such as vapes. Both changes seemed related to prices rather than the number of retail stores. Consumers seemingly traded-up from basic dried cannabis to processed edibles as prices fell.

    So overall, Canada’s substantial retail developments came with only modest usage growth.

    The apparent relationships between usage and price might partly be coincidental. Product selection and quality also improved, so they likely contributed too. But falling prices do seem to be a plausible explanation for the increased cannabis consumption that was seen.

    The lack of relationship between stores and usage might seem surprising. After all, Canada experienced a 16-fold explosion in stores between 2019 and 2023. But this finding correlates with what my previous research found; it showed that between 2018 and 2020, there was a similar non-relationship between retail expansion of cannabis stores and usage.



    Read more:
    Cannabis store openings in Canada only slightly affected the number of users

    So, perhaps the main effect of retail stores was to draw existing users away from illegal dealers, rather than to tempt new ones.

    I suspect retailers probably influenced usage somewhat in their local neighbourhoods. For example, someone who walked by a new store daily on their way to work might have decided to try cannabis. But this effect would have been too small to appear in province-level measurements.

    Price restriction

    The findings from my study suggests some tentative lessons for regulators.

    If opening more stores has minimal impact on usage, there’s little need to limit their numbers. Provinces don’t need to ration store licenses, and municipalities (like Markham and Oakville in Ontario) don’t need to ban them.

    But since price declines tempt more consumers, it’s important for policymakers to prevent prices from getting too low.

    Other countries who are considering legalizing cannabis may want to consider these points, too.

    For example, medical cannabis use is surging in Australia, much like it was in Canada a decade ago. And Australia’s Green Party is campaigning for recreational legalization in the upcoming federal election. If that election produces a coalition government, legalization might be on its agenda. They could look at our policies and hopefully improve on them.

    Meanwhile in Germany, the previous government legalized recreational use, but not sales. So, Germans must grow their own plants or join a club that does. Commercial products are sold only through the country’s medical cannabis system. Unsurprisingly, medical use is soaring there. Based on what my research suggests, Germany will likely see similar usage growth, whether it allows stores or not. But allowing stores would mean consumers could buy products from licensed sources instead of illicit dealers.

    Canada’s cannabis legalization was controversial at the time. But some Canadians say it has become a memorable part of Justin Trudeau’s complicated legacy. Now that he’s no longer prime minister, that’s something he and his biographers can contemplate.

    Michael J. Armstrong 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. Cannabis retail expansion in Canada came with only a small uptick in the number of consumers – https://theconversation.com/cannabis-retail-expansion-in-canada-came-with-only-a-small-uptick-in-the-number-of-consumers-252008

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: The results of the conference “Reconstruction and Restoration of Architectural Heritage” were summed up at SPbGASU

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

    Source: Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering – Presidium of the round table “Additional professional education in restoration”. From left to right: Chairperson of the Russian Association of Restorers, Acting Director of the State Autonomous Cultural Institution of the Leningrad Region “International Restoration Center” Tatyana Chernyaeva; Professor of the Urban Planning Department of SPbGASU Sergey Semenov; First Vice-Rector of SPbGASU Svetlana Golovina; Director of the Higher Engineering School of RUT (MIIT) Boris Igolnikov; General Director of REMMERS LLC Andrey Babich

    The anniversary 5th National (All-Russian) scientific and practical conference with international participation “Reconstruction and Restoration of Architectural Heritage” (RRAN-2025) was held at the Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering from March 24 to 28.

    The conference was attended by representatives of the Russian Ministry of Culture, state bodies for the protection of monuments, higher education institutions training architect-restorers, restoration specialists from all over Russia and abroad. The partners of the conference were the Committee for State Control, Use and Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments (KGIOP) of the Government of St. Petersburg and the Non-Commercial Partnership “Russian Association of Restorers (Rosregionrestavratsiya)”. The conference was held with the participation of the companies “Friedlander Paints”, OOO “REMMERS” and OOO “RUNIT”.

    Plenary session

    At the plenary session “Features of Preservation and Development of Restoration Professions,” those gathered discussed prospects for cooperation, outlined development paths for the industry, and discussed new challenges facing restoration architects.

    Mikhail Mamoshin, chief architect and project manager at Mamoshin Architectural Workshop LLC, spoke about the reconstruction of the Church of the Holy Blessed Princes Boris and Gleb in St. Petersburg. The church was built in 1866–1882 and operated until 1934. Then, for over 40 years, it was used for other purposes, and in 1975, the building was demolished to make way for a new route for the Sinopskaya Embankment. Interest in the reconstruction of this site arose after the publication of an album dedicated to the lost churches of the Northern capital, which was prepared at the Department of Architectural and Urban Heritage of St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering by Professor Sergei Vladimirovich Semenov and Associate Professor Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Akulova. Later, the Foundation for Assistance to the Restoration of Historical and Cultural Sites in St. Petersburg, with the support of the Union of Architects of St. Petersburg, published the book “The Lost Churches of St. Petersburg”. In 2019, the foundation announced its decision to recreate this temple. The team led by Mikhail Mamoshin was entrusted with carrying out the design work.

    Yulia Bogacheva, Deputy Chairperson of the Committee for State Control, Use and Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments, gave a report entitled “Heritage Protection and Digitalization”. The audience learned about the KGIOP archive, the funds of which were formed in the 1930s and include documents from the beginning of the 18th century to the present day. In 2015–2017, 2,700 storage units were digitized and placed in the committee’s information system. Olga Olegovna reviewed the main digital systems and technologies used in the implementation of control (supervisory) activities, and emphasized the need for a modern comprehensive solution integrated with regional and federal geographic information systems (GIS). According to the speaker, digital transformation is impossible without the creation of a geographic information system of cultural heritage sites (GIS OKN). The implementation of the project will improve the quality and efficiency of recording, identifying, preserving, using, popularizing and state protection of cultural heritage sites (historical and cultural monuments) in St. Petersburg, and automate information exchange. The KGIOP representative also spoke about plans to develop solutions based on information regulation technologies (IRT) together with SPbGASU for analyzing and assessing the condition of architectural monuments, monitoring the condition of monuments, etc.

    Ekaterina Tribelskaya, head of the architecture department at the Moscow State Academic Art Institute named after V. I. Surikov at the Russian Academy of Arts, presented the architecture department of her university, noting that they are attentive and careful about preserving cultural heritage sites, and research them as part of coursework and diploma theses.

    Anna Smirnova, CEO of Kraski Friedlander LLC, gave a presentation entitled “Brand Cities. Cultural Heritage and Identity in Historical Cities.” The speaker listed the reasons why a city needs its own brand: this will attract investment and tourists, support traditions, create conditions for business development, and much more. In addition, this will preserve important historical foundations of color perception and preserve the identity of the environment.

    Yulia Yankovskaya, Head of the Urban Planning Department at SPbGASU, gave a report entitled “Compositional and Artistic Aspects of Architectural and Urban Planning Design – History and Modernity.” Yulia Sergeevna said that the Russian architectural school has always focused on compositional and artistic training. This is our global brand, which our Western and Eastern colleagues are guided by. Its outstanding representatives worked at SPbGASU – Yuri Kurbatov (1934-2020) and Vladimir Antoshchenkov (1933-2024). Unfortunately, according to Yulia Yankovskaya, this brand has recently begun to lose ground.

    In her presentation, Yulia Sergeevna showed the evolution of compositional training in architecture and architectural education and the development of ideas about extra-leftist form-building in the 20th–21st centuries, emphasizing that this is also a legacy that needs to be known, preserved and developed.

    In addition, Yulia Sergeevna drew the attention of the audience to two new topics discussed at the conference. One of them is monumental art in architecture and urban development. A round table and exhibition at the Faculty of Architecture, which will last until April 4.

    The conference program, in addition to five main sections in a number of areas, also included two round tables, two master classes, a lecture block, and two days of visiting restoration sites in St. Petersburg and its suburbs.

    Round table “Additional professional education in restoration”

    The round table began with a ceremony to sign an agreement on interuniversity cooperation between the Russian University of Transport and SPbGASU. The document was signed by Boris Igolnikov, Director of the Higher Engineering School of the Russian University of Transport (RUT (MIIT)) and Svetlana Golovina, First Vice-Rector of SPbGASU.

    The parties intend to exchange experience and information, organize internships for students and postgraduates, and hold joint events. Boris Igolnikov reported that the two universities are already actively interacting. The signing of the agreement will allow this interaction to reach a new level.

    Round table “Architecture, art, technology – integration mechanisms in a historical city”

    The focus of the participants of the round table “Architecture, art, technology – integration mechanisms in a historical city” was the digitalization of architectural and urban planning activities, which is being actively implemented at the state level, and its impact on the creative process of the architect and artist.

    Those gathered also considered the role of the architect-restorer, the architect-urban planner, who combines the compositional-artistic historical and creative principles, which are important to take into account when preserving and developing the environment, which is especially important when designing and organizing space and allows for the life of a modern person.

    Participants noted the need for proper management of this process, the inclusion of an urban architect and a restoration architect, the need to correctly set boundaries between areas where digitalization is important and necessary, and those where creative search remains a priority.

    Section “Experience of practical restoration and modern materials (synthesis of science and practice)”

    At the section “Experience of Practical Restoration and Modern Materials (Synthesis of Science and Practice)”, participants presented modern technologies for adapting architectural monuments, ensuring the possibility of their effective and safe operation, taking into account modern requirements. Alexey Kharitonov, associate professor of the Department of Construction Materials Technology and Metrology of SPbGASU, moderator of the section, reported that these technologies provide for minimal intervention in historical structures and materials, as they are based on the continuity of traditional construction techniques.

    “We exchanged experience in selecting restoration materials and technological schemes for conducting work using completed projects as an example. The participants were very interested in discussing the problem of capillary water suction in brick walls: completely new and scientifically substantiated ideas about the mechanism of moistening the walls of buildings and structures made of brickwork were presented. Draft national standards were presented, designed to regulate the requirements for the quality of work on the restoration of brickwork and plaster finishing,” said Alexey Kharitonov.

    Section “Monumental art in urban planning”

    At this section, experts discussed the issues of integrating works of monumental art into architecture and urban planning. If this process is well-established within the framework of restoration and reconstruction of historical monuments, then when including such works of art in modern architecture, the interaction of the architect and the monumental artist often turns out to be insufficient. Experts see the reason for this in the exclusion of this aspect from the educational process of architectural and artistic and architectural and construction universities. As a consequence, there is a lack of cooperation skills and, moreover, an understanding of the role of monumental art in modern architecture and the urban environment.

    “Our colleagues from the Department of Architecture at the V. I. Surikov Moscow State Academic Art Institute told us about training in this type of interaction (work between architects and sculptors as part of a third-year course project and a diploma project (in the latter case, it is optional)). Such interaction is not observed in other educational institutions, so the initiative of the Department of Urban Development at St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering to include the works of students of monumental painting in projects to transform the urban environment is very important. It is necessary to develop this area both in object design and in architectural-environmental and urban development design,” said Yulia Yankovskaya, moderator of the section.

    Master classes

    The highlights of the conference were the master classes from the company “Friedlander Paints”: “Lime paint as part of a systematic approach to restoration based on the principle of “like to like”” and “Restoration of brick and stonework”. Experienced professionals demonstrated work on restoring the surfaces of architectural monuments, shared advice on working with materials and tools, and original paint application techniques.

    The construction company REMMERS presented an exhibition stand at the conference, telling about its restoration projects, and the magazine Vestnik Restoratsii, which it publishes. The publication was of great interest to the conference participants and students of SPbGASU.

    Visiting restoration sites

    Thematic excursions were organized for the conference participants. In the Yusupov Palace on the Moika Embankment, they viewed the ceremonial interiors that had recently undergone restoration. In the building of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, they got acquainted with the progress of the restoration work that was being completed. They viewed restoration objects in one of the palace and park suburbs of St. Petersburg – in Peterhof.

    During the conference, specialists were also able to undergo advanced training.

    Those gathered came to a general consensus on the need to create a single center for the development of restoration technologies.

    Following the conference, a collection of scientific articles will be published.

    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 United Kingdom: £302m for further education colleges to fix dilapidated buildings

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    £302m for further education colleges to fix dilapidated buildings

    FE college groups across England will receive a share of £302m to fix, maintain and improve their buildings under government’s Plan for Change

    Leaky roofs, broken windows and dilapidated buildings at further education colleges across England will be repaired thanks to a £302m government cash injection announced today (1 April), ensuring they can continue to break down barriers to opportunity as part of the government’s Plan for Change.

    The funding, which was announced by the Chancellor in the Budget in October, is the first condition allocation for FE colleges in two years, demonstrating the government’s commitment to investing in the next generation by fixing, maintaining and improving college buildings.

    This will also ensure FE Colleges are able to attract and retain learners, helping to boost the economy.

    The government has listened to feedback from the sector, and for the first time is giving FE colleges the discretion and flexibility to decide how the funding should be spent – recognising providers are best placed to determine their own priorities to improve the condition and prevent the deterioration of their estate. 

    Skills Minister Jacqui Smith said:

    Further education colleges are at the heart of our mission to grow the economy and train the next generation of skilled workers under our Plan for Change.

    But the college estate we inherited is simply not fit for purpose. Today’s funding addresses these issues, allowing colleges to focus on what they do best: breaking down barriers to opportunity and inspiring the workforce of the future.

    Colleges in Greater Manchester and Leeds will also benefit from a £20m boost to capacity funding for 16-19 year olds to address a shortage of places.

    The funding will create much needed places across the two areas, ensuring more learners will be able to access crucial skills training

    Among those to benefit will be Calderdale College in West Yorkshire, which will use the capital funding to expand its much-needed capacity in construction and professional trades workshops. The funding will also support the creation of an additional classroom within Mill Studios, the College’s state-of-the-art digital and creative centre.

    Andrew Harrison, Vice Principal for Corporate Services at Calderdale College, said:

    We welcome this investment from the Government’s Autumn budget, which will enable us to further enhance the experience for our students. This follows the success of our recent £7.5 million transformation project, completed in August 2024, which focused on refurbishing our ageing estate.

    As well as modernising our facilities, the project significantly improved our energy efficiency, cutting costs by 40% and making a major step forward in our carbon reduction edits.

    This follows the Chancellor’s announcement of £100 million of new investment to further build capacity in the construction sector, establishing ten new Technical Excellence Colleges. This is part of a £625m investment that will help to train up to 60,000 more engineers, electricians and builders by 2029.

    The government continues to improve post-16 education, with changes to English and maths requirements that will see up to 10,000 more apprentices qualify each year in key sectors, and new shorter apprenticeships announced during National Apprenticeship Week. Changes to end point assessments will also mean it is even easier for businesses and providers to support getting people into the workforce. 

    Last year the Education Secretary announced new Construction Skills Hubs, funded by industry, which will also speed up the training of construction workers crucial to supporting the government’s homebuilding drive. 

    DfE media enquiries

    Central newsdesk – for journalists 020 7783 8300

    Updates to this page

    Published 1 April 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: “Main Variables”: “Samokat” and Vyshka to Hold Joint Fashion Show

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

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

    “Supporting new talents and creating bright projects that can influence the fashion industry is what we always strive for,” says Anzor Kankulov, Head of the Fashion Department at the HSE School of Art and Design. “And it is especially important for us to collaborate with partners who share our philosophy and see value in young designers, their fresh, unexpected outlook on things and their willingness to offer something new. We have extensive experience of successful collaborations that become landmark events, attract attention and move the industry forward. And we are glad that we are now creating a joint project with a brand that, like us, believes in the power of new ideas, innovative design and young names. This time, our collaboration is inspired by the city — its dynamics, variability, ability to transform and develop. The city is a space where changes happen, where people develop and achieve their goals. These ideas — development, movement, search for something new — became key in the concept of the collection. Our designers interpreted this image in different ways: some through architectural forms, some through fluid silhouettes, and some through unexpected combinations of textures and materials. The result is a collection that reflects the energy of the city and its endless possibilities. Soon you will be able to see the results of this collaboration, and we are sure that they will inspire you!

    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 NGOs: Amnesty Media Awards 2025: Finalists and host announced

    Source: Amnesty International –

    Full list of finalists across 10 categories announced

    Jolyon Rubinstein announced as host

    ‘It’s an honour to host the Amnesty International Media Awards 2025. Especially in what will be the final year before journalists are officially designated as enemies of the state – what a send-off!’ – Jolyon Rubinstein

    Amnesty International UK has announced the full list of finalists for the 2025 Amnesty Media Awards today.

    The 10 awards categories celebrate outstanding human rights journalism over the past year and applaud the courage and determination of journalists who have shone a light on human rights issues in their work.

    Each category was judged by a panel of prestigious journalists and media workers, including Ayshah Tull (Channel 4 News), Paul Murphy (Financial Times), Stuart Ramsay (Sky News), Lindsey Hilsum (Channel 4 News), Alex Crawford (Sky News), Claire Newell (Daily Telegraph), Catherine Philp (The Times) and Ollie Stone-Lee (BBC Radio 4).

    Amnesty International is also pleased to announce actor, writer and director Jolyon Rubinstein as the host for the Amnesty Media Awards 2025 award ceremony – taking place at the BFI Southbank on Wednesday 4 June 2025 – where the winners will be revealed. The ceremony will also be live-streamed.

    Jolyon said:

    “It’s an honour to host the Amnesty International Media Awards 2025. Especially in what will be the final year before journalists are officially designated as enemies of the state – what a send-off! But with protests banned, billionaires calling the shots, and international law in tatters, what’s left to talk about? Don’t worry, though—under my stewardship, any award speech veering into ‘politically correct wokery’ will be swiftly cut off, and I promise I’ll mansplain and bluster my way through the night, blissfully unaware of what’s really going on, as only a white man can. How very 2025 of me!”

    FULL LIST OF FINALISTS

    Broadcast Feature

    BBC Current Affairs for BBC Two

    ·       Dead Calm: Killing in the Med?

    BBC News & Current Affairs, NI

    ·       Spotlight: I Am Not OK

    Channel 4

    ·       Kill Zone: Inside Gaza

    Channel 4

    ·       The Cranes Call

    Broadcast Investigation

    Airwars

    ·       The Killings They Tweeted

    BBC Eye Investigations

    ·       Settlements Above the Law

    BBC Scotland / BBC Two

    ·       Slavery at Sea

    Channel 4 News

    ·       Tortured and Abused at Sde Teiman

    Broadcast News

    Channel 4 News

    ·       Settlers in the West Bank: A Year on the Frontline

    ITV News / ITN

    ·       The White Flag

    Sky News

    ·       Sky News investigates Hind Rajab’s killing

    The Guardian

    ·       Inside the war on kush: The drug ‘mixed with human bones’ taking over Sierra Leone

    The Gaby Rado Award for New Journalist

    Aidan Tulloch

    ·       The Times

    Misbah Khan

    ·       The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

    Ornella Mutoni

    ·       The Guardian

    Sophie Neiman

    ·       New Internationalist

    Nations and Regions

    BBC Northern Ireland

    ·       Spotlight: Katie – Coerced and Killed

    BBC Northern Ireland / BBC Sounds

    ·       Assume Nothing: Murder at the Stables

    The Ferret

    ·       Saving lives in Toronto’s toxic drug crisis

    UTV

    ·       Fighting For Care

    Photojournalism

    Alixandra Fazzina

    ·       The Financial Times

    Hugh Kinsella Cunningham

    ·       The Telegraph Magazine

    Kiana Hayeri

    ·       The Guardian

    Tommy Trenchard

    ·       Geographical Magazine

    Radio & Podcasts

    BBC News

    ·       Locked Up and Abused at School – Britain’s ‘Calming Room’ Scandal

    BBC Radio 4

    ·       Our Whole Life is a Secret

    ITN / ITV News

    ·       The Trapped

    Novel & Wondery

    ·       Kill List

    Written Feature

    BBC News

    ·       Gaza Medics

    Financial Times

    ·       How extremist settlers in the West Bank became the law

    Financial Times

    ·       The Smuggler’s Daughter and Other Tales From The Gulf of Aden

    The Economist’s 1843 Magazine

    ·       Life and death in Putin’s gulag

    The Guardian & Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism

    ·       ‘An incredible loss for Palestine’: Israeli offensive takes deadly toll on journalists

    Written Investigation

    SourceMaterial

    ·       ‘Don’t look back or we’ll shoot’

    The Guardian

    ·       The IPP scandal

    The Guardian

    ·       The brutal truth behind Italy’s migrant reduction: beatings and rape by EU-funded forces in Tunisia

    The Independent

    ·       Russia told Ukrainians with disabilities they were visiting the seaside – but they were kidnapped and disappeared

    Written News

    Big Issue

    ·       Refugees still flee war-torn Ukraine every single day. This is what their journey to safety is like

    Financial Times

    ·       FT investigation finds Ukrainian children on Russian adoption sites

    The Guardian

    ·       Mazyouna’s face was ‘ripped off’ when a rocket hit her home. Israel has refused to allow her evacuation

    The Telegraph

    ·       Children pull skulls from mass graves in Syrian killing field

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: PRADHAN MANTRI ANUSUCHIT JAATI ABHYUDAY YOJANA

    Source: Government of India

    Posted On: 01 APR 2025 3:54PM by PIB Delhi

    Pradhan Mantri Anusuchit Jaati AbhyudayYojana (PM-AJAY) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme being implemented since 2021-22. The Scheme has three components namely (i) ‘Adarsh Gram’, (ii) ‘Grants-in-aid for District/State-level Projects for Socio-Economic betterment of Scheduled Caste(SC) Communities’ and (iii) ‘Hostel’. The objectives of the Scheme are:

    • To improve socio-economic developmental indicators by ensuring adequate infrastructure and requisite services in the SC dominated villages.
    •  To reduce poverty of the SC communities by generation of additional employment opportunities through skill development, income generating schemes and other initiatives.
    • To increase literacy and encourage enrolment of SCs in schools and higher educational institutions by providing adequate residential facilities in quality institutions, as well as residential schools where required, especially in the aspirational districts/ SC dominated blocks and elsewhere in India.

    Skill development is one of the interventions covered under Grants-in-aid Component of the Scheme. 25 States have submitted Perspective Plans for 2023-24, 2024-25 & 2025-26 and Rs. 457.82 Crore has been released for 8146 projects including 987 projects for skill development during 2023-24 & 2024-25 under Grants-in aid Component.

    In 2021-22, the erstwhile scheme of Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana has been subsumed under the umbrella Scheme Pradhan Mantri Anusuchit Jaati Abhyuday Yojana (PM-AJAY). The villages having more than 40% SC population and a total population of 500 or more are eligible for selection under the Scheme. The selected villages are saturated with identified 50 Socio-Economic developmental indicators, under 10 domains namely Drinking Water and Sanitation, Education, Health and Nutrition, Social Security, Rural Roads and Housing, Electricity and Clean Fuel, Agricultural Practices, Financial Inclusion, Digitization, Livelihood and Skill Development, which are the minimum requirements for any person residing in a village. Since 2018-19, 29,847 villages have been selected out of which 11,076 villages have been declared as Adarsh Gram. During 2024-25, 4,991 villages have been declared as Adarsh Gram.

    The Hostel Component aims to increase literacy and encourage enrolment of SCs in schools and higher educational institutions by providing adequate residential facilities in quality institutions, as well as residential schools where required. Till now, 891 hostels have been sanctioned under PM-AJAY of which 27 hostels have been sanctioned during 2024-25.

    Under PM-AJAY, upto 5% of the total funds is allocated for Administration, Monitoring and Evaluation of the Scheme. During 2024-25, Rs. 6.64 Crore has been utilized as Administrative expense under PM-AJAY.

    This information was provided by UNION MINISTER OF STATE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICEAND EMPOWERMENT, SHRI RAMDAS ATHAWALE, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

    *****

    VM

    (Lok Sabha US Q4878)

    (Release ID: 2117272) Visitor Counter : 50

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: STEPS TO CHECK DRUG TRAFFICKING

    Source: Government of India

    Posted On: 01 APR 2025 3:48PM by PIB Delhi

    The cases registered, arrests made and quantity of drug seized under Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985 by various Drug Law Enforcement Agencies (DLEAs) as reported to Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) during 2020 to 2024 is at Annexure-I. The specific details of incidents regarding number of killings, anti-social atrocities on women and children under the influence of various types of narcotics and chemical drugs in the country are not maintained.       

    As part of its drive against drug smuggling to make India a drug free nation, Government is taking various measures, some of which are mentioned below: –

    (i)      The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, as amended from time to time contains stringent provision to deal with illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and controlled substances as defined under Section 2 (viiib). Further, Chapter IV of the NDPS Act, 1985 provides detailed provisions for offences committed in contravention of the relevant provisions of the Act and penalties thereto.

    (ii)     Considering the international obligations or having regard to the available information and evidence with respect to the nature and effects of and the abuse or scope for abuse, Department of Revenue has scheduled 134 narcotic drugs under section 2(xi)(b), 173 psychotropic substances under section 3 and 45 controlled substances under section 9A in order to  exercise  due  regulation,  control  or  prohibition  in  public interest while ensuring availability of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances for medical and scientific use subject to the relevant provisions to the NDPS Act and rules/ regulations made thereunder.

    (iii)    A 4-tier Narco-Coordination Centre (NCORD) mechanism for ensuring better coordination between Central & State Drug Law Enforcement Agencies and other stakeholders in the field of controlling drug trafficking and drug abuse in India has been established. An all in one NCORD portal has been developed for information related to drug law enforcement.

    (iv)    A dedicated Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) headed by Additional Director General/ Inspector General level Police Officer has been established in each State/ Union Territory to function as the NCORD Secretariat for the State/ Union Territory and follow-up on compliance of decisions taken in NCORD meetings at different levels.

    (v)     To monitor the investigation of important and significant seizures, a Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) under the Chairmanship of Director General, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has been set up by Government of India.

    (vi)    Border Guarding Forces (Border Security Force, Assam Rifles and Sashastra Seema Bal) have been empowered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985 to carry out search, seizure and arrest for illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs at international border. Further, Railway Protection Force (RPF) has also been empowered under NDPS Act to check drug trafficking along the railway routes.

    (vii)   Narcotics  Control Bureau (NCB)  coordinates   with   other  agencies  like, Navy, Coast Guard, Border Security Force, State ANTF, etc., to conduct joint operations to control the drug trafficking.

    (viii)  Electronics scanning of consignments for drug detection at all Ports are being ensured.

    (ix)    Towards the capacity building of Drug Law Enforcement Agencies of the country, NCB is continuously imparting training to the officers of other Drug Law Enforcement Agencies.

    (x)     To strengthen NCB and to increase its pan India presence, 536 posts in  different  level  has  been  created  in  NCB.  During  this  restructuring, special focus has been laid on cyber, legal, and enforcement aspects for more effective drug law enforcement.

    (xi)    A task force on Darknet and Crypto-Currency has been set up under the Multi Agency Centre (MAC) mechanism with a focus on monitoring all platforms facilitating Narco-trafficking, sharing of inputs on drug trafficking amongst Agencies/MAC members, interception of drug networks, continuous capturing of trends, modus operandi & nodes with regular database updates and review of related rules & laws.

    (xii)   To assist all DLEAs/other investigation agencies for investigation and proactive policing, National Integrated Database on Arrested Narco-Offenders (NIDAAN) portal is developed. It provides data of narcotics offenders involved in narcotics offences under Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.

    (xiii)  A National Narcotics Helpline No. 1933 “Madak-Padarth Nished Asoochna Kendra” (MANAS) has been created as 24×7 toll-free National Narcotics Call Centre helpline. Accordingly, MANAS has been envisioned as  an  integrated  system  providing  a  single  platform for citizens to log, register, track and resolve drug related issues/problems through various modes of communication like call, SMS, Chat-bot, e-mail & web-link.

    (xiv)  A high-level dedicated group has been created in National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) in November 2022 to analyze the drug trafficking through maritime routes, challenges and solutions (Maritime Security Group – NSCS).

    (xv)   Director General level talks by NCB are organized with neighboring and other countries such as Myanmar, Iran, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Singapore, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, etc. to resolve various issues on drugs trafficking having international implications and issue of maritime trafficking.

    (xvi)  Launched Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan (NMBA) in all districts of the country through more than 10000 master volunteers. It has reached out to more than 14.79 crore people including 4.96 crore youth and 2.97 crore women.

    (xvii) Government is providing financial assistance to 350 Integrated     Rehabilitation  Centers for Addicts   (IRCAs),  46  Community  based  Peer Led Intervention (CPLI) Centers, 74 Outreach and Drop In Centers (ODICs), 142 Addiction Treatment Facilities (ATFs), 124 District De-addiction Centres (DDACs) across the country.

    (xviii)    A Toll-free Helpline No.14446 for de-addiction is operated for providing primary counseling and immediate assistance to persons seeking help.

    (xix)  Government through its autonomous body National Institute of Social Defense (NISD) and other collaborating agencies like State Counsel of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), etc. provides for regular   awareness generation and sensitization sessions for all stakeholders including students, teachers, parents.

    (xx)   Navchetna Modules, Teachers Training Modules have been developed by Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment (MoSJE) for sensitizing students (6th – 11th standard), teachers and parents on drug dependence, related coping strategies and life skills.

    *****

    Annexure-I

     

    Year

    Case

    Arrest

    Quantity (in Kg)

    2020

    55,622

    73,841

    10,82,511

    2021

    68,144

    93,538

    16,09,612

    2022

    1,02,769

    1,26,516

    12,53,662

    2023

    1,09,546

    1,32,954

    13,89,725

    2024

    89,913

    1,16,098

    13,30,600

    Cases registered, arrests made and quantity of drug seized under Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985 by various Drug Law Enforcement Agencies (DLEAs) as reported to Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) during 2020 to 2024

    Source: Narcotics Control Bureau

    This was stated by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs Shri Nityanand Rai in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

    ***

    RK/VV/ASH/RR/PR/PS

    (Release ID: 2117266) Visitor Counter : 62

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: GLACIAL LAKE OUTBURST FLOOD MITIGATION

    Source: Government of India

    Posted On: 01 APR 2025 3:51PM by PIB Delhi

    Strengthening of Early Warning Systems is prerequisite for preparedness measures and is the most important element of entire cycle of disaster management. 

    The Prime Minister has enunciated ten-point agenda on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) during the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) held in New Delhi in November 2016. The all-inclusive agenda includes the following: –

    “Leverage technology to enhance the efficiency of disaster risk management efforts.” and “Build on local capacity and initiative to enhance disaster risk reduction”.

    The Government effectively deploys technologies for improved early warning and forecasting of disaster in the vulnerable areas. Central Government has designated nodal agencies for early warning of different natural disasters.

    To promote the use of modern technologies and to strengthen the early warning  system  for  natural  disasters,  Ministry  of  Earth  Sciences  has

    launched a Multi-faceted transformative approach namely “Mission Mausam” for the period 2024-2026 with the goal of making India a “weather-ready and climate smart” nation.

    Under the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP) Early Warning Systems have been installed in the Coastal States, which have proved to be of great help in alert dissemination to the coastal community during recent cyclones.

    ‘Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) based Integrated Alert System’ has been initiated with an outlay of Rs. 354.83 Crore, for dissemination of geo targeted early warnings/alerts related to disasters to the citizens of India for all 36 States/UTs using various disseminating medium like SMS, TV, Radio, Indian Railways, Costal Sirens, Cell broadcast, Internet (RSS feed & Browser Notification), Satellite Receiver of GAGAN & NavIC etc., through integration of all alerting agencies, [India Meteorological Department (IMD), Central Water Commission (CWC), Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Defence Geo-informatics Research Establishment (DGRE), Geological Survey of India (GSI) and Forest Survey of India (FSI)]. 

    In CAP system, the alerts related to various disasters are generated by Alert Generating Agencies like IMD, CWC, INCOIS, DGRE & FSI and moderated by SDMAs of concern States/UTs.  The alerts are sent to geo targeted areas in regional languages. There is a web-based dashboard to disaster managers for approving/editing alerts and choosing media for dissemination. The system has been used successfully in recent disasters.  More than 4500 crore SMS alerts have been disseminated so far using CAP.

    National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has also initiated a project for Pan India, end-to-end secure and foolproof Disaster Grade Cell Broadcasting System (CBS) to improve faster dissemination of alert / early warning messages to the citizen.

    Defence Geoinformatics Research Establishment (DGRE), Chandigarh under Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is also the nodal agency for studying and developing avalanche mitigation technologies.  DGRE has installed 72 Snow Meteorological Observatories and 45 Automated Weather Stations (AWS).  

    India Metrological Department (IMD) issues regular and precise weather forecasts & warning bulletins including for cyclones to all the affected/ likely affected States/ UTs.

    IMD uses a suite of quality observations from Satellites, Radars and Conventional & Automatic Weather Stations for monitoring of cyclones developing over the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. It includes INSAT 3D, 3DR and SCATSAT satellites, Doppler Weather Radars (DWRs) along the coast and coastal Automated Weather Stations (AWS), High wind speed recorders, Automatic Rain Gauges (ARGs), Meteorological buoys and ships.

    NDMA also conducts capacity building programmes, organizes awareness workshops and fosters community-based risk reduction strategies and also trainings for monitoring and alert mechanism to ensure last mile connectivity. 

    Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG) monitors the glaciers and provides comprehensive analysis of factors that trigger hazards and its associated downstream risks to significantly enhance early warning capabilities and disaster preparedness.   WIHG has prepared glacial lake

    inventories for Uttarakhand (2015) and Himachal Pradesh (2018), identifying 1,266 lakes (7.6 km²) in Uttarakhand and 958 lakes (9.6 km²) in Himachal Pradesh.

    Central Water Commission (CWC) monitors 902 Glacial lakes and water bodies, to enable the detection of relative change in water spread areas of Glacial lakes and water bodies as well as identifying those ones which have expanded substantially during its monitoring months.

    Central Government has approved National Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) Risk Mitigation Project (NGRMP) for its implementation in four states namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Uttarakhand at a financial outlay of Rs. 150.00 crore.

    NGRMP is aimed at reducing the risks associated with glacial lake outburst floods, particularly in regions that are highly susceptible to such natural disasters.  The objectives of NGRMP project are:

    (i)      Prevent loss of life and reduce economic loss and damage to critical infrastructure due to GLOF and similar events.

    (ii)     Strengthen the early warning and monitoring capacities based on last mile connectivity.

    (iii)    Strengthen scientific and technical capabilities in GLOF risk reduction and mitigation at local levels through strengthening of local level institutions and communities.

    (iv)    Use of indigenous knowledge and scientific cutting-edge mitigation measures to reduce and mitigate GLOF risk.

    NGRMP, approved by the Government, has one of its components as GLOF monitoring and Early Warning Systems (EWS) including remote sensing data, community involvement for monitoring, alerting / dissemination.

    Two Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) have been installed in Sikkim with further deployments of EWS planned in collaboration with C-DAC, ISRO and Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad to provide early warning to local communities in case of any GLOF event.

    CWC has finalized the criteria for Risk Indexing of Glacial Lakes offering a structured approach for identifying and ranking such lakes based on their likelihood of failure and potential damage they could cause in the event of GLOF.  

    A Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction (CoDRR) under NDMA involving representatives from six Himalayan States / Union Territories and other Stakeholders, has identified a set of high risk glacial lakes for sending expeditions to directly assess these lakes and prepare comprehensive mitigation strategies in terms of setting up EWS / other structural and non-structural measures.

    Subsequent to Teesta-III Hydroelectric dam collapse in October, 2023, CWC has decided to review the design flood of all the existing and under construction dams vulnerable to GLOFs to ensure their adequate spillway capacity for a combination of Probable Maximum Flood / Standard Probable Flood and GLOF. Further, GLOF Studies has been made mandatory for all new dams planned having Glacial Lakes in their catchments.

    This was stated by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs Shri Nityanand Rai in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

    ***

    RK/VV/ASH/RR/PR/PS

    (Release ID: 2117268) Visitor Counter : 67

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Discovery Alert: Four Little Planets, One Big Step

    Source: NASA

    Four rocky planets much smaller than Earth orbit Barnard’s Star, the next closest to ours after the three-star Alpha Centauri system. Barnard’s is the nearest single star.

    Barnard’s Star, six light-years away, is notorious among astronomers for a history of false planet detections. But with the help of high-precision technology, the latest discovery — a family of four — appears to be solidly confirmed. The tiny size of the planets is also remarkable: Capturing evidence of small worlds at great distance is a tall order, even using state-of-the-art instruments and observational techniques.

    Watching for wobbles in the light from a star is one of the leading methods for detecting exoplanets — planets orbiting other stars. This “radial velocity” technique tracks subtle shifts in the spectrum of starlight caused by the gravity of a planet pulling its star back and forth as the planet orbits. But tiny planets pose a major challenge: the smaller the planet, the smaller the pull. These four are each between about a fifth and a third as massive as Earth. Stars also are known to jitter and quake, creating background “noise” that potentially could swamp the comparatively quiet signals from smaller, orbiting worlds.
    Astronomers measure the back-and-forth shifting of starlight in meters per second; in this case the radial velocity signals from all four planets amount to faint whispers — from 0.2 to 0.5 meters per second (a person walks at about 1 meter per second). But the noise from stellar activity is nearly 10 times larger at roughly 2 meters per second.
    How to separate planet signals from stellar noise? The astronomers made detailed mathematical models of Barnard’s Star’s quakes and jitters, allowing them to recognize and remove those signals from the data collected from the star.
    The new paper confirming the four tiny worlds — labeled b, c, d, and e — relies on data from MAROON-X, an “extreme precision” radial velocity instrument attached to the Gemini Telescope on the Maunakea mountaintop in Hawaii. It confirms the detection of the “b” planet, made with previous data from ESPRESSO, a radial velocity instrument attached to the Very Large Telescope in Chile. And the new work reveals three new sibling planets in the same system.

    These planets orbit their red-dwarf star much too closely to be habitable. The closest planet’s “year” lasts a little more than two days; for the farthest planet, it’s is just shy of seven days. That likely makes them too hot to support life. Yet their detection bodes well in the search for life beyond Earth. Scientists say small, rocky planets like ours are probably the best places to look for evidence of life as we know it. But so far they’ve been the most difficult to detect and characterize. High-precision radial velocity measurements, combined with more sharply focused techniques for extracting data, could open new windows into habitable, potentially life-bearing worlds.
    Barnard’s star was discovered in 1916 by Edward Emerson Barnard, a pioneering astrophotographer.

    An international team of scientists led by Ritvik Basant of the University of Chicago published their paper on the discovery, “Four Sub-Earth Planets Orbiting Barnard’s Star from MAROON-X and ESPRESSO,” in the science journal, “The Astrophysical Journal Letters,” in March 2025. The planets were entered into the NASA Exoplanet Archive on March 13, 2025.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: ARMD Solicitations (ULI Proposals Invited)

    Source: NASA

    This ARMD solicitations page compiles the opportunities to collaborate with NASA’s aeronautical innovators and/or contribute to their research to enable new and improved air transportation systems. A summary of available opportunities with key dates requiring action are listed first. More information about each opportunity is detailed lower on this page.
    University Leadership InitiativeStep-A proposals due by June 26, 2025.
    University Student Research ChallengeProposals for Cycle 3 are due by June 26, 2025.

    Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations
    GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENT OF REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
    Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations is using this request for information to identify technologies that address current challenges facing the wildland firefighting community. NASA is seeking information on data collection, airborne connectivity and communications solutions, unmanned aircraft systems traffic management, aircraft operations and autonomy, and more. This will support development of a partnership strategy for future collaborative demonstrations.
    Interested parties were requested to respond to this notice with an information package no later than 4 pm ET, October 15, 2023, that shall be submitted via https://nari.arc.nasa.gov/acero-rfi. Any proprietary information must be clearly marked. Submissions will be accepted only from United States companies.
    View the full RFI Announcement here.

    Advanced Air Mobility Mission
    GENERAL ADVANCED AIR MOBILITYANNOUNCEMENT OF REQUEST FOR INFORMATIONThis request for information (RFI) is being used to gather market research for NASA to make informed decisions regarding potential partnership strategies and future research to enable Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). NASA is seeking information from public, private, and academic organizations to determine technical needs and community interests that may lead to future solicitations regarding AAM research and development.
    This particular RFI is just one avenue of multiple planned opportunities for formal feedback on or participation in NASA’s AAM Mission-related efforts to develop these requirements and help enable AAM. 
    The respond by date for this RFI closed on Feb. 1, 2025, at 6 p.m. EST.
    View the full RFI announcement here.

    NASA Research Opportunities in Aeronautics
    NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) uses the NASA Research Announcement (NRA) process to solicit proposals for foundational research in areas where ARMD seeks to enhance its core capabilities.
    Competition for NRA awards is open to both academia and industry.
    The current open solicitation for ARMD Research Opportunities is ROA-2023 and ROA-2024.
    Here is some general information to know about the NRA process.

    NRA solicitations are released by NASA Headquarters through the Web-based NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES).
    All NRA technical work is defined and managed by project teams within these four programs: Advanced Air Vehicles Program, Airspace Operations and Safety Program, Integrated Aviation Systems Program, and Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program.
    NRA awards originate from NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia, Ames Research Center in California, Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, and Armstrong Flight Research Center in California.
    Competition for NRA awards is full and open.
    Participation is open to all categories of organizations, including educational institutions, industry, and nonprofits.
    Any updates or amendments to an NRA is posted on the appropriate NSPIRES web pages as noted in the Amendments detailed below.
    ARMD sends notifications of NRA updates through the NSPIRES email system. In order to receive these email notifications, you must be a Registered User of NSPIRES. However, note that NASA is not responsible for inadvertently failing to provide notification of a future NRA. Parties are responsible for regularly checking the NSPIRES website for updated NRAs.

    ROA-2024 NRA Amendments

    Amendment 1
    (Full text here.)
    Amendment 1 to the NASA ARMD Research Opportunities in Aeronautics (ROA) 2024 NRA has been posted on the NSPIRES web site at https://nspires.nasaprs.com.
    The announcement solicits proposals from accredited U.S. institutions for research training grants to begin the academic year. This NOFO is designed to support independently conceived research projects by highly qualified graduate students, in disciplines needed to help advance NASA’s mission, thus affording these students the opportunity to directly contribute to advancements in STEM-related areas of study. AAVP Fellowship Opportunities are focused on innovation and the generation of measurable research results that contribute to NASA’s current and future science and technology goals.
    Research proposals are sought to address key challenges provided in Elements of Appendix A.8.
    Notices of Intent (NOIs) are not required.
    A budget breakdown for each proposal is required, detailing the allocation of the award funds by year. The budget document may adhere to any format or template provided by the applicant’s institution.
    Proposals were due by April 30, 2024, at 5 PM ET.

    Amendment 2UPDATED ON MARCH 31, 2025
    (Full text here.)
    University Leadership Initiative (ULI) provides the opportunity for university teams to exercise technical and organizational leadership in proposing unique technical challenges in aeronautics, defining multi-disciplinary solutions, establishing peer review mechanisms, and applying innovative teaming strategies to strengthen the research impact.
    Research proposals are sought in six ULI topic areas in Appendix D.4.
    Topic 1: Safe, Efficient Growth in Global Operations (Strategic Thrust 1)
    Topic 2: Innovation in Commercial High-Speed Aircraft (Strategic Thrust 2)
    Topic 3: Ultra-Efficient Subsonic Transports (Strategic Thrust 3)
    Topic 4: Safe, Quiet, and Affordable Vertical Lift Air Vehicles (Strategic Thrust 4)
    Topic 5: In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance (Strategic Thrust 5)
    Topic 6: Assured Autonomy for Aviation Transformation (Strategic Thrust 6)
    This NRA will utilize a two-step proposal submission and evaluation process. The initial step is a short mandatory Step-A proposal, which is due June 26, 2025. Those offerors submitting the most highly rated Step-A proposals will be invited to submit a Step-B proposal. All proposals must be submitted electronically through NSPIRES at https://nspires.nasaprs.com. An Applicant’s Workshop will be held on Thursday April 30, 2025; 1:00-3:00 p.m. ET (https://uli.arc.nasa.gov/applicants-workshops/workshop9) (Page will be live closer to the event.)
    An interested partners list for this ULI is at https://uli.arc.nasa.gov/partners. To be listed as an interested lead or partner, please send electronic mail to hq-univpartnerships@mail.nasa.gov with “ULI Partnerships” in the subject line and include the information required for the table in that web page.

    Amendment 3
    (Full text here)
    Commercial Supersonic Technology seeks proposals for a fuel injector design concept and fabrication for testing at NASA Glenn Research Center.
    The proposal for the fuel injector design aims to establish current state-of-the-art in low NOx supersonic cruise while meeting reasonable landing take-off NOx emissions. The technology application timeline is targeted for a supersonic aircraft with entry into service in the 2035+ timeframe.
    These efforts are in alignment with activities in the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate as outlined in the NASA Aeronautics Strategic Implementation Plan, specifically Strategic Thrust 2: Innovation in Commercial High-Speed Aircraft.
    Proposals were due by May 31, 2024 at 5 pm EDT.

    Amendment 4UPDATED ON JANUARY 16, 2025
    (Full text here)
    University Student Research Challenge seeks to challenge students to propose new ideas/concepts that are relevant to NASA Aeronautics.  USRC will provide students, from accredited U.S. colleges or universities, with grants for their projects and with the challenge of raising cost share funds through a crowdfunding campaign.  The process of creating and implementing a crowdfunding campaign acts as a teaching accelerator – requiring students to act like entrepreneurs and raise awareness about their research among the public.
    The solicitation goal can be accomplished through project ideas such as advancing the design, developing technology or capabilities in support of aviation, by demonstrating a novel concept, or enabling advancement of aeronautics-related technologies.
    Notices of Intent are not required for this solicitation.
    Proposals for Cycle 3 are due June 26, 2025.
    Proposals can also be submitted later and evaluated in the second and third cycles.
    The USRC Q&A/Info Session and Proposal Workshop will be held on the days/times below. Please join us on TEAMS using the Meeting Link, or call in via +1 256-715-9946,,317928116#.

    USRC Cycle
    Information Session/Q&A Date
    Proposal Due Date

    Cycle 1
    Sept. 20, 2024 at 2 pm ET
    Nov. 7, 2024

    Cycle 2
    Jan. 27, 2025 at 2 pm ET
    March 13, 2025

    Cycle 3
    May 12, 2024 at 2 pm ET
    June 26, 2025

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: NASA Trains for Orion Water Recovery Ahead of Artemis II Launch

    Source: NASA

    Preparations for NASA’s next Artemis flight recently took to the seas as a joint NASA and Department of Defense team, led by NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program, spent a week aboard the USS Somerset off the coast of California practicing procedures for recovering the Artemis II spacecraft and crew.
    Following successful completion of Underway Recovery Test-12 (URT-12) on Monday, NASA’s Landing and Recovery team and their Defense Department counterparts are certified to recover the Orion spacecraft as part of the upcoming Artemis II test flight that will send NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, as well as CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day journey around the Moon.  
    “This will be NASA’s first crewed mission to the Moon under the Artemis program,” said Lili Villarreal, the landing and recovery director for Artemis II. “A lot of practice led up to this week’s event, and seeing everything come together at sea gives me great confidence that the air, water, ground, and medical support teams are ready to safely recover the spacecraft and the crew for this historic mission.”

    Once Orion reenters Earth’s atmosphere, the capsule will keep the crew safe as it slows from nearly 25,000 mph to about 325 mph. Then its system of 11 parachutes will deploy in a precise sequence to slow the capsule and crew to a relatively gentle 20 mph for splashdown off the coast of California. From the time it enters Earth’s atmosphere, the Artemis II spacecraft will fly 1,775 nautical miles to its landing spot in the Pacific Ocean. This direct approach allows NASA to control the amount of time the spacecraft will spend in extremely high temperature ranges.
    The Artemis II astronauts trained during URT-11 in February 2024, when they donned Orion Crew Survival System suits and practiced a range of recovery operations at sea using the Crew Module Test Article, a stand -in for their spacecraft.
    For the 12th training exercise, NASA astronauts Deniz Burnham and Andre Douglas, along with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano, did the same, moving from the simulated crew module to USS Somerset, with helicopters, a team of Navy divers in small boats, NASA’s open water lead – a technical expert and lead design engineer for all open water operations – as well as Navy and NASA medical teams rehearsing different recovery scenarios.

    “Allowing astronauts to participate when they are not directly involved in a mission gives them valuable experience by exposing them to a lot of different scenarios,” said Glover, who will pilot Artemis II. “Learning about different systems and working with ground control teams also broadens their skillsets and prepares them for future roles. It also allows astronauts like me who are assigned to the mission to experience other roles – in this case, I am serving in the role of Joe Acaba, Chief of the Astronaut Office.” 

    As the astronauts arrive safely at the ship for medical checkouts, recovery teams focus on returning the spacecraft and its auxiliary ground support hardware to the amphibious transport dock.
    Navy divers attach a connection collar to the spacecraft and an additional line to a pneumatic winch inside the USS Somerset’s well deck, allowing joint NASA and Navy teams to tow Orion toward the ship. A team of sailors and NASA recovery personnel inside the ship manually pull some of the lines to help align Orion with its stand, which will secure the spacecraft for its trip to the shore. Following a safe and precise recovery, sailors will drain the well deck of water, and the ship will make its way back to Naval Base San Diego.
    The Artemis II test flight will confirm the foundational systems and hardware needed for human deep space exploration, taking another step toward missions on the lunar surface and helping the agency prepare for human missions to Mars.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: An exhibition about students who are ambassadors of Moscow colleges has opened in the center of Moscow

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

    Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –

    The photo exhibition “Professionals Around Us” has opened on Chistoprudny Boulevard and in Yekaterininsky Park. The exhibition features 19 inspiring stories of students from Moscow colleges who found their calling thanks to secondary vocational education. You can visit the exhibition until April 30.

    “The heroes of the project include a rescuer, a builder, a teacher, and a programmer. Each of them shared their success story and talked about the opportunities that open up for college graduates. We invite everyone to meet young professionals in Moscow,” the press service of the capital’s

    Department of Education and Science.

    Polina Durova, a final-year student at the Moscow Educational Complex “West”, is a pastry chef. She started working while still a student in a prestigious restaurant. In 2023, she won the “Young Professionals” championship in the “Pastry” category. Polina masterfully creates sculptures from caramel and chocolate, and regularly improves her skills in international pastry and cooking master classes. The girl said that she began her path in the pastry business in early childhood, when she watched cooking shows with her parents. Even then, she realized that creating desserts is a real art. Polina entered college because she decided to devote herself to her favorite hobby. According to her, she became a professional there – thanks to experienced mentors and constant practice. In college, Polina began to participate and win professional skills competitions, and the doors to the world of haute cuisine opened for her. The girl began to collaborate with the best restaurants in the city. She is currently studying in college and works as a pastry chef at a private production facility, where she creates desserts for true connoisseurs.

    Another hero of the exhibition, a final-year student of the Technical Fire and Rescue College named after Hero of the Russian Federation V.M. Maksimchuk, Philipp Smirnov, said that he decided on his future profession back in his school years, when he was in the cadet class. Once he helped a drowning man and realized that he would be a rescuer. Philipp is convinced that for this you need to be a professional, and the college promotes this. Now the young man already has the status of a rescuer, he works as a sailor-rescuer and industrial climber.

    Muscovites will also learn the story of Yegor Burinsky, a second-year student at the P.A. Ovchinnikov Polytechnic College. He learned about his profession at a college festival in 2023. It was there that Yegor first heard about the “Machine and Equipment Adjuster in Mechanical Processing” program. He was interested in how modern CNC machines work, and he decided to master this specialty. Having chosen targeted training, Yegor signed an agreement with the United Engine Corporation “Salut”. This provided a unique opportunity to begin professional practice in his first year. After just a month of studying at the college, Yegor began working in a real production facility.

    At the exhibition, you can learn about the successes of Milena Galyamova, who studies correctional pedagogy in primary school. The girl organizes events for the wards of children’s hospices of the CSKA and Vozmozhnost foundations. In addition, among the heroes is Alina Taekina, who is studying to be a graphic designer. Last year, she collaborated with one of the publishing houses and became a prize winner of the Moscow Masters and Young Professionals championships.

    Earlier, a large-scale college forum was held in the capital. It was attended by 60 thousand people. The event brought together 48 colleges that presented more than 140 in-demand specialties in 10 sectors of the Moscow economy. More than 120 master classes were organized for schoolchildren. Famous TV presenters, coaches, scientists and athletes shared their experience with the guests.

    You can learn more about the in-demand professions and specialties taught in the capital’s colleges in the section“Colleges” on the portal“School.Moscow”, in the telegram channel“Colleges of Moscow” and in the community on the social network VKontakte.

    Practical classes for students of Moscow colleges are held in modern workshops and laboratories. This contributes to the formation and development of professional skills in students and corresponds to the objectives of the national project “Youth and Children”.

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

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

    https: //vv.mos.ru/nevs/ite/152030073/

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: DSTA and Thales Announce AI-Driven Co-Lab to Strengthen Singapore’s Defence Systems

    Source: Thales Group

    Headline: DSTA and Thales Announce AI-Driven Co-Lab to Strengthen Singapore’s Defence Systems

    • Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) and Thales announce a joint lab to develop AI-enabled technologies which can augment combat systems currently in use by the Singapore Armed Forces.
    • With an initial focus on solutions for Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) and Advanced Sensing applications, both parties have co-developed advanced AI algorithms that enable combat systems to efficiently handle fast-evolving drone threats.
    • DSTA and Thales signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2022 to deepen and broaden collaboration from development of smart technologies to better supportability of systems. This Co-Lab is another outcome of this MoU that will deepen our collaboration.
    Representatives from DSTA and Thales – ©Thales

    At the 2025 Singapore Defence Technology Summit (Tech Summit), a joint team from DSTA and Thales showcased its recent collaboration on counter-drone technologies, with tangible outcomes that can potentially be integrated into systems currently in-use with the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).

    Over the last five months, engineers from both organisations co-developed Machine-Learning (ML)-enabled software modules that reduce the rate of false alarms in drone detection. By enhancing a radar’s sensor performance with the help of AI, the algorithms offer operators and end-users heightened situational awareness that enable faster and more accurate drone detection and classification.

    Through this demonstration of a new Concept of Operations (CONOPs) in enhanced radar performance in drones, the team leveraged physics-, knowledge- and data-based AI, bringing together DSTA’s deep domain knowledge of the drone ecosystem and the technical and AI skills of Thales researchers and engineers. The announcement of the Co-Lab represents the next step in the strategic cooperation between DSTA and Thales, underscoring both parties’ ambitions to support the SAF in dealing with emerging and asymmetric threats.

    “The DSTA-Thales Joint Lab marks a strategic step in advancing next-generation defence technologies. By harnessing AI and advanced sensing technologies, we are adopting a more agile approach to capability development, enabling us to tackle evolving threats. This collaboration reinforces DSTA’s commitment to working with global partners to co-develop advanced capabilities, ensuring our defence systems remain robust, adaptive, and future-ready,” said Mr Roy Chan, Deputy Chief Executive (Operations), DSTA.

    “Thales’ AI for critical systems must meet the stringent reliability, safety and security requirements for armed forces worldwide. It is a true recognition when our customers trust us to co-develop solutions alongside them that address the pain points and challenges of the end-user. We have achieved the outcomes of the MoU in a relatively short span of time, with our teams harnessing AI to create solutions with real-world implications. This Co-Lab with DSTA speaks to the years of collaboration between us and our joint commitment to provide the best technologies for the SAF and the Singapore Ministry of Defence.” said Pascale Sourisse, President and CEO, Thales International.

    Thales holds deep expertise and technological mastery in radars, with air traffic management radars used by the majority of civil aviation authorities in the region, as well as operating a Radar Centre of Excellence in Singapore. As a key partner to the SAF for over 50 years, Thales also operates a Defence Hub for services in Singapore, with skilled local expertise on-hand to support DSTA and Mindef for support and maintenance of systems currently in use with the armed forces.

    About Thales

    Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) is a global leader in advanced technologies for the Defence, Aerospace, and Cyber & Digital sectors. Its portfolio of innovative products and services addresses several major challenges: sovereignty, security, sustainability and inclusion.

    The Group invests more than €4 billion per year in Research & Development in key areas, particularly for critical environments, such as Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum and cloud technologies. Thales has more than 83,000 employees in 68 countries. In 2024, the Group generated sales of €20.6 billion.

    PRESS contact

    Thales, Corporate Communications Asia

    Jamie CHOW

    jamie.chow@thalesgroup.com

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Politics with Michelle Grattan: Kos Samaras on polls and the people who’ll decide this election

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

    The demography that makes up the Australian electorate is changing and as voters desert the major parties polls are becoming harder to read.

    Kos Samaras is a director of the political consultancy firm Redbridge, which undertakes both quantitative research and focus groups. Samaras now views campaigns from the outside but in the past, as a former Labor Party official, he’s experienced them from the insisde too.

    On the state on the polls he says,

    They’re going to switch around a bit, but we are seeing some trends now that are quite obvious, and that is the consolidation of the Labor primary [vote]. Labor has been successful in bringing back some of those people that did move away from them to minor parties over the last 18 months in some key areas around the country.

    On why Labor is doing better compared to the Coalition, Samaras says Labor starting early was key,

    That’s why it’s important that when you are running a campaign, you must start very early and you must start before the writ is issued and that [is] why Labor has been in that space aggressively now for some time. And this is where I think Dutton and his team have really missed the mark. They’ve waited until the writ to start their campaign. They’ve allowed a vacuum to be created. Labor has filled it with their narrative and their story and their mission, and it’s bearing fruit.

    On the Trump effect and how that will play in this election, Samaras says Dutton should try to distance himself from the US president,

    We do think that the Trump factor is having an impact, and we could see that in other countries as well. Canada is a really good example of that.

    It’s hard for Labor to convince Australians that Dutton is like Trump, but Dutton has throughout this campaign made some errors, particularly on issues around dual citizenship, cuts to the public service. These policies just kind of remind people that he’s not Trump, because he’s an established player, but he does have some element to him that is similar and that can only hurt him.

    Now that Gen X and the millennials have overtaken the baby boomers as voters, Samaras say of these younger voters,

    They want the system turned on its head. They actually want to see significant reform, and at the moment, they’re just getting band-aids, and that’s fundamentally the problem. Now they may indeed a portion of them eventually just vote for one or the other of the major parties and there will be a number of them that do that. But I wouldn’t exactly describe that as enthusiastic support.

    Michelle Grattan 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. Politics with Michelle Grattan: Kos Samaras on polls and the people who’ll decide this election – https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-kos-samaras-on-polls-and-the-people-wholl-decide-this-election-253531

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Entrepreneurship in Fisheries Sector

    Source: Government of India

    Posted On: 01 APR 2025 3:32PM by PIB Delhi

    The Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India has organized the Fisheries Startup Conclave on 8th March, 2025 at Hyderabad, Telangana to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the fisheries sector. During the Conclave, the ‘Fisheries Startup Grand Challenge 2.0’ was launched with the aim to encourage the startups to develop transformative solutions in the fisheries sector and to drive innovation, sustainability and efficiency by supporting Startups with seed funding and incubation.  The Fisheries Startup Conclave witnessed active participation from over 50 fisheries startups, highlighting their innovations in areas such as aquaculture, fisheries technology, and value addition. Key outcomes of the conclave included the identification of potential areas for promoting innovation and sustainability, challenges and opportunities for startups regarding validation of their products & services, access to funding, market linkages, technology adoption and sustainability concerns.

    Under Fisheries Startup Grand Challenge 2.0, two Startup winners will be selected    for each of the five problem statements, resulting in a total of 10 Grand Winners. Each winning Startup will receive a cash prize of Rs. 10.00 lakh, amounting to Rs. 1 crore in seed funding support. Winning Startups will gain access to incubation facilities and mentorship provided by ICAR, National Fisheries Development Board, and attached offices of the Department of Fisheries, GoI. This challenge presents a unique opportunity for fisheries-focused startups to develop high-impact solutions, scale their innovations, and contribute to the growth and modernization of India’s fisheries sector. Earlier, on 13th January, 2022, Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying in collaboration with the Startup India under the Invest India, DPIIT, Government of India organised the Fisheries Grand Challenge 1.0, wherein,12 Startup winners were selected and awarded a cash grant of Rs 2.00 lakh each, including an incubation support and a seed grant up to Rs. 20.00 lakh (General category) and Rs. 30.00 lakh (SC/ST/Women) to 10 winners for transforming their ideas into effective pilots, which would further translate into commercialization. Further, the Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India has also sanctioned 39 Nos of Project Proposals with subsidy assistance of Rs. 31.22 Crores, under the Entrepreneur Model of Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) scheme.

    The Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Government of India is focusing on the areas in fisheries technology, aquaculture, and value addition by supporting a basket of interventions/activities along the fisheries value chain including quality fish production, expansion, diversification and intensification of aquaculture, promotion of export oriented species, infusion of technology, robust disease management and traceability, training and capacity building, creation of modern post-harvest infrastructure with seamless cold chain and processing facilities. The technology infusion and adoption has been enhanced through establishment of 52,058 reservoir cages, 22,057 RAS & Biofloc units and raceways and 1,525 sea cages approved under PMMSY with an investment of Rs. 3040.87 crore. The Department of Fisheries has collaborated with several research institutions under Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and private incubators to boost the fisheries startup ecosystem.

    The Department of Fisheries has supported the establishment of five fisheries business incubation centers namely LINAC-NCDC Fisheries Business Incubation Centre (LlFIC), Guwahati Biotech Park, Assam, National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE), Hyderabad, ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE), Mumbai and ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT), Kochi to provide mentorship and training for developing business models by fisheries start-ups, cooperatives, FPOs, and SHGs.

    The Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Government of India has approved construction/modernization of 66 Fishing Harbors (FHs) and 50 Fish Landing Centers (FLCs) with total outlay of Rs. 9,558.91 crore that are expected to create safe landing and berthing for about 47,000 fishing vessels, benefitting 8.94 lakhs fishers and other stakeholders. 3 Smart & Integrated Fishing Harbours are being developed with global standards, technological advancements, seamless hygienic and post-harvest management etc. Under Fisheries Infrastructure and Aquaculture Development Fund (FIDF) 141 proposals have been approved with a total project cost of Rs. 5915.54 crore. This included establishment/ upgradation/maintenance of 22 Fishing harbours and 24 Fish Landing Centres at an outlay of Rs. 4,905.77 crore and Rs. 182.20 crore, respectively. 6.16 lakh stakeholders are expected to benefit, and 2.5 lakh employment opportunities will be created including 8,000 stakeholders benefiting from 33 private investment projects.

    Under Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) and Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF) the Department of Fisheries has approved the development of post-harvest interface viz- cold storage, fish processing and Marketing infrastructure. The major post-harvest and Marketing infrastructure include; 66 fishing harbours/fish landing centres, 634 ice plants/cold storages, 21 Modern wholesale fish markets including 3 Smart Wholesale Markets, 202 retail fish markets, 6694 fish kiosks, 27118 units of fish transportation facilities, 128 value add enterprises, 5 E-platform for e-trading and e-marketing of fish and fisheries products. Further, the Department of Fisheries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) with an objective to provide a digital platform and empower all stakeholders including traditional fishermen, fish farmers producer organization, entrepreneurs from fisheries sector to buy and sell their products through e-market place. Further, PMMSY has supported 2195 fisheries cooperatives as Fish Farmers Producer Organizations (FFPOs) with project outlay of Rs. 544.85 crore to facilitate fishermen with better market linkages, improved bargaining power and sustainable value-chain for higher returns.

    This information was given by Union Minister of State, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Shri George Kurian, in a written reply in Lok Sabha on 1st April, 2025.

    *****

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    Read this release in: Hindi

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Membership lists of District Youth Community Building Committees and District Youth Development and Civic Education Committees announced

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    ​The Home Affairs Department (HAD) announced today (April 1) that the Director of Home Affairs had respectively appointed 464 persons and 476 persons (940 persons in total) as members of District Youth Community Building Committees and District Youth Development and Civic Education Committees for a new term of office of two years starting from April 1, 2025.
     
    Comprising district personalities and self-nominated young people as members, the two Committees provide fora for discussion on various matters such as district works projects, youth development and civic education, and for participation in district activities.  Each Committee is composed of 20 to 30 members for its new term. The average age of all members is below 35. Forty per cent of them (375 persons in total) are young people aged between 16 and 35 selected through the Member Self-recommendation Scheme for Youth Phase 8, an increase of over 10 per cent from around 330 self-nominated seats in the previous term. Among the self-nominated young people selected as members, a total of 21 are under the age of 18, an increase of over 20 per cent compared to the total of 17 recorded in the previous term.
     
    The Chief Executive announced in the 2022 Policy Address the launch of a Youth Participation Initiative, with a view to engaging more young people in public affairs and enhancing their interaction and trust with the Government. One of the initiatives was for the HAD to designate two committees on district affairs for young people to nominate themselves as members. At the end of the same year, the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau published the Youth Development Blueprint, striving to strengthen the sense of ownership and responsibility of young people, and to enable more young people to take part in community building and district affairs through the establishment of the two Committees. In this regard, the HAD established in April 2023 the above-mentioned two Committees in the 18 districts, opening up seats for young people to nominate themselves as members.
     
    The membership lists of the two Committees in the 18 districts have been uploaded to the website of the HAD (www.had.gov.hk/en/public_services/youth_participation_initiative/index.htm).

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Inside an urban terror network: book reveals how police finally cracked Pagad gang violence in Cape Town

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Irvin Kinnes, Associate Professor of Criminology, University of Cape Town

    A campaign against gangsterism in Cape Town, South Africa led by the People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) turned violent in the mid-1990s when a group known as Pagad G-Force began what became known as an urban terrorism campaign. Lives on the Line, written by security analyst David Africa, is the true story of the secret team in the country’s crime intelligence division that waged a six-year battle against the terror group – and won. The terror campaign was brought to a standstill in 2002. Criminology professor Irvin Kinnes sets out why it’s a riveting read, a bold tell-all account by a brave author.

    What was the backdrop to the terror campaign?

    In 1995, one year after the country’s first democratic elections, a new law was passed creating the newly constituted South African Police Service. It was a tough year because the elements of the old order in the police service had great difficulty accepting the new democratic dispensation. But they had to collaborate with the people that they had tortured, jailed and, in some cases, maimed as a result of their role in political oppression in support of apartheid.

    The new centurions (police guardians of the new order) of democracy were not yet in place. A system of dual power emerged in the police, where some of the commanders that were appointed were former members of the liberation movements. They were seen as “plastic cops” because they did not train in the police academies around the country, but in the bush. Some subsequently attended various training academies. They were all integrated with other homeland police agencies from the Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei states and other “independent” homelands that had existed under apartheid. In total, 11 agencies combined to form the newly created and democratic police service in 1995.

    After 1994, many of the apartheid social controls such as restrictions on people’s movement, racially divided settlement and the death penalty were abolished. People were jubilant, hyper aware of their newly found rights.

    The police were not prepared to deal with such a rights-aware population. In addition, freedom also unleashed huge social challenges such as crime and particularly drug and gang crimes. In the immediate aftermath of the political negotiations that ended apartheid and prior to the elections, crime rates surged, especially in 1993. Not all of the crime was criminal: some of the events related to political crime with mass movements and political parties clashing with each other and with the police.

    The urban terror campaign, as labelled by members of the South African Police Service, extended from 1996-2002. This was also known as the Cape Flats war (referred to as the Pagad troubles by Africa) and was triggered by the campaign of the People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad). The organisation was initially made up of largely ordinary citizens across the religious divide, but later became almost exclusively Muslim led, and so was the G-Force.

    Pagad led several marches on the Cape Flats against drug dealers and gangsters. These marches resulted in the death on 4 August 1996 of one of the co-leaders of the Hard Living gang, Rashaad Staggie, by a huge crowd of Pagad members who were escorted by the police’s Public Order Unit.

    The execution resulted in a tit-for-tat killing between gang members and Pagad members.

    What was Pagad G-Force? What led to its formation?

    The Pagad G-Force were a group of men inside Pagad. They operated clandestinely outside its circle of influence of its public structures, but sometimes with its tacit support. Many of the members of the G-Force had received military training both inside and outside the borders of the country.

    Some people claimed they were trained in Afghanistan and Iran, and they were operators who were armed and could manage themselves against some of the threats that gang leaders had made against them. They were a tightly knit unit that was able to retain secrecy in most of their operations, guarding it against police infiltration – a battle they ultimately lost, as Africa’s book shows.

    The unit was accused of executing up to 30 senior gang leaders and drug dealers. Pagad would lead public marches against them and often publicly warned them to stop their drug dealing. This was followed by the homes of drug dealers being attacked. In many instances they were killed.

    What does the book reveal about why it took so long to end the terror campaign?

    There have been books that have attempted to document the Cape Flats war from different perspectives. But Africa tells the story from the inner sanctum of the state security apparatus that initially failed and eventually succeeded in penetrating the G-Force, Pagad and other formations.

    His book provides significant insights that makes other books on the subject pale in comparison. Fighting terrorism (urban or other) requires patience and deliberate skilled analysis of data, patterns and personalities. It requires skills of analysis built up over many years of sifting through behaviours and actions of individuals and organisations perpetrating such crimes.

    For the first time, we are made privy to the ideological reasoning and political thinking, strategising and implementation of police operations that was decidedly different from the old state thinking of actions against adversaries they were investigating.

    This was painstaking work and the level of co-operation between the new centurions of democracy in the police under the leadership of Africa and the old order. The old-order guardians were the same men and women in the old South African Police Force that had defended the apartheid government and did not trust the new police investigators from the liberation movements. They still had control of the police service in 1996. This was a recipe for creative and disruptive tensions, mistrust and outright sabotage of each other’s operations.

    What was the author’s involvement in the police efforts?

    The author was the head of a covert police intelligence team whose exclusive focus was to bring down the Pagad G-Force. He was central in conceptualising a new approach of working in a decontaminated group of intelligence officers made up of former liberation movement officers. Their job was to analyse information and turn it into actionable intelligence products that could be used to act against the Pagad G-Force.

    What was different about this approach was they produced court-ready evidence which police detectives could use in courts against the accused Pagad bombers. He led the fight for the new covert unit to have the necessary resources, support from their colleagues when it was required and most importantly, the support of the then national commissioner, Jackie Selebi.

    In this fight, Selebi quite clearly took sides and fully supported the actions of Africa and his colleagues to defeat Pagad’s G-Force. Africa makes this clear in his book and emphasises the support that was provided by Selebi.

    What are the key takeaways from the book about fighting similar campaigns of violence?

    The book puts together all the actors nationally and provincially and accords them the historical roles in each of their fields of expertise. It unravels the networks they spun to target, isolate, recruit and turn suspected G-Force operators.

    This look from within the war machine against Pagad raises many questions for any reader.

    It is a book for anyone who wants to understand the fight against terror, globally, regionally and locally, and what it really takes to bring people who commit such acts to justice.

    Lives on the Line confirms why it is so difficult to investigate organised crime and urban terrorists today.

    – Inside an urban terror network: book reveals how police finally cracked Pagad gang violence in Cape Town
    – https://theconversation.com/inside-an-urban-terror-network-book-reveals-how-police-finally-cracked-pagad-gang-violence-in-cape-town-253447

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI: Fengate consortium selected to deliver six new schools in Alberta, Canada

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    EDMONTON, Alberta, April 01, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Fengate Asset Management (Fengate), as part of the EllisDon Infrastructure consortium, has been selected by the Government of Alberta to deliver six new schools as part of the P3 Schools Bundle #5 project.

    The consortium achieved financial close on the project this week to design, build, finance, and maintain the schools under a public-private partnership (P3).

    Three grade K-9 schools, located in Calgary (Nolan Hill), Chestermere, and Okotoks; one K-8 school in Aidrie; one K-5 school in Blackfalds; and one grade 7-12 school in Edmonton (Glenridding Heights), are anticipated to open in 2027 and provide an opening capacity for 5,550 students.

    “We are honored to be part of this transformative project that will provide state-of-the-art educational facilities for students across Alberta,” said Mac Bell, Managing Director, Infrastructure Investments at Fengate.

    “Achieving financial close is a testament to the collaborative efforts of our consortium partners and the Alberta government, and we look forward to working shoulder-to-shoulder to build the future of education in the province.”

    Fengate, which successfully delivered a P3 bundle of six schools in Prince George’s County, Maryland, near Washington D.C. in 2023, remains committed to delivering high- quality social infrastructure that enhances communities across Canada and the United States.

    The EllisDon Infrastructure consortium – comprised of EllisDon Capital Inc., Fengate Asset Management, EllisDon Construction Services Inc., GEC Architecture, Smith + Andersen, Entuitive Corporation, Grade Consulting Inc., Scatliff + Miller + Murray Inc., Footprint, and FFA Consultants – was selected following a competitive procurement process.

    About Fengate

    Fengate is a leading alternative investment manager focused on infrastructure, private equity and real estate strategies, with more than $10 billion of capital commitments under management. The firm has been investing in infrastructure since 2006 with a focus on mid- market greenfield and brownfield infrastructure assets in the transportation, social, energy transition and digital sectors. Fengate is one of North America’s most active infrastructure investors and developers with a portfolio of more than 45 assets. Learn more at www.fengate.com.

    Media contact

    Maddison Sharples
    Vice President, Communications and Marketing
    +1 416 254 3326
    maddison.sharples@fengate.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Press conference following Council of Ministers meeting no. 121

    Source: Government of Italy (English)

    28 Aprile 2025

    Council of Ministers meeting no. 121 was held at Palazzo Chigi today. Following the meeting, Vice-President of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Antonio Tajani, Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi, Minister of Enterprises and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso, Minister of University and Research Anna Maria Bernini, Minister of Education and Merit Giuseppe Valditara, and Special Government Commissioner for the area of the Municipality of Caivano Fabio Ciciliano held a press conference to illustrate the measures approved.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: VIDEO: 8 Hours into Long Speech, Booker Turns Focus to Attacks on America’s Education System

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for New Jersey Cory Booker
    WASHINGTON, D.C. – 8 hours into his long speech, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) turned his focus to the Trump Administration’s recent steps to dismantle the Department of Education and cut critical funding for teachers. Senator Booker shared testimonials from constituents in his state that are suffering the consequences of President Trump’s unlawful actions.
    Booker took to the Senate floor beginning at 7pm ET last night with the intention of speaking as long as he is physically able to uplift the stories of Americans who are being harmed by the Trump Administration’s reckless actions, attempts to undermine our institutions, and disregard for the rule of law.
    WATCH HERE

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: LGBTQ+ Adoption and Fostering – make a difference today

    Source: City of Wolverhampton

    LGBTQ+ foster and adoptive parents are making a tremendous difference and the 2 organisations are seeking more people to come forward to support their children and young people in care.

    Councillor Jacqui Coogan, the City of Wolverhampton Council’s Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Education, said: “Fostering and adoption are 2 of the most rewarding things you can do.

    “We are always looking for loving and accepting homes for our children and young people, and your impact can last a lifetime.

    “Adoption and fostering can have a profound and positive impact on the lives of vulnerable children, and both foster and adoptive parents give vital support to children who have experienced significant trauma and loss.

    “We are committed to developing a diverse and inclusive fostering and adoption family here in Wolverhampton and we very much welcome and encourage enquiries from the LGBTQ+ community.”

    Fostering offers both short term and long term opportunities to provide stability for children. And where children cannot return to their birth families, adopters can provide a permanent loving home.

    You can foster or adopt whether you are single, living together, married, a same sex couple, employed or not, or already have children. Potential foster and adoptive parents must legally be a UK resident for at least 12 months, be aged 21 or over, have a spare bedroom if they are fostering, and be able to provide a stable home for a child until adulthood and beyond.

    Adoption@Heart runs an information session every 2 weeks for those who are ready to start their adoption journey or would like more information. For more information visit Adoption@Heart, call 01902 553818 or email info@adoptionatheart.org.uk.

    Fostering for Wolverhampton also runs regular information events for those interested in making a difference in a child’s life. To learn more about fostering, visit Fostering for Wolverhampton or call 01902 551133.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Acorn Farm’s New Gate Lodge Garden officially opens

    Source: Northern Ireland – City of Derry

    Acorn Farm’s New Gate Lodge Garden officially opens

    1 April 2025

    Spring has certainly sprung in the new Acorn Farm Gate Lodge Garden located at the St Columb’s Park Gate Lodge which has been officially opened by the Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Councillor Lilian Seenoi Barr.

    The new garden is part of the ambitious Acorn Farm Project, a partnership project supported by funding from The National Lottery Community Fund’s, Climate Action Fund and the UK Government.

    Mayor Barr was joined by pupils from St Anne’s Primary School in Derry, who had the opportunity to learn about the importance of seed planting and growing cycles, and taste the benefits of the freshly harvested food.

    The new space has been created to connect local communities, families, households and food producers with sustainable food practices, healthy eating and climate-friendly learning. It will help facilitate elements of the Acorn Farm’s wider engagement programme through events, workshops and guided visits.

    The Acorn Farm project is delivered by a partnership team consisting of Derry City and Strabane District Council, The Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, The Conservation Volunteers, Developing Healthy Communities and Community Garden Support.

    Officially opening the gardens, Mayor Barr said they provided a beautiful learning space for all ages. “I am thrilled to be here today and to see the next stage in the development of the Acorn Farm project. There is a fantastic array of produce already being grown, and local people can draw on the expertise from local horticulturists and other experienced growers. Congratulations to everyone involved in realising this wonderful new green space.”

    Paul Sweeney, Northen Ireland Chair of The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “I am delighted to be at the Gate Lodge Gardens today for the official opening and to see the progress made so far in the Acorn Farm Project, which has been supported by over £2 million of National Lottery funding.

    “A priority of The National Lottery Community Fund’s strategy to 2030 is to support communities in becoming environmentally sustainable. Innovative and ambitious projects like Acorn Farm are a fantastic example of our funding being put into action by communities, by creating a movement and helping develop more sustainable and responsible ways of sourcing and producing food.

    “Well done to everyone involved in developing this community hub which will boost mental health, encourage physical activity and build stronger community connections.”

    Shauna Kelpie, Community Foundation for Northern Ireland said: “What we see here today is the culmination of outstanding collaboration between partner organisations committed to improving the lives of local people and our environment through access to more sustainable food choices. This project kick starts so many ‘green focused’ activities and will be life changing for so many families now and into the future.”

    The total funding investment pot of £6.2m in capital infrastructure (UK Government and Derry City and Strabane District Council) and over £2m (National Lottery Community Fund’s Climate Action Fund) in skills-based engagement programmes, is assisting local people to take climate action through food choice and make the link between sustainable food and better health outcomes for this generation and future ones.

    Find out more about the project at https://acornfarmni.com/

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Highland Council Charitable Trusts award over £100,000 to schools and community groups

    Source: Scotland – Highland Council

    At the recently held meeting of the Educational Trusts Sub Committee, the trustees made awards of over £105,000 to a wide variety of individuals and organisations from The Highland Council Charitable Trusts.  The awards ranged from a few hundred pounds to £10,000.

    Applications for the next round of awards to support students going to college and university are now open from 1 April until 15 August 2025, with awards made in September 2025.  For further information and to submit an application, please visit: Highland Council Charitable Trusts.

    Educational Trusts Sub Committee Chair, Cllr Drew Millar said: “Following the modernisation of the educational trust funds, the trustees were delighted to approve a wide range of applications.  These included supporting young people to travel and further their educational experiences, supporting sports clubs and other educational organisations across the Highlands, and grants for local community activities.  We look forward to approving a variety of bursaries and scholarships in September for those embarking on college and university courses.” 

    Notable awards include funding to support Inverness City Youth Pipe Band to travel to Spain and Skye Youth Pipe Band to visit Italy, to take part in cultural events and represent the Highlands. 

    Inverness City Youth Pipe Band Chair, Andy Hamilton said: “It is a great honour to be invited to Teba in Southern Spain, where we will meet with traditional musicians from the local area.  We are looking forward to leading the procession through the town to the castle.  The funding of £5,000 will ensure that band members will not be excluded due to cost thanks to Inverness-shire Educational Trust supporting our young people.”

    Plockton High School have received funding for the Am Bata boat building project.  Headteacher, Jo Scott-Moncrieff said: “For sixteen years we have provided a boatbuilding experience for young people which provides a service to the local community by building and repairing boats using traditional methods and materials, preserving skills which have been handed down for generations, while also preparing participating senior pupils for the world of work and life after leaving school.  Boatbuilding at Plockton High School is well-established and highly regarded for the unique experience it offers and the specialist skills which young people develop through their participation.  The school community are grateful to the Gairloch and Plockton Educational Trust for supporting our project.”

    Many schools throughout the council area will shortly receive funding for special prizes in line with bequestors’ wishes from as far back as the nineteenth century.  These include the Mackintosh Farr Fund of 1862, which is incorporated into the Inverness Royal Academy Endowment Trust.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Greece: EIB supports student housing and campus upgrades of the University of Crete

    Source: European Investment Bank

    EIB

    • EIB to co-finance with a €95 million loan, the construction and operation of student housing and new academic facilities
    • Campuses in cities of Heraklion and Rethymno will benefit from 2,833 new rooms to accommodate up to 4,846 students
    • EIB also providing technical assistance for energy efficiency, climate adaptation, PPP best practices and project management

    The University of Crete in Greece will benefit from €95 million in European Investment Bank (EIB) financing to help build affordable student housing and upgrade campus facilities as part of a pioneering Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project awarded to the AKTOR Group.

    The EIB financing, which is backed by the InvestEU programme, will co-finance the expansion of the university’s campuses in two locations, Heraklion and Rethymno, with 2,833 rooms and apartments to be built, creating up to 4,846 beds. In total, the project will involve the construction of more than 109,000 square meters of student housing and academic spaces, including a new 800-seat amphitheatre at the Rethymnon campus.

    The new buildings created will also be highly energy efficient, performing better than the Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB) in Greece, as well as include climate adaptation measures.  

    “Investing in university infrastructure is not just about building new facilities—it’s about shaping the future of education, fostering innovation, and strengthening the social fabric of our communities,” said EIB Vice-President, Yannis Tsakiris. “Greek universities must have the resources to attract and nurture the next generation of talent, and this project is a crucial step in that direction. At the same time, the shortage of affordable and sustainable student housing is a growing challenge across Europe. With this new financing for the University of Crete, we are not only addressing this urgent need but also delivering on our commitment to support education, sustainability, and economic growth. This investment is a tangible example of how the EIB is turning vision into action, ensuring that students have access to modern, energy-efficient spaces where they can learn, live, and thrive.

    ”We are envisioning, planning, and—through important synergies such as the one with the EIB and AKTOR—implementing a broad and coherent plan for the upgrading of public universities,” said Sofia Zacharaki, Minister of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports.“Ensuring access to quality, free housing for thousands of students, in both new and renovated student residences across the country, is a cornerstone of this plan. Through beneficial public-private partnerships for the Greek state, with a total budget of 700 million euros, we are creating new student residences, increasing the number of available beds to 21,000 from the current 12,457, while also undertaking extensive renovations of existing facilities. It is essential—and this is exactly what is being delivered through the project involving student residences and new academic spaces in Crete—that there is long-term provision and commitment to maintenance and technical management, so that, over time, both taxpayers’ money and the smooth functioning of the public university’s legacy are safeguarded, always for the benefit of Greek families, students, learning, and progress.”

    Unlocking sustainable development via PPP

    The University of Crete procured the project through a 30-year PPP agreement, with the contract awarded to the AKTOR Group of Companies and implemented through its subsidiary Talaia Estia SA. The total long-term financing of €190 million is co-financed equally by the EIB and Piraeus Bank.

    Further to the financial contribution EIB has provided technical assistance focused on three pillars:

    • enhancement of the technical specifications associated with energy efficiency, lifecycle global warming potential calculations, climate change adaptation measures and compliance to the EU Taxonomy technical screening criteria
    • cooperation with the Greek PPP Unit in the ongoing development of the contractual framework in accordance with best practices and the experience gained from similar previous projects
    • provision of best practice tools and capacity building for the University’s PPP contract management team to manage the Partnership Agreement during its 30-year tenor, delivered with InvestEU advisory funding support.

    “Collaboration between public and private sectors and institutional banks, such as the EIB, can improve the daily life of citizens, produce sustainable innovations and solve important problems, supporting social progress,” explained AKTOR Group Chairman and CEO, Alexandros Exarchou. “We undertake this ambitious project with great responsibility as it will be the first of its kind in Greece and we aim to mobilize our resources to deliver state-of-the-art facilities that will stand as an example of high quality, green and modern infrastructure. Our youth is our future, and they deserve the finest environment that will allow them to evolve. At AKTOR Group, our mission is to contribute to progress and prosperity through our actions and investments, and we are committed to a sustainable future and creating value for our shareholders and society.”

    ”We are very proud to co-finance this project as we consider education as a key factor for sustainable development,” added Piraeus Executive General Manager, and Head of CIB, Theodore Tzouros. “Piraeus plays a leading role in supporting infrastructure projects, as part of its strategic commitment to contribute to the economic growth and the prosperity of Greek society. This student housing and academic facilities project at the University of Crete has a strong social impact as it will support the students who need affordable housing and will serve the needs of the local community.”

    Tackling the affordable housing issue with concrete solutions

    The lack of affordable and sustainable housing, especially for students, is a growing challenge across Europe, particularly in regions with strong tourism-driven real estate markets such as Crete. This investment will not only expand student accommodation capacity but will also enhance access to higher education for students from lower-income backgrounds, and strengthen the university’s competitiveness, as well as its academic and social impact.

    The announcement comes after the EIB Group announced at the EIB Forum its action plan to support housing, which includes a new housing one-stop-shop portal to provide advice and finance to support innovation in the construction sector, build affordable homes and invest in energy efficiency and the renovation of housing stock across Europe. The EIB Group is planning investments of around €10 billion over next two years with the aim of delivering 1.5 million new or renovated housing units across Europe.

    Background information  

    EIB 

    The European Investment Bank (ElB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. Built around eight core priorities, we finance investments that contribute to EU policy objectives by bolstering climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, cohesion, agriculture and bioeconomy, social infrastructure, high-impact investments outside the European Union, and the capital markets union.  

    The EIB Group, which also includes the European Investment Fund (EIF), signed nearly €89 billion in new financing for over 900 high-impact projects in 2024, boosting Europe’s competitiveness and security.  

    All projects financed by the EIB Group are in line with the Paris Climate Agreement, as pledged in our Climate Bank Roadmap. Almost 60% of the EIB Group’s annual financing supports projects directly contributing to climate change mitigation, adaptation, and a healthier environment.  

    Fostering market integration and mobilising investment, the Group supported a record of over €100 billion in new investment for Europe’s energy security in 2024 and mobilised €110 billion in growth capital for startups, scale-ups and European pioneers. Approximately half of the EIB’s financing within the European Union is directed towards cohesion regions, where per capita income is lower than the EU average.

    High-quality, up-to-date photos of our headquarters for media use are available here.

    Greece: EIB supports student housing and campus upgrades of the University of Crete
    Greece: EIB supports student housing and campus upgrades of the University of Crete
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    Greece: EIB supports student housing and campus upgrades of the University of Crete
    Greece: EIB supports student housing and campus upgrades of the University of Crete
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    MIL OSI Europe News –