NewzIntel.com

Category: Education

  • MIL-OSI Security: U.S. Justice Department Launches Investigation of University of California Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

    Source: United States Attorneys General 2

    The Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced that the Justice Department has opened a civil pattern or practice investigation into the University of California (UC) under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The investigation will assess whether UC has engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination based on race, religion and national origin against its professors, staff and other employees by allowing an Antisemitic hostile work environment to exist on its campuses.

    “This Department of Justice will always defend Jewish Americans, protect civil rights, and leverage our resources to eradicate institutional Antisemitism in our nation’s universities,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi.

    “Our country has witnessed a disturbing rise of Antisemitism at educational institutions in California and nationwide,” said Acting Associate Attorney General and Department of Justice Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle. “The Department of Justice is committed to upholding Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and protecting Jewish Americans as we investigate this potential pattern of discrimination.”

    Leading Task Force member and Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Leo Terrell said, “Following the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks in Israel, there has been an outbreak of antisemitic incidents at leading institutions of higher education in America, including at my own alma mater at the UCLA campus of UC. The impact upon UC’s students has been the subject of considerable media attention and multiple federal investigations. But these campuses are also workplaces, and the Jewish faculty and staff employed there deserve a working environment free of antisemitic hostility and hate. The President, the Attorney General and this Task Force are committed to combatting antisemitism for all Jewish Americans.”

    The employment discrimination investigation will be conducted pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, and religion. Under Title VII, the Justice Department has the authority to initiate investigations against state and local government employers where it has reason to believe that a “pattern or practice” of employment discrimination exists.

    Collaboration between the Justice Department and other federal agencies plays an important role in combating antisemitism in schools and college campuses. The Department coordinates with other federal agencies as part of the multi-agency Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, as well as when sharing enforcement jurisdiction with other agencies. For state and local governments and related entities like public universities, the Department of Justice shares enforcement authority under Title VII with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC receives, investigates, and conciliates EEOC charges against state- and local-government employers, before referring those charges to the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice for potential litigation.

    “The EEOC is committed to partnering with the Department of Justice to stamp out the scourge of anti-Semitism on campus workplaces,” said EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas.

    If you have been discriminated against, you can file a complaint with the Civil Rights Division, at Contact the Civil Rights Division | Department of Justice (https://civilrights.justice.gov). If you work for an university or college and have experienced anti-Semitic harassment at work, you can file a charge with the EEOC, at How to File a Charge of Employment Discrimination | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (https://www.eeoc.gov/how-file-charge-employment-discrimination). Learn more about addressing anti-Semitism at work here: What To Do If You Face Antisemitism at Work.

    President Trump’s Executive Order can be found here: Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism – The White House.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Tillis Leads Legislation to Eliminate Biden’s “Pill Penalty,” Restore Incentives for Life-Saving Drug Innovation

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for North Carolina Thom Tillis

    WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC), Ted Budd (R-NC), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), James Lankford (R-OK), and Steve Daines (R-MT) introduced the Ensuring Pathways to Innovative Cures (EPIC) Act, bipartisan, bicameral legislation that fixes the Inflation Reduction Act’s small molecule “pill penalty” to ensure continued R&D investments into small molecule medicines. 

    “For patients battling cancer, rare diseases, and chronic conditions, timely access to innovative treatments can mean the difference between life and death,” said Senator Tillis. “Unfortunately, the Inflation Reduction Act disincentivizes research on small molecule treatments and undermines development of the most accessible and affordable medications. The EPIC Act of 2025 will ensure patients of today and tomorrow have uninterrupted access to life-saving and life-changing therapies.” 

    “President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act ‘pill penalty’ has hindered important research and development for potentially life-saving cures,” said Senator Budd. “The EPIC Act will right this wrong by encouraging more investment in innovative medicines and treatments that are needed to help North Carolinians live long and healthy lives.”

    “Montanans in need of life-saving medicine should not have to worry about government overreach that stifles critical research and development for much-needed cures,” said Senator Daines. “I’m proud to join my colleagues in introducing this bill to bolster innovation so that Montanans and patients across the country can get the care they deserve.”

    “Incubate Coalition appreciates Senator Tillis’ leadership in addressing the flaws of the IRA and supporting the EPIC Act, which restores incentives for life sciences investment based on scientific potential rather than arbitrary policy barriers,” said John Stanford, Executive Director of the Incubate Coalition. “His dedication to ending the pill penalty will create a fairer system, drive innovation, and ensure patients have access to the breakthrough treatments they need.” 

    “The schizophrenia community has been marginalized for decades. Now, people with this brain disease stand to suffer even more as the IRA endangers the promise of new schizophrenia treatments,” said Gordon Lavigne, CEO of the Schizophrenia & Psychosis Action Alliance. “The EPIC Act is a much-needed fix that will help ensure that everyone with schizophrenia has access to a treatment that works for them. For the 2.5 million people living with schizophrenia in the United States, future treatment innovation is a matter of survival and dignity.”

    “As an organization representing the voice of cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers across America, the Cancer Support Community (CSC) would like to thank Senator Tillis alongside Senators Blackburn, Budd, Lankford, and Daines for introducing the Ensuring Pathways to Innovative Cures (EPIC) Act,” said Sally Werner, Chief Executive Officer, Cancer Support Community. “Small molecule drugs are essential for the treatment of many cancers and are more accessible for patients due to their cost and convenience of taking them at home. Innovative oral cancer drugs are bringing improved efficacy and reduced side effects to patients, improving their treatment and lives. The EPIC Act would eliminate the unnecessary distinction between small and large molecule drugs in the IRA, allowing both to be eligible for negotiation eleven years after FDA approval. We must continue to ensure that all patients have access to the treatment best suited for them and that policies accurately reflect the needs and input of patients who will be most impacted by them.”

    Background:

    Under the Inflation Reduction Act’s price-fixing model, small molecule drugs are eligible for selection in the “Medicare Drug Price Negotiation” program seven years after FDA approval. A two-year “negotiation period” follows, with price controls taking effect in year nine. Conversely, biologics become eligible for selection 11 years after FDA approval, with price controls going into effect in year 13. 

    The cost to bring a new drug to market can range from several hundred million to several billion dollars. The IRA is crippling innovation by reducing the ability to recoup losses incurred during drug research and development, with many pharmaceutical companies halting research into groundbreaking treatments. This has left individuals battling cancer, mental health conditions, and rare disease without hope.  

    The impact is already devastating. R&D funding for small molecule medicines has plummeted by 70% since the IRA’s introduction in September 2021 and funding continues to be shifted to other projects. According to a University of Chicago policy brief, due to the 9-13 disparity, 188 fewer small molecule medicines will come to market, leading to a staggering 116 million life-years lost. 

    Full text of the bill is available HERE. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Former Executive of Chicago-Area Non-Profit Pleads Guilty in $1.8 Million Fraud Scheme

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    CHICAGO — A former executive of a Chicago-area non-profit organization has pleaded guilty to a federal fraud charge for her role in misappropriating $1.8 million intended to support the charity’s work with underprivileged youth.

    BARBARA HARRIS served as the Executive Director of the Center for Community Academic Success Partnerships (CCASP), which received government grants and other funds to provide after-school programs to schools in the Chicago area.  The grants included funds from the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program, a federal program offering financial support for academic enrichment opportunities.  The 21st Century program issued grants to its local administrator, the Illinois State Board of Education, which in turn disbursed the funds to CCASP.

    Harris stated in a plea agreement that from 2012 to 2017, she schemed with another CCASP executive, TONY BELL, to submit grant applications that inflated CCASP’s projected annual expenses and falsely claimed that the organization would receive services from five subcontractors.  In reality, Harris knew that the subcontractors, two of which were other non-profit groups run by Harris and Bell, provided no actual services to CCASP.  The fraud scheme resulted in approximately $1.8 million in actual loss to the Illinois Department of Education.

    Harris further admitted in the plea agreement that from 2021 to 2023, she participated in a separate fraud scheme that bilked the federally funded AmeriCorps VISTA program, which awarded grants to non-profit organizations working to bring communities out of poverty.  Harris, who at the time of this scheme was serving as Co-Executive Director of the non-profit South Suburban Community Services, submitted grant applications falsely representing that VISTA members would work for SSCS developing programs aimed at bringing economic opportunities to the south suburbs of Chicago. Harris knew that the VISTA members would actually be used at SSCS to support already-funded job training and afterschool violence prevention programs.  Harris fraudulently obtained approval for eleven VISTA members to work at SSCS, none of whom performed services in accordance with their VISTA assignment descriptions, causing a loss to the VISTA program of $98,699.

    Harris, 55, of South Holland, Ill., pleaded guilty on Feb. 27, 2025, to a wire fraud charge.  U.S. District Judge Andrea R. Wood set sentencing for July 11, 2025, at 10:30 a.m.

    Harris’s guilty plea was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, John F. Woolley, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General’s Midwestern Regional Office, Douglas S. DePodesta, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI, Ramsey Covington, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in Chicago, and Stephen Ravas, Acting Inspector General of the AmeriCorps Office of Inspector General.  The Illinois Office of Executive Inspector General provided valuable assistance.  The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kristen Totten and Caitlin Walgamuth.

    Bell, 64, of Matteson, Ill., has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, money laundering, and wire fraud.  He is awaiting trial.  The public is reminded that the indictment against Bell is not evidence of guilt.  Bell is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. 

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Security News: U.S. Justice Department Launches Investigation of University of California Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

    Source: United States Department of Justice 2

    The Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced that the Justice Department has opened a civil pattern or practice investigation into the University of California (UC) under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The investigation will assess whether UC has engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination based on race, religion and national origin against its professors, staff and other employees by allowing an Antisemitic hostile work environment to exist on its campuses.

    “This Department of Justice will always defend Jewish Americans, protect civil rights, and leverage our resources to eradicate institutional Antisemitism in our nation’s universities,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi.

    “Our country has witnessed a disturbing rise of Antisemitism at educational institutions in California and nationwide,” said Acting Associate Attorney General and Department of Justice Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle. “The Department of Justice is committed to upholding Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and protecting Jewish Americans as we investigate this potential pattern of discrimination.”

    Leading Task Force member and Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Leo Terrell said, “Following the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks in Israel, there has been an outbreak of antisemitic incidents at leading institutions of higher education in America, including at my own alma mater at the UCLA campus of UC. The impact upon UC’s students has been the subject of considerable media attention and multiple federal investigations. But these campuses are also workplaces, and the Jewish faculty and staff employed there deserve a working environment free of antisemitic hostility and hate. The President, the Attorney General and this Task Force are committed to combatting antisemitism for all Jewish Americans.”

    The employment discrimination investigation will be conducted pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, and religion. Under Title VII, the Justice Department has the authority to initiate investigations against state and local government employers where it has reason to believe that a “pattern or practice” of employment discrimination exists.

    Collaboration between the Justice Department and other federal agencies plays an important role in combating antisemitism in schools and college campuses. The Department coordinates with other federal agencies as part of the multi-agency Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, as well as when sharing enforcement jurisdiction with other agencies. For state and local governments and related entities like public universities, the Department of Justice shares enforcement authority under Title VII with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC receives, investigates, and conciliates EEOC charges against state- and local-government employers, before referring those charges to the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice for potential litigation.

    “The EEOC is committed to partnering with the Department of Justice to stamp out the scourge of anti-Semitism on campus workplaces,” said EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas.

    If you have been discriminated against, you can file a complaint with the Civil Rights Division, at Contact the Civil Rights Division | Department of Justice (https://civilrights.justice.gov). If you work for an university or college and have experienced anti-Semitic harassment at work, you can file a charge with the EEOC, at How to File a Charge of Employment Discrimination | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (https://www.eeoc.gov/how-file-charge-employment-discrimination). Learn more about addressing anti-Semitism at work here: What To Do If You Face Antisemitism at Work.

    President Trump’s Executive Order can be found here: Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism – The White House.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Mice with woolly mammoth traits could pave the way for the resurrection of an ice age giant

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Timothy Hearn, Senior Lecturer in Bioinformatics, Anglia Ruskin University

    A US biotech company has genetically modified mice to have traits from the extinct woolly mammoth. Researchers at Colossal Laboratories and Biosciences endowed their mice with the thick, shaggy hair of the mammoth and its efficient fat metabolism, which helped it survive in icy conditions.

    Colossal’s ultimate goal is to introduce these woolly mammoth traits, along with others, into modern elephants. This general area of science has become known as de-extinction.

    However, elephants have long gestation (pregnancy) periods, exhibit complex social behaviour, and experimentation on them raises significant ethical challenges, including the issue of animal welfare. Therefore, the researchers have chosen mice for the initial experiments.

    Mice breed quickly, and their genes are easier to modify, which allows
    scientists to test and refine their methods in an animal they understand well.

    Instead of trying to clone a dead mammoth, Colossal is trying to transform an modern elephant into a mammoth. The process begins with ancient DNA. Colossal’s team extracted genetic material from woolly mammoth remains preserved in Arctic permafrost – a natural archive that has safeguarded genetic secrets for thousands of years.

    By comparing this ancient DNA with that of modern elephants, the researchers identified the specific genes responsible for the mammoth’s distinctive woolly coat and its rapid fat metabolism.

    The next step was to use a powerful gene editing tool
    called Crispr. This molecular technique enables scientists to make precise modifications (changes) in an organism’s DNA. In the laboratory, the researchers applied Crispr to edit the DNA of mouse embryos, introducing the mammoth versions of the genes that control hair texture and fat metabolism.

    Many experiments were needed and a large number of mouse embryos underwent testing to ensure the genetic modifications were successful. However, the work clearly demonstrated that these complex genetic traits could be replicated in a living model.

    This is a process that would be far more difficult, and ethically challenging, if
    attempted directly in elephants. However, the success in mice provides a critical proof of concept.

    In an elephant, the process would involve editing early-stage embryos and implanting them into a surrogate elephant mother. For now, the work in mice offers a safer, efficient and more cost-effective way to test and perfect the scientists’ gene editing approaches.

    Although the prospect of an elephant with woolly mammoth characteristics may still
    be a distant goal, the current work with mice is an essential early milestone. By focusing on a manageable animal, the scientists can gather vital data and refine their techniques without the immediate complications that would arise from working with larger, more complex animals.

    This methodical progression – from mice to elephants – ensures that each step is
    shown to be effective before moving on to the next. Such incremental progress in science can eventually lead to groundbreaking advances.

    Although the whole concept of bringing the mammoth back might sound like science fiction, Colossal envisions a future where de-extinction and genetic enhancement play a key role in restoring natural ecosystems.

    Their research could pave the way for reviving other species, such as the thylacine – a carnivore that lived on the island of Tasmania – or the dodo, which once roamed Mauritius. The work might even contribute to the survival of current endangered species by enhancing their natural defences, such as introducing genes that confer immunity to disease.

    As habitats shrink and species become increasingly endangered, innovative conservation strategies are urgently needed. Gene editing, as demonstrated in these experiments, could provide a complementary tool to traditional conservation methods.

    By bestowing modern species with traits that once helped extinct animals survive in extreme conditions, scientists hope to improve their resilience to a changing environment.

    Timothy Hearn 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. Mice with woolly mammoth traits could pave the way for the resurrection of an ice age giant – https://theconversation.com/mice-with-woolly-mammoth-traits-could-pave-the-way-for-the-resurrection-of-an-ice-age-giant-251561

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Banning swearing in Formula One could be bad for drivers – a linguist explains

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Kieran File, Associate Professor, Department of Applied Linguistics, University of Warwick

    Motor sport’s governing body the FIA (International Automobile Federation) has not ruled out extending its recent swearing ban to Formula One (F1) team radio communication. Last month FIA president Mohammed Sulayem said the body could “shut down the radios of live communication” over the issue.

    At first glance, this might seem like a minor issue of professionalism. After all, athletes in many sports are expected to control their language.

    For some, the idea that drivers need to swear during races may seem unconvincing, given that emotions can be expressed through other word choices. Many people are not permitted to swear in their workplaces, so why should F1 drivers be an exception?

    But research suggests that banning drivers from swearing during races could have wider effects. It may disrupt how they regulate their emotions in Formula One’s extreme environment.

    It could also affect how they communicate efficiently with their teams, and how they shape their identities as racing drivers – functions that swearing, arguably, serves in live racing communication.

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    To date, the drivers have argued that swearing isn’t just incidental – it’s a necessary release due to the extreme, high-pressure, adrenaline-fuelled nature of their sport. Research may support this claim, as studies have shown that swearing is deeply linked to emotional regulation.

    Experimental and lab-based studies suggest that swear words are processed differently to other words. They have been linked to brain regions responsible for processing emotion, threat detection and survival responses.

    Given that F1 drivers operate in an intense, high-stakes environment where rapid decision-making and threat assessment are key, this connection may suggest that swearing is a natural response under pressure.

    Some studies also suggest that swearing activates the fight-or-flight response, triggering physiological changes like increased heart rate, faster breathing and adrenaline release. The fight-or-flight response is an instinctive mechanism that helps humans react to danger.

    For F1 drivers, who must remain highly alert while making critical decisions at extreme speeds, this connection between swearing and physiological arousal could play a role in maintaining focus and performance under pressure.

    Beyond cognitive and emotional regulation, swearing may also increase pain tolerance, which has clear implications for F1 drivers enduring G-forces, mental strain and long stints behind the wheel in a very cramped space. Banning swearing could interfere with drivers’ instinctive mechanism for coping with extreme conditions involved in racing.

    Swearing and communication

    Beyond these more cathartic functions, swearing, arguably, plays a crucial role in interpersonal team communication, particularly in the high-pressure environment of live racing. In Formula One, where split-second decisions can define the outcome of a race, communication between driver and engineer must be concise, clear and unambiguous.

    Research suggests that swearing, far from being just an emotional outburst, serves several pragmatic functions that may enhance communication in such high-stakes environments. One key function of swearing in interpersonal communication is that it acts as an “attention getter”.

    Studies have shown that swear words command more cognitive focus than neutral words, making them particularly effective in cutting through noise and grabbing attention when urgency is required. For drivers, an expletive-laden message may serve as an immediate cue for the race engineer and the wider racing team to prioritise a response.

    The strong response from drivers may also reflect the inextricable link between language and identity, and that, at a deeper level, this swearing policy may challenge how they construct their identities as racing drivers.

    F1 drivers are socialised into the sport, often from a young age, learning not just how to drive but how to talk and interact like racing drivers. Perhaps due to these cathartic and team communication functions, swearing may have become an assumed way of claiming and performing the identity of a racing driver.

    People (and communities) resist imposed changes to their language, especially when it is seen to alter how they present themselves. Seen in this way, the proposed swearing ban is more than a simple matter of professionalism. It is an external attempt to reshape how drivers construct and “perform” their identities within their sport.

    Entertainment value

    It is also worth mentioning the potential effects on the entertainment values of such a ban. One of the biggest shifts in modern F1 has been the opening up of the team radio communications to the public.

    Once a private channel for strategy and decision-making, it is now part of the entertainment package – broadcast, clipped and replayed for millions of fans. This has given audiences insight into the intensity of racing, but it has also altered the meaning of driver communication, turning functional exchanges into public performances.

    Yet team radio is not designed for entertainment: it is for the vital, two-way flow of information during racing events. So any decision about what is broadcast should be a negotiation, not a policy imposed on speech itself.

    It should also see the broadcasters accommodating the norms of the environment rather than the other way around. The FIA’s approach treats this as a regulatory issue rather than a broadcasting one, placing restrictions on competitors instead of reconsidering how private communication is curated for public access.

    Viewed in this context, this ban may inadvertently create a contradiction in F1’s wider media strategy. The sport wants the authenticity of raw radio exchanges but not the discomfort of unfiltered emotion.

    A swearing ban risks making team radio feel sanitised and staged, diminishing the very sense of access that made it compelling and exciting in the first place.

    Kieran File 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. Banning swearing in Formula One could be bad for drivers – a linguist explains – https://theconversation.com/banning-swearing-in-formula-one-could-be-bad-for-drivers-a-linguist-explains-251424

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How the EU is preparing to play hardball in the face of Donald Trump’s tariff threats

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Magdalena Frennhoff Larsén, Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations, University of Westminster

    US president Donald Trump sees himself as a born negotiator with a knack for driving a hard bargain and striking a good deal. When it comes to trade, his approach is clearly positional, and negotiations are treated as zero-sum games with winners and losers.

    Imposing tariffs – or threatening to do so – is his preferred way of exerting influence over US trading partners. While tariffs are unilaterally imposed – and not the result of negotiations – they can be interpreted as an opening gambit to gain leverage in trade negotiations further down the line.

    Since taking office, Trump has already announced a series of sweeping new tariffs, including an across-the-board steel and aluminium tariff to be effective from March 12.

    He has also presented the “fair and reciprocal plan” aimed at correcting any trade imbalances facing the US, including the EU’s trade surplus in cars. And most recently, he threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all imported goods from the EU.

    As the biggest trading partner of the US, the EU is concerned. Yet the EU is also a formidable negotiator.

    Negotiations are very much part of the EU’s DNA. They are the bloc’s preferred way of engaging with third countries, and in trade the European Commission negotiates on behalf of the member states, projecting a unified EU front. With more trade agreements in place than any other country or regional bloc, it is considered a champion of a liberal global trade order.

    Unlike Trump, the EU prefers a more open approach. Negotiations are considered win-win games, with a focus on relation-building and trying to understand where the other party comes.

    Its response to the provocation from Washington has been rapid and strategic. Even so, the EU has already found that the only option with Trump is to play him at his own game.

    The art of other deals

    Sticking with what it knows best, the EU has hurried to conclude trade negotiations with other partners to offset some of the economic losses resulting from potential US tariffs, and to demonstrate its continued commitment to trade liberalisation and international cooperation.

    Since Trump’s election, the EU has finalised negotiations for a groundbreaking trade deal with Mercosur – a South American trade bloc bringing together Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. This agreement –- if ratified – will create a market of 800 million citizens and boost trade and political ties between the two regions.

    Indirectly rejecting Trump’s “America first” approach, Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, stressed how the EU-Mercosur agreement is a political necessity, “bringing together like-minded partners that believe in openness and cooperation as engines of economic growth”.

    The EU has also concluded negotiations on trade agreements with Switzerland and Mexico, relaunched negotiations for a comprehensive free trade agreement with Malaysia, and is aiming for a trade deal with India this year.

    This reaction is similar to the EU’s response to the isolationist approach taken by Trump during his first administration. Most significantly, it then reached an extensive free trade agreement with Japan.

    Cecilia Malmström, the EU trade commissioner at the time, highlighted how the EU and Japan were “”sending a strong signal to the world that two of its biggest economies still believe in open trade, opposing both unilateralism and protectionism”.

    It was also the first time the EU used a trade agreement to commit to the Paris agreement on climate change – a commitment that was replicated in the EU-Mercosur agreement. This again, was a way of taking a stance against Trump’s broader rejection of multilateralism and withdrawal from the Paris agreement.

    Although not intentionally, Trump has triggered an expansion of the EU’s network of trade agreements. But while these are significant, they cannot fully protect the EU from the effects of US-imposed tariffs. After all, the EU and the US are each other’s largest trading partners, and they have the world’s most integrated economic relationship.

    For that reason, the EU has engaged in intensive diplomacy to try to avert the looming tariffs, and to lure the US to the negotiating table. It has expressed openness to lowering tariffs on industrial goods, including cars, while insisting such a move needs to form part of a broader negotiated deal, compatible with the rules of the WTO. However, these efforts have been to no avail.

    This has left the EU with no choice but to adopt Trump’s positional approach and threaten to impose retaliatory measures. In response to the economic pressure exerted by Trump in his first term, the EU has expanded its arsenal of punitive measures, including an anti-coercion instrument that allows for rapid retaliation.

    There has long been strong resistance to use such measures as it runs counter to the EU’s traditionally open negotiating approach, but the tone in Brussels has now hardened.

    A tit-for-tat tariff war would negatively affect businesses and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. During his first term Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium, and the EU responded with targeted tariffs on goods, such as American whiskey and jeans.

    This was followed by a political agreement, opening the door for trade talks. While a trade deal never materialised, it demonstrates how both the US and the EU recognised the need for a de-escalation of the dispute, and a return to the negotiating table.

    This time around, the looming tariffs are more comprehensive, and they would have more far-reaching implications. The question is how long – and how damaging – the trade war will be before the parties return to the negotiating table. After all, that’s where you reach a deal.

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

    – ref. How the EU is preparing to play hardball in the face of Donald Trump’s tariff threats – https://theconversation.com/how-the-eu-is-preparing-to-play-hardball-in-the-face-of-donald-trumps-tariff-threats-251506

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Growing Trump-Putin detente could spell trouble for the Arctic

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Duncan Depledge, Senior Lecturer in Geopolitics and Security, Loughborough University

    vitstudio/Shutterstock

    During a wide-ranging 90-minute speech to the US congress of March 4, Donald Trump revisited his determination to “get” Greenland “one way or the other”. Trump said his country needed Greenland “for national security”. While he said he and his government “strongly support your right to determine your own future” he added that “if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America”.

    Trump’s ambitions regarding Greenland and its considerable mineral wealth are just one of a raft of issues in the first six weeks of his second term that have plunged European global politics into disarray.

    As the White House ramps up the pressure on Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to allow the US access to Ukraine’s mineral wealth, the US president is also talking about “cutting a deal” with Russian president Vladimir Putin. That deal would not only mean territorial losses for Kyiv, but would prepare the ground for a potentially far-reaching economic partnership between the White House and the Kremlin.

    Currently, Trump and Putin are primarily focused on Ukrainian territory and mineral assets. But discussions have also begun on where else “deals” might be made, including in the Arctic.

    A carve up of the Arctic is an attractive proposition for the two countries given the importance both leaders attach to mineral resource wealth. As in the case of Ukraine, such an approach would reflect Trump’s predisposition for transactional geopolitics at the expense of multilateral approaches.

    In the Arctic, any deal would effectively end the principle of “circumpolar cooperation”. This has, since the end of the cold war, upheld the regional primacy of the eight Arctic states (A8) that have cooperated to solve common challenges.

    Since the Arctic Council was established in 1996, the A8 has worked on issues of environmental protection, sustainable development, human security and scientific collaboration. That harmony has been crucial in an era in which climate change is causing the rapid melting of Arctic ice.

    Notably, the Arctic Council played an instrumental role in negotiating several legally binding treaties. These include agreements on search and rescue (2011), marine oil pollution preparedness (2013) and scientific cooperation (2017). It also supported the Central Arctic Ocean fisheries agreement (CAO) signed in 2018 by the Arctic Ocean states with Iceland, the EU, China, Japan and South Korea.

    The Arctic Council – and more broadly, circumpolar cooperation – withstood the geopolitical aftershocks of Russia’s seizure of Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine between 2014 and 2015. But Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine left trust teetering on the precipice.

    Within a month, European and North American members had pressed pause on regular meetings of the Arctic Council and its scientific working groups, isolating Moscow. Some activity eventually resumed at the working group level in virtual formats, but full engagement with Russia has remained conditional on a military withdrawal from Ukraine. Meanwhile, hefty sanctions were imposed by the US and Europe, including targeting Russian Arctic energy projects.

    Russia’s response was to enhance its relationships with others. Countries such as Brazil, India, Turkey and Saudi Arabia now work with Russia in the Arctic on commercial and scientific projects. This pivot raised concerns among Nato allies about a stronger and challenging Russia-China presence across the Arctic. But the second Trump administration has changed the calculus. There’s now the threat of a new Arctic order based on the primacy – not of the A8 – but on a reset of US-Russia relations.

    Change of focus

    Trump’s signing of an executive order on February 4 to determine whether to withdraw support from international institutions may lead the White House to conclude there is no place for the Arctic Council. Its longstanding focus on climate change and environmental protection is anathema to the Trump administration, which has already withdrawn from the Paris agreement and is destroying domestic climate-related science programmes.

    Climate change is bringing increased competition for access to valuable resources.
    Peter Hermes Furian/Shutterstock

    The longstanding commitment of the A8 to circumpolar cooperation, or even a narrow A5 (Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the US) view of the primacy of the Arctic Ocean coastal states, is likely to be dismissed by the White House, which favours the embrace of great power politics. While many have warned that the Arctic Council can’t survive without Russia, losing US interest and support would surely be its death knell.

    In this landscape of “America first”, the prospect of Washington and Moscow dividing the Arctic and its resources seems increasingly realistic. In such a situation, the international treaties signed by the A8, and the CAO may also be at risk. Denmark may find itself excluded altogether from Arctic affairs if Trump gets his way over Greenland. At any rate, all the Nordic Arctic states are likely to struggle to make their voices in the region heard.

    A key question for European Nato and EU members is whether Trump would worry about Russian dominance in the European Arctic if it brought US-Russia economic cooperation to extract the region’s wealth? Might Trump even be supportive of Russian attempts to revisit the terms of the 1920 Spitsbergen Treaty, which ultimately gave Norway sovereignty over the Arctic archipelago (albeit with some limitations), if that too meant jointly unlocking Svalbard’s mineral resources let alone the wealth of the Arctic seabed?

    What room, if any, would a deal leave for Indigenous people to be heard, or for international scientific collaboration on critical challenges related to climate and biodiversity?

    If we have learned anything in the tumult of recent weeks, it is that European countries, individually and collectively, struggle to exercise strategic influence over contemporary geopolitical events. If Trump and Putin do begin negotiations over the Arctic, Europe may simply have to accept the end of the Arctic Council and circumpolar cooperation.

    Climate science, environmental protection, sustainable development and the ability of Indigenous people to decide their future would all suffer. The UK and Europe meanwhile will be left to consider what, if anything, can be done to defend Arctic interests.

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

    – ref. Growing Trump-Putin detente could spell trouble for the Arctic – https://theconversation.com/growing-trump-putin-detente-could-spell-trouble-for-the-arctic-251386

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Grassley, Durbin Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Curb Food Waste

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Iowa Chuck Grassley
    WASHINGTON – Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) introduced the bipartisan Reduce Food Loss and Waste Act to prevent and reduce food waste across the country. Each year, the U.S. produces and imports 237 million tons of food, but 31 percent of this food is never sold or eaten, while millions of Americans experience food insecurity.
    “Too many families suffer from food insecurity. The Iowa Waste Reduction Center at the University of Northern Iowa has demonstrated the economic and environmental benefits of reducing food waste, and Congress should act to build on this impactful work. Our legislation would recognize businesses for using excess food responsibly and incentivize others to improve their practices,” Grassley said.
    “While millions of Americans face food insecurity, millions of tons of food waste end up in landfills every year and contribute to methane emissions that drive the climate crisis. We must address these crises for the sake of hungry families, our economy and our environment. Today, I’m reintroducing the bipartisan Reduce Food Loss and Waste Act with Senator Grassley to move our country toward more conscious consumption and curbing food waste,” Durbin said.
    “Food waste continues to be a national concern for our communities, especially here in Iowa, where 22 percent of all waste going to our landfills is food. We look forward to working with Senators Durbin and Grassley to support the Reduce Food Loss and Waste Act through our continued initiatives at the Iowa Waste Reduction Center,” said Mark Nook, President of the University of Northern Iowa.
    Specifically, the Reduce Food Loss and Waste Act would establish a “Food Loss and Waste Reduction Certification,” and direct the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to create:
    Criteria, which businesses and organizations would have to meet to receive a Food Loss and Waste Reduction Certification;
    A verification process, to confirm that businesses and organizations have achieved the criteria; and
    A label, which certified businesses and organizations would be authorized to use on their products, buildings and websites.
    The “Food Loss and Waste Reduction Certification” would be similar to existing certifications, such as ENERGY STAR and the BioPreferred Program. The Reduce Food Loss and Waste Act would direct USDA to promote the certification to ensure that consumers are informed about which businesses and organizations have received it.
    The Reduce Food Loss and Waste Act has support from the University of Northern Iowa, National Restaurant Association and Consumer Brands Association, Natural Resources Defense Council, Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic, World Wildlife Fund, Too Good To Go, Kellanova and FMI – The Food Industry Association.
    Background:
    Food waste has significant economic, environmental and social impacts. More than $440 billion is spent annually to produce and dispose of food that is never consumed or sold. Sending uneaten food to landfills or incinerators uses up more than 20 trillion liters of water, which is equivalent to the annual water use of 50 million homes, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
    Additionally, just one-third of food waste, if saved from disposal, could feed the 47 million Americans, including 14 million children, who are suffering from food insecurity, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
    -30-

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Aberdeen filmmaker inspired by story of soprano supported by Lord Strathcona A film created by an Aberdeen academic exploring the life of a soprano whose musical rise was supported by a former University chancellor has won awards and been included in the official selection of a number of international film festivals.

    Source: University of Aberdeen

    Pauline Donalda c1906A film created by an Aberdeen academic exploring the life of a soprano whose musical rise was supported by a former University chancellor has won awards and been included in the official selection of a number of international film festivals.
    Madame Donalda by Professor Alan Marcus, Chair in Creative and Cultural Practice, examines the life of Pauline Lightstone, who performed as Madame Donalda. Filmed in Montreal, London and Aberdeen, it has generated much international interest.  
    Donalda’s stage name was a tribute to Donald Smith, who became Lord Strathcona (1820-1914) a Scottish-born Canadian businessman who became a leading philanthropist after making his fortune from investments in land, railways, and banking.  
    Born in Forres, Moray, in 1899 he was appointed Lord Rector of the University of Aberdeen and later became its Chancellor.
    As a 15-year-old, the purity of Pauline’s voice was recognised during musical rehearsals at a synagogue and she was then awarded a place at the Royal Victoria College (RVC), originally the women’s college at McGill University.
    Lord Strathcona was a champion of women’s education at McGill and was a proponent of the education of women and furthering women’s opportunities.
    He agreed to support Pauline’s ‘fully rounded musical education’ including study at Conservatoire de Paris.
    Lord Strathcona’s second benefaction to the College was made under his middle name of Donald and the women supported by ‘the Donalda Endowment’ proudly called themselves ‘the Donaldas’ – a tradition adopted by Pauline Lighthouse who appeared on stage as Pauline Donalda.
    After a successful debut in Nice, France, in 1904, her artistic career quickly took off. In 1905, she sang at London’s Covent Garden for the Queen and at The Brussels Royal Opera House.
    These performances earned her tremendous acclaim and for many years she sang the leading operatic roles at Covent Garden and the great opera houses of Europe. She also toured Britain and sang at Aberdeen’s Musical Hall.  When World War I broke out, she suspended her international career and organised benefit concerts to support the war effort.
    From 1922 she devoted herself to teaching voice and in 1942 founded the Opera Guild of Montreal, which went on to stage the first Canadian performances of many operas.
    Professor Marcus, whose own father Rudy Marcus received his degrees from McGill including an honorary doctorate, and at 101 is the oldest living Nobel laureate (Chemistry, 1992) in North America, said he was inspired by a story which pulls together many threads of his own life.
    “I was told the story of Madame Donalda aka Pauline Lightstone by a great uncle of mine some 35 years ago when I learned that she was a relative of ours, and it made a sufficient impression on me that I was hopeful one day I might be able to tell it in film form,” he added.
    “The key elements of the story involving a daughter of European immigrants to Montreal, who against the odds rose to become in her early-20s one of the great sopranos of her day, adapts well to film, because through moving image and sound one can provide a more vivid impression and sense of presence. 
    “During the years of research and drawing upon archives in London, Montreal and Ottawa, I was able to piece together through news items and her personal correspondence and much archival imagery, the various components of Donalda’s life. 
    “What was unexpected was the Aberdeen connection and the fact that her patron, from whom she took her stage name, Madame Donalda, was a keen proponent of women’s education and served both as Chancellor of McGill, where she studied, and the University of Aberdeen.  The personal connection I and my family have with Aberdeen and McGill added an immediacy to the story.”
    The film has received Best Documentary and Best Editing awards at the Experimental Dance and Music Film Festival 2024 in Toronto, the Best Classical Music film award at the Buenos Aires 11th Music Film Festival 2025, and official selection at ten other film festivals including the Los Angeles Film and Documentary Awards 2024.
    Professor Marcus said: “It is gratifying that the film has been included in various international film festivals and won awards, but what I hope is that when people view the film they not only learn of Donalda’s talents and be intrigued with her extraordinary accomplishments, but also be enthralled by the short performances in her old recordings, and more recently through the participation in the film of Bulgarian soprano, Sofia Dimitrova, who brings the musical pieces to life with great passion.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: No More Knives tour visits city’s secondary schools

    Source: City of Coventry

    Four secondary schools in Coventry have been taking part in a national No More Knives tour provided by The Message Trust.

    The No More Knives tour is an award-winning initiative aimed at tackling knife crime among young people and is making a powerful impact in schools across the UK. 

    The project has been touring some of the city’s secondary schools this week. 

    Sessions are run which allow students to listen to first-hand stories from those who have been involved in knife crime. It also combines storytelling with music and education for an impactful session that highlights the devastating impact of knife crime. Each session provides students with the knowledge and confidence they need to say “no” to knives and make positive choices.

    The schools taking in the tour include, Blue Coat Church of England, West Coventry Academy, Coundon Court and Sidney Stringer. 

    Partners involved include the Council, Coventry Police, Hope Coventry – representing local churches and The Message Trust, and the West Midlands Violence Reduction Partnership.

    The work forms part of Coventry’s campaign to be a child friendly city – called Child Friendly Cov – and to enable children and young people to have their voice heard in matters that affect them. 

    Cllr Pat Seaman Cabinet Member for Children and Young People at the Council, said:

    “We are really ambitious for Coventry to be the best city in the UK for children to grow up in. Child Friendly Cov aims to create a child and young person friendly city, ensuring that Coventry is a place where children and young people are valued, supported, and enjoy themselves.

    “The No More Knives tour tackles such an important issue for young people, and it is a chance for them to explore the issues and help put into practise the positive messages highlighted in the tour.”

    Paul Drover, Police Commander, Coventry Local Policing Area, added: 

    “Knife crime has hit the headlines in recent years and all the communities in Coventry must work together to protect our children and young people from becoming involved, the police cannot tackle this problem alone.”

    The Message Trust is a Christian charity with over 30 years’ experience of school’s work, who are passionate about young people knowing their true worth and identity.

    Sam Ward, CEO of the Message Trust, said: “Knife crime and its devasting impact is sadly never far from the headlines today, but we know there is a better way. Though the No More Knives tour we want to tell young people how knives aren’t the answer, equip them with the skills they need to say ‘no’ and let them know there is hope.” 

    Steve Elton, HOPE Coventry, added: “It has been wonderful to partner with the local police, council, churches and schools in being able to bring the Message Trust and their No More Knives tour into the city for the second time!

    “The 2024 tour was a great success, with students and teachers in the three schools commending the empowering message and engaging delivery around the emotive, challenging and important subject of knife crime. We are expectant that this years tour will have the same notable impact as it plays its part alongside the excellent work already taking place in this area, as we stand together, with young people across Coventry to say ‘No More Knives’ in our city!” 

    Funding was provided for the tour by the Council, Hope Coventry and The Message Trust.

    Feedback from schools so far:

    Lou Peet, Blue Coat School Chaplain, said:

    “Seeing our young people so engaged and interactive today has been a joy… To see our students genuinely contemplative, reflecting, and willing to pledge to never carry a knife is a precious and potentially life-saving thing.”

    “I feel a lot more safer knowing that a lot more kids would agree to not carrying a knife.” – Olivia, Year 7 student.

    “I really enjoyed it. The music was exciting and gave a positive spin on a difficult topic.”- Holly, Year 7 Student.

    “What a wonderful, inspiring, interactive experience for our students. The buzz around school was heart-warming! The messages were loud and clear and so well received by all students and staff. Thank you so much for this fantastic opportunity.” – Mrs Claire Franklin, Safeguarding Lead

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Security: United States Attorney Durham Launches the Eastern District of New York’s Transnational Criminal Organizations Strike Force

    Source: United States Department of Justice (Human Trafficking)

    Strike Force Focuses on Dismantling Cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations

    U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York John J. Durham announced today the creation and launch of the Eastern District of New York’s Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) Strike Force. Capitalizing on the Office’s preeminence in this area, the Strike Force will focus on investigating, prosecuting and dismantling cartels and TCOs, and their senior leadership by bringing charges that include terrorism, racketeering and operating a continuing criminal enterprise.

    “I am establishing this Strike Force with immense pride in what this Office has already accomplished, as well as the knowledge that there is much more work to be done in the fight against TCOs,” stated United States Attorney Durham.  “Because of my Office’s significant experience and expertise in this area, we have a responsibility to our community and our country to dismantle these ruthless organizations from the top down in order to stop the violence, flow of drugs, and dangers they unleash in our District and across the nation.”

    For more than two decades, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York has been a nationwide leader in prosecuting many of the most significant TCOs in the country and the world, including innovative indictments of the highest-ranking international leaders of the La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Sinaloa Cartel, Guadalajara Cartel, Juarez Cartel, H-2 Drug Cartel, Clan de Golfo and others.  In addition, this Office has investigated and prosecuted numerous other TCOs that have a significant operating presence in our district, including the Trinitarios, 18th Street and, more recently, Tren de Aragua (TdA). Notably, United States Attorney Durham has been at the forefront of these prosecutions, leading and serving on the Attorney General’s Transnational Organized Crime Task Force Subcommittee for MS-13 and directing Joint Task Force Vulcan, while other AUSAs in the Office have served on the subcommittees for Sinaloa, Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) Cartel, Hezbollah and Clan de Golfo.

    Consistent with the Attorney General’s memorandum titled “TOTAL ELIMINATION OF CARTELS AND TRANSNATIONAL CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS” issued on February 5, 2025, which provided further guidance regarding President Trump’s January 20, 2025 Executive Order regarding TCOs such as TdA and MS-13, the Strike Force’s mission is as follows:

    • Investigating, prosecuting and dismantling cartels and TCOs, with a particular focus on their senior leadership and management, including without limitation: Mexican drug cartels such as the Sinaloa, H-2, Juarez, CJNG and Clan de Golfo cartels, and TCOs that have a significant operating presence in the District, such as MS-13, the Trinitarios, the 18th Street gang and TdA.   

    • Disrupting the criminal activities of TCOs, particularly those operating in the United States and/or that impact United States victims at home or abroad, including TCOs engaged in criminal activity involving terrorism; racketeering; drug trafficking, particularly with respect to fentanyl and fentanyl precursors; violent crime; human trafficking and smuggling; corruption of foreign officials; money laundering; immigration crimes; and fraud and cybercrime schemes.

    • Identifying the sources and methods of illicit funds related to TCO financing and profits, and seizing and forfeiting bank accounts, digital assets, real property and other assets that are criminally derived, commingled with criminal proceeds, or otherwise involved in money laundering by or in support of TCOs.

    • Coordinating the investigative efforts of the Office’s federal law enforcement partners in the Eastern District and beyond, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, United States Postal Inspection Service, Internal Revenue Service, as well as High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program (HIDTA), state and local police departments and district attorneys’ offices.

    • Strengthening the Office’s partnerships and coordination with other Department of Justice components, including the National Security Division, Criminal Division, Joint Task Force Vulcan, Joint Task Force 10-7, Joint Task Force Alpha, OCDETF, MLARS, NDDS, OIA and other United States Attorney’s Offices. 

    The Chief of the International Narcotics and Money Laundering Section Francisco J. Navarro has been selected to serve as Director of the EDNY TCO Strike Force, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Megan E. Farrell and Gabriel Park have been selected as Deputy Directors.  In addition, the Strike Force will have at least one representative from each section of the Office’s Criminal Division to capitalize on existing experience, coordinate strategic focus and maximize resources to make an even more significant impact combatting TCOs. The Strike Force will also include OCDETF-designated AUSAs, Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN) coordinators, as well as a designated representative from the Civil Division to ensure the Strike Force leverages civil remedies as appropriate.  The Strike Force will also coordinate closely with the Office’s Immigration Enforcement Working Group.

    Francisco J. Navarro

    AUSA Navarro joined the Department in 2013 and the Office in 2018 after serving as an AUSA in the District of New Jersey.  He has been in charge of INML since April 2023.  He received his B.A. from Boston University and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.

    AUSA Navarro has prosecuted several significant narcotics, national security and material support cases.  He has also prosecuted significant white collar cases involving sanctions evasion, money laundering and the Bank Secrecy Act.  For example,  AUSA Navarro is part of the team prosecuting Rafael Caro Quintero for leading a continuing criminal enterprise, including his role in the kidnapping, torture and murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.  He is also leading the team prosecuting Ismael Zambada Garcia (aka “El Mayo”) for his founding and two-decade leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel—a continuing criminal enterprise—and one of the most violent and powerful drug cartels in the world.  In United States v. Usuga David, et al., he led the team that obtained a 45-year prison sentence against Dairo Usuga David (aka “Otoniel”) who was the supreme leader of the Clan del Golfo and was considered the most dangerous narco-terrorist in Colombia since Pablo Escobar.  AUSA Navarro also led the team that obtained the first indictments in the nation against Chinese chemical manufacturing companies and employees for importing fentanyl precursors into the United States and working with Mexican cartels to manufacture and distribute fentanyl in the United States.  In addition, AUSA Navarro is also leading the prosecution of Mohammad Bazzi, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and financier for Hizballah, a foreign terrorist organization on sanctions evasion and money laundering charges.  AUSA Navarro has been involved in multiple prosecutions of individuals and institutions for failing to follow United States laws regarding maintaining effective anti-money laundering programs, the prohibition on the provision of material support to designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations, or other financial regulations.

    Megan E. Farrell

    AUSA Farrell joined the Office in 2018, and currently serves in the Office’s Long Island Criminal Section.  She is one of the Office’s Human Trafficking Coordinators and previously served as an Acting Deputy Chief in the Office’s General Crimes Section.  She received her B.A. from Boston College and her J.D. from St. John’s University.

    AUSA Farrell has prosecuted significant organized crime, gang and sex trafficking cases during her time in the Office.  In United States v. Canales-Rivera et al. and United States v. Arevalo-Chavez et al., she is part of the team prosecuting the highest-ranking members of MS-13’s international command and control structure, including the body known as the Ranfla Nacional, with charges that include conspiracy to provide and conceal material support to terrorists, conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, conspiracy to finance terrorism and narco-terrorism conspiracy.  In United States v. Alexi Saenz et al., AUSA Farrell was part of a team that secured the convictions of two MS-13 defendants to racketeering and other charges in connection with eight murders.  In United States v. Blanco et al., she was a member of the team that secured the convictions of three high-ranking MS-13 gang members to racketeering charges in connection with nine murders.  In United States v. Escobar, AUSA Farrell was part of the team that secured a sentence of 50 years after the defendant was convicted on April 8, 2022, following a four-week trial, of racketeering, including predicate acts of murder, conspiracy to murder rival gang members, and obstruction of justice and murder in aid-of racketeering, in relation to the deaths of four young men who were hacked to death with machetes and other sharp objects by  more than a dozen MS-13 members and associates after Escobar lured them to a local park in 2017.  In United States v. Lampley-Reid, AUSA Farrell was part of the team leading to a Bloods gang member being sentenced to 23 years in prison for sex trafficking of minors.  Additionally, AUSA Farrell is part of the team charging former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch and two other individuals with sex trafficking and interstate prostitution.

    Gabriel Park

    AUSA Park joined the Office in 2022 after serving in the United States Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps.  He received his B.A. from Wake Forest University and his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School and clerked for the Honorable Dora L. Irizarry.  He currently serves in the Office’s Organized Crime and Gangs Section.

    AUSA Park has prosecuted significant violent organized crime and gang cases.  In United States v. Yu, he was part of the prosecution team that convicted two defendants who were subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment in a murder-for-hire scheme of a perceived business rival, and in the related case United States v. Abreu, AUSA Park was on the prosecution team that convicted a third defendant for his role in the murder-for-hire scheme.  In United States v. Thompson, AUSA Park was on the prosecution team that convicted a Long Island man who was later sentenced to 30 years in prison for drug trafficking, distribution of fentanyl that resulted in a death and illegal possession of firearms.    

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Children’s perception of normal body shape is affected by who they see around them – new research

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Lynda Boothroyd, Professor in Psychology, Durham University

    Inside Creative House/Shutterstock

    What we think of as “normal” body shape is affected by what we’re accustomed to – the range of body shapes we see. My new research with colleagues shows that this is true for young children as well as adults.

    Research with adults and with children as young as five has already found that our understanding of what a face looks like is always being updated based on the faces we see around us, from childhood through adulthood.

    This process of the brain flexibly changing in response to new repeated inputs is known as “adaptation”. When the brain adapts to the same input repeatedly, we can see long term changes in perceptions. For instance, viewing a series of images with larger (as opposed to contracted) facial features leads to an increased preference for large features afterwards.

    But so far, research like this on how we view bodies has almost entirely been run with adults.

    Among adults, we can see the same effects with body weight that we see with face shape in adults and children. If we are shown a lot of heavy bodies, the bodies we rate as attractive get heavier, the bodies we rate as “normal” get heavier, and the point at which we perceive a body being heavy or not shifts lower. And the opposite happens when we view a lot of thin bodies.

    Altered perceptions

    Our study tested whether this also holds true for children. Children aged seven to 15 years of age and adult undergraduate students completed the same experimental study. They rated a series of bodies for how heavy they were, then viewed either 20 very thin figures or 20 very heavy figures, and then rated the same bodies for heaviness as they did at the start.

    We found that children, adolescents and adults all rated the same bodies as significantly lighter after viewing the heavy bodies than they did beforehand. This suggests our participants’ mental picture of a “normal” body got heavier, and so every body was perceived as “lighter” than it had been in comparison.

    In contrast, those who viewed lighter bodies did not show this shift. They continued to rate the bodies as just as heavy or light as they had beforehand.

    It’s difficult to say for sure why this is, although it is likely in part due to the stimuli used. In my own wider research with adults using the same images, I’ve found that larger images tend to produce stronger effects than thin images, but experiments in other labs with adults using different stimuli have shown shifts in perception as a result of viewing both heavier and thinner bodies.

    When we compared just the youngest children with the adult participants, we found that the effect of viewing heavy versus light bodies was equally strong in the seven-year-olds as it was in adult students.

    These results tell us that the brain’s “model” of a body becomes flexible in the same was as in adults by seven years of age.

    Previous research shows that playing with ultra-thin dolls changes young girls’ perceptions of the body they want to have, making them want it to be thinner.

    Our new study shows that the effect of dolls on girls’ body ideals isn’t just driven by dolls being aspirational or pretty. Just visual exposure to bodies can change body perceptions. And that means that changing that visual experience, for instance by giving girls a broad range of body sizes and toys, is an important part of maintaining healthy body perceptions.

    These results also mean that the large body of research on the effects of visual media on adults’ body perceptions is also likely apply to children as young as seven. For instance, gaining access to television is associated with preferences for thinner bodies in rural communities, and viewing images of muscular male models increases preferences for muscle in male laboratory participants.

    Therefore, all of the warnings and recommendations that exist in relation to reducing the biases in the bodies we see in adult’s visual media also apply to children.

    Young children in western countries have been shown to associate being heavier with being less pretty or less desirable as a friend. We therefore need to think about how body sizes are represented in all aspects of children’s media and ensure that children do not have a bias towards one size or another if we don’t want them to develop the strong thin ideals that we often see in adulthood.

    Lynda Boothroyd 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. Children’s perception of normal body shape is affected by who they see around them – new research – https://theconversation.com/childrens-perception-of-normal-body-shape-is-affected-by-who-they-see-around-them-new-research-249752

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How to negotiate with Trump: forget principles and learn to speak the language of business

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Andrea Caputo, Professor of Strategy & Negotiation, University of Lincoln

    Joshua Sukoff/Shutterstock

    In any negotiation, understanding your counterpart’s style is paramount. The Ukraine conflict, and especially the heated discussion between presidents Trump and Zelensky in the Oval Office recently, has revealed a critical disconnect between the two administrations.

    Volodymyr Zelensky later called the fiery showdown with President Trump and vice-president J.D. Vance “regrettable” and wrote to Trump to say he was ready to negotiate. But the Ukrainian president and his European allies have approached talks from a principles-based position. In terms of negotiating style, this means they tend to emphasise multilateral mechanisms, such as collegial decision-making, long-term relationship-building and cultural sensitivity.

    Trump is a businessman and operates from a fundamentally different negotiation paradigm. Unfortunately, this misalignment has significant implications for Ukraine’s strategic position and for European security.

    Research my colleagues and I conducted, comparing US and Italian negotiation styles, has shown that US negotiators typically use a more competitive, transactional approach. They might appear unilateral or domineering but are also adept at connecting different parts of a deal and trading concessions across issues to achieve their goals.

    Trump, however, combines this with highly competitive tactics and emotional rhetoric. Unlike typical US negotiators who are thought to avoid emotional expression, as shown in our study, Trump uses anger and confrontation to dominate discussions and control narratives.

    He frames negotiations in zero-sum terms, where every deal must have a clear winner and loser. This reinforces his public image as a strong leader.

    And most importantly, Trump appears to negotiate selectively. He enters discussions only when he believes he holds the stronger position.

    Our study shows that Americans prioritise bottom-line outcomes and use competitive tactics when they perceive themselves to be in positions of power.

    Trump exemplifies this approach but adds his own distinctive elements – emotional pressure, public posturing and an unwavering commitment to his positions until a more favourable alternative emerges.

    Zelensky’s miscalculation

    President Zelensky’s primary negotiation error has been attempting to engage in a principles-based negotiation with a counterpart who favours transactional deal-making. When Zelensky appeals to democratic principles, territorial integrity and international law, he’s speaking a negotiation language that Trump doesn’t understand.

    Classic negotiation research suggests Zelensky should have structured negotiations around US economic interests rather than western unity or moral imperatives.

    Trump has made clear that he will protect Ukraine and Europe only insofar as it serves these economic interests. Zelensky is negotiating from a dependant position (Ukraine needs aid to survive). As such, the key is making the deal appealing to the stronger party while protecting his own interests.

    In our study, we also found that the Italian negotiators often emphasise emotional engagement, treating counterparts as collaborators rather than adversaries. They tend to focus on mutual interests and their approach balances technical considerations with human relationships.

    It is underpinned by principles such as liberal values and adherence to international norms. This chimes with other findings on the evolution of negotiation styles within the EU.

    And this strategy thrives in such multilateral, multicultural contexts, where shared values and consensus-building are prioritised.

    But this approach can be ineffective against Trump’s confrontational, power-based tactics. Emotional engagement may be misinterpreted as a weakness, and consensus-driven approaches fail when the counterpart insists on domination.

    The liberal world order appears unprepared to negotiate at Trump’s level. It still expects rational, interest-based discussions rather than emotionally charged confrontations.

    The rest of the world will have to adapt to Trump’s approach.

    The EU’s experience negotiating Brexit provides a relevant template for addressing the Ukraine conflict. The appointment of Michel Barnier as chief negotiator, backed by a bloc of 27 nations, proved effective despite initial scepticism.

    A similar approach could work for Ukraine. Appointing an authoritative chief negotiator with a clear mandate could be successful. Barnier, economist and former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi or ex-German chancellor Angela Merkel are obvious candidates. This structure might neutralise Trump’s preference for one-on-one, power-based deals and force negotiations on terms more aligned with European interests.

    But to engage Trump, European and Ukrainian leaders need to reframe their approach.

    First, proposals should be presented in terms of economic benefits. Trump prioritises trade, jobs and business opportunities over security or moral arguments. The negotiation landscape should emphasise the actual distribution of aid to Ukraine, highlighting that European nations collectively have provided substantial financial and humanitarian support.

    Second, objective data and power-based arguments are better than moral appeals. Economic impact assessments and strategic calculations will resonate more effectively than principles-based reasoning.

    Third, competitive tactics should be matched with controlled confrontation. Emotional engagement must be strategic, reinforcing firm but pragmatic positioning rather than appearing defensive.

    Finally, win-win scenarios will allow Trump to claim victory. Trump negotiates to win, and deals must enable him to declare personal success in front of his own supporters.

    The path forward requires strategic adaptation, not ideological entrenchment. Zelensky and European leaders must recognise that negotiating with Trump demands an understanding of his approach to international relations, perhaps favouring pragmatism over idealism.

    A crucial insight from previous research on Trump’s negotiation behaviour is this: he rarely backtracks explicitly but frequently pivots to new objectives when they become more appealing. This should inspire European leaders to develop attractive alternatives that serve both Trump’s interests and Europe’s security needs.

    Deal-making may not be the most desirable approach to geopolitical negotiations, but Trump’s return to power makes it the current reality. After decades of business negotiators learning from politicians, we now face a reversal. Political negotiators must learn from business tactics.

    In the high-stakes arena of international security, understanding your counterpart’s negotiation style isn’t just good practice – it may be essential for survival. The lessons from Trump’s first term suggest that principled stands alone won’t secure Ukrainian or European interests. Pragmatic deal-making (underpinned with principles) offers a more promising path forward.

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

    – ref. How to negotiate with Trump: forget principles and learn to speak the language of business – https://theconversation.com/how-to-negotiate-with-trump-forget-principles-and-learn-to-speak-the-language-of-business-251399

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why Trump’s plan to cut national debt by selling ‘gold card’ visas for US$5 million each won’t work

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Amalendu Misra, Professor of International Politics, Lancaster University

    The US president, Donald Trump, is set to introduce a “gold card” visa that would allow wealthy foreigners to buy permanent US residency – and a path to citizenship – for US$5 million (£3.9 million).

    Speaking at the Oval Office on February 25, Trump said: “I think it’s going to be very treasured. I think it’s going to do very well. And we’re going to start selling, hopefully, in about two weeks.”

    US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick has touted the plan as a way to raise revenue to bring down US national debt, which currently stands at over US$36 trillion. As Trump put it when answering questions from reporters at the White House: “We’ll be able to sell maybe a million of these cards, maybe more than that. And if you add up the numbers, they’re pretty good. As an example, a million cards would be worth US$5 trillion.”

    Trump has also suggested that the gold-card holders can help stimulate the US economy. “They’ll be wealthy, and they’ll be successful, and they’ll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes,” he said. When asked whether Russian oligarchs would qualify for the visa, Trump responded: “Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people. It’s possible.”

    The idea that wealthy foreigners can address a nation’s faltering economy is not new. Trump’s gold visas will themselves replace the current EB-5 immigrant investor visa, which offers permanent US residency in return for job-creating investments of at least US$1 million.

    In the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, various European nations also floated similar golden visa schemes as a means of reversing their economic downturns. The visas offered by Spain, Greece, Hungary and Portugal, for example, all cost significantly less than Trump’s proposed scheme.

    A Spanish gold visa, which will no longer be available from April 2025, is granted in return for €500,000 (£417,000) in real estate investment. The required investment in Greece and Hungary is €250,000. And people looking to obtain a gold visa in Portugal have two options: a €250,000 donation to the restoration of national heritage, or a €500,000 property investment.

    There is little data to support the argument that such policies boost the national coffers. Some experts have suggested that golden visa schemes typically bring in no more than 0.3% of GDP in revenue. So, it’s no surprise that there is plenty of scepticism around whether Trump’s gold card scheme can reduce US national debt.

    Critics of the plan argue that the scheme will not add trillions of US dollars to the economy, as Trump has claimed. This is because demand for any such programme is likely to be limited to thousands of people.

    In a recent poll conducted by Forbes, 18 billionaires were asked if they would like to take advantage of an American gold card visa. Most of them (13) said they would not be interested. Many of the ultra-rich foreigners interviewed simply did not think they needed American citizenship and don’t want it.

    “If you’re a billionaire, you don’t need it,” said one Canadian billionaire. “I don’t have to come to the United States to invest in the United States.”

    Marginal benefits

    The global rich are unlikely to be queuing up for Trump’s gold cards. At about US$5 million per application, it is “the most expensive” golden visa option in the world. Any potential buyer will carry out cost-benefit analysis prior to committing to such a deal.

    Two reasons a wealthy person might invest in a second or third passport are to ensure greater mobility and protect their wealth.

    US tax laws have traditionally reduced the attractiveness of American residency or citizenship for the global rich. American citizens and residents are required to pay income tax on their US earnings as well as any income they earn overseas.

    Trump has said that gold-card holders would not be subject to taxes on their overseas income. This tax loophole could open the door to more wealthy foreigners looking to protect their wealth. However, many details about the scheme remain unclear.

    Notwithstanding this, golden visas in many other nations provide better opportunities than those offered by a Trump gold card. In terms of mobility, the US passport ranks eighth on an index of 198 different passports. American passport holders can travel to 171 countries without needing a visa.

    Spain ranks second, with a Spanish passport allowing access to 177 countries without a visa. And Portugal, Greece and a host of other European nations follow closely behind, with their passports allowing visa-free travel to 176 countries.

    The most powerful passport in the world is offered by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), allowing access to 179 countries visa-free. The UAE government introduced a golden visa in 2019, offering long-term residence in exchange for roughly US$550,000 of investment.

    The US passport is ranked eight in the world by the 2025 Passport Index.
    KieferPix / Shutterstock

    An American passport also has its own inherent limitations and hazards. A US-born colleague of mine who acquired Irish citizenship through lineage has never used his American passport while out of the country.

    He believed that in a crisis situation, such as being taken hostage, a US citizen was far more vulnerable and exposed to danger than a non-American counterpart. In his opinion, people were far more prejudiced and hostile towards a US citizen than those belonging to other nations.

    The return on investment of a Trump gold card remains unpredictable. The asking price is extremely high and the benefits it promises buyers are – at best – marginal. The offer comes with enough holes to sink a ship.

    Amalendu Misra is a recipient of British Academy and Nuffield Foundation fellowships.

    – ref. Why Trump’s plan to cut national debt by selling ‘gold card’ visas for US$5 million each won’t work – https://theconversation.com/why-trumps-plan-to-cut-national-debt-by-selling-gold-card-visas-for-us-5-million-each-wont-work-251183

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Two great war leaders united by American isolationism: Charles de Gaulle and Volodymyr Zelensky

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Tim Luckhurst, Principal of South College, Durham University

    Difficult relationship: Franklin D. Roosevelt, with Charles de Gaulle, and Winston Churchill at a conference in Casablanca January 1943. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

    Eighty-five years before Volodymyr Zelensky visited Downing Street in search of support for Ukrainian democracy, a Frenchman arrived in London with a similar request.

    Charles de Gaulle was not the French prime minister. That job belonged to Paul Reynaud. De Gaulle had been undersecretary of state for defence in Reynaud’s government for less than two weeks.

    He started June 1940 as commander of a tank squadron fighting to stem the German advance. But his decision later that month to leave France rather than surrender – and to proclaim himself the leader of all Frenchmen who wished to fight on – was the foundation of his political career.

    French citizens became aware of de Gaulle as a wartime political leader through his broadcasts on the BBC. The most famous of these, the “Appeal of 18th June”, was actually heard by very few in France – but for those that did listen, it contained the core of de Gaulle’s message of defiance.

    He arrived at the BBC at 6pm to record the four-minute speech which was transmitted by the BBC at 10pm. De Gaulle said: “Nothing is lost for France.” He insisted that: “She has a vast Empire behind her. She can align with the British Empire that holds the sea and can continue the fight. She can, like England, use without limit the immense industry of the United States.”

    Transmission of this speech is widely regarded as the moment when French resistance was born. The BBC describes it as “one of the most remarkable pieces in the history of radio broadcasting”.

    Had the US president, Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), responded positively to Churchill and Reynaud’s impassioned pleas in June 1940, to actively support France and Britain, de Gaulle might have remained a dynamic and courageous military officer. But Roosevelt refused, Reynaud resigned, and Marshall Henri Philippe Pétain led France into collaboration.

    FDR was a Democrat and author of the new deal, the economic policy that helped America recover from the Great Depression. He had little in common with Donald Trump, but they shared one instinct: a reluctance to spend American blood and treasure in foreign wars.

    When Churchill honoured his promise to Reynaud and told the 32nd US president now “is the moment for you to strengthen Reynaud the utmost you can, and try to tip the balance in favour of the best and longest possible French resistance”. Roosevelt replied that he was not committed to military participation. He reminded Churchill that only Congress could declare war.

    When Zelensky arrived at the White House on February 28, he hoped to sign a minerals deal and secure continued American support for his country’s battle for freedom and independence. Instead he found himself accused by Trump of risking a third world war and showing too little gratitude to the US.

    In an extraordinary failure of diplomatic norms, Trump and his viscerally isolationist vice-president, J.D. Vance, berated and humiliated Zelensky before a worldwide television audience.

    Roosevelt’s contempt for de Gaulle was less bluntly expressed, but it was real. The US recognised Pétain’s regime and granted Vichy France, the collaborationist regime which governed southern France during the German occupation of northern France, full diplomatic recognition.

    Roosevelt agreed when his ambassador to Vichy, Admiral William D. Leahy, described de Gaulle as “an apprentice dictator”. There is a chilling echo in Trump’s description of Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator” who refuses to have elections and has done “a terrible job”.

    US and France: ‘difficult’ relationship

    At the end of June 1940, Roosevelt decided that France was beaten – and that Britain was likely to follow its ally and neighbour into defeat and collapse. He dismissed de Gaulle as an irritation with no democratic credentials.

    His opinion did not change when the US entered the war in December 1941. Indeed, Roosevelt believed France could not have a recognised leader until it had been liberated by American arms and helped to organise fully democratic elections.

    When he needed someone to represent French interests, Roosevelt preferred to choose senior French military officers who would obey US orders. His choices included Admiral François Darlan who had served Marshall Pétain as Vichy’s minister of foreign affairs and minister of national defence. Darlan, who was loathed by the Free French and scorned by Churchill, nevertheless attracted favourable coverage in the US.

    De Gaulle’s June 22 broadcast to the free French people.

    Well aware of Roosevelt’s hostility, de Gaulle never gave up. The BBC microphone allowed him to reach a growing audience in Vichy and German occupied France. He ended his initial June 18 talk by announcing that he would broadcast again.

    The BBC had not actually made any commitment to a second broadcast – but the ruse worked, and de Gaulle made a second appeal to French public on June 22. This broadcast was heard more widely (in fact very few people heard the June 18 speech and no recording survives). Soon the Free French were given five minutes per day on BBC radio.

    De Gaulle was a soldier who used radio to inspire hope and organise resistance. When he returned to France in 1944, many of his countrymen recognised his voice before they became familiar with his appearance.

    Zelensky began his career as a comedian and appeared as a fictional president of Ukraine in a TV series called Servant of the People. He was widely recognised before he became a war leader.

    Both have provoked the enmity of US presidents and reminded different generations that America first isolationism is a deep-seated and enduring instinct that can cross political divides.

    Tim Luckhurst has received funding from News UK and Ireland Ltd. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of the Society of Editors and the Free Speech Union.

    – ref. Two great war leaders united by American isolationism: Charles de Gaulle and Volodymyr Zelensky – https://theconversation.com/two-great-war-leaders-united-by-american-isolationism-charles-de-gaulle-and-volodymyr-zelensky-251328

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The shortcut to less warming? It runs through a farm field

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jack Marley, Environment + Energy Editor, UK edition

    Barillo_Images/Shutterstock

    “The biggest challenge to limiting climate change to 2°C, the upper target of the 2015 Paris agreement, is this: methane emissions are rising very fast,” says Euan Nisbet, a professor of earth sciences at Royal Holloway University.

    If each CO₂ molecule is like a candle that patiently warms the atmosphere, methane is like an exploding bomb: responsible for much more heat, but over a much shorter timescale. Satellites are identifying the methane that’s leaking from oil wells and gas pipelines, and most countries have at least promised to reduce these emissions by a third by 2030.

    But if humanity is to throw the brakes on runaway climate change, something has to be done about the biggest human source of methane there is: agriculture.

    This roundup of The Conversation’s climate coverage comes from our award-winning weekly climate action newsletter. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 40,000+ readers who’ve subscribed.

    Taming methane

    Earth’s atmosphere is warmer and wetter than it would otherwise be, thanks to fossil fuel burning. This is inducing wetlands, once a reliable carbon store, to emit more methane to the atmosphere, and so speed up climate change, Nisbet says.



    Read more:
    Methane emissions are turbocharging climate change – these quick fixes could slow it down

    This makes it even more urgent to tamp down the methane sources under our immediate control. Nisbet has calculated that roughly 210 million to 250 million tonnes of methane come from agriculture and its products. Most of this is in the breath of livestock animals and their manure, and food rotting in landfills.

    Here’s the good news.

    “Cutting agricultural methane emissions involves a wide range of relatively cheap measures that need good design and management, but could cut food-related emissions substantially over the next decade,” Nisbet says.

    Adding a layer of soil to a landfill provides habitat for methane-munching bacteria. Covering manure storage tanks, banning the burning of crop waste and only flooding rice paddies when necessary could pinch other methane sources.

    Reducing food waste would also cut methane emissions.
    AleksB59/Shutterstock

    These aren’t expensive or difficult changes, Nisbet says. It might cost more to vaccinate cattle or breed them to produce more female calves, however. The point with both measures is to have smaller herds for the same quantity of beef and milk.

    Lower consumer demand would also shrink these methane mobs (here’s where you come in, dear reader). If more of our essential nutrients like protein came from beans instead of meat, our health would benefit along with the climate. While nutritionists and environmental scientists urge us to eat more fruit and vegetables, the global food system is stacked against this outcome.



    Read more:
    Meat and dairy gobble up farming subsidies worldwide, which is bad for your health and the planet

    Globally, every fifth dollar of public farming subsidy goes towards rearing meat. In the intensively farmed UK where I live, 85% of farmland is devoted to livestock and the crops that feed them. Yet these captive animals are the source of less than one third of our calories.

    “The longer the livestock-intensive system prevails, the greater the environmental, economic and social costs,” says Benjamin Selwyn, a professor of international development at the University of Sussex.

    The fruits of our labour

    Selwyn favours a “green new deal” that would make farming “complement rather than undermine the environment”.



    Read more:
    The UK’s food system is broken. A green new deal for agriculture could be revolutionary

    What does that look like? Fewer cows, more woodland and more crops grown for human consumption, Selwyn says. This is essentially what government advisers recently proposed to keep the UK on track for net zero emissions.



    Read more:
    The UK must make big changes to its diets, farming and land use to hit net zero – official climate advisers

    To nudge the food system in this direction, researchers like Yi Li, a senior lecturer in marketing at Macquarie University, are testing the effect of labels on meal choices.

    In Australia, where Li is based, meat accounts for half of all greenhouse gas emissions from products consumed at home. Producing 1kg of beef may emit 60kg of greenhouse gas, while the same quantity of peas yields just 1kg of emissions. But Li found consumers weren’t always savvy to the gulf in emissions between the two.

    “Our label creates a mental link between a food source and its carbon impact,” she says.

    “When a consumer sees high carbon scores and red traffic lights appearing more frequently on meat and other animal products, they begin to make the connection between those products and higher emissions.”



    Read more:
    Want a side of CO₂ with that? Better food labels help us choose more climate-friendly foods

    While better informed consumers are important, the food system needs deeper reform.

    “Many conceptions of the protein transition from animal sources to more plant products ignore the necessity of improving farmers’ and agricultural workers’ incomes. But this will be crucial,” Selwyn says.

    Just as oil and gas workers will need financial support and training opportunities to ply their skills in a low-carbon energy sector, farm workers will need security and guidance to adapt to new forms of food production says Alex Heffron.



    Read more:
    The UK farmer protests you probably haven’t heard about

    Heffron, a PhD candidate at Lancaster University, researchers agricultural transitions and is a farm worker himself. He says that people picking crops, milking cows and driving farm machinery are among the most exploited and precariously employed of the UK’s workforce.

    Seasonal farm workers often live where they work, raising the risk of abuse.
    Pavel Tarin Alcala/Shutterstock

    In fact, if the country were to begin phasing out livestock and ramping up fruit and vegetable production tomorrow, the burden would fall heavily on migrant labourers who the UK attracts with a seasonal worker scheme. This scheme has been criticised for overlooking allegations of forced labour.

    “There will be no green transition unless these workers have a stake in it,” Heffron says.

    What kind of stake might move farmers away from steak? Selwyn has some suggestions, which include spreading land ownership more evenly with community land trusts and allowing public bodies to acquire vacant, derelict or damaged land for allotments and nature habitat.

    “Farms can be paid directly by government for sustainable production to combat farmer poverty,” he adds. “And the real living wage of £12.60 an hour should be compulsory for agricultural workers.”

    – ref. The shortcut to less warming? It runs through a farm field – https://theconversation.com/the-shortcut-to-less-warming-it-runs-through-a-farm-field-251419

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Vladimir Stroyev took part in an expert discussion on the topic of Russia’s technological sovereignty

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

    Source: State University of Management – Official website of the State –

    On March 5, 2025, within the framework of the Exhibition and Forum of Educational Technologies, Infrastructure and Intellectual Solutions MMCO.EXPO-2025, an expert discussion “Rectors’ Club” was held, in which the rector of the State University of Management Vladimir Stroev took part.

    The conversation focused on the transformation of the university in the context of adjustments to the higher education system in Russia: the topic of technological sovereignty, the Priority 2030 and Advanced Engineering School projects, and the international track of cooperation. The issue of forming a personnel reserve for rectors in the context of the realities of interdepartmental tasks that university leaders solve was also raised.

    Together with Vladimir Stroev, the discussion was attended by the rector of the Nizhny Novgorod State University named after N. I. Lobachevsky Oleg Trofimov, the rector of the National Research University MPEI Nikolay Rogalev, the rector of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Stanislav Prokofiev, the rector of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI Vladimir Shevchenko and other heads of universities.

    The speakers said that a large flow of talented young people is flocking to the capital and the largest cities, leaving their native regions. This problem can be solved by developing high-quality distance education. It was also noted that currently there is no need for specialists with a wide profile; it is necessary to concentrate on training professionals in the industries.

    In his speech, the rector of the State University of Management Vladimir Stroyev noted the importance of education for industry leaders, which instills in them confidence in the successful results of their work, which in turn protects them from stagnation in their positions. Vladimir Vitalyevich also drew the attention of his colleagues to the need to promote domestic technologies on the world market, export and import of education and intensive training of personnel.

    Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 03/05/2025

    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 Canada: Fraud Prevention Month: Minister Nally

    Source: Government of Canada regional news (2)

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Methane emissions are turbocharging climate change – these quick fixes could slow it down

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Euan Nisbet, Professor of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London

    Rotting food is a major source of world-warming methane. Roman Mikhailiuk/Shutterstock

    The biggest challenge to limiting climate change to 2°C, the upper target of the 2015 Paris agreement, is this: methane emissions are rising very fast.

    Methane is a greenhouse gas that, molecule for molecule, traps heat in the atmosphere more effectively than carbon dioxide, though over a much shorter timescale (decades versus centuries). Reducing emissions of methane to the atmosphere could drastically slow the rate at which Earth’s climate is warming.

    Unfortunately, a warmer and wetter atmosphere is already causing wetlands to make more methane and so exacerbate climate change. This feedback loop makes the task of cutting methane from sources under our immediate control, like agriculture, more urgent. The good news is, my colleagues and I showed that there are lots of ways we can do this in a recent study.

    Each year, about 600 million tonnes of methane are emitted to the air, very roughly 40% from natural sources and 60% from human activities. Of this latter portion, fossil fuels contribute 120-130 million tonnes. This is methane that leaks from gas pipelines, coal mines and oil wells. There has at least been some progress towards controlling these leaks: new satellite technology has excelled at finding them, while 159 countries have pledged to cut emissions by 30% by 2030.

    In contrast, roughly 210-250 million tonnes of methane come from agriculture and its products, but these emissions are much tougher to tackle. It’s easier to spot a leaky gas well from space than farm leaks that are collectively large but individually small.

    These sources include the breath of livestock animals and their manure (roughly 120 million tonnes), rice fields (about 30 million tonnes), crop waste fires (about 20 million tonnes) and organic matter rotting in landfills (about 70 million tonnes).

    Shrinking the number of animals reared for food would benefit the climate.
    Andreas Bayer/Shutterstock

    Since 2000, the UK has slashed total methane emissions, especially by covering landfills and piping out gas, but farming emissions, from manure stores for instance, have hardly changed. The methane is made by methanogens, which are microbes that live in oxygen-poor environments, like the stomachs of cows, and biodigesters (which grow bacteria to convert organic waste into fertiliser, oils and gas) and landfills.

    If the UK cuts its own agricultural emissions by importing more food from tropical nations like Brazil it may still increase climate damage on a global scale. The problem is a global one, and very few countries are successfully reducing methane emissions from farming.

    Where there’s muck, there’s methane

    Cows, pigs and chickens make vast amounts of manure. In the US, Europe and East Asia, manure is often kept in big tanks or lagoons. These are usually under covers, but still release a lot of methane.

    Gas-tight coverings can prevent this, and the captured methane can be harvested and then burned to generate electricity. This still produces CO₂, but the warming impact is smaller, while the electricity can replace new natural gas in the national grid.

    The remaining slurry can be turned into fertiliser. Though it’s not commercially feasible now, it may one day be possible to turn it into aviation fuel.

    Biodigesters are becoming common in towns and on farms, but are often very leaky. Methane doesn’t smell, but if a biodigester is releasing other gases that stink, it’s probably also releasing methane. Leaks are easily controlled but much tighter regulation is needed to ensure this happens.

    Most of the world’s cattle are in India, Africa and South America. In large parts of the tropics, rain-fed crops aren’t enough to sustain people. The difference is made up by meat and milk from cows and goats that browse trees and bushes and graze seasonal grasses.

    Smaller herds can produce the same amount of food if cattle diseases are reduced. Bovine mastitis, East Coast fever and African trypanosomiasis can be vaccinated against, for example and agricultural experts in India have even used artificial insemination to make more calves female, and so slash dairy cattle numbers. It’s possible to give drugs to cattle to reduce methane emissions, but poor countries would struggle to cover the expense.

    Rice paddies emit methane, but rice is essential for nutrition, especially in East and South Asia, and increasingly in Africa. Flooding paddies only when and for how long it is needed during the year may cut emissions by as much as a quarter.

    In China, India, Africa and many parts of the US and Europe, landfills are major methane emitters. This is where wasted food ends up. But as the UK has shown, emissions can be sharply reduced by good landfill design and gas extraction.

    Simply adding a metre of soil to the surface of a landfill creates habitat for methane-eating bacteria, and also prevents landfill fires, which are very common in Africa and India. Still inexpensive is putting a plastic liner between the waste and soil and inserting pipes to extract gas that can generate electricity.

    The widespread burning of crop waste that pollutes skies in India and tropical Africa has terrible consequences for human health, but it also includes methane emissions that contribute to climate change.

    After a harvest, farmers may burn crop residues to cheaply prepare the land for future cultivation.
    RGtimeline/Shutterstock

    Crop waste fires were once a major source of air pollution in the UK and Europe. Today they are minimal thanks to better farming practice and straw processing. To cut burning, farmers need good advice, good management, good regulation and targeted financial help.

    Cutting agricultural methane emissions involves a wide range of relatively cheap measures that need good design and management, but could cut food-related emissions substantially over the next decade. High on the list should be tackling landfills and crop waste fires in India and Africa. In the US, Europe and China, it is manure storage facilities and biodigesters. With determination and inexpensive financial carrots and sticks, much could be accomplished.

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

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 40,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

    Euan Nisbet is an honorary fellow of Darwin College at the University of Cambridge. He is a member of the science panel of the UN International Methane Emissions Observatory.

    – ref. Methane emissions are turbocharging climate change – these quick fixes could slow it down – https://theconversation.com/methane-emissions-are-turbocharging-climate-change-these-quick-fixes-could-slow-it-down-246192

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: expert reaction to a cohort study looking at the association between vaping and rates of smoking cessation and tobacco abstinence

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    A cohort study published in JAMA Network Open looks at the association between vaping and smoking cessation rates. 

    Dr Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst, said:

    Is this good quality research?  Are the conclusions backed up by solid data?

    “The authors do a thorough job of investigating results from a large, representative US survey. The type of methods they use mean they can talk about associations – whether something is more or less likely – but not about causal relationships. This research cannot establish whether e-cigarettes cause more or fewer people to stop smoking.

    How does this work fit with the existing evidence?

    “There is a large, high certainty body of evidence from randomized controlled trials that nicotine e-cigarettes help people quit smoking. Randomized controlled trials are considered the best way to establish the effects of an intervention, where feasible. 

    Have the authors accounted for confounders? Are there important limitations to be aware of?

    “The authors have accounted for a large range of confounders, but rightly note that there could be additional unmeasured confounders which affect relationships between vaping and subsequent smoking cessation. The most important limitation is that this is an observational data set, and the techniques they use cannot establish causality.

    What are the implications in the real world?  Is there any overspeculation?  

    “The authors conclude that these data “suggest vaping prolongs smoking and nicotine dependence among US smokers.” As noted above, substantial randomized controlled trial evidence – considered the gold standard – shows the opposite – namely that when you give people who smoke e-cigarettes, it helps them quit smoking.”

    Prof Peter Hajek, Professor of Clinical Psychology, and Director of the Health and Lifestyle Research Unit, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), said:

    “The study, like several earlier ones, compared future smoking cessation in people who at baseline did and did not use vapes BUT SMOKED and reports that vaping does not help with quitting smoking. This raises a question of how is that possible when randomised controlled trials as well as epidemiological data show that vaping is one of the most effective ways there are of helping smokers quit. The answer is that the study used a method that automatically generates skewed results. In the vaping group, only those unable to stop smoking despite using vapes were included. Vapers who stopped smoking were excluded. This makes it an obviously unfair comparison, a bit like staging a competition between two schools after removing the best competitors from one of them.”

    ‘Daily or Nondaily Vaping and Smoking Cessation Among Smokers’ by Quash et al. was published in JAMA Network Open at 16:00 UK time on Wednesday 5th February.

    DOI:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.0089

    Declared interests

    Dr Jamie Hartmann-Boyce “I receive research funding for related work from Cancer Research UK and the NIH-FDA in the US.”

    Prof Peter Hajek “No COI”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: expert reaction to study suggesting Aspirin may enhance the immune response against cancer metastasis in mice

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    A study published in Nature suggests that Asprin enhances the immune response against cancer metastasis in mice. 

    Dr Harvey Roweth, a cancer biologist at the University of Reading, said:

    “I don’t think we can say that cancer patients should be taking aspirin – at least, not yet.

    “Aspirin is a very accessible drug, with relatively few side effects. This study in mice suggests we should further assess a role for aspirin in human metastatic cancer. It is worth noting that prior clinical studies that tested aspirin as a tool in fighting metastasis in human patients have been conflicting and often inconclusive. There are even some reports that conclude that aspirin may do more harm than good.”

    “The mouse models don’t capture the full complexity of metastatic disease. Plus, in this study, the mouse models used predominantly look at melanoma cells that metastasises to the lungs. So, the paper doesn’t account for different cancers and spread to other organs.

    “As a cancer biologist, the finding that is most exciting to me is that aspirin can preserve T-cell immune responses in an animal model.

    “What we need now – and I strongly agree with the authors on this – are new randomised controlled trials that focus on finding biomarkers of the patient’s immune response. This is how we will find out which cancers and which patients are most likely to benefit from aspirin.

    “It will also be important to consider that aspirin can be unsafe for certain individual patients. It can cause disruption of the stomach lining and increase the risk of bleeding in the gut. The study does not account for such side effects.

    “There is some promise that aspirin will help patients in the future. It will need to be considered alongside existing therapies – aspirin is extremely unlikely to become a stand-alone treatment for cancers.”

     

     

    Prof Mangesh Thorat, Honorary Reader, Queen Mary University of London & Consultant Breast Surgeon (Locum), Homerton University Hospital, London, said:

    “We have known for a while that the beneficial effect of aspirin in preventing deaths from certain cancers is greater in magnitude than its effect in preventing development of these cancers. This can only happen if aspirin prevented or abrogated metastases from such cancers. Although it was thought to be mediated through the anti-platelet role of aspirin, the exact mechanism remained elusive. This elegant study in mice sheds light on how aspirin’s anti-platelet action reverses the suppression of certain immune cells, which then prevent development of metastases. In many ways, this study provides the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle. There are several ongoing clinical trials of aspirin in certain cancers. The new insights from this study will now allow us to investigate data and materials from these trials to see if aspirin use can be personalised through use of biomarkers to achieve a more favourable benefit-harm balance. These insights will also allow us to develop new studies to investigate if aspirin and other immune-directed therapies can work in a synergistic manner to improve outcomes in advanced cancers.  

    “It is important to acknowledge that since it aimed to elucidate a specific mechanism, the study looked at only a few cancer types and only at lung and liver as metastatic sites. Although different cancers share many common pathways, each cancer type (and subtype) is unique. This means that the magnitude of effect likely varies between different cancers. It is therefore quite possible that the beneficial effects of aspirin will be limited to certain cancer types as the epidemiological data suggest. We will need to wait for mature data from the current trials before aspirin’s use as a cancer treatment can be considered.

    “If you are a cancer patient, don’t rush to your local pharmacy to buy aspirin just yet, but actively consider participation in ongoing or upcoming trials of aspirin.”

     

     

    Professor Alan Melcher, Professor of Translation Immunotherapy at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said:

    “We have known for some time that aspirin can potentially boost the immune response to cancer. What this research tells us is a new mechanism of action that aspirin may be using to do this in mice.

    “This is an interesting finding but will not directly change how people should be using aspirin. The side effects of the drug are not trivial – such as stomach bleeding. Currently, there are large trials underway to determine the risk versus benefit of using aspirin as part of the treatment of cancer. This new research may help to design better, more targeted drugs, that interfere with the mechanism discovered here to do the good things that aspirin does, without the harmful side effects.”

    ‘Aspirin prevents metastasis by limiting platelet TXA2 suppression of T cell immunity’ by Jie Yang et al. will be published in Nature at 16:00 UK time on Wednesday 5 March 2025.

    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08626-7

    Declared interests

    Prof Mangesh Thorat: No Financial interests to declare. Mangesh Thorat is a member of data monitoring committees of a few multi-national trials investigating aspirin, for example, ADD-Aspirin, CaPP3 and COLOPREVENT.

    Professor Alan Melcher: no interests to declare.

    Dr Harvey Roweth: Confirmed no COI’s. 

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Council approves ambitious Budget plan

    Source: Scotland – City of Aberdeen

    New and upgraded schools, a major roads project, continuing investment in the city centre, and increased support for vulnerable and disadvantaged citizens form the basis of Aberdeen City Council’s 2025/26 Budget, which was approved today. 

    The Council is to spend £247 million on schools over the next five years, including £121m on the new Hazlehead Academy. There is a commitment to expand facilities at Harlaw Academy, refurbish St Peter’s Roman Catholic School and Ferryhill Primary, and progress an extension for Bucksburn Academy. 

    To help reduce congestion, £55 million will go to the Berryden Corridor Improvement Project, with work starting next year. In the city centre, £13m will be used to enhance the Castlegate as a public space. 

    The Budget also makes £1.534m available to the Fairer Aberdeen Fund in 2025/26, £1m through the Anti-Poverty and Inequality Committee for people struggling with the cost of living, and an extra £9.5m to deliver social care, bringing the Council’s total award to the Integration Joint Board (IJB) to £140m for the coming 12 months. 

    Councillor Alex McLellan, convener of the Finance and Resources Committee, said: “Despite the Council operating in incredibly challenging circumstances, we remain focussed on delivering essential public services and assisting people through the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. 

    “Aberdeen City Council is continuing to invest in the school estate, in roads, and other key infrastructure such as the regeneration of the city centre and beach area. 

    “These actions will ensure Aberdeen continues to be a place people want to live, want to work, want to raise a family, and want to start a business.” 

    The Budget allocates £668m to delivering public services in 2025/26 and £709m to capital projects over the next five years. 

    The Common Good Fund will help provide nearly £1.5m for to 15 external organisations for 2025/26, supporting recommendations put forward by the Culture Investment Panel.  Aberdeen Performing Arts was awarded £961,000.

    Sport Aberdeen, which operates the city’s leisure venues, will receive £4.1m for 2025/26. 

    And the Council will also fund a Cruyff Court in Kincorth – the city’s 4th – in partnership with the Denis Law Legacy Trust.  

    The gap between income and expenditure was estimated at £18.1m for 2025/26. To help address the shortfall and maintain service delivery, Council Tax is to rise by 9.85% in 2025/26. 

    For the next 12 months the Council’s Carbon Budget was set at 22,567 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, a maximum target on the road to Next Zero emissions by 2045.  

    Actions agreed include:  

    • Completing a £19m investment in a Hydrogen Hub, a joint venture with bp to produce and distribute green hydrogen;
    • £9m to enlarge the electric vehicle charging network. 

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Ocean Energy Is Almost Ready, But It Needs a Boost Over the Testing Barrier

    Source: US National Renewable Energy Laboratory

    How Robust Facilities, Like NREL’s, Could Shrink the Chasm From Data to Demonstration

    March 5, 2025 | By Caitlin McDermott-Murphy | Contact media relations

    This article is the first in a “Found at Flatirons” series that showcases the various technologies at NREL’s Arvada, Colorado, campus.

    In a large room with concrete-block walls, a crane lifts what looks like a miniature lunar lander out of a water tank. Water drips from the metal contraption as the crane slowly lowers it onto the floor. Then, the clock starts ticking.

    “My colleagues and I were like, ‘OK, as soon as it touches the ground, we’re going to do this and this and this,’” said Brittany Lydon, a mechanical engineering graduate student at the University of Washington.

    Lydon, who likens that moment to a race car pulling up to have its tires changed midrace, will not be sending her machine to the moon. But she is prepping it for a similarly harsh environment: the ocean.

    An artist’s impression of a wave energy farm illustrates how ocean energy technologies integrate with the larger power grid. Illustration by Alfred Hicks, NREL

    Lydon’s device is designed to harness wave energy, which is a type of marine energy, an early-stage, tricky-to-harness renewable that flows through the currents, tides, and other motions of our oceans and rivers. The United States has enough marine energy pulsing in its waters to meet about 60% of the country’s electricity needs. We cannot capture all that energy, but even a little could help energize offshore industries (like seafood farms), give coastal and island communities the power to weather outages or natural disasters, and help the country reach its energy goals.

    However, the marine energy industry needs custom facilities and instruments to vet their novel tech. Researchers studying solar panels can prop a new prototype in a sunny field to see if it works, but tossing an untested marine energy device into the ocean is a bit like hopping into an experimental space shuttle and hitting the ignition.

    You could argue that, in some ways, space exploration is actually easier.”

    —Ben McGilton, NREL electrical engineer

    “You could argue that, in some ways, space exploration is actually easier,” said Ben McGilton, an electrical engineer at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) who studies marine energy technologies. “In space, conditions like gravity, radiation, and vacuum are relatively predictable, whereas the ocean’s ever-changing waves, currents, and corrosive saltwater can create unforeseen challenges that are nearly impossible to simulate perfectly.”

    Marine energy developers often start with a functional theoretical design. But even the best virtual designs cannot account for every invisible defect or ocean oddity. Developers need a lab-sized ocean to test those theories before they head to the big blue.

    That is why Lydon and her colleagues recently found themselves kneeling on wet concrete in NREL’s water power facilities in April 2024. A cable on their wave energy prototype was tugging on the device, potentially warping their experimental data. Out at sea, that kind of flaw would have been invisible—just a rogue cable hidden beneath the murky waves—and, even if the defect was spotted, it could take weeks to fix.

    From left, NREL Research Engineer Charles Cando, University of Washington graduate student Brittany Lydon, and NREL Research Technician Kyle Swartz finish their wave tank tests for the University of Washington’s oscillating surge wave energy converter device at NREL’s Flatirons Campus. Photo by Gregory Cooper, NREL

    At NREL, Lydon and her team needed just 10 minutes to reconfigure their prototype’s wiring before a technician lifted it back into a wave tank (located inside the Sea Wave Environmental Lab—or SWEL, for short) for further testing.

    “It went as smooth as we could have ever wanted,” Lydon said.

    Today, NREL’s desert facilities offer the comprehensive, computer-to-ocean testing that marine energy researchers and developers need to get their technologies closer to commercial use.

    But even NREL did not always have such a bounty.

    Between the Data and the Deep Blue Sea

    Scott Jenne, a marine energy researcher at NREL, refers to the jump from computer simulations to the open ocean as “the leap of faith. Basically, you go from numerical simulations to, ‘Hey, we’re going to build a thing and put it in the ocean and hope everything works.’”

    And even if every piece of the device functions just as expected, the ocean might not.

    “There’s a well-known saying in marine energy that the 1-in-100-year wave will happen the first week you deploy,” McGilton said.

    But a leap of faith is not the only way to get from the computer to the ocean. NREL has bridges.

    In 2021, the laboratory installed its first wave tank at SWEL, which can simulate scaled ocean waves representative of different sites around the world. In 2023, the facilities welcomed another ocean mimic, called the large-amplitude motion platform (or LAMP), which can replicate even larger ocean motions without even a drop of water.

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    The laboratory also has machines called dynamometers that can test a device’s electrical elements, 3D printers and other rapid manufacturing tools that can quickly churn out new parts if one breaks, and virtual systems that can hook up to actual hardware while simulating different device components, ocean conditions, and even electrical grids.

    With all that, researchers and developers could, for example, assess how their device might function in winter waves off the coast of Hawaii, examining how much strain waves might put on their tech or how much energy they could produce for the local grid. And they can do all that without the time, risk, and costs associated with an actual ocean deployment.

    It’s essential that we have lab facilities that can validate and test the performance before we go anywhere near the water.”

    —Ben McGilton

    “Any time you go to test in a river or the sea, it costs an absolute fortune, and there are so many risks and uncertainties,” McGilton said. “It’s essential that we have lab facilities that can validate and test the performance before we go anywhere near the water.”

    McGilton’s colleague, Jenne, would agree: He has experienced both options.

    The HERO on the LAMP

    In 2020, Jenne and a team of NREL researchers started building a hero—or rather, a HERO WEC, which stands for hydraulic and electric reverse osmosis (HERO) wave energy converter (WEC).

    The name fits: This kind of device could be a hero for some communities. The wave-powered machine is designed to produce clean drinking water from salty seawater, which could be critical for communities that lose power and access to potable water after a natural disaster.

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    In 2022, Jenne and his team deployed their HERO WEC prototype in the waters off North Carolina’s Outer Banks. But the ocean did not cooperate.

    “In that two-week period, we really only saw roughly two-ish useful wave conditions. It was dead flat for the rest of the deployment,” Jenne said.

    Luckily, they could turn to an ocean imitator for help.

    In 2023, the team was the first to mount their device onto NREL’s new LAMP, a long-legged metal platform that resembles something out of “Star Wars.” There, they could subject their prototype to almost any kind of wave motion without worrying about storms or dead waters.

    NREL’s LAMP tests prototype devices to improve designs before deployment in ocean waters.Photos by Joshua Bauer, NREL

    “There’s still a reason to do those ocean deployments,” Jenne said. “You learn stuff there that you’ll never be able to learn on LAMP and vice versa. But having that controlled test facility where you can literally turn the waves on and off when you need them is so valuable.”

    During their LAMP test, the HERO WEC’s drivetrain “locked up and snapped the mooring line,” as Jenne described it. But, like Lydon and her team, the crew simply shut the LAMP down, came up with a solution to prevent it from happening again, and resumed testing within a couple days. For comparison: Just six hours into a recent Outer Banks deployment in 2024, a rogue storm knocked the HERO WEC around, causing a winch to cut a cable. But no one could reach the device for two weeks.

    “You spend a huge amount of money to understand maybe a few ocean conditions,” Jenne said. “Versus LAMP—we ran over 100 different cases in a month.”

    That is why Lydon and her team came to NREL. They too were searching for that data wealth. Only, they turned to a different instrument.

    Swell Data From the SWEL Wave Tank

    Lydon’s wave energy prototype looks nothing like the HERO WEC. Her group’s device is designed to generate electricity by swaying back and forth, like sea grass, in ocean waves. Although her institution, the University of Washington, has its own wave tank, it is about 2.5 times smaller than NREL’s. Their small-scale prototype could barely fit, and the team was concerned its proximity to the tank’s walls could create ricochet waves that might not exist in the real world, skewing their data.

    “That brought us to the point of having this system functional but not having a good place to test it,” said Brian Polagye, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Washington and Lydon’s advisor. “And that’s where SWEL came along.”

    SWEL’s tank is big enough to handle prototypes about 1/75th the size of a full-scale device. Through the tank’s one glass side, researchers can watch how their device handles waves both above and below the water (the ocean’s often murky water prevents this kind of up-close study). And if human eyes are not powerful enough to spot an issue, the tank’s motion-tracking cameras and various sensors likely are.

    With support from the Testing Expertise and Access for Marine Energy Research (TEAMER) program, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office and administered by the Pacific Ocean Energy Trust, Lydon spent several months at SWEL during the spring of 2024. There, Lydon and the team could test how their device performed in a larger range of potential wave conditions.

    “We were able to get a ton of data in a relatively short amount of time,” Lydon said. “That has been huge in trying to answer our questions but also forming new questions.” But if Lydon had to describe her experience in one word, she would say it was boring, “which is what you want.” Boring means nothing went awry; boring equals success.

    “We had what we needed, and we were given everything to do it,” she said.

    The Recipe for Advancing Marine Energy

    Over the past few years, NREL’s water power facilities have grown to offer what NREL Water Power Technology Validation Manager Rebecca Fao often calls a “soup-to-nuts” service. At the Flatirons Campus, people can model their novel designs with the laboratory’s award-winning software, manufacture a prototype, test a specific component or the entire device, manufacture an improved or larger prototype, and hook actual hardware up to virtual grids or oceans that can mimic real-world conditions.

    We can test whole systems and see how they would interact with a microgrid, small community, or even the grid—and not just simulated but with real voltage and currents.”

    —Ben McGilton

    “We can test whole systems and see how they would interact with a microgrid, small community, or even the grid—and not just simulated but with real voltage and currents,” McGilton said. All this support can, as McGilton puts it, “improve the overall chances of success.”

    But none of these machines or models function without people.

    “One of the reasons that these experiments, even the initial experiments, were so successful is the support and flexibility of the staff,” Lydon said.

    From modelers to technicians to electrical and mechanical engineers, NREL’s team of experts are perhaps one of the laboratory’s greatest assets. If a device malfunctions, they are there to troubleshoot, diagnose, repair, or even operate a crane.

    Of course, NREL might have a suite of swell equipment, but it does not have everything. The U.S. Navy has an indoor ocean (also known as the maneuvering and seakeeping basin, or MASK) that holds 12 million gallons of water (SWEL holds only 13,000). A new wave energy test site, called PacWave South, where researchers and developers can test full-scale devices in the open ocean, is under construction off the coast of Oregon.

    Because the United States has so few of these facilities, collectively, they are critical for the marine energy industry to advance quickly. “It’s all a big, interconnected ecosystem,” said Polagye, Lydon’s advisor.

    That ecosystem is growing thanks to renewed interest in this lesser-known renewable. And, in part because of facilities like NREL’s, the field has made significant leaps in the last 10 years.

    “It’s been a fascinating decade,” Polagye said. “And I think the next will be just as fascinating.”

    Want to learn more about NREL’s Flatirons Campus? Stay tuned for the next feature in our “Found at Flatirons” series. Remember to sign up for the water power newsletter, too!

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: NIH-funded research team engineers new drug targeting pain sensation pathway

    Source: US Department of Health and Human Services – 2

    Study of CB1 receptor has implications for chronic pain treatment.
    A research team funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has developed a medication that shows promise in treating acute and chronic pain. The drug, known as VIP36, targets the body’s cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1). It was found to be effective in three different animal models for pain and does not appear to cause the harmful side effects that have frustrated other efforts to target CB1. These results enhance understanding of how to design safer and more effective drugs targeting cannabinoid receptors and are an important step towards developing novel, non-addictive treatments for pain.
    CB1 receptors can be found throughout the body and are particularly dense in the brain’s pain circuitry. They have long been considered a potential target for non-opioid-based pain treatment; however, previous attempts to target this pathway have been met with two challenges. First, repeated exposure to a drug leads to tolerance that limits its efficacy. Second, the dose required to reduce pain in the periphery tends to be high enough for the drug to make its way into the central nervous system. In humans, this can cause unwanted changes in mood, cognition, or emotional state.
    To overcome these issues, researchers leveraged computer modeling of the CB1 receptor to design molecules that better interact with CB1, much like a key fitting into a lock.  The newly designed drug, VIP36, is more “peripherally restricted” compared to previous drugs, meaning that much less of it leaks into the central nervous system where it can cause unwanted side effects. VIP36 also interacts with CB1 differently than treatments tested previously and in a way that reduces tolerance.
    CB1 is part of a wide-ranging class of receptors known as G-protein-coupled receptors, which are involved in countless functions throughout the body including smell, vision, mood regulation, immune system responses, autonomic nervous system responses such as blood pressure and heart rate, and growth and metastasis of some tumors. In addition to their implications in pain care, the findings of this study could also help spur the design of other drugs that target similar receptors involved in other conditions.       
    This research was funded by NIH’s Helping to End Addiction Long-term® Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative®, an NIH-wide effort that seeks to speed scientific solutions to the overdose epidemic, including opioid and stimulant use disorders, and the crisis of chronic pain.
    Who
    Julia Bachman, Ph.D., HEAL Program Manager, NIH
    Article
    Rangari VA et al. “A cryptic pocket in CB1 drives peripheral and functional selectivity” Nature. March 5, 2025. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08618-7
    About the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS): NINDS is the nation’s leading funder of research on the brain and nervous system. The mission of NINDS is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease.
    About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Academic freedom and democracy under siege: how a Nobel peace prize could help defend them

    Source: The Conversation – France – By Stéphanie Balme, Director, CERI (Centre de recherches internationales), Sciences Po

    A rally for science drew a big crowd during the American Geophysical Union’s meeting in San Francisco. MarcioJoseSanchez/AP, CC BY

    March 7 has been recognized as the “Day of the Stand Up for Science Movement”, launched in 2017 in response to the anti-science actions of the first Trump administration. Under the second, attacks on scientists and scientific inquiry have escalated into a systematic assault–tantamount to a coup d’Etat against science itself.

    While Donald Trump is often portrayed as erratic, his policies in this area have followed a consistent trajectory. His new administration has once again declared ‘war’ on evidence-based national policymaking and science diplomacy in foreign affairs as evidenced by several early actions. Immediately after taking office, Donald Trump issued executive orders freezing or canceling tens of billions in research funding. All National Science Foundation projects have been halted pending review, while the National Institutes of Health faces suspensions under Health and Human Services directives. The US has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement and the World Health Organization, alongside a sweeping review of 90% of USAID-funded projects, signaling a major retreat from climate and global health diplomacy. Federal agencies and universities are in turmoil, leaving thousands of research-professors in limbo amid a politically driven funding freeze. The 2025 March simply calls for the restoration of federal research funding and an end to government censorship and political interference in science.

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    The US is the world’s undisputed scientific superpower–for now

    While the Trump administration is not the sole force undermining academia worldwide, its actions are particularly striking coming from the world’s leading scientific superpower. Moreover, the situation is especially concerning because developments in the United States often have a ripple effect, shaping policies in other regions in the years that follow.

    Neither of the world’s top two scientific superpowers–Washington and Beijing–is positioned to champion academic freedom. China, having failed a liberal constitutional tradition and academic independence since the 1920s, restricts academic freedom to the confines of one-party rule. Caught between these rival scientific giants–both partners and competitors–the “old” Europe and like-minded coutries remain the only actors capable of setting new standards for academic freedom.

    A Nobel prize for academic freedom

    A decisive step toward its legal protection would be formal recognition by the Nobel Committees for Peace and Science of academic freedom’s fundamental role–both in ensuring scientific excellence and as a pillar of free, democratic societies.

    For the past decade, the Scholars at Risk association (SAR) has documented a broader global decline in academic freedom in its annual Free to Think Report. The 2024 edition highlights particularly alarming situations in 18 countries and territories (including the United States), which recorded 391 attacks on scholars, students, or institutions across 51 regions in a year. Data from the Academic Freedom Index in Berlin confirm that more than half of the world’s population lives in regions where academic freedom is either entirely or severely restricted. Some of the most concerning conditions are in emerging scientific ecosystems such as Turkey, Brazil, Egypt, South Africa, or Saudi Arabia. The overall trend is deteriorating: only 10 out of 179 countries have improved, while many democratic regimes are increasingly affected.

    Academic freedom in the European Union remains relatively high compared to the rest of the world. However, nine EU member states fall below the regional average, and in eight of them, it has declined over the past decade–signaling a gradual erosion of this fundamental value. Hungary ranks the lowest among EU countries, placing in the bottom 20–30% worldwide. Recent laws have further weakened university autonomy across the EU: financial autonomy in Austria, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Slovakia; organizational autonomy in Slovenia, Estonia, and Denmark; staffing autonomy in Croatia and Slovakia; and academic autonomy in Denmark and Estonia. Moreover, the European Parliament’s first report on academic freedom (2023) highlights emerging threats in France–political, educational, and societal–that impact the freedom of research, teaching, and study.

    Academic freedom, a professional right granted to a few for the benefit of all

    Freedom of expression, a fundamental pillar of academic freedom, has long been established as a human right, overcoming centuries of censorship and authoritarian control. In contrast, academic freedom is a more recent principle, granting scholars–recognized by their peers–the right and responsibility to research and teach freely in pursuit of knowledge. Like press freedom for journalists, it is a right granted to a few for the benefit of all.

    Rooted in medieval Europe, academic freedom has evolved from a privilege granted to students in the Quartier Latin to a recognized principle in international rights frameworks. It gained a collective and concrete dimension in the late 18th and early 19th centuries with the rise of the modern university. Wilhelm von Humboldt, founder of the modern public university in Berlin (1810), articulated the concept of ‘freedom of science’ (Wissenschaftsfreiheit), later enshrined in the Weimar Constitution of 1919, which declared that “art, science, and education are free.” The rise of American universities around the same time reshaped the concept, giving rise to “professional academic freedom.” This was formalized in the American Association of University Professors’ 1915 Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, which affirmed the scholar’s primary duty to seek and establish truth. Though its roots lie in Germany, academic freedom ultimately became a cornerstone of American academic discourse.

    In the United States, academic freedom draws from multiple sources, with its protection varying by state laws, customs, institutional practices, and the status of higher education institutions. However, U.S. Supreme Court rulings have gradually reinforced its constitutional foundation, particularly after the McCarthy era, by invoking the First Amendment. Landmark cases such as Adler v. Board of Education (1952), Wieman v. Updegraff (1952), and Sweezy v. New Hampshire (1957) helped establish a constitutional doctrine on academic freedom. Finally, Keyishian v. Board of Regents (1967) extended First Amendment protections to academia, ruling that mandatory loyalty oaths violated both academic freedom and freedom of association.

    Interestingly, the American interpretation of academic freedom is currently more restrictive than the German model in certain respects. Article 5(3) of the 1989 Basic Law affirms the “right to adopt public organizational measures essential to protect a space of freedom, fostering independent scientific activity”. In contrast, the U.S. places greater emphasis on prohibitions and prioritizing individual rights over institutional autonomy.

    The ‘right to be wrong’

    Despite local variations, academic freedom is fundamentally tied to a shared vision of the university that upholds freedom of thought, with rationality and pluralism at its core. It includes the genuine “right to be wrong”–the understanding that a scientific opinion may be incorrect or even proven so does not diminish its protection. This stands in stark contrast to the anti-science, scientistic, or techno-nationalist approach, which views knowledge as a tool of power to serve a predetermined truth and objective of dominance. Authoritarian science, driven by power interests, seeks to diminish critical humanities and social sciences while elevating religion. It tends to reject interdisciplinary work, is exclusively mathematized, and is oriented toward a centralized yet deregulated autocratic tech-utopian state model.

    Since 1945, we have operated under the illusion that academic freedom is an indispensable condition for scientific excellence. However, we have recently learned that no systematic link exists between academic freedom and breakthrough scientific innovation in our era of new technologies. Given these circumstances, this proposal advocates for a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, for the first time in its history, in recognition of academic freedom.

    The Nobel Prize Committees for Science and Peace share the responsibility of using their prestigious platforms to uphold fundamental scientific and democratic values. They are uniquely positioned to champion humanist science, reinforcing its importance for scholars, students, and civil societies worldwide. Since the 1950s, around 90% of Nobel Prize laureates in scientific fields have either been US citizens or have studied and worked at Ivy League research institutions.

    While some US scientists are contesting actions of the Trump administration in court, academics worldwide should stand in solidarity with their American colleagues in resisting the erosion of science. To strengthen their efforts, they require the support of the Nobel Prize Committees.

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

    – ref. Academic freedom and democracy under siege: how a Nobel peace prize could help defend them – https://theconversation.com/academic-freedom-and-democracy-under-siege-how-a-nobel-peace-prize-could-help-defend-them-251494

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Exciting Updates from the IADC University of Boumerdes Student Chapter

    Source: International Association of Drilling Contractors – IADC

    Headline: Exciting Updates from the IADC University of Boumerdes Student Chapter

    The IADC University of Boumerdes (UMBB) Student Chapter has been very active lately, with many exciting updates to share: 

    • Published & recorded new episodes for the IADC Talk podcast: The Chapter published the 2nd episode of the new “IADC Talk” podcast. In this episode, Ahmed Yassin, Offshore Barge Engineer at ADNOC, shared insights on offshore operations, safety leadership, and risk management. The Chapter also recorded the 3rd episode featuring Nina Chalah, Hydraulic Fracturing Field Engineer at SLB. This episode will be released later this month. 
    • Hosted a Managed Pressure Drilling Webinar: Led by Muhammad Jamal Uddin, Senior MPD Engineer, this lecture covered CBHP and PMCD techniques. Following the session, the students created an informative MPD resource to share their knowledge. 
    • Visited SIEMENS: Students went on a scientific visit exploring automation, leadership, and Siemens’ DEGREE framework for sustainable transformation, with a strong focus on safety culture.
    • Hosted a General Assembly: The new board shared the program for the upcoming period, setting the vision for the Chapter’s next steps.
    • Participated in the National Meeting on Developing Innovative Ideas in Renewable Energies: The UMBB Student Chapter was honored to participate in this event, contributing to discussions on innovation in renewable energy.
    • Achieved an award at the IGNITE ALGERIA National Competition: The Chapter proudly secured First Place in this competition, recognizing the Innovation and Execution Section’s dedication and teamwork.
    • Organized the new “Upstream” Event: A new initiative highlighting drilling technologies, geoscience, conventional and unconventional resources, connecting students and professionals.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Bringing art into classrooms can benefit students who are learning to speak English

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Chenkai Chi, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Educational Studies, University of Windsor

    For students who are learning to speak English, art can empower a shift of focus away from rote memorization to creative and meaningful inquiry (Shutterstock)

    Most English-language learning classrooms use conventional teaching methods that focus on grammar drills, vocabulary memorization, reading comprehension and structured writing tasks — all with the emphasis on language accuracy. Unfortunately, these teaching methods don’t address newcomers’ needs or build on their strengths.

    This manner of teaching also fails to acknowledge students’ diverse experiences, skills and talents — including their knowledge of other languages. These experiences and skills can be important resources in their learning.

    Our recent study suggests there’s a better way of teaching and learning English. We found that English-language learners developed confidence, a sense of belonging and deeper language skills when the arts were incorporated into teaching and learning practices.

    To develop a new way of teaching English using the arts, we used the arts-integrated Parallaxic Praxis model. This is a research framework that celebrates and values diverse perspectives. The model was developed by Pauline Sameshima, one of the authors of this story, and her colleagues.

    Creative inquiry

    According to the Parallaxic Praxis model, engaging with different modes of creative communication — such as photography and drawing — can empower students to shift their focus from rote memorization to creative and meaningful inquiry. This helps students connect their personal experiences with language learning.

    The model has three phases for learning: The data collection phase, the analysis phase (where what a person has learned is transformed into something new — such as making a painting from a text description) and the rendering phase (where knowledge is produced). The model celebrates and values diverse perspectives, ensuring that the unique experiences of English-language learners are valued and acknowledged.

    In our study, adult English-language learners in southwestern Ontario were encouraged to connect with their community through photography — recording meaningful moments and writing descriptions that explained the personal significance of each image.

    The photographs served as data. Written reflections served as translations and analysis of the data. The photos and analyses they created (their renderings) served to produce new knowledge.

    The use of photographs

    For instance, Ning (pseudonym), a graduate student from China who participated in the study, faced a significant decision: to either stay in Canada or to return home.

    Rather than writing a standard essay, she instead photographed an intersection of roads — using the image as a metaphor for her uncertainty and being at a crossroad in her life. Ning said the arts integrated activity helped “express my feelings in English, making the language more personal and meaningful.”

    A different student, Jack (pseudonym) from Saudi Arabia, photographed houses on a quiet, snowy street. The buildings were connected with each other — but the people inside were noted to be isolated from one another. Reflecting on this, Jack wrote: “Though the houses are connected; the people inside are not connected. If people do not help each other, that will be a disaster.”

    Jack said that art made him more willing to communicate in English, stating: “Art is a powerful tool that helps us express many things. I feel more comfortable sharing in English when engaging in artistic activities.” This exercise helped him express complicated emotions in English while strengthening his critical thinking and narrative skills.

    Both Ning’s and Jack’s experiences highlight one underlying premise: that making and analyzing art helps students learn English on a more personal and emotional level than traditional approaches do.

    Challenging conventional learning approaches

    Using the Parallaxic Praxis model is more than an alternative approach in teaching English. It’s a challenge to conventional thinking and the way language education is understood.

    Many English-language learning programs are still mired in a deficit model that positions non-English-speaking students as outsiders who need to quickly “catch up”. Language learning should be an empowering process — not one where students are overly concerned with correcting small technicalities.

    Most English-language learning programs focus on memorization and correcting technicalities.
    (Shutterstock)

    Instead of the language-learning approach of rote memorization, this arts-integrated approach celebrates how all students bring their diverse perspectives and cultural and linguistic knowledge to the classroom. The Parallaxic Praxis model allows for different modes of creative expression to be used in the process of language learning — such as visual storytelling and creative writing.

    This concept echoes the idea of West-East Reciprocal Learning, the mutual learning of cultures across both sides, rather than a unilateral assimilation process, where the dominant culture often expects the other to conform. Teaching within a reciprocal learning paradigm emphasizes strengths, rather than weaknesses — and teachers view students as contributors with valuable personal experiences to offer and learn from.

    The arts-integrated Parallaxic Praxis model welcomes students to be their full selves, while becoming adept English language speakers. Other research has also shown that using arts in English language learning classes can lead to higher levels of analysis and challenge students.

    There are many ways in which the arts can be incorporated into English-language classrooms, such as:

    1. Using artistic activities: Rather than doing more grammar drills, ask students to take photos and write about their photos.
    2. Encourage many types of creativity: Students can translate their knowledge into English using stories, poems, scripts or narratives from illustrations.
    3. Foster collaboration: Create group storytelling projects, peer feedback sessions and digital showcases for student work.
    4. Focus on strengths, not deficits: Value students’ diverse cultural backgrounds, skills and talents — alongside their multilingual skills. These are all important resources to their learning, rather than barriers. Encourage students to use other languages they already know together with English in order to better express themselves — a strategy known as translanguaging.
    5. Make learning real-world and personal: Give students reflective projects, such as writing letters to their future selves.

    Language is not simply literal words and rigid rules. Recognizing how words facilitate culture, meaning, identity and human connection can deepen learning engagement and experience. Incorporating the arts into English-language learning does this — and creates a collaborative learning space that’s engaging and meaningful.

    Chenkai Chi receives funding from SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship and Ontario Graduate Scholarship.

    Mehdia Hassan receives funding from the Ontario Graduate Scholarship.

    Pauline Sameshima has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

    – ref. Bringing art into classrooms can benefit students who are learning to speak English – https://theconversation.com/bringing-art-into-classrooms-can-benefit-students-who-are-learning-to-speak-english-247761

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI: OBSI announces new board members

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    TORONTO, March 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Board of Directors for the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) is pleased to announce three appointments to the board:

    • Maureen L. Buckley CPA, CA has joined the board as a Community Director. Ms. Buckley has held several leadership positions within the Ontario Public Service, most recently as the Provincial Controller where she led the preparation and release of the Ontario Public Accounts. Previously, she was the Chief Administrative Officer at multiple ministries within the Ontario Public Service. Before joining the Ontario Public Service, Ms. Buckley held several roles at Price Waterhouse where she earned her Chartered Accountant designation. She holds an undergraduate degree from York University.
    • Jason Enouy B.A., JD has joined the board as an Industry Director. He is the Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer at Raymond James Ltd., leading all compliance functions for the firm. Before joining the firm, he led compliance and risk management functions at two large Canadian wealth management and securities firms, as well as a schedule II chartered bank. Mr. Enouy is a member of the Law Society of Ontario and holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Arts from Carleton University in Ottawa. He sits on the Board of the Raymond James Canada Foundation.
    • Professor Marina Pavlović LL.B, LL.M has joined the board as a Consumer Interest Director. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section. A leading Canadian expert on consumer rights and technology policy, she brings extensive experience in research, advocacy, and law reform focused on consumer rights and access to justice. Ms. Pavlović has strong ties with consumer and public interest organizations and has represented them as counsel before the Supreme Court of Canada in landmark cases, including Douez v. Facebook, Uber v. Heller, and International Air Transport Association v. Canada. She has also appeared before the CRTC, the Canadian Transportation Agency, and parliamentary committees, influencing key policy and regulatory decisions affecting consumer rights. An award-winning educator, Ms. Pavlović is recognized for redefining legal education through her innovative and immersive teaching. She holds a law degree from the University of Belgrade, an LL.M. in Law & Technology from the University of Ottawa and is a member of the Law Society of Ontario.

    OBSI is overseen by an independent Board of Directors. OBSI’s bylaws require that a majority of directors, including the Board Chair, be independent, meaning they have not been affiliated with industry for at least two years. These independent directors are referred to as community directors. Three of the community directors are also designated as consumer interest directors, who have a particular interest in, access to, and competency with the interests and perspectives of the consumers that OBSI serves. The board also includes three designated industry directors who are directly affiliated with a participating firm.

    Industry directors and consumer interest directors are expected to bring their unique perspectives and expertise to board deliberations to ensure that OBSI governance is undertaken with an understanding and appreciation of the interests and concerns of all the stakeholders served by the organization. All directors have a fiduciary duty to OBSI and do not advocate for or represent any outside interest while engaged in OBSI governance.

    More information about the Board of Directors is available here.

    Canada’s Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) is a national, independent, not-for-profit organization that helps resolve and reduce disputes between consumers and financial services firms in both official languages. OBSI is responsive to consumer inquiries, conducts fair and accessible investigations of unresolved disputes, and shares its knowledge and expertise with all stakeholders and the public. If a consumer has a complaint against an OBSI participating bank or investment firm that they are not able to resolve with the bank or firm, OBSI will investigate at no cost to the consumer. Where a complaint has merit, OBSI may recommend compensation up to a maximum of $350,000.

    For more information, contact:

    Mark Wright, Director, Communications and Stakeholder Relations

    416-287-2877 ext.2225

    publicaffairs@obsi.ca

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Baltic Horizon Fund General Meeting – notice to investors

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    At the request of a unitholder whose units represent more than 1/10 of all the votes, Northern Horizon Capital AS invites Baltic Horizon Fund unit-holders and Swedish Depositary Receipt (hereinafter the “SDR”) holders (hereinafter together the “Investors”) to attend an extraordinary General Meeting (hereinafter the “General Meeting”) of Baltic Horizon Fund on 27 March 2025 at 14:00 (local Estonian time) at the office of Northern Horizon Capital AS at Roseni 7 (A tower), 6th floor, 10111 Tallinn, Estonia. Registration for the meeting will begin at 13:00. The General Meeting will be held in English.

    The meeting is convened in accordance with sections 10.3.3., 10.5, 10.6 and 11.2 of the Rules of Baltic Horizon Fund and section 47-1 of the Investment Funds Act of Estonia.

    The total number of units and votes in Baltic Horizon Fund amounts to 143,562,514 .

    Investors may also join the webinar to view the General Meeting online on 27 March 2025 at 14:00.

    To join the webinar, please register via the following link: https://nasdaq.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Cd4HF9QwQpaCuPaPa5etOA.

    You will be provided with the webinar link and instructions how to join successfully. The webinar will be recorded and available online for everyone at the company’s website on www.baltichorizon.com.

    Agenda, as proposed by the unitholder:

    1. Decision to elect Andrius Smaliukas as a new member of the supervisory board of Baltic Horizon Fund as of 1 May 2025 for a period of two years.
    2. Decision to elect Milda Dargužaitė as a new member of the supervisory board of Baltic Horizon Fund as of 1 May 2025 for a period of two years.
    3. Decision to elect Antanas Anskaitis as a new member of the supervisory board of Baltic Horizon Fund as of 1 May 2025 for a period of two years.
    4. Decision to pay remuneration to the chairman of the supervisory board for fulfilling obligations of the member of the supervisory board in the amount of EUR 36,000 per calendar year.
    5. Decision to pay remuneration to supervisory board members, other than  the chairman, for fulfilling obligations of the member of the supervisory board in the amount of EUR 11,000 per calendar year.
    6. Decision to recall Reimo Hammerberg, Monica Hammer and David Bergendahl from the position of the supervisory board member of Baltic Horizon Fund with the last date of the office being 30 April 2025.

    Investors are invited to send questions and comments on the agenda to the Baltic Horizon fund manager at Tarmo.Karotam@nh-cap.com by 20 March 2025. Northern Horizon Capital AS will respond to the questions and comments at the meeting itself.

    Participation – requirements and notice

    Investors who are entered in the Baltic Horizon Fund registry of unit-holders maintained by Nasdaq CSD SE and holders of SDRs registered in the Euroclear Sweden AB system ten days before the date of the General Meeting, i.e. at the end of business of Nasdaq CSD SE on 17 March 2025, are entitled to participate in the meeting.

    In order to facilitate the registration process, investors whose units are registered in their own name are invited to provide notice of their attendance by 24 March 2025 to bhfmeeting@nh-cap.com. Notice should include name, personal identification number (or the registration number of the legal person), address, number of units represented and, if applicable attendance of any representatives, along with the name and personal identification number of the representatives. The attendance of a representative does not deprive the unit-holder of the right to participate at the meeting.

    Instructions to holders of Baltic Horizon Fund SDRs registered with Euroclear Sweden AB in Sweden

    IMPORTANT REQUIREMENT: SDR holders whose SDR-s are registered with Euroclear Sweden AB via a bank or other nominee are required to notify their bank or nominee account provider by 17 March 2025 to temporarily add their name on the Euroclear Sweden AB owner register.

    Notice of participation should also be sent by 16:00 EET on 24 March 2025 to bhfmeeting@nh-cap.com. Notice should include name, personal identification number (or the registration number of the legal person), address, number of units represented and, if applicable, attendance of any representatives, along with the name and personal identification number of the representatives. The attendance of a representative does not deprive the Investor of the right to participate at the meeting.

    Representation under a power of attorney

    Investors whose representatives are acting under a power of attorney are requested to prepare a written power of attorney for the representative in Estonian or English (templates can be found at Annex 1).

    A copy of the executed power of attorney should be sent to bhfmeeting@nh-cap.com together with the notice of participation. In case the power of attorney is issued by a legal person, a certified copy of the registration certificate (or equivalent certificate of authority) shall also be submitted together with, as applicable, the documents certifying the authority of the representative in case the power of attorney is signed by a person under a power of attorney.

    Baltic Horizon Fund is registered in Estonia, which means that any power of attorney (or any certified copy of the registration certificate of a legal person) issued in a foreign country should be notarised and accompanied by an apostille. The apostille requirement applies, for example, to powers of attorney issued and notarised in Sweden or Finland. 

    Instructions for the day of the General Meeting

    We kindly ask Investors to bring a personal identification document, and for their representatives also to present the original written power of attorney in English or Estonian. In case the Investor is a legal person, documentation in Estonian or English certifying the authority of the Investor’s representative or the signatory of the power of attorney will also be requested.

    Data collected by Northern Horizon Capital AS from powers of attorney, the unitholders registry maintained by Nasdaq CSD SE, and the list of holders of SDRs registered in the Euroclear Sweden AB system will be used for the purpose of registration for the meeting.

    1. Decision to elect Andrius Smaliukas as a new member of the supervisory board of the Baltic Horizon Fund

    According to section 11.2 of the Rules of Baltic Horizon Fund the members of the supervisory board shall be appointed at the general meeting for a period of at least two years. The  proposal is to elect Andrius Smaliukas as a new member of the supervisory board.

    Dr. Smaliukas is the Managing Partner at MMSP, a Lithuanian law firm focused on strategic corporate advisory and dispute resolution. He previously partnered at one of the leading Pan-Baltic firm, Valiunas Ellex, and holds nearly 20 years of experience as an arbitrator and international arbitration lead counsel. Dr. Smaliukas earned his Ph.D. and Master of Laws from Vilnius University, conducted postgraduate research at Oxford, and completed executive programs at Cambridge Judge Business School and Harvard Law School. Dr.Smaliukas serves on the boards of Staticus Group, Kesko Senukai, has extensive advisory experience in commercial real estate M&A and investment management across the Baltic countries.

    Andrius Smaliukas does not hold any units of the Baltic Horizon Fund.

    1. Decision to elect Milda Dargužaitė as a new member of the supervisory board of the Baltic Horizon Fund

    According to section 11.2 of the Rules of Baltic Horizon Fund the members of the supervisory board shall be appointed at the general meeting for a period of at least two years. The proposal is to elect Milda Dargužaitė as a new member of the supervisory board.

    Milda Dargužaitė is the former CEO of Northern Horizon Capital A/S, the shareholder of Northern Horizon Capital AS. She was responsible for managing the company’s operations and strategic direction, including the development of new funds and investment vehicles. Milda has significant experience in both the public and private sectors, locally and internationally. She joined the company in 2018 after roles as the Chancellor at the Lithuanian Prime Minister’s Office, Managing Director of Invest Lithuania, and advisor to the Lithuanian Minister of Economy. Milda has a wealth of experience in finance and portfolio management from her time at Goldman Sachs in New York and Barclays in London. Milda Dargužaitė was the supervisory board member of Northern Horizon Capital AS from July 2018 until September 2023.

    Milda holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Economics from Middlebury College and a master’s degree in Operations Research and Financial Engineering from Princeton University. She has served on the boards of several Northern Horizon Group entities.

    Milda Dargužaitė does not hold any units of the Baltic Horizon Fund.

    1. Decision to elect Antanas Anskaitis as a new member of the supervisory board of the Baltic Horizon Fund

    According to section 11.2 of the Rules of Baltic Horizon Fund the members of the supervisory board shall be appointed at the general meeting for a period of at least two years. The proposal is to elect Antanas Anskaitis as a new member of the supervisory board.

    Antanas Anskaitis is a partner at Grinvest which is a private investment company with interests in real estate and transportation. Antanas has over 20 years of real estate investment management experience (out of which 16 within Northern Horizon Capital group). Since 2015 until 2020 Antanas managed a successful Baltic-Polish investment portfolio on behalf of Partners Group and lead over 30 commercial property transactions in the Baltics and Poland having experience both on sell and buy side. Antanas has MSc in Management and Economics.

    Grinvest through its subsidiary in Estonia Gene Investments OÜ is the largest unitholder in Baltic Horizon Fund (>25%) at the time of this notice.

    1. Decision to pay remuneration to the chairman of the supervisory board

    According to section 11.11 of the Rules of Baltic Horizon Fund, supervisory board members are entitled to remuneration for their service. The amount of remuneration payable to the chairman and members of the supervisory board shall be decided at the general meeting. According to section 11.4 of the Rules of Baltic Horizon Fund, supervisory board members elect a chairman from among themselves in the first meeting after election of any new member(s).

    The supervisory board in this composition intends working in close liaison with Northern Horizon Capital AS in the subcommittees and meet at least once a month while Baltic Horizon Fund is in the turnaround phase. The proposal is therefore to pay remuneration to the chairman of the supervisory board in the amount of EUR 36,000 per calendar year.

    1. Decision to pay remuneration to supervisory board members

    According to section 11.11 of the Rules of Baltic Horizon Fund, supervisory board members are entitled to remuneration for their service. The amount of remuneration payable to the chairman and members of the supervisory board shall be decided at the general meeting. 

    The proposed remuneration is the same as for the current members of the supervisory board. The unitholder proposes to remunerate each supervisory board member (except the chairman, who shall be remunerated in accordance with point 4 above) in the amount of EUR 11,000 per calendar year.

    1. Decision to recall Reimo Hammerberg, Monica Hammer and David Bergendahl from the position of the supervisory board member of Baltic Horizon Fund

    According to section 10.3.3 of the Rules of Baltic Horizon Fund the members of the supervisory board shall be recalled at the general meeting.

    Annex 1:

    Form of power of attorney to appoint a representative for the general meeting (in Estonian)

    Form of power of attorney to appoint a representative for the general meeting (in English)

    For additional information, please contact:

    Tarmo Karotam
    Baltic Horizon Fund manager
    E-mail tarmo.karotam@nh-cap.com
    www.baltichorizon.com

    The Fund is a registered contractual public closed-end real estate fund that is managed by Alternative Investment Fund Manager license holder Northern Horizon Capital AS. 

    Distribution: GlobeNewswire, Nasdaq Tallinn, Nasdaq Stockholm, www.baltichorizon.com

    To receive Nasdaq announcements and news from Baltic Horizon Fund about its projects, plans and more, register on www.baltichorizon.com. You can also follow Baltic Horizon Fund on www.baltichorizon.com and on LinkedIn, Facebook, X and YouTube.

    Attachments

    The MIL Network –