NewzIntel.com

Category: Education

  • MIL-OSI USA: Warranted and worthy: Culp pinned in Guard ceremony

    Source: US State of Wyoming

    Wyoming National Guard

    By Joseph Coslett

    GUERNSEY, Wyo. – With applause and a deep sense of tradition, Staff Sgt. Caleb Culp was officially welcomed into the U.S. Army Warrant Officer Corps during a pinning ceremony held June 26, 2025, in Guernsey, Wyoming.

    The ceremony marked a defining moment in Culp’s military journey. One shaped by grit, technical excellence, and a drive to serve at the next level. Surrounded by fellow Soldiers, mentors, and family members, Culp took the oath of office and received his warrant officer one rank insignia, signifying his transition into a new chapter of service.

    “This isn’t just about a rank,” said Chief Warrant Officer 5 Derek Fisbeck, Command Chief Warrant Officer of the Wyoming Army National Guard. “It’s about technical leadership, mentorship, and a lifelong commitment to selfless service. Warrant Officer Culp embodies all of that.”

    Culp graduated from Warrant Officer Candidate School Class 25-0A5 at Fort McClellan, Alabama, on June 4, 2025. His efforts earned him a place on the prestigious Commandant’s List. Wanting to celebrate the accomplishment with those who helped him reach this milestone, he delayed his pinning ceremony until he could return home to Wyoming.

    “It meant everything to have my wife and daughter on stage with me,” Culp said. “They’ve supported me through every long day and late night. Today is as much theirs as it is mine.”

    The ceremony included remarks from senior leaders, a presentation of flowers to Culp’s wife, the administering of the oath by Chief Warrant Officer 4 Duane Messmer, and the traditional first salute—rendered by Staff Sgt. Tracy, a mentor and fellow Soldier. Culp returned the gesture with a silver dollar, honoring military tradition and the bond between enlisted and officer.

    “The silver dollar salute is a symbol of respect,” Culp said. “Tracy helped shape me into the Soldier I am. That moment was one I’ll never forget.”

    Chief Warrant Officer 2 Iesha Bloom, who served as master of ceremonies, also offered reflections on the importance of family support.

    “Behind every strong Soldier is a family that holds the line,” said Bloom. “The strength we celebrate in our formations today is built on a foundation of sacrifice, love, and unshakable support at home.”

    The ceremony concluded with a round of applause and a heartfelt welcome into the Warrant Officer Cohort—a distinguished group of technical experts and leaders trusted with integrating systems and guiding missions.

    Warrant Officer One Caleb Culp is pinned during a Wyoming Army National Guard ceremony in Guernsey, Wyoming, June 26, 2025, celebrating his advancement into the warrant officer ranks. The event honored his achievement, leadership potential, and the family support behind his success. (U.S. Army Guard photo)
    Warrant Officer One Caleb Culp is pinned during a Wyoming Army National Guard ceremony in Guernsey, Wyoming, June 26, 2025, celebrating his advancement into the warrant officer ranks. The event honored his achievement, leadership potential, and the family support behind his success. (U.S. Army Guard photo)
    Warrant Officer One Caleb Culp is pinned during a Wyoming Army National Guard ceremony in Guernsey, Wyoming, June 26, 2025, celebrating his advancement into the warrant officer ranks. The event honored his achievement, leadership potential, and the family support behind his success. (U.S. Army Guard photo)

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Why the Sycamore Gap tree provoked such strong emotional reactions – a psychologist explains

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Samuel Fairlamb, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London

    Joe Rey Photography/Shutterstock

    In September 2023, so many people were shocked when the famous Sycamore Gap tree, thriving in a dip along Hadrian’s Wall, was deliberately cut down overnight. For many, the tree symbolised British resilience, heritage and an enduring history. The public response was swift and intense, with widespread outrage and grief over the loss of this cultural landmark.

    The two men convicted of felling the Sycamore Gap tree have been sentenced to four years and three months in prison. Meanwhile, the tree lives on thanks to an AI-generated alternate world in the film 28 Years Later.

    As a psychologist, I’m interested in what inspired such a strong reaction to the destruction of a single tree. One psychological explanation, known as “terror management theory”, suggests that the emotional response reflects deeper anxieties about death – and not just about this tree.

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

    Terror management theory, developed by psychologists Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg and Tom Pyszczynski, builds on the work of cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker, author of the Pulitzer prize-winning The Denial of Death (1973).

    This book’s central idea is simple yet profound. In it, Becker proposes that our awareness of mortality creates the potential for considerable existential anxiety.

    To manage this, we rely on cultural worldviews. These are our belief systems. These worldviews can be religious, secular, political or national. They all share a promise that life is meaningful and offer prescriptions for how we should live. When we live in accordance with our cultural values and standards – whether by being a good parent, a loyal citizen or following religious texts – we gain a sense of self-esteem and feel we are contributing to something enduring and significant.

    These worldviews also offer the promise of immortality. Some do so literally, as in religious faiths that promise life beyond death. Others offer symbolic immortality, through lasting achievements, family bloodlines, or the continuation of one’s nation. By embedding ourselves in these worldviews, we gain a sense that some part of us will continue after we die.

    Cultural symbols such as flags, religious icons, or even a tree can embody our core values and collective identity and are therefore treated with deep reverence. Throughout history, people have waged wars and shown intense emotional reactions to the desecration of such symbols (burning the American flag or the Qur’an, for example).

    The Sycamore Gap tree was cut down in September 2023.
    SunCity/Shutterstock

    The Sycamore Gap tree carried similar significance. As a centuries-old landmark, it came to represent Britain’s heritage, strength and continuity. From the perspective of terror management theory, its felling may have stirred strong reactions because it reminded people that even the symbols we rely on for a sense of permanence can be suddenly lost.

    This sense of cultural loss is also echoed by other recent events, such as Brexit and the immigration crisis. A collective fear over the erosion of British values and traditions place questions about the loss of British identity at the centre of public consciousness.

    Rooted in mortality

    Decades of psychological research support this theory’s claims. One common method (a technique called “mortality salience”) involves making participants subtly aware of their mortality (control participants are not reminded of death).

    In studies carried out in the 1990s, researchers found that when the solution to a task required desecrating a cultural symbol, such as using an American flag to separate ink from a jar of sand, participants reminded of death took longer to complete the task and experienced greater apprehension.

    Hundreds of studies also show how being reminded of death can increase anger and hostility towards people who threaten or violate one’s cultural values. One line of research examining reactions to those who commit moral transgressions may be particularly appropriate to this case.

    For instance, in one study, participants reminded of their own death were more likely to support harsher punishments for those who committed moral transgressions such as someone who destroyed an irreplaceable artefact (much like the cutting down of a tree). Other research has shown similar effects: participants (including judges!) when reminded of death gave out harsher penalties or sentencing for those who have committed a crime.

    You might question whether these effects truly reflect death anxiety or if they could be explained without invoking a desire for immortality. Research may provide compelling evidence. One study found that reminders of death increased support for harsher punishments for moral transgressors (replicating the study mentioned earlier).

    However, when participants were first presented with evidence of an afterlife, the effect of death increasing harsher punishments disappeared. In other words, the promise that death is not the end appeared to buffer from the anxiety that death arouses.

    The fall of the Sycamore Gap tree was more than a loss of natural beauty. It was, for many, a symbolic attack on permanence, on meaning, and on shared identity. Yet while such losses can stir outrage and calls for punishment, research also shows that when people endorse prosocial values like empathy, reminders of death can actually foster forgiveness towards those who commit moral transgressions.

    According to terror management theory, these responses are not just about anger, but about what it means to be human in the face of inevitable death. In this light, the tree’s felling uprooted something sacred: a collective continuity that gives meaning to our brief lives. As we grieve its loss, perhaps we’re also mourning something more elusive – the comforting illusion that some things might last forever.

    This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

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

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

    Samuel Fairlamb 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. Why the Sycamore Gap tree provoked such strong emotional reactions – a psychologist explains – https://theconversation.com/why-the-sycamore-gap-tree-provoked-such-strong-emotional-reactions-a-psychologist-explains-257165

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Why the Sycamore Gap tree provoked such strong emotional reactions – a psychologist explains

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Samuel Fairlamb, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London

    Joe Rey Photography/Shutterstock

    In September 2023, so many people were shocked when the famous Sycamore Gap tree, thriving in a dip along Hadrian’s Wall, was deliberately cut down overnight. For many, the tree symbolised British resilience, heritage and an enduring history. The public response was swift and intense, with widespread outrage and grief over the loss of this cultural landmark.

    The two men convicted of felling the Sycamore Gap tree have been sentenced to four years and three months in prison. Meanwhile, the tree lives on thanks to an AI-generated alternate world in the film 28 Years Later.

    As a psychologist, I’m interested in what inspired such a strong reaction to the destruction of a single tree. One psychological explanation, known as “terror management theory”, suggests that the emotional response reflects deeper anxieties about death – and not just about this tree.

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

    Terror management theory, developed by psychologists Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg and Tom Pyszczynski, builds on the work of cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker, author of the Pulitzer prize-winning The Denial of Death (1973).

    This book’s central idea is simple yet profound. In it, Becker proposes that our awareness of mortality creates the potential for considerable existential anxiety.

    To manage this, we rely on cultural worldviews. These are our belief systems. These worldviews can be religious, secular, political or national. They all share a promise that life is meaningful and offer prescriptions for how we should live. When we live in accordance with our cultural values and standards – whether by being a good parent, a loyal citizen or following religious texts – we gain a sense of self-esteem and feel we are contributing to something enduring and significant.

    These worldviews also offer the promise of immortality. Some do so literally, as in religious faiths that promise life beyond death. Others offer symbolic immortality, through lasting achievements, family bloodlines, or the continuation of one’s nation. By embedding ourselves in these worldviews, we gain a sense that some part of us will continue after we die.

    Cultural symbols such as flags, religious icons, or even a tree can embody our core values and collective identity and are therefore treated with deep reverence. Throughout history, people have waged wars and shown intense emotional reactions to the desecration of such symbols (burning the American flag or the Qur’an, for example).

    The Sycamore Gap tree was cut down in September 2023.
    SunCity/Shutterstock

    The Sycamore Gap tree carried similar significance. As a centuries-old landmark, it came to represent Britain’s heritage, strength and continuity. From the perspective of terror management theory, its felling may have stirred strong reactions because it reminded people that even the symbols we rely on for a sense of permanence can be suddenly lost.

    This sense of cultural loss is also echoed by other recent events, such as Brexit and the immigration crisis. A collective fear over the erosion of British values and traditions place questions about the loss of British identity at the centre of public consciousness.

    Rooted in mortality

    Decades of psychological research support this theory’s claims. One common method (a technique called “mortality salience”) involves making participants subtly aware of their mortality (control participants are not reminded of death).

    In studies carried out in the 1990s, researchers found that when the solution to a task required desecrating a cultural symbol, such as using an American flag to separate ink from a jar of sand, participants reminded of death took longer to complete the task and experienced greater apprehension.

    Hundreds of studies also show how being reminded of death can increase anger and hostility towards people who threaten or violate one’s cultural values. One line of research examining reactions to those who commit moral transgressions may be particularly appropriate to this case.

    For instance, in one study, participants reminded of their own death were more likely to support harsher punishments for those who committed moral transgressions such as someone who destroyed an irreplaceable artefact (much like the cutting down of a tree). Other research has shown similar effects: participants (including judges!) when reminded of death gave out harsher penalties or sentencing for those who have committed a crime.

    You might question whether these effects truly reflect death anxiety or if they could be explained without invoking a desire for immortality. Research may provide compelling evidence. One study found that reminders of death increased support for harsher punishments for moral transgressors (replicating the study mentioned earlier).

    However, when participants were first presented with evidence of an afterlife, the effect of death increasing harsher punishments disappeared. In other words, the promise that death is not the end appeared to buffer from the anxiety that death arouses.

    The fall of the Sycamore Gap tree was more than a loss of natural beauty. It was, for many, a symbolic attack on permanence, on meaning, and on shared identity. Yet while such losses can stir outrage and calls for punishment, research also shows that when people endorse prosocial values like empathy, reminders of death can actually foster forgiveness towards those who commit moral transgressions.

    According to terror management theory, these responses are not just about anger, but about what it means to be human in the face of inevitable death. In this light, the tree’s felling uprooted something sacred: a collective continuity that gives meaning to our brief lives. As we grieve its loss, perhaps we’re also mourning something more elusive – the comforting illusion that some things might last forever.

    This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

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

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

    Samuel Fairlamb 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. Why the Sycamore Gap tree provoked such strong emotional reactions – a psychologist explains – https://theconversation.com/why-the-sycamore-gap-tree-provoked-such-strong-emotional-reactions-a-psychologist-explains-257165

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Province advances systemic changes to integrate social services, prevent crises

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    On the one-year anniversary of the release of the representative for children and youth’s (RCY) Don’t Look Away report, the Province is providing an update on its co-ordinated cross-government work across several ministries to better integrate social services and move to a more prevention-based model of support for children and youth.

    The report called for systemic transformation across government to better support vulnerable children and families in B.C. by detailing the devastating story of a child’s abuse and death. In response, the Province made eight key commitments and launched a cross-government deputy-minister project board to ensure a co-ordinated response to improving child and youth well-being in B.C. As part of this work, government is collaborating with Indigenous people and all partners to develop a child and youth well-being action plan and outcomes framework.

    This plan will serve as the cornerstone of the Province’s strategy to better aligning services across government, setting standards for child and youth well-being, preventing crises by prioritizing the most vulnerable and measuring the effectiveness of government programs in meeting core needs.

    “Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of Don’t Look Away, and we continue to hold the sacred stories of Colby and the other children in this report in our hearts and minds,” said Jodie Wickens, Minister of Children and Family Development. “Every child in our province deserves safety, belonging and love, and we must do better. We are working with all our partners toward a renewed model of child well-being that focuses on prevention, care and supporting families before they find themselves in crisis.”

    While the plan and framework are being developed, the Province has made improvements to the way it serves children, youth and families. The Ministry of Children and Family Development has added tools for oversight and tracking that make sure child or youth visits occur at least once every 90 days and has increased its workforce by almost 20% in the last two years. The ministry is also improving resources for kinship care providers and providing updated information about supports available.

    B.C. is leading the country with First Nations as they reclaim jurisdiction over their children, youth and families. With a unique context of 204 First Nations, the Province has already signed 12 agreements with Nations that have determined their paths forward, with dozens more to come. A major step forward on the path of lasting reconciliation, this work will improve outcomes for children and youth and reduce the over-representation of Indigenous children and youth in care, and the Province is committed to consulting with Indigenous partners on its child and youth well-being action plan.

    “We hear these calls to action and are committed to continue advancing self-determination so that Indigenous children in B.C. are not only safe, supported and loved, but remain connected to their communities, families, culture and language,” said Christine Boyle, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation.  

    Across government, several initiatives are underway to support the objectives of the plan, create strong foundations for families, and protect and uplift the most vulnerable. The stories in Don’t Look Away show that early supports are critical, and that is why government has taken action to provide more early intervention and mental-health and addiction programs for young people. 

    “Young people in British Columbia need access to age-appropriate mental-health and substance-use services that meet their unique needs,” said Josie Osborne, Minister of Health. “That’s why we’re focused on expanding prevention and early-intervention services, like Foundry Centres and Integrated Child and Youth Teams, to communities across the province. These services are vital to help young people get back on their feet, while our government continues to build a full continuum of mental-health and addictions care for everyone.”

    As recommended by the RCY, the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction has introduced an exemption to lift up people with disabilities and their families and to help reduce financial hardship for people with disabilities. That exemption ensures individuals and families receiving income, disability or hardship assistance can keep the full amount of the new federal Canada Disability Benefit without any reduction to their provincial benefits.

    “We want people with disabilities and their families to have access to the supports they need,” said Sheila Malcolmson, Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction. “That’s why this exemption allows people receiving provincial assistance to retain the entire amount of their federal Canada Disability Benefit, further helping them to support their children.” 

    The recommendations in Don’t Look Away address systemic issues that are directed at all of government. The RCY has acknowledged that the Province has taken action on 65% of the recommendations it is tracking from recent RCY reports, including Don’t Look Away.

    “The representative has recognized the steps we’ve taken so far and that the systemic changes we are making will take time,” Wickens said. “But we also hear the clear message that this work must continue, and it must expand. We are proud of the progress to date, but we know this is just the start and there is much more to do. Our government is determined to continue this work alongside the RCY and our Indigenous partners to change the way we work.”

    Government is committed to fundamentally rethinking how it supports children and families through improved accountability, increased oversight, enhanced safety and better co-ordination of services.

    Quick Facts:

    • Ministries involved in the development of a child and youth well-being action plan and outcomes framework include the Attorney General, Education and Child Care, Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, Health, Public Safety and Solicitor General, and Social Development and Poverty Reduction.
    • Since 2017, the Ministry of Children and Family Development has received year-over-year budget increases to significantly improve the supports and services provided to B.C.’s children, youth and families.
    • The ministry’s 2025-26 budget increased by $321.6 million to more than $2.4 billion, more than 81% of which goes directly to programs and services.

    Learn More:

    To learn more about RCY investigation and review, visit: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2024CFD0009-001124

    A backgrounder follows.

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI: Baltic Horizon Fund publishes its NAV for June 2025

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    The net asset value (NAV) per unit of the Baltic Horizon Fund (the Fund) increased to EUR 0.6766 at the end of June 2025 (0.6757 as of 31 May 2025). The month-end total net asset value of the Fund was EUR 97.1 million (EUR 97.0 million as of 31 May 2025). The EPRA NRV as of 30 June 2025 stood at EUR 0.7223 per unit.

    In June 2025, the consolidated net rental income of the Fund was EUR 1.0 million (EUR 1.0 million in May 2025). On 5 June 2025, a 3,679.7 sq.m. area in the S27 building was handed over to the anchor tenant, the International School of Riga which will open the premises for the new school year already in September.

    At the end of June 2025, the Fund’s consolidated cash and cash equivalents amounted to EUR 7.1 million (31 May 2025: EUR 7.2 million). As of 30 June 2025, the total consolidated assets of the Fund were EUR 238.8 million (31 May 2025: EUR 238.6 million).

    In alignment with recently implemented various cost-saving measures, the Fund management with the consent of the Fund Supervisory Board opted not to undertake interim property valuations. Management assumes at the same time that the 2025 mid-year fair values of the Fund’s properties would not be materially different from 2024 year-end valuations.

    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.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Durbin, Duckworth Announce $400K For Willard Airport

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Illinois Dick Durbin
    July 11, 2025
    CHICAGO – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today announced $400,000 in federal funding through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Authority for the University of Illinois Willard Airport to be used for runway rehabilitation.
    “By improving airport infrastructure, we are laying the foundation for increased connectivity and reliability,” said Durbin. “This federal funding for Willard Airport will upgrade the airport’s infrastructure and promote economic growth. I will continue working with Senator Duckworth to ensure our state’s regional airports have the necessary federal resources.”
    “Illinois’s airports are critical economic engines for our state,” Duckworth said. “I’m proud to join Senator Durbin in announcing this federal funding to help modernize and improve infrastructure at Willard Airport. I will continue working to make traveling safer and more reliable for all passengers while ensuring that our communities are receiving the much-needed federal resources they deserve.”
    -30-

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI: Travis Credit Union Foundation Awarded $75,000 Inclusiv Matched Savings Grant

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    VACAVILLE, Calif., July 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Travis Credit Union Foundation is proud to announce it has been awarded a $75,000 grant through the Inclusiv Build and Matched Savings Initiative, a nationally recognized program supporting innovative financial inclusion efforts. This prestigious grant will significantly enhance the Foundation’s Financial Coaching Grants Program, empowering underserved households across Northern California through a powerful combination of coaching and matched savings.

    The Inclusiv grant, awarded to only 11 credit unions nationwide, will allow the Foundation to launch a Matched Savings Initiative, providing financial coaching clients who save at least $300 over six months with a matching deposit of $300. This incentive not only boosts personal savings but strengthens long-term financial resilience for individuals and families across 12 Northern California counties.

    Now in its second year, the Financial Coaching Grants Program is also expanding its reach. The Foundation is awarding grants to two new nonprofit partners:

    • AGC Construction Education Foundation
    • C.O.P.E. Family Support Center

    These organizations join a growing network of trusted partners that includes Safequest Solano, Vacaville Solano Services, and the San Pablo Economic Development Corporation, all of whom participated in the 2024 cohort. Together, these organizations have helped over 150 clients begin personalized financial coaching journeys focused on debt reduction, credit repair, and improved savings.

    “This grant reflects our belief that real change happens when strategy meets compassion,” said Damian Alarcon-Young, President of the Travis Credit Union Foundation. “By aligning financial coaching with matched savings, we’re using every tool available to empower local families—and we’re doing it in partnership with organizations who share our values. This is a win for everyone involved and a signal to our communities that we are willing to go the extra mile with them, not just for them.”

    For more information, visit tcufund.org/grants

    About Travis Credit Union Foundation 
    The Travis Credit Union Foundation supports financial education and wellness initiatives and is the philanthropic arm of Travis Credit Union. The foundation is committed to making a positive impact in the communities it serves through financial education, charitable giving and community support. Travis Credit Union generously funds the administrative costs of the Travis Credit Union Foundation, allowing for 100% of funds raised to go back to the community. To learn more about the Travis Credit Union Foundation’s mission and how to participate in all it is doing to build financial wellness in the communities it serves, visit tcufund.org. 

    The Foundation is organized and operated exclusively for charitable and educational purposes under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3).  Tax ID #82-4159040 

    Media Contact 
    Michelle Sabolich 
    AVP, Corporate Communications 
    Travis Credit Union 
    media@traviscu.org 

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: 3 ways Canadians can take control of their finances in an age of economic uncertainty

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Omar H. Fares, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Business, University of New Brunswick

    Canadian consumers are beginning to move from short-term economic concerns to a more persistent mindset of financial precarity, and it’s starting to affect how they live.

    People are delaying major purchases and starting to show signs of subscription fatigue, according to recent findings. One recent survey found that 70 per cent of Canadians are deferring major life decisions, including home ownership and family planning, as a consequence of this sustained economic uncertainty.

    This anxiety is now reflected in broader sentiment. The Bank of Canada’s latest Consumer Expectations Survey found a sharp rise in economic pessimism. About two-thirds of Canadians now anticipate a recession within the year, up from 47 per cent in late 2024.

    Concerns about job security, debt repayment and access to credit are also mounting. For the first time since early 2024, more consumers report cutting back on spending. Home-buying intentions are declining, especially among those expecting a downturn, and an increasing share of mortgage holders plan to reduce expenses ahead of higher renewal payments.

    Consumers are no longer just reacting to inflation or interest rates, but adjusting to the idea that financial uncertainty may be here to stay.

    Why today’s economic anxiety feels different

    While the link between economic uncertainty and reduced spending is well established, what makes today’s situation different is the convergence of multiple pressures facing consumers.

    This includes a challenging job market — particularly for younger Canadians — concerns about the disruptive effects of AI-driven automation, the threat of tariffs from the United States, ongoing global conflicts and the growing cost of living.

    With economic uncertainty now a defining feature of everyday life for many Canadians, the sense of financial precarity is shaping how people think, plan and spend.

    Addressing this new reality will require equipping ourselves with tools and mental habits that can help develop financial stability, even in unpredictable times. Here are three research-backed ways to do this.

    A Global News segment about how half of Canadians are living bill-to-bill.

    1. Budget based on values

    With many people feeling the pinch or uncertainty around money, a more deliberate, values-based approach to personal finance is needed beyond traditional budgeting methods. If you’re looking for more control over your finances, it can help to shift your focus from just tracking where your money goes to making sure it goes where you actually want it to.

    Research in consumer behaviour supports this shift in mindset. Mental accounting, introduced by economist Richard Thaler, explains how people naturally divide their money into mental categories like stability, family or learning. Budgeting then becomes less about cutting back and more about making intentional choices.

    Studies have found that pairing this kind of values-based budgeting with simple practices, such as setting clear goals and automating transfers, can lead to lower spending and more consistent long-term behaviour. The goal is not to manage every dollar perfectly, but to make sure your money aligns with what matters most to you.

    Since values tend to guide sustainable decision-making, a practical starting point is to identify three to five core values, such as financial security, personal development or time with family. Next, review your recent transactions and group them by the value they support. This reframes budgeting as a way to assess whether your current spending aligns with what you consider most important.

    From there, assign a reasonable monthly amount to each category based on your income and fixed obligations. You don’t need to track every detail, but having value-based benchmarks will improve day-to-day choices.

    Renaming categories in your budgeting app or spreadsheet is another important approach. For example, changing “discretionary” to “family time” or “well-being” can reinforce the link between spending and values. Set up automated transfers that reflect your goals; this might include creating a savings buffer, funding education or contributing to a low-risk investment account. Automation helps reduce decision fatigue and supports consistency.

    2. Use pessimism to your advantage

    While recognizing economic risks is entirely rational, how people respond to that risk makes a significant difference. Psychologists have studied a mindset known as “defensive pessimism,” a strategy that involves anticipating potential problems in order to plan effectively, rather than being overwhelmed by uncertainty.

    Unlike chronic anxiety or fear, which can impair decision-making and lead to poorer financial and consumption choices, defensive pessimism encourages people to take a more measured, thoughtful approach. It combines realism with preparation and helps individuals stay focused and responsive in uncertain conditions.

    People are more resilient when they focus on what can be changed. In practical terms, this might include learning a new skill, starting a side project or strengthening personal or professional networks.

    To apply defensive pessimism, start by clearly identifying what could go wrong, then outline specific actions to address those possibilities. Break big tasks into smaller, manageable steps, create a backup plan and regularly reassess progress. This approach helps maintain focus, reduce surprises and turn worry into preparation.

    These small, proactive steps with detailed personal reflection can offer a sense of agency that counters feelings of helplessness. Rather than ignoring challenges, defensive pessimism coupled with consistent reflection is about figuring out how to work around them.

    3. Adopt a long-term outlook

    Despite ongoing uncertainty, maintaining a long-term financial perspective remains very important. Research consistently shows that people who engage in long-term planning tend to accumulate greater wealth over time.

    Long-term planning involves continuing to plan for future goals such as retirement or education, even when timelines need to shift due to changing circumstances.

    One of the greatest challenges with this approach is known as the “sour grape effect.” This refers to the tendency people have to downplay a future goal or reward after experiencing early setbacks or failures.

    A 2020 study with 1,304 participants in Norway and the U.S. found that setbacks can lead individuals to disengage from their goals. Participants were given either positive or negative feedback on an initial task and then asked to predict how much happiness they would feel if they succeeded in a later round.

    Those who experienced failure anticipated much less happiness from future success. When everyone actually did succeed, their levels of happiness were the same regardless of initial feedback. Setbacks can lead people to devalue their goals as a self-protective strategy. However, participants with high achievement motivation did not show this bias.

    In other words, when short-term disappointments are interpreted as failure, there is a risk that people may give up on long-term plans altogether. In these moments, the most effective course of action is staying consistent and committed, while still remaining agile enough to adapt as needed.

    Omar H. Fares 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. 3 ways Canadians can take control of their finances in an age of economic uncertainty – https://theconversation.com/3-ways-canadians-can-take-control-of-their-finances-in-an-age-of-economic-uncertainty-260785

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: 3 ways Canadians can take control of their finances in an age of economic uncertainty

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Omar H. Fares, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Business, University of New Brunswick

    Canadian consumers are beginning to move from short-term economic concerns to a more persistent mindset of financial precarity, and it’s starting to affect how they live.

    People are delaying major purchases and starting to show signs of subscription fatigue, according to recent findings. One recent survey found that 70 per cent of Canadians are deferring major life decisions, including home ownership and family planning, as a consequence of this sustained economic uncertainty.

    This anxiety is now reflected in broader sentiment. The Bank of Canada’s latest Consumer Expectations Survey found a sharp rise in economic pessimism. About two-thirds of Canadians now anticipate a recession within the year, up from 47 per cent in late 2024.

    Concerns about job security, debt repayment and access to credit are also mounting. For the first time since early 2024, more consumers report cutting back on spending. Home-buying intentions are declining, especially among those expecting a downturn, and an increasing share of mortgage holders plan to reduce expenses ahead of higher renewal payments.

    Consumers are no longer just reacting to inflation or interest rates, but adjusting to the idea that financial uncertainty may be here to stay.

    Why today’s economic anxiety feels different

    While the link between economic uncertainty and reduced spending is well established, what makes today’s situation different is the convergence of multiple pressures facing consumers.

    This includes a challenging job market — particularly for younger Canadians — concerns about the disruptive effects of AI-driven automation, the threat of tariffs from the United States, ongoing global conflicts and the growing cost of living.

    With economic uncertainty now a defining feature of everyday life for many Canadians, the sense of financial precarity is shaping how people think, plan and spend.

    Addressing this new reality will require equipping ourselves with tools and mental habits that can help develop financial stability, even in unpredictable times. Here are three research-backed ways to do this.

    A Global News segment about how half of Canadians are living bill-to-bill.

    1. Budget based on values

    With many people feeling the pinch or uncertainty around money, a more deliberate, values-based approach to personal finance is needed beyond traditional budgeting methods. If you’re looking for more control over your finances, it can help to shift your focus from just tracking where your money goes to making sure it goes where you actually want it to.

    Research in consumer behaviour supports this shift in mindset. Mental accounting, introduced by economist Richard Thaler, explains how people naturally divide their money into mental categories like stability, family or learning. Budgeting then becomes less about cutting back and more about making intentional choices.

    Studies have found that pairing this kind of values-based budgeting with simple practices, such as setting clear goals and automating transfers, can lead to lower spending and more consistent long-term behaviour. The goal is not to manage every dollar perfectly, but to make sure your money aligns with what matters most to you.

    Since values tend to guide sustainable decision-making, a practical starting point is to identify three to five core values, such as financial security, personal development or time with family. Next, review your recent transactions and group them by the value they support. This reframes budgeting as a way to assess whether your current spending aligns with what you consider most important.

    From there, assign a reasonable monthly amount to each category based on your income and fixed obligations. You don’t need to track every detail, but having value-based benchmarks will improve day-to-day choices.

    Renaming categories in your budgeting app or spreadsheet is another important approach. For example, changing “discretionary” to “family time” or “well-being” can reinforce the link between spending and values. Set up automated transfers that reflect your goals; this might include creating a savings buffer, funding education or contributing to a low-risk investment account. Automation helps reduce decision fatigue and supports consistency.

    2. Use pessimism to your advantage

    While recognizing economic risks is entirely rational, how people respond to that risk makes a significant difference. Psychologists have studied a mindset known as “defensive pessimism,” a strategy that involves anticipating potential problems in order to plan effectively, rather than being overwhelmed by uncertainty.

    Unlike chronic anxiety or fear, which can impair decision-making and lead to poorer financial and consumption choices, defensive pessimism encourages people to take a more measured, thoughtful approach. It combines realism with preparation and helps individuals stay focused and responsive in uncertain conditions.

    People are more resilient when they focus on what can be changed. In practical terms, this might include learning a new skill, starting a side project or strengthening personal or professional networks.

    To apply defensive pessimism, start by clearly identifying what could go wrong, then outline specific actions to address those possibilities. Break big tasks into smaller, manageable steps, create a backup plan and regularly reassess progress. This approach helps maintain focus, reduce surprises and turn worry into preparation.

    These small, proactive steps with detailed personal reflection can offer a sense of agency that counters feelings of helplessness. Rather than ignoring challenges, defensive pessimism coupled with consistent reflection is about figuring out how to work around them.

    3. Adopt a long-term outlook

    Despite ongoing uncertainty, maintaining a long-term financial perspective remains very important. Research consistently shows that people who engage in long-term planning tend to accumulate greater wealth over time.

    Long-term planning involves continuing to plan for future goals such as retirement or education, even when timelines need to shift due to changing circumstances.

    One of the greatest challenges with this approach is known as the “sour grape effect.” This refers to the tendency people have to downplay a future goal or reward after experiencing early setbacks or failures.

    A 2020 study with 1,304 participants in Norway and the U.S. found that setbacks can lead individuals to disengage from their goals. Participants were given either positive or negative feedback on an initial task and then asked to predict how much happiness they would feel if they succeeded in a later round.

    Those who experienced failure anticipated much less happiness from future success. When everyone actually did succeed, their levels of happiness were the same regardless of initial feedback. Setbacks can lead people to devalue their goals as a self-protective strategy. However, participants with high achievement motivation did not show this bias.

    In other words, when short-term disappointments are interpreted as failure, there is a risk that people may give up on long-term plans altogether. In these moments, the most effective course of action is staying consistent and committed, while still remaining agile enough to adapt as needed.

    Omar H. Fares 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. 3 ways Canadians can take control of their finances in an age of economic uncertainty – https://theconversation.com/3-ways-canadians-can-take-control-of-their-finances-in-an-age-of-economic-uncertainty-260785

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Decisions We Take Now ‘Will Shape Development Trajectories for Decades to Come’, Deputy Secretary-General Tells High-Level Political Forum

    Source: United Nations General Assembly and Security Council

    Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks at the opening of the 2025 high-level political forum on sustainable development, in New York today:

    In 2015, the world made a landmark commitment to achieve sustainable development and ensure that no one is left behind.

    The 2030 Agenda built on previous decades of development efforts and carried forward the vision and lessons of the Millenium Development Goals.

    It framed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) around a paradigm shift that integrates the three core dimensions of sustainable development — economic growth, social inclusion and environmental sustainability — and underscored the vital role of effective governance and strong institutions.

    It carried a promise to everyone, everywhere, to live in dignity, on a safe and healthy planet.

    Today, a decade later, we meet again as the world grapples with conflicts and deepening geopolitical tensions.

    The fabric of multilateralism is fading, and the SDGs seem out of reach.  Hard-won development gains are at serious risk, as a multitude of challenges, exacerbated by the chronic shortfall in adequate financing.

    Alarmingly, half of the world’s poorest countries have yet to return to their pre-pandemic income levels.

    Inequalities have amplified.  Trade tensions are escalating.  The climate crisis is worsening.  Democracy is under threat.  And the debt crisis continues to tighten its grip on the world’s poorest countries.

    The situation is truly sobering.  Yet, the latest data show that while progress on SDGs has been uneven and limited, there is reason for hope.

    Social protection and health systems are expanding, especially in middle-income countries, where they are reaching more people.

    More mothers are surviving childbirth and more children are living beyond their fifth birthday.

    Education access is broadening, creating new pathways for young people.

    The number of girls who are in school and studying STEM subjects is higher than ever before.

    Countries are investing in better data and technology, for policies to reach the furthest behind.

    There are promised investments in digital connectivity and clean energy, to serve those in the most remote areas.

    Meanwhile, the world has united behind an ambitious global agreement to confront deep-seated structural challenges and unlock faster, more inclusive progress.

    The Pact for the Future, adopted last September, builds on existing reforms and commitments and charts a bold way forward to revive multilateralism and collective action, anchored in peace, solidarity and cooperation.

    The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development renewed our commitment to deliver on the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, take forward debt solutions and tackle the international financial architecture.

    The Ocean Conference in Nice generated important consensus on critical issues, from marine protected areas to plastic pollution, illegal fishing and maritime security.

    The thirtieth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (Beijing+30) and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the women, peace and security agenda, reignited political drive for gender equality and women’s empowerment.

    And there are many more opportunities this year to push our agenda forward:

    The Second Stocktake of the UN Food System Summit.

    The Second World Summit on Social Development.

    The Biennial Summit on Finance.

    The thirtieth UN Climate Change Conference, and ahead of that, new, updated and economy-wide nationally determined contributions to get our climate goals back on track.

    We must build on these achievements.  Make the most of the momentum and drive action — particularly through this high-level political forum.

    We are under pressure because the truth is:  expectations are high, trust is eroding and crises are deepening, as we strive to deliver on our promise of the 2030 Agenda.

    This forum is an important opportunity to reflect, exchange and course correct.  It is our space to amplify the momentum, share lessons and good practice, deepen partnerships and reignite our collective ambition to fulfil the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals.

    Over the coming days, we must reflect honestly and constructively on progress.  Particularly on SDG3 on health and well-being; SDG5 on gender equality and women’s empowerment; SDG8 on decent work and economic growth; SDG14 on life below water; and SDG 17 on partnerships and means of implementation — this all with human rights at the centre of everything we do and hope to achieve.

    And we must focus on the theme of this year’s meeting:  “Inclusive solutions, based in science and evidence,” and take heed of key findings of the Secretary-General’s Report on the SDGs.

    We need solutions that address persistent challenges, that can be adapted and applied across diverse contexts and that improve the lives of billions of people who are left behind:  the 800 million people living in extreme poverty; the 2.2 billion people without safe drinking water; the 2.3 billion suffering food insecurity; the 3.4 billion without safely managed sanitation; and the countless women, Indigenous Peoples, smallholder farmers and other marginalized groups unable to access formal health and protection systems.

    This forum will also welcome the tenth set of voluntary national reviews, or VNRs.  They present a temperature check of every country’s journey.

    Since 2016, a total of 190 countries have conducted close to 400 VNRs.

    This voluntary national exercise has been almost universally adopted:  a heartening sign of commitment to the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs and evidence that the SDGs are now deeply woven into national plans, policies and monitoring frameworks.

    These reviews are powerful road maps to achieve the SDGs and mobilize all stakeholders.  Across regions, we have seen civil society’s engagement deepen — driving progress nationally and locally.  VNRs have helped build knowledge and data and offered practical pathways to dismantle structural barriers that hold us back.  Over the past decade, they have inspired action through inclusive, scalable approaches, grounded in local realities.

    I look forward to the 37 VNR presentations at this forum, and I encourage other countries to engage and foster a meaningful exchange of experiences. It is up to all of us to build on our successes and make this forum count.

    We have come far.  And have even further to go.  But we have much further to go if we are to honour the promise of the SDGs.

    The pathway to 2030 is narrowing.  And the decisions we take now — where we invest, what we prioritize, and where we reform — will shape development trajectories for decades to come.

    With five years to go, the Secretary-General’s UN80 initiative marks a historic step to build on recent reforms and ensure that the United Nations remains a trusted, agile partner, ready to tackle today’s challenges and tomorrow’s uncertainties, and drive our collective push for the 2030 Agenda nationally, regionally and globally.

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Regional School Feeding Forum kicks off in Latin America and the Caribbean

    Source: World Food Programme

    SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras – Around 200 participants from 18 countries, including government ministers, representatives of civil society, international financial institutions, and the United Nations, are meeting in San Pedro Sula from 15-17 July for a key forum to strengthen commitments to school feeding programs in Latin America and the Caribbean.

    The XI Regional School Feeding Forum for Latin America and the Caribbean, co-organized by the Government of Honduras and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), is a high-level event for leaders to help transform national school feeding programmes into an engine for social protection, sustainability, and inclusion.

    Government-led school meal programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean reach over 80 million children – second to only South Asia, according to WFP’s flagship State of School Feeding Worldwide 2022 report – with a collective annual investment of approximately USD 7.6 billion. These governments are also increasingly choosing to use local produce for school meals; stimulating local markets, and including seasonal foods in school menus.

    School meals are a vital way to boost school enrollment and attendance, and offer a return on investment of between USD 7 and USD 35 for every USD 1 invested. In Latin America, they have also proven key in helping to promote healthy eating practices and provide good nutrition for children

    A healthy diet in Latin America costs on average USD 4.56 per person per day – the highest daily cost globally, according to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report released in 2024. Around 180 million Latin Americans cannot afford this – and by 2050, climate impacts could increase the cost of a healthy diet by an additional 34 percent.

    A Committed Host

    Honduras joins the list of countries that have hosted the Regional School Feeding Forums, promoting spaces in favor of children for more than two decades. In the country, over 1.2 million schoolchildren receive sustainable school meals across more than 20,000 pre-primary and primary public schools nationwide. Between 2022 and 2025, the country will invest more than USD 140 million to provide over 79,000 metric tons of fortified food to help prevent childhood anemia and malnutrition.

    The National School Feeding Programme, led by the Ministry of Social Development (SEDESOL), aims to ensure food security, school attendance, and the integral development of future generations as part of a national poverty reduction strategy. It reaches nearly 43 percent of school-aged children enrolled in public schools, including 97,400 girls and boys from the country’s nine Indigenous and Afro-Honduran peoples, across 1,074 educational centers.

    “The wellbeing of our children is at the heart of our social protection policies and the fight against poverty in Honduras,” said Mirtha Gutiérrez, Minister of Social Development. “The National School Feeding Programme not only ensures food security but also promotes school reintegration and combats child malnutrition. At SEDESOL, we are ready to implement this public policy as a State strategy, strengthening governance and ensuring the sustainable continuity of the programme.”

    In close coordination with the Ministry of Education, more than 4,000 school gardens have been established to improve access to fresh foods. Additionally, the country has launched the National Network of Agricultural Schools, comprising of seven specialized schools and more than 200 community-based institutes and associated educational centers.

    “This regional forum is a crucial space to showcase the positive experiences in school feeding,” said Minister of Education, Professor Daniel Esponda. “Honduras is building a food autonomy policy, promoting the use of locally produced foods in school meals, with the goal that what is served in schools is grown in the communities themselves.”

    WFP Support for National Efforts

    WFP works with governments in the region to strengthen national school feeding efforts – with support tailored to the local context. For example, transforming empty shipping containers into kitchens in El Salvador; providing lunches to children affected by violence in Haiti; connecting farms with nearby schools in Guatemala; and promoting fortified rice in schools in Peru.

    “We reach students in vulnerable areas with critical support: those affected by drought, environmental degradation, and social exclusion from the Dry Corridor to the high Andean zones to the Amazon,” said Lola Castro, WFP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. “Delivering life-changing assistance to communities affected by conflict, displacement, and migration, or in places with high malnutrition, poor access to water and health services, and increasing urban food insecurity is critical. Ensuring the quality and coverage of food assistance when funding is limited is not easy. But the returns are undeniable.”

    Towards the Global Summit

    School meals programmes are the largest social safety net in the world, according to the World Bank, but the scope of these programs is still very uneven across countries. In Latin American and the Caribbean alone, the range is huge with some countries spending only USD 10 per child per year, while others invest up to USD 300.

    During the three-day Forum, participants will explore the value of school feeding for greater social protection, explore the role of schools as catalysts for sustainability and resilience, and promote school feeding with a focus on indigenous peoples.

    Additionally, the new report “More than a Meal” on the potential of school feeding in Guatemala and Peru to address malnutrition in an efficient and cost-effective manner will be presented. Produced jointly by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and WFP, the report explores how to improve meals in school so that the hours children spend at school count towards improving their nutrition.

    Latin America and the Caribbean is a region pioneering the expansion of school meals programmes to meet some of the biggest challenges facing people and our planet – from childhood nutrition to climate resilient food systems. The Forum is a key event to exchange experiences and jointly prepare for the 2nd Global School Feeding Summit, which will take place in Fortaleza (Brazil) at the end of the year.

    Note to editors: For more information and audiovisual content on the forum, visit the website.

    #                           #                            #

    The United Nations World Food Program is the largest humanitarian organization in the world, which saves lives during emergencies and provides food assistance to build a road to peace, stability and prosperity amongst populations which are recovering from conflict, disasters, and the impact of climate change.

    Follow us on Twitter: @wfp_media @wfp_es

    Subscribe to our WhatsApp channel.

    For more information, please contact us with (email: name.lastname@wfp.org):

    María Gallar, World Food Programme, mobile: +34 662 435 125, maría.gallar@wfp.org
     

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI Banking: New research: AI could make breast cancer screening more accurate and easier

    Source: Microsoft

    Headline: New research: AI could make breast cancer screening more accurate and easier

    At Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, we’ve been working with partners at the University of Washington, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, and other institutions to explore whether artificial intelligence can help bring greater clarity, accuracy, and trust to breast cancer screening. 

    This week, our joint research team released the results of a new study published in Radiology, detailing a promising AI approach that aims not just to detect cancer—but to do so in a way that radiologists can trust and patients can understand. 

    The challenges with current breast cancer screening 

    Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide. In the United States alone, one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. Early detection through screening is the most powerful tool available to save lives, with a 20% to 40% reduction in mortality for women aged 50-69—yet it remains an imperfect science. 

    Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is among the most sensitive screening tools available, especially for women at higher risk. But for all its sensitivity, MRI comes with serious trade-offs: high rates of false positives, significantly increased anxiety for patients, and unnecessary biopsies. The problem is especially acute for the nearly 50% of women who have dense breast tissue—a condition that not only increases the risk of breast cancer but also makes it harder to detect abnormalities through traditional imaging methods like mammograms. 

    Too often, these challenges translate into a troubling equation: more scans, more uncertainty, and more follow-up procedures that turn out to be unnecessary. In fact, only a small fraction—less than 5%—of women undergoing breast MRI screening are ultimately diagnosed with cancer. 

    A smarter model, built for the real world 

    The model—called FCDD (Fully Convolutional Data Description)—is based on anomaly detection rather than standard classification. That’s an important shift. Instead of trying to learn what every possible cancer looks like, the model learns what normal breast scans look like and flags anything that deviates.

    This approach is particularly effective in real-world screening settings where cancer is rare and abnormalities are highly varied. Across a dataset of over 9,700 breast MRI exams, the model was tested in both high- and low-prevalence scenarios—including realistic screening populations where just 1.85% of scans contained cancer.

    Here’s what we found:

    • Improved accuracy in low-prevalence populations: FCDD outperformed traditional AI models in identifying malignancies while dramatically reducing false positives. In screening-like settings, it achieved double the positive predictive value of standard models and cut false alarms by more than 25%.
    • Exceptional explainability: Unlike most AI models, FCDD doesn’t just give a “yes” or “no”—it generates heatmaps that visually highlight the suspected tumor location in the two-dimensional MRI projection. These explanation maps matched expert radiologist retrospective annotations with 92% accuracy (pixel-wise AUC), far exceeding other models.
    • Generalizability across institutions: Without retraining, the model maintained high performance on a publicly available external dataset and an independent internal dataset, suggesting strong potential for broader clinical adoption.

    Making AI impactful, not just impressive 

    This model is more than a technical achievement. It’s a step toward making AI useful in clinical workflows—providing triage support, reducing time spent on normal cases, and focusing radiologists’ attention where it matters most. By improving specificity at high sensitivity thresholds (95–97%), the model could help reduce unnecessary callbacks and biopsies, easing emotional and financial burdens for patients. 

    Importantly, the code and methodology have been made open to the research community. You can explore the project here: GitHub Repository, and the paper here.

    As with all AI in healthcare, the path to impact requires more than algorithms. It requires trust. Trust is built not only by performance metrics but also by transparency, interpretability, and a clear understanding of the clinical context in which these tools are deployed. 

    Where we go from here 

    We still have work ahead. The model will need to be tested prospectively in larger, diverse clinical populations. But the results are promising—and they mark an important shift in how we think about the role of AI in medicine. Rather than asking doctors to trust a black box, we’re building models that shine a light on what they see and why. 

    “We are very optimistic about the potential of this new AI model, not only for its increased accuracy over other models in identifying cancerous regions but its ability to do so using only minimal image data from each exam. Importantly, this AI tool can be applied to abbreviated contrast-enhanced breast MRI exams as well as full diagnostic protocols, which may also help in shortening both scan times and interpretation times,” said Savannah Partridge, Professor of Radiology at the University of Washington and senior author of the study. “We are excited to take the next steps to assess its utility for enhancing radiologist performance and clinical workflows.” 

    AI will not replace radiologists. But with the right design and oversight, it can give them sharper tools and clearer signals to increase confidence in evaluating difficult cases.  

    Breast cancer is a global challenge. With AI, we have a chance to detect it earlier, reduce unnecessary interventions, and ultimately save more lives. That is a future worth building toward—one pixel, one scan, and one breakthrough at a time. 

    Tags: AI, AI for Good

    MIL OSI Global Banks –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: New research: AI could make breast cancer screening more accurate and easier

    Source: Microsoft

    Headline: New research: AI could make breast cancer screening more accurate and easier

    At Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, we’ve been working with partners at the University of Washington, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, and other institutions to explore whether artificial intelligence can help bring greater clarity, accuracy, and trust to breast cancer screening. 

    This week, our joint research team released the results of a new study published in Radiology, detailing a promising AI approach that aims not just to detect cancer—but to do so in a way that radiologists can trust and patients can understand. 

    The challenges with current breast cancer screening 

    Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide. In the United States alone, one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. Early detection through screening is the most powerful tool available to save lives, with a 20% to 40% reduction in mortality for women aged 50-69—yet it remains an imperfect science. 

    Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is among the most sensitive screening tools available, especially for women at higher risk. But for all its sensitivity, MRI comes with serious trade-offs: high rates of false positives, significantly increased anxiety for patients, and unnecessary biopsies. The problem is especially acute for the nearly 50% of women who have dense breast tissue—a condition that not only increases the risk of breast cancer but also makes it harder to detect abnormalities through traditional imaging methods like mammograms. 

    Too often, these challenges translate into a troubling equation: more scans, more uncertainty, and more follow-up procedures that turn out to be unnecessary. In fact, only a small fraction—less than 5%—of women undergoing breast MRI screening are ultimately diagnosed with cancer. 

    A smarter model, built for the real world 

    The model—called FCDD (Fully Convolutional Data Description)—is based on anomaly detection rather than standard classification. That’s an important shift. Instead of trying to learn what every possible cancer looks like, the model learns what normal breast scans look like and flags anything that deviates.

    This approach is particularly effective in real-world screening settings where cancer is rare and abnormalities are highly varied. Across a dataset of over 9,700 breast MRI exams, the model was tested in both high- and low-prevalence scenarios—including realistic screening populations where just 1.85% of scans contained cancer.

    Here’s what we found:

    • Improved accuracy in low-prevalence populations: FCDD outperformed traditional AI models in identifying malignancies while dramatically reducing false positives. In screening-like settings, it achieved double the positive predictive value of standard models and cut false alarms by more than 25%.
    • Exceptional explainability: Unlike most AI models, FCDD doesn’t just give a “yes” or “no”—it generates heatmaps that visually highlight the suspected tumor location in the two-dimensional MRI projection. These explanation maps matched expert radiologist retrospective annotations with 92% accuracy (pixel-wise AUC), far exceeding other models.
    • Generalizability across institutions: Without retraining, the model maintained high performance on a publicly available external dataset and an independent internal dataset, suggesting strong potential for broader clinical adoption.

    Making AI impactful, not just impressive 

    This model is more than a technical achievement. It’s a step toward making AI useful in clinical workflows—providing triage support, reducing time spent on normal cases, and focusing radiologists’ attention where it matters most. By improving specificity at high sensitivity thresholds (95–97%), the model could help reduce unnecessary callbacks and biopsies, easing emotional and financial burdens for patients. 

    Importantly, the code and methodology have been made open to the research community. You can explore the project here: GitHub Repository, and the paper here.

    As with all AI in healthcare, the path to impact requires more than algorithms. It requires trust. Trust is built not only by performance metrics but also by transparency, interpretability, and a clear understanding of the clinical context in which these tools are deployed. 

    Where we go from here 

    We still have work ahead. The model will need to be tested prospectively in larger, diverse clinical populations. But the results are promising—and they mark an important shift in how we think about the role of AI in medicine. Rather than asking doctors to trust a black box, we’re building models that shine a light on what they see and why. 

    “We are very optimistic about the potential of this new AI model, not only for its increased accuracy over other models in identifying cancerous regions but its ability to do so using only minimal image data from each exam. Importantly, this AI tool can be applied to abbreviated contrast-enhanced breast MRI exams as well as full diagnostic protocols, which may also help in shortening both scan times and interpretation times,” said Savannah Partridge, Professor of Radiology at the University of Washington and senior author of the study. “We are excited to take the next steps to assess its utility for enhancing radiologist performance and clinical workflows.” 

    AI will not replace radiologists. But with the right design and oversight, it can give them sharper tools and clearer signals to increase confidence in evaluating difficult cases.  

    Breast cancer is a global challenge. With AI, we have a chance to detect it earlier, reduce unnecessary interventions, and ultimately save more lives. That is a future worth building toward—one pixel, one scan, and one breakthrough at a time. 

    Tags: AI, AI for Good

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Researcher Spotlight: Violeta Sanchez i Nogue’s Journey to Bioprocess Development at NREL

    Source: US National Renewable Energy Laboratory

    On a Christmas morning in the early 1990s, in a small town north of Barcelona, a young Violeta Sanchez i Nogue’s interest in chemistry was born. She unwrapped a junior chemistry lab kit that would ignite a love of science and lead to a successful career as a senior researcher at NREL.

    Violeta Sanchez i Nogue, now a senior researcher, started her career at NREL as a postdoctoral researcher. Photo by Werner Slocum, NREL

    “With the kit, you could run lots of different assays inside glass tubes with different chemical compounds,” Sanchez i Nogue said. “It even had an alcohol burner! In retrospect probably not the safest game, but you can imagine lots of color changes and fume generation when reactions were taking place. I had lots of fun playing with this game with my sister, and I was just fascinated by it.”

    With visions of someday working in a chemistry lab, Sanchez i Nogue took an opportunity to expand her horizons by joining an engineering boot camp during the summer before high school graduation.

    “I really enjoyed it, as it gave me exposure to university-level research,” she said. “We spent a couple of weeks taking environmental samples in the Pyrenees and analyzing them in a lab the university had installed at the mountain hostel. Most of the researchers were from the chemical engineering department, so I had the chance to learn about the types of research they were doing.”

    Combining Scientific Passions

    Needless to say, she was hooked. She decided to combine her two interests and pursue a degree in chemical engineering at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. During her undergraduate studies, she completed an internship at Lund University in Sweden, where she later returned to earn a Ph.D. in engineering. It was here that she became familiar with NREL’s leading work on lignocellulosics and bioethanol—the focus of her thesis.

    Sanchez i Nogue worked for a startup company developing yeast strains and processes for second-generation ethanol and other biotech applications. In the summer of 2015, she joined NREL as a postdoctoral researcher working on a project to produce renewable carbon fibers.

    “It just felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when a colleague from grad school sent me the job posting,” Sanchez i Nogue said. “It was a relatively big project with universities, other national labs, and industrial partners. This first project was ambitious, and the fermentations I was running were really fast, but it was an amazing experience to be able to work with a highly multidisciplinary team. After a few months of being at NREL, I had the opportunity to join another project, which I am still part of.”

    Working With Microorganisms

    “While one might think the challenges an organism faces when we put them in bioreactors are really different compared to their native environment, you can actually leverage lots of natural strengths and weaknesses from learning about their origins,” Sanchez i Nogue said.

    Violeta Sanchez i Nogue works with digesters in NREL’s Field Test Laboratory Building. Photo from Violeta Sanchez i Nogue, NREL

    Most of her projects have parallel efforts across the laboratory in metabolic engineering, separations, catalysis, and analysis.

    “Working on multidisciplinary projects with people who all have unique sets of expertise and backgrounds can be challenging at times,” Sanchez i Nogue said. “But it always feels like a pivotal moment when synergies occur because people work together.”

    “I love the fact that I learn something new every single day,” she said. “I have what I consider one of the greatest privileges in a job: I work with dedicated, hard-working, and kind people, and this is a pleasure not everyone has.”

    Seeking New Challenges

    While the development of core capabilities happens on a laboratory scale, Sanchez i Nogue also works at the pilot scale in NREL’s Integrated Biorefinery Research Facility and externally with different industrial and university project partners.

    Given her proclivity for collaboration, Sanchez i Nogue is not one to shy away from a new challenge. In 2023, she worked to onboard new operations in NREL’s Field Test Laboratory Building to be able to use different types of organic waste (including food waste, manure, and wastewater). Today, she is doing similar work on setting up an aerobic gas fermentation system in NREL’s new Research and Innovation Laboratory that will allow the use of hydrogen, oxygen, and flue gases.

    “Deploying new capabilities in the lab is often challenging,” Sanchez i Nogue said. “Who do we bring to the table to help moving things forward? How does it fit into the current lab operations? Which changes will be needed to implement it safely? It is a lot of work behind the scenes.”

    Sanchez i Nogue’s behind-the-scenes work has a history of paying off.

    “Over these last years, I have been fortunate to work with people who took our challenges as theirs, and that has allowed for instrumental changes to the system,” she said. “I am happy to contribute to expanding NREL’s bioeconomy and sustainable transportation research capabilities!”

    Living Beyond the Lab

    Outside of work, Sanchez i Nogue enjoys cooking, baking, reading, gardening, and raising her 2-year-old daughter, which includes answering endless whys about people and nature’s curiosities.

    “We recently had a nice opportunity to see a couple of robins nesting in our front yard, so we talked about how and why they were constructing the nest, laying the eggs, incubating them, feeding them, teaching them to fly, and more,” she said. “She is also fascinated by butterflies and has just started to distinguish ants from spiders.”

    Her daughter’s expanding love of learning about the world around her mirrors that of her own, nurtured by the fateful junior chemistry lab kit from many Christmases ago.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: HSE Strengthens Ties with Central Asia

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: State University “Higher School of Economics” –

    An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    The site may not display correctly in older browser versions. For optimal site experience, we recommend using a modern browser.

    We use cookies to improve the HSE website and make it more convenient to use. More detailed information about the use of cookies can be foundHere, our rules for processing personal data are –Here. By continuing to use the site, you confirm that you have been informed of the use of cookies by the HSE website and agree with our rules for processing personal data. You can disable cookies in your browser settings.

    ABC ABC ABC A A A A A

    Regular version of the site

    Date

    July 15

    Headings

    The article mentions

    Persons

    Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source of the information. It is an accurate report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    .

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Warren, Schumer, Sanders Urge ED Secretary McMahon to Reverse Interest Hike on Student Loan Borrowers Amid Rising Costs

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts – Elizabeth Warren
    July 15, 2025
    ED will increase the student loan balances of eight million Americans by $300/month on average.
    Senators: “You should immediately reverse this policy so that millions of borrowers are not forced to pay billions of dollars in unnecessary interest charges.”
    Text of Letter (PDF)
    Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, sent a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, urging the Department of Education (ED) to immediately reverse its recent decision to resume charging interest to the nearly eight million student loan borrowers currently in a forbearance after enrolling in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan. 
    “This decision will be devastating for millions of American families,” wrote the senators. “The average borrower enrolled in SAVE will be charged hundreds of dollars in interest each month, amounting to over $27 billion in unnecessary costs placed on borrowers across the country over the next year alone.”
    SAVE is an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan designed by the Biden Administration to make federal student loan payments significantly more affordable for millions of borrowers, which would have cut many borrowers’ monthly payments in half. Last year, as a result of litigation pursued by Republican state attorneys general, Republican-appointed judges blocked the implementation of the SAVE plan, forcing the eight million borrowers who had already enrolled in SAVE into a forbearance. In response, the Biden Administration implemented a safeguard that prevented these borrowers from accruing interest during the pause. 
    On July 9, 2025, Secretary McMahon announced that borrowers in the SAVE forbearance would begin accruing interest again. The decision came despite a backlog of 1.5 million unprocessed IDR applications, meaning that SAVE borrowers will likely be unable to switch to another IDR plan that would allow them to make progress toward debt relief. Instead, they will be stuck in forbearance with no way to avoid accumulating interest. And once the forbearance period ends, many of these borrowers’ monthly payments will be higher due to the extra interest charges that will have accumulated and compounded over time.
    ED’s new policy appears to be based on a false premise. The press release announcing the new policy claimed that it was required by a court order. But no court has told ED to resume charging interest, and the Administration has the legal right under the Higher Education Act to pause interest payments for borrowers in the SAVE forbearance. In fact, courts have even cited the interest-free forbearance as justification for continuing to temporarily suspend SAVE while litigation is ongoing.
    “It defies logic and the law that a months-old preliminary injunction against SAVE, which makes no mention of the interest-free forbearance, requires you to start charging interest to millions of borrowers in forbearance now,” wrote the senators. “You should immediately reverse this policy so that millions of borrowers are not forced to pay billions of dollars in unnecessary interest charges.”
    Due to the impacts this policy will have on millions of student loan borrowers, the senators demanded Secretary McMahon answer their questions about this new policy and the staggering IDR application backlog by July 28, 2025:
    “Under your leadership, ED has continuously failed student loan borrowers, jacking up costs and ripping up consumer protections,” concluded the senators. “This new policy is another example of the Trump Administration’s deliberate disregard for the millions of Americans shouldering student loan debt across the country.”
    Senator Warren launched the Save Our Schools campaign in a coordinated effort to fight back against President Trump’s attempts to abolish the Department of Education:
    On July 14, 2025, Senator Warren joined a letter to the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, and the Department of Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, demanding that the department stop blocking nearly $7 billion in funds for K-12 schools, including for afterschool programs. 
    On July 3, 2025, Senator Warren led her colleagues in submitting an amicus brief for NAACP v. US, arguing to the United States District Court District of Maryland that President Trump’s attempts to dismantle the Department of Education (ED) violate separation of powers and lack constitutional authority.
    On June 10, 2025, Senator Warren met with Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and delivered over 1,000 letters to McMahon that the senator had received from people in all 50 states who were worried about the Secretary’s efforts to dismantle ED.
    On June 9, 2025, Senator Warren led her colleagues in pushing the Acting Inspector General of ED to open an investigation into new information obtained by her office, revealing that DOGE may have gained access to two FSA internal systems, in addition to sensitive borrower data.
    On May 20, 2025, Senator Warren and 27 other senators pushed for full funding for the Office of Federal Student Aid.
    On May 14, 2025, Senator Warren led a Senate forum entitled “Stealing the American Dream: How Trump and Republicans Are Raising Education Costs for Families,” highlighting the consequences of Secretary Linda McMahon’s reckless dismantling of the Department of Education (ED) and President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” for working- and middle-class students and borrowers.
    On May 13, 2025, Senator Warren agreed to meet with Education Secretary Linda McMahon and promised to bring questions and stories from Americans across the country to highlight how the Trump administration’s attacks on education are hurting American families.
    On May 6, 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren highlighted the consequences of President Trump and Secretary Linda McMahon’s reckless dismantling of the Department of Education for American families in a Senate forum.
    On April 24, 2025, Senator Warren launched a new investigation into the harms of President Trump’s attacks on the Department of Education, seeking information on the impact of the Trump administration’s actions from the members of twelve leading organizations representing schools, parents, teachers, students, borrowers, and researchers.
    On April 10, 2025, following a request led by Senator Warren, the Department of Education’s Acting Inspector General agreed to open an investigation into the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle the Department of Education.
    On April 2, 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Mazie Hirono, along with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, sent a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon regarding the Department of Government Efficiency’s proposed plan to replace the Department of Education’s federal student aid call centers with generative artificial intelligence chatbots.
    On April 2, 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren launched the Save Our Schools campaign to fight back against the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education (ED) and highlight the consequences for every student and public school in America.
    On March 27, 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) led a letter to Acting Department of Education Inspector General (IG) René Rocque requesting that the IG conduct an investigation of the Trump Administration’s attempts to dismantle the Department of Education.
    On March 20, 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders led a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon regarding the Trump Administration’s decision to slash the capacity of Federal Student Aid to handle student aid complaints.
    On February 24, 2025, in a response to Senator Warren, Secretary McMahon gave her first public admission that she “wholeheartedly” agreed with Trump’s plans to abolish the Department of Education.
    On February 11, 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Andy Kim sent Linda McMahon, Secretary-Designate for the U.S. Department of Education, a 12-page letter with 65 questions on McMahon’s policy views in advance of her nomination hearing.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Lagos is young and diverse, so what shapes ethnic and religious prejudice among teens? Our study tried to find out

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Leila Demarest, Associate Professor, Institute of Political Science, Leiden University

    Lagos State, with an estimated population of 20 million, is Africa’s largest metropolis. Home to Nigeria’s commercial capital, it is a magnet for internal migration, drawing in a mix of the country’s ethnic groups. Nigeria is estimated to have between 150 and 500 distinct ethnic groups, many of which are represented in Lagos.

    The original inhabitants of Lagos were Yoruba. As the colonial capital, the city experienced early migration from the Igbo group from the south-east. The Hausa-Fulani, from the north, are another important group to have been drawn to Lagos. More recent migration to the city has also been caused by insecurity in the north of Nigeria.

    The social interactions between people from diverse backgrounds have been studied extensively as dynamics of exclusion are often pervasive in developed and developing societies alike. In multi-ethnic societies in Africa where there has been violent conflict, the question of peaceful coexistence is all the more important.

    In Nigeria, past ethno-religious violence has led to massive casualties. The 1960s Biafra war and lethal riots in Kaduna and Jos in recent decades stand out. Lesser tensions are also present in Lagos state around competition for jobs and access to political power.

    Intergroup tensions in Lagos may give rise to concerns about the risk of more serious threats.

    But do we see this in adolescents, who haven’t yet started competing with each other for jobs and resources? In schools, young people generally have equal status, common goals, intergroup cooperation, and potential for friendship. Could new generations overcome the adversarial past?

    We have decades of research between us straddling group behaviour and identity formation, peace and conflict dynamics, and ethnicity and religion in sub-Saharan Africa. For our research we aimed to gain a picture of intergroup dynamics among Lagos adolescents.

    We concluded from surveying young people that higher diversity levels encourage more friendships and cross-group political discussions, which lead to positive relations between ethnic groups. But waiting for this to happen naturally may not be the best approach. It may leave smaller minority groups exposed to discrimination in the meantime. Policy interventions may encourage a quicker development of positive relations.

    Survey of Lagos adolescents

    Nigeria has a large youth population. Half of the people who live in Lagos state are younger than 25. That could have an important impact on future developments in the city, including intergroup relations.

    In 2019, we surveyed final year secondary school students in 36 schools across the state to find out how they viewed other societal groups and which factors affected their views. Most previous research on intergroup relations has focused on adults.

    We aimed to obtain a sample of Lagos adolescents who experienced diversity in their daily lives. To achieve this, we drew from both urban and rural districts. Our final sample contained 70 % Yoruba, 16 % Igbo, 2 % Hausa-Fulani, and 12 % other minority group adolescents.

    We found that:

    • adolescents who reported more cross-group friendships had more positive attitudes, including higher trust, towards other groups

    • those exposed to political discussions in diverse contexts were more likely to hold positive attitudes towards other ethnic and religious groups

    • when youths experienced more diversity in their schools and neighbourhoods they were less likely to stereotype members of groups

    • they were also less likely to report a preference for their own group when it comes to teachers, future bosses, marriage partners and electoral candidates.

    In contrast, youths exposed to political discussions in ethnic enclaves held negative views.

    Diversity and contact

    We used statistical analyses to investigate intergroup relations among our youth sample. We first asked whether there was a relationship between exposure to other groups and attitudes towards them. While urban areas, especially megacities like Lagos, are often characterised by diversity, many ethnic enclaves or homogeneous neighbourhoods exist.

    We found that higher exposure to diversity had mixed effects. It was associated with less stereotyping and in-group preference, but also related to lower trust in others in general.

    Mixed effects are not surprising, as scholars have long held that exposure to diversity does not really tell us how people actually relate to one another: what matters more is positive contact between individuals from different groups. Contact has been robustly associated with more positive intergroup attitudes in predominantly western-focused studies. In Africa-focused studies results have been mixed, with some finding positive and others no real impact of contact.

    Our findings provide evidence for positive contact theory as adolescents with more cross-group friendships held more positive attitudes towards other groups and also had higher trust. This demonstrates actual positive contact is more important than mere exposure to diversity.

    We also found that exposure to political narratives mattered. Youths who were exposed to political discussions in diverse contexts were more likely to hold positive attitudes towards other ethnic and religious groups.

    Policy implications

    Intergroup attitudes are formed at an early age. Once developed, prejudice or tolerance have a tendency to “stick” over time. Questions on the development of positive attitudes are in need of urgent attention in Africa because of the continent’s youthful populations and many African countries’ experiences with ethnic and religious conflict.

    This brings us to the question of whether tolerance of others can be fast-tracked, especially at an early age, and when youth can be targeted through school interventions. Evidence from other (western) studies suggests that multicultural education, in which pupils are exposed to different cultures in the curriculum, cross-group class discussions on political themes, and cross-group school projects, may encourage positive intergroup relations.

    These types of policies come with an important warning though. As we have seen during our field work, many schools, especially public schools, face large class sizes due to resource constraints and teacher training is minimal. Corporal punishment is still implemented. Group work and deliberation are difficult to manage with large numbers and a lack of training, and teachers also risk bringing their own prejudices to the classroom.

    So it’s important to design interventions carefully and more research is needed to do this effectively in African contexts.

    – Lagos is young and diverse, so what shapes ethnic and religious prejudice among teens? Our study tried to find out
    – https://theconversation.com/lagos-is-young-and-diverse-so-what-shapes-ethnic-and-religious-prejudice-among-teens-our-study-tried-to-find-out-260720

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI: Gold News Today: Bullish Start Triggered by Tariff Tensions – July 15 Gold Price Forecast Released by TheExpertVault

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    New York City, NY, July 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Gold futures surged out of the gate on Monday, opening at $3,376.50 per ounce, up 0.6% from Friday’s close of $3,356. This marks the highest open in nearly a month, building on June’s brief spike above $3,400.

    As investor demand spikes, TheExpertVault has released its 2025 Gold IRA Ratings, based on a thorough evaluation of customer experience, service quality, and transparency.

    >> Explore trusted Gold IRA providers here <<

    The rally follows newly imposed tariffs on foreign imports. U.S. leadership announced 30% duties on EU and Mexican goods, 35% on Canadian imports, and 50% on copper—with discussions underway to raise the general 10% blanket tariff to as high as 20%. In response, equity markets faltered—S&P 500 futures dropped 0.4%—as gold gained favor among investors seeking safety.

    Where Gold Prices Stand At The Moment

    • Today’s Open: $3,376.50
    • 1-Week Gain: +2.1% (vs. $3,305.50 on July 7)
    • 1-Month Movement: –0.9% (vs. $3,407.30 on June 13)
    • 1-Year Surge: +40.7% (vs. $2,399.80 on July 12, 2024)

    This performance illustrates the shifting market climate: as uncertainty increases, demand for reliable stores of value—like gold—climbs.

    Why Gold Is Gaining Momentum

    Gold has historically outperformed in times of volatility and inflation. It doesn’t rely on company earnings, interest rates, or central bank policy, which makes it a compelling hedge.

    “Gold should be viewed as an insurance policy,” said one analyst, noting its reputation as a reliable store of value when markets shake.

    Unlike traditional assets, gold tends to move independently of stocks and bonds. That’s why long-term investors use it as a portfolio stabilizer—especially in volatile years like 2025.

    Considering adding gold to your portfolio? See this year’s trusted Gold IRA providers

    How to Invest in Gold (Without the Guesswork)

    Here’s a smart 4-step strategy:

    1. Define your objective – Hedge, diversify, preserve?
    2. Choose your allocation – What percent of your retirement should gold cover?
    3. Pick the right structure – Bullion, ETFs, digital metals, or Gold IRAs
    4. Match your timeline – Long-term preservation vs. short-term protection

    Gold IRAs, in particular, allow you to hold physical gold in a retirement account with tax benefits and professional storage—without violating IRS rules.

    Discover which providers offer secure, tax-advantaged Gold IRAs

    Looking Ahead: Gold Forecast Hints at $3,700

    Some analysts are forecasting a climb to $3,700 per ounce by year-end, citing growing central bank demand and mounting geopolitical risk. If this trajectory continues, gold could outpace many traditional investments this year.

    After years of sideways performance, the current uptrend suggests that gold may once again become a core piece of modern retirement strategies.

    Get the full report on the ideal Gold IRA accounts for 2025

    How We Made The List Of Selected Gold IRA Companies

    Before finalizing our July 2025 rankings, we set out to objectively assess which Gold IRA companies stand out—not just in marketing but in real performance, fee transparency, and investor trust. With dozens of providers in the space, we focused on verifiable metrics and user data to provide a list that retirement investors can truly rely on.

    Here are the key criteria we used:

    1. Reputation & Ratings

    We examined third-party platforms like the BBB, BCA, and Trustpilot, prioritizing firms with consistent high scores and resolved complaints. How companies respond to negative feedback was also a major factor.

    2. Fee Transparency

    We prioritized providers that clearly disclose all costs—setup fees, maintenance, storage, and markups. Companies offering flat-rate models or fee waivers for higher deposits scored well.

    3. Storage & Security

    We reviewed depository partnerships, insurance coverage, and whether firms offered segregated vs. non-segregated storage. Secure, IRS-compliant storage was non-negotiable.

    4. Customer Support & Education

    We gave additional weight to providers offering educational tools, no-pressure consultations, and responsive teams. Investor-first firms stood out clearly.

    5. Minimum Investment Requirements

    While some companies cater to high-net-worth investors, we gave credit to those that accommodate smaller rollovers as well, making Gold IRAs more accessible.

    6. Buyback Programs

    The ability to exit matters just as much as entering. We checked for written buyback policies with no hidden fees or barriers to liquidity.

    Gold IRA Companies: FAQs

    What is the most trusted gold IRA company?
    While several firms are respected, the ideal ones combine transparency, strong customer ratings, and educational support.

    Are gold IRAs a good investment?
    Gold IRAs are a long-term hedge—ideal for diversification and preserving wealth during market downturns.

    How do I choose a custodian?
    Look for IRS-approved custodians with clear pricing, strong customer service, and secure storage options.

    Can you make money with a Gold IRA?
    Yes, though growth depends on gold prices and your cost basis. They’re ideal for stability, not quick profits.

    Final Thoughts: Why Gold IRAs Still Matter in 2025

    As inflation lingers and market uncertainty persists, investors are increasingly turning to tangible assets for retirement planning. Gold IRAs offer a tax-advantaged, regulated path to do just that—but not all providers are created equal.

    This year’s rankings focus on credibility, cost-efficiency, and investor-first service to help you make an informed decision. As the role of alternative assets grows, choosing the right partner will be key.

    Company Name: TheExpertVault

    Customer Support Email: info@theexpertvault.com

    Phone Number: 888-728-8834

    Website: www.theexpertvault.com 

    Disclaimer: This analysis was conducted by TheExpertVault’s editorial team, based on independent research and third-party data. This is not financial advice. Always perform your own due diligence before making any investment decision.

    Attachment

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: What Canada could learn from the tragic consequences of the Texas flash flood

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Gordon McBean, Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography and Environment, Western University

    On July 4, a horrific flash flood occurred in central Texas, mainly impacting Kerr County. The heavy rain started at about 3 a.m., resulting in rainwater surging down mountain slopes, causing the waters in the Guadalupe River to rise by eight metres very quickly.

    At least 132 people have been confirmed dead as of July 14; most of them were in Kerr County. The area is under renewed flood warnings as heavy rains threaten to continue.

    In recognition of the scope of this tragedy, it’s important to determine why it happened. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott stated that a special session of the state legislature will be held in late July to investigate the emergency response.

    Acting to reduce impacts

    Local Texas officials are facing questions over their actions in the hours — and years — before the flood. In recent years, multiple efforts in Kerr County to build a more substantial flood warning system have faltered or been abandoned due to budget concerns.

    In 2015, a deadly Memorial Day flood in Kerr County rekindled debate over whether to install a flood monitoring system and sirens that would alert the public to evacuate when the river rose to dangerous levels. Some officials, cognizant of a 1987 flood that killed eight people on a church camp bus, thought it should be done, but the idea ran into opposition.

    Some residents and elected officials opposed the installation of sirens, citing the cost and noise that they feared would result from repeated alarms. As a result, Kerr Country did not have emergency sirens that could have warned residents about the rising waters.

    Critical warnings

    The critical challenge for communicating flash floods is ensuring that early warnings reach vulnerable populations. Unlike slow-onset river floods, flash floods leave very limited time for reaction. This makes accurate short-term forecasting and community preparedness essential.

    The U.S. National Weather Service issued its first public warning about the flooding in Kerr County at 1:14 a.m. on July 4, warning of life-threatening flash flooding, with subsequent warnings triggering alerts.

    Floodwaters surged dramatically as the Guadalupe River rose nearly eight metres in about 45 minutes. The 4:03 a.m. warning instructed residents to “Move to higher ground now! This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation.”

    The warnings were disseminated at night through emergency management systems and television and radio stations, but many people, including hundreds of children at summer camps, did not receive them.

    Government agencies at all levels need to work together to ensure that residents of impacted areas move effectively to outside of the flood area or at least to higher elevation areas or safe buildings.

    CBC News covers the flood warnings issued during the Texas floods.

    Societal impacts

    The World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Assessment for 10-year periods ranked extreme weather events as the highest global risk in both the 2024 and 2025 assessments. Floods are a very important extreme weather event.

    The U.S. National Centers for Environmental Information published its review of events for the period 1980-2024. Tropical cyclones were the costliest weather and climate disasters, followed by: droughts, wildfires and flooding, which had an average cost of US$4.5 billion per event. The number of billion-dollar inland flood events has increased in the U.S.

    Note that the dollar costs of these events in these assessments do not include the many societal impacts, including mental trauma and other health impacts.

    Terminations at U.S. agencies

    There have been major reductions in the staffing and budgetary support of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Services, which is part of NOAA.



    Read more:
    Terminations at U.S. government agencies that monitor extreme weather events will have negative effects

    The impacts of these reductions on the weather and flood forecasts that would have alerted Texans on July 4 are not yet clear. At the time of writing, the website for the National Weather Services office for Austin/San Antonio, which covers the region that includes hard-hit Kerr County, shows six of 27 positions are listed as vacant. One important vacancy is that of the key manager responsible for issuing warnings and co-ordinating with local emergency management officials.

    The U.S. government has also reduced the funding for research on weather systems, including floods. There have also been reductions in the funding support for scientific analyses of how climate change will affect the severity of storms.

    Deep funding cuts to NOAA may result in the termination of both the National Severe Storms Lab and the Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations at the University of Oklahoma, which will have a highly negative impact on the understanding of storms.



    Read more:
    Trump’s budget cuts are adding to risk in life-threatening floods and emergencies

    Canadian floods

    The Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory was established in 2024 at Western University to conduct leading research on severe weather in Canada.

    Flooding is the most common and costly disaster in Canada. In the past decade, floods have averaged nearly $800 million in insured losses annually.

    Over time, the potential for extreme rainfall events is increasing. Heavy rainfall events and their ensuing flood risks are increasing because of warmer temperatures.

    Canadian data shows that climate change is driving increasingly severe and frequent floods.

    Is Canada prepared?

    Flooding will only get worse in the future, and government action is needed to manage this growing risk. One of the ways in which Canada isn’t prepared is that most flood-risk maps are out of date, with some being decades old.

    While Environment and Climate Change Canada issues weather watches and warnings for things like tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and rainfall, it doesn’t provide flood forecasts.

    Most provinces argue that water resources are natural resources and are therefore under provincial jurisdiction. This means that weather forecasts across the country are provided by the Meteorological Service of Canada, while flood forecasts are produced by each of the provinces.

    It is important to take actions to address adaptation and climate resilience that consider future floods and their impacts. Federal, provincial and territorial governments will need to work together to avoid tragedies.

    Gordon McBean has received funding from the Canadian funding agencies (SSHRC, NSERC) for academic research in the past. He has received funding for research from Western University including one grant that has not yet been completed and from the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction to participate in scientific meetings and conferences.

    – ref. What Canada could learn from the tragic consequences of the Texas flash flood – https://theconversation.com/what-canada-could-learn-from-the-tragic-consequences-of-the-texas-flash-flood-260755

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: How AI can help protect bees from dangerous parasites

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Farnaz Sheikhi, Postdoctoral Associate in Computer Vision, University of Calgary

    Tiny but mighty, honeybees play a crucial role in our ecosystems, pollinating various plants and crops. They also support the economy. These small producers contribute billions of dollars to Canada’s agriculture industry, making Canada a major honey producer.

    However, in the winter of 2024, Canada’s honey industry faced a severe collapse. Canada lost more than one-third of its beehives, primarily due to the widespread infestation of Varroa mites.

    Traditional methods for controlling these parasites now seem less effective, and the industry needs a transition to smart beekeeping if it is to survive.

    We are currently conducting research to develop a non-invasive and sustainable method for the early detection of Varroa mites. Our proposed approach uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze images from beehives, automatically classifying them based on the presence of Varroa mites and the level of infestation.

    Varroa infestations

    Varroa mites are tiny parasites that attach to honeybees, feed on their body tissue and transmit viruses throughout the colony. Over the years, these parasites have developed resistance to the traditional control methods, necessitating more aggressive treatments. However, these treatments can endanger the health of honeybees.

    The Prairie provinces — Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba — are Canada’s top honey-producing regions, with Alberta alone contributing almost 40 per cent of the country’s total honey production.

    Canada lost an average of 34.6 per cent of its bee colonies in the winter of 2024 — 2.4 per cent more than the loss of the previous year. The winter losses across Canada ranged from 9.8 per cent in Newfoundland and Labrador to 61.3 per cent on Prince Edward Island. In the Prairie provinces, colony losses reached almost 40 per cent.

    Investigations reported that Varroa mite infestations were a key contributing factor causing the devastation.

    Economic impact on Canada

    Winter 2024 losses had a devastating effect on Canada’s beekeepers. The high cost of honeybees as well as the intensive labour and time needed to rebuild hives make them difficult to replace.

    Within a stable environment and a thriving industry, increased investment yields higher returns. In 2023, the number of beekeepers and bee colonies in Canada increased by 3.29 per cent and 2.4 per cent, respectively.

    Yet, in 2024, Canada experienced an 18.3 per cent decrease in honey production. The total national value of the harvest declined by 24.5 per cent, dropping from from $283 million in 2023 to $214 million. The Prairie provinces were hit hardest; the value of honey solely produced in Alberta fell from $100 million in 2023 to $75 million in 2024.

    Limitations of current monitoring methods

    Preventing mites requires frequent hive monitoring. Although timely detection is critical for treating hives, manual inspection is time-consuming and labour-intensive. Furthermore, frequent manual monitoring can pose risks to the health and well-being of honeybees.

    Alcohol washes, sugar shakes and using sticky boards are among the methods for Varroa mites monitoring. In a typical alcohol wash test, about 300 bees per colony are sampled. These bees are washed in rubbing alcohol. Then, they are shaken rigorously to check for Varroa mites. The problem with this method is that all the bees tested die in the process.

    While other methods, such as the sugar shake and using sticky boards, do not kill the bees tested, they deliver limited results and are not always as accurate.

    This makes none of the current methods ideal; each involves a trade-off between invasiveness and accuracy. And given that testing must be done frequently, they all pose risks to the health of honeybees themselves. So what’s the solution?

    Using AI to detect Varroa mites

    There is an urgent need for the beekeeping industry to evolve to help prevent further losses and support the resilience of bee populations. Climate change and resistance of mites to traditional treatments are environmental alarms demanding a change in our beekeeping approaches.

    This is where artificial intelligence comes in. Using imaging systems, sensors embedded in hives, image-processing techniques and AI, researchers are now able to continuously collect and analyze hive data to detect Varroa mites.

    In this approach, a camera is placed inside the beehive brood box to capture images of the honeybees. These images are then transmitted via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth for storage and analysis.

    A neural network can be trained on the collected images — first to detect bees using object-detection algorithms, and then to identify Varroa mites on the bees through colour transformation techniques. Once mites are detected, their number within the hive can be automatically counted.

    Using this technology, beekeepers can benefit from automatic monitoring of the hives. When the level of infestation is specified by the system, it can also recommend effective treatments for hives. This way, Varroa mites can be detected and treated at an early stage, allowing hives to survive the winter more smoothly.

    Transitioning to smart beekeeping is a strategic solution that is non-invasive and environmentally friendly, cost-effective and profitable in the long term. The good news is that researchers at the University of Calgary and beekeepers are already working together to make this happen and preserve the sweetness of honey across our land.

    Farhad Maleki receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
    Alberta Innovate. He is affiliated with McGill University, where he serves as an adjunct Assistant Professor.

    Farnaz Sheikhi 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 AI can help protect bees from dangerous parasites – https://theconversation.com/how-ai-can-help-protect-bees-from-dangerous-parasites-259495

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Lagos is young and diverse, so what shapes ethnic and religious prejudice among teens? Our study tried to find out

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Leila Demarest, Associate Professor, Institute of Political Science, Leiden University

    Lagos State, with an estimated population of 20 million, is Africa’s largest metropolis. Home to Nigeria’s commercial capital, it is a magnet for internal migration, drawing in a mix of the country’s ethnic groups. Nigeria is estimated to have between 150 and 500 distinct ethnic groups, many of which are represented in Lagos.

    The original inhabitants of Lagos were Yoruba. As the colonial capital, the city experienced early migration from the Igbo group from the south-east. The Hausa-Fulani, from the north, are another important group to have been drawn to Lagos. More recent migration to the city has also been caused by insecurity in the north of Nigeria.

    The social interactions between people from diverse backgrounds have been studied extensively as dynamics of exclusion are often pervasive in developed and developing societies alike. In multi-ethnic societies in Africa where there has been violent conflict, the question of peaceful coexistence is all the more important.

    In Nigeria, past ethno-religious violence has led to massive casualties. The 1960s Biafra war and lethal riots in Kaduna and Jos in recent decades stand out. Lesser tensions are also present in Lagos state around competition for jobs and access to political power.

    Intergroup tensions in Lagos may give rise to concerns about the risk of more serious threats.

    But do we see this in adolescents, who haven’t yet started competing with each other for jobs and resources? In schools, young people generally have equal status, common goals, intergroup cooperation, and potential for friendship. Could new generations overcome the adversarial past?

    We have decades of research between us straddling group behaviour and identity formation, peace and conflict dynamics, and ethnicity and religion in sub-Saharan Africa. For our research we aimed to gain a picture of intergroup dynamics among Lagos adolescents.

    We concluded from surveying young people that higher diversity levels encourage more friendships and cross-group political discussions, which lead to positive relations between ethnic groups. But waiting for this to happen naturally may not be the best approach. It may leave smaller minority groups exposed to discrimination in the meantime. Policy interventions may encourage a quicker development of positive relations.

    Survey of Lagos adolescents

    Nigeria has a large youth population. Half of the people who live in Lagos state are younger than 25. That could have an important impact on future developments in the city, including intergroup relations.

    In 2019, we surveyed final year secondary school students in 36 schools across the state to find out how they viewed other societal groups and which factors affected their views. Most previous research on intergroup relations has focused on adults.

    We aimed to obtain a sample of Lagos adolescents who experienced diversity in their daily lives. To achieve this, we drew from both urban and rural districts. Our final sample contained 70 % Yoruba, 16 % Igbo, 2 % Hausa-Fulani, and 12 % other minority group adolescents.

    We found that:

    • adolescents who reported more cross-group friendships had more positive attitudes, including higher trust, towards other groups

    • those exposed to political discussions in diverse contexts were more likely to hold positive attitudes towards other ethnic and religious groups

    • when youths experienced more diversity in their schools and neighbourhoods they were less likely to stereotype members of groups

    • they were also less likely to report a preference for their own group when it comes to teachers, future bosses, marriage partners and electoral candidates.

    In contrast, youths exposed to political discussions in ethnic enclaves held negative views.

    Diversity and contact

    We used statistical analyses to investigate intergroup relations among our youth sample. We first asked whether there was a relationship between exposure to other groups and attitudes towards them. While urban areas, especially megacities like Lagos, are often characterised by diversity, many ethnic enclaves or homogeneous neighbourhoods exist.

    We found that higher exposure to diversity had mixed effects. It was associated with less stereotyping and in-group preference, but also related to lower trust in others in general.

    Mixed effects are not surprising, as scholars have long held that exposure to diversity does not really tell us how people actually relate to one another: what matters more is positive contact between individuals from different groups. Contact has been robustly associated with more positive intergroup attitudes in predominantly western-focused studies. In Africa-focused studies results have been mixed, with some finding positive and others no real impact of contact.

    Our findings provide evidence for positive contact theory as adolescents with more cross-group friendships held more positive attitudes towards other groups and also had higher trust. This demonstrates actual positive contact is more important than mere exposure to diversity.

    We also found that exposure to political narratives mattered. Youths who were exposed to political discussions in diverse contexts were more likely to hold positive attitudes towards other ethnic and religious groups.

    Policy implications

    Intergroup attitudes are formed at an early age. Once developed, prejudice or tolerance have a tendency to “stick” over time. Questions on the development of positive attitudes are in need of urgent attention in Africa because of the continent’s youthful populations and many African countries’ experiences with ethnic and religious conflict.

    This brings us to the question of whether tolerance of others can be fast-tracked, especially at an early age, and when youth can be targeted through school interventions. Evidence from other (western) studies suggests that multicultural education, in which pupils are exposed to different cultures in the curriculum, cross-group class discussions on political themes, and cross-group school projects, may encourage positive intergroup relations.

    These types of policies come with an important warning though. As we have seen during our field work, many schools, especially public schools, face large class sizes due to resource constraints and teacher training is minimal. Corporal punishment is still implemented. Group work and deliberation are difficult to manage with large numbers and a lack of training, and teachers also risk bringing their own prejudices to the classroom.

    So it’s important to design interventions carefully and more research is needed to do this effectively in African contexts.

    Leila Demarest received funding from the Leiden University Fund (grant reference W19304-5-01)

    Arnim Langer receives funding from Research Foundation Flanders (FWO).

    – ref. Lagos is young and diverse, so what shapes ethnic and religious prejudice among teens? Our study tried to find out – https://theconversation.com/lagos-is-young-and-diverse-so-what-shapes-ethnic-and-religious-prejudice-among-teens-our-study-tried-to-find-out-260720

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Bozeman Man Pleads Guilty to Cyberstalking

    Source: US FBI

    MISSOULA – A Bozeman man accused of sending threatening emails to a student at Montana State University admitted to charges yesterday, U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme said.

    The defendant, Rex Wu, Jr., 23, pleaded guilty to one count of cyberstalking. Wu faces 5 years of imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and 3 years of supervised release.

    U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathleen L. DeSoto presided. U.S. District Court Judge Dana L. Christensen will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Sentencing has been set for November 6, 2025. Wu was released on conditions pending further proceedings.

    The government alleged in court documents that the MSU Police Department contacted the FBI in February 2023 because a student was receiving harassing and threatening communications. The emails were racially charged and included threats to kill the student and other members of the campus group she was affiliated with. The messages were sent from several accounts, including some on platforms that make it difficult to identify the owner. Law enforcement eventually identified Wu as the likely culprit by linking an IP address at a local apartment to him, as well as online donation records and various Gmail accounts. FBI agents interviewed Wu in Bozeman on February 27, 2025, and he admitted sending several harassing emails to the MSU student.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Starnes prosecuted the case. The FBI and Montana State University Campus Police conducted the investigation.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Whose turn is it? The question is at the heart of language and chimpanzees ask it too

    Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Kayla Kolff, Postdoctoral researcher, Osnabrück University

    When we think about what sets humans apart from other animals, language often comes to mind. Language is more than words – it also relies on the ability to build shared understanding through conversation.

    At the heart of conversation is turn-taking: the ability to coordinate interaction in time. This means alternating speaking roles, where one person speaks and the other listens, and responding in ways that keep the exchange moving forward.

    But is this uniquely human? Increasingly, scientists are finding signs of turn-taking beyond our species – in visual cues in Siamese fish, in meerkat calls, and, as our recent study suggests, also in the grooming behaviour of chimpanzees.

    As primatologists and biologists, we are interested in the evolutionary origins and driving forces behind human communication and cognition.

    One animal behaviour that’s been said to involve features resembling human communication is grooming – combing through or licking each other’s fur. It’s one of the ways that some animals connect and bond with one another.

    Grooming is a central part of the daily lives of chimpanzees, a species that together with bonobos represent humans’ closest living relatives. Chimpanzees engage in grooming to build relationships, reduce stress, and strengthen their friendships. While we know why they groom, and whom they prefer to groom, we do not know much about how it is organised. Does grooming happen randomly, or do chimpanzees take turns? And might things like age, their position in the group, family ties, or friendships influence the interaction? There may be another layer to grooming, shaped by social decisions made in the moment.

    To answer this, we looked at whether grooming interactions involve turn-taking. We found that chimpanzees living in their natural environments do take turns, using a range of signals and movements to engage each other within the interaction. We then went on to check whether age, social standing, family ties and friendships affected the exchange of turns.

    We found that especially age and social standing shaped how individuals accommodated their partners. This is in line with Communication Accommodation Theory, which is the idea that individuals adapt their communication according to the characteristics of recipients. Our findings open a new window on chimpanzee social cognition and provide perspectives on the evolutionary foundations of human communication.

    Grooming coordination in the wild

    To investigate how chimpanzees coordinate their grooming interactions, we studied male eastern chimpanzees at the Ngogo field site, in Uganda’s Kibale National Park. Over the course of ten months, we observed and filmed grooming interactions among 42 males in their natural environment using a digital camera.

    As chimpanzee grooming is not just a simple back-and-forth where one chimpanzee grooms and then gets groomed in return, we paid close attention to gestures and additional actions. Gestures are bodily movements used to get another chimpanzee’s attention or to ask for something, such as raising an arm to invite more grooming. Actions, on the other hand, are things one chimpanzee does to another, such as grooming, approaching or leaving.

    Based on these, we identified four types of turn exchanges:

    • action–action

    • action–gesture

    • gesture–action

    • gesture–gesture.

    We observed that chimpanzees actively managed the interaction, using actions and gestures to start, invite, or respond to their partner’s participation.

    What shapes participation in these exchanges?

    Some chimpanzees were more likely than others to take turns during grooming. A closer look revealed that age and social status played a key role. Older males, who in chimpanzee societies tend to hold more dominant positions, were more likely to get responses from others. Younger males, especially adolescents, were more likely to take a turn in response to others than to have others take a turn in response to them – suggesting they were more often responding than being responded to.

    That makes a lot of sense when you think about chimpanzee social life. Younger individuals are still figuring out their place in the group, and grooming can be a way to build and nurture relationships and to learn the social ropes and finesses. Older males already have stable and strong friendships; they often receive grooming from others and tend to give less in return.

    Surprisingly, friendships and family ties did not influence the chances of turn-taking, although these are important aspects of chimpanzee lives. What mattered more were age and social standing. Think of it like choosing a lunch seat at school: you might choose to sit near an older student or someone popular, even if it meant not sitting with your friends or family.

    Grooming interaction between Gus (a subadult male) and Jackson (an adult male and the alpha), both of whom also appear in the Netflix documentary Chimp Empire.

    When we looked more closely at different types of turn-taking, one stood out: gesture–gesture exchanges. These looked a lot like social negotiations, where both chimpanzees gestured to each other before any grooming happened. These kinds of exchanges were more common when a chimpanzee interacted with an older individual, who may be more experienced in handling social situations and better at getting what they want, whether that means “groom me” or “keep going in grooming me”.

    This study suggests that chimpanzees take turns as a strategic social tool to achieve goals like being groomed instead of doing the grooming themselves. Who you are, who you are interacting with, and what you might stand to gain from the exchange all shape how things unfold.

    What this tells us

    Our findings reveal that chimpanzee grooming is a complex behaviour, organised through structured exchanges of gestures and actions, shaped by strategies for engaging with others. It’s about more than the grooming itself.



    Read more:
    Inside the chimpanzee medicine cabinet: we’ve found a new way chimps treat wounds with plants

    This ability to coordinate action and respond to others suggests a basic foundation that may have helped lay the groundwork for the evolution of human communication.

    Kayla Kolff received funding from the DFG, German Research Foundation.

    This project is part of a project that was funded by an EUConsolidator
    grant (772000, TurnTaking) to SP of the European
    Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon
    2020 research and innovation programme.

    – ref. Whose turn is it? The question is at the heart of language and chimpanzees ask it too – https://theconversation.com/whose-turn-is-it-the-question-is-at-the-heart-of-language-and-chimpanzees-ask-it-too-258736

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Africans survived 10,000 years of climate changes by adapting food systems – study offers lessons for modern times

    Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Leanne N. Phelps, Associate research scientist, Columbia University

    Imagine living in a place where a single drought, hurricane, or mudslide can wipe out your food supply. Across Africa, many communities do exactly that – navigate climate shocks like floods, heatwaves, and failed harvests.

    What’s often overlooked in the development policies to tackle these threats is a powerful sources of insight: Africa’s own history.

    Around 14,700 to 5,500 years ago, much of Africa experienced wetter conditions – a time referred to as the African Humid Period. As wet conditions declined around 5,500 years ago, major social, cultural, and environmental changes ensued across the continent.

    We’re part of a multidisciplinary team of scientists who recently published a study about how diverse African communities adapted to climate variability over the past 10,000 years. This is the first study to explore thousands of years of change in people’s livelihoods across the continent using isotopic data.

    This continent-wide approach offers novel insights into how livelihoods formed and evolved across space and time.

    Prior theories often assumed that societies and their food systems evolved in a linear way. In other words they developed from simple hunting and gathering communities to politically and socially complex societies practising agriculture.

    Instead, what we see is a complex mosaic of adaptable strategies that helped people survive. For 10,000 years, African communities adapted by mixing herding, farming, fishing and foraging. They blended different practices based on what worked at different times in their specific environment. That diversity across communities and regions was key to human survival.

    That has real lessons for food systems today.

    Our research suggests that rigid, top-down development plans, including ones that privilege intensifying agriculture over diversified economies, are unlikely to succeed. Many modern policies promote narrow approaches, like focusing only on cash crops. But history tells a different story. Resilience isn’t about choosing the “best” or most “intensive” method and sticking with it. Rather it’s about staying flexible and blending different strategies to align with local conditions.

    The clues left behind

    We were able to develop our insights by looking at the clues left behind by the food people ate and the environments they lived in. We did this by analysing the chemical traces (isotopes) in ancient human and domestic animal bones from 187 archaeological sites across the African continent.

    We sorted the results into groups with similar features, or “isotopic niches”. Then we described the livelihood and ecological characteristics of these niches using archaeological and environmental information.



    Read more:
    Tooth enamel provides clues on tsetse flies and the spread of herding in ancient Africa

    Our methods illustrated a wide range of livelihood systems. For example, in what are now Botswana and Zimbabwe, some groups combined small-scale farming with wild food gathering and livestock herding after the African Humid Period. In Egypt and Sudan, communities mixed crop farming – focused on wheat, barley, and legumes – with fishing, dairy, and beer brewing.

    Herders, in particular, developed highly flexible strategies. They adapted to hot plains, dry highlands, and everything in between. Pastoral systems (farming with grazing animals) show up at more archaeological sites than any other food system. They also have the widest range of chemical signatures – evidence of their adaptability to shifting environments.

    Our study also used isotopic data to build up a picture of how people were using livestock. Most animal management systems were reliant on grasses (plants such as millet and tropical pasture), and adapted to diverse ecological conditions. Some systems were highly specialised to semi-arid and mountainous environments. Others included mixed herds adapted to wetter or lower elevation regions. In other cases, animals were kept as stock in small numbers to supplement other livelihoods – providing milk, dung, and insurance against crop failure.



    Read more:
    Pastoralists are an asset to the world – and we have a lot to learn from them

    This adaptability helps clarify why, over the past millennium, pastoral systems have remained so important, especially in areas with increasing aridity.

    Mixed livelihood strategies

    The study also provides strong evidence for interactions between food production and foraging, whether at community or regional level.

    Dynamic, mixed livelihood strategies, including interactions like trade within and between communities near and far, were especially apparent during periods of climatic stress. One of these periods was the end of the African Humid Period (from about 5,500 years ago), when a drier climate created new challenges.

    In south-eastern Africa, from 2,000 years ago, there was a rise of diverse livelihood systems blending herding, farming and foraging in complex ways. These systems likely emerged in response to complex environmental and social change. Complex changes in social networks – especially around sharing land, resources, and knowledge – likely underpinned the development of this resilience.



    Read more:
    Hunter-gatherer diets weren’t always heavy on meat: Morocco study reveals a plant-based diet

    How the past can inform the future

    Ancient livelihood strategies offer a playbook for surviving climate change today.

    Our analysis suggests that over thousands of years, communities that combined herding, farming, fishing and gathering were making context-specific choices that helped them weather unpredictable conditions. They built food systems that worked with the land and sea, not against them. And they leaned on strong social networks, sharing resources, knowledge and labour.

    Past responses to climate shifts can inform current and future strategies for building resilience in regions facing socio-environmental pressures.

    Leanne N. Phelps is affiliated with Columbia Climate School at Columbia University; Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, UK; and NGO Vaevae based in Andavadoake, Toliara, Madagascar

    Kristina Guild Douglass receives funding from The US National Science Foundation. She is affiliated with the NGO Vae Vae.

    – ref. Africans survived 10,000 years of climate changes by adapting food systems – study offers lessons for modern times – https://theconversation.com/africans-survived-10-000-years-of-climate-changes-by-adapting-food-systems-study-offers-lessons-for-modern-times-260240

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Africans survived 10,000 years of climate changes by adapting food systems – study offers lessons for modern times

    Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Leanne N. Phelps, Associate research scientist, Columbia University

    Imagine living in a place where a single drought, hurricane, or mudslide can wipe out your food supply. Across Africa, many communities do exactly that – navigate climate shocks like floods, heatwaves, and failed harvests.

    What’s often overlooked in the development policies to tackle these threats is a powerful sources of insight: Africa’s own history.

    Around 14,700 to 5,500 years ago, much of Africa experienced wetter conditions – a time referred to as the African Humid Period. As wet conditions declined around 5,500 years ago, major social, cultural, and environmental changes ensued across the continent.

    We’re part of a multidisciplinary team of scientists who recently published a study about how diverse African communities adapted to climate variability over the past 10,000 years. This is the first study to explore thousands of years of change in people’s livelihoods across the continent using isotopic data.

    This continent-wide approach offers novel insights into how livelihoods formed and evolved across space and time.

    Prior theories often assumed that societies and their food systems evolved in a linear way. In other words they developed from simple hunting and gathering communities to politically and socially complex societies practising agriculture.

    Instead, what we see is a complex mosaic of adaptable strategies that helped people survive. For 10,000 years, African communities adapted by mixing herding, farming, fishing and foraging. They blended different practices based on what worked at different times in their specific environment. That diversity across communities and regions was key to human survival.

    That has real lessons for food systems today.

    Our research suggests that rigid, top-down development plans, including ones that privilege intensifying agriculture over diversified economies, are unlikely to succeed. Many modern policies promote narrow approaches, like focusing only on cash crops. But history tells a different story. Resilience isn’t about choosing the “best” or most “intensive” method and sticking with it. Rather it’s about staying flexible and blending different strategies to align with local conditions.

    The clues left behind

    We were able to develop our insights by looking at the clues left behind by the food people ate and the environments they lived in. We did this by analysing the chemical traces (isotopes) in ancient human and domestic animal bones from 187 archaeological sites across the African continent.

    We sorted the results into groups with similar features, or “isotopic niches”. Then we described the livelihood and ecological characteristics of these niches using archaeological and environmental information.



    Read more:
    Tooth enamel provides clues on tsetse flies and the spread of herding in ancient Africa

    Our methods illustrated a wide range of livelihood systems. For example, in what are now Botswana and Zimbabwe, some groups combined small-scale farming with wild food gathering and livestock herding after the African Humid Period. In Egypt and Sudan, communities mixed crop farming – focused on wheat, barley, and legumes – with fishing, dairy, and beer brewing.

    Herders, in particular, developed highly flexible strategies. They adapted to hot plains, dry highlands, and everything in between. Pastoral systems (farming with grazing animals) show up at more archaeological sites than any other food system. They also have the widest range of chemical signatures – evidence of their adaptability to shifting environments.

    Our study also used isotopic data to build up a picture of how people were using livestock. Most animal management systems were reliant on grasses (plants such as millet and tropical pasture), and adapted to diverse ecological conditions. Some systems were highly specialised to semi-arid and mountainous environments. Others included mixed herds adapted to wetter or lower elevation regions. In other cases, animals were kept as stock in small numbers to supplement other livelihoods – providing milk, dung, and insurance against crop failure.



    Read more:
    Pastoralists are an asset to the world – and we have a lot to learn from them

    This adaptability helps clarify why, over the past millennium, pastoral systems have remained so important, especially in areas with increasing aridity.

    Mixed livelihood strategies

    The study also provides strong evidence for interactions between food production and foraging, whether at community or regional level.

    Dynamic, mixed livelihood strategies, including interactions like trade within and between communities near and far, were especially apparent during periods of climatic stress. One of these periods was the end of the African Humid Period (from about 5,500 years ago), when a drier climate created new challenges.

    In south-eastern Africa, from 2,000 years ago, there was a rise of diverse livelihood systems blending herding, farming and foraging in complex ways. These systems likely emerged in response to complex environmental and social change. Complex changes in social networks – especially around sharing land, resources, and knowledge – likely underpinned the development of this resilience.



    Read more:
    Hunter-gatherer diets weren’t always heavy on meat: Morocco study reveals a plant-based diet

    How the past can inform the future

    Ancient livelihood strategies offer a playbook for surviving climate change today.

    Our analysis suggests that over thousands of years, communities that combined herding, farming, fishing and gathering were making context-specific choices that helped them weather unpredictable conditions. They built food systems that worked with the land and sea, not against them. And they leaned on strong social networks, sharing resources, knowledge and labour.

    Past responses to climate shifts can inform current and future strategies for building resilience in regions facing socio-environmental pressures.

    Leanne N. Phelps is affiliated with Columbia Climate School at Columbia University; Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, UK; and NGO Vaevae based in Andavadoake, Toliara, Madagascar

    Kristina Guild Douglass receives funding from The US National Science Foundation. She is affiliated with the NGO Vae Vae.

    – ref. Africans survived 10,000 years of climate changes by adapting food systems – study offers lessons for modern times – https://theconversation.com/africans-survived-10-000-years-of-climate-changes-by-adapting-food-systems-study-offers-lessons-for-modern-times-260240

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: American Tower Corporation (ATC) Nigeria Partners with ProFuturo Foundation to Transform Educational Landscape in Nigeria through Digital Innovation and Technology

    Source: APO

    • The partnership is expected to directly benefit over 5,600 children and educators from 11 schools from three states in the country.
    • This collaboration in Nigeria is a key part of a global partnership between American Tower and ProFuturo Foundation focused on reducing gaps in access, use and quality of educational resources in seven countries in Africa and Latin America.

    ATC Nigeria (www.AmericanTower.com), a leading provider of telecommunications infrastructure, and ProFuturo Foundation, a global initiative for educational innovation through technology, established by the Telefónica Foundation and the “la Caixa” Foundation, are proud to announce their partnership with the Kukah Centre to collaborate under the ProFuturo Program in Nigeria. This collaboration will facilitate the distribution of kits, each one containing a computer, tablets, router, projector, and other essential components, which will enhance digital access and learning opportunities for students.

    Through its Digital Communities program, which provides digitally connected, technology-equipped spaces offering digital literacy and education for youth, financial education and vocational training for adults, and healthcare services, ATC Nigeria believes that this partnership with ProFuturo will reach youths and students across the country.

    The initiative and signing between ATC Nigeria and ProFuturo Foundation, where local authorities were present, underscores the commitment of both organizations to address the educational digital divide. Its goal is to enhance the understanding of vulnerable school contexts to promote innovative teaching practices more effectively and to strengthen the digital transformation of education.

    Pieter Van Der Westhuizen, CEO of ATC Nigeria, praised the initiative, stating: “At ATC Nigeria, we are proud to support this impactful collaboration, which brings digital tools directly into classrooms. Through our collaboration with the ProFuturo Foundation, our Digital Communities program is expanding access to technology and equipping the next generation with the skills they need to thrive in a digital world.”

    Magdalena Brier, General Manager of ProFuturo Foundation, celebrates this agreement that “reinforces the commitment of the two organizations against the digital divide and the education gap. The alliance between ProFuturo Foundation and American Tower is a big step to improve educational opportunities for the most vulnerable. We are very honored with their support for what we have been doing since 2016 and I continually think about each of the teachers, boys and girls who will benefit, because, together, we are going to contribute to transform their lives.”

    Initially focused on 11 schools in three States –Kano, Kebbi and Tarabata– the partnership is expected to directly benefit over 5,600 children and 34 teachers, even in areas with limited connectivity.  By equipping schools with these kits, the initiative aims to bridge educational disparities generated by the digital divide. The kits are designed to enrich the learning experience, support interactive teaching methods, and provide students with access to a wealth of digital educational content.

    Distributed by APO Group on behalf of American Tower Corporation.

    Media Contacts:
    ATC Nigeria:
    Aderonke Adebanjo
    aderonke.adebanjo@americantower.com

    ProFuturo:
    Rafael Cobo
    rafael.cobocobo@telefonica.com
    Mobile: +34 647665488

    About ATC Nigeria:
    ATC Nigeria is a subsidiary of American Tower Corporation, one of the largest global Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and a leading independent owner, operator and developer of multi-tenant communications real estate.

    ATC Nigeria owns and operates over 8,600 telecommunications sites across the country, helping mobile network operators and other telecommunications service providers confidently deliver communications connectivity to consumers throughout Nigeria. For more information, visit: www.AmericanTower.com/en-ng/

    About ProFuturo Foundation:
    ProFuturo Foundation is an initiative of educational innovation with technology launched by Telefónica Foundation and “la Caixa” Foundation to reduce the educational gap in the world by providing quality education to children in vulnerable environments in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. Its intervention model is based on the evidence of impact provided by continuous monitoring processes, studies and evaluations. 

    The ProFuturo program uses innovative teaching methodologies to help teachers and students develop competencies to face the challenges of the 21st century. The program works with other institutions and companies and aims to create a large international network of teachers who teach, learn and share knowledge to achieve, together, a better education in the world. https://ProFuturo.Education/en/

    Media files

    .

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Whose turn is it? The question is at the heart of language and chimpanzees ask it too

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Kayla Kolff, Postdoctoral researcher, Osnabrück University

    When we think about what sets humans apart from other animals, language often comes to mind. Language is more than words – it also relies on the ability to build shared understanding through conversation.

    At the heart of conversation is turn-taking: the ability to coordinate interaction in time. This means alternating speaking roles, where one person speaks and the other listens, and responding in ways that keep the exchange moving forward.

    But is this uniquely human? Increasingly, scientists are finding signs of turn-taking beyond our species – in visual cues in Siamese fish, in meerkat calls, and, as our recent study suggests, also in the grooming behaviour of chimpanzees.

    As primatologists and biologists, we are interested in the evolutionary origins and driving forces behind human communication and cognition.

    One animal behaviour that’s been said to involve features resembling human communication is grooming – combing through or licking each other’s fur. It’s one of the ways that some animals connect and bond with one another.

    Grooming is a central part of the daily lives of chimpanzees, a species that together with bonobos represent humans’ closest living relatives. Chimpanzees engage in grooming to build relationships, reduce stress, and strengthen their friendships. While we know why they groom, and whom they prefer to groom, we do not know much about how it is organised. Does grooming happen randomly, or do chimpanzees take turns? And might things like age, their position in the group, family ties, or friendships influence the interaction? There may be another layer to grooming, shaped by social decisions made in the moment.

    To answer this, we looked at whether grooming interactions involve turn-taking. We found that chimpanzees living in their natural environments do take turns, using a range of signals and movements to engage each other within the interaction. We then went on to check whether age, social standing, family ties and friendships affected the exchange of turns.

    We found that especially age and social standing shaped how individuals accommodated their partners. This is in line with Communication Accommodation Theory, which is the idea that individuals adapt their communication according to the characteristics of recipients. Our findings open a new window on chimpanzee social cognition and provide perspectives on the evolutionary foundations of human communication.

    Grooming coordination in the wild

    To investigate how chimpanzees coordinate their grooming interactions, we studied male eastern chimpanzees at the Ngogo field site, in Uganda’s Kibale National Park. Over the course of ten months, we observed and filmed grooming interactions among 42 males in their natural environment using a digital camera.

    As chimpanzee grooming is not just a simple back-and-forth where one chimpanzee grooms and then gets groomed in return, we paid close attention to gestures and additional actions. Gestures are bodily movements used to get another chimpanzee’s attention or to ask for something, such as raising an arm to invite more grooming. Actions, on the other hand, are things one chimpanzee does to another, such as grooming, approaching or leaving.

    Based on these, we identified four types of turn exchanges:

    • action–action

    • action–gesture

    • gesture–action

    • gesture–gesture.

    Mulligan (left) and Carter (right) members of the Ngogo chimpanzee community in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Kayla Kolff, Author provided (no reuse)

    We observed that chimpanzees actively managed the interaction, using actions and gestures to start, invite, or respond to their partner’s participation.

    What shapes participation in these exchanges?

    Some chimpanzees were more likely than others to take turns during grooming. A closer look revealed that age and social status played a key role. Older males, who in chimpanzee societies tend to hold more dominant positions, were more likely to get responses from others. Younger males, especially adolescents, were more likely to take a turn in response to others than to have others take a turn in response to them – suggesting they were more often responding than being responded to.

    That makes a lot of sense when you think about chimpanzee social life. Younger individuals are still figuring out their place in the group, and grooming can be a way to build and nurture relationships and to learn the social ropes and finesses. Older males already have stable and strong friendships; they often receive grooming from others and tend to give less in return.

    Surprisingly, friendships and family ties did not influence the chances of turn-taking, although these are important aspects of chimpanzee lives. What mattered more were age and social standing. Think of it like choosing a lunch seat at school: you might choose to sit near an older student or someone popular, even if it meant not sitting with your friends or family.

    Grooming interaction between Gus (a subadult male) and Jackson (an adult male and the alpha), both of whom also appear in the Netflix documentary Chimp Empire.

    When we looked more closely at different types of turn-taking, one stood out: gesture–gesture exchanges. These looked a lot like social negotiations, where both chimpanzees gestured to each other before any grooming happened. These kinds of exchanges were more common when a chimpanzee interacted with an older individual, who may be more experienced in handling social situations and better at getting what they want, whether that means “groom me” or “keep going in grooming me”.

    This study suggests that chimpanzees take turns as a strategic social tool to achieve goals like being groomed instead of doing the grooming themselves. Who you are, who you are interacting with, and what you might stand to gain from the exchange all shape how things unfold.

    What this tells us

    Our findings reveal that chimpanzee grooming is a complex behaviour, organised through structured exchanges of gestures and actions, shaped by strategies for engaging with others. It’s about more than the grooming itself.

    Read more: Inside the chimpanzee medicine cabinet: we’ve found a new way chimps treat wounds with plants

    This ability to coordinate action and respond to others suggests a basic foundation that may have helped lay the groundwork for the evolution of human communication.

    – Whose turn is it? The question is at the heart of language and chimpanzees ask it too
    – https://theconversation.com/whose-turn-is-it-the-question-is-at-the-heart-of-language-and-chimpanzees-ask-it-too-258736

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: United Nations (UN) calls on to stress more control over grain traders

    Source: APO

    The trend towards monopolization of grain trade that exists in the global market today requires the BRICS countries to cooperate in the field of antitrust policy and antitrust legislation. Alexey Ivanov, Director of the BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre at the Higher School of Economics (www.BRICSCompetition.org), said at the 9th UN Conference on Competition and Consumer Protection in Geneva. 

    “Global companies from the food sector should receive the closest attention from antitrust authorities. We emphasize the importance of ensuring food security and nutrition and mitigating the impacts of acute food price volatility, as well as as abrupt supply crises, including fertilizers shortages. The authority of grain traders is highly similar to that of the organizers of digital ecosystems, the digital giants that have already come under scrutiny by antitrust authorities around the world. Under exceptional circumstances of supply shortages or acute food price spikes affecting a BRICS member, we recognize that cooperation initiatives can facilitate emergency responses and natural disaster management, guided by national priorities and consistent with the World Trade Organization rules. None of these measures should lead to unfair trade practices or violations of international trade norms, as their sole purpose is to support food security and nutrition, including through international solidarity.”, – Ivanov emphasized. 

    “A very telling event has recently taken place – the merger of two major grain traders, Bunge and Viterra. This merger was approved just last week by 31 competition authorities around the world. At the same time, no measures were proposed to limit the influence of these companies on the global value chain – the power that has a huge influence on the global market and the organization of grain trade,” Ivanov said. 

    He noted that regulators in Brazil and China have already raised concerns, such as the issue of price shifting from global to national markets, but no commitments have been established to address these concerns. 

    Anastasia Nesvetailova, Head, Macroeconomic and Development Policies Branch, UNCTAD, emphasized the growing influence of financialization on global food markets. Of particular concern, she noted, is the dominance of the so-called ABCD group — ADM, Bunge, Cargill, and Louis Dreyfus — which effectively controls global agricultural trading. Three of these companies do not disclose sufficient information, rendering the sector highly opaque and poorly regulated. 

    According to Nesvetailova, 70% of transactions on U.S. and European commodity markets today are speculative in nature and disconnected from the real economy. The financial power of commodity traders is increasing, as they evolve into non-bank financial institutions with systemic influence not only on commodity markets but also on global financial stability. Meanwhile, oversight of their operations remains fragmented and ineffective. 

    “The last time such practices had a systemically destructive impact was in 2007, when an expanding web of debt-driven financial obligations operated largely outside regulatory oversight, ultimately leading to the collapse of the banking system in the U.S. and beyond. A similar scenario could unfold again — this time in the commodity trading sector,” warned Nesvetailova. 

    Distributed by APO Group on behalf of BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre.

    Media files

    .

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: United Nations (UN) calls on to stress more control over grain traders

    Source: APO

    The trend towards monopolization of grain trade that exists in the global market today requires the BRICS countries to cooperate in the field of antitrust policy and antitrust legislation. Alexey Ivanov, Director of the BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre at the Higher School of Economics (www.BRICSCompetition.org), said at the 9th UN Conference on Competition and Consumer Protection in Geneva. 

    “Global companies from the food sector should receive the closest attention from antitrust authorities. We emphasize the importance of ensuring food security and nutrition and mitigating the impacts of acute food price volatility, as well as as abrupt supply crises, including fertilizers shortages. The authority of grain traders is highly similar to that of the organizers of digital ecosystems, the digital giants that have already come under scrutiny by antitrust authorities around the world. Under exceptional circumstances of supply shortages or acute food price spikes affecting a BRICS member, we recognize that cooperation initiatives can facilitate emergency responses and natural disaster management, guided by national priorities and consistent with the World Trade Organization rules. None of these measures should lead to unfair trade practices or violations of international trade norms, as their sole purpose is to support food security and nutrition, including through international solidarity.”, – Ivanov emphasized. 

    “A very telling event has recently taken place – the merger of two major grain traders, Bunge and Viterra. This merger was approved just last week by 31 competition authorities around the world. At the same time, no measures were proposed to limit the influence of these companies on the global value chain – the power that has a huge influence on the global market and the organization of grain trade,” Ivanov said. 

    He noted that regulators in Brazil and China have already raised concerns, such as the issue of price shifting from global to national markets, but no commitments have been established to address these concerns. 

    Anastasia Nesvetailova, Head, Macroeconomic and Development Policies Branch, UNCTAD, emphasized the growing influence of financialization on global food markets. Of particular concern, she noted, is the dominance of the so-called ABCD group — ADM, Bunge, Cargill, and Louis Dreyfus — which effectively controls global agricultural trading. Three of these companies do not disclose sufficient information, rendering the sector highly opaque and poorly regulated. 

    According to Nesvetailova, 70% of transactions on U.S. and European commodity markets today are speculative in nature and disconnected from the real economy. The financial power of commodity traders is increasing, as they evolve into non-bank financial institutions with systemic influence not only on commodity markets but also on global financial stability. Meanwhile, oversight of their operations remains fragmented and ineffective. 

    “The last time such practices had a systemically destructive impact was in 2007, when an expanding web of debt-driven financial obligations operated largely outside regulatory oversight, ultimately leading to the collapse of the banking system in the U.S. and beyond. A similar scenario could unfold again — this time in the commodity trading sector,” warned Nesvetailova. 

    Distributed by APO Group on behalf of BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre.

    Media files

    .

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Delegation from Arkhangelsk region visited Polytech

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University –

    An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    A working meeting was held at Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University between SPbPU Rector Andrey Rudskoy, the Minister of Science, Higher Education and Technological Development of the Arkhangelsk Region Alexey Aksenov and the Acting Rector of the Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov Mikhail Danilov.

    The main topic of discussion was the creation of the “Competence Center for the Application of Laser Welding and Additive Technologies in Shipbuilding”. The initiative is aimed at developing joint scientific research, accelerating the implementation of innovative technologies and strengthening the country’s technological sovereignty in key industries.

    The meeting was attended by the rector of SPbPU Andrey Rudskoy, the vice-rector for research work of SPbPU Yuri Fomin, the head of the Research Laboratory “Laser and Additive Technologies” of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Materials and Transport Mikhail Kuznetsov, and professor of the Higher School of Physics and Materials Technology of IMMiT Sergey Parshin.

    “Polytechnic has always been and remains a forge of engineering personnel capable of not only working in the current conditions, but also shaping the technological agenda of tomorrow. Today, we are betting on the development of advanced technologies in the field of materials science, laser and additive processes, digital engineering – those areas that are already determining the appearance of the industry of the future. Cooperation with colleagues from the Arctic region opens up new horizons: we combine fundamental science, engineering schools and real production tasks. I am confident that this synergy will become the basis for comprehensive solutions that can change the infrastructure of the North and become an example for other regions of the country,” Andrey Rudskoy emphasized.

    It is worth noting that over the course of three years of close cooperation with the Scientific and Educational Center “Russian Arctic” of NArFU, specialists of the Scientific and Research Laboratory “Laser and Additive Technologies” of IMMiT SPbPU have completed several projects on direct laser growth and laser welding of thin metals. Now the polytechnicians are faced with the task of developing a technology for hybrid laser-arc welding of samples with a blunting thickness of at least 30 mm. In the future, joint interests include the creation of a technological complex and the introduction of laser technologies into the production of city-forming enterprises.

    At the meeting, the guests voiced a proposal to create a center, discussed the levels of interaction and upcoming stages of joint work.

    “For the Arkhangelsk Region, the development of advanced production technologies capable of ensuring reliable and efficient operation in the conditions of the North and the Arctic is especially important. Joint scientific projects and the creation of a competence center are a step towards a real technological breakthrough. We are counting on practical results and are ready for systematic work on the implementation of new solutions in shipbuilding and related industries,” noted Alexey Aksenov.

    During the visit, a tour of the university campus and research laboratories of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Materials and Transport of SPbPU took place. The guests examined the equipment of the Laser and Additive Technologies Research Laboratory in most detail. They were interested in the robotic technological complexes and exhibits manufactured as part of joint projects with the Russian Arctic Research and Education Center of NArFU.

    “In recent years, within the framework of cooperation with the Scientific and Educational Center “Russian Arctic” of NArFU, we have successfully implemented several projects using direct laser growth and laser welding technologies. We see great interest in laser technologies from the Arctic region and are confident that the next stage of cooperation will allow us to move from pilot solutions to large-scale integration of technologies into production,” said Mikhail Kuznetsov, Director of the Russian-German Center for Laser Technologies.

    Alexey Aksenov and Mikhail Danilov showed keen interest in the scientific developments of the Polytechnic University and expressed readiness for further cooperation. Following the meeting, a decision was made to hold a series of working meetings for a more detailed discussion of the project.

    The visit of the delegation from the Arkhangelsk region became an important step towards strengthening interregional scientific and technical cooperation. SPbPU and NArFU intend to develop a strategic partnership aimed at the technological development of the shipbuilding industry and the Arctic region.

    Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source of the information. It is an accurate report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    .

    MIL OSI Russia News –