NewzIntel.com

Category: Education

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Demonstration performances, master classes and lectures: Muscovites are invited to the birthday of the Center for Providing Mobility to Passengers of Moscow Transport

    MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

    Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –

    On October 12, the Northern River Terminal will host a large-scale program in honor of the birthday of the Passenger Mobility Center (PMC) of Moscow transport. Each visitor will be able to understand what socially significant work PMC inspectors do, congratulate them on the holiday and thank them for their work.

    “We are adapting the transport infrastructure for the convenience and safety of the capital’s residents on the instructions of Sergei Sobyanin. Thus, in 2013, we created the Passenger Mobility Center. Its inspectors help people who have difficulty moving around in transport. For the birthday of the CMPC, we have prepared a festive program at the Northern River Terminal. Together with the city residents, we will congratulate our colleagues and thank them for their work,” said the Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Transport and Industry

    Maxim Liksutov.

    At 12:00, guests will see demonstration performances and master classes by the Russian School for Training Guide Dogs of the All-Russian Society of the Blind, the Mudry Pes Guide Dog Owners Club, and the Mudrik i Ko team. Faithful and loyal four-legged friends help their owners become more mobile and provide them with a safe journey.

    Together with dog training schools, the CMMP staff has helped train more than 350 guide animals in the Moscow Metro since 2014. Another 50 guide dogs will be trained this year to help people with limited mobility in the metro.

    Each visitor to the Northern River Terminal will be able to walk along a pre-prepared obstacle course with a guide dog. He will understand what a huge job these animals and the TSOMP employees do, who also help passengers with limited mobility move safely along the route they need.

    The “Wise Dog” school has prepared tactile games. Their participants will learn how to properly interact with guide dogs. In addition, a thematic photo zone will be opened for visitors, where they can take beautiful memorable pictures.

    From 13:00 to 15:00, a creative workshop will be open at the station for everyone. Museum of Moscow Transport.

    From 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM, anyone can listen to a lecture on how to properly interact with people with limited mobility and visit the tactile games of the interactive museum in the dark, Sensorium. Guests will learn Braille and take part in a blitz on the sense of smell to focus on all the senses.

    For 11 years now, inspectors and employees of the Center for the Prevention of Disabilities of the Passenger’s Body have been accompanying passengers with hearing or vision impairments, musculoskeletal disorders, elderly people, large families, parents with baby carriages and organized groups of schoolchildren. They help passengers with limited mobility to get to more than 300 places in the capital. The Center for the Prevention of Disabilities of the Passenger’s Body is nearby throughout the entire journey on the metro, on the Moscow Central Circle, in ground transportation and trams. They make the movement of citizens safer and more comfortable. Since the center’s creation, over 1.2 million people have received assistance.

    The support service is free. You can leave a request on the metro website, in the Moscow Metro app, via the Alexandra chatbot, or by calling the TSOMPS contact center at 7 495 622-73-41 and 7 800 250-73-41 (free call). The service is open from 05:30 to 01:00.

    Since the beginning of the year, inspectors of the Central Office of the Passenger Transport Service have helped more than 17 thousand blind and visually impaired passengers.

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

    Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    http://vvv.mos.ru/nevs/item/145048073/

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: The first defense of a doctoral dissertation in cognitive sciences in Russia took place at HSE

    MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

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

    Photo: Higher School of Economics

    Professor at the Higher School of Economics, leading research fellow Institute of Cognitive Neurosciences Vasily Klyucharev successfully defended his doctoral dissertation in cognitive sciences. This is the first doctoral dissertation in this discipline in Russia.

    Cognitive sciences began to develop actively in the second half of the 20th century. This is a unique interdisciplinary field of research that opens up new horizons of human consciousness and behavior. Cognitive science studies how the human mind works, functions, and behaves, how people perceive, understand, and react to information received.

    The HSE University’s research unit in cognitive neuroscience was established in 2013. Vasily Klyucharev then headed the Department of Psychology and founded new laboratories for cognitive brain research. Over the course of 11 years, the small research unit has grown into the largest research institute in Russia in the field of cognitive neuroscience with a team of scientists who have received global recognition. In 2021, with the direct participation of the HSE University, the new specialty in cognitive sciences. In September 2024, Vasily Klyucharev became the first doctor of cognitive sciences in Russia.

    “This is an important step not only for me, but for the entire scientific community,” Vasily Klyucharev noted after his defense. “For a long time, cognitive sciences were not popular in the Soviet Union; the authorities did not like them. This led to a lag in this most important scientific and technological area. Research was conducted, but it was integrated into other scientific fields – biology, psychology, linguistics. The creation of a separate specialty in cognitive sciences and the opportunity to defend candidate and doctoral dissertations in this field is a sign of recognition at the state level.”

    Vasily Klyucharev’s research is devoted to the phenomenon of conformism — the tendency of people to adjust their decisions to the opinions of others. The work examines the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying conformism using modern brain scanning technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging, transcranial magnetic stimulation, electroencephalography, and magnetoencephalography.

    Neurocognitive mechanisms of social influence appear to be deeply rooted in the biology of the brain. Conformity is not just a social phenomenon. Researchers have found that deviating from the majority opinion activates areas of the brain responsible for automatic behavioral change, which forces people to reconsider their decisions, adapting to others.

    “I have been studying the topic of conformism since about 2009, when our research group was one of the first to become interested in this phenomenon. We were the first to discover that the brain automatically adapts to the opinions of others. Using various neuroimaging technologies, we have confirmed that specific areas of the brain associated with the neurotransmitter dopamine are responsible for conformism. If their activity is suppressed, conformism decreases,” explains Vasily Klyucharev. “In this regard, the phenomenon of nonconformism is a very interesting, but still completely unexplored area. Perhaps this is a foundation for future research.”

    Vasily Klyucharev emphasizes that cognitive science is a unique scientific field that requires comprehensive knowledge from a wide variety of fields: from mathematics to philosophy.

    “To understand how the system, i.e. the human brain, works, we must study literally everything: neurophysiology, biochemistry, social behavior, sociocultural characteristics. It is important to be able to describe all processes mathematically, use various modern technologies of neurovisualization and data analysis. Even such a fashionable topic as artificial intelligence depends on cognitive research. How correctly will we understand AI? How will it understand us? Cognitive science is, in general, the science of understanding everything.”

    The defense of a doctoral dissertation in cognitive science marks a new stage in the history of HSE, confirming the university’s status as a leading center for research in the field of cognitive science in Russia.

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

    Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    http://vvv.hse.ru/nevs/scene/971895605.html

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Grattan on Friday: Oil prices could be where the Middle East crisis collides with Australia’s cost-of-living crisis

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

    Angry, accusatory partisan exchanges over the Middle East war have dominated federal politics this week. But for most ordinary voters the issue remains “over there”.

    Apart from the minorities for whom it has an immediate impact – Jewish people frightened by antisemitism, the Muslim community, those with families in Lebanon and elsewhere – it’s a tragedy without tangible relevance to their day-to-day lives.

    On Thursday however, Treasurer Jim Chalmers warned the foreign crisis could feed directly into the domestic cost-of-living crisis, via the price of oil.

    Midway through this week, oil was trading 11% lower than it was a year ago, but 7% higher than a week-and-a-half ago, Chalmers told a news conference.

    Treasury estimates that if prices were 10% higher for an entire year, this would reduce Australia’s GDP by 0.1% and increase the consumer price index by 0.4 percentage points.

    Nothing is certain about the coming months but the potential implications are obvious. Consumers would feel the effects at the petrol pump of the higher oil prices.

    The Reserve Bank will also be watching the possible trajectory of oil prices, together with all the other indicators relevant to its decisions on interest rates. This is against the background of the government’s desperation for a rate cut (or two) before the election.

    Although an increase in fuel prices (hitting businesses as well as families) would not be the government’s fault, it would be blamed.

    According to Labor, at present there’s a disconnect between, on the one hand, the partisan political heat the Middle East war is generating and, on the other, the public’s lack of engagement with the issue.

    Voters not concentraing on the Middle East

    Labor sources say focus group research this week, done with swinging voters, found most people aren’t closely following Middle East events.

    Beyond that, they are generally satisfied with the government’s stand and don’t think the crisis is distracting it from the cost of living (which is separate from how they think the government is handling the cost of living).

    This accords with this week’s Essential poll, in which 56% said they were satisfied with the government’s response on the Israel-Gaza war. Another 30% thought the government had been too supportive of Israel; 14% thought it had been too harsh on Israel.

    Except among some of those directly invested, the Middle East crisis is not likely to be a vote changer.

    In the domestic political battle, Dutton is trying to use the conflict to paint Albanese as weak. That’s a long bow on the issue itself, although more generally the prime minister and his government have come to be seen as having lost their way.

    While Dutton is trying to define Albanese negatively, Albanese is attempting to make Dutton a bigger target.

    NBN sale a distraction

    Thus on Wednesday the prime minister, shortly before he jumped on his plane to attend the ASEAN-Australia summit in Laos, personally introduced legislation that would ensure the NBN remained in public hands.

    If the Coalition didn’t vote for the bill, that would show it would sell the NBN, Labor claimed. It was a crude attempt at scare politics, easily seen through. The Coalition is not suggesting it would sell the NBN and if it did, would most people care? Anyway, originally Labor planned for the NBN to be privatised. Dutton ridiculed the tactic.

    As we look to election year, the 2025 parliamentary sitting calendar came out this week. It has a fortnight sitting in February and pencils in a budget for March 25, which would set up a May poll. Of course this doesn’t rule out an earlier (March) election although Albanese has said more than once he plans a pre-election budget.

    Regardless, we are already in the election campaign. At caucus on Tuesday Albanese was, for the second time recently, talking about the second term agenda.

    Announcements like confetti

    Announcements are raining down like confetti especially related to cost-of-living issues. Supermarkets are being heavily targeted. Launching his merger reform legislation on Thursday, Chalmers said every supermarket merger would be screened, regardless of whether it fell under the new arrangements.

    Present polls are showing the most likely election result, to be delivered by sour voters, is a hung parliament with a minority Labor government.

    Albanese told caucus he was focused on winning majority government. Dutton knows that if the Coalition can’t win, the more crossbenchers it can force Labor to need to rely on, the more unstable a second-term Labor government would be.

    Both sides have a great deal of bedding-down to do before the actual campaign.

    Key items on Labor’s legislative agenda aren’t just not introduced, they are unseen – for instance, on gambling advertising, social media restrictions for young people, electoral funding.

    Major bills are stuck in the parliament – notably on housing, where the Greens may eventually do a deal but are stringing out the pain.

    On the other side, the Coalition has released minimal policy. On its controversial nuclear power plan, it has put out minimal details, in particular refusing to produce costings. It can’t hold back everything until the last moment.

    Will the campaign even matter?

    When the formal campaign comes, how much will it matter?

    There is the old saying “you can’t fatten the pig on market day”. In other words, the election result may be decided well before the actual campaign.

    What do the last three elections (2016, 2019, 2022) tell us about the importance of the formal campaign? In each case, the result was narrow, a matter of a handful of seats.

    In 2022, there was probably nothing Morrison could have done in the last weeks to salvage the situation – to use another farm metaphor, his goose was cooked. In the event, he ran a bad campaign.

    In 2016 prime minister Malcolm Turnbull just scraped home; Turnbull’s flawed campaigning maximised the number of seats he lost.

    In 2019, when it seemed Bill Shorten was almost certain to take Labor to victory, its defeat may have been sealed in the campaign itself, although its heavy policy load always put it in a precarious situation.

    In 2022 Albanese was judged a poor campaigner. Aware of this, Labor strategists will be doing everything to make sure he is fully prepared for “gotcha” questions (on which he faltered last time) and the other hazards that can arise spontaneously.

    Dutton’s forte is negativity, his natural style is the attack. But in those final weeks, more will be needed.

    One challenge in leaving policy releases late is that holes can slip through, inviting slip ups.

    Dutton has far from established himself as a rounded alternative prime minister. Indeed his current approach on the Middle East, completely lacking nuance, raises questions about how he would handle the complexities of foreign policy generally. It has not been reassuring.

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

    – ref. Grattan on Friday: Oil prices could be where the Middle East crisis collides with Australia’s cost-of-living crisis – https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-oil-prices-could-be-where-the-middle-east-crisis-collides-with-australias-cost-of-living-crisis-241002

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Prime Minister witnesses Lao Ramayan performance

    Source: Government of India

    Posted On: 10 OCT 2024 1:47PM by PIB Delhi

    Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi witnessed an episode of Lao Ramayan – called Phalak Phalam or Phra Lak Phra Ram – performed by the prestigious Royal Theatre of Luang Prabang. Ramayan continues to be celebrated in Laos, and the epic reflects the shared heritage and age-old civilization connection between the two countries. Several facets of Indian culture and tradition have been practised and preserved in Laos for centuries. The two countries are closely working to illuminate their shared heritage. The Archaelogical Survey of India is involved in restoring the Vat Phou temple and related monuments in Laos. Several dignitaries, including Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of Education and Sports, Hon. Governor of Bank of Lao PDR and Mayor of Vientiane were present on the occasion.

    Prior to the Ramayan performamce, Prime Minister participated in a blessing ceremony by senior Buddhist monks of Central Buddhist Fellowship Organization of Lao PDR, led by Most Venerable Mahaveth Masenai, the revered abbot of Si Saket temple in Vientiane. Shared Buddhist heritage represents yet another facet of close civilizational bonds between India and Laos.

     

    ***

    MJPS/SR

    (Release ID: 2063779) Visitor Counter : 39

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: There’s a new school funding bill in parliament. Will this end the funding wars?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew P. Sinclair, Lecturer and Researcher of Education Policy, School of Education, Curtin University

    On Thursday, federal Education Minister Jason Clare introduced a school funding bill to parliament.

    The bill aims to set a new “floor” for how much the federal government contributes towards public school funding in Australia.

    It would mean the Commonwealth has to contribute at least 20% of the schooling resource standard (how much funding a school needs to meet students’ educational needs) for public schools each year in all states and territories from 2025.

    Clare argues it will provide “certainty” to schools, but it also comes in the middle of a standoff between the federal government and some states over school funding policy.

    What’s in the bill?

    The bill proposes to change the current arrangement, under which the Commonwealth contributes 20% to the schooling resource standard of public schools. As the government explains:

    This means the 20 per cent will become the minimum, not the maximum, the Commonwealth contributes to public schools.

    The Albanese government says the bill will increase “transparency and accountability” and ensure funding cannot go backwards.

    But it cannot be certain of parliamentary support – Greens and independent senators are among those pushing for the government to provide more funding for public schools than is currently on the table.

    The bill will remove a 20% cap on federal funding for public schools.
    Bianca De Marchi/AAP, CC BY

    The bigger picture

    The bill also comes as the federal government is still trying to sign off new deals with some of the states and territories about their public school funding for next year.

    The current agreements will run out at the end of the year. While the new proposed arrangements would increase the federal contribution, it’s not by as much as some states want.

    So far, Clare has made agreements with Western Australia and Tasmania to increase the federal contribution from 20% to 22.5%. For the Northern Territory it will increase funding to a 40% contribution by 2029.

    So far, it has not signed deals with New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia, which are pushing for a federal contribution of 25%.

    The Australian Capital Territory is also yet to sign, despite its public schools receiving at least 100% of the schooling resource standard (via both federal and its own funds) for several years now.

    Clare set a deadline of September 30 for the holdout states to sign on for the 2.5% funding boost, or risk losing an extra A$16 billion in funding. But that has passed without any compromise from either side.

    Progress and politics

    At the very least, the introduction of the bill to federal parliament is symbolically significant, particularly in light of the Commonwealth’s willingness to increase its contribution to the school resource standard of public schools.

    But politics is never far away in school funding policy. Critics could argue the bill is more of a box-ticking exercise, rather than substantive reform. Indeed, the change in wording to a 20% minimum was inevitable given the specifics of the funding agreements already signed with Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

    Critics might also point out national school funding policy is currently a bit of a mess, with four of the five most populous Australian states ignoring the government’s new funding deal. And they could remind us this agreement has already been delayed by a year. The previous one expired at the end of 2023 and was extended for 12 months by the Albanese government.

    What happens to schools next year?

    The bill does nothing to bring the holdout states any closer to signing on to the new funding agreement.

    But this does not mean the federal government will withdraw its funding when school starts next year. Instead, the current funding arrangements will continue for another 12 months. This is why Clare says $16 billion in “additional investment” is on the table for public schools.

    With a federal election due next year, it is even possible there will be no resolution before Australians go to the polls. This continues the fight over the schooling resource standard funding for public schools, which has has been ongoing since the so-called Gonski Review was made public in 2012.

    Matthew P. Sinclair 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. There’s a new school funding bill in parliament. Will this end the funding wars? – https://theconversation.com/theres-a-new-school-funding-bill-in-parliament-will-this-end-the-funding-wars-240994

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Written question – Erasmus+ funding from the Commission for the controversial Gazientep University – E-001927/2024

    Source: European Parliament

    Question for written answer  E-001927/2024
    to the Commission
    Rule 144
    Dirk Gotink (PPE)

    According to an article[1] , there is an Erasmus+ partnership between the Commission and Gaziantep University and the university recently received EUR 250 000 from the EU. The article points to a host of anti-Israeli statements and states that the university rector actively supports the Hamas terrorist organisation. Accordingly:

    • 1.Is this report about the Commission providing EUR 250 000 in Erasmus+ funding for Gaziantep University true?
    • 2.When establishing relations with Gaziantep University, did the Commission also look into the statements by the rector and his possible links with Hamas?
    • 3.Does the Commission concur that, in view of the rector’s statements, the agreement with the university should be immediately terminated? If not, why not?

    Submitted: 2.10.2024

    • [1] https://www.lejdd.fr/societe/erasmus-lunion-europeenne-sous-le-feu-des-critiques-pour-avoir-integre-une-universite-pro-hamas-150023
    Last updated: 10 October 2024

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Multilingual NSW Academy launch invests in State’s diversity

    Source: New South Wales Ministerial News

    Published: 10 October 2024

    Released by: Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government, Minister for Multiculturalism

    The Minns Labor Government is investing $7.5 million into Multilingual NSW which will deliver the new Multilingual NSW Academy for translators and interpreters to further strengthen NSW’s linguistic diversity and government services.

    The Multilingual NSW Academy will support the development and sustainability of translating and interpreting services across the State and fulfil a 2024-25 Budget commitment.

    The Academy will explore new opportunities for partnerships and collaborations with leading training organisations, including University of New South Wales, Macquarie University, Western Sydney University and TAFE NSW. The Academy aims to increase the specialist and digital competency of Multicultural NSW’s more-than 1,000 language professionals by providing them with skills to work more effectively on NSW Government assignments.

    Digital uplift through technology and training will be a key feature of the Academy supported by an investment in new technology. Additionally, the Academy will embrace the customer-centric way of working as championed by the Department of Customer Service.

    At a recent event to recognise the work of NSW Government translators and interpreters and launch the new Multilingual NSW academy, three long serving Multicultural NSW employees were recognised for their 40-year professional commitment to their communities.

    Polish translator Czeslaw Olechnowicz, Hindi interpreter Neena Sinha and Thai translator and interpreter Songsri Foran were recognised with medals to commemorate their service.

    Minister for Multiculturalism Steve Kamper said:

    “Translators and interpreters have a crucial role in ensuring everyone in NSW has access to important information and services, which is why we’re investing in our people.”

    “Multilingual NSW is focusing on building the skills and capabilities of our translators and interpreters so that language is no longer a barrier to our multicultural community accessing government services.”

    “This significant investment delivers on the government’s plan to build strong, diverse communities and a better NSW for everyone.”

    Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government Jihad Dib said:

    “With almost 1 in 3 people living in NSW born overseas and more than 280 languages spoken in homes across the state, it is essential we deliver the resources and services our communities need to stay connected.”

    “We are working on a Digital Inclusion Strategy which puts people at the centre of how we roll out technological innovations and develop solutions which focus on diversity and accessibility and bridge the digital divide.”

    “This digital funding will support the rollout of new technology which will support more effective translation and interpreting services to benefit our linguistically diverse residents.”

    “This is about delivering digital for people, with the needs of the community being considered at every step.”

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Video: Innovation Lab – Energy I Corps

    Source: United States of America – Federal Government Departments (video statements)

    Select PNNL staff and Washington State University Tri-Cities students participate in entrepreneurial training called Energy I-Corp, funded by the Department of Energy. PNNL research teams are paired with WSU student teams to create a plan to take a PNNL-developed technology to market.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhLmCqXFUEk

    MIL OSI Video –

  • MIL-OSI Global: What Israel and its neighbours want now as all-out war looms in the Middle East – podcast

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Gemma Ware, Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The Conversation

    The Middle East is perilously close to all-out war. In the year since the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel, millions of people have been displaced from their homes in Gaza, Israel, the West Bank and now Lebanon, and tens of thousands killed.

    After Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah, Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles against Israel on October 1. As the world waits to see how Israel will retaliate, Israel’s military continues to attack Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and in Beirut.

    In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we speak to two experts from the Middle East, Mireille Rebeiz and Amnon Aran, to get a sense of the strategic calculations being made by both Israel and its neighbours at this frightening moment for the region.

    Mireille Rebeiz is the chair of Middle East studies at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania in the US and an expert on Hezbollah. She says that since launching its manifesto in 1985 Hezbollah has always positioned itself “in opposition to the existence of the state of Israel”.

    It affirmed the dedication to the Palestinian cause. It affirmed its commitment to the Iranian revolution and the Shi’ite ideology.

    Rebeiz says Iran’s military goals are completely aligned with Hezbollah’s and traces them back to the US’s destabilisation of Iraq.

    When Iraq fell into a full chaos and war (it) allowed for Iran to meddle into Iraq and gave a big voice to the Shiite conservative voices.

    Then followed the 2011 Syrian civil war, in which Hezbollah stepped in to defend the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

    It’s a domino effect – it’s expansion from Iran to Iraq to Syria to Lebanon. And this is clearly visible in Iran’s military goals, which is ultimately the expansion of the Iranian ideology in the region. Honestly, at this point, I would say there is an attempt to hide behind the Palestinian cause to achieve that goal.

    Israel’s choices

    Amnon Aran is a professor of international relations at City St George’s, University of London, in the UK, and an expert in Israeli foreign policy. Aran says that for Israel, the past 12 months have been described as an “existential moment”, which has informed the war in the Gaza Strip and now Lebanon.

    When the question came about how to respond to this existential threat, it was very much from the prism of what I called elsewhere, a form of entrenchment, which really means that Israel only makes peace in exchange for peace. Any diplomatic arrangement has to be dependent upon and subordinate to a military advantageous balance of power towards Israel and that the Palestinians in the West Bank, and now in the Gaza Strip, would remain under Israeli occupation for the foreseeable future.

    Aran says there is fierce debate in Israel about what to do now. One side follows the line of thinking of the former Israeli prime minister, Nafthali Bennett, who took to X in early October to say that: “Israel now has its greatest opportunity in 50 years to change the face of the Middle East.” This camp is arguing that with Hezbollah weakened, this is the moment to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.

    On the other side, Aran says, are those in the military establishment arguing against attacking Israel’s nuclear facilities and instead focus on weakening Hezbollah as much as possible. This camp’s reasoning is that:

    After a year of being in a prolonged and very difficult conflict, the next question is you are actually starting a war presumably on five or six fronts, including a very vast country, 90 million people, Iran, with a very rich history, and you are actually entering into a very new phase, which could become very prolonged.

    To hear the full interviews with Mireille Rebeiz and Amnon Aran, listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.

    This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced by Mend Mariwany. Sound design was by Michelle Macklem, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer.

    You can find us on Instagram at theconversationdotcom or via email. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s free daily email here.

    Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our RSS feed or find out how else to listen here.

    Amnon Aran 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. Mireille Rebeiz is affiliated with the American Red Cross.

    – ref. What Israel and its neighbours want now as all-out war looms in the Middle East – podcast – https://theconversation.com/what-israel-and-its-neighbours-want-now-as-all-out-war-looms-in-the-middle-east-podcast-240952

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Governor Newsom announces appointments 10.9.24

    Source: US State of California 2

    Oct 9, 2024

    SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the following appointments:

    Jennifer Troia, of Sacramento, has been appointed Director at the California Department of Social Services. Troia has served as Chief Deputy Director at the California Department of Social Services since 2020. She was a Principal Consultant for the Joint Legislative Budget Committee from 2018 to 2019. Troia was a Policy Advisor in the Office of California State Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de Leon from 2014 to 2017. She held several roles for the California State Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review from 2009 to 2014, including Deputy Staff Director and Principal Consultant. Troia was a Principal Consultant for the California State Assembly Committee on Human Services from 2008 to 2009. She was Director of Advocacy at the California Court Appointed Special Advocate Association from 2006 to 2008. Troia was an Equal Justice Works Fellow and Attorney at the Youth Law Center from 2004 to 2006. She earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from the University of Florida. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $244,572. Troia is a Democrat.  

    Nathan Williams, of Washington, D.C., has been appointed Chief, Immigration Integration Branch of the Office of Equity at the California Department of Social Services. Williams has been Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security since September 2024. He held several roles at the National Security Council in the Executive Office of the President of the United States from 2023 and 2024, including Director for Refugees and Director for Hemispheric Migration. Williams was a Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from 2022 to 2023. He served in several roles, including several overseas assignments, at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from 2010 and 2022, including Senior Liaison Officer, Digital Case Management Officer, Protection Officer, Associate Field Officer, Associate Protection Officer and Associate Resettlement Officer. Williams was an Emergency Officer at the Office of Emergency Programmes of the United Nations Children’s Fund in 2015. He earned a Master of International Affairs degree from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Anthropology from Santa Clara University. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $142,008. Williams is a Democrat.

    Daphne Hunt, of Fair Oaks, has been appointed Chief Deputy Director at the California Department of Community Services and Development. Hunt has served as Deputy Director of Programs at the California Department of Community Services and Development since 2021. She was Deputy Secretary of Legislative Affairs at the California Health and Human Services Agency from 2019 to 2021. Hunt held several roles at the California State Assembly’s Human Services Committee from 2015 to 2019, including Chief Consultant and Senior Consultant. She held several roles at the California State Senate Office of Research from 2012 to 2015, including Deputy Director and Policy Consultant. She held several roles at SEIU Local 1000 from 2007 to 2012, including Senior Research Analyst and Research Analyst. Hunt earned a Master of Arts degree in Social Policy from Brandeis University, a Master of Science degree in Community Development from the University of California, Davis and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology and English Literature from the University of Iowa. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $176,808.  Hunt is a Democrat.  

    Roy Bucton, of Duarte, has been reappointed to the California State Independent Living Council, where he has served since 2021. Bucton has been an Independent Contractor and Producer for music and performance since 1983. He was a Disability Advocacy Coordinator for Painted Brain from 2021 to 2024. Bucton was Director and Founder of the Filipino Artists Network from 2001 to 2011. He is Chair of the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness Advisory Council and a member of the Board of Directors of Disability Rights California. Bucton earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in World Music from the California Institute of the Arts. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Bucton is registered without party preference.

    Susan DeMarois, of Sacramento, has been reappointed to the California State Independent Living Council, where she has served since 2022. DeMarois has been Director of the California Department of Aging since 2021. She was a Member of the Master Plan for Aging Stakeholder Advisory Committee from 2019 to 2020. DeMarois held several positions at the Alzheimer’s Association from 1999 and 2021, including Director of Public Policy and Advocacy, California Government Affairs Director and California State Policy Director. She was Assistant Director of Government and Community Relations at the University of California, Davis Health System from 2002 to 2009. DeMarois was Associate Director of Public Policy at LeadingAge California from 1993 to 1999. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts from California State University, Chico. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. DeMarois is a Democrat. 

    Ariana “Rian” Dindzans, of San Ramon, has been reappointed to the California State Independent Living Council, where they have served since 2023. Dindzans has been a Volunteer Writer and Outreach Representative for the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program since 2023. They have been a Research Assistant for Dr. Christina Chin-Newman at California State University, East Bay since 2023.  Dindzans is a member of the Disability Justice Club and the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Dindzans is a Democrat. 

    Anisa Escobedo, of Eureka, has been reappointed to the California State Independent Living Council, where she has served since 2023. Escobedo has been Owner and Designer at Escobedo Design since 2016. She held several roles at Tri-County Independent Living from 2019 to 2024, including Systems Change & Special Projects Coordinator, Advocacy and Fund Development Coordinator and Advocacy & Outreach Specialist. Escobedo was Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer at the Arcata Chamber of Commerce in 2022. She was Executive Director of the Ravenna Chamber of Commerce in 2020. Escobedo is a member of Kiwanis International. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Escobedo is a Democrat.

    M. Lisa Hayes, of Bellflower, has been reappointed to the California State Independent Living Council, where she has served since 2016. Hayes has been Executive Director at Rolling Start Inc. since 2018. She held several positions at Molina Healthcare between 2007 and 2017, including Associate Vice President of Managed Long-Term Services and Supports, Director of Disability and Senior Access Services, Manager of Senior Disability Programs and Manager of Provider Contract Review. Hayes was a Project and Contract Manager at United Health PacifiCare from 2000 to 2007. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Leadership from Biola University. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Hayes is a Democrat. 

    Recent news

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Myanmar: Two activists at grave risk of torture after arrests

    Source: Amnesty International –

    Myanmar’s military authorities must immediately account for the whereabouts and wellbeing of two pro-democracy activists arrested in Yangon on Wednesday, Amnesty International said today.

    Paing Phyo Min and Shein Wai Aung were arrested on 9 October and sent to an interrogation centre, Amnesty International understands. Paing Phyo Min’s family has not been able to reach him, while Shein Wai Aung and his father, mother and sister have also been uncontactable.

    As many as six additional people are also believed to have been arrested in raids.

    “The Myanmar military must urgently account for the whereabouts and wellbeing of Paing Phyo Min and of Shein Wai Aung and his family. Unless they can be charged with an internationally recognized crime, they must be immediately and unconditionally released,” Amnesty International’s Myanmar Researcher Joe Freeman said.

    “As leaders from The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meet in Laos and discuss a way out of the crisis brought on by the 2021 coup, the Myanmar military continues to arbitrarily detain people and carry out repression across the country.”

    Paing Phyo Min is known for his involvement with a group of young people performing Thangyat, a popular Myanmar traditional art form which fuses poetry, comedy and music to comment on social issues.

    In 2019, Paing Phyo Min and other members of an activist group called the Peacock Generation were arrested after performing Thangyat dressed as soldiers. For this, he was sentenced to six years in prison.

    In 2020, Amnesty International called for Paing Phyo Min’s release as part of its annual Write 4 Rights campaign, with many people writing letters to him to bolster his spirits. He was released in 2021 as part of a mass prisoner amnesty.

    After the military coup, he and others took part in peaceful protests in Yangon, despite enormous risks following violent crackdowns.

    Shein Wai Aung, a former student at Dagon University in Yangon, has been active in peaceful protests and in supporting political prisoners in Myanmar.

    “Protesting in Myanmar today is not the same as it was before the coup. Anyone involved in any kind of dissent against the military faces long jail terms, torture and other ill-treatment, and even death in custody,” Joe Freeman said.

    “In Myanmar’s prison system, there is little hope of fair treatment, no transparency, and extremely substandard conditions. Interrogation centers, where these two activists have likely been sent, are also notorious locations of abuse where torture has been used to extract information before charges are formally brought.”

    Myanmar’s military has killed more than 5,000 civilians since seizing power in the coup on 1 February 2021. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in its latest report last month that at least 1,853 of those people have died in custody.

    In the 2022 report ‘15 Days Felt Like 15 Years’, Amnesty International documented torture and other ill-treatment against people arbitrarily detained by the military and police after the coup.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: RBI imposes monetary penalty on Sonbhadra Nagar Sahkari Bank Limited, Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh

    Source: Reserve Bank of India

    The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has, by an order dated October 01, 2024, imposed a monetary penalty of ₹2.50 lakh (Rupees Two Lakh Fifty Thousand only) on Sonbhadra Nagar Sahkari Bank Limited, Sonbhadra (the bank) for contravention of the provisions of section 26A read with section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (BR Act). This penalty has been imposed in exercise of powers conferred on RBI under section 47A(1)(c) read with sections 46(4)(i) and 56 of the BR Act.

    The statutory inspection of the bank was conducted by RBI with reference to its financial position as on March 31, 2023. Based on supervisory findings of contravention of the statutory provision and related correspondence in that regard, a notice was issued to the bank advising it to show cause as to why penalty should not be imposed on it for its failure to comply with the said statutory provision. After considering the bank’s reply to the notice and oral submissions made during the personal hearing and examination of additional submissions made by it, RBI found, inter alia, that the charge of not transferring the eligible amounts to the Depositor Education and Awareness Fund within the prescribed period was sustained, warranting imposition of monetary penalty.

    This action is based on deficiency in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the bank with its customers. Further, imposition of this monetary penalty is without prejudice to any other action that may be initiated by RBI against the bank.

    (Puneet Pancholy)  
    Chief General Manager

    Press Release: 2024-2025/1264

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: SUM student receives personal scholarship from Financial Market Council

    MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

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

    The 2nd ceremony of awarding scholarship certificates of the financial market program “Investments in the Future” was held in the Congress Center of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation. One of the certificates was awarded to a student of the Institute of Economics and Finance of the State University of Management Khagai Ifraimov.

    The scholarship program of corporate and personal scholarships “Investments in the Future” was established in 2022 on the initiative of the Financial Market Council, with the support of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Eurasian Economic Council. The program is designed to provide financial support to talented students and young scientists from universities and colleges of the EurAsEC and the CIS.

    In the 2024/2025 academic year, 113 universities and colleges in Russia and Kazakhstan are participating in the program, the “Investments in the Future” fund amounted to 28 million rubles. The scholarship council selected 230 recipients on a competitive basis, 28 of whom were awarded personal scholarships in honor of famous scientists, teachers, government and public figures. The annual scholarship amount is 120 thousand rubles – students will receive 10 thousand rubles per month.

    The founders of the scholarships include banks, insurance companies, non-state pension funds, industrial enterprises and humanitarian organizations. The organizations themselves choose the university or secondary specialized educational institution for whose students they are ready to establish a scholarship.

    The founder of the scholarship for the GUU student Khagai Ifraimov was the Specialized Depository Company “Garant”. Khagai is a 4th-year student at the IEF in the “Financial Management” program. He shared with us his impressions of the scholarship awarding ceremony:

    “Having received a scholarship from the Russian Financial Market Council, I felt an incredible surge of joy and pride. This is not only recognition of my efforts and work, but also an incentive for further self-improvement. I understood that the scholarship would open doors to the world of finance, allow me to meet many key and iconic figures in the Russian financial market. My determination to work even harder only increased, because this support is a step towards achieving goals and strengthening faith in my own strengths.”

    We wish Khagai further success in his studies!

    Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 10.10.2024

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

    Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    SUM student receives personal scholarship from Financial Market Council

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Media Release – SVSG Engages Youth to Promote Non-Violence Message

    Source: Government of Western Samoa

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    In the lead-up to Sanarosa’s Closure Ceremony, the Sanarosa “Let It End With Me” Campaign was launched today, engaging students from Maluafou College and St. Joseph’s College.

    Sanarosa was a young girl whose tragic story of abuse has profoundly impacted our community, especially following her untimely death at 18 years old.

    SVSG strategically selected these two colleges as advocates for Sanarosa’s message, recognizing that students, teachers, principals, and parents are navigating the healing process to address mental health issues exacerbated by recent violent incidents.

    The campaign commenced this morning at Maluafou College, involving the entire school community, including teachers and Vice Principal Reverend Iakopo Faasalaina. Sanarosa’s dying message was shared through a video recording, serving as an inspiration drawn from her heartbreaking story. SVSG has made a promise to keep Sanarosa’s message alive by advocating for children and youth.

    The afternoon session at St. Joseph’s College met with an equally positive reception. Sister Jacinta Fidow of the Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary (SMSM) and the SVSG Psychosocial Team Leader delivered the Sanarosa “Let It End With Me” message. The students, teachers, and Brothers showed significant engagement, paying close attention to the message being shared.

    Sanarosa’s legacy resonated deeply with many, prompting reflections on the importance of compassion and support within the community. Students were invited to take ownership of the Sanarosa “Let It End With Me” Campaign to honor her memory by fostering a culture of care, respect, and understanding among their peers—one that unequivocally rejects violence in all forms.

    SVSG President Siliniu Lina Chang, who led the campaign today, reminded the students: “I urge you to recognize the preciousness of life and to choose paths that uplift rather than harm. You are fortunate to have families who embrace you when you return home from school—families that protect you fiercely. The children at the Campus of Hope remind us of the harsh realities of violence. Please, do not let Sanarosa’s death be in vain.”

    The Samoa Victim Support Group remains committed to raising awareness and advocating for a culture of non-violence among youth in Samoa. Through initiatives like the Sanarosa “Let It End With Me” Campaign, SVSG aims to create lasting change and empower the next generation to reject violence in all its forms.

    “Thank you to the thousands of students we have visited today at the two Colleges for committing to continue Sanarosa’s legacy. Together, we can break the cycle of violence and inspire a generation to cherish life and support one another,” said Siliniu Lina Chang.

    Join us for Sanarosa’s Closure Ceremony on Friday, October 4, 2024, at 9:30 AM, at Fasitoo-uta. We invite the community to pay tribute to our young hero, as SVSG village representatives will line the road leading to Sanarosa’s resting place.

    END.

    SOURCE – Samoa Victim Support Group

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    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: SPC Tornado Watch 690 Status Reports

    Source: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Women’s development summit held

    Source: Hong Kong Information Services

    Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki today officiated at the inaugural Family & Women Development Summit Hong Kong.

    Themed “Women’s Strengths in Action, Family Values Across Generations”, the summit brought together various sectors of the community to exchange views on matters relating to women and families.

    Guest speakers included officials from various regions, successful women from diverse sectors, members of families from a range of backgrounds, and representatives of non-governmental organisations.

    The event attracted over 900 participants from local and Greater Bay Area women’s groups, the business sector, and relevant service organisations.

    In his address, Mr Chan said that women have played a crucial role in driving Hong Kong’s social and economic development, and are as competent as men. He highlighted the outstanding accomplishments of Hong Kong women in various fields, providing.

    Mr Chan added that women also play a unique role in respect of family development, and in fostering family education and values.

    Noting that the National 14th Five-Year Plan highlights the need to strengthen family development and promote diversified family services, Mr Chan said the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is focused on the healthy development of local families.

    Delivering a keynote speech at the summit, Secretary for Home & Youth Affairs Alice Mak said that by pulling together the efforts of the Government, the business sector, and the community, it can offer a new platform for individuals to support the development of local families and women.

    She said it will allow people from different sectors, backgrounds and cultures to share their experiences and insights, helping to stimulate new policy ideas.

    At the summit, the Home & Youth Affairs Bureau announced the introduction of a three-year Maintenance Mediation Pilot Scheme, and the official launch of a one-stop family and women’s information portal. It also announced that a five-year “Funding Scheme on the Promotion of Family Education” will be launched on October 14 to support non-profit-making community projects that promote family education.

    Exhibition booths at the venue showcased the achievements of women’s groups and family service organisations in promoting women’s development and family education.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why isometric exercises are so good for you

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Dan Gordon, Professor of Exercise Physiology, Anglia Ruskin University

    Isometric exercises involve contracting your muscles. Odua Images/ Shutterstock

    Exercise is great for improving heart health. But the thought of hitting the gym or going for a jog might put some people off from doing it. And, if you have a heart condition already, such dynamic exercises may not be safe to do.

    The good news is, you don’t necessarily need to do a vigorous workout to see heart benefits. You can even improve your heart health by holding still and trying really hard not to move.

    Isometric training, as this is called, is becoming increasingly popular as a way of reducing blood pressure and hypertension, and improving strength and muscle stability.

    Normally, to build strength and force, our muscles need to change length throughout a movement. Squats and bicep curls are good examples of exercises that cause the muscle to change length throughout the movement.

    But isometric training involves simply contracting your muscles, which generates force without needing to move your joints. The harder a muscle is contracted, the more forceful it becomes (and the more forceful a muscle is, the more powerfully we can perform a movement).

    If you add weight to an isometric exercise, it causes the muscle to contract even harder. A wall sit and a plank are examples of isometric contractions.

    Isometric exercises are associated with a high degree of “neural recruitment”, because of the need to maintain the contraction. This means these exercises are good at engaging specialised neurons in our brain and spinal cord, which play an important role in all the movements we do – both voluntary and involuntary. The greater this level of neural activation, the more muscle fibres are recruited – and the more force generated. As a result, this can lead to strength gains.

    Isometric exercises have long been of interest to strength and power athletes as a means of preparing their muscles to generate high forces by activating them. But research also shows isometric exercises are beneficial for other areas of our health – including reducing hypertension and promoting better blood flow.

    There are a couple reasons why isometric exercises are so good for the heart.

    When a muscle is contracted, it expands its size. This causes it to compress the blood vessels supplying this muscle, reducing blood flow and raising the blood pressure in our arteries – a mechanism known as the “pressor reflex”.

    Then, once the contraction is relaxed, a sudden surge of blood flows into the blood vessels and muscle. This influx of blood brings more oxygen and (crucially) nitric oxide into the blood vessels – causing them to widen. This in turn reduces blood pressure. Over time, this action will reduce stiffness of the arteries, which may lower blood pressure.

    Over time, isometric exercises may help lower blood pressure.
    Andrey_Popov/ Shutterstock

    When blood flow is reduced during an isometric movement, it also reduces the amount of available oxygen that cells need to function. This triggers the release of metabolites, such as hydrogen ions and lactate, which stimulate the sympathetic nervous system – which controls our “fight of flight” response. In the short term, this leads to an increase in blood pressure.

    But when an isometric exercise is done repeatedly over many weeks, there’s a reduction in sympathetic nervous system activity. This means blood pressure is lowered and there’s less strain on the cardiovascular system – which makes these exercises good for the heart.

    Isometric exercises may be even more beneficial for heart health than other types of cardiovascular exercise. A study which compared the benefits of isometric exercise versus high-intensity interval training found isometrics led to significantly greater reductions in resting blood pressure over the study period of between two and 12 weeks.

    How to use isometric exercise

    If you want to use isometric training to reduce blood pressure, it’s recommended that you should do any isometric contraction for two minutes at around 30-50% of your maximum effort. This is enough to trigger physiological improvements.

    You can start by doing this four times a day, three-to-five times per week – focusing on the same exercise. As you progress, you can start to vary the exercises you do, add weights to the exercise, or add in more than one isometric exercise.

    Some good isometric exercises to begin with include a static squat, a wall sit or a plank. Even during these small bouts of exercise, your heart rate, breathing and arterial pressure will all increase – the same responses that occur during more conventional whole-body exercises, such as cycling and running.

    The beneficial improvements in blood pressure start to manifest around 4-10 weeks after starting isometric training – though this depends on a person’s health and fitness levels when starting out.

    Isometric training appears to be a simple, low-intensity mode of exercise that offers big benefits for cardiovascular health – all while requiring little time commitment compared with other workouts.

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

    – ref. Why isometric exercises are so good for you – https://theconversation.com/why-isometric-exercises-are-so-good-for-you-239543

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Hamza Yassin to deliver free talk at Anglia Ruskin

    Source: Anglia Ruskin University

    Published: 9 October 2024 at 12:18

    Presenter and wildlife cameraman has date at the Chelmsford Science Festival

    TV presenter, wildlife cameraman and Strictly Come Dancing champion Hamza Yassin will be heading to Essex later this month to take part in the Chelmsford Science Festival.

    The free event at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) on Tuesday, 29 October, will focus on Hamza’s journey overcoming adversity with his dyslexia to becoming a renowned wildlife cameraman and presenter in My Life Behind the Lens. Hamza will share some incredible photographs and stories from his early life in Sudan and his global travels as a cameraman. 

    Hamza achieved national stardom when he lifted the famous Glitterball Trophy in 2022 with his professional partner Jowita Przystal, but he had enjoyed a successful and varied TV career before Strictly Come Dancing. Hamza’s first appearance was on The One Show, as one of their wildlife cameramen.

    He is known as Ranger Hamza on the hugely popular CBeebies shows Let’s Go For A Walk and Ranger Hamza’s Eco Quest, and is one of the regular presenters on the BBC’s Countryfile and Animal Park.

    For Channel 4, Hamza has presented Scotland: My Life in the Wild and Scotland: Escape to the Wilderness, and the highly regarded BBC One documentary Hamza: Strictly Birds of Prey. He is currently filming a new BBC One series titled Hamza’s Hidden Wild Isles.

    Hamza has a particular passion for birds and is a skilled ornithologist and birds nest recorder. His first book, Be a Birder: The joy of birdwatching and how to get started, was published last year, while his second book, Hamza’s Wild World, was published by Macmillan Children’s Books and is out now.

    Professor Laurie Butler, Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), said:

    “We are absolutely thrilled to be welcoming Hamza to ARU on 29 October as part of the Chelmsford Science Festival.

    “Hamza achieved national treasure status when he danced his way to victory on Strictly two years ago and we are excited to learn more about his passion for wildlife and nature.

    “As well as being a talented wildlife cameraman, Hamza is also a knowledgeable conservationist and ornithologist, so the event should be perfect for anyone with an interest in natural history.”

    Hamza will be bringing his cameras to ARU, offering visitors an exclusive, close-up look at his equipment, and will host a short Q&A session, so attendees should come armed with questions. Hamza will also be available to meet attendees following the talk and Q&A.

    Due to exceptional demand, the organisers have arranged a free live stream of Hamza’s talk on Tuesday, 29 October (6.30-8pm). 

    To register for the live stream, visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hamza-yassin-my-life-behind-the-lens-tickets-1037842152817 or to join the waiting list to attend Hamza’s in-person talk at ARU, visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/my-life-behind-the-lens-tickets-1015926973927

    For further information about the 2024 Chelmsford Science Festival, and the full range of events taking place this year, visit https://www.aru.ac.uk/events/chelmsford-science-festival 

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How 19th-century French novelist Balzac mastered the multiverse long before Marvel

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Harsh Trivedi, Associate Teacher, School of Languages and Cultures, University of Sheffield

    The multiverse has become an essential part of pop culture. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) brought this shared universe style of storytelling to global prominence with Iron Man (2008), where a post-credit scene hinted at a larger interconnected universe.

    Over time, this expanded into a cinematic multiverse, particularly with the 2016 film Doctor Strange. Films like Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness (2022) introduced audiences to parallel universes where different versions of the same character coexist. The multiverse has also been embraced by other films, like Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022), which won multiple Academy Awards and Stree 2, which became the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time in September 2024.

    This style of storytelling has deep literary roots. I believe the first person to master the fictional multiverse was the 19th-century French novelist, Honoré de Balzac, in his monumental work La Comédie Humaine (The Human Comedy, 1829-1847).



    Read more:
    Multiverse films take characters to increasingly dark places – as Robert Downey Jr’s Doctor Doom casting shows

    In the 1920s, German physicist Werner Heisenberg challenged Newtonian physics, positing that particles can simultaneously occupy multiple states – he called this the Uncertainty Principle. Later, in the 1950s, American physicist Hugh Everett proposed the Many Worlds Interpretation, suggesting that all possible outcomes of a quantum event occur, each in a separate parallel universe.

    While this theory was developed in physics, the term “multiverse” was introduced into literature by British science fiction writer Michael Moorcock. In The Eternal Champion (1970), he envisioned characters existing in parallel worlds with multiple avatars.

    Honoré de Balzac, by Louis Boulanger (1836).
    Wikimedia., CC BY-SA

    However, Balzac’s La Comédie Humaine, written over a century earlier, already contained the seeds of multiverse storytelling. Comprising nearly 100 novels and short stories, it features thousands of characters who reappear across different works, creating a shared universe that allows for complex narrative interconnections.

    Balzac’s innovation was not merely in these recurring characters, but in the thematic and conceptual unity he established across his fictional universe.

    This cohesion is built through his “typology” of characters. Balzac’s “types” are characters who embody universal traits while retaining their individual personalities – making them instantly recognisable across different stories.

    In his preface to Une Ténébreuse Affaire (An Historical Mystery, 1841), Balzac defends his use of types: “A type … is a character who summarises in himself certain characteristic traits of all those who more or less resemble him; he is the model of the genre.”

    Hungarian philosopher Georg Lukács expanded on this idea, stating that Balzac’s types represent a synthesis of the individual and the universal. These characters are universal enough to represent broader societal forces, while remaining distinct individuals within their own narratives.

    The moment Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man saves the love interest of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, MJ.

    This balance between the universal and individual is a cornerstone of multiverse storytelling. For instance, the climax of Spider-Man: No Way Home highlights the interplay between the universal and individual aspects of characters, as seen when three versions of Spider-Man (Toby Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland) from parallel universes unite. Garfield’s Spider-Man finds redemption by saving MJ (Holland’s Spider-Man’s love interest), a moment that mirrors his own tragic loss of Gwen – emphasising both their shared trauma and divergent fates.

    In much the same way, Balzac’s recurring characters evolve across La Comédie Humaine, reflecting different facets of their personalities and situations. Although not planned as a shared universe from the beginning – Balzac retrofitted earlier works to fit this framework – the coherence of his fictional world is remarkable.

    Mobilising the multiverse

    The French philosopher Alain wrote that Balzac’s literary universe can sometimes feel like a “crossroads where characters from La Comédie Humaine meet, greet each other, and pass”. This creates a sense of disjointedness, due to its lack of strict chronological order, allowing readers to enter Balzac’s universe from any of the nearly 100 novels or short stories.

    Balzac addressed these concerns in his prefaces. He engaged in a meta-discourse similar to the post-credit scenes in modern Marvel films, where future plot-lines and character arcs are hinted at.

    Balzac’s use of prefaces as a space to preempt criticism and engage with his readers anticipates the dialogue between creators and fans in the MCU. Just as Marvel balances creative vision with fan demands, Balzac used his prefaces to address concerns from his readers about the trajectories of beloved characters.

    One of many such instances occurs in the preface to Pierrette (1840), where Balzac reveals that Maxime de Trailles, a notorious bachelor who ruins many women’s lives in La Comédie Humaine, is finally getting married. Despite criticisms from readers who wanted De Trailles to meet a tragic and painful end, Balzac defends his decision, humorously remarking: “What do you want me to do? That devil Maxime is in good health.”

    Both Balzac and Marvel deal with the challenge of catering to a wide and diverse audience. The multiverse model, however, offers a solution to the limitations of a shared universe. While Balzac struggled with the impossibility of creating a completely coherent world – La Comédie Humaine was unfinished at his death – the multiverse allows modern creators to explore multiple realities and satisfy diverse audience expectations without making irreversible narrative choices.

    In 2019, Marvel faced a backlash to the film Captain Marvel from conservative fans, for casting a female actor in a lead role – and then, in 2022, another backlash for casting a Muslim Pakistani actress as Ms. Marvel. Rather than directly addressing the criticism, which could have alienated both conservative and liberal audiences, Marvel used the multiverse to cater to a wide range of expectations.

    Across the Spider-Verse (2023) is a prime example. This animated film features over 600 versions of Spider-Man, from the “traditional” white Spider-Man to black, Indian and even animal versions of the character (notably Peter “Porker”, the Spider-Pig). In doing so, Marvel catered to diverse global markets without committing to a single interpretation.

    Balzac’s La Comédie Humaine laid the groundwork for modern multiverse storytelling. This approach allowed him to explore different dimensions of his characters across various stories. His visionary storytelling anticipated the fluidity and complexity found in today’s shared cinematic universes, demonstrating his enduring influence on narrative structures.


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

    Harsh Trivedi 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 19th-century French novelist Balzac mastered the multiverse long before Marvel – https://theconversation.com/how-19th-century-french-novelist-balzac-mastered-the-multiverse-long-before-marvel-239764

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How to recognise burnout – and what to do if you’re affected

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Michael Koch, Reader in Human Resource Management & Organisational Behaviour, Brunel University London

    PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock

    Emily, a finance manager, has been working 60-hour weeks for several months to meet deadlines. She starts feeling constantly exhausted, both physically and mentally. Work that she once found engaging now seems overwhelming, and she’s easily irritated with her colleagues. Despite putting in more hours, her productivity declines. Eventually, she starts calling in sick frequently and considers quitting her job, feeling like she just can’t keep going any more.

    Emily is a victim of burnout. For 2024, World Mental Health Day is focused on workplace health, with the aim of helping people like Emily recognise when work is affecting their wellbeing, so that they can take steps to address it.

    Burnout happens when the demands of a job are high for a long time, and are not offset by sufficient mental and physical resources. In this situation, people are no longer able to recover from their demanding job. Their energy is gradually drained, resulting in a state of mental exhaustion, a cynical and negative attitude towards their work, as well as a declining performance.

    In other words, people affected by burnout are neither able nor willing to fully function in their job. Burnout can occur in any job, but is most likely in workplaces where demands are high and resources low. It is a widespread phenomenon.

    A report by the charity Mental Health UK asserts that the country is on the verge of becoming a burnt-out nation, with 91% of the working adults surveyed reporting high or extreme levels of pressure and stress at some point in the past year.

    According to the same report, 20% of workers in the UK even took time off work due to poor mental health caused by stress last year.

    You don’t have to work in a desk job to be at risk of burnout.
    ultramansk/Shutterstock

    Research has consistently shown that the primary causes of burnout are excessive and prolonged job demands. This includes, for example, high workloads, job insecurity, role ambiguity, conflict, stress or stressful events, and work pressure.

    Burnout has severe consequences, most of all for people affected by it. Burnout impacts people differently, but even mild cases – which could linger for several years – can lead to a multitude of negative health outcomes. This includes work-related anxiety and depression, increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, Type 2 diabetes, insomnia, headaches and perhaps most alarmingly, increased mortality.

    People with mild cases of burnout are also at risk of developing more severe burnout that will keep them off work sick for long periods.

    Burnout is also worrying for organisations as it has a negative impact on creativity, leads to higher employee turnover, increased absenteeism and poor job performance.

    The symptoms of burnout differ from one person to another, and sometimes people might not even fully realise they’re burnt out until they are no longer just tired but too exhausted to function.

    People who experience burnout are drained of energy and may be overwhelmed even by
    small tasks. They distance themselves from their work, struggle with self doubt and develop cynical, negative attitudes regarding their job or the people they work for.

    When looking for symptoms of burnout, it might help to ask yourself questions like: Do you mostly talk about your work in a negative way? Do you tend to think less about your work and do your job almost mechanically? Do you sometimes feel sickened by your work tasks? Are there days when you feel tired before you arrive at work? Do you often feel emotionally drained during your work? Do you usually feel worn out and weary after your work?

    Burnout recovery and prevention needs to help minimise the job demands which cause
    exhaustion and disengagement. For example, reducing workload and work pressure, and establishing clear boundaries between life and work can help to reduce stressful job demands.

    Job resources can also help to mitigate the impact of job demands. This includes things like job control, having a variety of tasks, social support, performance feedback, opportunities for professional development and the quality of a worker’s relationship with their supervisor.

    When people have an abundance of these resources, the link between the demands of the job and burnout is greatly reduced because they help workers to cope better.

    Recovery is possible

    Opportunities for recovery from work-related stress are an especially important job resource in this context. Recovery means that employees have non-work time where they can relax and detach themselves from work. This may include leisure activities that allow people to simply experience pleasure without competitive pressures.

    Research has also shown that job crafting is an effective burnout intervention. Job crafting means that employees make small adjustments to both their job demands and resources. Employees can decrease their job demands by taking steps to minimise the emotionally, mentally or physically demanding job aspects or by reducing their workload.

    For example, this might involve looking for a calmer place to work. They can also increase job resources by engaging in professional development, gaining more autonomy at work and by asking others for support, feedback and advice. Over time, engaging in job crafting will lead to lower burnout.

    Organisations also need to play their part to reduce burnout. A range of intervention strategies such as stress management training, mindfulness-based approaches or policies that allow employees to disconnect from work outside of normal working hours are useful tools for combating burnout in an organisation.

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

    – ref. How to recognise burnout – and what to do if you’re affected – https://theconversation.com/how-to-recognise-burnout-and-what-to-do-if-youre-affected-240747

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: #ErasmusDays

    Source: European Union 2

    The #ErasmusDays are an international six-day celebration of the Erasmus+ programme. During these days, people throughout the world are invited to come together and either organise or participate at events that celebrate the projects and opportunities proposed by Erasmus+. For students, teachers, trainers, professionals and more generally, all citizens, the #ErasmusDays represent a unique moment to promote the multitude of benefits that result from the programme. In 2024, the 8th edition of the #ErasmusDays takes place from the 14th until the 19th October.

    Discover more

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How a subfield of physics led to breakthroughs in AI – and from there to this year’s Nobel Prize

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Veera Sundararaghavan, Professor of Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan

    Neural networks have their roots in statistical mechanics. BlackJack3D/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton received the Nobel Prize in physics on Oct. 8, 2024, for their research on machine learning algorithms and neural networks that help computers learn. Their work has been fundamental in developing neural network theories that underpin generative artificial intelligence.

    A neural network is a computational model consisting of layers of interconnected neurons. Like the neurons in your brain, these neurons process and send along a piece of information. Each neural layer receives a piece of data, processes it and passes the result to the next layer. By the end of the sequence, the network has processed and refined the data into something more useful.

    While it might seem surprising that Hopfield and Hinton received the physics prize for their contributions to neural networks, used in computer science, their work is deeply rooted in the principles of physics, particularly a subfield called statistical mechanics.

    As a computational materials scientist, I was excited to see this area of research recognized with the prize. Hopfield and Hinton’s work has allowed my colleagues and me to study a process called generative learning for materials sciences, a method that is behind many popular technologies like ChatGPT.

    What is statistical mechanics?

    Statistical mechanics is a branch of physics that uses statistical methods to explain the behavior of systems made up of a large number of particles.

    Instead of focusing on individual particles, researchers using statistical mechanics look at the collective behavior of many particles. Seeing how they all act together helps researchers understand the system’s large-scale macroscopic properties like temperature, pressure and magnetization.

    For example, physicist Ernst Ising developed a statistical mechanics model for magnetism in the 1920s. Ising imagined magnetism as the collective behavior of atomic spins interacting with their neighbors.

    In Ising’s model, there are higher and lower energy states for the system, and the material is more likely to exist in the lowest energy state.

    One key idea in statistical mechanics is the Boltzmann distribution, which quantifies how likely a given state is. This distribution describes the probability of a system being in a particular state – like solid, liquid or gas – based on its energy and temperature.

    Ising exactly predicted the phase transition of a magnet using the Boltzmann distribution. He figured out the temperature at which the material changed from being magnetic to nonmagnetic.

    Phase changes happen at predictable temperatures. Ice melts to water at a specific temperature because the Boltzmann distribution predicts that when it gets warm, the water molecules are more likely to take on a disordered – or liquid – state.

    Statistical mechanics tells researchers about the properties of a larger system, and how individual objects in that system act collectively.

    In materials, atoms arrange themselves into specific crystal structures that use the lowest amount of energy. When it’s cold, water molecules freeze into ice crystals with low energy states.

    Similarly, in biology, proteins fold into low energy shapes, which allow them to function as specific antibodies – like a lock and key – targeting a virus.

    Neural networks and statistical mechanics

    Fundamentally, all neural networks work on a similar principle – to minimize energy. Neural networks use this principle to solve computing problems.

    For example, imagine an image made up of pixels where you only can see a part of the picture. Some pixels are visible, while the rest are hidden. To determine what the image is, you consider all possible ways the hidden pixels could fit together with the visible pieces. From there, you would choose from among what statistical mechanics would say are the most likely states out of all the possible options.

    In statistical mechanics, researchers try to find the most stable physical structure of a material. Neural networks use the same principle to solve complex computing problems.
    Veera Sundararaghavan

    Hopfield and Hinton developed a theory for neural networks based on the idea of statistical mechanics. Just like Ising before them, who modeled the collective interaction of atomic spins to solve the photo problem with a neural network, Hopfield and Hinton imagined collective interactions of pixels. They represented these pixels as neurons.

    Just as in statistical physics, the energy of an image refers to how likely a particular configuration of pixels is. A Hopfield network would solve this problem by finding the lowest energy arrangements of hidden pixels.

    However, unlike in statistical mechanics – where the energy is determined by known atomic interactions – neural networks learn these energies from data.

    Hinton popularized the development of a technique called backpropagation. This technique helps the model figure out the interaction energies between these neurons, and this algorithm underpins much of modern AI learning.

    The Boltzmann machine

    Building upon Hopfield’s work, Hinton imagined another neural network, called the Boltzmann machine. It consists of visible neurons, which we can observe, and hidden neurons, which help the network learn complex patterns.

    In a Boltzmann machine, you can determine the probability that the picture looks a certain way. To figure out this probability, you can sum up all the possible states the hidden pixels could be in. This gives you the total probability of the visible pixels being in a specific arrangement.

    My group has worked on implementing Boltzmann machines in quantum computers for generative learning.

    In generative learning, the network learns to generate new data samples that resemble the data the researchers fed the network to train it. For example, it might generate new images of handwritten numbers after being trained on similar images. The network can generate these by sampling from the learned probability distribution.

    Generative learning underpins modern AI – it’s what allows the generation of AI art, videos and text.

    Hopfield and Hinton have significantly influenced AI research by leveraging tools from statistical physics. Their work draws parallels between how nature determines the physical states of a material and how neural networks predict the likelihood of solutions to complex computer science problems.

    Veera Sundararaghavan receives external funding for research unrelated to the content of this article.

    – ref. How a subfield of physics led to breakthroughs in AI – and from there to this year’s Nobel Prize – https://theconversation.com/how-a-subfield-of-physics-led-to-breakthroughs-in-ai-and-from-there-to-this-years-nobel-prize-240871

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: ESFA Update: 9 October 2024

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Latest information and actions from the Education and Skills Funding Agency for academies, schools, colleges, local authorities and further education providers.

    Applies to England

    Documents

    ESFA Update further education: 9 October 2024

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    ESFA Update academies: 9 October 2024

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    ESFA Update local authorities: 9 October 2024

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    Details

    Latest for further education

    Article Title
    Action: Submit your 16 to 19 tuition fund end of year spend for 2023 to 2024 by Friday 11 October 2024
    Action: Submit your earnings adjustment statement by Thursday 17 October
    Action: 2025 to 2026 high needs place change process
    Action: Final funding claim for 2023 to 2024 window opens on Tuesday 22 October 2024
    Information: 2024 to 2025 individualised learner record funding reports guidance
    Information: Updated guidance for sixth form and further education college corporations on streamlined energy and carbon reporting
    Reminder: Training providers, R14 is closing on Thursday 17 October 2024 for your apprenticeship ILR data submission

    Latest for academies

    Article Title
    Action: Submit your 16 to 19 tuition fund end of year spend for 2023 to 2024 by Friday 11 October 2024
    Action: 2025 to 2026 high needs place change process
    Action: Final funding claim for 2023 to 2024 window opens on Tuesday 22 October 2024
    Information: Schools funding arrangements 2025 to 2026
    Information: Updated good practice guide for streamlined energy and carbon reporting in academy trusts

    Latest for local authorities

    Article Title
    Action: Submit your 16 to 19 tuition fund end of year spend for 2023 to 2024 by Friday 11 October 2024
    Action: Submit your earnings adjustment statement by Thursday 17 October
    Action: Final funding claim for 2023 to 2024 window opens on Tuesday 22 October 2024
    Action: 2025 to 2026 high needs place change process
    Information: Early years funding data collection 2024 to 2025: 2-year-old disadvantaged children and children with special educational needs and disabilities
    Information: Early years budget grant allocations for September 2024 to March 2025
    Information: Schools funding arrangements 2025 to 2026
    Information: 2024 to 2025 individualised learner record funding reports guidance

    Updates to this page

    Published 9 October 2024

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    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI: WTW launches partnership with the University of Colorado Boulder to harness the climate prediction revolution

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    LONDON, Oct. 09, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — WTW (NASDAQ: WTW), a leading global advisory, broking, and solutions company today announced a new scientific partnership with the University of Colorado Boulder to transfer scientific advances in seasonal climate prediction to the insurance and risk management industries. Through this collaboration, WTW and its clients will be able to anticipate how weather events will affect their operations and portfolios over the next quarter and prepare for forecasted climate risks.

    Natural fluctuations in the Pacific Ocean – known as El Niño and La Niña – are the leading cause of year-over-year changes in the global climate. The reach of these patterns extends far beyond the Pacific and affects the odds of drought, wildfire, heatwaves, and hurricanes across much of the world. Because meteorological agencies are now able to predict El Niño and La Niña episodes several months ahead of time, these forecasts provide advance warning of severe weather events and likely climate impacts over large parts of the globe.

    Historically, the state of the tropical Pacific has cost trillions of dollars in direct damages and reduced economic growth. But most businesses have only begun to take advantage of the strong predictability offered by El Niño and La Niña. WTW has teamed with the University of Colorado Boulder to harness the ongoing ‘climate prediction revolution’ for business use and improve our ability to predict global climate for the coming season, year, and decade. At CU Boulder, the collaboration will be led by Prof. Pedro DiNezio, a leading expert in long-term climate forecasts, the effects of El Niño, and climate extremes under global warming.

    Scott St. George, Head of Weather and Climate Research for the WTW Research Network, said, “What happens in the tropical Pacific certainly does not stay in the tropical Pacific. El Niño and La Niña can reach across the entire globe to affect local weather and the risks of catastrophic perils. We are excited to work together with Prof. DiNezio so our clients know well in advance how to prepare their business when El Niño and La Niña are on the horizon. These insights will be especially valuable for sectors that depend strongly on natural resources, such as energy producers, food and beverage, and transportation.”

    Pedro DiNezio, Associate Professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at CU Boulder, added, “Making predictions is one of the most thrilling parts of my work. Every prediction tests our understanding of the inner workings of the climate system. In addition, El Niño and La Niña happen every several years, therefore we do not fully know everything about these complex, sometimes chaotic phenomena, keeping our research fresh and exciting. This collaboration with WTW adds a new layer to this challenge as we learn how to produce predictions that are useful for the insurance sector and vulnerable communities around the world”.

    About WTW

    At WTW (NASDAQ: WTW), we provide data-driven, insight-led solutions in the areas of people, risk and capital. Leveraging the global view and local expertise of our colleagues serving 140 countries and markets, we help organizations sharpen their strategy, enhance organizational resilience, motivate their workforce and maximize performance.

    Working shoulder to shoulder with our clients, we uncover opportunities for sustainable success—and provide perspective that moves you.

    Learn more at wtwco.com.

    About the University of Colorado Boulder

    At the foot of the Rocky Mountains, the University of Colorado Boulder is nationally recognized as one of only 38 AAU public research universities. Established in 1876, CU Boulder is an R1 public research university with five Nobel laureates, nine MacArthur fellows and is the No. 1 public university recipient of NASA awards. CU Boulder is a leader in many fields, including aerospace engineering, earth and environmental science, physics, and environmental law. The school partners with many notable federal research labs, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Learn more.

    Media contact

    Sarah Booker: +44 7917 722040
    Sarah.booker@willistowerswatson.com

    CU Boulder Media Relations:
    cunews@colorado.edu

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: ASIA/SOUTH KOREA – North Korea has cut off road and rail access to South Korea: Catholics continue to keep alive the hope of peace and reconciliation

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Seoul (Agenzia Fides) – North Korea has cut off road and rail access to South Korea with the aim of “completely separating” the two countries. The North Korean army has announced that it is proceeding to “permanently isolate and block the southern border”, reinforcing the fortifications as a “self-defense measure to prevent war”. Signs of closure such as this – with high symbolic value – mark a historic moment in which tensions between the two parts of Korea have reached their highest levels in recent years. This has not left southern society untouched either, and “the desire for reunification is diminishing”, says Peter Soon-Taick Chung, Archbishop of Seoul and Apostolic Administrator of Pyongyang, in an interview with Fides, in which he examines the issue of North-South relations.”I think many young people in the South are beginning to believe that reconciliation or reunification are not viable paths. Hope is fading”, he notes. Therefore, he adds, “I think it is appropriate to continue to dream of peaceful coexistence and to keep the light of hope burning in Korean society, especially today, in the current stalemate, with the total blockade of communication routes, the situation is very bleak”. He adds that “our task is to continue with prayer and education for peace: the Church continues to ask what can and must be done for peace”. “We are approaching the Holy Year, which has as its theme hope: we are pilgrims of hope, also with regard to relations with the North”, he stresses.Simon Kim Ju-young, Bishop of Chuncheon and president of the Episcopal Commission for Reconciliation, meanwhile notes with bitterness that “both sides view each other with a certain hostility and all channels are closed, even that of humanitarian aid, which was kept open in the past. And even if the Korean public opinion is still quite divided on policy towards the North, all Koreans are united when it comes to sending humanitarian aid to North Korea. But North Korea keeps all channels closed, including humanitarian ones.”There is another reason for this attitude, according to political observers: in the current international context, marked by wars in Europe and the Middle East, the arms market has grown and North Korea is one of the countries that sell equipment from its war arsenal. This sector acts as a driving force for the North Korean economy, which is thus less dependent and less reliant on external aid.In this period of closure, “we pray above all for the doors to open. All the faithful of the Church in Korea participate in this prayer,” says Bishop Simon Kim Ju-young. “In some dioceses, for example, the faithful gathered at nine o’clock in the evening to ask God for reconciliation and peace. In Seoul, a Mass is celebrated every week for this intention, and in my diocese of Chuncheon, we hold a special prayer on the 25th of every month.”In all the dioceses of Korea, there is a Commission for Reconciliation and Unification of the Korean People, where religious priests, nuns and lay people come together “to talk about peace and continue to raise people’s awareness of the issue of peace, with initiatives aimed at the Catholic faithful but also at non-Catholics,” the bishop continued.Another way, which practices a kind of “culture of welcome,” is proposed by Benedictine Abbot Blasio Park Hyun-dong, OSB, Apostolic Administrator of the Territorial Abbey of Tokwon in the province of Hamkyongnam in North Korea: the building of the Tokwon Abbey is now used as a University of Agriculture. In 1952, Benedictine monks and nuns fled the North because of the Korean War and founded a new monastery in Waegwan, South Korea. Today, the Abbot of Waegwan, who is also Apostolic Administrator of the Territorial Abbey of Tokwon, reports: “We can continue to show concrete solidarity and welcome the refugees who make it from the North to the South. As religious communities, we do our best to help these refugees, at all levels. Even if reunification is still a long way off, for us this is a kind of preparation for living together and keeps the hope of reconciliation alive.”Looking back, the bishops recall that the Commission for Reconciliation within the Episcopal Conference visited Pyongyang in December 2015 to meet with the local Catholic community and celebrate a Mass in the Changchung Church. “On that occasion,” recalls the then priest Simon Kim Ju-young, “we told the local faithful that South Korean Catholics pray for reconciliation every day at nine in the evening. We asked them to participate in this prayer and they assured us that they would do so.” He added: “I remember their faces and their words. They were people who professed Christianity and I felt in my heart that they said it with a sincere heart and the authenticity of the Holy Spirit. Today, listening to the stories of the refugees, even if we have no news from across the border, we nourish the hope that there are still believers there. We hope that one day we will be able to come together again and pray together”. (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 9/10/2024)
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    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Blitz of political attack ads in Pennsylvania and other swing states may be doing candidates and voters more harm than good

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Heather LaMarre, Associate Professor of Media and Communication, Temple University

    Nearly $11 billion is projected to be spent on political advertising in the 2024 fall election season. PM Images/DigitalVision Collection via Getty Images

    For Pennsylvania residents like me, there is no escape from the record-breaking number of political attack ads disrupting our favorite shows and filling our social media feeds.

    A projected US$10.7 billion is being spent nationwide – but particularly in battleground states – on political ads this election season.

    For those who are feeling election fatigue and just want to stream in peace: Buckle in, because it’s about to get worse.

    As of late August 2024, over $1.7 billion in political ads had been reserved nationwide to run between Labor Day and Election Day. Over $400 million of that is just for presidential election ads in seven key battleground states.

    With Pennsylvania widely considered the most decisive state in the 2024 presidential election, it may be no surprise that the Keystone State has the most presidential ad reservations, totaling $137 million.

    And the Philadelphia market alone is the top market in the country, with $125 million in ad reservations. Democrats are spending about 25% more than Republicans on presidential ads in Philly.

    As a political communication expert and professor of media and social influence who lives in Philadelphia, I am often asked: “Why are there so many political ads, why are they so negative, and more importantly, how do we make it stop?”

    I’ll answer the first two below. For the last, the truth is we don’t.

    A billboard in Philadelphia purchased by the Trump campaign.
    Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images

    Voters feel exhausted, angry, stressed

    If campaigns are spending all this money on political attack ads, they must work, right? Surely they sway at least undecided voters?

    In a word: no. Research suggests deluges of negative political advertising do little to change voters’ minds.

    They can even backfire on candidates.

    When voters perceive ads as unfair or manipulative, they are less likely to vote for the candidate or party producing the ads. And when subjected to repeated unwanted exposure to political ads, they can experience “psychological reactance” and behave opposite of what the ads intended.

    Some studies also suggest that negative ads create election stress, which can reduce voter turnout among the less politically interested.

    In a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, 65% of U.S. adults reported that they always or often feel “exhausted” when they think about U.S. politics. More than half reported that they always or often feel “angry” with U.S. politics.

    More concerning, research suggests our elections are harming voters’ mental health. This is marked by lost sleep, increased anxiety and chronic stress.

    ‘Daisy’ and the birth of ad wars

    Historically, political advertising was considered an effective tool for educating voters, building momentum and engaging the politically uninterested.

    Although the research is mixed, past studies have shown that advertising increased election turnout and influenced voter behavior.

    The infamous 1964 “Daisy” ad run by President Lyndon Johnson’s campaign shocked audiences with the potential horrors of nuclear war. While the ad never mentioned Johnson’s opponent, Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, it is largely credited as a turning point in presidential political advertising, ushering in an era of political attack ads.

    LBJ’s “Daisy” ad played on American’s Cold War fears.

    However, political ad wars have been a feature of U.S. presidential elections since the 1800s, with attack ads on TV starting in the early 1950s.

    But why the constant barrage now?

    Citizens United unleashes flood of dark money

    Political ad spending has monumentally increased over the past several election cycles, and hit the billions after the landmark 2010 Citizens United case.

    In that ruling, the Supreme Court decided that limiting spending from corporations or outside groups violated those groups’ First Amendment right to free speech. Prior to Citizens United, corporations and other groups like nonprofits and labor unions were subject to prohibitions on campaign donations. Individual campaign contribution limits, which currently stand at $3,300 per candidate per election, kept spending relatively level across the electorate.

    Following the ruling, however, the influx of corporate and outside money completely changed the campaign finance landscape.

    In 2010, political ad spending reached $3.3 billion – an 11% increase from the 2008 election that took place pre-Citizens United. A decade later, total spending on political ads soared to $9 billion in the 2020 election.

    Significant portions of this spending come from political action committees that are not bound by traditional campaign contribution limits as long as they do not donate the money directly to a candidate or coordinate with a candidate’s campaign.

    These groups, known as super PACs, can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money from undisclosed donors. While super PACs have to disclose identities of people who donate over $200 in a year, donors can use shell companies to hide their identities.

    This web of secret money, known as dark money, exceeded $1 billion in 2020.

    During the 2024 election cycle, over $2.4 billion has been raised by super PACs. This is where much of the funding for the political ad barrage that voters experience in the weeks leading up to the election comes from.

    But why are the ads so negative?

    Attack ads lose appeal

    These days, most political ads are negative, according to a 2020 Pew Research Center study.

    For example, in the weeks following President Joe Biden leaving the race, 95% of pro-Trump ads focused on attacking Vice President Kamala Harris rather than promoting policy, according to the Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks political advertising.

    Americans are a deeply divided electorate. Political violence is on the rise, misinformation floods the system, and trust in media is at an all-time low.

    Research shows that fear-based negative messaging leads to stress and anxiety, elicits more bias and entrenches attitudes.

    Knowing this, it is reasonable to ask why campaigns continue down the path of negative advertising. The answer likely rests in old beliefs.

    Prior studies have shown that people pay closer attention to negative information than to positive information. And infamous ad effects like Johnson’s easy win after the airing of the Daisy ad contribute to the commonly held belief that negative ads still win elections.

    But the media environment has changed drastically, and voters are growing resentful.

    Voters resent microtargeting

    Unlike traditional voter segmentation where an entire group of voters would receive similar messages, campaigns now use data analytics to microtarget messages for specific voters.

    Microtargeting enlists the help of social monitoring companies to identify voters’ psychometric data – their hopes, fears, likes, dislikes and so on – so that campaigns can finely tune messages to target them on social media.

    Not only are these microtargeted messages manipulative, but they can be an unwelcome disruption and invasion of privacy, especially among the politically uninterested.

    A 2020 Pew survey found that over half of voters believe tech companies should not allow political ads on social media. Three-quarters oppose campaigns using their personal data to target them with political ads.

    Some evidence suggests that political microtargeting even reduces citizens’ trust in democracy.

    After record-breaking amounts of advertising this election cycle, the latest polls remain very tight, and most are within the margin of error. The reality is that Americans are already divided and steadfast in their voting decisions, and it is difficult to change entrenched political attitudes.

    Put simply, the political ad barrage coupled with microtargeting strategies is not an effective campaign strategy that sways voters’ minds. Meanwhile, there is growing evidence that this level of negativity is harming the electorate and undermining trust in democracy.

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

    – ref. Blitz of political attack ads in Pennsylvania and other swing states may be doing candidates and voters more harm than good – https://theconversation.com/blitz-of-political-attack-ads-in-pennsylvania-and-other-swing-states-may-be-doing-candidates-and-voters-more-harm-than-good-239034

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Misspoke: The long and winding road to becoming a political weasel word

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Valerie M. Fridland, Professor of Linguistics, University of Nevada, Reno

    Democratic candidate Tim Walz, during the vice presidential debate in which he said he ‘misspoke’ about being in Hong Kong during Tiananmen Square protests. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

    During the Sept. 24, 2024, debate, Democratic vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz said he “misspoke” when asked to clarify his story of being in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square crackdown in June 1989.

    To many, Walz’s use of the word misspoke came across as an attempt to weasel out of what was at best an embellishment and at worst an outright lie.

    The word misspoke has certainly long been used to politically backpedal after verbal inaccuracies or blunders, as Ronald Reagan learned in 1981 after he said that Syrian surface-to-air missiles placed in Lebanon were “offensive weapons,” when they were in fact defensive weapons. Both Presidents Bill Clinton and the much “misunderestimated” George W. Bush likewise were deemed to have misspoken after making mistakes, big and small.

    For instance, a spokesperson for Clinton claimed he had misspoken when the then-president said that North Korea would not be allowed to develop a nuclear bomb – after there was reason to believe they had already developed them. During George W. Bush’s term in office, verbal errors were so common they earned a nickname of their own: “Bushisms.”

    But misspoke’s extension to factual fabrication is one step further down the semantic road. In using it in this way, Walz joined other “misspoken” politicians, such as Hillary Clinton, who used it after falsely recollecting having landed in Bosnia under sniper fire.

    As a sociolinguist who writes about how language changes over time, misspoke’s euphemistic recasting of lying as an inadvertent mistake calls for deeper linguistic scrutiny.

    Tim Walz, being pressed on a statement he made and whether it was true, during the vice presidential debate.

    From mumble to mea culpa

    To understand how and why words morph like this, linguists like to trace them to their very beginnings.

    According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “misspeaking” is quite old in the history of English, appearing as “missprecon” in a Northumbrian text dating before the 11th century. Its original sense was one of “to grumble” or “to mumble,” a meaning now obsolete.

    But after the 11th century, its meaning shifted from inarticulateness to that of speaking amiss or disparagingly, often mentioned in reference to saying something improper or upsetting. Chaucer makes use of this sense in the “Miller’s Tale”: “And therfore if that I mysspeke or seye, Wyte it the ale of Southwerk, I you preye,” where the Miller handily blames a bit too much ale for whatever impropriety might fall from his mouth.

    Around the time Chaucer was composing “The Canterbury Tales” in the late 14th century, the word “misspeak” branched off down yet another semantic path, taking on the meaning of “to speak incorrectly or misleadingly.” It is this sense that gave birth to the modern political mea culpa used when backtracking on a misleading prior statement, such as by Sen. John McCain after he claimed President Barack Obama was directly responsible for terrorist attacks on Americans.

    Expanding meaning

    These shifts in the meaning of a word over time fall under what linguists refer to as “semantic broadening.” Semantic broadening, which means expansion of a word’s meaning, is incredibly common, generally occurring when a word becomes used more frequently and across more situations. As a result, its core sense can expand to take on supplemental or tangential meanings.

    Semantic shift like this is constantly at work, pushing and pulling senses in related but new directions to stay relevant to the needs of speakers.

    The word “soon,” for instance, at first carried a meaning of “immediately,” but human nature being what it is, its meaning began to creep in the direction of “as immediately as possible” as people took their merry time.

    Some new meanings, such as the nonliteral use of “literally” and Walz’s use of “misspeak,” are sites of contest, with multiple meanings at play.

    The semantic broadening of misspeaking to cover not just misleading but knowingly false information didn’t start with Walz, nor did it begin with Clinton. In fact, this politically expedient expansion seems to go back at least to the Nixon administration.

    There’s been a lot of misspeaking by politicians over the years, as these stories show.
    The Guardian US; The Hill; Wall Street Journal; Politico; Washington Post.

    ‘I misspoke myself’

    In 1973, Nixon and his advisers were called to task in a Time article accusing them of a tendency to “make flat statements one day, and the next day reverse field with the simple phrase, ‘I misspoke myself.’” Given the Watergate scandal, it’s safe to say that misspoke as used by his administration had already shifted into deceptive speech territory.

    Perhaps misspeaking’s semantic slippery slope started even further back, when the prefix “mis,” with its sense of “badly,” combined with “speaking.”

    Consider other potentially weaselly words that are also formed by “mis” prefixation: misunderstood, misinterpret, mishear, mistake. These are all examples of words, like misspeak, that can and have been used by politicians to avoid taking responsibility for the false or “misleading” things they say.

    Even if led astray by its prefix, from a linguistic perspective, the broadening of misspeak to cover not just incorrect but fabricated statements turns out to be not such a surprising development given the tendency of words to take on new senses over time, particularly in the world of political doublespeak.

    The bigger surprise might be how this new meaning translates with voters, but that’s one surprise that will have to wait for the ballot box.

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

    – ref. Misspoke: The long and winding road to becoming a political weasel word – https://theconversation.com/misspoke-the-long-and-winding-road-to-becoming-a-political-weasel-word-240533

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Though home to about 50 white extremist groups, Ohio’s social and political landscape is undergoing rapid racial change

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Paul J. Becker, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Dayton

    Members of the white militia group Proud Boys march on the Ohio state capitol in Columbus on Jan. 6, 2024. Paul Becker, CC BY

    The first time many Americans heard about Springfield, Ohio, came during the September 2024 presidential debate when Donald Trump falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants in the city were eating other residents’ cats and dogs.

    Though shocking, these harmful rumors had been spreading on social media since the beginning of the summer and had gained more notoriety when JD Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio and Trump’s running mate, made similar statements on X, the social media platform formerly called Twitter.

    But what has gone mostly overlooked is the effect these racist lies have had on energizing Ohio’s nearly 50 white extremist groups.

    Members of the white supremacist group Blood Tribe marched through Springfield on Aug. 10, 2024, with with swastikas on their signs.

    Since then, members of the Ku Klux Klan and the right-wing extremist group Proud Boys have each marched in separate demonstrations through Springfield.

    As scholars of extremism who live in Ohio and work at the University of Dayton, we have seen these events unfold at a time when city officials have received multiple bomb threats targeting local government offices and schools since Trump’s false and racist claims against Haitian immigrants.

    The changing landscape

    In our research, we have found that the rapidly changing social conditions in Ohio have played a significant role in the growth of extremism.

    Between 1990 and 2019, for instance, manufacturing jobs shrank from 21.7% of all employment in the state to 12.5%, a loss of nearly 360,000 jobs. As a result, income disparities between the professional and working classes have widened – as has the heightened sense among some alienated white men that white conservatives are the real victims of bias in a society growing more racially and culturally diverse.

    A neo-Nazi group speaks under heavy police protection at a 2005 rally sponsored by the National Socialist Movement at City Hall in Toledo, Ohio.
    Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

    For many of these alienated men, particularly those in rural areas that lack significant numbers of Black and Hispanic residents, extremist ideologies offer easy answers to complex questions that involve their sense of disenfranchisement.

    In 2020, for example, the population of Springfield was about 60,000. But over the past three years, city officials estimate that the population has grown by about 25%, partly fueled by the arrival of as many as 15,000 Haitian immigrants during that time. Many of them are legally living in the U.S. under a special federal program.

    Similar demographic shifts are occurring throughout the state. Between 2010 and 2022, the percentage of the white population dropped from 81.2% to 77.3%, a loss of about 250,000, putting the state’s white population at about 9.1 million. During the same time, the Hispanic population, for instance, grew from about 357,000 in 2010 to nearly 525,000.

    For some of these white extremists, these population changes will lead to an inevitable race war between white people and nonwhite people. We have found that the attraction of belonging to a group that promises strength, protection and a source of identity can be particularly compelling.

    The Ohio connection

    In recent years, white extremism in Ohio has received attention as a result of the extremist rhetoric of and often violent crimes committed by white men who call the state home. Consider just a few examples:

    Born and raised in Ohio, Andrew Anglin founded the Daily Stormer, a popular neo-Nazi website, in 2016.

    James Alex Fields Jr. of Maumee, Ohio, poses for a mug shot after he drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Va., on Aug. 12, 2017.
    Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail via Getty Images

    James Alex Fields Jr., a white nationalist from the Toledo area, was sentenced to life in prison in 2019 for the murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Virginia. Fields was convicted of driving his car into a crowd of counterprotesters during the white nationalist Unite the Right Rally in August 2017.

    Prior to the attack, Fields frequently posted the hashtag #Hitlerwasright on his social media accounts and called for violence against nonwhites and Jews.

    In the summer of 2022, Ohio law enforcement officers shot and killed Ricky Shiffer after the armed Navy veteran fired a nail gun at the FBI field office in Cincinnati. On his social media accounts, Shiffer had called for violence against federal law enforcement officials after the FBI searched Donald Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago as part of the federal probe into Trump’s handling of classified documents.

    Tres Genco, a self-described incel – short for “involuntary celibate” – who hated women and believed he was owed sex from them, was from the Cincinnati area and pled guilty in 2022 to plotting a mass shooting of women at Ohio State University. Law enforcement officials in Ohio stopped the planned attack before it happened.

    On April 21, 2023, Christopher Brenner Cook, 20, of Columbus, Ohio, and others were sentenced to nearly eight years in prison for his plan to attack power grids across the U.S. Cook and his accomplices believed that they were starting a race war and used neo-Nazi propaganda and white supremacist ideology to recruit young people to join their group.

    Online recruitment tactics

    Leaders of white supremacist and militia groups often use both traditional outreach and digital platforms to recruit people to their groups. Traditional outreach includes recruitment in conversations, attending events, and sharing books, pamphlets, flyers and posters.

    At the same time, social media has become a critical tool for extremist groups to spread their message, recruit members and organize events.

    These online platforms create echo chambers that reinforce extremist beliefs in debunked conspiracy theories, such as the assumption that the federal government is part of a plot to eliminate the white race.

    In addition to the increased traffic on social media, we have seen a rise of extremist groups in Ohio known as active clubs, where members engage in physical fitness, combat training and emotional support that encourages the development of a warrior mentality in preparation for what followers believe is an inevitable race war.

    Countering extremism in Ohio

    Though the emergence of white extremist groups goes far beyond the borders of Ohio, we have found that community-based, educational initiatives are effective in understanding and ultimately eradicating the root causes of racial and ethnic hatred on the local level.

    In our view, community engagement that emphasizes dialogue and understanding across different racial groups is crucial for demonstrating the dangers of intolerance – and the benefits of diversity.

    Paul J. Becker is part of a team at The University of Dayton that received funding from the Department of Homeland Security for the Preventing Radicalization to Extremist Violence through Education, Network-Building and Training in Southwest Ohio (PREVENTS-OH) project. Funded by the Department of Homeland Security under the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant Program, PREVENTS-OH recognizes that domestic violent extremism and hate movements pose a serious threat to the realization of human rights.

    Art Jipson is part of a team at The University of Dayton that received funding from the Department of Homeland Security for the Preventing Radicalization to Extremist Violence through Education, Network-Building and Training in Southwest Ohio (PREVENTS-OH) project. Funded by the Department of Homeland Security under the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant Program, PREVENTS-OH recognizes that domestic violent extremism and hate movements pose a serious threat to the realization of human rights.

    – ref. Though home to about 50 white extremist groups, Ohio’s social and political landscape is undergoing rapid racial change – https://theconversation.com/though-home-to-about-50-white-extremist-groups-ohios-social-and-political-landscape-is-undergoing-rapid-racial-change-239997

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Buyer beware: Off-brand Ozempic, Zepbound and other weight loss products carry undisclosed risks for consumers

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By C. Michael White, Distinguished Professor of Pharmacy Practice, University of Connecticut

    In just a few years, brand-name injectable drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound have rocketed to fame as billion-dollar annual sellers for weight loss as well as to control blood sugar levels and reduce the risk of heart disease.

    But the price of these injections is steep: They cost about US$800-$1,000 per month, and if used for weight loss alone, they are not covered by most insurance policies. Both drugs mimic the naturally occurring hormone GLP-1 to help regulate blood sugar and reduce cravings. They can be taken only with a prescription.

    The Food and Drug Administration announced an official shortage of the active ingredients in these drugs in 2022, but on Oct. 2, 2024, the agency announced that the shortage has been resolved for the medicine tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Mounjaro and Zepbound.

    Despite the soaring demand and limited supply of these drugs, there are no generic versions available. This is because the patents for semaglutide – the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, which is still in shortage – and tirzepatide don’t expire until 2033 and 2036, respectively.

    As a result, nonbrand alternatives that can be purchased with or without a prescription are flooding the market. Yet these products come with real risks to consumers.

    I am a pharmacist who studies weaknesses in federal oversight of prescription and over-the-counter drugs and dietary supplements in the U.S. My research group recently has investigated loopholes that are allowing alternative weight loss products to enter the market.

    High demand is driving GLP-1 wannabes

    The dietary supplement market has sought to cash in on the GLP-1 demand with pills, teas, extracts and all manner of other products that claim to produce similar effects as the brand names at a much lower price.

    Products containing the herb berberine offer only a few pounds of weight loss, while many dietary supplement weight loss products contain stimulants such as sibutramine and laxatives such as phenolphthalein, which increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes and cancer.

    Poison control centers have seen a steep rise in calls related to off-brand weight loss medications.

    The role of compounding pharmacies

    Unlike the dietary supplements that are masquerading as GLP-1 weight loss products, compounding pharmacies can create custom versions of products that contain the same active ingredients as the real thing for patients who cannot use either brand or generic products for some reason.

    These pharmacies can also produce alternative versions of brand-name drugs when official drug shortages exist.

    Since the demand for GLP-1 medications has far outpaced the supply, compounding pharmacies are legally producing a variety of different semaglutide and tirzepatide products.

    These products may come in versions that differ from the brand-name companies, such as vials of powder that must be dissolved in liquid, or as tablets or nasal sprays.

    Just like the brand-name drugs, you must have a valid prescription to receive them. The prices range from $250-$400 a month – still a steep price for many consumers.

    Compounding pharmacies must adhere to the FDA’s sterility and quality production methods, but these rules are not as rigorous for compounding pharmacies as those for commercial manufacturers of generic drugs.

    In addition, the products compounding pharmacies create do not have to be tested in humans for safety or effectiveness like brand-name products do.

    Proper dosing can also be challenging with compounded forms of the drugs.

    Companies that work the system

    For people who cannot afford a compounding pharmacy product, or cannot get a valid prescription for semaglutide or tirzepatide, opportunistic companies are stepping in to fill the void. These include “peptide companies,” manufacturers that create non-FDA approved knockoff versions of the drugs.

    From November 2023 to March 2024, my team carried out a study to assess which of these peptide companies are selling semaglutide or tirzepatide products. We scoured the internet looking for these peptide companies and collected information about what they were selling and their sales practices.

    We found that peptide sellers use a loophole to sell these drugs. On their websites, the companies state that their drugs are for “research purposes only” or “not for human consumption,” but they do nothing to verify that the buyers are researchers or that the product is going to a research facility.

    By reading the comments sections of the company websites and the targeted ads on social media, it becomes clear that both buyers and sellers understand the charade. Unlike compounding pharmacies, these peptide sellers do not provide the supplies you need to dissolve and inject the drug, provide no instructions, and will usually not answer questions.

    Peptide sellers, since they allegedly are not selling to consumers, do not require a valid prescription and will sell consumers whatever quantity of drug they wish to purchase. Even if a person has an eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa, the companies will happily sell them a semaglutide or tirzepatide product without a prescription. The average prices of these peptide products range from $181-$203 per month.

    Skirting regulations

    Peptide sellers do not have to adhere to the rules or regulations that drug manufacturers or compounding pharmacies do. Many companies state that their products are 99% pure, but an independent investigation of three companies’ products from August 2023 to March 2024 found that the purity of the products were far less than promised.

    One product contained endotoxin – a toxic substance produced by bacteria – suggesting that it was contaminated with microbes. In addition, the products’ promised dosages were off by up 29% to 39%. Poor purity can cause patients to experience fever, chills, nausea, skin irritation, infections and low blood pressure.

    In this study, some companies never even shipped the drug, telling the buyers they needed to pay an additional fee to have the product clear customs.

    If a consumer is harmed by a poor-quality product, it would be difficult to sue the seller, since the products specifically say they are “not for human consumption.” Ultimately, consumers are being led to spend money on products that may never arrive, could cause an infection, might not have the correct dose, and contain no instructions on how to safely use or store the product.

    Will prices for brand-name products come down?

    To combat these alternative sellers, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly began offering an alternative version of its brand-name Zepbound product for weight loss in September 2024.

    Instead of its traditional injection pen products that cost more than $1,000 for a month’s supply, this product comes in vials that patients draw up and inject themselves. For patients who take 5 milligrams of Zepbound each week, the vial products would cost them $549 a month if patients buy it through the company’s online pharmacy and can show that they do not have insurance coverage for the drug.

    After a grilling on Capitol Hill in September 2024, pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk came under intense pressure to offer patients without prescription coverage a lower-priced product for its brand-name Wegovy as well.

    In the next few years, additional brand-name GLP-1 agonist drugs will likely make it to market. As of October 2024, a handful of these products are in late-phase clinical trials, with active ingredients such as retatrutide, survodutide and ecnoglutide, and more than 18 other drug candidates are in earlier stages of development.

    When new pharmaceutical companies enter this market, they will have to offer patients lower prices than Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk in order to gain market share. This is the most likely medium-term solution to drive down the costs of GLP-1 drugs and eliminate the drug shortages in the marketplace.

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

    – ref. Buyer beware: Off-brand Ozempic, Zepbound and other weight loss products carry undisclosed risks for consumers – https://theconversation.com/buyer-beware-off-brand-ozempic-zepbound-and-other-weight-loss-products-carry-undisclosed-risks-for-consumers-239480

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Columbus who? Decolonizing the calendar in Latin America

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Elena Jackson Albarrán, Associate Professor of History and Global and Intercultural Studies, Miami University

    Demonstrators make graffiti reading ‘Columbus Out, Long Live the People’ on a fence protecting a statue of Christopher Columbus in Mexico City on Oct. 12, 2020. Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

    This is the season of patriotism in Latin America as many countries commemorate their independence from colonial powers. From July to September, public plazas in countries from Mexico to Honduras and Chile fill with crowds dressed and painted in national colors, parades feature participants costumed as independence heroes, fireworks fill the skies, and schoolchildren reenact historical battles.

    Beneath these nationalist displays ripples an uneasy tide: the colonial legacies that still tie the Americas to their Iberian conquerors. And as the calendar turns to October, another holiday highlights similar tensions – Columbus Day.

    Since 1937, the U.S. has observed the holiday on the second Monday of the month, commemorating the explorer’s 1492 arrival in the New World. It remains a federal holiday, even as many states and cities rename it “Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” rejecting Christopher Columbus as a symbol of imperialism.

    Indigenous groups protest in front of a statue of Christopher Columbus on Oct. 12, 1997, during marches in Mexico against ‘Dia de la Raza’ celebrations.
    David Hernandez/AFP via Getty Images

    Most Latin Americans, meanwhile, know Oct. 12 as “Día de la Raza,” or Day of the Race, which also celebrates Columbus’ arrival in the New World and the tide of Iberian conquistadors that followed. But commemorating the event is all the more charged in these countries, home to the Spanish Empire’s most lucrative territorial assets and sweeping spiritual conquests. Days before taking office in September 2024, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reiterated her predecessor’s demand that the king of Spain apologize for the genocide and exploitation of the conquest 500 years ago.

    As a historian of Latin America, I’ve paid attention to the ways calendars signal a nation’s “official” values and how countries wrestle with these holidays’ meanings.

    Día de la Raza

    The first encounter between Aztec emperor Montezuma and conquistador Hernando Cortés took place on Nov. 8, 1519 – the latter backed by an entourage of 300 Spaniards, thousands of Indigenous allies and slaves, and hundreds of Africans, free or otherwise.

    This moment of contact began Mexico’s 500-year transformation into a “mestizo” nation: a hybrid identity with largely European and Indigenous roots. During the colonial period, racial differences were codified into law, and those with “pure” Spanish bloodlines enjoyed legal privileges over the racially mixed categories that fell below them. The 19th century ushered in independence from Spain and liberal ideas that promoted racial equality – in principle – but in reality, European influence prevailed.

    It was Spain that first proposed the Día de la Raza, held on Oct. 12, 1892, to commemorate the 400-year anniversary of Columbus’ arrival in the Americas – implying a celebration of Spain’s contributions to the mestizo racial mixture.

    The celebration was part of a bid to fortify nationalism in Spain, as the waning colonial power continued its retreat from the hemisphere it controlled for the better part of four centuries. Spain also hoped to export the invented holiday to the Americas, strengthening trans-Atlantic cultural affinities tested by the United States’ growing sway. Across the Americas, Día de la Raza came to be synonymous with celebrating European influence.

    Decorations for ‘Día de la Raza,’ in the Monserrat neighborhood of Buenos Aires in 1929.
    Archivo General de la Nación/Wikimedia Commons

    In Mexico, the 1892 commemoration empowered members of the political elite who promoted European investments and culture as the model for modernizing the country. They used the occasion to extol the civilizing influence of the “madre patria,” or motherland, justifying the conquest and colonialism as a period of benevolent rule.

    Mestizo nationalism

    Only a few years later, however, the U.S. victory in the Spanish-American War swept the last vestiges of Spanish empire from the hemisphere. Spain’s exit made way for dual – and dueling – phenomena: rising patriotic spirit in Latin American countries, even amid increasing economic pressure and cultural influence from the U.S.

    The 1910 Mexican Revolution ignited mestizo nationalism, which soon extended to other countries. In 1930s Nicaragua, Augusto Sandino started a revolution to oust the occupying U.S. Marines while calling for the unification of the “Indo-Hispanic Race.” Meanwhile, Peruvian intellectual José Mariátegui envisioned a modern nation built upon the ideals of a collective, reciprocal society, modeled by the Incan ayllu system. And in Mexico, beauty pageants celebrating native features gained popularity among the social classes accustomed to perusing department stores for Parisian imports.

    Yet a tendency to emphasize Spanish cultural ancestry rather than Indigenous ones persisted. In the late 1930s, for example, October issues of Mexican children’s magazine Palomilla celebrated Columbus’ arrival as a heroic entry that provided the region with a common language and religion.

    Pan American Day

    Meanwhile, the U.S viewed Pan-Hispanic sentiments as a threat: Spanish economic goals, cloaked in racial and cultural solidarity.

    To help shore up hemispheric allegiances, Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed a new holiday on April 14, 1930: Pan American Day, or Día de las Américas. The holiday sought to offset the narratives of both Columbus Day and Día de la Raza and marked the U.S. administration’s Good Neighbor Policy pivot toward Latin America – a softer form of imperialism that promoted solidarity and brotherhood, at least on the surface.

    The Pan American Union, an inter-American organization headquartered in Washington, saw the new date as an opportunity to forge common traditions across the hemisphere. It vigorously promoted Pan American Day celebrations, primarily among schoolchildren, exhorting teachers to implement games, puzzles, pageants and songs created in Pan American Union offices.

    Students at Parkway Public School in New York present a pageant for Pan American Day in 1943.
    Bettmann/CORBIS/Bettmann Archive via Getty Images

    The holiday met enthusiastic reception in the United States. Midwesterners donned sombreros for parades, and Spanish language clubs in California hosted pageants celebrating the flags of American nations.

    But Latin American commemoration was tepid at best. The Organization of American States, the successor to the Pan American Union, still recognizes Pan American Day. However, it never gained traction in Latin America and faded in the U.S. during World War II.

    Recent shift

    Latin America’s ambivalence toward holidays to commemorate the colonizers has taken a turn since 1992. The 500-year anniversary of Columbus’ arrival corresponded with yet another form of colonialism, in many Latin Americans’ eyes, as a new wave of multinational corporations colluded with heads of state to tap the continent’s oil, lithium, water and avocados.

    Activists used the commemoration to call attention to lingering economic, social, racial and cultural inequities. In particular, the anniversary inspired Indigenous rights movements – some of which commemorated an “anti-quincentenary” to celebrate “500 years of resistance.”

    The Día de la Raza has since been renamed to reflect anti-colonial sentiments, similar to Columbus Day in the United States. Ecuador calls Oct. 12 the Day of Interculturalism and Ethnic Identity; Argentina celebrates it as Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity; Nicaragua now refers to it as the Day of Indigenous, Black and Popular Resistance; in Colombia it is the Day of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity; and the Dominican Republic celebrates it as Intercultural Day.

    A statue in honor of ‘women who fight’ has replaced an effigy of Christopher Columbus on Paseo de la Reforma Avenue in Mexico City.
    Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

    In some places, renaming the holiday has drawn attention to Indigenous rights and culture. Bolivians, for example, draped a statue of a European monarch in a traditional “aguayo” garment, transforming her into an Indigenous woman. However, critics suggest that removing the holiday’s reference to the colonizers erases an important reminder of the conquest and its painful legacy.

    As in the U.S., monuments to colonizers are coming down – including the monument to Columbus that occupied a conspicuous spot on La Reforma, one of Mexico City’s most-traversed thoroughfares.

    In its place is a new installation: a purple silhouette of a girl with her fist raised, in honor of Latin America’s women activists. She heralds a new era of statues lining La Reforma, and heroes for the future – not mired in the colonial legacies of the past.

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

    – ref. Columbus who? Decolonizing the calendar in Latin America – https://theconversation.com/columbus-who-decolonizing-the-calendar-in-latin-america-233307

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –