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Category: Education

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Denis Manturov met with the head of the Republic of Adygea Murat Kumpilov

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Government of the Russian Federation – Government of the Russian Federation –

    An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    Denis Manturov met with the head of the Republic of Adygea Murat Kumpilov.

    First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov met with the head of the Republic of Adygea Murat Kumpilov, with whom he discussed the development of the region’s industry.

    The head of the republic reported to Denis Manturov on the status of the implementation of the investment project to create the Enem industrial park.

    In addition, Denis Manturov and Murat Kumpilov discussed the progress of the execution of the instructions given by the First Deputy Prime Minister during his working visit to Adygea in March 2025. Let us recall that at that time, Denis Manturov, among other things, instructed the transfer of drones from one of the leading Russian brands to the Military Training Center at the Maikop State Technological University for training cadets.

    On the instructions of the First Deputy Prime Minister, support was provided to the project of PAO Zarem to modernize the production of gearboxes through the federal Industrial Development Fund. In addition, work is underway to deepen cooperation between the Maikop Machine-Building Plant and the Kovrov Mechanical Plant. Currently, the enterprises, with the support of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, are working on the issue of localizing the production of vane rotators and hydraulic distributors.

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Written question – Rechanneling of RRP funds towards maintaining scholarships and ensuring equitable access to education in Romania – E-002703/2025

    Source: European Parliament

    Question for written answer  E-002703/2025
    to the Commission
    Rule 144
    Nicolae Ștefănuță (Verts/ALE)

    The Romanian Ministry of Education has announced that it may cut grants for students and schoolchildren. According to the data submitted by student organisations, reducing the scholarship fund by around 40 % would mean fewer beneficiaries and much lower amounts per student or schoolchild, when those from disadvantaged backgrounds already experience major difficulties in accessing education.

    Given the crucial role of education in the development of society and the principles of equal opportunities, promoted at EU level, I would like to put the following question:

    Can funds from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) or other sources of EU funding be redirected or supplemented in order to support scholarships for students and schoolchildren in Romania, so as to ensure continuity and equity in access to education for all young people, regardless of their backgrounds?

    I believe that such a measure would make a significant contribution to preventing early school and university leaving, to reducing poverty and to supporting Romania’s objectives on social inclusion and human capital development within the ambit of the European Union.

    Submitted: 2.7.2025

    Last updated: 9 July 2025

    MIL OSI Europe News –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI: Continued Growth at Truxton Wealth Leads to Advisor Promotions

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    NASHVILLE, Tenn., July 09, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Truxton is pleased to announce that Buck Patton, CFP®, CPWA® has been promoted to the role of Senior Vice President, Wealth Advisor and Brandt Warner, JD, CFP® has been elevated to the role of Vice President, Wealth Advisor.

    Since joining Truxton in 2018, Mr. Patton has served in a range of key roles including Portfolio Analyst, Financial Advisor, and Associate Wealth Advisor. His well-rounded experience, working with individual clients, families, non-profit boards, and partnerships, has made a significant impact on both Truxton’s clients and business. He has played a critical role in refining processes, leading complex client initiatives, and coordinating seamlessly with other advisors to deliver comprehensive wealth strategies. Buck continues to elevate his work for the benefit of Truxton’s clients and team, earning certifications as a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional and Certified Private Wealth Advisor® practitioner.

    “Buck has made a lasting impact since joining Truxton in 2018,” said Drew Mallory, Senior Managing Director and Chief Fiduciary Officer. “He’s a true team player, a lifelong learner, and a trusted advisor whose clients genuinely enjoy working with him.”

    Mr. Warner joined Truxton Wealth in 2024 as an Assistant Vice President, Wealth Advisor, and has quickly become a key contributor. Known for his strategic thinking, technical expertise, and client-first mindset, Brandt has enhanced internal operations, tackled complexity with ease, and quickly built trust among clients and colleagues. A licensed attorney and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, Brandt earned his J.D. cum laude from the University of Tennessee College of Law with a concentration in Business Transactions.

    “Brandt quickly became a major contributor to the Truxton Wealth team,” said Drew Mallory. “He has improved core processes and brings a strategic mindset to helping high-net-worth families move forward on important initiatives. We’re excited to see his continued growth at Truxton.”

    About Truxton
    Truxton is a premier provider of wealth, banking, and family office services for wealthy individuals, their families, and their business interests. Serving clients across the world, Truxton’s vastly experienced team of professionals provides customized solutions to its clients’ complex financial needs. Founded in 2004 in Nashville, Tennessee, Truxton upholds its original guiding principle: do the right thing. Truxton Trust Company is a subsidiary of financial holding company, Truxton Corporation (OTCID: TRUX). For more information, visit truxtontrust.com.

    The MIL Network –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI: Continued Growth at Truxton Wealth Leads to Advisor Promotions

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    NASHVILLE, Tenn., July 09, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Truxton is pleased to announce that Buck Patton, CFP®, CPWA® has been promoted to the role of Senior Vice President, Wealth Advisor and Brandt Warner, JD, CFP® has been elevated to the role of Vice President, Wealth Advisor.

    Since joining Truxton in 2018, Mr. Patton has served in a range of key roles including Portfolio Analyst, Financial Advisor, and Associate Wealth Advisor. His well-rounded experience, working with individual clients, families, non-profit boards, and partnerships, has made a significant impact on both Truxton’s clients and business. He has played a critical role in refining processes, leading complex client initiatives, and coordinating seamlessly with other advisors to deliver comprehensive wealth strategies. Buck continues to elevate his work for the benefit of Truxton’s clients and team, earning certifications as a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional and Certified Private Wealth Advisor® practitioner.

    “Buck has made a lasting impact since joining Truxton in 2018,” said Drew Mallory, Senior Managing Director and Chief Fiduciary Officer. “He’s a true team player, a lifelong learner, and a trusted advisor whose clients genuinely enjoy working with him.”

    Mr. Warner joined Truxton Wealth in 2024 as an Assistant Vice President, Wealth Advisor, and has quickly become a key contributor. Known for his strategic thinking, technical expertise, and client-first mindset, Brandt has enhanced internal operations, tackled complexity with ease, and quickly built trust among clients and colleagues. A licensed attorney and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, Brandt earned his J.D. cum laude from the University of Tennessee College of Law with a concentration in Business Transactions.

    “Brandt quickly became a major contributor to the Truxton Wealth team,” said Drew Mallory. “He has improved core processes and brings a strategic mindset to helping high-net-worth families move forward on important initiatives. We’re excited to see his continued growth at Truxton.”

    About Truxton
    Truxton is a premier provider of wealth, banking, and family office services for wealthy individuals, their families, and their business interests. Serving clients across the world, Truxton’s vastly experienced team of professionals provides customized solutions to its clients’ complex financial needs. Founded in 2004 in Nashville, Tennessee, Truxton upholds its original guiding principle: do the right thing. Truxton Trust Company is a subsidiary of financial holding company, Truxton Corporation (OTCID: TRUX). For more information, visit truxtontrust.com.

    The MIL Network –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: SPC Severe Thunderstorm Watch 497 Status Reports

    Source: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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    Watch 497 Status Reports

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    MIL OSI USA News –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Banking: Imed Chaguetmi’s Story

    Source: International Association of Drilling Contractors – IADC

    Headline: Imed Chaguetmi’s Story

    The following is part of IADC’s 85th anniversary campaign, “Many Stories, One Voice,” which aims to showcase the real human stories behind the drilling industry. 

    The following story is from Imed Eddine Chaguetmi, Counselor, Founder and former Chair of the IADC University of Boumerdès Student Chapter and 2024 IADC Student Chapter scholarship recipient.

    I’m Imed Eddine Chaguetmi, drilling engineering student at the University of Boumerdès, Algeria. But this is not just about studies — this is the story of how I built something from nothing… and how it changed everything for me.

    When I reached my master’s degree, I was already active in several student chapters. But as a drilling student, I felt a deeper question rising: What legacy am I leaving for my field?

    That’s when I discovered IADC. I reached out to Hisham Zebian, IADC Vice President Eastern Hemisphere, and after a few exchanges, we scheduled a meeting that would eventually change everything.

    At the same time, I launched a new drilling club on campus — I built its structure, crafted the vision and formed a team of more than 50 students, including eight board members, from scratch. Balancing this with my studies was overwhelming. Meetings, general assemblies and strategy sessions were all packed into a short span. But I believed in it — and I knew it would be worth it.

    And it was.

    In April 2025, we received official recognition from IADC. That moment — seeing the IADC logo next to our university’s name — was unforgettable. We made history by becoming the first and only IADC student representation in Algeria.

    We didn’t stop there. We organized impactful national and international events, formed partnerships with professionals and fulfilled our mission: to bridge the gap between academia and industry.

    But behind every success were sacrifices. We faced internal conflicts – moments that tested our relationships and mental strength. Still, we never let go of respect, patience and vision — the values that held us together.

    In less than a year, we built a strong, recognized community. I met professionals who already knew about IADC Boumerdès, and many who connected with me through the work we accomplished. That wasn’t luck — it was passion, belief and consistency.

    More than anything, seeing our student members grow, lead with confidence and act like true professionals in every task they handled — that made me genuinely proud of the impact we could make together.

    Imed representing the IADC Boumerdès Student Chapter during a technical visit to the Algerian Petroleum Institute in June 2024.

    To every student reading this:

    University is more than academics.
     It’s your training ground for life.
     Take that first step. Try new things.
     Intern. Volunteer. Lead. Connect.
     And never be afraid to dream big — because nothing is impossible when you believe in your purpose.

    IADC has been a turning point in my life — a transition from being a student to becoming a young professional. It gave me the chance to speak on stage for the first time, to be supported in my studies and to grow through meaningful leadership.

    I’m truly grateful to our faculty adviser, the board team, our alumni and especially to Hisham; Mike DuBose, IADC Senior VP of International Development; and the IADC leadership who believed in us from the beginning.

    Happy 85th Anniversary, IADC — 85 years of legacy, excellence and impact.

    We are IADC, advancing the drilling industry together.

    MIL OSI Global Banks –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Banking: Brazil Chapter Hosts Technical/Operational Meeting

    Source: International Association of Drilling Contractors – IADC

    Headline: Brazil Chapter Hosts Technical/Operational Meeting

    On 17 June 2025, the IADC Brazil Chapter hosted another important Technical/Operational Meeting, held at the Royal Macaé Palace Hotel. The meeting brought together industry representatives to share experiences, lessons learned, and best practices, reinforcing a commitment to safety and operational excellence.

    The agenda was filled with the following presentations: 

    Matheus da Silva Souza | Ventura
    Presentation: “ANP NS Carolina Interdiction”

    Diego Reixach | Seadrill
    Presentation: “Piping Integrity – Lessons Learned”

    Rodrigo Vitiello | Petrobras
    Presentation: “ANPP P66 and P53 Learnings”

    The Brazil Chapter extends thanks to all participants and speakers for their engagement and knowledge exchange.

    MIL OSI Global Banks –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Africa: President of Human Rights Council appoints Max du Plessis of South Africa as member of Iran fact-finding mission

    Source: APO


    .

    The President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Jürg Lauber (Switzerland), has announced the appointment of Mr. Max du Plessis of South Africa to serve as an independent member of the Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran. Mr. du Plessis replaces Ms. Shaheen Sardar Ali of Pakistan on the three-member investigative panel and joins Ms. Sara Hossain of Bangladesh and Ms. Viviana Krsticevic of Argentina. Ms. Hossain serves as chair of the Fact-Finding Mission.

    The Human Rights Council established the Fact-Finding Mission with resolution S-35/1 of 24 November 2022, adopted at a special session, to “investigate alleged human rights violations in the Islamic Republic of Iran related to the protests that began on 16 September 2022, especially with respect to women and children”. The three-person Mission was further requested to “establish the facts and circumstances surrounding the alleged violations and collect, consolidate and analyse evidence of such violations and preserve evidence, including in view of cooperation in any legal proceedings”.

    The mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission was subsequently extended for one year with resolution 55/19 of 4 April 2024 entitled “Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran.” 

    In April 2025, with its resolution 58/21, the Council extended the Fact-Finding Mission’s mandate for an additional year and expanded its scope to, among other things, thoroughly and independently monitor and investigate allegations of recent and ongoing serious human rights violations in Iran. This resolution requests the Fact-Finding Mission to present a report to the Human Rights Council at its 61st session in February/March 2026, and to present an oral update, to be followed by an interactive dialogue, to the United Nations General Assembly at its 80th session (2025-2026).

    Mr. du Plessis is a South African barrister and academic whose career has been characterised by his involvement on justice and human rights issues. He has a Bachelor of Laws from the University of South Africa and the University of Natal (South Africa), completed his Master of Laws at the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom) and completed his PhD studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa).

    His legal career began in 2000 when he became an advocate at the High Court of South Africa. His expertise in international, administrative, and constitutional law lead to a role as a senior research fellow in the International Crime in Africa Programme at the Institute for Security Studies. Mr. du Plessis has practiced law in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and has been a visiting expert at the International Criminal Court.

    Throughout his career Mr. du Plessis has been an adjunct professor at the University of Cape Town and Nelson Mandela University. He also served as a visiting professor at Law Futures Centre, Griffith University (Australia), Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford (United Kingdom), St. John’s College, University of Cambridge (United Kingdom), the London School of Economics (United Kingdom), Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University (United States), and others.

    Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations: Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

    MIL OSI Africa –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Too Much: Lena Dunham’s love letter to London, romance and the messiness of being a woman

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jane Steventon, Course Leader, BA (Hons) Screenwriting; Deputy Course Leader & Senior Lecturer, BA (Hons) Film Production, University of Portsmouth

    When HBO launched Lena Dunham’s Girls in 2012, it followed shows such as Buffy (1997-2003), Sex and the City (1998-2004) and Gossip Girl (2007-2012), which had all set a standard of shiny, sanitised female representation that was both attractive and palatable to a wide audience.

    The grubby realism of Dunham’s New York twentysomethings, on the other hand, offered a surprising authenticity for some. But for others it was too messy, too white, too privileged and too authored around Dunham’s own life.

    Although younger characters are often categorised by self-absorption and poor judgment, the “realness” of Girls was still challenging for many viewers. In particular they struggled with Dunham’s own character, Hannah Horvath, an aspiring writer frequently making personal and professional mistakes. She made for an unlikely – and often unlikable – heroine.

    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.

    Much attention was also paid to Hannah’s nudity, which proved to be a talking point each season. Dunham is known for her bold and positive attitude to her body, which clearly does not conform to standard Hollywood beauty types. But this reaction to Hannah’s frequent nakedness was ultimately highlighted as misogynistic by the creative powers behind the series such as producer Judd Apatow and co-writer Jenni Konner, as well as Dunham herself.

    The same critics may have similar problems with Too Much. Though fresh 20-something protagonist, Jessica is played with gusto by TikTok star Megan Stalter, not Dunham herself. She’s known for her scene-stealing performance in comedy-drama Hacks (2021-).

    Too Much is still clearly written by Dunham. Jess’s relocation from NYC to London echoes her own move to the UK in 2021, where she met and married the Peruvian-British musician Luis Felber and settled in north London.

    The pair have co-created this “love letter to London”, with Dunham directing and and Felber providing the original music. The story takes in London pubs, creative agencies, Notting-Hill-the-movie aspirations and council-estate realities.

    Growing pains

    As Jess starts work in a London media agency, helmed by an excitable Richard E. Grant, she meets cerebral indie musician Felix (played convincingly and charmingly by Will Sharpe). Their instant connection means that Jess is thrust back into the world of dating, with all the Instagram anxiety and breakup PTSD that her last relationship produced.

    The tone is at once fresh and frivolous, but episode one feels contrived at times with the creaky set-up of post-relationship life and relocation.

    The familial scenes are the most enjoyable, with Dunham calling in all her celebrity cameo favours, including herself as Jessica’s mother (she snaffles some of the show’s best lines), and Rita Wilson playing her own mother. The small but mighty Rhea Pearlman grabs the great-grandmother role with gusto, flirting salaciously with Jess’s paramour while dispensing wicked wisecracks with bone-dry humour.

    As the story develops, so does the sophistication and thoroughbred quality of Dunham’s writing and directing. Glorious moments of obsession with skin, taste and touch in the early days of a relationship are convincingly conveyed by credible and well-crafted moments of intimacy, both physical and intellectual.

    As Jessica and Felix navigate the inevitable ups-and-downs of togetherness (dinner parties, red-flag paranoia and an unrequited “I love you”), Dunham reflects on love’s tumultuous and terrifying roller-coaster via brilliant dialogue and meaningful visual storytelling.

    A particularly thought-provoking moment of direction comes in the form of a long take at the end of episode three, where the duo cosy up together, ready for sleep, in silent closeness. Jess listens to music on headphones, potentially excluding Felix, but the inference is of acceptance and tenderness – a reassuring sign of potential longevity.

    The pitfalls on the road to love are frequently revealed in flashback from Jessica’s past relationship with Zev (Michael Zegen), who has moved on with a new partner. We go from the “meet-cute” and early days of infatuation between Jess and Zev, steadily giving way to less and less tolerance and emotional intimacy, until finally the betrayal with the new love becomes clear.

    Capitalising on the anxieties induced by social media, Dunham has Jess obsessively watching Zev’s new love Wendy (Emily Ratajkowski) on Instagram, where every desirable detail of her life plays out in perfection. When Wendy broadcasts the inevitable proposal on Instagram Live, Jess is sent spiralling and decides to flee to London.

    As the series progresses, Dunham’s goals become clearer and echo those of Girls. Both shows explore what it means to be “too much” – an accusation that many strong, ambitious and focused women have experienced.

    Being too much, it turns out, may be not such a bad thing. As Felix remarks at the close of episode four, after one of their first clashes, “too much” is not necessarily an insult – it can be a way of describing someone who is remarkable. It’s something that Dunham clearly believes – and wants us all to believe – about the tumultuous and chaotic experience of growing up.

    Too Much is a hopeful paean to womanhood, a declaration that messiness, failure and fear are all part of becoming a woman just as much as joy, love and intimacy. This show inspires and engages the more it reveals of its flawed and fallible protagonist amid the melting pot of London that Dunham so clearly adores.

    Jane Steventon 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. Too Much: Lena Dunham’s love letter to London, romance and the messiness of being a woman – https://theconversation.com/too-much-lena-dunhams-love-letter-to-london-romance-and-the-messiness-of-being-a-woman-260528

    MIL OSI –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Hagerty Introduces Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trump’s Nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to Greece

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Tennessee Bill Hagerty
    WASHINGTON—Today, United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced Kimberly Guilfoyle, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to Greece, at a nomination hearing.

    *Click the photo above or here to watch*
    Remarks as prepared for delivery:
    It is my honor to introduce my good friend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is President Trump’s nominee to be the U.S. Ambassador to Greece.
    Kimberly is a deeply experienced attorney, a nationally-respected commentator on politics and public policy, and strategist.
    Throughout her career, she has excelled in both the private sector and in public service roles.
    Indeed, her distinguished background and long-standing commitment to public engagement make her an excellent candidate to serve as the next U.S. Ambassador to Greece.
    Ms. Guilfoyle worked as a broadcaster at Fox News where she co-hosted The Five and Outnumbered and previously appeared as a legal analyst on CNN, ABC News, and Court TV.
    Earlier in her career, Kimberly served as a prosecutor in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and as Deputy District Attorney in Los Angeles, where she garnered national recognition for her legal acumen.
    Her academic and civic credentials further support her nomination—having graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, Davis, and earned a J.D. from the University Of San Francisco School Of Law.
    She is also the recipient of multiple awards recognizing her legal work, public service, and advocacy—including the Heritage of Hope Award from the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the Special Civil Rights Award from the City of New York.
    Most recently, in January she was awarded what’s known as an Emblematic Icon by the Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Church of America commemorating the spiritual and cultural bonds between Greece and the United States.
    Ms. Guilfoyle’s strong expertise and experience—as well as her deep ties to the Greek-American community—make her extremely well-qualified to represent the United States in Greece.
    On a very personal note, as I moved from my prior post as U.S. Ambassador to Japan and into the U.S. Senate, Kimberly was there for me.
    She joined me for the kick off of my senate campaign in my small hometown in Tennessee, so I feel like she has been with me since the very beginning of this current chapter in my life.
    I am honored to support her as she opens the next chapter in hers!
    I urge my colleagues on this Committee to support her nomination as well.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Hagerty Introduces Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trump’s Nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to Greece

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Tennessee Bill Hagerty

    WASHINGTON—Today, United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced Kimberly Guilfoyle, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to Greece, at a nomination hearing.

    *Click the photo above or here to watch*

    Remarks as prepared for delivery:

    It is my honor to introduce my good friend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is President Trump’s nominee to be the U.S. Ambassador to Greece.

    Kimberly is a deeply experienced attorney, a nationally-respected commentator on politics and public policy, and strategist.

    Throughout her career, she has excelled in both the private sector and in public service roles.

    Indeed, her distinguished background and long-standing commitment to public engagement make her an excellent candidate to serve as the next U.S. Ambassador to Greece.

    Ms. Guilfoyle worked as a broadcaster at Fox News where she co-hosted The Five and Outnumbered and previously appeared as a legal analyst on CNN, ABC News, and Court TV.

    Earlier in her career, Kimberly served as a prosecutor in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and as Deputy District Attorney in Los Angeles, where she garnered national recognition for her legal acumen.

    Her academic and civic credentials further support her nomination—having graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, Davis, and earned a J.D. from the University Of San Francisco School Of Law.

    She is also the recipient of multiple awards recognizing her legal work, public service, and advocacy—including the Heritage of Hope Award from the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the Special Civil Rights Award from the City of New York.

    Most recently, in January she was awarded what’s known as an Emblematic Icon by the Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Church of America commemorating the spiritual and cultural bonds between Greece and the United States.

    Ms. Guilfoyle’s strong expertise and experience—as well as her deep ties to the Greek-American community—make her extremely well-qualified to represent the United States in Greece.

    On a very personal note, as I moved from my prior post as U.S. Ambassador to Japan and into the U.S. Senate, Kimberly was there for me.

    She joined me for the kick off of my senate campaign in my small hometown in Tennessee, so I feel like she has been with me since the very beginning of this current chapter in my life.

    I am honored to support her as she opens the next chapter in hers!

    I urge my colleagues on this Committee to support her nomination as well.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Hagerty Introduces Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trump’s Nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to Greece

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Tennessee Bill Hagerty

    WASHINGTON—Today, United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced Kimberly Guilfoyle, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to Greece, at a nomination hearing.

    *Click the photo above or here to watch*

    Remarks as prepared for delivery:

    It is my honor to introduce my good friend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is President Trump’s nominee to be the U.S. Ambassador to Greece.

    Kimberly is a deeply experienced attorney, a nationally-respected commentator on politics and public policy, and strategist.

    Throughout her career, she has excelled in both the private sector and in public service roles.

    Indeed, her distinguished background and long-standing commitment to public engagement make her an excellent candidate to serve as the next U.S. Ambassador to Greece.

    Ms. Guilfoyle worked as a broadcaster at Fox News where she co-hosted The Five and Outnumbered and previously appeared as a legal analyst on CNN, ABC News, and Court TV.

    Earlier in her career, Kimberly served as a prosecutor in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and as Deputy District Attorney in Los Angeles, where she garnered national recognition for her legal acumen.

    Her academic and civic credentials further support her nomination—having graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, Davis, and earned a J.D. from the University Of San Francisco School Of Law.

    She is also the recipient of multiple awards recognizing her legal work, public service, and advocacy—including the Heritage of Hope Award from the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the Special Civil Rights Award from the City of New York.

    Most recently, in January she was awarded what’s known as an Emblematic Icon by the Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Church of America commemorating the spiritual and cultural bonds between Greece and the United States.

    Ms. Guilfoyle’s strong expertise and experience—as well as her deep ties to the Greek-American community—make her extremely well-qualified to represent the United States in Greece.

    On a very personal note, as I moved from my prior post as U.S. Ambassador to Japan and into the U.S. Senate, Kimberly was there for me.

    She joined me for the kick off of my senate campaign in my small hometown in Tennessee, so I feel like she has been with me since the very beginning of this current chapter in my life.

    I am honored to support her as she opens the next chapter in hers!

    I urge my colleagues on this Committee to support her nomination as well.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: Attorney General Bondi, Secretary McMahon Announce DOJ Suit Against California for Violating Title IX

    Source: United States Attorneys General

    Today, Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced that the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division today filed suit to enforce Title IX and protect California female student athletes from unfair competition and reckless endangerment by male participation on female high-school sports teams.

    Related:

    Press Release: Justice Department Sues California for Violating Title IX, Denying Girls Athletic Opportunities

    MIL Security OSI –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS Hosts International Rig IQ Showdown

    Source: International Association of Drilling Contractors – IADC

    Headline: Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS Hosts International Rig IQ Showdown

    The IADC Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS Student Chapter recently hosted the International Rig IQ Showdown (IRIS) 2025. This remarkable flagship competition brought together bright minds from universities across Malaysia to compete in a test of drilling knowledge, strategy, and innovation. Competing teams joined from UCSI University, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), and Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP). 

    Over the course of 3 days, students participated in:

    • An insightful training session on drilling well control 
    • A written test to showcase their grasp of well control fundamentals
    • An engaging well control simulator hands-on training
    • A practical exam on the Well Control Simulator

    Congratulations to the winners! 

    1st place: ODOM Drilling (UTP)
    1st Runner-up: Top Drive (UTP)
    2nd Runner-up: UiTM DRILLGEIST (UiTM)

    The IADC UTP Student Chapter expressed: 

    “A massive congratulations to all the winners for their outstanding performance, and to every team for showcasing incredible skill, determination, and teamwork throughout the competition.”

    MIL OSI Economics –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Video: Attorney General Bondi, Secretary McMahon Announce DOJ Suit Against CA for Violating Title IX

    Source: United States Department of Justice (video statements)

    Today, Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced that the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division today filed suit to enforce Title IX and protect California female student athletes from unfair competition and reckless endangerment by male participation on female high-school sports teams.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phx3jXwbclg

    MIL OSI Video –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Banking: Microsoft unveils Elevate, putting people first in AI transformation

    Source: Microsoft

    Headline: Microsoft unveils Elevate, putting people first in AI transformation

    For a student wondering what to study, a teacher rethinking how to teach, or a business owner managing a workforce—artificial intelligence is no longer theoretical. It’s personal. And it’s why we believe some of the most important work ahead isn’t just building smarter machines—it’s ensuring those machines help people thrive.

    That’s why today we’re announcing Microsoft Elevate and the AI Economy Institute—to ensure that as AI transforms our world, we’re putting people first by equipping them with the skills, knowledge, and tools to thrive with AI.

    Microsoft Elevate brings into one organization our technology support, donations, and sales for schools, community colleges, and nonprofit organizations. It is the successor to and expands upon the longstanding work of Microsoft Philanthropies and the Tech for Social Impact team that supports nonprofits.

    More broadly, this represents our next chapter for corporate philanthropy and our non-commercial business model. As we have with Tech for Social Impact, we will run this new business with commitments to reinvest a share of our profits into nonprofit programs. We are announcing today that over the next five years, we will donate on a global scale more than $4 billion in cash and AI and cloud technology to K-12 schools, community and technical colleges, and nonprofits to help advance their missions.

    Microsoft Elevate will also pursue the next phase of our global skilling programs and initiatives. Through the Microsoft Elevate Academy, it will help bring AI education and skills to people around the world. In the next two years, the Microsoft Elevate Academy will help 20 million people earn an in-demand AI skilling credential ranging from foundational fluency to advanced technical training. Working in close coordination with other groups across Microsoft, including LinkedIn and GitHub, Microsoft Elevate will deliver AI education and skilling at scale. And it will work as an advocate for public policies around the world to advance AI education and training for others.

    Microsoft will partner with governments on a national, state, and local basis, as we have with the largest state in Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia. It will focus on advancing AI education and training with schools, community colleges, and nonprofits. It will launch new and innovative initiatives, including the support we’re announcing today for a new “Hour of AI” with Code.org. It will build on our existing partnerships with leading labor organizations, as we announced yesterday with the American Federation of Teachers. And we will pursue many more partnerships to come. Put together, these efforts represent a bold step to create the skilling infrastructure the world will need to put AI to work.

    A moment to reflect

    Today’s tech sector is in an AI race—with some aiming to be the first to reach artificial general intelligence or even superintelligence. But what do we really hope to create at the supposed finish line?

    The best time to ask hard questions about AI’s future is now—before it becomes even more powerful and pervasive. History shows that technology can empower creativity, expand knowledge, and connect people. But it can also deepen divides. Nearly 150 years after Thomas Edison lit his first light bulb, hundreds of millions still lack electricity. And in just 15 years, social media has gone from what people saw as a promising tool to spread democracy to a weapon of disinformation.

    As we look ahead, we must ask ourselves: Are we building machines to replace people, or to help people thrive? Are we trying to create AI that will outsmart humanity—or elevate it?

    At Microsoft, we’re putting a clear stake in the ground: we believe in advancing AI by putting people first.

    Elevating the humanity of work

    This initiative is part of a broader commitment to help people shape the future of work, not just react to it.

    Work has always been more than a paycheck. It’s how people contribute, grow, and find meaning in their lives. It’s a source of identity, purpose, and dignity. This isn’t a new idea. Two thousand years ago, Aristotle called it eudaimonia—the ability to flourish through purposeful activity. That idea still resonates today, especially as AI begins to reshape the nature of work itself.

    AI is a powerful tool that can help us learn and be more productive. But as with any tool, it needs to be used in the right ways and with a broad perspective. This is one of the lessons from the use of social media. We’ve probably all experienced someone connecting on their phone with a friend far away while ignoring a family member sitting in the same room. We need to use AI to think more, not less. And this is a function not only of technology but culture and habits. It will require thoughtful conversations in homes, schools, and in the workplace about how we make the best use of AI.

    Ultimately, the conversation about AI and jobs must begin with people—not just productivity. Machines can process data, but only humans can exercise judgment. Machines can mimic language, but only humans can offer empathy. Machines can optimize, but only humans can care. The goal isn’t to build machines that replace us—it’s to build machines that help us do more and do it better.

    One key to success will be partnerships, so a broad array of stakeholders can have input into where AI is going. That means working with governments, educators, labor unions, employers, and community leaders to ensure AI reflects human values and serves human needs.

    This is why we have been deepening our partnerships with labor organizations like the AFL-CIO and, as announced yesterday, with the American Federation of Teachers, or AFT, to deliver AI training to union members, apprenticeship instructors, and educators—including a new National Academy for AI Instruction and a summer skilling series across the building trades. We’re also working with policymakers to encourage public policies that support lifelong learning, workforce readiness, and equitable access to AI education.

    A new corporate think tank: Microsoft’s AI Economy Institute

    It’s important to acknowledge that we don’t have all the answers to the new questions that AI will pose for societies around the world. No one does.

    To support our work with deeper research and policy insight, Microsoft Elevate will work in close coordination with the Microsoft AI Economy Institute. We started work this past January on what is a new kind of corporate think tank—one designed to bridge the gap between technological innovation and societal impact.

    Housed within the AI for Good Lab and building on the best traditions of Microsoft Research, the Institute sponsors and convenes researchers to explore how AI is reshaping work, education, and productivity. It’s focused on turning those insights into real-world solutions that inform Microsoft’s strategy and public policy engagement.

    The Institute supports academic research that explores the transformative potential of AI around the world. Current projects, representing academics from universities across the globe, began earlier this year and span from investigating how generative AI can drive transdisciplinary academic innovation to addressing policy gaps in African higher education to evaluating the real-world labor market value of AI skills and micro-credentials. This work underscores the Institute’s commitment to inclusive, evidence-based insights that shape responsible and globally relevant AI futures. With fast publication cycles and a commitment to open collaboration, the Institute ensures that its research reaches not only internal teams but also the public and policymakers around the world.

    The Institute’s work will directly inform Microsoft Elevate’s skilling programs and initiatives, helping to create the training programs, partnerships, and policy frameworks needed to prepare people for the AI economy.

    Through workshops, convenings, and applied research, the AI Economy Institute is poised to become a leading voice in the global conversation on AI and economic transformation—ensuring that the benefits of AI are broadly shared and that the infrastructure for inclusive growth is built alongside the technology itself.

    This is part of an even broader ongoing effort to advance AI as a tool for good around the world. This will include the evolution of our AI for Good Lab, which advances applied research projects to use AI to meet societal needs. It also includes our support for responsible AI with a wide variety of partners, including universities, nonprofits, and the AFL-CIO and its members. It also includes faith-based organizations, including the Vatican and its Rome Call for AI Ethics. And important intergovernmental organizations, including key United Nations agencies.

    Building on a 50-year legacy

    More than any other tech company, Microsoft’s 50-year history gives us a unique appreciation for what it takes for people and technology to flourish together. Because the PC and our operating systems have always functioned as open platforms, we understand how to support a broad global ecosystem of software developers and innovators. And because Microsoft strived early on to put “a computer on every desk and in every home” when that seemed like an implausible dream, we appreciate what technology success truly requires. It’s based not only on great innovations but also critical work to make these innovations accessible and to equip people with the skills needed to use them in their daily lives.

    This is the work ahead—not just building the next generation of AI but building the next generation of opportunity. With Microsoft Elevate, we’re investing in people, institutions, and ideas that will ensure AI serves everyone. Because AI shouldn’t strip away the humanity of work—it should elevate it.

    Tags: AI, digital skills

    MIL OSI Global Banks –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Banking: The power of game-based learning with Minecraft Education

    Source: Microsoft

    Headline: The power of game-based learning with Minecraft Education

    Engage students through game-based learning with Minecraft Education—explore this collection of subject-spanning, skill-building learning experiences.

    Engaging students across subjects can be challenging. Game-based learning with Minecraft Education offers a powerful way to bridge that gap and create real-world impact. Minecraft Education helps educators connect students’ passion with purpose—making learning feel like play. With ready-to-use, standards-aligned resources in coding and AI, science, history, math, and more, this immersive platform brings lessons to life through creativity, collaboration, and exploration.

    Minecraft Education promotes critical thinking, teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving while helping students develop digital skills for their future. It can also help motivate learning, improve attendance, and build student agency. Educators use it for everything from building AI literacy through immersive lessons to sustainable design challenges and esports programs.

    Minecraft Education

    Engage students in immersive lessons, group projects, build challenges, and more.

    Explore this collection of Minecraft Education experiences designed to support your instruction, boost engagement, and inspire creativity in the classroom. Parents and caregivers can also support their child’s learning outside of school with Minecraft Education. With materials like a digital safety family toolkit, you’ll find ways to use Minecraft to explore important topics at home, too. Discover Minecraft Education resources for parents and families today.

    Digital citizenship, coding, and AI

    Today’s students are growing up in a world shaped by digital tools, AI, and rapid technological change. Minecraft Education helps prepare them to navigate that world responsibly and confidently. With Minecraft Education, students can engage in hands-on experiences that help them strengthen digital citizenship, explore responsible AI use, and build coding fluency all within a familiar and playful learning space that connects to their everyday lives.

    Check out these Minecraft Education worlds designed to help students explore, create, and grow as digital citizens.

    Discover CyberSafe AI: Dig Deeper
    • CyberSafe AI: Dig Deeper – Build digital citizenship and AI literacy skills with CyberSafe AI: Dig Deeper. This engaging adventure challenges students to go beyond the surface and explore responsible AI, critical thinking, and data literacy. Don’t just accept AI at face value—dig deeper and discover the power of mindful technology use!
    • Hour of Code: The Show Must Go On – Step into a vibrant theater world to help save the day in Minecraft’s Hour of Code 2024: The Show Must Go On. In this adventure, students will explore the theater to find the missing star, the Agent, while solving fun coding puzzles and interacting with lively characters. They’ll unlock hidden gags, customize the show, and plan an unforgettable performance.
    • GameCode – Empower creative coding with this dynamic curriculum where students create their own arcade-style mini-games and learn computer science along the way. This immersive and innovative approach to coding will ignite the passion for programming in students as they become inventive game designers, empowered to shape their digital landscapes.

    These experiences introduce students to essential digital concepts while allowing them to iterate and build in a safe, creative environment. Demystify complex subjects like AI and coding with your students through game-based learning with Minecraft.

    Core subjects and STEM

    It can be challenging to make abstract academic concepts feel exciting, relevant, and accessible. That’s where Minecraft Education comes in. These standards-aligned experiences are designed to help students connect with core instruction in ways that are hands-on and meaningful. From environmental science and astronomy to math and history, these worlds help students engage deeply with content through inquiry, experimentation, and creativity.

    Explore these worlds to help your students apply academic concepts across subject areas.

    Explore Ocean Heroes
    • Ocean Heroes – Embark on a marine conservation adventure in Ocean Heroes, presented by the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and Voice of the Ocean. Students will investigate ocean ecosystems alongside scientists and help them tackle environmental challenges in mangrove forests, coral reefs, and kelp forests. Along the way, they’ll encounter amazing creatures, enhance their ocean literacy, and develop critical problem-solving skills.
    • Data Explorers – Build data science and sustainability skills in this world, created by ReWrite Edu in collaboration with NetApp and World’s Largest Lesson. This choose-your-next-path style game takes students across five different ecosystems in search of scientists who help them use data to solve specific environmental problems. Along the way, students can hone their data collection and analysis skills, as well as see how scientists apply data to real-world problems.
    • Ratio Riddles – Introduce the concepts of ratio, proportion, fractions, and scale through a series of three engaging games designed for students ages 8-14. This is an easy-to-teach lesson designed to engage learners in foundational mathematics principles while fostering curiosity and confidence.
    • Peter is Here: AI for Cultural Heritage – Step into the heart of history! Peter is Here: AI for Cultural Heritage is a captivating experience where students journey through 2,000 years of architectural innovation. Inspired by real-world preservation efforts, this immersive project lets young explorers use simulated AI tools to restore ancient wonders, from Roman engineering to Baroque masterpieces, and explore the history of St. Peters Basilica in Vatican City.
    • James Webb Space Telescope Challenge – Explore the universe with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia (NSW) science curricula, this immersive lesson lets students learn about the telescope’s mission, star formation, and galaxies, culminating in a solar system build challenge. Inspire future astronomers with this cosmic adventure!

    These experiences support cross-curricular connections and help students build a deeper understanding of academic content and inspire curiosity through game-based learning. Get started and explore immersive content in core subjects for students of all ages.

    Creative classroom fun

    Sometimes the best learning happens when students are free to explore, experiment, and play. Minecraft Education’s open-ended experiences empower students to express themselves, collaborate with peers, and build creative confidence. These activities are perfect for community-building, project-based learning, or moments when your classroom needs a spark of joy.

    Try these student-centered worlds to foster classroom culture and creativity.

    Spin the Wheel of Steve
    • Wheel of Steve – Spin the Wheel of Steve in this educational adventure inspired by A Minecraft Movie. Created for students aged 8-14, Wheel of Steve supports play for up to eight learners at a time. Two teams will compete against each other in five cooperative minigames designed to strengthen key skills including creativity, collaboration, communication, community, and critical thinking.
    • Renewtopia – Explore a unique island and learn about four different types of renewable energy: solar, tidal, wind, and geothermal. This interactive build challenge teaches learners about sustainable energy sources by building an exhibit for a sustainable energy fair. Their goal is to teach others about one or more of the renewable power sources found on the island.

    These experiences are great for building relationships, strengthening classroom community, and letting students lead their own learning in joyful, meaningful ways. Engage your students’ creativity and strengthen future-ready skills in your classroom.

    Get support and inspiration for game-based learning with Minecraft

    No matter where you are in your Minecraft Education journey, there’s a community and a collection of free resources ready to help you succeed. Connect with fellow educators, participate in special events, and explore learning modules, challenges, and ideas to bring Minecraft into your classroom:

    Whether you’re helping students understand responsible technology use, reinforce academic content, or build a thriving classroom culture, Minecraft Education offers immersive worlds that make learning engaging and meaningful. These experiences aren’t just lessons—they’re launchpads for curiosity, creativity, and confidence.

    Get started with Minecraft Education

    Check out Minecraft Education to explore the full collection of lessons, access educator resources, and start teaching with the power of play today.

    MIL OSI Global Banks –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Cortez Masto Celebrates Famed American Cyclist Greg LeMond as He Receives Congressional Gold Medal

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Nevada Cortez Masto

    Senator Cortez Masto helped pass legislation to award former Reno resident Greg LeMond a Congressional Gold Medal

    Washington, D.C. – Following the 2020 passage of the Greg LeMond Congressional Gold Medal Act, supported by U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto’s (D-Nev.), Greg LeMond was today awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award bestowed by the United States Congress. The ceremony was hosted by Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson.

    “I’m thrilled that Nevada’s own Greg LeMond – an icon to cycling fans worldwide – has been recognized for not only his contributions to the sport, but to his community,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “Exemplifying both Nevadans’ independence and a devotion to community, he has contributed his time and effort to so many important causes, from childhood sports to victims of sexual assault to those suffering from childhood illnesses. Greg is the model for what the Congressional Gold Medal should stand for.”

    BACKGROUND:

    Gregory James LeMond was born in California but raised near Reno, Nevada, where he spent much of his time outdoors. He attended Earl Wooster High School in Reno. At age 18, he became the youngest cyclist in the history of the sport to be selected for the United States men’s Olympic team. Greg first competed in the Tour de France in 1984, finishing third, deputizing himself to boost his teammates toward victory. In the 1986 Tour de France, he defeated the field by more than three full minutes, becoming the first American and the first non-European to win cycling’s most prestigious race. In 1987, while recovering from a broken wrist and collarbone, Greg was tragically shot during a turkey hunting accident, leaving him in intensive care and requiring the removal of over 40 shotgun pellets from his abdomen. Following multiple surgeries, Greg mounted a comeback, winning the 1989 Tour de France by eight seconds in the closest finish in the history of the Tour. Greg went on to win a third Tour de France victory in 1990.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senators Scott, Cassidy, Paul Release Legislative Package Empowering Independent Workers to Access Portable Benefits

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for South Carolina Tim Scott
    WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Bill Cassidy M.D. (R-La.), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) unveiled a legislative package modernizing federal labor law to empower 27 million independent workers to access portable workplace benefits, like health care and retirement. The package will also provide consistency and clarity in how an independent contractor is defined, making it easier for workers to find jobs that allow for flexibility and independence. 
    “Empowering our workers with modern tools and flexible opportunities is essential for strengthening our economy and ensuring they can succeed in today’s dynamic job market. The Modern Worker Empowerment Act reflects our commitment to innovation, flexibility, and growth for all Americans,” said Senator Scott. 
    “Outdated labor laws should not prevent workers from receiving health care or saving for a secure retirement,” said Dr. Cassidy. “Modernizing our federal labor laws ensures all independent workers can access workplace benefits without losing their flexibility to work how and when they want.” 
    “The Association Health Plans Act gives small businesses and individuals the leverage to negotiate collectively for lower health insurance and lower drug prices. Additionally, the CBO previously estimated that 400,000 uninsured would gain coverage under AHPs and over 3 million people would switch coverage to AHPs,” said Dr. Paul.
    The vast majority of independent workers prefer alternative work arrangements to traditional [“9 to 5”] employment, and 80 percent of these workers would like access to workplace benefits. Yet decades-old federal labor and employment laws, including the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, prevent independent workers from accessing common workplace benefits. 
    The legislative package includes:  
    Cassidy’s Unlocking Benefits for Independent Workers Act: Establishes a safe harbor under federal law for companies that would like to voluntarily provide benefits.
    Applies to any benefit or protection commonly provided to full-time employees, such as retirement and health care benefits. It also applies to emerging models where firms may pay into portable accounts, or any combination of those arrangements. 

    Scott’s Modern Worker Empowerment Act: Gives workers clarity and consistency by instituting a single employment test under federal law.  
    Paul’s Association Health Plans Act: Increases affordable health coverage options to millions of self-employed Americans and employees of small businesses by amending the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to give small business employees, sole proprietors, and gig workers the ability to aggregate together and access health insurance through Association Health Plans (AHPs). 
    Cassidy’s Independent Retirement Fairness Act: Empowers independent workers to participate in retirement plans, like pooled employer plans and single employee pension IRAs, that are already available under federal law. (Note: legislative text will be available shortly on the HELP Committee website)

    MIL OSI USA News –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Gillibrand, Warren Demand Answers About Trump Administration Cuts to Agencies That Protect Seniors From Frauds And Scams

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for New York Kirsten Gillibrand
    Americans lost more than $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024
    This week, Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, ranking member of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, and Elizabeth Warren, ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, demanded answers from the Trump administration on the impact of federal cuts to agencies that protect seniors from financial frauds and scams. The senators’ letter follows the release of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report detailing the need to enhance protections against frauds and scams through coordination among federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Treasury Department, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Federal Reserve, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
    Even after the release of GAO’s report, the Trump administration has continued efforts to gut these agencies. For example, in April, the administration fired about 1,500 CFPB employees—or almost 90% of the agency’s staff. The so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) has also attempted to harass public servants throughout the federal government into leaving their jobs, decreasing personnel at the very agencies that GAO agrees are needed to protect older adults.
    “GAO’s report detailed the need to enhance our nation’s response to scams, including through better coordination among federal agencies. Despite that need, President Trump allowed an out-of-touch billionaire to slash the very agencies that protect Americans from scams, including millions of older adults,” the senators wrote. “We ask GAO to examine the impact of these severe cuts on the ability of the federal government to address frauds and scams, and to carry out the recommendations in GAO’s report.”
    American consumers reported losing more than $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024. Older Americans alone lost a record $4.8 billion to scammers last year, according to the FBI.
    The full text of the letter can be found here or below.
    Dear Mr. Dodaro,
    We write today to request that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) follow up on its report, Consumer Protection: Actions Needed to Improve Complaint Reporting, Consumer Education, and Federal Coordination to Counter Scams (GAO-25-107088). GAO’s report detailed the need to enhance our nation’s response to scams, including through better coordination among federal agencies. Despite that need, President Trump allowed an out of touch billionaire to slash the very agencies that protect Americans from scams, including millions of older adults. We ask GAO to examine the impact of these severe cuts on the ability of the federal government to address frauds and scams, and to carry out the recommendations in GAO’s report.
    American consumers reported losing more than $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, and scams can have a particularly devastating impact on the mental and financial health of older adults. Older adults are more likely to have accumulated savings and housing wealth, making them targets for scammers who “steal everything,” and leave the older adults “emotionally and financially ruined.” One older adult testified about a scam that cost her late husband his job, his self-confidence, and forced him to ration his medications – setbacks that contributed to his declining health. Another older adult testified that she could not repair her home, afford air conditioning, and had to turn off her refrigerator and stove after losing $39,000 in a scam. Even as elder scams are devastating, they are also difficult to investigate because of their global nature. Frequently, such scams combine the efforts of overseas criminal organizations with operatives in the United States.
    In April 2025, GAO released a report, Consumer Protection: Actions Needed to Improve Complaint Reporting, Consumer Education, and Federal Coordination to Counter Scams, that highlighted the scope of scams and the weaknesses in the federal government’s efforts to combat them. The report included several recommendations for the federal government, such as the need for the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to lead an effort to develop a national strategy to counter scams. Many of the recommendations made it clear that agencies such as FBI, the Department of Treasury, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Federal Reserve, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will need to work together to find solutions. The interagency cooperation envisioned by GAO’s report will require federal agencies that are well resourced and staffed with the proper expertise.
    Although there is a need to enhance our nation’s response to scams, President Trump has empowered efforts to decimate the very agencies leading the response. On January 20, 2025, President Trump established the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE). The initial head of the DOGE, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, does not need to worry about his basic needs and lives a life of unfettered influence and power. Yet, Mr. Musk and his cronies at the DOGE set a goal of cutting $1 trillion from agencies that serve working class Americans, older adults, and people with disabilities. Efforts by the DOGE include attempts to harass public servants throughout the federal government into leaving their jobs. DOGE efforts also include drastic cuts at agencies with a role in addressing scams, such as the CFPB, which has been subjected to mass firings. Consequently, we seek GAO’s assistance in understanding how DOGE’s actions affect key agencies’ efforts to address frauds and scams in general and implement GAO’s report recommendations in particular.
    We understand that the DOGE’s efforts are ongoing and its efforts at the FBI, FTC, CFPB, the Department of Treasury, and the Federal Reserve may not be completed for many months. We also understand that GAO may receive some insight into the impact of DOGE’s actions at the five agencies when the agencies submit an action plan to Congress and GAO as part of the formal “180-day Letter” process that is in place for GAO recommendations to federal agencies. Therefore, we ask that GAO defer any work until it receives and initially analyzes the action plans from agencies that were targeted by the recommendations.
    Once the agency action plans have been received and analyzed by GAO, and the DOGE’s efforts are sufficiently completed, we request that GAO examine and report on the following issues:
    1. In its April 2025 report, GAO identified five key agencies that play a role in addressing frauds and scams. Since January 20, 2025, how has the ability of the five agencies to address frauds and scams been impacted by firings, resignations, buyouts, agency restructurings, and other actions undertaken by the Trump Administration and the DOGE?
    a. What changes have occurred at the five agencies a year or less following the actions taken by the Trump Administration and the DOGE, and what, if any, observable impact have those changes had on efforts to address frauds and scams?
    b. What impacts may the changes have over multiple years on the five agencies and their efforts to address frauds and scams?
    2. GAO’s April 2025 report included 16 recommendations for the federal government to improve its response to frauds and scams. How have the changes implemented by the Trump Administration and DOGE impacted the ability of the five agencies identified in the April 2025 report to implement GAO’s recommendations? Further, if efforts are made to reverse the changes at any of the five agencies, please describe the success of those efforts. Please include any barriers the agencies have faced to restaffing and restoring efforts to combat frauds and scams.
    We appreciate your attention to this request. Should you have any questions or need additional information, please contact Ranking Member Gillibrand’s staff with the Senate Special Committee on Aging or Ranking Member Warren’s staff with the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
    Sincerely,

    MIL OSI USA News –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Africa: South Africa: Public Service Committee Welcomes Treasury Reviews, Urges Swift Action to Professionalise and Clean Up Government

    Source: APO


    .

    The Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration today welcomed the announcement by the Minister of Finance, Mr Enoch Godongwana, to institute three critical spending reviews aimed at improving the efficiency, integrity and developmental impact of government expenditure.

    The reviews, announced during the minister’s budget vote debate, will focus on standardising the remuneration of executives and board members of public entities, auditing and eliminating ghost workers and investigating the persistent underspending and delivery failures associated with infrastructure conditional grants at the provincial and municipal levels.

    The Chairperson of the committee, Mr Jan de Villiers, said these reviews are not only welcome but long overdue. They echo the committee’s consistent calls for a professionalised public service, one that is results-based, provides value for public money, and adopts a zero-tolerance approach to corruption, waste and political patronage. “We support the development of a standardised remuneration framework for public entity executives and board members. Salaries must be fair, transparent and directly linked to the entity’s mandate, complexity and performance. There can be no justification for exorbitant pay packages where service delivery is in crisis or entities are failing,” said Mr de Villiers.

    On the issue of ghost workers, the Chairperson reaffirmed the committee’s view that this is not a minor administrative flaw but a form of organised, systemic corruption that siphons off public funds and undermines trust in the state. “These are not invisible names on paper – these are real funds stolen from the public. The committee calls for these audits to lead to consequences. We want to see prosecutions, dismissals and systemic reform. The committee will continue to monitor this process closely, and a joint oversight meeting with Treasury and the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) is scheduled for the third quarter of 2025,” he said.

    The committee also welcomed broader government efforts to professionalise the state, including the digitisation of human resource and payroll systems, the introduction of lifestyle audits and the rollout of skills audits within departments. This followed a briefing by the DPSA and the National School of Government this morning on government’s progress in digitising the public service and aligning training and upskilling with departmental needs.

    “The creation of a professional, merit-based and non-partisan public service is both constitutionally mandated and essential to improving service delivery for all South Africans. Skills audits are particularly critical as they allow us to assess whether departments are staffed appropriately and whether officials have the qualifications and competencies needed to fulfil their mandates,” said Mr de Villiers.

    Responding to this morning’s briefing, the Chairperson said digitisation and upskilling will help empower officials and drive improved service delivery, particularly in under-resourced areas. “We must know not just who is employed in the public service, but whether they are fit for purpose. Skills audits, alongside digital transformation and standardised pay, create an opportunity to reconfigure departments to meet the needs of the public better. Where upskilling is required, it must be supported. Where restructuring is needed, it must be done responsibly,” he said.

    The committee remains committed to actively overseeing these reviews, focusing on results rather than rhetoric. We are planning a joint meeting with the Department of Public Service and Administration and National Treasury in the third quarter of 2025 to obtain further updates, including a detailed progress update on the ghost worker audit, implementation of lifestyle audits and alignment between performance and pay in the public sector, as well as consequence management for those involved in fraud and maladministration.

    “We will not allow these reviews to become another policy gesture. They must be executed with urgency, rigour and public accountability,” the Chairperson said.

    Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Republic of South Africa: The Parliament.

    MIL OSI Africa –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Work begins at state-of-the-art weather centre headquarters

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Work begins at state-of-the-art weather centre headquarters

    Construction has begun on the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, marked by a breaking ground ceremony on Wednesday 9 July.

    Left to right: Jonathan Richards – Project Director, Mace, Andy Brown – Director of Research, ECMWF, Mark Bourgeois – CEO, the GPA, Lord Vallance – Minister for Science, Research and Innovation, Penny Endersby, CEO of the Met Office and President of the ECMWF Council and Professor Van De Noort CBE – Vice Chancellor, University of Reading

    Construction has begun on a new cutting-edge facility for meteorological research and forecasting, marked by a breaking ground ceremony.

    The event took place today (July 9) at the site of the new headquarters for the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) at the University of Reading’s Whiteknights Campus, led by Lord Vallance, Minister of State for Science, Innovation and Technology. 

    Also in attendance were key stakeholders in the project including ECMWF Directors, Penny Endersby, CEO of the Met Office and President of ECMWF Council, Mark Bourgeois, CEO at the Government Property Agency (GPA) which is delivering the scheme, and representatives of the University of Reading, Mace – design and build construction partners, project advisors AtkinsRéalis and BDP – the architects.

    Construction of the modern, accessible and highly sustainable headquarters, which is being funded through the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), is expected to be ready for occupation in early 2027. 

    ECMWF will move from its existing premises in Reading, where it has been for half a century, to the new headquarters. Once operational the building will accommodate up to 300 scientists and staff to support world-leading work on all aspects of weather prediction systems, forecast production and research into climate change. The state-of-the-art facility will support the use of the latest advances made in areas such as data assimilation, earth system modelling, predictability and reanalysis to improve weather predictions and understanding of climate.

    UK Science Minister Lord Vallance said:

    The UK is proud to continue to host the headquarters of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. This state-of-the-art facility places the UK at the heart of international efforts that are helping us to make better sense of our weather and climate.

    By improving our weather predictions we can optimise our energy consumption estimates, adjust transport schedules effectively and give our farmers time to prepare for extreme weather – helping people and businesses to save money, cut energy use and stay safe.

    With the university’s Department of Meteorology and parts of the UK Met Office, National Environment Research Council (NERC) National Centre for Atmospheric Sciences and NERC National Centre for Earth Observation all currently located within the university – and now the new ECMWF HQ – means the town of Reading is home to an exceptional cluster of weather, climate research and operational forecasting facilities.

    Florence Rabier, ECMWF Director General said: 

    After 50 years at Shinfield Park in Reading, we are pleased that this move to state-of-the-art sustainable premises will provide excellent facilities for our staff and visitors, and bring us even closer to many colleagues at the university.

    ECMWF is an intergovernmental organisation with 35 member and cooperating states that have built a strong international collaboration with each of these countries’ meteorological services. As well as traditional numerical weather prediction and research, together with our member and cooperating states, we are spearheading the artificial intelligence/machine learning revolution in weather science for the benefit and protection of citizens.

    Mark Bourgeois, the GPA’s CEO said:

    It is a landmark occasion to get construction underway of this new facility, which has been designed to industry-leading net zero carbon standards. This project is a perfect example of cross-government collaboration which will deliver a modern, inspirational and energy-efficient headquarters for ECMWF’s forecasting, research and training functions, retaining a world-leading scientific organisation and attracting long-term investment into the region.

    It’s another milestone for us at the GPA to deliver smart, modern, sustainable and digitally connected workplaces that focus on supporting productivity and wellbeing.

    For media enquiries, email: pressoffice@gpa.gov.uk

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    Published 9 July 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Biblical Women Ageing Disgracefully: artist Sarah Lightman reimagines characters battling midlife, motherhood and menopause

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Dawn Llewellyn, Associate professor of Religion and Gender, Theology and Religious Studies, University of Chester

    What happens when the women immortalised in old master paintings step out of their gilded frames and into the chaos of modern domestic life? That’s the question artist Sarah Lightman tackles, with wit, irreverence and insight, in her exhibition Biblical Women Ageing Disgracefully, now on at Chester Visual Arts, Grovesnor Shopping Centre.

    In works from her Biblical Domestic (2021–2024) and Menstrual Hystery (2024) series, Lightman trades halos for housework, and heavenly glory for the cluttered reality of her own everyday life. Her saints and heroines aren’t meditating in divine serenity – they’re battling menopause, messy kitchens and midlife malaise.

    With humour and intimacy, Lightman probes the distance between the idealised women of religious art and the ageing bodies we’re taught to hide. Her characters, drawn from both the canon of western Christian art and the sacred Jewish texts of her upbringing, are lovingly reimagined through a feminist lens.

    What if Mary hated soft play as much as the rest of us? What if Eve was just trying to get through another basket of laundry? What if biblical women aged in real time?

    With bold colours, absurdist touches and deep empathy, Biblical Women Ageing Disgracefully reframes these archetypes for today – and starts fresh conversations about visibility, care and womanhood.

    Old masters, new messes

    In Fridge Frustrations (2022), Caravaggio’s Judith Beheading Holofernes (1599) becomes a scene of domestic dread. Judith still holds Holofernes’ severed head – but now her crisis is storage, not salvation:

    Judith can’t find anywhere in the fridge for her organic and fresh cut of Holofernes.

    Lightman retains the dramatic composition of the original but shifts its meaning entirely. Her watercolour medium softens the baroque oil intensity, introducing levity without losing emotional depth.

    In The Annunciation of the Menopause (2024), she riffs on The Annunciation by Fra Angelico (1425-26), the early Renaissance fresco where the Virgin Mary receives the angel Gabriel’s news that she’ll bear the son of God.

    Here, Mary’s serene acceptance is swapped for something far more visceral: she sits beside an exam table mid heavy bleed, not in graceful surrender but bodily discomfort. Gabriel is gone, replaced by a gynaecologist in latex gloves. The walls? Tiled not with gold leaf but with packets of Always. This is no divine encounter – just hot flushes, greasy hair and hormonal chaos. No spiritual serenity in sight.

    Instead of youthful grace, Lightman gives us perimenopausal truth: gritty, awkward, real.

    Not a rejection, but a rewriting

    Lightman’s work is unabashedly feminist and unapologetically funny – but it’s also rooted in reverence. Her reinterpretations of women from Hebrew scripture honour the complexity of these figures and draw from the feminist Jewish tradition of midrash: creative interpretation that fills in the biblical silences.

    Lightman isn’t discarding these sacred stories: she’s inhabiting them. She paints the parts we were never told, the thoughts and struggles left out of the male-dominated canon. Her canvases ask: what if we didn’t accept the gaps in these women’s lives? What if we imagined them into our own?

    Context matters – and Biblical Women Ageing Disgracefully is exhibited not in a white-walled gallery but in Chester’s Grosvenor Precinct, having previously shown at Chester’s cultural centre Storyhouse. The location is deliberate. These Madonnas and menopausal saints appear exactly where they live now: among shopping bags, toddler tantrums and the quiet sighs of women holding it all together.

    Meeting Eve, Mary, Bathsheba, Susanna and Lot’s wife in a shopping centre creates a surreal and poignant dissonance. It collapses the sacred and the ordinary, and invites viewers to see their own lives reflected in these ancient figures.

    Messy, mortal and magnificent

    It’s a risk, of course, putting menopause, motherhood, grief, housework and rape culture centre stage. There’s a version of this exhibition that could have been grim. But Lightman’s palette is anything but dour. Her watercolours are vibrant and playful, her titles sharp with satire. These women aren’t tragic martyrs; they’re exhausted, yes, but also knowing, cheeky and in on the joke.

    Lightman treats art history not as a fixed monument, but as a toolkit to be deconstructed and rebuilt. She gives her saints their bodies back – saggy, sweaty, miraculous – and their agency too.

    What makes Biblical Women Ageing Disgracefully so powerful is its embrace of contradiction. It is sacred and silly, sincere and subversive, heartbreaking and hilarious. It is, in essence, a feminist midrash in watercolour: retelling holy stories through the grit and glory of contemporary womanhood, and holding them close even as it pushes them open.

    Biblical Women Ageing Disgracefully is on display at Chester Visual Arts, Grovesnor Shopping Centre until July 13.

    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. Biblical Women Ageing Disgracefully: artist Sarah Lightman reimagines characters battling midlife, motherhood and menopause – https://theconversation.com/biblical-women-ageing-disgracefully-artist-sarah-lightman-reimagines-characters-battling-midlife-motherhood-and-menopause-260522

    MIL OSI Analysis –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: From Kabul to the catwalk – the surprising global history behind fashion’s fur revival

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Magnus Marsden, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Sussex

    The winter season of 2024-25 marked a resurgence of fur clothing – both faux and real – in fashion across Europe and North America. Shearling jackets and embroidered “Penny Lane coats” featured widely in reports on the latest fashion trends. Vintage fur coats are also back in vogue.

    To many, the resurgence came as a surprise. The anti-fur movement, especially influential in the 1980s, continues to shape perceptions of fur. In the 2010s, cities including New York and Los Angeles banned the use of fur to make clothes. The UK meanwhile banned the farming of fur-bearing animals, and, alongside the EU, has committed itself to legislating against all fur imports.

    Just last year the town of Worthing, in England, debated whether their mayor should wear ceremonial robes trimmed with fur or not. Despite these trends, many young people have embraced the renewed trend of wearing real fur.

    Some clothes made from animal skins became popular during the counter-cultural movement of the 1960s, but historically, fur has mostly marked status, wealth and luxury. Today, many critics interpret fur’s return to fashion as a cultural expression of rightwing politics.

    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.

    Fur is prominent in the “boom boom” fashion trend, which emphasises excess and “male-coded values”. It has been described by fashion journalists as “over-the-top and unashamed about its own greed and lack of wokeness”.

    Fur clothing is a reminder of the moral tensions between need and desire, and luxury and excess. In addition to being inter-generational, these debates are also about gender. For much of the 20th century, fur coats symbolised femininity, erotic power and class position in the west. But by the 1980s, advertising campaigns depicted women who wore fur as either stupid and unthinking or thinking and unspeakably cruel, leading many to jettison it.

    Anti-fur protests were held across the US in 1994.

    Fur’s return to fashion has injected old debates with new significance. Some young people are willing to wear faux fur because it does not involve killing animals. But others argue that, because it is made from synthetic material, faux fur is actually more environmentally damaging and prefer to wear the real thing. They claim that wearing vintage fur is a form of “sustainable consumption” but are challenged by those who argue that this fashion trend ultimately justifies killing animals to make clothes.

    The boom boom trend is said to embody a contemporary expression of 1980s “conspicuous consumerism”, but in an era of economic austerity the adoption of fur by young people suggests the clothes they wear identify their desires rather than their financial reality.

    A global history of fur

    Today, as in the 1980s, the perspectives, interests and experiences of non-Europeans are often unheard in debates around fur. A decline of fur-bearing animal populations in North America and Siberia from the early 19th century, led to a global expansion in fur farming.



    Read more:
    How central Asian Jews and Muslims worked together in London’s 20th-century fur and carpet trade

    From the 1850s, for example, Central Asia supplied furs to Europe and North America. Local artisans cured the pelts of karakul lambs – a native breed – to yield a rich and glossy fur. In central and south Asia, men of high status wore karakul hats; in Europe and America, they were mostly used to make women’s coats.

    After the Russian revolution of 1917, many nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralists, who raised sheep and other animals, left central Asia and moved with their flocks to neighbouring Afghanistan. The trade in karakul fur grew in the country, and foreign currency reserves came to depend on lambskins sold at auctions in London and New York.

    In the 1960s, sheepskin coats made in Afghanistan – known as “Afghans” – became popular in the west, being worn by stars including Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. The 1969 British edition of Vogue featured an interview with an icon of “oriental chic”, the “beautiful, dashing, intelligent, adventurous” Afghan socialite, Safia Tarzi, who lived in Paris, and ran a boutique clothing shop in Kabul.

    The Afghan coat enjoyed a resurgence in 2000 having been worn by the character Penny Lane (Kate Hudson) in the film Almost Famous.



    Read more:
    Friday essay: how ‘Afghan’ coats left Kabul for the fashion world and became a hippie must-have

    In the 1980s, the anti-fur campaign contributed to a declining market for karakul. For decades, rumours of Central Asian shepherds extracting lambs from the wombs of sheep to ensure a steady yield of delicate pelts had circulated. Moral opposition to the practice was not confined to the west.

    During my research on globally dispersed activists, intellectuals and merchants from Afghanistan, a man from Afghanistan, now based in London, told me that his father banned his family from wearing karakul hats because sheep and their lambs were treated cruelly.

    In the 1990s, civil war destroyed much of the infrastructure of the karakul industry in Afghanistan, but a trickle of pelts reached auction houses located in Frankfurt, Copenhagen and Helsinki.

    In the 2000s, international development organisations attempted to revive the trade, though sales never returned to anyway near the levels of the 1970s. By the 2010s, families in northern Afghanistan struggling economically opted to send sons to travel illegally to Turkey to find work as shepherds for commercially oriented Turkish farmers.

    Promotional videos of fashion houses occasionally touch on the Penny Lane coat’s ties to Afghanistan, but media coverage of fur fashions rarely address its historical connections to central Asia.

    Magnus Marsden received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council including for the research upon which this article is based.

    – ref. From Kabul to the catwalk – the surprising global history behind fashion’s fur revival – https://theconversation.com/from-kabul-to-the-catwalk-the-surprising-global-history-behind-fashions-fur-revival-256382

    MIL OSI Analysis –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Lioness Lucy Bronze uses ‘cycle syncing’ to get an edge on her competition — here’s how the practise works

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Mollie O’Hanlon, PhD Candidate, Exercise Physiology, Nottingham Trent University

    Bronze has said ‘cycle syncing’ has been important for her performance. Jose Breton- Pics Action/ Shutterstock

    England footballer Lucy Bronze recently said in an interview that “cycle syncing” gives her an edge on the pitch. This practice involves aligning your training schedule to the different phases of your menstrual cycle.

    Cycle syncing has become increasingly popular in recent years – especially among athletes who are looking to get an edge over the competition. Even Chelsea women’s football team have put this new approach to use, tailoring training schedules according to each player’s menstrual cycle.

    For the average person, tailoring your workouts to your menstrual cycle is probably not going to have much of an impact. But for a professional athlete such as Bronze, cycle syncing could be a gamechanging strategy in shaping her elite performance.

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

    The menstrual cycle begins and ends with menstruation (a period). While the length of the menstrual cycle varies for each person, it’s usually around 28 days.

    The menstrual cycle is underpinned by fluctuations in levels of the female sex hormones oestrogen and progesterone. This is why the cycle is divided into three key phases: early follicular, late follicular and the luteal phase.

    The early follicular phase usually lasts around seven days and begins with the start of your period. This is when hormone levels are at their lowest.

    The late follicular phase follows on from the first seven days, and is where ovulation happens – usually around day 14 of the cycle, though this will depend on cycle length. Ovulation is when the egg is released and you’re at your most fertile.

    After that comes the luteal phase (lasting around 12-14 days), when progesterone peaks to prepare the body for pregnancy. If pregnancy doesn’t happen, hormones drop and the cycle begins again.

    It’s no secret that mood and energy levels can shift – sometimes significantly – throughout the menstrual cycle. This is why some female athletes have begun using cycle syncing. By tailoring training schedules to match hormonal fluctuations, women are gaining a deeper understanding of their bodies and the symptoms they experience throughout each phase – empowering them to train smarter, not harder.

    Bronze said the strategy has transformed her performance, saying that during certain phases of her cycle she feels “physically capable of more and can train harder”.

    Despite these testimonials, scientists are yet to reach a definitive conclusion on how the menstrual cycle affects athletic performance.

    Bronze is just one of many female athletes putting ‘cycle syncing’ to the test.
    Christian Bertrand/ Shutterstock

    So far, there’s some suggestion that there may be a slight dip in performance (specifically to strength and endurance) during the early follicular phase. However, these effects are minimal – and highly dependent on the person. It’s also not entirely clear what mechanisms underpin these small performance dips that some women experienced.

    Other research suggests that certain aspects of the neuromuscular system (the network of nerves and muscles that make movement possible) – specifically how our muscles generate force – is altered during the luteal phase. Research has also found that certain muscles may fatigue less quickly during this phase as well.

    This implies that during the luteal phase, there may be changes in signals from the brain and spinal cord to the skeletal muscles. However, no changes in the neuromuscular function have been observed.

    Part of the reason it’s so difficult for researchers to gather enough evidence to draw firm conclusions on the menstrual cycle’s potential effects on athletic performance is because of the huge variability in menstrual cycle characteristics, which makes it difficult to study. Phase length, hormone levels and symptoms can differ widely between women – and even from cycle to cycle.

    The small effects seen in these studies will have little effect on how most of us train or exercise. But for an elite athlete, these minuscule differences could have an effect on their training and competition, which may be why so many are willing to give the practice a try.

    So while it isn’t entirely clear how much influence certain menstrual cycle phases have on performance, how you feel during different phases could certainly affect your ability to train at your best.

    Around 77% of female athletes experience negative symptoms in the days leading up to and during menstruation. Fatigue, feeling less motivated and even experiencing digestive issues such as bloating and nausea, could all affect your ability to train at your best.

    Trying cycle syncing

    If you’re still interested in giving cycle syncing a try to see if it has any effect for you, the best place to start is by tracking your menstrual cycle. This will help you understand your body, how you feel in each phase of your cycle and what effect certain symptoms have on your training.

    It’s recommended you track your cycle for at least three months before making any changes to your training to establish a baseline and spot trends over time.

    For example, if you notice you often feel fatigued when training in your luteal phase, it may help to focus on ensuring you fuel well with carbohydrates before and during workouts. Or on days where you feel more energetic and motivated to train, you might be able to push yourself a bit harder in your workouts.

    Whether you’re playing for England in the Euros or simply working towards your own fitness goals, understanding your cycle can help you train smarter, manage your symptoms better and stay consistent with your training.

    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. Lioness Lucy Bronze uses ‘cycle syncing’ to get an edge on her competition — here’s how the practise works – https://theconversation.com/lioness-lucy-bronze-uses-cycle-syncing-to-get-an-edge-on-her-competition-heres-how-the-practise-works-260153

    MIL OSI Analysis –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: China’s interest in the next Dalai Lama is also about control of Tibet’s water supply

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Tom Harper, Lecturer in International Relations, University of East London

    As the 14th Dalai Lama celebrates his 90th birthday with thousands of Tibetan Buddhists, there’s already tension over how the next spiritual leader will be selected. Controversially, the Chinese government has suggested it wants more power over who is chosen.

    Traditionally, Tibetan leaders and aides seek a young boy who is seen as the chosen reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. It is possible that after they do this, this time Beijing will try to appoint a rival figure.

    However, the current Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, insists that the process of succession will be led by the Swiss-based Gaden Phodrang Trust, which manages his affairs. He said no one else had authority “to interfere in this matter” and that statement is being seen as a strong signal to China.

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

    Throughout the 20th century, Tibetans struggled to create an independent state, as their homeland was fought over by Russia, the UK and China. In 1951, Tibetan leaders signed a treaty with China allowing a Chinese military presence on their land.

    China established the Tibetan Autonomous Region in 1965, in name this means that Tibet is an autonomous region within China, but in effect it is tightly controlled. Tibet has a government in exile, based in India, that still wants Tibet to become an independent state.

    This is a continuing source of tension between the two countries. India also claims part of Tibet as its own territory.

    Beijing sees having more power over the selection of the Dalai Lama as an opportunity to stamp more authority on Tibet. Tibet’s strategic position and its resources are extremely valuable to China, and play a part in Beijing’s wider plans for regional dominance, and in its aim of pushing back against India, its powerful rival in south Asia.

    The Dalai Lama celebrates his 90th birthday as many Tibetans living in China fear talking about independence.

    Tibet provides China with a naturally defensive border with the rest of southern Asia, with its mountainous terrain providing a buffer against India. The brief Sino-Indian war of 1962 when the two countries battled for control of the region, still has implications for India and China today, where they continue to dispute border lands.

    As with many powerful nations, China has always been concerned about threats, or rival power bases, within its neighbourhood. This is similar to how the US has used the Monroe Doctrine to ensure its dominance over Latin America, and how Russia seeks to maintain its influence over former Soviet states.

    Beijing views western criticism of its control of Tibet as interference in its sphere of influence.



    Read more:
    India and Pakistan tension escalates with suspension of historic water treaty

    Another source of contention is that Beijing traditionally views boundaries such as the McMahon line defining the China-India border as lacking legitimacy, a border drawn up when China was at its weakest in the 19th century. Known in China as the “century of humiliation”, this was characterised by a series of unequal treaties, which saw the loss of territory to stronger European powers.

    This continues to a source of political tensions in China’s border regions including Tibet. This is a controversial part of China’s historical memory and continues to influence its ongoing relationship with the west.

    Demand for natural resources

    Tibet’s importance to Beijing also comes from its vast water resources. Access to more water is seen as increasingly important for China’s wider push towards self-sufficiency which has become imperative in the face of climate change. This also provides China with a significant geopolitical tool.

    For instance, the Mekong River rises in Tibet and flows through China and along the borders of Myanamar and Laos and onward into Thailand and Cambodia. It is the third longest river in Asia, and is crucial for many of the economies of south-east Asia. It is estimated to sustain 60 million people.

    China’s attempts to control water supplies, particularly through the building of huge dams in Tibet, has added to regional tensions. Around 50% of the flow to the Mekong was cut off for part of 2021, after a Chinese mega dam was built. This caused a lot of resentment from other countries which depended on the water.

    Moves by other nations to control access to regional water supplies in recent years show how water is now becoming a negotiating tool. India attempted to cut off Pakistan’s water supply in 2025 as part of the conflict between the two. Control of Tibet allows China to pursue a similar strategy, which grants Beijing leverage in its dealings with New Delhi, and other governments.


    Shutterstock.

    Another natural resource is also a vital part of China’s planning. Tibet’s significant lithium deposits are crucial for Chinese supply chains, particularly for their use in the electric vehicle industry. Beijing is attempting to reduce its reliance on western firms and supplies, in the face of the present trade tensions between the US and China, and Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods.

    Tibet’s value to China is a reflection of wider changes in a world where water is increasingly playing an important role in geopolitics. With its valuable natural resources, China’s desire to control Tibet is not likely to decrease.

    Tom Harper 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. China’s interest in the next Dalai Lama is also about control of Tibet’s water supply – https://theconversation.com/chinas-interest-in-the-next-dalai-lama-is-also-about-control-of-tibets-water-supply-255843

    MIL OSI Analysis –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Parental leave in the UK isn’t working – here’s what needs to change

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi, Senior Lecturer at York Business School, York St John University

    pikselstock/Shutterstock

    The recent launch of a government review into parental leave and pay in the UK is a hugely welcome development. In order to bring about meaningful change, it must challenge the fundamental issue at the heart of current parental leave laws. They are strongly influenced by, and so perpetuate, gender norms that see women as caregivers and fathers as breadwinners.

    Parents in the UK can take maternity leave, paternity leave and shared parental leave in the first year of their child’s life. While these allowances provide parents with support, the support is disproportionate in how it is split between mothers and fathers. Although gender roles have evolved significantly, UK policies lag behind.

    Mothers and fathers are equal parents and have equal parenting responsibilities. However, mothers are allowed up to 52 weeks of maternity leave, while fathers are only entitled to two weeks of statutory paternity leave.

    The introduction of shared parental leave in 2015 was welcomed as a positive step towards gender equality – but it has failed in this aim.

    There are significant barriers stopping fathers from benefiting fully from the legislation. Parents can share up to 50 weeks of leave between them. But because mothers are entitled to a year of leave, the policy requires mothers to act as gatekeepers. The mother determines if the father can share the leave and how long she is willing to give up for the father.

    Consequently, fathers have no autonomy or independence to take parental leave at a time that is important to them and their babies – and they may be reluctant to deprive the mother of leave she is entitled to.

    What’s more, while maternity and paternity leave is well known and the process relatively straightforward, shared parental leave has been criticised for its complexity. Parents that have explored shared parental leave have found the policy and process incredibly complex because some employers still don’t understand how it works and so are unable to support parents.

    The problems with the policy have affected its uptake. Only 5% of fathers take any shared parental leave.

    Financial implications

    Another problem that affects all three policies is the pay. While the UK has a generous maternity leave allowance of 52 weeks, this is not accompanied by a decent financial allowance.

    Although employers can set more generous terms, the law requires only the first six weeks of maternity leave to be paid at 90% of the mother’s salary. This is followed by 33 weeks at statutory pay of £187.18 and 13 weeks of no pay. The two weeks of paternity leave are paid at the statutory rate of £187.18, or 90% of the father’s average weekly earnings (whichever is lower).

    Taking parental leave can bring financial and career worries.
    christinarosepix/Shutterstock

    And while shared parental leave allows the mother to split 50 weeks of leave with her partner, a significant period of this is unpaid. Out of these 50 weeks, parents can share 37 weeks of pay at statutory rate and the rest of the leave would be unpaid.

    Mothers have returned to work early because financially they cannot afford to stay longer on maternity leave – a problem compounded by the rising cost of living. Fathers sometimes opt to take annual leave rather than paternity leave because of the low pay.

    The same reason applies to shared parental leave because parents cannot afford to both be off at the same time or different times on the statutory rate. While the policies are well intended, there is no financial incentive for parents to take it.

    Finances have a significant impact on parental leave choices. The government review should enhance parental leave pay to encourage and support parents, particularly fathers.

    Impact on careers

    The implications for parents’ careers also need to be considered. While parental leave should not affect the career aspirations or progressions of the parents, my research demonstrates otherwise. Mothers have been bullied, refused opportunities, and have felt forced to leave their jobs.

    Research also shows that fathers have concerns about their careers when considering parental leave. While it is illegal for an employer to discriminate against a parent for taking parental leave, this remains an area of concern.

    My research has demonstrated that some fathers consider shared parental leave as a “luxury” they cannot afford. They feel they need to work hard to demonstrate their commitment to their job. Equal parenting policies would support women’s careers and encourage fathers to take up more family responsibilities without fear of repercussions.

    The last point to consider – and one that often goes overlooked – is that how parents choose to feed their baby may have an effect on their decisions to take parental leave. Babies can be breastfed, formula fed or a mixture of both breast and formula feeding. If the parents make the decision to breastfeed – a choice recommended by the World Health Organisation – this may affect the mother’s decision on how much leave she takes.

    Employers have legal obligations to carry out risk assessments for breastfeeding mothers and make reasonable adjustments on specific health and safety guidelines. However, a general policy that covers the wider needs of breastfeeding mothers and offers them more support at work should be implemented.

    My research shows that mothers may prefer to take more maternity leave to enable them to breastfeed.

    The parental leave review shouldn’t miss the opportunity to introduce breastfeeding policies that ensure mothers are properly supported in the workplace – as well as making sure that both mothers and fathers have the opportunity to prioritise caring and their careers.

    Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi 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. Parental leave in the UK isn’t working – here’s what needs to change – https://theconversation.com/parental-leave-in-the-uk-isnt-working-heres-what-needs-to-change-209661

    MIL OSI Analysis –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke is a powerful account of one child’s gift to another

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Leah McLaughlin, Research Fellow in Health Services, Bangor University

    What does it mean to save a life – and what does it cost? In The Story of a Heart, Rachel Clarke answers this not with slogans or sentiment, but with quiet, searing honesty. This book, which won this year’s Women’s prize for non-fiction, is about organ donation, yes, but it’s also about family, grief, love, courage, and the astonishing edges of human experience.

    At its centre are two children: Max Johnson, a healthy, active nine-year-old whose heart suddenly begins to fail, and Keira Ball, another nine-year-old – vibrant, horse-loving, full of life who tragically dies in a car accident. In a moment of unimaginable grief, Keira’s parents donate her organs. Her heart goes to Max.

    A child dies. A child lives.

    That is the simple, brutal, beautiful truth this book never looks away from. But Clarke does more than tell the story of heart. She immerses us in it – every breath, every monitor beep, every unbearable choice.

    I read this as a health services researcher who has spent years working in the emotionally complex, ethically charged, and often hidden world of organ donation. My work explores how families navigate these unimaginable scenarios, particularly in the context of recent legislative change. Clarke’s account captures, with rare precision and compassion, the silences, the emotional labour of clinicians, and the profound weight of choice that families like Keira’s carry.

    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.

    As both a doctor and a mother, Clarke brings sensitivity to every page. We feel Max’s steady decline: the exhaustion, the fear, the silence that descends as even the doctors grow unsure. We witness Keira’s final hours, the heroic efforts to save her, and the moments where unbearable grief oscillates between hope and despair, eventually giving way to a different kind of gift.

    There are no easy heroes in this story, only ordinary people facing the unthinkable with extraordinary grace. Clarke brings them to life with aching clarity: the cardiologist who, in the dim light of a hospital room, sketches Max’s failing heart on a napkin so his mother can understand what words can’t explain; the ICU nurse who stays long after her shift ends, gently brushing the hair of a child who will never wake up; the donation nurse who enters a family’s darkest hour not with answers, but with quiet presence and unwavering care; the surgeon who steadies his hands – and his heart – when every second matters.

    And in the chaos of resuscitation, amid alarms and broken bodies, a teddy bear is tucked beneath Keira’s arm: “Someone in the crash team has seen Keira not simply as a body, inert and unresponsive, but as a vulnerable child in need of compassion.”

    The Story of a Heart is also a book about history. It’s not just about one child’s transplant, but about medicine, surgery, and the heart itself. Clarke weaves in the stories of early transplant pioneers, accidental discoveries, and the scientific stumbles and breakthroughs that built modern practice. She brings it all to life with a storyteller’s flair, making science feel intimate, alive, and deeply human.

    What the heart means

    What sets the heart apart, Clarke reminds us, is not just its function, but its symbolism. No other organ holds such emotional weight. “Hearts sing, soar, race, burn, break, bleed, swell, hammer and melt,” she writes. They are not just organs, they are vessels for our hopes, fears and deepest longings.

    Clarke shows how, across history, the heart was seen as the source of emotion, morality – even the soul – and how that deep humanism still pulses through our language and culture today. We have our hearts broken, wear our hearts on our sleeves, and as Clarke puts it: “When trying to express our truest and most sincere selves, we do so by saying we speak from the heart, or about all that our heart desires.”

    But what makes The Story of a Heart so exceptional is its emotional truth. Clarke never shies away from the pain. Max’s parents watch their son fade, terrified to even touch him. Keira’s father buys her a pink princess dress for her funeral. Max, wired to machines, records a goodbye message; we learn later he even tried to take his own life. And yet, there is light.

    Keira’s sisters climb into bed with her, painting her nails and sliding Haribo sweet rings onto her fingers. Then comes a moment so clear, so quietly astonishing, it takes everyone’s breath away. Katelyn, Keira’s older sister, turns to the doctor and asks, with calm, steady eyes: “Can we donate her organs?”

    This isn’t a clinical decision or a well-rehearsed conversation. It is an unprompted act of extraordinary love. These moments – fragile, generous, profoundly human – are the true beating heart of Clarke’s book.

    From there, we are guided into a world so few know and even fewer ever witness: the quiet choreography that carries a gift of life from one person to another. What Katelyn sets in motion with just five words unfolds with such precision, that reading it feels like witnessing a kind of living magic.

    The aftermath is just as moving. Max recovers quickly, walks again, laughs again. The two families meet. There are no big speeches, just quiet awe. And beyond that: a law is passed. Max and Keira’s Law brings in an opt-out system of donation in England. Two children. One legacy. A country changed.

    And still, Clarke doesn’t let us forget the hard truths. Not every child survives. Not every family gets a miracle. Transplants are fragile. But in that fragility, she shows us, is the real miracle. Max goes fishing with his dad, the sky glows orange – Keira’s favourite colour. That is enough.

    At the moment organ donation consent rates for children are declining in the UK, and there are more children on the transplant wait list than ever before. The Story of a Heart asks us to see the children, the families, and the quiet acts of love behind every donation. It’s a powerful reminder that the greatest gifts are often given in the darkest hours.

    This book will break your heart – and fill it up again. It’s not just essential reading for anyone interested in organ donation and transplant. It’s essential reading for anyone who has ever loved.

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

    Leah McLaughlin 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. The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke is a powerful account of one child’s gift to another – https://theconversation.com/the-story-of-a-heart-by-rachel-clarke-is-a-powerful-account-of-one-childs-gift-to-another-260611

    MIL OSI Analysis –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Gwada-negative: the rarest blood group on Earth

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Martin L. Olsson, Medical Director of the Nordic Reference Laboratory for Blood Group Genomics, Region Skåne & Professor of Transfusion Medicine, Head of the Division, Lund University

    Peter Porrini/Shutterstock.com

    In a routine blood test that turned extraordinary, French scientists have identified the world’s newest and rarest blood group. The sole known carrier is a woman from Guadeloupe whose blood is so unique that doctors couldn’t find a single compatible donor.

    The discovery of the 48th recognised blood group, called “Gwada-negative”, began when the woman’s blood plasma reacted against every potential donor sample tested, including those from her own siblings. Consequently, it was impossible to find a suitable blood donor for her.

    Most people know their blood type – A, B, AB or O – along with whether they are Rh-positive or negative. But these familiar categories (those letters plus “positive” or “negative”) represent just two of several dozens of blood group systems that determine compatibility for transfusions. Each system reflects subtle but crucial differences in the proteins and sugars coating our red blood cells.

    To solve the mystery of the Guadeloupian woman’s incompatible blood, scientists turned to cutting-edge genetic analysis. Using whole exome sequencing – a technique that examines all 20,000-plus human genes – they discovered a mutation in a gene called PIGZ.

    This gene produces an enzyme responsible for adding a specific sugar to an important molecule on cell membranes. The missing sugar changes the structure of a molecule on the surface of red blood cells. This change creates a new antigen – a key feature that defines a blood group – resulting in an entirely new classification: Gwada-positive (having the antigen) or -negative (lacking it).

    Using gene editing technology, the team confirmed their discovery by recreating the mutation in a lab. So red blood cells from all blood donors tested are Gwada-positive and the Guadeloupean patient is the only known Gwada-negative person on the planet.

    The implications of the discovery extend beyond blood transfusions. The patient suffers from mild intellectual disability, and tragically, she lost two babies at birth – outcomes that may be connected to her rare genetic mutation.

    The enzyme produced by the PIGZ gene operates at the final stage of building a complex molecule called GPI (glycosylphosphatidylinositol). Previous research has shown that people with defects in other enzymes needed for GPI assembly can experience neurological problems ranging from developmental delays to seizures. Stillbirths are also common among women with these inherited disorders.

    Although the Caribbean patient is the only person in the world so far with this rare blood type, neurological conditions including developmental delay, intellectual disability and seizures have been noted in other people with defects in enzymes needed earlier in the GPI assembly line.

    The Gwada discovery highlights both the marvels and challenges of human genetic diversity. Blood groups evolved partly as protection against infectious diseases (many bacteria, viruses and parasites use blood group molecules as entry points into cells). This means your blood type can influence your susceptibility to certain diseases.

    But extreme rarity creates medical dilemmas. The French researchers acknowledge they cannot predict what would happen if Gwada-incompatible blood were transfused into the Guadeloupian woman. Even if other Gwada-negative people exist, they would be extremely difficult to locate. It is also unclear if they can become blood donors.

    This reality points towards a futuristic solution: lab-grown blood cells. Scientists are already working on growing red blood cells from stem cells that could be genetically modified to match ultra-rare blood types. In the case of Gwada, researchers could artificially create Gwada-negative red blood cells by mutating the PIGZ gene.

    Gwada is a colloquial term for Guadeloupe, a Caribbean island.
    Shutterstock.com

    A growing field

    Gwada joins 47 other blood group systems recognised by the International Society of Blood Transfusion. Like most of these blood-group systems, it was discovered in a hospital lab where technicians were trying to find compatible blood for a patient.

    The name reflects the case’s Caribbean roots: Gwada is slang for someone from Guadeloupe, giving this blood group both scientific relevance and cultural resonance.

    As genetic sequencing becomes more advanced and widely used, researchers expect to uncover more rare blood types. Each discovery expands our understanding of human variation and raises fresh challenges for transfusion and other types of personalised medicine.

    Martin L Olsson is a Wallenberg Clinical Scholar who receives research funding from Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (grant no. 2020.0234). He holds other major grants from the Swedish Research Council (grant no. 2024-03772), the Novo Nordisk Foundation (grant no. NNF22OC0077684) and the Swedish government funds to university healthcare for clinical research (ALF grant no. 2022.0287). He is also a member of the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT)’s Working Party on Red Cell Immunogenetics and Blood Group Terminology.

    Jill Storry receives funding from the Swedish Research Council (grant no. 2024-03772). She is affiliated with, and the current senior Vice-President, of the International Society of Blood Transfusion, as well as a member of the society’s Working Party on Red Cell Immunogenetics and Blood Group Terminology.

    – ref. Gwada-negative: the rarest blood group on Earth – https://theconversation.com/gwada-negative-the-rarest-blood-group-on-earth-260155

    MIL OSI Analysis –

    July 10, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: At HELP Markup on CDC Nominee, Senator Murray Slams Secretary Kennedy for Record Measles Outbreak, Highlights Republicans’ Refusal to Conduct Oversight

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray

    ICYMI: At HELP Hearing, Senator Murray Presses CDC Nominee on Commitment to Scientific Integrity, Vaccine Access, as RFK Jr. Fires ACIP Members, Pushes Vaccine Conspiracies

    Senator Murray, along with Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), authored the PREVENT Pandemics Act that made the CDC Director a Senate confirmed position for the first time starting this year

    ***WATCH HERE: Murray remarks at HELP markup on measles outbreak***

    Washington, D.C. – Today—at a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee markup to advance the nomination of Susan Monarez, PhD to be Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Committee, spoke forcefully about how measles cases in the U.S. have reached a 33-year high, and yet our conspiracy-minded Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has only doubled down on his dangerous anti-vaccine activism, and the Republican leadership of the HELP Committee is refusing to exercise any serious oversight of the measles crisis or other public health disasters the Trump administration is fanning the flames of.

    At the markup, the HELP committee voted 12-11 to send Dr. Monarez’s nomination to the Senate floor—Senator Murray voted against advancing her nomination.

    The CDC Director is a Senate-confirmed position for the first time this year thanks to a provision in Senator Murray’s bipartisan PREVENT Pandemics Act, which she negotiated and passed with former Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) in 2022.

    Senator Murray’s full remarks at the HELP markup, as delivered, are below and video is HERE:

    “I think it’s really important as we consider a CDC nominee today, we talk about the real elephant in the room.

    “Because we could actually have the best CDC director in the world, and it wouldn’t change the fact that we have a person leading HHS who is an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist—and a Committee that I fear is failing to do its bipartisan, public oversight of public health disasters.

    “Measles cases are at a record 33-year high. They have not been this high since before we eliminated the disease in 2000.

    “And now we are over 1,200 cases—that is really, we believe, also an undercount.

    “But instead of pounding the pavement to encourage people to get vaccinated—the single most effective protection against measles, as you know—RFK Jr. has been firing every single member of the CDC vaccine advisory panel, and he loaded it up with his favorite vaccine skeptics, so they can pursue debunked conspiracies.

    “And I am concerned because this Committee, it feels like, has all but abandoned serious oversight of this crisis. We haven’t had a hearing on the record-breaking number of measles outbreaks.

    “Or a hearing on how the CDC vaccine panel is now stacked with people who are actually not unvetted, and all the previous board members—every single one of them—was removed with no credible explanation.

    “So, I really believe we need public oversight.  

    “I really do hope that Dr. Monarez will defy my expectations, I hope she will stand up for science, and put public health first.

    “But again, I have hoped that for others, and here we are today. So, I just want to express my disappointment, and real feeling that this committee should have oversight and do hearings before it’s too late to do anything all.

    “And I would just say, my door is open to everyone. I think that we do need to work together and try and repair some of the harm that this anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists are doing to our country right now, and I hope that you take that into consideration.”

    _______________

    At her nomination hearing last month, under Senator Murray’s questioning, Dr. Monarez admitted she agreed with Senator Murray that the eight new members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP)—which Secretary Kennedy handpicked after firing every member of the Committee for no reason—should go through a thorough ethics review process before participating in ACIP meetings. At the hearing, Senator Murray also raised alarm over Secretary Kennedy bringing Lyn Redwood in to the ACIP meeting to give a presentation on thimerosal in vaccines, and pressed Dr. Monarez on how changes to the ACIP recommendation could force families to pay out of pocket for vaccines, or forgo vaccination altogether. Senator Murray has been speaking out for weeks against Secretary Kennedy’s reckless decision to fire the entire slate of ACIP members without cause—holding a press call with Dr. Helen Chu of Washington state, one of the 17 ACIP members who was fired, and calling on Secretary Kennedy to reinstate the ACIP members he fired and ensure any new members undergo appropriate vetting.

    Senator Murray forcefully opposed the nomination of notorious anti-vaccine activist RFK Jr. to be Secretary of HHS, and she has long worked to combat vaccine skepticism and highlight the importance of scientific research and vaccines. Murray was also a leading voice against the nomination of Dr. Dave Weldon to lead CDC, repeatedly speaking up about her serious concerns with the nominee immediately after their meeting. In 2019, Senator Murray co-led a bipartisan hearing in the HELP Committee on vaccine hesitancy and spoke about the importance of addressing vaccine skepticism and getting people the facts they need to keep their families and communities safe and healthy. Ahead of the 2019 hearing, as multiple states were facing measles outbreaks in under-vaccinated areas, Murray sent a bipartisan letter with former HELP Committee Chair Lamar Alexander pressing Trump’s CDC Director and HHS Assistant Secretary for Health on their efforts to promote vaccination and vaccine confidence.

    Senator Murray has been a leading voice in Congress against RFK Jr.’s dismantling of HHS and attacks on America’s public health infrastructure, raising the alarm over HHS’ unilateral reorganization plan and slamming the closure of the HHS Region 10 office in Seattle and the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Spokane Research Laboratory. Senator Murray has sent oversight letters and hosted numerous press conferences and events to lay out how the administration’s reckless gutting of HHS is risking Americans’ health and safety and will set our country back decades, and lifting up the voices of HHS employees who were fired for no reason and through no fault of their own.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    July 10, 2025
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