Category: Environment

MIL-OSI Economics: Apple reveals M3 Ultra, taking Apple silicon to a new extreme
Source: Apple

Headline: Apple reveals M3 Ultra, taking Apple silicon to a new extreme

March 5, 2025

PRESS RELEASE

Apple reveals M3 Ultra, :br(xl)::br(l):taking Apple silicon to a new extreme

The new chip delivers up to 2.6x the performance of M1 Ultra, along with Thunderbolt 5 connectivity and support for more than half a terabyte of unified memory — the most ever in a personal computer

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today announced M3 Ultra, the highest-performing chip it has ever created, offering the most powerful CPU and GPU in a Mac, double the Neural Engine cores, and the most unified memory ever in a personal computer. M3 Ultra also features Thunderbolt 5 with more than 2x the bandwidth per port for faster connectivity and robust expansion. M3 Ultra is built using Apple’s innovative UltraFusion packaging architecture, which links two M3 Max dies over 10,000 high-speed connections that offer low latency and high bandwidth. This allows the system to treat the combined dies as a single, unified chip for massive performance while maintaining Apple’s industry-leading power efficiency. UltraFusion brings together a total of 184 billion transistors to take the industry-leading capabilities of the new Mac Studio to new heights.

“M3 Ultra is the pinnacle of our scalable system-on-a-chip architecture, aimed specifically at users who run the most heavily threaded and bandwidth-intensive applications,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies. “Thanks to its 32-core CPU, massive GPU, support for the most unified memory ever in a personal computer, Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, and industry-leading power efficiency, there’s no other chip like M3 Ultra.”

Ultra Performance and Efficiency

M3 Ultra provides the most performance of any Mac chip, while maintaining the industry-leading power-efficiency of Apple silicon. It features up to a 32-core CPU with 24 performance cores and eight efficiency cores, delivering up to 1.5x the performance of M2 Ultra, and up to 1.8x that of M1 Ultra. It also has the largest GPU in any Apple chip, with up to 80 graphics cores that bring up to 2x faster performance than M2 Ultra, and up to 2.6x faster than M1 Ultra.¹

The advanced graphics architecture in M3 Ultra features dynamic caching, along with hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing, so it can fly through the most demanding content creation workloads and games. A powerful 32-core Neural Engine fuels AI and machine learning (ML), and powers Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system that puts powerful generative models right at the core of the new Mac Studio. In fact, M3 Ultra is built for AI, including ML accelerators in the CPU, Apple’s most powerful GPU, the Neural Engine, and over 800GB/s of memory bandwidth. AI professionals can use Mac Studio with M3 Ultra to run large language models (LLMs) with over 600 billion parameters directly on device, making it the ultimate desktop for AI development.

Unparalleled Memory

The unified memory architecture of M3 Ultra integrates the most high-bandwidth, low-latency memory ever available in a personal computer. Starting at 96GB, it can be configured up to 512GB, or over half a terabyte. This outpaces the memory available in today’s most advanced workstation graphics cards, removing limitations for pro workloads that demand large amounts of graphics memory like 3D rendering, visual effects, and AI.

Thunderbolt 5 for Next-Generation Connectivity

M3 Ultra brings Thunderbolt 5 to Mac Studio for up to 120 Gb/s data transfer speeds — more than double that of Thunderbolt 4. Each Thunderbolt 5 port is supported by its own custom-designed controller directly on the chip. This provides dedicated bandwidth for each port on Mac Studio, making it the industry’s most capable implementation of Thunderbolt 5.

Thunderbolt 5 ports on Mac Studio are a game changer for pro users who require faster data transfer speeds for external storage, docking, and hub solutions, and want to be ready for the next generation of expansion chassis. Thunderbolt 5 also enables connecting multiple Mac Studio systems together for workflows that push the limits of content creation and computer science exploration.

Cutting-Edge Technologies Built In

In the pursuit of maximizing performance and efficiency, M3 Ultra integrates Apple’s advanced technologies right on the chip:
- Apple’s custom-built UltraFusion packaging technology uses an embedded silicon interposer that connects two M3 Max dies across more than 10,000 signals, providing over 2.5TB/s of low-latency interprocessor bandwidth, and making M3 Ultra appear as a single chip to software.
- With 2x the resources of M3 Max, the media engine within M3 Ultra is capable of far more concurrent video processing. The chip offers dedicated, hardware-enabled H.264, HEVC, and four ProRes encode and decode engines, allowing M3 Ultra to play back up to 22 streams of 8K ProRes 422 video.
- The display engine supports up to eight Pro Display XDRs, driving more than 160 million pixels.
- The Secure Enclave works with hardware-verified secure boot and runtime anti-exploitation technologies to provide state-of-the-art security.
Better for the Environment

The power-efficient performance of M3 Ultra helps the new Mac Studio meet Apple’s high standards for energy efficiency and reduces the total amount of energy consumed over the product’s lifetime. Today, Apple is carbon neutral for global corporate operations and, as part of its ambitious Apple 2030 goal, plans to be carbon neutral across its entire carbon footprint by the end of this decade.

About Apple Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. Apple’s six software platforms — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, visionOS, and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, iCloud, and Apple TV+. Apple’s more than 150,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth and to leaving the world better than we found it.
1. Results are compared to previous-generation Mac Studio systems with Apple M1 Ultra, 20-core CPU, 64-core GPU, and 128GB of RAM; and Mac Studio systems with Apple M2 Ultra, 24-core CPU, 76-core GPU, and 192GB of RAM.
Press Contacts

Todd Wilder

Apple

wilder@apple.com

Lauren Klug

Apple

l_klug@apple.com

Apple Media Helpline

media.help@apple.com
MIL OSI Economics –
March 6, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Apple introduces the new MacBook Air with the M4 chip and a sky blue color
Source: Apple

Headline: Apple introduces the new MacBook Air with the M4 chip and a sky blue color

March 5, 2025

PRESS RELEASE

Apple introduces the new MacBook Air with the soaring performance of the M4 chip, a gorgeous new sky blue color, and a lower starting price of $999

The world’s most popular laptop delivers more value than ever with greater performance, up to 18 hours of battery life, a 12MP Center Stage camera, and enhanced external display support — all in its strikingly thin and light design

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today announced the new MacBook Air, featuring the blazing-fast performance of the M4 chip, up to 18 hours of battery life,¹ a new 12MP Center Stage camera, and a lower starting price. It also offers support for up to two external displays in addition to the built-in display, 16GB of starting unified memory, and the incredible capabilities of macOS Sequoia with Apple Intelligence — all packed into its strikingly thin and light design that’s built to last. The new MacBook Air now comes in an all-new color — sky blue, a metallic light blue that joins midnight, starlight, and silver — giving MacBook Air its most beautiful array of colors ever. It also now starts at just $999 — $100 less than before — and $899 for education, making it an incredible value for students, business professionals, or anyone looking for a phenomenal combination of world-class performance, portability, design, and durability. With two sizes to choose from, the new 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air are available to pre-order today, with availability beginning Wednesday, March 12.

“MacBook Air is by far the world’s most popular laptop, and today we’re giving everyone even more reasons to love it, including a big boost in performance with the M4 chip, a new Center Stage camera, and a beautiful new sky blue color,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Combined with its thin and light, fanless design, all-day battery life, and the incredible capabilities of macOS Sequoia with Apple Intelligence, MacBook Air is unlike any other laptop. And with a new lower starting price of $999, MacBook Air delivers more value to consumers than ever before, making this the perfect moment to upgrade or experience the Mac for the first time.”

A Fresh New Hue: Hello, Sky Blue

Adding a new choice to the lineup of MacBook Air colors is the all-new sky blue. A beautiful, metallic light blue that creates a dynamic gradient when light reflects off of its surface, sky blue joins midnight, starlight, and silver to complete the brilliant array of color choices for MacBook Air. All color options, including sky blue, come with a color-matched MagSafe charge cable.

M4: Performance to the Next Level

With M4 in MacBook Air, everything from daily activities like multitasking between apps to more demanding tasks like photo and video editing is faster and more fluid. The M4 chip features a powerful 10-core CPU, an up to 10-core GPU, and support for up to 32GB of unified memory, making the new MacBook Air up to 2x faster than the M1 model.¹ When compared to the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air, the M4 model delivers up to 23x faster performance.¹ With battery life on the new MacBook Air up to 18 hours, Intel-based upgraders will get up to six additional hours, so they can get more done on a single charge.¹ The powerful Neural Engine in the M4 chip, which accelerates AI-based tasks, is also up to 3x faster than on MacBook Air with M1, significantly increasing speed in tasks like automatically enhancing photos and removing background noise from a video.

MacBook Air with M4 delivers a new level of performance:
- Spreadsheet calculation performance in Microsoft Excel is up to 4.7x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air, and up to 1.6x faster than the 13-inch MacBook Air with M1.¹
- Video editing in iMovie is up to 8x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air, and up to 2x faster than the 13-inch MacBook Air with M1.²
- Photo editing in Adobe Photoshop is up to 3.6x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air, and up to 2x faster than the 13-inch MacBook Air with M1.¹
- Web browsing is up to 60 percent faster when compared to a PC laptop with an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, and more demanding tasks get up to 2x faster performance.¹
Built for Apple Intelligence

MacBook Air is built for Apple Intelligence, unlocking exciting new capabilities that make Mac even more helpful and powerful. Users can explore creative new ways to express themselves visually with Image Playground, create the perfect emoji with Genmoji, and make their writing even more dynamic with Writing Tools. With new Siri improvements, users can move fluidly between spoken and typed requests to accelerate tasks throughout their day, and Siri can answer thousands of questions about Mac features and settings, with step-by-step instructions for how to do something on Mac. With access to ChatGPT seamlessly integrated into Writing Tools and Siri, users can choose to access ChatGPT’s expertise so they can get things done faster and easier than ever before. Users can access ChatGPT for free without creating an account, and privacy protections are built in — their IP addresses are obscured and OpenAI won’t store requests. Users can choose whether to enable ChatGPT integration, and are in full control of when they use it and what information is shared with ChatGPT.

Designed to protect users’ privacy at every step, Apple Intelligence uses on-device processing, meaning that many of the models that power it run entirely on device. For requests that require access to larger models, Private Cloud Compute extends the privacy and security of Mac into the cloud to unlock even more intelligence. When using Private Cloud Compute, users’ data is never stored or shared with Apple; it is used only to fulfill their request.

Always Camera-Ready

A new 12MP Center Stage camera with improved video quality keeps MacBook Air users looking their best, whether at home, school, or work. Center Stage automatically keeps users centered in the frame as they move around — great for connecting with friends and family over FaceTime or joining an important meeting. It also supports Desk View, which simultaneously displays the user and a top-down view of their desk, making video calls even more engaging for those who want to show off their latest DIY project or present a prototype at work.

Enhanced Display Support

MacBook Air can easily power a multi-display setup to make viewing and interacting with content a breeze, for anyone from business professionals at the office multitasking across multiple windows, to students in a dorm room tackling a big project across several apps. For users who like to spread their work out, MacBook Air now supports up to two 6K external displays, in addition to its built-in Liquid Retina display.

Everything Users Already Love

More people choose MacBook Air over any other laptop. In addition to what’s new, MacBook Air with M4 includes all of the useful features and capabilities that have made it so popular, including:
- Reliability and durability: The 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air feature a durable aluminum unibody enclosure that’s built to last, and are both less than half an inch thin, so users can work, play, or create from anywhere. The 13-inch model provides the ultimate in portability for users on the go, while the 15-inch model offers even more room to multitask.
- Touch ID and Magic Keyboard: With the advanced security of Touch ID, users can easily and securely unlock their MacBook Air, make online purchases with Apple Pay, and download apps. The comfortable and quiet Magic Keyboard is backlit and comes with a full-height function row.
- Gorgeous display: MacBook Air features a brilliant 13.6- or 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display with up to 500 nits of brightness, support for 1 billion colors, and up to 2x the resolution of comparable PC laptops. Content looks vivid with sharp detail, and text appears super crisp.
- Versatile connectivity: MacBook Air with M4 features fast Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. It also includes MagSafe charging and two Thunderbolt ports for connecting accessories like external storage and security keys, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack.
- Mics and speakers: Users will sound their best with a three-mic array and enhanced voice clarity on audio and video calls. And with an immersive sound system that has support for Spatial Audio along with Dolby Atmos, users will enjoy a three-dimensional soundstage for music and movies.
An Unrivaled Experience: macOS Sequoia

macOS Sequoia completes the new MacBook Air experience with a host of exciting features, including iPhone Mirroring, allowing users to wirelessly interact with their iPhone, its apps, and notifications directly from their Mac.³ Safari, the world’s fastest browser,⁴ now surfaces relevant information on sites in Highlights; summarizes articles in the redesigned Reader; keeps videos front and center in a new Video Viewer; and lets users hide distracting items with Distraction Control. Gaming gets even more immersive with features like Personalized Spatial Audio and improvements to Game Mode, along with a breadth of exciting titles, including Civilization VII, Wuthering Waves, and more. Easier window tiling means users can stay organized with a window layout that works best for them. The all-new Passwords app gives convenient access to passwords, passkeys, and other credentials — all stored in one place. And users can apply new, beautiful built-in backgrounds for video calls, which include a variety of color gradients, or use their own photos.

Next month, macOS Sequoia 15.4 will make it easier than ever to set up the new MacBook Air with iPhone. By simply bringing iPhone close to Mac, users can quickly and conveniently sign in to their Apple Account to get their files, photos, messages, passwords, and more on their new MacBook Air.⁵

Better for the Environment

MacBook Air is designed with the environment in mind. As part of Apple 2030, the company’s ambitious goal to be carbon neutral across its entire carbon footprint by the end of this decade, Apple is transitioning to renewable electricity for manufacturing, and investing in wind and solar projects around the world to address the electricity used to charge all Apple products, including MacBook Air. Today, all Apple facilities run on 100 percent renewable electricity — including the data centers that power Apple Intelligence.

To achieve Apple 2030, the company is designing products with more recycled and renewable materials, which further drives down the carbon footprint. MacBook Air features over 55 percent recycled content overall, the most in any Apple product. This includes 100 percent recycled aluminum in the enclosure and 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets. The battery contains 100 percent recycled cobalt and — in a first for any Mac — over 95 percent recycled lithium. MacBook Air meets Apple’s high standards for energy efficiency, and is free of mercury, brominated flame retardants, and PVC. The packaging is entirely fiber-based, bringing Apple closer to its goal to remove plastic from all packaging by the end of 2025.⁶

Pricing and Availability
- Customers can pre-order the new MacBook Air with M4 starting today on apple.com/store and in the Apple Store app in 28 countries and regions, including the U.S. It will begin arriving to customers, and will be in Apple Store locations and Apple Authorized Resellers, starting Wednesday, March 12.
- The 13-inch MacBook Air with M4 starts at $999 (U.S.) and $899 (U.S.) for education, and the 15‑inch MacBook Air with M4 starts at $1,199 (U.S.) and $1,099 (U.S.) for education. Both are available in sky blue, midnight, starlight, and silver.
- Additional technical specifications, configure-to-order options, and accessories are available at apple.com/mac.
- Apple Intelligence is available on all Mac models with M1 and later, in localized English for Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, and the U.S. Additional languages — including French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (simplified), English (Singapore), and English (India) — will be available in April, with more languages coming over the course of the year, including Vietnamese. Some features, applications, and services may not be available in all regions or all languages.
- With Apple Trade In, customers can trade in their current computer and get credit toward a new Mac. Customers can visit apple.com/shop/trade-in to see what their device is worth.
- AppleCare+ for Mac provides unparalleled service and support. This includes unlimited incidents of accidental damage, battery service coverage, and 24/7 support from the people who know Mac best.
- Every customer who buys directly from Apple Retail gets access to Personal Setup. In these guided online sessions, a Specialist can walk them through setup, or focus on features that help them make the most of their new device. Customers can also learn more about getting started with their new device with a Today at Apple session at their nearest Apple Store.
- Customers in the U.S. who shop at Apple using Apple Card can pay monthly at 0 percent APR when they choose to check out with Apple Card Monthly Installments, and they’ll get 3 percent Daily Cash back — all up front. More information — including details on eligibility, exclusions, and Apple Card terms — is available at apple.com/apple-card/monthly-installments.
About Apple Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. Apple’s six software platforms — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, visionOS, and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, iCloud, and Apple TV+. Apple’s more than 150,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth and to leaving the world better than we found it.
1. Testing was conducted by Apple in January 2025. See apple.com/macbook-air for more information. Battery life varies by use and configuration. See apple.com/batteries for more information.
2. Results are compared to previous-generation MacBook Air systems with Apple M1, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 2TB SSD; and 1.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-based MacBook Air systems with Intel Iris Plus Graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 2TB SSD.
3. Available on Mac computers with Apple silicon and Intel-based Mac computers with a T2 Security Chip. See requirements on apple.com/macos/macos-sequoia. Some iPhone features (for example, camera and microphone) are not compatible with iPhone Mirroring.
4. Testing was conducted by Apple in August 2024. See apple.com/safari for more information.
5. Available next month on macOS Sequoia 15.4 with iPhone and iPad running iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, or a later version.
6. Based on retail packaging as shipped by Apple. Breakdown of U.S. retail packaging by weight. Adhesives, inks, and coatings are excluded from our calculations of plastic content and packaging weight.
Press Contacts

Starlayne Meza

Apple

starlayne_meza@apple.com

Lizette Viviana Du Pond

Apple

ldupond@apple.com

Apple Media Helpline

media.help@apple.com
MIL OSI Economics –
March 6, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Apple unveils new Mac Studio, the most powerful Mac ever
Source: Apple

Headline: Apple unveils new Mac Studio, the most powerful Mac ever

March 5, 2025

PRESS RELEASE

Apple unveils new Mac Studio, the most powerful Mac ever, featuring M4 Max and new M3 Ultra

With Thunderbolt 5, up to 512GB of unified memory, and an up to 16TB SSD, all in a compact design, the ultimate pro desktop delivers even more performance

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today announced the new Mac Studio, the most powerful Mac ever made, featuring M4 Max and the new M3 Ultra chip. The ultimate pro desktop delivers groundbreaking pro performance, extensive connectivity now with Thunderbolt 5, and new capabilities in its compact and quiet design that can live right on a desk. Mac Studio can tackle the most intense workloads with its powerful CPU, Apple’s advanced graphics architecture, higher unified memory capacity, ultrafast SSD storage, and a faster and more efficient Neural Engine. It provides a big boost in performance compared to the previous generation, and a massive leap for users coming from older Macs.

Mac Studio is a powerhouse for AI, capable of running large language models (LLMs) with over 600 billion parameters entirely in memory, thanks to its advanced GPU and up to 512GB of unified memory with M3 Ultra — the most ever in a personal computer. It’s also built for Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system that transforms how users work, communicate, and express themselves, while protecting their privacy. The new Mac Studio is available to pre-order today, with availability beginning March 12.

“The new Mac Studio is the most powerful Mac we’ve ever made,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. “A complete game-changer for pros around the world — powering both home and pro studios — Mac Studio sits in a class of its own, offering a staggering amount of performance in a compact, quiet design that fits beautifully on your desk. With this new Mac Studio, we’re delivering even more extreme performance with M4 Max and M3 Ultra, support for half a terabyte of unified memory, up to 16TB of superfast storage, and Thunderbolt 5 connectivity. Mac Studio truly is the ultimate pro desktop.”

Mac Studio with M4 Max: A Performance Juggernaut

The new Mac Studio with M4 Max is the perfect choice for video editors, colorists, developers, engineers, photographers, creative pros, and other users who need to blaze through intensive workflows. It delivers phenomenal single-threaded CPU performance with the world’s fastest CPU core, along with outstanding multithreaded CPU performance for complex workloads. Featuring an up to 16-core CPU, an up to 40-core GPU, over half a terabyte per second of unified memory bandwidth, and a Neural Engine that is over 3x faster than M1 Max, Mac Studio with M4 Max can run on-device AI models incredibly fast. Mac Studio with M4 Max is up to 3.5x faster than Mac Studio with M1 Max, and is up to 6.1x faster than the most powerful Intel-based 27-inch iMac.¹

The GPU in M4 Max also brings Apple’s advanced graphics architecture to Mac Studio for the first time, including dynamic caching, hardware-accelerated mesh shading, and a second-generation ray-tracing engine for more seamless content creation and gaming. Mac Studio with M4 Max starts at 36GB of unified memory, with support for up to 128GB, so users can do everything from sorting through thousands of images with speed and precision, to producing complex compositions with hundreds of tracks, plug-ins, and virtual instruments, all played in real time. And with the powerful Media Engine in M4 Max, which features two ProRes accelerators, Mac Studio performance is outstanding for videographers who can effortlessly work with multiple streams of 4K ProRes.

Mac Studio with M4 Max enables:¹
- Up to 1.6x faster image processing in Adobe Photoshop when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 2.9x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9.
- Up to 2.1x faster build performance when compiling code in Xcode when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 3.1x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9.
- Up to 1.2x faster ProRes transcode performance in Compressor when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 2.8x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9.
- Up to 1.6x faster video processing performance in Topaz Video AI when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 5x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9.
Mac Studio with M3 Ultra: The Pinnacle of Pro Performance

Mac Studio with M3 Ultra pushes demanding workflows to a whole new level. It delivers nearly 2x faster performance than M4 Max in workloads that take advantage of high CPU and GPU core counts, and massive amounts of unified memory.² Mac Studio with M3 Ultra is up to 2.6x faster than Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 6.4x faster than the 16-core Intel Xeon W-based Mac Pro.¹ With the new M3 Ultra, Mac Studio features an up to 32-core CPU with 24 performance cores, 50 percent more than any previous Ultra chip and the most CPU cores ever in a Mac. It also offers an up to 80-core GPU, more than any Apple silicon chip; a powerful 32-core Neural Engine for on-device AI and machine learning (ML); and a high-bandwidth memory architecture that delivers over 800GB/s of unified memory bandwidth.

Mac Studio with M3 Ultra starts with 96GB of unified memory, which can be configured up to 512GB — the most unified memory ever in a personal computer — and up to 16TB of ultrafast SSD storage, so content and data can be kept locally. That’s enough storage for over 12 hours of 8K ProRes video. The advanced graphics architecture brings Dynamic Caching, along with hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing, so graphics workflows like GPU-based renderers are up to 2.6x faster than Mac Studio with M1 Ultra.

Mac Studio with M3 Ultra enables:¹
- Up to 16.9x faster token generation using an LLM with hundreds of billions of parameters in LM Studio when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, thanks to its massive amounts of unified memory.
- Up to 2.6x faster scene rendering performance in Maxon Redshift when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 6.4x faster when compared to the 16-core Intel-based Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X.
- Up to 1.1x faster basecalling for DNA sequencing in Oxford Nanopore MinKNOW when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 21.1x faster when compared to the 16-core Intel-based Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X.
- Up to 1.4x faster 8K video rendering performance in Final Cut Pro when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 4x faster when compared to the 16-core Intel-based Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X.
Thunderbolt 5 for High-Bandwidth Accessories and Expansion

The new Mac Studio features Thunderbolt 5 ports that deliver transfer speeds up to 120 Gb/s, up to 3x faster than the prior generation, enabling faster external storage, expansion chassis, and powerful hub solutions. For those who rely on PCIe expansion cards for their workflows, Thunderbolt 5 allows users to connect an external expansion chassis with higher bandwidth and lower latency. And with M3 Ultra, Mac Studio now drives up to eight Pro Display XDRs at the full 6K resolution. Mac Studio also offers a wide array of connectivity within easy reach for pros, including a 10Gb Ethernet port, an HDMI port, an SDXC card slot on the front to conveniently import photos and video, along with built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Built for Apple Intelligence

Mac Studio helps pros push the boundaries of what they can do, and Apple Intelligence elevates those experiences even further. Writing is even more dynamic with Writing Tools, which can help users rewrite, proofread, or summarize — whether they are responding to emails or using summarization to draft an abstract in seconds in apps like Scrivener. Pros can minimize unnecessary distractions with Priority Notifications and use live transcription in Notes to record and easily recap important meetings. With new Siri improvements, users can move fluidly between spoken and typed requests to accelerate tasks throughout their day, and Siri can answer thousands of questions about Mac features and settings, with step-by-step instructions like how to combine PDF files in Preview. With access to ChatGPT seamlessly integrated into Writing Tools and Siri, users can tap into ChatGPT’s expertise, so they can get things done even faster and easier. Users can choose to enable ChatGPT integration, and are in full control of when to use it and what information is shared with ChatGPT. Users can also explore creative new ways to express themselves visually with Image Playground, and drop their original image right into their paper, mood board, or Keynote presentation. Whether users are researching their next project, editing a video, creating new designs, or preparing for their next lecture, these new tools will help pros be even more productive.

Designed to protect users’ privacy at every step, Apple Intelligence uses on-device processing, meaning that many of the models that power it run entirely on device. For requests that require access to larger models, Private Cloud Compute extends the privacy and security of Mac into the cloud to unlock even more intelligence. When using Private Cloud Compute, users’ data is never stored or shared with Apple; it is used only to fulfill their request.

macOS Sequoia: An Unrivaled Experience

macOS Sequoia completes the new Mac Studio experience with a host of exciting features, including iPhone Mirroring, which allows users to wirelessly interact with their iPhone, its apps, and notifications directly from their Mac.³ Pros can now move files, photos, and videos between iPhone and Mac as easily as they can drag and drop between apps on Mac. Easier window tiling means users can stay organized with a window layout that works best for them. The all-new Passwords app gives convenient access to passwords, passkeys, and other credentials, all stored in one place. And users can apply beautiful built-in backgrounds for video calls, which include a variety of color gradients and system wallpapers, or upload their own photos. Safari, the world’s fastest browser,⁴ now surfaces relevant information on sites in Highlights; summarizes articles in the redesigned Reader; keeps videos front and center in a new Video Viewer; and lets users hide distracting items with Distraction Control. Gaming gets even more immersive with features like Personalized Spatial Audio and improvements to Game Mode, along with a breadth of exciting titles, including Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition by CD PROJEKT RED, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and more.

Next month, macOS Sequoia 15.4 will make it easier than ever to set up the new Mac Studio with iPhone.⁵ By simply bringing iPhone close to Mac, users can quickly and conveniently sign in to their Apple Account to get their files, photos, messages, passwords, and more on their new Mac Studio.

The Ultimate Studio Setup

Mac Studio, together with Studio Display, empowers creative users to build the studio of their dreams. Studio Display perfectly pairs with Mac Studio with its expansive 27-inch 5K Retina display, 12MP Center Stage camera, studio-quality three-mic array, and six-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio. For users working on HDR workflows, Pro Display XDR offers a 32-inch Retina 6K display with up to 1600 nits of peak HDR brightness. Customers can also add matching Magic accessories — including Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Mouse — that beautifully complement the elegant design of Mac Studio and Studio Display.

Better for the Environment

The new Mac Studio is designed with the environment in mind. As part of Apple 2030, the company’s ambitious goal to be carbon neutral across its entire carbon footprint by the end of this decade, Apple is transitioning to renewable electricity for its manufacturing, and investing in wind and solar projects around the world to address the electricity used to power all Apple products, including Mac Studio. Today, all Apple facilities run on 100 percent renewable electricity — including the data centers that power Apple Intelligence.

To achieve Apple 2030, the company is designing products with more recycled and renewable materials, which further drives down the carbon footprint. Mac Studio features over 30 percent recycled content overall, including 100 percent recycled aluminum in the enclosure and 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets. Mac Studio uses far less energy and materials than desktops in its class, and is free of mercury, brominated flame retardants, and PVC. The packaging is entirely fiber-based, bringing Apple closer to its goal to remove plastic from all packaging by the end of 2025.⁶

Pricing and Availability
- Customers can pre-order the new Mac Studio starting today on apple.com/store and in the Apple Store app in 28 countries and regions, including the U.S. It will begin arriving to customers, and will be in Apple Store locations and Apple Authorized Resellers, starting Wednesday, March 12.
- Mac Studio starts at $1,999 (U.S.) and $1,799 (U.S.) for education. Additional configure-to-order options are available at apple.com/store.
- More information on Studio Display, Pro Display XDR, and Magic accessories is available at apple.com/shop/buy-mac.
- Apple Intelligence is available on all Mac models with M1 and later, in localized English for Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, and the U.S. Additional languages — including French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (simplified), English (Singapore), and English (India) — will be available in April, with more languages coming over the course of the year, including Vietnamese. Some features, applications, and services may not be available in all regions or all languages.
- With Apple Trade In, customers can trade in their current computer and get credit toward a new Mac. Customers can visit apple.com/shop/trade-in to see what their device is worth.
- AppleCare+ for Mac provides unparalleled service and support. This includes unlimited incidents of accidental damage, battery service coverage, and 24/7 support from the people who know Mac best.
- Every customer who buys directly from Apple Retail gets access to Personal Setup. In these guided online sessions, a Specialist can walk them through setup, or focus on features that help them make the most of their new device. Customers can also learn more about getting started with their new device with a Today at Apple session at their nearest Apple Store.
- Customers in the U.S. who shop at Apple using Apple Card can pay monthly at 0 percent APR when they choose to check out with Apple Card Monthly Installments, and they’ll get 3 percent Daily Cash back — all up front. More information — including details on eligibility, exclusions, and Apple Card terms — is available at apple.com/apple-card/monthly-installments.
About Apple Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. Apple’s six software platforms — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, visionOS, and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, iCloud, and Apple TV+. Apple’s more than 150,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth and to leaving the world better than we found it.
1. Testing was conducted by Apple in January and February 2025. See apple.com/mac-studio for more information.
2. Results are compared to Mac Studio systems with Apple M4 Max, 16-core CPU, 40-core GPU, 128GB of RAM, and 8TB SSD.
3. Available on Mac computers with Apple silicon and Intel-based Mac computers with a T2 Security Chip. See requirements on apple.com/macos/macos-sequoia. Some iPhone features (for example, camera and microphone) are not compatible with iPhone Mirroring.
4. Testing was conducted by Apple in August 2024. See apple.com/safari for more information.
5. Available next month on macOS Sequoia 15.4 with iPhone and iPad running iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, or a later version.
6. Based on retail packaging as shipped by Apple. Breakdown of U.S. retail packaging by weight. Adhesives, inks, and coatings are excluded from calculations of plastic content and packaging weight.
Press Contacts

Michelle Del Rio

Apple

mr_delrio@apple.com

Starlayne Meza

Apple

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Apple Media Helpline

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MIL OSI Economics –
March 6, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Supreme Court sides with San Francisco, requiring EPA to set specific targets in water pollution permits

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Robin Kundis Craig, Professor of Law, University of Kansas

Swimmers gather at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach for a Polar Plunge to start the new year, Jan. 1, 2025. Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images

The U.S. Supreme Court has limited how flexible the Environmental Protection Agency and states can be in regulating water pollution under the Clean Water Act in a ruling issued March 4, 2025. However, the justices kept the decision relatively narrow.

The ruling only prohibits federal and state permitting agencies from issuing permits that are effectively broad orders not to violate water quality standards. In this case, the city and county of San Francisco argued successfully that the EPA’s requirements were not clear enough.

My research focuses on water issues, including the Clean Water Act and the Supreme Court’s interpretations of it. In my view, regulators still will have multiple options for limiting the pollutants that factories, sewage treatment plants and other sources can release into protected water bodies.

While this court has not been friendly to regulation in recent years, I believe the practical impact of this decision remains to be seen, and that it is not the major blow to clean water protection that some observers feared the court would inflict. In particular, the court affirmed that permitting agencies can still impose nonnumeric requirements, such as prohibitions on polluting at a certain time or under certain weather conditions like rain or high heat.

Standards for treating sewage

The 1972 Clean Water Act prohibits any “discharge of a pollutant” without a permit into bodies of water, such as rivers, lakes and bays, that are subject to federal regulation. San Francisco has a combined sewage treatment plant and stormwater control system, the Oceanside plant, which discharges treated sewage and stormwater into the Pacific Ocean through eight pipes, or outfalls.

San Francisco’s Oceanside water treatment plant is built into a hollowed-out hill in the southwest corner of the city and discharges to the Pacific Ocean.
Pi.1415926535/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA

The California State Water Resources Control Board is in charge of seven outfalls that release treated water close to shore, in state waters. But the facility’s main pipe discharges into federal waters more than 3 miles out to sea, so it is regulated by the EPA.

To comply with the law, polluters must obtain permits through the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. The city and county of San Francisco have held a permit for the Oceanside facility since 1997.

Discharge permit requirements can be both quantitative and qualitative. For example, the EPA establishes standard effluent limitations that dictate how clean the discharger’s waste stream must be. The agency sets these technology-based limitations according to the methods available in the relevant industry to clean up polluted wastewater.

Numeric targets tell the discharger clearly how to comply with the law. For example, sewage treatment plants must keep the pH value of their wastewater discharges between 6.0 and 9.0. As long as the plant meets that standard and other effluent limitations, it is in compliance.

San Francisco monitors beach water quality year-round and issues alerts when bacteria levels make water contact unsafe. This can happen after the city’s water treatment system is overwhelmed during major storms.
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

What counts as ‘clean’?

A second approach focuses not on the specific content of the discharge but rather on setting standards for what counts as a “clean” water body.

Under the Clean Water Act, Congress gives states authority to establish water quality standards for each water body within their territory. First, the state identifies the uses it wants the ocean, river, lake or bay to support, such as swimming, providing habitat for fish or supplying drinking water.

Next, state regulators determine what characteristics the water has to have to support those uses. For example, to support cold-water fish such as perch and pike, the water may need to remain below a certain temperature. These characteristics become the water quality criteria for that water body.

Sometimes technology-based effluent limitations in a polluter’s permit aren’t stringent enough to ensure that a water body meets its water quality standards. When that happens, the Clean Water Act requires the permitting agency to adjust its permit requirements to ensure that water quality standards are met.

That’s what happened with the Oceanside plant. During rainstorms, runoff sometimes overwhelms the plant’s sewage treatment system, dumping a mixture of sewage and storm runoff directly into the Pacific Ocean – an event known as a combined sewer overflow. These episodes can cause violations of water quality standards. Area beaches sometimes are closed to swimming when bacterial counts in the water are high.

In combined sewer systems, during dry weather and small storms, all flows are handled by the publicly owned treatment works. During large storms, the relief structure allows some of the combined stormwater and sewage to be discharged untreated to an adjacent water body.
USEPA

These aren’t small-scale releases. In a separate legal action, the federal government and the state of California are suing San Francisco for discharging more than 1.8 billion gallons of sewage on average every year since 2016 into creeks, San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean.

Can regulators say ‘Don’t violate water quality standards’?

When the EPA and California issued the Oceanside plant’s current permit in 2019, they included two general standards. The first requires that Oceanside’s “[d]ischarge shall not cause or contribute to a violation of any applicable water quality standard.” The second states that “[n]either the treatment nor the discharge of pollutants shall create pollution, contamination, or nuisance” as defined under California law.

The city and county of San Francisco argued that their permit terms weren’t fair because they couldn’t tell how to comply. For its part, the EPA invoked Section 1311(b)(1)(C) of the Clean Water Act, which allows permit writers to insert “any more stringent limitation, including those necessary to meet water quality standards,” into the permit. The agency argued that this phrase allows for narrative permit terms – a position that was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

In a 5-4 decision, Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts, with Justice Neil Gorsuch concurring, agreed with San Francisco that the EPA did not have the authority to issue permits that made the city and county responsible for overall water quality. Rather, they held, EPA should set limits on the quantities of various pollutants that San Francisco was allowed to discharge.

“Determining what steps a permittee must take to ensure that water quality standards are met is the EPA’s responsibility, and Congress has given it the tools needed to make that determination,” the majority stated.

Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. “When the technology-based effluent limitations are insufficient to ensure that the water quality standards are met, EPA has supplemental authority to impose further limitations,” they argued in an opinion authored by Barrett.

There’s an important angle that neither the majority opinion nor the dissent addressed. Under Section 1312 of the Clean Water Act, when standard industry-wide effluent limitations are not stringent enough to protect the quality of a particular water body, regulatory agencies are required to come up with more stringent limits, which are known as water quality-based effluent limitations. For example, if a sewage treatment plant is discharging into a pristine mountain lake, it might be subject to these more stringent limitations to keep the lake pristine.

Going forward, the EPA and states to which it has delegated authority will have to revise all Clean Water Act permits that contain the offending “don’t violate water quality standards” directive. These fixes will probably happen as those permits are renewed, which the law requires every five years.

What if water pollution remains a serious problem, as it has in San Francisco? Regulators could choose to generate water quality-based effluent limitations, impose more stringent numeric requirements, or simply ignore potential violations of water quality standards. Their actions will likely vary depending on each agency’s resources and on how seriously pollution discharges threaten relevant water bodies and the humans and wildlife that use them.

This is an updated version of an article originally published Oct. 11, 2024.

Robin Kundis Craig has been a member of three National Research Council committees on the Clean Water Act and is a member of the American College of Environmental Law and the Environmental Law Institute, for whom she occasionally provides Clean Water Act analyses.

– ref. Supreme Court sides with San Francisco, requiring EPA to set specific targets in water pollution permits – https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-sides-with-san-francisco-requiring-epa-to-set-specific-targets-in-water-pollution-permits-251441

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 6, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Maritime Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference showcases tech and ASEAN efforts to combat trafficking
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

World news story

Maritime Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference showcases tech and ASEAN efforts to combat trafficking

The conference focused on innovative technologies and strategies to combat illegal wildlife trade, promoting marine biodiversity and sustainable trade in ASEAN.
The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) hosted the Maritime Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) Conference in Singapore from 25th to 27th February 2025, to address the pressing issue of the IWT in marine species.

Supported by the UK Government, this event united key Southeast Asian and global stakeholders from government, NGOs, academia, and the private sector to explore cutting-edge technologies and strategies to tackle marine IWT, advancing global efforts to protect marine biodiversity in the ASEAN region and promoting sustainable trade practices.

With around 90% of global trade and illegal wildlife trafficking occurring via maritime transport, regional coordination and innovative solutions are more crucial than ever.

UK Ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Sarah Tiffin said:

Through the ASEAN-UK Plan of Action, the UK is committed to working with ASEAN to enhance regional cooperation and help build Member States’ capacities to prevent and repress the illicit trafficking of wildlife. We are delighted to welcome government representatives from across the ASEAN region to this conference to contribute to the depth and breadth of their expertise through talks, case studies and workshop sessions. IWT is a big concern; it not only affects national fishing industries, but livelihoods and increasing knock-on transnational crime that spills from the maritime space to land.

The Chair of ASEAN Working Group on CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and Wildlife Enforcement, Mr Athapol Charoenshunsa said:

The illegal wildlife trade threatens key marine species such as sharks, rays, turtles, and corals in Southeast Asia, drawing increasing attention as efforts to combat its impact intensify. The potential for tools and technology to address these concerns is promising, and the ASEAN Working Group on CITES and Wildlife Enforcement has supported this conference since its inception to strengthen ASEAN-UK collaboration.

The Maritime IWT Conference is organised in partnership with the cooperation of National Parks Board (NParks) Singapore.

NParks’ CEO, Ms Hwang Yu-Ning said:

Singapore is privileged to host the Maritime Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference, providing a platform for representatives from ASEAN member states, the UK, and other partners to convene and share knowledge. In line with the theme of the conference, we recognise the importance of utilising new and emerging tools in this global fight and will continue to strengthen our partnerships and enhance our collective efforts in tackling illegal wildlife trade and protecting biodiversity more effectively.

The UK is committed to tackling IWT in marine species particularly through its support of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific and the ASEAN Maritime Outlook. By bringing together a diverse array of stakeholders, the conference aimed to foster partnerships and enhance regional cooperation. Given the tangible negative effects that the illegal trade of marine species has on the ASEAN region, including impacts on livelihoods, the facilitation of corruption and the spread of wildlife disease, this conference and its outcomes are of paramount importance to the UK Mission to ASEAN.

This initiative aligns with the ASEAN-UK Plan of Action (2022-26), which includes commitments to combat the illegal trade in wildlife and timber pursuant to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and other relevant conventions and agreements.

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Published 5 March 2025
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
March 6, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Mayor welcomes handover of new St Columb’s Park Gate Lodge

Source: Northern Ireland – City of Derry

Mayor welcomes handover of new St Columb’s Park Gate Lodge

5 March 2025

The Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Councillor Lilian Seenoi Barr, has overseen the official handover of the new gate lodge building at St Columb’s Park.

The project, which was led by Council’s Green Infrastructure Team with support from the UK Government, is the first element in the development of the Acorn Farm, an ambitious environmental initiative which will provide an innovative urban growing space in the Waterside area.

The £6.2 million Acorn Farm capital build project will completely transform the former MOD site and provide a dedicated area for the development of exciting new food growing technologies.

The Gate Lodge building sits at the entrance to St Columb’s Park House and will act as a new Park Ranger base and house welfare facilities for the adjoining Acorn Farm. The lodge is Council’s first building to be built to Passive House standard, meaning that it’s extremely economical to run in terms of energy consumption.

The Mayor met with a representative from the funder, the UK Government, the Architect Paul McAllister, the contractor, Willie Doherty, and other project partners to get a tour of the completed building.

Acknowledging this important first milestone in the project, Mayor Barr said: “This is a fantastic start to what is a transformational project for St Columb’s Park, and one which will bring with it so many benefits in terms of conservation and education.

“I want to thank all those involved in delivering this new building, which will be an important facility for the local community, serving as a new HQ for our Waterside Park Ranger Service and a key entry point to St Columb’s Park. It’s a little teaser of what’s to come and I am really looking forward to seeing the work progress on the rest of this ambitious and significant environmental project.”

UK Minister for Local Growth and Building Safety Alex Norris said: “The completed Gate Lodge building is the first step towards an amazing environmental and community hub at St Columb’s Park.

“The Acorn Farm project promises to be a shining example of how hard work and creative thinking can bring new life to disused urban sites, and I will watch its progress with great interest.”

Karen Philips, Director of Environment and Regeneration at Council, said: “The ambition for the Acorn Farm site including the buildings, external works and landscape, is to achieve climate resilience and whole life net zero emissions. This is in line with Council’s Climate Change Adaptation Plan and our transition to net zero greenhouse gas emissions and climate resilience across the City and District by 2045.

“This is just one element of that wider vision, and I want to thank both our funders and the project team for all their hard work in delivering this fantastic building.”

MIL OSI United Kingdom –

March 6, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: For UConn Students, the Future is Green

Source: US State of Connecticut

Environmental consciousness, sustainability, and related subjects are crucial topics that touch on countless aspects of life – and, as UConn students recently learned, they can be fruitful and rewarding career paths as well.

“Green Careers: Engage and Explore,” held on campus on Feb. 25, allowed students to meet potential employers, network with peers with similar interests, and hear from an alumni panel about careers based on sustainability.

“Sustainability is here to stay, globally,” said Betsy Mortensen, communication, outreach, and education coordinator for the Office of Sustainability. “Looking at a future in a green career is a smart thing to do.”

The event had a mix of off-campus employers and on-campus organizations. Student-run groups such as Ecohusky, Spring Valley Student Farm, Climate and Mind Network, the Beekeeping Club, and more set up tables and shared information about their clubs.

Employers including Eversource, Bartlett Tree Experts, CT Green Bank, Sustainable CT, and Greenskies had representatives in attendance.

“This panel is different in a sense that it’s a little bit untraditional,” said student intern Andy Zhang ’26 (CAHNR & CLAS). “We have different niches here. There is a thrift stand and social responsibility and businesspeople. We have a lot of different perspectives.”

“Sustainability and energy are becoming such a big topic of discussion,” said Gabrielle Comella, assistant director of corporate partner relations for the Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills. “You can have a green career in so many different industries that students don’t realize.”

“Part of UConn’s strategic plan is preparing students for careers outside of UConn, and this clearly aligns by showing the diversity of sustainability career pathways,” said Mortensen. “Another tenet of the strategic plan is to power Connecticut in terms of a strong workforce, and pretty much all of the employers here have Connecticut roots.”

‘Every job is a climate job’

The first speaking panel featured industry leaders. Representatives from Uber, Eversource, Bartlett Tree Experts, and Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs answered students’ questions about how their companies take sustainability initiatives and how the industry is changing.

“From our perspective, every job is a climate job,” said Alison Pilcher, the policy director at the CT Roundtable. “Every industry should be thinking about how climate change is going to impact their industry.”

April Regan, an attorney for Eversource, explained that the company is launching a clean energy innovation program with UConn. Students will have a chance to submit business ideas for “clean innovation.” Stakeholders from UConn and Eversource will review the proposed projects, and “The top five teams will get a little bit of money to explore their idea, and one winning team will get funding for a year,” said Regan. “We’re always trying to innovate, we’re always trying to push the envelope, to push energy policy and environmental policy over these projects.”

Five alumni took the stage for the second speaking panel, offering advice on how to navigate a career in sustainability after graduation.

Andy Zhang ’26, an intern in the Office of Sustainability, asks panelists a question (George Velky / UConn Photo)

“There are so many different avenues you can take,” said Margaret Sanders ’22 (CAHNR), sustainability platform manager for Position Green. “Whether that be through further education or in the professional field, I think it’s really important to be open to trying new things.”

Panelists discussed how to stay motivated in the field when federal administration is not overtly supportive of sustainability efforts. “Government is an interesting place. It’s a big battleship, it’s hard to turn,” said Brendan Schain, legal director for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s Environmental Quality Branch and a graduate of the UConn School of Law. “The pace of change is the change. New people with new perspectives are doing interesting things and bringing an interesting new perspective, and it takes time to institutionalize that.”

The alumni discussed how their time at UConn helped guide them into their careers as well. Megan Coleman ’17 (ENG), an engineer for JKMuir talked about how any involvement on campus was a good experience. “I was part of a lot of the different clubs here. Being engaged in those and exposing myself to different people, different perspectives, was something that what really important to me.”

“I got the opportunity to do a study abroad program for the UConn Earth Sciences Department,” said Emily Bigl ’23 (CLAS), an environmental planner for the Southeastern CT Council of Governments. Bigl studied geoscience and geohazards in Taiwan thanks to the UConn program. “It’s a great experience. If you can find a program relating to sustainability in the environment, that’s awesome. But if you find one outside of your realm of study, that’s awesome too. Broaden your horizons.”

Sanders worked at the National Resources Conservation Academy while at UConn. She mentored Connecticut students and helped them execute environmental programs in their own communities. “It was fun to both see how we could take action in Connecticut and also mentor younger students on the point of intergenerational relationships,” Sanders said.

Office of Sustainability helps UConn chart a green course

The Office of Sustainability partnered with the Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills for the event. Student interns at the Office of Sustainability contributed heavily to the preparation of the event.

Zhang attributed a strong student network to building the mix of clubs, employers, and alumni coming to the event. Will Gabelman, senior manager for global strategies and operations at Uber, spoke on the first panel. Zhang was able to recruit him for the event because Gabelman was his mentor in a fellowship program.

“We are the tenth most sustainable university in the world, and the second most sustainable university in the United States,” said Zhang, citing rankings from GreenMetric UI.

UConn earned that title thanks to efforts from the Office of Sustainability and its interns, Zhang said, and added that there are 40 to 50 student interns this semester.

The office puts together an Earth Day event annually, and is trying to pilot an environmental justice program, according to Kanika Chaturvedi ’26 (CLAS), an intern in the office.

The give-and-go program is another initiative where the Office of Sustainability collects donations from students who are moving out. Things like clothing, furniture, and appliances are reused rather than discarded. Last year, the program diverted 8,000 pounds of waste from landfills, and “this year they are looking to double that,” said Chaturvedi. The group also collaborates with the town of Mansfield to organize litter cleanup events.

A project Zhang has been working on is an E-collaboration sustainability network. “It’s kind of like a virtual platform that I think it helps break down a lot of the academic barriers that you see,” said Zhang. It has grown to 240 members and contains things like weekly internship postings and relevant studies posted by professors.

“We’re able to see sustainability manifest in a lot of different facets,” said Zhang. “Even at the business school or the engineering school, regardless of what your major is, it’s becoming commonplace to have environmental opportunities.”

MIL OSI USA News –

March 6, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: DNA detectives in Antarctica: probing 6,000 years of penguin poo for clues to the past

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jamie Wood, Senior Lecturer in Ecology and Evolution, University of Adelaide

Jamie Wood

Studies of ancient DNA have tended to focus on frozen land in the northern hemisphere, where woolly mammoths and bison roamed. Meanwhile, Antarctica has received relatively little attention. We set out to change that.

The most suitable sediments are exposed near the coast of the icy continent, where penguins like to breed. Their poo is a rich source of DNA, providing information about the health of the population as well as what penguins have been eating.

Our new research opens a window on the past of Adélie penguins in Antarctica, going back 6,000 years. It also offers a surprise glimpse into the shrinking world of southern elephant seals over the past 1,000 years.

Understanding how these species coped with climate change in the past can help us prepare for the future. Wildlife in Antarctica faces multiple emerging threats and will likely need support to cope with the many challenges ahead.

A unique marine ecosystem

Adélie penguins are particularly sensitive to changes in their environment. This makes them what we call a “sentinel species”, providing an early warning of imbalance or dysfunction in the coastal ecosystem. Their poo also provides a record of how they responded to changes in the past.

In our new research, we excavated pits up to 80cm deep at ten Adélie penguin colonies along the 700km Ross Sea coastline. We then collected 156 sediment samples from different depths in each excavation.

Six of these colonies were still active, meaning birds return annually to breed. The other four had been abandoned at various times over the past 6,000 years.

From these sediments we generated 94 billion DNA sequences, which provided us with an unparalleled window into the past lives of Adélie penguins and their ecosystem.

We detected the DNA of several animal species besides Adélie penguins. These animals included two other birds, three seals and two soil invertebrates.

Not all of this DNA came from penguin poo. Our samples also contained DNA from feathers, hairs or skin cells of other species in the environment at the time.

Sediment samples were taken from ten penguin colonies of various ages, six active (white dot) and four abandoned (coloured dot), on the coast of Ross Sea in Antarctica.
Wood, J., et al (2025) Nature Communications, CC BY-NC-ND

Penguin population size and diet

When we took a closer look at the DNA from penguins of the present day, we found more genetic diversity in samples from larger colonies.

Recognising this relationship between genetic diversity and colony size enabled us to estimate the size of former colonies. We could also reconstruct population trends through time.

For example, in samples from active colonies, we found penguin genetic diversity increased as we sampled closer and closer to the surface. This may reflect population growth over the past century.

The DNA also revealed changes in penguin diets over time. Over the past 4,000 years, the penguins in the southern Ross Sea switched from mainly eating one type of fish – the bald notothen – to another, Antarctic silverfish.

The bald notothen lives beneath the sea ice, so this prey-switching was likely driven by a change in sea ice extent compared with the past.

Examples of an active Adélie penguin colony (Cape Hallett), and a 6,000 year old abandoned Adélie penguin colony site (Terra Nova Bay).
Jamie Wood

Surprise! Elephant seals

We made an unexpected discovery at Cape Hallett, in the northern Ross Sea. This is the site of an active penguin colony.

Samples of sediment from close to the surface contained lots of penguin DNA and eggshell. But samples from further down, where penguin DNA and eggshell were scarce, contained DNA from southern elephant seals.

Today, elephant seals are uncommon visitors to the Antarctic continent, and breed on subantarctic islands including Macquarie, Campbell and Antipodes Islands. Yet, bones of elephant seal pups found along the Ross Sea coast indicate the species used to breed in the area.

Carbon dating of these bones indicate elephant seal colonies began disappearing from the southern Ross Sea around 1,000 years ago. Over the following 200 years, colonies in the northern Ross Sea began vanishing too.

As the climate cooled and the extent of sea ice increased, elephant seals could no longer access suitable breeding sites. These sites were then taken over by Adélie penguins who expanded into areas once occupied by seals.

Our DNA evidence suggests Cape Hallett was one of the last strongholds of southern elephant seals on the icy continent. But we may yet again see elephant seals breeding on the Antarctic mainland as the world warms and sea ice melts.

Even more ancient DNA in Antarctica

Our study spans the past 6,000 years, but our research suggests it would be possible to go even further back.

The DNA fragments we found were very well preserved, showing little of the damage expected in warmer climates.

So it should be possible to obtain much older DNA from sediments on land in Antarctica – maybe even 1 million-year-old DNA, as recently reported from Antarctic sediments beneath the ocean floor.

Worthy of lasting protection

In December 2017, 2.09 million square kilometres of the Ross Sea and adjoining Southern Ocean became the world’s largest marine protected area. Establishing the protection was a major achievement, yet it was only afforded for 35 years.

After 2052, continuation of the region’s protected status will require international agreement. Knowledge of the vulnerability of local species and their risk in the face of change will play a key role in informing the decision. Our research provides a case study for how ancient environmental DNA can contribute towards this understanding.

This research was part of the Ross Sea Region Research and Monitoring Programme,, funded by the New Zealand Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment.

Theresa Cole 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. DNA detectives in Antarctica: probing 6,000 years of penguin poo for clues to the past – https://theconversation.com/dna-detectives-in-antarctica-probing-6-000-years-of-penguin-poo-for-clues-to-the-past-249940

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

March 6, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: 2025 Aviation Weather Mission: Civil Air Patrol Cadets Help Scientists Study the Atmosphere with GLOBE Clouds

Source: NASA

The Science Activation Program’s NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative (NESEC) is working alongside the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) to launch the 2025 Aviation Weather Mission. The mission will engage cadets (students ages 11-20) and senior members to collect aviation-relevant observations including airport conditions, Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Cloud observations, commercial aircraft information (including registration number and altitude), and satellite collocations provided by the NASA GLOBE Clouds team at NASA Langley Research Center. This mission results from a highly successful collaboration between NESEC and CAP as cadets and senior members collected cloud, air temperature, and land cover observations during the partial and total solar eclipses in 2023 and 2024, engaging over 400 teams with over 3,000 cadets and over 1,000 senior members in every state, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico.
The 2025 Aviation Weather Mission will take place from April through July 2025, collecting observations over two 4-hour periods while practicing additional skills, such as flight tracking, orienteering, and data management. So far, over 3,000 cadets in 46 wings (states) have signed up to participate.
Science Activation recently showed support for this mission through a letter of collaboration sent to CAP Major General Regena Aye in early February. NASA GLOBE Clouds and GLOBE Observer are part of the NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative (NESEC), which is led by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AE28A. NESEC is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn

MIL OSI USA News –

March 6, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: FARMing with Data: OpenET Launches new Tool for Farmers and Ranchers

Source: NASA

A NASA and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)-supported research and development team is making it easier for farmers and ranchers to manage their water resources.
The team, called OpenET, created the Farm and Ranch Management Support (FARMS) tool, which puts timely, high-resolution water data directly in the hands of individuals and small farm operators. By making the information more accessible, the platform can better support decision-making around agricultural planning, water conservation, and water efficiency. The OpenET team hopes this will help farmers who are working to build greater resiliency in local and regional agriculture communities. build greater resiliency in local and regional agriculture communities.
“It’s all about finding new ways to make satellite data easier to access and use for as many people as possible,” said Forrest Melton, the OpenET project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. “The goal is to empower users with actionable, science-based data to support decisions about water management across the West.”

Forrest melton
OpenET Project Scientist

The OpenET data explorer tool centers on providing evapotranspiration data. Evapotranspiration (ET) refers to the amount of water leaving Earth’s surface and returning to the atmosphere through evaporation (from soil and surface water) and transpiration (water vapor released by crops and other plants). Evapotranspiration is an important factor in agriculture, water resource management, irrigation planning, drought monitoring, and fire risk evaluation.
The FARMS resource is the third phase of OpenET’s Data Explorer tool, launched in 2021, which uses satellite data to quantify evapotranspiration across the western U.S.
It starts with using Landsat data to measure patterns in land surface temperature and key indicators of vegetation conditions. The satellite data is combined with agricultural data, such as field boundaries, and weather data, such as air temperature, humidity, solar radiation, wind speed, and precipitation. All of these factors feed into a model, which calculates the final evapotranspiration data.
The new FARMS interface was designed to make that data easier to access, with features that meet specific needs identified by users.
“This amount of data can be complicated to use, so user input helped us shape FARMS,” said Jordan Harding, app developer and interface design leader from HabitatSeven. “It provides a mobile-friendly, map-based web interface designed to make it easy as possible to get automated, regular reports.”

“The FARMS tool is designed to help farmers optimize irrigation timing and amounts, simplify planning for the upcoming irrigation season, and automate ET and water use reporting,” said Sara Larsen, CEO of OpenET. “All of this reduces waste, lowers costs, and informs crop planning.”
Although FARMS is geared towards agriculture, the tool has value for other audiences in the western U.S. Land managers who evaluate the impacts of wildfire can use it to evaluate burn scars and changes to local hydrology. Similarly, resource managers can track evapotranspiration changes over time to evaluate the effectiveness of different forest management plans.

To develop FARMS, the OpenET team held listening sessions with farmers, ranchers, and resource managers. One requested function was support for field-to-field comparisons; a feature for planning irrigation needs and identifying problem areas, like where pests or weeds may be impacting crop yields.
The tool includes numerous options for drawing or selecting field boundaries, generating custom reports based on selected models and variables, and automatically re-running reports at daily or monthly intervals.
The fine spatial resolution and long OpenET data record behind FARMS make these features more effective. Many existing global ET data products have a pixel size of over half a mile, which is too big to be practical for most farmers and ranchers. The FARMS interface provides insights at the scale of a quarter-acre per pixel, which offers multiple data points within an individual field.
“If I had told my father about this 15 years ago, he would have called me crazy,” said Dwane Roth, a fourth-generation farmer in Kansas. “Thanks to OpenET, I can now monitor water loss from my crops in real-time. By combining it with data from our soil moisture probes, this tool is enabling us to produce more food with less water. It’s revolutionizing agriculture.”

For those like sixth-generation California pear farmer Brett Baker, the 25-year span of ET data is part of what makes the tool so valuable. “My family has been farming the same crop on the same piece of ground for over 150 years,” Baker said. “Using FARMS gives us the ability to review historical trends and changes to understand what worked and what didn’t year to year: maybe I need to apply more fertilizer to that field, or better weed control to another. Farmers know their land, and FARMS provides a new tool that will allow us to make better use of land and resources.”
According to Roth, the best feature of the tool is intangible. “Being a farmer is stressful,” Roth said. “OpenET is beneficial for the farm and the agronomic decisions, but I think the best thing it gives me is peace of mind.”

Dwane Roth
Fourth-Generation Kansas Grain Farmer

Over the coming months, the OpenET team plans to present the new tool at agricultural conferences and conventions in order to gather feedback from as many users as possible. “We know that there is already a demand for a seven-day forecast of ET, and I’m sure there will be requests about the interface itself,” said OpenET senior software engineer Will Carrara. “We’re definitely looking to the community to help us further refine that platform.”
“I think there are many applications we haven’t even thought of yet,” Baker added. “The FARMS interface isn’t just a tool; it’s an entirely new toolbox itself. I’m excited to see what people do with it.”

FARMS was developed through a public-private collaboration led by NASA, USGS, USDA, the non-profit OpenET, Inc., Desert Research Institute, Environmental Defense Fund, Google Earth Engine, HabitatSeven, California State University Monterey Bay, Chapman University, Cornell University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, UC Berkeley and other universities, with input from more than 100 stakeholders.

For resources/tutorials on how to use FARMS, please visit: https://openet.gitbook.io/docs/additional-resources/farms

MIL OSI USA News –

March 6, 2025
MIL-OSI: Microchip Technology Releases Versatile MPLAB® PICkit™ Basic Debugger
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

CHANDLER, Ariz., March 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — To make its robust programming and debugging capabilities accessible to a wider range of engineers, Microchip Technology (Nasdaq: MCHP) has launched the MPLAB^® PICkit™ Basic in-circuit debugger to be a cost-effective, powerful solution for engineers at various levels. Unlike other complex and expensive debuggers, this budget-friendly device offers high-speed USB 2.0 connectivity, CMSIS-DAP support, compatibility with various Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) and compatibility with a broad range of microcontrollers. The tool’s versatility allows developers to use the debugger across various projects and platforms—including VS Code ecosystems—simplifying the workflow and reducing the need for multiple tools.

Key features:
- USB Type-C^® Cable: The MPLAB PICkit Basic programmer debugger uses a USB Type-C cable, which is modern, widely adopted and easy to use. The USB-C^® connection helps promote better connectivity, faster data transfer and a more reliable connection, reducing the hassle of dealing with outdated or incompatible cables.
- Cost-Effectiveness: Many advanced debugging and programming tools can be expensive, making them less accessible to hobbyists, students and smaller development teams. The MPLAB PICkit Basic debugger offers advanced features at a lower price point, making it an affordable option without compromising on functionality.
- Compatibility and Versatility: Developers often face challenges with tools that are limited to specific devices or software environments. The MPLAB PICkit Basic debugger supports a wide range of microcontrollers and is compatible with Microchip’s MPLAB X IDE, MPLAB Integrated Programming Environment (IPE) and MPLAB Extensions for VS Code, along with third-party options like IAR Embedded Workbench and various debugging interfaces including four-wire JTAG and Serial Wire Debug.
- Enhanced User Experience and Advanced Features: The sleek and lightweight design makes the MPLAB^® PICkit™ Basic easy to carry and use in various environments, from classrooms to professional development labs. Advanced debugging capabilities include automatic device selection and adapter support for Arm^® Cortex^®-based devices.
“As part of an ongoing strategy to make Microchip solutions easier to work with and more accessible, the MPLAB PICkit Basic debugger was designed to be a versatile and cost-effective solution for the development community,” said Rodger Richey, vice president of development systems and academic programs at Microchip Technology. “Compatibility with a wide range of microcontrollers and robust debugging capabilities make it an essential tool for hobbyists and professional engineers looking to optimize their development workflows.”

To learn more about Microchip’s development tools visit the company’s programmers and debuggers webpage. Customers can also take advantage of the live chat functionality available in MPLAB X IDE version 6.25 or stop by the Microchip booth during Embedded World (March 11-13) to speak with a development systems representative.

Pricing and Availability
The MPLAB PICkit basic is available starting at $29.99. For additional information and to purchase, contact a Microchip sales representative, authorized worldwide distributor or visit Microchip’s Purchasing and Client Services website, www.microchipdirect.com.

Resources

High-res images available through Flickr or editorial contact (feel free to publish):

About Microchip Technology:
Microchip Technology Inc. is a leading provider of smart, connected and secure embedded control and processing solutions. Its easy-to-use development tools and comprehensive product portfolio enable customers to create optimal designs which reduce risk while lowering total system cost and time to market. The company’s solutions serve over 100,000 customers across the industrial, automotive, consumer, aerospace and defense, communications and computing markets. Headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, Microchip offers outstanding technical support along with dependable delivery and quality. For more information, visit the Microchip website at www.microchip.com.

Note: The Microchip name and logo, the Microchip logo and MPLAB are registered trademarks of Microchip Technology Incorporated in the U.S.A. and other countries. PICkit is a trademark of Microchip Technology Inc. in the U.S.A. and other countries. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective companies.

The MIL Network –
March 6, 2025
MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Hong Kong Customs seizes live lizards of suspected scheduled endangered species (with photos)

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

Hong Kong Customs seizes live lizards of suspected scheduled endangered species (with photos)
******************************************************************************************

Hong Kong Customs yesterday (March 4) seized 42 suspected scheduled endangered live lizards with an estimated market value of about $210,000 at Hong Kong International Airport. Through risk assessment, Customs officers inspected an air consignment declared to contain “dehumidifier, air purifier, milk powder” imported from Australia. Upon inspection, the suspected scheduled endangered live lizards were found concealed inside the dehumidifiers, air purifiers and milk powder cans. The case was handed over to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department for follow-up action. ??? Under the Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants Ordinance (Cap. 586), any person importing, exporting or possessing specimens of endangered species not in accordance with the Ordinance commits an offence and will be liable to a maximum fine of $10 million and imprisonment for 10 years upon conviction with the specimens forfeited. Members of the public may report any suspected smuggling activities to Customs’ 24-hour hotline 182 8080 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk) or online form (eform.cefs.gov.hk/form/ced002).

Ends/Wednesday, March 5, 2025Issued at HKT 16:30

NNNN

MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

March 6, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: Australians generate mountains of waste, and we need more help to recycle and resuse it

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melita Jazbec, Research Director at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney

Boy Anthony/Shutterstock

Australians largely support transforming the economy to increase recycling, repurpose products and reduce waste, according to a new report from the Productivity Commission, but they are being impeded by inconsistent regulations.

The interim report of the commission’s inquiry into Australia’s circular economy, released Wednesday night, also finds consumers need more information about the durability and repairability of products.

The report says that despite increased awareness of the benefits of a circular economy, the transformation has been complex and progress has been slow.

What is a circular economy?

A circular economy is based on three principles.

The first is designing and making goods without waste and pollution. This includes using renewable energy to reduce carbon emissions.

The second is keeping products and materials in use for as long as possible. This can be achieved by maintaining or repairing products to extend their life.

The third principle is regeneration. This means promoting activities with positive outcomes. This could include activities to deal with biodiversity loss, or social benefits through food relief and donations.

Some businesses are already using circular economy practices but compared to other developed countries, Australia is well behind. The recent CSIRO study found only 3.7% of the Australian economy is circular, half of the world’s average of 7.2%.

In December last year the Federal government released the National Circular Economy Framework providing guidance how to increase circularity.

Coinciding with this, the Productivity Commission evaluated circular economy opportunities in six priority sectors – built environment, food and agriculture, textiles and clothing, vehicles, mining and electronics.

Priority areas

The priority areas were selected based on the impact their materials has on the environment and the economy.

For example, the construction sector uses large quantities of materials which are expensive to recycle. While the increased use of electric vehicles is a bonus for the environment, the lithium-ion batteries they use pose a fire risk if incorrectly managed.

How much impact a particular area has on Australia, was also taken into account.

For example, Australians are the largest consumers of textiles in the world per capita. But most of these are imported, limiting our influence on how they are made.

Also, the impact and effectiveness of policies and regulations was also considered. Stakeholders across government and community sectors provided detailed submissions that informed the commission’s assessment.

Getting consumers, government and business onboard

The Productivity Commission noted material consumption and waste generation has not changed since 2010. This is because consumers are not repairing and reusing appliances or recycling which is important to a circular economy.

Australia generates some of the highest amounts of waste per capita in the world, including food waste, plastic waste, e-waste and textile waste.

While the report recommends how food waste should be managed, consumers need to change their behaviour to reduce the waste they generate.

To do this, however, consumers need information about making informed purchasing decisions. For e-waste, they need easy access to repair services to extend the life of their products rather than buying new.

The report repeats earlier recommendations about repairs and reuse from the Productivity Commission’s 2021 Right to Repair inquiry.

That inquiry recommended the government develop a product labelling scheme giving consumers information about how durable household appliances are and whether they can be repaired.

We believe implementing these recommendations would bring Australia in line with global best practice reflected in the European Eco-design Sustainable Product regulations.

Impeded by regulations

This report highlights the importance of consistent policies and regulations. These currently vary across sectors and jurisdictions.

Standards enabling the use of recycled materials in construction, consistent rules on the disposal of lithium-ion batteries and consistent kerbside recycling guidelines were all needed.

The Circular Economy Ministerial Advisory Group recommended in their final report in December new legislation, a governance model and investment in innovation to help Australia move to a circular economy.

Help for business

When designed well, circular business models have the potential to reduce waste materials and carbon emissions.

Comparing the circular and linear economies.
Productivity Commission, CC BY-SA

However, changing industry and consumer practices represents a big change. As well as inconsistent regulations slowing the transformation, making processes more innovative and experimenting with new technologies can be costly.

The Productivity Commission report says government can help reduce barriers to implementation of circular business models given business has a pivotal role in
driving this transition.

It also supports product stewardship, an approach where producers, importers and brands are responsible and liable for the impact their products have on the environment and on human health across the product life cycle.

Regulations for product stewardship was identified in the report as important, particularly in textiles and clothing, vehicles, EV batteries, solar panels and consumer electronics.

Towards net zero

Several international studies have reported that a circular economy will be needed to achieve net zero targets.

In Australia, the industry sector including mining, manufacturing and construction is responsible for around 34% of total emissions. Using materials more efficiently will help reduce them.

Agriculture, despite its small contribution to the GDP (2.4%), alone contributes 18% to greenhouse gas emissions.

As the report notes, most of these emissions (80%) come from livestock and use of synthetic fertilisers (15%). But only food waste is identified as one of the priority areas.

It should be noted though that food waste only accounts for 3% of emissions. So reducing emissions from agriculture, switching to renewable fertilisers and changing livestock diets should also be a priority.

The Productivity Commission will send its final report to government by August this year.

Melita Jazbec receives research funding from various government and non-government sources. Melita Jazbec is currently conducting research projects on circular economy funded by Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, and by AgriFutures.

Melita Jazbec made a submission to the Productivity Commission inquiry which also interviewed her.

Monique Retamal receives research funding from federal DCCEEW, Circular Australia and state government environment departments. Monique was interviewed by the Productivity Commission inquiry.

Nick Florin receives funding from government and non-government organisations, including the Federal department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water, and the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation. Nick is also a Director of the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence.

Stuart White receives research funding from various government and non-government sources.

– ref. Australians generate mountains of waste, and we need more help to recycle and resuse it – https://theconversation.com/australians-generate-mountains-of-waste-and-we-need-more-help-to-recycle-and-resuse-it-251354

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

March 6, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: Why some animals defy the odds to thrive in urban areas

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Becky Thomas, Senior Lecturer in Ecology, Royal Holloway University of London

KreateStuff/Shutterstock

Cities can be deeply unwelcoming places for wildlife. They are noisy, difficult to get around, full of people and heavily reliant on artificial lighting. Yet some species do better in urban areas than in rural ones.

Research is showing that animals of the same species that live in cities and the countryside are behaving differently. These disparities will probably grow since
over half of people worldwide now live in urban areas, and cities and towns are getting bigger.

A recent study from Tel Aviv University found that Egyptian fruit bats living in urban parts of Israel gave birth two and a half weeks earlier than rural populations. This gives them an advantage as they are more likely to reproduce twice per year.

In the urban areas in the study there was a higher abundance and diversity of fruit trees. In Tel Aviv, for instance, the trees are watered. This means there is fruit for a longer period across the year, meaning more reliable food supplies for the bats.

They may also be benefiting from the urban heat island effect, with warmer temperatures reducing the harshness of the winters felt by their rural neighbours.

Most species perceive humans as predators, so our presence disturbs and distracts them from feeding and breeding. To survive in human-dominated cities, animals must therefore be bold.

This is something researchers have studied for a while in wildlife like foxes. Urban foxes are often more confident in their response to new food when it is presented in a novel object like a puzzle box.

City foxes tend to be bolder.
johnhardingfilm/Shutterstock

Urban birds, from robins to feral pigeons, are also bolder. In a 2008 study scientists found that urban birds are more tolerant of human disturbance than rural ones), allowing humans to approach them closely.

The birds that reacted less to approaching humans were descended from a large number of generations since urbanisation, showing a long history of adaptation. This behavioural change helps these animals to adjust their stress responses when they are exposed to new situations. If they did not do this, they would suffer with chronic stress.

To test whether this boldness in birds is due to evolutionary adaptations, one 2006 experimental study in Germany hand-raised blackbird chicks taken from both an urban centre and a nearby forest.

They kept all the birds in the same environment until they were adults and then tested their acute stress responses when the birds were caught and handled. The birds from the city had a lower stress response, suggesting that this difference was genetically determined.

However, urban birds tend to be less successful in raising chicks than those in more natural areas. Although birds can take advantage of food provided by people in many cities and towns across the world – whether directly in bird feeders, or by scavenging on our discarded food – urban areas do not provide enough of the invertebrate prey that many nestlings need.

One study published in 2020 found that the biggest challenge for urban great tits was the low abundance of nearby insects.

Urban great tits have their own problems.
Zestocker/Shutterstock

Same species, different city

Many of these changes in urban species are difficult for people to detect, but one in particular becomes clear when you spend time in cities across the world. Have you noticed that whichever city you visit there seem to be many animals of the same species?

Scientists call this biotic homogenisation. It happens when places start to become increasingly similar over time with the species that you can find there.

This process begins with the exodus of species that cannot tolerate living alongside humans. Large mammals, often predators, are the first to go as an area becomes increasingly urbanised.

Then the non-native species begin to move in. Feral pigeons, rats, starlings and many other species are introduced by people over time, whether accidentally or deliberately, until a point is reached when the biodiversity found in one city, say in the US, starts to resemble another in Europe.

These species often have broader dietary and habitat niches, which makes them good at exploiting urban areas.

Noticed how the wildlife in cities is pretty similar wherever you go?
PauliusPeleckis/Shutterstock

Urbanisation is continually changing our relationship with animals and how we perceive nature. Although scientists debate whether we have entered the Anthropocene (a new geological age based on significant planetary changes caused by humans) it is undeniable that humans have and still are moulding landscapes to suit our needs.

The growth of cities and other urban areas is set to continue, with future urban expansion predicted to swallow 11-33 million hectares of natural habitat by 2100, an area the size of Norway. Indeed, humans are becoming the largest driving force in the evolution of wildlife.

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

– ref. Why some animals defy the odds to thrive in urban areas – https://theconversation.com/why-some-animals-defy-the-odds-to-thrive-in-urban-areas-249915

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

March 6, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Why some animals defy the odds to thrive in urban areas

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Becky Thomas, Senior Lecturer in Ecology, Royal Holloway University of London

KreateStuff/Shutterstock

Cities can be deeply unwelcoming places for wildlife. They are noisy, difficult to get around, full of people and heavily reliant on artificial lighting. Yet some species do better in urban areas than in rural ones.

Research is showing that animals of the same species that live in cities and the countryside are behaving differently. These disparities will probably grow since
over half of people worldwide now live in urban areas, and cities and towns are getting bigger.

A recent study from Tel Aviv University found that Egyptian fruit bats living in urban parts of Israel gave birth two and a half weeks earlier than rural populations. This gives them an advantage as they are more likely to reproduce twice per year.

In the urban areas in the study there was a higher abundance and diversity of fruit trees. In Tel Aviv, for instance, the trees are watered. This means there is fruit for a longer period across the year, meaning more reliable food supplies for the bats.

They may also be benefiting from the urban heat island effect, with warmer temperatures reducing the harshness of the winters felt by their rural neighbours.

Most species perceive humans as predators, so our presence disturbs and distracts them from feeding and breeding. To survive in human-dominated cities, animals must therefore be bold.

This is something researchers have studied for a while in wildlife like foxes. Urban foxes are often more confident in their response to new food when it is presented in a novel object like a puzzle box.

City foxes tend to be bolder.
johnhardingfilm/Shutterstock

Urban birds, from robins to feral pigeons, are also bolder. In a 2008 study scientists found that urban birds are more tolerant of human disturbance than rural ones), allowing humans to approach them closely.

The birds that reacted less to approaching humans were descended from a large number of generations since urbanisation, showing a long history of adaptation. This behavioural change helps these animals to adjust their stress responses when they are exposed to new situations. If they did not do this, they would suffer with chronic stress.

To test whether this boldness in birds is due to evolutionary adaptations, one 2006 experimental study in Germany hand-raised blackbird chicks taken from both an urban centre and a nearby forest.

They kept all the birds in the same environment until they were adults and then tested their acute stress responses when the birds were caught and handled. The birds from the city had a lower stress response, suggesting that this difference was genetically determined.

However, urban birds tend to be less successful in raising chicks than those in more natural areas. Although birds can take advantage of food provided by people in many cities and towns across the world – whether directly in bird feeders, or by scavenging on our discarded food – urban areas do not provide enough of the invertebrate prey that many nestlings need.

One study published in 2020 found that the biggest challenge for urban great tits was the low abundance of nearby insects.

Urban great tits have their own problems.
Zestocker/Shutterstock

Same species, different city

Many of these changes in urban species are difficult for people to detect, but one in particular becomes clear when you spend time in cities across the world. Have you noticed that whichever city you visit there seem to be many animals of the same species?

Scientists call this biotic homogenisation. It happens when places start to become increasingly similar over time with the species that you can find there.

This process begins with the exodus of species that cannot tolerate living alongside humans. Large mammals, often predators, are the first to go as an area becomes increasingly urbanised.

Then the non-native species begin to move in. Feral pigeons, rats, starlings and many other species are introduced by people over time, whether accidentally or deliberately, until a point is reached when the biodiversity found in one city, say in the US, starts to resemble another in Europe.

These species often have broader dietary and habitat niches, which makes them good at exploiting urban areas.

Noticed how the wildlife in cities is pretty similar wherever you go?
PauliusPeleckis/Shutterstock

Urbanisation is continually changing our relationship with animals and how we perceive nature. Although scientists debate whether we have entered the Anthropocene (a new geological age based on significant planetary changes caused by humans) it is undeniable that humans have and still are moulding landscapes to suit our needs.

The growth of cities and other urban areas is set to continue, with future urban expansion predicted to swallow 11-33 million hectares of natural habitat by 2100, an area the size of Norway. Indeed, humans are becoming the largest driving force in the evolution of wildlife.

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

– ref. Why some animals defy the odds to thrive in urban areas – https://theconversation.com/why-some-animals-defy-the-odds-to-thrive-in-urban-areas-249915

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 6, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: BLOG | How we’re tackling fly-tipping, littering, and dog fouling

Source: City of Liverpool

Councillor Laura Robertson-Collins, Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities, Neighbourhoods and Streetscene, discusses the importance of a well-staffed Environmental Enforcement team when it comes to tackling fly-tipping and littering.

No-one likes to see rubbish lying around on our streets. Whether it’s fly-tipped furniture, littering at the side of the road, or dog fouling in the middle of a pavement, it doesn’t belong in our city. Liverpool is an incredible place to live and visit, and we should all be proud to call it home, but illegally dropping or dumping rubbish is disrespectful and selfish.

Recently, we announced that we were going to crack down on fly-tipping by appointing an external team to support with enforcement across the city. The truth is, we’ve already invested a lot into preventative measures and we’re starting to see a real difference.

In the 2024/25 financial year, the Council invested £475,000 to employ an internal Environmental Enforcement team, which is currently made up of six people. In 2025/26, we’re investing another £475,000 to be able to double the size of that team and have more officers working within the community to help prevent fly-tipping, littering, and dog fouling.

These officers have been out on the streets seven days a week since they joined the Council last summer. They patrol all areas of the city throughout the day, not just the city centre. It can be easy to assume that their main role is handing out fines to people who drop waste, but there’s so much more to what they do. They inspect businesses to make sure they manage their waste correctly and work alongside Merseyside Police to conduct waste carrier licence checks and trade waste inspections.

What’s more, they play a crucial role in educating our communities. By engaging with residents and businesses, they raise awareness about responsible waste disposal and prevent waste from being dumped in the first place. Did you know that if you hire a private company to take away your waste without checking they have the correct licence and it gets fly-tipped, you could be held responsible? These are the sorts of messages our team is passing on to residents.

By working closely together, our Environmental Enforcement team and LSSL ensure that all reported fly-tipping incidents are investigated and cleared in an average of 3.8 days.

The numbers speak for themselves. Since June last year, our officers have engaged with 617 residential properties and businesses about waste management, issuing almost 150 warnings where needed. They’ve also handed out 106 Fixed Penalty Notices and assisted with four prosecutions. Each of these investigations take a lot of time, but by doubling the size of the team, we know that we’ll have more time and more manpower to crack down on offenders.

From 2023 to 2024, reports of fly-tipping dropped by 5.7 per cent, and requests to clean streets decreased by 25 per cent. Their efforts, and the work of LSSL, make a tangible difference in keeping Liverpool cleaner and safer.

Liverpool City Council’s commitment to cracking down on illegal fly-tipping, littering, and dog fouling is unwavering. The new Environmental Enforcement Team, appointed last year, has already made significant strides in investigating and addressing these issues. With the addition of six new internal enforcement officers, we’re poised to enhance our efforts even further.

And there’s more good news on the horizon. An external team is set to start early this summer, providing extra support to tackle fly-tipping blighting our streets. They’ll work closely with the existing taskforce, raising awareness about correct waste management and investigating environmental crimes.

While we do work closely with the police to utilise our expansive CCTV network across the city, we can’t be everywhere at once. We ask anyone who spots illegal waste on our streets to report it to us so that we can investigate. And, if you have any information to help us with our investigation, please speak out. We know that the majority of people would like to keep their streets free of rubbish.

With the Great British Spring Clean coming back at the end of next month, now is the perfect time to join in with community litter-picking events, or even create one of your own. For more information, or to tell us about a clean-up event you’re planning, reach out to our Keep Liverpool Tidy team. Together, we can achieve a litter-free, waste-free city that we can truly be proud of.

MIL OSI United Kingdom –

March 6, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: Environmental Research: Communications

Source: UNISDR Disaster Risk Reduction

Mission

Environmental Research Communications is an open access journal for the rapid publication of high-quality research in all areas of environmental science.

All submissions are expected to meet a high standard of scientific rigour, and contribute to advancing knowledge in the field.

MIL OSI United Nations News –

March 6, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: Environmental Research: Health

Source: UNISDR Disaster Risk Reduction

Mission

Environmental Research: Health is a multidisciplinary, open access journal devoted to addressing important global challenges at the interface of the environment and public health in a way that bridges scientific progress and assessment with efforts relating to impact/future risks, resilience, mitigation, adaptation, security and solutions in the broadest sense.

All research methodologies are encouraged comprehensively covering qualitative, quantitative, experimental, theoretical and applied approaches; exposure assessments; implementation studies; and policy analysis.

MIL OSI United Nations News –

March 6, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: Investing in biodiversity: unlocking greater returns

Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre

The Liaison Group of the Biodiversity-related Conventions stresses the contribution of biodiversity to national economies, livelihoods, human health and food security.

The Liaison Group of Biodiversity-related Conventions, a long-standing network uniting the executive heads of the eight biodiversity-related conventions, met at FAO Headquarters in Rome, in advance of the resumed CBD COP16. The group reaffirmed their collective support to conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

At the meeting, held on 21 February 2025 and hosted by the secretariats of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) and International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), the group stressed the importance of investing in biodiversity to generate higher returns and mitigate the economic risks of biodiversity loss. The eight members highlighted how, by joining efforts under the respective mandates of the conventions, they can amplify the collective benefits to people and planet.

The Liaison Group of Biodiversity-related Conventions, established in 2004, represents an important forum to foster synergies, policy coherence and cooperation among the eight conventions, namely the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), the Convention on Wetlands, the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, IPPC, ITPGRFA and the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

At the meeting, the members of the Liaison Group provided updates on their respective processes and concrete actions taken in their contributions to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The Group also reflected on their shared priorities as mandated by their respective contracting Parties and identified potential areas for joint.

The meeting included a session with the secretariat of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and the Office on Climate Change, Biodiversity and the Environment of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations which focused on the contribution of biodiversity to food production and the importance of aligning science with policy.

The Group will continue to coordinate and cooperate on key shared priorities and objectives to ensure the work of its members contributes to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and is well-aligned with the requests and expectations of their respective contracting Parties.

These may include, among others, communication, capacity-building, resource mobilization, monitoring, scientific research and integrated national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs). Such common priority areas support sharing best practices and working together to ensure efficiency, effectiveness, coherence and innovative approaches.

MIL OSI United Nations News –

March 6, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: New EU programme launched with banking sector to support women entrepreneurs across Europe
Source: European Investment Bank

EIB
- EIB and European Commission launch first-ever “Gender Finance Lab for commercial banks” under the InvestEU Advisory Hub
- So far 25 European banks committed to joining new masterclass programme to boost funding for women entrepreneurs
- Launch takes place on the margins of the EIB Group Forum
The European Investment Bank and the European Commission have launched today a first of its kind advisory programme aimed at helping EU commercial banks improve access to finance for women-owned and women-led SMEs in Europe.

Women make up a third of Europe’s entrepreneurs and yet many of them face major financial barriers.

The InvestEU Gender Finance Lab, developed by the EIB Group with funding from the InvestEU Advisory Hub, aims to support financial intermediaries, including commercial banks and fund managers.

A tailored masterclass programme is being launched to seize the opportunity of increasing investments in female entrepreneurs. It will help banks leverage the investment opportunities presented by women entrepreneurs, create more innovative and relevant financial products, and share good practice among fellow financial institutions to better serve women entrepreneurs and bridge the gender finance gap.

Research shows women-led and -owned businesses exhibit lower risk profiles, higher repayment rates, and greater customer loyalty. They also thrive in management, innovation, and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG). Globally, the women’s market represents a significant $700 billion global revenue opportunity. Beyond the business case, helping commercial banks close the gender finance gap will also address the potential economic impact of women-owned and women-led businesses.

EIB President Nadia Calviño said: “Partnering to nurture Europe’s potential is at the heart of what the EIB Group is doing here alongside the European Commission and our partners in Europe’s banking sector. Investing in women entrepreneurs is not only the right thing to do, but also the smart thing to do; driving growth, prosperity, and stability across the European economy.”

The Gender-Smart Finance Master Class will be delivered as an eLearning programme. Its first cohort will start in March 2025, bringing together representatives from EU commercial banks, including practitioners on SME business, product development, business strategy and Environmental, Social and Governance professionals. A second session is foreseen in Autumn 2025.

The programme will include live webinars, interactive discussions, and access to a virtual knowledge hub.

Key components of the programme include:
- Exploring the market potential of women-owned and women-led SMEs and their contributions to economic growth.
- Designing gender-responsive financial and non-financial products and services.
- Implementing gender-smart data analysis, result measurements, and reporting mechanisms.
- Staying informed about global gender finance initiatives such as Gender lens investing with the EIB Group, including the 2X Criteria as a global standard for gender-lens investing.
- Enhancing professional networks, building connections and gaining insights from distinguished professionals and experts in gender-smart SME banking
This Programme is financed by the EIB InvestEU Advisory Hub Gender Finance Lab and free of charge for participating institutions. Managed by the European Commission and funded by the EU, the InvestEU Advisory Hub connects project promoters with advisory partners, with the European Investment Bank Group as the main advisory partner under InvestEU.

For more information, please contact genderfinancelab@eib.org

Background information:

EIB Group

The EIB Group is the financing institution of the European Union owned by its Member States. It supports investment contributing toward EU policy goals, including sustainable growth, social and territorial cohesion, innovation and security. It finances its operations in global capital markets and has been consistently profitable in its operations since its inception. The EIB Group is the pioneer and one of the largest issuers of green bonds, while all of its operations are aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement.

The EIB Group signed nearly €89 billion in new financing for over 900 projects in 2024. These commitments are expected to mobilise around €350 billion in investment, supporting 400 000 companies and 5.8 million jobs.

To enhance the positive impact of its activities on gender equality and empower women and girls, the EIB Group adopted a Strategy on Gender Equality and Women’s Economic Empowerment and a Gender Action Plan, with the aim of embedding gender equality and in particular women’s economic empowerment in the EIB’s business model. It covers its lending, blending and advisory work within and outside the European Union. The EIB Group is also committed to driving gender equality in the workplace.

InvestEU

The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with crucial long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery and growth. It helps mobilise private investments for the European Union’s policy priorities, such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. The InvestEU programme brings together under one roof the multitude of EU financial instruments currently available to support investment in the European Union, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible. InvestEU has three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is implemented through financial partners that invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee worth €26.2 billion. That guarantee will back investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment.

New EU programme launched with banking sector to support women entrepreneurs across Europe
New EU programme launched with banking sector to support women entrepreneurs across Europe
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MIL OSI Europe News –
March 6, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Moor Park and Waverly Park get the green light for improvements
Source: City of Preston

Two Preston city parks have been given the green light for a multi-million pound revamp by the city’s Planning Committee this week.

The plans, submitted by Preston-based S&L Planning Consultants, have been approved and the work will be carried out by Eric Wright Civil Engineering, which is due to start in the summer.

Councillor Amber Afzal, Cabinet member for planning and regulation at Preston City Council for Planning Regulation and Chair of the Planning Committee said:

“We are delighted that these plans have been passed and we can get started on the much needed improvements to our city’s treasured green spaces.

“Given the special listed status that Moor Park enjoys, due respect has been given to the conservation areas and preserving and enhancing the historic park. Any new additions will make a positive contribution to the local character and distinctiveness of our parks.

Councillor Freddie Bailey, Cabinet Member for Environment and Community Safety said:

“We are looking forward to the improvements that will enhance our greenspaces that will also help to increase outdoor activity and greater leisure time, improving the health and wellbeing of our communities by delivering new, higher quality and more accessible sports and play facilities, better footpaths and landscaping to enjoy, in a safer environment.”

Gavin Hulme, Operations Director at Eric Wright Civil Engineering commented:

“It’s great news that the planning applications have been passed for Waverley and Moor Parks. We have been working with Preston City Council, relevant stakeholders and our design teams over the last 12 months to ensure the works will bring lasting improvements to these two important parks. We are looking forward to starting works on site later this year and bringing benefits to the local communities.”

Deborah Smith, Co-Founder of Smith and Love Planning Consultants said:

“Preston is proud of its parks and we’re thrilled to have played a part in their improvement, providing important spaces for local residents and visitors to enjoy. The rejuvenated parks will also add to the ongoing regeneration of the city.”

Improvements

Moor Park

Moor Park, which is the city’s oldest park and Grade II* listed, will undergo a £4m programme of improvements which include:
- Extension and de-silting of Serpentine Lake and a new bridge across the lake
- Improvements to the Loggia and surrounding area (the Loggia is an outdoor corridor with a fully covered roof and outer wall that is open to the elements)
- Playground improvements
- Additional tree and shrub planting
- Improvements to the changing pavilion
- Groundworks to create wildflower meadows
- Improvements to the south-east entrance and car park
Waverley Park

Waverley Park, nearly £3.5m of improvements were approved at the previous February Planning Committee and include:
- New Play area
- Refurbishment of 3 football pitches
- 1 x pump track
- skate park improvements
- Remodelling of car park with 27 x new car park spaces, creating 34 spaces in total
- Widening footpaths and new landscaping
- Demolition and rebuild of the football pavilion which already has planning permission
- Both proposals will be funded by UK Government and are part of a £20m Levelling Up bid made to the previous government’s administration.
More information

Planning applications
- 06/2024/1066 – Waverley Park, New Hall Lane
- 06/2024/1121 – Moor Park, Moor Park Avenue
Background of Moor Park

Established in 1853 and later improved in the 1860s by leading Victorian landscaper Edward Milner, Moor Park was the first municipal park laid out by an industrial town. The design and ornamental character of the park has remained unrelatively unchanged since its inception.

Preston City Council actively applies and prioritises the principles of Community Wealth Building wherever applicable and appropriate. Community Wealth Building is an approach which aims to ensure the economic system builds wealth and prosperity for everyone.
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
March 6, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: Seven decades on, Marshall Islands still reeling from nuclear testing legacy

By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific Bulletin editor/presenter

The Marshall Islands marked 71 years since the most powerful nuclear weapons tests ever conducted were unleashed over the weekend.

The Micronesian nation experienced 67 known atmospheric nuclear tests between 1946 and 1958, resulting in an ongoing legacy of death, illness, and contamination.

The country’s President Hilda Heine says her people continue to face the impacts of US nuclear weapons testing seven decades after the last bomb was detonated.

The Pacific Islands have a complex history of nuclear weapons testing, but the impacts are very much a present-day challenge, Heine said at the Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ meeting in Tonga last year.

She said that the consequences of nuclear weapons testing “in our own home” are “expensive” and “cross-cutting”.

“When I was just a young girl, our islands were turned into a big laboratory to test the capabilities of weapons of mass destruction, biological warfare agents, and unexploded ordinance,” she said.

“The impacts are not just historical facts, but contemporary challenges,” she added, noting that “the health consequences for the Marshallese people are severe and persistent through generations.”

“We are now working to reshape the narrative from that of being victims to one of active agencies in helping to shape our own future and that of the world around us,” she told Pacific leaders, where the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres was a special guest.

President Hilda Heine and UN Secretary-General António Guterres at the Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, in August 2024 Image: RNZ Pacific/Lydia Lewis

She said the displacement of communities from ancestral lands has resulted in grave cultural impacts, hindering traditional knowledge from being passed down to younger generations.

“As well as certain traditional practices, customs, ceremonies and even a navigational school once defining our very identity and become a distant memory, memorialised through chance and storytelling,” President Heine said.

“The environmental legacy is contamination and destruction: craters, radiation, toxic remnants, and a dome containing radioactive waste with a half-life of 24,000 years have rendered significant areas uninhabitable.

“Key ecosystems, once full of life and providing sustenance to our people, are now compromised.”

Heine said cancer and thyroid diseases were among a list of presumed radiation-induced medical conditions that were particularly prevalent in the Marshallese community.

Displacement, loss of land, and psychological trauma were also contributing factors to high rates of non-communicable diseases, she said.

Runit Dome, also known as “The Tomb”, in the Marshall Islands . . , controversial nuclear waste storage. Image: RNZ Pacific

“Despite these immense challenges, the Marshallese people have shown remarkable resilience and strength. Our journey has been one of survival, advocacy, and an unyielding pursuit of justice.

“We have fought tirelessly to have our voices heard on the international stage, seeking recognition.”

In 2017, the Marshall Islands government created the National Nuclear Commission to coordinate efforts to address testing impacts.

“We are a unique and important moral compass in the global movement for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation,” Heine said.

Kurt Campbell at the Pacific Islands Forum . . . “I think we understand that that history carries a heavy burden.” Image: RNZ Pacific/Lydia Lewis

The US Deputy Secretary of State in the Biden-Harris administration Kurt Cambell said that Washington, over decades, had committed billions of dollars to the damage and the rebuilding of the Marshall Islands.

“I think we understand that that history carries a heavy burden, and we are doing what we can to support the people in the [Compact of Free Association] states, including the Marshall Islands,” he said.

“This is not a legacy that we seek to avoid. We have attempted to address it constructively with massive resources and a sustained commitment,” he told reporters in Nuku’alofa.

A shared nuclear legacy
The National Nuclear Commission chairperson Ariana Tibon-Kilma, a direct descendant of survivors of the nuclear weapons testing programme Project 4.1 — which was the top-secret medical lab study on the effects of radiation on human bodies — told RNZ Pacific that what occured in Marshall Islands should not happen to any country.

“This programme was conducted without consent from any of the Marshallese people,” she said.

“For a number of years, they were studied and monitored, and sometimes even flown out to the US and displayed as a showcase.

“The history and trauma associated with what happened to my family, as well as many other families in the Marshall Islands, was barely spoken of.

“What happened to the Marshallese people is something that we would not wish upon any other Pacific island country or any other person in humanity.”

She said the nuclear legacy was a shared one.

“We all share one Pacific Ocean and what happened to the Marshall Islands, I am, sure resonates throughout the Pacific,” Tibon-Kilma said.

UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for the Pacific head Heike Alefsen at the Pacific Islands Forum . . . “I think compensation for survivors is key.” Image: RNZ Pacific/Lydia Lewis

Billions in compensation
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for the Pacific head, Heike Alefsen, told RNZ Pacific in Nuku’alofa that “we understand that there are communities that have been displaced for a long time to other islands”.

“I think compensation for survivors is key,” she said.

“It is part of a transitional justice approach. I can’t really speak to the breadth and the depth of the compensation that would need to be provided, but it is certainly an ongoing issue for discussion.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

March 5, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Salford City Council secure conviction against private hire driver
Source: City of Salford
Salford licensed private hire driver pleads guilty for the offence of illegally plying for hire relating to July 2023 offence

Ordered to pay £400 in fines, £1,200 in costs and a victim surcharge of £160

Salford City Council regards criminal offences committed by licensees whilst working as taxi and private hire drivers as extremely serious, particularly the offence of illegally plying for hire
A Salford licensed private hire driver, Mr Arif Mohammad, has pleaded guilty at Manchester and Salford Magistrates’ Court following a complaint from a member of the public, which Salford City Council Licensing Service investigated.

The complainant reported that Mr Mohammad had overcharged her for a private hire journey having attended a concert at Bolton Stadium. Following the event, the complainant had approached Mr Mohammad’s private hire vehicle and asked if he could take her and three other people to a hotel. Mr Mohammad agreed to the journey without there being a booking in place with a private hire operator. The law requires that all private hire journeys are booked through a private hire operator. Failure to do so can result in the driver’s motor insurance being invalid.

When interviewed in respect of the suspected offence, Mr Arif Mohammad admitted offering the journey without a booking through a private hire operator, describing it as a “big mistake”, stating he was “very sorry”.

Salford City Council is responsible for regulating taxi and private hire drivers licensed with the authority. Criminal offences committed by licensees whilst working as taxi and private hire drivers are regarded as extremely serious, particularly the offence of illegally plying for hire. The offence can lead to a licence being suspended or revoked or an application to renew the licence being refused.

Mr Arif Mohammad has been ordered to pay £400 in fines, £1,200 in costs and a victim surcharge of £160. The offence related to a breach of:
- The Town and Police Clauses Act 1847
With its commitment to building a fairer, greener, healthier and more inclusive city for all, Salford City Council Licensing Service will continue to work with licensees to support safe and high quality taxi and private hire services, taking enforcement action where necessary.

Councillor Barbara Bentham, Salford City Council’s Lead Member for Neighbourhoods, Environment and Community Safety said: “Taxi and private hire services are an important part of the transport network, and we thank all of our licensees that operate to a safe and high standard. Drivers have a duty to operate in accordance with the law and the conditions of their licence and the authority will not hesitate to take enforcement action where necessary. As a reminder, a private hire vehicle must always be booked through a licensed operator.”

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Date published

Wednesday 5 March 2025

Press and media enquiries
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
March 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Africa: Tribute Portfolio Marks Its Debut in Tanzania’s Northern Safari Circuit with the Opening of Turaco Ngorongoro Valley, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel

Source: Africa Press Organisation – English (2) – Report:

KARATU, Tanzania, March 5, 2025/APO Group/ —

Tribute Portfolio – part of Marriott Bonvoy’s (www.Marriott.com) growing collection of characterful, independent hotels – welcomes its first safari lodge with the launch of Turaco Ngorongoro Valley, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel in Karatu, Tanzania. Set against the awe-inspiring backdrop of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a protected territory in Tanzania’s Arusha region and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, this property seamlessly combines modern comfort with an authentic connection to the land and the Maasai culture.

With easy access to some of Tanzania’s most iconic wildlife destinations, including the Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara, Tarangire and Serengeti National Parks the property offers a sanctuary for travellers seeking an immersive and unforgettable safari experience.

“Turaco Ngorongoro Valley marks an exciting milestone as the first Tribute Portfolio property in Tanzania’s Northern Safari Circuit,” said Sandra Schulze-Potgieter, Vice President, Premium, Select & Midscale Brands, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, Marriott International. “This opening brings to life the brand’s passion for exceptional design and heartfelt service, offering a unique stay that reflects the untamed spirit of its destination. We’re thrilled to introduce this exceptional lodge to travellers seeking connection, culture, and adventure.”

Drawing inspiration from the traditional Maasai boma, the hotel’s architecture reflects the circular structures and pitched roofs that define the region’s heritage. The property features 37 suites, including 34 executive suites and three presidential suites, blending natural materials like wood and stone with vibrant Maasai-inspired accents. Elements such as wood-burning fireplaces and intricate detailing create a warm and inviting atmosphere, immersing guests in the local culture. The communal spirit of the Maasai is reflected in the hotel’s design, with shared spaces like outdoor dining areas and a central bonfire encouraging interaction and connection.

Guests can savour farm-to-table dining at Caldera Restaurant, which celebrates the region’s rich flavours with ingredients sourced from the on-site farm. N Bar offers craft cocktails, including the signature Tanzanian Dawa, in a stylish yet cosy setting with a piano and billiards table, while the poolside Maji Maji Bar provides light bites and refreshments among serene surroundings.

Guests can immerse themselves in Tanzania’s natural beauty and cultural heritage through a variety of unique experiences. The Ngorongoro Crater Safari offers guests the opportunity to see an abundance of wildlife including the Big Five – elephants, buffaloes, rhinos, lions, and leopards – amidst breathtaking scenery. Guests can reconnect with nature as they explore lush greenery and diverse ecosystems during expertly guided forest walks. Alternately, they can explore the Endoro Trail, which leads to the fascinating Elephant Caves, showcasing ancient rock formations shaped over millennia. Maasai cultural activities, such as storytelling sessions, traditional dances, and village visits, offer guests a window into ancient traditions and a deeper understanding of the local community’s way of life.

Wellness and leisure are integral to the experience, with amenities that include a pool that mimics the natural shape of a watering hole; a jacuzzi, fitness centre, and a spa, where locally inspired therapies help restore balance and rejuvenation. A recreation area with a classic snooker table offers moments of relaxed enjoyment, while The Point, the lodge’s panoramic viewing deck, allows guests to soak in the incredible landscapes.

Ali Jivraj, Co-Founder of Turaco Collection, says: “Our goal is to create a space where guests can truly unwind, reconnect with nature, and immerse themselves in the local culture. From the vibrant design inspired by Maasai traditions to the curated experiences that celebrate the beauty of Tanzania, every detail has been crafted to ensure a memorable and meaningful stay.”

Sustainability lies at the heart of Turaco Ngorongoro Valley, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel. Solar energy and efficient waste management reduce the environmental footprint, while farm-to-table dining highlights the freshness of locally grown produce. Guests can join the lodge’s “Make the Green Choice” initiative, conserving energy, and water by opting out of daily linen changes.

The property supports various community initiatives, including the Kilimani Pre and Primary School, where it funds new classrooms, a kitchen, and staff facilities, while offering guests the opportunity to donate books and supplies. Guests can also purchase an additional bag of firewood for $20, with all proceeds going to local women to support their livelihoods.

Turaco Ngorongoro Valley, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel offers airport shuttles to and from Arusha Airport (140km away), and Kilimanjaro International Airport (204km away).

For more information or to book your stay, visit www.Marriott.com.

MIL OSI Africa –

March 5, 2025
MIL-OSI USA News: President Trump is Making Government Work for You Again
Source: The White House
President Donald J. Trump immediately undertook a bold, necessary effort to downsize the federal government by ending the waste, fraud, and abuse that has permeated virtually all aspects of the bureaucracy — making sure government works for the taxpayers who fund it.
- President Trump established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to maximize government productivity and ensure the best use of taxpayer funds — which has already achieved billions of dollars in savings for taxpayers.
- President Trump commenced his plan to downsize the federal bureaucracy and eliminate waste, bloat, and insularity.
  
  President Trump ordered federal workers to return to the office five days a week.
  
  President Trump ordered federal agencies hire no more than one employee for every four employees who leave.
  
  President Trump ended the wasteful Federal Executive Institute, which had become a training ground for bureaucrats.
  
  President Trump ordered the termination of all federal Fake News media contracts.
- President Trump is reigning in agencies overtaken by unelected bureaucrats.
  
  President Trump stopped the waste, fraud, and abuse within USAID — ensuring taxpayers are no longer on the hook for funding the pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, such as sex changes in Guatemala.
  
  President Trump ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — the brainchild of Elizabeth Warren, which funneled cash to left-wing advocacy groups — to halt operations.
  
  The Environmental Protection Agency canceled tens of millions of dollars in contracts to left-wing advocacy groups, announced an investigation into a scheme by Biden EPA staffers to shield billions of dollars from oversight and accountability, and put 168 “environmental justice” employees on leave.
  
  President Trump reversed the massive over-expansion of the IRS that took place during the Biden Administration.
  
  President Trump ordered a review of funding for all non-governmental organizations so taxpayers are no longer funding those that undermine America’s interests.
  
  The review identified 15,000 grants worth $60 billion for potential elimination.
  
  The Department of State issued a “pause” on existing foreign aid grants to ensure accountability and efficiency.
  
  President Trump shut down the wasteful Biden-era “Climate Corps” program.
- President Trump lifted last-minute collective bargaining agreements issued by the Biden Administration, which sought to impede reform.
MIL OSI USA News –
March 5, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: Cyclone Alfred is bearing down. Here’s how it grew so fierce – and where it’s expected to hit

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steve Turton, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Geography, CQUniversity Australia

Bureau of Meteorology, Himawari-9 satellite, CC BY-SA

Tropical Cyclone Alfred is strengthening as it bears down on the coast of southern Queensland and northern New South Wales, prompting fears it may become a destructive category 3 cyclone before it makes landfall.

As of Wednesday, the cyclone was a category 2 and had begun moving west towards land. It is forecast to maintain intensity on Thursday and cross the coast early on Friday morning, probably between Maroochydore and Coolangatta.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the possibility of the system reaching a low-end category 3 was a low risk but “cannot be ruled out”.

The bureau has issued warnings from Double Island Point in Queensland to Grafton in NSW. The area includes Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Byron Bay and Ballina.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner says modelling shows 20,000 properties in Brisbane could be affected by storm surge or flooding.

The intensifying cyclone is a major concern, and makes Cyclone Alfred an unusual phenomenon. Cyclones typically lose strength as they approach the coast – especially this far south. It means Alfred may cause extensive damage, including to inland areas. We can expect it to last well into Friday before petering out and heading south on Saturday.

What to expect in the next few days

From Wednesday afternoon and into Thursday, the bureau forecasts gales, with damaging wind gusts to 120km an hour, along the coast from southeast Queensland to northeast NSW.

From Thursday afternoon, destructive wind gusts of up to 155km an hour may develop around the coast and islands as Alfred’s “destructive core” approaches and crosses the coast, the bureau says.

If Alfred crosses the coast on Friday morning during high tide, it may cause a dangerous storm surge along the coast, especially in waterfront suburbs near and south of the cyclone’s centre. This may inundate low-lying areas, such as canal communities of the Gold Coast.

In Brisbane, peak storm surges are expected from Thursday onwards. Some 20,000 properties have been warned of impacts ranging from minor inundation in yards to significant flooding inside homes. Areas most at risk include Nudgee Beach, Brighton, Windsor, Ashgrove, Morningside and Rocklea.

Damaging surf may also cause serious erosion at open beaches between Sandy Cape and Grafton, and further south into NSW.

From Thursday, residents in southeastern Queensland and northeastern NSW have been told to expect heavy to intense rain. It may lead to life-threatening flash flooding – again, near and south of the cyclone centre.

Northern NSW has already been hit by devastating flooding in recent years, most recently in February 2022. Many of its settlements, including Lismore, are along or close to major river courses. Residents are understandably anxious about what the next few days may bring.

The bureau released the below map on Wednesday morning. It shows the bureau’s best estimate of the cyclone’s future movement and intensity.

The grey zone indicates the range of tracks the cyclone centre may follow. The bureau says winds will almost certainly extend to regions outside the rings on this map.

Cyclone Alfred tracking map released by the Bureau of Meteorology on Wednesday morning shows it circling of the coast of southeast Queensland.
BoM

Why is Alfred so fired up?

Cyclone Alfred has been meandering off Queensland’s coast for almost two weeks. Unusually, it has maintained its cyclonic structure and intensity much further south than is typical.

Over the past two days, unique atmospheric and oceanic conditions have allowed Cyclone Alfred to intensify.

It moved towards an area of warmer coastal water (around 27°C), which caused it to strengthen. It also moved into an area of reduced “vertical wind shear” – a variation in wind speed running at right angles to prevailing winds, which often acts to weaken a cyclone.

Image showing high sea surface temperatures which are fuelling the cyclone.
BoM

Usually, cyclones in this part of Australian waters may brush the coast, but are soon pulled south or east by an upper trough of cold air and then flicked away into the cooler waters of the Tasman Sea – to an area known as the “cyclone graveyard”.

The current situation is unusual because that upper trough is absent. At the same time, a high pressure system in the Tasman Sea is steering the cyclone towards the coast.

The big question now is whether Alfred reaches category 3 – that is, very destructive winds of 165–224km per hour.

Should the cyclone’s forward motion towards the coast slow, it raises the chances of becoming a category 3 storm. That’s because it would spend more time passing over the warm area of coastal water.

Category 3 winds are likely to cause significant structural damage to some buildings. Brisbane is, to some extent, sheltered from the winds by offshore islands. Other areas, such as the Gold Coast, do not have such protections.

How long will the cyclone last?

As I write, gales are starting to rake the coast – including where I live, on the Sunshine Coast. Conditions will continue to deteriorate this afternoon and into tonight.

The cyclone will bring gale-force winds to a large area of coastline – from Double Island Point in the north to potentially as far south as Coffs Harbour.

By Thursday afternoon, conditions on land and just offshore will be pretty rough. If the cyclone keeps travelling at a constant speed, it will cross the coast in the early hours of Friday morning.

This is less than ideal. It will be dark and people can’t see what’s going on. But there is much affected communities can do to prepare, as outlined here.

For cyclone preparedness and safety advice, go to Get Ready Queensland. For emergency assistance call the State Emergency Service (SES) in NSW or Queensland on 132 500.

A Bureau of Meteorology update on Cyclone Alfred dated March 5.

Steve Turton has previously received funding from the federal government.

– ref. Cyclone Alfred is bearing down. Here’s how it grew so fierce – and where it’s expected to hit – https://theconversation.com/cyclone-alfred-is-bearing-down-heres-how-it-grew-so-fierce-and-where-its-expected-to-hit-251358

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

March 5, 2025
MIL-OSI Australia: Councils should apply flexibility to keep shelves stocked as Tropical Cyclone Alfred approaches

Source: New South Wales Government 2

Headline: Councils should apply flexibility to keep shelves stocked as Tropical Cyclone Alfred approaches

Published: 5 March 2025

Statement by: Minister for Planning and Public Spaces

The Minns Government is asking councils to take into consideration the need for additional supply chain support when responding to any complaints about operations at warehouses and distribution centres, wholesale and retail centres.

As the community prepares for the impacts of Tropical Cyclone Alfred, the NSW Government is asking councils to be considerate of the exceptional circumstances and support supermarkets and other essential retailers to help keep their shelves stocked.

The Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 and its regulation authorises councils to take compliance action in response to breaches of conditions of a development consent relating to operating hours, noise limits and vehicle movement caps.

We are reminding councils they also have discretion in choosing whether to exercise their enforcement powers. This includes considering the temporary nature of any breach, the low level of harm caused and the broader public interest in restoring supply chains.

MIL OSI News –

March 5, 2025
MIL-OSI New Zealand: Economic green shoots start on the dairy farm

Source: New Zealand Government

Increased production and higher export prices mean that New Zealand dairy farmers will play a big role in New Zealand’s economic recovery Agriculture Minister Todd McClay said in a speech at an Environmental Diary Leaders conference in Wellington today.

“Dairy exports are forecast to grow by around $4.5 billion this year meaning more money in the pockets of Kiwi farmers and more jobs in rural New Zealand,” Mr McClay says.

“The strong performance of our dairy farmers is welcome news for the economy as the government continues to lower inflation through careful spending meaning reducing interest rates and by delivering fewer and less costly regulations.

Milk production for the last season was up 4 per cent on the previous year, marking the highest level in a decade. December alone saw the strongest output in four years, meaning consumers around the world can enjoy more of the world’s highest quality and safest environmentally friendly grass fed dairy.

“Agriculture remains the backbone of our economy with food and fibre exports bringing in over $10,600 for every Kiwi, with dairy exports alone contributed $4,700 per person. The dairy industry also employs over 54,000 people,” Mr McClay says.

“The Government is committed to meeting our environmental and climate change obligations, but we will do this without closing down farms or sending jobs and production overseas.

“The primary sector is fundamental to achieving our ambitious goal of doubling exports by value in ten years and the coalition government is backing farmers to be world best.

“With strong production already in the vat, feed crops coming in, and consumers eager for our products, the sector is well positioned to turbo charge the economy and deliver for every New Zealander,” Mr McClay says.

MIL OSI New Zealand News –

March 5, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Senator Murray Highlights Stories of WA Businesses, Farms, Organizations Harmed by Trump’s Illegal Funding Freezes Ahead of Joint Address

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray
Murray has been a leading voice calling out the Trump administration for illegally freezing hundreds of billions of dollars owed to communities across the country, including hundreds of millions of dollars for Washington state
***WATCH VIDEO HERE; DOWNLOAD HERE***
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, held a virtual press conference with businesses and organizations across Washington state—from Bremerton, to Skagit County, to Vancouver, to Okanogan—who are being harmed by Trump’s ongoing illegal freezes on vast swaths of federal funding owed to Washington state and communities across the country, putting critical projects, jobs, and entire businesses at risk. Senator Murray has been raising the alarm nonstop and working to get out information on what Trump’s illegal funding freezes mean for people across the country since his Day One Executive Orders went into effect—these illegal Executive Orders are right now blocking hundreds of billions of dollars in funding from going out the door.
Joining Senator Murray for the press conference today were: Michael Frazier, Executive Director of Viva Farms in Skagit County; Rena Shawver, Executive Director of Okanogan County Community Action Council in Okanogan; Richard Schwarz, the CEO of Safe Boats in Bremerton; and Greg Franks, President of Manor Management Services, the management agency for Smith Tower in Vancouver. All four speakers represent businesses and organizations that have had federal funding they are owed frozen, cut off, or thrown into uncertainty because of the illegal actions of this administration.
Ahead of President Trump’s Joint Address to Congress, Senator Murray is lifting up the stories of real people in Washington state who are being hurt by Donald Trump’s reckless and illegal moves—from his indiscriminate mass firings across the federal workforce that will undermine services we all rely on and put lives at risk, to his illegal funding freezes that are seriously harming businesses and organizations across Washington state and putting them in financial jeopardy. Senator Murray’s statement on why she won’t be attending the Joint Address tonight is HERE.
“Despite what we may hear later tonight—the true state of our union is that Musk and Trump have ground it to a halt, by blocking important funding in total disregard of the law and total lack of concern over how their actions put American jobs at risk,” Senator Murray said on the press call today. “You won’t hear that from Trump tonight. But I can tell you—we are hearing it at my office, where the phones are still ringing off the hook with calls from business owners, farmers, workers, cities, Tribes, nonprofits, and so many other people who are seeing what this funding freeze means for the work they do, for the people they serve, and are desperate to raise the alarm. Trump and Musk may not want to hear about the damage they are causing—but I am not going to let them ignore it.”
“Viva Farms is a Skagit and King County based nonprofit farm-business training organization and incubator farm with a 15-year history of success growing the next generation of farmers. Our main focus is economic development: supporting farmers on their path to viability while supporting the larger food and agricultural economy. And, as a training program, we are concerned with the next generation of farmers; who will grow our food for the future? Including Viva’s Team, dozens of farm owners and their employees, over 100 people earn their livelihoods directly through our work, and all of this is at risk because of the current funding freeze,” said Michael Frazier, Executive Director of Viva Farms, based in Skagit County. Right now, because of Trump’s Executive Orders and subsequent actions to recall contracted federal funding, Viva Farms’ future is uncertain—they are unable to access a total of about $5 million awarded, multi-year federal grants, $1 million of which was to be spent this year. The loss of these funds could be catastrophic to the future of Viva Farms and many of the farmers they serve.
“Rural safety net programs for disaster relief, emergency assistance for basic needs, and job support are essential to the economic health of our entire community. The kind of programming that will run out of these facilities provide a safety net for working families and people in crisis. We hope to see the funding for these resiliency hubs come through soon,” said Rena Shawver, Executive Director of Okanogan County Community Action Council (OCCAC) in Okanogan, which supports working families and low-income residents with lifeline emergency services that help them get back on their feet. Right now, Trump’s Day One Executive Orders are blocking a $20 million Community Change Grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for OCCAC from moving forward—this funding will create a Food Hub to store the county’s food for assistance programs, and a multipurpose Community Center in Omak that would house job-training, daycare, energy assistance, and other programs to help the community become more resilient to the effects of poverty and disasters. The award was announced in December 2024 and the facility has been in design and development for over a decade. EPA was working on the contract with OCCAC for the funds when the freeze occurred; OCCAC now has not heard from the EPA since January 24th.
“We design and manufacture aluminum boats for coast guards, militaries, first responders. We’re a 100 percent employee-owned small business… Following the Executive Order that paused foreign assistance programs, we received stop work orders for all of our foreign military and security cooperation contracts that were issued through the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL). The majority of those boats were already in production and partially completed. Then we received additional stop work orders for the Mark VI patrol boats that we’re currently building for Ukraine, as well as for all the weapons systems for the Island-class Coast Guard cutters that are being refurbished for Ukraine by another shipyard. The Ukraine contract was stopped even though we have four boats completely done, two more in production, and have ordered most of the long lead materials for the remaining two. And now we’re being asked questions that lead us to at least fear that it’s possible that that contract could be cancelled in its entirety… In total, about 90 employees out of our total of 300 have been affected by these stop work orders. And then probably the most serious immediate concern is that late last month, we were also notified that we were not going to be paid for the work that we had completed on these programs—our invoices were issued after the Executive Order, but prior to the stop work orders on these contracts. That policy affects several millions of dollars worth of invoices and is clearly contrary to the terms of our contracts,” said Richard Schwarz, CEO of Bremerton-based Safe Boats International. SAFE Boats’ operations have been significantly disrupted since Trump took office—the company was told to stop building ships for partnered countries and wait for a 90-day review before it can restore the manufacturing or before contracts are canceled. Six SAFE Boats contracts awarded by the Navy, State Department, and Coast Guard have been placed on hold.
“After nearly 60 years of local organized labor leaders coming together and providing 170 affordable rental homes in Vancouver, Washington, to low- and extremely-low-income seniors, Smith Tower is in need of improvements to preserve the affordability and the structure for the next 60 years or more. Our government must ensure the predictable and timely delivery of funding commitments already made by HUD and EPA in order to avoid additional costs which could derail the project entirely and put at risk the stability and safety of these seniors’ homes and hundreds of jobs,” said Greg Franks, President of Manor Management Services, the management agency for Smith Tower in Vancouver, Washington. Smith Tower was awarded a $10 million loan through HUD’s Green and Resilient Retrofit Program in 2024, as well as an $11.5 million loan from EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund—this funding, although already awarded, is currently frozen by the Trump administration and at risk.
Senator Murray’s full remarks, as delivered on today’s press call, are below and video is HERE:
“Thank you so much for coming on today and sharing your stories; it is so important that people hear what is happening to all of you.
“As we all know, President Trump is coming to Congress tonight to give what is called the State of the Union, but I don’t think it’s right to call it a State of the Union because he’s going to be really ignoring the state of emergency that he and Elon have created through a very reckless and illegal funding freeze, and massive cuts.
“We have seen Trump put on this show before, and he is going to blow by the facts and reality of the harm that’s been caused, regardless of what’s actually happening—regardless of what’s actually happening, he’ll probably say that the state of the union is strong.
“Maybe for billionaires like him and Elon Musk—but I will tell you, for families across the country, for our small businesses, for our farms and people in Washington state who are just trying to get by, he has made life harder and made things a lot worse.
“He gave the richest man in the world the keys to the kingdom. And now, they’re cutting off funding that Congress, all of us, passed—and they’re doing it left and right.
“This is not making us safer. It is not making us stronger. It’s causing chaos, and it is costing us jobs.
“The illegal funding freeze is choking off funding for infrastructure and energy projects, investments to lower people’s electric bills.
“It is grinding cancer research to a halt, as researchers now are being cut off from the funds that they need to do things like replenish their basic lab supplies.
“It is putting our family farms and businesses in jeopardy, as farmers who took steps like installing solar panels, or upgrading their greenhouses—helping them save money while counting on federal assistance they were promised—they’re suddenly being stiffed by the billionaires who are now running the government.
“The freeze is hurting our forests and our parks. It is endangering our families, as groups like the Northwest Youth Corp have to suspend their crews and interns because their funds have been frozen—even funds for work they had already completed!
“It is hurting organizations like Safe Boats, which you will hear from in a minute. And they do the work that is critical to our national security—they will tell you about that—and now the Trump administration is really putting them in financial straits.
“Not to mention Tribes across our state who are still waiting on funding they were owed.
“Or in Waitsburg, Washington, where the frozen funding is risking their water main bursting—they can’t now get access a grant for a project to protect drinking water from flooding and earthquakes, wildfires and more. It is frozen; they can’t get to it.
“So, despite what we are going to hear tonight here, the true state of our nation is that Musk and Trump have ground it to a halt because they are blocking important funding—in total disregard of the law, by the way—and total lack of concern over how their actions put Americans and American jobs at risk.
“Probably won’t hear that from Trump tonight—but I can tell you, we are hearing it in my office. The phones are still ringing off the hook with calls from business owners, farmers, workers, cities, Tribes, nonprofits, so many people who are seeing what this funding freeze means for the work they are doing, for the people that they serve, and they are desperate to raise the alarm.
“You know, this is not like turning a light switch on and off, no harm is done. This is like fighting a fire, one President Trump himself set—and as long as they ignore this problem, or worse, keep fanning the flames—the worse it is going to get.
“Now, we have seen the impact we can have by speaking out. When everybody raising their voices and saying ‘we don’t want our country to be behaving like this.’ We have seen that if we raise the alarm, and raise our voices, and bring enough shame down on their heads—it is possible to get this administration to reverse the course.
“But we also know, we’ve got to be loud. We’ve got to be clear about what is at stake.
“They may not want to hear about the damage they are causing—but I am not going to let them ignore it.
“That is why tonight I am holding this call, so we can lift up the stories of people who actually are on the receiving end of Trump and Musk’s devastating freeze and who can say a bit, tell us about what is at stake for them, their communities, our country, if we don’t get things back on track.
“So I really appreciate all of you in coming on this today and sharing your stories so people understand what’s at stake and what’s happening to you.”

MIL OSI USA News –

March 5, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: AG investigation ends jewelry pyramid scheme in Washington state
Source: Washington State News

SEATTLE — Utah-based jewelry company Paparazzi will pay $1.9 million and reform its business practices in Washington state following an Attorney General’s Office investigation into the company’s pyramid scheme. Attorney General Nick Brown will send 7,100 Washingtonians who sold jewelry for the company checks of an average of $180 in the near future.

“Our investigation showed Washingtonians were clearly harmed by Paparazzi,” Brown said. “Advertising too-good-to-be-true returns on investments is one of the ways companies and individuals try to deceive Washingtonians.”

The payment is part of a resolution Paparazzi signed to avoid a lawsuit over violations of the state Consumer Protection Act and Antipyramid Promotional Scheme Act. Washingtonians who sold Paparazzi’s products can return to the company any unsold merchandise that they purchased after January 2017 for a full refund.

The binding resolution also requires the company to be more transparent if it wants to keep operating in Washington state. It creates a nationwide claims process for refunds for anyone who bought Paparazzi jewelry that contains the heavy metals lead and nickel. Paparazzi advertised certain products — including those marketed toward children and youth — as free from both heavy metals. Paparazzi’s own testing revealed that some of its products contained lead and nickel.

The resolution also reforms how Paparazzi can advertise its sales program, to include fully disclosing the income sales consultants would likely receive from its sales programs.

The Consumer Protection Division is largely funded through money recovered from businesses who have violated Washington’s Consumer Protection Act and similar laws, not by taxpayers. Specifically, a portion of Consumer Protection recoveries go into the Attorney General’s Civil Justice Operating Fund, which supports the Consumer Protection, Antitrust, Wing Luke Civil Rights, and Environmental Protection divisions. It also funds Medicaid Fraud Control and the Complex Litigation divisions.

Here are some recent key consumer protection victories:
- $1.3 billion in recoveries dedicated to combating the opioid epidemic at the state and local level.
- Blocking the Kroger and Albertson’s anticompetitive grocery store merger.
- Up to $40.6 million will be distributed to Washingtonians who overpaid for chicken and tuna products that were part of a price-fixing conspiracy.
- A nationwide agreement requiring Dollar Tree to monitor its testing labs to ensure they follow appropriate testing methods for lead and cadmium that are audited and verified through independent experts.
- Over $43 million in direct refunds and debt forgiveness to student loan borrowers.
- More than $158 million in debt relief to patients who Washington hospitals failed to screen for charity care.
- Our Consumer Protection Division has successfully challenged consumer “non-disclosure” agreements to make sure online reviews are honest and returned funds to consumers who signed illegal contracts.
- The Manufactured Housing Unit, recoups millions of dollars for tenants subjected to illegal rent hikes and other misconduct under the Manufactured Housing Landlord Tenant Act.
- The Wing Luke Civil Rights Division addresses discrimination in housing, employment, insurance, credit, and in government services and businesses open to the public. Recent wins illustrating the breadth of that work include wins against Allianz ($1.5 million, insurance discrimination), Greenridge Farming ($470,000, farmworker sexual harassment and retaliation) and Operation Veterans Assistance & Humanitarian Aid (more than $2.15 million, sexual harassment and retaliation at a chain of thrift stores).
Our Consumer Resource Center, which answers between 25,000-30,000 calls annually, returns over $10 million to consumers every year via its informal dispute resolution efforts. Assistant attorneys general also take calls and complaints throughout the year that result in additional consumer protection actions.

Assistant Attorneys General Ben Brysacz, Joe Kanada; Paralegals Joseph Drouin, Luis Oida and Heather Zamudio handled the case for Washington. Former Assistant Attorneys General Susana Croke, Kevin Eggers and Camille McDorman also handled the case before leaving the Attorney General’s Office.

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Washington’s Attorney General serves the people and the state of Washington. As the state’s largest law firm, the Attorney General’s Office provides legal representation to every state agency, board, and commission in Washington. Additionally, the Office serves the people directly by enforcing consumer protection, civil rights, and environmental protection laws. The Office also prosecutes elder abuse, Medicaid fraud, and handles sexually violent predator cases in 38 of Washington’s 39 counties. Visit www.atg.wa.gov to learn more.

Media Contact:

Email: press@atg.wa.gov

Phone: (360) 753-2727

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MIL OSI USA News –
March 5, 2025