Category: Europe

MIL-OSI Submissions: Indonesia can expand its gastrodiplomacy via plant-based meals in Europe: Research

Source: The Conversation – Indonesia – By Meilinda Sari Yayusman, Researcher in International Relations and European Studies, Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional (BRIN)

Raw vegetable and lettuce salad with Indonesian fried tempeh. Gekko Gallery/Shutterstock

Gastrodiplomacy as the practice of a country’s diplomacy by promoting its cuisine, is now gaining popularity in several countries across the globe, including South Korea and Thailand.

South Korea, for example, has introduced its so-called “Kimchi Diplomacy” in the world for the past years as part of the country’s soft power in promoting culinary culture. Thailand, meanwhile, has been spreading the influence of Thai food and expanding Thai restaurants around the globe, attracting the global communities to eat authentic Thai cuisine.

Indonesia, with diverse food and beverages as well as indigenous spices, has also started to resort to this strategy to promote the country in the global forum.

Our unpublished observation based on fieldwork in May 2023 and literature reviews since mid-2021 resulted in a recommendation for the Indonesian government to take advantage of its diverse menu for its gastrodiplomacy agenda.

We recommend Indonesia emphasise plant-based dishes for its gastrodiplomacy strategy in Europe, given the region’s rising trend of plant-based food consumption.

Why plant-based food

A growing number of people are increasingly considering plant-based food as a dietary alternative to maintain their health following global concerns on the negative impacts of processed foods on health, society and the environment.

Gado-gado (Indonesian authentic salad with peanut dressing).
Endah Kurnia P/Shutterstock

Indonesia has a lot of ingredients and spices to create plant-based menus that have met global healthy standards.

Among them are tempeh, a traditional Indonesian food made from fermented soybeans. The fermentation increases its nutritional quality. Tempeh has been known in the Netherlands and already has consumers in Europe. However, it is not widespread yet in the whole continent.

Gado-gado, the famous Indonesian salad with its authentic peanut butter dressing, has also seen an emerging popularity in the global market. From our fieldwork, we have learned that almost all Indonesian restaurants worldwide, such as in The Hague and Amsterdam, the Netherlands, usually have gado-gado on their menus.

Other plant-based cuisines that have potential to gain popularity abroad are asinan (fruit salad preserved with vinegar) and gudeg (jackfruit stewed in coconut milk).

However, our observation shows that Indonesian vegan menus have yet to be widely known in Europe and other continents. Indonesia should promote them in the global market.

Why Europe

Plant-based food trend has been currently growing in many industrialised countries, especially in Europe.

Gudeg, a traditional Javanese dish from Indonesia’s Yogyakarta, is made from young unripe jack fruit stewed for several hours with palm sugar, and coconut milk.
Ricky_herawan/Shutterstock

In Europe, the value of plant-based food sales increased by 49% between 2018 and 2020. This includes an expansion in the market for plant-based substitutes for meat and dairy.

In the Netherlands, for example, sales rose by 50% during the same period. Germany and Poland have also witnessed a notable surge in the sales of plant-based food products, with an increase of 97% and 62%, respectively.

With the change in people’s food consumption habits, Europe can be a significant, promising market for Indonesia to expand the promotion of its plant-based food products.

Taking advantage of current presence

The fact that Indonesia’s culinary presence in Europe is already evident, particularly in the Netherlands, should benefit Indonesia.

Based on our finding, no less than 392 Indonesian restaurants are operating in West and South Europe, majority of which (295) is in the Netherlands. They have become popular since the 1970s.

For hundreds of years, the Netherlands colonised parts of what is now Indonesia. The colonial history between the two nations has created a sense of romanticism, including what and how they ate in the past.

Many Indonesian citizens living in European countries own Indonesian cuisine restaurants, and recently, they have started to develop plant-based menus in their kitchens.

The Netherlands offers a promising hub for introducing Indonesian foods and establishing Indonesian restaurants in other parts of Europe.

Tofu is an Indonesian traditional food made from soybean.
Erly Damayanti/Shutterstock

As part of our observation, we visited some Indonesian restaurants in the Netherlands that are developing plant-based menus in their kitchens for vegans and vegetarians, in response to the rising popularity of plant-based food in European society.

Among them were De Vegetarische Toko, Toko Kalimantan, Bali Brunch 82 and Praboemoelih. They serve gado-gado, variants of tempeh and tofu and tumis buncis (vegetable stir-fry).

De Vegetarische Toko, for example, has creatively transformed some authentic Indonesian foods into vegan and vegetarian-friendly versions. They replace the meats in menus like rendang (slow-cooked beef stew in coconut milk and spices) and semur (beef stew) with tempeh, tofu, beans and peanuts.

With these creative innovations, these restaurants may have an excellent opportunity to extend and promote Indonesian plant-based meals more widely to other parts of Europe, thus supporting Indonesia’s gastrodiplomacy.

More support needed

Indonesia has acknowledged its gastrodiplomacy potential through several programs.

In 2021, Indonesia launched “Indonesia Spice Up the World”. It becomes the country’s first-ever concrete initiative to promote Indonesian cuisine and attract investment opportunities in local spices and herbs.

The initiative aims to increase Indonesian spice exports to US$2 billion, launch approximately 4,000 Indonesian restaurants abroad by 2024 and make Indonesia a culinary destination in the future.

To support this kind of initiative, the Indonesian government should regularly and intensively communicate with all stakeholders involved in the Indonesian culinary industry. The partnership should aim to support Indonesian diaspora entrepreneurs looking to start businesses in the food sector abroad.

One example is offering soft loans to these food entrepreneurs.
Bank BNI, Indonesia’s fourth-largest bank, has begun offering this kind of loan.

It is time for Indonesia to strengthen its international existence through gastrodiplomacy by taking advantage of the rising consumption of plant-based meals among global communities. Tempeh, gado-gado, asinan and gudeg can become a powerful weapon of Indonesia’s soft diplomacy on the global stage.

Meilinda Sari Yayusman receives funding by the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Indonesia.

Andika Ariwibowo receives funding by the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Indonesia.

Prima Nurahmi Mulyasari receives funding by the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Indonesia.

Ahmad Nuril Huda tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.

– ref. Indonesia can expand its gastrodiplomacy via plant-based meals in Europe: Research – https://theconversation.com/indonesia-can-expand-its-gastrodiplomacy-via-plant-based-meals-in-europe-research-209193

MIL OSI –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Submissions: Difficult work arrangements force many women to stop breastfeeding early. Here’s how to prevent this
Source: The Conversation – Indonesia – By Andini Pramono, Research officer, Department of Health Economics, Wellbeing and Society, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University

Research shows that six months of exclusive breastfeeding, and continuing until two years old or beyond, provide multiple benefits for the baby and mother.

It can prevent deaths both in infants and mothers – including in wealthy nations like the United States. It also benefits the global economy and the enviroment.

However, after maternity leave ends, mothers returning to paid work face many challenges maintaining breastfeeding. This often leads mothers to stop breastfeeding their children before six months – the duration of exclusive breastfeeding recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and others.

According to the WHO, less than half of babies under six months old worldwide are exclusively breastfed.

In Indonesia, research shows 83% of mothers initiate breastfeeding, but only 57% are still breastfeeding at around six months. In Australia, 96% of mothers start breastfeeding, but then there is a rapid fall to only 39% by around three months and only 15% by around five months.

Among the key reasons for low rates of exclusive breastfeeding are the difficult work conditions women face when they return to paid work.

So how can governments and workplaces – especially in countries that have yet to do enough, like Indonesia and Australia – better support breastfeeding mothers, particularly at work?

Half a billion reasons to change

For more than a century, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has set global standards for maternity protection through the Maternity Protection Convention and accompanying recommendations, as well as the ILO Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, aiming to protect female workers’ rights.

So far, only 66 member states have ratified at least one of the Maternity Protection Conventions, while 43 have ratified the Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention. Unfortunately, Indonesia has not ratified either convention. So far, Australia has only ratified the family responsibilities convention.

In some countries, protections are aligned with the ILO Conventions. For example, in Denmark and Norway, the governments offer maternity leave of at least 14 weeks. During leave, mothers’ earnings are protected at a rate of at least two-thirds of their pre-birth earnings. Public funds ensure this is done in a manner determined by national law and practice, so the employer is not solely responsible for the payment.

A Canadian study highlights the proportion of mothers exclusively breastfeeding to six months increased by almost 40% when paid maternity leave was expanded from six to 12 months. At the same time, average breastfeeding duration increased by one month, from five to six months.

Evidence shows paid maternity leave and providing an adequate lactation room at work both contribute positively to breastfeeding rates.

Despite this, half a billion women globally still lack adequate maternity protections.

For example, welfare reforms in the US encouraging new mothers’ return to work within 12 weeks led to a 16–18% reduction in breastfeeding initiation. It also saw a four to six week reduction in the time babies were breastfed.

Indonesia and Australia aren’t doing enough

Neither Indonesia or Australia are currently doing enough to meet the ILO’s maternity protection standards.

In Indonesia, the 2003 Labour Law urges companies to give 12 weeks of paid maternity leave for women workers to support breastfeeding. Furthermore, the 2012 regulation on exclusive breastfeeding obligates workplace and public space management to provide a space or facility to breastfeed and express breast milk. However, the monitoring of its implementation is weak.

In Australia, paid parental leave (PPL) policy supports parents who take time off from paid work to care for their young children.

Eligible working mothers or primary carers are entitled to up to 20 weeks (or 22 weeks if the child is born or adopted from 1 July 2024) of government paid parental leave within the first two years of the birth or adoption of a child.

In the Federal Budget announced on 15 May 2024, the Australian government has added payment of superannuation contributions to the parental leave package for births and adoptions on or after 1 July 2025. However, the PPL is a low amount, paid at the national minimum wage ($882.80 per week)].

Some mothers can combine the government payment with additional paid leave from their employer. However in 2022-2023, only 63% of Australian employers offered this, leaving nearly half of new mothers with only minimum financial support.

Unlike Indonesia, Australia has no legal requirement for employers to offer paid breastfeeding breaks in their workplace, so mothers can express and take home their breastmilk. This can badly impact women’s and children’s health.

While Australia’s support for breastfeeding mothers is welcome, it’s still inadequate to meet the ILO’s international standard – particularly Australia’s low payment rate of government PPL (at the minimum wage, rather than two-thirds of previous earnings) and the lack of legislation for paid breastfeeding breaks.

How employers and colleagues can help

Globally, the barriers to maintain breastfeeding include not only lack of maternity leave duration and pay, but also unavailability of breastfeeding and breast pumping facilities at workplaces, sometimes unsupportive colleagues and supervisors, and lack of time at work to breastfeed or expressing breastmilk.

Breastfeeding a baby should not preclude women from earning a living. In 2022, female workers were 39.5% of total workers globally, while in Australia and Indonesia they made up 47.4% and 39.5% respectively.

An accessible facility or space for breastfeeding or breast pumping is vital to support breastfeeding working mothers.

In Indonesia, a 2013 Ministry of Health regulation outlines the procedure for an employer to provide a space and facility for mothers to breastfeed and breast pump.

The minimum specifications of this facility are described as a lockable, clean and quiet room, with a sink for washing, suitable temperature, lighting and flooring. While these specifications are technically mandatory, monitoring is weak, meaning if employers fail to meet the requirements there are no specific consequences.

But a breastfeeding space alone is not enough. In many jobs, mothers cannot leave their tasks during working hours, even if there is a lactation room.

Supportive employers need to regulate time and flexibility to breastfeed and express breastmilk, including providing flexible working arrangements and paid breastfeeding breaks during working hours. Supportive attitudes from co-workers and managers are also important.

Suitable staff training on breastfeeding and policies supporting mothers, such as providing time and facility to express breastmilk in work hours, are crucial. Training on how to support co-worker can include anything from basic information breastfeeding, to what to say (or not say) with a breastfeeding co-worker.

Access to supportive childcare is another issue globally.

For those families who can access childcare, childcare centres can also help by:
- encouraging and accommodating mothers to visit for breastfeeding
- having written policies supporting breastfeeding
- providing parents with resources on breastfeeding
- and referring parents to community resources for breastfeeding support.
Practical ways to support more families

The Australian Breastfeeding Association has an accreditation program that helps workplaces to be breastfeeding-friendly. Workplace policies, including adequate time and space for pumping, are positively associated with longer breastfeeding duration.

The program assesses workplaces for three aspects: time, space and supportive culture. This means, workplaces are encouraged to provide a special space and time for breastfeeding and breast pumping in a supportive culture and flexible working hours.

Mothers should consider to prepare how to align breastfeeding with work early – during pregnancy. Start by discussing your breastfeeding goals with healthcare professionals and finding a baby-friendly hospital.

Discuss your breastfeeding plan with your supervisor at work during your pregnancy, including finding out your maternity leave (paid and unpaid) entitlements. Also consider childcare arrangements that will work best for you with breastfeeding.

For further information and support, you can find resources from local breastfeeding support groups, such as the Indonesian Breastfeeding Mothers Association and Australian Breastfeeding Association.

Julie P. Smith is a qualified breastfeeding counselor and honorary member of the Australian Breastfeeding Association.

Andini Pramono dan Liana Leach tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.

– ref. Difficult work arrangements force many women to stop breastfeeding early. Here’s how to prevent this – https://theconversation.com/difficult-work-arrangements-force-many-women-to-stop-breastfeeding-early-heres-how-to-prevent-this-211831
MIL OSI –
July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Submissions: Will the fragile ceasefire between Iran and Israel hold? One factor could be crucial to it sticking

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Ali Mamouri, Research Fellow, Middle East Studies, Deakin University

Amir Levy/Getty Images

After 12 days of war, US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran that would bring to an end the most dramatic, direct conflict between the two nations in decades.

Israel and Iran both agreed to adhere to the ceasefire, though they said they would respond with force to any breach.

If the ceasefire holds – a big if – the key question will be whether this signals the start of lasting peace, or merely a brief pause before renewed conflict.

As contemporary war studies show, peace tends to endure under one of two conditions: either the total defeat of one side, or the establishment of mutual deterrence. This means both parties refrain from aggression because the expected costs of retaliation far outweigh any potential gains.

What did each side gain?

The war has marked a turning point for Israel in its decades-long confrontation with Iran. For the first time, Israel successfully brought a prolonged battle to Iranian soil, shifting the conflict from confrontations with Iranian-backed proxy militant groups to direct strikes on Iran itself.

This was made possible largely due to Israel’s success over the past two years in weakening Iran’s regional proxy network, particularly Hezbollah in Lebanon and Shiite militias in Syria.

Over the past two weeks, Israel has inflicted significant damage on Iran’s military and scientific elite, killing several high-ranking commanders and nuclear scientists. The civilian toll was also high.

Additionally, Israel achieved a major strategic objective by pulling the United States directly into the conflict. In coordination with Israel, the US launched strikes on three of Iran’s primary nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

Despite these gains, Israel has not accomplished all of its stated goals. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had voiced support for regime change, urging Iranians to rise up against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s government, but the senior leadership in Iran remains intact.

Additionally, Israel has not fully eliminated Iran’s missile program. (Iran continued striking to the last minute before the ceasefire.) And Tehran did not acquiesce to Trump’s pre-war demand to end uranium enrichment.

Although Iran was caught off-guard by Israel’s attacks — particularly as it was engaged in nuclear negotiations with the US — it responded by launching hundreds of missiles towards Israel.

While many were intercepted, a significant number penetrated Israeli air defences, causing widespread destruction in major cities, dozens of fatalities and hundreds of injuries.

Iran has demonstrated its capacity to strike back, though Israel has succeeded in destroying many of its air defence systems, some ballistic missile assets (including missile launchers) and multiple energy facilities.

Since the beginning of the assault, Iranian officials have repeatedly called for a halt to resume negotiations. Under such intense pressure, Iran has realised it would not benefit from a prolonged war of attrition with Israel — especially as both nations face mounting costs and the risk of depleting their military stockpiles if the war continues.

As theories of victory suggest, success in war is defined not only by the damage inflicted, but by achieving core strategic goals and weakening the enemy’s will and capacity to resist.

While Israel claims to have achieved the bulk of its objectives, the extent of the damage to Iran’s nuclear program is not fully known, nor is its capacity to continue enriching uranium.

Both sides could remain locked in a volatile standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, with the conflict potentially reigniting whenever either side perceives a strategic opportunity.

Sticking point over Iran’s nuclear program

Iran faces even greater challenges when it emerges from the war. With a heavy toll on its leadership and nuclear infrastructure, Tehran will likely prioritise rebuilding its deterrence capability.

That includes acquiring new advanced air defence systems — potentially from China — and restoring key components of its missile and nuclear programs. (Some experts say Iran has not used some of its most powerful missiles to maintain this deterrence.)

Iranian officials have claimed they safeguarded more than 400 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium before the attacks. This stockpile could theoretically be converted into nine to ten nuclear warheads if further enriched to 90%.

Trump declared Iran’s nuclear capacity had been “totally obliterated”, whereas Rafael Grossi, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog chief, said damage to Iran’s facilities was “very significant”.

However, analysts have argued Iran will still have a depth of technical knowledge accumulated over decades. Depending on the extent of the damage to its underground facilities, Iran could be capable of restoring and even accelerating its program in a relatively short time frame.

And the chances of reviving negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program appear slimmer than ever.

What might future deterrence look like?

The war has fundamentally reshaped how both Iran and Israel perceive deterrence — and how they plan to secure it going forward.

For Iran, the conflict has reinforced the belief that its survival is at stake. With regime change openly discussed during the war, Iran’s leaders appear more convinced than ever that true deterrence requires two key pillars: nuclear weapons capability, and deeper strategic alignment with China and Russia.

As a result, Iran is expected to move rapidly to restore and advance its nuclear program, potentially moving towards actual weaponisation — a step it had long avoided, officially.

At the same time, Tehran is likely to accelerate military and economic cooperation with Beijing and Moscow to hedge against isolation. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi emphasised this close engagement with Russia during a visit to Moscow this week, particularly on nuclear matters.

Israel, meanwhile, sees deterrence as requiring constant vigilance and a credible threat of overwhelming retaliation. In the absence of diplomatic breakthroughs, Israel may adopt a policy of immediate preemptive strikes on Iranian facilities or leadership figures if it detects any new escalation — particularly related to Iran’s nuclear program.

In this context, the current ceasefire already appears fragile. Without comprehensive negotiations that address the core issues — namely, Iran’s nuclear capabilities — the pause in hostilities may prove temporary.

Mutual deterrence may prevent a more protracted war for now, but the balance remains precarious and could collapse with little warning.

Ali Mamouri 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. Will the fragile ceasefire between Iran and Israel hold? One factor could be crucial to it sticking – https://theconversation.com/will-the-fragile-ceasefire-between-iran-and-israel-hold-one-factor-could-be-crucial-to-it-sticking-259669

MIL OSI –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Submissions: AI applications are producing cleaner cities, smarter homes and more efficient transit

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Mohammadamin Ahmadfard, Postdoctoral Fellow, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, Toronto Metropolitan University

Artificial intelligence (AI) is quietly transforming how cities generate, store and distribute energy, acting as the invisible conductor that orchestrates cleaner, smarter and more resilient cities.

By integrating renewables — from solar panels and wind turbines to geothermal grids, hydrogen plants, electric vehicles and batteries — AI can enable cities to manage diverse energy sources as a single, intelligent system.

One striking example is the Oya Hybrid Power Station in South Africa. Here, AI-driven controls seamlessly co-ordinate solar, wind and battery storage to deliver reliable power to up to 320,000 households. Using AI makes this kind of integration not only possible, but dramatically more efficient.

Recent research shows AI can also optimize how batteries, solar and the grid interact in buildings. A 2023 study found that deep learning and real-time data helped a boarding school in Turin, Italy increase low-cost energy purchases and cut its electricity bill by more than half.

Cleaner, smarter energy grids

AI models are increasingly able to predict weather with greater precision. These predictions allow electric grid operators to plan hours ahead, storing excess energy in batteries or adjusting supply to meet demand before a storm or heatwave hits.

Using AI to respond strategically to weather is a game-changer. In Cambridge, England, a system called Aardvark uses satellite and sensor data to generate rapid, accurate forecasts of sun and wind patterns.

Unlike traditional supercomputer-driven weather models, Aardvark’s AI can deliver precise local forecasts in minutes on an ordinary computer. This makes advanced weather prediction more accessible and affordable for cities, utilities and even smaller organizations — potentially transforming how communities everywhere plan for and respond to changing weather.

AI models are increasingly able to predict weather with greater precision, allowing electric grid operators to plan ahead, storing excess energy in batteries or adjusting supply to meet demand before a storm or heat wave hits.
(Shutterstock)

AI for smarter district heating and cooling

In Munich, Germany, AI is improving geothermal district heating by using underground sensors to monitor temperature and moisture levels in the ground.

The collected data feeds into a digital simulation model that helps optimize network operations. In more advanced versions, during winter cold snaps, such systems can suggest lowering flow to underused spaces like half-empty offices and boosting heat where demand is higher, such as in crowded apartments.

This intelligent, self-optimizing approach extends the life of equipment and delivers more warmth with the same energy input.

This is a breakthrough with enormous potential for cities in cold climates with established geothermal networks, such as Winnipeg in Canada and Iceland’s Reykjavik.

Although these cities have not yet adopted AI-driven monitoring systems, they could benefit from AI’s real-time improvements in efficiency, comfort and energy savings during harsh winters — a principle that holds true wherever geothermal district heating and cooling exists.

Inside the home, AI-managed smart climate systems can factor in how many people are in each room, which appliances are in use, how much natural sunlight each space receives.
(Shutterstock)

Smart buildings

Inside the home, AI-managed smart climate systems can factor in how many people are in each room, which appliances are in use, how much natural sunlight each space receives and how much electricity or heat a home’s solar panels generate throughout the day.

Based on this, AI determines how to heat or cool rooms efficiently, and can transfer energy from one space to another, balancing comfort with minimal energy use.

Coastal cities and those in wind-heavy regions are using AI in other creative ways. In Orkney, Scotland, excess wind and tidal energy are converted into green hydrogen. Instead of letting that surplus power go to waste, an AI system called HyAI controls when to generate hydrogen based on wind forecasts, electricity prices and how full the hydrogen storage tanks are.

When winds are strong at night and electricity is cheap, the AI can divert surplus power to produce hydrogen and store it for later use. On calmer days, that stored hydrogen can power fuel cells or buses.

Energy storage

AI is transforming energy storage into a smart, revenue-generating force. In Finland, a startup called Capalo AI has developed Zeus VPP, an AI-powered virtual power plant that aggregates distributed batteries from homes, businesses and other sites.

Zeus VPP uses advanced forecasting and AI algorithms to decide when batteries should charge or discharge, factoring in energy prices, local consumption and weather forecasts. This enables battery owners to earn revenue by participating in electricity markets, while also supporting grid stability and making better use of renewable energy.

Utility companies are also using AI to monitor everything from high-voltage transmission lines to neighbourhood transformers, dramatically increasing reliability.

AI-powered dynamic line rating adjusts how much electricity a line can carry in real time, boosting capacity by 15 to 30 per cent when conditions allow. This helps utilities maximize the use of existing infrastructure instead of relying on costly upgrades.

At the local level, AI analyzes smart metre data to predict which transformers are overheating due to rising EV and heat pump use.

By forecasting these stress points, utilities can proactively upgrade equipment before failures happen — a shift from reactive to predictive maintenance that makes the grid stronger and cities more resilient.

AI-powered public transit and mobility

Transportation innovation is becoming part of the energy solution, with AI at the centre of this transformation. In New York City, energy company Con Edison has installed major battery storage systems to help manage peak electricity demand and reduce reliance on polluting peaker plants, which supply energy only during high-demand periods.

More broadly, Con Edison is deploying advanced AI-powered analytics software across its electric grid — optimizing voltage, enhancing reliability and enabling predictive maintenance. Together, these efforts show how combining energy storage and AI-driven analytics can make even the world’s busiest cities more resilient and efficient.

AI is also powering “vehicle-to-grid” innovations in California, where an AI-driven platform manages electric school buses that can supply stored energy back to the grid during periods of high demand.

By carefully managing when buses charge and discharge, these systems help keep the grid reliable and ensure vehicles are ready for their daily routes. As this technology expands, parked electric vehicles could serve as valuable backup resources for the electricity system.

Transportation innovation is becoming part of the energy solution.
(Shutterstock)

AI for clean energy initiatives

AI is rapidly transforming cities by revolutionizing how energy is used and managed. Google, for example, has slashed cooling energy at its data centres by up to 40 per cent using AI that fine-tunes fans, pumps and windows more efficiently than any human operator.

Organizations like the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), in collaboration with NVIDIA, Microsoft and others, have launched the Open Power AI Consortium, which is creating open-source AI tools for utilities worldwide.

These tools will enable even the most resource-constrained cities to deploy advanced AI capabilities, without having to start from scratch, helping to level the playing field and accelerate the global energy transition.

The result is not just cleaner air and lower energy bills, but a path to fewer blackouts and more resilient homes.

Mohammadamin Ahmadfard receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Mitacs Inc. for his postdoctoral research at Toronto Metropolitan University.

– ref. AI applications are producing cleaner cities, smarter homes and more efficient transit – https://theconversation.com/ai-applications-are-producing-cleaner-cities-smarter-homes-and-more-efficient-transit-256291

MIL OSI –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Submissions: Ibn Battuta, a 14th-century judge and ambassador, travelled further than Marco Polo. The Rihla records his adventures

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Ismail Albayrak, Professor of Islam and Catholic Muslim Relations, Australian Catholic University

In our guides to the classics, experts explain key literary works.

Ibn Battuta, was born in Tangier, Morocco, on February 24, 1304. From a statement in his celebrated travel book the Rihla (“legal affairs are my ancestral profession,”) he evidently came from an intellectually distinguished family.

According to the Rihla (travelogue), Ibn Battuta embarked on his travels from Tangier at the age of 22 with the intention of performing the Hajj (the sacred pilgrimage to Mecca) in 1325. Although he returned to Fez (his adopted home-town) around the end of 1349, he continued to visit various regions, including Granada and Sudan, in subsequent years.

Over the course of his almost 30 years of travel, Ibn Battuta covered an astonishing distance of approximately 73,000 miles (117,000 kilometres), visiting a region that today encompasses more than 50 countries. His journeys covered much of the medieval Islamic world and beyond, excluding Northern Europe.

In 1355, he returned to Morocco for the last time and remained there for the rest of his life. Upon his return he dictated his experiences, observations and anecdotes to the Andalusian scholar Ibn Juzayy, with a compilation of his travels completed in 1355 or 1356.

The work, formally titled A Gift to Researchers on the Curiosities of Cities and the Marvels of Journeys, is more commonly referred to as Rihlat Ibn Battuta or simply Rihla.

A painting of Ibn Battuta (on right) in Egypt by Leon Benett.
Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

More than a travelogue or geographical record, this book provides rich insights into 14th-century social and political life, capturing cultural diversity across nations. Ibn Battuta details local lifestyles, linguistic traits, beliefs, clothing, cuisines, holidays, artistic traditions and gender relations, as well as commercial activities and currencies.

His observations also include geographical features such as mountains, rivers and agricultural products. Notably, the work highlights his encounters with over 60 sultans and more than 2,000 prominent figures, making it a valuable historical resource.

The travels

His travels began after a dream. According to Ibn Battuta, one night, while in Fuwwa, a town near Alexandria in Egypt, he dreamed of flying on a massive bird across various lands, landing in a dark, greenish country.

To test the local sheikh’s mystical knowledge, he decided if the sheikh knew of his dream, he was truly extraordinary. The next morning, after leading the dawn prayer, he saw the sheikh bid farewell to visitors. Later, the sheikh astonishingly revealed knowledge of Ibn Battuta’s dream and prophesied his pilgrimage through Yemen, Iraq, Turkey and India.

At the time, the Middle East was under the rule of the Mamluk sultanate, Anatolia was divided among principalities and the Mongol Ilkhanate state controlled Iran, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent.

Ibn Battuta initially travelled through North Africa, Egypt, Palestine and Syria, completing his first Hajj in 1326.

He then visited Iraq and Iran, returning to Mecca. In 1328, he explored East Africa, reaching Mogadishu, Mombasa, Sudan and Kilwa (modern Tanzania), as well as Yemen, Oman and Anatolia, where he documented cities like Alanya, Konya, Erzurum, Nicaea and Bursa.

His descriptions are vivid. Describing the city of Dimyat, on the bank of the Nile, he says:

Many of the houses have steps leading down to the Nile. Banana trees are especially abundant there, and their fruit is carried to Cairo in boats. Its sheep and goats are allowed to pasture at liberty day and night, and for this reason the saying goes of Dimyat, ‘Its wall is a sweetmeat and its dogs are sheep’. No one who enters the city may afterwards leave it except by the governor’s seal […]

Farmland on the banks of the Nile river today.
Alice-D/shutterstock

When it comes to Anatolia (in modern-day Turkey), he declares:

This country, known as the Land of Rum, is the most beautiful in the world. While Allah Almighty has distributed beauty to other lands separately, He has gathered them all here. The most beautiful and well-dressed people live in this land, and the most delicious food is prepared here […] From the moment we arrived, our neighbors — both men and women — showed great concern for our wellbeing. Here, women do not shy away from men; when we departed, they bid us farewell as if we were family, expressing their sadness through tears.

A judge and husband

In 1332, Ibn Battutua met the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos.
Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

Since Ibn Battuta dictated his work, it’s difficult to assess the extent of the scribe’s influence in recording his narratives. Despite being an educated man, he occasionally narrates like a commoner and sometimes exceeds the bounds of polite language. At times, he provides excessive detail, giving the impression he may be quoting from sources beyond his own observations.

Nevertheless, the Rihla stands out for its engaging style and captivating anecdotes, drawing readers in.

Ibn Battuta later journeyed through Crimea, Central Asia, Khwarezm (a large oasis region in the territories of present-day Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), Bukhara (a city in Uzbekistan), and the Hindu Kush Mountains. In 1332, he met Byzantine Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos and travelled to Istanbul with the caravan of Uzbek Khan’s third wife. He mentions a caravan that even has a market:

Whenever the caravan halted, food was cooked in great brass cauldrons, called dasts, and supplied from them to the poorer pilgrims and those who had no provisions. […] This caravan contained also animated bazaars and great supplies of luxuries and all kinds of food and fruit. They used to march during the night and light torches in front of the file of camels and litters, so that you saw the countryside gleaming with light and the darkness turned into radiant day.

Ibn Battuta arrived in Delhi in 1333, where he served as a judge under Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq for seven years. He married or was married to local women in many of the places he stayed. Among his wives were ordinary people as well as the daughters of the administrative class.

Miniature painting in Mughal style depicting the court of Muhammad bin Tughluq.
Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

The Sultan’s generosity, intelligence and unconventional ruling style both impressed and surprised Ibn Battuta. However, Muhammad bin Tughluq was known for making excessively harsh and abrupt decisions at times, which led Ibn Battuta to approach him with caution. Nevertheless, with the Sultan’s support, he remained in India for a long time and was eventually chosen as an ambassador to China in 1341.

In 1345 his mission was disrupted when his ship capsized off the coast of Calcutta (then known as Sadqawan) in the Indian Ocean. Though he survived, he lost most of his possessions.

After the incident, he remained in India for a while before continuing his journey by other means. During this period, he travelled through India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. He served as a judge in the latter for one and a half years. In 1345, he journeyed to China via Bengal, Burma and Sumatra, reaching the city of Guangzhou but limiting his exploration to the southern coast.

He was among the first Arab travellers to record Islam’s spread in the Malay Archipelago, noting interactions between Muslims and Hindu-Buddhist communities. Visiting Java and Sumatra, he praised Sultan Malik al-Zahir of Sumatra as a generous, pious and scholarly ruler and highlighted his rare practice of walking to Friday prayers.

On his return, Ibn Battuta explored regions such as Iran, Iraq, North Africa, Spain and the Kingdom of Mali, documenting the vast Islamic world.

Back in his homeland, Ibn Battuta served as a judge in several locations. He died around 1368-9 while serving as a judge in Morocco and was buried in his birthplace, Tangier.

Historic copy of selected parts of the Travel Report by Ibn Battuta, 1836 CE, Cairo.
Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

The status of women

Ibn Battuta’s travels revealed intriguing insights into the status of women across regions. In inner West Africa, he observed matriarchal practices where lineage and inheritance were determined by the mother’s family.

Among Turks, women rode horses like raiders, traded actively and did not veil their faces.

In the Maldives, husbands leaving the region had to abandon their wives. He noted that Muslim women there, including the ruling woman, did not cover their heads. Despite attempting to enforce the hijab as a judge, he failed.

He offers fascinating insights into food cultures. In Siberia, sled dogs were fed before humans. He described 15-day wedding feasts in India.

He tried local produce such as mango in the Indian subcontinent, which he compared to an apple, and sun-dried, sliced fish in Oman.

Religious practices

Ibn Battuta’s accounts of the Hajj (pilgrimage) rituals he performed six times provide a unique perspective. He references a fatwa by Ibn Taymiyyah, prominent Islamic scholar and theologian known for his opposition to theological innovations and critiques of Sufism and philosophy, advising against shortening prayers for those travelling to Medina.

Ibn Battuta’s accounts, particularly regarding the Iranian region, offer important perspectives into religious sects during a period when Iran started shifting from Sunnism to Shiism. He describes societies with diverse demographics, including Persians, Azeris, Kurds, Arabs and Baluchis. His observations on religious practices are especially significant.

Inclined toward Sufism, Ibn Battuta often dressed like a dervish during his travels. He offers a compelling view of Islamic mysticism. He considered regions like Damascus as places of abundance and Anatolia as a land of compassion, interpreting them with a spiritual perspective.

His accounts of Sufi education, dervish lodges, zawiyas (similar to monasteries), and tombs, along with the special invocations of Sufi masters, are important historical records. He also observed and documented unique practices, such as the followers of the Persian Sufi saint Sheikh Qutb al-Din Haydar wearing iron rings on their hands, necks, ears, and even private parts to avoid sexual intercourse.

While Ibn Battuta primarily visited Muslim lands, he also travelled to non-Muslim territories, offering key understandings into different religious cultures, for instance interactions between Crimean Muslims and Christian Armenians in the Golden Horde region.

He also documented churches, icons and monasteries, such as the tomb of the Virgin Mary in Jerusalem. His observation of Muslims openly reciting the call to prayer (adhan) in China is significant.

Other anecdotes include the division of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus into a mosque and Christian church. Most importantly, his encounters with Hindus and Buddhists in the Indian subcontinent and Malay Islands provide rich historical context.

Umayyad Mosque, Damascus.
eyetravelphotos/shutterstock

His accounts of death rituals reveal diverse practices. In Sinop (a city in Turkey), 40 days of mourning were declared for a ruler’s mother, while in Iran, a funeral resembled a wedding celebration. He observed similarities in cremation practices between India and China and described a chilling custom in some regions where slaves and concubines were buried alive with the deceased.

Ibn Battuta’s Rihla, widely translated into Eastern and Western languages, has drawn some criticism for containing depictions that sometimes diverge from historical continuity or borrow from other works. Ibn Battuta himself admitted to using earlier travel books as references.

Despite limited recognition in older sources, the Rihla gained prominence in the West in the 19th century. His legacy remains vibrant today. Morocco declared 1996–1997 the “Year of Ibn Battuta,” and established a museum in Tangier to honour him. In Dubai, a mall is named after him.

Notably, Ibn Battuta travelled to more destinations than Marco Polo and shared a broader range of humane anecdotes, showcasing the depth and diversity of his experiences.

Ismail Albayrak 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. Ibn Battuta, a 14th-century judge and ambassador, travelled further than Marco Polo. The Rihla records his adventures – https://theconversation.com/ibn-battuta-a-14th-century-judge-and-ambassador-travelled-further-than-marco-polo-the-rihla-records-his-adventures-246148

MIL OSI –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Submissions: AI is consuming more power than the grid can handle — nuclear might be the answer

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Goran Calic, Associate Profesor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship Leadership Chair, McMaster University

New partnerships are forming between tech companies and power operators — ones that could reshape decades of misconceptions about nuclear energy.

Last year, Meta (Facebook’s parent company) put out a call for nuclear proposals, Google agreed to buy new nuclear reactors from Kairos Power, Amazon partnered with Energy Northwest and Dominion Energy to develop nuclear energy and Microsoft committed to a 20-year deal to restart Unit 1 of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant.

At the centre of these partnerships is artificial intelligence’s voracious appetite for electricity. One Google search uses about as much electricity as turning on a household light for 17 seconds. Asking a Generative AI model like ChatGPT a single question is equivalent to leaving that light on for 20 minutes.

Read more:
AI is bad for the environment, and the problem is bigger than energy consumption

Having GenAI generate an image can draw about 6,250 times more electricity, roughly the energy of fully charging a smartphone, or enough to keep the same light bulb on for 87 consecutive days.

The hundreds of millions of people now using AI have effectively added the equivalent of millions of new homes to the power grid. And demand is only growing. The challenge for tech companies is that few sources of electricity are well-suited to AI.

The grid wasn’t ready for AI

AI requires vast amounts of computational power running around the clock, often housed in energy-intensive data centres.

Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind provide intermittent energy, meaning they don’t guarantee the constant power supply these data centres require. These centres must be online 24/7, even when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.

Fossil fuels can run continuously, but they carry their own risks. They have significant environmental impacts. Fuel prices can be unpredictable, as exemplified by the gas price spikes due to the war in Ukraine, and the long-term availability of fossil fuels is uncertain.

Major tech companies like Google, Amazon and Microsoft say they are committed to eliminating CO2 emissions, making fossil fuels a poor long-term fit for them.

This has pushed nuclear energy back into the conversation. Nuclear energy is a good fit because it provides electricity around the clock, maximizing the use of expensive data centres. It’s also clean, allowing tech companies to meet their low CO2 commitments. Lastly, nuclear energy has very low fuel costs, which allows tech companies to plan their costs far into the future.

However, nuclear energy has its own set of problems that have historically been hard to solve — problems that tech companies may now be uniquely positioned to overcome.

Is nuclear energy making a comeback?

Nuclear power has long been considered too costly and too slow to build. The estimated cost of a 1.1 gigawatt nuclear power facility is about US$7.77 billion, but can run higher. The recently completed Vogtle Units 3 and 4 in the state of Georgia, for example, cost US$36.8 billion combined.

Historically, nuclear energy projects have been hard to justify because of their high upfront costs. Like solar and wind power, nuclear energy has relatively low operating costs once a plant is up and running. The key difference is scale: unlike solar panels, which can be installed on individual rooftops, the kind of nuclear reactors tech companies require can’t be built small.

Yet this cost is now more palatable when compared to the expense of AI data centres, which are both more costly and entirely useless without electricity. The first phase of OpenAI and SoftBank’s Stargate AI project will cost US$100 billion and could be entirely powered by a single nuclear plant.

Nuclear power plants also take a long time to build. A 1.1 gigawatt reactor takes, on average, 7.5 years in the U.S. and 6.3 years globally. Projects with such long timelines require confidence in long-term electricity demand, something traditional utilities struggle to predict.

To solve the problem of long-range forecasting, tech companies are incentivizing power providers by guaranteeing they’ll purchase electricity far into the future.

These companies are also literally and financially moving closer to nuclear power, either by acquiring nuclear energy companies or locating their data centres next to nuclear power plants.

Destigmatizing nuclear energy

One of the biggest challenges facing nuclear energy is the perception that it’s dangerous and dirty. Per gigawatt-hour of electricity, nuclear produces only six tonnes of CO2. In comparison, coal produces 970, natural gas 720 and hydropower 24. Nuclear even has lower emissions than wind and solar, which produce 11 and 53 tonnes of CO2, respectively.

Nuclear energy is also among the safest energy sources. Per gigawatt-hour, it causes 820 times fewer deaths than coal, 43 times fewer than hydropower and roughly the same as wind and solar.

Still, nuclear energy remains stigmatized, largely because of persistent misconceptions and outdated beliefs about nuclear waste and disasters. For instance, while many public concerns remain about nuclear waste, existing storage solutions have been used safely for decades and are supported by a strong track record and scientific consensus.

Similarly, while the Fukushima disaster in Japan displaced thousands of people and was extremely costly (total costs of the disaster are expected at about US$188 billion), not a single person died of radiation exposure after the accident, a United Nations Scientific Committee of 80 international experts found.

Read more:
With nuclear power on the rise, reducing conspiracies and increasing public education is key

For decades, there was little effort to correct public perceptions about nuclear fears because it wasn’t seen as necessary or profitable. Coal, gas and renewables were sufficient to meet the demand required of them. But that’s now changing.

With AI’s energy needs soaring, Big Tech has classified nuclear energy as green and the World Bank has agreed to lift its longstanding ban on financing nuclear projects.

Big Tech’s billion-dollar bet on nuclear

The world has long lived with two nuclear dilemmas. The first is that, despite being one the safest and cleanest form of energy, nuclear was perceived as one the most dangerous and dirtiest.

The second is that upgrading the power grid requires large-scale investments, yet money had been funnelled into small, distributed sources like solar and wind, or dirty ones like coal and natural gas.

Now tech companies are making hundred-billion-dollar strategic bets that they can solve both nuclear dilemmas. They are betting that nuclear can offer the kind of steady, clean power their AI ambitions require.

This could be an unexpected positive consequence of AI: the revitalization of one of the safest and cleanest energy sources available to humankind.

Michael Tadrous, an undergraduate student and research assistant at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University, co-authored this article.

Goran Calic 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. AI is consuming more power than the grid can handle — nuclear might be the answer – https://theconversation.com/ai-is-consuming-more-power-than-the-grid-can-handle-nuclear-might-be-the-answer-258677

MIL OSI –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Submissions: Israel bombed an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 − it pushed program underground and spurred Saddam Hussein’s desire for nukes

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Jeffrey Fields, Professor of the Practice of International Relations, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

The Osirak nuclear power research station in 1981. Jacques Pavlovsky/Sygma via Getty Images

Israel, with the assistance of U.S. military hardware, bombs an adversary’s nuclear facility to set back the perceived pursuit of the ultimate weapon. We have been here before, about 44 years ago.

In 1981, Israeli fighter jets supplied by Washington attacked an Iraqi nuclear research reactor being built near Baghdad by the French government.

The reactor, which the French called Osirak and Iraqis called Tammuz, was destroyed. Much of the international community initially condemned the attack. But Israel claimed the raid set Iraqi nuclear ambitions back at least a decade. In time, many Western observers and government officials, too, chalked up the attack as a win for nonproliferation, hailing the strike as an audacious but necessary step to prevent Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein from building a nuclear arsenal.

But the reality is more complicated. As nuclear proliferation experts assess the extent of damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities following the recent U.S. and Israeli raids, it is worth reassessing the longer-term implications of that earlier Iraqi strike.

The Osirak reactor

Iraq joined the landmark Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1970, committing the country to refrain from the pursuit of nuclear weapons. But in exchange, signatories are entitled to engage in civilian nuclear activities, including having research or power reactors and access to the enriched uranium that drives them.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is responsible through safeguards agreements for monitoring countries’ civilian use of nuclear technology, with on-the-ground inspections to ensure that civilian nuclear programs do not divert materials for nuclear weapons.

But to Israel, the Iraqi reactor was provocative and an escalation in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Israel believed that Iraq would use the French reactor – Iraq said it was for research purposes – to generate plutonium for a nuclear weapon. After diplomacy with France and the United States failed to persuade the two countries to halt construction of the reactor, Prime Minister Menachem Begin concluded that attacking the reactor was Israel’s best option. That decision gave birth to the “Begin Doctrine,” which has committing Israel to preventing its regional adversaries from becoming nuclear powers ever since.

Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin addresses the press after the 1981 attack on the Osarik nuclear reactor.
Israel Press and Photo Agency/Wikimedia Commons

In spring 1979, Israel attempted to sabotage the project, bombing the reactor core destined for Iraq while it sat awaiting shipment in the French town of La Seyne-sur-Mer. The mission was only a partial success, damaging but not destroying the reactor.

France and Iraq persisted with the project, and in July 1980 – with the reactor having been delivered – Iraq received the first shipment of highly enriched uranium fuel at the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center near Baghdad.

Then in September 1980, during the initial days of the Iran-Iraq war, Iranian jets struck the nuclear research center. The raid also targeted a power station, knocking out electricity in Baghdad for several days. But a Central Intelligence Agency situation report assessed that “only secondary buildings” were hit at the nuclear site itself.

It was then Israel’s turn. The reactor was still unfinished and not in operation when on June 7, 1981, eight U.S.-supplied F-16s flew over Jordanian and Saudi airspace and bombed the reactor in Iraq. The attack killed 10 Iraqi soldiers and a French civilian.

Revisiting the ‘success’ of Israeli raid

Many years later, U.S. President Bill Clinton commented: “Everybody talks about what the Israelis did at Osirak in 1981, which I think, in retrospect, was a really good thing. You know, it kept Saddam from developing nuclear power.”

But nonproliferation experts have contended for years that while Saddam may have had nuclear weapons ambitions, the French-built research reactor would not have been the route to go. Iraq would either have had to divert the reactor’s highly enriched uranium fuel for a few weapons or shut the reactor down to extract plutonium from the fuel rods – all while hiding these operations from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

As an additional safeguard, the French government, too, had pledged to shut down the reactor if it detected efforts to use the reactor for weapons purposes.

In any event, Iraq’s desire for a nuclear weapon was more aspirational than operational. A 2011 article in the journal International Security included interviews with several scientists who worked on Iraq’s nuclear program and characterized the country’s pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability as “both directionless and disorganized” before the attack.

Iraq’s program begins in earnest

So what happened after the strike? Many analysts have argued that the Israeli attack, rather than diminish Iraqi desire for a nuclear weapon, actually catalyzed it.

Nuclear proliferation expert Målfrid Braut-Hegghammer, the author of the 2011 study, concluded that the Israeli attack “triggered a nuclear weapons program where one did not previously exist.”

In the aftermath of the attack, Saddam decided to formally, if secretively, establish a nuclear weapons program, with scientists deciding that a uranium-based weapon was the best route. He tasked his scientists with pursuing multiple methods to enrich uranium to weapons grade to ensure success, much the way the Manhattan Project scientists approached the same problem in the U.S.

In other words, the Israeli attack, rather than set back an existing nuclear weapons program, turned an incoherent and exploratory nuclear endeavor into a drive to get the bomb personally overseen by Saddam and sparing little expense even as Iraq’s war with Iran substantially taxed Iraqi resources.

From 1981 to 1987, the nuclear program progressed fitfully, facing both organizational and scientific challenges.

As those challenges were beginning to be addressed, Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, provoking a military response from the United States. In the aftermath of what would become Operation Desert Storm, U.N. weapons inspectors discovered and dismantled the clandestine Iraqi nuclear weapons program.

The Tammuz nuclear reactor was hit again during the 1991 Gulf War.
Ramzi Haidar/AFP via Getty Images

Had Saddam not invaded Kuwait over a matter not related to security, it is very possible that Baghdad would have had a nuclear weapon capability by the mid-to-late 1990s.

Similarly to Iraq in 1980, Iran today is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. At the time President Donald Trump withdrew U.S. support in 2018 for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, colloquially known as the Iran nuclear deal, the International Atomic Energy Agency certified that Tehran was complying with the requirements of the agreement.

In the case of Iraq, military action on its nascent nuclear program merely pushed it underground – to Saddam, the Israeli strikes made acquiring the ultimate weapon more rather than less attractive as a deterrent. Almost a half-century on, some analysts and observers are warning the same about Iran.

Jeffrey Fields receives funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Schmidt Futures.

– ref. Israel bombed an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 − it pushed program underground and spurred Saddam Hussein’s desire for nukes – https://theconversation.com/israel-bombed-an-iraqi-nuclear-reactor-in-1981-it-pushed-program-underground-and-spurred-saddam-husseins-desire-for-nukes-259618

MIL OSI –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Submissions: The Learning Refuge: How women-led community efforts help refugees resettle in Cyprus

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Suzan Ilcan, Professor of Sociology & University Research Chair, University of Waterloo

A grassroots organization in Paphos, Cyprus, is bringing women together to address the needs of refugees in the city. (Shutterstock)

Since 2015, the Republic of Cyprus (ROC) has seen a steady rise in migrant arrivals and asylum applications, primarily from people from Middle Eastern and African countries like Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon.

But many asylum-seekers face significant challenges. Refugees formally in the asylum system are often denied residency permits, which means they face persistent insecurity, poverty and isolation

These conditions are compounded by restrictive and limited services for asylum-seekers. This deepens the precarity and exclusion refugees face within a political and economic system that treats them more like economic burdens than as human beings with rights who need help.

In response to these institutional failures, citizens, volunteers and refugees themselves have begun to build grassroots networks of care and solidarity in the ROC and beyond to support refugee communities.

In 2022 and 2023, we conducted interviews with women volunteers and refugees affiliated with The Learning Refuge, a civil society organization in the city of Paphos in southwest Cyprus that cultivates dialogue and collaboration among these two diverse groups.

Women-led initiatives

Many displaced people first arrive on the island of Cyprus through the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). However, the absence of a functioning asylum system or international legal protections leaves them in limbo.

With no viable path to status in the TRNC, most cross the Green Line that bifurcates Cyprus into the ROC, where European Union asylum frameworks exist but remain limited in practice.

Women-led community-building is often a response to the negative effects of inadequate state support and humanitarian aid for refugees. In Cyprus, this situation leaves many refugees without access to sufficient food, satisfactory health care, accommodation, employment, clothing and language training. In this current environment, refugees are increasingly experiencing insecure and fragile situations, especially women.

In Cyprus, as in many other countries, a variety of community-building efforts are important responses to limited or restricted state support and humanitarian aid for refugees.

Women-led efforts offer opportunities to deliver educational activities and establish networks, and to help improve the welfare and social protection of refugee women, however imperfectly.

These and other similar efforts highlight how women refugees and volunteers can mobilize to foster dialogue and collaboration.

The Learning Refuge

Founded in 2015, The Learning Refuge began as community meetings in a city park. The organization then used space from a nearby music venue to conduct support activities, and later, established itself in a dedicated building.

Organizations like The Learning Refuge emerged to address the limited state support and humanitarian assistance services available to refugees.

The Learning Refuge cultivates dialogue and collaboration among a diverse group of community volunteers.
(Suzan Ilcan)

As Syrian families began arriving in Paphos in 2015, local mothers started working with Syrian children, assisting them with homework, providing skills-training opportunities and language classes.

The Learning Refuge cultivates dialogue and collaboration among a diverse group of community volunteers, including schoolteachers, artists, musicians, local residents, refugees and other migrants.

With the aid of 20 volunteers, the loosely organized groups provide women refugees with material support and resources to enhance collective activities, including art and music projects, while also engaging in educational and friendship activities.

While modest in scale, the organization has formed partnerships with local and international organizations, including Caritas Cyprus, UNHCR-Cyprus and the Cyprus Refugee Council to extend its outreach to various refugee groups.

The organization has also launched creative initiatives aimed at cultivating additional inclusive civic spaces. One such effort, “Moms and Babies Day,” was developed in response to the rising number of single mothers from Africa arriving on the island. These women often face poverty and isolation, and struggle with language barriers.

These efforts highlight how grassroots responses — especially those led by women — can offer partial but vital educational and emotional support to refugees struggling to find their footing in a new country.

Negotiated belonging

Through participation in The Learning Refuge, refugee women in Paphos engage in a dynamic process of negotiated belonging, navigating challenges like language barriers, gendered isolation, domestic violence and poverty while contributing to broader community-building efforts.

For example, Maryam, a Syrian woman and mother of three, told us how The Learning Refuge helped her children establish friendships and learn Greek. She also highlighted that it helped her form close ties with volunteers and other Syrian women living in Cyprus, and find paid work in the city.

The volunteers and women refugees participating in The Learning Refuge’s activities emphasized not only their capacity to develop new forms of belonging and solidarity; they also help reshape communal knowledge and generate supportive spaces for women from various backgrounds.

Our research shows that women-led community-building is an effective, though short-term, response to insufficient state support and humanitarian aid systems that leave many refugees in precarious situations.

In varying degrees, these efforts offer women and their families spaces to learn and cultivate new relationships, and foster collective projects and better visions of resettlement and refuge.

Suzan Ilcan receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada.

Seçil Daǧtaș receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. The Learning Refuge: How women-led community efforts help refugees resettle in Cyprus – https://theconversation.com/the-learning-refuge-how-women-led-community-efforts-help-refugees-resettle-in-cyprus-252682

MIL OSI –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Submissions: Japanese prime minister’s abrupt no-show at NATO summit reveals a strained alliance with the US

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Craig Mark, Adjunct Lecturer, Faculty of Economics, Hosei University

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has sent a clear signal to the Trump administration: the Japan–US relationship is in a dire state.

After saying just days ago he would be attending this week’s NATO summit at The Hague, Ishiba abruptly pulled out at the last minute.

He joins two other leaders from the Indo-Pacific region, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, in skipping the summit.

The Japanese media reported Ishiba cancelled the trip because a bilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump was unlikely, as was a meeting of the Indo-Pacific Four (IP4) NATO partners (Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan).

Japan will still be represented by Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, showing its desire to strengthen its security relationship with NATO.

However, Ishiba’s no-show reveals how Japan views its relationship with the Trump administration, following the severe tariffs Washington imposed on Japan and Trump’s mixed messages on the countries’ decades-long military alliance.

Tariffs and diplomatic disagreements

Trump’s tariff policy is at the core of the divide between the US and Japan.

Ishiba attempted to get relations with the Trump administration off to a good start. He was the second world leader to visit Trump at the White House, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

However, Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs imposed a punitive rate of 25% on Japanese cars and 24% on all other Japanese imports. They are already having an adverse impact on Japan’s economy: exports of automobiles to the US dropped in May by 25% compared to a year ago.

Six rounds of negotiations have made little progress, as Ishiba’s government insists on full tariff exemptions.

Japan has been under pressure from the Trump administration to increase its defence spending, as well. According to the Financial Times, Tokyo cancelled a summit between US and Japanese defence and foreign ministers over the demand. (A Japanese official denied the report.)

Japan also did not offer its full support to the US bombings of Iran’s nuclear facilities earlier this week. The foreign minister instead said Japan “understands” the US’s determination to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Japan has traditionally had fairly good relations with Iran, often acting as an indirect bridge with the West. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe even made a visit there in 2019.

Japan also remains heavily dependent on oil from the Middle East. It would have been adversely affected if the Strait of Hormuz had been blocked, as Iran was threatening to do.

Unlike the response from the UK and Australia, which both supported the strikes, the Ishiba government prioritised its commitment to upholding international law and the rules-based global order. In doing so, Japan seeks to deny China, Russia and North Korea any leeway to similarly erode global norms on the use of force and territorial aggression.

Strategic dilemma of the Japan–US military alliance

In addition, Japan is facing the same dilemma as other American allies – how to manage relations with the “America first” Trump administration, which has made the US an unreliable ally.

Earlier this year, Trump criticised the decades-old security alliance between the US and Japan, calling it “one-sided”.

“If we’re ever attacked, they don’t have to do a thing to protect us,” he said of Japan.

Lower-level security cooperation is ongoing between the two allies and their regional partners. The US, Japanese and Philippine Coast Guards conducted drills in Japanese waters this week. The US military may also assist with upgrading Japan’s counterstrike missile capabilities.

But Japan is still likely to continue expanding its security ties with partners beyond the US, such as NATO, the European Union, India, the Philippines, Vietnam and other ASEAN members, while maintaining its fragile rapprochement with South Korea.

Australia is now arguably Japan’s most reliable security partner. Canberra is considering buying Japan’s Mogami-class frigates for the Royal Australian Navy. And if the AUKUS agreement with the US and UK collapses, Japanese submarines could be a replacement.

Ishiba under domestic political pressure

There are also intensifying domestic political pressures on Ishiba to hold firm against Trump, who is deeply unpopular among the Japanese public.

After replacing former prime minister Fumio Kishida as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) last September, the party lost its majority in the lower house of parliament in snap elections. This made it dependent on minor parties for legislative support.

Ishiba’s minority government has struggled ever since with poor opinion polling. There has been widespread discontent with inflation, the high cost of living and stagnant wages, the legacy of LDP political scandals, and ever-worsening geopolitical uncertainty.

On Sunday, the party suffered its worst-ever result in elections for the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, winning its lowest number of seats.

The party could face a similar drubbing in the election for half of the upper house of the Diet (Japan’s parliament) on July 20. Ishiba has pledged to maintain the LDP’s majority in the house with its junior coalition partner Komeito. But if the government falls into minority status in both houses, Ishiba will face heavy pressure to step down.

Craig Mark 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. Japanese prime minister’s abrupt no-show at NATO summit reveals a strained alliance with the US – https://theconversation.com/japanese-prime-ministers-abrupt-no-show-at-nato-summit-reveals-a-strained-alliance-with-the-us-259694

MIL OSI –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Submissions: I analyzed more than 100 extremist manifestos: Misogyny was the common thread

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Karmvir K. Padda, Researcher and PhD Candidate, Sociology, University of Waterloo

Two years have passed since a 24-year-old former student walked into a gender studies classroom at the University of Waterloo and stabbed the professor and two students.

The attack left the campus shaken and sparked national outrage. Many saw the attack as a shocking but isolated act of violence. But a close analysis of his 223-word manifesto reveals much more.

What emerges is a chilling picture of how deep-seated misogyny, disguised as grievance and moral outrage, can escalate ideological violence. Though short, the manifesto is saturated with anti-feminist, conspiratorial rhetoric.

As a researcher looking at digital extremism and gender-based violence, I’ve analyzed more than 100 manifestos written by people who carried out mass shootings, stabbings, vehicular attacks and other acts of ideologically, politically and religiously motivated violent extremism in Canada, the United States and beyond.

These attackers may not belong to formal terrorist organizations, but their writings reveal consistent ideological patterns. Among them, one stands out: misogyny.

Misogyny is the ‘gateway drug’

The Waterloo case is not unique. In fact, it mirrors a growing number of violent incidents where gender-based hate plays a central role. Reports by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and Public Safety Canada show misogynist extremism is rising in Canada. It’s often entangled with white nationalism, anti-LGBTQ+ hate and anti-government sentiment.

According to political sociologist Yasmin Wong, misogyny now acts as a “gateway drug” to broader extremist ideologies. This is particularly true in digital spaces where hate and grievance are cultivated algorithmically.

In my analysis of manifestos collected from 1966 to 2025, gender identity-driven violence appeared in nearly 40 per cent of them. These violent beliefs were either the primary or a significant secondary motivation for the attack. This includes direct expressions of hatred toward women, trans and queer people and references to feminist or LGBTQ+ movements.

‘Salad bar’extremism

The Waterloo attacker did not explicitly identify as an “incel” (involuntary celibate), but the language in his manifesto closely echoes those found in incel and broader manosphere discourse. Feminism is portrayed as dangerous, gender studies as ideological indoctrination and universities as battlegrounds in a supposed culture war.

The Waterloo attacker destroyed a Pride flag during the attack, referred to the professor he targeted as a “Marxist,” and told police he hoped his actions would serve as a “wake-up call.”

At one point, he praised leaders like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Canadian far-right politician Maxime Bernier as “based Chads.” “Based Chads” is a slang term used in online extremist communities to glorify or refer to dominant and assertive males.

Alongside anti-feminist messaging, the attacker’s writing echoes common far-right narratives: fear of “cultural Marxism,” disdain for liberal elites, and the belief that violence is necessary to awaken the public. He referenced prior mass attacks, including the 2011 Norway massacre and the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooting. These two incidents are frequently celebrated in far-right spaces.

These references place him within a transnational digital subculture where misogyny, white supremacy and ideological violence are valourized.

It reflects what researchers described as “salad bar extremism”: a mix-and-match worldview where misogyny is blended with white nationalism, anti-government sentiment and conspiratorial thinking to justify violence.

Manifestos rationalize violence

The authors of manifestos are frequently dismissed as “nutters” — demented or socially unstable people.

But the manifestos are valuable documents for understanding how ideology works. They show how people rationalize violence, where their ideas come from and how they see themselves as political entities. They also reveal the role of digital communities in shaping those beliefs.

Researchers can use them to map ideological ecosystems and identify patterns. These analyses can inform prevention strategies.

The Waterloo manifesto is no exception. It draws from a familiar ideological playbook — one that dehumanizes feminists, academics and LGBTQ+ people while portraying violence as both righteous and necessary.

These are not isolated ideas; they are symptoms of a wider digital ecosystem of online hate and ideological grooming.

Read more:
The stabbing attack at the University of Waterloo underscores the dangers of polarizing rhetoric about gender

Deliberate, ideologically motivated attacks

While a psychological assessment of the attacker raised questions about a psychotic break, there was no clinical diagnosis of psychosis. His actions — planning the attack, writing and posting a manifesto, selecting a specific target — were deliberate and ideologically motivated.

Yet the terrorism charge brought against him by federal prosecutors was ultimately dropped. The judge ruled his beliefs were “too scattered and disparate” to constitute a coherent ideology.

But his manifesto shared language and ideological frameworks recognizable across incel, anti-feminist and far-right communities. The idea that this doesn’t constitute “ideology” reflects how outdated our legal and policy frameworks have become.

Confronting ongoing danger

Two years on, we remember the victims of the Waterloo attack. We must also confront the larger danger the attack represents.

Misogyny is not just a cultural or emotional problem. Instead, it increasingly functions as an ideological gateway, connecting personal grievance with broader calls for violent extremism.

In this era of rising lone-actor violence, it is one of the most consistent and dangerous drivers of extremism.

If we continue to treat gender-based hate as peripheral or personal, we will keep misunderstanding the nature of violent radicalization in Canada. We must name this threat and take it seriously, because that’s the only way to prepare for what’s coming next.

Karmvir K. Padda receives research funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

– ref. I analyzed more than 100 extremist manifestos: Misogyny was the common thread – https://theconversation.com/i-analyzed-more-than-100-extremist-manifestos-misogyny-was-the-common-thread-259347

MIL OSI –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Security: Groundbreaking technology boosts Met’s fight against violence towards women and girls
Source: United Kingdom London Metropolitan Police

The Metropolitan Police Service has today unveiled a revolutionary new technology – now being rolled out across London – that makes it easier to photograph and visualise bruising on victims of violence, particularly on darker skins.

A trial of the first-of-its-kind device, known as Project Archway, allows officers to better assess victims’ injuries – a game-changing development in the ongoing fight against violence towards women and girls (VAWG).

Previously, officers often faced challenges in capturing visible evidence of bruising – particularly on darker skin tones or during early stages of injury. This could limit evidential strength at the charging stage. Now, with Project Archway, this critical gap is being closed

The innovative handheld device, developed in-house by the Met, uses a technique called cross-polarisation to dramatically enhance the visibility of injuries, particularly bruises that may not appear clearly to the naked eye.

Crucially, the technology helps to overcome disparities in how bruising appears on different skin tones, ensuring that victims of all backgrounds receive equal chances of obtaining justice.

This is not just about visibility – it’s about viability in court. Clearer images help investigators build stronger files, support CPS charging decisions, and give courts the visual evidence needed to hold perpetrators accountable.

The technology is already improving justice outcomes – of 33 uses during a pilot in south London, 45% have resulted in charges, with several others under investigation.

With this innovation, the Met becomes the only force in the UK to develop and deploy this kind of frontline equipment to strengthen evidence, support victims from the first police contact, and help bring violent perpetrators to justice.

These results reflect the device’s power to turn what was once anecdotal or unseen into compelling, admissible evidence. It enables frontline officers to gather forensic-grade material within minutes of first contact.

This cutting-edge technology is the latest milestone in the Met’s comprehensive plan to rebuild trust and bring more VAWG perpetrators to justice, as it publishes its annual progress report.

Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said:

“We have made big strides in protecting women and girls from predatory men – and this new device is a bold symbol of that transformation.

“Compared to three years ago, our charge rate for offences for violence against women and girls offences has tripled, and we’re going after the most dangerous individuals through our V100 programme. Women in London are better protected, and this is reflected in the trust gap between men and women closing.

“These improvements are a credit to our people – to their empathy, determination, and courage as they take on these heartrending cases day after day.

“The Met is leading nationally on innovation that puts victims first. We are the only police service to develop this kind of frontline technology, and we’re already seeing how it strengthens evidence, builds trust, and ensures victims feel seen and heard from the moment they report abuse.”

Cross-polarisation has long been used by forensic imaging specialists – but Project Archway is the first time it has been integrated into a simple, handheld tool for frontline police officers. The technology eliminates glare on the skin and enhances visual contrast, especially important for identifying bruises on different skin tones and early-stage injuries invisible to the naked eye.

The device has undergone ethical scrutiny and wide consultation, including input from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Black Police Association, and the Met Ethics Board. Officers were specially trained prior to use and can only use the device with full consent from victims, ensuring it’s an investigative aid, and that the victim remains at the heart of every interaction.

Today’s announcement comes as the Met publishes its three-year progress report on tackling Violence Against Women and Girls, a comprehensive plan of reform, action, and cultural change across the force.

In 2024 alone, more than 123,000 VAWG-related crimes were reported to the Met. In response:
- The Met has more than doubled arrests and charges for rape and serious sexual offences, thanks in part to the national Operation Soteria pilot.
- Charge rates for rape and sexual violence have improved to 9.9%, demonstrating real change in the way cases are investigated and prosecuted.
- Over 20,000 officers have been trained in trauma-informed response.
- The launch of My Met Service, a digital platform for victims to track their case and access support, is giving survivors more transparency and control.
- The V100 programme, a targeted effort to pursue the most dangerous offenders, has already resulted in over 129 convictions and 154 serious charges, including rape and attempted murder. The V100 list of the most harmful offenders is updated each month. The programme has more than doubled the risk of arrest for the most harmful violence against women and girls suspects compared to before the initiative existed. Around three quarters of those on the V100 stack are accused of rape and multiple sexual assaults, as well as murder.
To date:
- A total of 154 people have been charged with 802 offences, including rape, grievous bodily harm (GBH), non-fatal strangulation and attempted murder.
- 177 arrests have been made for a total of 1724 offences.
- 127 of those relate to VAWG – 50 for rape, 20 for GBH and 17 for non-fatal strangulation.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Ben Russell, the Met’s Director of Intelligence and V100 lead, said:

“The level of violence directed at women and girls in London is unacceptable. Project Archway shows how we are innovating to respond to this crisis – not just with more officers, but with better tools, better evidence, and better care. Technology like this can change the outcome of a case, and more importantly, the life of a survivor.”

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said:

“The forensic technology unveiled today is a game-changer it is the first in the country and is already improving justice outcomes for victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault. This cutting-edge technology will be rolled out across London and is the latest milestone in the Met’s action – backed by record funding from City Hall – to rebuild trust and bring more perpetrators to justice.

“From the Met’s V100 action arresting and convicting perpetrators who pose the greatest risk to women and girls, to strengthened teams of specialist officers and staff working to support victims of domestic abuse, rape and sexual violence – it’s clear the Met’s approach to tackling VAWG is improving. But there is more to do, and I will continue to do everything in my power to ensure that ending violence against women and girls is treated with the utmost urgency both by our police and society as a whole to build a safer London for all.”

Minister for Safeguarding and Violence against Women and Girls Jess Phillips said:

“I welcome police forces using every lever at their disposal to support victims from all backgrounds and ensure perpetrators face justice.

“It’s essential that these crimes are treated with the utmost seriousness. By doing so, we can build communities where people feel safer and deliver on our mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.”

Christabel Yeboah, CEO, HERSANA, said:

“We welcome innovation like Project Archway and its potential to transform how bruising and injury evidence is documented in cases of violence against women and girls. For the Black survivors we support, whose injuries are too often overlooked or dismissed due to skin tone and systemic bias, this technology presents a critical opportunity to improve both recognition and response.

“But technology alone cannot fix systems that have long failed survivors. Tools like this must be implemented alongside survivor-led consent protocols, meaningful community consultation, anti-racist practice and robust accountability. Only then can trust begin to be rebuilt and justice truly served.”

Officers who have used the technology, said:

“Overall I have found that Archway has proved a fantastic tool that’s convenient, quick and simple to use. Victims themselves have commented about the clarity of injury under archway. I would say it has certainly helped secure more charges.”

Another officer, added:
“I think this is a great invention and addition to front line police and would like to see it get to the point where it can either be personal issue or one in every vehicle. The images I was able to capture really highlighted the injuries caused to a young child, the initial pictures of the victim showed reddening and slight bruising but after using the device it showed the true extent of the injuries.”

The Met will now expand the trial of Project Archway across additional boroughs, custody suites, sexual assault referral centres, and forensic teams. The aim is to determine where the device delivers the greatest value — with the longer-term goal of rolling it out more widely across London.

The technology is already being explored for post-mortem investigations and other forensic applications, broadening its potential even further.

As the Met continues to reform its approach to VAWG, Project Archway stands as a clear example of the force’s new direction – one rooted in innovation, equity, and survivor-focused policing.

MIL Security OSI –
July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: Readout of the Secretary-General’s meeting with H.E. Mr. Alar Karis, President of the Republic of Estonia

Source: United Nations secretary general

The Secretary-General met with H.E. Mr. Alar Karis, President of the Republic of Estonia, on the margins of the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development held in Sevilla, Spain. The Secretary-General and the President discussed the war in Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East.

The Secretary-General commended Estonia’s engagement with the UN to advance the international financing for development agenda.

MIL OSI United Nations News –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: China Resolutely Opposes Forced Shutdown of Hikvision’s Business in Canada – China’s Ministry of Commerce

Translation. Region: Russian Federal

Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –

Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

BEIJING, June 30 (Xinhua) — China expresses strong dissatisfaction and firmly opposes the Canadian government’s order to stop Chinese company Hikvision’s operations in Canada, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Commerce said Monday.

China noted that the Canadian side forcibly stopped Hikvision’s operations in the country and prohibited Canadian government agencies from purchasing and using Hikvision products under the pretext of protecting “national security,” the official said.

According to him, the so-called national security review undertaken by the Canadian side lacked transparency and yielded uncertain results. The representative of the Chinese agency called it a typical example of the generalization of the concept of national security.

“The actions of the Canadian side not only undermine the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, but also negatively affect the confidence of companies from both countries in cooperation, and harm normal trade and economic relations between China and Canada,” the official representative emphasized.

China, he continued, urges Canada to immediately correct its wrong actions, stop politicizing economic and trade issues and generalizing the concept of national security, and ensure an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for enterprises from all countries, including China, to invest and do business in Canada.

The Chinese side will take all necessary measures to resolutely protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, added the official representative of the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China. –0–

MIL OSI Russia News –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: Naval squadrons led by Chinese aircraft carriers return to ports after completing deep-sea training /more details/

Translation. Region: Russian Federal

Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –

Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

BEIJING, June 30 (Xinhua) — The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA Navy) naval squadrons led by the aircraft carriers Liaoning and Shandong have safely returned to their home ports after completing combat-style training on the high seas, the PLA Navy said Monday.

The training was conducted in a coordinated and systematic manner. Two aircraft carrier formations deployed to the western Pacific Ocean, interacted with the relevant branches of the armed forces, and carried out a number of tasks simulating real combat operations, such as reconnaissance and early detection, counterattack, naval assault, air defense, and day and night tactical flights of carrier-based aircraft.

The current exercise has produced a series of research results in relevant areas of military affairs and greatly enhanced the systemic combat potential of China’s aircraft carrier formations. It is a continuation of the previous two-carrier high-sea exercise conducted jointly by the two naval formations last year.

It is noted that during the training, individual foreign warships and aircraft repeatedly carried out close reconnaissance, escort and surveillance maneuvers. The Chinese naval units maintained heightened vigilance and combat readiness for immediate response, organized numerous carrier-based aircraft sorties, and professionally and confidently dealt with the situation that arose.

The PLA Navy said that these exercises, conducted in accordance with the annual plan, have effectively tested the results of joint training of relevant troops and enhanced their capacity to protect the country’s sovereignty, security and development interests. –0–

MIL OSI Russia News –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: Security Council Renews Democratic Republic of Congo Sanctions Regime, Unanimously Adopting Resolution 2783 (2025)

Source: United Nations General Assembly and Security Council

The Security Council today renewed the sanctions regime concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo until 1 July 2026 and extended the mandate of the corresponding Group of Experts until 1 August 2026.

Unanimously adopting resolution 2783 (2025) (to be issued as document S/RES/2783(2025)) under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, the Council decided to renew measures relating to arms, finances and travel relating to the Democratic Republic of the Congo until 1 July 2026.

The representative of France, whose delegation submitted the text, thanked all Council members for their engagement and said the sanctions regime and Group of Experts are central tools in combating violence and destabilization in the eastern part of the country. He noted the 27 June Council meeting, during which Council members marked the signing of a draft peace agreement by the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, under the auspice of the United States Government. “What we are doing shows that improvement in the Great Lakes region can occur,” he said. “We must do all that we can to support peace and security in the region.”

The resolution reiterated that the armed and security forces of the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are exempt from the embargo on the supply of military equipment and assistance, as agreed on 2 May 2024, and from any notification procedure, as set out in paragraphs 1 and 2 of the resolution.

By other terms of the text, the Council decided to extend until 1 August 2026 the mandate of the Group of Experts, as set forth in paragraph 6 of resolution 2360 (2017), and expressed its intention to review the mandate and take appropriate action regarding further extension no later than 1 July 2026. It also requests the Group of Experts to provide the Council, after discussion with the Committee, a mid-term report no later than 30 December 2025 and a final report not later than 15 June 2026, as well as monthly updates.

The resolution also recalled the Secretary-General’s commitment that the United Nations will do everything possible to ensure that the perpetrators of the killing of the two members of the Group of Experts and the four Congolese nationals accompanying them are brought to justice and stressed the importance of a follow-up in assisting the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the national investigation, within existing resources.

The representative of Guyana, President of the Council for June, speaking in her national capacity, noted her delegation’s appreciation to all Council members and the Secretariat staff for their support, which let the Council rally to consensus on several important issues. She extended her best wishes to the incoming Council President from Pakistan.

MIL OSI United Nations News –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: ‘New Dawn’ Rises for Financing Development Progress, Secretary-General Tells Business Forum at International Conference

Source: United Nations General Assembly and Security Council

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the opening of the International Business Forum at the Conference on Financial Development, in Sevilla, Spain, today:

This Forum reflects a fundamental fact. Development is everyone’s business. And the private sector is an essential partner in helping countries climb the development ladder and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Businesses are not just engines of jobs and economic growth. They help propel the innovation, technology and investment that development demands.

We are here to boost support for initiatives that benefit people and planet. We meet against the backdrop of an incredibly challenging global environment. As we gather in Sevilla, trade barriers and macroeconomic risks are rising. Major aid cuts are making a bad situation even worse.

Mistrust and geopolitical divisions are blocking effective global solutions. And the financing gap for the Sustainable Development Goals has ballooned to $4 trillion.

When the world came together for this conference 10 years ago in Addis Ababa, countries recognized that achieving the Goals was impossible without mobilizing private capital at scale.

One decade later, we continue to fall short. Last year, investment in infrastructure in developing countries dropped by 35 per cent — including in key sectors like renewable energy, water and sanitation.

And foreign direct investment has declined two years in a row, with investment flows largely bypassing Least Developed Countries altogether. We need to create the conditions to change course. And that begins here in Spain.

The Sevilla Commitment document includes important steps to get the engine of development revving again: Through new domestic and global commitments that can channel public and private finance to the areas of greatest need […] By overhauling the world’s approach to debt to make borrowing work in service of sustainable development […] And by reforming the global financial architecture to reflect today’s realities and the urgent needs of developing countries.

The Sevilla Commitment also puts forward a number of specific actions to unlock private sector investment in sustainable development. This includes steps to strengthen the way we blend public and private capital together to maximize the use of public money in crowding-in private funds. It includes new approaches to manage currency risk that prevent otherwise promising investment opportunities from securing the capital required.

And it includes a call to review financial regulations to ensure that risk weightings are well-designed, and help — not hinder — institutional investors from embracing projects in frontier markets.

These are significant steps, informed by lessons learned over the past 10 years. When one looks at today’s world, the crises in the official development assistance (ODA), the crises in the global funds available, it is absolutely evident that we need to be able to multiply the resources available for investments.

And the main obligation, in my opinion, of public development banks, most national and international, should be today concentrated, not essentially, in their operations, and I understand the pressure of any bureaucracy to do their own things, but those public funds available in developing banks, should be more and more put to work to multiply resources through de-risking private finances and private investments.

Giving guaranties, stablishing coalitions in which they are the first risk takers and creating the conditions to massively increase the massive private finance and private investment in countries in which, without the necessary de-risking, it is practically impossible to see enough development.

This is a new mentality that we need to guaranty in the investment banks, the public investment banks, both national and international.

Throughout, we are counting on the leadership and vision of all of you to carry forward the spirit of collaboration and bold solutions. By uniting public and private sector leaders, regulators and development banks, we can ensure that this conference is not an end, but rather a beginning.

The beginning of a new era of action and collaboration on some of the most urgent issues facing our world today. And a new dawn for how we finance development progress around the world.

Thank you all for being part of this important effort. I hope that the joint participation of the public and private sectors can multiply the resources we have.

Knowing that much more investment is needed in today’s world, but that there are mechanisms that allow available public funds to mobilize much more private financing and investment than today.

MIL OSI United Nations News –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: ‘Don’t Agonize — Organize, Help Realize Change Our World Urgently Needs’, Deputy Secretary-General Tells Sciences Po Graduating Class

Source: United Nations 4

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks at the graduation ceremony for the Paris School of International Affairs, Sciences Po, in Paris today:

Let me begin with the most important word of all: congratulations.

You now join a long line of Sciences Po alumni who have shaped our world — including some of whom are doing it every day at the United Nations as they work in my office supporting the Secretary-General.

Let’s also take a moment to recognize your families, friends and loved ones — who have been with you every step of the way. They deserve a round of applause.

Students representing more than 120 nationalities come here to learn how the world works, and how it can work better. That spirit of global curiosity and purpose has also carried me through every chapter of my own journey: designing schools and hospitals in my home country of Nigeria; advising four Presidents on poverty reduction, development policy planning and public sector reform; supporting Member States to lead the process that transformed global aspirations into the Sustainable Development Goals; and now as the longest-serving Deputy Secretary-General in United Nations history, supporting the Secretary-General on some of the most complex situations in our history, from COVID to Ukraine to Sudan and Gaza and today’s continuing crisis in the Middle East.

Today, I want to reflect on the lessons I have learned along the way.

First, don’t agonize, organize. We live in a world of hurt. A world that is messy, complicated and often overwhelming. And I know it might be easy to feel paralysed by the scale and hopelessness of today’s challenges. Don’t. Because more than ever, those challenges are connected — and we solve them by seeing those connections and coming together.

When I served as Nigeria’s Minister for Environment, my job was never just about the environment. When Lake Chad was drying up, it wasn’t just an ecological crisis — it was a security crisis. Boko Haram was born and abducted 200 schoolgirls. When we faced population and urban sprawl and tensions rose between farmers and herders, it wasn’t just about water access — it was about food systems and growing cities. When I met girls walking hours to fetch water, missing school every day — it wasn’t just about resources — it was about gender equality.

We didn’t work in siloes. We built coalitions across sectors — civil society, young people, traditional leaders, the private sector — to find real solutions. We didn’t agonize, we organized. And, yes, there’s plenty to agonize about today — especially when multilateralism is under attack and international cooperation is on the back foot. But I have seen what’s possible when we find common ground and forge ahead.

Just look at the last two months at the UN.: a landmark Pandemic Treaty approved at the World Health Organization; major new protections for our oceans at the World Ocean Conference in Nice; and from Paris, I head to Sevilla — where the world is coming together to commit to better finance sustainable development.

So, when the problems seem larger than life, too tangled, too tough — don’t agonize. Organize.  Mobilize.  And help realize the change our world so urgently needs. Remember you did not fail for want of trying.

The second lesson — keep learning and delivering.

Graduation isn’t the end of learning. In many ways, it’s just the start of your lifelong journey.

When I joined the UN, I was not steeped in the intricacies of international diplomacy. Throughout my career, I have had to learn fast — and deliver even faster. So will you.

Even now, I am learning every day — about artificial intelligence (AI), about geothermal energy, space debris, biotechnology, cybersecurity. You will face even more change, even faster, especially in the new era of super technologies. Regardless of the task that is put in front of you, get ahead of it. Learn more. Do more. Show your stuff and deliver. Performance opens doors. Yes, some of life is luck and privilege. But I guarantee: the harder you work, the luckier you will get.

Third, make hope your most powerful asset. The world is a cynical place. And international affairs is not for the faint of heart. There will be setbacks and critics. There will be many days when the problems seem too big, and the politics too small. When anxieties grip you like a fever. Just look around: war in Ukraine, atrocities in Sudan, catastrophe in Gaza, climate chaos everywhere.

But never forget, hope is not a four-letter word. Hope is the courage to build when others are tearing down. Hope is the decision to get up one more time, to negotiate one more deal, even when the odds are against you.

I have sat with young girls who survived the worst horrors of war and sexual violence. And in their eyes, I saw not just pain — but power. The power to heal, to lead, to hope, to survive and thrive.

Hope is not the absence of fear. It is the refusal to be defined by it. So, carry it with you. Guard it fiercely. Because hope is not just a feeling. It’s a force.

Fourth, hold onto your moral compass.

Your degree will open doors. But your integrity will tell you which ones are worth walking through. And in today’s world — where the global moral compass is spinning — that clarity matters more than ever.

We live in a world where military spending is soaring, while development budgets shrink. Where fossil fuel subsidies dwarf investments in climate action. Where conflict and hardship has forced more people from their homes than at any time since the Second World War.

In this world, your role as changemakers is not just to make the right deals. It is to draw the right lines. There will be pressure to stay silent. There will be moments when abandoning principles may seem an easier choice. But integrity matters most.

As Deputy Secretary-General, I have had to tell hard truths to powerful people. To remind leaders of the many promises they made — and the people they made them to. It is never easy to challenge power. But we don’t serve power. We serve people. And if we truly serve people, we must use our superpower and stand for justice, dignity and solidarity.

As we mark Beijing+30, we cannot talk about a future and leave women and girls behind. Gender equality is not charity. It powers our agency. And human rights. And everyone wins when we leave no one behind. But let’s be honest, we are not there yet. So, to the men here today, I say: don’t stand in the way. Don’t walk ahead. Walk with. Stand with. And speak up. For the other half of your society, women.

The final lesson is this: invest time in what truly sustains you.

Your career will have highs and lows. Plans change. Titles come and go. But what will carry you through are the people who know you beyond your résumé. Friends, families, mentors, partners. Protect those bonds. Nurture them. Because in the toughest moments, those relationships will remind you of who you are, why you started and why you must keep going. So, no matter how far you go, or how fast — never lose sight of what, and who, matters most.

Today, you are not just stepping into the world. You are inheriting its unfinished business, and its boundless possibilities. As I look out, I see the next generation of climate champions, human rights defenders and world class diplomats. And I am filled with hope. Whatever path you choose, walk it with courage and conviction.

Congratulations, Class of 2025. The world is waiting. And I, for one, can’t wait to see what you will do.

MIL OSI United Nations News –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Denmark assumes Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Source: European Union 2

The Danish EU Presidency will work for a strong and resolute EU that takes responsibility for its own security and for strengthening its competitiveness. This calls for the EU to match words with action and deliver on the challenges it faces. The green transition is essential to building a more secure and competitive Europe.

MIL OSI Europe News –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Public services put in your pocket with trial GOV.UK App launched today
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

Press release

Public services put in your pocket with trial GOV.UK App launched today

A trial version of the GOV.UK App is to be available to download on smartphones today, putting public services in people’s pocket to save them from wasting time on admin.
First GOV.UK App released to the public, kickstarting a whole new way for people to interact with government services that will make it easier to manage childcare payments and get travel guidance from your pocket.

Custom home page shows people services that they need most, while in future, notifications will help remind people to book their MOT, update their passport and more.

Initial version takes crucial services a step closer to citizens in a bid to cut life-admin, with plans to add a generative AI chatbot, GOV.UK Chat, later this year with much more to come.

The first version of the GOV.UK App will be available to download on smartphones today, putting public services in people’s pocket to save them from wasting time on life admin.

It marks an overhaul to the experience of using the GOV.UK website, which is visited by 88 million times every month by people completing essential daily tasks, to bring public services more in line with what people are used to when they bank or shop from their phones.

Launching first in “public beta”, meaning the technology is still being worked on extensively, today’s release will allow the public to build the app around their personal circumstances, life events and services.

People will be able to choose which topics to prioritise on their home page, based on which government services are most important to them, whether it’s ‘care’, ‘travel’ or ‘business’. A home page will then let people access these services right away, rather than having to scour the internet each time, so they can get information, request support or change their details with the right government service with ease.

Over time, new tools and functionality will be added. Later this year, the government’s generative AI chatbot – GOV.UK Chat – will be added for everyone to use. It will help people get answers to niche questions more quickly, where the details important to them may be buried in the 700,000-page website, with it instead drawing the most relevant information within seconds – whether it’s how to set up a specific type of business, what’s needed to apply for a passport, or what support new parents can access.

Following the addition of GOV.UK Chat, work will start to make sure different government benefits, such as childcare allowances, can be dealt with seamlessly through the app. As well as making it easier for people to apply for support they’re eligible for, the move will also aim to tackle fraud, which could save the government millions.

Today’s launch follows the digital blueprint for government which includes a number of tools to make it much easier for people and businesses to interact with the government, saving time and transforming the public services underpinning our Plan for Change. Later this year, the UK government will also launch GOV.UK Wallet which will include a pilot digital driving licence, which Brits will be able to easily use from their phone to prove their age when buying age restricted items online and in person.

Technology secretary Peter Kyle said:

Our new GOV.UK App shows for the first time how this government is overhauling taxpayer-funded services as we deliver on our Plan for Change. By putting public services in your pocket, we will do away with clunky paper forms and hours spent on hold, so you can immediately get the information you need and continue on with the rest of your day.

This release of the GOV.UK App is just the start. Soon, you will be able to use it to ask GOV.UK Chat any question you like about government services, and get a reliable answer immediately. You will then get personal notifications, reminding you when your MOT is due or whether you need to register to vote, and then you will be able to closely track your childcare credits just as you do your bank account.

People using the GOV.UK App will get the same experience every time they open the app in a way that is tailored to them, enabled by GOV.UK One Login. This technology will ultimately remove the need for several passwords to access different government services and users will be able to use facial ID to log in.

To do this, the GOV.UK App considered major life events relevant to most of the population – such as ‘money and tax’, ‘studying and training’ and ‘retirement’. Some life events also cover topics where people might interact more with public services, such as ‘parenting’, ‘benefits’ and ‘care’.

Notes to editors

The GOV.UK App public beta will be available to download from 1 July in the Apple App store and Google marketplace.

In January, the GOV.UK App was announced alongside the GOV.UK Wallet. The latter will carry a digital version of all government issued documents – starting with a Veterans’ Card this autumn, followed by a pilot of a digital drivers’ licence later this year. For the first release, the GOV.UK Wallet will be separate from the GOV.UK App. Over time the Wallet will also integrate with the GOV.UK App.

The homepage of GOV.UK App can feature any combination of the below 11 topics:

benefits

business

care

driving and transport

employment

health and disability

money and tax

parenting and guardianship

retirement

studying and training

travel

DSIT media enquiries

Email press@dsit.gov.uk

Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 6pm 020 7215 3000

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Updates to this page

Published 30 June 2025
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: Mainland China criticizes Taiwan leader’s separatist rhetoric

Translation. Region: Russian Federal

Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –

Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

BEIJING, June 30 (Xinhua) — State Council Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian on Monday slammed Taiwan leader Lai Qingde’s recent remarks over the weekend as a further escalation of provocations aimed at achieving “Taiwan independence” and seriously damaging cross-Strait relations.

In response to a journalist’s question, Zhu Fenglian pointed out that in his speeches, Lai Qingde inflated the topic of “continental threat,” propagated the thesis of “Taiwan independence,” distorted the legal framework and historical facts, ignoring the prevailing public opinion on the island.

Zhu Fenglian noted that Lai Qingde’s misinterpretation of UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, a political document embodying the one-China principle, and attempts to sever the historical and legal ties between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait once again expose his fear of and resistance to closer exchanges between compatriots from both sides.

“The return of Taiwan to China after Japanese occupation is a fundamental element of the international order established after World War II and the result of the joint efforts of compatriots from both sides of the strait to safeguard national dignity. Those who act against the common interests of the Chinese nation are doomed to failure, and attempts to challenge China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity at the expense of ‘Taiwan independence’ will only lead to a dead end,” the official representative stated.

Reiterating that people on both sides of the strait share the common aspiration of peace, development, exchanges and cooperation, Zhu Fenglian said the mainland is committed to advancing the peaceful and integrated development of the two sides.

She called on compatriots in Taiwan to see through the hypocrisy and political manipulation of the Democratic Progressive Party administration and work hand in hand with compatriots on the mainland to achieve national reunification and rejuvenation. –0–

MIL OSI Russia News –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: Secretary-General’s remarks at the International Business Forum at the Conference on Financing for Development [bilingual, as delivered; scroll down for all-English]

Source: United Nations secretary general

This Forum reflects a fundamental fact.

Development is everyone’s business.

And the private sector is an essential partner in helping countries climb the development ladder, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Businesses are not just engines of jobs and economic growth.

They help propel the innovation, technology and investment that development demands.

We are here to boost support for initiatives that benefit people and planet.

We meet against the backdrop of an incredibly challenging global environment.

As we gather in Sevilla, trade barriers and macroeconomic risks are rising.

Major aid cuts are making a bad situation even worse.

Mistrust and geopolitical divisions are blocking effective global solutions.

And the financing gap for the Sustainable Development Goals has ballooned to $4 trillion.

When the world came together for this conference 10 years ago in Addis Ababa, countries recognized that achieving the Goals was impossible without mobilizing private capital at scale.

One decade later, we continue to fall short.

Last year, investment in infrastructure in developing countries dropped by 35 per cent — including in key sectors like renewable energy, water and sanitation.

And foreign direct investment has declined two years in a row, with investment flows largely bypassing Least Developed Countries altogether.

We need to create the conditions to change course.

And that begins here in Spain.

The Sevilla Commitment document includes important steps to get the engine of development revving again:

Through new domestic and global commitments that can channel public and private finance to the areas of greatest need…

By overhauling the world’s approach to debt to make borrowing work in service of sustainable development…

And by reforming the global financial architecture to reflect today’s realities and the urgent needs of developing countries.

The Sevilla Commitment also puts forward a number of specific actions to unlock private sector investment in sustainable development.

This includes steps to strengthen the way we blend public and private capital together to maximize the use of public money in crowding-in private funds.

It includes new approaches to manage currency risk that prevent otherwise promising investment opportunities from securing the capital required.

And it includes a call to review financial regulations to ensure that risk weightings are well-designed, and help — not hinder — institutional investors from embracing projects in frontier markets.

These are significant steps, informed by lessons learned over the past 10 years.

When, one looks at today’s world, the crises in the ODA, the crises in the global funds available, it is absolutely evident that we need to be able to multiply the resources available for investments.

And the main obligation, in my opinion, of public development banks, most national and international, should be today concentrated, not essentially, in their operations, and I understand the pressure of any bureaucracy to do their own things, but those public funds available in developing banks, should be more and more put to work to multiply resources through the risking private finances and private investments.

Giving guaranties, stablishing coalitions, in which they are the first risk takers, and creating the conditions to massively increase the massive private finance and private investment in countries in which without the necessary derisking it is practically impossible to see enough development.

This is a new mentally that we need to guaranty in the investment banks, the pubic investment banks, both national and international.

Señoras y senõres,

En todo momento, contamos con el liderazgo y la visión de todos ustedes para llevar adelante el espíritu de colaboración y adoptar soluciones audaces.

Al reunir a los líderes de los sectores público y privado, a los reguladores y a los bancos de desarrollo, podemos garantizar que esta conferencia no es un final, sino un principio.

El comienzo de una nueva era de acción y colaboración en algunos de los problemas más urgentes a los que se enfrenta hoy nuestro mundo.

Y un nuevo amanecer para la manera en que se financia el progreso del desarrollo en todo el mundo.

Gracias a todos ustedes por participar en este importante esfuerzo. Espero que la participación conjunta de los sectores público y privado pueda multiplicar los recursos que tenemos.

Sabiendo que mucha más inversión es necesaria en el mundo de hoy, pero que hay mecanismos que permiten que los fondos públicos disponibles movilicen muchísimo más que hoy la financiación y la inversión privada.

*****
[All-English]

This Forum reflects a fundamental fact.

Development is everyone’s business.

And the private sector is an essential partner in helping countries climb the development ladder, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Businesses are not just engines of jobs and economic growth.

They help propel the innovation, technology and investment that development demands.

We are here to boost support for initiatives that benefit people and planet.

We meet against the backdrop of an incredibly challenging global environment.

As we gather in Sevilla, trade barriers and macroeconomic risks are rising.

Major aid cuts are making a bad situation even worse.

Mistrust and geopolitical divisions are blocking effective global solutions.

And the financing gap for the Sustainable Development Goals has ballooned to $4 trillion.

When the world came together for this conference 10 years ago in Addis Ababa, countries recognized that achieving the Goals was impossible without mobilizing private capital at scale.

One decade later, we continue to fall short.

Last year, investment in infrastructure in developing countries dropped by 35 per cent — including in key sectors like renewable energy, water and sanitation.

And foreign direct investment has declined two years in a row, with investment flows largely bypassing Least Developed Countries altogether.

We need to create the conditions to change course.

And that begins here in Spain.

The Sevilla Commitment document includes important steps to get the engine of development revving again:

Through new domestic and global commitments that can channel public and private finance to the areas of greatest need…

By overhauling the world’s approach to debt to make borrowing work in service of sustainable development…

And by reforming the global financial architecture to reflect today’s realities and the urgent needs of developing countries.

The Sevilla Commitment also puts forward a number of specific actions to unlock private sector investment in sustainable development.

This includes steps to strengthen the way we blend public and private capital together to maximize the use of public money in crowding-in private funds.

It includes new approaches to manage currency risk that prevent otherwise promising investment opportunities from securing the capital required.

And it includes a call to review financial regulations to ensure that risk weightings are well-designed, and help — not hinder — institutional investors from embracing projects in frontier markets.

These are significant steps, informed by lessons learned over the past 10 years.

When, one looks at today’s world, the crises in the ODA, the crises in the global funds available, it is absolutely evident that we need to be able to multiply the resources available for investments.

And the main obligation, in my opinion, of public development banks, most national and international, should be today concentrated, not essentially, in their operations, and I understand the pressure of any bureaucracy to do their own things, but those public funds available in developing banks, should be more and more put to work to multiply resources through the risking private finances and private investments.

Giving guaranties, stablishing coalitions, in which they are the first risk takers, and creating the conditions to massively increase the massive private finance and private investment in countries in which without the necessary derisking it is practically impossible to see enough development.

This is a new mentally that we need to guaranty in the investment banks, the pubic investment banks, both national and international.

Ladies and gentleman,

Throughout, we are counting on the leadership and vision of all of you to carry forward the spirit of collaboration and bold solutions.

By uniting public and private sector leaders, regulators and development banks, we can ensure that this conference is not an end, but rather a beginning.

The beginning of a new era of action and collaboration on some of the most urgent issues facing our world today.

And a new dawn for how we finance development progress around the world.

Thank you all for being part of this important effort. I hope that the joint participation of the public and private sectors can multiply the resources we have.

Knowing that much more investment is needed in today’s world, but that there are mechanisms that allow available public funds to mobilize much more private financing and investment than today.

MIL OSI United Nations News –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: Organization for Security and Co-operation’s Role in Strengthening Democracy ‘Essential’, Secretary-General Tells Parliamentary Assembly

Source: United Nations General Assembly and Security Council

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly in Porto, Portugal today:

Dear Parliamentarians, it is a privilege to address this OSCE Parliamentary Assembly as you meet in the beautiful city of Porto.

You gather as our world faces great and grave challenges — from raging conflicts, to rising inequalities, to the out-of-control climate crisis.

Trust is breaking down. But you are standing up for something different. By encouraging dialogue between Parliaments, you have helped strengthen democracy, advance cooperation and promote comprehensive security.

Your leadership in observing elections has helped make them fairer and more trustworthy. And your efforts played a critical role in inspiring important initiatives such as the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media.

Fifty years after the Helsinki Accords, the principles of the OSCE are more important than ever.

As the world’s largest regional security organization, you face rising security threats, especially with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Your role in protecting human rights, strengthening democracy and promoting sustainable development is essential.

We at the United Nations look forward to continuing that critical work together to guide the region and our world towards a more peaceful future.

Thank you.

MIL OSI United Nations News –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI: ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. to Announce Second Quarter 2025 Financial Results July 21st

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., June 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE: SFBS) is scheduled to announce earnings and operating results for the quarter ended June 30, 2025 on July 21, 2025 at 4 p.m. ET. The news release will be available at www.servisfirstbancshares.com.

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. will host a live audio webcast to discuss earnings and results on Monday, July 21, 2025 beginning at 5:15 p.m. ET. The audio webcast can be accessed at www.servisfirstbancshares.com. A replay of the call will be available until July 31, 2025.

About ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc.

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. is a bank holding company based in Birmingham, Alabama. Through its subsidiary ServisFirst Bank, ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. provides business and personal financial services from locations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Through the bank, we originate commercial, consumer and other loans and accept deposits, provide electronic banking services, such as online and mobile banking, including remote deposit capture, deliver treasury and cash management services and provide correspondent banking services to other financial institutions.

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. files periodic reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Copies of its filings may be obtained through the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov or at www.servisfirstbancshares.com.

More information about ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. may be obtained over the Internet at www.servisfirstbancshares.com or by calling
(205) 949-0302.

Contact: ServisFirst Bank
Davis Mange (205) 949-3420
DMange@servisfirstbank.com

The MIL Network –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI: ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. to Announce Second Quarter 2025 Financial Results July 21st

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., June 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE: SFBS) is scheduled to announce earnings and operating results for the quarter ended June 30, 2025 on July 21, 2025 at 4 p.m. ET. The news release will be available at www.servisfirstbancshares.com.

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. will host a live audio webcast to discuss earnings and results on Monday, July 21, 2025 beginning at 5:15 p.m. ET. The audio webcast can be accessed at www.servisfirstbancshares.com. A replay of the call will be available until July 31, 2025.

About ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc.

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. is a bank holding company based in Birmingham, Alabama. Through its subsidiary ServisFirst Bank, ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. provides business and personal financial services from locations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Through the bank, we originate commercial, consumer and other loans and accept deposits, provide electronic banking services, such as online and mobile banking, including remote deposit capture, deliver treasury and cash management services and provide correspondent banking services to other financial institutions.

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. files periodic reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Copies of its filings may be obtained through the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov or at www.servisfirstbancshares.com.

More information about ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. may be obtained over the Internet at www.servisfirstbancshares.com or by calling
(205) 949-0302.

Contact: ServisFirst Bank
Davis Mange (205) 949-3420
DMange@servisfirstbank.com

The MIL Network –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: UN Secretary-General’s remarks at the International Business Forum at the Conference on Financing for Development [bilingual, as delivered; scroll down for all-English]

Source: United Nations secretary general

This Forum reflects a fundamental fact.

Development is everyone’s business.

And the private sector is an essential partner in helping countries climb the development ladder, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Businesses are not just engines of jobs and economic growth.

They help propel the innovation, technology and investment that development demands.

We are here to boost support for initiatives that benefit people and planet.

We meet against the backdrop of an incredibly challenging global environment.

As we gather in Sevilla, trade barriers and macroeconomic risks are rising.

Major aid cuts are making a bad situation even worse.

Mistrust and geopolitical divisions are blocking effective global solutions.

And the financing gap for the Sustainable Development Goals has ballooned to $4 trillion.

When the world came together for this conference 10 years ago in Addis Ababa, countries recognized that achieving the Goals was impossible without mobilizing private capital at scale.

One decade later, we continue to fall short.

Last year, investment in infrastructure in developing countries dropped by 35 per cent — including in key sectors like renewable energy, water and sanitation.

And foreign direct investment has declined two years in a row, with investment flows largely bypassing Least Developed Countries altogether.

We need to create the conditions to change course.

And that begins here in Spain.

The Sevilla Commitment document includes important steps to get the engine of development revving again:

Through new domestic and global commitments that can channel public and private finance to the areas of greatest need…

By overhauling the world’s approach to debt to make borrowing work in service of sustainable development…

And by reforming the global financial architecture to reflect today’s realities and the urgent needs of developing countries.

The Sevilla Commitment also puts forward a number of specific actions to unlock private sector investment in sustainable development.

This includes steps to strengthen the way we blend public and private capital together to maximize the use of public money in crowding-in private funds.

It includes new approaches to manage currency risk that prevent otherwise promising investment opportunities from securing the capital required.

And it includes a call to review financial regulations to ensure that risk weightings are well-designed, and help — not hinder — institutional investors from embracing projects in frontier markets.

These are significant steps, informed by lessons learned over the past 10 years.

When, one looks at today’s world, the crises in the ODA, the crises in the global funds available, it is absolutely evident that we need to be able to multiply the resources available for investments.

And the main obligation, in my opinion, of public development banks, most national and international, should be today concentrated, not essentially, in their operations, and I understand the pressure of any bureaucracy to do their own things, but those public funds available in developing banks, should be more and more put to work to multiply resources through the risking private finances and private investments.

Giving guaranties, stablishing coalitions, in which they are the first risk takers, and creating the conditions to massively increase the massive private finance and private investment in countries in which without the necessary derisking it is practically impossible to see enough development.

This is a new mentally that we need to guaranty in the investment banks, the pubic investment banks, both national and international.

Señoras y senõres,

En todo momento, contamos con el liderazgo y la visión de todos ustedes para llevar adelante el espíritu de colaboración y adoptar soluciones audaces.

Al reunir a los líderes de los sectores público y privado, a los reguladores y a los bancos de desarrollo, podemos garantizar que esta conferencia no es un final, sino un principio.

El comienzo de una nueva era de acción y colaboración en algunos de los problemas más urgentes a los que se enfrenta hoy nuestro mundo.

Y un nuevo amanecer para la manera en que se financia el progreso del desarrollo en todo el mundo.

Gracias a todos ustedes por participar en este importante esfuerzo. Espero que la participación conjunta de los sectores público y privado pueda multiplicar los recursos que tenemos.

Sabiendo que mucha más inversión es necesaria en el mundo de hoy, pero que hay mecanismos que permiten que los fondos públicos disponibles movilicen muchísimo más que hoy la financiación y la inversión privada.

*****
[All-English]

This Forum reflects a fundamental fact.

Development is everyone’s business.

And the private sector is an essential partner in helping countries climb the development ladder, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Businesses are not just engines of jobs and economic growth.

They help propel the innovation, technology and investment that development demands.

We are here to boost support for initiatives that benefit people and planet.

We meet against the backdrop of an incredibly challenging global environment.

As we gather in Sevilla, trade barriers and macroeconomic risks are rising.

Major aid cuts are making a bad situation even worse.

Mistrust and geopolitical divisions are blocking effective global solutions.

And the financing gap for the Sustainable Development Goals has ballooned to $4 trillion.

When the world came together for this conference 10 years ago in Addis Ababa, countries recognized that achieving the Goals was impossible without mobilizing private capital at scale.

One decade later, we continue to fall short.

Last year, investment in infrastructure in developing countries dropped by 35 per cent — including in key sectors like renewable energy, water and sanitation.

And foreign direct investment has declined two years in a row, with investment flows largely bypassing Least Developed Countries altogether.

We need to create the conditions to change course.

And that begins here in Spain.

The Sevilla Commitment document includes important steps to get the engine of development revving again:

Through new domestic and global commitments that can channel public and private finance to the areas of greatest need…

By overhauling the world’s approach to debt to make borrowing work in service of sustainable development…

And by reforming the global financial architecture to reflect today’s realities and the urgent needs of developing countries.

The Sevilla Commitment also puts forward a number of specific actions to unlock private sector investment in sustainable development.

This includes steps to strengthen the way we blend public and private capital together to maximize the use of public money in crowding-in private funds.

It includes new approaches to manage currency risk that prevent otherwise promising investment opportunities from securing the capital required.

And it includes a call to review financial regulations to ensure that risk weightings are well-designed, and help — not hinder — institutional investors from embracing projects in frontier markets.

These are significant steps, informed by lessons learned over the past 10 years.

When, one looks at today’s world, the crises in the ODA, the crises in the global funds available, it is absolutely evident that we need to be able to multiply the resources available for investments.

And the main obligation, in my opinion, of public development banks, most national and international, should be today concentrated, not essentially, in their operations, and I understand the pressure of any bureaucracy to do their own things, but those public funds available in developing banks, should be more and more put to work to multiply resources through the risking private finances and private investments.

Giving guaranties, stablishing coalitions, in which they are the first risk takers, and creating the conditions to massively increase the massive private finance and private investment in countries in which without the necessary derisking it is practically impossible to see enough development.

This is a new mentally that we need to guaranty in the investment banks, the pubic investment banks, both national and international.

Ladies and gentleman,

Throughout, we are counting on the leadership and vision of all of you to carry forward the spirit of collaboration and bold solutions.

By uniting public and private sector leaders, regulators and development banks, we can ensure that this conference is not an end, but rather a beginning.

The beginning of a new era of action and collaboration on some of the most urgent issues facing our world today.

And a new dawn for how we finance development progress around the world.

Thank you all for being part of this important effort. I hope that the joint participation of the public and private sectors can multiply the resources we have.

Knowing that much more investment is needed in today’s world, but that there are mechanisms that allow available public funds to mobilize much more private financing and investment than today.

MIL OSI United Nations News –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: The Status of the Chagos Archipelago – Part I: History of the Disputes Surrounding its Status and the Creation of a UK-US Military Base

Source: US Global Legal Monitor

The following is a guest post by Clare Feikert-Ahalt, a senior foreign law specialist at the Law Library of Congress covering the United Kingdom and several other jurisdictions. Clare has written numerous posts for In Custodia Legis, including Revealing the Presence of Ghosts; Weird Laws, or Urban Legends?; FALQs: Brexit Referendum; 100 Years of “Poppy Day” in the United Kingdom; and most recently Mr. Bates vs. The Post Office Spurs Possible Law Change.

A small, but important, island known as Diego Garcia has given rise to a number of legal challenges and international agreements that date back to Britain’s colonial era. The challenges surround whether the detachment from Mauritius, and subsequent colonization of the Chagos Archipelago, which consists of several islands and atolls remotely located in the center of the Indian Ocean, including the island of Diego Garcia, was lawful, and whether the removal and prohibition on the return of its inhabitants occurred within the bounds of the law. A recent agreement between the United Kingdom (UK) and Mauritius settles the disputes, by returning Chagos Archipelago to Mauritus and providing the UK with continued use of a military base, which I will describe in a post tomorrow. Today I will look at the history that preceded the agreement.

UK Colonization of Chagos Archipelago

One of the driving forces for the UK colonization of Chagos Archipelago was the establishment of a defense facility, to be operated jointly with the United States (US). Almost immediately upon detaching the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius and establishing the colony of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) the UK, after undertaking a survey to determine the most appropriate location for a defense facility, entered into an agreement with the US to allow Diego Garcia to be used for defense purposes. The US subsequently constructed, and jointly operated with the UK, a defense facility that according to the UK government provides “crucial strategic capabilities, which have played a key role in missions to disrupt high-value terrorists, including Islamic State threats to the UK.”

History of the Chagos Archipelago and Diego Garcia

The BIOT, which includes Diego Garcia, was the last colony established by the British as its colonial era entered into its waning days and Mauritius was on the verge of obtaining independence. In 1965, the government of the UK and a representative of Mauritius signed an agreement detaching the Chagos Archipelago from the territory of Mauritius.

The agreement between the UK and Mauritius provided the legal foundation for the UK to establish the BIOT as new colony in the Chagos Archipelago, which initially included three other islands detached from Seychelles that were later ceded back to the Seychelles upon their independence in 1976. In return for the detachment of the Chagos Archipelago, the UK government provided Mauritius with a grant of £3 million (approximately US$4 million), along with a commitment to return the islands to Mauritius at a later date when it no longer needed the territory for defense purposes. Once under UK control, in 1966, the UK signed an agreement with the US to establish a military base on the largest island, Diego Garcia.

Independence of Mauritius Leads to Legal Dispute over Territorial Definition

Mauritius was granted independence from the UK in 1968, but the definition of Mauritius, contained in the Mauritius Independence Act 1968, which became its constitution and was promulgated by the government of the UK prior to Mauritius’ independence, does not include the Chagos Archipelago. Instead “Mauritius” is defined in section 5 of the 1968 Act as “the territories which immediately before the appointed day constitute the Colony of Mauritius.” The Mauritian government later claimed that its independence was made conditional upon the detachment of the Chagos Archipelago from its territory and disputed the sovereignty of the UK over the Chagos Archipelago.

This bilateral dispute progressed through numerous meetings, international exchanges, courts and tribunals for a period of 60 years until the UK and Mauritius signed the recent agreement providing sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius..

United Nations Resolution of 1966

In 1966, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) adopted a resolution condemning the British for exercising sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago and calling for it to be returned to Mauritius. In the same year, the UK and US reached an agreement providing for the use of an island in the Chagos Archipelago for defense purposes. The agreement provided that the UK government would take any administrative measures necessary to ensure the defense needs were met, which included the resettlement of the inhabitants of the islands.

Challenges Regarding Status Continue

The challenges faced by the Chagossians, along with their efforts to reclaim Diego Garcia are well detailed and documented in the decisions of the courts in which they lodged their claims.

The UK entered into an agreement with Mauritius in 1972 whereby it agreed to pay Mauritius £650,000 (approximately US$875,000) for the cost of resettlement of people displaced from the Chagos Archipelago. The UK reached an additional agreement with Mauritius in 1982, under which it paid a further £4 million (approximately US$5.4 million) to be placed into a trust fund for the Chagossians removed from the islands as a final settlement of all claims, without admitting liability.

Despite these agreements and settlement, Mauritius continued to challenge the legitimacy of British sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago and the Chagossians challenged the legality of their resettlement and exile from Diego Garcia. During these challenges, and in response to a judgment from England’s High Court, the UK government conducted a feasibility study in 2002 into the return of the Chagossians to Diego Garcia. The study concluded that if the Chagossians were permitted to return to live on Diego Garcia, the costs of long-term inhabitation would be prohibitive and that natural events, such as flooding and seismic activity “would make life difficult for a resettled population.”

Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ)

In 2019, the ICJ issued an advisory opinion that the decolonization of Mauritius was not completed lawfully and that an international agreement was not possible when one territory was under the authority of the other. The ICJ stated that the UK “has an obligation to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible.” The UK government acknowledged the opinion, but noted it was not legally binding. It stated that it did “not share the court’s approach” and asserted that it has exercised sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago since 1814. The UK affirmed that it stood by its commitment “to cede sovereignty of the territory to Mauritius when it is no longer required for defence purposes.”

While advisory opinions from the ICJ are not binding, the UK government in 2025 acknowledged that they do “carr[y] significant weight; in particular it is likely to be highly influential on any subsequent court/tribunal”. This advisory opinion had a “meaningful real-world impact on the sustainability of UK sovereignty and the operation of the Base.” In particular, the UK government determined that if Mauritius made another legal challenge, its “… longstanding legal view is that [the UK] would not have a realistic prospect of success.”

The advisory opinion was followed in 2021, by a case heard by the Special Chamber of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea relating to the delimitation of the boundary between Mauritius and the Maldives and the court ruled that the sovereignty of Mauritius over the Chagos Archipelago could be inferred from the advisory opinion made by the International Court of Justice.

The Congress of the Universal Postal Union also recognized Mauritius as responsible for making decisions regarding international postal services in the Chagos Archipelago. The UK government determined these decisions “confirmed the risk that a future (binding) case could be brought successfully against the UK” and that this “would create serious real-world operational impacts for the Base.”

Between the years 2021-2022, the UK used diplomacy and bilateral initiatives to attempt to steer Mauritius away from commencing further legal challenges, but these were unsuccessful and “… it became clear by mid-2022 that the only viable means to halt the process was to enter negotiations” and the start of these were announced in November 2022. They resulted in the May 2025 agreement, which I will describe in tomorrow’s post. Stay tuned!

——————————————————————————————————————————–

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MIL OSI USA News –

July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI: SunnyMining passes official certification and launches global free cloud mining reward program
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

Manchester, United Kingdom, June 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — SunnyMining, a world-renowned cloud mining platform, recently passed the authoritative official certification and officially announced the launch of the global “Free Cloud Mining Reward Program”. Users can easily mine mainstream digital assets such as BTC, LTC, DOGE, and quickly start daily passive income without configuring any equipment or mastering professional skills.

The plan relies on SunnyMining’s self-developed AI computing power scheduling system and smart contract engine to achieve fully automated mining processes and daily income settlement. Users only need to register and receive free computing power to participate in the platform’s cloud mining in real time without manual operation or additional costs.

At present, the platform has covered more than 190 countries and regions around the world, supporting multi-currency contracts, multi-language interfaces and all-weather income distribution, and is committed to providing a safe, convenient and efficient income channel for global crypto enthusiasts.

Passed authoritative certification, the platform is safe and reliable
SunnyMining has recently successfully passed a number of global security and compliance certifications, covering data encryption, anti-fraud mechanisms, KYC verification and fund custody security, marking a solid step forward in the platform’s compliance operations and global layout. Official certification not only enhances the credibility of the platform, but also protects user assets.

Official registration certificate

Official application certificate

Free participation, no hardware required
The global cloud mining reward program launched this time gives free computing power to each new user. Users can start automatic cloud mining without purchasing mining machines or laying out power systems. The platform is based on AI intelligent scheduling system and green energy computing power network to dynamically allocate mining resources to ensure a stable, environmentally friendly and efficient operating environment.

SunnyMining Platform Core Features

1. Free mining with zero threshold
New users can get $15 free computing power after registration. No equipment or technical background is required. You can start free cloud mining immediately.

2. Multi-currency support, flexible income
Supports BTC, XRP, DOGE, LTC and other mainstream cryptocurrencies. Users can choose contracts according to market trends and freely adjust mining strategies.
Click to view contract details

3. AI computing power scheduling system
The platform is based on an AI-driven intelligent computing power allocation engine to optimize mining efficiency and improve income performance according to real-time network conditions.

4. Automatic settlement of smart contracts
All income is settled on a daily basis and automatically distributed to user accounts. No manual operation is required, which is safe and efficient.

5. Global coverage and support for multi-language interfaces
The platform has covered 190+ countries and regions around the world, supporting multi-language services such as English, Chinese, Spanish, French, etc., to enhance global user experience.

6. Official certification, transparent and trustworthy
SunnyMining has passed international compliance and platform certification, providing multiple security guarantees, and user funds and data are strictly protected.

SunnyMining’s COO said: “We hope to break the technical and cost barriers of traditional crypto investment through this free cloud mining plan and provide global users with a safe, simple and stable digital asset entry.”

For more information or to start your free mining journey now, please visit:

SunnyMining official website ：www.sunnymining.com

APP: https://sunnymining.com/download

Email: info@sunnymining.com

Attachment
- SunnyMining
The MIL Network –
July 1, 2025
MIL-OSI: SunnyMining passes official certification and launches global free cloud mining reward program
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

Manchester, United Kingdom, June 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — SunnyMining, a world-renowned cloud mining platform, recently passed the authoritative official certification and officially announced the launch of the global “Free Cloud Mining Reward Program”. Users can easily mine mainstream digital assets such as BTC, LTC, DOGE, and quickly start daily passive income without configuring any equipment or mastering professional skills.

The plan relies on SunnyMining’s self-developed AI computing power scheduling system and smart contract engine to achieve fully automated mining processes and daily income settlement. Users only need to register and receive free computing power to participate in the platform’s cloud mining in real time without manual operation or additional costs.

At present, the platform has covered more than 190 countries and regions around the world, supporting multi-currency contracts, multi-language interfaces and all-weather income distribution, and is committed to providing a safe, convenient and efficient income channel for global crypto enthusiasts.

Passed authoritative certification, the platform is safe and reliable
SunnyMining has recently successfully passed a number of global security and compliance certifications, covering data encryption, anti-fraud mechanisms, KYC verification and fund custody security, marking a solid step forward in the platform’s compliance operations and global layout. Official certification not only enhances the credibility of the platform, but also protects user assets.

Official registration certificate

Official application certificate

Free participation, no hardware required
The global cloud mining reward program launched this time gives free computing power to each new user. Users can start automatic cloud mining without purchasing mining machines or laying out power systems. The platform is based on AI intelligent scheduling system and green energy computing power network to dynamically allocate mining resources to ensure a stable, environmentally friendly and efficient operating environment.

SunnyMining Platform Core Features

1. Free mining with zero threshold
New users can get $15 free computing power after registration. No equipment or technical background is required. You can start free cloud mining immediately.

2. Multi-currency support, flexible income
Supports BTC, XRP, DOGE, LTC and other mainstream cryptocurrencies. Users can choose contracts according to market trends and freely adjust mining strategies.
Click to view contract details

3. AI computing power scheduling system
The platform is based on an AI-driven intelligent computing power allocation engine to optimize mining efficiency and improve income performance according to real-time network conditions.

4. Automatic settlement of smart contracts
All income is settled on a daily basis and automatically distributed to user accounts. No manual operation is required, which is safe and efficient.

5. Global coverage and support for multi-language interfaces
The platform has covered 190+ countries and regions around the world, supporting multi-language services such as English, Chinese, Spanish, French, etc., to enhance global user experience.

6. Official certification, transparent and trustworthy
SunnyMining has passed international compliance and platform certification, providing multiple security guarantees, and user funds and data are strictly protected.

SunnyMining’s COO said: “We hope to break the technical and cost barriers of traditional crypto investment through this free cloud mining plan and provide global users with a safe, simple and stable digital asset entry.”

For more information or to start your free mining journey now, please visit:

SunnyMining official website ：www.sunnymining.com

APP: https://sunnymining.com/download

Email: info@sunnymining.com

Attachment
- SunnyMining
The MIL Network –
July 1, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: Trump’s worldview is causing a global shift of alliances – what does this mean for nations in the middle?

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dilnoza Ubaydullaeva, Lecturer in Government – National Security College, Australian National University

Since US President Donald Trump took office this year, one theme has come up time and again: his rule is a threat to the US-led international order.

As the US political scientist John Mearsheimer famously argued, the liberal international order

was destined to fail from the start, as it contained the seeds of its own destruction.

This perspective has gained traction in recent years. And now, Trump’s actions have caused many to question whether a new world order is emerging.

Trump has expressed a desire for a new international order defined by multiple spheres of influence — one in which powers like the US, China and Russia each exert dominance over distinct regions.

This vision aligns with the idea of a “multipolar” world, where no single state holds overarching global dominance. Instead, influence is distributed among several great powers, each maintaining its own regional sphere.

This architecture contrasts sharply with earlier periods – the bipolar world of the Cold War, dominated by the US and the Soviet Union; and the unipolar period that followed, dominated by the US.

What does this mean for the world order moving forward?

Shifting US spheres of influence

We’ve seen this shift taking place in recent months. For example, Trump has backed away from his pledge to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and now appears to be leaving it to the main protagonists, and Europe, to find a solution.

Europe, which once largely spoke in a unified voice with the US, is also showing signs of policy-making which is more independent. Rather than framing its actions as protecting “Western democratic principles”, Europe is increasingly focused on defining its own security interests.

In the Middle East, the US will likely maintain its sphere of influence. It will continue its unequivocal support for Israel under Trump.

Amid shifting global alliances, the Trump administration will continue to support Israel, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
noamgalai/Shutterstock

The US will also involve itself in the region’s politics when its interests are at stake, as we witnessed in its recent strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

This, along with increasing economic ties between the US and Gulf states, suggests US allies in the region will remain the dominant voices shaping regional dynamics, particularly now with Iran weakened.

Yet it’s clear Trump is reshaping US dynamics in the region by signaling a desire for reduced military and political involvement, and criticising the nation building efforts of previous administrations.

The Trump administration now appears to want to maintain its sphere of influence primarily through strong economic ties.

Russia and China poles emerging elsewhere

Meanwhile, other poles are emerging in the Global South. Russia and China have deepened their cooperation, positioning themselves as defenders against what they frame as Western hegemonic bullying.

Trump’s trade policies and sanctions against many nations in the Global South have fuelled narratives (spread by China and Russia) that the US does not consistently adhere to the rules it imposes on others.

Trump’s decision to slash funding to USAID has also opened the door to China, in particular, to become the main development partner for nations in Africa and other parts of the world.

And on the security front, Russia has become more involved in many African and Middle Eastern countries, which have become less trustful and reliant on Western powers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Xinping see opportunities to spread their influence in the Global South.
plavi011/Shutterstock

In the Indo-Pacific, much attention has been given to the rise of China and its increasingly assertive posture. Many of Washington’s traditional allies are nervous about its continued engagement in the region and ability to counter China’s rise.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has sought to take advantage of the current environment, embarking on a Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia push earlier this year. But many nations continue to be wary of China’s increasing influence, in particular the Philippines, which has clashed with China over the South China Sea.

Strategic hedging

Not all countries, however, are aligning themselves neatly with one pole or another.

For small states caught between great powers, navigating this multipolar environment is both a risk and an opportunity.

Ukraine is a case in point. As a sovereign state, Ukraine should have the freedom to decide its own alignments. Yet, it finds itself ensnared in great power politics, with devastating consequences.

Other small states are playing a different game — pivoting from one power to another based on their immediate interests.

Slovakia, for instance, is both a NATO and EU member, yet its leader, Robert Fico, attended Russia’s Victory Day Parade in May and told President Vladimir Putin he wanted to maintain “normal relations” with Russia.

Then there is Central Asia, which is the centre of a renewed “great game,” with Russia, China and Europe vying for influence and economic partnerships.

Yet if any Central Asian countries were to be invaded by Putin, would other powers intervene? It’s a difficult question to answer. Major powers are reluctant to engage in direct conflict unless their core interests or borders are directly threatened.

As a result, Central Asian states are hedging their bets, seeking to maintain relations with multiple poles, despite their conflicting agendas.

A future defined by regional power blocs?

While it is still early to draw definitive conclusions, the events of the past few months underscore a growing trend. Smaller countries are expressing solidarity with one power, but pragmatic cooperation with another, when it suits their national interests.

For this reason, regional power blocs seem to be of increasing interest to countries in the Global South.

For instance, the China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation has become a stronger and larger grouping of nations across Eurasia in recent years.

Trump’s focus on making “America Great Again,” has taken the load off the US carrying liberal order leadership. A multipolar world may not be the end of the liberal international order, but it may be a reshaped version of liberal governance.

How “liberal” it can be will likely depend on what each regional power, or pole, will make of it.

Dilnoza Ubaydullaeva 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. Trump’s worldview is causing a global shift of alliances – what does this mean for nations in the middle? – https://theconversation.com/trumps-worldview-is-causing-a-global-shift-of-alliances-what-does-this-mean-for-nations-in-the-middle-257113

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

July 1, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: Trump’s worldview is causing a global shift of alliances – what does this mean for nations in the middle?

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dilnoza Ubaydullaeva, Lecturer in Government – National Security College, Australian National University

Since US President Donald Trump took office this year, one theme has come up time and again: his rule is a threat to the US-led international order.

As the US political scientist John Mearsheimer famously argued, the liberal international order

was destined to fail from the start, as it contained the seeds of its own destruction.

This perspective has gained traction in recent years. And now, Trump’s actions have caused many to question whether a new world order is emerging.

Trump has expressed a desire for a new international order defined by multiple spheres of influence — one in which powers like the US, China and Russia each exert dominance over distinct regions.

This vision aligns with the idea of a “multipolar” world, where no single state holds overarching global dominance. Instead, influence is distributed among several great powers, each maintaining its own regional sphere.

This architecture contrasts sharply with earlier periods – the bipolar world of the Cold War, dominated by the US and the Soviet Union; and the unipolar period that followed, dominated by the US.

What does this mean for the world order moving forward?

Shifting US spheres of influence

We’ve seen this shift taking place in recent months. For example, Trump has backed away from his pledge to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and now appears to be leaving it to the main protagonists, and Europe, to find a solution.

Europe, which once largely spoke in a unified voice with the US, is also showing signs of policy-making which is more independent. Rather than framing its actions as protecting “Western democratic principles”, Europe is increasingly focused on defining its own security interests.

In the Middle East, the US will likely maintain its sphere of influence. It will continue its unequivocal support for Israel under Trump.

Amid shifting global alliances, the Trump administration will continue to support Israel, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
noamgalai/Shutterstock

The US will also involve itself in the region’s politics when its interests are at stake, as we witnessed in its recent strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

This, along with increasing economic ties between the US and Gulf states, suggests US allies in the region will remain the dominant voices shaping regional dynamics, particularly now with Iran weakened.

Yet it’s clear Trump is reshaping US dynamics in the region by signaling a desire for reduced military and political involvement, and criticising the nation building efforts of previous administrations.

The Trump administration now appears to want to maintain its sphere of influence primarily through strong economic ties.

Russia and China poles emerging elsewhere

Meanwhile, other poles are emerging in the Global South. Russia and China have deepened their cooperation, positioning themselves as defenders against what they frame as Western hegemonic bullying.

Trump’s trade policies and sanctions against many nations in the Global South have fuelled narratives (spread by China and Russia) that the US does not consistently adhere to the rules it imposes on others.

Trump’s decision to slash funding to USAID has also opened the door to China, in particular, to become the main development partner for nations in Africa and other parts of the world.

And on the security front, Russia has become more involved in many African and Middle Eastern countries, which have become less trustful and reliant on Western powers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Xinping see opportunities to spread their influence in the Global South.
plavi011/Shutterstock

In the Indo-Pacific, much attention has been given to the rise of China and its increasingly assertive posture. Many of Washington’s traditional allies are nervous about its continued engagement in the region and ability to counter China’s rise.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has sought to take advantage of the current environment, embarking on a Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia push earlier this year. But many nations continue to be wary of China’s increasing influence, in particular the Philippines, which has clashed with China over the South China Sea.

Strategic hedging

Not all countries, however, are aligning themselves neatly with one pole or another.

For small states caught between great powers, navigating this multipolar environment is both a risk and an opportunity.

Ukraine is a case in point. As a sovereign state, Ukraine should have the freedom to decide its own alignments. Yet, it finds itself ensnared in great power politics, with devastating consequences.

Other small states are playing a different game — pivoting from one power to another based on their immediate interests.

Slovakia, for instance, is both a NATO and EU member, yet its leader, Robert Fico, attended Russia’s Victory Day Parade in May and told President Vladimir Putin he wanted to maintain “normal relations” with Russia.

Then there is Central Asia, which is the centre of a renewed “great game,” with Russia, China and Europe vying for influence and economic partnerships.

Yet if any Central Asian countries were to be invaded by Putin, would other powers intervene? It’s a difficult question to answer. Major powers are reluctant to engage in direct conflict unless their core interests or borders are directly threatened.

As a result, Central Asian states are hedging their bets, seeking to maintain relations with multiple poles, despite their conflicting agendas.

A future defined by regional power blocs?

While it is still early to draw definitive conclusions, the events of the past few months underscore a growing trend. Smaller countries are expressing solidarity with one power, but pragmatic cooperation with another, when it suits their national interests.

For this reason, regional power blocs seem to be of increasing interest to countries in the Global South.

For instance, the China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation has become a stronger and larger grouping of nations across Eurasia in recent years.

Trump’s focus on making “America Great Again,” has taken the load off the US carrying liberal order leadership. A multipolar world may not be the end of the liberal international order, but it may be a reshaped version of liberal governance.

How “liberal” it can be will likely depend on what each regional power, or pole, will make of it.

Dilnoza Ubaydullaeva 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. Trump’s worldview is causing a global shift of alliances – what does this mean for nations in the middle? – https://theconversation.com/trumps-worldview-is-causing-a-global-shift-of-alliances-what-does-this-mean-for-nations-in-the-middle-257113

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

July 1, 2025