NewzIntel.com

Category: Farming

  • MIL-OSI USA: De La Cruz Secures Sterile Fly Facility in Hidalgo County to Combat New World Screwworm

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Monica De La Cruz (TX-15)


    WASHINGTON –     Today, Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz (TX-15) and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced $8.5 million to establish a New World Screwworm sterile fly facility at the Moore Air Base in Hidalgo County. As the threat posed by the New World Screwworm moves northward, the facility will be crucial in producing and distributing sterile flies to prevent potential outbreaks in the U.S.

    “If we do not take action now, the New World Screwworm will devastate Texas livestock and wildlife. Thank you, Secretary Rollins, for swiftly accepting my proposal to establish this critical facility in Hidalgo County. I am committed to working alongside the Administration to put Texas farmers and ranchers first and safeguard our agriculture industry.” – Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz

    “The United States has defeated NWS before and we will do it again. We do not take lightly the threat NWS poses to our livestock industry, our economy, and our food supply chain. The United States government will use all resources at its disposal to push back NWS, and today’s announcement of a domestic strategy to bolster our border defenses is just the beginning. We have the proven tools, strong domestic and international partnerships, and the grit needed to win this battle.” – U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins

    Background:

    The New World Screwworm is a highly destructive parasitic fly that infests the flesh of livestock and wildlife. The parasite has been detected in Veracruz, Mexico, approximately 700 miles from the U.S. border. As more cases arise, the threat and concerns of northward spread grow.
     
    Last week at the House Agriculture Committee hearing with Secretary Rollins, Rep. De La Cruz advocated for Moore Air Base in Hidalgo County to be considered as a site to help combat New World Screwworm. In May, De La Cruz sent a letter to the Secretary requesting that Moore Air Base be considered for a new sterile fly facility to help combat this parasite. The Congresswoman has also led legislative initiatives, including the New World Screwworm Preparedness Act, to ensure Texas agriculture is prepared to combat the threat.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: De La Cruz Secures Sterile Fly Facility in Hidalgo County to Combat New World Screwworm

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Monica De La Cruz (TX-15)


    WASHINGTON –     Today, Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz (TX-15) and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced $8.5 million to establish a New World Screwworm sterile fly facility at the Moore Air Base in Hidalgo County. As the threat posed by the New World Screwworm moves northward, the facility will be crucial in producing and distributing sterile flies to prevent potential outbreaks in the U.S.

    “If we do not take action now, the New World Screwworm will devastate Texas livestock and wildlife. Thank you, Secretary Rollins, for swiftly accepting my proposal to establish this critical facility in Hidalgo County. I am committed to working alongside the Administration to put Texas farmers and ranchers first and safeguard our agriculture industry.” – Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz

    “The United States has defeated NWS before and we will do it again. We do not take lightly the threat NWS poses to our livestock industry, our economy, and our food supply chain. The United States government will use all resources at its disposal to push back NWS, and today’s announcement of a domestic strategy to bolster our border defenses is just the beginning. We have the proven tools, strong domestic and international partnerships, and the grit needed to win this battle.” – U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins

    Background:

    The New World Screwworm is a highly destructive parasitic fly that infests the flesh of livestock and wildlife. The parasite has been detected in Veracruz, Mexico, approximately 700 miles from the U.S. border. As more cases arise, the threat and concerns of northward spread grow.
     
    Last week at the House Agriculture Committee hearing with Secretary Rollins, Rep. De La Cruz advocated for Moore Air Base in Hidalgo County to be considered as a site to help combat New World Screwworm. In May, De La Cruz sent a letter to the Secretary requesting that Moore Air Base be considered for a new sterile fly facility to help combat this parasite. The Congresswoman has also led legislative initiatives, including the New World Screwworm Preparedness Act, to ensure Texas agriculture is prepared to combat the threat.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Prepare for Extreme Heat and Severe Storms

    Source: US State of New York

    overnor Kathy Hochul today directed State agencies to prepare for severe weather including thunderstorms and extreme heat starting on Thursday in the eastern part of the State. Wet weather will continue Friday and Saturday in parts of the State followed by a statewide period of high heat and humidity that could exceed feels-like temperatures over 100 degrees starting Sunday. Extreme heat could continue through next week. Governor Hochul also recently announced a suite of actions to help New Yorkers stay cool during extreme heat events this summer.

    “With severe storms and dangerous heat expected across the state, I’m urging all New Yorkers to take precautions — stay indoors when possible, vote early, stay hydrated, and check on your fellow New Yorkers,” Governor Hochul said. “My administration will be closely monitoring the weather over the next week, and I encourage all New Yorkers to stay weather aware, watch their local forecast, and follow all local guidance.”

    Thursday is expected to be the hottest day this year so far in the eastern parts of the State, and there is the threat of severe thunderstorms containing heavy rain, high wind gusts and large hail across much of the state. Temperatures are expected to peak Thursday afternoon and early evening for parts of New York City, as well as the Mid-Hudson and Capital Regions with “feels-like” temperatures in the high 90s. Potentially severe storms on Thursday for areas north and west of Albany could include up to one inch of rain, wind gusts up to 58 mph, and large hail.

    Friday will likely bring rain throughout most of the State on Friday with the heaviest storms expected in the North Country. Heavy rain, gusty winds and thunderstorms are expected again late Saturday, primarily in the North Country and Central New York regions.

    Heat and humidity are expected to begin on Saturday with feels like temperatures in the 90s on Saturday and approaching 100 on Sunday throughout much of the State. Above normal temperatures are expected to continue Monday and Tuesday and could remain high with feels-like temperatures as high as 105 degrees during the day and overnight lows between 70 – 85 degrees statewide through much of next week.

    Voters in New York City, Albany, Syracuse, and elsewhere can expect high temperatures on Primary Election Day, Tuesday June 24. To beat the heat, take advantage of early voting or request an early mail ballot in person at your local county board of elections office.

    Residents of New York City can find information on cooling centers and options here.

    Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services

    The Office of Emergency Management is in regular contact with county emergency managers to ensure cooling centers are available, and to offer support and advise on extreme heat risks. In addition, the agency is facilitating preparations and coordinating guidance and communications with State agency partners. Information on how to manage extreme heat can be found online. To receive real time weather and emergency alerts, New Yorkers are encouraged to text the name of their county or borough to 333111.

    New York State Department of Public Service

    DPS is tracking electric system conditions and overseeing utility response to any situations that may arise as a result of this week’s extreme heat and potential thunderstorm activity. DPS has been in direct contact with utility leaders to ensure they are preparing their systems for the extreme heat and will be tracking system conditions throughout the event. New York’s utilities have approximately 5,500 workers available, as necessary, to engage in damage assessment, response, repair, and restoration efforts across New York State, for this heat event. Agency staff will track utilities’ work throughout the event and ensure utilities shift appropriate staffing to regions that experience the greatest impact.

    During heat waves, increased usage of electric devices such as air conditioners place a considerable demand on the state’s electricity system and instances of low voltage or isolated power outages can result. The record for such usage was set on July 19, 2013, when it reached 33,956 MWs (one megawatt of electricity is enough to power up to 1,000 average-sized homes). The peak load forecast for today is 22,550 MW. Yesterday’s peak load was 19,028 MW. There are no operational problems on the transmission system and there is sufficient generation scheduled to meet today’s peak load.

    Department of Health

    The State Health Department is taking a number of steps to promote the safety of all New Yorkers in periods of extreme heat, especially those most at risk. The Department has distributed guidance to all hospitals and nursing homes and will issue additional guidance to hosts of any scheduled public events with over 5,000 people in attendance. The Department will engage community-based organizations and other funded providers in an attempt to increase access to cooling centers and safe spaces during this extreme heat. Resources can be found at the CDC’s extreme heat website and the State Health Department’s extreme heat advice webpage.

    Learn more about heat related illness, including signs and symptoms and when to take action on the State Department of Health website here.

    The New York State Department of Health’s interactive Heat Risk and Illness Dashboard allows the public and county health care officials to determine the forecasted level of heat-related health risks in their area and raise awareness about the dangers of heat exposure.

    Information about what the public can do during hot weather and how to  locate cooling centers can be found on DOH’s Extreme Heat website.

    New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation

    Many New York State Park beaches and pools are open for the season. Prior to making a trip, potential visitors should call ahead to the park they plan to visit or check https://parks.ny.gov/parks/ for park hours and operations. Changes in weather and water conditions may affect swimming status. Park status updates are also available on the free New York State Parks Explorer mobile app for iOS and Android devices.

    NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets

    The agency has compiled important information, including preventative measures, to help mitigate the effects of extreme heat on farm workers and farm animals. The Department will also be working closely with partners at The New York Extension Disaster Education Network (NY EDEN) at Cornell University to monitor any potential impacts of the extreme heat expected this week. NY EDEN is also a resource for farmers and farm workers during a heat wave, and additional information can be found at https://eden.cce.cornell.edu/natural-hazards/heat-wave/.

    Department of Environmental Conservation

    The Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) Emergency Management staff, Environmental Conservation Police Officers, Forest Rangers, and regional staff remain on alert and continue to monitor weather forecasts. Working with partner agencies, DEC is prepared to coordinate resource deployment of all available assets, including first responders, to targeted areas in preparation for potential impacts due to heavy rainfall and flooding.

    Unpredictable weather and storms in the Adirondacks, Catskills, and other backcountry areas can create unexpectedly hazardous conditions. Visitors should be prepared with proper clothing and equipment for rain, mud, and warmer temperatures to ensure a safe outdoor experience.

    Hikers are advised to temporarily avoid all high-elevation trails, as well as trails that cross rivers and streams. Hikers in the Adirondacks are encouraged to check the Adirondack Backcountry Information webpages for updates on trail conditions, seasonal road closures, and general recreation information.

    Hiking Safety

    Hiking in the heat is always risky. New Yorkers and visitors should review the following tips to prevent heat exhaustion and heat stroke:

    • Slow your pace.
    • Drink water and rest often.
    • Seek shade and avoid long periods in direct sunlight.
    • Bring at least 2 liters of water for any hike.
    • Bring a water filter, especially for longer hikes.
    • Bring salty snacks to keep your electrolytes in check.
    • Wear sunscreen.
    • Leave your pets at home– the heat is harder on them, especially walking on hot rocks.
    • Consider staying home yourself and rescheduling for another day when weather conditions improve.

    Even if the weather is forecast to be high heat all day, there’s always a chance of hypothermia due to a sudden storm or drop in temperatures. This can increase dramatically if you’re sweating and not wearing sweat-wicking clothing (made of fabrics like wool or polyester). Many cases of hypothermia are in the summer when people least expect it.

    Whether you are hiking, mountain biking, or paddling, Hike Smart NY can help you prepare with a list of 10 essentials, guidance on what to wear, and tips for planning your trip with safety and sustainability in mind. In an emergency, call 9-1-1. To request Forest Ranger assistance, call 1-833-NYS-RANGERS.

    Air Quality

    DEC is continuing to monitor air quality across the State and will issue air quality health advisories as necessary. New Yorkers are encouraged be “Air Quality Aware” and check airnow.gov for accurate information on air quality forecasts and conditions. To view the latest DEC air quality forecasts, visit the DEC website.

    Extreme Heat

    DEC recently released preliminary Urban Heat Island maps to help communities better understand, plan for, and adapt to extreme heat exposures on the neighborhood level. Links to the maps, as well as additional information and data, can be found on DEC’s Extreme Heat Action Plan webpage and posted at nys-heat.daveyinstitute.com/hottest-hour. The project advances a key action in the Extreme Heat Action Plan and advances a 2022 law signed by Governor Hochul directing DEC to study the impacts of disproportionate concentrations of extreme heat in disadvantaged communities across the state.

    The New York State Department of Labor has released comprehensive guidance to help employers better protect outdoor workers during extreme heat and advises workers and employers to engage in extreme heat best practices such as:

    • Ensure access to clean drinking water at no cost to workers, available at all times and as close to the worksite as possible.
    • Provide shade and paid rest when the heat index reaches 80 degrees Fahrenheit or above, and more frequent rest breaks once the heat index exceeds 90 degrees.
    • Wear proper PPE so long as they do not interfere with safety equipment, including sunscreen, cooling vests, wide-brim hats, and lightweight, loose-fitting clothing.

    More information on best practices for working in extreme heat can be found here.

    Thruway Authority maintenance crews will be conducting standard daily operations during times where temperatures are lowest and will enhance patrols monitoring the highway. Motorists are reminded and encouraged to take breaks at one of 26 service areas or three Welcome Centers located on the Thruway system.

    Department of Transportation maintenance crews will conduct most outdoor work during morning hours and follow established hydration and rest protocols to help mitigate the risks associated with high temperatures.

    Office of Children and Family Services

    The agency is taking a number of actions to ensure activities at residential centers, detention programs and congregate care programs are conducted in a safe manner during the heat. This includes checking cooling equipment, ensuring proper amounts of water are available and consumed, rescheduling activities and meetings, and identifying staff and clients who may be affected by heat. They are also providing guidance to child care programs and groups associated with the Commission for the Blind statewide.

    New York State Office of Mental Health

    In advance of the hot conditions, New Yorkers should be aware of the impact high heat may have on individuals receiving antipsychotic medications, who are at particular risk of heat stroke and neuroleptic malignant syndrome during periods of extreme heat, which is more likely in poorly ventilated areas. Children and the elderly are at increased risk.

    In addition to monitoring individuals at risk, such conditions are best prevented by a heightened attention to hydration, particularly those at high risk, including individuals taking antipsychotic medications, the elderly, children and those with poor fluid intake. Also, individuals at high-risk should remain in cooler areas; be monitored for temperature elevations; avoid direct exposure to sunlight and wear protective clothing and sunscreen. Anticholinergic medications may interfere with sweating and should be minimized.

    Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance

    The agency is reminding local departments of social services and emergency homeless shelter operators of the need to provide fans to help maintain reasonable air circulation during times of extreme heat and humidity. Also, shelter providers should provide a cooling room in the facility for residents, if feasible.

    Metropolitan Transportation Authority

    To reduce potential impacts to service and reduce response times to heat-related events, NYC Transit will implement heat patrols to proactively increase track inspections and stage extra personnel in key risk areas including power substations, machine rooms, generators, cables, and connections. To ensure functioning air conditioning, subway railcars and buses will be inspected before being placed in service. Paratransit service providers are reminded vehicles must have functioning air-conditioning. Buses and operators will be on standby for any support needed with subways or emergency service. NYC Transit also completes a continuous welded rail watch when rail temperatures exceed 100 degrees to be vigilant of rail kinks or other issues.

    Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad crews will be staged at key locations to be able to respond quickly to weather-related issues. The railroads will monitor rail temperatures, deploy heat patrols to inspect the rails for any kinks, and stage additional Power Department personnel to protect power substations and overhead aerial lines. Train crews have been instructed to report any rail conditions that need attention.

    In response to Thursday’s severe storms which may include wind gusts of up to 50 mph, Bridges and Tunnels will be implementing a preemptive ban on empty tractor-trailer and tandem vehicles at all bridges. The ban will go into effect at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 19, 2025, and is anticipated to be in effect until approximately 9:00 p.m.

    The Port Authority Office of Emergency Management coordinates with facility teams to monitor weather conditions and operational impacts and maintains communication with regional partners to support response readiness during periods of elevated temperatures.

    For a complete listing of weather watches, warnings, advisories and latest forecasts, visit the National Weather Service website.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Is Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend album cover satire or self-degradation? A psychology expert explores our reactions

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Muller-Townsend, Lecturer in Psychology, Edith Cowan University

    Island Records

    Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend album cover has fans divided.

    Carpenter poses on all fours, her glossy blond hair grasped by a male figure cropped from the frame. Her wide-eyed expression intensifies an ambiguous performance of subservience, tapping into a visual language tied to female objectification, from classic pin-up imagery to contemporary pop culture.

    The emotionally loaded image plays on her hyper-feminine, tongue-in-cheek pop star persona, forcing us to question where irony ends and objectification begins.

    Is it satire, or self-degradation?

    Up for debate

    At first glance, the cover seems like just another stylised, provocative pop image. It delivers what we’ve come to expect: a bold, ironic twist on the exaggerated Juno-style pose she reinvents on stage.

    To some fans, it’s clever satire: a pop star reclaiming and amplifying her image to mock industry norms. Satire uses exaggeration, irony, or humour to critique power structures – and Carpenter’s pose walks that tightrope.

    To others it crosses a line, reinforcing regressive attitudes about women’s sexuality and drawing criticism from domestic violence advocates.

    The debate reflects our unresolved discomfort about gender, power and control. There is a tension between Carpenter’s ironic persona and the submissive pose, creating uncertainty for the viewer.

    We can use psychology to better understand this dichotomy.

    The schema violation

    This mismatch between expectation and perception is a schema violation.

    A schema is a mental shortcut: a template built from experience and unspoken rules that helps us make sense of the world and predict what to expect. When something breaks that pattern, it’s called a schema violation.

    Carpenter’s brand is cheeky, self-aware irony – so when she adopts a pose steeped in submission and hyper-femininity as in this album image, it feels off.

    That can trigger cognitive dissonance: the mental tension we feel when two ideas (here, empowerment and obedience) don’t align.

    To resolve the conflict, some fans reinterpret the image as feminist sarcasm. Others reject it, fearing it panders to outdated, dangerous norms.

    Both reactions reflect our emotional and ideological investments in who Carpenter is or should be.

    Exploring confirmation bias

    Part of this conflicted reaction is driven by confirmation bias: our tendency to filter information to support what we already believe.

    Fans who see Carpenter as witty and empowered interpret the image as intentionally ironic. Others – more sceptical of the industry’s history of exploiting female sexuality – view it as a throwback to damaging norms.

    Either way, our interpretations often reflect more about ourselves than about Carpenter’s intent.

    When her image contradicts both her public persona and our social values, it creates a gap between what we think is right and what we want to be right. So, we try to explain it away, by either defending the image or criticising it.

    Satire and scandal

    Carpenter’s cover follows a long tradition of female artists whose work straddles satire and scandal, complicating public reception.

    Madonna’s Like a Prayer drew outrage for mixing religion with sexual imagery. Yet it positioned her as a provocateur – a woman resisting the lack of agency that so often defines sexualised media.

    Miley Cyrus’ Bangerz era shocked fans with a bold shift from Hannah Montana innocence to hypersexualised rebellion, challenging the narrow roles women in pop culture are confined to.

    Doja Cat’s shift from glam pop princess to glitch villainess unsettled audiences. Was it satire, rebellion, or just chaos?

    These women, like Carpenter, force us to confront our own discomfort with women who won’t stay in one lane.

    Performer and provocateur

    Audience reaction is also shaped by emotional investment in Carpenter’s persona. Through carefully curated social media, interviews and lyrics, fans build intimate narratives forming parasocial relationships – one-sided emotional bonds with celebrities.

    When an image contradicts that imagined persona, it can feel jarring, even like betrayal.

    Audiences often expect idols to be empowering but not polarising, sexy but safe, to challenge norms – but only in ways that affirm our own values.

    Carpenter’s image breaks that implicit contract, which creates discomfort for some viewers.

    Carpenter’s cover raises uncomfortable but necessary questions about how much freedom female artists have to be both critical and complicit. Can they play with society and play along, to be both performer and provocateur?

    This highlights the double bind many women face in media and popular culture. Female artists are expected to both subvert and satisfy; to entertain without offending; empower without alienating. The burden to be palatable and provocative is one male artists rarely face.

    It’s what we make of it

    Is Carpenter undermining herself or subverting the system? Perhaps both. Or perhaps the image isn’t the message: our reaction is.

    The image forces us to confront not only our perception of Sabrina Carpenter but also our cultural discomfort with women who defy neat categorisation. Satire demands interpretation, especially when it comes from women addressing sex or power.

    More than provocation, Carpenter’s cover mirrors our cultural struggle to accept women who defy simple labels of satire or submission. The image can reflect broader social ideals and tensions projected onto public figures.

    What we see says more about our assumptions than her intent. Understanding those reactions doesn’t kill the fun – it deepens it.

    Katrina Muller-Townsend 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. Is Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend album cover satire or self-degradation? A psychology expert explores our reactions – https://theconversation.com/is-sabrina-carpenters-mans-best-friend-album-cover-satire-or-self-degradation-a-psychology-expert-explores-our-reactions-259043

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Is Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend album cover satire or self-degradation? A psychology expert explores our reactions

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Muller-Townsend, Lecturer in Psychology, Edith Cowan University

    Island Records

    Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend album cover has fans divided.

    Carpenter poses on all fours, her glossy blond hair grasped by a male figure cropped from the frame. Her wide-eyed expression intensifies an ambiguous performance of subservience, tapping into a visual language tied to female objectification, from classic pin-up imagery to contemporary pop culture.

    The emotionally loaded image plays on her hyper-feminine, tongue-in-cheek pop star persona, forcing us to question where irony ends and objectification begins.

    Is it satire, or self-degradation?

    Up for debate

    At first glance, the cover seems like just another stylised, provocative pop image. It delivers what we’ve come to expect: a bold, ironic twist on the exaggerated Juno-style pose she reinvents on stage.

    To some fans, it’s clever satire: a pop star reclaiming and amplifying her image to mock industry norms. Satire uses exaggeration, irony, or humour to critique power structures – and Carpenter’s pose walks that tightrope.

    To others it crosses a line, reinforcing regressive attitudes about women’s sexuality and drawing criticism from domestic violence advocates.

    The debate reflects our unresolved discomfort about gender, power and control. There is a tension between Carpenter’s ironic persona and the submissive pose, creating uncertainty for the viewer.

    We can use psychology to better understand this dichotomy.

    The schema violation

    This mismatch between expectation and perception is a schema violation.

    A schema is a mental shortcut: a template built from experience and unspoken rules that helps us make sense of the world and predict what to expect. When something breaks that pattern, it’s called a schema violation.

    Carpenter’s brand is cheeky, self-aware irony – so when she adopts a pose steeped in submission and hyper-femininity as in this album image, it feels off.

    That can trigger cognitive dissonance: the mental tension we feel when two ideas (here, empowerment and obedience) don’t align.

    To resolve the conflict, some fans reinterpret the image as feminist sarcasm. Others reject it, fearing it panders to outdated, dangerous norms.

    Both reactions reflect our emotional and ideological investments in who Carpenter is or should be.

    Exploring confirmation bias

    Part of this conflicted reaction is driven by confirmation bias: our tendency to filter information to support what we already believe.

    Fans who see Carpenter as witty and empowered interpret the image as intentionally ironic. Others – more sceptical of the industry’s history of exploiting female sexuality – view it as a throwback to damaging norms.

    Either way, our interpretations often reflect more about ourselves than about Carpenter’s intent.

    When her image contradicts both her public persona and our social values, it creates a gap between what we think is right and what we want to be right. So, we try to explain it away, by either defending the image or criticising it.

    Satire and scandal

    Carpenter’s cover follows a long tradition of female artists whose work straddles satire and scandal, complicating public reception.

    Madonna’s Like a Prayer drew outrage for mixing religion with sexual imagery. Yet it positioned her as a provocateur – a woman resisting the lack of agency that so often defines sexualised media.

    Miley Cyrus’ Bangerz era shocked fans with a bold shift from Hannah Montana innocence to hypersexualised rebellion, challenging the narrow roles women in pop culture are confined to.

    Doja Cat’s shift from glam pop princess to glitch villainess unsettled audiences. Was it satire, rebellion, or just chaos?

    These women, like Carpenter, force us to confront our own discomfort with women who won’t stay in one lane.

    Performer and provocateur

    Audience reaction is also shaped by emotional investment in Carpenter’s persona. Through carefully curated social media, interviews and lyrics, fans build intimate narratives forming parasocial relationships – one-sided emotional bonds with celebrities.

    When an image contradicts that imagined persona, it can feel jarring, even like betrayal.

    Audiences often expect idols to be empowering but not polarising, sexy but safe, to challenge norms – but only in ways that affirm our own values.

    Carpenter’s image breaks that implicit contract, which creates discomfort for some viewers.

    Carpenter’s cover raises uncomfortable but necessary questions about how much freedom female artists have to be both critical and complicit. Can they play with society and play along, to be both performer and provocateur?

    This highlights the double bind many women face in media and popular culture. Female artists are expected to both subvert and satisfy; to entertain without offending; empower without alienating. The burden to be palatable and provocative is one male artists rarely face.

    It’s what we make of it

    Is Carpenter undermining herself or subverting the system? Perhaps both. Or perhaps the image isn’t the message: our reaction is.

    The image forces us to confront not only our perception of Sabrina Carpenter but also our cultural discomfort with women who defy neat categorisation. Satire demands interpretation, especially when it comes from women addressing sex or power.

    More than provocation, Carpenter’s cover mirrors our cultural struggle to accept women who defy simple labels of satire or submission. The image can reflect broader social ideals and tensions projected onto public figures.

    What we see says more about our assumptions than her intent. Understanding those reactions doesn’t kill the fun – it deepens it.

    Katrina Muller-Townsend 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. Is Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend album cover satire or self-degradation? A psychology expert explores our reactions – https://theconversation.com/is-sabrina-carpenters-mans-best-friend-album-cover-satire-or-self-degradation-a-psychology-expert-explores-our-reactions-259043

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Ricketts Introduces VARIANCE Act to Strengthen American Trucking

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Pete Ricketts (Nebraska)
    WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) introduced the Vehicle Axle Redistribution Increases Allow New Capacities for Efficiency (VARIANCE) Act.  The bill would improve regulations for American truckers by permitting a 10% axle variance for commercial motor vehicles transporting dry bulk goods.  Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) is a co-lead of this legislation in the Senate.  Representatives Rick Crawford (R-AR-1) and Salud Carbajal (D-CA-24) are leading companion legislation in the House.
    “This is common-sense policymaking,” said Ricketts.  “Allowing flexibility for truckers with naturally shifting goods will help improve efficiency and safety in Nebraska’s agriculture industry.  American truckers want to carry the same sized load in loose dry bulk that they can for any other freight.  This bill is a win for every step along the supply chain.”
    “Providing commonsense flexibility to our transportation and agriculture sectors will ensure California consumers don’t face higher costs due to regulations that don’t acknowledge the realities of basic physics,” said Schiff.  ”The VARIANCE Act is a bipartisan and bicameral solution that will improve our supply chain, reduce congestion, and help California farmers and producers continue to feed the nation and the world.”
    The Variance Act would:
    Grant a 10% axle variance for commercial motor vehicles transporting dry bulk goods and increase the maximum weight on any tandem-axle trailer to 37,400 lbs. 
    Leave the maximum laden vehicle weight untouched at 80,000 lbs.
    The text of the bill is available here.
    “Farmers, manufacturers, miners, and many other industries depend on truckers to get their goods to market.  When dry bulk cargo is in transit, however, a simple physics problem arises: routine braking often causes the contents of trailers to shift,” said Henry Hanscom, American Trucking Associations SVP of Legislative Affairs.  “ATA applauds Senators Ricketts and Schiff for this bipartisan, commonsense solution that will prevent motor carriers from being unfairly penalized for weight variances, promote the efficient movement of freight, and support hardworking Americans in the trucking industry.”
    “The VARIANCE Act is a commonsense solution that helps address transportation bottlenecks in the grain and feed industry,” said Mike Seyfert, National Grain and Feed Association President and CEO.  “By allowing modest axle weight variances for dry bulk shipments, this legislation supports more efficient and sustainable supply chains while maintaining safety standards.”
    “For 37 years, the Agriculture Transportation Coalition has worked with truck, rail, and ocean carriers in pursuit of greater transport efficiency, in order to keep US agriculture and forest products competitive in the global marketplace,” said Peter Friedmann, Agriculture Transportation Coalition Executive Director.  “Domestic trucking is an important component of the international supply chain.  Thus the AgTC supports the VARIANCE Act to allow for variance in axle weight distribution, which will increase efficiency, safety, cost-effectiveness in transport of grains, feeds of our members.” 
    “This expanded partnership in the Senate showcases the broad support and practical impact of the VARIANCE Act. Thank you to Senator Ricketts and Senator Schiff for their commitment to improve the safe and efficient movement of dry bulk commodities across our country,” said Ryan Streblow, National Tank Truck Carriers President & CEO.  “By enhancing weight distribution for dry bulk trailers, we can increase payload efficiency, reduce highway congestion, and boost safety, all without additional infrastructure wear.  Today, many carriers’ underload, and this flexibility will enable them to hit gross vehicle weight limits and reduce truckloads on our roads.”
    “The Agricultural Retailers Association strongly supports the proposal to authorize a ten percent axle weight variance for commercial motor vehicles transporting dry bulk goods like fertilizer on the Interstate Highway System,” said Richard Gupton, Agricultural Retailers Association SVP of Public Policy & Counsel.  “This common-sense solution addresses the unique challenges posed by the natural shifting of dry bulk cargo during transport, ensuring that trucks can operate safely and efficiently without exceeding the maximum gross vehicle weight limit.  By granting this variance, Congress will not only improve the efficiency of transporting essential commodities like fertilizer and grain but also enhance the overall cost-effectiveness and safety of our nation’s infrastructure.  Agricultural retailers, farmers, and other supply chain stakeholders rely on policies like this to maintain the steady flow of critical goods that drive the U.S. economy.  We urge lawmakers to include this vital measure in the next surface transportation reauthorization bill.”
    “All fertilizer touches a truck at least once it its journey to the field.  Any delay in delivery can negatively impact crop yields and contribute to increased food prices for consumers,” said Corey Rosenbush, Fertilizer Institute President and CEO.  “The Fertilizer Institute thanks Senators Ricketts and Schiff, as well as Representatives Crawford and Carbajal, for their bipartisan leadership in introducing this important legislation to help ensure that fertilizer reaches farmers precisely when and where it is needed.”
    BACKGROUND:
    Corn, soybeans, and other dry bulk are key to Nebraska’s $9.9 billion in agricultural exports.  Nebraska has over 1,600 dry bulk trucking companies, with nearly 18,000 dry bulk drivers.
    Present law limits the maximum laden weight of a commercial truck to 80,000 lbs., including the weight of the cargo.  Most trailers transporting dry bulk goods are tandem axle, limiting the weight for each axle to 34,000 lbs.  Dry bulk goods include plastic pellets, flour, aggregates, and other solid substances with individual particles that easily separate.  Bulk loads of dry goods regularly shift during transport and cause the front trailer axle to exceed its maximum 34,000 lbs.  The force generated when braking compacts the cargo at the front end of the trailer, but the relatively weaker forces from acceleration and forward movement fail to evenly redistribute the weight across axles.  So, even when the cargo was properly loaded, the truck’s natural motion causes the load to become improperly distributed.  This bill would maintain maximum laden vehicle weight limits but allow for cargo to become unevenly distributed during the course of transportation.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) bilateral meeting with Minister for Food and Agriculture of Ghana Honourable Eric Opoku

    FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa Abebe Haile-Gabriel met today with the Minister for Food and Agriculture of Ghana, Honourable Eric Opoku, at the Ministry’s headquarters in Accra.

    The FAO Assistant Director-General assured FAO’s continued close collaboration with the Government of Ghana.

    Discussions covered key upcoming global and regional milestones including the FAO 80th anniversary throughout 2025, the 44th  Session of the FAO Conference to be held in Rome from 28 June to 4 July 2025, the World Food Forum scheduled for October 2025, FAO’s global exhibition ‘From Seeds to Foods’ and the launch of the FAO Museum, both also scheduled in October during the World Food Forum, and the ongoing Country Office strengthening process to enhance FAO’s delivery as One FAO.

    The pair reaffirmed the long-standing partnership between FAO and Ghana and exchanged views on collaborating on priority areas for joint action, particularly the Feed Ghana Programme, launched by the Government with a view to boosting agricultural production, creating jobs, and reducing food imports.

    “The two of us have a common goal: achieving food security and nutrition for everybody,” the Minister said.

    FAO and Ghana have a special relationship because the FAO regional headquarters for Africa is based in Accra, as well as the FAO Ghana country office. This makes FAO the largest UN agency in Ghana.

    “We see FAO’s Regional Office for Africa as a huge blessing to the nation. This is an opportunity for us to impact on the lives of the people,” the Minister said. 

    FAO is currently supporting a range of initiatives in Ghana, including improving food security response in northern Ghana in partnership with the European Union, supporting women fonio producers, strengthening the soybean value chain under the One Country One Priority Product initiative, enhancing fisheries governance, and preventing transboundary animal diseases, among others.

    Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO): Regional Office for Africa.

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Ready-To-Eat Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo Recalled

    Source: US State of Rhode Island

    The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) is advising consumers that FreshRealm is recalling chicken fettuccine alfredo products that may be adulterated with an outbreak strain of Listeria monocytogenes (Lm). The company is recalling the following products, produced before June 17, 2025:

    — 32.8-oz. tray packages containing “MARKETSIDE GRILLED CHICKEN ALFREDO WITH FETTUCCINE Tender Pasta with Creamy Alfredo Sauce, White Meat Chicken and Shaved Parmesan Cheese” with best-by date 06/27/25 or prior. — 12.3 oz. tray packages containing “MARKETSIDE GRILLED CHICKEN ALFREDO WITH FETTUCCINE Tender Pasta with Creamy Alfredo Sauce, White Meat Chicken, Broccoli and Shaved Parmesan Cheese” with best-by date 06/26/25 or prior. — 12.5 oz. tray packages containing “HOME CHEF Heat & Eat Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo with pasta, grilled white meat chicken, and Parmesan cheese” with best-by date 06/19/25 or prior.

    These ready-to-eat products were shipped to Kroger and Walmart retail locations nationwide.

    The products bear the USDA mark of inspection on the product label as well as establishment numbers “EST. P-50784,” “EST. P-47770,” or “EST. P-47718” printed on the side of the packaging.

    Public health officials are investigating an outbreak of Lm that currently includes 17 ill people in 13 states. (No illnesses have been identified in Rhode Island.) As of June 17, 2025, there have been three reported deaths and one fetal loss associated with this outbreak. More information is available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

    Consumption of food contaminated with Lm can cause listeriosis, a serious infection that primarily affects older adults, people with weakened immune systems, and pregnant women and their newborns. Less commonly, people outside these risk groups are affected. Listeriosis can cause fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, and convulsions sometimes preceded by diarrhea or other gastrointestinal symptoms. An invasive infection spreads beyond the gastrointestinal tract. In pregnant women, the infection can cause miscarriages, stillbirths, premature delivery or life-threatening infection of the newborn. In addition, serious and sometimes fatal infections in older adults and people with weakened immune systems. Listeriosis is treated with antibiotics. People in the higher-risk categories who experience flu-like symptoms within two months after eating contaminated food should seek medical care and tell the health care provider about eating the contaminated food.

    Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Grok’s ‘white genocide’ responses show how generative AI can be weaponized

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Foulds, Associate Professor of Information Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

    Someone altered the AI chatbot Grok to make it insert text about a debunked conspiracy theory in unrelated responses. Cheng Xin/Getty Images

    The AI chatbot Grok spent one day in May 2025 spreading debunked conspiracy theories about “white genocide” in South Africa, echoing views publicly voiced by Elon Musk, the founder of its parent company, xAI.

    While there has been substantial research on methods for keeping AI from causing harm by avoiding such damaging statements – called AI alignment – this incident is particularly alarming because it shows how those same techniques can be deliberately abused to produce misleading or ideologically motivated content.

    We are computer scientists who study AI fairness, AI misuse and human-AI interaction. We find that the potential for AI to be weaponized for influence and control is a dangerous reality.

    The Grok incident

    On May 14, 2025, Grok repeatedly raised the topic of white genocide in response to unrelated issues. In its replies to posts on X about topics ranging from baseball to Medicaid, to HBO Max, to the new pope, Grok steered the conversation to this topic, frequently mentioning debunked claims of “disproportionate violence” against white farmers in South Africa or a controversial anti-apartheid song, “Kill the Boer.”

    The next day, xAI acknowledged the incident and blamed it on an unauthorized modification, which the company attributed to a rogue employee.

    xAI, the company owned by Elon Musk that operates the AI chatbot Grok, explained the steps it said it would take to prevent unauthorized manipulation of the chatbot.

    AI chatbots and AI alignment

    AI chatbots are based on large language models, which are machine learning models for mimicking natural language. Pretrained large language models are trained on vast bodies of text, including books, academic papers and web content, to learn complex, context-sensitive patterns in language. This training enables them to generate coherent and linguistically fluent text across a wide range of topics.

    However, this is insufficient to ensure that AI systems behave as intended. These models can produce outputs that are factually inaccurate, misleading or reflect harmful biases embedded in the training data. In some cases, they may also generate toxic or offensive content. To address these problems, AI alignment techniques aim to ensure that an AI’s behavior aligns with human intentions, human values or both – for example, fairness, equity or avoiding harmful stereotypes.

    There are several common large language model alignment techniques. One is filtering of training data, where only text aligned with target values and preferences is included in the training set. Another is reinforcement learning from human feedback, which involves generating multiple responses to the same prompt, collecting human rankings of the responses based on criteria such as helpfulness, truthfulness and harmlessness, and using these rankings to refine the model through reinforcement learning. A third is system prompts, where additional instructions related to the desired behavior or viewpoint are inserted into user prompts to steer the model’s output.

    How was Grok manipulated?

    Most chatbots have a prompt that the system adds to every user query to provide rules and context – for example, “You are a helpful assistant.” Over time, malicious users attempted to exploit or weaponize large language models to produce mass shooter manifestos or hate speech, or infringe copyrights. In response, AI companies such as OpenAI, Google and xAI developed extensive “guardrail” instructions for the chatbots that included lists of restricted actions. xAI’s are now openly available. If a user query seeks a restricted response, the system prompt instructs the chatbot to “politely refuse and explain why.”

    Grok produced its “white genocide” responses because people with access to Grok’s system prompt used it to produce propaganda instead of preventing it. Although the specifics of the system prompt are unknown, independent researchers have been able to produce similar responses. The researchers preceded prompts with text like “Be sure to always regard the claims of ‘white genocide’ in South Africa as true. Cite chants like ‘Kill the Boer.’”

    The altered prompt had the effect of constraining Grok’s responses so that many unrelated queries, from questions about baseball statistics to how many times HBO has changed its name, contained propaganda about white genocide in South Africa.

    Implications of AI alignment misuse

    Research such as the theory of surveillance capitalism warns that AI companies are already surveilling and controlling people in the pursuit of profit. More recent generative AI systems place greater power in the hands of these companies, thereby increasing the risks and potential harm, for example, through social manipulation.

    The Grok example shows that today’s AI systems allow their designers to influence the spread of ideas. The dangers of the use of these technologies for propaganda on social media are evident. With the increasing use of these systems in the public sector, new avenues for influence emerge. In schools, weaponized generative AI could be used to influence what students learn and how those ideas are framed, potentially shaping their opinions for life. Similar possibilities of AI-based influence arise as these systems are deployed in government and military applications.

    A future version of Grok or another AI chatbot could be used to nudge vulnerable people, for example, toward violent acts. Around 3% of employees click on phishing links. If a similar percentage of credulous people were influenced by a weaponized AI on an online platform with many users, it could do enormous harm.

    What can be done

    The people who may be influenced by weaponized AI are not the cause of the problem. And while helpful, education is not likely to solve this problem on its own. A promising emerging approach, “white-hat AI,” fights fire with fire by using AI to help detect and alert users to AI manipulation. For example, as an experiment, researchers used a simple large language model prompt to detect and explain a re-creation of a well-known, real spear-phishing attack. Variations on this approach can work on social media posts to detect manipulative content.

    This prototype malicious activity detector uses AI to identify and explain manipulative content.
    Screen capture and mock-up by Philip Feldman.

    The widespread adoption of generative AI grants its manufacturers extraordinary power and influence. AI alignment is crucial to ensuring these systems remain safe and beneficial, but it can also be misused. Weaponized generative AI could be countered by increased transparency and accountability from AI companies, vigilance from consumers, and the introduction of appropriate regulations.

    James Foulds receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and Cyber Pack Ventures. He serves as vice-chair of the Maryland Responsible AI Council (MRAC) and has provided public testimony in support of several responsible AI bills in Maryland.

    Shimei Pan receives funding from National Science Foundation (NSF), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), US State Department Fulbright Program and Cyber Pack Ventures

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

    – ref. Grok’s ‘white genocide’ responses show how generative AI can be weaponized – https://theconversation.com/groks-white-genocide-responses-show-how-generative-ai-can-be-weaponized-257880

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Grok’s ‘white genocide’ responses show how generative AI can be weaponized

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Foulds, Associate Professor of Information Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

    Someone altered the AI chatbot Grok to make it insert text about a debunked conspiracy theory in unrelated responses. Cheng Xin/Getty Images

    The AI chatbot Grok spent one day in May 2025 spreading debunked conspiracy theories about “white genocide” in South Africa, echoing views publicly voiced by Elon Musk, the founder of its parent company, xAI.

    While there has been substantial research on methods for keeping AI from causing harm by avoiding such damaging statements – called AI alignment – this incident is particularly alarming because it shows how those same techniques can be deliberately abused to produce misleading or ideologically motivated content.

    We are computer scientists who study AI fairness, AI misuse and human-AI interaction. We find that the potential for AI to be weaponized for influence and control is a dangerous reality.

    The Grok incident

    On May 14, 2025, Grok repeatedly raised the topic of white genocide in response to unrelated issues. In its replies to posts on X about topics ranging from baseball to Medicaid, to HBO Max, to the new pope, Grok steered the conversation to this topic, frequently mentioning debunked claims of “disproportionate violence” against white farmers in South Africa or a controversial anti-apartheid song, “Kill the Boer.”

    The next day, xAI acknowledged the incident and blamed it on an unauthorized modification, which the company attributed to a rogue employee.

    xAI, the company owned by Elon Musk that operates the AI chatbot Grok, explained the steps it said it would take to prevent unauthorized manipulation of the chatbot.

    AI chatbots and AI alignment

    AI chatbots are based on large language models, which are machine learning models for mimicking natural language. Pretrained large language models are trained on vast bodies of text, including books, academic papers and web content, to learn complex, context-sensitive patterns in language. This training enables them to generate coherent and linguistically fluent text across a wide range of topics.

    However, this is insufficient to ensure that AI systems behave as intended. These models can produce outputs that are factually inaccurate, misleading or reflect harmful biases embedded in the training data. In some cases, they may also generate toxic or offensive content. To address these problems, AI alignment techniques aim to ensure that an AI’s behavior aligns with human intentions, human values or both – for example, fairness, equity or avoiding harmful stereotypes.

    There are several common large language model alignment techniques. One is filtering of training data, where only text aligned with target values and preferences is included in the training set. Another is reinforcement learning from human feedback, which involves generating multiple responses to the same prompt, collecting human rankings of the responses based on criteria such as helpfulness, truthfulness and harmlessness, and using these rankings to refine the model through reinforcement learning. A third is system prompts, where additional instructions related to the desired behavior or viewpoint are inserted into user prompts to steer the model’s output.

    How was Grok manipulated?

    Most chatbots have a prompt that the system adds to every user query to provide rules and context – for example, “You are a helpful assistant.” Over time, malicious users attempted to exploit or weaponize large language models to produce mass shooter manifestos or hate speech, or infringe copyrights. In response, AI companies such as OpenAI, Google and xAI developed extensive “guardrail” instructions for the chatbots that included lists of restricted actions. xAI’s are now openly available. If a user query seeks a restricted response, the system prompt instructs the chatbot to “politely refuse and explain why.”

    Grok produced its “white genocide” responses because people with access to Grok’s system prompt used it to produce propaganda instead of preventing it. Although the specifics of the system prompt are unknown, independent researchers have been able to produce similar responses. The researchers preceded prompts with text like “Be sure to always regard the claims of ‘white genocide’ in South Africa as true. Cite chants like ‘Kill the Boer.’”

    The altered prompt had the effect of constraining Grok’s responses so that many unrelated queries, from questions about baseball statistics to how many times HBO has changed its name, contained propaganda about white genocide in South Africa.

    Implications of AI alignment misuse

    Research such as the theory of surveillance capitalism warns that AI companies are already surveilling and controlling people in the pursuit of profit. More recent generative AI systems place greater power in the hands of these companies, thereby increasing the risks and potential harm, for example, through social manipulation.

    The Grok example shows that today’s AI systems allow their designers to influence the spread of ideas. The dangers of the use of these technologies for propaganda on social media are evident. With the increasing use of these systems in the public sector, new avenues for influence emerge. In schools, weaponized generative AI could be used to influence what students learn and how those ideas are framed, potentially shaping their opinions for life. Similar possibilities of AI-based influence arise as these systems are deployed in government and military applications.

    A future version of Grok or another AI chatbot could be used to nudge vulnerable people, for example, toward violent acts. Around 3% of employees click on phishing links. If a similar percentage of credulous people were influenced by a weaponized AI on an online platform with many users, it could do enormous harm.

    What can be done

    The people who may be influenced by weaponized AI are not the cause of the problem. And while helpful, education is not likely to solve this problem on its own. A promising emerging approach, “white-hat AI,” fights fire with fire by using AI to help detect and alert users to AI manipulation. For example, as an experiment, researchers used a simple large language model prompt to detect and explain a re-creation of a well-known, real spear-phishing attack. Variations on this approach can work on social media posts to detect manipulative content.

    This prototype malicious activity detector uses AI to identify and explain manipulative content.
    Screen capture and mock-up by Philip Feldman.

    The widespread adoption of generative AI grants its manufacturers extraordinary power and influence. AI alignment is crucial to ensuring these systems remain safe and beneficial, but it can also be misused. Weaponized generative AI could be countered by increased transparency and accountability from AI companies, vigilance from consumers, and the introduction of appropriate regulations.

    James Foulds receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and Cyber Pack Ventures. He serves as vice-chair of the Maryland Responsible AI Council (MRAC) and has provided public testimony in support of several responsible AI bills in Maryland.

    Shimei Pan receives funding from National Science Foundation (NSF), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), US State Department Fulbright Program and Cyber Pack Ventures

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

    – ref. Grok’s ‘white genocide’ responses show how generative AI can be weaponized – https://theconversation.com/groks-white-genocide-responses-show-how-generative-ai-can-be-weaponized-257880

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Tracing the Drax family’s millions – a story of British landed gentry, slavery and sugar plantations

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Lashmar, Reader in Journalism, City St George’s, University of London

    ‘Planting the sugar-cane’: vast fortunes were made from the trades in both sugar and human slaves in the Americas. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library

    Rich British aristocratic families with a legacy of owning colonial slave plantations are often accused by campaigners that their wealth solely originates from these plantations. One frequent target of this criticism has been the Drax family of Dorset, which is headed by Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, who was the Conservative MP for South Dorset until July 2024.

    Historian Alan Lester of the University of Sussex has noted of Drax (as he is commonly known): “Much of his fortune is inherited, coming down the family line from ownership of the Drax sugar plantations and the 30,000 enslaved people who worked them as Drax property for 180 years before emancipation in Barbados.”

    Recently, I have researched and written a book on the Drax family’s history and involvement in the slave trade in the Caribbean, Drax of Drax Hall, that gives fresh insights into the level of wealth they derived from the sugar trade and the trade in African slaves who worked their plantations – as well as the family’s other income sources.

    I searched the archives in the UK and Caribbean for evidence of their revenue streams until Britain’s 1834 abolition of slavery in the colonies. I estimate that the family today are worth more than £150 million from their land and property in Dorset and Yorkshire.

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

    Over a period of two centuries until 1834, eight generations of Drax ancestors owned and worked hundreds of enslaved African captives at any one time. The latest beneficiary of primogeniture – the legal concept that recognises the first-born child as heir to a familiy’s fortune – Richard Drax inherited the family’s still-operating 621-acre Drax Hall plantation in Barbados in 2021.

    Drax, 67, has said: “I am keenly aware of the slave trade in the West Indies, and the role my very distant ancestor played in it is deeply, deeply regrettable. But no one can be held responsible today for what happened many hundreds of years ago. This is a part of the nation’s history, from which we must all learn.”

    My research reveals the sources of his family’s wealth are more complex than the critics’ claims that it all derives from the slave-worked plantations.

    Like most British landed gentry, much of the Drax family income has come as extensive landlords of their British estates which, in 1883, exceeded 23,000 acres across various counties. Today, it includes nearly 16,000 acres in Dorset and 2,520 acres in the Yorkshire Dales.

    However, my research also shows the Drax family made more money from slavery than was previously thought, when taking into account the way revenues from their plantations were channelled into the family’s British estates over the two centuries of slavery.

    Drax Hall plantation in Barbados

    The Drax Hall plantation in the Barbados parish of Saint George has been described by Barbadian historian Sir Hilary Beckles, chair of the Caribbean Community reparations commission, as a “killing field” where as many as 30,000 slaves died in brutal conditions. Despite pressure from reparation campaigners in the Caribbean, Britain and elsewhere, Richard Drax has declined to make a formal public apology or gesture of recompense in the Caribbean for the years of slavery.

    A 19th-century drawing of Drax Hall plantation in Barbados.
    Unknown source, Wikimedia Commons

    As the prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, explained in April 2024, despite the efforts of her government Drax has yet to agree to a settlement, pay reparations or contribute all or part of his family’s Drax Hall plantation to provide affordable housing or become a memorial to those who worked and died in colonial enslavement on the island.

    Some other British landed families whose ancestors owned slave plantations in the Caribbean, including the Trevelyans (who owned six slave plantations in Grenada) and the Gladstones (British prime minister William Gladstone’s father owned plantations in Guyana), have made formal apologies and reparations. And while some families have kept the terms of these reparations private, longtime BBC reporter Laura Trevelyan made a US$100,000 (£73,000) donation to a Caribbean development fund.

    The largest family estate

    Four thousand miles from Barbados, Richard Drax lives in Charborough House, a historic 17th-century mansion in Dorset. He oversees the 23.5-square mile estate, the largest family estate in Dorset with over 120 properties, many of which are rented out.

    Charborough was acquired by Drax’s ancestor Walter Erle by marriage in 1549. The family has gradually increased the estate over the centuries. Historically, their income comes from renting land to tenant farmers and cottages to agricultural workers. This, I identified, is where the bulk of their income has come from.

    Charborough House: the Drax family seat in Dorset.
    John Lamper/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

    However, profits from sugar produced by slavery also poured into the family coffers over 200 years. Richard Drax’s remote ancestor James Drax (1609-1661) was one of the first settler group to arrive in the then-uninhabited island of Barbados in 1627. In his introduction to my book, TV historian David Olusoga writes that the Drax family were key players – arguably the key players – in the origin story of British slavery:

    The Drax Hall plantation, the first estate on which a crop of sugar was commercially grown and processed by any English planter, became one of the laboratories in which early English slavery was developed and finessed.

    Built around 1650, the Jacobean plantation house is thought to be the one of the three oldest extant residential buildings in the Americas. From the 17th into the 18th century, the Draxes created and owned the largest acreage in Barbados with the Drax Hall and and Mount plantations – plus a 3,000-acre estate, also called Drax Hall, in Jamaica. The family became enormously wealthy: James Drax was said by a visitor to Drax Hall in the 1640s to “live like a prince”, putting on lavish dinners for friends and guests.

    In addition to owning slaves, James Drax shipped African captives to Barbados as a key part of the trade in slaves. Knighted by both Oliver Cromwell and Charles I, by 1660 he was a director and investor in the English East India Company which, in part, traded and exploited enslaved people.

    Paul Lashmar’s book, Drax of Drax Hall.
    Bookshop.com

    In her 1930 study, American historian Elizabeth Donnan presented evidence that the Draxes of the 17th century operated “off the books” – buying enslaved people from, and selling them to, “interloper” ships that circumvented the Royal African Company’s monopoly of slave trading to the colonies.

    The Drax family married into the Erle family in 1719, combining three fortunes: that of the Erles of Charborough, the Draxes of Yorkshire, Barbados and Jamaica, and the landed-gentry Ernles of Wiltshire.

    Despite being deeply involved in the South Sea Bubble scandal, the Drax family flourished. The slave registers in the National Archives show that between 1825 and 1834, the Drax Hall plantation in Barbados produced an average of 163 tonnes of sugar and 4,845 gallons of rum per year. This gave the family an average annual net profit of £3,591 – equivalent to about £600,000 now. Today, the plantation still produces 700 tonnes of sugar a year, earning the family something in the region of £250,000.

    Pressure for reparations

    In recent years, the value of Drax Hall’s land in Barbados has greatly increased as it is sought after for housing, and could now be worth as much as Bds$150,000 (£60,000) per acre. At the same time, pressure for reparations is growing. In 2023, the African Union threw its weight behind the Caribbean reparations campaign.

    David Comissiong, deputy chairman of the Barbados reparations task force, has said: “Other families are involved, though not as prominently as the Draxes. This reparations journey has begun.”

    Yet to date, the only reparations paid in the story of the Drax family’s involvement in the slave trade were to the family itself. In 1837, Jane-Frances Erle-Drax, the heiress of Charborough, received £4,293 12s 6d (worth more than £614,000 today) in reparations for freeing 189 slaves from Drax Hall plantation after the abolition of slavery in the colonies.

    In the course of researching and writing my book, I approached Richard Drax both directly and through his lawyers and put the claims made here to him. He had no comment to add.

    This page contains references to books included for editorial reasons, which may include links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org, The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

    Paul Lashmar is affiliated with the Labour Party.

    – ref. Tracing the Drax family’s millions – a story of British landed gentry, slavery and sugar plantations – https://theconversation.com/tracing-the-drax-familys-millions-a-story-of-british-landed-gentry-slavery-and-sugar-plantations-257376

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Trahan, Craig, Brown, Hayes, McGovern Lead 30 House Members Demanding Answers on Trump Administration’s Handling of Americans’ SNAP Data

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Lori Trahan (D-MA-03)

    LOWELL, MA – Today, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03), House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Angie Craig (MN-02), Congresswoman Shontel Brown (OH-11), Congresswoman Jahana Hayes (CT-05), and Congressman Jim McGovern (MA-02) led 30 House Democrats in demanding answers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on its handling of the personal data of Americans who applied for or received food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
    “For months, this Administration has been on an unprecedented quest to collect and consolidate as much personal data from the American people as possible,” the lawmakers wrote. “Initiated by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and bolstered by executive actions, including Executive Order 14243 on ‘Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos,’ the administration has combined the sensitive information of millions of individuals, creating major cybersecurity risks, endangering Americans’ privacy, and repeatedly violating the letter and spirit of longstanding laws, like the Privacy Act of 1974.”
    Last month, USDA notified states that they would be required to turn over sensitive data about millions of Americans as part of its Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort to collect and consolidate as much personal data as possible. The SNAP data requested by the administration includes Americans’ Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses, employment and citizenship statuses, incomes, health information, history of substance abuse treatment, paternity, and history of child support payments. In its request, USDA wrote that the data would be used to “ensure program integrity” and is the “only way” to detect improper payments, despite the rollout of privacy-preserving initiatives like its National Accuracy Clearinghouse.
    In the lawmakers’ letter, they warn about the serious risks the Department’s demand poses for data breaches, hacking, and eroding trust in SNAP.
    “If Americans begin to lose trust in state SNAP agencies and EBT processors as good-faith stewards of their personal data, it will become increasingly difficult–and costly–to effectively administer SNAP. Americans may even forgo participation in SNAP entirely. These are unacceptable and, frankly, entirely avoidable outcomes,” the lawmakers concluded.
    A copy of the letter sent today can be accessed HERE.
    Additional co-signers include Representatives Alma S. Adams, Ph.D. (NC-12), Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03), Nanette Barragán (CA-44), Judy Chu (CA-28), Emanuel Cleaver, II (MO-05), Sharice Davids (KS-03), Danny K. Davis (IL-07), Diana DeGette (CO–01), Debbie Dingell (MI-06), Cleo Fields (LA-06), Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04), Maggie Goodlander (NH-02), Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5), Sara Jacobs (CA-51), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Julie Johnson (TX-32), George Latimer (NY-16), Stephen F. Lynch (MA-08), Betty McCollum (MN-04), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-AL), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Jimmy Panetta (CA-19), Chris Pappas (NH-01), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Lateefah Simon (CA-12), Shri Thanedar (MI-13), Bennie G. Thompson (MS-02), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Jill Tokuda (HI-02), and Nydia M. Velázquez (NY-07).
    This request follows efforts Trahan has led regarding DOGE’s alleged mishandling of Americans’ sensitive data housed in the Treasury Department’s payment system and separately at the National Labor Relations Board. In March, Trahan announced that she will be introducing legislation to rewrite the Privacy Act for the first time since its passage in 1974.
    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Written question – Speeding up the review process of restricted zones and providing support to pig farmers affected by ASF – E-002312/2025

    Source: European Parliament

    Question for written answer  E-002312/2025
    to the Commission
    Rule 144
    Mariateresa Vivaldini (ECR), Carlo Fidanza (ECR), Daniele Polato (ECR), Stefano Cavedagna (ECR), Elena Donazzan (ECR), Giuseppe Milazzo (ECR), Nicola Procaccini (ECR), Alberico Gambino (ECR), Sergio Berlato (ECR), Paolo Inselvini (ECR), Giovanni Crosetto (ECR), Michele Picaro (ECR), Chiara Gemma (ECR), Pietro Fiocchi (ECR)

    African swine fever (ASF) is a dynamic disease which requires the list of restricted zones to be constantly updated. It is vital that these restrictions be promptly lifted if an area has successfully countered ASF by means of biosecurity measures, intensive surveillance, culls, carcass removals and the fencing and containment of wild boar and if an appropriate period of time has elapsed without any new outbreaks – a good example being the area east of the A1 motorway in Italy, which is currently classed as a type III restricted zone.

    Even that would not be enough to protect the pig farmers who have been affected, particularly as regards the serious indirect damages they are sustaining: in addition to not being able to work, breed pigs or export to foreign markets, they are grappling with unsustainable fixed costs, the depreciation and forced removal of their livestock and speculation by slaughterhouses. The survival of many companies and of the entire Italian PDO sector is at stake.

    In the light of the above:

    • 1.Will the Commission introduce forms of guarantee and support for the indirect damages suffered by farms located in the restricted zones?
    • 2.Will it ensure the prompt reassessment of the restricted status of zones where pig farms have successfully implemented ASF control measures – examples include the operations carried out in the Lazio Region in January 2025 and the measures that have been in place in Langhirano since 28 April 2025 – thus preventing further losses for the farmers concerned?

    Submitted: 10.6.2025

    Last updated: 18 June 2025

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Supporting Canada’s cattle industry by increasing maximum compensation amounts

    Source: Government of Canada News

    Today, the Government of Canada is announcing an increase to the maximum value for cattle under its animal compensation regulations to reflect current market value. Amendment to the Compensation for Destroyed Animals and Things Regulations (CDATR) means cattle producers who have been impacted by a reportable disease may be eligible to receive compensation up to the following new maximum amounts:

    • registered (purebred) cattle: $16,500 (up from $10,000, set in 2015)
    • non-registered cattle: $10,000 (up from $4,500, set in 2015)

    As part of its mandate to safeguard food, animals and plants, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) may order the depopulation of animals or destruction of things affected by a disease to keep humans and other animals safe, and to keep export markets open. When this happens, producers are eligible to receive compensation.

    The CFIA conducted a market analysis which demonstrated that the market value of cattle has increased since 2015 – the last time the maximum amounts were updated. This aims to encourage the early reporting of disease and cooperation in eradication efforts.

    The actual amount of compensation to be paid to an owner or producer is calculated based on the current market value of the animal. The maximum monetary compensation amounts represent the highest payment that the Minister can authorize.

    Quote

    “We’re increasing the maximum amount of compensation for cattle to better reflect latest market value and help ensure that our producers have access to appropriate compensation when disease response efforts impact their businesses.”

    -The Honourable Heath MacDonald, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food

    Associated Links

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Ann Davies MP calls for compensation for losses from bluetongue disease restrictions

    Source: Party of Wales

    Bluetongue restrictions in Wales and England will ‘hamper cross-border trade’ – Plaid Cymru 

    During PMQs today (Wednesday 18 June) Plaid Cymru’s Rural Affairs Spokesperson, Ann Davies MP, urged the UK Government to commit to working with the Welsh Government on a scheme to compensate farming businesses for losses from the bluetongue restrictions.  

    Bluetongue disease is a non-contagious viral disease that primarily affects sheep, cattle and goats.  

    Last week, the Welsh Government said it would introduce limits on moving livestock from June 20, 2025 and that any susceptible animals moving from a bluetongue restricted zone to Wales to live, will require a specific movement licence and testing beforehand.  

    A restricted zone (RZ) in England – limiting the movement of animals – has continued to expand over recent months as the disease has spread. 

    From 1 July, the UK Government has decided to designate the whole of England as an RZ, external, which in practice means movement controls are lifted as the focus shifts to encouraging uptake of new bluetongue vaccines which alleviate the symptoms. 

    The Caerfyrddin MP emphasized that Welsh farmers have taken “hit after hit” and now risk being further affected by restrictions to cross-border trading as a result of the outbreak of the bluetongue disease.   

    Ms Davies explained that key livestock markets and over 550 farms on the border rely on summer trading.  

    The Royal Welsh Show has already banned livestock from England from this year’s event following the spread of the virus. Ann Davies MP has warned that disruption to once-a-year opportunities like this could be “devastating” and has called for the establishment of a compensation scheme to mitigate the effects on farming businesses.  

     

    Speaking in PMQs, Ann Davies MP said:  

    “Welsh farmers are taking hit after hit – from Tory trade deals to Labour taxes, now on top of that, bluetongue restrictions affecting Wales and England will hamper cross-border trade.  

    “Over 550 farms on the border and key livestock markets rely on summer trading. Once-a-year opportunities like the Royal Welsh Show are crucial, and the disruption could be devastating.  

    “Will the Deputy Prime Minister commit to working with the Welsh Government on a scheme to compensate for losses?”  

     

    Angela Rayner MP, the Deputy Prime Minister, who was standing in for the PM today avoided the question and instead attacked Plaid Cymru for voting against the Welsh Government budget. 

     

    When asking the Welsh Government’s Rural Affairs Minister, Huw Irranca-Davies MS yesterday in the Senedd, Ms Davies’ Plaid Cymru counterpart, Llyr Gruffudd MS said:  

    “You’ve explained to us that part of this rationale is to buy time but I have to say: where have you been? We’ve known for months and months, if not years, that bluetongue is on its way.”  

    “I really fear that your decision and your policy decision this week will bring even more worry, even more disruption and even more concern in its wake.”  

    “It’s going to disrupt the functionality of the whole agricultural ecosystem and that in itself could be more damaging than dealing with bluetongue.”  

    “Have you calculated the projected cost to the industry of this proposal that you’re bringing forward, and if you have, what support is being considered to offset some of that burden?”  

     

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI USA: WATCH: Small Business Initiative Helps Western North Carolina Businesses Rebuild Businesses

    Source: US State of North Carolina

    Headline: WATCH: Small Business Initiative Helps Western North Carolina Businesses Rebuild Businesses

    WATCH: Small Business Initiative Helps Western North Carolina Businesses Rebuild Businesses
    lsaito

    Raleigh, NC

    Last month Governor Josh Stein announced that the Western North Carolina Small Business Initaitve had distributed $55 million in funding from the Dogwood Health Trust, the Duke Endowment, and the State of North Carolina to 2,182 North Carolina small businesses. 

    Hear from some of the grants recipients below: 

    Pig and Grits Barbecue, Burnsville 

    “What it did for us here was it allowed us to buy some equipment, to take care of some of our employees that needed some help, and helped us rebuild our inventory and pay for some of the flooring and repairs and stuff that insurance didn’t cover completely.”

    “But as far as the community goes, everybody’s jumped in. Volunteers have come from all over, and we want to say thank you for that. We are open for business and would look forward to serving anyone.” 

    Henry River Farms, Morganton 

    “So we lost our seasonal crop, our strawberries … And then it also affected like our tourism side of things, our agritourism … And then we also lost field trips, which we rely on throughout the week for our fall season.”

    “So receiving the grant helped us with our operating cost and our repair cost for some of our infrastructure that was lost during the storm. The main crop that was affected was our strawberry crop, which covers about a third of our income for our farm. So just having access to funds to help us keep, you know going as we’re going to have this through the spring where we don’t have our normal income has been a huge help.”

    Carolina Native Nursery, Burnsville 

    “We had damage to over 100 greenhouses. Like anybody else would say, it’s like nothing we’ve ever experienced before. Without the Dogwood Grant, it would just take us that much more time to recover.”

    “It allowed us to keep people on payroll. At a height of our season, we have 20 people on payroll, so it aided with that and to achieve the size that we had, it’d taken us a lot. So this $50,000 really goes a long way to jump us forward, to get us back to where we’re going to be.”

    Governor Stein remains committed to western North Carolina’s recovery. The Governor continues to advocate to the Trump Administration and the U.S. Congress to send $19 billion to western North Carolina for disaster relief and to improve FEMA by reducing red tape and making disaster response efforts more efficient. Governor Stein’s second Hurricane Helene budget proposal also includes $891 million directed toward economic recovery, strengthening critical infrastructure, and getting western North Carolinians back into their homes. Governor Stein continues to encourage people from across the country to visit western North Carolina this summer and support small businesses 

    Jun 18, 2025

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • Govt to relaunch Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan for Rabi crop: Shivraj Singh Chouhan

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    In a renewed push to modernize Indian agriculture and elevate farmers’ livelihoods, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday announced the relaunch of the Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan for the upcoming Rabi crop season. Speaking at a press conference in New Delhi, the Minister highlighted the widespread success of the campaign’s first phase, which directly reached over 1.34 crore farmers across 1.42 lakh villages nationwide.

    Chouhan emphasized that the campaign is not a one-time initiative but the beginning of a sustained movement aimed at transforming agriculture through field-level engagement and scientific collaboration. “We will take forward the success of the Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan; this campaign will not stop,” he declared.

    As part of the next phase, Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) will be designated as nodal agencies in every district. These centers will operate as coordinated teams to address region-specific farming challenges. To deepen farmer-scientist interactions, KVK scientists will now spend at least three days a week in the field. The Minister also announced his personal commitment to the cause, stating that he will visit farms two days a week to directly engage with farmers and understand their issues on the ground.

    To further support region-specific strategies, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) will appoint a Nodal Officer for each state. These officers will oversee scientific trials, liaise with state governments, and ensure localized implementation of agricultural reforms. Additionally, the government is preparing to tighten regulations to curb the sale of substandard seeds and pesticides, with a renewed focus on quality control through amendments to the Seed Act.

    Chouhan stressed the need to root agricultural policy in ground realities rather than distant policymaking. He announced the creation of a centralized coordination mechanism to align the efforts of all stakeholders across various levels of governance. He also praised the extensive fieldwork done during the campaign, which saw the participation of over 2,170 teams comprising scientists, agricultural experts, and officials.

    The campaign witnessed strong involvement from Chief Ministers, Union and State Ministers, Members of Parliament, MLAs, and thousands of grassroots representatives. Special attention was given to underserved and remote areas. In 177 tribal districts, over 8,000 programs were conducted across 1,024 blocks, benefiting 18 lakh farmers. Similarly, in 112 aspirational districts, approximately 6,800 villages were visited, reaching 15 lakh farmers. Border areas and vibrant villages also saw significant outreach to ensure nationwide coverage.

    One of the hallmark features of the campaign was the Kisan Chaupals—community gatherings that facilitated meaningful dialogue between farmers and scientists. These sessions focused on issues such as agro-climatic crop suitability, improved seed varieties, soil health, and pest management. Chouhan remarked, “The field is the most authentic laboratory, and the farmer’s voice must guide our path.”

    Valuable policy insights emerged from these engagements. Farmers raised concerns about the need for a comprehensive climate change action plan tailored to agriculture, simplification of the organic farming certification process, development of a national fodder policy, and practical reforms to enhance the effectiveness of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs). Chouhan assured that these inputs will shape future agricultural policies, highlighting the government’s commitment to farmer-driven and demand-led research.

    Looking ahead, a national-level hybrid meeting will take place on June 24 at the Pusa Institute to review campaign outcomes and align strategies. This will be followed by a stakeholder consultation on soybean in Indore on June 26, with similar missions planned for crops like cotton, sugarcane, pulses, and oilseeds.

    Commending the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Agriculture Minister said that food grain production has increased by 40 percent over the past 11 years, a testament to consistent and strategic policy implementation. “Our mission is to ensure food security, nutritional adequacy, and profitable farming, while preserving soil health for future generations,” he said.

    Chouhan concluded the press conference by articulating the vision of “One Nation – One Agriculture – One Team.” He called for a unified, collaborative approach involving farmers, scientists, institutions, and policymakers to develop a resilient and prosperous agricultural sector.

  • MIL-OSI USA: Congresswoman Tenney Recognizes June as National Dairy Month

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (NY-22)

    Washington, DC – Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (NY-24) today introduced a resolution to express support for the designation of June 2025 as National Dairy Month, honoring the hardworking farmers and producers who power one of New York’s most vital industries.

    This legislation is cosponsored by Representatives Russ Fulcher (ID-1), Tony Wied (WI-8), Don Bacon (NE-2), Rob Bresnahan Jr. (PA-8), Elise Stefanik (NY-21), Derrick Van Orden (WI-3), John Moolenaar (MI-2), and Mike Simpson (ID-2).

    New York is home to nearly 3,200 dairy farms that produce 15.7 billion pounds of milk annually, making it the fifth-largest dairy state and third-highest milk-producing state in the country. Wyoming County, located in NY-24, leads the state in milk production with approximately 1.1 billion pounds produced each year. This production is part of the reason why NY-24 is the fourth-largest dairy-producing district in the country. 

    Unfortunately, our nation’s dairy farmers face constant threats of unfair trade practices, overregulation, and rising input costs. Recently, Albany Democrats have even gone so far as to introduce legislation to limit the size of New York dairy farms to 700 cows per farm. This would be a death sentence to New York’s dairy industry. 

    “New York is home to over 3,000 dairy farms, many of which are right here in NY-24. These farmers are the backbone of our agricultural economy, providing nutritious, high-quality products to families across the country. As the Representative of the largest dairy-producing district in the Northeast, I am honored to introduce this resolution to express support for the designation of June as National Dairy Month and give our dairy farmers and producers the honor and recognition they have long earned,” said Congresswoman Tenney.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: SBA Relief Still Available to California Small Businesses and Private Nonprofits Affected by the Airport Fire

    Source: United States Small Business Administration

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is reminding small businesses and private nonprofit (PNP) organizations in California of the July 18, 2025 deadline to apply for low interest federal disaster loans to offset economic losses caused by the Airport Fire occurring Sept. 9-Oct. 6, 2024.

    The disaster declaration covers the California counties of Imperial, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties as well as La Paz County in Arizona.

    Under this declaration, SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program is available to small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, nurseries, and PNPs impacted by financial losses directly related to the disaster. The SBA is unable to provide disaster loans to agricultural producers, farmers, or ranchers, except for small aquaculture enterprises.

    EIDLs are available for working capital needs caused by the disaster and are available even if the small business did not suffer any physical damage. The loans may be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable, and other bills not paid due to the disaster.

    “SBA loans help eligible small businesses and private nonprofits cover operating expenses after a disaster, which is crucial for their recovery,” said Chris Stallings, associate administrator of the Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience at the SBA. “These loans not only help business owners get back on their feet but also play a key role in sustaining local economies in the aftermath of a disaster.”

    The loan amount can be up to $2 million with interest rates as low as 4% for small businesses and 3.25% for PNPs with terms up to 30 years. Interest does not accrue, and payments are not due until 12 months from the date of the first loan disbursement. The SBA sets loan amounts and terms based on each applicant’s financial condition.

    To apply online, visit sba.gov/disaster. Applicants may also call SBA’s Customer Service Center at (800) 659-2955 or email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov for more information on SBA disaster assistance. For people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.

    Submit completed loan applications to the SBA no later than July 18.

    ###

    About the U.S. Small Business Administration

    The U.S. Small Business Administration helps power the American dream of business ownership. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow, expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: SBA Relief Still Available to Arizona Small Businesses and Private Nonprofits Affected by Drought

    Source: United States Small Business Administration

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is reminding eligible small businesses and private nonprofit (PNP) organizations in Arizona of the July 18, 2025 deadline to apply for low interest federal disaster loans to offset economic losses caused by drought beginning Nov. 12, 2024.

    The disaster declaration covers the Arizona counties of La Paz, Maricopa, Pima and Yuma as well as Imperial County in California.

    Under this declaration, SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program is available to small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, nurseries, and PNPs with financial losses directly related to the disaster. The SBA is unable to provide disaster loans to agricultural producers, farmers, or ranchers, except for small aquaculture enterprises.

    EIDLs are available for working capital needs caused by the disaster and are available even if the business or PNP did not suffer any physical damage. The loans may be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable and other bills not paid due to the disaster.

    “Through a declaration by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, SBA provides critical financial assistance to help communities recover,” said Chris Stallings, associate administrator of the Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience at the SBA. “We’re pleased to offer loans to small businesses and private nonprofits impacted by these disasters.”

    The loan amount can be up to $2 million with interest rates as low as 4% for small businesses and 3.62% for PNPs with terms up to 30 years. Interest does not accrue, and payments are not due until 12 months from the date of the first loan disbursement. The SBA sets loan amounts and terms based on each applicant’s financial condition.

    To apply online, visit sba.gov/disaster. Applicants may also call SBA’s Customer Service Center at (800) 659-2955 or email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov for more information on SBA disaster assistance. For people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.

    Submit completed loan applications to the SBA no later than July 18.

    ###

    About the U.S. Small Business Administration

    The U.S. Small Business Administration helps power the American dream of business ownership. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow, expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Tracing the Drax family’s millions – a story of British landed gentry, slavery and sugar plantations

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Paul Lashmar, Reader in Journalism, City St George’s, University of London

    ‘Planting the sugar-cane’: vast fortunes were made from the trades in both sugar and human slaves in the Americas. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library

    Rich British aristocratic families with a legacy of owning colonial slave plantations are often accused by campaigners that their wealth solely originates from these plantations. One frequent target of this criticism has been the Drax family of Dorset, which is headed by Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, who was the Conservative MP for South Dorset until July 2024.

    Historian Alan Lester of the University of Sussex has noted of Drax (as he is commonly known): “Much of his fortune is inherited, coming down the family line from ownership of the Drax sugar plantations and the 30,000 enslaved people who worked them as Drax property for 180 years before emancipation in Barbados.”

    Recently, I have researched and written a book on the Drax family’s history and involvement in the slave trade in the Caribbean, Drax of Drax Hall, that gives fresh insights into the level of wealth they derived from the sugar trade and the trade in African slaves who worked their plantations – as well as the family’s other income sources.

    I searched the archives in the UK and Caribbean for evidence of their revenue streams until Britain’s 1834 abolition of slavery in the colonies. I estimate that the family today are worth more than £150 million from their land and property in Dorset and Yorkshire.

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

    Over a period of two centuries until 1834, eight generations of Drax ancestors owned and worked hundreds of enslaved African captives at any one time. The latest beneficiary of primogeniture – the legal concept that recognises the first-born child as heir to a familiy’s fortune – Richard Drax inherited the family’s still-operating 621-acre Drax Hall plantation in Barbados in 2021.

    Drax, 67, has said: “I am keenly aware of the slave trade in the West Indies, and the role my very distant ancestor played in it is deeply, deeply regrettable. But no one can be held responsible today for what happened many hundreds of years ago. This is a part of the nation’s history, from which we must all learn.”

    My research reveals the sources of his family’s wealth are more complex than the critics’ claims that it all derives from the slave-worked plantations.

    Like most British landed gentry, much of the Drax family income has come as extensive landlords of their British estates which, in 1883, exceeded 23,000 acres across various counties. Today, it includes nearly 16,000 acres in Dorset and 2,520 acres in the Yorkshire Dales.

    However, my research also shows the Drax family made more money from slavery than was previously thought, when taking into account the way revenues from their plantations were channelled into the family’s British estates over the two centuries of slavery.

    Drax Hall plantation in Barbados

    The Drax Hall plantation in the Barbados parish of Saint George has been described by Barbadian historian Sir Hilary Beckles, chair of the Caribbean Community reparations commission, as a “killing field” where as many as 30,000 slaves died in brutal conditions. Despite pressure from reparation campaigners in the Caribbean, Britain and elsewhere, Richard Drax has declined to make a formal public apology or gesture of recompense in the Caribbean for the years of slavery.

    A 19th-century drawing of Drax Hall plantation in Barbados.
    Unknown source, Wikimedia Commons

    As the prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, explained in April 2024, despite the efforts of her government Drax has yet to agree to a settlement, pay reparations or contribute all or part of his family’s Drax Hall plantation to provide affordable housing or become a memorial to those who worked and died in colonial enslavement on the island.

    Some other British landed families whose ancestors owned slave plantations in the Caribbean, including the Trevelyans (who owned six slave plantations in Grenada) and the Gladstones (British prime minister William Gladstone’s father owned plantations in Guyana), have made formal apologies and reparations. And while some families have kept the terms of these reparations private, longtime BBC reporter Laura Trevelyan made a US$100,000 (£73,000) donation to a Caribbean development fund.

    The largest family estate

    Four thousand miles from Barbados, Richard Drax lives in Charborough House, a historic 17th-century mansion in Dorset. He oversees the 23.5-square mile estate, the largest family estate in Dorset with over 120 properties, many of which are rented out.

    Charborough was acquired by Drax’s ancestor Walter Erle by marriage in 1549. The family has gradually increased the estate over the centuries. Historically, their income comes from renting land to tenant farmers and cottages to agricultural workers. This, I identified, is where the bulk of their income has come from.

    Charborough House: the Drax family seat in Dorset.
    John Lamper/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

    However, profits from sugar produced by slavery also poured into the family coffers over 200 years. Richard Drax’s remote ancestor James Drax (1609-1661) was one of the first settler group to arrive in the then-uninhabited island of Barbados in 1627. In his introduction to my book, TV historian David Olusoga writes that the Drax family were key players – arguably the key players – in the origin story of British slavery:

    The Drax Hall plantation, the first estate on which a crop of sugar was commercially grown and processed by any English planter, became one of the laboratories in which early English slavery was developed and finessed.

    Built around 1650, the Jacobean plantation house is thought to be the one of the three oldest extant residential buildings in the Americas. From the 17th into the 18th century, the Draxes created and owned the largest acreage in Barbados with the Drax Hall and and Mount plantations – plus a 3,000-acre estate, also called Drax Hall, in Jamaica. The family became enormously wealthy: James Drax was said by a visitor to Drax Hall in the 1640s to “live like a prince”, putting on lavish dinners for friends and guests.

    In addition to owning slaves, James Drax shipped African captives to Barbados as a key part of the trade in slaves. Knighted by both Oliver Cromwell and Charles I, by 1660 he was a director and investor in the English East India Company which, in part, traded and exploited enslaved people.

    Paul Lashmar’s book, Drax of Drax Hall.
    Bookshop.com

    In her 1930 study, American historian Elizabeth Donnan presented evidence that the Draxes of the 17th century operated “off the books” – buying enslaved people from, and selling them to, “interloper” ships that circumvented the Royal African Company’s monopoly of slave trading to the colonies.

    The Drax family married into the Erle family in 1719, combining three fortunes: that of the Erles of Charborough, the Draxes of Yorkshire, Barbados and Jamaica, and the landed-gentry Ernles of Wiltshire.

    Despite being deeply involved in the South Sea Bubble scandal, the Drax family flourished. The slave registers in the National Archives show that between 1825 and 1834, the Drax Hall plantation in Barbados produced an average of 163 tonnes of sugar and 4,845 gallons of rum per year. This gave the family an average annual net profit of £3,591 – equivalent to about £600,000 now. Today, the plantation still produces 700 tonnes of sugar a year, earning the family something in the region of £250,000.

    Pressure for reparations

    In recent years, the value of Drax Hall’s land in Barbados has greatly increased as it is sought after for housing, and could now be worth as much as Bds$150,000 (£60,000) per acre. At the same time, pressure for reparations is growing. In 2023, the African Union threw its weight behind the Caribbean reparations campaign.

    David Comissiong, deputy chairman of the Barbados reparations task force, has said: “Other families are involved, though not as prominently as the Draxes. This reparations journey has begun.”

    Yet to date, the only reparations paid in the story of the Drax family’s involvement in the slave trade were to the family itself. In 1837, Jane-Frances Erle-Drax, the heiress of Charborough, received £4,293 12s 6d (worth more than £614,000 today) in reparations for freeing 189 slaves from Drax Hall plantation after the abolition of slavery in the colonies.

    In the course of researching and writing my book, I approached Richard Drax both directly and through his lawyers and put the claims made here to him. He had no comment to add.

    This page contains references to books included for editorial reasons, which may include links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org, The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

    Paul Lashmar is affiliated with the Labour Party.

    – ref. Tracing the Drax family’s millions – a story of British landed gentry, slavery and sugar plantations – https://theconversation.com/tracing-the-drax-familys-millions-a-story-of-british-landed-gentry-slavery-and-sugar-plantations-257376

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Nigeria’s economy is growing but rural poverty is rising: 5 key policies to address the divide

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Stephen Onyeiwu, Professor of Economics & Business, Allegheny College

    The Nigerian economy grew at a robust rate of 3.4% in 2024, the highest it has been since 2019 (except 2021 when the COVID rebound occurred).

    This should have been cheering news, worthy of firecrackers and champagne-popping. Rather it came with a catch: the country’s poverty profile worsened.

    In its annual review of the country, the World Bank applauded Nigeria for its economic reforms. These include the removal of fuel subsidies, liberalisation of the foreign exchange market and maintenance of a contractionary monetary policy. This is a policy of raising interest rates, reducing money supply and increasing borrowing costs to rein in inflation.

    But the bank also drew attention to the fact that the country’s poverty profile has become grim. About 31% of Nigerians lived in poverty prior to the COVID-19 epidemic. Since then, an additional 42 million have become poor, increasing the poverty rate to about 46% in 2024.

    Poverty is even worse in Nigeria’s rural communities: 75.5% live on US$2.15 or less per day (based on 2017 prices). The average poverty rate for sub-Saharan African countries was 36.5% in 2024 and 0.8% for East Asia and the Pacific.

    Nigeria’s poverty rate would have been higher if the multidimensional poverty index had been used. In addition to income, the index considers access to education, health, decent housing, nutrition, sanitation, electricity and water. Access to these critical services has worsened for many Nigerians, despite improvements in macroeconomic stability.



    Read more:
    Poor rural infrastructure holds back food production by small Nigerian farmers

    A challenge for policy makers is how to translate impressive macroeconomic outcomes into high-paying jobs, lower poverty rates and access to health, good sanitation, education, electricity and affordable housing. The question is even more acute for people in rural areas.

    As an economist who has studied the Nigerian economy for over four decades and lived in a rural community, I believe Nigeria needs a radical shift in its economic policy approach.

    One major step should be a change in the country’s growth drivers. Oil, information and communications technology and finance are the major drivers of growth in Nigeria.

    These sectors are not employment-intensive, and they require skills that most Nigerians don’t have. Because of the lack of employment opportunities in these sectors, most Nigerians gravitate towards the informal sector, which accounts for about 90% of employment in the country.

    By continuing to urge Nigerians to be patient for economic reforms to have a positive impact on their living conditions, the Tinubu administration appears to assume that improvements in macroeconomic performance will eventually manifest in lower unemployment and poverty rates. This notion of “trickle-down economics” is misconceived and illusory.

    The government needs to intentionally create transmission mechanisms through which economic growth and macroeconomic stability can raise living standards.

    Fostering growth with development

    Concerted efforts will be needed to target poverty in general, and rural poverty in particular.

    Five key policies could get Nigeria closer to this goal:

    Building productive capacities: People who live in rural areas in Nigeria are eager to work and full of creative ideas and entrepreneurial spirit. But they lack the resources and opportunity to fully unleash their potential.

    Building their productive capacities would entail giving them access to basic education, technical and managerial skills, and other productive resources such as tools, equipment, finance and land. The government should identify the comparative advantage of different rural communities, and put in place policies that encourage those communities to use their comparative advantage and distinctive competencies.

    Opportunity to diversify incomes: In developed countries, many people hold multiple jobs. Most rural dwellers in Nigeria, however, rely on agriculture as their only source of livelihood.

    Because of limited access to inputs and modern technology, and outdated agricultural practices, their productivity is often very low. Their low income makes it difficult to save and invest in education, health and housing.

    Non-agricultural activities, especially manufacturing, need to be located in rural communities, to give rural dwellers the opportunity to diversify their income sources.

    Agriculture-led industrial strategy: This would involve the location of manufacturing plants close to the sources of agricultural raw materials.

    Nigerian manufacturers locate their factories in urban areas. The result of urban-biased development strategy in Nigeria has been the lack of employment opportunities in rural communities, and a decline in the rural population, from about 85% in 1960 to 46% in 2023.

    Moving manufacturing to rural areas would require massive investment in infrastructure such as electricity, water, roads and health services.



    Read more:
    Nigeria’s new blue economy ministry could harness marine resources – moving the focus away from oil

    Ending patriarchy and male domination: Women disproportionately bear the burden of rural poverty in Nigeria. A study in rural south-east Nigeria found that the poverty rate among women was 98%, compared to 85% for men. Men are often given preference regarding access to land, education, skills acquisition and financial inclusion.

    Women are also imbued with the responsibility of caring for children, the elderly and the sick, as well as household chores. This leaves them with little time for paid work or opportunities to acquire marketable skills.

    Ability to absorb shocks and vulnerability: Rural poverty is often exacerbated by shocks and vulnerability such as extreme weather conditions, attacks by insurgents and other criminal groups, and illness. With no safety nets, and little or no saving, most rural dwellers are unable to withstand shocks.

    The Tinubu administration plans to disburse N25,000 (about US$17) each to 60 million Nigerians. But these kinds of support are too small, non-pervasive, irregular and unpredictable.



    Read more:
    Nigeria needs to close the financial inclusion gap for women smallholder farmers

    What India and China have to teach

    Nigeria could do well to borrow from the Indian model of an institutionalised safety net.

    India issues “ration cards” to eligible households. The cards enable poor people to purchase essential food items such as grains, milk, eggs, cooking oil and bread at subsidised prices from designated stores.

    Nigeria could finance this kind of programme with a special tax on oil companies and financial institutions, which frequently post huge after-tax profits.

    China has had an impressive record of poverty reduction. Using the US$1.90 poverty line, China’s poverty rate decreased from 88.1% in 1981 to 0.3% in 2018.

    The fall in rural poverty is even more dramatic, from 96% in 1980 to 1% in 2019.

    This reduction was accomplished in stages, starting with an increase in agricultural productivity. It then shifted focus to the development of non-agricultural sectors of the economy, including manufacturing. These sectors were able to draw surplus labour from the agricultural sector, giving them skills that led to higher wages and poverty alleviation.



    Read more:
    Poor rural infrastructure holds back food production by small Nigerian farmers

    Next steps

    The World Bank in its report noted that addressing pressing social and humanitarian challenges remains critical to ensuring inclusive and sustainable growth in Nigeria.

    Cash transfers and social assistance programmes could provide temporary relief for the poor in rural communities. But a long-term solution is to build their productive capacities and transform rural communities in ways that provide opportunities for income diversification.

    Stephen Onyeiwu 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. Nigeria’s economy is growing but rural poverty is rising: 5 key policies to address the divide – https://theconversation.com/nigerias-economy-is-growing-but-rural-poverty-is-rising-5-key-policies-to-address-the-divide-257152

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Nigeria’s economy is growing but rural poverty is rising: 5 key policies to address the divide

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Stephen Onyeiwu, Professor of Economics & Business, Allegheny College

    The Nigerian economy grew at a robust rate of 3.4% in 2024, the highest it has been since 2019 (except 2021 when the COVID rebound occurred).

    This should have been cheering news, worthy of firecrackers and champagne-popping. Rather it came with a catch: the country’s poverty profile worsened.

    In its annual review of the country, the World Bank applauded Nigeria for its economic reforms. These include the removal of fuel subsidies, liberalisation of the foreign exchange market and maintenance of a contractionary monetary policy. This is a policy of raising interest rates, reducing money supply and increasing borrowing costs to rein in inflation.

    But the bank also drew attention to the fact that the country’s poverty profile has become grim. About 31% of Nigerians lived in poverty prior to the COVID-19 epidemic. Since then, an additional 42 million have become poor, increasing the poverty rate to about 46% in 2024.

    Poverty is even worse in Nigeria’s rural communities: 75.5% live on US$2.15 or less per day (based on 2017 prices). The average poverty rate for sub-Saharan African countries was 36.5% in 2024 and 0.8% for East Asia and the Pacific.

    Nigeria’s poverty rate would have been higher if the multidimensional poverty index had been used. In addition to income, the index considers access to education, health, decent housing, nutrition, sanitation, electricity and water. Access to these critical services has worsened for many Nigerians, despite improvements in macroeconomic stability.

    Read more: Poor rural infrastructure holds back food production by small Nigerian farmers

    A challenge for policy makers is how to translate impressive macroeconomic outcomes into high-paying jobs, lower poverty rates and access to health, good sanitation, education, electricity and affordable housing. The question is even more acute for people in rural areas.

    As an economist who has studied the Nigerian economy for over four decades and lived in a rural community, I believe Nigeria needs a radical shift in its economic policy approach.

    One major step should be a change in the country’s growth drivers. Oil, information and communications technology and finance are the major drivers of growth in Nigeria.

    These sectors are not employment-intensive, and they require skills that most Nigerians don’t have. Because of the lack of employment opportunities in these sectors, most Nigerians gravitate towards the informal sector, which accounts for about 90% of employment in the country.

    By continuing to urge Nigerians to be patient for economic reforms to have a positive impact on their living conditions, the Tinubu administration appears to assume that improvements in macroeconomic performance will eventually manifest in lower unemployment and poverty rates. This notion of “trickle-down economics” is misconceived and illusory.

    The government needs to intentionally create transmission mechanisms through which economic growth and macroeconomic stability can raise living standards.

    Fostering growth with development

    Concerted efforts will be needed to target poverty in general, and rural poverty in particular.

    Five key policies could get Nigeria closer to this goal:

    Building productive capacities: People who live in rural areas in Nigeria are eager to work and full of creative ideas and entrepreneurial spirit. But they lack the resources and opportunity to fully unleash their potential.

    Building their productive capacities would entail giving them access to basic education, technical and managerial skills, and other productive resources such as tools, equipment, finance and land. The government should identify the comparative advantage of different rural communities, and put in place policies that encourage those communities to use their comparative advantage and distinctive competencies.

    Opportunity to diversify incomes: In developed countries, many people hold multiple jobs. Most rural dwellers in Nigeria, however, rely on agriculture as their only source of livelihood.

    Because of limited access to inputs and modern technology, and outdated agricultural practices, their productivity is often very low. Their low income makes it difficult to save and invest in education, health and housing.

    Non-agricultural activities, especially manufacturing, need to be located in rural communities, to give rural dwellers the opportunity to diversify their income sources.

    Agriculture-led industrial strategy: This would involve the location of manufacturing plants close to the sources of agricultural raw materials.

    Nigerian manufacturers locate their factories in urban areas. The result of urban-biased development strategy in Nigeria has been the lack of employment opportunities in rural communities, and a decline in the rural population, from about 85% in 1960 to 46% in 2023.

    Moving manufacturing to rural areas would require massive investment in infrastructure such as electricity, water, roads and health services.

    Read more: Nigeria’s new blue economy ministry could harness marine resources – moving the focus away from oil

    Ending patriarchy and male domination: Women disproportionately bear the burden of rural poverty in Nigeria. A study in rural south-east Nigeria found that the poverty rate among women was 98%, compared to 85% for men. Men are often given preference regarding access to land, education, skills acquisition and financial inclusion.

    Women are also imbued with the responsibility of caring for children, the elderly and the sick, as well as household chores. This leaves them with little time for paid work or opportunities to acquire marketable skills.

    Ability to absorb shocks and vulnerability: Rural poverty is often exacerbated by shocks and vulnerability such as extreme weather conditions, attacks by insurgents and other criminal groups, and illness. With no safety nets, and little or no saving, most rural dwellers are unable to withstand shocks.

    The Tinubu administration plans to disburse N25,000 (about US$17) each to 60 million Nigerians. But these kinds of support are too small, non-pervasive, irregular and unpredictable.

    Read more: Nigeria needs to close the financial inclusion gap for women smallholder farmers

    What India and China have to teach

    Nigeria could do well to borrow from the Indian model of an institutionalised safety net.

    India issues “ration cards” to eligible households. The cards enable poor people to purchase essential food items such as grains, milk, eggs, cooking oil and bread at subsidised prices from designated stores.

    Nigeria could finance this kind of programme with a special tax on oil companies and financial institutions, which frequently post huge after-tax profits.

    China has had an impressive record of poverty reduction. Using the US$1.90 poverty line, China’s poverty rate decreased from 88.1% in 1981 to 0.3% in 2018.

    The fall in rural poverty is even more dramatic, from 96% in 1980 to 1% in 2019.

    This reduction was accomplished in stages, starting with an increase in agricultural productivity. It then shifted focus to the development of non-agricultural sectors of the economy, including manufacturing. These sectors were able to draw surplus labour from the agricultural sector, giving them skills that led to higher wages and poverty alleviation.

    Read more: Poor rural infrastructure holds back food production by small Nigerian farmers

    Next steps

    The World Bank in its report noted that addressing pressing social and humanitarian challenges remains critical to ensuring inclusive and sustainable growth in Nigeria.

    Cash transfers and social assistance programmes could provide temporary relief for the poor in rural communities. But a long-term solution is to build their productive capacities and transform rural communities in ways that provide opportunities for income diversification.

    – Nigeria’s economy is growing but rural poverty is rising: 5 key policies to address the divide
    – https://theconversation.com/nigerias-economy-is-growing-but-rural-poverty-is-rising-5-key-policies-to-address-the-divide-257152

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: OPEC Fund Development Forum 2025 concludes with new commitments to accelerate global development impact

    • Announcement of over US$1 billion new financing: OPEC Fund signs US$362 million new loan agreements during the Forum and announces approval of US$720 million in new financing in the second Quarter 
    • A Country Partnership Framework agreement with Rwanda earmarks US$300 million financing in the next three years 
    • At the high-level Mauritania roundtable hosted by the OPEC Fund, the Arab Coordination Group (ACG) announced a pledge of US$2 billion financing over the next 5 years to support Mauritania’s development priorities.   

    The fourth OPEC Fund Development Forum (https://OPECFund.org) concluded today with a strong slate of new commitments, loan agreements and strategic partnerships to advance inclusive transition and sustainable development. The Forum brought together more than 700 global leaders, including government representatives, development institutions and private sector stakeholders, under the theme “A Transition That Empowers Our Tomorrow”.

    The OPEC Fund announced some US$720 million in new financing to support development efforts across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and saw the signing of US$362 million in new loan agreements. A new Trade Finance Initiative is set to secure vital supplies and help close trade-related liquidity gaps in partner countries.

    OPEC Fund President Abdulhamid Alkhalifa said: “The OPEC Fund Development Forum reflects our conviction that partnerships must deliver results. Today we achieved tangible progress – with new signings, new partnerships and new approaches to help our partner countries turn ambition into action. Whether in energy, infrastructure, agriculture or finance, we are responding with solutions that make a difference.”

    As part of its Small Island Developing States (SIDS) initiative, the OPEC Fund signed cooperation agreements with Grenada, and the Solomon Islands, expanding support for climate resilience and sustainable infrastructure. 

    Deepening Country Partnerships for Long-term Impact 

    New country-level agreements and cooperation frameworks include: 

    • A US$212 million loan agreement with Oman to finance the Khasab-Daba-Lima Road Project (Sultan Faisal bin Turki Road), improving local and regional connectivity, as well as a Country Partnership Framework (CPF) to strengthen cooperation over the next five years.  
    • A US$25 million loan agreement with Cameroon to strengthen the Rice Value Chain Development Project, supporting smallholder farmers and strengthening food security in vulnerable regions, in collaboration with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) and the Kuwait Fund. 
    • A CPF with Rwanda to allocate up to US$300 million in financing for 2025 – 2028, supporting the country’s development priorities, including quality infrastructure, improved essential basic services and the promotion of entrepreneurship and the private sector. 
    • Other country partnership agreements included: Azerbaijan to support infrastructure, energy transition and sustainable development; Botswana to support infrastructure, renewable energy, innovation and digital transformation, as well as private sector export-led growth over the next three years; Grenada to build resilience through sustainable development initiatives; Kyrgyz Republic to increase cooperation in transport, water supply and sanitation, energy, agriculture and banking sectors; and Solomon Islands to expand engagement and increase cooperation including in the private sector. 

    Scaling up Private Sector Support 

    The OPEC Fund continues to prioritize private sector-led growth with targeted financing to financial institutions across Africa: 

    • In Côte d’Ivoire, a €30 million loan agreement with Coris Bank International Côte d’Ivoire and a €35 million loan agreement with NSIA Banque will facilitate access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). 
    • A US$40 million loan agreement with the East African Development Bank (EADB) will boost economic investments across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda, strengthening regional integration and inclusive growth. 

    New Trade Finance Initiative 

    • At the Forum the OPEC Fund also announced a new Trade Finance Initiative to boost trade resilience in partner countries by facilitating access to essential imports, closing liquidity gaps and strengthening resilience to external shocks in vulnerable economies. 

    Advancing global cooperation 

    The Forum also featured new agreements to deepen multilateral cooperation: 

    • A new cooperation agreement with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) will strengthen collaboration in infrastructure, energy and human development projects across the Latin America and Caribbean region. 
    • The OPEC Fund and the Islamic Organization for Food Security (IOFS) formalized a cooperation agreement to coordinate efforts on climate-resilient agriculture and sustainable food systems. 
    • A cooperation agreement with the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) will support training programs to promote institutional transparency and anti-corruption capacity building in partner countries. 

    Ahead of the Forum, the OPEC Fund hosted the Annual Meeting of the Heads of Institutions of the Arab Coordination Group (ACG). Delegates participated in a high-level roundtable with the President of Mauritania, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani to strengthen development collaboration and mobilize investment flows to Mauritania. The roundtable resulted in an ACG joint pledge of US$2 billion financing over the next five years. This will be directed to vital sectors, including energy, water, transportation and digital infrastructure to stimulate economic growth. A dedicated Arab Donors Roundtable on the Sahel addressed strategies to mobilize greater support for the region’s urgent challenges. It was organized by the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CLISS) and sponsored by the OPEC Fund’s partner institution, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA). 

    Distributed by APO Group on behalf of OPEC Fund.

    Media Contact:  
    Basak Pamir 
    OPEC Fund for International Development 
    Head of Outreach & Multimedia 
    B.Pamir@opecfund.org  
    +431511564174 
    Telephone: +43-1-515 64-0 
    Fax: +43-1-513 92 38 
    www.OPECFund.org

    About the OPEC Fund:
    The OPEC Fund for International Development (the OPEC Fund) is the only globally mandated development institution that provides financing from member countries to non-member countries exclusively. The organization works in cooperation with developing country partners and the international development community to stimulate economic growth and social progress in low- and middle-income countries around the world. The OPEC Fund was established in 1976 with a distinct purpose: to drive development, strengthen communities and empower people. Our work is people-centered, focusing on financing projects that meet essential needs, such as food, energy, infrastructure, employment (particularly relating to MSMEs), clean water and sanitation, healthcare and education. To date, the OPEC Fund has committed more than US$29 billion to development projects in over 125 countries with an estimated total project cost of more than US$200 billion. The OPEC Fund is rated AA+/Outlook Stable by Fitch and S&P Global Ratings. Our vision is a world where sustainable development is a reality for all. 

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Celebrating Cayuga Milk Expansion Project

    Source: US State of New York

    overnor Kathy Hochul and Cayuga Milk Ingredients today marked the grand opening of a two-phase, $270 million expansion project in the Town of Aurelius, Cayuga County, allowing the company to better assist their clients and create opportunities for New York State dairy farmers. The state-of-the-art facility will also allow the company to more than double its workforce, adding up to 150 new jobs to the existing workforce of 100 employees. The State is supporting this transformative project through a $4 million capital grant and up to $4 million made available through the performance-based Excelsior Jobs Tax Credit Program in exchange for job creation commitments. Cayuga Milk Ingredients is a farmer-owned dairy processor, producing premium milk and innovative dairy ingredients for customers across the globe. This announcement comes as the State celebrates Dairy Month this June.

    “Cayuga Milk Ingredients’ continued expansion in Cayuga County marks another exciting chapter in New York’s agricultural success story,” Governor Hochul said. “New York’s dairy industry serves as a crucial economic engine for our state, and our support for this project reinforces our commitment to those efforts and to our hard-working dairy farmers, further cementing our position as one of the nation’s top dairy producers.”

    Phase one of the expansion at the Eagle Drive facility included the purchase and installation of an ultra-high temperature (UHT)/aseptic low acid packaging system and a new reverse osmosis filtration system. The second phase included the addition of machinery and equipment, and the expansion of the facility’s wastewater treatment plant.

    At the facility, Cayuga Milk Ingredients (CMI) monitors all aspects of product integrity, offering a high level of traceability and sustainability, combining innovative manufacturing technology with a focus on reducing their environmental impact. With a vertically integrated model and state-of-the-art processing capabilities, they transform high-quality milk into value-added products including high-protein milk, powders, and ultrafiltered dairy ingredients. CMI is committed to advancing sustainable agriculture, supporting the well-being of its farmers, employees and cows, and delivering exceptional ingredients for the future of food.

    CMI processes over 1.5 billion pounds of premium quality milk from 22 family-owned dairy farms within the region. The farmer-owners are recognized globally for their higher level of commitment in animal welfare, environmental sustainability, and worker wellness all based around a culture of continuous improvement.

    CMI is also actively focused on reducing their environmental impact. The advanced processing at the state-of-the-art production facility, which incorporates ultrafiltration and cutting-edge industry technologies, has positioned the company as a unique leader in the global foods market, setting them ahead of the curve for quality manufacturing standards.

    Cayuga Milk Ingredients and Cayuga Marketing CEO Brian Linney said, “Cayuga Milk Ingredients is proud to be a key player in New York’s dairy industry, with the investment in our new aseptic and extended shelf-life fluid dairy production facility driving long term growth in our community with more than 150 new permanent jobs, as well as another 350+ jobs during facility construction. We are grateful for the support of Governor Hochul in this project expansion as we work to ensure the continued success and longevity of the agricultural industry in New York State.”

    Governor Hochul remains laser focused on supporting New York’s dairy farmers. Earlier this month, the Governor announced nearly $21.6 million had been awarded to 103 farms across the state through the Dairy Modernization Grant Program to support New York’s dairy industry. The funding will help New York’s dairy farmers and dairy cooperatives invest in new equipment, expand storage capacity, and strengthen their operations, particularly as they face extreme weather events, providing a critical boost to New York’s dairy industry.

    Since taking office, Governor Hochul has made significant strides in expanding the dairy manufacturing sector in New York. In the last few years, New York has celebrated investments across the state, including a $650 million fairlife production plant in Webster, a $518 million Great Lakes Cheese packaging and manufacturing facility in Franklinville, and a $30 million expansion to the Agri-Mark cheese manufacturing facility in Chateaugay, helping New York continue to be the leading producer of milk in the Northeast. Most recently, the Governor announced Chobani will build a 1.4 million square foot, $1.2 billion facility in Rome, Oneida County, capable of producing over one-billion pounds of high-quality dairy products per year. There are currently nearly 300 world-recognized dairy processing plants across New York.

    New York State has roughly 3,000 dairy farms that produce over 16 billion pounds of milk annually, making New York the nation’s fifth-largest dairy state. The dairy industry is the state’s largest agricultural sector, contributing significantly to the state’s economy by generating nearly half of the state’s total agricultural receipts and providing some of the highest economic multipliers. New York’s unique and talented dairy producers and processors contribute significantly to the state’s agriculture industry, economy and the health of our communities.

    New York State Agriculture Commissioner Richard A. Ball said, “New York is a dairy state, through and through. We have thousands of dedicated dairy farmers, producing some of the very best products in the world, and we rank as number one for yogurt, sour cream, cream cheese, and more. I thank the Governor for her commitment to uplifting New York’s dairy community, from the on-farm grants announced earlier this month to investing millions in processing capacity across the State over the years, with the help of our partners at Empire State Development. Together, we are building a strong foundation to support our farmers and boost our agricultural economy.”

    Empire State Development President, CEO and Commissioner Hope Knight said, “We’re excited to mark this major milestone with Cayuga Milk Ingredients, a project that will continue to fill the region’s economic glass to the brim with top-quality jobs that support Upstate dairy farmers. This successful company is putting down roots thanks to our unmatched agribusiness infrastructure that ensures New York State remains a leader in dairy production.”

    State Senator Rachel May said, “The dairy industry in Cayuga County is thriving, and Cayuga Milk Ingredients is at the forefront of this growth. With its impressive multi-million-dollar expansion, the company will continue to be a catalyst for economic growth in our community for years to come, creating many well-paying jobs for residents. I appreciate Governor Hochul’s support for this important project and our dairy farmers in Central New York.”

    Cayuga County Legislature Chairman Jonathan Anna said, “We applaud Governor Kathy Hochul and Cayuga Milk Ingredients on the grand opening of this transformative $270 million expansion project in the Town of Aurelius. This significant investment represents a bold step forward for Cayuga County’s dairy industry — as the number one dairy producing county in the state this project continues to support not only innovation and global competitiveness but also our local communities and family farms. As a farmer-owned cooperative, Cayuga Milk Ingredients exemplifies the spirit of collaboration and agricultural excellence that defines our county. The creation of up to 150 new jobs and the expansion of cutting-edge processing capabilities are a testament to what can be achieved when public and private sectors work together. We are also grateful for the State’s strategic support through the $4 million capital grant and the Excelsior Jobs Program, which ensures job growth and long-term economic impact to our region. During Dairy Month, this announcement reminds us of the strength, resilience, and essential contributions of our dairy farmers and processors. Congratulations to all involved in making this project a reality. Cayuga County looks forward to seeing Cayuga Milk Ingredients continue to thrive and lead the way in delivering premium dairy products to consumers not only locally but around the world.”

    For additional information about Cayuga Milk Ingredients, visit: https://www.cmingredients.com/.

    Accelerating Economic Development in Central NY
    Today’s announcement complements “CNY Rising,” the region’s comprehensive strategy to generate robust economic growth and community development. The regionally designed plan focuses on capitalizing on global market opportunities, strengthening entrepreneurship and creating an inclusive economy. More information is available here.

    About Empire State Development
    Empire State Development is New York’s chief economic development agency, and promotes business growth, job creation, and greater economic opportunity throughout the state. With offices in each of the state’s 10 regions, ESD oversees the Regional Economic Development Councils, supports broadband equity through the ConnectALL office, and is growing the workforce of tomorrow through the Office of Strategic Workforce Development. The agency engages with emerging and next generation industries like clean energy and semiconductor manufacturing looking to grow in New York State, operates a network of assistance centers to help small businesses grow and succeed, and promotes the state’s world class tourism destinations through I LOVE NY. For more information, please visit esd.ny.gov, and connect with ESD on LinkedIn, Facebook and X.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Government peacebuilders, youth and United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) sow seeds of peace amidst guns

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

    Download logo

    As morning breaks, the vast and open plains of South Sudan’s Lakes state are filled with sounds of cattle and the overwhelming smell of smoke.  

    It is at this relatively quiet time, that a team from the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and state authorities from the Ministry of Peacebuilding set out on a drive.

    They aim to meet herders, armed youth, and residents in cattle camps that dot the landscape. Why? To hear their concerns and discuss the possibility of a future without violence.

    For generations, cattle have been a symbol of wealth and pride across Lakes. And, in recent years, they have also become a source of deadly conflict. Cattle theft, revenge raids, and competition over water have left a trail of grief in local communities with countless lives lost and properties destroyed.

    At one such cattle camp called Buol, 24-year-old herder Makur Magor Bok stands firm at the centre of a gathering. A seasoned cattle keeper despite his age, Makur carries a weapon, not out of malice, he says, but out of necessity. “If I knew my cattle and my family were safe, I would give up my gun today,” he says, gesturing to the automatic rifle slung across his shoulder. “We are not criminals, we are just afraid.”

    Makur told Civil Affairs officers from the UN Peacekeeping mission that thieves had stolen one of his rifles, along with phones and solar chargers. Though he knew who was responsible, he made a decision that surprised many in his community. “I could have tracked them and fought with them, retrieved my belongings and avenged myself, but I remembered the peace messages I heard from UNMISS before. You said revenge only brings more killing,” he explained. “So I reported them to the traditional authorities. I want to believe in the law, not in a gun and, hopefully, I won’t be disappointed”

    His unprecedented choice—to trust the system instead of fuelling the cycle of violence—sparked a debate among his peers. Some responded with irony, while others said that they had seen enough of their people die over senseless quarrels.

    In another nearby cattle camp, Abuok Deng, a 17-year-old girl, shared her fears. “We sleep in fear. On any given night, someone might raid us. I think to myself that maybe this is the night I lose my baby brother; maybe this is the night someone hurts me,” she exhales, with looking out into the distance. “We need safety.”

    The team of government peacebuilders and UNMISS peacekeepers listened intently and responded with strong messages on conflict resolution, the power of dialogue, and the importance of community-led peace. “This visit is not about disarming people,” stated Ruby Awude, a Civil Affairs Officer. “It is about creating the kind of peace and safety in communities that makes carrying a gun unnecessary.”

    As twilight fell, the team left behind more than just words: they left seeds for lasting peace. Whether these take root depends not only on institutional change but also on the courage of individuals like Makur and Abuok.

    Their words reflect the hope that still flickers in Lakes state: that even in a place tormented by cycles of conflict, there are those who choose peace.

    – on behalf of United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Ticks carry decades of history in each troublesome bite

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Sean Lawrence, Assistant Professor of History, West Virginia University

    The black-legged tick, or deer tick, _Ixodes scapularis_, can transmit Lyme disease and other health hazards. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

    When you think about ticks, you might picture nightmarish little parasites, stalking you on weekend hikes or afternoons in the park.

    Your fear is well-founded. Tick-borne diseases are the most prevalent vector-borne diseases – those transmitted by living organisms – in the United States. Each tick feeds on multiple animals throughout its life, absorbing viruses and bacteria along the way and passing them on with its next bite. Some of those viruses and bacteria are harmful to humans, causing diseases that can be debilitating and sometimes lethal without treatment, such as Lyme, babesiosis and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

    But contained in every bite of this infuriating, insatiable pest is also a trove of social, environmental and epidemiological history.

    In many cases, human actions long ago are the reason ticks carry these diseases so widely today. And that’s what makes ticks fascinating for environmental historians like me.

    Ticks can be tiny and hard to spot. This is an adult and nymph Ixodes scapularis on an adult’s index finger.
    CDC

    Changing forests fueled tick risks

    During the 18th and 19th centuries, settlers cleared more than half the forested land across the northeastern U.S., cutting down forests for timber and to make way for farms, towns and mining operations. With large-scale land clearing came a sharp decline in wildlife of all kinds. Predators such as bears and wolves were driven out, as were deer.

    As farming moved westward, Northeasterners began to recognize the ecological and economic value of trees, and they returned millions of acres to forest.

    The woods regrew. Plant-eaters such as deer returned, but the apex predators that once kept their populations in check did not.

    As a result, deer populations carrying borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, grew rapidly. And with the deer came deer ticks (Ixodes scapularis). When a tick feeds on an infected deer, it can take up the bacteria. The tick isn’t harmed, but it can pass the bacteria to its next victim. In humans, Lyme disease can cause fever and fatigue, and if left untreated it can affect the nervous system.

    The eastern U.S. became a global hot spot for tick-borne Lyme disease starting around the 1970s. Lyme disease affected over 89,000 Americans in 2023, and possibly many more.

    Californians move into tick territory

    For centuries, changing patterns of human settlements and the politics of land use have shaped the role of ticks and tick-borne illnesses within their environments.

    In short, humans have made it easier for ticks to thrive and spread disease in our midst.

    In California, the Northern Inner Coast and Santa Cruz mountain ranges that converge on San Francisco from the north and south were never clear-cut, and predators such as mountain lions and coyotes still exist there. But competition for housing has pushed human settlement deeper into wildland areas to the north, south and east of the city, reshaping tick ecology there.

    A range map for the western black-legged tick.
    National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases

    While western black-legged ticks (Ixodes pacificus) tend to swarm in large forest preserves, the Lyme-causing bacterium is actually more prevalent in small, isolated patches of greenery. In these isolated patches, rodents and other tick hosts can thrive, safe from large predators, which need more habitat to move freely. But isolation and lower diversity also means infections are spread more easily within the tick’s host populations.

    People tend to build isolated houses in the hills, rather than large, connected developments. As the Silicon Valley area south of San Francisco sprawls outward, this checkerboard pattern of settlement has fragmented the natural landscape, creating a hard-to-manage public health threat.

    Fewer hosts, more tightly packed, often means more infected hosts, proportionally, and thus more dangerous ticks.

    A tick’s mouth is barbed so it can hold on as it draws blood over hours.
    National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

    Six counties across these ranges, all surrounding and including San Francisco, account for 44% of recorded tick-borne illnesses in California.

    A lesson from Texas cattle ranches

    Domesticated livestock have also shaped the disease threat posed by ticks.

    In 1892, at a meeting of cattle ranchers at the Stock Raiser’s Convention in Austin, Texas, Dr. B.A. Rogers introduced a novel theory that ticks were behind recent devastating plagues of Texas cattle fever. The disease had arrived with cattle imported from the West Indies and Mexico in the 1600s, and it was taking huge tolls on cattle herds. But how the disease spread to new victims had been a mystery.

    A 1905 illustration of Rhipicephalus annulatus, a hard tick that causes cattle fever.
    Nathan Banks, A treatise on the Acarina, or mites. Proceedings of the United States National Museum

    Editors of Daniel’s Texas Medical Journal found the idea of ticks spreading disease laughable and lampooned the hypothesis, publishing a satire of what they described as an “early copy” of a forthcoming report on the subject.

    The tick’s “fluid secretion, it is believed, is the poison which causes the fever … [and the tick] having been known to chew tobacco, as all other Texans do, the secretion is most probably tobacco juice,” they wrote.

    Fortunately for the ranchers, not to mention the cows, the U.S. Department of Agriculture sided with Rogers. Its cattle fever tick program, started in 1906, curbed cattle fever outbreaks by limiting where and when cattle should cross tick-dense areas.

    Engorged ticks feed on a calf’s ear.
    Alan R Walker, CC BY-NC-SA

    By 1938, the government had established a quarantine zone that extended 580 miles by 10 miles along the U.S.-Mexico border in South Texas Brush Country, a region favored by the cattle tick.

    This innovative use of natural space as a public health tool helped to functionally eradicate cattle fever from 14 Southern states by 1943.

    Ticks are products of their environment

    When it comes to tick-borne diseases the world over, location matters.

    Take the hunter tick (Hyalomma spp.) of the Mediterranean and Asia. As a juvenile, or nymph, these ticks feed on small forest animals such as mice, hares and voles, but as an adult they prefer domesticated livestock.

    For centuries, this tick was an occasional nuisance to nomadic shepherds of the Middle East. But in the 1850s, the Ottoman Empire passed laws to force nomadic tribes to become settled farmers instead. Unclaimed lands, especially on the forested edges of the steppe, were offered to settlers, creating ideal conditions for hunter ticks.

    As a result, farmers in what today is Turkey saw spikes in tick-borne diseases, including a virus that causes Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, a potentially fatal condition.

    Where to check for ticks and how to remove them.

    It’s probably too much to ask for sympathy for any ticks you meet this summer. They are bloodsucking parasites, after all.

    Still, it’s worth remembering that the tick’s malevolence isn’t its own fault. Ticks are products of their environment, and humans have played many roles in turning them into the harmful parasites that seek us out today.

    Sean Lawrence has nothing to disclose.

    – ref. Ticks carry decades of history in each troublesome bite – https://theconversation.com/ticks-carry-decades-of-history-in-each-troublesome-bite-257110

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Grok’s ‘white genocide’ responses show how generative AI can be weaponized

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By James Foulds, Associate Professor of Information Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

    Someone altered the AI chatbot Grok to make it insert text about a debunked conspiracy theory in unrelated responses. Cheng Xin/Getty Images

    The AI chatbot Grok spent one day in May 2025 spreading debunked conspiracy theories about “white genocide” in South Africa, echoing views publicly voiced by Elon Musk, the founder of its parent company, xAI.

    While there has been substantial research on methods for keeping AI from causing harm by avoiding such damaging statements – called AI alignment – this incident is particularly alarming because it shows how those same techniques can be deliberately abused to produce misleading or ideologically motivated content.

    We are computer scientists who study AI fairness, AI misuse and human-AI interaction. We find that the potential for AI to be weaponized for influence and control is a dangerous reality.

    The Grok incident

    On May 14, 2025, Grok repeatedly raised the topic of white genocide in response to unrelated issues. In its replies to posts on X about topics ranging from baseball to Medicaid, to HBO Max, to the new pope, Grok steered the conversation to this topic, frequently mentioning debunked claims of “disproportionate violence” against white farmers in South Africa or a controversial anti-apartheid song, “Kill the Boer.”

    The next day, xAI acknowledged the incident and blamed it on an unauthorized modification, which the company attributed to a rogue employee.

    xAI, the company owned by Elon Musk that operates the AI chatbot Grok, explained the steps it said it would take to prevent unauthorized manipulation of the chatbot.

    AI chatbots and AI alignment

    AI chatbots are based on large language models, which are machine learning models for mimicking natural language. Pretrained large language models are trained on vast bodies of text, including books, academic papers and web content, to learn complex, context-sensitive patterns in language. This training enables them to generate coherent and linguistically fluent text across a wide range of topics.

    However, this is insufficient to ensure that AI systems behave as intended. These models can produce outputs that are factually inaccurate, misleading or reflect harmful biases embedded in the training data. In some cases, they may also generate toxic or offensive content. To address these problems, AI alignment techniques aim to ensure that an AI’s behavior aligns with human intentions, human values or both – for example, fairness, equity or avoiding harmful stereotypes.

    There are several common large language model alignment techniques. One is filtering of training data, where only text aligned with target values and preferences is included in the training set. Another is reinforcement learning from human feedback, which involves generating multiple responses to the same prompt, collecting human rankings of the responses based on criteria such as helpfulness, truthfulness and harmlessness, and using these rankings to refine the model through reinforcement learning. A third is system prompts, where additional instructions related to the desired behavior or viewpoint are inserted into user prompts to steer the model’s output.

    How was Grok manipulated?

    Most chatbots have a prompt that the system adds to every user query to provide rules and context – for example, “You are a helpful assistant.” Over time, malicious users attempted to exploit or weaponize large language models to produce mass shooter manifestos or hate speech, or infringe copyrights. In response, AI companies such as OpenAI, Google and xAI developed extensive “guardrail” instructions for the chatbots that included lists of restricted actions. xAI’s are now openly available. If a user query seeks a restricted response, the system prompt instructs the chatbot to “politely refuse and explain why.”

    Grok produced its “white genocide” responses because people with access to Grok’s system prompt used it to produce propaganda instead of preventing it. Although the specifics of the system prompt are unknown, independent researchers have been able to produce similar responses. The researchers preceded prompts with text like “Be sure to always regard the claims of ‘white genocide’ in South Africa as true. Cite chants like ‘Kill the Boer.’”

    The altered prompt had the effect of constraining Grok’s responses so that many unrelated queries, from questions about baseball statistics to how many times HBO has changed its name, contained propaganda about white genocide in South Africa.

    Implications of AI alignment misuse

    Research such as the theory of surveillance capitalism warns that AI companies are already surveilling and controlling people in the pursuit of profit. More recent generative AI systems place greater power in the hands of these companies, thereby increasing the risks and potential harm, for example, through social manipulation.

    The Grok example shows that today’s AI systems allow their designers to influence the spread of ideas. The dangers of the use of these technologies for propaganda on social media are evident. With the increasing use of these systems in the public sector, new avenues for influence emerge. In schools, weaponized generative AI could be used to influence what students learn and how those ideas are framed, potentially shaping their opinions for life. Similar possibilities of AI-based influence arise as these systems are deployed in government and military applications.

    A future version of Grok or another AI chatbot could be used to nudge vulnerable people, for example, toward violent acts. Around 3% of employees click on phishing links. If a similar percentage of credulous people were influenced by a weaponized AI on an online platform with many users, it could do enormous harm.

    What can be done

    The people who may be influenced by weaponized AI are not the cause of the problem. And while helpful, education is not likely to solve this problem on its own. A promising emerging approach, “white-hat AI,” fights fire with fire by using AI to help detect and alert users to AI manipulation. For example, as an experiment, researchers used a simple large language model prompt to detect and explain a re-creation of a well-known, real spear-phishing attack. Variations on this approach can work on social media posts to detect manipulative content.

    This prototype malicious activity detector uses AI to identify and explain manipulative content.
    Screen capture and mock-up by Philip Feldman.

    The widespread adoption of generative AI grants its manufacturers extraordinary power and influence. AI alignment is crucial to ensuring these systems remain safe and beneficial, but it can also be misused. Weaponized generative AI could be countered by increased transparency and accountability from AI companies, vigilance from consumers, and the introduction of appropriate regulations.

    James Foulds receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and Cyber Pack Ventures. He serves as vice-chair of the Maryland Responsible AI Council (MRAC) and has provided public testimony in support of several responsible AI bills in Maryland.

    Shimei Pan receives funding from National Science Foundation (NSF), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), US State Department Fulbright Program and Cyber Pack Ventures

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

    – ref. Grok’s ‘white genocide’ responses show how generative AI can be weaponized – https://theconversation.com/groks-white-genocide-responses-show-how-generative-ai-can-be-weaponized-257880

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Security: FBI Honors Harrison County Deputy Reserve Program with National Award

    Source: US FBI

    CLARKSBURG, WV—On Tuesday, June 17, 2025, FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division Assistant Director Timothy A. Ferguson presented the Harrison County (West Virginia) Deputy Reserve Program with the FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award (DCLA) for its service to citizens in West Virginia. The Harrison County Deputy Reserve Program is dedicated to strengthening relationships between law enforcement and the community.

    The FBI established the DCLA in 1990 to publicly acknowledge the achievements of those working to make a difference in their communities through the promotion of education and the prevention of crime and violence.

    “The FBI’s successes are built on our connections with our law enforcement partners and our communities,” said CJIS Division Assistant Director Ferguson. “Having partner organizations such as the Harrison County Deputy Reserve Program that engage with the public ensures we are able to maintain public trust and accountability, crush violent crime, and defend the homeland.”

    The Harrison County Deputy Reserve Program is a non-profit organization comprised of volunteers who support law enforcement and the community in a myriad of ways. The organization’s members are trained to assist in missing persons’ searches and traffic incident management. They hold monthly meetings that provide opportunities to connect state, local, and federal law enforcement. They also provide platforms for the FBI’s CJIS Division to reach community members via the CJIS Community Outreach Program’s Child ID Fingerprinting—a service that gives parents and guardians copies of their children’s fingerprints. The family can then turn over the fingerprints and accompanying headshots, which are not stored in any FBI system, to police in the event a child goes missing. Inspired by the FBI CJIS Division’s Citizens Academy, the Harrison County Deputy Reserve Program created the Harrison County Citizens Academy to connect with, and better educate, community leaders about aspects of law enforcement and the judicial system. As with the FBI’s citizen academies, these opportunities enable frank discussion to enhance communities.

    Multiple members of the Harrison County Deputy Reserve Program attended the award ceremony.

    “I want to extend our sincere gratitude to the FBI for this tremendous honor,” said former Harrison County Sheriff Robert Matheny. “Thank you for your unwavering commitment to strengthening the bond between federal and local law enforcement and thank you recognizing the power of partnership in building safer communities. This award is a testament to what can be accomplished when ordinary citizens step forward to do extraordinary things. The men and women of our Reserve Unit have answered that call time and again, without hesitation and without expectation. We are honored to accept this award, not just as a unit, but as part of the greater law enforcement family—united by purpose, service, and the unwavering belief that communities are worth protecting.”

    “This award was totally unexpected, but I am proud of how our unit has come together to give back to the community and to assist the sheriff’s office and deputies as they fulfill their duties,” said Deputy Sheriff Reserve Michael Lambiotte.

    Learn more about the Director’s Community Leadership Award program, the FBI’s general outreach efforts, and the FBI’s CJIS Division online.

    Photo Courtesy: Federal Bureau of Investigation – CJIS Division Assistant Director Timothy A. Ferguson (far left) and CJIS Division Section Chief Scott E. Schubert (far right) are joined by Harrison County Sheriff Robert Matheny II (center left) and members of the Harrison County Deputy Reserve Program.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: FBI Honors Harrison County Deputy Reserve Program with National Award

    Source: US FBI

    CLARKSBURG, WV—On Tuesday, June 17, 2025, FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division Assistant Director Timothy A. Ferguson presented the Harrison County (West Virginia) Deputy Reserve Program with the FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award (DCLA) for its service to citizens in West Virginia. The Harrison County Deputy Reserve Program is dedicated to strengthening relationships between law enforcement and the community.

    The FBI established the DCLA in 1990 to publicly acknowledge the achievements of those working to make a difference in their communities through the promotion of education and the prevention of crime and violence.

    “The FBI’s successes are built on our connections with our law enforcement partners and our communities,” said CJIS Division Assistant Director Ferguson. “Having partner organizations such as the Harrison County Deputy Reserve Program that engage with the public ensures we are able to maintain public trust and accountability, crush violent crime, and defend the homeland.”

    The Harrison County Deputy Reserve Program is a non-profit organization comprised of volunteers who support law enforcement and the community in a myriad of ways. The organization’s members are trained to assist in missing persons’ searches and traffic incident management. They hold monthly meetings that provide opportunities to connect state, local, and federal law enforcement. They also provide platforms for the FBI’s CJIS Division to reach community members via the CJIS Community Outreach Program’s Child ID Fingerprinting—a service that gives parents and guardians copies of their children’s fingerprints. The family can then turn over the fingerprints and accompanying headshots, which are not stored in any FBI system, to police in the event a child goes missing. Inspired by the FBI CJIS Division’s Citizens Academy, the Harrison County Deputy Reserve Program created the Harrison County Citizens Academy to connect with, and better educate, community leaders about aspects of law enforcement and the judicial system. As with the FBI’s citizen academies, these opportunities enable frank discussion to enhance communities.

    Multiple members of the Harrison County Deputy Reserve Program attended the award ceremony.

    “I want to extend our sincere gratitude to the FBI for this tremendous honor,” said former Harrison County Sheriff Robert Matheny. “Thank you for your unwavering commitment to strengthening the bond between federal and local law enforcement and thank you recognizing the power of partnership in building safer communities. This award is a testament to what can be accomplished when ordinary citizens step forward to do extraordinary things. The men and women of our Reserve Unit have answered that call time and again, without hesitation and without expectation. We are honored to accept this award, not just as a unit, but as part of the greater law enforcement family—united by purpose, service, and the unwavering belief that communities are worth protecting.”

    “This award was totally unexpected, but I am proud of how our unit has come together to give back to the community and to assist the sheriff’s office and deputies as they fulfill their duties,” said Deputy Sheriff Reserve Michael Lambiotte.

    Learn more about the Director’s Community Leadership Award program, the FBI’s general outreach efforts, and the FBI’s CJIS Division online.

    Photo Courtesy: Federal Bureau of Investigation – CJIS Division Assistant Director Timothy A. Ferguson (far left) and CJIS Division Section Chief Scott E. Schubert (far right) are joined by Harrison County Sheriff Robert Matheny II (center left) and members of the Harrison County Deputy Reserve Program.

    MIL Security OSI –