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Category: Fisheries

  • MIL-OSI USA: ICYMI: Murkowski Addresses the Alaska State Legislature

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Alaska Lisa Murkowski
    03.19.25
    “We are all Alaskans; we are all invested in the future of this great place.”
    Juneau, AK – U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) today delivered her annual address to the Alaska State Legislature during a joint session at the Alaska State Capitol Building.
    Murkowski thanked many of the legislators for their good work and recapped the progress the delegation has made for Alaska over the past year. While celebrating many Alaskans’ accomplishments, she expressed her concern for the indiscriminate firing of federal employees and the impacts the federal funding freeze will have on the state. Murkowski also spoke to areas where Alaska can work closely with the new administration, particularly resource development.
    After her remarks, Murkowski took questions from the legislators on a variety of topics, which are available to watch in the video linked below.

    Senator Murkowski addresses the Alaska State Legislature on March 18, 2025.
    Click here to watch the Senator’s remarks.
    Below is the text of Murkowski’s remarks as delivered.
    Good morning. We’ve got a full house, full crowd, and it is good to be home with all of you.
    Mr. Speaker Edgmon and Mr. President Stevens, to our Majority Leaders Senator Giessel and Representative Kopp, Minority Leaders Senator Shower and Representative Costello, to all members of the Legislature: thank you for the opportunity to be back with you in these chambers.
    I’ve had a good morning. I think I’ve been able to meet with the vast majority of you, exchanging conversation as Alaskans and as fellow lawmakers. Thank you for the time you have given me already, and for the hour that we will have this morning.
    A lot of new faces, this is good to see. When you have a House with 10 new members, that’s impressive, this is good. And I love, and I will emphasize love, the fact that we have so many women in our House, more women than men. It has taken a little bit of time, but congratulations to all of you.  I look forward to the many contributions that we will see.
    At the same time that you see the new faces, there are many that I have known over the years. You have a few that I’ve actually served with. They’re more like friends and extended family. We’ve got Lyman back there in the corner. We’ve got Gary.
    I know I’m supposed to be using your formal titles here, but you know, you look at these guys in their tenure here, these are the giants of the place. I think of you as the Ted Stevens and the Don Young of the Legislature. I’ll let you figure out which one’s which, but you’ve been around, been around a little bit of time.
    Whether you’re new to public service or continuing this, thank you for stepping up. Thank you for engaging. Thank you for being in the arena at a time that our state needs each and every one of you.
    So, for those of you that are new, you need to know, I start out every one of my legislative addresses, not talking about you, but talking about my family, because our families are so important to who we are and what we do.
    When I got on the plane on Monday, coming out of Anchorage to come to Juneau, I run into Representative Costello, you, Mia, and I remembered when you first came to this body, your kids were young. They were about the same age as my kids were when I joined the Legislature. And I remember thinking mornings were when you’re leaving the kids and you’re saying, “have a good week,” instead of “have a good day at school.”
    So, to each and every one of you who leave your families behind, or who bring them here and who uproot them to be part of this, thank you for what you do. Thank you for the sacrifice that you are making. Your children will be better because of your service. So, thank you for making those trips every Monday.
    So, my family is doing well. The boys are good. They’re getting older, they’re both married. One is living in Anchorage, the other is living in Tennessee. They married great women. Verne is doing well, he is on both ends of the country, flying with me. We never fly on the same airplane, he’s always looking for more legroom, and I’m always so used to being squeezed into wherever I need to be.
    My parents are well, thank you for inquiring. Dad is turning 91 here at the end of the month. They are celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary at the end of this month, so they’re hanging in there.
    As for me, I’ve spent a lot of time in Washington, DC this year. We’re beginning a new Congress and a new administration.  This is actually our first recess of the year. Usually I come here during President’s Day, but this is our first recess that we have had, so you’re not going to find anyone that is happier about being home right now than me. 
    I wasn’t quite sure it was actually going to happen. We managed to avoid a government shutdown. That’s a good thing. But the end result was less than desirable. The Continuing Resolution that we will be operating under from now through the end of September is not what I would have hoped. We were dealing with a situation that I think was best described as a Morton’s Fork. For those of you who are not familiar with this term, it’s okay to look it up. Basically, it’s a choice between two equally bad options: a shutdown, which is never good, and a continuing resolution that doesn’t do much, if anything, to reduce the level of spending. It takes away the work we had done to identify what our priorities would be, and tells the administration, “here is the money,” but we’re not providing you with the details to administer it.
    So, we’re moving forward and that’s going to be important. Beginning next week, we begin, in earnest, budget reconciliation. We can talk about it a little bit later if you want. But, before I get started, I want to recognize some of the good work that has gone on here, in this Legislature. Some of the good work that you are doing. 
    Representative Dibert, Senator Kawasaki, and Representative Carrick, I want to thank you for saying it loud and proud—it’s Denali. So, thank you for that. That resolution is really important. I thank you, I thank all 50 of you who voted for it.
    Senators Wielechowski, Tobin, Cronk, and Hughes, Speaker Edgmon and Representatives Himschoot, Johnson, and Ruffridge, all of you who have been tackling K-12 funding with the Governor—thank you for what you’re doing there. I know this is hard, but there is nothing more important that we can do for Alaska’s future than focusing on our kids’ education. So, thank you for working through those hard things. I appreciate that.
    To those of you who were part of the Joint Legislative Task Force on Alaska’s Seafood Industry, I’m not going to name all the names, but I was with you at the Commissioners’ task force meeting in January, and thank you for the good recommendations to help our fish, fishermen, fish processors, and coastal communities. Thank you. We need to take your recommendations and help you with implementation.
    Senator Hughes, I appreciate what you’re doing on food security. These are important initiatives. I’m proud to support your work through the microgrants program I was able to create for Alaska, so there’s good work going on there.
    Representative Stutes, Representative Tomaszewski, and all who supported HB 65—great work on your legislation for a new passenger dock in Seward and the economic development that will bring. Good work on so many of these initiatives that I appreciate.
    On a personal level, Senator Olson and Representative Dibert, we’re glad you’re better and back to work. Glad to know that you are on the mend. I was able to earlier congratulate Representative Schrage on the birth of your daughter. So again, congratulations to you and your wife on the birth of your daughter, Emily.
    Keep doing good work in all of these really important areas.
    I’ve got some friends and colleagues in the gallery I want to introduce. I am going to try to introduce folks in the gallery because you might not be familiar with because they haven’t been in the gallery yet.
    You’ve got a gentleman that is no stranger to you, Joe Plesha. He’s handling all of my communications. I don’t know whether we let him continue with the mustache, but I guess that’s who he is. 
    The gentleman seated on the end there, that is my Chief of Staff, Garrett Boyle. Garrett has been on my team now in this capacity since last April.
    Next to Joe is Hali Gruber, who is my advisor for energy and natural resources. She was working previously for Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers on the House side, and did a great job over there. So, we were able to pick her up.
    Next to her, we have my regional director here in Juneau, Kara Hollatz.  
    Next to Kara, we have Karina Waller. Karina has worked on the federal side for a long time before coming to me. She was with Senator Stevens a long time ago, btu has been heading up my state operations since last April.
    So those are the new faces you’re going to see. You’re going to see more of my team wandering the halls, having meetings with you. This is a good opportunity for us, again, to start figuring where we can partner and work together.
    I’m proud of the partnerships and relationships that we’re able to develop with one another. Don’t hesitate to call. Call me, call them, call all of us, get us engaged. 
    Back in Washington, DC, some of the things we’re doing there, we have made progress. It’s tough to sometimes think of what we did last year. It was an election year, right? Who was paying attention to anything about accomplishments. But we did.
    One of the things I know Dan and I are particularly proud of is the effort we were able to advance across the finish line, which is to secure a commercially available icebreaker, and the Coast Guard’s commitment to homeport that vessel, called the Storis, here in Juneau.
    We were able to secure cold weather pay for Alaska’s Air and Space Forces, and something that was quite personal to me, we were able to save the Alaska Air National Guard from cuts that would have cost 80 positions. That was really important.
    We were able to secure $300 million for fishery disasters and passed legislation to reform the declaration process to work better for Alaska. This is something we need to keep doing more on. We’ve improved it, but the fact of the matter is the process still does not work for our fisherman, so we’re not letting up on that.
    We broke ground on the Kenai Bluff Stabilization Project, this is one of many major infrastructure projects now underway around our state. This is one that many of you on the peninsula have been working on with us for a long time, so it’s good to see that going.
    We were able to work with our military leaders to help Kake, Angoon, and Wrangell secure long overdue apologies for the bombings that wiped out their Native villages in the late 1800s. So, to be part of those ceremonies was quite impactful.
    We increased funding to address natural hazards, including the landslides that continue to claim lives across Southeast. It’s great to see Jeremy Bynum here from Ketchikan, and to see the role that you played in your local government, and to see the impact that had on your community when we had a devastating loss just last year in Ketchikan.
    We’ve been able to make some headway, finally, for better, more reliable weather observing systems, which we will deliver through the Don Young Alaska Aviation Safety Initiative, but we have more that we need to be doing on that. After the devastating Bering Air crash outside Nome, I think we’re all rightly focused on what we can be doing on aviation safety.
    Then on the Congressionally Directed Spending process, we were able to advance dozens of community priorities. This was everything from housing for Sitka to the expansion of the University’s program for nurses and the allied healthcare workforce.
    Then we were able to finish up some things that have been outstanding for a long time. We secured nearly all funding needed for an Alaska Veterans Cemetery in Fairbanks. I remember when Representative Guttenberg started that ages ago. We’re putting a new roof on the Palmer Pioneer Home after years of delay, seeing the threats from heavy snowfalls. And, a personal one, this is big for Frank and Nancy Murkowski, we finally repainted the Wrangell Post Office. Sometimes you take your wins where you can.
    We also have good news this week.  I’ve told many of you in our conversations, but I’ve been working with Secretary Lutnick and Secretary Rubio, and I’m able to confirm that our fishermen will be able to get out on the water on Thursday for the black cod and halibut opener. That was caught up in a process that most fishermen will not know, they don’t care to know how the sausage is made, they just want to know they’ll be able to get out on the water and be able to do their fishing. We were able to do that for them, so that was a good win.
    We’ve accomplished a lot, and it takes hard work from the delegation, from you, from our teams, and from Alaskans across our state. Before I move on, I want to acknowledge someone that, as I’m looking in the gallery, I see my friend and our Lieutenant Governor, Nancy Dahlstrom. Thank you for joining us. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you back there before, but I don’t want to skip over your contributions and those of the Governor, and all that you do when we talk about working together to make things happen. So, thank you.
    It really is our people that make the difference. And that’s what I want to focus on today.      
    It’s not just the great Alaskans who make us proud at the Olympics, like Kristen Faulkner from Homer, or who receive top honors from the National Endowment for the Arts, like Chief Reverend Dr. Gilbert Trimble from Arctic Village.
    It’s not just the Alaskans who run James Beard award-winning restaurants, like Carolina and Heidi and Patricia at Lucky Wishbone in Anchorage. Or those who have built institutions, like Jack Hébert did with the Cold Climate Housing Research Center in Fairbanks. Or our military men and women, who we are proud to have serving in our state, and who come from all over the country.
    We celebrate them all, as we should. But today, I want to talk about another set of people who make a difference, and these are Alaska’s federal employees. There are about 15,000 of them across our state. On a per capita basis, we have more than just about any state outside of Maryland and a couple of others. I want to give them the credit they are due—and express how disturbed I am by how they have been treated recently.
    As I stand here, federal employees across Alaska are losing, or have lost, their jobs. 
    I can’t tell you with accuracy how many, because no one who has that information is either able to share it, or willing to share it. 
    What I do know is that these abrupt terminations have affected NOAA, the National Weather Service, the National Park Service, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, USDA Rural Development, the VA, and other federal agencies. 
    These terminations are indiscriminate and many, we are learning, are unlawful. They are being made regardless of performance and with little understanding of the function and value of each position. At a human level, they are traumatizing people and leaving holes in our communities. 
    As one couple said to us, they’re not just losing their jobs, they’re losing their lives. They’re losing their community. We heard that yesterday in a discission with some terminated employees.
    No one should feel good about that.
    Now I agree, and every single person in this chamber would agree that the federal government is too big. The debt is now above $36 trillion. We’re spending more on interest than national defense. So, I support the mission behind DOGE, to find efficiencies in government. This is our responsibility—you need to find them at the state level, we need to find them at the federal level. And reductions in the federal workforce make absolute sense, but let’s do it in the right way. 
    Not like this. 
    The Trump administration’s approach lacks the type of planning you need to avoid unintended consequences, and it lacks the fundamental decency you need when dealing with real people. Public servants are not our enemies. They’re our friends and neighbors; they are integral to our economy and our ability to function as a state and as a country.
    Their work may go underappreciated. Maybe we don’t know what it is they’re doing, but that doesn’t make it any less important.
    Just because I don’t know who is processing my renewal for my passport, all I care about is getting it in a timely manner. I’ll never know that person. And I’ll never know that they’ve been working at that same job for twelve years, and it is not glamorous, but they show up, and they work, and they give me and you what we’re hoping for. So, I want us to think about the value that comes to us from these public servants.
    Today, I asked if there was any update on Mount Spurr. We’re all wondering when she’s going to pop her top. Do we want to go back to the days of KLM Flight 867, which lost its engines and 14,000 feet of altitude after flying through a cloud of ash? I don’t want that.
    In a few weeks, I think it’s April 14, thousands of tourists will arrive here on the first cruise ship of the season—do we really think one or two people can handle them all at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitors Center? I was out there yesterday, and I don’t think a couple of people are going to be able to do it.
    Do we no longer recognize that our weather forecasters save lives in our state? 
    Is it a good idea to fire the scientists who are tracking avian flu, given our status as a global flyway for migrating birds?  
    We had a conversation earlier this morning about the potential for a really bad fire season this year. With fire season starting yesterday, the earliest ever—do we really want to gut the support staff for the firefighters who will be on the front lines here?
    I was able to visit with some folks yesterday, one was a NOAA fish biologist, he’s one of the guys doing the trawl surveys, which are so necessary to be able to give direction to the council on the management of our fisheries. The fish aren’t going to be able to save themselves. We need our fish biologists, our stream ecologists, they need our help.
    I’m just as frustrated by the federal funding freeze—another area where Alaska faces disproportionate impact. 
    We have more than $1 billion in limbo, even though Congress approved the funding, a president signed it into law, and Alaskans secured these resources through competitive national processes. 
    Keep in perspective what’s being targeted will not put a dent in the deficit or balance the budget. But we’re going to see project costs go up. Construction seasons lost. Employees and contractors laid off. And we may lose some projects, entirely.
    We worked for more than 20 years to get funding for Angoon’s Thayer Creek hydro project, and let me assure you, we are not about to let go of that. So, we have to keep working to advance all of this.
    But again, this is happening indiscriminately, with little understanding of what projects mean for Alaska—how a small hydro project in the total scheme of things may not seem that substantial back in Washington, DC, but if you can reduce your reliance on expensive diesel in a community where you have no other option, don’t we want to encourage that? Making sure people understand the impacts, not only of a small little hydro project, but the impact on the victims of domestic violence who have no safe place to go.  
    I thank folks for weighing in. I kind of like this process, it can be a little unruly, a little rambunctious, but they are weighing in, and I welcome that. And then there are some very measured ways.
    President Stevens and Speaker Edgmon, I got your letter. Senator Kiehl and Representatives Story and Hannan, I got yours, too. I accept the challenge. And I want you to know that I’m doing everything in my power to make the best of this. 
    We are engaging every day to identify where we are seeing challenges presented to us in Alaska, and ways we can work to address it and get it unlocked. I’ve been working directly with Cabinet Secretaries and folks at the White House. We are making some progress, and that’s good. But, a reminder: I’m one of three in the delegation. We all need your help. I can’t do my job alone.
    When I ask you for these stories, when I ask you to share what you’re hearing from your folks back home, take us up on the offer. Don’t be afraid to give us too much. We can be more responsive and help more Alaskans when we do this all together. I’m opening the door to more work, but we’re going to pass it through both ways. 
    I also stood here in 2017 and said that as long as this Legislature wants to keep the Medicaid expansion, you should have that option. 
    My commitment remains to you. I did not support Medicaid cuts then, and I will not support them now. I know what it would mean to Alaskans, and I know what it would mean to you here in the Legislature. There may be some reasonable reforms we can make, and we have talked a little bit about them, about what we may be able to do in Medicaid, we do need to address the rising costs of these entitlement programs. But I just can’t be on board with anything that hurts our people or puts you in a budget hole.  
    Speaking of holes, I need to bring up a difficult subject: the Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan. The STIP. The reality is Alaska is on pace to wind up hundreds of millions of dollars short of where we could and should be. I’m not here to point fingers, that is not my job, but I can’t solve this one. And the longer it takes to sort out, the more our contractors and communities will lose. So, let’s be working on that.
    The same goes for the Alaska Marine Highway System. We’re about to enter the final year of our bipartisan infrastructure law. We’ve delivered $700 million and counting for AMHS, but the system isn’t modernized. It’s not on track for the long-term. There’s a plan for that, but it’s a draft on paper. Unless the State steps up on capital and operating expenses, we’ll have wasted a once-in-a-generation opportunity to do right by all who depend on our ferries.
    Senator Bjorkman, I know you get it, and I commend your work on the Transportation Committee on federal funding, AMHS, the STIP, and more.  
    When federal dollars are on the table, we need to go after them, especially as spending is constrained. And when the delegation manages to throw a lifeline, I’d hope the State grabs it and uses it to reach stable ground.
    We have enough problems, without creating more for ourselves. But that seems to be what we are doing. 
    The environment in Washington, DC is, let’s just say…challenging.
    Take tariffs: that’s the topic of the day back in Washington, DC. But you can’t talk about them in isolation and say, “Washington, DC.” We can talk about it our own state’s Capitol here, and the impact.
    This afternoon I’m going to be meeting with folks from the Alaska Forest Association, and I am going to hear their concerns about tariffs, and what it may mean for some of our small operators down south from here, with China’s retaliatory tariffs.
    We also have Canada threatening tolls on goods trucked to our state. Whether they make good on that, we have no idea, but now we’re talking about what will we have to do to insulate ourself from that, will we have to revamp the PVSA. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t anticipate that we would be dealing with this in March of 2025.
    Or foreign policy, I think you’ve seen some of my comments, but I have been stunned by a turn of events that threatens to abandon Ukraine and collapse long-standing alliances from NATO to NORAD. 
    We have two close neighbors. We’ve got Russia over here, and Canada over here. How we came to a place where we are fighting with Canada and placating Russia is beyond me. As long as we have to send up fighter jets to chase off Russian Bear Bombers from our ADIZ, I won’t trust Putin, and I’m not going to be quiet, I will continue to stand up and speak out. 
    I want to acknowledge, it’s easy to stand here and say something, but I can’t tell you how proud I am of those who do get that call and who go up and lead on these intercepts. It’s the 18th Fighter Interceptor Squadron up north, and it’s our Air National Guard helping to facilitate these intercepts through their refueling mission. We should be so exceptionally proud of the men and women that are serving us, honoring us every day, and taking these threats that we see as just another day at work. They are my everyday heroes, and I’m just so very grateful.
    You’ve heard me describe a few things from the Trump administration that I oppose. When I feel strongly about it, I am going to say something about it. But there are also plenty of areas where I agree with the President. 
    We do need to secure our borders. We do need to stop the flow of fentanyl. Our trade relationships aren’t always fair. The war in Ukraine does need to end, and I am encouraged that there may be some progress here that we will actually see that end. Our partners and allies do need to step up for themselves and the defense of democracy.
    Things are going to be different, for the next two to four years or beyond.  We’re already seeing that.
    Some of it will be difficult—I’m acknowledging that Alaskans are out of jobs, projects are stuck or canceled, volatility in the markets, the potential for trade wars or the collapse of international partnerships, to name a few.   
    Some of it has been difficult for a while—like in our fisheries, which need every bit of help we can give amid Russia’s war on fish, trade manipulations, lawsuits from extreme environmental groups, and climate change. This has been hard.  
    But some of it is also going to be notably better. There are good people we can work with to do good things for Alaska.
    On fisheries, as we push to bring back our fish and crab, we recognize we have the ability to modernize. We need to reinvest. We need to recapitalize an aging fleet. The President’s push for more domestic shipbuilding can be great for us, and it can extend to Ketchikan, Seward, and more. So, these are good areas of cooperation.
    We also have a chance to grow our private sector and reduce our dependence on the federal government. We need to embrace that, because it will benefit and could define our economy, our budget, and our quality of life for a generation or more.
    We can put Alaska back on the global map for energy and resource production. Turn the NPR-A back into a petroleum reserve, as it was designated by law decades ago. We need to tap into the rich resources beneath a small fraction of the non-wilderness Coastal Plain. Reverse the political decision to reopen and reject the Ambler Road.
    We can get Graphite One through permitting. Produce antimony, copper, nickel, tungsten, tin, and other critical minerals. Restore our federal timber harvests to more than a single—but beautiful—Christmas tree in front of the U.S. Capitol. Lift public land orders, complete conveyances, and ensure our Alaska Native veterans receive their rightful allotments. We can not only approve, but build the life-saving road to King Cove that has been sought for so long.
    All of that is now right in front of us—and we are working hard through every person and every process available to us, including budget reconciliation—but there’s more. 
    After years of skepticism and doubt, I think we have a real chance to move forward on an Alaska natural gas pipeline. The President mentioned it in his recent address to Congress, and he’s given the project an incredible lift.
    Here in Alaska, Senator Sullivan and Governor Dunleavy have helped bring Japan, Korea, and Taiwan into the conversation. There is movement and there is reason for encouragement as we think about our natural gas resources. And I thank them for working this.
    You know I hate LNG imports with the white-hot fury of a thousand suns, but I will acknowledge, just this once, that maybe we can take those lemons and use them as part of a bigger plan to export our North Slope reserves. 
    There’s so much we can begin to partner on. Again, though, I would remind you—every one of our opportunities depends on our people. People make it all happen. People allow us to be resilient.     
    Resource development. Road construction. Fishing and tourism. Everything.   
    Our opportunities, our industries, require people. They depend on the essential workers who build our houses, keep us healthy, and teach and watch the kids while we work. To bring it full circle, our opportunities also depend on functional government—the men and women who do the trawls and the surveys, who issue permits, maintain visitor facilities, forecast the weather, and a whole lot more. 
    We have incredible potential, but it will take all sorts of people, doing all sorts of things, to realize it. 
    A big part of my job is to make sure we have people in place at the federal level who will help us. And at the state level, it’s a big part of yours. 
    We need to grow our own, for every facet of life in Alaska, so we can grow as a state. We need to take care of our own, so that people can stay and build and enjoy their lives here. And that means we need to work together to knock down every barrier we find in housing, schooling, childcare, healthcare, infrastructure, the cost of living, the cost of energy, and everything else.
    Through it all, we also need to treat people like people—because we are all Alaskans, we are all invested in the future of this great place, and we all contribute to it in our own way.       
    We must treat one another with the respect and dignity that we would wish to be treated with ourselves. So, I wish you all success in this session; we’ve got a lot of work to do. And I believe you will find it, if you keep the Alaskan people front and center in everything you do.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    March 22, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: ICYMI: At Statewide Virtual Town Hall, Hickenlooper Addresses Top Concerns from Coloradans

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Colorado John Hickenlooper
    Hickenlooper answered questions about Trump admin threats to our economy, national parks, scientific research, veteran care, and more
    In case you missed it, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper held a statewide virtual town hall last week to answer questions from Coloradans about Trump’s attacks on our federal government and top-of-mind concerns from constituents.
    More than 8,000 Coloradans from across the state attended the event live to ask questions and hear from Hickenlooper. Hickenlooper plans to hold in-person town halls across Colorado in the coming weeks. Since the beginning of his term, Hickenlooper has held at least four public town halls every year. Last year he held in-person town halls in Alamosa, Cortez, Eagle, Pueblo, and Walden.

    Watch the full video of the event HERE or see excerpts below:
    On threats to Colorado’s public lands:
    “Coloradans overwhelmingly support protecting our public lands. You look at any poll there’s 75%, 80%, sometimes 85% of voters who support protections for our public lands. That doesn’t seem to stop or slow down the Trump administration. They’re threatening all of that.”
    “They’ve fired over 3,400 US Forest Service employees. 3,400. They fired another 2,300 workers from the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and there might even be another one. I mean, these are cuts that we’re going to feel. These are the folks who are being fired who are responsible for wildfire mitigation, for timber management, for all kinds of things. They are the people that remove hazardous fuels on federal lands, clean the campsites, or maintain the trails. This doesn’t all happen by itself. These cuts are going to put Colorado at a higher risk for wildfires. These cuts are going to hurt our economy.”
    On protecting Medicaid:
    “Health care is a right, not a privilege. Let’s recognize the Republicans’ budget for what it is: it’s a blatant attempt to strip critical services like Medicaid from Americans who need the help the most. They are stripping these critical services to fund these tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy. Bottom line: millions are going to lose their healthcare and the ultra-wealthy get tax cuts that in all cases they don’t need, and in many cases they don’t want.” 
    “We have 1 million Coloradans that are enrolled in either Medicaid or CHIP: that’s almost 1 in 6 Coloradans. 60% of seniors in nursing homes are able to be there because they are covered by Medicaid. You cut Medicaid at that level, and you are going to have a lot of grandmothers and grandfathers out of their ear, bankrupt.”
    “We stayed up all night a month ago fighting for amendments to protect access, to protect Medicaid, investments in renewable energy, veterans benefits. The Republicans blocked every single one. I think we can use those votes to let the public know what the Republicans have been doing. In other words, they are on the record by those votes. We made them vote on those amendments and bills so that they are on the record and when the time comes we will be able to make sure that they can be held accountable. When they go back to their states or to Colorado when they hold town halls, they are going to have to answer for those votes.”
    On efforts to make government more efficient::
    “The first time I got into politics in 2003 I ran on the premise that I was going to come in as mayor and make the city government smaller and yet do more, but I didn’t come in and say I was going to use an axe to make cuts.”
    “…We went into each agency and made sure we knew what everyone was doing so we knew how we were spending the money and what we were getting for it so that we could really look for actual fraud, waste, and abuse. If that’s what we are about then I am game, but that’s not what the Trump administration is doing. They’re taking an axe and sledgehammer to our federal government without any concern on the impact it has on Coloradans or Americans. You just can’t throw our veterans, working families, or the services we all depend on under the bus by saying you are looking for fraud and abuse.”
    On supporting our veterans:
    “What is happening is a travesty of history… Ever since I got to the Senate I’ve made supporting veterans and enhancing VA care a priority. The PACT Act, like I said, advanced care to over a million veterans. The news that the Trump administration is planning to fire 80,000 staff from the Veterans Administration is beyond words. It’s insulting to our nation’s heroes.”
    “…We introduced an amendment during the reconciliation process, which of course they ignored, but this was an amendment seeking to reverse workforce cuts and fill frontline vacancies like at the Veteran Health Administration, particularly personnel who provide access to healthcare for rural veterans. We’ve joined many of our colleagues sending a very direct letter to President Trump demanding fired veterans be reinstated across the federal government. We also supported a resolution condemning mass termination of VA employees.”
    “I mean I just can’t imagine what these people are thinking… I mean, firing veterans serving our communities is not a way to find fraud, waste, and abuse. It is not waste. It is not fraud. It is not abuse.” 
    On the importance of trust in science:
    “The American people look to us, to science, for trust and for accurate, factual information so they can have the freedom to raise their families without fear. Now again, I’m not saying all science is perfect. I’m not saying that one agency or another hasn’t made mistakes, but when trust is broken, things fall apart.”
    “…Unfortunately, the new administration has elevated people into cabinet positions who peddle some of these anti-science claims and mistruths and misinformation. This threatens not just Coloradans but our country. It puts us at risk. That’s why funding for things like medical research through the NIH or climate research through NOAA is so important.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

    March 22, 2025

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Security Council Speakers Warn of ‘Gazafication’ of West Bank, Urge Israel to End Illegal Settlements, Occupation

    Source: United Nations General Assembly and Security Council

    Israeli West Bank Operations Aimed at Dismantling Iran’s Terror Networks, Says Delegate

    Speakers in the Security Council today warned of the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank and its “Gazafication” amid Israel’s ongoing counter-terrorism operations, which its representative described as efforts to dismantle Iran’s terror networks.

    “The relentless expansion of Israeli settlements is dramatically altering the landscape and demographics of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, presenting an existential threat to the prospect of a contiguous, viable, independent Palestinian State,” said Sigrid Kaag, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process ad interim.  Presenting the latest Secretary-General’s report on the implementation of Security Council resolution 2334 (2016) — a measure calling on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem” — she pointed out that settlement activity has nevertheless continued at a high rate, with Israeli planning authorities advancing or approving approximately 10,600 housing units in settlements in the occupied West Bank, including 4,920 in East Jerusalem.

    Demolitions and seizures of Palestinian-owned structures accelerated across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, she continued, reporting that Israeli authorities demolished 460 structures and displaced 576 people, including 287 children and 149 women, because they did not possess Israeli-issued building permits, which are almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain.  Meanwhile, “alarming levels” of violence continued, with 123 Palestinians, including 6 women and 19 children, killed amidst Israeli forces’ air strikes, operations, armed exchanges and other incidents, she said, adding:  “Most Palestinians were killed in the context of Israeli operations in Area A, including during exchanges of fire with armed Palestinians.”

    Israel’s largest operation in the occupied West Bank since 2002 began on 21 January and has since expanded across the northern West Bank in what Israeli authorities described as a counter-terrorism operation, displacing 40,000 people, she continued.  On 9 February, Israeli operations expanded into Nur Shams Camp in Tulkarem where Israel Defense Forces soldiers shot and killed two Palestinian women, one of whom was pregnant, she said, adding that two Palestinian children were killed by Israeli soldiers in incidents in Jenin and Hebron on 21 February, bringing the total number of children killed to eight across the occupied West Bank since the operation began.  Detailing other developments in the occupied West Bank, including widespread movement restrictions, the arrest of 1,711 Palestinians, settler-related violence in 11 Palestinian towns and villages, and Palestinian attacks against Israelis, she called on both parties to refrain from provocative actions and inflammatory rhetoric, which has, unfortunately continued.

    Echoing the Secretary-General’s observations on the implementation of resolution 2334 (2016), she drew attention to the emptying out of refugee camps in the northern West Bank during Israeli operations.  She also voiced concern that any long-term presence of Israeli security forces in the camps would further undermine the Palestinian Authority and contravene Israel’s obligation to end its unlawful continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as affirmed by the International Court of Justice.

    Clear Response Needed at International Conference in June

    “Israel’s goal has always been maximum Palestinian land with minimum Palestinians,” said the Permanent Observer for the State of Palestine, adding:  “Instead of ending its occupation, it is attempting to end the occupied people.”  Pointing to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the “most massive ethnic-cleansing campaign since 1967” in the northern West Bank, displacing 40,000 Palestinians in weeks, he underscored the need for accountability, emphasizing:  “Confronted with this unprecedented Israeli escalation, there must be an unprecedented escalation of international measures in response.”

    Voicing concern that Israel aims to entrench its occupation, rather than reverse or end it, he spotlighted the International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution in June, hoping it would be a platform for mobilization and action.  “Israel’s intentions have never been clearer.  The international response needs to be equally clear,” he emphasized, calling for “unprecedented decisions by States” to change the course of history.

    Israel’s delegate, denouncing “morally obscene” remarks equating Israeli hostages with Palestinian terrorists “legally arrested by Israel”, said his country had “no choice” but to act decisively, considering Hamas’ rejection of the offer to release the remaining hostages for a continued ceasefire.  It has struck targets with precision, eliminating “arch-terrorists” such as Mahmoud Abu Watfa, head of Hamas’ internal security forces and Issam al-Daalis, head of Hamas’ Government in Gaza.  The group has a choice:  “Come back to the table and negotiate or wait and watch as its leadership falls one by one.”

    His country’s operations in “Judea and Samaria” intend to break down Iran’s terror networks there, he continued, citing 2,000 attempted terror attacks originating there over 11 months.  The Palestinian Authority left the job of “taking care of the terror cells” in [refugee] camps in Jenin and Tulkarm to his country, he said, stressing that terrorists will be given no sanctuary, in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, Yemen or Iran.

    United States Dismisses Passage of Resolution 2334 (2016) as ‘Mistake’

    The United States’ delegate, characterizing the passage of the Council resolution 2334 (2016) as “a mistake”, called on the UN Secretary-General to join the United States in putting pressure on Hamas.  Just as Hamas could end the war by releasing the hostages, Iran “could chose to join the community of nations by ending its support for terrorist proxy groups and providing transparency on its nuclear programme”, she added, reiterating her Government’s support for the Israel Defense Forces and the Palestinian Authority Security Forces in rooting out extremists in Jenin and Tulkarm.  “The future of the Middle East must look different.  Fresh thinking is needed for a better tomorrow,” she added.

    France’s representative, however, stated that the reason evoked by Israel to justify its new massive bombardments does not hold water, and delays in the hostages’ release cannot justify the punishment of the entire people.  Noting that settlements in the West Bank are becoming more violent, with active participation of Israeli security forces, he reiterated that France opposes any annexation in the West Bank or Gaza.  To that end, his Government has been working with all countries to find a mechanism and to use ceasefire as a starting point for resuming dialogue.

    Pakistan’s representative warned that “daily military raids, settler violence and illegal land annexations are part of a systematic effort to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people in the West Bank,” he said.  The Security Council, and the world community, cannot sit back and watch this ongoing ethnic cleansing.  “A failure to halt this brutal war will unleash the worst instinct of powerful and predatory States,” he said, urging the elected Council members to initiate measures to end “this cruel war”.  Somalia’s delegate called on States to present a united front against forced demographic changes, displacement from Palestinian communities or attempts to annex territories in either Gaza or the West Bank, a point echoed by China’s delegate, who urged Israel to “abandon its obsession with the use of force”.

    Unchecked Settlements Darken Prospect of Palestine’s Statehood

    Many speakers echoed alarm over the threat posed by unchecked settlement activities in the West Bank to the prospects for Palestinian statehood, with the representative of Denmark, Council President for March, who spoke in her national capacity, stating that such developments “rob Palestinians of their land, [and] push them into isolated enclaves, making it virtually impossible to form a connected and viable land for a future Palestinian State”.  Any unilateral attempt to change the geography of the occupied Palestinian territories is unacceptable, she said, stating that some settlements come about through settler violence.  She added:  “We have the frameworks.  What is needed is full implementation of resolution 2334 (2016).”

    “We have been witnessing what many are calling the Gazafication of the West Bank,” echoed Slovenia’s delegate, noting that, not only dights, but also dynamics “remind us of Gaza”.  “The one radical solution is a real peace,” he said, calling for the end of occupation and return of displaced persons.  Pages of history already written, including those contained in the reports of accountability mechanisms, must be a wake-up call for a new chapter to take place, he added.

    Greece’s representative, calling the Arab plan for Gaza’s recovery and reconstruction “a constructive proposal”, deplored the increase of settlement activity in the West Bank, a concern echoed by the representative of the Republic of Korea, who called the ongoing violence and vandalism by Israeli settlers unacceptable.

    On that, the representative of the United Kingdom highlighted three rounds of sanctions on violent settlers and their supporters imposed by his country to bring accountability for abuses of human rights, in the absence of sufficient Israeli action.  “The level of restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank are crippling,” he observed, underscoring the importance of ensuring that religious freedoms are respected, especially during Ramadan.

    Many speakers emphasized the urgent need for progress towards a political solution, including the delegates of Guyana and Panama, with the latter stating that, in the future, Gaza — free from extremist groups, together with the West Bank and East Jerusalem — can be integrated into a territorial and political structure.  Sierra Leone’s representative, also calling for the political process to be revitalized, expressed hope for the recovery and reconstruction of Gaza, guided by the proposal tabled by the League of Arab States in Egypt.

    Noting that the West Bank “risks repeating the Gaza scenario”, the representative of the Russian Federation underscored that what is happening in the West Bank is a “good illustration” that there is no alternative to political solutions.  Israel’s settlement actions are aimed to undermine a two-State solution, he said, adding that, while Israel is using “crude force” to ensure their security, he said it is not surprising that the radical forces are popular among regular Palestinians.  The only sensible alternative is for Israel to return to negotiations, he noted, stating that the Council can and should play a role in this process.

    Algeria’s delegate said that the Israeli occupying Power’s objective in the West Bank is clear:  total sovereignty over it.  Their modus operandi is also well-known:  killing, forced demolition, displacement, dispossession and settlement.  Over 40,000 people have been forcibly displaced in the past two months in the West Bank.  Striking a note of urgency, he asked:  “When will we rise to the level of our obligations and impose respect and implementation for our collective decision to establish a Palestinian State with Al-Quds al-Sharif as its capital?”

    Rounding out the meeting, the representative of Jordan recalled that the Arab League summit held in Cairo at the beginning of the month confirmed the bloc’s rejection of any attempt to displace the Palestinian people from their occupied lands, and approved the Gaza Early Recovery and Reconstruction Plan presented by Egypt.  This is a comprehensive Arab plan, based on joint Egyptian-Palestinian efforts, to organize an international conference on recovery and reconstruction in Gaza, in cooperation with the UN, he said.  Deploring the dangerous escalation in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, marked by recurrent military incursions into Palestinian towns, population displacements and home demolitions, he called on the Council and the international community to address these violations.

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

    March 22, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Transforming Grievance Redress: The AI Advantage – Inaugural Address by Shri Sanjay Malhotra, Governor, Reserve Bank of India – March 17, 2025 – at the Annual Conference of the RBI Ombudsmen, Mumbai

    Source: Reserve Bank of India

    I am delighted to participate in this year’s Annual Conference of the RBI Ombudsmen. The Reserve Bank has been organising this conference on or around the World Consumer Rights Day, that is, 15th March. World Consumer Rights Day is celebrated every year with the aim of raising global awareness about consumer rights and needs. We organise this conference to reflect on our achievements with regard to consumer services and to deliberate on how to improve services and reduce grievances. We need to improve consumer services, not only because it is our duty to do so, but because it is in our selfish interest to do so. In this age of competition, we would not survive long if we do not provide quality service to our consumers.

    2. We have made tremendous strides in improving consumer services over the years. We have enabled internet banking and mobile banking. Most of the banking services, be it opening a deposit account, or taking a small loan have been digitised, adding to the convenience and speed. We are making record number of digital transactions through UPI and other means of digital payments. Many among the younger generation may have never visited a bank branch. We have even enabled opening of accounts using video KYC.

    3. While we have enhanced customer experience over the years, the high number of customer grievances continues to be a matter of serious concern. I am told that last year (2023-24), the 95 Scheduled Commercial Banks alone received over 10 million complaints from their customers. If we take into account the complaints received at other RBI-regulated entities (REs), the number would be even higher. One may argue that this amounts to only four complaints per thousand accounts per year as there are about 2.5 billion bank accounts. But, for us, even one complaint is a cause of concern. We have 10 million complaints and with the rapidly growing customer base and expanding suite of products, this may grow, if we do not get our act together.

    Customer satisfaction – a cornerstone for banking and other financial services

    4. Excellent customer service, in fact excellent customer experience is a sine qua non in any service industry. Our effort should be to enhance the total customer experience. The experience should be such that there is no cause for a grievance that requires a redress. Let me state a fundamental truth: every complaint is a test of trust. When a consumer files a grievance – whether for a disputed transaction, a lapse in service, inappropriate pricing or charges or an unfair practice – it is a signal that our system has fallen short. Left unresolved, such issues can erode consumer confidence and tarnish the entire ecosystem.

    5. I am reminded of a real story about customer service. Some of you, especially the management graduates, may have heard it but it is so appropriate for today’s theme that it is worth being retold. In the winter of 1975, in a town in Alaska, a man walked into a store and complained to the salesman present that the snow tyres that he bought some time ago were not holding. The salesman was a little puzzled. He said that he could not replace them but will check what he could do and went to the back of the store. Those of you, who have visited departmental stores in the USA, would know that refunds are processed at the back of the store. The salesman came back after some time and handed over some cash as refund and the customer left satisfied. Can anyone guess why this was unique, as no questions asked policy for refunds is fairly common in the USA? It is because the company in question is Nordstrom which does not even sell tyres. It sells apparel and shoes. But, for Nordstrom, customer comes first. Trusting him and winning his trust is more important than anything else.

    6. Some say that this is not a true story. How is this possible? How could a company offer refund for a product which it never sold? Nordstrom, however, insists that this incident did take place. Nordstrom had acquired three stores from another company that sold miscellaneous articles including tyres. The customer did not realise that the store had changed and walked in with his complaint. The key message is that Nordstrom saw itself being in the business of customer service, and not just selling goods. We too need to realise that we are in the business of providing unalloyed customer service and not just selling banking and other financial services.

    Top management to accord priority to customer service

    7. I am sure you will all agree that we are indeed in the business of customer service. However, I suspect that we are not spending enough time on customer service and grievance redressal as a result of which not only are there a large number of complaints being received by banks and NBFCs but in the absence of satisfactory resolution, a large number of them are getting escalated to RBI Ombudsmen.

    8. Let me give you some perspective. The number of complaints received under RBI’s Integrated Ombudsman Scheme increased at a compounded average growth rate of almost 50 per cent per year over last two years to 9.34 lakh in 2023-24. The number of complaints processed at the Office of RBI Ombudsman increased by 25 per cent from about 2,35,000 in 2022-23 to almost 2,94,000 in 2023-24. Not only are large number of complaints getting escalated, a large proportion of them – nearly 57 per cent of the maintainable complaints last year – required mediation or formal intervention by the RBI Ombudsmen. You would all agree that this is a highly unsatisfactory situation and needs our urgent attention.

    9. I would, therefore, strongly urge all the MD&CEOs, Zonal and Regional Managers and the Branch Managers to spend some time every week, if not every day on grievance redressal. This is a must. All great CEOs find time to do it. We too must keep some time in our diary for improving customer service and grievance redressal.

    Improving customer service systems

    10. Customer complaints aren’t a nuisance – they are in fact opportunities to improve, innovate, and build trust. Handling them well can define your success. Each unresolved grievance is a missed opportunity for regulated entities to reaffirm customer trust and loyalty. It is also a warning signal as repeat complaints are often signs of systemic flaws. Today, complaints often surface on social media even before reaching official channels, highlighting the need for proactive measures.

    11. The effort thus should be to not only resolve the complaints but also to ensure that the same type of complaint does not arise again. Many of the complaints like digital transaction disputes, unauthorized charges, or miscommunication frequently recur. These are clearcut symptoms of underlying issues in the overall customer service framework of the regulated entities. A thorough root cause analysis should be performed for each complaint so as to enable remedial action and avoid repetition of same type of complaint.

    12. In fact, I would go a step further. Best service is not one in which there is no occasion for grievance redressal but one in which there is no occasion for the customer service department to step in. Systems should work seamlessly and conveniently so that customers do not have to call the branch or the customer service centre or talk to anyone in the Bank or NBFC. Systems have to be so user-friendly that customers can rely on self-service rather than being dependent on anyone else.

    Improving internal grievance redressal systems

    13. While improving systems to reduce grievances is important, setting up a robust grievance redressal system is equally important for all regulated entities. I would urge you all to review the same. While the regulations do not make any prescription for the organisational structure for grievance redressal, my experience suggests that there should be at least two levels for grievance redressal in large REs, with unresolved grievances getting escalated from the lower to the higher level. The highest level should be at a fairly high rank. This to ensure that requests do not get rejected without having been examined by a senior functionary who is empowered to take decisions in consumer interest. This will help reduce grievances getting escalated to the Ombudsman. It must also be ensured that there are sufficient number of grievance redress officers at all levels including in the Internal Ombudsman office.

    14. I would also like to draw your attention to the misclassification of complaints as requests, queries, and disputes by the regulated entities. This results in the complainants’ grievances remaining unaddressed. Moreover, this is also a gross regulatory violation.

    Major areas of service improvement

    15. Let me now briefly allude to some of the major areas where we need to improve. These relate to KYC, digital frauds, mis-selling, and aggressive recovery practices.

    16. As for KYC, we need to ensure that once a customer has submitted documents to a financial institution, we do not insist on obtaining the same documents again. Once the customer has updated his details, for example, his residential address, with one regulated entity of any financial sector regulator, it gets updated in CKYCR and other REs are notified of the updation. PML Rules made by the Department of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance and RBI’s Master Directions on KYC mandate regulated entities to check the CKYCR system before seeking KYC documents for opening an account. However, most banks and NBFCs have not enabled the same in their branches/business outlets, causing avoidable inconvenience to customers. This may be facilitated early. This will be in the interest of all.

    17. Another important issue connected to customer protection is rising digital frauds. It is a matter of great concern that innocent customers continue to fall prey to scamsters. While this could be attributed to rise in digital transactions and innovative methods adopted by fraudsters, lack of customer awareness is also a major reason for the same. To mitigate this menace, REs not only need to put in place robust internal controls but also enhance digital financial literacy.

    18. The issues of mis-selling and aggressive recovery practices have been highlighted earlier too. In this context too, I would request you to keep consumer interest supreme.

    Embracing technology – the AI way

    19. Let me now come to the theme of this year’s conference: AI’s potential to revolutionize grievance redressal. We are entering an exciting era where technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), can drive remarkable improvements in speed, accuracy, and fairness of complaint resolution.

    20. AI can help categorize incoming complaints by urgency, complexity, or subject area, ensuring minimal delay in reaching the right people or the right team. AI can also help in optimising complaint routing. Further, it can assist in decision-making and reducing processing time.

    21. Secondly, AI can be used to pinpoint systemic gaps by analysing both structured and unstructured data such as emails, chat logs, and call transcripts. This will aid in identifying training needs and guiding necessary process reforms. Using data from millions of consumer branch visits, call centre logs, mobile apps, and social media, a unified, AI-driven view of all these interactions can help identify common pain points more efficiently. Leveraging data analytics, sentiment analysis, and predictive models, AI can be used to analyse large volumes of data to detect spikes in issues – such as ATM failures or erroneous charges – and alert REs pre-emptively.

    22. Lastly, in a linguistically diverse country like India, AI-driven chatbots and voice recognition tools can eliminate language barriers by operating in local languages. Moreover, the implementation of conversational AI in chatbots, voicebots, and advanced IVR systems can handle routine queries round the clock, thereby freeing people to focus on cases that require empathy and complex problem-solving.

    23. In short, integrating AI at every stage – from complaint lodging to closure – can result in a seamless, efficient, and data-driven grievance redressal system. Such a framework not only reduces processing times and addresses repetitive complaints but also fosters equitable outcomes by mitigating human biases. It is time that the banking industry explores and pioneers the integration of technology – including AI – to strengthen the grievance resolution mechanisms and make it best in class across the globe.

    Challenges and guardrails in AI driven grievance redressal system

    24. While AI presents unparalleled opportunities, we need to be cognizant of the challenges and risks that its adoption poses. There are concerns on data privacy, algorithmic bias and complexity in AI-driven models. As we embrace AI in grievance redressal or any other process, we must also remain mindful of ethical considerations. Human oversight, bias mitigation and data privacy must be integrated into the AI Systems to ensure transparent and consistent outcomes.

    Investing in human resources

    25. While technology in all its forms is a powerful enabler, I would like to emphasise that it is no substitute for integrity, empathy, and human judgment. In a world increasingly driven by data, algorithms, and automation, it is all too easy to lose sight of the human element. Every transaction represents not just a number in a ledger, but the hard-earned savings of a family, the dreams of a small entrepreneur, or the lifelong savings of a senior citizen. It is, therefore, critical that REs continue to invest in human resources dedicated for customer service and grievance redressal. It is essential to invest in training of staff, especially in behavioural aspects of customer service. Moreover, the staff needs to be empowered to take decisions based on their judgement to redress consumer grievances, enhance customer satisfaction and win consumer trust.

    RBI as a facilitator

    26. In the end, I would like to assure you that, while we exhort you to provide services efficiently to customers, we in the Reserve Bank shall also provide various services, approvals, clarifications, etc. to the regulated entities in a timely manner. We already have a citizen’s charter. We are in the process of reviewing the charter. We will make the charter comprehensive to include all services that we offer either to the REs or directly to citizens. Moreover, we are reviewing the timelines for each service. It will be our endeavour to provide all approvals, etc. within the timelines. We are also making mandatory the use of PRAVAAH, which is RBI’s secure and centralised web-based portal for any individual or entity to seek authorisation, license or regulatory approval on any reference made to the Reserve Bank in a timely manner. This will help us in expediting the disposal of applications received by the Reserve Bank.

    Conclusion

    27. We stand at a pivotal juncture as India looks to realise its dream of a more resilient and inclusive Viksit Bharat. With the financial sector touching the lives of almost the entire population, we have a critical role. To succeed in this role, we must continue to enhance customer service and customer protection.

    Thank you !

    MIL OSI Economics –

    March 22, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Prime Minister Carney cancels proposed capital gains tax increase

    Source: Government of Canada – Prime Minister

    Today, Prime Minister Carney announced that the Government of Canada will cancel the proposed hike in the capital gains inclusion rate. Cancelling the increase of the capital gains inclusion rate is a recognition of the vital role that builders and small businesses play in shaping Canada’s future. It will strengthen Canada’s ability to catalyze the enormous private investment needed to create jobs and opportunities and to build a stronger future.

    In addition, the government will maintain the increase in the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption limit to $1,250,000 on the sale of small business shares and farming and fishing property. The government will introduce legislation affecting the increase in the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption limit in due course.

    The new government is focused on catalyzing investment, incentivizing builders for taking risks, and rewarding them when they succeed. It is time to build.

    Quote

    “Canada is a country of builders. Cancelling the hike in capital gains tax will catalyze investment across our communities and incentivize builders, innovators, and entrepreneurs to grow their businesses in Canada, creating more higher paying jobs. It’s time to build one Canadian economy – the strongest economy in the G7.”

    MIL OSI Canada News –

    March 22, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Government of Canada investing nearly $2 million in economic development and diversification in the Superior East and Algoma areas

    Source: Government of Canada News (2)

    FedNor funds will foster new and existing business development as well as adventure tourism

    March 21, 2025 – Wawa, ON – Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario – FedNor

    Terry Sheehan, Member of Parliament for Sault Ste. Marie, today announced a total FedNor investment of $1,825,250 in two projects in the Superior East and Algoma areas. The announcement was made on behalf of the Honourable Anita Anand, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.

    Of the total funds, $1,600,000 will go to the Superior East Community Futures Development Corporation (SECFDC) in support of operating costs for the period of 2025 to 2029. The funding will help SECFDC provide business counselling and investment services to small and medium-sized businesses, as well as leadership in community strategic planning, succession planning, and socio-economic development.

    The remaining $225,250 of FedNor funds will support R&R Watson Inc. in renovating and expanding their Windy Point Lodge facility, a fly-in fishing and hunting destination resort. FedNor’s investment will enable the renovation and expansion of the main lodge, dock, and cabins. This project will allow Windy Point Lodge to accommodate both more guests and staff. As a fly-in fishing and hunting destination, the lodge will help expand regional tourism by drawing visitors from urban centres to nearby rural communities.

    MIL OSI Canada News –

    March 22, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Icebreaking near Midland, Ontario

    Source: Government of Canada News (2)

    March 21, 2025

    Sarnia, Ontario – The Canadian Coast Guard advises residents of Midland, Ontario that the CCGS Pierre Radisson will carry out icebreaking operations in the Georgian Bay area on or around March 24, 2025. The purpose of this operation is to break up the ice to allow commercial vessels safe and efficient movement.

    It is recommended that all traffic on the ice, including pedestrians, fishers, snowmobilers, and all-terrain vehicle operators, leave the ice during icebreaking operations. The ice may move, creating a real danger for anyone on it. Additionally, plan activities carefully and use extreme caution after operations are complete as the ice will remain unstable even once the icebreaker has left the area.

    Icebreaking on the Great Lakes and connecting waterways is delivered through close co-operation between the Canadian and United States Coast Guards. By working together, the two Coast Guards ensure scheduled vessel traffic can move through the shipping channels and in and out of community harbours. Vessels will be assigned as needed to provide this service.

    The date and assets are subject to change with no notice, as activities could begin before or after that period, depending on operational requirements or weather conditions.

    MIL OSI Canada News –

    March 22, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Canadian fish and seafood highlighted at Seafood Expo North America

    Source: Government of Canada News (2)

    March 21, 2025 

    Ottawa, Ontario – Bounded by three oceans—the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic—Canada is home to the longest coastline and some of the best quality fish and seafood products. We are known for our high standards for sustainability and food safety. Our premium fish and seafood continues to be prized around the world.

    Fisheries and Oceans Canada was part of Canada’s delegation to this year’s Seafood Expo North America. The Seafood Expo, which ran from March 16 to 18, 2025, in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest trade exposition of its kind in North America. The Seafood Expo is an opportunity for Canada to promote our high-quality, sustainably sourced fish and seafood products. It provides a global platform to share our best practices when it comes to managing Canadian fisheries and protecting our marine ecosystems to ensure a healthy and sustainable industry.

    Fish and seafood are among the largest single food commodities exported by Canada. Canada exported fish and seafood to 118 countries in 2024. Lobster was Canada’s most valuable export species, worth $2.9 billion in 2024.

    In Canada, we have a well-regulated, scientifically monitored and legally enforced industry that’s economically prosperous, environmentally sustainable and socially responsible. It’s also an industry that benefits from a highly skilled workforce and constant innovation. Canada will continue to prioritize quality and working with global partners on shared interests, ensuring that our fisheries remain healthy for future generations.

    MIL OSI Canada News –

    March 22, 2025

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Southern Area Men’s Health Conference 2025

    Source: Northern Ireland City of Armagh

    ‘Strong Foundations – Healthy Relationships Matter’ was the theme of this year’s Men’s Health Conference delivered by the Southern Area Men’s Health Steering Group at the Lough Neagh Discovery Centre on Thursday 13 March.

    Over 100 representatives from local schools, men’s sheds and men’s health professionals attended the event, which focused on the importance of establishing strong and healthy foundations that support positive relationships at all stages of life.

    Through a series of workshops and discussions, guests received practical tips and tools to support them through their life journey of making better social connections with family and friends, developing healthy hobbies, embracing the power of exercise and signposting to local support services.

    Guest Speaker, Kevin Duggan, Interim Social Care Commissioning Lead, delivered a powerful presentation on building the foundations of strong and healthy relationships between fathers and their children in the early years.

    Workshops explored themes including ‘When Relationships go Wrong’ (lead by Michael Lynch, Men’s Action Network and Adam Murphy, Actor from Co Armagh); ‘Young Men and Why Healthy Relationships Matter’ (lead by Caelan Donnelly and Adam Murphy, Youth Action NI) and ‘Maintaining Healthy Relationships in Later Years’ (lead by Mick Cairns, Lurgan Men’s Shed and Stiofán MacCléirigh, Armagh Men’s Shed).

    Speaking at the event, Deputy Lord Mayor Councillor Kyle Savage said: “Research shows that unfortunately men and boys often experience a disproportionate burden of ill-health and die too young due to a range of factors such as poor lifestyle choices, mental health and wellbeing issues and late presentation to health services.

    “Despite many of these conditions being preventable, their prevalence amongst men may, in fact rise in the future, so I am urging men and boys to trust their instincts when it comes to changes in their physical or mental health and to act before it’s too late.

    “Events such as this, are important in raising awareness of the real issues impacting on men and are a positive step in educating men about taking ownership of their health and wellbeing.”

    The steering group is a partnership of practitioners and representatives of services and organisations across the Southern Trust area, with a remit and commitment to improving the health of men in the local area.

    The group was established in 2012 with the purpose to support the development of new approaches to engage with and inform boys and men about health issues, provide a forum for sharing information on local initiatives and identify local need thereby improving the health and wellbeing of boys and men.

    Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough (ABC) Council’s Health Inequalities Team within the Community Development Department, lead on Men’s Health in the Southern Area. The event was funded by the Public Health Agency and Southern Health and Social Care Trust.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

    March 22, 2025

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Lucinda excited to share her love of fishing at North West Angling Fair

    Source: Northern Ireland – City of Derry

    Lucinda excited to share her love of fishing at North West Angling Fair

    21 March 2025

    One of the UK’s best known casting instructors will be on the banks of the River Mourne at the end of this month to share her knowledge and passion for fishing at the 2025 North West Angling Fair.
    Lucinda Ewin has been introducing people to the sport and helping experienced anglers to refine their craft for over 10 years.
    After initially taking angling up as a hobby she fell in love with it and quickly decided she wanted to share its benefits and the techniques she had honed with others.
    “I didn’t plan for fishing to become a career,” she says. “Being a female in the sport I was encouraged to become a coach to encourage other females into it.
    “As I progressed in it I decided I wanted to improve my casting so I decided to do an instructors course and after I qualified I was able to share my knowledge with others.
    “Fishing is not a sport to make money for me, it’s more just for enjoyment and the mental health benefits it brings.”
    This year’s North West Angling Fair on Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th March will see thousands of people flock to the River Mourne and Melvin Sports Complex in Strabane to connect with some of the UK and Ireland’s leading fly dressers, casters and angling specialists.
    The public will also have the opportunity to source angling merchandise from a wide range of fishing tackle producers, fly tying brands and fishing outfitters in the Melvin’s Main Hall.
    Lucinda will host Double Handed Casting Clinics on the River Mourne and the adjacent Melvin playing pitches where people can try out her techniques for themselves.
    “I came to the Fair last year and was overwhelmed at the welcome and it was great to meet the Irish Ladies Fly Fishing team as well,” she continued.
    “It loved talking to the locals about their river and how much it means to them, I get that feeling so much and I was actually learning from them.
    “Clinics are a great opportunity to look at your casting and just make a few tweaks to make life easier for you when on the river.
    “I love working with people’s casting, it’s amazing the smallest bit of fine tuning can make a huge difference to someone’s casting stroke.
    “The fishing community is really great and if fly fishing isn’t your thing, try fly tying – another therapeutic thing to get involved in.”  
    The Angling Fair is aimed at every level of the learning spectrum, from those who have never tried the sport before to the competitive anglers who have fished at elite level and everyone in between.
    Lucinda is a strong advocate of the proven health benefits associated with angling and welcomes people of all abilities to her tutorials.
    “I absolutely love seeing people coming into the sport, helping people to catch their first fish is quite special,” she added.
    “If you have thought about flyfishing and would like to try it come and see me ladies, children, gents I work with all abilities.
    “You will be surprised how easy you can pick this up.”
    The North West Angling Fair is organised by Derry City and Strabane District Council with support from the Loughs Agency and takes place from 10am to 5pm on Saturday March 29th and 10am to 5pm on Sunday March 30th.
    Lucinda Ewin’s demonstrations are part of a comprehensive line-up for the Fair, to see the full programme visit www.derrystrabane.com/anglingfair and follow Northwestangling on facebook for updates.
    For more on Lucinda’s demonstrations visit her website at www.lucindaewinfishing.co.uk or follow her on social media at Lucinda Ewin Fishing. 

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

    March 22, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: SAGARMALA SCHEME

    Source: Government of India (2)

    Posted On: 21 MAR 2025 3:54PM by PIB Delhi

    Sagarmala is the flagship Central Sector Scheme of the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways to promote port-led development in the country through harnessing India’s 7,500 km long coastline, and 14,500 km of potentially navigable waterways. Under the Sagarmala Scheme, the Ministry provides financial assistance to State/UT Governments for Port infrastructure projects, Coastal berth projects, Road & Rail projects, fishing harbours, skill development projects, Coastal community development, cruise terminal and projects such as Ro-Pax ferry services. Ministry has till date undertaken 119 projects at a total Cost of Rs. 9407 Cr. for partial funding under Sagarmala Scheme. Out of these, 72 projects have been completed till date.

    The projects under Sagarmala Scheme are categorized into five pillars – port modernization, port connectivity, port-led industrialization, coastal community development and coastal shipping & inland water transport Ministry under Sagarmala Scheme is providing financial assistance to 8 projects worth Rs. 273 cr. in the State of Kerala. The detailed of the projects undertaken in the State of Kerala pillar wise is provided in Annexure-I.

    Annexure –I

    List of projects in Kerala under Sagarmala Scheme

    S.no

    Name of Project

    Project Pillar

    Total project Cost (Rs. In Cr.)

    MoPSW share (Rs. In Cr.)

    Status

    1.

    Refurbishment and Capacity enhancement of  Coastal liquid terminal -COT and NTB at CoPT

    Port Modernization

    20.00

    14.96

    Completed

    2.

    Construction of Multipurpose Coastal Berth at Kollam

    Coastal Shipping and IWT

    19.00

    7.24

    Completed

    3.

    Construction of Fishing Harbour at Thalai in Kannur District in Kerala

    Coastal Community Development

    35.00

    6.90

    Completed

    4.

    Construction of Mini Fishing Harbour Chettuva in Thrissur District in Kerala

    Coastal Community Development

    30.00

    4.68

    Completed

    5.

    Coastal Districts Skill Development Program – Phase 2 -Kerala

    Coastal Community Development

    25.02

    23.86

    Under Implementation

    6.

    Reconstruction of South Coal Berth at Cochin Port for handling chemicals

    Port Modernization

    17.70

    8.85

    Completed

    7.

    Fisheries Harbour at Cochin port

    Coastal Community Development

    113.32

    50.00

    Under Implementation

    8.

    Development of RORO facilities for handling propylene and other cargo at Cochin Port

    Coastal Shipping and IWT

    12.46

    12.46

    Completed

    TOTAL

     

    272.50

     

     

     

    This information was given by the Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

    ***

    GDH/HR/SJ

    (Release ID: 2113674) Visitor Counter : 59

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

    March 22, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Speech by SCST at inauguration of Lo Kwee Seong Pavilion and Harold and Christina Lee Gallery of Art Museum, Chinese University of Hong Kong and opening of “Transcending Transience: Art and Culture of Late Ming Jiangnan” exhibition

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    Speech by SCST at inauguration of Lo Kwee Seong Pavilion and Harold and Christina Lee Gallery of Art Museum, Chinese University of Hong Kong and opening of “Transcending Transience: Art and Culture of Late Ming Jiangnan” exhibition 
    Vice-Chancellor and President of the CUHK (Chinese University of Hong Kong), Professor Dennis Lo, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
     
    Good afternoon. It is both a privilege and an honour for me to officiate at the inauguration ceremony of the Lo Kwee Seong Pavilion of the Art Museum of my alma mater. When I studied at the CUHK, I remembered that the Museum was a relatively small gallery entered through a beautiful courtyard with a pond and many koi fish in the centre of the campus. The phenomenal growth and expansion of the university’s Art Museum mirrors the extraordinary development of our city’s vibrant art scene.
     
    It is wonderful indeed to see many friends in the media with us today. Media attention has often centred on large cultural institutions, but boutique museums such as the CUHK Art Museum have also contributed significantly to the local art ecosystem by offering unique and thematic exhibitions and facilitating dialogues with museum professionals worldwide. On that note, I would like to acknowledge that the CUHK Art Museum will serve as a strategic partner for the Museum Summit to be held next week. I look forward to more fruitful and inspirational discussions on the development of museums at the upcoming Summit.
     
    For the benefit of our media here, I should also say a few words in Cantonese. So here it goes:
     
    多年來，我們非常樂見（香港）中文大學文物館的持續發展，同時見證着香港躍動成為中外文化藝術交流中心的歷程。今日，作為校友，非常榮幸出席中大文物館羅桂祥閣及利孝和陸雁群伉儷展覽廳的啓用典禮。中大文物館的成長，離不開中大同仁的持續努力，也離不開社會各界，特別今日在座各位的支持和厚愛。在此，我向香港中文大學為推動文化藝術發展作出的貢獻表示由衷敬意，同時向在座各位以及社會各界的大力支持表示衷心感謝。
     
    在國家《十四五規劃綱要》的明確支持下，政府致力發展香港成為中外文化藝術交流中心。政府會在資源情況許可之下持續改善文化設施，為舉辦多元化的文化藝術活動提供支持。舉例而言，東九文化中心預計將於今年內全面啓用，為市民和業界提供一個全新的表演場地。同樣地，我相信日益完善的中大文物館亦將成為香港的獨特魅力所在，吸引更多香港市民和訪港旅客參觀，為大家提供富有特色的文化藝術體驗。
     
    I hope that any students here – not only current students but also overseas exchange students and prospective college students – will cherish all the wonderful exhibitions and cultural artifacts that this Museum has to offer. I look forward to working more closely with the CUHK community to cultivate our art hub. I wish the CUHK Art Museum a bright future and the “Transcending Transience: Art and Culture of Late Ming Jiangnan” exhibition a resounding success. Thank you.
     
     
    Issued at HKT 18:15

    NNNN

    Categories24-7, Asia Pacific, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Government special administrative region, MIL OSI

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

    March 22, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Ecological disaster in Anapa: GUU volunteers talk about the difficult situation on the coast

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

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

    A group of student volunteers from the State University of Management traveled to Anapa to help eliminate the consequences of the fuel oil spill from the wrecked tankers.

    Let us recall that in January, volunteers from the Moscow city branch of VSKS went on a similar trip to the Black Sea. Our heroes today do not have such professional skills and extensive experience, which is why it was all the more interesting to talk to them.

    The following people helped to eliminate the consequences of the disaster: – Svetlana Savina, 4th year student majoring in Sociology; – Angelina Kolesnikova, 4th year student majoring in Sociology; – Nikita Seregin, 3rd year student majoring in Ecology and Nature Management; – Daria Siraeva, 1st year student majoring in Human Resources Management; – Artem Sikhimbaev, 2nd year student majoring in Global Economy.

    — How did you find out about the opportunity to go to Anapa, how did you get there?

    Nikita Seregin: Initially, there was a form that was sent out by our Department of Youth Policy and Educational Work. I was interested, I filled it out, and later the Department contacted me, we agreed on dates and went.

    — Was there any training before the trip?

    Svetlana Savina: We were offered to take trainings and courses before the trip to Dobro.rf, but we did not take them. There was a short excursion in Anapa itself, but without any special details.

    — How did you get there, how did Anapa greet you?

    Artem Sikhimbaev: It so happened that our train arrived in Anapa after the volunteer bus had left for the beach. And since we had some free time, and the coast greeted us with unprecedentedly cold weather for this time of year (the locals said that this had not happened for 10 years), I decided to rent a car and go to Krasnodar. We drove around there, saw the city, and immediately returned.

    — What was the scope of work in general? What exactly did you personally do?

    Angelina Kolesnikova: There are people there who clean up the fuel oil. This is what we were supposed to do initially. But we decided to self-organize and go to work at the headquarters. There you can go to the bird wash, to the hospital where they are looked after and fed, or directly to the headquarters, where there is an administration, a kitchen, a warehouse, and a utility room. Specifically, I was the administrator, I sat at the computer, answered phone calls, coordinated people, recorded arriving and departing volunteers, and determined the areas of their work.

    Nikita Seregin: I initially worked in a warehouse, then I was sent to wash birds, but most of all I worked in the hospital, where we helped feed the birds, gave them medicine, changed diapers.

    Darya Siraeva: I also worked in a warehouse, conducted inventory, accepted deliveries, and issued essential supplies. I tried working at the wash station – I washed two birds. And I also managed to try myself in the hospital, where we fed the birds and gave them medicine.

    Svetlana Savin: I tried to gain as much different experience as possible. I washed birds, worked in a hospital, worked in the administration for a day, and went to the beach to clean up fuel oil. It was difficult to deal with fuel oil. Not physically, but because of its properties. Large frozen fractions were simply collected in bags. And the smaller ones had to be sifted through a mesh, but the fuel oil passes through it. It is impossible to take it with your fingers, it crumbles right away. The work is difficult, since you do not see the results right away. With birds, the situation is different, there the result is immediately noticeable. One day I washed two birds, took them to the hospital. Unfortunately, one soon died, but with the second one I saw how it was getting better. But the problem is that the cured birds are taken away far away and released, and they return to their usual habitats and again end up in fuel oil. Dolphins, dogs, and the entire ecosystem also suffer. And it can only get worse in the summer when the fuel oil melts, so you need to get rid of it as soon as possible.

    Angelina Kolesnikova: We went to the central beach of Anapa and the sand there seemed to be clean. But when you start collecting shells, you can see that they are covered in fuel oil.

    Artem Sikhimbaev: Considering that I had a rented car, I was put to work as a volunteer car driver, which gave me an incredible boost and understanding of what was happening. I visited all the headquarters of Anapa, drove bird catchers to the beach, drove caught birds from different points on the beach to rehabilitation centers. When the car rental ended, I moved on to washing. It consists of two stages. The first is beak treatment: they carefully cleaned it from fuel oil with cotton swabs. Then the beak was fixed in a closed position so that the birds did not clean themselves and did not pollute the beak again. The second stage of washing is quite simple – in a basin with cleaning agents. Volunteers came up with their own life hacks – they washed with fish oil and starch, which wash off fuel oil better. To understand, a standard wash of one bird took about two hours, and with starch and fish oil – about 40 minutes. Two people wash the bird: one holds it, the other washes it. I did both. I also worked in a rehab center. I was engaged in forced feeding using a tube. Inserting a tube correctly is also a certain skill. And you need to know what to give to whom, in what dosage. Therefore, when I was taught, I myself then taught seven more volunteers how to insert a tube correctly. But experience is still needed, each bird must have its own approach, each has its own character and habits. I managed to work in a warehouse and as a coordinator, I knew everyone and everyone knew me. In fact, I only did not catch birds and did not sift sand on the beach.

    — Are there many other volunteers in Anapa?

    Angelina Kolesnikova: Yes, a lot. But the problem is that they don’t come for long. We were only on the job for five days. And every time people have to be retrained. Once, during the night shift, there was a storm, and they brought us 120 birds at once. The management asked us to call everyone in a row, but the night shift is from 00:00 to 8:00, everyone is sleeping. The birds are dying, and you can’t do anything.

    — Tell us about your daily routine.

    Angelina Kolesnikova: I got up for the morning shift at 6 am, had breakfast at 7, then worked until lunch at 1 pm, and the shift ended at 4 pm. I took light and night shifts constantly.

    Svetlana Savin: I worked 16 hours a day because I took two shifts. There were three of them: morning, evening and night, from 8:00 to 00:00.

    Artem Sikhimbaev: I came in the morning and left when work was finished. You know, when it’s 00:00 and you still have 30 birds to wash, are you going to leave? Of course not. Once I came home at 5:30 in the morning. Thanks to that, I met people who have been working there for a long time, the so-called “legends” who don’t back down and go to the end, regardless of time and their desires.

    — What was the most difficult thing?

    Angelina Kolesnikova: Stress, psychological pressure. I almost never went near the birds because I understood that I wouldn’t be able to work with them.

    Darya Siraeva: I agree that the hardest thing is to see this whole picture of the catastrophe, these poor birds, who are brought in all covered in oil. I felt very, very sorry for them.

    Svetlana Savin: I recorded dying birds. They are also given names. People come to me and say, for example, “The cutie has died.” My birds, which I named, washed, and took to the hospital, also died. That was the hardest thing. In addition, you can bring equipment to the beach and speed up the process, but you can’t help with birds with equipment, people still have to do everything.

    Angelina Kolesnikova: Besides, at the sea there is fresh air and the smell of fuel oil is almost not felt, but in the hospital with birds it is a closed room and it smells strongly.

    Nikita Seregin: The hardest job was probably at the car wash. Because it’s dangerous to your health, you can get burned by fuel oil. Birds sometimes bit you. But otherwise, it wasn’t that hard physically. Although I wasn’t on the beach, many of my expectations about the work were confirmed. It wasn’t too labor-intensive, I can’t say that I was very tired during the trip, I could have easily stayed there for another week. And the hardest thing was to directly observe the environmental disaster. I’ve been participating in the volunteer movement for about a year and a half, but this is my first experience of participating in an event of this scale.

    Artem Sikhimbaev: I can’t say that I experienced difficulties. I was simply obsessed with the idea of understanding the system, making my contribution, and somehow improving the processes.

    — It is clear that the trip was difficult morally. But can you point out anything pleasant?

    Svetlana Savin: It’s nice to watch the recovery process. When yesterday you were forcibly feeding a bird, and today it’s already eating on its own, you’re like: “Oh, you’re such a clever girl!”

    Angelina Kolesnikova: Among the positive aspects, I can point out the people who work there. For example, Olesya, who trained us. She came for a couple of days the first time, and then took a vacation and came for a month. That is, some people realize how much human capital is lacking, and are ready to sacrifice their time and money to come and help. The heads of headquarters are all such caring people, with whom it is very pleasant to work. The main motivation for the work is compassion for the birds.

    Nikita Seregin: In general, all the volunteers who were there were very responsive, friendly, ready to help, to give advice. This is encouraging, it smooths out a difficult situation. If I recall something else positive, then our day of arrival was free from work, and we went to the alpaca park, fed the animals, walked around Anapa and went to Krasnodar.

    Artem Sikhimbaev: The most wonderful thing is that like-minded people with very different social ranks are in one place and doing one important thing. It brings people together and warms the soul. It is impossible to describe in words, it is simply harmony. I think that everyone should go.

    — Can you somehow indicate the quantitative results of your work, name some figures?

    Svetlana Savin: It’s hard to say. I looked after about 100 birds, that’s the number I can name.

    Nikita Seregin: I washed and fed about 30 birds. For me, it was an important experience from a professional point of view, I am studying ecology. It was interesting and useful to look at the situation from the point of view of an ecologist.

    Artem Sikhimbaev: I brought about 15 birds from the beach and washed about the same number. I fed at least twice as many. The main result of the work is probably not in the numbers. I learned a lot about this man-made disaster, understood a lot, learned a lot in such a short time. I talked to veterinarians and other specialists who worked there from the very first days. Since I managed to work on almost the entire chain of work with birds, I proposed several ideas for modernizing the system. For example, adding fish oil to the feed, because it helps get rid of fuel oil. And the problem of high bird mortality is that we cannot remove fuel oil from the gastrointestinal tract. Previously, nothing could be done about it. I hope that all of us were able to help at least a little.

    Svetlana Savin: It seems to me that we need to introduce more volunteer activities at the State University of Management. This is useful from the point of view of management experience. We understand how the work of large groups of people is organized, we see the flaws of the system. For a management university, volunteering is a very good base. I had an existential crisis there, I am still thinking about the meaning of life. So the experience is bright and useful.

    Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 03/21/2025

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

    March 22, 2025

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Changes to Contact Centre hours

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    News story

    Changes to Contact Centre hours

    Users of the Catch Recording and Fish Export Service helplines need to be aware that the contact centre’s hours of operation are changing from April 1 2025.

    However, MMO’s existing out of hours 24-hour support to users for the Fish Export Service and Catch Recording, will still continue so support for industry will remain.

    What is happening 

    • The opening hours for the Fish Exports and Under 10m Catch Recording Helplines are being reduced by three hours from 01/04/2025. 

    • The new operating times will be 8am to 6pm (previously 7am to 8pm). 

    • Outside of these hours there will remain 24/7 cover with calls still being automatically routed: 

    • Fish Exports helpline (0330 159 1989) – callers will come through to the United Kingdom Fisheries Monitoring Centre for enquiries relating to significant IT issues / outages  

    • Under 10m Catch Recording helpline (0300 0203 788) – calls will continue to access the automated service to enable fishers to log catch records

    Who will this impact? 

    Users of the Fish Exports helpline and under-10m Catch Recording helpline. 

    Why is it happening? 

    • The challenging economic climate means that all Government departments must seek efficiency savings and operate within budgetary constraints  

    • By making these changes we are ensuring that the Fish Exports and Under 10m Catch Recording helplines remain affordable and support for users is maintained. 

    When is it happening? 

    • The new hours of operation will come into effect on April 1 2025 .

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    Updates to this page

    Published 21 March 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

    March 21, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Rangers rescue critically endangered pregnant turtle

    Source: Tasmania Police

    Issued: 21 Mar 2025

    Open larger image

    A female hawksbill turtle has been rescued and returned to the ocean by rangers after she became wedged beneath driftwood on Womer Cay in the far northern Great Barrier Reef.

    Recently, rangers from the Department of the Environment, Science, Tourism and Innovation were visiting some of Queensland’s most northern parks during a trip from Lockhart River to Horn Island.

    While conducting surveys for crested terns and lesser crested terns on Womer Cay, the female Hawksbill turtle was found wedged under a large piece of driftwood.

    Ranger Katie Bampton said the turtle was most likely making her way up the beach to lay a clutch of eggs when she became stuck.

    “Thankfully she was spotted and ranger Joman Tomasello carefully removed her from the log and carried her to the ocean,” Ms Bampton said.

    “We assumed she had been stuck since the previous evening when she came ashore to lay, and we found her around 11am.

    “She would’ve been stuck for hours and due to the very hot conditions, we believe she wouldn’t have survived much longer.

    “When she was placed in front of the ocean, she took a little bit of time to get moving but eventually swam away.

    “The water would’ve felt so good, and we’re hoping she returned to Womer Cay that evening to come ashore and lay a clutch of eggs.

    “While we were on Womer Cay, we saw track marks on the beach where turtles had come ashore to lay, and we saw pits in the sand where clutches had hatched.

    “Hawksbill turtles are critically endangered due to the impacts of climate change, accidental capture in fishing equipment and reef habitat destruction.

    “The rangers who were on that trip are thrilled that we were able to rescue her and send her on her way.

    “These small cays in the Torres Strait and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park are remote but they are extremely important for bird life and turtles.”

    Hawksbill turtle facts:

    • They are easily distinguishable by their beaks.
    • They are small but fast swimmers.
    • Females nest around four times each season, laying around 140 eggs.
    • Hawksbills feed mainly on reef sponges, consuming around 450kg annually.
    • They are highly migratory, travelling thousands of kilometres between nesting and feeding grounds.

    Womer Cay is a small, sparsely vegetated cay about 65 kilometres east of Bamaga off the coast of far north Queensland.

    MIL OSI News –

    March 21, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Joint press conference, Canberra

    Source: Australian Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry

    Jim Chalmers:

    Thanks, everyone, for being available relatively early. We’ve got a fair bit to cover this morning.

    Katy and I will say a few things about the Budget and then Andrew and I on the ACCC and supermarkets.

    Then I wanted to also touch on crypto and also the intelligence review which has just been released by the Prime Minister. And then obviously happy to take your questions.

    We’re in the home stretch of the government’s fourth Budget. It’s going to be a big day, a full day today, of putting the finishing touches on the Budget so that we can get it off to the printer this weekend. We’re looking forward to telling you all about it on Tuesday night.

    The Budget will reflect the progress that Australians have made together. We’ve got inflation down. We’ve got wages and incomes growing again. Unemployment is low. We’ve got the debt down. Interest rates have started to come down, and now growth is rebounding solidly in our economy as well.

    But despite all of the progress that Australians have made together, we know that there’s more work to do because people are still under pressure and because there’s all of this global economic uncertainty playing out around the world as well.

    The Budget will be focused primarily on 2 things: more cost‑of‑living help where we can do that in an affordable and in a responsible way, and also strengthening our economy and making it more resilient in the face of all of this global economic uncertainty.

    So it will have that familiar combination of relief, repair and reform in the fourth Budget, the same as it did in the third. It will be a very responsible Budget. It will help with the cost of living. And it will also continue to clean up the mess that we inherited when came to office 3 years ago.

    Australians have made a lot of progress together. The Budget will reflect that progress. And that progress will be a platform for what we need to do into the future.

    The Budget will be an economic plan to build on the progress that we have made, help people with the cost of living and also make sure that we’re more resilient because the global economy is such an uncertain, volatile and unpredictable place.

    I’ll throw to Katy and then to Andrew.

    Katy Gallagher:

    Thanks, Jim. Morning, everybody. You’ll see in the next Budget our continued investment in driving gender equality and investments in women, and when you look back over the 4 Budgets you’ll see that each budget or budget update has built on the investments from the October Budget where we started this work.

    For too long investments in women had been left behind by the former government. Not enough had been done in 10 years to address women’s wages, to close the gender pay gap, to invest in ending violence against women, to address gender inequality in women’s health and also in investments in the care economy. We know such a big, important part of our economy, highly feminised areas where women’s work was being undervalued and underpaid. You will see continued investment in that.

    Over the 4 budgets we’ve invested in those wages for female‑dominated industries. We’ve invested in childcare, in early education and care, in women’s health, women’s safety, in paid parental leave, in putting super on PPL. We’re also addressing the highly gendered nature of our labour force by investing in skills and training and encouraging women into male‑dominated jobs and increasingly with the wages being addressed in the care economy, seeing more men consider those jobs as good and secure jobs for them.

    We’ve also made important investments in women and girls’ sport, and because of all of these investments – and you’ll see more of it in the Budget – women are earning on average $217 more per week because of the investments we’ve made both through submissions to the minimum wage but also those investments particularly in aged care and early education and care.

    We’ve seen women’s economic participation reach record highs under this government. And we’ve seen the gender pay gap close to the lowest level ever.

    So this is what you can do when you have a concerted effort, when you have women’s policy at the centre of your economic policy and when you really take steps through the ERC, through having leadership from the Treasurer, the PM, having the Minister for Women as the Minister for Finance helps –

    Chalmers:

    Doesn’t hurt.

    Gallagher:

    – to make sure that you can deliver the outcomes that we want. I should also point out this investment is testament to the caucus in general, who are 50 per cent women. When you have women represented at equal levels in the political process you get better outcomes for women.

    Chalmers:

    Thanks, Katy. Andrew.

    Andrew Leigh:

    Well, thanks, Treasurer. Today the government’s released the ACCC’s grocery competition report. This is the first report on the grocery sector in 17 years. Over the last 17 years products like kombucha and kale have hit the shelves, but unfortunately, we haven’t seen a whole lot more competition in the grocery sector.

    And, indeed, this report reveals that the market share of the big 2 supermarkets has increased over that period. It’s seen the entry of Aldi but the shrinking of Metcash. And it sounds a cautionary note about what the future might hold, making clear that it doesn’t see a future in which Metcash’s market share grows substantially, nor does it see a significant competitive threat from Amazon.

    The report also suggests that the big 2 may have been playing tag team rather than tug‑of‑war. It suggests patterns of specials oscillation which look like a little too cosy for the comfort of many Australians.

    It makes a set of wide‑ranging recommendations which the government has said we will accept in principle. Some of those recommendations involve long lead times, others involve consultation with states and territories. We will focus on doing that.

    But the report makes very clear that the Coalition’s approach is not the right way of delivering a fairer deal for farmers and a fairer deal for families. The Coalition voted against Labor’s new mandatory Food and Grocery Code, which the ACCC report talks about as an important measure for holding supermarkets to account in their dealings with farmers.

    This is a significant report – 400 pages, data analysis that covers over a billion prices. But there’s no suggestion in any of that that the Coalition’s favoured approach of divestment would deliver better outcomes for farmers or better outcomes for families.

    Labor’s new mandatory supermarket code of conduct comes into effect next month with multimillion dollar penalties. That’s the Food and Grocery Code that the Liberals voted against. We’ve increased ACCC funding to go after supermarkets who are using misleading pricing tactics. As part of the Treasurer’s merger reforms – the biggest shake‑up in the merger laws in 50 years – we’ve made clear that every supermarket merger and land acquisition would need to be notified.

    We’re making it easier for new supermarkets to enter the market with incentives for states and territories to cut planning and zoning red tape through the work that the Treasurer is doing with the Council on Federal Relations, backed by our $900 million National Productivity Fund. We’re clamping down on shrinkflation by strengthening the Unit Pricing Code, funding CHOICE to give shoppers more information on the best value supermarkets and providing over $70 million in low‑cost essentials subsidy scheme to improve food security.

    We’re also providing supplier education for those suppliers that find themselves negotiating with supermarkets with one hand tied behind their back. Now, the supermarkets won’t like that, but farmers will. It will be welcome news as we aim to provide more information to those suppliers, particularly in the fresh produce area.

    Shrinkflation, sneaky prices, unfair deals – we’re tackling those head on. We are working hard to secure a fairer deal for farmers and a fairer deal for families. We understand that it is critical that the supermarkets do the right thing, and we are holding them to account through our existing reforms and through our in‑principle adoption of this important new ACCC report.

    Chalmers:

    Thanks, Andrew. We know that Australians are still under pressure, and a lot of that pressure is felt at the checkout.

    That’s why we’re cracking down on the supermarkets, and it’s why the Budget will have a real focus on the cost of living.

    Even with the progress that we’ve been making on inflation, we know that people are still under the pump, and we know that the weekly trip to the supermarket can be a source of that pressure.

    That’s why we’re taking all of the very significant steps that we are to crack down on the supermarkets. Cracking down on the supermarkets is all about getting a fair go for families at the checkout and farmers at the farm gate. That’s what this ACCC report is all about as well. The ACCC report is about more scrutiny, more information and more competition.

    We are acting on all those fronts simultaneously. Andrew has run through all of the ways that we are doing that. Our primary focus as a government is the cost of living. And we’re coming at it from every conceivable and responsible angle – cost‑of‑living help which is already rolling out combined with keeping the supermarkets in check at the checkout. These are the important parts of our plan.

    It’s important to remember that even with the pressures that people are still under, food inflation was something like 5.9 per cent when we came to office; it’s now around half that at 3.0 per cent. What that means is we are making that progress. That progress is welcome and it is encouraging, but we’ve got more work to do because we know that people are still under the pump.

    I wanted to touch on 2 more issues briefly, and then happy to take your questions.

    First of all is in relation to digital assets. We’re releasing our statement today to give certainty and clarity to the industry and to stakeholders and to Australians more broadly about the next steps when it comes to crypto and digital assets more broadly.

    Crypto and digital assets have a role to play in our economy, and that role will grow over time. We want to make sure that the growth of this really important part of the economy happens in a way that we can be comfortable with.

    Data and digital are such an important part of our productivity agenda more broadly, and so with the appropriate framework, we believe that digital assets can make our economy more dynamic.

    We see in this area big opportunities for our financial sector, our payments industry, our capital markets and our economy more broadly. So what we’re trying to do here is seize the opportunities that come from digital assets and platforms. We want to encourage investment and innovation and growth, but we also want to make sure that that innovation and growth happens with an element of certainty and security as well.

    So we’re working with the industry and with the regulators. We’re proposing a legislative framework in 2025. We’ve already started talking with experts and regulators and interested parties about what that legislation should contain. But it’s quite a detailed statement we’ve put out there today. We’ve done that in the interests of certainty and clarity. It sets out 4 main steps that we’re taking, and it also releases the conclusions of the Board of Tax Review that we did in this really important part of the economy.

    We can be enthusiastic about this part of the economy and recognise that, in encouraging that innovation and in encouraging that dynamism that comes from data and digital, that productivity that we get in our financial sector and more broadly, we need to make sure that that’s consistent with keeping consumers and investors safe as the industry evolves quite quickly.

    The last thing I wanted to touch on was the Intelligence Review. So the Prime Minister has released the Intelligence Review in the last half hour or so. There’s a lot of uncertainty in the world and there’s a lot of risk. We will see that responded to in the Budget, and we see that responded to when it comes to the conclusions of this Intelligence Review.

    I wanted to give a big shoutout and a big thank you to Richard Maude and Heather Smith for doing the review for the government, also Andrew Shearer and his colleagues for the conversations that we have been having with them about the implementation of the Intelligence Review.

    We see this uncertainty and we see this risk in the way that national security and economic policy have become more and more intertwined. They’ve always been intertwined to some extent, but they’re now almost inseparable from each other, and that’s because so much of the uncertainty and risk that we see in the world, the geopolitical uncertainty, has an element of economic consequences attached to it as well.

    So we commissioned the review to ensure that our intelligence agencies are best placed to understand that and advise on that. We are blessed with outstanding agencies and people, and this is about supporting their crucial work. We’ve released an unclassified version of the report. As you would expect, a lot of the response will be classified, but I wanted to announce today that there will be $45 million in the budget to implement in an initial way the conclusions and recommendations of the Intelligence Review.

    This is part of a big 20 per cent increase in funding for national security that we’ve seen under the life of this government, primarily defence but funding our intelligence agencies is an important part of the story as well, $45 million in new funding, responding to the recommendations of the Intelligence Review that we are releasing today.

    With that, happy to take some questions, and we’ll start on this side for a change with Pablo.

    Journalist:

    Treasurer, the ACCC says the margins of the big 2 supermarkets have been rising over the last 5 years. So a lot of customers might be wondering how they possibly are not gouging Australians?

    Chalmers:

    There is market dominance, and that’s why we’re acting in all of the ways that Andrew ran through.

    If you think about our efforts to boost scrutiny, to boost information, to boost competition, it’s all about recognising that there is market dominance in the sector, and that’s what we are responding to in a number of ways. That’s what the ACCC is dealing with.

    Now, what the ACCC said was there’s been an increase, obviously, in grocery prices over that 5‑year period, so spanning the life of 2 governments. Those price increases slowed in 2024 in their estimation. Our price increases, they’ve gone up by less than most of the OECD is another conclusion of the report. As I said, food inflation has basically halved during our time in office.

    But there still is that market concentration. There still is that market dominance, especially by the 2 major players, and that’s why we’re taking all of the steps that we are taking in competition reform, in planning and zoning, in the mandatory Food and Grocery Code, in empowering CHOICE, funding the ACCC. All of these things are about dealing with and responding to the market dominance that the ACCC identifies.

    Journalist:

    Treasurer, we’ve spoken to farmers in places like Orange that have had to rip up orchards because of the dominance of the supermarkets. You’ve announced $2.9 million for them to stand up to supermarkets. Some of them may wake up and hear that and think they’ve been short‑changed, or is that all there is for them?

    Chalmers:

    I’ll say something about that, then I’m going to throw to Andrew because Andrew’s been a very enthusiastic advocate for helping the organisations in the way that we’re announcing today.

    This $2.9 million is about strengthening the arm of the groups which represent our farmers and our producers. We want to make sure that when supermarkets are negotiating with our farmers that we can strengthen the arguments and strengthen the arm of the people who produce our food. That’s what this funding is all about.

    Now, always organisations will always want more funding. We understand that. We’re realistic about that. But this is a new investment. It’s also not the only thing that we’re doing to empower farmers and suppliers. Making the Food and Grocery Code mandatory, the big penalties that Andrew talked about, all of this is part of the story as well. But I’ll throw to Andrew to say a few more things.

    Leigh:

    Thanks, Treasurer. It’s very clear from this report that the supermarkets have been stacking the shelves in their favour. We knew that from the report that we asked former Competition Minister Craig Emerson to do on the Food and Grocery Code. That followed a period under the former Coalition government where they had set up a toothless voluntary code and then when they reviewed it when David Littleproud was Agriculture Minister, decided to keep it, the toothless voluntary code.

    We brought into parliament multimillion dollar penalties, and the Liberals and the Nationals voted for the status quo, for the toothless voluntary code. Labor’s mandatory Food and Grocery Code of Conduct includes an ability to make anonymous complaints to the ACCC. That gets to the issue of retribution, where suppliers have said they’re too scared to speak out to the independent code assessors for fear that they won’t be able to sell their product. When you’ve got a duopoly accounting for such a big share of the market, that’s a reasonable fear.

    We’ve seen particular concerns around fresh produce suppliers, required to sign up to annual contracts but then subject to week‑to‑week bidding with the notion that if a big supermarket doesn’t take their stuff, then they’re faced with getting much lower prices at the markets. So this supplier training, which was not in place under the former government – it’s a new initiative by us – does ensure that the suppliers are going into those negotiations better prepared, better armed, better able to take on the big supermarkets.

    We’re looking not only to get a fairer deal for families at the checkout, but also a fairer deal for farmers at the farm gate.

    Journalist:

    The report’s assessment is that not much can be done about the market dominance, that it will persist, it’s already entrenched and it will keep going. Do you disagree with that? You’ve listed various things that are going on. Do you think your efforts will make a big difference to that?

    Chalmers:

    Any time you introduce more scrutiny, more information and more competition, that can only be a good thing for consumers. While the ACCC talks about this entrenched market dominance, they also provide 20 recommendations about things that we can do about it. And, as we’ve said, we accept all of those recommendations in principle, and in most of those areas we are already taking substantial steps.

    There are things that we can do and there are things that we are doing, remembering that some of the steps that we are taking, including the mandatory Food and Grocery Code, they’re yet to come in. They’re about to come in. So we should give those things the opportunity to work.

    I’ll see if Andrew wants to add to that.

    Leigh:

    Thanks, Treasurer. Just the only thing to add to that very comprehensive answer is the work we’re doing with states and territories around planning and zoning reform. So, Tom, you’d be aware of the $900 million productivity fund. That ensures that there are incentives for states and territories to think about planning and zoning through a competition lens, which hasn’t always happened.

    Australians would be familiar with the value that’s come from the growth of Aldi but also the missed opportunity from Kaufland attempting to enter the Australian market and then deciding to back off. Had measures like this been in place we might have seen a different outcome from Kaufland and we might today have a more competitive grocery market.

    So this is all about ensuring that the market is there for new entrants who are willing to enter and they have the opportunity to bring an injection of fresh competition, which is so much at the heart of this government’s economic agenda.

    Journalist:

    Treasurer, on the Budget, you’ll announce a deficit. You’ve said that that’s what you’ll do. And that’s the underlying cash. But the fiscal balance will be substantially larger because of the losses being made by everything from HECS to the Regional Investment Corporation. Do you think there is an argument to properly account for the money that is going into the economy from these off‑budget organisations and entities that are controlled by the federal government?

    Chalmers:

    A couple of things about that.

    First of all, we’re accounting for them in the usual way. We’ve not changed the way that we’re accounting for that. The difference between the headline balance and the underlying balance, what you’ll see on Tuesday is that some of the assumptions about the headline balance have not been quite right in the speculation – I say that respectfully – because in some instances what we have done already is provisioned for and included in one way or another in the mid‑year budget update.

    It’s not as simple as taking the mid-year update as the baseline for the headline balance and then adding any of the subsequent announcements. In some cases, we’ve made some responsible provisioning or allowed for it in one way or another.

    On the underlying cash balance, you’re right that this will be a deficit, but a smaller deficit than what we inherited – substantially smaller. And one of the defining themes not just of this Budget but of the whole set of 4 Budgets is that we have helped engineer a $200 billion improvement in the budget position over the years that we have been responsible for, and that is the biggest ever nominal improvement in the budget ever.

    In addition to that or part of that, we’ve delivered those 2 surpluses, we’ve got a smaller deficit this year, we’ve found more than $90 billion worth of savings, we’ve banked most of the upward revisions to revenue in our time in office, and all of that means that we’ve got the debt down substantially and we’re saving on interest cost.

    We’ve been managing the budget very responsibly to here. We will manage the budget very responsibly from here, and you’ll see that on Tuesday night.

    Journalist:

    Just talking about the Intelligence Review, are you able to say what the Review says about how the L’Estrange‑Merchant reforms from 2017 are actually progressing in terms of turning the ONA into the ONI, an intelligence body that actually directs the broader national intelligence community? And are you looking to boost the ONI’s role in terms of a director?

    Chalmers:

    The newish role for the ONI is obviously a really important one, and you’ll see when you go through the detail of the unclassified report, which is on the web now, you’ll see how we’ve dealt with the evolution of our agencies from L’ Estrange through to the Maude‑Smith report and what we intend to do about it.

    You’ll also see, as I’ve said earlier on, that there are some ways that we can fund in an initial sense $45 million in 2 parts – 30 and 15 – which is all about strengthening the role of these agencies in our intelligence armoury.

    I’d encourage you to read the report. I acknowledge it’s only just gone up. You wouldn’t have had a chance to read it in between then and coming to this press conference. But have a squiz at it, and if you want to have a conversation about it separately, we can do that.

    Journalist:

    You’ve had it for 9 months. You’re releasing it on the same day as this significant ACCC report. What does that say about scrutiny, and is there anything in it that you don’t like?

    Chalmers:

    It’s a really important report. The reason why we have taken the time – I acknowledge we have taken the time – to go through it. And without going into the detail of the discussions, it’s because we’ve worked through it with the other members of the National Security Committee in a very methodical, very considered, very careful way, because there’s a lot of in it. And I think people would expect us to do that, to work through it in a methodical way.

    In terms of the timing of the release. I wanted to release it today because I see it as important.

    It is part of the Budget on Tuesday night and I didn’t want it to be lost in that. I wanted to bring it out and indicate – because there has been some commentary about how long we’ve had it – I wanted to make it clear, the Prime Minister wanted to make it clear in making the announcement this morning that the recommendations of the review are really important – important enough for us to allocate an extra $45 million in a tight budget.

    Journalist:

    Katy, have you identified any more savings in this Budget and, if so, how much?

    Gallagher:

    You’ll see the same approach we’ve taken in previous budgets so – where we’ve found savings in every budget. We’ll have more to say on that in the lead‑up to the Budget. But we’ve taken the same approach – looking to find savings, reprioritise. The approach we’ve taken on the last 3 Budgets you’ll see in the fourth. But you’ll have to wait a bit more for the detail on that.

    Journalist:

    The Prime Minister already said you’re going to have a Buy Australian component in the Budget. Is it going to be sort of more than flim flam? Are you worried – or do we no longer need to worry, because we’ve had procurement programs in the past where we’ve had to be mindful of breaching our WTO obligations. Given that Trump’s torn up the rule book, do we care about that anymore when it comes to your decision‑making on procurement?

    Chalmers:

    I’ll throw to Katy in a sec on procurement, but there are 2 issues here – they’re related but separate.

    The issue that the Prime Minister has been talking about in response to the announcement out of DC on the steel and aluminium tariffs is about encouraging Australians to buy Australian and to recognise that we’ve got wonderful Australian products, and if people are unhappy with the tariffs being levied on us then they can vote with their feet and buy Australian products.

    There will be some funding in the Budget to support a Buy Australian campaign.

    Separate to that is how we procure Australian goods and services, and Katy’s got an important role to play in that, so I’ll throw to her.

    Gallagher:

    We’ve been doing quite a lot of work under the procurement policy where we can. So in the last month or so we’ve announced with the work I’ve been doing with Ed Husic the definition of an Australian business for the first time. Previously it’s sort of been captured by your ABN, but that doesn’t really, as you know, define an Australian business. So we’ve worked with industry to do that. We’ll have that definition. That will help us track exactly how much we are procuring.

    And also in the value‑for‑money assessments, not just having that on cost but broadening out value‑for‑money assessments from the Commonwealth.

    We want to use procurement. We’re a big procurer of services and programs, and we want to make sure that we are using the capacity of the Commonwealth to drive better outcomes for Australian businesses.

    There are some constraints, as you say, under our free trade agreements and things like that, but we see there’s a lot of opportunity to think about how we use the Commonwealth spend to drive good outcomes here for Australian business.

    And all the discussions I’ve had with Australian business, they don’t want favouritism, they don’t want preferential treatment. They just want a level playing field, and that’s what we’re trying to create through the procurement programs.

    Journalist:

    Will that be in the Budget – sorry, Minister? That procurement stuff, or is it more just the campaign?

    Gallagher:

    We’ve been rolling out the Buy Australian plan through the last couple of years. We did the announcement on Australian business I think within the last 3 weeks or so. And we’ll update the guidelines, the procurement guidelines and rules.

    Chalmers:

    I might just say something more broadly about that and then we’ll finish up.

    Australians are huge beneficiaries of the rules of international trade. We’re a trade exposed economy. We’ve got a lot of skin in the game when it comes to the way that these trade tensions are escalating.

    But the rules of the global economy are being rewritten, which goes to your point about the WTO, Phil.

    We’re in a whole new world of uncertainty, and a big part of that is the new policies of a new administration in DC, but that’s not the only part of it.

    Two major conflicts – Eastern Europe and the Middle East, slowdown in China, political division and dissatisfaction around the world, places like Korea, France and elsewhere. This is a whole new world of uncertainty.

    The reason I finish on this point is because this is one of the key influences on the Budget.

    There are 2 big influences on the Budget – global economic uncertainty from which we are not immune. Like everyone around the world, we want to make sure that we can be beneficiaries of the way that the world is churning and changing, not victims of that. Big part of our efforts, huge influence on the Budget.

    The other one is the pressures that we acknowledge that people are still under, despite our really quite substantial, significant, meaningful progress on inflation and unemployment and growth rebounding, the private sector reclaiming its rightful role as a driver of growth in our economy. We know that people are still under pressure.

    That’s why the Budget is going to be about those 2 things. It’s going to be about helping people with the cost of living where we can do that in an affordable and a responsible way. And it’s going to be about making our economy stronger and more resilient in the face of this global economic uncertainty which is upending the world. That’s what you’ll see on Tuesday night. Those are really the 2 main themes, the 2 main influences and the 2 main sets of responses that you can expect to see.

    Thanks very much.

    MIL OSI News –

    March 21, 2025

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: University Research – Vaping a gateway to smoking, study shows – UoA

    Source: University of Auckland (UoA)

    New research shows progress on adolescent quit-smoking slowed after vapes were introduced.

    E-cigarette companies have argued that vaping displaces smoking for young people, but a new study, looking at 25 years of data on Kiwi teenagers, shows this is not the case.
     
    The new research, from Cancer Council NSW, the University of Sydney’s Daffodil Centre, and University of Auckland, on vaping and smoking trends among New Zealand adolescents is challenging previous findings used to lobby against effective e-cigarette policies.
     
    The research examines the potential impact of vaping on smoking trends among nearly 700,000 students aged 14 to 15 years old (Year 10) over a 25-year period.
     
    University of Auckland research fellow Dr Lucy Hardie, School of Population Health, says youth smoking rates in New Zealand were declining steeply before vapes came on the scene in 2010, but that progress has slowed. See Lancet Regional Health—Western Pacific.
     
    In 2023, approximately 12.6 percent of 14 to 15-year-old students in New Zealand had ever smoked, nearly double the 6.6 percent predicted in the pre-vaping era.
     
    Similarly, in 2023, around 3 percent of students were smoking regularly, but this rate would have been just 1.8 percent had it followed its pre-vaping trend.
     
    The research contradicts an earlier influential study from 2020 that suggested vaping might be displacing smoking among New Zealand youth. See Lancet Public Health.
     
    The new study uses the same data but draws on a much wider time period, Hardie explains.
     
    The researchers found that vaping may have actually slowed New Zealand’s progress in preventing adolescent smoking.
     
    Sam Egger, statistician at the Daffodil Centre for research on cancer control and policy, says, “This new research shows the prevalence of daily vaping in New Zealand increased from 1.1 percent in 2015 to 10 percent in 2023 marking a staggering nine-fold increase over eight years.”
     
    Hardie says, “New Zealand’s policy settings are too lenient. Vapes are addictive, appealing and easily accessible to young people. The high rates of use indicate vaping is normalised within New Zealand youth culture, which may influence experimentation with other nicotine products, such as smoking.”
     
    This study highlights the need for a stronger response to youth vaping, Hardie says.
     
    “Unfortunately, the most effective policies to reduce smoking, such as the smoke-free generation, were repealed in 2023.
     
    “The coalition’s approach to smoking seems to rely on vaping and other nicotine products.
     
    “This study shows that vaping is not the silver bullet we had hoped to reduce smoking and, in fact, vaping may have hindered progress among young people.”
     
    Read: Trends in smoking prevalence among 14–15-year-old adolescents before and after the emergence of vaping in New Zealand; an interrupted time series analysis of repeated cross-sectional data, 1999–2023: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(19)30241-5/fulltext?uuid=uuid%3A3ac3e54a-19e9-4064-9247-7bc9ad2170b4
     
    About The Daffodil Centre: The Daffodil Centre is a joint venture between Cancer Council NSW and the University of Sydney. As a leading research centre on cancer control and policy, the Daffodil Centre provides timely and relevant evidence to national and international policy-makers to inform best-practice decision-making in cancer control. For more information on the Daffodil Centre, visit daffodilcentre.org

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

    March 21, 2025

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Save the Children – Young ocean champions off to France for Global Summit

    Source: Save the Children

    Six young Kiwi ocean advocates, alongside representatives from WWF-New Zealand and Save the Children New Zealand, will travel to France this week to attend a global Ocean Citizen Summit aimed at exploring solutions to better protect our ocean and accelerate youth-led ocean action.
    The global forum, hosted at Nausicaá, Centre National de la Mer in Boulogne sur Mer, France, brings together more than 60 youth representatives from around the world to share the insights and solutions from their regions.
    Together, with senior experts in marine science and advocacy, they will identify individual and collective responses to five key challenges of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development: changing humanity’s relationship with the ocean; unlocking ocean-based solutions to climate change, protecting and restoring marine ecosystems and biodiversity, developing a sustainable and equitable ocean economy and understanding and beating marine pollution from source to sea.
    The world’s oceans and seas are critical to our planet’s health, covering 71% of the Earth’s surface, producing 50% of our oxygen, feeding over 3 billion people, and absorbing 1/3 of global CO2 emissions. However, they face severe threats from climate change, pollution, overfishing, and ocean acidification. The Ocean Citizen Summit aims to empower young people to address these pressing challenges at both local and global levels.
    “Young people have the most to lose from climate and ocean degradation, as they will experience the long-term consequences,” says Save the Children Advocacy Director Jacqui Southey.
    “That’s why youth voices are crucial in these global conversations, particularly Pacific youth who are experiencing the impact of the world’s changing climate first hand. Here in Aotearoa, our marine environment is an important part of our lives and national and cultural identities, but sadly it is facing many threats, with unsustainable fishing, plastic pollution and climate change pushing our marine species and habitats to the brink of extinction.”
    WWF-New Zealand’s CEO Dr Kayla Kingdon-Bebb says the global summit is an amazing opportunity for the New Zealand group to meet other ocean youth champions from around the world.
    “I’m so proud that our rangatahi will be representing us on the world stage in France. This is a chance for these talented ocean conservation advocates to discuss global ocean conservation issues, share a Pacific perspective, and help shape the United Nations’ Ocean Citizen Charter.”
    The six youth advocates were selected following a series of ocean workshops held by WWF-New Zealand and Save the Children New Zealand in late 2024.
    Alongside Save the Children Youth Engagement Coordinator Vira Paky and WWF New Zealand’s Conservation Impact Advisor Carolyn Aguilar, the six youth delegates are:
    Quack Pirihi (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Whātua ki Kaipara, Patuharakeke) is a takatāpui activist, storyteller, and community organiser from Aotearoa, working at the intersection of indigenous sovereignty, climate justice, and queer liberation. Their mahi centres on rangatahi takatāpui empowerment, kaupapa Māori, and resisting environmental destruction. As the Founder and Director of Mana Āniwaniwa, Quack uplifts takatāpui and rangatahi Māori voices in decolonial and climate movements. A staunch opponent of deep-sea mining, Quack has spoken internationally, advocating for moana as an extension of whakapapa. In 2023, they joined the Pacific delegation to the International Seabed Authority conference, challenging corporate and colonial interests. Through storytelling and activism, Quack amplifies indigenous resistance to extractivism, pushing for solutions grounded in mātauranga Māori and a future where whenua, moana, and tangata thrive.
    Lottie Stevenson was born in Westport/Kawatiri on the West Coast of Te Waipounamu, and has lived close to the ocean her whole life. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Geography, studying at universities in Wellington/Te Whanganui-a-Tara and The Netherlands. Her recently completed Master’s thesis examines Antarctic paleoclimate and glaciology, including a chapter advocating for decolonising Antarctic research. She aims to foster collaboration across borders, ultimately driving collective action for Papatūānuku (Earth Mother). Lottie largely splits her time between mountains and sea, being an avid tramper, beach-cleaner, and aspiring environmental activist.
    Kat Cooper’s background is in marine biology and geography with a special interest in sharks, the deep sea, and queer ecology. Having just submitted their Master’s in marine biology they spend their time baking, annoying their flatmates, and volunteering. Love of the ocean began for Kat with their dad in the big blue backyard of Tāmaki Makaurau, with summers spent camping by the beach or snorkelling. To Kat, the way forward for ocean conservation is taking a holistic view of ocean ecosystems that acknowledges the place of people within the ecosystem, and emphasises the importance of indigenous knowledge. The Citizens of the Ocean Summit is Kat’s first international event, and they’re excited to explore the varied perspectives of the other delegates, and work together to create change.
    Maia Horn Nō hea Whāngārā Mai Tawhiti ahau. Spending my childhood summers in Whāngārā fostered my deep love and connection to the ocean and there has never been any doubt in my mind about the career I have dreamt of. Growing up with the tale of the Whale rider, Paikea also meant that I aspire to study tohorā as they are not only ecologically significant, but also culturally significant to Māori.
    Wei Heng Pok (卜炜衡) is a Climate & Sustainability consultant based in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) at Edge Impact. An advocate for indigenous solidarity, climate policy, and justice, Pok has contributed to prominent forums such as the Nobel Prize Dialogue, the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, COP26, and TIME Magazine. Outside of work, he serves on the Strategic Council of Climate Catalyst and was a former Climate Justice Design Partner for the World Economic Forum. Constantly unlearning and unlearning, he hopes to find his way home as he works on decolonising his identity. His most recent projects are building on regenerative soil practice within community-supported agriculture, alongside tracing his genealogy back to China.
    Veronica Rotman is a marine scientist, tertiary lecturer, science communicator and doctoral student. Her entire life revolves around the ocean, for work, for play and for kaimoana gathering, having grown up freediving and spearfishing in the frosty water of Te Waipounamu. Veronica is a TEDx speaker, has delivered many public talks and university lectures, and sat on the Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge Stakeholder Panel for five years. Her proudest mahi has been setting up and delivering the first remote tertiary training in sustainable aquaculture and marine science to Mana Whenua of the Muriwhenua in Kaitaia. The purpose of this was to empower students with knowledge and skills to get jobs and set up their own ventures. Veronica is in the final year of her PhD titled: Ki uta ki tai (mountains to sea): microplastics in Southern Aotearoa, that hopes to highlight the interconnectedness of terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments and to promote mountains to sea management. Her previous research looked into the physiological impacts of microplastics on snapper, incidence of microplastics in wild fish, and microplastics in aquaculture systems.
    The Citizen of the Ocean Youth-led Summit is being held March 25-28 2025. It aligns youth advocacy with global agreements like the Paris Agreement, the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 (Life Below Water), the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and the European Union’s Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters” 
    About Save the Children NZ:
    Save the Children works in 120 countries across the world. The organisation responds to emergencies and works with children and their communities to ensure they survive, learn and are protected.
    Save the Children NZ currently supports international programmes in Fiji, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Laos, Nepal, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. Areas of work include child protection, education and literacy, disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation, and alleviating child poverty.

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

    March 21, 2025

  • MIL-Evening Report: The search for missing plane MH370 is back on. An underwater robotics expert explains what’s involved

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stefan B. Williams, Professor of Marine Robotics, Australian Centre for Robotics, University of Sydney

    Armada 7805, similar to the 7806 vessel that will support the new MH370 search. Ocean Infinity

    More than 11 years after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, the Malaysian government has approved a new search for the missing debris of the aircraft.

    Malaysia announced the push for a renewed search last year, ten years after the tragedy that claimed the lives of 239 people.

    Seabed exploration firm Ocean Infinity, which conducted an unsuccessful search in 2018, prepared a new proposal to which Malaysia’s government agreed in principle in December last year.

    Now, the company has returned to the southern Indian Ocean 1,500 kilometres west of Perth – with a suite of new high-tech tools.

    A search area the size of Sydney

    Ocean Infinity is involved in projects surveying for offshore oil and gas reserves, and for suitable locations for offshore renewable energy projects.

    But it has also proved it is capable of locating underwater wreckage in the past. For example, in 2018, the company found a missing Argentinian navy submarine nearly 1,000 metres underwater in the Atlantic Ocean. And last October, it found the wreck of a US Navy ship that had been underwater for 78 years.

    The new search area for MH370 is roughly the size of metropolitan Sydney. It was identified in collaboration with experts based on refined analysis of information received after the aircraft disappeared. This information included weather, satellite data and the location of debris attributed to the aircraft which washed up along the coast of Africa and islands in the Indian Ocean.

    For this search, Ocean Infinity will be using a new 78 metre offshore support vessel, the Armada 7806. It was built by Norwegian shipbuilder Vard in 2023.

    Advanced sonar technology

    The Armada 7806 is equipped with a fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles manufactured by the Norwegian firm Kongsberg.

    These 6.2m long vehicles are capable of operating independently of the support vessel at depths of up to 6,000m for up to 100 hours at a time. They are equipped with advanced sonar technology, including sidescan, synthetic aperture, multibeam and sub-bottom profiling sonar.

    Sonar systems are essential for underwater mapping and object detection surveys. They use acoustic pulses to look for echoes from the seafloor.

    Sidescan sonar captures high-resolution images of the seafloor by sending out pulses of sound and detecting objects that reflect the sound pulses back.

    Synthetic aperture sonar is a technique for combining the results from multiple “pings” to effectively make the scanner bigger and more powerful, seeing further, and producing more detailed images.

    Multibeam sonar, in contrast, maps the seafloor topography by emitting multiple sonar beams in a fan-shaped pattern below the platform.

    Finally, sub-bottom profiling sonar operates at lower frequencies and penetrates the seabed to reveal underlying geological structures. This is useful for archaeological studies, sediment analysis and identifying buried objects.

    Together, these sonar technologies provide complementary data for underwater exploration, search and recovery, and geological assessments.

    Camera systems and lights on the vehicles may be used to confirm potential targets. Once a target of interest is detected using sonar, the vehicles would be programmed with missions designed to operate significantly closer to the seafloor. This would allow them to capture imagery of the search area with which to identify the targets.

    Such a search would only be conducted once a target of interest is identified, as the area covered by each image is significantly smaller than that covered by sonar, therefore requiring much denser survey tracks.

    Significant advancements in robotics

    Since its previous search in 2018, Ocean Infinity has made significant advancements in its marine robotics and data analytics capabilities. It has demonstrated its capacity to simultaneously deploy multiple vehicles at depths of up to 6,000m.

    This significantly increases the coverage area, as each vehicle covers its own patch of seafloor. This will allow for a more efficient and comprehensive survey of the designated search zone.

    The data being collected by the vehicles will be downloaded once the vehicles are brought back onboard, and stitched together to provide detailed maps of the search areas.

    Difficult conditions, above and below the surface

    Conditions in the search region are expected to be difficult. Weather on the surface will likely provide challenges for the support vessel and the crew. Underwater vehicles will have to contend with complex conditions on the seafloor, including steep slopes and rough terrain.

    The operation is expected to take up to 18 months. Weather conditions are most likely to be favourable between January and April.

    If Ocean Infinity succeeds in finding the wreckage of MH370, the Malaysian government will pay it US$70 million.

    The next steps would be trying to retrieve the plane’s black boxes, which would enable investigators to piece together what happened in the final moments before the plane plunged into the ocean. The Armada 7806 is likely to have remotely operated vehicles onboard equipped with cameras and manipulator systems, which may be used to verify the wreck site and in any future salvage operations.

    If Ocean Infinity fails, it will receive no payment. And the investigation into the location of the plane will essentially be back to square one.

    Stefan B. Williams receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC), Australian Economic Accelerator (AEA) program and the Inkfish Foundation.

    – ref. The search for missing plane MH370 is back on. An underwater robotics expert explains what’s involved – https://theconversation.com/the-search-for-missing-plane-mh370-is-back-on-an-underwater-robotics-expert-explains-whats-involved-252732

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

    March 21, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Lawyers in our compliance spotlight

    Source:

    We expect everyone to meet their tax obligations, but our recent work with the legal profession has revealed some lawyers are failing to lodge returns, are making errors, or not paying their taxes on time.

    While most lawyers do the right thing, unfortunately we’re seeing too many who aren’t. In fact, our reviews of over 250 lawyers show that 85% didn’t lodge returns, including some with multiple years overdue. By securing outstanding lodgments and detecting omitted income in returns we’ve raised $28 million.

    One thing we see too often is lawyers incorrectly reporting distributions from partnerships and associated service trusts. If you redirect your legal firm income to an associated entity, you may come to our attention as high risk. To help you, our comprehensive online resource lets you self-assess your risk of inappropriate alienation of income and understand the compliance action we take.

    To help lawyers fulfill their tax obligations, we’ve undertaken compliance actions including:

    • reviews and audits
    • default assessments
    • garnishees
    • payment arrangements
    • prosecutions.

    To give you just 2 examples, our compliance actions have addressed:

    • A lawyer who hadn’t lodged returns for several years and assigned income to related entities that also didn’t lodge returns. Our review of their group identified $8.6 million in liabilities which have been partially paid with the balance under a payment arrangement.
    • A lawyer who didn’t declare income received as director’s fees. Our review found this income was related to services the lawyer personally performed and the failure to declare them led to $400,000 in liabilities, including penalties.

    To avoid these kinds of outcomes:

    • make sure your lodgment is up to date, including income tax, goods and services tax, fringe benefits tax, super and any other obligations
    • check trust and partnership distributions are recorded and lodged correctly
    • account for all income
    • lodge on time, every time
    • voluntarily disclose any tax obligations you may have missed
    • make sure you’re complying with PCG 2021/4

    Prosecution could lead to findings that you’re not a fit and proper person to practice law and you could be struck off your states’ registers.

    For example, the Queensland Civil Administration Tribunal recently upheld the Bar Association of Queensland’s decision that a barrister was not fit to hold a practising certificate due to multiple failures, including unpaid tax liabilities since 2019. In his decision Justice Bradley stated:

    ‘He knew the money he spent on any other thing was money he was denying the ATO. This was wrong … To describe it as an administrative failure is inadequate. Most right-thinking members of the community expect people to honour their obligations to meet their debts, if they can.’

    To find out more about our approach to practices like yours, see our Private Wealth Adviser Program resource.

    Keep up to date

    We have tailored communication channels for medium, large and multinational businesses, to keep you up to date with updates and changes you need to know.

    Read more articles in our online Business bulletins newsroom.

    Subscribe to our free:

    • fortnightly Business bulletins email newsletterExternal Link
    • email notifications about new and updated information on our website – you can choose to receive updates relevant to your situation. Choose the ‘Business and organisations’ category to ensure your subscription includes notifications for more Business bulletins newsroom articles like this one.

    MIL OSI News –

    March 21, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Crapo, Warner Lead Colleagues in Letter Reaffirming Support for Community Development Financial Institutions

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Idaho Mike Crapo
    Washington, D.C.–U.S. Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Mark R. Warner (D-Virginia), co-chairs of the Senate Community Development Finance Caucus, led a letter to Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury Scott Bessent emphasizing bipartisan support for the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, and highlighting the fund’s critical role in providing capital to underserved communities.  The letter was signed by 23 Senators.
    The CDFI Fund boosts economic growth in largely underserved communities that lack traditional access to financing, creating a public-private partnership to promote access to capital. Since 1994, the CDFI sector has grown to over 1,400 institutions, located in every state and territory in the nation.  It has leveraged at least $8 in private sector investment for every $1 in public funding received.
    “Over 1,400 CDFIs represent a significant portion of America’s financial services sector, delivering over $300 billion in financial services each year to urban and rural communities across every state,” the Senators wrote.  “Each year, CDFIs provide affordable growth capital to over 100,000 small businesses and finance over $100 billion in residential real estate, bringing down the cost of housing through new construction and affordable home mortgages. The important work of the CDFI sector is strengthened by the CDFI Fund, which provides seed funding to new CDFIs, grows the capacity of existing CDFIs, and provides oversight to ensure federal dollars are spent appropriately. Elimination of key CDFI Fund functions would undermine this important progress, including for small businesses and homeowners.” 
    The letter continued, “The CDFI Fund’s public-private partnership model aligns with this Administration’s emphasis on ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent efficiently and with measurable impact. Every federal dollar injected into a CDFI generates at least eight more dollars from private-sector investment. Due in large part to the investments the Trump Administration made in the CDFI Fund in 2020, industry assets have tripled and the number of CDFI-certified entities has risen by 40 percent.”
    In addition to Senators Crapo and Warner, the letter was also signed by U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer (D-New York), Tina Smith (D-Minnesota), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Mississippi), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), Rev. Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia), Dr. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland), Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota), Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island), Steve Daines (R-Montana), Gary Peters (D-Michigan), John Boozman (R-Arkansas), John Hickenlooper (D-Colorado), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), Tim Sheehy (R-Montana), Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), Jim Justice (R-West Virginia), Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) and Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona).
    Following President Trump’s Executive Order, Senators Crapo and Warner highlighted the success of the CDFI fund.  In 2022, Crapo and Warner launched the bipartisan Senate Community Development Finance Caucus, focused on coordinating and expanding on public and private-sector efforts in support of the missions of CDFIs.  Since its inception, the Caucus has grown to 28 members, 14 Democrats and 14 Republicans.
    A copy of letter is available here and text is below.
    Dear Secretary Bessent,
    We write to reaffirm our bipartisan support of the CDFI Fund, its operations and the critical role it plays in the communities it serves. We appreciate your recent statement recognizing how the CDFI Fund and CDFIs are integral to the Administration’s pursuit of job growth, wealth creation and prosperity.
    Federal support for the CDFI mission began in 1994, with enactment of the bipartisan Riegle Community Development and Regulatory Improvement Act. Since its inception over three decades ago, the CDFI Fund has proven critical to the CDFI sector’s growth and has met the mission to create a public-private partnership to promote access to capital in our most underserved urban and rural communities.
    Over 1,400 CDFIs represent a significant portion of America’s financial services sector, delivering over $300 billion in financial services each year to urban and rural communities across every state. Each year, CDFIs provide affordable growth capital to over 100,000 small businesses and finance over $100 billion in residential real estate, bringing down the cost of housing through new construction and affordable home mortgages. The important work of the CDFI sector is strengthened by the CDFI Fund, which provides seed funding to new CDFIs, grows the capacity of existing CDFIs, and provides oversight to ensure federal dollars are spent appropriately. Elimination of key CDFI Fund functions would undermine this important progress, including for small businesses and homeowners.
    The CDFI Fund’s public-private partnership model aligns with this Administration’s emphasis on ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent efficiently and with measurable impact. Every federal dollar injected into a CDFI generates at least eight more dollars from private-sector investment. Due in large part to the investments the Trump Administration made in the CDFI Fund in 2020, industry assets have tripled and the number of CDFI-certified entities has risen by 40 percent.
    In sum, more distressed communities are being served by CDFIs than ever before, more first-time buyers are receiving the financing they need to purchase a home, more community facilities are being built, and more commercial loans are reaching entrepreneurs. A reduction in the functions and operations of the CDFI Fund will have a corresponding impact on CDFI-certified entities and local communities and we urge you to avoid this unfortunate outcome. 
    Thank you for your consideration of our request. We stand ready to work with your Administration to promote policies that deliver opportunity and prosperity to all Americans.
    Sincerely,

    MIL OSI USA News –

    March 21, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: SCHUMER REVEALS: TRUMP’S NEWEST ORDER COULD BLOW $5 BILLION DOLLAR HOLE IN NY’S “MAIN STREET” LENDING FOR SMALL BUSINESSES, AFFORDABLE HOUSING, MORTGAGES & MORE; SENATOR LEADS FIGHT FOR IMMEDIATE…

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for New York Charles E Schumer
    In Recent Days, Trump Signed Executive Order To Dismantle Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, Which Provides Hundreds Of Millions Of Fed Investment Annually To Lenders To Increase Access To Capital For Underserved Areas Like Upstate NY & Rural Communities To Help People Buy A Homes, Boost Small Biz, And More
    Schumer Shows How These Devastating Cuts Would Be Felt From Buffalo To Albany, In Every Region – CDFI’s In Upstate NY Have Helped 12,000+ Upstate Businesses Each Year, Nearly 4,000 Families With Mortgages, And Financed Nearly 5,000 Affordable Housing Units
    Schumer: Cutting Off Upstate NY From This Main Street Lending Program Would Be A Disaster– And Trump Must Reverse This Decision
    After President Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer revealed how these devastating proposed cuts would be felt in every corner of Upstate NY by upending the primary lending program for everything from small businesses on our Main Streets to first-time homebuyers.
    Schumer said CDFI’s fill the gaps in lending where capital might not be available for NYer’s looking to buy a home, start or expand a small business, improve their local Main Streets, finance affordable housing and hospitals, and more. Schumer is now leading a bipartisan coalition of senators to call on the Trump administration to preserve this vital fund – an essential and affordable stream of lending for communities like Upstate NY and cities and rural communities across America.  
    “The Trump administration just unwisely put Upstate NY’s Main Street lending on the chopping block, something that will hurt new families trying to buy homes and entrepreneurs starting and expanding small businesses. The CDFI fund is used from Buffalo to Albany to help NY families buy homes, grow their small businesses, improve healthcare, and rebuild our Main Streets, and taking it away would be a disaster. It could blow a $5 billion dollar hole in New York’s community lending sector, raising costs and cutting off loans and investment for anyone who doesn’t have access to big banks,” said Senator Schumer. “I am all for cutting out inefficiency, but you use a scalpel, not a chainsaw. And you certainly don’t slash programs like the CDFI Fund which has a clear track record of using federal investment to leverage magnitudes more in private investment to help regular people buy homes and start businesses. It is one of the best bang for your buck programs we have for Upstate NY small businesses and families buying homes. I am leading a bipartisan fight for the Trump administration to reverse this destructive proposal and preserve the CDFI Fund to keep the support flowing to Upstate NY’s Main Streets and the middle class.”
    The CDFI Fund supports CDFI lenders in their mission to provide small businesses and housing and community development projects with capital investment unavailable in their local economies. Each year, CDFIs provide affordable growth capital to thousands of small businesses and finance over $100 billion in residential real estate, bringing down the cost of housing through new construction and affordable home mortgages. Schumer said the elimination of key CDFI Fund functions would undermine this important progress, including for small businesses and homeowners. In New York, CDFIs have supported hospital renovations, affordable housing conversions, projects bringing fresh food to local communities, small business expansions, and more. A breakdown of funding by region in New York for small businesses and housing can be found below. A list of New York projects can be found here.

    NY Region

    Total Funding for Businesses

    Total $ for Consumer and Mortgage Loans

    Total $ to Real Estate/Other

    Total $

    Total Originations to Businesses and MicroBusinesses

    Total Consumer and Mortgage Originations

    Capital Region

    $9,180,874

    $27,135,370

    $29,819,183

    $66,135,427

                              566

                                29

    Western New York

    $11,228,096

    $46,150,746

    $25,870,271

    $83,249,114

                              982

                              147

    Central New York

    $9,152,171

    $310,218,718

    $42,333,001

    $361,703,890

                           1,640

                           2,383

    Rochester-Finger Lakes

    $14,907,370

    $24,703,146

    $32,304,491

    $71,915,007

                              923

                              143

    Hudson Valley

    $29,047,167

    $197,250,314

    $57,893,068

    $284,190,549

                           2,701

                              420

    Long Island

    $45,142,052

    $521,605,405

    $230,171,098

    $796,918,555

                           4,576

                              138

    Mohawk Valley

    $1,807,015

    $17,704,789

    $30,908,401

    $50,420,205

                              205

                              193

    New York City

    $953,617,956

    $1,640,431,432

    $993,819,971

    $3,587,869,360

                       112,301

                              777

    North Country

    $1,201,725

    $6,659,354

    $9,908,746

    $17,769,825

                                91

                                21

    Southern Tier

    $5,185,497

    $24,298,698

    $17,423,745

    $46,907,940

                              304

                              214

    Total

    $1,080,469,923

    $2,816,157,972

    $1,470,451,977

    $5,367,079,872

                       124,289

                           4,465

    “Support from the CDFI Fund allows us to maximize our impact in New York’s low-income areas – urban, rural and everywhere in between,” said Colleen Ryan, consulting executive director of the NYS CDFI Coalition. “Local CDFIs develop unique programs and tailored resources by leveraging federal dollars with private capital. These grants are not spent down, as traditional grants are. Instead, as loans are repaid, the funds are recycled into new projects. In addition to lending, we offer technical assistance to our borrowers to help them develop much-needed housing, build businesses, and revitalize neighborhoods. We urge continued support for the CDFI Fund, which provides consistent return on investment.”
    Schumer said it is unacceptable that the Trump administration is eliminating the CDFI Fund and its vital support to lowering the cost of housing and helping more Americans start a business or rebuild their community, and warned that this Trump cut will have severe impacts on New York. In 2022, CDFIs helped deliver over $1 billion in capital for small business and housing and community projects. This investment alone supported the creation of over 20,000 affordable housing units across New York State.
    The CDFI Fund provides the necessary investment to start and support the national network of CDFI lenders to bring private capital to more communities. For every $1 in federal funding awarded through the CDFI Fund, at least $8 in private sector investment is leveraged—mobilizing local capital, creating jobs, and fueling small business and affordable housing growth. The CDFI network serves communities throughout the country, from rural to big cities to suburban areas, and as a result, has had long-standing bipartisan support.
    Schumer’s letter to Treasury Secretary Bessent along with Sens. Warner and Crapo, Tina Smith (D-MN), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Rev. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Dr. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Jack Reed (D-RI), Steve Daines (R-MT), Gary Peters (D-MI), John Boozman (R-AR), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Tim Sheehy (R-MT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Jim Justice (R-WV), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) can be found HERE or below:
    We write to reaffirm our bipartisan support of the CDFI Fund, its operations and the critical role it plays in the communities it serves. We appreciate your recent statement recognizing how the CDFI Fund and CDFIs are integral to the Administration’s pursuit of job growth, wealth creation and prosperity.
    Federal support for the CDFI mission began in 1994, with enactment of the bipartisan Riegle Community Development and Regulatory Improvement Act. Since its inception over three decades ago, the CDFI Fund has proven critical to the CDFI sector’s growth and has met the mission to create a public-private partnership to promote access to capital in our most underserved urban and rural communities.
    Over 1,400 CDFIs represent a significant portion of America’s financial services sector, delivering over $300 billion in financial services each year to urban and rural communities across every state. Each year, CDFIs provide affordable growth capital to over 100,000 small businesses and finance over $100 billion in residential real estate, bringing down the cost of housing through new construction and affordable home mortgages. The important work of the CDFI sector is strengthened by the CDFI Fund, which provides seed funding to new CDFIs, grows the capacity of existing CDFIs, and provides oversight to ensure federal dollars are spent appropriately. Elimination of key CDFI Fund functions would undermine this important progress, including for small businesses and homeowners.
    The CDFI Fund’s public-private partnership model aligns with this Administration’s emphasis on ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent efficiently and with measurable impact. Every federal dollar injected into a CDFI generates at least eight more dollars from private-sector investment. Due in large part to the investments the Trump Administration made in the CDFI Fund in 2020, industry assets have tripled and the number of CDFI-certified entities has risen by 40 percent.
    In sum, more distressed communities are being served by CDFIs than ever before, more firsttime buyers are receiving the financing they need to purchase a home, more community facilities are being built, and more commercial loans are reaching entrepreneurs. A reduction in the functions and operations of the CDFI Fund will have a corresponding impact on CDFI-certified entities and local communities and we urge you to avoid this unfortunate outcome.
    Thank you for your consideration of our request. We stand ready to work with your Administration to promote policies that deliver opportunity and prosperity to all Americans.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    March 21, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Transforming India’s Agricultural and Dairy Sectors

    Source: Government of India

    Transforming India’s Agricultural and Dairy Sectors

    Recent Policy Decisions and Budgetary Provisions

    Posted On: 20 MAR 2025 6:49PM by PIB Delhi

    Summary

    • The Union Cabinet approved the Revised National Program for Dairy Development (NPDD) with an additional budget of ₹1,000 crore.
    • The Union Cabinet has also approved the Revised Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM) to boost the livestock sector, with an additional outlay of ₹1,000 crore.
    • The Union Budget 2025-26 has emphasized agriculture as the foremost engine of India’s development.
    • On January 1, 2025, the Union Cabinet approved continuation of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme till 2025-26.
    • On January 1, 2025, the Union Cabinet approved the extension of One-time Special Package on Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) for the period from 01.01.2025 till further orders.
    • The Union Cabinet, on November 25, 2024, approved the launching of the National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF) with a total outlay of Rs.2481 crore.
    • On October 3, 2024, the Union Cabinet approved the rationalization of all Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) operating under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s into two-umbrella Schemes viz. Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (PM-RKVY), and Krishonnati Yojana (KY).
    • On October 3, 2024, the Union Cabinet approved the National Mission on Edible Oils – Oilseeds with a financial outlay of Rs 10,103 crore.

     

    Introduction

    On March 19, 2025, the Union Cabinet took two key decisions to further the development of agriculture, dairying and animal husbandry in India. Agriculture, animal husbandry, and dairying are the cornerstone of India’s economy. These sectors play a crucial role in ensuring rural employment and economic stability.

    The Union Cabinet approved the Revised National Program for Dairy Development (NPDD), a Central Sector Scheme, with an additional budget of ₹1,000 crore, bringing the total to ₹2,790 crore for the 15th Finance Commission period (2021-22 to 2025-26).

    Key Objectives of the Revised NPDD:

    • Improved milk procurement, processing capacity, and quality control.
    • Enhanced market access for farmers and better pricing through value addition.
    • Strengthening of the dairy supply chain to increase rural income and development.

    Components of the Revised NPDD:

    1. Component A: Focuses on improving dairy infrastructure.
    2. Component B: Dairying through Cooperatives (DTC) in partnership with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

    Expected Outcomes of Revised NPDD:

    • Establishment of 10,000 new Dairy Cooperative Societies.
    • Additional 3.2 lakh employment opportunities, 70% benefiting women.

    The Union Cabinet has also approved the Revised Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM) to boost the livestock sector, with an additional outlay of ₹1,000 crore, bringing the total budget to ₹3,400 crore for the 15th Finance Commission period (2021-22 to 2025-26).

    Key Additions to the Revised RGM:

    1. Heifer Rearing Centres: One-time assistance of 35% of capital cost for setting up 30 housing facilities for 15,000 heifers.
    2. Support for High Genetic Merit (HGM) Heifers: 3% interest subvention on loans taken by farmers to purchase HGM IVF heifers from milk unions/financial institutions.

    Ongoing Activities under RGM:

    • Strengthening of semen stations and Artificial Insemination (AI) network.
    • Bull production and breed improvement using sex-sorted semen.
    • Skill development and farmer awareness programs.
    • Establishment of Centres of Excellence and strengthening of Central Cattle Breeding Farms.

    Expected Outcomes of Revised RGM:

    • Increased incomes for 8.5 crore farmers engaged in dairying.
    • Scientific conservation of indigenous bovine breeds.

    India is the world’s largest producer of milk and the second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables. With a rising global demand for organic produce, value-added dairy products, and sustainable farming practices, the government has placed renewed emphasis on enhancing productivity, infrastructure, and market access for farmers. In the past six months, the Union Government has introduced key policy decisions aimed at modernizing these sectors. Through targeted investments, regulatory support, and infrastructure development, the government seeks to improve farmer incomes, ensure disease control in livestock, and bolster cooperative movements to benefit small and marginal farmers. A crucial component of this vision is the Union Budget 2024-25, which has made substantial allocations to agriculture, animal health, and rural development.

    Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying Provisions in Union Budget 2024-25

    The Union Budget 2025-26 has emphasized agriculture as the foremost engine of India’s development, focusing on improving productivity, farmer incomes, rural infrastructure, and self-sufficiency in key commodities. The provisions also extend to animal husbandry, dairying, and fisheries, ensuring holistic growth in the primary sector.

    1. Agriculture Sector Provisions

    1.1 Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana

    • A new scheme targeting 100 low-productivity districts.
    • Focus on enhancing agricultural productivity, crop diversification, sustainable practices, irrigation, and post-harvest storage.
    • Likely to benefit 1.7 crore farmers.

    1.2 Rural Prosperity and Resilience Programme

    • A multi-sectoral initiative to address underemployment in agriculture.
    • Focus on skilling, investment, and technology-driven transformation.
    • Phase-1 to cover 100 agricultural districts.

    1.3 Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses

    • A six-year mission with a focus on Tur, Urad, and Masoor.
    • Development of climate-resilient seeds and protein enhancement.
    • Assurance of remunerative prices through procurement by NAFED and NCCF for four years.

    1.4 Comprehensive Programme for Vegetables and Fruits

    • Promotion of vegetable and fruit production with efficient supply chains.
    • Focus on value addition, processing, and ensuring better market prices.
    • Implementation in partnership with states and farmer producer organizations.

    1.5 National Mission on High Yielding Seeds

    • Strengthening research for high-yield, pest-resistant, and climate-resilient seeds.
    • Commercial availability of over 100 seed varieties released since July 2024.

    1.6 Cotton Productivity Mission

    • A five-year mission to improve cotton yield and sustainability.
    • Promotion of extra-long staple cotton to benefit cotton-growing farmers.
    • Alignment with the 5F vision for textile sector growth.

    1.7 Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Loan Limit Enhancement

    • The loan limit under the Modified Interest Subvention Scheme raised from ₹3 lakh to ₹5 lakh.
    • Expected to benefit 7.7 crore farmers, fishermen, and dairy farmers.

    1.8 Urea Plant in Assam

    • A new urea plant with an annual capacity of 12.7 lakh metric tons at Namrup, Assam.
    • Expected to enhance self-sufficiency in urea production.

    2. Animal Husbandry and Dairying

    2.1 Makhana Board in Bihar

    • Establishment of a dedicated board to support makhana production, processing, and marketing.
    • Organization of makhana farmers into Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs).

    2.2 Fisheries Development Framework

    • Special focus on Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands.
    • Sustainable harnessing of fisheries from the Exclusive Economic Zone and High Seas.
    • Expected to boost marine sector potential and increase exports.

    3. Credit and Financial Inclusion

    3.1 Grameen Credit Score

    • Public Sector Banks to develop a framework for SHG members and rural credit needs.

    3.2 Expansion of Credit for Micro Enterprises

    • Introduction of customized credit cards with a ₹5 lakh limit for micro-enterprises registered on the Udyam portal.
    • 10 lakh cards to be issued in the first year.

    4. Research and Infrastructure Development

    4.1 Gene Bank for Crops Germplasm

    • A second gene bank with 10 lakh germplasm lines for future food security.

    4.2 Research and Development in Agriculture

    • Enhanced support for private-sector-driven R&D.

    The Union Budget 2025-26 provisions for agriculture, animal husbandry, and dairying reflect the government’s commitment to boosting agricultural productivity, ensuring financial stability for farmers, and strengthening allied sectors.

    Overview of Cabinet Decisions Since October 2024

    1. Continuation of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS)

    On January 1, 2025, the Union Cabinet approved continuation of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme till 2025-26 with an overall outlay of Rs.69,515.71 crore from 2021-22 to 2025-26. The decision will help in risk coverage of crops from non-preventable natural calamities for farmers across the country.

    In addition to the same, for large scale technology infusion in implementation of the scheme leading to increasing transparency and claim calculation and settlement, the Union Cabinet has also approved creation of Fund for Innovation and Technology (FIAT) with a corpus of Rs.824.77 crore.

    1. Extension of One-time Special Package on Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP)

    On January 1, 2025, the Union Cabinet approved the proposal of the Department of Fertilizers for extension of One-time Special Package on Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) beyond the NBS subsidy @ Rs 3,500 per MT for the period from 01.01.2025 till further orders to ensure sustainable availability of DAP at affordable prices to the farmers. The tentative budgetary requirement for above would be approximately up to Rs. 3,850 crore.

    1. Increase in Minimum Support Price (MSP) for Copra for 2025 season

    The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, on December 20, 2024, has given its approval for the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for copra for 2025 season. The government has increased MSP for milling copra and ball copra from Rs. 5250 per quintal and Rs. 5500 per quintal for the marketing season 2014 to Rs. 11582 per quintal and Rs. 12100 per quintal for the marketing season 2025, registering a growth of 121% and 120%, respectively. A higher MSP will not only ensure better remunerative returns to the coconut growers but also incentivize farmers to expand copra production to meet the growing demand for coconut products both domestically and internationally.

    1. Launch of National Mission on Natural Farming

    The Union Cabinet, on November 25, 2024, approved the launching of the National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF) as a standalone Centrally Sponsored Scheme under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare. The scheme has a total outlay of Rs.2481 crore (Government of India share – Rs.1584 crore; State share – Rs.897 crore) till the 15th Finance Commission (2025-26).

    • National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF) promotes NF to ensure safe, nutritious food and reduce farmers’ dependency on external inputs. It aims to enhance soil health, biodiversity, climate resilience, and sustainable agriculture.
    • Natural Farming (NF) is a chemical-free farming method based on traditional knowledge, local agro-ecological principles, and diversified cropping systems.
    • NF reduces input costs, soil degradation, and health risks from fertilizers and pesticides, ensuring nutritious food and climate resilience.
    1. Launch of PM Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (PM-RKVY) and Krishonnati Yojana (KY)

    On October 3, 2024, the Union Cabinet approved the proposal of the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) for rationalization of all Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) operating under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s into two-umbrella Schemes viz. Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (PM-RKVY), and Krishonnati Yojana (KY).  

    PM-RKVY will promote sustainable agriculture, while KY will address food security & agricultural self-sufficiency. The PM-RKVY and KY are being implemented with total proposed expenditure of Rs.1,01,321.61 crore. These Schemes are implemented through the State Governments. Out of the total proposed expenditure of Rs.1,01,321.61 crore the projected expenditure towards central share of DA&FW is Rs.69,088.98 crore and states share is Rs.32,232.63 crore. This includes Rs.57,074.72 crore for RKVY and Rs.44,246.89 crore for KY.

    1. Approval of National Mission on Edible Oils – Oilseeds

    On October 3, 2024, the Union Cabinet approved the National Mission on Edible Oils – Oilseeds (NMEO-Oilseeds), a landmark initiative aimed at boosting domestic oilseed production and achieving self-reliance in edible oils. The Mission will be implemented over a seven-year period, from 2024-25 to 2030-31, with a financial outlay of Rs 10,103 crore.

    The mission aims to increase primary oilseed production from 39 million tonnes (2022-23) to 69.7 million tonnes by 2030-31. Together with NMEO-OP (Oil Palm), the Mission targets to increase domestic edible oil production to 25.45 million tonnes by 2030-31 meeting around 72% of our projected domestic requirement.

    Welfare Schemes for Agriculture, Dairying and Animal Husbandry by the Indian Government

    • Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN): Launch of PM-KISAN in 2019 an income support scheme providing Rs. 6000 per year in 3 equal instalments. So far, more than Rs. 3.46 lakh crore has been disbursed to over 11 crore farmers through 18 instalments. On February 24, 2025, the government released the 19th instalment of the PM-KISAN scheme. Over 9.8 crore farmers including 2.41 crore female farmers across the country will be benefitted through the 19th instalment release, receiving direct financial assistance exceeding ₹22,000 crore through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) without involvement of any middlemen.
    • Pradhan Mantri Kisan Maandhan Yojana: PMKMY is a central sector scheme, is a voluntary and contributory pension scheme for the entry age group of 18 to 40 years with a provision of Rs. 3000/- monthly pension on attaining the age of 60 years, subject to exclusion criteria. Since the inception of the scheme, over 24.67 lacs small and marginal farmers have joined the PMKMY scheme.
    • Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana: PMFBY was launched in 2016 addressing problems of high premium rates for farmers and reduction in sum insured due to capping. In past 8 Years of implementation. In past 8 Years of PMFBY implementation, 63.11 crore farmer applications have been enrolled and over 18.52 crore (Provisional) farmer applicants have received claims of over Rs. 1,65,149 crore. During this period nearly Rs. 32,482 crore were paid by farmers as their share of premium against which claims over Rs. 1,65,149 crore (Provisional) have been paid to them. Thus, for every Rs. 100 of premium paid by farmers, they have received about Rs. 508 as claims.

    ​​​​​​​

    • National Livestock Mission (NLM): The focus of the scheme is towards employment generation, entrepreneurship development; increase in per animal productivity and thus targeting increased production of meat, goat milk, egg and wool. An outlay of Rs. 324 crores have been allocated during the year 2024-25 for this mission.
    • Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF): The scheme envisaged for incentivizing investments by individual entrepreneurs, private companies, MSME, Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs), and Section 8 companies to establish dairy processing and value addition infrastructure, meat processing and value addition infrastructure, animal feed plant, breed improvement technology and breed multiplications farms, veterinary drugs and vaccine infrastructure and waste to wealth management. Further, the Dairy Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) has been subsumed in the AHIDF and revised outlay is now Rs. 29610 crore.
    • National Animal Disease Control Programme (NADCP): Launched in 2019, the program is the largest of its kind globally, targeting the eradication of FMD and Brucellosis by 2030. Over 99.71 crore vaccinations against Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in cattle and buffaloes, benefitting 7.18 crore farmers have been made so far.

    Conclusion

    The government’s recent decisions and budgetary provisions reflect a strong push towards modernization, infrastructure development, and sustainability in agriculture, animal husbandry, and dairying. The focus on disease control, cooperative strengthening, and technological innovation will contribute to improving productivity and farmers’ incomes, ensuring the long-term growth of these vital sectors.

    References

    https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=2112791

    https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=2112788

    https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=2089249

    https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=2089258

    https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=2086629

    https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=2077094

    https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=2061649

    https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=2061646

    https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2098404

    https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2098401

    https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1897084

    https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetailm.aspx?PRID=1985479

    https://pib.gov.in/FactsheetDetails.aspx?Id=149098

    https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2105745

    https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2086052

    https://www.instagram.com/airnewsalerts/p/DAqvpYOoVgI/

    https://x.com/pmkisanofficial/status/1891741181614133264/photo/1

    www.linkedin.com/posts/agrigoi_agrigoi-naturalfarming-nmnf-activity-7288065904469229568-7OdL

    https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/2025/feb/doc202521492701.pdf

    Kindly find the pdf file 

    ****

    Santosh Kumar | Ritu Kataria | Rishita Aggarwal

    (Release ID: 2113351) Visitor Counter : 40

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

    March 21, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Luján Reintroduces Legislation to Crack Down on Robocalls, Protect Americans From Scams

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-New Mexico)
    Washington, D.C. –  Today, U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Media, announced the reintroduction of the FCC Legal Enforcement Act, legislation that would provide the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with litigation enforcement authority for violations contained in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) regarding robocalls. Specifically, the legislation would provide the FCC with the authority to commence court proceedings to recover penalties and fines against those in violation of the TCPA.
    “Every American with a phone knows how annoying it is to be bombarded by robocalls that only offer unwanted scams and threats to personal privacy. Robocalls aren’t just a nuisance, they also scam Americans out of millions of dollars every year,” said Senator Luján. “Congress passed much-needed legislation to protect Americans through the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, but this legislation failed to provide the FCC with the legal authority to enforce the law. That’s why I’m proud to reintroduce the FCC Legal Enforcement Act to empower the Commission to hold telecom companies accountable for robocalls that disrupt Americans’ lives.”
    In 1991, in an effort to address a growing number of telephone marketing calls, Congress enacted the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The TCPA restricts the making of telemarketing calls and the use of automatic telephone dialing systems (robocallers) and artificial or prerecorded voice messages. The rules apply to common carriers as well as to other marketers. Although the FCC has the authority to conduct investigations and issue fines or penalties for violations of the TCPA, the Commission lacks the authority to go into court to collect the fines. That authority lies with the Department of Justice. Unfortunately, the Department of Justice may take up to five years to decide whether to pursue a case related to a violation of the TCPA. In that time, violators have hidden assets or disappeared altogether.
    The FCC Legal Enforcement Act provides the FCC with the authority to commence court proceedings to recover penalties or fines against those in violation of the TCPA. Violations of the TCPA are still referred to the Department of Justice first, but if after 120 days, the DOJ refuses to pursue the case, the FCC can commence its own action.
    The FCC Legal Enforcement Act is cosponsored by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).
    Full bill text is available here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    March 21, 2025

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Key appointments form core leadership team at Inverness Castle Experience

    Source: Scotland – Highland Council

    Issued by High Life Highland on behalf of The Highland Council

    The Inverness Castle Experience is delighted to announce the appointment of three senior roles, adding to its leadership team ahead of its highly anticipated opening later this summer.

    The Inverness Castle project is part of the Inverness and Highland City-Region Deal, which is a joint initiative supported by up to £315m investment from the UK and Scottish governments, The Highland Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and University of the Highlands and Islands, aimed at stimulating sustainable regional economic growth.

    Rebecca Macdonald joins as Visitor Services Manager, born and raised in Inverness, she developed a passion for history through her dad’s influence, earning a BA Hons from the University of Strathclyde and a Master’s from the University of Liverpool. With over a decade of experience in customer service roles, she has a strong commitment to creating meaningful and engaging visitor experiences.  Rebecca has worked with The National Trust for Scotland for the past six years, including a leadership role at Culloden Battlefield. She is excited to bring her experience to Inverness Castle and help create a lasting experience for local and international visitors.

    Robert Ince has been appointed as Food and Beverage Manager.  Robert brings extensive experience from a leading local auction firm, where he managed catering and events, improving offerings and creating new business opportunities. Previously, he managed The Torridon, winning the AA Scottish Hotel of the Year award twice and earned a Manager’s Gold Medal from the Scottish Hotel Awards. Robert’s career spans prestigious Scottish properties like the Carnegie Club at Skibo Castle and Cromlix House. Known for innovation, reliability, and staff training, Robert is eager to bring the best of Highland hospitality to the Inverness Castle Experience.

    John Currie, a native of North Uist, is a Hebridean fisherman turned retail professional with over 10 years of experience takes on the role of Retail Manager, He has driven retail success at The Isle of Skye Candle Company and, for the past seven years, led retail operations at the National Trust for Scotland’s Glencoe and Glenfinnan visitor centres, tripling retail income and contributing a third of the charity’s total revenue. Joining the Inverness Castle Experience, John aims to combine his passion for the Highlands with his retail expertise to create something memorable and sustainable in Inverness, while also finding time to enjoy the hills where he feels most at home.

    These key appointments mark an exciting milestone as the Inverness Castle Experience prepares to welcome visitors later this year. The attraction will offer an immersive journey into contemporary Highland life, celebrating the Spirit of the Highlands through engaging stories, exhibits and experiences.

    Cllr Ian Brown, Leader of Inverness City and Area and Co-chair of the Inverness Castle Project Delivery Group, said: “We are thrilled to welcome these talented individuals to our team. Their expertise and enthusiasm will be instrumental in helping to shape an unforgettable experience for visitors from near and far.”

    High Life Highland Chief Executive Steve Walsh added, “These appointments demonstrate High Life Highland’s commitment to delivering the highest-quality visitor experience. Each of these individuals brings a wealth of experience and fresh ideas, ensuring, along with others in the  team, that the castle becomes a must-visit destination in the Highlands.”

    The Inverness Castle Experience project, opening later this year, will benefit from £30m in investment to support its redevelopment from the Scottish and UK governments, The Highland Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and a range of other partners.   

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

    March 21, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Europe: RECOMMENDATION on the draft Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the Protocol on the implementation of the Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Community and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau (2024–2029) – A10-0028/2025

    Source: European Parliament

    DRAFT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION

    on the draft Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the Protocol on the implementation of the Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Community and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau (2024–2029)

    (12475/2024 – C10‑0108/2024 – 2024/0159(NLE))

    (Consent)

    The European Parliament,

    – having regard to the draft Council decision (12475/2024),

    – having regard to the Protocol on the implementation of the Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Community and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau (2024–2029)(12189/2024),

    – having regard to the request for consent submitted by the Council in accordance with Article 43(2) and Article 218(6), second subparagraph, point (a)(v), and Article 218(7), of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (C10‑0108/2024),

    – having regard to its non-legislative resolution of …[1] on the draft decision,

    – having regard to the budgetary assessment by the Committee on Budgets,

    – having regard to Rule 107(1) and (4), and Rule 117(7) of its Rules of Procedure,

    – having regard to the opinion of the Committee on Development,

    – having regard to the recommendation of the Committee on Fisheries (A10-0028/2025),

    1. Gives its consent to the conclusion of the agreement;

    2. Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council, the Commission and the governments and parliaments of the Member States and of the Republic of Guinea Bissau.

    EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

    The Republic of Guinea-Bissau

    Guinea-Bissau has 1.9 million inhabitants from 11 ethnic groups. Half of the population lives in urban areas. This figure is expected to rise. Approximately 60% of the population is under the age of 25. The country has both a high fertility rate and a high infant mortality rate (54.8 deaths per thousand births). More than 40% of the population is illiterate. Since the signing of the previous protocol the country has dropped 2 places and is ranked 179th out of 193 in the United Nations Human Development Index (UNDP, 2021).

    Domestic natural resources have always been the mainstay of Guinea-Bissau’s economy. The contribution of agriculture to national GDP and to exports stands at 56% and 90%, respectively, and is based around a single crop – cashew nuts. One of the main challenges facing the country is to diversify production.

     

    Almost a third of public revenue came from international donors, with a third of this amount coming from the EU. The funding provided through the Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA, in its most recent version) between the EU and Guinea-Bissau as compensation for access to resources make a significant contribution to the country’s national public finances.

     

    Guinea-Bissau’s broad continental shelf, fed by rivers, and the seasonal upwelling of ocean currents help to ensure rich stocks of both coastal and oceanic fish species. The main stocks of commercial value include demersal species, small pelagic species, large migratory pelagic species, crustaceans (shrimp, including deep-water shrimp) and cephalopods (squid and octopus).

     

    Artisanal fishing, including subsistence fishing, provides a livelihood for several thousand fishermen and their families, some of whom come from neighbouring countries (the numbers vary according to different estimates).

     

    Trade in fisheries products with the EU has been impeded owing to the country’s inability to comply with EU health standards, despite its best efforts. It is hoped that the strengthening of Guinea-Bissau’s capacities in this field, thanks to the creation and – following a long process – accreditation of a quality control and analysis laboratory (in July 2014 and development ongoing), can help to change the situation.

     

    EU-Guinea-Bissau Fisheries Agreement

     

    The first fisheries agreement concluded between the Republic of Guinea-Bissau and the European Community dates back to 1980. Fleets from EEC/EU Member States have had access to fishing opportunities in Guinea-Bissau waters since that time. In 2007, both parties signed the Fisheries Partnership Agreement. Since then, successive protocols implementing the Agreement have been tacitly renewed and/or negotiated. The Agreement was suspended at the EU’s initiative between April 2012 and October 2014, following a military coup. More recently, talks on the Protocol highlighted the need for a review of the financial contributions provided in exchange for fishing opportunities for EU fleets under the Protocol.

    The current Protocol on the implementation of the Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Community and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau (2024-2029) was applied provisionally from the date of signature, i.e. 18 September 2024. This fisheries agreement allows vessels from a number of EU Member States to fish in Guinea-Bissau waters.

    The Protocol provides for fishing opportunities in the following categories: freezer shrimp trawlers; freezer fin-fish and cephalopod trawlers; small pelagic trawlers; tuna freezer vessels and longliners; pole-and-line tuna vessels:

    The Agreement is multi-species and covers tuna, cephalopods, shrimps and demersal species. The Agreement is part of a network of tuna agreements in West Africa and is one of only three multi-species agreements in the region (the others being with Morocco and with Mauritania).

    The fishing opportunities provided for in the Agreement are based on the best scientific advice available and on the recommendations of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).

    The EU contribution to this new protocol is estimated at €85 million over the 5 years, consisting of €17 million per year, of which €4.5 million will be dedicated to promoting Guinea-Bissau’s sustainable fisheries management, control and surveillance capacities, and supporting local fishing communities. 

    In addition to the EU contribution, shipowners will pay licence and capture fees to the Guinea-Bissau administration to be authorised to fish. The combination of the EU’s contribution and fees paid by EU operators puts the total estimated financial envelope beyond €100 million over the 5 year period.

    The rapporteur hopes that the new protocol will enable the EU and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau to work more closely in order to promote the sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources in Guinea-Bissau waters and to support the country’s efforts to develop the national fisheries sector and related areas.

    Recent investment by the African Development Bank and other investors (e.g. China) in infrastructure, as well as a fishing port for artisanal fishing (landing and processing) in Alto Bandim, represent an opportunity for the country, but are insufficient to meet needs. Developing infrastructure for landing, storing and processing fish for use by industrial fleets operating in Guinea-Bissau waters would be of particular importance, not only for operational purposes, but also for the development of the country’s fisheries sector, and would allow for the creation of markets, distribution and marketing structures as well as laboratories for quality analysis.

    The rapporteur is of the opinion that the Agreement should help to make the country more self-sufficient, to sustain its development strategy and to guarantee its sovereignty.

    He therefore recommends that Parliament approve the conclusion of this SFPA and its Protocol, given its importance for both the Republic of Guinea-Bissau and the EU fleets already operating in that country’s waters.

    In view of Parliament’s role and powers in this area, he considers it appropriate and necessary to adopt a non-legislative resolution on this agreement, setting out considerations and recommendations that the Commission should take into account while the current Protocol is in force (which, regrettably, it has not always done in the past).

    The rapporteur wishes to highlight the following issues, in addition to those mentioned above, as requiring particular attention.

    The Agreement must promote genuine sustainable development in the Guinean fisheries sector and related industries and activities, increasing the added value that stays in the country as a result of the exploitation of its natural resources.

    Finally, the rapporteur stresses that the European Parliament should, at each stage, be fully and promptly informed of the procedures related to the Protocol, its renewal and its implementation, as detailed in the non-legislative resolution accompanying this recommendation.

     

     

    The Committee on Budgets has carried out a budgetary assessment of the proposal under Rule 58 of the Rules of Procedure and has reached the following conclusions:

    – having regard to Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 September 2024 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union[2],

    – having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement (IIA) of 16 December 2020 between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission on budgetary discipline, on cooperation in budgetary matters and on sound financial management, as well as on new own resources, including a roadmap towards the introduction of new own resources[3], and in particular point 20 thereof,

    A. whereas the financial contribution for the entire duration of the Protocol is EUR 85 000 000 (i.e. EUR 17 000 000 per year), based on:

    (a) an annual amount of EUR 12 500 000 for access to fishery resources in the fishing zone of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau; and

    (b) a specific amount of EUR 4 500 000 per year in support of the sectoral policy of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau;

    B. whereas the implementation of the Protocol requires the use of operational appropriations, as explained below:

    EUR million (to three decimal places)

    DG MARE

     

     

    Year
    N

    Year
    N+1

    Year
    N+3

    Year
    N+4

    TOTAL

    □ Operational appropriations

     

     

     

     

     

    Budget line 08.05.01

    Commitments

    (1a)

    17.000

    17.000

    17.000

    17.000

    85.000

    Payments

    (2 a)

    17.000

    17.000

    17.000

    17.000

    85.000

     

    1. Notes that the support allocated to the Protocol should meet the objectives of cooperation in the fields of sustainable exploitation of fishery resources, aquaculture, sustainable development of the oceans, protection of the marine environment, and the blue economy; considers that this should be thoroughly scrutinised to ensure that this is done effectively during the implementation of the Protocol; notes that the support has a direct link to the principles of the Samoa Agreement, reinforcing the Union’s external action towards African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and particularly taking into account the Union’s objectives with regard to democratic principles and human rights, strengthening the Union presence in the region and the cooperation with an important strategic partner;

    2. Recommends that, for future agreements, an impact assessment of the added value and socio-economic benefits derived from the previous agreement be taken into account; considers that this assessment should guide the negotiation and renewal of subsequent agreements to ensure that they align with the objectives of sustainable development and efficient use of the Union’s financial resources;

    3. Notes that the Protocol with Guinea-Bissau was signed on 18 September 2024;

    4. Notes that the transfer of appropriations for an amount of EUR 17 000 000 in commitment appropriations and EUR 12 500 000 in payment appropriations, requested by the Commission in DEC 07/2024 and approved by the budgetary authority, has made available the respective appropriations on operational line 08 05 01 for 2024;

    5. Stresses that the financial programming of line 08 05 01 needs to be enough to cater for the financial obligations in the years 2025-2027 subject to the decision of the budgetary authority in the annual budgetary procedures; in this regard, notes that line 08 05 01 in the 2025 Draft Budget and in the Council Position on the 2025 Draft Budget include an amount of EUR 150 560 000 in commitment appropriations and EUR 135 275 000 in payment appropriations; calls for scrutiny regarding the financial programming of line 08 05 01 in the annual budgets of 2026 and 2027;

    6. Recalls that in line with Article 33 of the Financial Regulation, EU funding needs to respect the principle of efficiency and effectiveness in addition to sound financial management in order for the financial support granted from the EU budget to fully deliver on its objectives; believes that any possible circumvention of an EU Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement, including, for instance, that with Guinea-Bissau, by European boats or vessels with ownership or management links to European companies sailing and fishing under local flags poses a risk to the sound financial management and implementation of the EU budget; asks the Commission, therefore, to present an analysis of the impact of such circumventions on the efficiency and effectiveness of the implementation to the Budgetary Authority and to take corrective measures if needed;

    7. Concludes that the Committee on Budgets is in a position to advise the Committee on Fisheries, as the committee responsible, to recommend approval of the proposal for a Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the Implementing Protocol (2024-2029) to the Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Community and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau.

     

     

    OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON DEVELOPMENT (28.1.2025)

    for the Committee on Fisheries

    on the draft Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the Implementing Protocol (2024-2029) to the Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Community and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau

    (12475/2024 – C10‑0108/2024 – 2024/0159(NLE))

    Rapporteur for opinion: Udo Bullmann

     

    SHORT JUSTIFICATION

    The Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Community and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau entered into force on 15 April 2008, being tacitly renewable. The previous 5-year Protocol to the FPA entered into force on 15 June 2019 and expired on 14 June 2024.

    With a view to adopt a new Protocol to the FPA, the European Commission conducted negotiations with the Republic of Guinea-Bissau. Following these negotiations, a new Protocol was initialled on 16 May 2024. This new Protocol covers a period of five years, allowing Union vessels to access Guinea-Bissau’s fishing zone and to fish for demersal species (crustaceans, cephalopods and fish), small pelagic species, and tuna and associated species there.

    The aim of the Protocol is to provide an updated framework that takes into account the priorities of the common fisheries policy and the external dimension, in accordance with scientific advice and the recommendations of the Joint Scientific Committee and the relevant regional fisheries management organisations. It intends to enhance cooperation between the EU and Guinea-Bissau by implementing a partnership framework within which to develop a sustainable fisheries policy and the responsible exploitation of fishery resources in the waters of the Guinea-Bissau, in the interest of both Parties.

    The EU’s financial contribution allocated to the Protocol is EUR 17 000 000 per year. This total is broken down into an annual amount of EUR 12 500 000 for access to fishery resources and another EUR 4 500 000 for the development of Guinea-Bissau’s sectoral fisheries policy, which represents an increase for sectoral support in comparison with the previous protocol. 

    Guinea-Bissau suffers from chronic malnutrition that is affecting over a quarter of its 1.9 million population, and fisheries offer an important way for the country to fight this. Stretching over 200 nautical miles from its coastline, it encompasses some of West Africa’s most abundant fishing grounds. Small-scale fishing provides over 35% of citizens’ animal protein intake and employs more than 255,000 people. However, threats to the blue economy such as illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing damage the economic and nutritional potential of the fisheries. Furthermore, the weak systems for monitoring, prevalence of corruption, and lack of finances, causes lack of fishing supervision and an inability to effectively manage fish populations.

    Your rapporteur takes the view that the Protocol has the potential to promote the responsible and sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources and the development of the national fisheries policy in the Republic of Guinea-Bissau and is in the interest of both Parties. The rapporteur also emphasises the need of stepping up the control and surveillance of fishing activities in order to more effectively tackle illegal fishing. For this reason, your rapporteur is proposing that the protocol be approved.

    *******

    The Committee on Development calls on the Committee on Fisheries, as the committee responsible, to recommend approval of the draft Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the Implementing Protocol (2024-2029) to the Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Community and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

    March 21, 2025

  • MIL-Evening Report: This anniversary wasn’t meant to be easy: Malcolm Fraser and the modern Liberal Party

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Visitor, School of History, Australian National University

    Fifty years ago, Liberal MPs chose Malcolm Fraser as their leader. Eight months later, he led them into power in extraordinary – some might say reprehensible – circumstances. He governed for seven and a half years, and remains our fourth-longest serving prime minister.

    This year marks some awkward anniversaries for the Liberal Party. But this particular one is awkward for multiple reasons. There is the ruthlessness of Fraser’s quest for power, within and beyond the party itself. There is also the ambivalence of the current Liberal generation towards the memory of one of the party’s more electorally successful leaders.

    After Fraser’s time in power, he and his party embarked on very different journeys that still shape our politics today.

    How Fraser became leader

    Australian politics was pretty febrile in March 1975. The Whitlam government, narrowly re-elected in 1974, was increasingly unpopular. Inflation ran at 17.7% in the 12 months to March, and unemployment was at a post-war high of nearly 5%.

    Billy Snedden, Liberal leader from December 1972, was poorly placed to capitalise on these conditions. He had surprised many in 1974 with his strategy to block the government’s budget in the Senate and force an early election.

    But having run a tight race, Snedden lost credibility with his post-election claim that he was “not defeated” but merely “did not win enough seats to form a government”. He won a leadership spill in November 1974 but not convincingly enough to prevent another one later on.

    Billy Snedden (left), pictured here with Andrew Peacock, was unable to capitalise on the weaknesses of the Whitlam Labor government.
    Wikicommons

    A series of “unfortunate public gaffes” and unclear policy statements (on public health insurance among other things) left him vulnerable.

    Fraser, who in 1971 sternly (and famously) warned that “life wasn’t meant to be easy”, was the obvious alternative. He was a well-known frontbencher and a former senior minister. His role in the downfall of Liberal prime minister John Gorton meant he had many enemies. But as the Governor-General explained to Queen Elizabeth II in one of his confidential letters, Fraser had “a reputation of being strong, intelligent, aggressive and tough-minded”.

    Fraser studiously befriended new MPs whose loyalties were malleable, and used his portfolio (after the 1974 election, this was industrial relations) to win friends among his other colleagues.

    According to one profile, he hired a public relations firm to help him solve his “image problems” and to counteract personal criticisms from his internal rival and fellow Victorian, Andrew Peacock.

    Fraser sought to keep a clean image while his supporters, armed with the latest opinion polls, ran a backgrounding campaign described by Liberal MP Jim Forbes as “devious, unscrupulous and utterly contemptible”.

    The crunch came in March. On March 14, Peacock, who hoped to flush Fraser out, dramatically called for a special party meeting to vote on the leadership question. At a Victorian Liberal state council meeting in Bendigo that weekend, Fraser and Peacock canvassed their supporters, while Snedden gave a speech blaming his woes on the media and the Labor Party. According to The Age, a group of MPs met in Toorak that night to shore up their own positions for the week ahead.

    Under pressure on Monday morning, Snedden announced a party room meeting for Friday to settle the issue. Fraser confirmed his candidacy the next day. During four days of campaigning in which MPs pressured each other and party operatives worried openly about fundraising capacity, Snedden’s chances seemed to improve. Fraser’s supporters grew increasingly nervous and Peacock prepared to stand if Snedden lost the spill motion. The latter need not have bothered. In the end, it was Snedden who stood against Fraser and lost by a margin of ten votes.

    In search of strong leaders

    The Liberal Party has a special need for strong leaders. Gerard Henderson once diagnosed the party with a “Messiah complex”, while the political psychologist Graham Little argued that strong leaders gave parties a veneer of philosophy that could “whet the edge of political combat”. As Frank Bongiorno has more recently put it, strong leaders are those who provide their followers “structure, order and discipline” as well as “stark moral alternatives”.

    The collective psychology of the Liberal Party worked in Fraser’s favour in March 1975. There were philosophical differences between the two candidates – Snedden later told his biographer that these contests were always driven by the “difference between conservatives and liberals” – but the vote really was about the styles of leadership they offered. As first-time MP John Howard recalled in his memoir, Fraser “sounded strong and looked like a winner”.

    Fraser played the role forcefully for eight years, easily seeing off a challenge from Peacock in the final year of his government. Howard certainly fit the bill for much of his second stint as leader, and especially from 2001 onward. These men offered their followers a combination of ideological doctrine and hard-edged political pragmatism.

    In the 1980s and post-2007, the party amassed an impressive history of leadership spills in their search for a strong leader. The current leader, Peter Dutton, made a spectacular contribution with his first leadership bid in August 2018. He eventually won the prize in 2022, not necessarily because he had the strongest claim to be a strong leader, but largely due to the lack of “viable alternatives”. That has made his position awkward at times, not least following the historic Aston by-election defeat in 2023.

    Worlds Apart

    Over time, Fraser became a trenchant critic of his former party, which hardly knew what to do with him. He failed in a bid for the party’s federal presidency in the 1990s, and was openly critical of its approach to race, asylum seekers and climate policy under Howard. He resigned his life membership shortly after Tony Abbott was elected leader in December 2009.

    When Fraser died in March 2015, Abbott and his treasurer Joe Hockey led the awkward parliamentary tributes celebrating the life of a “genuine liberal”, while immigration minister Peter Dutton sat silently.

    Dutton has played a key role in distancing the party from aspects of the Fraser legacy. Fraser abhorred racism, and his embrace of multiculturalism marks him out as different from several of his successors.

    In 2016, Dutton controversially said that Fraser’s decision to resettle migrants fleeing civil war in Lebanon had been “a mistake”. He claims to have since apologised, but only to one senior member of the Lebanese community.

    Fraser’s approach to Indigenous policy was also streets apart from that of Dutton. In the early 1980s Fraser’s government, on the advice of the National Aboriginal Council, considered a Makarrata commission to begin acknowledging the history of “Aboriginal occupation” and identifying areas for “increased Aboriginal involvement” in decision-making.

    In 2024, Dutton ruled out a Makarrata commission, promising instead a more paternalistic approach to Indigenous affairs.

    In 2008, Fraser attended the Apology to the Stolen Generations while Dutton, a senior Liberal MP at the time, boycotted it. (He has since apologised for this.) During the 2023 referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, Fraser’s former ministers for Aboriginal affairs supported the “yes” campaign. Dutton was its chief opponent.

    When he died, Fraser was reported to be working on a platform for a new political party that would advocate for a Republic, a treaty with First Nations people, “a more independent foreign policy and a post-carbon economy”. In his book Independents’ Day, journalist Brook Turner suggests that some of the individuals who spoke with Fraser then are now at the forefront of the campaigns supporting community independent candidates.

    This year, Dutton hopes to win back some of those seats from these independent MPs. The coming contest may indicate that the memory of Fraser’s version of liberalism still has a place in Australia’s politics.

    Dr Joshua Black is a former Palace Letters Fellow at the Whitlam Institute within Western Sydney University, and a member of the University of Melbourne’s Malcolm Fraser Reference Group.

    – ref. This anniversary wasn’t meant to be easy: Malcolm Fraser and the modern Liberal Party – https://theconversation.com/this-anniversary-wasnt-meant-to-be-easy-malcolm-fraser-and-the-modern-liberal-party-250752

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

    March 21, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Dmitry Patrushev: 40 fishing vessels built under the “keel quota” program have been delivered to customers

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

    Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    March 20, 2025

    Dmitry Patrushev held a meeting within the framework of incident No. 42 “Fishing vessels”.

    Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev held a meeting within the framework of incident No. 42 “Fishing vessels”. It was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Federal Agency for Fisheries, other interested departments, the United Shipbuilding Corporation, shipyards and the industry business community.

    “Since October, shipyards have delivered 9 vessels to investors within the first stage of the investment quota program. Thus, at the moment, 40 vessels have been delivered to customers within both stages: 23 fishing vessels and 17 crab vessels. According to the forecast of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, another 12 should be delivered by the end of the year,” said Dmitry Patrushev.

    The construction of new modern vessels allows us to reduce costs in the fishery, which, of course, affects the reduction of the cost of manufactured products and, potentially, the selling prices.

    Among the 40 transferred fishing vessels are four trawlers. Since the beginning of the year, the trawler Mekhanik Sizov, built in 2023, has already caught more than 18 thousand tons of fish. In general, the productivity of such vessels is 2.5 times higher than that of the previous generation. The equipment on board is designed for catching and processing 60 thousand tons of aquatic bioresources annually, and various types of products are also produced – minced meat and surimi.

    Also among the leaders in terms of production volumes are the vessels Mechanic Maslak and Kapitan Vdovichenko, built in 2022, and Kapitan Martynov, launched in 2024.

    The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that the ships, the construction of which is planned to be completed in 2025, must be handed over to customers on time. It is important to ensure proper control here.

    In addition, Dmitry Patrushev instructed the Ministry of Natural Resources, together with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the United Shipbuilding Corporation, to monitor the implementation of the construction schedule for the research expedition vessel Ivan Frolov, which will be used by Roshydromet for the purpose of research by Russian scientists in Antarctica.

    The event also touched upon the issue of terminating and amending investment agreements and further securing the released shares of quotas for the extraction of aquatic bioresources.

    Following the discussion, Dmitry Patrushev instructed to continue monthly monitoring of the situation with the construction of vessels at the Rosrybolovstvo site.

    Incident No. 42 “Fishing vessels” was created to coordinate work on completing the construction of fishing vessels as part of the implementation of the mechanism for providing quotas for the extraction (catch) of aquatic bioresources for investment purposes.

    When working in the incident format, a special project management system is used, which is deployed on the basis of the Government Coordination Center. It allows for prompt coordination of the actions of participants and monitoring of project implementation in real time.

    The “keel quota” mechanism is aimed at stimulating the development of the domestic fishing fleet.

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

    March 21, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: A brief guide to vitamin and mineral supplements – when too much of a good thing can become toxic

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Dipa Kamdar, Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice, Kingston University

    KucherAV/Shutterstock

    Around half of UK adults currently take a food supplement – but vitamins and minerals are usually only needed in small amounts and too much of a good thing can be bad for you.

    Here’s what you need to know about the benefits and risks of some of the most common vitamins and minerals.

    Vitamin A

    Vitamin A aids the immune system in fighting off infections, helps you see better in the dark and is needed for healthy skin. Most people can get enough vitamin A from eating dairy, oily fish and liver. Yellow and red vegetables such as carrots and peppers, contain beta-carotene, which breaks down into vitamin A in the body. The recommended daily allowance (RDA) is 700 micrograms and 600 micrograms for men and women respectively.

    Although your body will store excess vitamin A, some research shows having more than 1.5mg a day over many years may weaken bones. In older people, this can lead to fractures as they are more likely to get osteoporosis. In severe cases, people may experience irreversible liver damage.

    If you are pregnant, you should avoid vitamin A supplements completely – excess vitamin A can cause birth defects and miscarriage.

    Vitamin B6

    Also called pyridoxine, this vitamin is needed to make healthy red blood cells and help the body store energy from food. The RDA is 1.4mg and 1.2mg a day for men and women respectively. This can be obtained by eating, for example, fortified cereal, chicken and soya beans. More than 10mg a day is not recommended as the effects are unclear.

    But taking 200mg or more a day has been linked to peripheral neuropathy – when the nerves in the body’s extremities are damaged. This can start with tingling in the arms and legs and lead to loss of feeling. In some patients the effect will stop once the vitamin B6 is stopped. In other patients, nerve damage can be permanent.

    Folic acid

    Folic acid or folate is needed to make healthy red blood cells. Good sources of folic acid include green leafy vegetables, chickpeas and fortified cereals. The RDA is 200 micrograms daily.

    In patients who are pregnant, folic acid is recommended to prevent neural tube defects like spina bifida. Doctors may prescribe higher than recommended doses (5mg) in high risk patients.

    Consuming more than 1000 micrograms (1mg) of folic acid can mask symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency, such as tiredness, tingling hands and feet, sore tongue and muscle weakness. These can indicate a vitamin B12 anaemia. By correcting the anaemia symptoms caused by a B12 deficiency, high folate levels can prevent the detection of an underlying B12 problem, which could lead to brain damage if left untreated.

    Vitamin D and calcium

    The amount of calcium in the body is controlled by vitamin D. Both nutrients help with healthy bones and teeth. Vitamin D is also needed for the immune system, muscles and nerves. Some foods like fortified cereal contain vitamin D but it is mostly made in the body when the skin is exposed to sunlight. The RDA for vitamin D is 10 micrograms. Those with a vitamin D deficiency may be prescribed higher doses.

    People with darker skin or who do not have much exposure to sunlight may benefit from taking a daily supplement. But too much vitamin D over many years can cause kidney failure and irregular heartbeats. It may even be bad for the bones.

    A Canadian study found that high doses could be linked to weakened bones. This is because high vitamin D intake causes too much calcium to build up in the body. The body starts to break down bones to lower the calcium.

    Iron

    Iron is an important nutrient needed to make red blood cells. Sources include red meat and beans. Iron deficiency is the world’s most common cause of anaemia; however, taking too much can be toxic. The RDA for iron varies depending on your sex and age but you shouldn’t take more than 17mg a day. Higher doses can be bought from a pharmacy or prescribed if there is a diagnosed deficiency.

    Taking more than 20mg of iron everyday can cause stomach problems such as vomiting, diarrhoea and pain. Prolonged use or higher doses can cause organ damage such as liver failure. This is because it builds up in the organs and interferes with normal cell function.

    Fish oil

    These supplements contain omega-3 fatty acids. Different fats are needed to support the cells in the body and also to keep the heart, lungs, blood vessels and immune system working properly. Some are essential for brain and eye development in babies. Fish oil has been linked to a lower chance of heart disease. However, studies have mixed results about how effective these really are.

    A recent study showed that healthy people taking fish oil supplements may have an increased risk of heart issues like stroke or atrial fibrillation. The benefits are mainly seen in people who already have heart disease. However, there are still benefits from eating food rich in omega-3s such as oily fish.

    The British Dietetic Association says it’s better to improve diet before considering supplements. Some groups, like infants, pregnant women and those with a diagnosed deficiency, need supplements. Different supplements have different amounts of vitamins and minerals so always read the label to make sure you’re taking the recommended dose – and avoid taking multiple supplements that could increase your intake of a particular vitamin or mineral beyond safe levels. Ask your doctor, pharmacist or dietitian to check if you need a supplement before taking anything.

    Dipa Kamdar 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. A brief guide to vitamin and mineral supplements – when too much of a good thing can become toxic – https://theconversation.com/a-brief-guide-to-vitamin-and-mineral-supplements-when-too-much-of-a-good-thing-can-become-toxic-251528

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    March 21, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: My team discovered ‘dark oxygen’ on the seafloor – now we’re trying to understand how it was made

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Andrew Sweetman, Professor of Seafloor Ecology and Biogeochemistry, Scottish Association for Marine Science

    Love Employee/Shutterstock

    Children are always asking “Why?” As they experience things for the first time, it’s natural to want to find out more. But as children grow into adults, they often dismiss something new that challenges their experience and understanding.

    This is what happened to me when I discovered a source of oxygen production in the deep sea – but ignored it for nine years.

    In 2013, I was conducting experiments to measure seafloor carbon cycling in the Clarion-Clipperton zone of the Pacific Ocean in 2013. I deployed a lander system (a remote-operated platform used to carry scientific equipment) to a depth of 4,000 metres and it came back with bubbles inside it. This was highly unusual, so two years later, when we returned to the same site, I took some optodes (oxygen sensors) with me.

    These are designed to measure oxygen consumption, but instead they were showing me oxygen production, the exact opposite of what I was expecting. Instead of questioning why I was getting these results, I dismissed the reading as the result of a faulty sensor.

    We are all taught from very early on in our education that oxygen is only produced through photosynthesis and that requires light – something in short supply at thousands of metres below the sea surface. It took me until 2021, when I measured oxygen production with a second method, that I realised we’d found something exceptional: dark oxygen – oxygen that’s produced without sunlight.

    In the summer of 2024, my team and I published our findings in the journal Nature Geoscience.



    Read more:
    Deep sea rocks suggest oxygen can be made without photosynthesis, deepening the mystery of life

    The discovery of dark oxygen has shifted our understanding of the deep sea and potentially life on Earth. But we still don’t know for sure how this oxygen is produced, and to what extent, and whether it is ecologically significant to the deep-sea ecosystems where it happens.

    In our paper, we suggest that the source could be polymetallic nodules, rock-like formations composed of lots of different metals, including manganese, which can create differences in electrical potential when interacting with seawater. We proposed that these could produce a voltage sufficient to split the seawater into hydrogen and oxygen. A new Chinese study has just shown that oxygen can potentially be produced when these manganese nodules are forming.

    More ‘why’ questions

    This year, thanks to funding from The Nippon Foundation, we will probe some of these scientific questions. If we show that oxygen production is possible in the absence of photosynthesis, this discovery would change the way we look at the possibility of life on other planets too.

    Indeed, we are already in conversation with experts at Nasa who believe that dark oxygen could reshape our understanding of how life might be sustained on other ocean worlds like Enceladus and Europa, moons that have ice crusts that limit sunlight penetration to the ocean below.

    We’re also in the process of analysing the potential of dark oxygen in the central Pacific Ocean and developing purpose-built and autonomous landers, or rigs. This will be the UK’s first opportunity to sample below depths of 6,000m. These vehicles will carry specialist instrumentation to depths of 11,000 metres, where the pressure is more than one tonne per square centimetre (that’s equivalent to 100 elephants sitting on top of you).

    We will investigate whether hydrogen is released during the creation of dark oxygen, and whether it is used as an energy source for an unusually large community of microbes in parts of the deep ocean. We also want to find out more about how climate change might impact biological activity in the deep sea.

    This project is the first of its kind to directly explore these processes. My team will be able to study the deep seafloor into the hadal zone, an area which reaches 6,000 – 11,000 metres depth and makes up around 45% of the entire ocean. This habitat, full of deep ocean trenches, is still poorly understood.

    The discovery of dark oxygen clearly has potential implications for the deep-sea mining industry. Deep-sea mining would extract polymetallic nodules that contain metals such as manganese, nickel and cobalt, which are required to produce lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and mobile phones.

    We don’t yet know how an industry such as this would affect the seabed, but our research over the coming years should help to answer many of the questions posed and perhaps better inform where the seabed should be more protected from deep-sea mining. One thing is for sure: whatever we find, I’ll try and feed my childlike sense of enthusiasm and be sure to ask “Why?”

    Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 40,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

    Andrew Sweetman receives funding from The Nippon Foundation.

    – ref. My team discovered ‘dark oxygen’ on the seafloor – now we’re trying to understand how it was made – https://theconversation.com/my-team-discovered-dark-oxygen-on-the-seafloor-now-were-trying-to-understand-how-it-was-made-250445

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    March 21, 2025
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