Category: Fisheries

MIL-OSI USA: On Senate Floor, Shaheen Speaks Out Against the Confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services Secretary
US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator for New Hampshire Jeanne Shaheen

(Washington, DC) – Today, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) delivered remarks on the floor of the U.S. Senate to oppose the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for Health and Human Services Secretary. In her remarks, Shaheen highlighted Kennedy’s troubling record of promoting conspiracy theories that put lives at risk, supporting efforts to defund critical public health programs and denying scientific consensus on public health. You can watch her speech in full here.

Key Quotes:
- “We should be taking steps right now to lower costs for families and children. Half of uninsured Granite Staters cite cost as their reason for not purchasing health coverage. More than two-thirds of [uninsured] people in New Hampshire have delayed care and another 25 percent have delayed buying needed prescriptions or said they have to ration their meds.”
- “This decision by the Trump Administration [to cut NIH funding] will cut Dartmouth’s funding by $38 million and we don’t know what future impact that would be. Will we miss the next cure for a pediatric cancer? Will we fail to advance treatments in Alzheimer’s? What we do know is that […] the job loss [and] the economic impact that will result from this decision will be devastating.”
- “Women in this country need to know that the Secretary of Health and Human Services will defend our rights to access all the health care we need. But at every turn, Republicans and the Trump Administration have pushed forward dangerous policies intended to threaten access to full reproductive care.”
- “America deserves a leader at HHS who values science, who protects public health, who defends women’s rights to reproductive care—to the full range of reproductive care—and who upholds the integrity of our country’s core health systems. RFK Jr. has shown time and again that he is not that leader. His dangerous rhetoric on vaccines, his reckless plans to gut critical agencies and lack of understanding of basic health care make him uniquely unqualified to advance the well-being of all Americans.”
Full Remarks as Delivered:

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Mr. President. I come to the floor to join my colleagues with a great deal of concern to discuss the Trump Administration’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to be the next Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

To put it very simply at the outset, Robert F. Kennedy—RFK Jr.—is unfit to lead the highest health office in our nation.

First of all, RFK has no—let me repeat, no—health or medical experience.

That in it of itself should be a red flag on this nominee who is supposed to be tasked with leading our nation’s health agency.

But sadly, that’s not where the red flags end.

From his radical and dangerous opinions on vaccines and public health, to his promises to cut medical research to his ever-changing position on women’s rights to access reproductive health care, he has proven that he lacks the credibility, the knowledge and the capability to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.

So, let’s take a step back.

When the President ran his campaign, he ran a campaign on lowering costs for working Americans. Well, where has that promise gone?

We saw today that inflation has gone up in the last quarter. It’s over 3 percent now.

And we’ve seen nothing from President Trump’s first weeks in office that addresses the high costs of health care, of food, of housing, of child care.

Two weeks ago, this Administration, including the Health and Human Services agency, halted funding across the board for programs like our community health centers and substance use treatment programs.

These centers are often the main source of health care for their community. They serve the people across the states of this country.

In our office, I heard from programs like Coos County Family Heath, a community health center that provides life-saving care to rural patients across the North Country of New Hampshire—what we call the North Country.

Their programs for training new doctors and providing services for victims of domestic violence were, and still are, at risk thanks to Trump’s executive orders and funding freeze.

And I heard from Navigating Recovery in Laconia, that’s a substance use treatment service that depends on federal funding for more than 50 percent of its budget. They’re worried about keeping their doors open.

And this is an organization with providers who will literally sit with a patient by their hospital bed following an overdose to make sure they’re getting the best guidance, the best treatment and the follow on services like housing and child care that allows them to start their recovery.

And this is a real issue for us in New Hampshire, where we’ve been hit very hard by the opioid epidemic.

The Trump executive orders and funding cuts will force Navigating Recovery to lay off staff and to curtail services should those funding cuts continue.

These are actions on the part of the White House that don’t lower costs for families – they do just the opposite.

They put people out of work and weaken our ability to care for our most vulnerable populations.

But when he was asked if he would reverse this policy, of cutting funding for programs like substance use recovery, RFK refused.

The thing is, we should be taking steps right now to lower costs for families and children.

Half of uninsured Granite Staters cite cost as their reason for not purchasing health coverage.

More than two-thirds of [uninsured] people in New Hampshire have delayed care, and another 25 percent have delayed buying needed prescriptions or said they have to ration their meds.

We could help these people right now.

We could pass the Health Care Affordability Act, which would make permanent premium tax credits in the Affordable Care Act that have cut health care costs for 24 million Americans—nearly 70,000 from New Hampshire.

Passing that bill would directly help constituents like the man in Newmarket who contacted our office.

He’s 55 years old, he’s a patient at Lamprey Health Care, which is a community health center.

He had been uninsured and avoided going to a doctor his whole life.

But sadly, he was recently hospitalized for 10 days because of complications from untreated diabetes. He had sepsis and he had an infection in his foot.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have insurance when he was hospitalized.

But luckily, Lamprey Health sat with him, helped him purchase insurance on HealthCare.gov, helping avoid potentially devastating medical debt.

These tax credits are vital to his and to millions of Americans’ ability to afford care.

But again, when asked about these tax credits, RFK refused to say that he would support extending them.

So much for lowering costs to families.

Now, if this Administration is not trying to lower costs, what are they doing to help the people they swore an oath to serve?

Last Friday, our research institutions got a notification, almost overnight, that their funding through the National Institutes of Health would be gutted.

This decision threatens our ability to find cures for diseases, to get ahead of public health crises and to hire and retain talent.

I think it was made rashly and irresponsibly without really understanding what the impact would be.

Slashing those funds won’t make research more efficient; instead, it’s going to cripple our ability to treat and cure horrific diseases.

Dartmouth College, which is in Hanover, New Hampshire, is one of our preeminent research institutions in the country.

Last year, Dartmouth received nearly $100 million in NIH funding to help with its cutting-edge research to treat diseases like diabetes, cystic fibrosis and Alzheimer’s.

This NIH decision—this decision by the Trump Administration—will cut Dartmouth’s funding by $38 million, and we don’t know what future impact that would be.

Will we miss the next cure for a pediatric cancer?

Will we fail to advance treatments in Alzheimer’s?

What we do know is that this has an immediate impact on the people living in the Upper Valley of New Hampshire.

More than 1,300 employees are supported by federal grants at Dartmouth, and the vast majority of these are supported by the National Institutes of Health.

The job loss, the economic impact that will result from this decision will be devastating.

And sadly, once those jobs are gone, and the researchers leave, there’s no going back because they’re going someplace else, they’re going overseas.

But we unfortunately know RFK that supports this decision, because he has publicly supported gutting NIH staff and research.

And if, RFK is confirmed, I fear he will do nothing to push back or to reverse these reckless decisions.

The Secretary of HHS also holds immense power over ensuring that women in our country have the ability to access reproductive health services, including abortion.

Interestingly, I thought this was something that RFK and I agreed on.

But now, I’m not clear what he supports.

He used to proudly say that he was pro-choice. But since being nominated, that belief seems to have disappeared overnight.

The only thing I think he truly believes is in his desire to do whatever Trump wants, even if it means compromising his own values.

Women in this country need to know that the Secretary of Health and Human Services will defend our rights to access all the health care we need.

But at every turn, Republicans and the Trump Administration have pushed forward dangerous policies intended to threaten access to full reproductive care.

They put onto the Supreme Court the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade.

At the state level, they have instituted draconian abortion bans that threaten the lives of mothers.

Women are literally dying—dying—from a lack of care because of these bans on our health.

This is 2025. How did we get here?

I remember before Roe v Wade. I remember when hundreds of thousands of women died from back alley abortions. And are we back to that point?

Everyone knows that banning abortion and making women seek dangerous options does not stop abortions, it makes them more deadly.

But with RFK at the helm, that’s the grim reality we face.

He’s not someone I trust to defend a woman’s right to access reproductive health care. He is not someone I want leading Health and Human Services.

Now, one of the few issues we have some actual insight into are his views on public health.

His dangerous, radical and wrong beliefs about vaccines are well documented.

Every child that gets sick or dies from a disease that could be prevented by a vaccine is a tragedy.

RFK will not only undermine public confidence in vaccines, he indicated that he intends to continue to profit from anti-vaccine lawsuits.

It’s shameful and it’s corrupt.

Now, we’ve also heard reports that the Trump administration plans to cut as much as 50 percent of Health and Human Services staff and decimate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC is our first line of defense for public health, most important, tracking and responding to outbreaks of diseases not only domestically but abroad as well.

The Trump Administration has already taken steps to gut out global health and aid efforts, from withdrawing from the World Health Organization, to cutting the CDC and U.S. Agency for International Development.

They argue that these efforts are wasteful and unnecessary.

But just last Friday, we were notified in New Hampshire that we had only the third confirmed case ever in the U.S. of clade 1 Monkey Pox—or Mpox.

The case is travel-related, meaning the patient caught the disease abroad and brought it home.

Sadly, these things, these diseases don’t just stop at countries’ border. They don’t just happen overseas. They affect us here at home.

The Trump Administration’s efforts to eliminate our public health infrastructure doesn’t make America safer, it doesn’t make America stronger and it doesn’t make America more prosperous. It does the exact opposite.

And Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is complicit. He’s complicit in these efforts, and he will only continue them should he be confirmed.

America deserves a leader at HHS who values science, who protects public health, who defends women’s rights to reproductive care—to the full range of reproductive care—and who upholds the integrity of our country’s core health systems.

RFK Jr. has shown time and again that he is not that leader.

His dangerous rhetoric on vaccines, his reckless plans to gut critical agencies and lack of understanding of basic health care make him uniquely unqualified to advance the well-being of all Americans.

I urge my colleagues to reject his nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services.
MIL OSI USA News –
February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Cassidy, Daines, Colleagues Introduce Bill to Stop Ban of Traditional Ammo, Tackle

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Louisiana Bill Cassidy
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), Steve Daines (R-MT), and 26 Republican colleagues introduced legislation to prohibit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) from banning the use of lead ammunition or tackle on public lands unless such action is supported by the best available science.
“Louisiana is known as Sportsman’s Paradise for a reason,” said Dr. Cassidy. “Federal bureaucrats who have never hunted or fished a day in their life should have no say in how our outdoorsmen enjoy our state.”
“The great outdoors is a staple of our Montana way of life. Montana hunters and anglers play an important role in wildlife management, and a ban on lead ammo and tackle would be unfair to our sportsmen. I’ll keep fighting with my colleagues to make sure decisions impacting outdoor recreation are guided by commonsense science, not anti-hunting groups,” said Senator Daines.
Cassidy and Daines were joined by U.S. Senators John Thune (R-SD), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Jim Risch (R-ID), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), John Barrasso (R-WY), Rick Scott (R-FL), James Lankford (R-OK), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Mike Lee (R-UT), John Boozman (R-AR), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Tim Sheehy (R-MT), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Katie Britt (R-AL), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Jim Justice (R-WV), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), John Hoeven (R-ND), and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) in introducing the bill.

MIL OSI USA News –

February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI China: New fish species discovered in South China Sea

Source: China State Council Information Office 2

A Chinese research team has discovered a new fish species, named Mononoke tilefish (Branchiostegus sanae), in South China Sea.
The findings were published Wednesday in the international taxonomic journal Zookeys.
Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Zhejiang University, and Ocean University of China identified the new species in the continental slope area between Hainan Island and Xisha Qundao at a depth of about 200 meters.
Huang Haochen, first author of the study, said that the new species, like other deepwater tilefish, is an economically significant species. Despite their culinary value, limited scientific research has been conducted on these deep-dwelling fish.
Known locally as “ghost horsehead fish” due to its distinctive head shape, this new species has long been recognized by fishermen along the South China Sea coast. Researchers collected specimens in 2023, enabling detailed study.
Mononoke tilefish exhibits significant morphological and genetic differences from other tilefish species. While all known specimens were collected between Hainan’s Lingshui Li Autonomous County and Xisha Qundao, the new species is believed to inhabit the northwestern slope regions of the South China Sea, according to Chen Jingxuan, second author of the study.
With this discovery, the number of known tilefish species in Chinese waters has risen to six. The Mononoke tilefish, which can exceed 40 centimeters in length, represents a rare find of a medium-to-large fish species in recent years. Further research into its biology and evolutionary history is expected to contribute to the conservation of local biodiversity and sustainable fisheries.

MIL OSI China News –

February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Baldwin, Bipartisan Group of Colleagues Introduce Bill to Protect Great Lakes

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Wisconsin Tammy Baldwin

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) joined a bipartisan group of her colleagues in introducing legislation to extend federal funding and protections for the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2025 would reauthorize the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) through 2031 and increase the program’s annual funding. The GLRI is the most significant investment to restore and protect our Great Lakes.

“Wisconsin’s Great Lakes not only play a vital role in shaping our way of life, but they also drive economic activity in countless communities up and down the Fresh Coasts and help move our Made in Wisconsin economy forward,” said Senator Baldwin. “I am proud to once again work with my Democratic and Republican colleagues to continue protecting these natural resources for the next generation of Wisconsin families, businesses, and visitors.”

The GLRI combines federal and nonfederal efforts to stop the spread of carp and other invasive species, restore coastline and habitats connecting streams and rivers, clean up environmentally damaged Areas of Concern, and prevent future contamination. While providing vital support for these efforts, the GLRI also helps ensure we can address new and emerging threats to the Great Lakes. One independent economic study found that for every dollar the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative invests, it produces an additional $3.35 of economic activity

Since its inception, the GLRI has spurred tremendous progress throughout the Great Lakes region including nearly half of a million acres of habitat protected, restored, or enhanced, a five-fold increase in the successful cleanup and delisting of Areas of Concern (AOCs), a ten-fold increase in the remediation of environmental and public health impairments, and reducing the threat of harmful algal blooms. The GLRI’s efforts have also resulted in economic returns of more than 3 to 1 across the region. Senator Baldwin has been a strong supporter of the GLRI program, leading the introduction and passage of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2019, and as a member of the Appropriations Committee, works to secure continued funding in the annual budget process.

Wisconsin is home to four existing AOCs, the St. Louis River on Lake Superior and the Fox River, Sheboygan River and Milwaukee Estuary on Lake Michigan. Because of previous investments to restore its waters through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, the Lower Menominee River on Lake Michigan was removed in 2020. Senator Baldwin supported a $1 billion investment into address AOC’s in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which the Environmental Protection Agency projects will remove 22 of 25 remaining Great Lakes “Areas of Concern” by 2030, including all remaining sites in Wisconsin.

This legislation is led by Senators Gary Peters (D-MI) and Todd Young (R-IN), and co-sponsored by Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Bernie Moreno (R-OH), Jon Husted (R-OH), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Tina Smith (D-MN), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), John Fetterman (D-PA), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL).

The legislation also shares broad support among Great Lakes advocates, including the Council of Great Lakes Governors, Great Lakes Fishery Commission, American Great Lakes Ports Association, Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, American Sportfishing Association, Ducks Unlimited, Trout Unlimited, Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, League of Conservation Voters, National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, National Parks Conservation Association, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, National Audubon Society – Great Lakes, Environmental Law & Policy Center, MI League of Conservation Voters, Save the Dunes, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Clean Wisconsin, Ohio Environmental Council, Western Reserve Land Conservancy, and Minnesota Environmental Partnership.

MIL OSI USA News –

February 13, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: You’re playing (or watching) sport and someone blurts out a racial slur. The next 60 seconds are crucial
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aish Ravi, Lecturer in Curriculum, Teaching and Inclusive Education, Monash University

In October last year, the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) launched Dealing with the Moment: Anti-Racism in Community Sport, a free online course designed to help community coaches, parents, umpires and players respond to racism in sport.

The course equips people with the tools they need to intervene effectively when racism occurs, ensuring everyone feels safe, welcome and respected.

One of the key recommendations from the course is what to do if you hear someone say something racist on the sports field.

Why racist remarks are so damaging

Racist remarks hurt more than just a player’s feelings — they attack their sense of belonging and identity on the field.

I know from my own experiences.

During my years playing various community sports as a young adult, including Australian rules football, soccer and cricket, I was often one of the only people of colour.

In those moments, I wanted my play and skills to be the focus but unfortunately, my appearance often made me stand out, which led to racist comments.

Those remarks were deeply offensive and hurtful. They made me feel like I didn’t belong or shouldn’t be there.

Racism in sport sends a harmful message: that someone doesn’t belong because of their skin colour or background. These incidents leave lasting emotional and psychological scars, even if they don’t result in physical harm.

Why I helped develop the course

I worked on developing the course to address a significant gap in how racism is handled in community sport.

The course aims to ensure all sport participants have a positive and inclusive experience and that everyone understands the importance of addressing racism immediately – in the moment.

It’s not good enough to delay action, even if that’s how it has often been done in the past. Some organisations claim that delaying action allows for thorough investigations and careful consideration.

However, this is often a strategy to protect reputations and minimise backlash rather than address the root causes of the problem.

Such delays can silence victims, perpetuate harm, and show a lack of genuine commitment to tackling systemic racism. Immediate action is necessary to demonstrate accountability and foster meaningful change.

We must do better. We need to see progress, not stagnation.

So, what should you do after a racist comment?

If you don’t have time to dive into the full course, here are the key lessons:
- the first 60 seconds are crucial: intervening immediately sends a strong message that racism won’t be tolerated and shows support for the victim
- understand racism: recognise what racism is and how it affects people. Never dismiss someone’s experience by saying it’s “not racism” or telling them to “get over it”. Just because the harm isn’t physical doesn’t mean it’s not significant
- take action: the course provides clear guidance on how to respond effectively to incidents of racism and support those affected.
Why are the first 60 seconds so cruical?

Acting early allows you to nip the issue in the bud by calling it out and intervening on the spot. It leaves no room for misinterpretation of events or for the narrative to shift.

The longer the delay, the more time it allows for the situation to be downplayed, the narrative to change, or for excuses to be made.

Ultimately, delays often result in the issue being swept under the carpet, with no one taking accountability for the harm caused.

Immediate action demonstrates clarity, conviction, and a genuine commitment to addressing racism.

Strategies for coaches, parents and officials

Everyone — coaches, parents, officials, players and spectators — has a role to play when dealing with racism. Here are some practical strategies:
- acknowledge and act: staying silent is not an option. A simple statement like “that’s not okay” sends a strong message of support and sets a clear standard of behaviour
- use your authority: coaches can address players directly, officials can stop play, and parents can challenge inappropriate behaviour from the sidelines. Everyone has the power to intervene
- educate yourself: take the course or learn more about racism so you feel confident and empowered to act
- don’t minimise the impact: never tell someone to brush it off or suggest it’s not a big deal. Acknowledge their feelings, show empathy, and take the situation seriously
- apply this to all inappropriate behaviour: these strategies aren’t limited to racism. They apply to misogynistic, homophobic, or other harmful remarks as well.
Sport should be for everyone

We live in a multicultural society – a melting pot of diverse cultures that is beautifully reflected on our streets and in our classrooms. It would be wonderful to see this diversity equally represented in community sport.

Greater representation on the field and in the stands would create a sense of belonging and allow all players to thrive, regardless of their background.

This is why addressing racism is so crucial — it paves the way for more inclusive and equitable participation in sport.

The goal is to make sport a space where diversity is celebrated, teamwork is valued, and everyone can thrive without fear of discrimination.

We can all play a part in creating lasting change.

Aish Ravi receives funding from organisations for consulting work on training and education and evaluation work. She is also on various volunteer committees advocating for change.

– ref. You’re playing (or watching) sport and someone blurts out a racial slur. The next 60 seconds are crucial – https://theconversation.com/youre-playing-or-watching-sport-and-someone-blurts-out-a-racial-slur-the-next-60-seconds-are-crucial-248671
MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –
February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI Australia: Can artificial intelligence save the Great Barrier Reef?

Source: University of South Australia

13 February 2025

[embedded content]

Australian researchers are designing a global real-time monitoring system to help save the world’s coral reefs from further decline, primarily due to bleaching caused by global warming.

Coral reefs worldwide are dying at an alarming rate, with 75% of reefs experiencing bleaching-level heat stress in the past two years.

The World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef (GBR), considered the jewel in the crown of coral reefs worldwide and one of Australia’s most significant ecological and tourism assets, has been decimated by severe bleaching events since 2016, exacerbated by ongoing crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks and coastal development.

A collaborative project led by the University of South Australia (UniSA), with input from Queensland and Victorian researchers, is integrating remote sensing technologies with machine learning, artificial intelligence and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to monitor and hopefully stall the damage to the world’s most fragile marine ecosystems.

A multimodal platform will distil all research data relating to coral reefs, including underwater videos and photographs, satellite images, text files and time-sensor readings, onto a central dashboard for real-time global monitoring.

UniSA data analyst and lead researcher Dr Abdullahi Chowdhury says that a single centralised model will integrate all factors affecting coral reefs and provide environmental scientists with real-time predictions.

“At the moment we have separate models that analyse substantial data on reef health – including bleaching levels, disease incidence, juvenile coral density and reef fish abundance – but these data sets are not integrated, and they exist in silos,” Dr Chowdhury says.

“Consequently, it is challenging to see the ‘big picture’ of reef health or to conduct large scale, real-time analyses.”

The researchers say an integrated system will track bleaching severity and trends over time; monitor crown-of-thorns starfish populations and predation risks; detect disease outbreaks and juvenile coral levels; and assess reef fish abundance, diversity, length, and biomass.

“By centralising all this data in real time, we can generate predictive models that will help conservation efforts, enabling earlier intervention,” according to Central Queensland University PhD candidate Musfera Jahan, a GIS data expert.

“Our coral reefs are dying very fast due to climate change – not just in Australia but across the world – so we need to take serious action pretty quickly,” Ms Jahan says.

Coral reefs are often referred to as the “rainforests of the sea”. They make up just 1% of the world’s ocean area but they host 25% of all marine life.

The technology will bring together datasets from organisations like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL) and Australia’s CSIRO.

“The future of coral reef conservation lies at the intersection of technology and collaboration. This research provides a roadmap for harnessing these technologies to ensure the survival of coral reefs for generations to come,” the researchers say.

The study has been published in the journal Electronics.

A video accompanying this release is available: How can we save our coral reefs from dying?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Media contact: Candy Gibson M: +61 434 605 142 E: candy.gibson@unisa.edu.au
Lead researcher: Dr Abdullahi Chowdhury E: abdullahi.chowdhury@unisa.edu.au

Other articles you may be interested in

MIL OSI News –

February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI New Zealand: Speech to New Zealand Economics Forum

Source: New Zealand Government

Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone.
Thank you Matt for the introduction and can I acknowledge the presence of former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. It’s a pleasure to have you back in the country.
It’s also a pleasure to be here to speak at this event for the third year in a row.
The world is changing. Fast. Orthodoxies are being challenged. De-globalisation, tariffs, counter tariffs, artificial intelligence, conflict, cynicism about national institutions, extreme climatic events, increasing competition for food, energy, minerals and other resources.
Leaders around the world are being compelled to act more boldly than they have for several decades.
Where once countries could take for granted their position in the world, it is now unquestionable that we need to place ourselves in the driver’s seat for our national interests.
These issues are not just the concern of diplomats, leaders and elites.
People the world over are increasingly feeling the effects of declining living standards, soaring prices, unaffordable housing and incomes that are not keeping up.
Is it any wonder that there is a growing sense that the benefits of progress are not being evenly shared or that citizens are questioning the institutions and conventions they were raised to rely on?
It’s hard not to look back on the past few decades and see complacency.
Where once there was an assumption about the inevitability of economic growth – a given to be traded off against a host of other values – that stance now seems blissfully naïve.
From the United Kingdom, to the European Union, to China, to the United States, there is a growing realisation that growth must be fought for and that, even once achieved, can easily slide away.
We in New Zealand are not immune to these trends. In fact, we are at a moment of inflection.
After three years of struggle, many Kiwis feel poorer, less financially secure and less hopeful about their futures. The cost of living is a daily concern.
New Zealanders have been through the wringer. Where once there was triumphalism about our response to, and recovery, from the COVID-19 pandemic, there is now a realisation that we are still paying the economic price for the disruption it wreaked.
The aftershocks of extended lock-downs included a generational spike in inflation and the cost of living, extraordinary interest rate hikes, ongoing disruption to migration flows, massive increases in Government debt and a structural deficit in the government books.
These blows landed on an economy that had being showing cracks for decades.
New Zealand already faced longstanding issues of low productivity growth, low capital intensity in our firms, low levels of competition in many sectors, challenges in attracting and retaining skills and talent, low uptake of innovation, declining housing affordability and a growing tail of New Zealanders leaving school without basic skills. Today, as Kiwis suffer the real-life effects of economic problems, it’s become even more urgent that we address these complex challenges.
For the economists in this room these observations about our economic problems can be understood as data points.
For many Kiwis, it is more personal, more visceral and far harder to stomach. The cost of living is too high and they need to see a path out.
Despite falling inflation and interest rates and rising business and consumer confidence, many New Zealanders tell me they still can’t get on top of their bills – even though they’re working harder than ever, that they are worried about whether they’ve saved enough for their retirement, and are concerned about their kids’ prospects should they stay in New Zealand.
My message to those New Zealanders is this: it’s tough right now, but our country has far better years ahead of it.
It’s easy to lose sight of the reasons to be optimistic, but let’s be confident about how great New Zealand’s potential is.
In a world facing multiple challenges, we have some extraordinary advantages. We’re a safe, secure country with established trading relationships and a reputation as a good place to do business. We are blessed with abundant natural resources – everything from ocean to freshwater, fertile land to minerals and temperate weather.
In a world worried about food security, we have the world’s best farmers, feeding more than 40 million people with levels of efficiency and sustainability that are the envy of the world. We have a long history of stable democracy, strong institutions and rule of law. We’ve produced world-leading scientific breakthroughs from splitting the atom to the Hamilton Jet Boat. Our entrepreneurs and innovators have converted their ideas into world-beating successes – from Oscar-winning digital effects to rockets in space.
New Zealand has what it takes to succeed, but for too long we’ve put up stop signs and road cones when we should have been putting our pedal to the metal.
Our Government’s mission is to make the most of New Zealand’s potential so we can grow the economy and ease the cost of living for New Zealanders.
Our plan is simple: remove the barriers that have held back growth and create the conditions that will allow businesses to create better paying jobs, more financial security for our families, and more income to pay for world-class education and health services.
Today I am releasing a document that shows how our Government is putting that plan into action. “Going for Growth” is a snapshot of the Government’s activity in five key areas, all designed to ease the cost of living and grow our economy.
The document identifies more than 80 separate initiatives that have been completed or are underway. Don’t worry, I’m not about to list them all.
But I do encourage you to give it a read. Going for Growth will be updated on a regular basis and we are actively seeking your feedback on its content and any actions you think should be added or prioritized.
The document focusses on five areas which are essential to improving the performance of the New Zealand economy.

Developing talent by lifting education and skills: Too many of our kids have been leaving school without the basics they need to succeed in an increasingly demanding world. This is a moral failure. It’s also a fiscal and economic timebomb. Our Government is improving our education system to deliver a better deal for Kiwi kids.
Competitive business settings: Excessive and badly-designed regulations have slowed New Zealand down, added costs and prevented too many good ideas from become reality. Several of our major sectors lack competition and consumers are paying the price. Our Government is removing red tape, reducing compliance costs and promoting competition to deliver a better deal for Kiwi consumers.
Promoting global trade and investment: New Zealand is a small country, geographically distant from many of the world’s large economies. We need to keep pursuing trade relationships and international connections not only to get good prices for our exports, but also to keep up with emerging technologies and to access the world’s talent and capital. Our Government is growing our trade relationships and rolling out the welcome mat for international investment so we can deliver better paying jobs for Kiwis.
Innovation, technology and science: New Zealand’s science system is not geared up for the future economy. Our businesses have often been slow to invest in the technology needed to make them more productive. We’re modernizing our science and innovation system so we can deliver a better deal for Kiwi businesses who want to use science and tech to grow.
Infrastructure for growth: New Zealand’s Resource Management system has been weaponised against development, adding cost, slowing things down and stopping too many projects. Despite abundant land, housing remains unaffordable for too many. Major infrastructure projects are too slow, too expensive and too few. Our Government is removing roadblocks to delivery of housing and infrastructure and fast-tracking major developments so we can deliver better living standards for New Zealanders.

Some of you will be familiar with the work we already have underway in each of these areas. Today I want to share some thoughts about a few areas where I think more reform is needed.
Number One. Driving greater competition in sectors that are vital to our national interests, including banking, grocery and electricity.
The economic impetus for this is clear. Strong competition protects consumer interests, it puts downward pressure on costs, it incentivises innovation and investment, it supports efficient allocation of resources and it drives productivity.
When I look around the business landscape today I see too many sectors where market power has been entrenched to the detriment of everyday people.
New Zealand has seen significant mergers and consolidation across major industries. Big fish have been swallowing the little fish and regulatory barriers have stopped new fish from entering the pond.
While many super-sized businesses have flourished, in too many cases the Kiwis they sell to have experienced higher prices, fewer choices and a worse deal all round.
In my view, law-makers and regulators have been far too complacent about diminishing levels of competition in vital areas. Large-scale mergers have been repeatedly allowed in major industries, with so-called efficiency prioritised over the interests of consumers.
Well-intended regulations have become a moat, stopping challengers from disrupting the status quo.
The result? A raw deal for Kiwi consumers.
The dominance of big fish has also made it difficult for many small businesses to grow into larger businesses.
We see it in the banking industry which the Commerce Commission has described as a highly profitable, two-tier oligopoly. The Government is taking action to address this.
And we see it in the supermarket sector in which three large entities, two of whom don’t compete in the same island, effectively control 82 per cent of the market.
The result, as the Commerce Commission reported in 2022, is that competition between grocery retailers is muted, profits are high, product ranges are limited and shoppers pay higher prices than people in many other countries.
In this environment it is almost impossible for a new entrant to establish a foothold in the New Zealand market.
Even if they are able to battle their way through the thicket of resource management and overseas investment regulation, they are confronted in many cases by an absence of suitable land for new supermarket developments. It has been land-banked by the established players.
Some of our best food producers also tell me they are struggling because of the duopolistic practices of the major players.
If Kiwi food producers can’t afford to keep their products on New Zealand supermarket shelves, how are they ever going to grow to the point where they can export overseas?
The supermarket lobby will find 1000 different ways to say this is not the case, but it is.
The OECD has this to say about the New Zealand supermarket sector:
“Two major players dominate the market through their portfolio of different brands. As a result, they can extract higher prices from consumers (oligopoly power) but also exert ‘oligopsony power’ on their suppliers, passing on costs and uncertainty to them, with the threat of removing products from shelves if suppliers disagree”
Studies have shown that New Zealand supermarkets were the most expensive for kitchen staples compared with the UK, Ireland and Australia.
If you doubt the findings of the OECD, research papers, or the Commerce Commission, just ask the everyday Mums and Dads at the checkout:
Kiwi shoppers feel ripped-off.
I think of PK, the Kiwi man who went viral on Tik Tok, sharing how he cried when he discovered how much cheaper the food was when he moved to Australia. I think of the parents in the supermarket aisle, putting back the chocolate biscuits as the weekly shop blows their budget – again. And I think of all those people who endure gut-wrenching anxiety as they watch their items being scanned and the numbers tallying up on the till.
The weekly supermarket shop makes up a significant proportion of most people’s weekly budget and contributes massively to their cost of living.
They deserve to know they are getting a fair deal.
Right now, I don’t think they are. I’m ready to pull out all the stops to get them a fairer deal.
The supermarkets will fight back I’m sure. It’s a fight worth having.
So what can the Government do?
Let me reassure you, we are not going to open our own grocery chain. There will be no KiwiShop.
Instead I’d like to see another competitor enter the supermarket scene to disrupt the major players, drive down prices and increase options for Kiwi shoppers.
Over the past 12 months, international supermarket chains and local investors have expressed interest in entering the New Zealand grocery market.
I want to help them succeed.
We owe it to Kiwi shoppers to help remove the barriers that could get in the way of a new entrant.
That could include removing unnecessary regulatory hurdles in the Overseas Investment Act, Resource Management Act and the entire regulatory maze; helping them to access suitable land and properties for development; helping them to attract capital; cracking down on predatory pricing and ensuring they have fair access to products.
If a new grocery chain opened up here it would deliver massive gains for Kiwi shoppers. So I’m up for actions needed to help make it happen.
At the same time, the Government must continue our efforts to hold the existing supermarket chains accountable to their customers and suppliers.
That means enhancing consumer protections and correcting power imbalances between suppliers and supermarkets. It means strengthening the Grocery Supply Code, enforcing action against non-compliance and illegal conduct, introducing a Wholesale Code to enhance access for smaller retailers, introducing disclosure standards for consumer complaints and responding to further recommendations the Commerce Commission makes.
Commerce Minister Andrew Bayly has already been pushing hard in this space. This year we’re dialling up the pressure.
The major supermarket chains should listen up: our Government is on the side of Kiwi shoppers and we will act to defend their interests.
Number two: The Government’s approach to procurement.
The Government is a huge player in the New Zealand economy. Every year it procures billions of dollars worth of goods and services.
Those doing the procuring understandably play close attention to prices. That is as it should be. We want value for money.
But getting value is not just about cost. Getting value is also about assessing the contribution particular contracts can make to New Zealand as a whole.
The Government wants the Government agencies doing the procuring to assess the value as well as the cost of contracts.
Small and medium-sized businesses say that too often they can’t effectively bid for Government contracts because of the complexity of official procurement processes.
I am reviewing the Government procurement rules that cause this and will soon be recommending changes to Cabinet. I want to ensure value to New Zealand is properly considered when government agencies are picking suppliers, ensuring a more level playing field, improving the ability of smaller businesses to bid and giving more small and medium sized Kiwi businesses the opportunity to grow and become global players.
Third, tax settings.
New Zealand must ensure our tax settings are competitive with other countries who seek to lure our talent, ideas and jobs.
We need to ensure the New Zealand tax system does not discourage businesspeople from investing in their businesses and does not deter foreign investment.
I am considering a range of proposals to make our tax settings more competitive over time.
Fourth, affordable energy.
Alongside the supermarket bill, electricity prices are a major pain point for Kiwi households. Spiking prices and uncertain supply are also a major barrier to industry and the jobs it supports.
As we look out to the world, it’s clear that those choosing to invest in manufacturing, data centers and technological parks will increasingly ask themselves: does the country that we want to invest in have secure, affordable and renewable energy?
New Zealand is pretty well-positioned for that. We already have abundant levels of renewable energy.
The question is, are we well positioned to bring on new generation at the pace needed to keep both security of supply and affordability?
That’s a question the Government is very much engaged in.
The Energy Competition Task Force has published proposals to give consumers more control over energy costs. In addition, independent reviewers will report to Ministers in the middle of the year on the performance of the energy market.
My view is that the world’s surging demand for renewable energy has changed the game. It’s time to think much more boldly about the actions the Government may need to take to incentivise new generation, security of supply and affordable electricity.
Fifth, savings.
Finally, I want to see KiwiSaver working as well as possible for New Zealanders. Commerce Minister Andrew Bayly already has work underway to enable Kiwisaver providers to make greater investments in private assets, to generate good returns for savers and ensure more Kiwi savings can be deployed for investment here at home.
I want to see KiwiSaver balances grow, both to make Kiwis better off in retirement and to grow our collective national savings. I am taking advice on options for achieving that with a view to taking recommendations to Cabinet.
Let me finish by providing you with some perspective.
Our domestic context is challenging. Internationally we are arguably operating in a more complex, faster changing world than at any time in history.
But, when I look around the world, there is nowhere I would rather build a business or raise a family than here in New Zealand.
But the world doesn’t owe us a living. We have to compete hard to deliver for our national interests and the interests of New Zealanders.
Our Government’s plan to grow the economy is about making the most of New Zealand’s many advantages, removing barriers that are holding Kiwis back and competing for our share of the world’s wealth.
This is not an abstract mission. It goes to the heart of what matters to New Zealanders.
To create better paying jobs and make Kiwis more financially secure, we must grow our economy.
To deliver better health services and schools, we must grow our economy.
To make New Zealand more resilient to global challenges, we must grow our economy.
This Government backs New Zealanders to succeed. I know you do too. I wish you a successful conference and look forward to hearing your ideas. Let’s go for growth.

MIL OSI New Zealand News –

February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Duckworth Votes Against Confirming Tulsi Gabbard to Serve as Director of National Intelligence

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Illinois Tammy Duckworth
February 12, 2025
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)—a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) and Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC)—released the following statement after the Senate confirmed Tulsi Gabbard by a vote of 52-48 to serve as Director of National Intelligence:
“Tulsi Gabbard is not only wholly unqualified for this position, but she has an extremely concerning history of cozying up to our adversaries that makes her unfit for the job—whether it’s her close relationship with a Syrian dictator who gassed his own people, her pattern of spreading Putin’s propaganda or supporting and spreading conspiracy theories. She is not the kind of person who should be protecting our nation’s secrets—but unfortunately, my Republican colleagues would rather appease Donald Trump’s worst instincts than ensure our most sensitive intelligence is in safe, trustworthy hands. With this vote today, they’re once again proving they’re willing to put our national security and the safety of all Americans at risk out of concern for their political future.”
-30-

MIL OSI USA News –

February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: Experts of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women Commend the Republic of the Congo on the Mouébara Act, Raise Questions on Women’s Access to Justice and Clandestine Abortions

Source: United Nations – Geneva

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women today considered the eighth periodic report of the Republic of the Congo, with Committee Experts commending the State on the Mouébara Act which combatted violence against women, while raising questions on women’s access to justice and on clandestine abortions in the country.

Esther Eghobamien, Committee Expert and Country Rapporteur for the Congo, said extensive constitutional, legal and public policy reforms, and strategic approaches adopted by the Congo were commendable, including the celebrated Mouébara Act no. 19 of 2022 to combat violence against women, which specifically defined discrimination against women as in article 11 for the first time. Many unique provisions of the law aligned with international human rights law and if effectively implemented, should guarantee protection for women on many fronts, including against sexual harassment.

A Committee Expert asked how the State was working with customary courts and informal justice actors to form a path for the protection of the rights of women and girls under customary law? What concrete steps were being taken to improve and enhance access to quality justice, including through the provision of legal aid and addressing awareness in the justice sector? How was the State party ensuring that the Mouébara Act was implemented, so that gaps could be closed?

Another Committee Expert said complications from clandestine abortions were responsible for up to 30 per cent of maternal deaths. Use of contraceptives in the country was very low. What specific measures were being taken to ensure people knew about the risks of early pregnancies? What measures were being taken to ensure that women facing complications relating to insecure abortions received full medical support? How was access to health services without criminalisation ensured, particularly for women involved in clandestine abortion? What measures would be taken to legalise abortion?

The delegation said work was being carried out at the grassroots level with community leaders on the rights of women. Access to justice was guaranteed under the law and bolstered via the Mouébara Act. The national action plan for tackling gender-based violence had a staff, who were also active in ensuring women had access to justice. There had been training sessions for judges and judicial staff so they understood the new laws and how their provisions needed to be applied in the courts. More than 1,000 judicial staff had undergone training so far. The Mouébara Act contained specific actions for judges, and judges received specific training on it.

The delegation said the Republic of the Congo banned the voluntary interruption of pregnancy, due to terrible past situations relating to abusive abortions in inappropriate locations. The State monitored specific cases. There had been a case involving incest where a girl was pregnant with twins and her father was responsible. In this case, to have access to an abortion, she would need to go through the courts and the judge should accept the procedure for termination of pregnancy, taking into consideration the health of the mother. These were exceptional cases, and the State was following this policy to limit any potential health problems.

Introducing the report, Inès Bertille Nefer Ingani Voumbo Yalo, Minister for the Promotion of Women, Integration of Women in Development and Informal Economy of the Republic of the Congo and head of the delegation, said many steps had been taken to enhance women’s participation in political and public life, including the national programme for the promotion of women’s leadership in political life, which strengthened the capacities of more than 3,000 women in politics, leadership, and communication. The representation of women in institutions and decision-making spheres in the Republic of the Congo was experiencing a real improvement. The Republic of the Congo aimed to be a model in the implementation of the Convention.

In her closing remarks, Nahla Haidar, Committee Chair, said the Committee was impressed by the number of legal initiatives and texts being developed by the State party and the work being undertaken on the ground to translate those texts into something real.

Ms. Ingani Voumbo Yalo thanked the Committee for the efforts and the constructive dialogue. The Republic of the Congo was committed to moving forwards to improve the wellbeing and rights of women.

The delegation of the Congo was comprised of representatives from the Ministry for the Promotion of Women, the Integration of Women in Development and the Informal Economy; the Ministry of Social Affairs, Solidarity and Humanitarian Action; the Ministry of Justice, Human Rights and the Promotion of Indigenous Peoples; the National Action Programme for the Fight against Violence against Women; the Communications and Information Technology Services Department; the Directorate of Cooperation; the Association of Women Lawyers in the Congo; the National Human Rights Commission; and the Permanent Mission of the Republic of the Congo to the United Nations Office at Geneva.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women’s ninetieth session is being held from 3 to 21 February. All documents relating to the Committee’s work, including reports submitted by States parties, can be found on the session’s webpage. Meeting summary releases can be found here. The webcast of the Committee’s public meetings can be accessed via the UN Web TV webpage.

The Committee will next meet at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 13 February to begin its consideration of the ninth periodic report of Sri Lanka (CEDAW/C/LKA/9).

Report

The Committee has before it the eighth periodic report of the Congo (CEDAW/C/COG/8).

Presentation of Report

INÈS BERTILLE NEFER INGANI VOUMBO YALO, Minister for the Promotion of Women, Integration of Women in Development and Informal Economy of the Republic of the Congo and head of the delegation, said the promotion of equal human and women’s rights was one of the major pillars of the Congolese Government’s action. Many steps had been taken to enhance women’s participation in political and public life, including the national programme for the promotion of women’s leadership in political life, which strengthened the capacities of more than 3,000 women in politics, leadership, and communication. The representation of women in institutions and decision-making spheres in the Republic of the Congo was experiencing a real improvement. There were now 100 per cent of women on the Women’s Advisory Council, 47 per cent of women in the judiciary, 25 per cent of women in the high court of justice, and 15 per cent of women credited as ambassadors, among others.

Since the last dialogue with the Committee, the Republic of the Congo had strengthened and evolved its normative and institutional framework by adopting several texts, including the law establishing the right of asylum and refugee status; the law on combatting trafficking in persons; the law on sustainable environmental management; the Mouébara Act on combatting violence against women and its implementing texts; and the law establishing the Mouébara Centre for the reception and rehabilitation of women and girls victims of violence, among others. The draft law on parity was in the process of being adopted.

Many activities had been carried out to promote and protect women’s rights, such as the establishment of the National Committee of Women Mediators for Peace; the adoption of the national strategy (2021-2025) to combat gender-based violence; the training of women magistrates in the courts of appeal on domestic violence; and the training of more than 1,000 magistrates and other judicial personnel under the jurisdiction of the five courts of appeal on the application of the Convention, the Mouébara Act on combatting violence against women, and the holistic care of victims of violence against women. The Mouébara Centre for the rehabilitation of women victims of violence would benefit from a two-hectare plot of land in the centre of Brazzaville and a budget line of two billion FCFA for its construction in 2025.

With regard to maternal and child health, the national health development plan 2023-2026 covered caesarean section and other complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, free antimalarial drugs for children aged 0 to 15 years old, as well as the care of children with sickle cell anaemia. Other strategies to combat maternal and child mortality had been developed, including the integrated strategic plans for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health 2022-2026. These actions made it possible to reduce the maternal mortality ratio from 304 deaths to less than 70 deaths per 100,000 live births over a period of three years.

Regarding the fight against HIV/AIDS, there had been a considerable reduction in the prevalence rate of mother-to-child transmission, as well as an increase in antiretroviral coverage among pregnant women, from 10 per cent in 2019 to 43 per cent in 2023. Awareness campaigns were being conducted in schools and in grassroots communities to combat teenage pregnancies in the Congo.

To improve women’s access to education, the Republic of the Congo adopted the national policy for integrated early childhood development 2022-2030; the national strategy for girls’ schooling; and the education sector strategy 2021-2030. Schooling was compulsory for all until the age of 16, textbooks were free, and wearing a uniform was compulsory to fight against discrimination against the most disadvantaged children. The positive masculinity approach to combat violence against women and girls had raised awareness among nearly 4,000 students from different departments on family life, education, gender stereotypes and awareness against violence in schools.

The Congo was continuing efforts to ensure women’s empowerment through support for women’s and mixed groups as part of the programme for the development of protected agricultural areas. Funding had been granted to women carrying out income-generating activities. The Congo had also established a public support structure for small and medium-sized enterprises, called the “Impulse, Guarantee and Support Fund”, allowing women entrepreneurs to benefit from training on entrepreneurial leadership.

Despite the progress made by the Republic of the Congo, significant challenges remained. The State was calling for multifaceted support from the international community for better management of issues related to the fight against all forms of discrimination against women and for the construction of the Mouébara Centre for the holistic care of victims of violence. The Republic of the Congo aimed to be a model in the implementation of the Convention.

Questions by Committee Experts

ESTHER EGHOBAMIEN, Committee Expert and Country Rapporteur for the Congo, said the State possessed vast oil and forest resources but still faced challenges in providing a high quality of life to citizens, particularly women and girls. Extensive constitutional, legal and public policy reforms, and strategic approaches adopted by the Congo were commendable, notably the 2017-2021 national gender policy and action plan; the promotion of women’s leadership in politics and public life (2017-2021); the UNCR 1325 national action plan on women and peace and security (2021–2023); and the celebrated Mouébara Act no. 19 of 2022 to combat violence against women, which, specifically defined discrimination against women as in article 11 for the first time. Many unique provisions of the law aligned with international human rights law and if effectively implemented, should guarantee protection for women on many fronts, including against sexual harassment.

However, key policies had expired, progress was slow, and the rights of women and girls were continually threatened by violence. It was hoped the outcome of today’s dialogue would highlight thematic areas to build a future where gender equality was tangible and accessible to all women in the Congo.

How systematic was the training for judges? Was gender integrated into the curriculum for training? Did the Congo have legal aid as a service for women? What kind of capacity building was being given to the legislator?

A Committee Expert commended the State party for the Mouébara Act, and for the Constitution, which decreed equality between men and women. Had the State party conducted an assessment on existing laws to identify legal frameworks which contradicted existing policies on equality? What efforts was the State party taking to build the capacity of judges, prosecutors and the judiciary to apply the Convention in their work? How was the State working with customary courts and informal justice actors to form a path for the protection of the rights of women and girls under customary law?

What was the situation of women and human rights defenders working on the human rights of women in the country? What concrete steps were being taken to improve and enhance access to quality justice, including through the provision of legal aid and addressing awareness in the justice sector? How was the State party ensuring that the Mouébara Act was implemented, so that gaps could be closed?

Responses by the Delegation

The delegation said the Mouébara Act was a significant legislative step, serving to resolve the different issues when it came to the protection of women. Previously there were no specific guarantees protecting women from violence. The Act allowed the State to criminalise various types of behaviour which did not respect the human rights of women. It was enacted two years ago and was increasingly being referred to and cited.

Work was being carried out at the grassroots level with community leaders on the rights of women. Departmental networks had been established in every department in the Congo, and in every department there was a network to eradicate violence against women and girls. Access to justice was guaranteed under the law and bolstered via the Mouébara Act. Gender-based violence focal points had been appointed in the courts. The national action plan for tackling gender-based violence had a staff, who were also active in ensuring women had access to justice.

There had been training sessions for judges and judicial staff so they understood the new laws and how their provisions needed to be applied in the courts. This included training on the Convention and the State’s strategy to eliminate violence against women. More than 1,000 judicial staff had undergone training so far. Regular criminal court hearings were held which allowed all those found guilty of violence against women to be prosecuted.

The Congo had been taking steps to improve prison settings, and women’s prisons were monitored and surveyed. Visits were conducted every year to ensure female prisoners were being treated appropriately. The Mouébara Act was the first comprehensive act in all of French-speaking Africa which criminalised violence against women. Steps had been taken to ensure the suspension of judges who did not fulfil their duties, to reassure all women they would receive a fair hearing. The Mouébara Act contained specific actions for judges, and judges received specific training on it.

Gender parity was provided for in the Constitution. The Congo had an Electoral Code which provided for parity and things were improving gradually. With each election, there was an increase in the number of women. There were dedicated lawyers to provide support to women during legal proceedings.

Questions by Committee Experts

A Committee Expert commended the State party on its updated national action plan on women, peace and security with four specific pillars in line with the United Nations trust facility supporting cooperation on arms regulation 1325. How would civil society and women’s organizations be engaged in the implementation and monitoring of the plan? And what about the involvement of the security sector? How did the plan align with national development priorities and the establishment of an inclusive security architecture? What steps was the State party taking to adopt a legal framework for gender responsive budgeting? What measures were being taken to enact a legal framework for women human rights defenders and ensure accountability for threats made against them? What was the timeline for the Gender Observatory?

Another Expert asked about the status of the parity law? Were there any political officials mandated to address the concept of temporary special measures? Were any studies planned to assess the impact of temporary special measures on social development? Were there any measures to address the gaps within the digital economy? What concrete sanctions had been put in place for political parties to work towards parity?

Responses by the Delegation

The delegation said parity was progressive in the Congo. It required a change in mentality and encouraging women along that path. Women needed to express their will to participate in politics, and the State was trying to raise awareness to help them not to be afraid that men would cheat and win anyway. Around 3,000 women had been elected through municipal and local elections and in the Senate. A Ministry had been established for the promotion of indigenous peoples, which was a huge step forward. The legal regime which governed the human rights commission had been strengthened. The Government had been developing a national strategy on indigenous peoples, which had led to the adoption of a national action plan to improve their wellbeing.

The Republic of the Congo had made major headway when it came to peacekeeping. As a result of the recent economic crisis, there had been a psychosis creeping in regarding peacekeeping, but women continued to play a full role in peacekeeping for the country. The current economic crisis weighed heavily on the budget of the country. A national strategy had been rolled out on transitioning the informal sector towards a formal sector. A fund was in place which would allow female market vendors to benefit from preferential rates to enable them to have access to financing which would allow them to become empowered.

Questions by Committee Experts

A Committee Expert said the Family Code contained provisions reinforcing women’s subordinate role in the household. The introduction of new laws and policies, particularly the Mouébara Act was commendable. What progress had been made under this law in addressing gender stereotypes? What efforts had the State party made to combat gender stereotypes? While progress had been made in the eradication of female genital mutilation, the practice still existed. What measures had been adopted towards ensuring the absolute prohibition of child marriage? What steps was the State party taking to eliminate harmful practices? Could data be provided on female genital mutilation for the past two years? What support was provided to victims of female genital mutilation and child marriage?

Violence disproportionately affected indigenous women and women with disabilities. How would the State party ensure regular awareness raising campaigns for women, who were the most vulnerable, to protect them against violence? What mechanisms would be put in place to facilitate the reporting of gender-based violence? What progress had been achieved under the Mouébara Act in prosecuting violence against women, particularly for indigenous women and for women with disabilities?

Another Expert said the Committee remained concerned about the lack of information available about trafficking. Information would be welcomed on the number of cases and prosecutions. Were steps being taken to improve coordination between law enforcement professionals working in the sphere of trafficking? What was being done to ensure victims of trafficking were not treated as criminals?

How were victims guaranteed access to services across the entire country? Were the services accessible for rural and indigenous women? Prostitution was not legalised in the Republic of the Congo, however, States were obliged to scrap laws which discriminated against women, including laws against women who were prostitutes. Were women who were prostitutes able to be charged with a crime? What steps was the State taking to decriminalise women working as prostitutes? What programmes were in place for women and girls who wished to leave prostitution?

Responses by the Delegation

The delegation said under the Mouébara Act, the Ministry of Women drafted an annual report which included statistics on the Act. The Mouébara Act provided for new sets of exacerbating circumstances to ensure perpetrators of violence against women were duly charged. This included law enforcement officials who tried to prevent victims from reporting the crime.

Work was being carried out to change culture and mindsets, including modernising the mindsets of women at the outset, which was no easy task. However, progress was being made, including that the Minister of Indigenous Affairs was now a woman. Significant work was being done with indigenous women to work with them to change minds in communities.

Female genital mutilation was not part of Congo tradition. Foreigners sometimes set up residence in the country and conducted this practice, and this was monitored. There had been cases at the border where young girls who had been brought into the Congo to marry were apprehended. This had occurred within the Malian community who sought young girls and brought them into the Congo for marriage. If there was a child who did not speak French, border control officers would make efforts to check the child was related to the person they were travelling with. Forced marriages were prohibited in the Republic of the Congo; however, this practice was still seen in rural and agricultural areas.

There was no specific law prohibiting or condemning prostitution in the Congo. Prostitution was very far removed from the State’s cultural values. If there were conversations about prostitution in the public space, the State was concerned they would open a pandora’s box and result in an increase in sexually transmitted diseases, which would overwhelm services. The State was aware that there may need to be a change in approach.

In 2019, the Congo had published a law on trafficking, and training was organised with members of the judiciary on this topic. Polygamy was permitted and men could have up to four wives. If couples wanted to be polygamous, this needed to be declared.

The Mouébara Centre provided services for victims, and also acted as a forum for dialogue and an opportunity to follow-up with perpetrators responsible for such acts. The Republic of the Congo had not yet implemented the law on genocide.

Questions by a Committee Expert

A Committee Expert commended the minimum 30 per cent quota for candidate lists set by the State. The number of female members of the national assembly had risen to more than 15 per cent. However, the current bureau established in 2022 included only one woman. What were the recent programmatic measures to promote women’s leadership? What had the State identified as the cause of the noticeable underrepresentation of women in the diplomatic area? What endeavours had been undertaken to increase women’s awareness on the availability of opportunities as well as the importance of women’s representation in international leadership? The State party’s efforts to raise awareness to combat gender stereotypes to overcome women’s low representation in decision-making positions were recognised. What did these campaigns entail? What were the resources allocated? Had their impact been assessed? What were their outcomes? Were the campaigns targeting the younger generation?

Responses by the Delegation

The delegation said today women were heads of villages and districts. The Consultative Committee on Women was the only body which had the right to make suggestions to the President. Work was being done to ensure that before the next election, the articles related to the percentages of women would be modified. The Consultative Committee had made several suggestions, including on women governors. Thanks to these suggestions, two women had become governors.

The Committee made it possible to promote women in science as there had been few women scientists before that. It also made it possible to prepare programmes on the education of young women and to improve the situation of girls in all schools. Without awareness raising, girls were often mocked during their menstrual cycles, so it was necessary for schools to have social workers to deal specifically with issues for young girls. This would be made mandatory in 2025 as a direct result of the work of the Consultative Committee.

The gender parity observatory had been established to monitor progress. There needed to be female candidates who were capable of representing their constituents. Work was also being carried out with political parties to ensure they were willing to put forward female candidates.

Questions by Committee Experts

A Committee Expert said the Congo had made headway when it came to issues of nationality. However, women of Congolese nationality faced issues when transmitting nationality to their foreign husbands. Would the State modify the laws in this regard? Could women transmit their nationality to their children, like men could? Was there a different level of birth registration between the different sexes? What were the outcomes of any campaigns to boost the levels of birth registration? What measures would be implemented in rural areas to boost levels of registration? Would civil status procedures be digitalised to make them more streamlined?

The State should be commended for ratifying the two conventions on statelessness in 2023, and for establishing a committee to address statelessness. What were the activities of the committee and what had it achieved?

Responses by the Delegation

The delegation said a reform was currently being debated, which if adopted would result in a new legal framework which would overhaul certain provisions in the Family Code. The Government was pushing to ensure that this reform was regalvanised and enjoyed some fresh momentum.

Failure to uphold the electoral law resulted in sanctions. Alternating lists for male and female candidates had been drawn up to beef up the success of the parity law. If parties failed to uphold the 30 per cent quota on the list, the entire list of candidates would be rejected. This meant that at the most recent elections, parties took this seriously and ensured that more female candidates were put forward, resulting in the training of 3,000 female candidates.

In the Congo, there was a Minister for the Digital Economy. In 2025, the goal had been set to digitalise all services and work was underway to deliver on this.

Questions by a Committee Expert

A Committee Expert said the Committee appreciated the State party’s commitment to advancing equality. Had the national action plan on education and its accompanying strategy been extended? Could the State party clarify why indigenous children and orphans could not be enrolled in regular schools? How was it ensured that all children had access to schooling? What was being done to increase the retention of girls in secondary education, particularly indigenous girls?

The Committee commended the strategy to increase girls’ enrolment in maths and sciences, but was concerned at the low numbers mandated for the quotas. How were girls being encouraged to enrol in maths and science subjects? What initiatives had been implemented to combat gender stereotyping and increase the number of girls enrolled in industrial subjects? Did literacy programmes aim only for the functional literacy of women? Were there remedial programmes for girls who dropped out of school?

Responses by the Delegation

The delegation said education was equal for boys and girls, and significant steps had been taken to reduce the gaps between the genders in education. There was a plan for early childhood 2022-2030 that focused on ensuring that girls stayed in school, with several initiatives, including free education and textbooks. The State also provided free school meals. To ensure girls did not drop out due to menstruation, all school facilities in the country now had toilets separated by sex. There were also showers built to allow for better menstrual hygiene. Scholarships and fellowship grants were made available to young girls who wished to pursue a career in science. Countries such as Cuba provided girls with the opportunity to pursue medical scholarships. There were vocational colleges set up to help girls who had dropped out of school.

Data indicated that as of 2020, there were more than 14,000 indigenous children, more than 7,500 of whom were girls, who were educated in the Congo. A budget was specifically set aside for the celebration of International Women’s Day. On the day, activities were organised, including for rural women.

The literacy programme covered all women in the Congo. There were four institutions in the country providing specialised education and training for children with disabilities. Students in indigenous communities benefitted from the Aura education programme, which ran until the end of primary school, or early secondary school. Once they had attained that level of education, they could then go to the same schools as other children. Educational awareness programmes were conducted with parents to ensure children were not pulled out of school to participate in the harvest.

Questions by Committee Experts

A Committee Expert said the labour law of the Republic of the Congo guaranteed equal pay for equal work regardless of sex. There were issues with sexual harassment in the workplace; could the delegation clarify the status of sexual harassment laws in the country? What strategies were in place to raise awareness about sexual harassment in the workplace? What measures would be adopted to reduce the pay gap and collect data in this regard?

ESTHER EGHOBAMIEN, Committee Expert and Country Rapporteur for the Congo, asked if there were any mechanisms which regulated the private sector?

Responses by the Delegation

The delegation said women and men earnt the same wages when they had the same responsibilities. A national strategy had been crafted to shift the informal economy to a formal economy. The Republic of the Congo wanted to boost its gross domestic product, which could be done by formalising work which previously took place in the informal sector or on the black market. The right to a retirement pension held true to all. The Mouébara Act punished sexual abuse and sexual violence in the workplace as well as public spaces, including religious institutions. Fines and punishment were doubled if this involved a hierarchical responsible official.

A new law made it mandatory for all projects to have a social, economic and environmental impact statement and review.

Questions by a Committee Expert

A Committee Expert said the leading cause of death in the Congo was HIV/AIDS, with the rate of deaths almost 50 per cent higher for women than men. Complications from clandestine abortions were responsible for up to 30 per cent of maternal deaths. Use of contraceptives in the country was very low. What specific measures were being taken to ensure people knew about the risks of early pregnancies? What measures were being taken to ensure that women facing complications relating to insecure abortions received full medical support? How was access to health services without criminalisation ensured, particularly for women involved in clandestine abortion? What measures would be taken to legalise abortion?

What was being done to reduce stigmatisation around HIV/AIDS? What measures were being taken by the State to deal with challenges in terms of infrastructure in rural areas? What was the overall number of persons benefitting from the universal health insurance fund, and how many were women and girls? What measures had been put into place by the State to ensure indigenous women had access to safe drinking water?

Responses by the Delegation

The delegation said there was a programme for sexual and reproductive health which had been reintroduced in schools. The State ensured the promotion of modern contraceptives and ensured they were free of charge in health centres. The Republic of the Congo banned the voluntary interruption of pregnancy due to terrible past situations relating to abusive abortions in inappropriate locations. The State monitored specific cases. There had been a case involving incest where a girl was pregnant with twins and her father was responsible. In this case, to have access to an abortion, she would need to go through the courts and the judge should accept the procedure for termination of pregnancy, taking into consideration the health of the mother. These were exceptional cases, and the State was following this policy to limit any potential health problems.

Questions by Committee Experts

ESTHER EGHOBAMIEN, Committee Expert and Country Rapporteur for the Congo, said women found it difficult to participate equitably in the socio-economic development of the country. Unfortunately, poverty remained a leading cause of social exclusion for women. Existing and planned support programmes to help women entrepreneurs access finance and microfinance, develop their businesses, and provide services tailored to meet the needs of rural women were commendable.

What measures were being taken to enhance social protection systems for Congolese women, especially those in the informal sector and vulnerable groups? How did the Government plan to address financial and infrastructural challenges which hindered women’s access to social services? Would the State party consider ratifying key International Labour Organization conventions? What programmes existed to support women in core economic sectors such as energy, oil and gas, the extractive industry, and the blue economy in the Congo. What measures were in place to strengthen the private sector’s accountability to the Committee?

Another Expert commended the State party for progress registered in advancing the rights of rural women and women in agriculture. What concrete efforts was the State party taking to mobilise adequate financing to increase equal access to electricity and clean energy and technology for women and girls, especially women and girls in rural areas, women with disabilities, indigenous women, women living in poverty, and refugee, migrant, and asylum-seeking women and girls? What efforts was the State party taking to increase access to inclusive water hygiene and sanitation programmes and activities in all parts of the country? To what extent were women and girls in rural areas; refugee, migrant and asylum-seeking women and girls; those living in poverty; and women and girls with disabilities involved in the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of rural and agricultural developmental programmes that were meant to benefit them?

Responses by the Delegation

The delegation said the President of the Republic of the Congo was a champion of environmental causes. Steps had been taken to ensure women were playing their full role in climate action. A fund was in place for the artisanal sector, which was also available to female artisans. The medical insurance fund covered the needs of women in the informal sector. At the rural level, the programme “water for all” encouraged the use of solar resources to achieve water and electricity goals. Women benefited from credits and loans and women entrepreneurs had access to a fund which provided cash transfers.

A project was currently underway which would be launched in specific zones, focusing on environmental protection. It aimed to be a grassroots project with ownership by the local communities, including indigenous communities. There were interschool competitions to encourage all pupils to take an interest in sports. There were also sporting academies for girls, particularly a handball academy, which was popular in the country. There was a project involving 300 women who would undergo a self-defence training course, as a way of tackling violence against women. The gender dimension was included throughout the environmental framework.

Questions by a Committee Expert

A Committee Expert said adultery was illegal for men and women, but sanctions were harsher for women. In the absence of an agreement between the spouses, the husband would choose the place of residence for the family. How did the State ensure that customary marriages were recorded in the civil registry and all married women enjoyed the same rights when it came to civil procedures? What was the status of the current review process and the adoption of the code for the family? What training was provided to those in the administration of justice to intervene in cases of child marriage? The situation surrounding widows were very precarious, and they were not covered by the law. What awareness raising activities were being undertaken to eradicate discriminatory practices against widows? When would the new legal provisions be ready?

Responses by the Delegation

The delegation said there were several provisions within the Mouébara Act which focused on the rights of widows, ensuring they could not be thrown out of the home. Efforts were also being undertaken to make women more aware of their rights, so they could invoke the Act. The State was reviewing legal instruments, including the Family Code, which would take into account the Committee’s concerns. There could be no official marriage which was just a customary marriage; however, steps were taken to ensure customary marriage was protected in law. The Mouébara Act addressed discrimination while the State was waiting for the new codes to be adopted.

A review of several codes was being carried out. Since 2022, the law relating to the Penitentiary Code was published. The Committee’s concerns would be taken into account as this work continued.

Today everyone understood across the country that widows should be left alone, that their succession rights needed to be ensured, and that children should stay with their mothers.

Closing Remarks

NAHLA HAIDAR, Committee Chair, said the Committee was impressed by the number of legal initiatives and texts being developed by the State party and the work being undertaken on the ground to translate those texts into something real. The Committee was grateful for the dialogue which had helped the Experts better understand the situation of women and girls in the Republic of the Congo.

INÈS BERTILLE NEFER INGANI VOUMBO YALO, Minister for the Promotion of Women, Integration of Women in Development and Informal Economy of the Congo and head of the delegation, thanked the Committee for the efforts and the constructive dialogue. The Republic of the Congo had carried out many efforts to protect the rights of women, particularly the Mouébara Act, which was innovative and binding and was a first in Africa. The State was proud of this law, which filled the existing legal gaps relating to specific protection and took into account the definition of all forms of violence. The Republic of the Congo was committed to moving forwards to improve the wellbeing and rights of women.

Produced by the United Nations Information Service in Geneva for use of the media;
not an official record. English and French versions of our releases are different as they are the product of two separate coverage teams that work independently.

CEDAW25.008E

MIL OSI United Nations News –

February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI NGOs: London: Activists stage ‘Ecocide Babe’ stunt outside courts as Shell trial begins

Source: Amnesty International –

Photo op: Activist to hold a ‘baby’ that has simulated crude oil congealed around its mouth highlighting the public health impact of environmental devastation caused by Shell in Nigeria

Location & date: Royal Courts of Justice, Thursday 13 February at 9am

Ogale and Bille communities vs Shell trial starts that day

On Thursday 13 February, Amnesty International UK, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), AFRICA: Seen & Heard and Justice 4 Nigeria are marking the start of the Ogale and Bille communities vs Shell trial with the stunt ‘Ecocide Babe’ by British-Nigerian artist-activist The Crude Madonna outside the Royal Courts of Justice.

In the performance, The Crude Madonna – representing Niger Delta womanhood and resistance – will wear traditional Nigerian dress and gold-painted Shell-shaped medallions saying ‘hell’ and ‘oil’ coated with ‘crude oil’ and hold the Ecocide Babe Alera (which means ‘it is enough’ in the local Khana language) with crude oil congealed around the baby’s mouth.

Created by artists The Crude Madonna and THE DnA FACTORY MRSS, the Ecocide Babe symbolises the devastating effect of oil pollution on fertility, pregnancy and infant health in the region as well as its overall impact on communities and the environment caused by Shell’s 60 years of oil spills and leaks due to poorly maintained pipelines, wells and inadequate clean-up attempts that have ravaged the health and livelihoods of many of the 30 million people living in the Niger Delta – most of whom live in poverty.

This is the first stage of the trial that will take place in London throughout 2025. More than 13,500 Ogale and Bille residents in the Niger Delta have filed claims against Shell over the past decade demanding the company clean up oil spills that they say have wrecked their livelihoods and caused widespread devastation to the local environment. They can’t fish anymore because their water sources, including their wells for drinking water, are poisoned and the land is contaminated which has killed plant life, meaning communities can no longer farm.

Shell plc is domiciled in London and should be legally responsible for the environmental failures of its subsidiary company, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria. 

Details of event

Who: Amnesty International UK, Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, AFRICA: Seen & Heard and Justice 4 Nigeria

What: Spokespeople available for comment, and photo opportunity outside court. Supporters will hold a banner and placards saying: ‘Shell: Own up, Clean up, Pay up’.

Where: Royal Courts of Justice, the Strand, London, WC2A 2LL

When: Thursday 13 February. Photo opportunity 9:00-10:30am; court proceedings start at 10:30am.

MIL OSI NGO –

February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Tuberville Gets Gavel for HELP Subcommittee on Education and the American Family

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator Tommy Tuberville (Alabama)
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) today announced he will serve as Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee on Education and the American Family. Last Congress, Sen. Tuberville served as Ranking Member of this Subcommittee, which was previously the Subcommittee on Children and Families. As Chairman, one of Senator Tuberville’s first actions was renaming the Subcommittee to reflect two things Alabamians hold dear: education and family values.
As Chairman, Senator Tuberville will empower parents to make the best educational decisions for their children, fight to preserve Title IX protections for women and girls, end woke curriculum in schools, and invest in workforce development and job training programs to set our young people up for success.
Senator Tuberville made the following statement about his appointment as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Education and the American Family:
“As a former educator, coach, and mentor for more than 40 years, I know firsthand that education is the key to unlocking opportunity. Unfortunately, our education system has been failing our kids. As of the most recent data, we’re 26th in the world in math and 6th in reading. That’s unacceptable.
As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Education and the American Family, I am laser-focused on creating more high-quality education options for students that fit their unique needs and unlock their God-given potential, rather than forcing everyone into a one-size-fits-all system. This is why I’ve consistently advocated for school choice during my time in the U.S. Senate.
I will also continue fighting to protect women’s sports and ensure Title IX protections remain in place for women and girls everywhere. Title IX is one of the best pieces of legislation to ever come through Congress, however, it has been under attack. Thanks to President Trump’s Executive Order, women and girls’ sports are now protected, but Executive Orders can be reversed. I will keep fighting for the Senate to pass my bill, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, to make President Trump’s Executive Order permanent.
We also need to get rid of woke gender ideology, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and Critical Race Theory (CRT) curriculum that has infected our schools. Children should be able to go to school and learn to read, write, and think for themselves—not be indoctrinated by a left-wing agenda. President Trump made it clear on day one in office that there are two genders—male and female—and divisive, racist DEI ideology has no place in America.
On the higher education side, our country needs to do a much better job of preparing students to enter the workforce. That starts by recognizing not everyone needs to attend a traditional four-year college, but everyone has the right to such an opportunity. Career and technical education programs like dual enrollment, apprenticeships, and short-term certifications should be recognized as the respectable paths for opportunity that they are, not treated as second-rate.”
Subcommittee on Education and the American Family:
The Senate Subcommittee on Education and the American Family is tasked with all issues involving children and families, including education, child care and support, foster care and adoption, youth mental health, workforce development and more.
As Ranking Member on this subcommittee, Senator Tuberville will be well-positioned to work on these Alabama-specific issues:
Empowering Alabama parents and families to make the best educational choices for their children.
Fighting to preserve Title IX protections for women and girls everywhere.
Getting rid of woke gender ideology, DEI, and anti-American CRT teaching in our schools.
Investing in workforce education and job training to ensure students are prepared to enter the workforce.
Senator Tuberville will also serve on the HELP Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety.
Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety:
The Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety is tasked with workplace education and training, worker health and safety, wage and hour laws, and workplace flexibility.
Senator Tuberville’s position on this subcommittee will enable him to work on these Alabama-specific issues:
Empowering effective workforce development programs to grow Alabama’s workforce.
Protecting Alabama’s economy from federal overreach that would undermine innovation and growth in the labor sector.
Ensuring Alabama’s industries can partner with local education institutions to help build the workforce of the future.
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, Aging, and HELP Committees.

MIL OSI USA News –

February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: European Union to support the development of a new multipurpose seaport on Kiritimati Island
Source: European Investment Bank
- EIB Global, with €2.5 million (AUD 4.1 million) in EU-backed technical assistance, will oversee the feasibility study to assess the construction of a multipurpose seaport and wave breaker.
- The study will evaluate the project’s technical, environmental and social viability for implementation on Kiritimati (Christmas) Island, Kiribati.
- This initiative is a key part of the EU’s Global Gateway strategy, enhancing infrastructure and connectivity in the Pacific region.
- Upon completion, EIB Global, alongside development partners, will consider the project for potential financing.
The European Investment Bank (EIB Global) and the Delegation of the European Union to the Pacific have signed a €2.5 million (AUD 4.1 million) contribution agreement to provide technical assistance for a feasibility assessment of the construction and operation of a multipurpose seaport and wave breaker on Kiritimati (Christmas) Island, Kiribati, in the Pacific Ocean.

Managed by EIB Global, this EU-funded technical assistance will finance feasibility, environmental and social studies to assess the port’s viability and potential impact, while identifying solutions to enhance maritime infrastructure to support fishing vessel transshipment, commercial container shipping, and tourism. The initiative aims to strengthen trade connectivity, drive sustainable economic growth and improve climate resilience in the region.

This initiative aligns with the European Union’s Global Gateway strategy, which aims to enhance connectivity between Europe and key global regions. The new port will strengthen Kiribati’s role as a strategic trade hub and support the development of essential logistics and transportation infrastructure, driving economic growth and regional integration.

EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle, who is in charge of EIB operations in the Pacific, said: “The European Investment Bank is proud to support Kiribati in exploring the potential of a new multipurpose seaport on Kiritimati Island. This project reflects our strong commitment to combating climate change and enhancing sustainable infrastructure and connectivity in the Pacific region under the European Union’s Global Gateway strategy. By assessing the technical, environmental and social feasibility of the port, we aim to lay the groundwork for improved trade opportunities, economic growth and climate resilience. We look forward to working closely with our partners to bring this initiative to fruition.”

The Ambassador of the European Union to the Pacific, Her Excellency Barbara Plinkert said: “The European Union is committed to fostering sustainable development and regional connectivity, and the Kiritimati Island seaport project is a significant step towards achieving these goals. Through the European Union’s Global Gateway initiative, we support infrastructure that strengthens trade and enhances climate resilience in the Pacific. This feasibility study, supported by EIB Global, exemplifies our collaborative approach with partners to support the advancement of the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent and build a more interconnected, resilient and prosperous Pacific region.”

Background information:

The European Investment Bank (ElB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. It finances investments that contribute to EU policy objectives.

EIB Global is the EIB Group’s specialised arm devoted to increasing the impact of international partnerships and development finance, and a key partner in Global Gateway. We aim to support €100 billion of investment by the end of 2027, around one third of the overall target of this EU initiative. With Team Europe, EIB Global fosters strong, focused partnerships, alongside fellow development finance institutions and civil society. EIB Global brings the EIB Group closer to people, companies and institutions through our offices around the world.

Global Gateway is the European Union’s strategy to reduce the worldwide investment gap, boost smart, clean and secure connections in the digital, energy and transport sectors, and strengthen health, education and research systems. The Global Gateway strategy embodies a Team Europe approach that brings together the European Union, EU Member States and European development finance institutions. It aims to mobilise up to €300 billion in public and private investments between 2021 and 2027, creating essential links rather than dependencies, and closing the global investment gap.
MIL OSI Europe News –
February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: India’s Cultural Influence Across the Indian Ocean Region Stems from its rich Cultural, Intellectual and Knowledge Traditions: Union Minister Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat

Source: Government of India

India’s Cultural Influence Across the Indian Ocean Region Stems from its rich Cultural, Intellectual and Knowledge Traditions: Union Minister Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat

From Ancient Trade Winds to Modern Maritime Security: ‘Monsoon’ Conference Explores India’s Expanding Indian Ocean Role

Posted On: 12 FEB 2025 9:42PM by PIB Delhi

In the backdrop of India’s growing maritime partnerships and security initiatives, the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) is organizing a two-day international conference in collaboration with the Advanced Study Institute of Asia ( ASIA) at SGT University titled ‘Monsoon: The Sphere of Cultural and Trade Influence’. ‘Project Mausam’, is an Indian transnational initiative under the Ministry of Culture. This conference, exploring historical and cultural connections among Indian Ocean nations through maritime interactions, will highlight India’s central role in shaping trade, traditions, and connectivity across the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). The inaugural session of the conference began today at IGNCA, New Delhi, and will continue until 13^th February 2025. Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Minister Minister of Culture and Tourism, graced the occasion as the Chief Guest, with a keynote address by Dr. Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and a welcome address by Dr. Sachchidanand Joshi, Member Secretary, IGNCA. Prof. Amogh Rai, Research Director, ASIA, SGT University, and Dr. Ajith Kumar, Director of Project Mausam, were also present during the inaugural session.

Union Minister of Culture and Tourism, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, while speaking at the inaugural session, highlighted the deep interlinkages between India and the region, emphasising that India’s cultural influence across the Indian Ocean Region stems from its rich cultural, intellectual, and knowledge traditions. He noted that this influence stemmed not only from commerce and trade but also from India’s intellectual prowess and golden prosperity. He remarked that the footprints of India’s cultural impact are visible among those who came as students, monks, or even as aggressors, carrying with them the essence of India’s cultural progress, fostering diversity and unity over thousands of years. He also spoke about the unique vision of ‘Project Mausam’ to showcase a Transnational Mixed Route of Natural and Cultural Heritage, stating, “The world realises that culture is the factor that unites us all.”

The initiative is particularly timely, as India and France recently concluded their Maritime Cooperation Dialogue in New Delhi, agreeing on joint measures to assess and counter threats to maritime security in the IOR. These threats include piracy, maritime terrorism, smuggling, illegal fishing, hybrid and cyber threats, and marine pollution. Oman will also be hosting the 8^th edition of the Indian Ocean Conference from February 16-17, focusing on ‘Voyages to New Horizons of Maritime Partnership’. Simultaneously, the Indian Navy’s 2025 capstone Theatre Level Operational Exercise (TROPEX) is underway, showcasing India’s preparedness in the Indian Ocean.

‘Project Mausam’ not only emphasizes India’s historical maritime influence but also resonates with the nation’s evolving geopolitical strategy in the region. The conference will focus on key themes such as ancient navigational routes, port city networks, and coastal settlements. By integrating tangible and intangible cultural heritage, the project highlights India’s continued leadership in fostering connectivity and maritime partnerships, contributing to UNESCO’s maritime heritage studies.

Dr. Vinay Sahasrabuddhe in his address emphasised the cultural foundations of India-Southeast Asia relations, calling for intellectual and emotional investment to integrate Southeast Asia into India’s popular consciousness. Noting that cultural bonds need revitalisation, he highlighted the monsoon as a symbol of enduring connections and urged moving beyond Eurocentric perspectives. He advocated deepening cultural engagement through the Act East policy to ‘Attract East’ by strengthening cultural, strategic, and economic ties. He also called for reinforcing Dharma-Dhamma relations, reviving shared epics, promoting collaborative art and craft, advancing educational and technological exchanges, addressing climate change, and building linguistic bridges.

Dr. Sachchidanand Joshi said that IGNCA’s area studies in South and Central Asia led to the development of Vrihattar Bharat to explore cultural routes and linkages, expanding beyond the initially identified 39 countries. He noted that over 70 countries share cultural heritage with India. Emphasising international cooperation, as reflected in the G20 summit’s motto, ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, he highlighted that IGNCA’s efforts were ongoing, with the conference serving as a catalyst to expand these studies.

Prof. Amogh Rai expressed his views on the monsoon as both a physical and cultural force, highlighting its role as a cultural multiplier and the conference’s potential for further research. Dr. Ajith Kumar concluded the inaugural session by extending a formal vote of thanks and emphasising the cultural unity between India and Southeast Asian countries.

IGNCA’s international conference aims to foster deeper cultural diplomacy, with academic collaborations and heritage conservation paving the way for future policy dialogues. This dialogue aligns seamlessly with India’s evolving maritime strategies and international partnerships.

***

Sunil Kumar Tiwari

pibculture[at]gmail[dot]com

(Release ID: 2102534) Visitor Counter : 16

MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Eyes to the Skies for the N.C. Bird Count at Aquarium
Source: US State of North Carolina

Headline: Eyes to the Skies for the N.C. Bird Count at Aquarium

Eyes to the Skies for the N.C. Bird Count at Aquarium
jejohnson6
Wed, 02/12/2025 – 14:18

KURE BEACH
All eyes will be on the skies Friday, Feb. 14, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. as the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher (NCAFF) hosts the Great Backyard Bird Count. NCAFF environmental educators will inspire the community to join the count and launch newly minted bird counters on an exciting journey to earn an NC Bird Count badge. Special activities throughout the day offer an exciting time for anyone and everyone to help scientists gather information on birds in the state to support their conservation. Visitors will be able to walk out the doors of the Aquarium or use binoculars at the birding window to start counting right away.

Science Across NC
There will be four days of bird counting! The North Carolina Bird Count, organized by Science Across NC, runs Feb. 14-17, and includes more than 30 organizations across the state. This is a good excuse and a unique opportunity for people to experience the natural world happening in their own neighborhood.

“Birds are important species to observe, because healthy habitats for birds are also healthy homes for many other animals. Birds are also fun to watch, because they are usually easy to find and active throughout the year,” said Sammy Calderon, NCAFF environmental educator.

Take the First Step
Anyone can participate in the count, and it takes only a few steps to get plugged into the action. The first step is to create a free eBird account through the Cornell Lab of Ornithology ebird.org or their app, available for Android and Apple. Then, it’s just a matter of visiting a favorite spot to watch birds and enter the information into the app.

“The more people who join the count, the better,” said Calderon. “We are excited about inspiring the community to participate in the count and also take conservation action like turning off lights to reduce light pollution for migrating birds, among other ways to protect them.”

How to Protect Songbirds
- Use bird-friendly window treatments
- Turn off lights at night to reduce light pollution for migrating birds.
- Purchase certified Bird Friendly© coffee to preserve neotropical bird wintering grounds.
- Keep cats indoors to prevent predation of songbirds.
- Select grass-fed beef to help save grassland birds.
- Purchase certified sustainable paper products to help preserve the nesting grounds of boreal forest songbirds. Better yet, choose reusable items.
Why it Matters
Bird count is a big help in identifying local bird populations, migration patterns and other data that supports the conservation of birds. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the first-ever comprehensive assessment of net population changes in the U.S. and Canada reveals across-the-board declines that scientists call “staggering”:
- All told, the North American bird population is down by 2.9 billion breeding adults, with devastating losses among birds in every biome.
- Forests alone have lost 1 billion birds.
- Grassland bird populations collectively have declined by 53%, or another 720 million birds.
AZA SAFE: Saving Animals from Extinction
NCAFF is accredited through the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA), a non-profit organization dedicated to the highest standards in the areas of conservation, animal welfare, education, science and recreation. Another way the Aquarium team supports bird conservation is through AZA SAFE: North American Songbirds (NAS). NAS is part of the AZA SAFE: Saving Animals from Extinction program. SAFE NAS focuses on more than 300 species in the order Passeriformes that spend part of their annual cycle in North America. Songbird population declines in North America persist because of habitat loss, climate change, building collisions, and predation from outdoor domestic cats.

For more information, visit Count Birds With Us, contact Sammy Calderon or call 910-772-0500.

Online Tickets Required
While at the Aquarium, visitors will also find immersive experiences including two families of Asian small-clawed otters, a couple of alligators and a 235-000-gallon habitat with two sand tiger sharks. The Bird Count activities are included with admission. Online reservations are required to visit the Aquarium at NCAFF Tickets.

About the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher
The North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher is just south of Kure Beach, a short drive from Wilmington, on U.S. 421. The site is less than a mile from the Fort Fisher ferry terminal. Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Admission: $12.95 ages 13-61; $10.95 children ages 3-12; $11.95 seniors (62 and older) and military with valid identification; EBT card holders: $3 for adults and $2 for children ages 3-12. Free admission for children 2 and younger and N.C. Aquarium Society members and N.C. Zoo members. General information: ncaquariums.com/fort-fisher
Feb 10, 2025

MIL OSI USA News –
February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Cantwell Introduces Coast Guard Reauthorization Bill, Secures Wins for WA Environment & Tribes

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Washington Maria Cantwell
02.12.25
Cantwell Introduces Coast Guard Reauthorization Bill, Secures Wins for WA Environment & Tribes
Bill would authorize USCG “Whale Desk” for additional 2 years to help ships steer clear of Puget Sound Orcas and other whales
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, introduced the bipartisan Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025 that would reauthorize $30.45 billion for the U.S. Coast Guard for Fiscal Years 2025 and 2026.
“This legislation prioritizes the Coast Guard’s most important asset—the men and women of the Coast Guard, and their families,” said Sen. Cantwell. “The bill drives much needed reforms that will help prevent sexual assault and sexual harassment throughout the Coast Guard, including establishing confidential reporting, strengthening protective orders, expanding access to care for victims, and stronger accountability for leadership. Admiral Fagan made great progress during her term, and the next Commandant will need to continue to be a steady force that stands up for service members.
“The bill also establishes a new Vice Admiral dedicated to improving recruitment, health care and child care for members. The bill also increases funding for core Coast Guard missions such as shipbuilding and cracking down on illegal fishing and drug smuggling.”
Among many important provisions, the legislation includes historic protections for sexual assault and harassment, boosts workforce development programs and availability of affordable housing, increases funding to help U.S. Coast Guard deliver on critical priorities such as icebreakers and 52-foot heavy-weather lifeboats, raises penalties for abandoned and derelict vessels, and encourages more collaboration with Tribes.
The legislation authorizes $14.93 billion for FY25 and $15.51 billion for FY26. The full bill text of the bipartisan U.S. Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025 is available HERE.
Sen. Cantwell secured language for programs critical to Washington state in the legislation. Among those provisions, her bipartisan legislation:
Expands Affordable Housing Opportunities: Allows the Coast Guard to acquire housing that is available both on the market and in new housing construction programs. This is particularly important in coastal areas — like Cape Disappointment, Grays Harbor, and Port Angeles — where Coast Guard families face a difficult time accessing affordable, quality housing due to competition with seasonal rentals and other challenges associated with remote units. This bill also expands the Coast Guard’s ability to enter into long-term leases for medical facilities, child development centers, and training facilities to expand access to services for Coast Guard families while reducing administrative overhead expenses and allowing for additional improvements to these facilities.
Increases Federal Funding to Deliver on Icebreakers and Heavy Weather Lifeboats: The legislation increases authorized funding by 30% compared to 2024 appropriated funding levels, which will help the Coast Guard deliver on critical priorities such as polar icebreakers, 52-foot heavy-weather lifeboats, and other priority acquisition programs.
Seattle will be home for the Coast Guard’s fleet of 3 polar icebreakers.
Sen. Cantwell recently toured U.S. Coast Guard Station Disappointment, where the future fleet of heavy-weather lifeboats will be homeported to support search and rescue missions, which is critical to safety of people working in the fishing and maritime sector in Pacific and Grays Harbor counties. In 2023, Sen. Cantwell secured a downpayment of $12 million to replace the heavy-weather boats in the 2023 Appropriations Act.
Creates the First-Ever Tribal Advisor: Creates a new senior position within the Coast Guard to advise the Commandant and other Coast Guard leaders on how the Coast Guard can work more closely with Tribes. The new Special Advisor would also be charged with ensuring the Coast Guard upholds trust responsibilities to tribal governments, improving tribal engagement and consultation activities, and ensuring that Tribes have a voice on Coast Guard programs that impact tribes including oil spill preparedness and response, fisheries oversight, and the protection of natural resources.
Boosts Local Tribal Partnerships to Improve Conservation: Provides the Coast Guard with new authorities to support habitat conservation and other resilience projects with state, local, and tribal governments. This important new authority would ensure tribes and other organizations can partner with the Coast Guard to protect treaty fishing rights and maintain access to cultural and natural resources.
Reauthorizes the Whale Desk: Extends the Whale Desk at Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound by two years, through FY2028. Authored by Senator Cantwell in the Coast Guard Reauthorization Act of 2022, the “Whale Desk” at Sector Puget Sound gives vessel operators and mariners near real-time data about the location of whales to reduce encounters that disturb whales, including noise pollution and ship strikes. The pilot program also includes a “hotline” where callers can report whale sightings in real time. The data collected will be valuable for researchers who track whale migration patterns.
According to the Coast Guard, 75 whale sightings have been reported to the Sector Puget Sound Whale Desk since its opening in December 2023.
Sen. Cantwell helped celebrate the launch of the Whale Desk in February 2024. Photos and videos are available HERE and HERE.
Supports the Commercial Fishing and Maritime Industries: Continues to authorize the use of a satellite tracking system to mark fishing gear locations, which ensures gear is not lost and avoids potential damage by derelict gear. It also supports fishing vessels engaging in temporary towing operations as part of salmon hatchery development in Alaska. The bill also creates new training and credentialing opportunities for qualified mariners, veterans, and the general public seeking to become mariners. It also expedites processing times for merchant mariner licensing documents to help close this critical workforce gap.
Maps Arctic Maritime Routes: The Bering Sea is expected to see increased fishing, commercial, and other vessel traffic over the coming decades. As a key international trade and maritime route, this bill requires an analysis of projected traffic in the Bering Strait, and the emergency response capabilities and infrastructure needed to support this increased vessel traffic and prevent oil spills in the Bering Sea and the Arctic.
Boosts International Pacific Cooperation: Requires the Coast Guard to develop a plan to increase international training opportunities in the Pacific, including with the Taiwan Coast Guard. This coordination will strengthen American relations, combat illegal fishing, and boost international security in the Pacific.
Cracks Down on Abandoned Vessels: Improves oversight of derelict and abandoned vessels by requiring the Coast Guard to develop and maintain an inventory list of these vessels to improve tracking, management, and coordination between federal, state, tribal, and other relevant entities. It authorizes a new federal penalty of $500 a day for abandoning vessels.
Abandoned and derelict vessels pose unique and costly threats to coastal communities and ecosystems by leaking pollutants and imperiling marine traffic. According to the WA Department of Natural Resources, DNR removed 319 derelict and abandoned boats from Washington state waterways 2021-2023.
Protects Personnel from Illicit Drug/Fentanyl Exposure: As the Coast Guard carries out important drug interdiction missions to stop the flow of illegal drugs, this bill requires all installations to maintain a supply of naloxone or similar medication to treat opioid or fentanyl overdoses or exposure by Coast Guard members and the public in search and rescue or response calls.
Require Stronger Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment (SASH) Prevention and Response: The bill would establish or update numerous Coast Guard and Academy authorities and programs to improve reporting, oversight, prevention, and accountability related to sexual misconduct. These provisions were drafted in response to Operation Fouled Anchor, which revealed gross mishandling of sexual assault and sexual harassment cases of U.S. Coast Guard personnel.
A full breakdown of these protections is available HERE.
Supporting Coast Guard Families Stationed in Washington:
Creates the First Vice Admiral of Personnel: To support the more than 40,000 active service members, the bill establishes a new Vice Admiral leadership position solely focused on supporting the needs of personnel and their families, from housing to health care, investments in childcare, and improving recruitment and training programs.
Jump Starts Hiring of Health and Family Service Providers Across Entire Service: Provides direct hiring authority to swiftly fill more than a hundred vacancies, including behavioral and mental health professionals, medical specialists, childcare service providers, housing supervisors, criminal investigators, and other positions to protect the health and wellbeing of Coast Guard members and their families. It also adds two new telemedicine rooms at the Coast Guard Academy.
Improves College-to-Service Career Pathways: Updates the College Student Pre-Commissioning Program to allow more colleges and universities to participate and to increase recruitment of students interested in commissioning into a Coast Guard career.
Prepares Tsunami Evacuation Plans: Requires the development of tsunami evacuation and preparedness plans for Coast Guard units in tsunami zones, including across the West Coast and Pacific Northwest. It also requires the Coast Guard to consider vertical evacuation as a lifesaving option for Coast Guard members.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Supports NOAA Corps Officers: To support the hundreds of NOAA’s commissioned officers, the bill makes improvements to personnel management, education assistance programs, pilot recruitment programs, and more. NOAA Corps members help manage maritime research, support disaster response, and monitor weather forecasting including hurricanes and atmospheric rivers, as well as performing other cutting-edge weather forecast and research needs.
Modernizes NOAA Vessel Fleet: Authorizes replacement and modernization of the NOAA research vessel fleet and improves oversight of the fleet, which helps maintain our nation’s weather and scientific buoy network, conducts fisheries research, maps the ocean floor including in the Arctic, and supports other important oceanographic and conservation priorities.
Removes Aging NOAA Vessels: Allows NOAA to use the proceeds of obsolete vessel sales to support the acquisition or repair of other NOAA vessels to help make the fleet more resilient in the future.

MIL OSI USA News –

February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Written question – Consequences of a possible reclassification of the eel under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora – P-000590/2025
Source: European Parliament
Priority question for written answer P-000590/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Isabelle Le Callennec (PPE)

DG ENVI is considering reclassifying the eel to include the species in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. However, although the eel population remains low, it seems to have stabilised over the last few years, in particular thanks to the efforts of fishermen and the fisheries sector to implement Regulation (EC) No 1100/2007 and carry out restocking initiatives. This trend is starting to bear fruit, as confirmed by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea and as observed by practitioners on the ground. Eels have a lifespan of 15 to 20 years.

Reclassifying the eel under Appendix I would have serious repercussions on the French fisheries sector, including knock-on effects downstream, since it would entail a ban on the marketing of European eels for consumption and thus lead to the closure of certain artisanal fisheries, which nevertheless play a key role in restocking and stock recovery efforts. In addition, a total ban gives rise to concerns about the development of a sizeable black market.

1.In the interests of more transparent governance, does the Commission intend to present this initiative to all stakeholders, keep them informed of progress and continue its work in consultation with the professionals affected by this possible measure?

2.Will it assess the socio-economic consequences of reclassifying the eel in this way?

Submitted: 10.2.2025
Last updated: 12 February 2025
MIL OSI Europe News –
February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Governor Phil Scott Announces Departure of Tax Commissioner Craig Bolio, Appoints Bill Shouldice as Tax Commissioner

Source: US State of Vermont

Montpelier, Vt – Governor Phil Scott today announced Commissioner Craig Bolio will be leaving his role leading the Department of Taxes at the end of the week and has named Bill Shouldice as the new commissioner of the Department of Taxes.

Bolio joined the Tax Department in 2011 and was appointed commissioner in 2019. During his time at the Department of Taxes, Bolio prioritized improving accessibility and outcomes for Vermonters when interfacing with the Department.

“Craig has been an effective leader at the Department of Taxes and a valuable member of my team,” said Governor Phil Scott. “As commissioner, he has helped us navigate through many challenges we’ve faced as a state. I’m appreciative of his service to the Tax Department and wish him well.”

“My 14 years with the Vermont Department of Taxes has been an immensely rewarding and fulfilling experience. I’ve had the luxury of being able to serve in a number of different roles at Tax, and it has been the honor of a lifetime to serve the last five as Commissioner,” said Commissioner Bolio. “I thank Governor Scott for his trust in me and our Department to help Vermonters navigate the frequently complicated, sometimes scary, but ultimately necessary world of taxes. I know the team at Tax will continue to thrive as they move forward.”

Bill Shouldice IV, a lifelong Vermonter, will serve as the next commissioner of the Department of Taxes. Shouldice most recently served as President and CEO of The Vermont Teddy Bear Company. Prior to that, Shouldice served as the president and CEO of The Vermont Country Store. He also served as secretary of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development under Governor Howard Dean. Shouldice’s first job was working at his mother’s business, The Country Store, which was located for many years on Main Street in Montpelier before closing its doors in the early 2000s.

“Bill has a strong background in leadership both in the private sector and in government as well,” said Governor Phil Scott. “I believe his experience will be an asset to the Tax Department as we continue our efforts to make Vermont more affordable.”

“It is an honor to serve the great state of Vermont. I am fortunate to take over a department that has been well run by dedicated employees. That allows me, my team and the rest of Governor Scott’s cabinet to focus on what matters most to Vermonters: a stable and predictable state that is affordable for this and future generations,” said Shouldice.

Shouldice earned his Bachelor of Science in political science from Merrimack College. He also attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard University. His appointment is effective February 18, 2025.

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MIL OSI USA News –

February 13, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: ‘Multiple red flags’: ASIC’s court case against Star executives shows the risks of complacency

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Sheedy, Professor – Risk governance, culture, remuneration, Macquarie University

This week the corporate regulator is taking on executives and directors of Star Entertainment in the Federal Court, in a landmark case for Australian corporate governance.

ASIC will allege that despite multiple red flags that should have prompted internal investigation, directors at Star sat on their hands while accepting the considerable perks of the office.

Historically, ASIC has not been willing to go after apparently lax directors and executives and there are questions about its effectiveness as a regulator. Will this time be different?

What is Star accused of?

The case against Star Entertainment, like so many others, boils down to “acting with reasonable care and diligence” in respect of risk management. Did Star’s board and executives sufficiently focus on the well-known risks of money-laundering and criminal association in the operation of its casinos in Sydney and Queensland?

ASIC will seek to show that they did not. It is suing several former directors and executives, including the former chief executive, in a case expected to last six weeks. The defendants deny they breached their duties.

Warnings were ‘ignored’

In the first days of hearings, ASIC told the court the board had been given evidence of money-laundering risks from high-rollers with ties to criminal organisations, but that those warnings were ignored.

The court was told the board and executives were “incurious and complacent” about alleged criminal activity and money-laundering, with wads of cash delivered in a blue Esky and in paper bags to a private gambling room.

If the allegations are proven, it won’t be just the shareholders who have suffered. Anti-money-laundering laws exist because criminals need to clean their ill-gotten gains, or make them appear legitimate. While not alleged in this instance, in general, money-laundering enables crimes such as scams, fraud, child exploitation and drug/sex trafficking. There are many victims throughout society.

The issues at Star were uncovered by journalists in 2021. This was the catalyst for the NSW Independent Casino Commission to set up a review by Adam Bell SC. On August 31 2022, Bell handed down his findings into The Star casino’s suitability to hold a casino licence in NSW in a 946-page report.

Two months later, the NSW commission announced it had suspended Star’s licence indefinitely, fined the casino $100 million, and appointed an independent manager.

Share price tanked

Since 2021, the share price for Star Entertainment Group has collapsed from $3.76 to 13 cents today, wiping billions in market value.

It is true that Star Entertainment has been hurt by factors other than the financial allegations identified by Bell. But the collapse in revenue suggests the casino operator’s business model was inherently reliant on money-laundering. Strip that out, and what remains is a business that will likely not survive without a white knight.

To what extent can the directors be blamed for these failures? Based on the defences used during the Bell inquiry, they may claim they were not involved in the complex, day-to-day management of operations. Executives failed to inform them of risk-management issues. But are these adequate excuses?

According to the Australian Institute of Company Directors, of which the Star Entertainment directors were all alumni, directors must “apply an enquiring mind […] test information put before them by management and proactively consider what other information they require”. Bear in mind the handsome remuneration received by the directors to perform their oversight duties. The former chairman, John O’Neill, received a total of $484,500 in financial year 2021.

For this sort of money, shareholders might reasonably expect some tough questions would be asked, especially given the red flags that came to light. The internal audit team or external independent advisers could have been charged with further investigating issues of concern.

Putting directors on notice

Unfortunately, the scandal at Star Entertainment is not an isolated case of risk-governance failure. A royal commission found the directors of Crown Casino also failed properly to manage the risks of money-laundering.

The financial crime regulator, Austrac, has identified similar failures at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac and Adelaide’s Sky City casino. Turning to cyber risk, it is clear that firms such as Medibank and Latitude Financial have failed to protect sensitive customer data.

While most of the above listed companies have been fined by regulators, the consequences for individual directors have been limited or non-existent. And herein lies the problem – lack of accountability breeds inattention, indolence and recklessness.

Where is the incentive for directors to ask those tough questions of the executive, to rock the boat on a nice cosy board? The reputation of ASIC as an ineffective corporate regulator has not served either shareholders or the Australian public well.

That is why the outcome of this case is so important. A win would put directors on notice that risk governance is a serious matter and they need to do more to earn their substantial fees.

Elizabeth Sheedy is on the advisory board of the Financial Integrity Hub and was previously on the board of the Australian Compliance Institute. In the past she has received research funding from financial institutions that have been accused of money-laundering, and from the Australian Compliance Institute.

– ref. ‘Multiple red flags’: ASIC’s court case against Star executives shows the risks of complacency – https://theconversation.com/multiple-red-flags-asics-court-case-against-star-executives-shows-the-risks-of-complacency-249599

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Lummis Statement on the Nomination of Brian Nesvik to Serve as Director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Wyoming Cynthia Lummis

February 12, 2025

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) released the following statement praising the selection of former Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Brian Nesvik to serve as Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

“President Trump has made a great decision in nominating Wyoming’s own Brian Nesvik to serve as Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service,” said Lummis. “Brian has spent his entire career serving the people of Wyoming and working alongside outfitters, hunters, landowners, fishermen, and anyone else who loves the great outdoors. That attitude and passion for balancing wildlife conservation and recreational access will serve him well in this important role. I look forward to working to get Brian confirmed as soon as possible.”

MIL OSI USA News –

February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: NEWS: Sanders Statement on New Study Highlighting Corporate Greed in the Health Care Industry

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Vermont – Bernie Sanders

It is absolutely unacceptable that since 2001, the top health care companies in America spent 95% of their profits, $2.6 trillion, not to make Americans healthy, but to make their CEOs and stockholders obscenely rich.

In America today, 85 million Americans are uninsured or under-insured. One out of four Americans cannot afford the medicine their doctors prescribe. Over half a million Americans go bankrupt each and every year due to medically related debt. 68,000 people in our country die each year because they cannot afford to go to a doctor when they get sick. How many of those Americans would be alive today if the top health care companies in our country spent $2.6 trillion on disease prevention and primary care, instead of stock buybacks and dividends?

The function of a rational health care system is to guarantee quality health care to all, not huge payouts for stockholders and executives in the drug and insurance industries. None of this money was used to search for new treatments and cures, to lower prices, or to improve patient care. That has got to change.

This study confirms that the greatest waste, fraud and abuse in this country is corporate greed. Unfortunately, instead of working with Congress on this real issue, Trump and Musk have launched an immoral and unconstitutional attack on the Department of Health and Human Services.

Instead of taking on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, Trump and Musk are taking away AIDS treatment from poor people.

Instead of taking on the for-profit insurance industry, Trump and Musk are making it harder for working-class Americans to get the health care they need through Medicaid and community health centers.

This absurdity must end. As the Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, I will do everything I can to take on the unprecedented level of corporate greed in our health care system.

MIL OSI USA News –

February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: How Valentine’s Day was transformed by the Industrial Revolution and ‘manufactured intimacy’

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Christopher Ferguson, Associate Professor of History, Auburn University

A popular Victorian-era Valentine Day’s card. Valentine Card by Jonathan King,1860-1880, London Museum., CC BY

When we think of Valentine’s Day, chubby Cupids, hearts and roses generally come to mind, not industrial processes like mass production and the division of labor. Yet the latter were essential to the holiday’s history.

As a historian researching material culture and emotions, I’m aware of the important role the exchange of manufactured greeting cards played in the 19th-century version of Valentine’s Day.

At the beginning of that century, Britons produced most of their valentines by hand. By the 1850s, however, manufactured cards had replaced those previously made by individuals at home. By the 1860s, more than 1 million cards were in circulation in London alone.

The British journalist and playwright Andrew Halliday was fascinated by these cards, especially one popular card that featured a lady and gentleman walking arm-in-arm up a pathway toward a church.

Halliday recalled watching in fascination as “the windows of small booksellers and stationers” filled with “highly-coloured” valentines, and contemplating “how and where” they “originated.” “Who draws the pictures?” he wondered. “Who writes the poetry?”

In 1864 he decided to find out.

Manufactured intimacy

Today Halliday is most often remembered for his writing on London beggars in a groundbreaking 1864 social survey, “London Labour and the London Poor.” However, throughout the 1860s he was a regular contributor to Charles Dickens’ popular journal “All the Year Round,” in which he entertained readers with essays addressing various facets of ordinary British daily existence, including family relations, travel, public services and popular entertainments.

In one essay for that journal – “Cupid’s Manufactory,” which was later reprinted in 1866 in the collection “Everyday Papers” – Halliday led his readers on a guided tour of one of London’s foremost card manufacturers.

Inside the premises of “Cupid and Co.,” they followed a “valentine step by step” from a “plain sheet of paper” to “that neat white box in which it is packed, with others of its kind, to be sent out to the trade.”

Touring ‘Cupid’s Manufactory’

“Cupid and Co.” was most likely the firm of Joseph Mansell, a lace-paper and stationary company that manufactured large numbers of valentines between the 1840s and 1860s – and also just happened to occupy the same address as “Mr. Cupid’s” in London’s Red Lion Square.

The processes Halliday described, however, were common to many British card manufacturers in the 1860s, and exemplified many industrial practices first introduced during the late 18th century, including the subdivision of tasks and the employment of women and child laborers.

Halliday moved through the rooms of “Cupid’s Manufactory,” describing the variety of processes by which various styles of cards were made for a range of different people and price points.

He noted how the card with the lady and gentleman on the path to the church began as a simple stamped card, in black and white – identical to one preserved today in the collections of the London Museum – priced at one penny.

A portion of these cards, however, then went on to a room where a group of young women were arranged along a bench, each with a different color of “liquid water-colour at her elbow.” Using stencils, one painted the “pale brown” pathway, then handed it to the woman next to her, who painted the “gentleman’s blue coat,” who then handed it to the next, who painted the “salmon-coloured church,” and so forth. It was much like a similar group of female workers depicted making valentines in the “Illustrated London News” in the 1870s.

These colored cards, Halliday noted, would be sold for “sixpence to half-a-crown.” A portion of these, however, were then sent on to another room, where another group of young women glued on feathers, lace-paper, bits of silk or velvet, or even gold leaf, creating even more ornate cards sometimes sold for 5 shillings and above.

All told, Halliday witnessed “about sixty hands” – mostly young women, but also “men and boys,” who worked 10 hours a day in every season of the year, making cards for Valentine’s Day.

Yet, it was on the top floor of the business that Halliday encountered the people who arguably fascinated him the most: the six artists who designed all the cards, and the poets who provided their text – most of whom actually worked offsite.

Here were the men responsible for manufacturing the actual sentiments the cards conveyed – and in the mid-19th century these encompassed a far wider range of emotions than the cards produced by Hallmark and others in the 21st century.

A spectrum of ‘manufactured emotions’

Many Victorians mailed cards not only to those with whom they were in love, but also to those they disliked or wished to mock or abuse. A whole subgenre of cards existed to belittle the members of certain trades, like tailors or draper’s assistants, or people who dressed out of fashion.

A Valentine’s Day card produced sometime between 1860 and 1880.
© The Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA

Cards were specifically designed for discouraging suitors and for poking fun of the old or the unattractive. While some of these cards likely were exchanged as jokes between friends, the consensus among scholars is that many were absolutely intended to be sent as cruel insults.

Furthermore, unlike in the present day, in the 19th century those who received a Valentine were expected to send one in return, which meant there were also cards to discourage future attentions, recommend patience, express thanks, proclaim mutual admiration, or affirm love’s effusions.

Halliday noted the poet employed by “Cupid’s” had recently finished the text for a mean-spirited comic valentine featuring a gentleman admiring himself in a mirror:

Looking at thyself within the glass,
You appear lost in admiration;
You deceive yourself, and think, alas!
You are a wonder of creation.

This same author, however, had earlier completed the opposite kind of text for the card Halliday had previously highlighted, featuring the “lady and gentleman churchward-bound”:

“The path before me gladly would I trace,
With one who’s dearest to my constant heart,
To yonder church, the holy sacred place,
Where I my vows of Love would fain impart;
And in sweet wedlock’s bonds unite with thee,
Oh, then, how blest my life would ever be!”

These were very different texts by the very same man. And Halliday assured his readers “Cupid’s laureate” had authored many others in every imaginable style and sentiment, all year long, for “twopence a line.”

Halliday showed how a stranger was manufacturing expressions of emotions for the use of other strangers who paid money for them. In fact, he assured his readers that in the lead up to Valentine’s Day “Cupid’s” was “turning out two hundred and fifty pounds’ worth of valentines a week,” and that his business was “yearly on the increase.”

Halliday found this dynamic – the process of mass producing cards for profit to help people express their authentic emotions – both fascinating and bizarre. It was a practice he thought seemed like it ought to be “beneath the dignity of the age.”

And yet it thrived among the earnest Victorians, and it thrives still. Indeed, it remains a core feature of the modern holiday of Valentine’s Day.

This year, like in so many others, I will stand at a display of greeting cards, with many other strangers, as we all try to find that one card designed by someone else, mass-produced for profit, that will convey our sincere personal feelings for our friends and loved ones.

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

– ref. How Valentine’s Day was transformed by the Industrial Revolution and ‘manufactured intimacy’ – https://theconversation.com/how-valentines-day-was-transformed-by-the-industrial-revolution-and-manufactured-intimacy-247441

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Supporting Businesses and Working Parents to Solve the Childcare Shortage: Lt. Gov. Austin Davis and Second Lady Blayre Holmes Davis Call for New Investments in Childcare Workforce

Source: US State of Pennsylvania

February 12, 2025 – Claysburg, PA

Supporting Businesses and Working Parents to Solve the Childcare Shortage: Lt. Gov. Austin Davis and Second Lady Blayre Holmes Davis Call for New Investments in Childcare Workforce

Lt. Gov. Austin Davis and Second Lady Blayre Holmes Davis joined local business leaders, parents and providers for a roundtable conversation at Sheetz’s corporate support center in Claysburg to highlight the Shapiro-Davis Administration’s 2025-26 proposed budget, which continues vital investments in childcare and early learning and includes a new proposal to address shortages in the childcare workforce.

“The childcare workforce shortage hurts working families, and it hurts our economy, likely in the range of billions of dollars in lost earnings, productivity and revenue,” said Lt. Gov. Davis, who is co-chair of the Early Learning Investment Commission (ELIC), a public-private partnership that brings together leaders to make recommendations and policy for early learning. “That’s why our new proposed budget would fund $1,000 bonuses to recruit and retain childcare workers across the Commonwealth. These workers are caring for our most valuable resource – our children. Many of them are mothers, who are also trying to make ends meet for their own families. They work hard, and they deserve it.”

“The Lieutenant Governor and I know about this issue firsthand – our daughter, Harper, attends a wonderful childcare facility that we were incredibly fortunate to find,” said Second Lady Holmes Davis. “We want working parents all across this Commonwealth to have the same access to affordable, high-quality care that we have, and we want every Pennsylvania child to have the same opportunities our daughter has – opportunities to learn, play and grow in a safe and loving environment.”

Roundtable Participants Include:
Lieutenant Governor Austin A. Davis
Second Lady Blayre Holmes Davis
Sheetz EVP of People and Culture Stephanie Doliveira
Bright Horizons Divisional VP Julie Beam
Litte Sproutz Teacher Chelsey Morse
Sheetz Employee Relations Lauren Harris
Blair County Commissioner Laura O. Burke, Esq.
Altoona Blair County Development Corporation – VP of Business Retention & Expansion Matt Fox
Blair Companies President & CEO Phil Devorris

MIL OSI USA News –

February 13, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: 3.5 kilometres underwater, scientists found a staggeringly energetic particle from outer space

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Barnes, Lecturer in Physics, Western Sydney University

An artist’s impression of a high-energy particle travelling through the KM3NeT neutrino telescope. KM3NeT

Three and a half kilometres beneath the Mediterranean Sea, around 80km off the coast of Sicily, lies half of a very unusual telescope called KM3NeT.

The enormous device is still under construction, but today the telescope’s scientific team announced they have already detected a particle from outer space with a staggering amount of energy.

In fact, as the team report in Nature, they found the most energetic neutrino anyone has ever seen – and it represents a tremendous leap forward in exploring the uncharted waters of the extreme universe.

To explain why it’s such a remarkable discovery, we need to understand what KM3NeT is, what it’s looking for, and what it saw.

What is KM3NeT?

KM3NeT is a gigantic deep sea telescope being built by an international collaboration of more than 300 scientists and engineers from 21 countries.

At the site off Sicily, and another off the coast of Provence in France, KM3NeT will be made up of more than 6,000 light detectors hanging in the pitch-black depths. When the telescope is complete, it will cover about a cubic kilometre of sea.

The KM3NeT telescope will eventually have more than 6,000 detectors like this one floating in the depths of the Mediterranean watching for tell-tale flashed of blue light.
N Busser / CNRS

Down deep, KM3NeT is shielded from ordinary sources of light, such as the Sun. It is also shielded from other particles like electrons and protons, which are absorbed by the water long before they reach the detectors. So what does it see?

What is KM3NeT looking for?

Of all the particles that physicists have discovered, only the elusive neutrino can reach all the way down to KM3NeT.

The neutrino is an elementary particle with no electric charge and only a very tiny mass. It interacts with matter so weakly that it can pass through kilometres of ocean – and even thousands of kilometres of Earth itself – to reach the detector. That’s why KM3NeT is at the bottom of the sea: to see neutrinos, and only neutrinos.

But won’t the neutrinos pass through the detector, too? Yes, almost all of them.

When a high-energy particle passes through KM3NeT, the detectors register the tell-tale blue flashes and allow scientists to figure out how fast the particle was going and where it came from.
KM3NeT

But very rarely, a neutrino will crash right into a water molecule. When it does, it can pack an enormous punch.

The energy of the neutrino can create many more particles. As these particles blast through the water, they create a bluish glow. That’s what KM3NeT detectors see.

By analysing this bluish light, and by timing each flash, scientists can reconstruct the original energy of the neutrino, and the direction from which it came. (Either that, or they’ve just clocked one of those deep-sea glowing fish travelling at nearly the speed of light.)

The most energetic neutrino ever detected

On February 13 2023, KM3NeT detected a neutrino travelling so fast it had 30 times more energy than any previously detected.

The amount of energy is 220 petaelectronvolts, but that doesn’t mean much to a non-particle physicist. It’s hard to imagine, but let’s try.

The neutrino had 100 trillion times more energy than a typical particle at the centre of the Sun. It’s a trillion times more energy than medical X-rays, and ten billion times more than the most dangerous radioactive particles. Earth’s biggest particle accelerators can’t produce a particle with even one ten thousandth of this energy.

Short story: it’s a lot of energy for one particle.

Making neutrinos in space

Neutrinos interact with matter very weakly, so how could a single neutrino have been given so much energy? What sort of cosmic event could create such a particle?

That’s the exciting part: we don’t know.

We know there are colossal explosions in the universe, such as supernovas: when a star exhausts its fuel and collapses. And there are gamma ray bursts, which are even more energetic explosions of supermassive stars, or collisions of neutron stars. These create extremely energetic neutrinos.

But there are other candidates. Supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies have millions to billions of times as much mass as the Sun.

As matter is swallowed by these black holes, it is accelerated to extreme speeds, and becomes wrapped around intense magnetic fields. The particles that aren’t swallowed can be shot out at extreme speeds. These “active galactic nuclei” are another way that the universe could create extreme neutrinos.

Third, the neutrinos could be created more locally (cosmically speaking). Explosions and active galactic nuclei also create cosmic rays: extremely energetic protons and electrons.

These could stream across the universe towards us, before colliding with a particle of light along the way. That collision can create an energetic neutrino.

How can we find the source?

Here’s where the Australian connection comes in. KM3NeT tells us this neutrino came from a particular spot in the southern sky.

If it came from an extreme explosion or an active galactic nucleus, we might hope to spot the source with other telescopes. In particular, both supernova remnants and active galactic nuclei can be spotted using radio waves.

Australia has the biggest radio telescopes in the southern hemisphere. The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) has mapped a lot of the southern sky, and found many supernova remnants and active galactic nuclei.

My colleagues and I at Western Sydney University are using ASKAP to follow up on KM3NeT detections like this one. For this particular neutrino, there are no obvious candidates in the radio sky that it came from.

However, KM3NeT doesn’t provide a very accurate position, so we can’t be completely sure. We’ll keep looking.

KM3NeT is still under construction, and ASKAP continues to survey the sky. Our window on the extreme universe is just opening up.

Luke Barnes 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. 3.5 kilometres underwater, scientists found a staggeringly energetic particle from outer space – https://theconversation.com/3-5-kilometres-underwater-scientists-found-a-staggeringly-energetic-particle-from-outer-space-249590

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

February 13, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: To achieve real growth, the NZ government needs to relax the rules around housing

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney

Ufuk Zivana/Shutterstock

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon wants New Zealand to “go for growth”.

But his plan, focused on reforming foreign investment, planning and competition laws, as well as boosting the tourism and mining sectors, is hampered by a fundamental reality of New Zealand’s economy: much of the country’s capital is tied up in unproductive (and expensive) housing.

While this issue is not new, with New Zealand’s economy once described as “a housing market with bits tacked on”, the solution may lie in making housing more readily available through deregulation and policy reform. This would free up capital for drivers of growth such as infrastructure and business investment.

Household capital allocation March, 2021. Data source: RBNZ Household Balance Sheet.
Author provided

The temptation of housing

Rapidly growing house prices over the past two decades have provided strong incentives to direct investment to the housing market.

On average, the price of a typical house has grown by around 8% per year, far outpacing household income growth. For example, in 2005 the median house price was roughly five times the average household income. By the middle of the pandemic house values had ballooned to nine times the average income.

Soaring prices have made residential investment extremely profitable for a long time. This means savings and investments have tended to flow into residential property rather than other productive sectors of the economy.

Constraints on housing supply

The problem is that in recent decades additional residential investment has not led to a substantial increase in new homes.

Local and central government rules and regulations have long hampered the construction of new houses. Instead, more investment in real estate has generally led to even higher prices.

As concerning as this is, it does not mean investments in housing have been misplaced. Rather, high prices and profits are what the market required in order to encourage those willing to build (few that there are) despite the costs, delays and uncertainties associated with bureaucratic battles with councils, planners and local NIMBY groups.

Banning property speculation might have kept prices down and reallocated investment to other productive uses. But in the absence of those speculators, the supply constraints would not have been any looser. Lower prices mean lower returns over building costs, leading to even fewer houses built.

Shifting capital out of the housing market in this way would not have benefited the country – we might have produced more and goods and services but fewer homes in which to live.

Christopher Luxon is pushing forward his plan for growth focused on reforming foreign investment, planning and competition laws, as well as boosting the tourism and mining sectors.
Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

Reforming housing supply

Fortunately, New Zealand has made meaningful progress on housing supply recently. For example, Auckland and Lower Hutt changed zoning laws in the 2010s making it easier to build, and Wellington City has recently followed suit.

These changes have led to local construction booms and, crucially, lower house prices and rents.

More recently, central governments of both stripes introduced policies like the National Policy Statement on Urban Development, Medium Density Residential Standards, and housing growth targets for local councils.

These reforms make it easier to build, reduce house prices and mean less investment capital is required for each new house built. So these policies have the dual benefit of improving housing affordability and freeing up capital for other productive sectors of the economy.

As prices come down, New Zealanders will no longer need to pour nine times their income into a home.

That will free up funds for investments in new bridges and tunnels, small businesses, and exciting new startups that will help drive innovation and generate the long-run growth we seek.

New Zealand need not give up its housing dreams in order to get business moving. Rather, it can do both.

All that requires is for local and central government to continue to let people build the housing they want so that we can free up the capital our infrastructure and businesses need.

James Graham has received research funding from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute and is a member of Sydney YIMBY.

– ref. To achieve real growth, the NZ government needs to relax the rules around housing – https://theconversation.com/to-achieve-real-growth-the-nz-government-needs-to-relax-the-rules-around-housing-249000

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI Security: U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force Apprehends Mother’s Boyfriend for Injury to a Child

Source: US Marshals Service

Austin, TX – The U.S. Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force arrested a man sought by Austin Police for injury to a child following an incident on February 7th that resulted in the hospitalization of a 2-year-old victim.

Marcos Amaya Maldonado, 25, of Del Valle, is alleged to have committed the injury while the child was in his custody during the day at the child’s mother’s residence in the 9900 block of Dessau Road. According to an affidavit by an investigator with the Austin Police Department (APD) Child Abuse Unit, Maldonado is the boyfriend of the victim’s mother.

When the mother arrived at the residence from work, she observed bruising to the side of the child’s face, according to the affidavit. After noticing an increase in bruising and swelling to the child’s face, and a “rash” under the diaper area, the mother called 911.

Medical personnel at a nearby hospital reported the victim had sustained a large contusion to her head and extensive bruising to her genitalia and vaginal lacerations.

Following an investigation on February 9th, the APD Child Abuse Unit obtained a warrant in the City of Austin Municipal Court and requested assistance from the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force-Austin Division to locate and apprehend Maldonado.

Members of the task force initiated a fugitive investigation and arrested Maldonado in the 100 block of Fortuna Drive in Del Valle.

Maldonado was transported to the APD Child Abuse Unit and booked into the Travis County Jail where he will await judicial proceedings.

Members of the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force in Austin:

Austin Police Department-Tactical Intelligence Unit
Georgetown, Round Rock, and San Marcos Police Department
Caldwell, Hays, Travis, and Williamson County Sheriff’s Office
Texas Attorney General’s Office
Texas Department of Criminal Justice OIG
Texas Department of Public Safety
U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement
U.S. DHS/Homeland Security Investigations

MIL Security OSI –

February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: ICE Boston arrests illegal Turkish national charged with witness intimidation, assault, battery on intellectually disabled person

Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement

SOMERVILLE, Mass. — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement apprehended an illegally present Turkish national charged in Massachusetts with assault and battery against a household member, witness intimidation, and two counts of assault and battery against a person with an intellectual disability when officers arrested Berkan Karamurtlu, 27, in Somerville, Jan. 22.

“This is a tragic example of what can go wrong when local jurisdictions refuse to honor immigration detainers,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia H. Hyde. “The local jurisdiction ignored our detainer and released Berkan Karamurtlu into the community. Unfortunately, he re-offended resulting in a second arrest for assaulting an intellectually disabled resident. Fortunately, the local authorities honored our second detainer and Karamurtlu is now in ICE custody. ICE Boston will continue to prioritize public safety by apprehending and removing egregious alien offenders.”

Karamurtlu lawfully entered the United States Oct. 11, 2021, at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York but later violated the terms of his lawful admission.

The Somerville District Court arraigned Karamurtlu Dec. 24, 2024, for the offenses of assault and battery on an intellectually disabled person and witness intimidation. ICE lodged an immigration detainer against Karamurtlu with the Somerville District Court, which ignored the detainer and released Karamurtlu from custody.

The Somerville District Court again arraigned Karamurtlu Jan. 21 for the offenses of assault and battery on a person with intellectual disabled person and assault and battery on a family or household member. ICE then lodged an immigration detainer against Karamurtlu with the Medford Police Department.

ICE served Karamurtlu with a notice to appear before a Department of Justice immigration judge following his arrest.

Members of the public can report crimes and suspicious activity by dialing 866-DHS-2-ICE (866-347-2423) or completing the online tip form.

Learn more about ICE’s mission to increase public safety in our New England communities on X: @EROBoston.

MIL OSI USA News –

February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Senator Murray Remarks at Senate Budget Resolution Markup

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray

Murray calls for Budget hearing with Elon Musk

Murray: “Republicans are going down this partisan path because they know Democrats are not going to join them in throwing Medicaid, nutrition assistance, and veterans’ benefits into the wood chipper so they can throw more tax cuts at billionaires.”

Murray: “There is a serious, bipartisan path forward for our country–but it is one where Congress works together to avoid a shutdown, stops the de facto shutdown that is already happening, and reasserts its authority to protect the funding our communities need. Unfortunately, that is a far cry from the path Republicans are setting out on today with this pro-billionaire, anti-middle-class budget resolution.”

***VIDEO HERE***

Washington, D.C. — Today, at the Senate Budget Committee’s mark up of Senate Republicans’ budget resolution, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Budget Committee, underscored in opening comments that the resolution Senate Republicans have put forth is a roadmap to devastating cuts to programs families count on every day—from Medicaid to SNAP to veterans benefits—so that Republicans can later pass more tax breaks for the ultra-rich.

Senator Murray underscored that right now Congress’ focus should be on addressing the fast-approaching March 14 funding deadline and addressing President Trump and Elon Musk’s sweeping, illegal funding freeze—not a partisan measure to gut investments in working people. She also called for Elon Musk to come before the Committee to discuss his already in-motion efforts to decimate programs people count on.

Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below:

“I would like to remind my colleagues that we are just a month away from a deadline to pass bills to fund our government and as we approach that deadline, the entire world is watching as President Trump and Elon Musk effectively shut the government down piece by piece, bit by bit–whatever parts Elon doesn’t like.

“I want to repeat that: we are already in a partial shutdown. Trump and Musk are shuttering entire agencies, locking workers out of their devices and out of their buildings, and demanding the work of the American people come to a screeching halt.

“They are illegally blocking hundreds of billions in funding we all secured for the people we represent back home–putting good-paying jobs on the chopping block, creating incredible uncertainty for businesses, and choking off key funds for infrastructure and energy projects, and a lot more.

“Remember, this is the richest man on earth—with deep ties to China and a direct line to Putin—unilaterally, clandestinely, and illegally deciding if our constituents will see the taxpayer dollars they are owed.

“What they are doing is not just illegal–it is devastating for working people in every single zip code.

“Right now, we need to be speaking out with a unified voice to ensure that when Congress passes a bill, that law is followed. And we need to focus on negotiating serious funding bills on a bipartisan basis ahead of the fast-approaching March 14 deadline. That is what I am trying to do right now.

“But–and this is really critical–we’ve got to know that once those bills become law, Trump will actually follow them.

“We cannot just reach an agreement, pass a bill, and then stand by while President Trump rips our laws in half.

“There is a serious, bipartisan path forward for our country–but it is one where Congress works together to avoid a shutdown, stops the de facto shutdown that is already happening, and reasserts its authority to protect the funding that our communities need.

“Unfortunately, that is a far cry from the path Republicans are setting out on today with this pro-billionaire, anti-middle-class budget resolution.

“Let’s be clear: the Chairman’s mark doesn’t just accept, but doubles down on what Trump and Musk are doing—adding both another distraction from the urgent bipartisan work that needs to happen to fund our government and a roadmap for partisan policies and absolutely painful cuts to programs families count on each and every day.

“Republicans are going down this partisan path because they know Democrats are not going to join them in throwing Medicaid, nutrition assistance, and veterans benefits into the wood chopper so they can throw more tax cuts at billionaires.

“Make no mistake: this budget resolution is the DOGE resolution, as it assumes the staggering amount of $1 trillion in unspecified cuts in 2025 alone and $9 trillion over 10 years.

“Where do we think those sort of dramatic cuts are going to come from? It’s going to come out of SNAP benefits that keep kids from going hungry. It is going to come out of public schools and community health centers. It is going to come out of life-saving medical research.

“Make no mistake: if you are cutting that deeply, that painfully, you are going to start cutting things like veteran’s health care, assistance to our farmers, Medicare, and Medicaid, which, for the information of all Senators, 30 million children rely on.

“There is just no other way to make these numbers work–especially when we know that this is just step one in the plan and step two is more tax breaks for billionaires and massive corporations.

“So, first they are handing Elon Musk a chainsaw to cut programs families rely on with no accountability and then they are rewarding him with enormous tax breaks.

“That is completely unacceptable to me. We should not be cutting health care for working families to deliver massive tax breaks for the wealthiest billionaires.

“So I urge all of my colleagues: hit the breaks, and not just on this devastating, partisan budget resolution. Hit the breaks on what President Trump and Elon Musk are doing right now. Let’s come together, and work on a serious, bipartisan bill to fund the government—and get investments that are sorely needed out to the folks we represent. And let’s come together to demand real accountability for the shutdown they are conducting right now.

“Instead of a markup to hand Elon Musk more power, we need a hearing to hold him accountable. This billionaire is operating completely in the dark, hoping his lies about corruption are loud enough to drown out any calls for truth.

“When he tweeted out the names of government employees months ago, that was ‘accountability’ – but when reporters name people gaining illegal access to Treasury’s payment system, that is a ‘crime?’

“He gets to look at all of our most sensitive data–but no one gets to look at what he is actually doing? That cannot be the standard.

“So when are we going to have a hearing with the people who are illegally firing workers who protect families from scams, illegally cancelling grants to community health centers, illegally freezing funds to rebuild your local highway, illegally shuttering entire agencies that are keeping our country safe, and now this plan is outsourcing $1 trillion in cuts for this year alone?

“That is not rhetorical: I hope the Chair will answer. When will we have a hearing with Elon Musk? He seems to be central to your budget plan–but no one, at least no one on our side of the aisle, has heard from him. No one.

“And he is making big decisions about our country’s spending, and he is not just doing it without Congress–he is doing it in spite of what Congress has decided.

“We should not be giving up our power of the purse. We should be getting answers. If Elon Musk really has nothing to hide, then he should try to leave his safe place on X and Trump rallies and come before this Committee, Mr. Chairman, to be accountable to the public.”

MIL OSI USA News –

February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: New road safety measures following tragic accident

Source: City of Plymouth

Safety measures, including an extension of the 30mph speed limit along part of the A374 Embankment Road in Plymouth, along with the removal of a number of mature trees, will be implemented following a tragic accident where a driver sadly lost his life.

In 2023, a young man was fatally injured in a road traffic collision. At the inquest last year, the coroner raised concerns about trees that line the road, particularly after hearing evidence from a forensic collision investigator, road safety engineer and a motor police officer, who all agreed that the location of the trees was “dangerous” and one of the contributing factors in the accident.

As a result, the coroner wrote to the Council and requested that measures be taken to improve safety for pedestrians and all road users.

The Council cannot ignore the recommendations of the coroner. Officers have assessed the road and in order to address the safety concerns, is planning on extending the existing 30mph speed limit along the western section of Embankment Road by around 800 metres on both sides, from its current terminal north-east of Stanley Place to a point north-east of the rowing club.

In addition, the assessment found that not only are the trees sited very close to the road, but they have grown so big the footway is now incredibly narrow. Unfortunately, it is not possible to widen the footway or provide a safety barrier between the trees and the highway. Therefore, the Council plans to remove around 25 trees along the outbound side from the Glendinning cement depot to Arnold’s Point. These works will not involve any road closures but will eventually require complete reconstruction of the carriageway and footway over around 450 metres of road.

The trees will be removed during February half-term (Monday 17 to Friday 21 February), when traffic levels will be reduced.

The Council is looking to plant replacement trees away from the road.

MIL OSI United Kingdom –

February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: HSI New England investigation leads to recovery of over $300,000 to victim of a computer support scam

Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement

HARTFORD, Conn. — U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut announced on Feb. 7 the return of $328,573 to the victim of a computer support scam as the result of an ICE HSI cybercrime investigation.

According to the complaint (3:24cv840), in February 2024, an elderly woman was tricked by a scammer who mimicked Microsoft customer support. The victim transferred approximately $550,000 to the scammers in two wire transfers. Within two days of the transfers, the victim and a family member reported the incident to the Simsbury Police Department, who then partnered with HSI to investigate the crime. Fortunately, one of the wire transfers, in the amount of $221,000, was reversed by the bank and returned to the victim. ICE HSI special agents traced the remaining money, totaling approximately $328,573, and seized it. The U.S. Attorney’s Office then filed a civil asset forfeiture action to forfeit the money to the government, and HSI special agents and the U.S. Attorney’s Office then worked with the Department of Justice’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section to return the money to the victim on Feb. 4, 2025.

“Cyber scams run by foreign malign actors are becoming more common and more sophisticated every day,” said ICE HSI New England Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Krol. “The victim in this case contacted authorities quickly resulting in the recovery of most of her money by the bank and by HSI — a best case scenario and rare result. It is essential for victims of these kinds of cybercrimes to come forward as soon as possible. We want the public to know that help is available and to reach out immediately if they’ve been victimized by international scammers.”

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office is committed to helping victims of crime, and civil asset forfeiture is a powerful tool that allows the government to return money to victims of fraud schemes,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Silverman. “As we continue to pursue criminal prosecution of the individuals responsible for this and other computer crimes, it is equally important to ensure that the government uses all of its tools to minimize, and in this case, undo, the financial impact these crimes have on victims. This case represents the best case scenario, where nearly every dollar taken from the victim was returned to her. While it can be difficult to come forward and admit that you have been victimized by online scammers, know that federal law enforcement and our state and local partners stand ready to help you to the fullest extent possible.”

This case was investigated by ICE HSI New England’s Hartford Resident Agent in Charge office. If you or someone you know is a victim of elder fraud, call the HSI Tip Line at 877-4-HSI-TIP or the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 833-FRAUD-11.

Follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @HSINewEngland to learn more about HSI’s global missions and operations.

MIL OSI USA News –

February 13, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: River Tame stocked with thousands of fish
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

The Environment Agency has boosted the populations of dace, chub and roach in Greater Manchester as 4,000 fish have been released into the River Tame.
Photo shows Luke Theaker, Environment Agency Fisheries Officer, on the left, and Chris Clarke, Chair of the River Tame Anglers, releasing fish into the River Tame.

The fish were released at two locations in the river, near Hyde.

The Fisheries Improvement Programme, which is paid for by rod licence sales, has funded work with the River Tame Anglers to create fish refuges and boost habitat to support fish survival in this area.

Stocking occurs in winter because water temperatures are low and this minimises any stress on the fish, giving them the best possible survival rates.

February is a good time to introduce the fish into rivers, as it enables them to acclimatise to their new surroundings, ahead of their spawning season in the spring.

Fish also play a critical role in sustaining a river’s finely-balanced eco-system, so the wider natural environment will also get a helping hand, as a result of the restocking.

‘Amazing opportunity’ to boost fish numbers

Mark Easedale, Area Environment Manager for the Environment Agency in Greater Manchester, said:

The carefully coordinated releases on the River Tame provides an amazing opportunity to further boost fish numbers and support our local angling clubs.

Our officers work closely with partners across Greater Manchester to protect and enhance local fish populations.

This includes responding to reports of fish in distress, gathering evidence at pollution incidents, protecting or enhancing habitats for fish, improving angling access and addressing barriers to fish migration.

We hope this stocking in the River Tame will encourage even more people to give fishing a go, but before you do go out to the banks, remember it’s important to buy a rod licence, as you could end up with a fine if you don’t.

Photo shows Luke Theaker, Environment Agency Fisheries Officer, on the right, and Chris Clarke, Chair of the River Tame Anglers, releasing fish into the River Tame.

Surveys help ensure fish released in right locations

The new recruits to the Tame have all been reared at the Environment Agency’s National Coarse Fish Farm in Calverton, Nottinghamshire.

Every year, the Environment Agency stocks almost half a million fish of nine different species into England’s rivers. Being the principal supply of coarse fish for 32 years, the fish farm plays a crucial role to help improve fisheries around the country.

Fisheries officers use data from national surveys to identify where there are problems with poor breeding, issues with survival rates, or where numbers have been impacted following a pollution incident.

These surveys help the officers ensure that fish are released into the right locations and where the need is greatest as well as supporting angling clubs to boost local fishing spots.

Fisheries Officers inspect rod licences 24/7 throughout the North West, and work continually on cases of illegal fishing and other associated fisheries crime. Fishing illegally can result in a fine of up to £2,500, and offenders can also have their fishing equipment seized.

It’s easy to buy a rod fishing licence online. Get yours here: Buy a rod fishing licence

Illegal fishing and other offences can be reported to the Environment Agency’s Incident Hotline on 0800 807060.

Background

Rod fishing licence income is vital to the work of the Environment Agency to maintain, improve and develop fisheries.

Revenue generated from rod fishing licence sales is reinvested to benefit angling, with work including tackling illegal fishing, protecting and restoring habitats for fish and improving facilities for anglers.

The Fisheries Improvement Programme invests in English rivers by funding projects to protect and improve fish stocks and habitats, provide new facilities for anglers, and give more people the opportunity to try fishing.

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Published 12 February 2025
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
February 13, 2025