NewzIntel.com

Category: Fisheries

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: University Research – Genomic evidence confirms white shark liver is on the Aussie killer shark menu – Flinders

    Source: Flinders University

    For the first time, DNA evidence has confirmed killer whales in Australia hunted a white shark for its liver.

    Based on DNA analysis from the bite wounds on the carcass of a large white shark washed ashore near Portland in Victoria in 2023, the Flinders University-led study identified that killer whales were responsible for consuming the mid-section containing the nutritionally rich liver.

    Around the world, killer whales (Orcinus orca) have been observed preying on various shark species including white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) – as previously documented in California and South Africa.

    The discovery of a 4.7 metre white shark missing its liver on a beach in southeastern Australia offered a rare opportunity to analyse distinctive bite wounds and unravel the predator’s identity.

    “The liver, digestive and reproductive organs were missing, and there were four distinctive bite wounds, one of which was characteristic of liver extraction by killer whale, similar to what has been observed in South Africa,” says lead author Isabella Reeves, a PhD candidate with Flinders University’s Southern Shark Ecology Group and the West Australian Cetacean Research Centre (CETREC).

    “Swabs were taken from bite wounds on the white shark and sequenced for remnant genetic material from the shark’s predator. We were able to confirm the presence of killer whale DNA in the primary bite area, while the other three wounds revealed DNA from scavenging broadnose sevengill sharks.

    “These findings provide compelling evidence of killer whale predation on white sharks in Australian waters, with a strong indication of selective liver consumption. This suggests that such predation events may be more widespread and prevalent across the globe than previously believed.”

    The study, published in Ecology and Evolution, used wildlife forensic techniques to confirm killer whales were responsible for excising and consuming the liver from the white shark. Civilian bystanders had witnessed several killer whales, including locally known individuals called ‘Bent Tip’ and ‘Ripple, catching a large prey in Bridgewater Bay two days before the white shark carcass washed ashore.

    The beached large white shark carcass was collected by state government fisheries officers for investigation.

    Killer whales in Australia have occasionally recorded preying on various shark species, including blue shark (Prionace glauca), porbeagle (Lamna nasus), shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus), ground sharks (most likely school shark, Galeorhinus galeus), and tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier). But white shark liver consumption had yet to be observed in Australia – despite numerous reports of such behaviour in California and by notorious duo ‘Port’ and ‘Starboard’ in South Africa.

    Several interactions between killer whales and white sharks have been reported in Australia, including at least one suspected kill at the Neptune Islands Group Marine Park in South Australia in February 2015. On that occasion, an oil slick indicative of a successful predation was observed following the interaction, although no carcass was recovered to confirm the kill.

    Rhodes University (South Africa) marine biologist, Dr Alison Towner, an author in the study, says similar killer whale predation on white sharks have led to disruptions in local shark populations in both South Africa and California. “However direct observations of these interactions remain rare and their frequency is poorly understood,” she says.

    Co-lead author, Flinders adjunct Associate Professor Adam Miller, says the study raises “really interesting questions around predator-prey interactions and the behaviour and intelligence of killer whales”.

    “We don’t know how frequently these events occurred in Australian waters and therefore how significant these findings are. But, as Alison points out, these types of predation events in South Africa have further impacted on already declining white shark numbers,” says Associate Professor Miller, also a senior ecologist with Cesar Australia, where the genetic analyses were performed.

    “Evidence suggests that the white sharks being displaced or directly killed as a result of the killer whale predation in South Australia has led to cascading shifts in the wider marine ecosystem.

    “We know that white sharks are key regulators of ecosystem structure and functions, so it’s very important we preserve these top predators. Therefore it is important that we keep a tab on these types of interactions in Australian waters where possible.”

    Another author, Flinders University Research Fellow Dr Lauren Meyer, adds, “This study also provides DNA evidence that scavenging is facilitated by killer whales’ tissue selection, whereby the liver and internal organs are consumed, but much of the carcass remains as a nutrient source benefiting local ecosystems.”

    The ‘Nature Notes’ article ‘Genetic Evidence of Killer Whale Predation on White Sharks in Australia’ (2025) by Isabella MM Reeves, Andrew R Weeks, Alison V Towner, Rachael Impey, Jessica J Fish, Zach SR Clark, Paul A Butcher, Lauren Meyer, David M Donnelly, Charlie Huveneers, Nicky Hudson and Adam D Miller has been published in Ecology and Evolution (Wiley) First published: 27 January 2025 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.70786

    The study was supported by experts from Victoria’s EnviroDNA, The University of Melbourne, Rhodes University in South Africa, the South African International Maritime Institute, Deakin University’s EcoGenetics Lab, the NSW Department of Primary Industries National Marine Science Centre, Killer Whales Australia and Dolphin Research Institute in Victoria and the Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation, Victoria.

    Acknowledgements: Researchers acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which this research was conducted, the Gunditjmara and Wurundjeri peoples. Thanks to Cameron McCallum and John Melis from the Victorian Fisheries Authority and the Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owner Aboriginal Corporation. The carcass is now held by Museums Victoria.

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Coast Guard interdicts lancha crew, seizes 200 pounds of illegally caught fish off Texas coast

    Source: United States Coast Guard

    U.S. Coast Guard sent this bulletin at 01/28/2025 08:00 PM EST

     News Release  

    U.S. Coast Guard 8th District Public Affairs Detachment Texas
    Contact: 8th District Public Affairs Detachment Texas
    Office: 281-464-4810
    After Hours: 832-293-1293
    PA Detachment Texas online newsroom

     

    01/28/2025 07:44 PM EST

    CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Coast Guard interdicted a lancha and seized 200 pounds of illegally caught fish in federal waters off southern Texas, Tuesday.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Fleeing driver: Charges confirmed

    Source: New Zealand Police (District News)

    A man is expected in court today, following a fleeing driver incident across much of central Auckland.

    On Tuesday, a vehicle with mismatching plates was located on the Northwestern Motorway.

    After allegedly failing to stop for Police, the matter concluded at Dress Smart shopping centre in Onehunga.

    Auckland City Road Policing Manager acting Inspector Scott Jones says the vehicle the man was driving has since been confirmed as stolen.

    “A 31-year-old Northland man is expected to appear in the Auckland District Court today,” he says.

    “He faces charges of aggravated assault, reckless driving, failing to stop and unlawfully taking a motor vehicle.”

    During the fleeing driver incident, it was established the man was also sought in relation to other active court matters, including aggravated robbery. 

    “It’s fortunate that neither the public nor Police staff suffered any injuries as a result of the man’s alleged actions yesterday afternoon,” acting Inspector Jones says.

    ENDS

    Jarred Williamson/NZ Police

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Does your school have enough trees? Here’s why they’re great for kids and their learning

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Margaret Stanley, Professor of Ecology, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

    Getty Images

    Do schools and trees mix? You may have memories of shady playing areas and shelter belts by playing fields, but our recent study suggests this is increasingly an exception rather than a rule.

    Trees are often seen as a health and safety risk, whether from branches or the whole thing falling, or from children falling out of them. Many schools have banned pupils from climbing trees as a result.

    Beyond that, trees are often seen as an optional “nice to have”. New Zealand’s current education minister criticised extensive landscaping and bespoke design when announcing a review of school properties in early 2024.

    But the benefits of trees and other vegetation in urban areas are well known, and increasingly important as housing density increases. Schools can play a significant role in encouraging the growth of “urban forests”.

    Unfortunately, there are also large differences in tree canopy cover in New Zealand cities (and elsewhere in the world), with low socioeconomic areas often having low tree canopy cover.

    This matters because trees and nature in general provide us with enormous health and wellbeing benefits, regardless of socioeconomic standing.

    Natural benefits

    Very little is known about green spaces on local school grounds. So, our research set out to survey the quantity and quality of green spaces in 64 urban primary schools in Auckland.

    We conducted the survey in the context of several known factors about the role and place of nature in education:

    Because schools are fairly evenly distributed throughout cities, and can have a large spatial footprint, there’s also an opportunity to enhance wider native biodiversity, create ecological corridors and maintain cultural connections.

    Fields but few trees

    Unfortunately, our survey found the green spaces of most Auckland primary schools are dominated by sports fields.

    While it’s good news that children have access to these, adding trees and shrubs around the edges of the fields could provide many benefits without compromising existing play spaces.

    Native biodiversity was also lacking. In fact, 33% of school ground contained environmental weeds, such as woolly nightshade. There were also many more introduced plant species than native species, and most schools lacked a shrub layer.

    Urban green spaces in general tend to favour single trees with mown lawn underneath. But birds feed in different layers of vegetation and need that shrub layer and some vegetation complexity.

    The most common native tree by far was pōhutakawa. But planting a monoculture of pōhutakawa is a big risk if a disease (such as myrtle rust) has a big impact on that species.

    Diversity is key. Planting other native species such as pūriri, karaka, rewarewa or tītoki would increase plant diversity, attract native birds and other species, as well as provide sun shade.

    Room for improvement

    There was some good news, however. Of the 64 schools surveyed, 36% had a forest patch. This gives the children access to an outdoor learning resource that may be lacking from their immediate neighbourhood.

    It was heartening to find every school had at least one species associated with weaving, with both harakeke and tī kōuka present at 83% of schools.

    We know young Māori in cities are at risk of losing cultural knowledge and opportunities for cultural practices, so the availability of key weaving species is an excellent opportunity for schools and their whānau.

    If this was a report card, Auckland’s school green spaces would not be high-achieving. But there are plenty of opportunities to improve. Adding more diversity, more native plants, and planting trees around the edges of sports fields will provide a wealth of benefits to both children and the city’s overall biodiversity.

    Using outdoor spaces for learning will increase natural and cultural connections and improve children’s wellbeing. That is much more than a “nice to have”.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Does your school have enough trees? Here’s why they’re great for kids and their learning – https://theconversation.com/does-your-school-have-enough-trees-heres-why-theyre-great-for-kids-and-their-learning-246411

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Gillibrand Statement On ICC Sanctions Procedural Vote

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for New York Kirsten Gillibrand
    Today, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand released the following statement regarding her decision to vote against ICC sanctions:
    “I strongly support legislation sanctioning the International Criminal Court, an antisemitic organization that has twisted the law to target Israel. Not only has the ICC consistently undermined its credibility and the principles of justice by unfairly targeting Israel’s leadership, but its actions have politicized its mission of holding actual war criminals accountable. Unfortunately, the bill put forth by our Republican colleagues was overly broad and could have harmed American allies and businesses. Democrats were willing to negotiate to address these concerns and strengthen the bill, but our offer was rebuffed. I believe the most effective way to hold the ICC accountable is through a bipartisan effort, and I urge our Republican colleagues to work with us on this important bill.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Cramer Questions Industry Executives on Defense Innovation and Acquisition Reform

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
    ***Click here to download video. Click here for audio.*** 
    WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Defense (DOD) has faced criticism for its slow and cumbersome acquisition system, which has hampered the timely delivery of advanced technologies to the warfighters. The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) held a hearing to discuss the use of defense innovation and acquisition reform to address longstanding challenges in the DOD’s procurement processes.
    Members of the committee heard testimony from three witnesses: former Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition James Geurts; Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Palantir Technologies Shyam Sankar; and Chief Executive Officer of Divergent Technologies Nathan Diller.
    [embedded content]
    U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), co-chair of the Senate Defense Modernization Caucus, highlighted the need for implementing the right technology and acquisition reforms to move at the speed of China and other adversaries.
    Cramer said when he first joined SASC, DOD was considering bids for a cloud computing contract known as Jedi. In early 2019, the department selected Microsoft and Amazon to compete for the contract, which was ultimately awarded to Microsoft. Unfortunately, but predictably this led to an immediate protest. This back and forth resulted in a delayed award for a critically important product DOD needed.
    “Five years later, we finally have multiple companies doing cloud computing,” said Cramer. “I was very frustrated by the ability of a company who didn’t win the contract, […] to protest the company who did and then hold up modernization by five years. […] But then we fast forward to today, where we read about now what I believe to be the most innovative agency within the DOD, the Space Development Agency, which has been under attack since the day we stood it up by swamp creatures, legacy space operators, and legacy acquisition and procurement officials, and a protest that I almost guarantee will slow [down] the proliferated warfighter space architecture, which is the worst thing that could happen.”
    Cramer asked the witnesses for their comments or opinions about the protest regime and whether more can be done. He explained while competition requires the ability to challenge, “it shouldn’t provide the opportunity to make the country less safe.”
    Geurts agreed with Cramer and emphasized the need for an avenue, though it has been abused over time.
    “One thing I suggested early on was you get one bite at the apple,” said Geurts. “You could protest to the [Government Accountability Office] or Court of Federal Claims. You couldn’t protest twice. I also think there should be some look at behavior over time and some disincentive for what I would call chronic protesting, particularly by incumbents.”
    Sankar agreed with the notion the avenue had been abused. He said one way they could buy this down is by “doing more bake-offs, more things in parallel, getting more things fielded, because anyone can win a fiction writing contest, you know, it has no correlation to your ability to perform, but when we have the satellites in space, we’ll be able to tell one way or another.”
    Diller emphasized the need to build trust:
    “When we look at these protests, if we take this approach, our Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff uses this phrase, ‘acquire to require.’ It’s exactly what Shyam was saying. How do we slowly build trust? Because at the core, it’s a trust issue. If we actually work together at the beginning in ways that [Other Transactions] allow us to, trust can be built.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Wheels come off yard burglary

    Source: New Zealand Police (National News)

    Two men face a slew of charges after their alleged burglary plans uncoupled on Auckland Anniversary Day.

    On Monday, frontline Police responded to a burglary in progress at an industrial area in Takanini, at around 8.54am.

    “Two men had allegedly broken into the business’ yard and were in the process of stealing a trailer and an all-terrain vehicle,” Counties Manukau South Area Prevention Manager, Inspector Matt Hoyes says.

    “The victims had arrived on scene and had approached the two offenders.”

    After being asked about their actions, one of the men allegedly assaulted one of the victims. Fortunately, he did not sustain serious injuries.

    “Police had received a 111 call, and our staff were soon in the area,” Inspector Hoyes says.

    “A Police unit signalled for the stolen vehicle and trailer to stop; however, the offender accelerated at speed and wasn’t pursued.”

    The second offender left the area on foot.

    Meanwhile, the Police Eagle helicopter had deployed and was overhead of the vehicle as it travelled north on the motorway.

    Inspector Hoyes says the vehicle exited at Highbrook and travelled to Kilkenny Drive in East Tamaki.

    “The vehicle came to a stop and units quickly moved in and blocked in the vehicle before the driver was arrested.”

    A 56-year-old man has been charged with aggravated assault, two counts of burglary, reckless driving and failing to stop.

    He will appear in the Papakura District Court on 30 January.

    The second man, a 45-year-old, was arrested in the Takanini area. He is also facing two charges of burglary and one count of aggravated assault.

    He has since appeared in the Papakura District Court and will reappear on 20 February 2025.

    “We acknowledge the victims’ quick reporting of offending taking place at their premises so our staff could respond and it’s a great outcome that we have returned both pieces of equipment to them,” Inspector Hoyes says.

    ENDS. 

    Jarred Williamson/NZ Police

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Animal Welfare – Warmer weather brings increased risks to dogs – NZVA

    Source: NZ Veterinary Association

    Dog owners are being warned to keep their pets away from highly toxic karaka berries and algal blooms this summer, and to contact their veterinarian immediately if they think their dog has swallowed them.
    The New Zealand Veterinary Association Te Pae Kīrehe (NZVA) encourages owners to walk dogs on a leash if toxic algae or karaka berries could be in the vicinity as both can make dogs incredibly ill.
    NZVA Head of Veterinary Services Companion Animal Sally Cory says at this time of year pets are spending more time outdoors and have more access to things that can harm them. “Unfortunately, dogs are attracted to karaka berries and toxic algae because of the strong smell,” she says. “Even small amounts can be dangerous, so if you think your dog has eaten karaka berries or toxic algae, call your veterinarian immediately and they will advise you what to do next.”
    The karaka tree fruits annually between January and April, dropping orange berries containing the alkaloid, karakin, which may be poisonous to dogs. Consumption of the berries by canines – who love their sweet taste – can lead to impaired neurological function, respiratory failure, and even death. Clinical signs can be delayed from between 24 hours and a week or more following ingestion.
    Toxic algae, also known as cyanobacteria, appears in rivers and lakes as black, green, or brown slime on rocks, and as brown or black ‘mats’. Symptoms can develop within 30 minutes and include panting, lethargy, muscle tremors, twitching, and convulsions.
    “When walking your dog near fresh water at this time of year, be mindful if it’s been dry and the water is potentially stagnant, or if it has rained heavily after a dry period as this can cause algae mats to dislodge,” Sally says. “Toxic algae has a strong, musty odour which dogs are attracted to and the toxic reaction can be fast. Remember if humans are advised not to swim somewhere, dogs shouldn’t swim there either.”
    Sally advises dog owners to keep an eye on information provided by local councils as signage may not always be installed at parks, rivers, and lakes. You can look up the potential risks of a destination by visiting Land Air Water Aotearoa.
    Sally also urges puppy and dog owners to make sure their pets are fully vaccinated against parvovirus as cases tend to rise when dogs spend more time in public spaces when the weather is warmer. Dogs can become infected by ingesting the virus through direct contact with contaminated faeces, surfaces, or objects, such as food bowls. The virus can even be transmitted on footwear. Signs of illness usually occur within three to seven days of exposure and may include severe, often bloody diarrhoea; vomiting; lethargy; decreased appetite; fever or low body temperature; rapid dehydration; and in severe cases, death.
    “We have started to see an increase in parvovirus cases already this season,” Sally says. “It is a highly contagious, viral disease, but it is preventable with appropriate vaccination.” Those most at risk are young (six weeks to six months), unvaccinated, or incompletely vaccinated puppies.
    Similarly, vaccinations need to be kept up-to-date for canine cough (kennel cough), an infectious respiratory disease that spreads when dogs are in close contact, such as at the beach, in parks, on walks, and in boarding kennels or daycare facilities. Talk to your veterinarian to ensure your dog is protected against parvovirus and canine cough.
    The summer months also bring the risk of bee sting reactions, incidents of dogs swallowing too much salt water, and grass seeds becoming lodged in ears and between toes, so keep an eye out for these too while out and about enjoying the warmer weather.
    Signs of karaka poisoning include:
    – Vomiting or diarrhoea
    – Abdominal pain
    – Reduced appetite
    – Paralysis of back legs
    – Loss of balance
    – Convulsions
    – Breathing slower than usual (which can lead to paralysis of breathing muscles).
    – If you think your dog has eaten any karaka berries, contact your vet immediately.
    Signs of toxic algae poisoning include:
    – Panting
    – Lethargy
    – Muscle tremors
    – Twitching
    – Convulsions
    – If your dog is showing any of these symptoms after being in contact with a waterway, contact your veterinarian immediately.
    More information on these topics can be found on the NZVA website:

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Learn about I-5 Secret Creek fish passage project in Snohomish County during open house events

    Source: Washington State News 2

    Online open house starts Jan. 28 with digital open house events Feb. 5 and Feb. 12

    STANWOOD – The secret is out. Work to gain fish habitat in Secret Creek under Interstate 5 in northern Snohomish County begins Feb. 24.

    From 6 p.m.to 12 p.m. daily. Monday through Friday, contractors working for the Washington State Department of Transportation will remove and replace old culverts that are near the end of their useful life.

    Travelers will see work zones along both directions of I-5 between 236th Street NE, at milepost 210, and State Route 532/Stanwood Bryant Road at milepost 212.

    To help travelers prepare for potential delays on I-5 and Old Highway 99, WSDOT is hosting an online open house and a digital open house. Topics will include what to expect during construction, and why this work is necessary. It will include maps and timelines of tentative schedules.

    I-5 Secret Creek online open house information

    I-5 Secret Creek digital office hours

    Free, temporary internet access is available to those who do not have broadband service in locations throughout the state. To find the nearest Drive-In WiFi Hotspot visit: commerce.wa.gov/building-infrastructure/washington-state-drive-in-wifi-hotspots-location-finder/

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Tuberville, Cruz Introduce Legislation to Protect American Fishermen from Cartels

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Tommy Tuberville (Alabama)
    WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) joined Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) in reintroducing legislation to target illegally caught red snapper and tuna imports. The senators introduced similar legislation last Congress.
    The Illegal Red Snapper and Tuna Enforcement Act would require the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to develop a standard methodology for identifying the country of origin of red snapper or tuna imported into the United States. Snapper poaching continues to be an issue across the Gulf of America, as Mexican fishermen illegally catch red snapper, smuggle it into their country, and then confuse American consumers by selling our fish back to us. 
    “Alabama lands 34 percent of all recreationally caught Red Snapper in the Gulf,” said Senator Tuberville. “Unfortunately, our domestic Red Snapper industry is being undermined by Mexican fishermen who are illegally catching American snapper in the Gulf, smuggling them into Mexico, and then reselling the same fish back to American consumers. In addition to taking business away from Alabama’s fishermen, many of the profits from these illegal fishing operations are funding the cartels. I’m proud to join Senator Cruz in introducing the Illegal Red Snapper and Tuna Enforcement Act to stop illegal Red Snapper from flooding our markets and bankrupting our great fishermen.”
    U.S. Senators Tuberville and Cruz were joined by U.S. Senators Katie Britt (R-AL) and Brian Schatz (D-HI).
    Full text of the legislation can be found here.
    BACKGROUND:
    Mexican fishermen cross the maritime border between Texas and Mexico on small boats called “lanchas” to illegally catch red snapper in U.S. waters and return to Mexico. The fish are sold in Mexico or mixed in with legally-caught red snapper then exported back into the United States across land borders. Red snapper is one of the most well-managed and profitable fish in the Gulf of Mexico, but illegal fishing by Mexican lanchas puts law-abiding U.S. fishermen and seafood producers at a competitive disadvantage. Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing activities violate both national and international fishing regulations.
    Cartels engaged in drug smuggling and human trafficking also engage in the profitable illegal fishing of red snapper. The same fishing boats and fishermen who catch red snapper also smuggle drugs and humans for the cartels, and these profits support the organization.
    Technology exists to chemically test and find the geographic origin of many foods, but not for red snapper or tuna. The Illegal Red Snapper and Tuna Enforcement Act would develop a field test kit the Coast Guard could use to accurately ascertain whether fish were caught in Mexico or U.S. waters, thus allowing federal and state law enforcement officers to identify the origin of the fish and confiscate illegally caught red snapper or tuna before it is imported back into the U.S.
    With the help of machine learning, NIST scientists are currently able to chemically determine the geographic origin of foods, including strawberries, apples, cherries, ginseng, ginkgo, beef, honey, and rice. Using those same methodologies, these scientists believe it would be possible to determine the geographic origin of red snapper. This would allow law enforcement to have a better understanding of the networks that support illegal fishing. It would also reduce the financial incentives for the crime, since the fish could no longer be sold back into the United States. If successful, this method could be expanded to identify other IUU fish.
    MORE:
    Tuberville Takes Aim At Cartels Engaged in Illegal Red Snapper Fishing
    Tuberville Voices Concerns About New Federal Red Snapper Limits
    Tuberville, Colleagues Advocate for Management Flexibility to Preserve Red Snapper Season
    Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, HELP, and Aging Committees.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Jamaican Citizen Sentenced to Prison in Connection with Lottery Scheme

    Source: US State Government of Utah

    A federal judge in Charlotte, North Carolina, sentenced a Jamaican citizen yesterday to prison for operating a Jamaica-based fraudulent lottery scheme.

    Antony Linton Stewart, 40, pleaded guilty on Aug. 3, 2023, to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, in the Western District of North Carolina.  On Jan. 27, U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Conrad sentenced Stewart to 84 months in prison. Stewart was also ordered to pay $1,104,041.74 in restitution.

    According to court documents, and as part of his plea, Stewart acknowledged that from approximately 2010 through at least August 2016, he led a fraudulent lottery fraud scheme in which he and his co-conspirators targeted victims in the United States. Stewart admitted that he contacted elderly Americans by phone and falsely told them that they had won money and other prizes in a sweepstakes or lottery.  Stewart told victims that they needed to send money to pay fees and taxes on their winnings.  He repeatedly contacted victims for as long as they could be persuaded to send additional money. No lottery existed and no victim ever received any winnings.

    “Overseas lottery schemes are unfortunately a common means by which foreign criminals seek to target U.S. citizens, particularly elder Americans,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Such schemes are unacceptable, and the Department will hold accountable those who participate in them.”

    “Stealing money from elderly individuals is a despicable crime,” said U.S. Attorney Dena J. King for the Western District of North Carolina. “Today’s sentence sends a clear message that fraudsters who target and exploit older adults for financial gain will be brought to justice.”

    This prosecution is part of the Justice Department’s effort to work with federal and foreign law enforcement to combat fraudulent lottery schemes in Jamaica that prey on U.S. citizens.

    The U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with law enforcement partners in Jamaica to secure the arrest and extradition of Stewart. The U.S. Marshals Service also provided significant assistance.

    Trial Attorney Ryan E. Norman of the Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch prosecuted the case, with the assistance of Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Ryan for the Western District of North Carolina.

    If you or someone you know is age 60 or older and has been a victim of financial fraud, help is standing by at the National Elder Fraud Hotline: 1-833-FRAUD-11 (1-833-372-8311). This Justice Department hotline, managed by the Office for Victims of Crime, is staffed by experienced professionals who provide personalized support to callers by assessing the needs of the victim and identifying relevant next steps. Case managers will identify appropriate reporting agencies, provide information to callers to assist them in reporting, connect callers directly with appropriate agencies, and provide resources and referrals, on a case-by-case basis. Reporting is the first step. Reporting can help authorities identify those who commit fraud and reporting certain financial losses due to fraud as soon as possible can increase the likelihood of recovering losses. The hotline is staffed seven days a week from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. eastern time. English, Spanish, and other languages are available.

    For more information about the Consumer Protection Branch, visit its website at www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch. For more information about the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina, visit their website at www.justice.gov/usao-wdnc. Information about the Justice Department’s Elder Fraud Initiative is available at www.justice.gov/elderjustice.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Former Tufts Medical Center Doctor Sentenced to a Decade in Prison for Attempted Sex Trafficking of a Child

    Source: United States Department of Justice (Human Trafficking)

    BOSTON – A former anesthesiologist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston was sentenced today for attempted sex trafficking of a child.

    Sadeq Ali Quraishi, 47, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Angel Kelley to 10 years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release. In October 2024, Quraishi was convicted of one count of attempted sex trafficking of a child.

    “Today’s sentence reflects the seriousness of Mr. Quraishi’s heinous actions and underscores our unwavering commitment to protecting children from exploitation. Our office, alongside our law enforcement partners, will continue to aggressively pursue individuals who fuel the market for child sex trafficking and hold them accountable for their crimes. This sentence reflects our dedication to identifying those who prey on our most vulnerable and holding them accountable for their inhumane acts,” said United States Attorney Leah B. Foley.

    “As a doctor, Quraishi was in a position of public trust. He abused that trust when he actively sought out and agreed to pay to sexually abuse a child. Fortunately, instead of the vulnerable child he planned to meet, he was met with an undercover HSI special agent,” said Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Krol for Homeland Security Investigations in New England. “It is a heartbreaking truth that children are trafficked every day, but HSI remains steadfast in our commitment to fight the exploitation of children here in Massachusetts and around the world.”

    In November 2022, law enforcement conducted an undercover operation designed to identify and apprehend people who sought to pay for sex with children. To that end, law enforcement placed advertisements online offering commercial sex with two young girls who were purportedly 12 and 14 years old.

    Quraishi, then a practicing anesthesiologist at Tufts Medical Center, responded to one of the advertisements. Through an ensuing text conversation with undercover agents posing as the seller of the two girls, Quraishi agreed to pay $250 for a sex act to be performed by a 14-year-old girl. Shortly thereafter, Quraishi obtained cash from an ATM, and drove from his Boston home to a Waltham hotel to meet with the purported seller. Once at the hotel, he met with an undercover agent, confirmed he had the money to pay for the commercial sex act, and accepted a keycard he believed would give him access to the room where the 14-year-old girl would be. During that meeting, Quraishi was arrested and found to be in possession of exactly $250.

    If you or someone you know may be impacted or experiencing commercial sex trafficking, please contact USAMA.VictimAssistance@usdoj.gov.

    U.S. Attorney Foley and HSI SAC Krol made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brian A. Fogerty of the Human Trafficking & Civil Rights Unit and Lauren A. Graber of Criminal Division prosecuted the case. 

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Jamaican Citizen Sentenced to Prison in Connection with Lottery Scheme

    Source: United States Attorneys General 1

    A federal judge in Charlotte, North Carolina, sentenced a Jamaican citizen yesterday to prison for operating a Jamaica-based fraudulent lottery scheme.

    Antony Linton Stewart, 40, pleaded guilty on Aug. 3, 2023, to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, in the Western District of North Carolina.  On Jan. 27, U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Conrad sentenced Stewart to 84 months in prison. Stewart was also ordered to pay $1,104,041.74 in restitution.

    According to court documents, and as part of his plea, Stewart acknowledged that from approximately 2010 through at least August 2016, he led a fraudulent lottery fraud scheme in which he and his co-conspirators targeted victims in the United States. Stewart admitted that he contacted elderly Americans by phone and falsely told them that they had won money and other prizes in a sweepstakes or lottery.  Stewart told victims that they needed to send money to pay fees and taxes on their winnings.  He repeatedly contacted victims for as long as they could be persuaded to send additional money. No lottery existed and no victim ever received any winnings.

    “Overseas lottery schemes are unfortunately a common means by which foreign criminals seek to target U.S. citizens, particularly elder Americans,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Such schemes are unacceptable, and the Department will hold accountable those who participate in them.”

    “Stealing money from elderly individuals is a despicable crime,” said U.S. Attorney Dena J. King for the Western District of North Carolina. “Today’s sentence sends a clear message that fraudsters who target and exploit older adults for financial gain will be brought to justice.”

    This prosecution is part of the Justice Department’s effort to work with federal and foreign law enforcement to combat fraudulent lottery schemes in Jamaica that prey on U.S. citizens.

    The U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with law enforcement partners in Jamaica to secure the arrest and extradition of Stewart. The U.S. Marshals Service also provided significant assistance.

    Trial Attorney Ryan E. Norman of the Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch prosecuted the case, with the assistance of Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Ryan for the Western District of North Carolina.

    If you or someone you know is age 60 or older and has been a victim of financial fraud, help is standing by at the National Elder Fraud Hotline: 1-833-FRAUD-11 (1-833-372-8311). This Justice Department hotline, managed by the Office for Victims of Crime, is staffed by experienced professionals who provide personalized support to callers by assessing the needs of the victim and identifying relevant next steps. Case managers will identify appropriate reporting agencies, provide information to callers to assist them in reporting, connect callers directly with appropriate agencies, and provide resources and referrals, on a case-by-case basis. Reporting is the first step. Reporting can help authorities identify those who commit fraud and reporting certain financial losses due to fraud as soon as possible can increase the likelihood of recovering losses. The hotline is staffed seven days a week from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. eastern time. English, Spanish, and other languages are available.

    For more information about the Consumer Protection Branch, visit its website at www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch. For more information about the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina, visit their website at www.justice.gov/usao-wdnc. Information about the Justice Department’s Elder Fraud Initiative is available at www.justice.gov/elderjustice.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Australian produce in high demand for Lunar New Year Celebrations in China

    Source: Minister for Trade

    The Lunar New Year marks exciting new opportunities for Australian food and agriculture exporters to China, with $20 billion worth of trade impediments now removed.

    China’s consumers can celebrate the Year of the Snake by dining on a smorgasbord of Aussie cuisine, including delicious lobsters, the world’s best wines, and high-quality beef steaks.

    The Albanese Labor Government has worked calmly and consistently to restore dialogue to Australia’s relationship with China and secure the removal of $20 billion of trade impediments.

    Following the removal of the final trade impediments in December 2024, dining tables in China will now feature Australian live rock lobsters, a welcome outcome for Chinese consumers and Australian businesses alike.

    Over 900 tonnes of live rock lobsters has already been exported to China since the removal of impediments. This has supported the jobs of 3,000 Australians employed in the industry, 2,000 of which are in Western Australia.

    Australian fresh cherries are also highly prized as a gift to celebrate the Lunar New Year, and demand is expected to grow this financial year, after strong growth last year. Australia exported $14 million or 582 tonnes of cherries in 2023-24, an increase of 129 per cent in value and 137 per cent in volume. 

    Exports to China of Australian agricultural products previously affected by trade impediments have rebounded in 2024 year-on-year (January to October):

    • barley increased 221 per cent in value;
    • wine increased over 5,000 per cent in value; and
    • timber logs (specifically, wood in the rough) increased over 8,000 per cent in value.

    China remains Australia’s largest market for agricultural exports, worth $17.1 billion and accounting for around a quarter of total agricultural exports in 2023-24.

    Quotes attributable to Foreign Minister Penny Wong:

    “The Albanese Labor Government’s calm and consistent approach to our relationship with China is delivering for Australians and for our national interest.

    “It’s the result of hard work and a responsible Government that doesn’t play reckless political games with Australia’s most important relationships. 

    “Labor will continue to support Australian businesses to sell their products to the world, including through our efforts to diversify our trade.”

    Quotes attributable to Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell:  

    “Sustained engagement and advocacy by the Albanese Labor Government has resulted in the removal of around $20 billion of Chinese trade impediments, benefiting Australian farmers, exporters and our regions.

    “But we will not rest on our laurels – we are committed to creating even more export opportunities for Australian farmers and producers.

    “Every product we export means more national income and more well-paying Australian jobs.”

    Quotes attributable to Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister Julie Collins:

    “Australia has an outstanding reputation as a supplier of high-quality agricultural products in China.  

    “Our Government is focused on strengthening our trade relationships and expanding opportunities for Australia’s farmers and producers.

    “In 2023-24, we recorded 88 market access achievements which opened, improved, maintained, or restored access for Australian businesses, including unlocking 10 new markets.

    “Australia exports over 70 per cent of our agricultural, fisheries and forestry production to 169 markets globally – the most diversified trade has ever been – thanks to the Albanese Labor Government.”

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI: Hanmi Reports 2024 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Results

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    LOS ANGELES, Jan. 28, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Hanmi Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: HAFC, or “Hanmi”), the parent company of Hanmi Bank (the “Bank”), today reported financial results for the fourth quarter of 2024 and full year.

    Net income for the fourth quarter of 2024 was $17.7 million, or $0.58 per diluted share, compared with $14.9 million, or $0.49 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2024. The return on average assets for the fourth quarter of 2024 was 0.93% and the return on average equity was 8.89%, compared with a return on average assets of 0.79% and a return on average equity of 7.55% for the third quarter of 2024.

    For the full year of 2024, net income was $62.2 million, or $2.05 per diluted share, compared with $80.0 million, or $2.62 per diluted share, for 2023. The return on average assets for 2024 was 0.83% and the return on average equity was 7.97%.

    CEO Commentary
    “Hanmi achieved exceptional results in the fourth quarter, delivering our best quarterly performance of the year and closing 2024 with strong momentum,” said Bonnie Lee, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Our team’s outstanding execution generated significant earnings growth fueled by our net interest margin expansion of 17 basis points to 2.91%, disciplined expense management, and vigilant credit administration. These robust results highlight the strength of our relationship-driven banking model.”

    “For the full year, we had a number of key accomplishments to advance our growth and diversification strategy. We delivered 16% growth in our C&I loan portfolio, driven primarily by the strong contribution from our Corporate Korea initiative. Noninterest-bearing demand deposits grew by 5% and now represent 33% of our total deposits. Finally, through our proactive monitoring of the portfolio and our successful resolution efforts, we further improved asset quality with nonperforming assets as a percentage of total assets decreasing to 0.19%.”

    “With our strong capital foundation, we are well positioned to execute on our growth strategy. Our performance is the result of our team’s unwavering dedication to serving our customers and the communities in which we operate. I want to thank each of them for their continued commitment to deliver long-term value for our shareholders,” concluded Lee.

    Fourth Quarter 2024 Highlights:

    • Fourth quarter net income was $17.7 million, or $0.58 per diluted share, up 18.8% from $14.9 million, or $0.49 per diluted share for the third quarter of 2024. The increase reflects a $3.4 million, or 6.8%, increase in net interest income, primarily due to a decrease in interest expense on deposits.
    • Loans receivable were $6.25 billion at December 31, 2024, essentially unchanged from the end of the third quarter of 2024; loan production for the fourth quarter was $339.0 million, with a weighted average interest rate of 7.37%, compared with loan production for the third quarter of $347.8 million, with a weighted average interest rate of 7.92%.
    • Deposits were $6.44 billion at December 31, 2024, up 0.5% from the end of the third quarter of 2024; noninterest-bearing demand deposits were 32.6% of total deposits. During the quarter, noninterest-bearing demand deposits grew 2.2%, while time deposits declined 2.0% from the prior quarter.
    • Net interest income for the fourth quarter was $53.4 million, up 6.8% from the third quarter of 2024. Net interest margin (taxable equivalent) increased 17 basis points to 2.91%; the average yield on loans declined three basis points to 5.97%, while the cost of interest-bearing deposits fell 31 basis points to 3.96%.
    • Credit loss expense for the fourth quarter was $0.9 million, a decrease from $2.3 million for the prior quarter. The allowance for credit losses increased $1.0 million to $70.1 million at December 31, 2024, or 1.12% of loans. For the fourth quarter, net loan recoveries were $0.1 million.
    • Asset quality remained strong, as nonperforming loans declined by 7.9% to $14.3 million, or 0.23% of loans, which included pay-offs of $1.8 million, while criticized loans increased to $165.3 million, as special mention loans increased to $139.6 million and classified loans fell to $25.7 million.

    For more information about Hanmi, please see the Q4 2024 Investor Update (and Supplemental Financial Information), which is available on the Bank’s website at www.hanmi.com and via a current report on Form 8-K on the website of the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov. Also, please refer to “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” herein for further details of the presentation of certain non-GAAP financial measures.

    Quarterly Highlights
    (Dollars in thousands, except per share data)

      As of or for the Three Months Ended     Amount Change  
      December 31,  September 30,
    		   June 30,     March 31,     December 31,   Q4-24     Q4-24  
      2024     2024     2024     2024     2023     vs. Q3-24     vs. Q4-23  
                                             
    Net income $ 17,695     $ 14,892     $ 14,451     $ 15,164     $ 18,633     $ 2,803     $ (938 )
    Net income per diluted common share $ 0.58     $ 0.49     $ 0.48     $ 0.50     $ 0.61     $ 0.09     $ (0.03 )
                                             
    Assets $ 7,677,925     $ 7,712,299     $ 7,586,347     $ 7,512,046     $ 7,570,341     $ (34,374 )   $ 107,584  
    Loans receivable $ 6,251,377     $ 6,257,744     $ 6,176,359     $ 6,177,840     $ 6,182,434     $ (6,367 )   $ 68,943  
    Deposits $ 6,435,776     $ 6,403,221     $ 6,329,340     $ 6,376,060     $ 6,280,574     $ 32,555     $ 155,202  
                                             
    Return on average assets   0.93 %     0.79 %     0.77 %     0.81 %     0.99 %     0.14       -0.06  
    Return on average stockholders’ equity   8.89 %     7.55 %     7.50 %     7.90 %     9.70 %     1.34       -0.81  
                                             
    Net interest margin   2.91 %     2.74 %     2.69 %     2.78 %     2.92 %     0.17       -0.01  
    Efficiency ratio (1)   56.79 %     59.98 %     62.24 %     62.42 %     58.86 %     -3.19       -2.07  
                                             
    Tangible common equity to tangible assets (2)   9.41 %     9.42 %     9.19 %     9.23 %     9.14 %     -0.01       0.27  
    Tangible common equity per common share (2) $ 23.88     $ 24.03     $ 22.99     $ 22.86     $ 22.75       -0.15       1.14  
                                             
                                             
    (1)      Noninterest expense divided by net interest income plus noninterest income.                    
    (2)      Refer to “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for further details.                    

    Results of Operations
    Net interest income for the fourth quarter was $53.4 million, up 6.8% from $50.1 million for the third quarter of 2024. The increase was primarily due to a decrease in deposit interest expense. The decrease in deposit interest expense was primarily a result of decreases in deposit rates and the average balances of interest-bearing deposits, coupled with a 3.1% increase in the average balance of noninterest-bearing demand deposits. The rate on deposits for the fourth quarter decreased 31 basis points to 3.96%, from 4.27% for the third quarter of 2024. The average balance of interest-bearing deposits decreased to $4.36 billion for the fourth quarter of 2024, from $4.40 billion for the third quarter. The average balance of noninterest-bearing deposits for the fourth quarter increased to $1.97 billion, from $1.91 billion for the third quarter of 2024. Net interest margin (taxable equivalent) for the fourth quarter was 2.91%, up 17 basis points from 2.74% for the third quarter of 2024.

    Net interest income was $202.8 million for the full year of 2024 compared with $221.3 million for 2023, a decline of 8.4%. The decrease reflected higher interest rates during 2024 compared with 2023, including an increase in the cost of interest-bearing deposits, partially offset by an increase in interest-earning asset yields. The cost of interest-bearing deposits for 2024 year increased 81 basis points to 4.16% from 3.35% for 2023. The yield on average interest-earning assets for 2024 increased 31 basis points to 5.46% from 5.15% for 2023. The average balance of interest-bearing deposits for 2024 increased to $4.39 billion from $4.02 billion for 2023. The average balance of interest-earning assets for 2024 year increased 1.7% to $7.30 billion from $7.18 billion for 2023. The average balance of loans for 2024 year was $6.11 billion, up 2.4% from $5.97 billion for 2023. Net interest margin (taxable-equivalent) for 2024 year was 2.78% compared with 3.08% for 2023. The 30 basis point decrease in the net interest margin reflected the increase in the cost of interest-bearing deposits, partially offset by the increase in average loan yields.

      For the Three Months Ended (in thousands)     Percentage Change  
      Dec 31,     Sep 30,     Jun 30,     Mar 31,     Dec 31,     Q4-24     Q4-24  
    Net Interest Income 2024     2024     2024     2024     2023     vs. Q3-24     vs. Q4-23  
                                             
    Interest and fees on loans receivable(1) $ 91,545     $ 92,182     $ 90,752     $ 91,674     $ 89,922       -0.7 %     1.8 %
    Interest on securities   5,866       5,523       5,238       4,955       4,583       6.2 %     28.0 %
    Dividends on FHLB stock   360       356       357       361       341       1.1 %     5.6 %
    Interest on deposits in other banks   2,342       2,356       2,313       2,604       2,337       -0.6 %     0.2 %
    Total interest and dividend income $ 100,113     $ 100,417     $ 98,660     $ 99,594     $ 97,183       -0.3 %     3.0 %
                                             
    Interest on deposits   43,406       47,153       46,495       45,638       40,277       -7.9 %     7.8 %
    Interest on borrowings   1,634       1,561       1,896       1,655       2,112       4.7 %     -22.6 %
    Interest on subordinated debentures   1,624       1,652       1,649       1,646       1,654       -1.7 %     -1.8 %
    Total interest expense   46,664       50,366       50,040       48,939       44,043       -7.4 %     6.0 %
    Net interest income $ 53,449     $ 50,051     $ 48,620     $ 50,655     $ 53,140       6.8 %     0.6 %
                                             
    (1)      Includes loans held for sale.                                        
      For the Three Months Ended (in thousands)
    		     Percentage Change
    		  
    Average Earning Assets and Interest-bearing Liabilities   Dec 31,
    2024    		       Sep 30,
    2024    		       Jun 30,
    2024    		       Mar 31,
    2024    		       Dec 31,
    2023    		       Q4-24
    vs. Q3-24    		       Q4-24
    vs. Q4-23    		  
    Loans receivable (1) $ 6,103,264     $ 6,112,324     $ 6,089,440     $ 6,137,888     $ 6,071,644       -0.1 %     0.5 %
    Securities   998,313       986,041       979,671       969,520       961,551       1.2 %     3.8 %
    FHLB stock   16,385       16,385       16,385       16,385       16,385       0.0 %     0.0 %
    Interest-bearing deposits in other banks   204,408       183,027       180,177       201,724       181,140       11.7 %     12.8 %
    Average interest-earning assets $ 7,322,370     $ 7,297,777     $ 7,265,673     $ 7,325,517     $ 7,230,720       0.3 %     1.3 %
                                             
    Demand: interest-bearing $ 79,784     $ 83,647     $ 85,443     $ 86,401     $ 86,679       -4.6 %     -8.0 %
    Money market and savings   1,934,540       1,885,799       1,845,870       1,815,085       1,669,973       2.6 %     15.8 %
    Time deposits   2,346,363       2,427,737       2,453,154       2,507,830       2,417,803       -3.4 %     -3.0 %
    Average interest-bearing deposits   4,360,687       4,397,183       4,384,467       4,409,316       4,174,455       -0.8 %     4.5 %
    Borrowings   141,604       143,479       169,525       162,418       205,951       -1.3 %     -31.2 %
    Subordinated debentures   130,567       130,403       130,239       130,088       129,933       0.1 %     0.5 %
    Average interest-bearing liabilities $ 4,632,858     $ 4,671,065     $ 4,684,231     $ 4,701,822     $ 4,510,339       -0.8 %     2.7 %
                                             
    Average Noninterest Bearing Deposits                                        
    Demand deposits – noninterest bearing $ 1,967,789     $ 1,908,833     $ 1,883,765     $ 1,921,189     $ 2,025,212       3.1 %     -2.8 %
                                             
    (1)      Includes loans held for sale.                                        
      For the Three Months Ended     Yield/Rate Change  
      Dec 31,     Sep 30,     Jun 30,     Mar 31,     Dec 31,     Q4-24     Q4-24  
    Average Yields and Rates 2024     2024     2024     2024     2023     vs. Q3-24     vs. Q4-23  
    Loans receivable(1)   5.97 %     6.00 %     5.99 %     6.00 %     5.88 %     -0.03       0.09  
    Securities (2)   2.38 %     2.27 %     2.17 %     2.07 %     1.93 %     0.11       0.45  
    FHLB stock   8.75 %     8.65 %     8.77 %     8.87 %     8.25 %     0.10       0.50  
    Interest-bearing deposits in other banks   4.56 %     5.12 %     5.16 %     5.19 %     5.12 %     -0.56       -0.56  
    Interest-earning assets   5.45 %     5.48 %     5.46 %     5.47 %     5.34 %     -0.03       0.11  
                                             
    Interest-bearing deposits   3.96 %     4.27 %     4.27 %     4.16 %     3.83 %     -0.31       0.13  
    Borrowings   4.59 %     4.33 %     4.50 %     4.10 %     4.07 %     0.26       0.52  
    Subordinated debentures   4.97 %     5.07 %     5.07 %     5.06 %     5.09 %     -0.10       -0.12  
    Interest-bearing liabilities   4.01 %     4.29 %     4.30 %     4.19 %     3.88 %     -0.28       0.13  
                                             
    Net interest margin (taxable equivalent basis)   2.91 %     2.74 %     2.69 %     2.78 %     2.92 %     0.17       -0.01  
                                             
    Cost of deposits   2.73 %     2.97 %     2.98 %     2.90 %     2.58 %     -0.24       0.15  
                                             
    (1)      Includes loans held for sale.                                        
    (2)      Amounts calculated on a fully taxable equivalent basis using the federal tax rate in effect for the periods presented.              

    Credit loss expense for the fourth quarter was $0.9 million, compared with $2.3 million for the third quarter of 2024. Fourth quarter credit loss expense included a $0.9 million credit loss expense for loan losses. Fourth quarter net loan recoveries were $0.1 million, compared to third quarter net loan charge-offs of $0.9 million.

    Credit loss expense was $4.4 million for 2024, compared with $4.3 million for 2023. The credit loss expense for 2024 was comprised of a $4.8 million credit loss expense for loan losses and a $0.4 million credit loss expense recovery for off-balance sheet items. 2023 credit loss expense was comprised of a $4.9 million credit loss expense for loan losses and a $0.6 million credit loss expense recovery for off-balance sheet items.

    Noninterest income for the fourth quarter decreased $1.0 million, or 12.8%, to $7.4 million, from $8.4 million for the third quarter of 2024. The decrease was primarily due to a $0.9 million gain from the sale and leaseback of a branch property included in third quarter noninterest income. Gains on sales of SBA loans were $1.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2024, compared with $1.5 million for the third quarter of 2024. The volume of SBA loans sold for the fourth quarter decreased to $21.6 million, from $23.0 million for the third quarter of 2024, while trade premiums were 8.53% for the fourth quarter of 2024, slightly lower than 8.54% for the third quarter. Mortgage loans sold for the fourth quarter were $18.3 million, with a premium of 1.96%, compared with $20.9 million and 2.32% for the third quarter. Gains on mortgage loans sold were $0.3 million for both quarters.

    Noninterest income decreased $2.6 million, or 7.6%, to $31.6 million for 2024, from $34.2 million for 2023, primarily due to a $4.0 million gain on the sale-and-leaseback of a branch property in 2023 and a $0.8 million decrease in service charges on deposits. Those items were partially offset by a $1.5 million gain on the sale of mortgage loans and a $0.9 million gain from the sale and leaseback of a branch property in 2024. The volume of SBA loans sold in 2024 declined to $93.7 million, from $100.5 million for 2023, while trade premiums increased to 8.18% for 2024, from 7.12% for 2023.

      For the Three Months Ended (in thousands)     Percentage Change  
      Dec 31,     Sep 30,     Jun 30,     Mar 31,     Dec 31,     Q4-24     Q4-24  
    Noninterest Income 2024     2024     2024     2024     2023     vs. Q3-24     vs. Q4-23  
    Service charges on deposit accounts $ 2,192     $ 2,311     $ 2,429     $ 2,450     $ 2,391       -5.1 %     -8.3 %
    Trade finance and other service charges and fees   1,364       1,254       1,277       1,414       1,245       8.8 %     9.6 %
    Servicing income   668       817       796       712       772       -18.2 %     -13.5 %
    Bank-owned life insurance income (expense)   316       320       638       304       (29 )     -1.3 %   N/M  
    All other operating income   1,037       1,008       908       928       853       2.9 %     21.6 %
    Service charges, fees & other   5,577       5,710       6,048       5,808       5,232       -2.3 %     6.6 %
                                             
    Gain on sale of SBA loans   1,443       1,544       1,644       1,482       1,448       -6.5 %     -0.3 %
    Gain on sale of mortgage loans   337       324       365       443       –       4.0 %     0.0 %
    Gain on sale of bank premises   –       860       –       –       –       -100.0 %     0.0 %
    Total noninterest income $ 7,357     $ 8,438     $ 8,057     $ 7,733     $ 6,680       -12.8 %     10.1 %
                                             
    N/M – Not meaningful.                                        

    Noninterest expense for the fourth quarter decreased by $0.6 million to $34.5 million from $35.1 million for the third quarter of 2024. The decrease primarily reflects a $1.6 million gain on the sale of an other real estate owned property. Absent this gain, fourth quarter noninterest expense was up 3.1% sequentially, due to increases in advertising and promotion expense and legal fees from collections and business activities. In addition, other operating expense for the fourth quarter included a $0.5 million charge related to an SBA loan acquired in a previous acquisition, while the third quarter included a $0.3 million reimbursement for property taxes. The efficiency ratio for the fourth quarter was 56.8%, compared with 60.0% for the third quarter of 2024.

    Noninterest expense increased by $4.8 million, or 3.5%, to $141.3 million for 2024, from $136.5 million for 2023. The increase reflected a $2.0 million, or 2.4%, increase in salaries and benefits, a $1.2 million increase in data processing expense, a $0.7 million increase in professional fees, and a $1.4 million increase in other operating expenses. Decreases of $0.2 million in occupancy and equipment expense and $0.2 million in supplies and communication expense partially offset the increases. The efficiency ratio for 2024 increased to 60.3%, from 53.5% for 2023, primarily due to higher expenses and lower revenue.

      For the Three Months Ended (in thousands)     Percentage Change  
      Dec 31,     Sep 30,     Jun 30,     Mar 31,     Dec 31,     Q4-24     Q4-24  
      2024     2024     2024     2024     2023     vs. Q3-24     vs. Q4-23  
    Noninterest Expense                                        
    Salaries and employee benefits $ 20,498     $ 20,851     $ 20,434     $ 21,585     $ 20,062     -1.7 %   2.2 %
    Occupancy and equipment   4,503       4,499       4,348       4,537       4,604     0.1 %   -2.2 %
    Data processing   3,800       3,839       3,686       3,551       3,487     -1.0 %   9.0 %
    Professional fees   1,821       1,492       1,749       1,893       1,977     22.1 %   -7.9 %
    Supplies and communication   551       538       570       601       613     2.4 %   -10.1 %
    Advertising and promotion   821       631       669       907       990     30.1 %   -17.1 %
    All other operating expenses   3,847       2,875       3,251       3,160       3,252     33.8 %   18.3 %
    Subtotal   35,841       34,725       34,707       36,234       34,985     3.2 %   2.4 %
                                             
    Branch consolidation expense   –       –       301       –       –     0.0 %   0.0 %
    Other real estate owned (income) expense   (1,588 )     77       6       22       15     N/M     N/M  
    Repossessed personal property expense   281       278       262       189       211     1.1 %   33.2 %
    Total noninterest expense $ 34,534     $ 35,080     $ 35,276     $ 36,445     $ 35,211     -1.6 %   -1.9 %
                                             
    N/M – Not meaningful.                                        

    Hanmi recorded a provision for income taxes of $7.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2024, compared with $6.2 million for the third quarter of 2024, representing an effective tax rate of 30.1% and 29.5%, respectively. The effective tax rates for 2024 and 2023 years were 29.8% and 30.1%, respectively.

    Financial Position
    Total assets at December 31, 2024, decreased 0.4%, or $33.7 million, to $7.68 billion from $7.71 billion at September 30, 2024. The decrease reflected a $45.8 million decrease in loans held-for-sale and a $6.4 million decrease in loans, offset partially by a $17.0 million increase in cash and due from banks. From December 31, 2023, total assets increased 1.4%, or $108.2 million. This year-over-year increase reflected a 1.1%, or $68.9 million, growth in loans receivable, and a 4.6%, or $40.1 million increase in securities, supported by a 2.5%, or $155.2 million increase in deposits.

    Loans receivable, before allowance for credit losses, were $6.25 billion at December 31, 2024, down from $6.26 billion at September 30, 2024.

    Loans held-for-sale were $8.6 million at December 31, 2024, down from $54.3 million at September 30, 2024. At the end of the fourth quarter, loans held-for-sale consisted of the guaranteed portion of SBA 7(a) loans. The prior quarter included $18.3 million of residential mortgage loans and a $27.2 million nonaccrual loan, all of which were sold in the fourth quarter.

      As of (in thousands)     Percentage Change  
      Dec 31,     Sep 30,     Jun 30,     Mar 31,     Dec 31,     Q4-24     Q4-24  
      2024     2024     2024     2024     2023     vs. Q3-24     vs. Q4-23  
    Loan Portfolio                                        
    Commercial real estate loans $ 3,949,622     $ 3,932,088     $ 3,888,505     $ 3,878,677     $ 3,889,739       0.4 %   1.5 %
    Residential/consumer loans   951,302       939,285       954,209       970,362       962,661       1.3 %   -1.2 %
    Commercial and industrial loans   863,431       879,092       802,372       774,851       747,819       -1.8 %   15.5 %
    Equipment finance   487,022       507,279       531,273       553,950       582,215       -4.0 %   -16.4 %
    Loans receivable   6,251,377       6,257,744       6,176,359       6,177,840       6,182,434       -0.1 %   1.1 %
    Loans held for sale   8,579       54,336       10,467       3,999       12,013       -84.2 %   -28.6 %
    Total $ 6,259,956     $ 6,312,080     $ 6,186,826     $ 6,181,839     $ 6,194,447       -0.8 %   1.1 %
      As of  
      Dec 31,     Sep 30,     Jun 30,     Mar 31,     Dec 31,  
      2024     2024     2024     2024     2023  
    Composition of Loan Portfolio                            
    Commercial real estate loans 63.1 %   62.3 %   62.9 %   62.7 %   62.8 %
    Residential/consumer loans 15.2 %   14.9 %   15.4 %   15.7 %   15.5 %
    Commercial and industrial loans 13.8 %   13.9 %   13.0 %   12.5 %   12.1 %
    Equipment finance 7.8 %   8.0 %   8.5 %   9.0 %   9.4 %
    Loans receivable 99.9 %   99.1 %   99.8 %   99.9 %   99.8 %
    Loans held for sale 0.1 %   0.9 %   0.2 %   0.1 %   0.2 %
    Total 100.0 %   100.0 %   100.0 %   100.0 %   100.0 %

    New loan production was $339.0 million for the fourth quarter of 2024 at an average rate of 7.37%, while payoffs were $137.9 million during the quarter at an average rate of 6.78%.

    Commercial real estate loan production for the fourth quarter of 2024 was $146.7 million. Commercial and industrial loan production was $60.2 million, SBA loan production was $49.7 million, equipment finance production was $42.2 million, and residential mortgage loan production was $40.2 million.

    New loan production for 2024 was $1.20 billion, a decrease of 7.4%, or $96.0 million, from $1.29 billion for the full year 2023. The average rate for new loan production for 2024 was 7.87% compared with 7.66% for 2023. Payoffs for 2024 were $450.2 million with an average rate of 7.34% compared with $386.0 million and 7.13% for 2023.

      For the Three Months Ended (in thousands)  
      Dec 31,     Sep 30,     Jun 30,     Mar 31,     Dec 31,  
      2024     2024     2024     2024     2023  
    New Loan Production                            
    Commercial real estate loans $ 146,716     $ 110,246     $ 87,632     $ 60,085     $ 178,157  
    Commercial and industrial loans   60,159       105,086       59,007       50,789       52,079  
    SBA loans   49,740       51,616       54,486       30,817       48,432  
    Equipment finance   42,168       40,066       42,594       39,155       57,334  
    Residential/consumer loans   40,225       40,758       30,194       53,115       53,465  
             subtotal   339,008       347,772       273,913       233,961       389,467  
                                 
                                 
    Payoffs   (137,932 )     (77,603 )     (148,400 )     (86,250 )     (77,961 )
    Amortization   (60,583 )     (151,674 )     (83,640 )     (90,711 )     (106,610 )
    Loan sales   (67,852 )     (43,868 )     (42,945 )     (55,321 )     (29,861 )
    Net line utilization   (75,651 )     9,426       1,929       (4,150 )     (11,609 )
    Charge-offs & OREO   (3,356 )     (2,668 )     (2,338 )     (2,123 )     (1,777 )
                                 
    Loans receivable-beginning balance   6,257,744       6,176,359       6,177,840       6,182,434       6,020,785  
    Loans receivable-ending balance $ 6,251,377     $ 6,257,744     $ 6,176,359     $ 6,177,840     $ 6,182,434  

    Deposits were $6.44 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024, up $32.6 million, or 0.5%, from $6.40 billion at the end of the prior quarter. Driving the change was a $44.8 million increase in noninterest-bearing demand deposits and a $34.7 million increase in money market and savings deposits, partially offset by a $48.0 million decrease in time deposits. Noninterest-bearing demand deposits represented 32.6% of total deposits at December 31, 2024, and the loan-to-deposit ratio was 97.1%.

      As of (in thousands)     Percentage Change  
      Dec 31,     Sep 30,     Jun 30,     Mar 31,     Dec 31,     Q4-24     Q4-24  
      2024     2024     2024     2024     2023     vs. Q3-24     vs. Q4-23  
    Deposit Portfolio                                        
    Demand: noninterest-bearing $ 2,096,634     $ 2,051,790     $ 1,959,963     $ 1,933,060     $ 2,003,596     2.2 %   4.6 %
    Demand: interest-bearing   80,323       79,287       82,981       87,374       87,452     1.3 %   -8.2 %
    Money market and savings   1,933,535       1,898,834       1,834,797       1,859,865       1,734,658     1.8 %   11.5 %
    Time deposits   2,325,284       2,373,310       2,451,599       2,495,761       2,454,868     -2.0 %   -5.3 %
    Total deposits $ 6,435,776     $ 6,403,221     $ 6,329,340     $ 6,376,060     $ 6,280,574     0.5 %   2.5 %
      As of  
      Dec 31,     Sep 30,     Jun 30,     Mar 31,     Dec 31,  
      2024     2024     2024     2024     2023  
    Composition of Deposit Portfolio                            
    Demand: noninterest-bearing 32.6 %   32.0 %   31.0 %   30.3 %   31.9 %
    Demand: interest-bearing 1.2 %   1.2 %   1.3 %   1.4 %   1.4 %
    Money market and savings 30.0 %   29.7 %   29.0 %   29.2 %   27.6 %
    Time deposits 36.2 %   37.1 %   38.7 %   39.1 %   39.1 %
    Total deposits 100.0 %   100.0 %   100.0 %   100.0 %   100.0 %

    Stockholders’ equity at December 31, 2024, was $732.2 million, down $4.5 million from $736.7 million at September 30, 2024. The decrease was due to a $14.6 million increase in unrealized after-tax losses on securities available for sale and a $1.0 million increase in unrealized after-tax losses on cash flow hedges, all due to changes in interest rates during the fourth quarter of 2024. Hanmi also repurchased 24,500 shares of common stock, at a cost of $0.6 million, during the quarter at an average share price of $22.91. At December 31, 2024, 1,230,500 shares remain under Hanmi’s share repurchase program. Partially offsetting these decreases was $10.2 million of net income, net of dividends paid, for the fourth quarter. Tangible common stockholders’ equity was $721.1 million, or 9.41% of tangible assets, at December 31, 2024, compared with $725.7 million, or 9.42% of tangible assets at the end of the prior quarter. Please refer to the Non-GAAP Financial Measures section below for more information.

    Hanmi and the Bank exceeded minimum regulatory capital requirements, and the Bank continues to exceed the minimum for the “well capitalized” category. At December 31, 2024, Hanmi’s preliminary common equity tier 1 capital ratio was 12.11% and its total risk-based capital ratio was 15.24%, compared with 11.95% and 15.03%, respectively, at the end of the prior quarter.

      As of     Ratio Change  
      Dec 31,     Sep 30,     Jun 30,     Mar 31,     Dec 31,     Q4-24     Q4-24  
      2024     2024     2024     2024     2023     vs. Q3-24     vs. Q4-23  
    Regulatory Capital ratios (1)                                        
    Hanmi Financial                                        
    Total risk-based capital 15.24 %   15.03 %   15.24 %   15.20 %   14.95 %   0.21     0.29  
    Tier 1 risk-based capital 12.46 %   12.29 %   12.46 %   12.40 %   12.20 %   0.17     0.26  
    Common equity tier 1 capital 12.11 %   11.95 %   12.11 %   12.05 %   11.86 %   0.16     0.25  
    Tier 1 leverage capital ratio 10.63 %   10.56 %   10.51 %   10.36 %   10.37 %   0.07     0.26  
    Hanmi Bank                                        
    Total risk-based capital 14.43 %   14.27 %   14.51 %   14.50 %   14.27 %   0.16     0.16  
    Tier 1 risk-based capital 13.36 %   13.23 %   13.47 %   13.44 %   13.26 %   0.13     0.10  
    Common equity tier 1 capital 13.36 %   13.23 %   13.47 %   13.44 %   13.26 %   0.13     0.10  
    Tier 1 leverage capital ratio 11.46 %   11.43 %   11.41 %   11.29 %   11.32 %   0.03     0.14  
                                             
    (1)      Preliminary ratios for December 31, 2024                                        

    Asset Quality
    Loans 30 to 89 days past due and still accruing were 0.30% of loans at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024, compared with 0.24% at the end of the prior quarter.

    Criticized loans totaled $165.3 million at December 31, 2024, up from $160.0 million at the end of the third quarter of 2024. The $5.3 million increase resulted from an $8.0 million increase in special mention loans and a $2.7 million decrease in classified loans. The $8.0 million increase in special mention loans included additions of $13.4 million, offset by loan reductions and pay-downs of $3.8 million, upgrades of $1.3 million and downgrades of $0.3 million. The $2.7 million decrease in classified loans resulted from $2.9 million of charge-offs, $2.4 million of payoffs, $1.4 million of upgrades and $1.6 million of amortization and paydowns, offset by loan downgrades of $2.7 million and lease downgrades of $2.9 million.

    Nonperforming loans were $14.3 million at December 31, 2024, down from $15.5 million at the end of the prior quarter. The decrease primarily reflects pay-offs of $1.8 million, $1.0 million in loan upgrades, $0.8 million in paydowns, and charge-offs of $2.9 million. Offsetting the decrease were additions of $5.5 million.

    Nonperforming assets were $14.4 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024, down from $16.3 million at the end of the prior quarter. As a percentage of total assets, nonperforming assets were 0.19% at December 31, 2024, and 0.21% at the end of the prior quarter.

    Gross charge-offs for the fourth quarter of 2024 were $3.4 million, compared with $3.8 million for the preceding quarter. Charge-offs included $2.9 million on equipment financing agreements. Recoveries of previously charged-off loans were $3.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. As a result, there were $0.1 million of net recoveries for the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to net charge-offs of $0.9 million for the prior quarter. For 2024, net charge-offs were 0.07% of average loans, compared with 0.12% for 2023.

    The allowance for credit losses was $70.1 million at December 31, 2024, compared with $69.2 million at September 30, 2024. Specific allowances for loans increased $1.0 million, while the allowance for quantitative and qualitative considerations remained relatively unchanged. The ratio of the allowance for credit losses to loans was 1.12% at December 31, 2024 and 1.11% at September 30, 2024.

      As of or for the Three Months Ended (in thousands)     Amount Change  
      Dec 31,     Sep 30,     Jun 30,     Mar 31,     Dec 31,     Q4-24     Q4-24  
      2024     2024     2024     2024     2023     vs. Q3-24     vs. Q4-23  
    Asset Quality Data and Ratios                                        
                                             
    Delinquent loans:                                        
    Loans, 30 to 89 days past due and still accruing $ 18,454     $ 15,027     $ 13,844     $ 15,839     $ 10,263     $ 3,427     $ 8,191  
    Delinquent loans to total loans   0.30 %     0.24 %     0.22 %     0.26 %     0.17 %     0.06       0.13  
                                             
    Criticized loans:                                        
    Special mention $ 139,612     $ 131,575     $ 36,921     $ 62,317     $ 65,314     $ 8,037     $ 74,298  
    Classified   25,683       28,377       33,945       23,670       31,367       (2,694 )     (5,684 )
    Total criticized loans $ 165,295     $ 159,952     $ 70,866     $ 85,987     $ 96,681     $ 5,343     $ 68,614  
                                             
    Nonperforming assets:                                        
    Nonaccrual loans $ 14,274     $ 15,248     $ 19,245     $ 14,025     $ 15,474     $ (974 )   $ (1,200 )
    Loans 90 days or more past due and still accruing   –       242       –       –       –       (242 )     –  
    Nonperforming loans*   14,274       15,490       19,245       14,025       15,474       (1,216 )     (1,200 )
    Other real estate owned, net   117       772       772       117       117       (655 )     –  
    Nonperforming assets** $ 14,391     $ 16,262     $ 20,017     $ 14,142     $ 15,591     $ (1,871 )   $ (1,200 )
                                             
    Nonperforming assets to assets*   0.19 %     0.21 %     0.26 %     0.19 %     0.21 %     -0.02       -0.02  
    Nonperforming loans to total loans   0.23 %     0.25 %     0.31 %     0.23 %     0.25 %     -0.02       -0.02  
                                             
    * Excludes a $27.2 million nonperforming loan held-for-sale as of September 30, 2024.        
    ** Excludes repossessed personal property of $0.6 million, $1.2 million, $1.2 million, $1.3 million, and $1.3 million as of Q4-24, Q3-24, Q2-24, Q1-24, and Q4-23, respectively  
      As of or for the Three Months Ended (in thousands)  
      Dec 31,     Sep 30,     Jun 30,     Mar 31,     Dec 31,  
      2024     2024     2024     2024     2023  
    Allowance for credit losses related to loans:                            
    Balance at beginning of period $ 69,163     $ 67,729     $ 68,270     $ 69,462     $ 67,313  
    Credit loss expense (recovery) on loans   855       2,312       1,248       404       (2,880 )
    Net loan (charge-offs) recoveries   129       (878 )     (1,789 )     (1,596 )     5,029  
    Balance at end of period $ 70,147     $ 69,163     $ 67,729     $ 68,270     $ 69,462  
                                 
    Net loan charge-offs (recoveries) to average loans (1)   -0.01 %     0.06 %     0.12 %     0.10 %     -0.33 %
    Allowance for credit losses to loans   1.12 %     1.11 %     1.10 %     1.11 %     1.12 %
                                 
    Allowance for credit losses related to off-balance sheet items:                            
    Balance at beginning of period $ 1,984     $ 2,010     $ 2,297     $ 2,474     $ 2,463  
    Credit loss expense (recovery) on off-balance sheet items   90       (26 )     (287 )     (177 )     11  
    Balance at end of period $ 2,074     $ 1,984     $ 2,010     $ 2,297     $ 2,474  
                                 
    Unused commitments to extend credit $ 782,587     $ 739,975     $ 795,391     $ 792,769     $ 813,960  
                                 
    (1)      Annualized                            

    Corporate Developments
    On October 24, 2024, Hanmi’s Board of Directors declared a cash dividend on its common stock for the 2024 fourth quarter of $0.25 per share. Hanmi paid the dividend on November 20, 2024, to stockholders of record as of the close of business on November 4, 2024.

    Earnings Conference Call
    Hanmi Bank will host its fourth quarter 2024 earnings conference call today, January 28, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. PST (5:00 p.m. EST) to discuss these results. This call will also be webcast. To access the call, please dial 1-877-407-9039 before 2:00 p.m. PST, using access code Hanmi Bank. To listen to the call online, either live or archived, please visit Hanmi’s Investor Relations website at https://investors.hanmi.com/ where it will also be available for replay approximately one hour following the call.

    About Hanmi Financial Corporation
    Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Hanmi Financial Corporation owns Hanmi Bank, which serves multi-ethnic communities through its network of 31 full-service branches and eight loan production offices in California, Texas, Illinois, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Colorado, Washington and Georgia. Hanmi Bank specializes in real estate, commercial, SBA and trade finance lending to small and middle market businesses. Additional information is available at www.hanmi.com.

    Forward-Looking Statements
    This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are included in accordance with the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact are “forward–looking statements” for purposes of federal and state securities laws, including, but not limited to, statements about our anticipated future operating and financial performance, financial position and liquidity, business strategies, regulatory and competitive outlook, investment and expenditure plans, capital and financing needs and availability, plans and objectives of management for future operations, developments regarding our capital and strategic plans, and other similar forecasts and statements of expectation and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “expects,” “plans,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of such terms and other comparable terminology. Although we believe that our forward-looking statements to be reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements.

    Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These factors include the following:

    • a failure to maintain adequate levels of capital and liquidity to support our operations;
    • general economic and business conditions internationally, nationally and in those areas in which we operate, including any potential recessionary conditions;
    • volatility and deterioration in the credit and equity markets;
    • changes in consumer spending, borrowing and savings habits;
    • availability of capital from private and government sources;
    • demographic changes;
    • competition for loans and deposits and failure to attract or retain loans and deposits;
    • inflation and fluctuations in interest rates that reduce our margins and yields, the fair value of financial instruments, the level of loan originations or prepayments on loans we have made and make, the level of loan sales and the cost we pay to retain and attract deposits and secure other types of funding;
    • our ability to enter new markets successfully and capitalize on growth opportunities;
    • the current or anticipated impact of military conflict, terrorism or other geopolitical events;
    • the effect of potential future supervisory action against us or Hanmi Bank and our ability to address any issues raised in our regulatory exams;
    • risks of natural disasters;
    • legal proceedings and litigation brought against us;
    • a failure in or breach of our operational or security systems or infrastructure, including cyberattacks;
    • the failure to maintain current technologies;
    • risks associated with Small Business Administration loans;
    • failure to attract or retain key employees;
    • our ability to access cost-effective funding;
    • the imposition of tariffs or other domestic or international governmental polices impacting the value of the products of our borrowers;
    • changes in liquidity, including the size and composition of our deposit portfolio and the percentage of uninsured deposits in the portfolio;
    • fluctuations in real estate values;
    • changes in accounting policies and practices;
    • changes in governmental regulation, including, but not limited to, any increase in FDIC insurance premiums and changes in the monetary policies of the U.S. Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System;
    • the ability of Hanmi Bank to make distributions to Hanmi Financial Corporation, which is restricted by certain factors, including Hanmi Bank’s retained earnings, net income, prior distributions made, and certain other financial tests;
    • strategic transactions we may enter into;
    • the adequacy of and changes in the methodology for computing our allowance for credit losses;
    • our credit quality and the effect of credit quality on our credit losses expense and allowance for credit losses;
    • changes in the financial performance and/or condition of our borrowers and the ability of our borrowers to perform under the terms of their loans and other terms of credit agreements;
    • our ability to control expenses; and
    • cyber security and fraud risks against our information technology and those of our third-party providers and vendors.

    In addition, we set forth certain risks in our reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including, Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K that we will file hereafter, which could cause actual results to differ from those projected. We undertake no obligation to update such forward-looking statements except as required by law.

    Investor Contacts:
    Romolo (Ron) Santarosa
    Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
    213-427-5636

    Lisa Fortuna
    Investor Relations
    Financial Profiles, Inc.
    lfortuna@finprofiles.com
    310-622-8251

    Hanmi Financial Corporation and Subsidiaries
    Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited)
    (Dollars in thousands)

      December 31,     September 30,     Percentage     December 31,     Percentage  
      2024     2024     Change     2023     Change  
    Assets                            
    Cash and due from banks $ 304,800     $ 287,767     5.9 %   $ 302,324     0.8 %
    Securities available for sale, at fair value   905,798       908,921     -0.3 %     865,739     4.6 %
    Loans held for sale, at the lower of cost or fair value   8,579       54,336     -84.2 %     12,013     -28.6 %
    Loans receivable, net of allowance for credit losses   6,181,230       6,188,581     -0.1 %     6,112,972     1.1 %
    Accrued interest receivable   22,937       21,955     4.5 %     23,371     -1.9 %
    Premises and equipment, net   21,404       21,371     0.2 %     21,959     -2.5 %
    Customers’ liability on acceptances   1,226       67     N/M       625     96.2 %
    Servicing assets   6,457       6,683     -3.4 %     7,070     -8.7 %
    Goodwill and other intangible assets, net   11,031       11,031     0.0 %     11,099     -0.6 %
    Federal Home Loan Bank (“FHLB”) stock, at cost   16,385       16,385     0.0 %     16,385     0.0 %
    Bank-owned life insurance   57,168       56,851     0.6 %     56,335     1.5 %
    Prepaid expenses and other assets   140,910       138,351     1.8 %     140,449     0.3 %
    Total assets $ 7,677,925     $ 7,712,299     -0.4 %   $ 7,570,341     1.4 %
                                 
    Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity                            
    Liabilities:                            
    Deposits:                            
    Noninterest-bearing $ 2,096,634     $ 2,051,790     2.2 %   $ 2,003,596     4.6 %
    Interest-bearing   4,339,142       4,351,431     -0.3 %     4,276,978     1.5 %
    Total deposits   6,435,776       6,403,221     0.5 %     6,280,574     2.5 %
    Accrued interest payable   34,824       52,613     -33.8 %     39,306     -11.4 %
    Bank’s liability on acceptances   1,226       67     N/M       625     96.2 %
    Borrowings   262,500       300,000     -12.5 %     325,000     -19.2 %
    Subordinated debentures   130,638       130,478     0.1 %     130,012     0.5 %
    Accrued expenses and other liabilities   80,787       89,211     -9.4 %     92,933     -13.1 %
    Total liabilities   6,945,751       6,975,590     -0.4 %     6,868,450     1.1 %
                                 
    Stockholders’ equity:                            
    Common stock   34       34     0.0 %     34     0.0 %
    Additional paid-in capital   591,069       589,567     0.3 %     586,912     0.7 %
    Accumulated other comprehensive income   (70,723 )     (55,140 )   -28.3 %     (71,928 )   1.7 %
    Retained earnings   350,869       340,718     3.0 %     319,048     10.0 %
    Less treasury stock   (139,075 )     (138,470 )   -0.4 %     (132,175 )   -5.2 %
    Total stockholders’ equity   732,174       736,709     -0.6 %     701,891     4.3 %
    Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity $ 7,677,925     $ 7,712,299     -0.4 %   $ 7,570,341     1.4 %
                                 
    N/M – Not meaningful.                            

    Hanmi Financial Corporation and Subsidiaries
    Consolidated Statements of Income (Unaudited)
    (Dollars in thousands, except share and per share data)

      Three Months Ended  
      December 31,     September 30,     Percentage     December 31,     Percentage  
      2024     2024     Change     2023     Change  
    Interest and dividend income:                            
    Interest and fees on loans receivable $ 91,545     $ 92,182     -0.7 %   $ 89,922     1.8 %
    Interest on securities   5,866       5,523     6.2 %     4,583     28.0 %
    Dividends on FHLB stock   360       356     1.1 %     341     5.6 %
    Interest on deposits in other banks   2,342       2,356     -0.6 %     2,337     0.2 %
    Total interest and dividend income   100,113       100,417     -0.3 %     97,183     3.0 %
    Interest expense:                            
    Interest on deposits   43,406       47,153     -7.9 %     40,277     7.8 %
    Interest on borrowings   1,634       1,561     4.7 %     2,112     -22.6 %
    Interest on subordinated debentures   1,624       1,652     -1.7 %     1,654     -1.8 %
    Total interest expense   46,664       50,366     -7.4 %     44,043     6.0 %
    Net interest income before credit loss expense   53,449       50,051     6.8 %     53,140     0.6 %
    Credit loss expense   945       2,286     -58.7 %     (2,870 )   132.9 %
    Net interest income after credit loss expense   52,504       47,765     9.9 %     56,010     -6.3 %
    Noninterest income:                            
    Service charges on deposit accounts   2,192       2,311     -5.1 %     2,391     -8.3 %
    Trade finance and other service charges and fees   1,364       1,254     8.8 %     1,245     9.6 %
    Gain on sale of Small Business Administration (“SBA”) loans   1,443       1,544     -6.5 %     1,448     -0.3 %
    Other operating income   2,358       3,329     -29.2 %     1,596     47.7 %
    Total noninterest income   7,357       8,438     -12.8 %     6,680     10.1 %
    Noninterest expense:                            
    Salaries and employee benefits   20,498       20,851     -1.7 %     20,062     2.2 %
    Occupancy and equipment   4,503       4,499     0.1 %     4,604     -2.2 %
    Data processing   3,800       3,839     -1.0 %     3,487     9.0 %
    Professional fees   1,821       1,492     22.1 %     1,977     -7.9 %
    Supplies and communications   551       538     2.4 %     613     -10.1 %
    Advertising and promotion   821       631     30.1 %     990     -17.1 %
    Other operating expenses   2,540       3,230     -21.4 %     3,478     -27.0 %
    Total noninterest expense   34,534       35,080     -1.6 %     35,211     -1.9 %
    Income before tax   25,327       21,123     19.9 %     27,479     -7.8 %
    Income tax expense   7,632       6,231     22.5 %     8,846     -13.7 %
    Net income $ 17,695     $ 14,892     18.8 %   $ 18,633     -5.0 %
                                 
    Basic earnings per share: $ 0.59     $ 0.49           $ 0.61        
    Diluted earnings per share: $ 0.58     $ 0.49           $ 0.61        
                                 
    Weighted-average shares outstanding:                            
    Basic   29,933,644       29,968,004             30,189,578        
    Diluted   30,011,773       30,033,679             30,251,315        
    Common shares outstanding   30,195,999       30,196,755             30,368,655        

    Hanmi Financial Corporation and Subsidiaries
    Consolidated Statements of Income (Unaudited)
    (Dollars in thousands, except share and per share data)

      Twelve Months Ended  
      December 31,     December 31,     Percentage  
      2024     2023     Change  
    Interest and dividend income:                
    Interest and fees on loans receivable $ 366,153     $ 339,811       7.8 %
    Interest on securities   21,583       16,938       27.4 %
    Dividends on FHLB stock   1,436       1,229       16.8 %
    Interest on deposits in other banks   9,611       11,350       -15.3 %
    Total interest and dividend income   398,783       369,328       8.0 %
    Interest expense:                
    Interest on deposits   182,692       134,708       35.6 %
    Interest on borrowings   6,746       6,867       -1.8 %
    Interest on subordinated debentures   6,571       6,482       1.4 %
    Total interest expense   196,009       148,057       32.4 %
    Net interest income before credit loss expense   202,774       221,271       -8.4 %
    Credit loss expense   4,419       4,342       1.8 %
    Net interest income after credit loss expense   198,355       216,929       -8.6 %
    Noninterest income:                
    Service charges on deposit accounts   9,381       10,147       -7.5 %
    Trade finance and other service charges and fees   5,309       4,832       9.9 %
    Gain on sale of Small Business Administration (“SBA”) loans   6,112       5,701       7.2 %
    Other operating income   10,783       13,499       -20.1 %
    Total noninterest income   31,585       34,179       -7.6 %
    Noninterest expense:                
    Salaries and employee benefits   83,368       81,398       2.4 %
    Occupancy and equipment   18,146       18,340       -1.1 %
    Data processing   14,876       13,695       8.6 %
    Professional fees   6,956       6,255       11.2 %
    Supplies and communications   2,261       2,479       -8.8 %
    Advertising and promotion   3,028       3,105       -2.5 %
    Other operating expenses   12,700       11,255       12.8 %
    Total noninterest expense   141,335       136,527       3.5 %
    Income before tax   88,605       114,581       -22.7 %
    Income tax expense   26,404       34,540       -23.6 %
    Net income $ 62,201     $ 80,041       -22.3 %
                     
    Basic earnings per share: $ 2.06     $ 2.63        
    Diluted earnings per share: $ 2.05     $ 2.62        
                     
    Weighted-average shares outstanding:                
    Basic   30,019,815       30,269,740        
    Diluted   30,102,336       30,330,258        
    Common shares outstanding   30,195,999       30,368,655        

    Hanmi Financial Corporation and Subsidiaries
    Average Balance, Average Yield Earned, and Average Rate Paid (Unaudited)
    (Dollars in thousands)

      Three Months Ended  
      December 31, 2024     September 30, 2024     December 31, 2023  
            Interest   Average           Interest   Average           Interest   Average  
      Average     Income /   Yield /     Average     Income /   Yield /     Average     Income /   Yield /  
      Balance     Expense   Rate     Balance     Expense   Rate     Balance     Expense   Rate  
    Assets                                              
    Interest-earning assets:                                              
    Loans receivable (1) $ 6,103,264     $ 91,545     5.97 %   $ 6,112,324     $ 92,182     6.00 %   $ 6,071,644     $ 89,922     5.88 %
    Securities (2)   998,313       5,866     2.38 %     986,041       5,523     2.27 %     961,551       4,582     1.93 %
    FHLB stock   16,385       360     8.75 %     16,385       356     8.65 %     16,385       341     8.25 %
    Interest-bearing deposits in other banks   204,408       2,342     4.56 %     183,027       2,356     5.12 %     181,140       2,338     5.12 %
    Total interest-earning assets   7,322,370       100,113     5.45 %     7,297,777       100,417     5.48 %     7,230,720       97,183     5.34 %
                                                   
    Noninterest-earning assets:                                              
    Cash and due from banks   54,678                 54,843                 61,146            
    Allowance for credit losses   (69,291 )               (67,906 )               (68,319 )          
    Other assets   246,744                 251,421                 251,660            
                                                   
    Total assets $ 7,554,501               $ 7,536,135               $ 7,475,207            
                                                   
    Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity                                              
    Interest-bearing liabilities:                                              
    Deposits:                                              
    Demand: interest-bearing $ 79,784     $ 26     0.13 %   $ 83,647     $ 31     0.15 %   $ 86,679     $ 29     0.13 %
    Money market and savings   1,934,540       16,564     3.41 %     1,885,799       17,863     3.77 %     1,669,973       14,379     3.42 %
    Time deposits   2,346,363       26,816     4.55 %     2,427,737       29,259     4.79 %     2,417,803       25,869     4.24 %
    Total interest-bearing deposits   4,360,687       43,406     3.96 %     4,397,183       47,153     4.27 %     4,174,455       40,277     3.83 %
    Borrowings   141,604       1,634     4.59 %     143,479       1,561     4.33 %     205,951       2,113     4.07 %
    Subordinated debentures   130,567       1,624     4.97 %     130,403       1,652     5.07 %     129,933       1,653     5.09 %
    Total interest-bearing liabilities   4,632,858       46,664     4.01 %     4,671,065       50,366     4.29 %     4,510,339       44,043     3.88 %
                                                   
    Noninterest-bearing liabilities and equity:                                              
    Demand deposits: noninterest-bearing   1,967,789                 1,908,833                 2,025,212            
    Other liabilities   162,064                 171,987                 177,321            
    Stockholders’ equity   791,790                 784,250                 762,335            
                                                   
    Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity $ 7,554,501               $ 7,536,135               $ 7,475,207            
                                                   
    Net interest income       $ 53,449               $ 50,051               $ 53,140      
                                                   
    Cost of deposits             2.73 %               2.97 %               2.58 %
    Net interest spread (taxable equivalent basis)             1.44 %               1.19 %               1.47 %
    Net interest margin (taxable equivalent basis)             2.91 %               2.74 %               2.92 %
                                                   
                                                   
                                                   
    (1)       Includes average loans held for sale                            
    (2)       Income calculated on a fully taxable equivalent basis using the federal tax rate in effect for the periods presented.      

    Hanmi Financial Corporation and Subsidiaries
    Average Balance, Average Yield Earned, and Average Rate Paid (Unaudited)
    (Dollars in thousands)

      Twelve Months Ended  
      December 31, 2024     December 31, 2023  
            Interest   Average           Interest   Average  
      Average     Income /   Yield /     Average     Income /   Yield /  
      Balance     Expense   Rate     Balance     Expense   Rate  
    Assets                              
    Interest-earning assets:                              
    Loans receivable (1) $ 6,110,713     $ 366,153     5.99 %   $ 5,968,339     $ 339,811     5.69 %
    Securities (2)   983,434       21,583     2.22 %     967,231       16,938     1.78 %
    FHLB stock   16,385       1,437     8.76 %     16,385       1,229     7.50 %
    Interest-bearing deposits in other banks   192,342       9,610     5.00 %     230,835       11,350     4.92 %
    Total interest-earning assets   7,302,874       398,783     5.46 %     7,182,790       369,328     5.15 %
                                   
    Noninterest-earning assets:                              
    Cash and due from banks   55,830                 62,049            
    Allowance for credit losses   (68,553 )               (70,501 )          
    Other assets   248,820                 240,779            
                                   
    Total assets $ 7,538,971               $ 7,415,117            
                                   
    Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity                              
    Interest-bearing liabilities:                              
    Deposits:                              
    Demand: interest-bearing $ 83,807     $ 119     0.14 %   $ 97,388     $ 117     0.12 %
    Money market and savings   1,870,541       68,304     3.65 %     1,547,911       44,066     2.85 %
    Time deposits   2,433,516       114,269     4.70 %     2,371,520       90,525     3.82 %
    Total interest-bearing deposits   4,387,864       182,692     4.16 %     4,016,819       134,708     3.35 %
    Borrowings   154,193       6,746     4.38 %     197,409       6,867     3.48 %
    Subordinated debentures   130,325       6,571     5.04 %     129,708       6,482     5.00 %
    Total interest-bearing liabilities   4,672,382       196,009     4.20 %     4,343,936       148,057     3.41 %
                                   
    Noninterest-bearing liabilities and equity:                              
    Demand deposits: noninterest-bearing   1,920,492                 2,173,813            
    Other liabilities   165,288                 149,460            
    Stockholders’ equity   780,809                 747,908            
                                   
    Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity $ 7,538,971               $ 7,415,117            
                                   
    Net interest income       $ 202,774               $ 221,271      
                                   
    Cost of deposits             2.90 %               2.18 %
    Net interest spread (taxable equivalent basis)             1.27 %               1.74 %
    Net interest margin (taxable equivalent basis)             2.78 %               3.08 %
                                   
                                   
    (1)       Includes average loans held for sale                              
    (2)       Amounts calculated on a fully taxable equivalent basis using the federal tax rate in effect for the periods presented.  

    Non-GAAP Financial Measures

    Tangible Common Equity to Tangible Assets Ratio

    Tangible common equity to tangible assets ratio is supplemental financial information determined by a method other than in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”). This non-GAAP measure is used by management in the analysis of Hanmi’s capital strength. Tangible common equity is calculated by subtracting goodwill and other intangible assets from stockholders’ equity. Banking and financial institution regulators also exclude goodwill and other intangible assets from stockholders’ equity when assessing the capital adequacy of a financial institution. Management believes the presentation of this financial measure excluding the impact of these items provides useful supplemental information that is essential to a proper understanding of the capital strength of Hanmi. This disclosure should not be viewed as a substitute for results determined in accordance with GAAP, nor is it necessarily comparable to non-GAAP performance measures that may be presented by other companies.

    The following table reconciles this non-GAAP performance measure to the GAAP performance measure for the periods indicated:

    Tangible Common Equity to Tangible Assets Ratio (Unaudited)
    (In thousands, except share, per share data and ratios)

      December 31,     September 30,     June 30,     March 31,     December 31,  
    Hanmi Financial Corporation 2024     2024     2024     2024     2023  
    Assets $ 7,677,925     $ 7,712,299     $ 7,586,347     $ 7,512,046     $ 7,570,341  
    Less goodwill and other intangible assets   (11,031 )     (11,031 )     (11,048 )     (11,074 )     (11,099 )
    Tangible assets $ 7,666,894     $ 7,701,268     $ 7,575,299     $ 7,500,972     $ 7,559,242  
                                 
    Stockholders’ equity (1) $ 732,174     $ 736,709     $ 707,059     $ 703,100     $ 701,891  
    Less goodwill and other intangible assets   (11,031 )     (11,031 )     (11,048 )     (11,074 )     (11,099 )
    Tangible stockholders’ equity (1) $ 721,143     $ 725,678     $ 696,011     $ 692,026     $ 690,792  
                                 
    Stockholders’ equity to assets   9.54 %     9.55 %     9.32 %     9.36 %     9.27 %
    Tangible common equity to tangible assets (1)   9.41 %     9.42 %     9.19 %     9.23 %     9.14 %
                                 
    Common shares outstanding   30,195,999       30,196,755       30,272,110       30,276,358       30,368,655  
    Tangible common equity per common share $ 23.88     $ 24.03     $ 22.99     $ 22.86     $ 22.75  
                                 
                                 
    (1)      There were no preferred shares outstanding at the periods indicated.        

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Hanmi Financial Increases Cash Dividend 8% to $0.27 per share

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    LOS ANGELES, Jan. 28, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Hanmi Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: HAFC, or “Hanmi”), the parent company of Hanmi Bank (the “Bank”), today announced that its Board of Directors declared a cash dividend on its common stock for the 2025 first quarter of $0.27 per share, up 8% from the prior quarter. The dividend will be paid on February 26, 2025, to stockholders of record as of the close of business on February 10, 2025.

    “Following another quarter of successful execution across our business, Hanmi is well positioned for continued success in 2025,” said Bonnie Lee, President and Chief Executive Officer. “The increase in our dividend reflects the Board’s confidence in Hanmi’s financial strength, relationship-driven banking model, and commitment to creating shareholder value.”

    About Hanmi Financial Corporation
    Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Hanmi Financial Corporation owns Hanmi Bank, which serves multi-ethnic communities through its network of 31 full-service branches and eight loan production offices in California, Texas, Illinois, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Colorado, Washington and Georgia. Hanmi Bank specializes in real estate, commercial, SBA and trade finance lending to small and middle market businesses. Additional information is available at www.hanmi.com.

    Forward-Looking Statements

    This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are included in accordance with the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact are “forward–looking statements” for purposes of federal and state securities laws, including, but not limited to, statements about our anticipated future operating and financial performance, financial position and liquidity, business strategies, regulatory and competitive outlook, investment and expenditure plans, capital and financing needs and availability, plans and objectives of management for future operations, developments regarding our capital and strategic plans, and other similar forecasts and statements of expectation and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “expects,” “plans,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of such terms and other comparable terminology. Although we believe that our forward-looking statements to be reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements.

    Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These factors include the following:

    • a failure to maintain adequate levels of capital and liquidity to support our operations;
    • general economic and business conditions internationally, nationally and in those areas in which we operate, including any potential recessionary conditions;
    • volatility and deterioration in the credit and equity markets;
    • changes in consumer spending, borrowing and savings habits;
    • availability of capital from private and government sources;
    • demographic changes;
    • competition for loans and deposits and failure to attract or retain loans and deposits;
    • inflation and fluctuations in interest rates that reduce our margins and yields, the fair value of financial instruments, the level of loan originations or prepayments on loans we have made and make, the level of loan sales and the cost we pay to retain and attract deposits and secure other types of funding;
    • our ability to enter new markets successfully and capitalize on growth opportunities;
    • the current or anticipated impact of military conflict, terrorism or other geopolitical events;
    • the effect of potential future supervisory action against us or Hanmi Bank and our ability to address any issues raised in our regulatory exams;
    • risks of natural disasters;
    • legal proceedings and litigation brought against us;
    • a failure in or breach of our operational or security systems or infrastructure, including cyberattacks;
    • the failure to maintain current technologies;
    • risks associated with Small Business Administration loans;
    • failure to attract or retain key employees;
    • our ability to access cost-effective funding;
    • the imposition of tariffs or other domestic or international governmental polices impacting the value of the products of our borrowers;
    • changes in liquidity, including the size and composition of our deposit portfolio and the percentage of uninsured deposits in the portfolio;
    • fluctuations in real estate values;
    • changes in accounting policies and practices;
    • changes in governmental regulation, including, but not limited to, any increase in FDIC insurance premiums and changes in the monetary policies of the U.S. Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System;
    • the ability of Hanmi Bank to make distributions to Hanmi Financial Corporation, which is restricted by certain factors, including Hanmi Bank’s retained earnings, net income, prior distributions made, and certain other financial tests;
    • strategic transactions we may enter into;
    • the adequacy of and changes in the methodology for computing our allowance for credit losses;
    • our credit quality and the effect of credit quality on our credit losses expense and allowance for credit losses;
    • changes in the financial performance and/or condition of our borrowers and the ability of our borrowers to perform under the terms of their loans and other terms of credit agreements;
    • our ability to control expenses; and
    • cyber security and fraud risks against our information technology and those of our third-party providers and vendors.

    In addition, we set forth certain risks in our reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including, Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K that we will file hereafter, which could cause actual results to differ from those projected. We undertake no obligation to update such forward-looking statements except as required by law.

    Investor Contacts:
    Romolo (Ron) Santarosa
    Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
    213-427-5636

    Lisa Fortuna
    Investor Relations
    Financial Profiles, Inc.
    lfortuna@finprofiles.com
    310-622-8251

    Source: Hanmi Bank

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Saving threatened seabird from rising sea levels

    Source: Department of Conservation

    Date:  29 January 2025

    Johannes Fischer, Department of Conservation Senior Science Advisor, says climate change impacts have the potential to wipe out the Whenua Hou diving petrel – a small seabird with cobalt blue feet that’s “like a flying penguin”.

    “Their entire population breeds in the fragile sand dunes of Whenua Hou/Codfish Island, up to 20 m from the high tide line. Rising seas levels and increasingly frequent storms will eventually destroy their habitat on Whenua Hou. Over the last 10 years, 20% of the dune front has already gone,” Johannes says.

    On 31 December 2024, 15 Whenua Hou diving petrel chicks were transferred from Whenua Hou to their new home. This is the first of five transfers over the next five years to move a total of 75 chicks – the number considered sufficient to build a new colony without causing any long-term impact to the Whenua Hou colony.

    “Before humans arrived in New Zealand, Whenua Hou diving petrels bred all over the southern South Island and there were millions on Stewart Island/Rakiura. But until the recent transfer, they had reduced to a single population on Whenua Hou of just 210 individuals,” Johannes says.

    Two years ago, mana whenua, DOC, fishers, the fishing industry, and Environment Southland developed an action plan to restore the petrels, which advised a second population at a new site was needed.

    The group worked through a range of possible sites and identified an undisclosed, predator-free location within Whenua Hou diving petrel’s historic range as the best possible option.

    All work is done in partnership with the Whenua Hou Committee (the advisory committee to the Minister of Conservation on the management of Whenua Hou), Ōraka Aparima Rūnaka, and Ngāi Tahu whānui.

    Johannes says timing was crucial and the transfer had to take place roughly a week before the chicks fledged, before their homing instinct for Whenua Hou was developed.

    “We hand-reared the chicks at their new home, and the last chicks fledged on 12 January 2025. Next season, we will translocate another 15 birds.”

    “We expect the first group of translocated chicks to return to their new home as adults in October 2026. We’ll keep an eye out in anticipation.”

    Contact

    For media enquiries contact:

    Email: media@doc.govt.nz

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Universities – Forests of protected red coral filmed for first time off Fiordland’s coast – VIC

    Source: Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington

    Researchers exploring the deep waters off the Fiordland coast have caught on camera marine communities that have never been filmed before. These communities include a protected species of red coral that has not previously been seen in such large numbers.

    “We were filming at depths of 80 to 130 metres and found amazing marine communities. The most incredible find—unlike anything we have seen elsewhere—was about 4 kilometres north of the entrance to Doubtful Sound/Patea. On the ocean floor, we saw forests of bright red coral,” said Professor James Bell, a marine biologist at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.

    The coral species, Errina novaezelandiae, is commonly known as red coral, although it is not a true coral but a related animal called a hydrocoral.

    The discovery of the red coral forests was made while the researchers were working on a project to explore and map marine life in Fiordland’s deep waters. They were working on board the Department of Conservation (DOC) vesselSouthern Winds.

    “We’ve been exploring these deep reefs in Fiordland for many years, but we’re rarely able to work on the open coast outside the fiords because of the weather. On our most recent trip in January, the weather was finally on our side,” said Professor Bell.

    Using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), the research team collected video footage of reefs at depths of greater than 100 metres in areas that have not previously been filmed.

    “We’ve deployed the ROV more than 100 times in deep waters around New Zealand, but we have not seen communities like those we found off the open coast outside Doubtful Sound/Patea. In other parts of the country, we usually find reefs at these depths are dominated by sponges. In this area off the Fiordland coast, red corals dominated. The water was also incredibly clear down at 100 m and we could see the reef from a distance of about 30 to 40 m,” he said.

    Red corals are known to live in some places inside the fiords and are considered to be associated with the sheltered fiord conditions. The population discovered around the open coast was distinguished by its massive size, with tens of thousands of corals seen.

    Video footage of the reefs shows numerous red corals, along with a range of other animals including larger black corals. Both red and black corals are protected species under the Wildlife Act.

    These coral forests play a key role in maintaining habitat diversity, supporting many fish and crayfish species, said Professor Bell.

    “Filming the animals that live on these deep-water reefs provides us with more information about the extraordinary biodiversity in our seas. This information is crucial to decisions about the use and protection of our marine environment. While much of Fiordland’s inland waters are protected, this is not the case for the open coast. In fact, most deep-water reefs around Aotearoa are not protected in marine reserves,” he said.

    The research was supported by the George Mason Charitable Trust and DOC’s conservation services programme. DOC also provided logistical support.

    Richard Kinsey, a DOC senior ranger who was on the trip, said: “It is exciting when you get to put the ROV into places you can rarely access as it gives insights into a completely different part of the fiord ecosystem. You just never know what you are going to find. For DOC, increasing our understanding of where these protected species are helps us to understand the potential threats to them.”

    DOC senior science advisor Lyndsey Holland added: “Our understanding of protected coral distribution in Fiordland is dominated by black corals. Other protected corals in the area haven’t been studied as extensively, so this finding is a breakthrough. We do know that New Zealand boasts a diverse array of cold-water corals offshore, so this discovery validates the need to survey and monitor Fiordland corals so we can best protect them.”

    Video footage of the deep-water reefs off Fiordland is here:


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mxS4RaYXiI

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Governor Lamont and Comptroller Scanlon Applaud Approval of Legislation Providing Enhanced Survivor Benefits for Families of State Employees Killed in the Line of Duty

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    (HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont, Comptroller Sean Scanlon, and the leadership of the Connecticut State Police and the Connecticut Department of Transportation are applauding the Connecticut General Assembly for voting today to ratify an agreement reached between the Office of the Governor, the Office of the State Comptroller, and the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) that makes the surviving families of state employees who are killed in the line of duty eligible to receive enhanced survivor benefits, regardless of whether that state employee was eligible to receive a pension at the time of their death.

    The legislation was inspired by the tragic line-of-duty deaths last year of two Connecticut state employees, including a trooper from the Connecticut State Police and an employee from the Connecticut Department of Transportation. Because of their ages and years of service, neither of those state employees were eligible to receive pensions at the time of their deaths. The change ratified by the legislature today means that both surviving families in those instances will begin receiving survivor benefits, based on their individual eligibility circumstances. Additionally, this change will apply to all future situations in which a state employee who was not eligible to receive a pension is killed in the line of duty.

    Governor Lamont, Comptroller Scanlon, Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Commissioner Ronnell A. Higgins, Connecticut State Police Colonel Daniel Loughman, and Connecticut Department of Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto worked with legislative leaders to advocate for a solution that would make surviving families in these situations eligible for these benefits.

    “Many state employees have job responsibilities that often put their lives at risk, and the state must be there for their families whenever we may be faced with an unfortunate tragedy,” Governor Lamont said. “With the change approved today, these families can now begin receiving survivor benefits. I appreciate lawmakers from both sides of the aisle for working with our administration on this solution to the state’s pension rules.”

    “Every day, thousands of state employees go to work and, in some cases, put themselves in harm’s way on behalf of all of us,” Comptroller Scanlon said. “As a state, we have a profound responsibility to support our employees and their families – especially in the tragic event of a line-of-duty death. I’m honored to have worked with Governor Lamont and labor leaders to close this loophole and ensure that the families of employees who pay the ultimate sacrifice while serving our state receive the benefits they deserve and are entitled to.”

    “State employees do the jobs that make Connecticut a safer place to live and work. They patrol the highways, work along dangerous roadways, and perform numerous hazardous duties to ensure our well being,” Commissioner Higgins said. “At DESPP, we are deeply appreciative of this agreement and the message that it sends to Connecticut and all state employees. Thank you, Governor Lamont and everyone who worked hard to make this a reality.”

    “This agreement serves as a symbol of our deep gratitude and respect for the employees of the State of Connecticut,” Colonel Loughman said. “In recognition of the ultimate sacrifice made by a Connecticut State Trooper, this commitment to providing financial security for his family is a top priority. I would like to thank Governor Lamont and his team for their swift action that has made this a reality.”

    “Our workers are often in harm’s way maintaining and improving our state’s transportation infrastructure, with 39 CTDOT employees killed in the line of duty since our agency’s founding,” Commissioner Eucalitto said. “While nothing we do can bring our colleagues back, this legislation is an important step forward that recognizes the dangers our roadside workers face. Thank you to Governor Lamont and the General Assembly for supporting and approving this important legislation.”

    “We would like to recognize and thank Governor Lamont, Comptroller Sean Scanlon, the legislature, Undersecretary David Krayeski, and Attorney Dan Livingston for their leadership and commitment to ensuring that the surviving children, spouses, and families are cared for in the absences of those who gave their lives protecting the State of Connecticut,” Connecticut State Police Union President Todd Fedigan said. “Our troopers appreciate that we are valued by the state’s leadership and can rest assured that if they are killed in the line of duty, their families will be supported and able to focus on making sure the trauma of such loss is minimized for those left behind.”

    The Senate approved the agreement by a vote of 34 to 0 (Senate Resolution 10), and the House of Representatives approved it by a vote of 143 to 0 (House Resolution 12).

    In addition to this reform, the state recently established the Fallen Officer Fund, which provides financial assistance to the families of local and state police officers who are killed in the line of duty or who sustained injuries that are the cause of an officer’s death.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Commerce oversees everything from weather and salmon to trade and census − here are 3 challenges awaiting new secretary

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Linda J. Bilmes, Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Public Finance, Harvard Kennedy School

    Howard Lutnick, left, is President Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Commerce Department. AP Photo/Evan Vucci

    The U.S. secretary of commerce oversees the smallest but arguably most complex of all Cabinet-level departments.

    Established as a distinct entity in 1913, it has evolved into a sprawling organization with 13 bureaus spanning a wide variety of critical areas that include weather forecasting, conducting the census, estimating gross domestic product, managing fisheries, promoting U.S. exports, setting standards for new technology and allocating radio frequency spectrum. It is even home to one of America’s eight uniformed military services, the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps with its own fleet of ships, aircraft and 321 commissioned officers. Its main mission is to monitor oceans, waterways and the atmosphere in support of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

    As a result, there is no other Cabinet position that has to engage with lawmakers in Congress across so many disparate technical issues, committees and stakeholders. This medley reflects both the historical evolution of the U.S. economy and a degree of political happenstance.

    I served at the Commerce Department in several roles, including as chief financial officer and assistant secretary for administration, management and budget, and have watched several administrations attempt to craft an overarching strategic narrative around this diverse set of missions.

    Besides the difficult job of formulating a unifying strategy for the department’s many activities, I believe there are three specific challenges in particular that await the next secretary, a position that requires Senate confirmation.

    The Commerce Department manages salmon as part of its National Marine Fisheries Service.
    AP Photo/Manuel Valdes

    Commerce: A sprawling bureauocracy

    From its earliest days, the Commerce Department has collected trade statistics, overseen lighthouses and issued patents and trademarks. But since then, its portfolio has expanded significantly.

    In 1970, NOAA was placed inside Commerce, partly as a result of a feud between President Richard Nixon and his interior secretary, Wally Hickel, over the Vietnam War. NOAA now accounts for more than half the department’s US$11 billion budget and has created some peculiar departmental overlaps.

    As President Barack Obama joked in his 2011 State of the Union speech, “The Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they’re in freshwater, but the Commerce Department handles them when they’re in saltwater.”

    While the joke wasn’t quite accurate – a division of Commerce manages salmon in both fresh and saltwater, though Interior does restore their habitat – it does reflect some odd situations. For example, when it comes to sea turtles, Interior oversees their nests on shore, whereas Commerce protects them in the open sea.

    Due to the department’s broad interests, the commerce secretary has a role in nearly every important issue facing the country.

    He or she needs to be a quick study who is able to multitask, respond to congressional inquiries on a myriad of topics, as well as manage a 50,000-strong workforce including economists, scientists, statisticians, meteorologists and other experts.

    One example of the caliber of experts Commerce oversees is the National Institute for Standards and Technology, which does cutting-edge research in bioscience, artificial intelligence, materials science and industrial measurement standards. The institute currently has five Nobel laureates in physics and chemistry on its staff and is on the front lines on cybersecurity and national defense.

    While it’s unclear how Trump nominee Howard Lutnick plans to unify Commerce’s work, the previous secretary, Gina Raimondo, outlined five strategic goals for her department, including driving U.S. global competitiveness, using data to find new opportunities and modernizing its services and capabilities.

    The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation is holding a hearing on Jan. 29, 2025, to consider Lutnick’s nomination.

    Challenge No. 1: Another census is just around the corner

    The incoming secretary’s biggest challenge will be the decennial census due on April 1, 2030.

    The census counts every person living in the U.S. and five U.S. territories. Census data is used to apportion the number of seats each state has in the House of Representatives and to adjust or redraw electoral districts, as well as to apportion federal funding allotted to each district. Consequently, the census receives huge attention in Congress. It will be an especially hot topic because the data collected in the 2020 census had errors due to the pandemic.

    Conducting the census is highly labor intensive and takes many years of planning and preparation, which ramp up now.

    The Commerce Department must hire 500,000 temporary workers, open local offices and run large-scale field tests, award billions of dollars in contracts, and work with every state, local, county and tribal government in the country to map where people live. This includes dorms, homeless shelters, nursing homes, prisons, oil rigs, boats, tents, hospitals and mobile homes as well as houses and apartments.

    The Census Bureau says it began planning for 2030 as far back as 2019 and is preparing to do a test census in 2026.

    Trump administration policies, such as ongoing efforts to round up and deport undocumented migrants, will make it even more challenging to count immigrants and other historically hard-to-reach groups. During his first term, President Donald Trump sought to prevent unauthorized immigrants from being counted at all – but ran out of time.

    A NOAA crew on a reconnaissance flight into the eye of Hurricane Milton in October 2024.
    Sim Aberson/NOAA via AP

    Challenge No. 2: NOAA on the front lines of climate change fight

    Second, NOAA is likely to be in the political crosshairs, due to its role as a global leader in studying oceans, climate and coastal ecosystems.

    It tracks rising sea levels, ocean acidification and extreme weather events, and forecasts their impact on fisheries, shipping, marine protected areas and habitats. It also runs the National Weather Service and issues severe storm warnings. These and many other NOAA activities are vital to monitoring the pace of climate change and helping Americans adapt.

    NOAA’s mission and its budget are sure to be scrutinized by the Trump administration, which has already reversed a variety of policies meant to slow the pace of climate change. Trump himself has called climate change a “hoax.” That and policy proposals that seek to break up or privatize NOAA suggest many of NOAA’s climate-related activities could be under threat.

    Challenge No. 3: The patent problem

    A third challenge the incoming secretary will face is an ongoing crisis at the Patent and Trademark Office.

    Unlike most federal agencies, the Patent and Trademark Office is funded by user fees collected from applicants rather than from tax revenue. This is supposed to make it more efficient and easier to hire staff quickly, but the model is under stress due to a shortage of patent examiners with skills in assessing science, technology, engineering and math applications. The agency currently has a backlog of over 800,000 unexamined patent applications – near an all-time high.

    The backlog is likely to continue to grow as artificial intelligence and other state-of-the-art technologies accelerate the discovery cycle, but the slow process of patent approval – two years on average – can throw a wrench in it.

    Patents and trademarks are critical to U.S. competitiveness because they reward innovation and discovery and help inventors attract investors.

    The Trump administration’s broad federal hiring freeze is likely to worsen the Patent and Trademark Office’s staffing issues, while the back-to-office mandate may make it harder to recruit patent examiners, who often work remotely.

    On top of this, Elon Musk, whose companies hold large numbers of patents and who already holds tremendous sway in the Trump administration, says “patents are for the weak” and compared them with landmines in warfare. “They don’t actually help advance things,” he said. “They just stop others from following you.”

    In addition to these three areas, Commerce’s roles in international trade, telecommunications, industrial security and other matters could also become epicenters of any global crisis.

    This all adds up to an uncomfortable mix of political and operational challenges for the next secretary.

    This story is part of a series of profiles explaining Cabinet and high-level administration positions.

    Linda J. Bilmes is affiliated with the Harvard Kennedy School. She served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Department of Commerce from 1997-1998 and as CFO and Assistant Secretary for Management, Budget and Administration from 1999-2001.

    – ref. Commerce oversees everything from weather and salmon to trade and census − here are 3 challenges awaiting new secretary – https://theconversation.com/commerce-oversees-everything-from-weather-and-salmon-to-trade-and-census-here-are-3-challenges-awaiting-new-secretary-248087

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Fischer Joins “Mornings with Maria” to Discuss Delivering for Americans

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Nebraska Deb Fischer

    U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) joined Maria Bartiromo on FOX Business today to discuss how Republicans will deliver for the American people. Senator Fischer condemned the Democrats for stalling President Trump’s Cabinet nominees, risking America’s national security, and playing political games instead of serving their constituents.

    Senator Fischer also highlighted her plans to continue working for the American people during reconciliation by making her Paid Family Medical Leave tax credit permanent.

    Click the image above to watch a video of Senator Fischer’s remarks

    Click here to download audio

    Click here to download video

     


    Republicans Are Here To Work:

    Maria Bartiromo: You will be part of Howard Lutnick’s confirmation hearing. Tell us about your expectations for Howard Lutnick and the rest of these nominees. Do you think they’ll all get past the finish line?

    Senator Fischer:     It is so very important that we do get these nominees confirmed, and that we do it quickly. Of course, as you’re well aware, Maria, the Democrats are slow walking everything. Republicans have shown that we will stay late. We will stay over the weekends in order to get this done. 

    On Democrats Stalling President Trump’s Cabinet Nominees:

    Maria Bartiromo:     The President needs his team on the ground. Do you feel like your colleagues on the left have been stalling these hearings?

    Senator Fischer:     Oh, most definitely. You know, you especially saw it on Armed Services Committee where the Democrat members wanted to have another round of questions. They wanted to postpone the vote. They just wanted to drag it out.

    Let’s remember that, I think it was in the first 12 days of President Obama’s administration. He had 12 or 15 nominees already confirmed. We need to do that for national security reasons, for reasons that the American people are tired of waiting. You know, we want to see things happen, we need to move ahead. But we’ve got to do our job, we have to be thorough in it, and I can guarantee that we are.

    On Democrats Playing Political Games:

    Maria Bartiromo:     Yeah, I mean, more than that, people are sick and tired of the political tricks. We’ve been watching political games since President Trump walked down that escalator 10 years ago. From the Russia collusion lie, to hiding things about the Biden family, to now this obstruction of justice… 

    Senator Fischer: It’s just nonsense. We heard J.D. Vance answer a question this weekend, “You know, I don’t really care Margaret.” That is a calling that I hear all across Nebraska and all across America. You know, I don’t really care anymore. We have work to do. We need to get it done. Stop with the tricks, stop with all this stalling, and let’s get to work for the American people, on energy, on inflation, on reconciliation. There is so much to do.

    On Working for the American People During Reconciliation:

    Maria Bartiromo:     House Republicans are set to meet with VP Vance today at the Trump Doral Resort in Florida, as part of their annual conference. Committee chairs will also hold reconciliation meetings on how to pass President Trump’s agenda. Trump joined lawmakers for dinner last night with a speech on his priorities. Here’s what he said. Watch:

    President Trump:     In the coming weeks, I’m looking forward to working with Congress on a reconciliation bill that financially takes care of our plans to totally and permanently restore the sovereign borders of the United States once and for all. I’m also eager to get to work with Congress on the largest package of tax cuts and reforms in American history. We got to get that done, and we don’t want to get hung up on the budget process. We just want whether it’s one bill, two bills, I don’t care.

    Maria Bartiromo: Senator, how do you see this playing out?

    Senator Fischer:     Well, I agree with the President on his goals here, and I agree with him when he says whether it’s one bill or two bills, you know, I don’t care. We need to make sure that we’re going to deliver for the American people. What I’m worried about are American families. You know, they have to choose right now between making ends meet and taking care of their families.

    My top priority in reconciliation is my Paid Family Medical Leave tax credit. That was included in the 2017 Tax Reform, and I want to make that permanent in this reconciliation package. So we are working hard on that with a number of my colleagues. In the Senate, we are working together, as you know, in reconciliation, we just need to keep our guys together. And we’re trying to do that through a number of committees to make sure that we protect this country, that we protect our borders. That we can provide for families and meet their needs, so that they can have a better life for themselves and their children. These are promises made, and they’re going to be promises kept.

    On Putting America First:

    Maria Bartiromo:     I’m glad that you’re focused on families, whether it be their economic progress or their security. President Trump declared a national energy emergency in an effort to increase U.S. oil production. Gas executives told the New York Times they don’t plan on doing so unless prices rise significantly. This is another potentially economic yet also national security issue. And I spoke with your colleague, the Leader of the U.S. Senate, John Thune, on Sunday, and we talked about military spending being lifted. Here’s what he said. Watch: “What are you looking for in terms of specifics in bulking up America’s defense?

    Senate Majority Leader Thune:     Well, obviously our Navy, and if you look at the number of ships we have relative to our adversaries, particularly China, that’s something the President is interested in, an American Iron Dome concept. But, frankly, the thing we’ve got to do Maria is we’ve got to increase the top line. We have not, we have underfunded and in the Biden budget, there wasn’t a single Biden budget that kept up with the rate of inflation when it comes to the military, and so we’ve got some making up to do. I think there’s a very compelling argument on Panama, very compelling argument on Greenland and optimism in America that we haven’t seen in a long time. I think there’s been a real this has been a sluggish country, a country that’s been bogged down under the weight of government, regulation and red tape and taxation.

    Maria Bartiromo: Senator, I’ve got the Iron Dome for America Executive Order in front of me, and this is one of the ways that President Trump says he will be protecting America from a national security standpoint. What are you considering in terms of defense spending? And tell us where the priorities are in this plan.

    Senator Fischer:     Right. You know, on Armed Services Committee the last three years that President Biden sent us his top line for his budget, we increased that in the Senate Armed Services Committee, because we are well aware of the threats that face this nation. I happen to chair the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. So not only do we have jurisdiction over STRATCOM and Space Command, but we also have jurisdiction over our nuclear triad to make sure that we have that strong deterrence policy.

    You’ve heard President Trump and the Vice President talk about deterrence that is so important to keep this country safe. We also have jurisdiction on strategic forces over missile defense, and we have been putting funding into missile defense in this country since I have been here and on that committee for now into my third term. So I am very, very pleased to hear that President Trump is prioritizing that with a focus on Iron Dome. We need to continue to look at our missile defense, the capabilities that we have, the capabilities that we need in order to defend and protect our homeland. 

    On Curbing Government Spending:

    Maria Bartiromo:     Yeah, I’m so glad to hear you talk this way. I could not agree more. Unfortunately, something has got to give. Senator, can you name one or two important offsets that you think will be significant? Interest is the single largest item in the budget behind Social Security. More than spending on defense, Medicare, and on children? Senator, what’s your most important offset to pay for all this?

    Senator Fischer:     You know, there’s a number of things, as you know, Maria, that all of us are looking at and being able to go through a budget. On Appropriations Committee, we’re going to be really having a strong oversight with our agencies that we have jurisdiction over and hold them accountable for programs. I think we can look, for example, on job training programs. I know a few years ago, across agencies, there were like 37 different job training programs. I am all for job training, but I think we need to figure out what the balance is. And I think that’s a private enterprise. A private business does training in conjunction with our community colleges, in conjunction with our state universities.

    I mean, just simple things like that. You’re going to see a lot of things like that. And I know we’ve heard some in the past. What I want to see, though, is a return to energy dominance. That is going to bring in, it’s going to help lower prices for families in this country. I want to be able to see inflation addressed, which we will. 

    Maria Bartiromo:     Of course. 

    Senator Fischer:     I know, I know many are saying, well, we’ve seen the price of eggs go up. Why hasn’t it dropped yet? I’m going, it’s been a week, folks, it’s been a week. You know, we are, we are focused, and we’re getting it done.

    Maria Bartiromo:     Senator, we’ll be watching your work. It’s a great point, the oversight alone may actually save a lot, given the reckless spending in the past. We’ll be watching. Thank you so much. Senator Deb Fisher, joining us this morning.

    Senator Fischer:     Thank you. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Written question – Veto on bottom trawling in 87 fishing areas in the Atlantic and consequences for Galicia – E-000205/2025

    Source: European Parliament

    Question for written answer  E-000205/2025
    to the Commission
    Rule 144
    Ana Miranda Paz (Verts/ALE)

    On 15 December 2022, the European Commission approved a veto on bottom trawling in 87 fishing areas in the Atlantic. This decision was taken without consideration for the serious impact the measure represents for hundreds of families who rely on this type of fishing to survive. What is more, this measure affected 200 Galician-owned boats, a further 900 indirectly and 4 000 crew members, while its economic impact is estimated to have been almost EUR 900 million. At the time, the Commission refused to discuss its decision, despite the significant consequences for the fleet.

    In light of this situation:

    Will the Commission consider the decision’s social impact, review this measure and allow bottom trawling?

    Submitted: 18.1.2025

    Last updated: 28 January 2025

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Answer to a written question – Flooding and natural disasters in Rhodes and Lemnos – P-002710/2024(ASW)

    Source: European Parliament

    The whole EU territory is susceptible to climate change impacts[1]. As the first European Climate Risk Assessment underlined, risk ownership is shared across the EU, Member States, sub-national and private sector actors, along with the means and responsibility of acting on them. The Commission will continue to contribute to making Europe more climate resilient[2],[3], among others with a new EU Adaptation Plan.

    Adaptation measures that meet the relevant criteria are eligible for the 30% budget of the EU funds set aside for climate, including the Cohesion fund[4], Next Generation EU[5], the European Regional Development Fund[6], the Common Agriculture Policy[7] and LIFE[8]. Greece is already receiving substantial funding to prevent and manage climate-related flood risks[9].

    The EU Solidarity Fund (EUSF)[10] may cover part of the costs for emergency and recovery operations incurred by public authorities. Private damage is not eligible.

    It can only be activated at the request of a Member State which has a deadline of 12 weeks as from when the first damage occurred, demonstrating that the total direct damage exceeds the thresholds specified in Article 2 Regulation (EC) No 2012/2002.

    Greece requested EUSF assistance for the storm ‘Daniel’ disaster in November 2023. The Commission determined Greece’s application eligible for support and paid out EUR 101 million in 2024.

    Greece has not submitted an EUSF application due to the flooding of Rhodes and Lemnos at the end of November 2024.

    The Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation subprogramme of the LIFE Programme[11] follows a bottom-up approach tailored to local needs and can also offer room for special attention to islands’ needs related to climate change.

    • [1] European Environment Agency, European Climate Risk Assessment, 2024.
    • [2] EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change, COM(2021) 82 final.
    • [3]  COM(2024) 91 final.
    • [4] https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/funding/cohesion-fund/
    • [5] https://next-generation-eu.europa.eu/index_en
    • [6] https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/funding/erdf/
    • [7] https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/key-policies/common-agricultural-policy/rural-development_en
    • [8] LIFE, https://cinea.ec.europa.eu/life_en
    • [9] Under Greece’s 2021-2027 Partnership Agreement for Regional Development (ESPA), over EUR 726 million in public funding is allocated to prevent and manage climate-related flood risks.
    • [10] Council Regulation (EC) No 2012/2002 of 11 November 2002 establishing the European Union Solidarity Fund (OJ L 311, 14.11.2002, p. 3) as amended by Regulation (EU) No 661/2014 of the European Parliament and the Council of 15 May 2014 (OJ L 189, 27.6.2014, p. 143) and by Regulation (EU) 2020/461 of the European Parliament and the Council of 30 March 2020 (OJ L 99, 31.3.2020, p. 9): https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:32002R2012
    • [11] Budget of EUR 947 million for the period 2021-2027.
    Last updated: 28 January 2025

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Written question – Violations of Greek and European territorial waters by Turkish fishing vessels and illegal overfishing – E-000175/2025

    Source: European Parliament

    Question for written answer  E-000175/2025
    to the Commission
    Rule 144
    Fredis Beleris (PPE)

    For a number of years, the “sea bream war” has been raging in the Eastern Aegean, with Turkish fishing vessels active in Greek territorial waters without the permission of the Greek state and in breach of Greek and European law (Council Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008 establishing a Community system to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and Council Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009). Mass incursions of Turkish fishing vessels occur very frequently, and aggressive behaviour towards the Greek coastguard has repeatedly been observed. The Turkish coastguard systematically turns a blind eye to these violations.

    Any fishing activity by third-country vessels in waters under the jurisdiction of an EU Member State, without its permission, is illegal. Overfishing in sensitive areas leads to a reduction in fish stocks, directly affecting the marine ecosystem and the economic life of local communities. The infringement of European law and European marine territorial waters by a candidate for accession is a matter for concern.

    In view of this:

    • 1.Does the Commission intend to press Türkiye to align itself with the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy and the Regulation on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing?
    • 2.Does it intend to step up the inspections to identify illegal catches on the European market and to achieve a level playing field for Greek fishermen?
    • 3.Does it intend to reinforce the authority of the European Fisheries Control Agency and FRONTEX to stop illegal fishing within European borders?

    Submitted: 16.1.2025

    Last updated: 28 January 2025

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Answer to a written question – Digital Services Act – E-002707/2024(ASW)

    Source: European Parliament

    The Digital Services Act (DSA)[1] entered into full application on 17 February 2024. The Member States were obliged to designate and empower their national Digital Services Coordinators (DSCs) by that date. It is those DSCs that are tasked with awarding the status of trusted flagger to applicants that meet the conditions of Article 22 DSA.

    It is of utmost importance for the Commission that the implementation of the DSA is completed as soon as possible. Significant resources are dedicated to support this objective, allowing the Commission to issue the necessary secondary legislation[2], issue guidelines where needed[3], and work efficiently with the European Board for Digital Services (the Board)[4].

    Unfortunately, not all Member States designated and empowered their DSCs by 17 February 2024. As of 9 January 2025, the Commission therefore initiated 13 infringement procedures[5] against Member States that failed to do so[6].

    Only once DSCs have been designated and empowered, can they award the trusted flagger status to eligible entities which can benefit from priority treatment of their notices by online platforms.

    While guidelines on trusted flaggers are not a requirement for DSCs to assign that status to eligible entities, the Commission is currently preparing such guidelines. The guidelines will be subject to public consultation in due course, after consulting the Board[7].

    As of 19 December 2024, 15 trusted flaggers were listed on the dedicated website[8] of the Commission, including entities dedicated to the protection of minors.

    • [1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/2065/oj
    • [2] See, for example, https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/implementing-regulation-laying-down-templates-concerning-transparency-reporting-obligations or https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/13817-Delegated-Regulation-on-data-access-provided-for-in-the-Digital-Services-Act_en
    • [3] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_1707 or https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-launches-call-evidence-guidelines-protection-minors-online-under-digital-services-act
    • [4] https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/dsa-board-working-groups
    • [5] https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-calls-cyprus-czechia-estonia-poland-portugal-and-slovakia-designate-and-fully-empower and https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-calls-6-member-states-comply-eu-digital-services-act
    • [6] https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/dsa-dscs
    • [7] https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/dsa-board
    • [8] https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/trusted-flaggers-under-dsa
    Last updated: 28 January 2025

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Babies as young as 4 months can tell how the sounds of different languages are made – new research

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eylem Altuntas, Postdoctoral Researcher, Speech & Language Development, The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University

    Colin Maynard/Unsplash

    Babies are like little detectives, constantly piecing together clues about the world around them. If you’ve ever noticed your baby staring at you while you talk, it’s because they’re picking up on more than just sounds — they’re learning how those sounds are made.

    Our recent study, published in Developmental Science, shows this amazing process starts as early as four months old, shaking up the old belief that babies learn these patterns only after tuning in to their native language between 6 and 12 months of age.

    It also gives us an earlier window to help children who might be at risk of speech or language delays.

    Sorting through a buffet of sounds

    By their first birthday, babies are already fine-tuning their ears to the sounds of their native language in a process called perceptual attunement. Think of it like their brain sorting through a buffet of sounds to focus on the ones that matter most.

    But in their first six months, babies can tell apart sounds from languages they’ve never even heard. For example, they might distinguish certain Hindi contrasts that are challenging for adult English speakers or identify unique tones in Mandarin, even if they’re growing up in an English-speaking household.

    This incredible ability doesn’t last forever. Between six and 12 months, babies start narrowing their focus to the sounds they hear most often. For vowels, this fine-tuning kicks in at around six months while consonants follow at closer to ten months.

    Think of it as babies zooming in on the sounds that matter, such as the difference between the “r” and “l” in English, while losing sensitivity to sounds they don’t hear regularly.

    Until now, researchers thought this narrowing process was needed for babies to start learning more complex language skills, such as figuring out that the “b” in “bin” and the “d” in “din” differ because one is made with the lips and the other with the tongue tip.

    But our study found babies as young as four months are already learning how sounds are physically made, long before this narrowing begins.

    In their first six months, babies can tell apart sounds from languages they’ve never even heard.
    Mila Supinskaya Glashchenko/Shutterstock

    Learning mini-languages

    Here’s an example to picture this. Imagine you’re listening to someone speak a language you don’t know. Even if you don’t understand the words, you might notice how their lips or tongue move to make sounds. Four-month-old babies can do this too.

    To demonstrate this, we conducted an experiment with 34 babies, aged four to six months, whose parents had provided consent to participate. We created a “match-the-pattern” game using two made up mini-languages.

    One language had words with lip sounds like “b” and “v”, while the other used tongue-tip sounds like “d” and “z”. Each word, like “bivawo” or “dizalo”, was paired with a cartoon image — a jellyfish for lip words and a crab for tongue-tip words. A recording of a word was played at the same time its paired image was shown.

    Why cartoons? Because babies can’t exactly tell us what they’re thinking, but they can form associations in their brains. These images helped us see if the babies could link each mini-language to the correct picture.

    After the babies learned these mini-languages and their picture pairings, we mixed things up.

    Instead of hearing the words, they watched silent videos of a person’s face saying new words from the same mini-languages.

    In some videos, the face matched the cartoon they had learned earlier. In others, it didn’t. We then tracked how long the babies looked at the videos — a common method researchers use to see what grabs their attention. Babies tend to look longer at things that surprise or interest them and shorter at things they find familiar, helping us understand how they process and recognise what they see.

    The results were clear: babies looked significantly longer at the videos where the face matched what they’d learned. This showed they weren’t just passively listening earlier — they were actively learning the rules of the mini-languages and linking that knowledge to what they saw.

    The experiment involved pairing certain words with a cartoon image of a jellyfish and a crab.
    Eylem Altuntas

    Connecting the dots

    In simple terms, this means four-month-old babies can connect the dots between sound and sight. This early ability to spot patterns in how sounds are made is the foundation for learning language later on. It’s like their brains are already laying the groundwork for saying their first words.

    This discovery changes what we thought we knew about babies’ early language learning. It suggests babies start figuring out patterns at four months, well before they begin perceptually attuning to the sounds of their native language between six and 12 months.

    That opens up exciting new possibilities for helping children who might struggle with speech or language. If we can help earlier, we might make a big difference.

    These findings raise several interesting questions. For example, can babies learn other differences such as voicing – whether a sound is made with a buzzing vibration, like the difference between “b” (buzzing) and “p” (no buzzing) – as early as four months? How does growing up in a bilingual home affect this ability? Could babies use this skill to learn patterns in entirely new languages?

    By exploring these questions, we’ll keep uncovering the amazing ways babies’ brains set the stage for learning one of the most complex human skills: language.

    Eylem Altuntas is a researcher at the BabyLab within the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour, and Development at Western Sydney University.

    – ref. Babies as young as 4 months can tell how the sounds of different languages are made – new research – https://theconversation.com/babies-as-young-as-4-months-can-tell-how-the-sounds-of-different-languages-are-made-new-research-248225

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Global wildlife trade is an enormous market – a look at the billions of animals the US imports from nearly 30,000 species

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Michael Tlusty, Professor of Sustainability and Food Solutions, UMass Boston

    U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents inspect a shipment of reptiles at the Port of Miami. U.S. GAO

    When people think of wildlife trade, they often picture smugglers sneaking in rare and endangered species from far-off countries. Yet most wildlife trade is actually legal, and the United States is one of the world’s biggest wildlife importers.

    New research that we and a team of colleagues published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that, over the last 22 years, people in the U.S. legally imported nearly 2.85 billion individual animals representing almost 30,000 species.

    Some of these wild animals become pets, such as reptiles, spiders, clownfish, chimpanzees and even tigers. Thousands end up in zoos and aquariums, where many species on display come directly from the wild.

    Medical research uses macaque monkeys and imports up to 39,000 of them every year. The fashion trade imports around 1 million to 2 million crocodile skins every year. Hunting trophies are also included in wildlife.

    How many species are legally traded worldwide?
    Benjamin Marshall, et al., 2024, PNAS, CC BY-SA

    The largest number of imported species are birds – 4,985 different species are imported each year, led by Muscovy ducks, with over 6 million imported. Reptiles are next, with 3,048 species, led by iguanas and royal pythons. These largely become pets.

    Not all wildlife are wild

    We found that just over half of the animals imported into the U.S. come from the wild.

    Capturing wildlife to sell to exporters can be an important income source for rural communities around the world, especially in Africa. However, wild imported species can also spread diseases or parasites or become invasive. In fact, these risks are so worrying that many imported animals are classed as “injurious wildlife” due to their potential role in transmitting diseases to native species.

    Captive breeding has played an increasingly dominant role in recent years as a way to limit the impact on wild populations and to try to reduce disease spread.

    However over half the individual animals from most groups of species, such as amphibians or mammals, still come from the wild, and there is no data on the impact of the wildlife trade on most wild populations.

    Trade may pose a particular risk when species are already rare or have small ranges. Where studies have been done, the wild populations of traded species decreased by an average of 62% across the periods monitored.

    Sustainable wildlife trade is possible, but it relies on careful monitoring to balance wild harvest and captive breeding.

    Data is thin in many ways

    For most species in the wildlife trade, there is still a lot that remains unknown, including even the number of species traded.

    With so many species and shipments, wildlife inspectors are overwhelmed. Trade data may not include the full species name for groups like butterflies or fish. The values in many customs databases are reported by companies but never verified.

    Macaques, used in medical research, are the most-traded primates globally, according to an analysis of U.S. Fish and Wildlife data.
    Davidvraju, CC BY-SA

    In our study, we relied on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Law Enforcement Management Information System, a wildlife import-export data collection system. However, few countries collate and release data in such a standardized way; meaning that for the majority of species legally traded around the world there is no available data.

    For example, millions of Tokay geckos are imported as pets and for medicine, and are often reported to be bred in captivity. However, investigators cannot confirm that they weren’t actually caught in the wild.

    Why tracking the wildlife trade is important

    Biodiversity has a great number of economic and ecological benefits. There are also risks to importing wildlife. Understanding the many species and number of animals entering the country, and whether they were once wild or farmed, is important, because imported wildlife can cause health and ecological problems.

    Wildlife can spread diseases to humans and to other animals. Wild-caught monkeys imported for medical research may carry diseases, including ones of particular risk to humans. Those with diseases are more likely to be wild than captive-bred.

    The most-traded mammals worldwide are minks, which are valued for their fur but can spread viruses to humans and other species. About 48 million minks are legally traded annually, about 2.8% wild-caught and the majority raised, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife data.
    Colin Canterbury/USFWS

    Species that aren’t native to the U.S. may also escape or be released into the wild. Invasive species can cause billions of dollars in damage by consuming and outcompeting native wildlife and spreading diseases.

    We believe better data on the wildlife trade could be used to set management goals, such as harvest quotas or no-take policies for those species in their country of origin.

    What’s next

    The researchers involved in this study come from institutes around the world and are all interested in improving data systems for wildlife trade.

    Some of us focus on how e-commerce platforms such as Etsy and Instagram have become hotspots of wildlife trade and can be challenging to monitor without automation. Esty announced in 2024 that it would remove listings of endangered or threatened species. Others build tools to help wildlife inspectors process the large number of shipments in real time. Many of us examine the problems imported species cause when they become invasive.

    In the age of machine learning, artificial intelligence and big data, it’s possible to better understand the wildlife trade. Consumers can help by buying less, and making informed decisions.

    Michael Tlusty is a founding member of the Wildlife Detection Partnership and co-developed the Nature Intelligence System, which assists governments in collecting more accurate wildlife data..

    Andrew Rhyne is currently on sabbatical funded by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), focused on the wildlife trade data. He is a founding member of the Wildlife Detection Partnership and co-developed the Nature Intelligence System, which assists governments in collecting more accurate wildlife data.

    Alice Catherine Hughes 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. Global wildlife trade is an enormous market – a look at the billions of animals the US imports from nearly 30,000 species – https://theconversation.com/global-wildlife-trade-is-an-enormous-market-a-look-at-the-billions-of-animals-the-us-imports-from-nearly-30-000-species-247197

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How to get control of your time

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Boróka Bó, Assistant Professor in Sociology, University College Dublin

    GoodStudio/Shutterstock

    You wake up at 7:00 and reflexively reach for your phone. Between the stream of emails, WhatsApps and breaking news alerts, you see a worrying reminder: you averaged 11 hours of daily screen time last week. You swipe the notification away and open TikTok, where a woman in a matching athleisure set and glossy, slicked-back ponytail urges you to “get ready with me for my 5-9 before my 9-5”.

    You think about getting out of bed for a workout or meditation before you start answering those emails. But before you know it, it’s 8:57 – and if you don’t get off the apps and onto your computer, you’ll be late.

    Sound familiar? Though many people have more leisure time now than in the past, paradoxically, more free time comes with increased time pressure. For many of us, it feels as if we don’t have control over our time – rather, time is controlling us. This is because our collective experience of time both comes from and governs society.

    Instead of saving us time, the pace of modernity has led to many of us feeling as if our time is slipping away. And any time we “gain back”, we devote – by necessity or choice – to making more money, maybe through a side hustle. Losing control over time can have negative consequences for both physical and mental wellbeing.

    Ready to make a change? The Quarter Life Glow-up is a new, six-week newsletter course from The Conversation’s UK and Canada editions.

    Every week, we’ll bring you research-backed advice and tools to help improve your relationships, your career, your free time and your mental health – no supplements or skincare required. Sign up here to start your glow-up at any time.

    We are trapped in a perpetual cycle of rushing to survive and consume. But consumption also takes time, so the time available to enjoy our newly acquired possessions declines. You buy a faster new computer, but then need to spend multiple, frustrating hours configuring it to your preferences.

    Even trying to save time by mastering a productivity hack or reading a self-help book takes (you guessed it) time.

    As time use researchers, we often grapple with an uncomfortable truth – your time is not fully yours – it belongs to us all. Time is a network good. We live in a web of time: giving, taking and sharing time with everyone around us. In other words, the decisions and actions of the people around you shape how much time you have.

    This presents a catch-22. Friends, family, colleagues and even neighbours require our time, and we need theirs, too. We share time with our social network members because we need strong ties for our wellbeing. However, building lasting relationships means that we have to control our time in order to share it with others.

    Unfortunately, we don’t all have the same amount of control. Socioeconomic and demographic factors – gender, financial circumstances, age, race, and where you live – all influence how you can make decisions about time. These factors shape how we can interact with others.

    Are you controlling your time, or is it controlling you?
    Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock

    Even seemingly mundane choices, such as how many extra minutes of sleep you give yourself in the morning, are shaped by societal expectations, power structures and economic constraints. If your job starts at 8am and your commute is two hours, it is unlikely that you can afford extra time to sleep in the mornings. If you are a parent, you might have to wake up even earlier to make sure that everyone has their breakfast and lunch packed for school.

    This is why the hundreds of self-help articles telling you how to optimise your time by carefully budgeting every minute of it never manage to give you full control.

    Breaking this vicious cycle starts with understanding, then practising self-compassion in the face of the demands on your time.

    Get in control

    Gaining control over your time starts with “why”. We don’t all have the luxury of saying no to tasks we deem unnecessary or unpleasant.

    We can, however, ask ourselves why we are spending our time on certain things. Before your next decision, big or small, try asking yourself: why am I doing this?

    If the answer is rooted in social pressure, outdated norms, or an obligation toward someone who does not deserve the gift of your precious time, consider how you could switch to doing something else.

    Try to spend your time on activities and with people who nourish you, enriching your moments. You may not be able to completely avoid spending part of your time as your boss dictates. But understanding the larger power dynamics shaping your personal situation and your time will help you approach decisions with conscious intention, giving you greater control over this irreplaceable resource.

    Regularly questioning the reason behind your actions will reveal the social patterns driving your decision-making processes. Why did you agree to do something, only to regret it later? Why are you always the one donating time to emotional labour at the office?

    Consistently asking “why” creates a habit of mindfulness, and will give you the insight needed to begin to make more informed choices that reflect your true priorities. Ultimately, gaining more control over your time is not about rigidly adhering to a schedule or productivity hacks. It is impossible to subject every minute of your existence to your will – time is not yours to hold on to.

    But you can make the most of the time you do have control over by making conscious decisions that align with your own desires and goals. Like one of our research participants, you may soon find yourself looking in the mirror and proclaiming: “I love time! Time lets me become!”

    Boróka Bó receives funding from Enterprise Ireland. She has previously received funding from the National Science Foundation and held a Soros Fellowship.

    Kamila Kolpashnikova receives funding from SSHRC (Insight Grant number: 435-2023-1060).

    – ref. How to get control of your time – https://theconversation.com/how-to-get-control-of-your-time-235801

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Skin-to-skin contact is good for your baby and you – and not just straight after birth

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Viren Swami, Professor of Social Psychology, Anglia Ruskin University

    SvetlanaFedoseyeva/Shutterstock

    In the 1950s, the American psychologist Harry Harlow provided a stark demonstration of the importance of a mother’s touch. He famously – and controversially – showed that rhesus monkeys would rather cling to a surrogate “mother” made of soft cloth than one made of metal wire that provided milk. A loving touch seemed to be more important than food, Harlow concluded.

    Today, the importance of touch has become firmly embedded in infant care. For example, UNICEF and the NHS recommend skin-to-skin contact between a parent and newborn. This involves placing a newborn on a parent’s bare chest, both of them covered in a warm blanket, for at least an hour after birth or until after the first feed.

    In fact, feeling the power of touch begins long before a baby is even born. Touch is the first sense to develop. Just eight weeks after conception, a foetus already responds to the sensation of touch in the womb – and it is crucial for people of any age.

    By 14 weeks, twins have been observed on ultrasound sucking on each other’s fingers and exploring each other’s faces. And frame-by-frame analyses of ultrasound have shown that, by 20 weeks, foetuses respond to mothers touching their bellies.

    The benefits of parental touch become clear at birth. One review of 52 studies involving over 4,000 newborns found that touch interventions – such as skin-to-skin contact and baby massage – was associated with better newborn health, including better regulation of temperature, breathing and heart rate. The review also found that touch was more beneficial when it came from a parent compared to medical staff.

    Cuddle up, because there are other benefits of skin-to-skin contact. When a parent holds their baby in skin-to-skin contact after birth, it helps to calm the newborn and stimulates an interest in feeding. In the longer-term, daily skin-to-skin contact with infants improves sleep patterns and pain tolerance, supports healthy weight gain and continued breastfeeding and strengthens brain development.

    These benefits are also experienced by infants born prematurely. For example, one review of kangaroo care – skin-to-skin contact for premature or low birth-weight infants – found that it reduced the risk of death, infection and low body temperature, and improved weight gain and rates of breastfeeding.

    In both healthy and premature infants, skin-to-skin contact also triggers the release of the hormone oxytocin – the so-called “love hormone” – which encourages bonding between the parent and infant. Skin-to-skin contact also lowers levels of the hormone cortisol, which helps newborns to regulate levels of stress.

    In fact, the benefits of skin-to-skin contact are not exclusively experienced by the newborn. Studies have found that daily skin-to-skin contact with their babies can reduce symptoms of postpartum stress, depression and anxiety in mothers. And while most studies have focused on mothers, skin-to-skin contact also seems to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety in fathers.

    While most of this research has focused the short-term outcomes of touch, scientists are also following infants over time to see what impact early touch has on long-term outcomes. For example, one study found that premature babies who received at least one hour of kangaroo care for two weeks had better mother-child interactions, sleep and brain development when they were ten years old.

    Another group of researchers followed infants and their mothers for a period of nine years. When they were only one-month-old, infants who had experienced skin-to-skin contact with their mothers already showed better emotional adjustment and attachment than infants who had no skin-to-skin contact.

    Nine years later, these children were also more willing and able to engage in emotive conversations with their mothers.

    Some of the effects of touch are more difficult to quantify. In the 1970s, for example, the psychiatrist Donald Winnicott described how a mother’s touch helps infants and young children to experience the body as “the place where one securely lives”. This idea seems to be supported by ethnographic records and anthropological studies of communities where infants are in close contact with a caregiver.

    For instance, in many communities – such as the Netsilik, !Kung, and Balinese – infants are pressed skin-to-skin with their mothers for much of the day. This means that infants are more likely to have their needs met quickly – being comforted when they cry or fed when they suckle – while also helping them develop a sensitivity to touch. These forms of “skinship” also help parents and their infants to develop deeper bonds through touch.

    While this research shows the benefits of touch in infancy, what about childhood? Studies of young children and adolescents have shown that touch – particularly caring touch like hugging from a parent or other caregivers, such as teachers – can support psychological development and wellbeing. For instance, touch can help children develop a sense of emotional security, belonging and feelings of support, especially in stressful situations.

    The anthropologist Marjorie Goodwin has described how “haptic rituals” – such as hugs between a parent and their child over the course of a day – can help the child feel loved and cared for.

    Regularly experiencing caring touch can also help children to develop their social interaction skills, including empathy toward others. Caring touch also reduces aggressive behaviour in adolescence.

    Unfortunately, even today, many parents hold on to old fashioned ideas – popularised by psychologists like John Watson – that they should avoid caring touch with their children, out of fear that hugging or cuddling will cause their children to become weak willed. The scientific evidence doesn’t support such ideas, so go hug your kids.

    Viren Swami 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. Skin-to-skin contact is good for your baby and you – and not just straight after birth – https://theconversation.com/skin-to-skin-contact-is-good-for-your-baby-and-you-and-not-just-straight-after-birth-248260

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How people will be ringing in the year of the snake

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sijing Lu, Assistant Professor in Translation and Transcultural Studies, University of Warwick

    SeventyFour/Shutterstock

    Lunar new year is the most important traditional festival for the Chinese people, symbolising unity, prosperity and hope for the future. It is, however, celebrated all over Asia and in the diaspora.

    Unlike, the new year that is celebrated only on December 31 and January 1, lunar new year celebrations begin the month before and end days after the start of the new year.

    In the Chinese tradition, new year celebration begins on the eighth day of the 12th lunar month with the Laba festival (腊八节). On this day, it is customary to eat Laba congee, a porridge which is also known as “eight-treasure congee” because it’s often made with eight or more ingredients. This year the Laba festival fell on January 7.

    The biggest day in this period of celebration is, of course, new year, which this year falls on January 29.

    According to historical records, the Chinese people have been celebrating the lunar new year for over 4,000 years. Around 2,000BC, Shun, an ancient Chinese leader, ascended to the throne and led his followers in a worship ceremony to honour heaven and earth.

    This day was regarded as the beginning of the year, corresponding to the first day of the first lunar month. This event is believed to mark the origin of the lunar new year.

    During this festival, people typically express their hopes for prosperity and health in the coming year through family reunions and ancestor worship. Communities also host traditional activities to celebrate, such as lion dances, the giving of red envelopes, and putting up of spring couplets (pairs of poems written on red paper with black or gold characters), all of which symbolise good fortune and abundance.

    The traditional Chinese lunar new year reunion dinner includes many symbolic dishes. For example, eating fish represents abundance, dumplings symbolise reunion and wealth, and rice cakes signify progress and success.

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    But this day isn’t the end of celebrations. Instead, new year is celebrated up until the 15th day of the first lunar month when the lantern festival (元宵节) is celebrated. This festival coincides with the first full moon of the lunar year. On this day reconciliation, peace and forgiveness are sought.

    To celebrate, people will cover their houses with colourful lanterns, often with riddles written on them. Children will go out and try to solve these to win small gifts. There might be lion and dragon dances as well as parades and fireworks. People eat small glutinous rice balls, known as yuanxiao or tangyuan. The round shape symbolises wholeness and unity within the family.

    This year’s lantern festival – and the end of lunar new year celebrations – is on February 12. By this time, we will be well into 2025, which is the year of the snake.

    The year of the snake

    The year of the snake holds profound meaning and special significance in Chinese culture. The animal symbolises wisdom, spirituality, elegance and renewal.

    In Chinese traditions, the snake is also considered a “small dragon” and has a unique presence. Many scholars believe that the basic form of the dragon has evolved from the snake, with the snake’s body forming the main structure of the mythical beast.

    In ancient art, images of dragons and snakes often overlap, with motifs that appear simultaneously dragon-like and snake-like being very common.

    In ancient China, the snake was regarded as a mysterious and powerful creature. Its strong reproductive ability symbolised a continuous lineage and abundant offspring, while its ability to shed its skin and renew itself represented life and longevity. This process of renewal and rebirth highlighted the snake’s connection to cycles of growth and the passage of time.

    Beyond its physical traits, the snake was also revered for its intelligence and adaptability, often being portrayed as a creature of wisdom and strategy.

    These qualities have translated into cultural beliefs about people born in the year of the snake. For instance, for those born in this year, the snake’s flexibility and patience are seen as representing wisdom in problem-solving and overcoming challenges.

    Sijing Lu 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. How people will be ringing in the year of the snake – https://theconversation.com/how-people-will-be-ringing-in-the-year-of-the-snake-248468

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –