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Category: Fisheries

  • MIL-OSI Global: Airdropping vaccines to eliminate canine rabies in Texas – two scientists explain the decades of research behind its success

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Rodney E. Rohde, Regents’ Professor & Chair, Medical Laboratory Science, Texas State University

    Rabies is a fatal disease for both animals and people. CDC/Barbara Andrews

    Rabies is a deadly disease. Without vaccination, a rabies infection is nearly 100% fatal once someone develops symptoms. Texas has experienced two rabies epidemics in animals since 1988: one involving coyotes and dogs in south Texas, and the other involving gray foxes in west central Texas. Affecting 74 counties, these outbreaks led to thousands of people who could have been exposed, two human deaths and countless animal lives lost.

    In 1994, Gov. Ann Richards declared rabies a state health emergency. The Texas Department of State Health Services responded by launching the Oral Rabies Vaccination Program to control the spread of these wildlife rabies outbreaks.

    Since 1995, the program has distributed over 53 million doses of rabies vaccine over 758,100 square miles (nearly 2 million square kilometers) in Texas by hand or aircraft. Rabies cases in dogs and coyotes went from 141 to 0 by 2005, and rabies cases in foxes went from 101 to 0 by 2014. By 2004, one canine rabies variant was effectively eliminated from Texas, and another variant was substantially controlled.

    We are researchers who began studying wildlife rabies and oral vaccination in the 1980s. From providing a proof of concept in using oral vaccines in raccoons to being among the first to use new rabies vaccines in the 1990s, we were on the ground floor of efforts to contain this deadly virus.

    Decades of vaccine research led to one of the most successful public health projects in Texas. And we’re hopeful it could provide a road map for the use of mass wildlife vaccination to prevent future outbreaks.

    Developing the oral rabies vaccine

    The Texas Oral Rabies Vaccination Program benefited greatly from the work of multiple researchers over prior decades.

    The mid-20th century saw several major developments in rabies control. With the failure of efforts to poison or trap infected animals, virologist and veterinarian George Baer at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognized the need for a different strategy to prevent and control wildlife rabies. His and his colleagues’ work in the 1960s led to the concept of oral rabies vaccination. While orally vaccinating wildlife would help combat infection at its source, it was previously thought to be logistically unfeasible given the large range of target animals.

    By the late 1970s, European researchers began the first field trials to orally vaccinate foxes against rabies. Small plastic containers were filled with vaccines and placed into baits, such as chicken heads. Over 50,000 of these vaccine-laden baits were distributed over four years in fox habitats in forests and fields.

    Early vaccine baits were coated with fishmeal crumbles and cod liver oil.
    Maki et al/Veterinary Research, CC BY-ND

    Researchers in Canada also began similar field trials in Ontario. During the 1980s, an average of 235 rabid foxes per year were reported in the area. Baits containing oral rabies vaccine were dropped annually from 1989 to 1995 and successfully eliminated the fox variant of rabies from the whole area.

    Recombinant oral rabies vaccine

    The first generation of these vaccines used live viruses modified in an attempt to not cause severe disease. Although effective and generally safe, the original rabies vaccines had to be kept in cool temperatures and had the rare risk of causing rabies in animals.

    In the early 1980s, scientists developed recombinant rabies vaccines, which use a separate virus to express the genes of the rabies virus. A collaboration between a nonprofit institute, the U.S. government, and the pharmaceutical industry led to the development of a recombinant viral vaccine that produced a rapid immune response against rabies without the possibility of causing rabies.

    In 1984, preliminary work in laboratory animals showed the promise of using an oral form of the recombinant vaccine to vaccinate animals. However, the concept of using genetically modified organisms was in its infancy among both scientists and the general public. While the vaccine was safe and effective in captive raccoons and foxes, major questions loomed over how it might affect other species once released into the environment.

    After years of work improving the vaccine’s design and testing its safety in several nonhuman species, the first European trial was held on a military base in Belgium. With data supporting it could safely and effectively control wildlife in Luxembourg and France, the vaccine was licensed to control fox rabies in 1995.

    In the U.S., similar studies of the oral recombinant rabies vaccine were conducted. The first trial began in 1990 at Parramore Island off the Virginia coast, and a year of intensive monitoring found no significant adverse effects on the environment or any wildlife species. A second yearlong study on the mainland near Williamsport, Pennsylvania, had similarly positive results.

    After the vaccine was successfully used to control raccoon rabies in tests in several other East Coast states, it was approved for use on raccoons in 1997.

    In 1998, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service received funding to expand existing oral wildlife vaccination projects to states of strategic importance, to prevent the spread of specific rabies viruses, and to coordinate interstate projects.

    Results in Texas

    In Texas, the oral recombinant vaccine is now primarily distributed by hand and by approximately 75 separate helicopter flights annually.

    The Texas Department of State Health Services rabies laboratory worked alongside the CDC to create the Regional Rabies Virus Reference Typing Laboratory. One of us was recruited to both distribute the vaccine in the field and to develop molecular typing tools to discriminate between different types of rabies virus variants in the lab. These techniques allowed us to identify where different rabies virus variants were emerging at any given moment.

    The Texas Oral Rabies Vaccination Program continues to monitor and control rabies cases in the state.

    Our lab was also the first in the nation outside of the CDC to assist other U.S. states and countries in testing their specimens for rabies virus variants. These techniques helped researchers monitor where the rabies epizootic was ongoing or retreating due to wildlife vaccination and new forms of spread.

    With the constant threat of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases like COVID-19 and influenza, the prospect of mass vaccination of wild animals may be one way to address future pandemics. Though there is much work ahead of us, we have hope that we may one day have the option of using mass wildlife vaccination to reduce or eliminate infectious diseases like rabies.

    Rodney E. Rohde has received funding from the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science, U.S. Department of Labor (OSHA), and other public and private entities/foundations. Rohde is affiliated with ASCP, ASCLS, ASM, and serves on several scientific advisory boards.

    Charles E. Rupprecht consults for global academic, governmental, industrial and NGO organizations. He receives funding from academic, governmental, industrial, and NGO sources.

    – ref. Airdropping vaccines to eliminate canine rabies in Texas – two scientists explain the decades of research behind its success – https://theconversation.com/airdropping-vaccines-to-eliminate-canine-rabies-in-texas-two-scientists-explain-the-decades-of-research-behind-its-success-238508

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Drug prices improved under Biden-Harris and Trump − but not for everyone, and not enough

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By C. Michael White, Distinguished Professor of Pharmacy Practice, University of Connecticut

    Negotiations to reduce drug prices can sometimes shift costs onto consumers. rudisill/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    When it comes to drug pricing, the Trump and Biden-Harris administrations both have some very modest wins to tout.

    As director of the Health Outcomes, Policy, and Evidence Synthesis group at the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy, I teach and study about the ethics of prescription drug prices and the complexities of drug pricing nationally.

    Delving into the presidential candidates’ successes on a number of drug-pricing policies, you’ll see a continuation of progress across the administrations. Neither the Trump administration nor the Biden-Harris administration, however, has done anything to truly lower drug prices for the majority of Americans.

    $35 insulin

    Insulin is a necessity for patients with diabetes. But from January 2014 to April 2019, the average price per unit went from US$0.22 to $0.34 before dropping back slightly by July 2023 to $0.29 per unit. Since dosing is weight-based, insulin costs for someone weighing 154 pounds would have risen from $231 to $357 a month from 2014 to 2019 and dropped to $305 a month by 2023. Price increases have led some patients to space out their medications by taking less than the dose they need for good blood sugar control. One study estimated that over 25% of patients in an urban diabetes center were underusing their insulin.

    In July 2020, the Trump administration enacted a $35 cap on insulin copayments via executive order. In effect, it made participating Medicare Part D programs limit the price of just one of each type of insulin product to $35. For instance, if there were six short-acting insulin products on an insurance plan’s approved drug list, the insurer had to offer one vial form and one pen form at $35.

    These price changes did not go into effect during Trump’s presidency. By 2022, only about 800,000 people – or around 11% of the more than 7.4 million people in the U.S. who use insulin to regulate their blood sugar – saw their prices reduced.

    Millions of Americans need insulin to manage their diabetes.
    Spencer Platt/Getty Images

    In August 2022, the Biden-Harris administration signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. This maintained the $35 insulin cap with the same stipulations but made the program mandatory for all Medicare Part D and Medicare Part B members. This expanded the number of people who could benefit from cheaper insulin to 3.3 million.

    This still doesn’t help a majority of diabetics. If you don’t have Medicare, the $35 reduction does not apply to you. Furthermore, pharmaceutical companies are not responsible for lowering insulin costs under these policies, but health plans are on the hook for lowering copayments. Costs could be passed along to beneficiaries in future Medicare premiums.

    Importing Canadian drugs

    Americans pay nearly 2.6 times more for prescription drugs than people in other high-income countries. One way regulators have tried to reduce prices is to simply import drugs at the prices pharmaceutical companies charge those countries rather than those charged to U.S. consumers.

    In July 2019, the Trump administration proposed importing drugs from Canada as a way to share Canadians’ lower drug costs with American consumers. He signed an executive order allowing the Food and Drug Administration to create the rules under which states could import the drugs. When President Joe Biden came into office, he left the executive order in place and the rulemaking process continued.

    Some Americans have traveled across borders for cheaper medications.
    Jeff Haynes/AFP via Getty Images

    No state under the Trump or Biden-Harris administrations has yet been able to successfully import a Canadian drug product. In January 2024, however, the Food and Drug Administration approved Florida’s plan to import Canadian drugs, the first state to receive the green light. Colorado, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Texas have applications pending as of September 2024.

    Unfortunately, it is unlkely that Canada would allow their prescription drugs to be shipped in large quantities to American consumers, not without imposing high tariffs as a disincentive. That is because drug manufacturers could limit supplies to Canada and cause shortages if drugs are moved to the U.S. Manufacturers could also be less willing to negotiate lower prices for Canadians if that will hurt U.S. profits.

    Negotiating with the pharmaceutical industry

    Be it prescription drugs or cars, both buyer and seller must agree on a price for a successful sale to occur. If the potential buyer is unwilling to walk away from negotiations, you will not get the seller’s best price. One reason U.S. drug prices are higher than other countries’ is because the government is not a shrewd negotiator.

    Negotiations that result in major reductions in drug prices frequently result from the drug manufacturer losing access to patients on a certain health plan or ending up in a higher drug tier that substantially raises a patient’s copay. However, if the buyer refuses the seller’s final offer, their members or citizens lose access to those drugs. While major private health plans and pharmacy benefit managers are able to directly negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical manufacturers, often with substantial savings, Medicare was prevented from doing so by federal law until recently.

    In May 2018, the Trump administration released a so-called blueprint for reducing prescription drug prices that included negotiating Medicare prescription drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry. This plan wasn’t enacted during his term.

    In August 2022, under the Biden-Harris administration, the Inflation Reduction Act enabled price negotiation and specified the number of drugs that negotiations could include in a year.

    The Inflation Reduction Act allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices for the first time.

    The first negotiation between Medicare and the pharmaceutical industry took place over the summer of 2024, lowering costs for 10 Medicare Part D drugs, which include the blood thinner Xarelto and the drugs Farxiga and Jardiance, which treat Type 2 diabetes, heart failure and kidney disease. The resulting $1.5 billion in savings will be extended in 2026 to the approximately 8.8 million Medicare Part D patients who are taking these drugs. The prices for these drugs are still twice what they are in four other developed countries.

    Prices will be negotiated for another 15 Medicare Part D drugs in 2027. Thereafter, drug negotiations could include Medicare Part D drugs, which you pick up from your pharmacy, and Medicare Part B drugs, which are administered or received from your doctor’s office.

    Another aspect of the Inflation Reduction Act is capping out-of-pocket expenses at $2,000. This won’t go into effect until 2025, however, and simply shifts costs above the cap onto taxpayers.

    Continuation of progress

    It is often challenging to attribute policy successes to one administration versus another when assessing complex issues such as drug pricing. There were ideas initiated during the Trump administration that did not come to fruition until the Biden-Harris administration implemented and expanded on them.

    For example, Medicare price negotiation, proposed in a Trump administration “blueprint,” was codified in law by President Biden, but the fruits of this policy will not be seen until the next administration. And regardless of who you attribute this success to, only a portion of people on Medicare will see any relief from high drug prices as a result.

    Truly lowering the costs of prescription drugs would require identifying the maximum price the nation is willing to pay for benefits, such as cost per quality adjusted life year at the federal, state and private payer levels, and being willing to walk away from negotiations if the price exceeds that level. This would not be a panacea, though, especially for patients with rare and ultrarare diseases, and would need to be eased in over time to avoid bankrupting the industry.

    C. Michael White 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. Drug prices improved under Biden-Harris and Trump − but not for everyone, and not enough – https://theconversation.com/drug-prices-improved-under-biden-harris-and-trump-but-not-for-everyone-and-not-enough-238407

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Big lithium plans for Imperial Valley, one of California’s poorest regions, raise a bigger question: Who should benefit?

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Manuel Pastor, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

    The edge of the Salton Sea, a heavily polluted lake with large geothermal and lithium resources beneath it. Manuel Pastor

    Imperial County consistently ranks among the most economically distressed places in California. Its Salton Sea, the state’s biggest and most toxic lake, is an environmental disaster. And the region’s politics have been dominated by a conservative white elite, despite its supermajority Latino population.

    The county also happens to be sitting on enough lithium to produce nearly 400 million batteries, sufficient to completely revamp the American auto fleet to electric propulsion. Even better, that lithium could be extracted in a way consistent with broader goals to reduce pollution.

    The traditional ways to extract lithium involve either hard rock mining, which generates lots of waste, or large evaporation ponds, which waste a lot of water. In Imperial Valley, companies are pioneering a third method. They are extracting the mineral from the underground briny water brought up during geothermal energy production and then injecting that briny water back into the ground in a closed loop. It promises to yield the cleanest, greenest lithium on the planet.

    The hope of a clean energy future has excited investors and public officials so much that the area is being rechristened as “Lithium Valley.”

    In a region desperate for jobs and income, the prospect of a “white gold rush” is appealing. Public officials have been working to roll out the red carpet for big investors, including trying to create a clear plan for infrastructure and a quicker permitting process. To get community groups’ support, they are playing up the potential for jobs, including company commitments to hire local workers.

    But Imperial Valley residents who have been on the butt end of get-rich schemes around water and real estate in the past are worried that their political leaders may be giving away the store. As we explore in our new book, “Charging Forward: Lithium Valley, Electric Vehicles and a Just Future,” the U.S. has an opportunity to ensure that these residents directly benefit from the lithium extraction boom, which is an important part of the global shift to clean energy.

    Possibilities and perils in ‘Lithium Valley’

    Imperial Valley is emblematic of the potential and the risks that have long faced impoverished communities in resource-rich regions.

    To understand the possibilities and perils in Imperial Valley, it’s useful to remember that the world is not just moving away from fossil fuel extraction but toward more mineral extraction. Today’s battery technology – necessary for electric vehicles and energy storage – relies on minerals including cobalt, magnesium, nickel and graphite. And mineral extraction is often accompanied by obscured environmental risks.

    A prototype for CTR’s lithium-producing geothermal facility, in the Hell’s Kitchen area of Imperial Valley.
    Manuel Pastor

    In Imperial Valley, environmental and community organizations are worried about lithium extraction’s water use, waste and air pollution as production steps up and truck traffic increases. When your region’s childhood asthma rate is already more than twice the national average, and dust from the drying lake is toxic, kicking up a “little extra dust” is a big deal.

    Comite Civico del Valle, a long-established environmental justice organization in Imperial Valley, has sued to slow down a streamlined permitting process for Controlled Thermal Resources, a company planning lithium extraction there. The group’s concern is that inadequate environmental reviews could result in harm to residents’ health. Both the company and public officials are warning that the lawsuit could stop the lithium boom before it begins.

    Local communities are also concerned about how much benefit they will see while the industry profits. They note that the electric vehicle boom driving lithium demand occurred precisely because of public policy. Tesla, for example, has benefited from multiple rounds of state and federal zero-emissions vehicle incentives, including the sale of emissions credits that accounted for 85% of Tesla’s gross margin in 2009 and rose to US$1.8 billion a year by 2023.

    Behind these policies and financial incentives have been public will and taxpayer money.

    Young advocates with the Imperial Valley Equity & Justice Coalition have been spreading their concerns through the community.
    Chris Benner

    We believe that local residents, not just companies, deserve a return. Rather than promising to just pay for community “benefits,” such as environmental mitigation, contributions to municipal coffers or jobs, the companies could pay “dividends” directly to local residents and communities.

    There are models of this dividend approach. For example, the Alaska Permanent Fund gives an annual amount to all residents of that state from revenues obtained from the oil beneath the ground.

    In Imperial Valley, the actual ownership of the lithium is complex, involving a mix of privately owned subsurface rights, public lease rights obtained by companies and public rights held by the regional water district to whom companies will pay royalties.

    Given the ownership complexities and the desire to benefit as development takes place, local authorities and community organizations persuaded the state in 2022 to pass a per-metric-ton lithium tax to address local needs.

    Controlled Thermal Resources CEO Rod Colwell, right, walks near the Salton Sea with a colleague.
    AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

    That “flat tax” was bitterly resisted by some in the emerging industry on the grounds that it could make Imperial Valley’s less-polluting extraction method too costly to compete with environmentally damaging imports; after the vote, CTR’s CEO called the legislators “clowns.” Meanwhile, CTR has also agreed to hire union workers in the construction phase. Everyone – companies, communities and government officials – is struggling to balance economic viability with accountability.

    Lessons for a just transition

    The hesitance of low-income Imperial Valley residents to immediately buy into the lithium vision is deeply rooted in history.

    Decades of racial exclusion, patronizing practices and broken promises have led to deep distrust of outsiders who assert that things will be better this time.

    Irrigation at the turn of the last century was supposed to bring an agriculture boom, but the early result was a broken canal that released enough water over nearly two years of disrepair to create what is now the Salton Sea. The Salton Sea was then supposed to fuel recreational tourism, but the failure to replenish it with anything but agricultural runoff helped to kill fish, birds and recreation. A more recent scheme to attract solar farms in recent decades delivered little employment and more worries about agricultural displacement.

    You can still find old billboards promising a resort life on the Salton Sea, which today is one of the state’s most polluted lakes. Wind kicks up toxic dust when the water is low.
    Manuel Pastor

    Building the supply chain here, too

    In recent years, some people have pinned their hopes on lithium. The main site so far in Imperial Valley has been CTR’s Hell’s Kitchen. It’s a fitting moniker on summer days when temperatures regularly exceed 110 degrees.

    Ensuring that the surrounding communities benefit from this new lithium boom will require thinking about how to attract not just companies extracting the lithium but also those that will use it. So far, Imperial County has had limited success in attracting related industries. In 2023, a company named Statevolt said it would build a “gigafactory” there to assemble batteries. However, the company’s previous efforts – Britishvolt in the United Kingdom and Italvot in Italy – have stalled without any volts being produced. Imperial County will need serious suitors to make a go of it.

    A potentially promising future for modern transportation and energy storage may be brewing in Imperial Valley. But getting to a brighter future for everyone will require remembering a lesson from the past: that community investments tend to be hard-won. We believe that ensuring everyone benefits long term is essential for achieving a more inclusive and sustainable future.

    Research for the book from which this article draws was supported by the James Irvine Foundation, New Energy Nexus, the California Wellness Foundation, and Open Society Foundations. Manuel Pastor was also supported by a Residency at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center.

    Research for the book from which this article draws was supported by the James Irvine Foundation, New Energy Nexus, the California Wellness Foundation, and Open Society Foundations. Chris Benner was also supported by a Residency at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center.

    – ref. Big lithium plans for Imperial Valley, one of California’s poorest regions, raise a bigger question: Who should benefit? – https://theconversation.com/big-lithium-plans-for-imperial-valley-one-of-californias-poorest-regions-raise-a-bigger-question-who-should-benefit-238397

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: The vacuum cleaner principle and the envelope method: what technologies are used in the analytical laboratory of MosEcoMonitoring

    MIL OSI Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

    Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –

    What kind of air do we breathe, how clean is the water in Moscow’s rivers, is the soil suitable for planting, and what substances are contained in the first snow? The specialists of the GPBU testing center can answer these questions. “MosEcoMonitoring” Department of Nature Management and Environmental Protection.

    On the eve of World Environmental Health Day, which is celebrated on September 26, mos.ru correspondents visited one of the largest environmental laboratories in the country, saw how it is set up, and learned what methods and equipment specialists use to determine the quality of air, water, and soil in the city.

    Laboratory “kitchens” for natural research

    The MosEcoMonitoring Testing Center occupies a two-story building at the address: Dalniy Pereulok, Building 2, Block 1. Here, water, soil, air, and precipitation samples are examined for more than 400 indicators. The specialists have the most modern equipment at their disposal, which allows them to obtain accurate data in a short time. Just as doctors diagnose diseases in the human body using tests, so ecologists and chemists analyze the composition of the natural environment and the level of impact of the metropolis on it.

    “This is one of the few universal laboratories of its kind in Moscow, which uses both innovative and classical research methods. The specialists are engaged not only in scheduled monitoring: they go to the site in response to requests from residents received on the hotline of the Department of Nature Management and Environmental Protection,” says Marina Petrova, head of the analytical inspection department of the State Budgetary Institution MosEcoMonitoring.

    All work processes in the testing center are subject to strict regulations. In one room, air samples are analyzed, in another – water, in a third – soil. The laboratories resemble huge kitchens – with refrigerators, cabinets, sinks, various bottles, containers and flasks, and chemists in white coats resemble chefs conjuring up another dish.

    DIT of Moscow: since the beginning of the year, Muscovites have handed in 550 tons of recyclable materials using the “Removal of Unnecessary Things” serviceGlitter pens and chess sets made from plastic cups: how Moscow enterprises give recyclable materials a new life

    Blue is ammonia, pink is nitrogen oxides

    An important indicator of environmental well-being is air quality. In the laboratory for studying samples taken from the atmosphere, the shelves are lined with flasks and test tubes of various shapes and sizes, and measuring equipment is placed on the tables: titrators, gas analyzers, aspirators and various probes.

    One of the main methods used to determine the composition of the air environment is chromatography. Special tubes filled with sorbent are used to collect samples. The aspirator they are connected to sucks in air like a vacuum cleaner, and the sorbent holds certain substances and does not release them. The sample is then sent to the laboratory.

    “We regularly monitor the areas where industrial production is located and respond to citizens’ requests. If complaints are received about air pollution in a certain area, we promptly go out to check the information and take samples. Mobile laboratories are equipped with gas analyzers, which can be used to take measurements on site, which allows us to search for the source of air pollution,” explains Marina Petrova.

    The content of various substances in the air is also determined by the classical photometric method. Various chemicals are added to test tubes, which react with the sample and produce different colors. For example, blue indicates the presence of ammonia in the air, pink indicates nitrogen oxides, pale yellow indicates the content of formaldehyde, bright yellow indicates chlorine, and red indicates hydrogen fluoride. To determine the concentration of solid particles in the air, it must be passed through a special filter, and then this filter must be weighed. This method is called gravimetric.

    “We also conduct sampling at industrial enterprises. Sampling equipment helps with this. Specialists also conduct direct measurements. For this, there are gas analyzers, probes of different lengths and diameters. The direct measurement method allows us to determine the concentration of pollutants immediately on site, other studies are conducted in the laboratory,” says Dmitry Pakhomov, Deputy Head of the Analytical Inspection Department.

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    Distinguish between text and smell

    Another area of activity of the testing center is the study of the quality of water in Moscow rivers, ponds and underground waters. Samples are taken in different places of the objects with special equipment in the form of a narrow cylinder, poured into a common container for mixing, and then poured into bottles of different types – depending on the type of study. Special fixing reagents are added to some containers. After the sample arrives at the laboratory, it is registered and assigned a specific number, under which it “lives” from one to 10 days.

    “Specialists conduct water research on 42 indicators, including general chemical analysis, determination of the content of hydrogen sulfide, metals, organic substances, oil products, biochemical oxygen consumption. Gravimetric, photometric, potentiometric, titrimetric, spectral and other methods of analysis are used,” notes Marina Petrova.

    The organoleptic method is used when it is necessary to determine the smell of water. Using a water bath, the sample is heated to 20 or 60 degrees, then the specialist examines it, like a perfumer, and assigns marks on a five-point scale. In order to correctly evaluate the smell, you cannot use perfume or cosmetics.

    The transparency of water is also determined in an interesting way: it is poured into a narrow flask fixed on a stand, and printed text is placed under it. A specialist looks into the flask without glasses and drains the water using a tap until he can clearly distinguish the letters. The more water remains in the flask, the higher its transparency, and vice versa.

    Moscow Presents Analytical Study of BRICS Cities’ Climate AgendaMore than 1.5 million water quality tests have been conducted in Moscow since the beginning of the year

    Crayfish do not live in bad water

    The purity of water can be checked using biological testing. It is performed using two test objects: green protococcal algae, which are grown in a special climatostat cabinet in the laboratory, and ceriodaphnia crustaceans.

    “We usually use both methods, they complement each other. The prepared test object is placed in a sample of water or aqueous extract from soil or waste. Based on the lifespan and behavior of the test object in the sample, a conclusion is made about its toxicity,” says Maria Guzova, head of the biological analysis department.

    As part of the monitoring programs and at the request of residents, the testing center specialists also conduct soil sampling. They are collected using the envelope method. Up to five kilograms of soil must be collected from the corners and center of the designated square area using metal shovels and drills. The soil is then dried, cleared of stones and foreign fragments, crushed, sifted through a sieve and placed in bags. Samples collected using various methods are delivered to the laboratory, after which they are prepared for testing. This includes drying, crushing and sieving. Further testing is carried out using both the above methods and unique ones (for example, the X-ray fluorescence method).

    Moscow has a program for monitoring urban soils, which includes more than 1,300 permanent monitoring sites, and at least 300 are surveyed annually. Based on the results of the research, specialists assess the anthropogenic and technogenic load, as well as the suitability of the soil for plants.

    How does the analytical laboratory of MosEcoMonitoring work?Water meters: how to verify them and which devices require a laboratory300 kilograms of batteries collected by visitors to Moscow fairs over the summer

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

    Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    http://vvv.mos.ru/nevs/item/144478073/

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Congress Passes Temporary Government Funding Legislation, Senator Wicker Highlights Why This is the Wrong Approach

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Mississippi Roger Wicker

    WASHINGTON – Tonight, Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) to prevent a government shutdown and temporarily extend funding until December 20, 2024. This gives lawmakers more time to reach an agreement on a long-term funding plan.

     U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., released the following statement expressing why CRs pose a threat to our national security:

     “A CR maintains last year’s priorities and does not provide for needed investments in our troops and military. Even worse, the Biden-Harris administration has provided inadequate support to Pentagon modernization efforts while inflation soars and our adversaries have grown their militaries and have become more aggressive,” Senator Wicker said. “I am glad we avoided a shutdown, but this is not the right path forward. We cannot continue to ask our service members to do more with less.”

    Fortunately, the CR ensures that fundamental pro-life provisions like the Hyde Amendment are still in effect. The Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funds for abortions, has been attached to appropriations bills for nearly four decades.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Lake Tuggeranong closed due to sewage contamination

    Source: Government of Australia Capital Territory

    On 13 September 2024, the ACT Government assumed a caretaker role, with an election to be held 19 October 2024. Information on this website will be published in accordance with the Guidance on Caretaker Conventions until after the election and conclusion of the caretaker period.

    Released 26/09/2024

    Lake Tuggeranong is closed until further notice due to sewage contamination. The cause of the contamination is currently being investigated.

    Action has been taken under section 22 of the Lakes Act 1976 (the Act) to close all areas of Lake Tuggeranong based on the advice from Health Protection Services (HPS).

    The lake is closed to all water activities pending water sample testing. The results of the tests will determine the next course of action.

    This includes primary and secondary activities such as swimming, windsurfing, rowing, fishing, boating and canoeing.

    Contact with water should be avoided and clothing that has been in the water should be washed immediately. Pet owners should not allow their animals to swim in or drink the water.

    Water users should look for signage which indicates the status of all waterways and lakes in the ACT. Warning signs are located at public access areas.

    For more information, please visit http://www.cityservices.act.gov.au.

    – Statement ends –

    ACT Chief Minister and Treasury Directorate | Media Releases

    «ACT Government Media Releases | «Directorate Media Releases

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: New reporting for amateur charter fishing vessels

    Source: New Zealand Government

    A proposed new electronic reporting system will make it simpler for amateur charter vessels to record and report fish catch information, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says.

    “The new digital reporting, via an app, will replace the paper-based system which is out of date and slow,” Mr Jones says.

    “The new system will be a more efficient and effective method for these vessels to record and report their catch. There won’t be any additional reporting and it will bring amateur charter vessel catch reporting in line with the way commercial fishers provide catch information,” Mr Jones says. 

    “Electronic catch reporting means faster and more accurate information to support greater sustainability of our fisheries. This is an example of how technology can bring better outcomes for both fisheries management and those who earn a living from the seafood industry.

    “My officials are talking with amateur charter vessel operators to seek their feedback and fine-tune the changes to make sure they are practical and effective,” Mr Jones says.

    The new system has been developed by eCatch, which is the major provider of technology used by commercial fishers to report their catch to Fisheries New Zealand.

    Following consultation, eCatch will work with amateur charter vessel operators to ensure a smooth transition to the new system which is expected to come into effect on 1 November. There will be a six-week transition period for operators in which the old reporting method can still be used.

    Amateur charter vessel operators those paid for providing a vessel and guide services for recreational fishers. They are required to register with Fisheries New Zealand and must report what is caught on their fishing trips. There are currently around 190 such operators in New Zealand. More information can be found on MPI’s website.

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Feedback sought on Marlborough Sounds blue cod fishery

    Source: Ministry for Primary Industries

    Fisheries New Zealand is seeking feedback on a proposal aimed at reducing fishing pressure on blue cod in the Marlborough Sounds, as well as a range of other potential measures to ensure the long-term sustainability of the popular fishery.

    “We’re considering a range of options and management tools to address overfishing and increase abundance of blue cod in the Marlborough Sounds,” says Emma Taylor, director fisheries management.

    “The area sees very high levels of fishing effort, particularly in the holiday period, which, when combined with other factors such as sedimentation and marine heatwaves, is affecting the health of the fishery. This is despite catch limit reductions and other changes over the past decade.”

    Following a 2021 potting survey which indicated that the amount of fishing in the area was significantly higher than can be sustainably supported by the fishery, the commercial catch limit (TACC) for Marlborough Sounds blue cod was reduced.

    An advisory group of tangata whenua, fishers, and local residents was also formed to identify measures to reduce fishing pressure and increase abundance in the fishery. The group met throughout 2023 and identified several potential measures to improve sustainability and abundance for the fishery.

    We are now seeking public feedback on a proposal to extend the seasonal closure, which currently runs from 1 September to 19 December 2024. If approved, the new season would apply from the end of 2025 onwards.

    We are also seeking public input on a range of wider measures for future implementation identified by the group, such as:

    • closure of spawning areas to fishing to rebuild spawning populations
    • reduction of the combined daily bag limit for finfish in the area
    • options to increase information on recreational fishing, such as voluntary catch reporting
    • an educational campaign to improve fishing practices
    • tools to mitigate release mortality.

    “Marlborough Sounds blue cod are a taonga, and iconic for many Kiwis. We want to hear from fishers, tangata whenua, the local community, and anyone else with an interest in the fishery,” says Emma Taylor.

    Submissions can be made online or by mail until 5pm on 1 December 2024.

    More information, including on how to make a submission

    There will be 2 public drop-in information sessions to present information and assist with making submissions:

    • Tasman Bay Cruising Club in Nelson/Whakatū on Tuesday 12 November 2024 (4.30pm to 7.30pm)
    • Queen Charlotte Yacht Club in Picton/Waitohi on Thursday 14 November 2024 (4.30pm to 7.30pm).

    For further information and general enquiries, email info@mpi.govt.nz

    For media enquiries, contact the media team on 029 894 0328.

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Secretary-General’s remarks to the General Assembly Plenary Meeting on Addressing the Existential Threats Posed by Sea Level Rise [bilingual, as delivered; scroll down for all-English and all-French]

    Source: United Nations – English

    resident of the General Assembly, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

    Our world is in dangerous waters.

    Scientists tell us that the global sea level is now rising faster than at any time in the last 3,000 years, and accelerating – the rate of increase has more than doubled since the 1990s.

    They tell us the cause is clear:

    Greenhouse gases – overwhelmingly from burning fossil fuels – are heating our planet, expanding seawater and melting ice. 

    But they cannot tell us where this will end.

    That is down to world leaders today.

    Their choices will determine the scale, pace and impact of future sea level rise.

    Temperature increases over 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels could take the world past dangerous tipping points – potentially leading to long-term, irreversible collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctica icesheets.

    In the worst-case scenario, people alive today could witness sea levels rise by meters.

    Excellences,

    Près de 900 millions de personnes habitent dans les zones côtières de basse altitude.

    Pour elles, la montée des eaux est synonyme d’une marée de malheurs :

    Des ondes de tempête plus intenses, une érosion des côtes et des inondations côtières ;

    Des communautés submergées, de l’eau douce contaminée, des récoltes ruinées, des infrastructures endommagées, une biodiversité détruite et des économies décimées – avec des secteurs tels que la pêche, l’agriculture et le tourisme qui subissent de plein fouet les effets de la tempête.

    Les plus pauvres et les plus vulnérables sont les plus durement touchés.

    J’ai pu le constater récemment encore dans le Pacifique, où les cyclones détruisent des pans entiers des économies insulaires.  En 2015, Vanuatu a subi des dégâts équivalant à plus de la moitié de son PIB.
     
    Pendant ce temps, au Panama, des centaines de familles insulaires ont dû être relogées sur le continent.

    Au Bangladesh, l’eau salée pollue l’eau potable, détruit les récoltes et crée une menace sanitaire qui peut être mortelle – en particulier pour les femmes enceintes. 

    Dans la ville de Saint-Louis, au Sénégal, des maisons, des écoles, des petites entreprises et des mosquées auraient été abandonnées face à la marée montante.  

    De tels événements se reproduisent partout dans le monde.

    Voilà à quoi ressemble l’injustice climatique.  C’est le visage de l’iniquité.

    Mais les riches ne sont pas à l’abri. 

    Les économies avancées dépensent des milliards – en dommages, et en adaptation.

    Et si nous n’agissons pas rapidement, la situation sera bien pire. 

    Comme le rappelle le titre du débat d’aujourd’hui, cette situation représente pour certains une menace existentielle :

    Des îles entières perdues ;

    Des communautés côtières détruites à mesure que les terres deviennent inhabitables et non assurables.
                   
    Les déplacements massifs de population peuvent exercer une pression sur les ressources limitées des régions voisines – et aggraver des situations déjà dramatiques.

    Le commerce mondial, les systèmes alimentaires et les chaînes d’approvisionnement seront mis à mal lorsque les ports seront endommagés et que les terres agricoles et les pêcheries seront ruinées.

    La montée des eaux remodèlera non seulement les côtes, mais aussi les économies, la politique et la sécurité. 

    Excellencies,

    Only drastic action to reduce emissions can limit sea level rise.

    And only drastic action to adapt can keep people safe from rising waters.

    Everyone must be protected by an alert system by 2027 – in line with our Early Warnings for All initiative.

    And all countries must deliver new national climate action plans – or Nationally Determined Contributions – well ahead of COP30 next year.

    These must align with 1.5 degrees, cover all sectors of the economy, and put us on track to phase out fossil fuels, fast and fairly.

    The G20 – responsible for around eighty percent of global emissions – must lead. And align their fossil fuel production and consumption plans with 1.5 degrees.

    Money is indispensable.

    We need a strong finance outcome at COP29 this year – including on new and innovative sources of capital.

    We need significant contributions to the new Loss and Damage Fund – as a step towards climate justice.

    We need developed countries to double adaptation finance to at least $40 billion a year by 2025 – and to show how they will close the adaptation finance gap.

    And we need to reform the Multilateral Development Banks to become bigger, bolder, and able to deliver far more affordable finance to developing countries.

    We made real progress at the Summit of the Future. We must keep driving that forward – including at the World Summit for Social Development and the Financing for Development conference next year.

    We must also address gaps in our international legal framework concerning sea level rise: to ensure continuing access to resources, while protecting existing maritime boundaries; as well as to protect affected persons and – in extreme scenarios – to address the implications related to statehood.

    Excellencies,

    We cannot leave the hopes and aspirations of billions of people dead in the water. 

    We cannot allow the wholesale destruction of countries and communities.

    It’s time to turn the tide.

    And save ourselves from rising seas.

    Thank you.

    ***
    [all-English]

    President of the General Assembly, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

    Our world is in dangerous waters.

    Scientists tell us that the global sea level is now rising faster than at any time in the last 3,000 years, and accelerating – the rate of increase has more than doubled since the 1990s.

    They tell us the cause is clear:

    Greenhouse gases – overwhelmingly from burning fossil fuels – are heating our planet, expanding seawater and melting ice. 

    But they cannot tell us where this will end.

    That is down to world leaders today.

    Their choices will determine the scale, pace and impact of future sea level rise.

    Temperature increases over 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels could take the world past dangerous tipping points – potentially leading to long-term, irreversible collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctica icesheets.

    In the worst-case scenario, people alive today could witness sea levels rise by meters.

    Excellencies,

    Low-lying coastal zones are home to around 900 million people.

    Rising seas mean a rising tide of misery:

    More intense storm surges, coastal erosion, and coastal flooding;

    Communities swamped, fresh water contaminated, crops ruined, infrastructure damaged, biodiversity destroyed, and economies decimated – with sectors such as fisheries, agriculture, and tourism pummelled.

    The poorest and most vulnerable are hardest hit.

    I saw this recently in the Pacific, where cyclones are tearing chunks out of island economies.  In 2015, Vanuatu suffered damage equivalent to well over half its GDP.

    Meanwhile, in Panama, hundreds of island families have been relocated to the mainland.

    In Bangladesh, saltwater is polluting drinking water, killing crops and creating a health threat that can be deadly, particularly for pregnant women. 

    In the city of Saint Louis in Senegal, homes, schools, small businesses, and mosques have reportedly been abandoned to the encroaching tide.

    Such events are reproduced across the globe.

    This is what climate injustice looks like. This is the face of inequity.

    But the rich are not immune. 

    Advanced economies are spending billions – in damages, and adaptation.

    And without rapid action we’re in for much worse. 

    As the title of today’s debate reminds us, for some, this could be existential:

    Whole islands lost;

    Coastal communities destroyed as lands become uninhabitable and uninsurable.
                   
    Mass displacement can pile pressure on scarce resources elsewhere, inflaming already dire situations.

    Global trade, food systems and supply chains will be battered as ports are damaged, and agricultural land and fisheries ruined.

    Rising seas will reshape not only coastlines, but economies, politics and security too. 

    Excellencies,

    Only drastic action to reduce emissions can limit sea level rise.

    And only drastic action to adapt can keep people safe from rising waters.

    Everyone must be protected by an alert system by 2027 – in line with our Early Warnings for All initiative.

    And all countries must deliver new national climate action plans – or Nationally Determined Contributions – well ahead of COP30 next year.

    These must align with 1.5 degrees, cover all sectors of the economy, and put us on track to phase out fossil fuels, fast and fairly.

    The G20 – responsible for around eighty percent of global emissions – must lead. And align their fossil fuel production and consumption plans with 1.5 degrees.

    Money is indispensable.

    We need a strong finance outcome at COP29 this year – including on new and innovative sources of capital.

    We need significant contributions to the new Loss and Damage Fund – as a step towards climate justice.

    We need developed countries to double adaptation finance to at least $40 billion a year by 2025 – and to show how they will close the adaptation finance gap.

    And we need to reform the Multilateral Development Banks to become bigger, bolder, and able to deliver far more affordable finance to developing countries.

    We made real progress at the Summit of the Future.  We must keep driving that forward – including at the World Summit for Social Development and the Financing for Development conference next year.

    We must also address gaps in our international legal framework concerning sea level rise: to ensure continuing access to resources, while protecting existing maritime boundaries; as well as to protect affected persons and – in extreme scenarios – to address the implications related to statehood.

    Excellencies,

    We cannot leave the hopes and aspirations of billions of people dead in the water. 

    We cannot allow the wholesale destruction of countries and communities.

    It’s time to turn the tide.

    And save ourselves from rising seas.

    Thank you.

    ***
    [all-French]

    Excellences,

    L’humanité navigue en eaux dangereuses.

    Les scientifiques nous disent que le niveau des mers monte aujourd’hui plus rapidement que jamais au cours des 3 000 dernières années, et que cette hausse s’accélère – avec un taux d’augmentation qui a plus que doublé depuis les années 1990.

    Ils nous disent que la cause est claire :

    Les gaz à effet de serre – issus en grande partie de la combustion des énergies fossiles – réchauffent notre planète, dilatent l’eau de mer et font fondre la glace. 

    Mais ils ne peuvent pas nous dire où cela s’arrêtera.

    Cela dépendra des dirigeants du monde actuels.

    Leurs choix détermineront l’ampleur, le rythme et l’impact des futures élévations du niveau des mers.

    Une augmentation des températures de plus de 1,5 degré Celsius au-dessus des niveaux préindustriels pourrait faire franchir au monde des points de bascule dangereux – ce qui pourrait sur le long terme entraîner l’effondrement irréversible des calottes glaciaires du Groenland et de l’Antarctique occidental.

    Dans le pire des scénarios, les personnes vivant aujourd’hui verraient le niveau des mers monter de plusieurs mètres.

    Excellences,

    Près de 900 millions de personnes habitent dans les zones côtières de basse altitude.

    Pour elles, la montée des eaux est synonyme d’une marée de malheurs :

    Des ondes de tempête plus intenses, une érosion des côtes et des inondations côtières ;

    Des communautés submergées, de l’eau douce contaminée, des récoltes ruinées, des infrastructures endommagées, une biodiversité détruite et des économies décimées – avec des secteurs tels que la pêche, l’agriculture et le tourisme qui subissent de plein fouet les effets de la tempête.

    Les plus pauvres et les plus vulnérables sont les plus durement touchés.

    J’ai pu le constater récemment encore dans le Pacifique, où les cyclones détruisent des pans entiers des économies insulaires. En 2015, Vanuatu a subi des dégâts équivalant à plus de la moitié de son PIB.

    Pendant ce temps, au Panama, des centaines de familles insulaires ont dû être relogées sur le continent.

    Au Bangladesh, l’eau salée pollue l’eau potable, détruit les récoltes et crée une menace sanitaire qui peut être mortelle – en particulier pour les femmes enceintes. 

    Dans la ville de Saint-Louis, au Sénégal, des maisons, des écoles, des petites entreprises et des mosquées auraient été abandonnées face à la marée montante.  

    De tels événements se reproduisent partout dans le monde.

    Voilà à quoi ressemble l’injustice climatique. C’est le visage de l’iniquité.

    Mais les riches ne sont pas à l’abri. 

    Les économies avancées dépensent des milliards – en dommages, et en adaptation.

    Et si nous n’agissons pas rapidement, la situation sera bien pire. 

    Comme le rappelle le titre du débat d’aujourd’hui, cette situation représente pour certains une menace existentielle :

    Des îles entières perdues ;

    Des communautés côtières détruites à mesure que les terres deviennent inhabitables et non assurables.
                   
    Les déplacements massifs de population peuvent exercer une pression sur les ressources limitées des régions voisines – et aggraver des situations déjà dramatiques.

    Le commerce mondial, les systèmes alimentaires et les chaînes d’approvisionnement seront mis à mal lorsque les ports seront endommagés et que les terres agricoles et les pêcheries seront ruinées.

    La montée des eaux remodèlera non seulement les côtes, mais aussi les économies, la politique et la sécurité. 

    Excellences,

    Seules des mesures radicales de réduction des émissions peuvent limiter l’élévation du niveau de la mer.

    Et seules des mesures drastiques d’adaptation peuvent mettre les populations à l’abri de la montée des eaux.

    Tout le monde doit être protégé par un système d’alerte d’ici 2027 – conformément à notre initiative « Alertes précoces pour tous ».

    Tous les pays doivent présenter de nouveaux plans d’action nationaux sur le climat – ou contributions déterminées au niveau national – bien avant la COP30 de l’année prochaine.

    Ces plans doivent s’aligner sur le seuil de 1,5 degré, couvrir tous les secteurs de l’économie et nous mettre sur la voie de l’élimination progressive, rapide et équitable, des combustibles fossiles.

    Le G20, responsable d’environ 80 % des émissions mondiales, doit montrer la voie. Il doit aligner ses plans de production et de consommation de combustibles fossiles sur le seuil de 1,5 degré.

    Le financement est indispensable.

    Nous avons besoin de résultats ambitieux en matière de finances à la COP29 de cette année – y compris en termes de sources de capital nouvelles et innovantes.

    Nous avons besoin de contributions significatives au nouveau Fonds pour les pertes et les dommages – une étape essentielle sur le chemin vers la justice climatique.

    Les pays développés doivent doubler le financement en faveur de l’adaptation pour atteindre au moins 40 milliards de dollars par an d’ici 2025 – et démontrer comment ils vont combler le déficit de financement de l’adaptation.

    Enfin, nous devons réformer les Banques multilatérales de développement pour qu’elles deviennent plus grandes, plus audacieuses et capables de fournir des financements beaucoup plus abordables aux pays en développement.

    Nous avons réalisé de réels progrès lors du Sommet de l’avenir. Nous devons continuer à porter ces avancées, notamment lors du Sommet mondial pour le développement social et de la Conférence sur le financement du développement qui se tiendront l’année prochaine.

    Nous devons également combler les lacunes de notre cadre juridique international concernant l’élévation du niveau de la mer : pour garantir un accès continu aux ressources, tout en protégeant les frontières maritimes existantes, ainsi que pour protéger les personnes touchées et, dans les scénarios extrêmes, pour traiter les implications liées à aux statuts d’un État.

    Excellences,

    Nous ne pouvons pas laisser les espoirs et les aspirations de milliards de personnes sans réponse. 

    Nous ne pouvons pas permettre la destruction massive de pays et de communautés.

    Il est temps d’inverser la tendance.

    Et de nous sauver de la montée des eaux.

    Je vous remercie.

    ***
     

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Secretary-General’s remarks to the General Assembly Plenary Meeting on Addressing the Existential Threats Posed by Sea Level Rise [bilingual, as delivered; scroll down for all-English and all-French]

    Source: United Nations

    President of the General Assembly, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

    Our world is in dangerous waters.

    Scientists tell us that the global sea level is now rising faster than at any time in the last 3,000 years, and accelerating – the rate of increase has more than doubled since the 1990s.

    They tell us the cause is clear:

    Greenhouse gases – overwhelmingly from burning fossil fuels – are heating our planet, expanding seawater and melting ice. 

    But they cannot tell us where this will end.

    That is down to world leaders today.

    Their choices will determine the scale, pace and impact of future sea level rise.

    Temperature increases over 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels could take the world past dangerous tipping points – potentially leading to long-term, irreversible collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctica icesheets.

    In the worst-case scenario, people alive today could witness sea levels rise by meters.

    Excellences,

    Près de 900 millions de personnes habitent dans les zones côtières de basse altitude.

    Pour elles, la montée des eaux est synonyme d’une marée de malheurs :

    Des ondes de tempête plus intenses, une érosion des côtes et des inondations côtières ;

    Des communautés submergées, de l’eau douce contaminée, des récoltes ruinées, des infrastructures endommagées, une biodiversité détruite et des économies décimées – avec des secteurs tels que la pêche, l’agriculture et le tourisme qui subissent de plein fouet les effets de la tempête.

    Les plus pauvres et les plus vulnérables sont les plus durement touchés.

    J’ai pu le constater récemment encore dans le Pacifique, où les cyclones détruisent des pans entiers des économies insulaires.  En 2015, Vanuatu a subi des dégâts équivalant à plus de la moitié de son PIB.
     
    Pendant ce temps, au Panama, des centaines de familles insulaires ont dû être relogées sur le continent.

    Au Bangladesh, l’eau salée pollue l’eau potable, détruit les récoltes et crée une menace sanitaire qui peut être mortelle – en particulier pour les femmes enceintes. 

    Dans la ville de Saint-Louis, au Sénégal, des maisons, des écoles, des petites entreprises et des mosquées auraient été abandonnées face à la marée montante.  

    De tels événements se reproduisent partout dans le monde.

    Voilà à quoi ressemble l’injustice climatique.  C’est le visage de l’iniquité.

    Mais les riches ne sont pas à l’abri. 

    Les économies avancées dépensent des milliards – en dommages, et en adaptation.

    Et si nous n’agissons pas rapidement, la situation sera bien pire. 

    Comme le rappelle le titre du débat d’aujourd’hui, cette situation représente pour certains une menace existentielle :

    Des îles entières perdues ;

    Des communautés côtières détruites à mesure que les terres deviennent inhabitables et non assurables.
                   
    Les déplacements massifs de population peuvent exercer une pression sur les ressources limitées des régions voisines – et aggraver des situations déjà dramatiques.

    Le commerce mondial, les systèmes alimentaires et les chaînes d’approvisionnement seront mis à mal lorsque les ports seront endommagés et que les terres agricoles et les pêcheries seront ruinées.

    La montée des eaux remodèlera non seulement les côtes, mais aussi les économies, la politique et la sécurité. 

    Excellencies,

    Only drastic action to reduce emissions can limit sea level rise.

    And only drastic action to adapt can keep people safe from rising waters.

    Everyone must be protected by an alert system by 2027 – in line with our Early Warnings for All initiative.

    And all countries must deliver new national climate action plans – or Nationally Determined Contributions – well ahead of COP30 next year.

    These must align with 1.5 degrees, cover all sectors of the economy, and put us on track to phase out fossil fuels, fast and fairly.

    The G20 – responsible for around eighty percent of global emissions – must lead. And align their fossil fuel production and consumption plans with 1.5 degrees.

    Money is indispensable.

    We need a strong finance outcome at COP29 this year – including on new and innovative sources of capital.

    We need significant contributions to the new Loss and Damage Fund – as a step towards climate justice.

    We need developed countries to double adaptation finance to at least $40 billion a year by 2025 – and to show how they will close the adaptation finance gap.

    And we need to reform the Multilateral Development Banks to become bigger, bolder, and able to deliver far more affordable finance to developing countries.

    We made real progress at the Summit of the Future. We must keep driving that forward – including at the World Summit for Social Development and the Financing for Development conference next year.

    We must also address gaps in our international legal framework concerning sea level rise: to ensure continuing access to resources, while protecting existing maritime boundaries; as well as to protect affected persons and – in extreme scenarios – to address the implications related to statehood.

    Excellencies,

    We cannot leave the hopes and aspirations of billions of people dead in the water. 

    We cannot allow the wholesale destruction of countries and communities.

    It’s time to turn the tide.

    And save ourselves from rising seas.

    Thank you.

    ***
    [all-English]

    President of the General Assembly, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

    Our world is in dangerous waters.

    Scientists tell us that the global sea level is now rising faster than at any time in the last 3,000 years, and accelerating – the rate of increase has more than doubled since the 1990s.

    They tell us the cause is clear:

    Greenhouse gases – overwhelmingly from burning fossil fuels – are heating our planet, expanding seawater and melting ice. 

    But they cannot tell us where this will end.

    That is down to world leaders today.

    Their choices will determine the scale, pace and impact of future sea level rise.

    Temperature increases over 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels could take the world past dangerous tipping points – potentially leading to long-term, irreversible collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctica icesheets.

    In the worst-case scenario, people alive today could witness sea levels rise by meters.

    Excellencies,

    Low-lying coastal zones are home to around 900 million people.

    Rising seas mean a rising tide of misery:

    More intense storm surges, coastal erosion, and coastal flooding;

    Communities swamped, fresh water contaminated, crops ruined, infrastructure damaged, biodiversity destroyed, and economies decimated – with sectors such as fisheries, agriculture, and tourism pummelled.

    The poorest and most vulnerable are hardest hit.

    I saw this recently in the Pacific, where cyclones are tearing chunks out of island economies.  In 2015, Vanuatu suffered damage equivalent to well over half its GDP.

    Meanwhile, in Panama, hundreds of island families have been relocated to the mainland.

    In Bangladesh, saltwater is polluting drinking water, killing crops and creating a health threat that can be deadly, particularly for pregnant women. 

    In the city of Saint Louis in Senegal, homes, schools, small businesses, and mosques have reportedly been abandoned to the encroaching tide.

    Such events are reproduced across the globe.

    This is what climate injustice looks like. This is the face of inequity.

    But the rich are not immune. 

    Advanced economies are spending billions – in damages, and adaptation.

    And without rapid action we’re in for much worse. 

    As the title of today’s debate reminds us, for some, this could be existential:

    Whole islands lost;

    Coastal communities destroyed as lands become uninhabitable and uninsurable.
                   
    Mass displacement can pile pressure on scarce resources elsewhere, inflaming already dire situations.

    Global trade, food systems and supply chains will be battered as ports are damaged, and agricultural land and fisheries ruined.

    Rising seas will reshape not only coastlines, but economies, politics and security too. 

    Excellencies,

    Only drastic action to reduce emissions can limit sea level rise.

    And only drastic action to adapt can keep people safe from rising waters.

    Everyone must be protected by an alert system by 2027 – in line with our Early Warnings for All initiative.

    And all countries must deliver new national climate action plans – or Nationally Determined Contributions – well ahead of COP30 next year.

    These must align with 1.5 degrees, cover all sectors of the economy, and put us on track to phase out fossil fuels, fast and fairly.

    The G20 – responsible for around eighty percent of global emissions – must lead. And align their fossil fuel production and consumption plans with 1.5 degrees.

    Money is indispensable.

    We need a strong finance outcome at COP29 this year – including on new and innovative sources of capital.

    We need significant contributions to the new Loss and Damage Fund – as a step towards climate justice.

    We need developed countries to double adaptation finance to at least $40 billion a year by 2025 – and to show how they will close the adaptation finance gap.

    And we need to reform the Multilateral Development Banks to become bigger, bolder, and able to deliver far more affordable finance to developing countries.

    We made real progress at the Summit of the Future.  We must keep driving that forward – including at the World Summit for Social Development and the Financing for Development conference next year.

    We must also address gaps in our international legal framework concerning sea level rise: to ensure continuing access to resources, while protecting existing maritime boundaries; as well as to protect affected persons and – in extreme scenarios – to address the implications related to statehood.

    Excellencies,

    We cannot leave the hopes and aspirations of billions of people dead in the water. 

    We cannot allow the wholesale destruction of countries and communities.

    It’s time to turn the tide.

    And save ourselves from rising seas.

    Thank you.

    ***
    [all-French]

    Excellences,

    L’humanité navigue en eaux dangereuses.

    Les scientifiques nous disent que le niveau des mers monte aujourd’hui plus rapidement que jamais au cours des 3 000 dernières années, et que cette hausse s’accélère – avec un taux d’augmentation qui a plus que doublé depuis les années 1990.

    Ils nous disent que la cause est claire :

    Les gaz à effet de serre – issus en grande partie de la combustion des énergies fossiles – réchauffent notre planète, dilatent l’eau de mer et font fondre la glace. 

    Mais ils ne peuvent pas nous dire où cela s’arrêtera.

    Cela dépendra des dirigeants du monde actuels.

    Leurs choix détermineront l’ampleur, le rythme et l’impact des futures élévations du niveau des mers.

    Une augmentation des températures de plus de 1,5 degré Celsius au-dessus des niveaux préindustriels pourrait faire franchir au monde des points de bascule dangereux – ce qui pourrait sur le long terme entraîner l’effondrement irréversible des calottes glaciaires du Groenland et de l’Antarctique occidental.

    Dans le pire des scénarios, les personnes vivant aujourd’hui verraient le niveau des mers monter de plusieurs mètres.

    Excellences,

    Près de 900 millions de personnes habitent dans les zones côtières de basse altitude.

    Pour elles, la montée des eaux est synonyme d’une marée de malheurs :

    Des ondes de tempête plus intenses, une érosion des côtes et des inondations côtières ;

    Des communautés submergées, de l’eau douce contaminée, des récoltes ruinées, des infrastructures endommagées, une biodiversité détruite et des économies décimées – avec des secteurs tels que la pêche, l’agriculture et le tourisme qui subissent de plein fouet les effets de la tempête.

    Les plus pauvres et les plus vulnérables sont les plus durement touchés.

    J’ai pu le constater récemment encore dans le Pacifique, où les cyclones détruisent des pans entiers des économies insulaires. En 2015, Vanuatu a subi des dégâts équivalant à plus de la moitié de son PIB.

    Pendant ce temps, au Panama, des centaines de familles insulaires ont dû être relogées sur le continent.

    Au Bangladesh, l’eau salée pollue l’eau potable, détruit les récoltes et crée une menace sanitaire qui peut être mortelle – en particulier pour les femmes enceintes. 

    Dans la ville de Saint-Louis, au Sénégal, des maisons, des écoles, des petites entreprises et des mosquées auraient été abandonnées face à la marée montante.  

    De tels événements se reproduisent partout dans le monde.

    Voilà à quoi ressemble l’injustice climatique. C’est le visage de l’iniquité.

    Mais les riches ne sont pas à l’abri. 

    Les économies avancées dépensent des milliards – en dommages, et en adaptation.

    Et si nous n’agissons pas rapidement, la situation sera bien pire. 

    Comme le rappelle le titre du débat d’aujourd’hui, cette situation représente pour certains une menace existentielle :

    Des îles entières perdues ;

    Des communautés côtières détruites à mesure que les terres deviennent inhabitables et non assurables.
                   
    Les déplacements massifs de population peuvent exercer une pression sur les ressources limitées des régions voisines – et aggraver des situations déjà dramatiques.

    Le commerce mondial, les systèmes alimentaires et les chaînes d’approvisionnement seront mis à mal lorsque les ports seront endommagés et que les terres agricoles et les pêcheries seront ruinées.

    La montée des eaux remodèlera non seulement les côtes, mais aussi les économies, la politique et la sécurité. 

    Excellences,

    Seules des mesures radicales de réduction des émissions peuvent limiter l’élévation du niveau de la mer.

    Et seules des mesures drastiques d’adaptation peuvent mettre les populations à l’abri de la montée des eaux.

    Tout le monde doit être protégé par un système d’alerte d’ici 2027 – conformément à notre initiative « Alertes précoces pour tous ».

    Tous les pays doivent présenter de nouveaux plans d’action nationaux sur le climat – ou contributions déterminées au niveau national – bien avant la COP30 de l’année prochaine.

    Ces plans doivent s’aligner sur le seuil de 1,5 degré, couvrir tous les secteurs de l’économie et nous mettre sur la voie de l’élimination progressive, rapide et équitable, des combustibles fossiles.

    Le G20, responsable d’environ 80 % des émissions mondiales, doit montrer la voie. Il doit aligner ses plans de production et de consommation de combustibles fossiles sur le seuil de 1,5 degré.

    Le financement est indispensable.

    Nous avons besoin de résultats ambitieux en matière de finances à la COP29 de cette année – y compris en termes de sources de capital nouvelles et innovantes.

    Nous avons besoin de contributions significatives au nouveau Fonds pour les pertes et les dommages – une étape essentielle sur le chemin vers la justice climatique.

    Les pays développés doivent doubler le financement en faveur de l’adaptation pour atteindre au moins 40 milliards de dollars par an d’ici 2025 – et démontrer comment ils vont combler le déficit de financement de l’adaptation.

    Enfin, nous devons réformer les Banques multilatérales de développement pour qu’elles deviennent plus grandes, plus audacieuses et capables de fournir des financements beaucoup plus abordables aux pays en développement.

    Nous avons réalisé de réels progrès lors du Sommet de l’avenir. Nous devons continuer à porter ces avancées, notamment lors du Sommet mondial pour le développement social et de la Conférence sur le financement du développement qui se tiendront l’année prochaine.

    Nous devons également combler les lacunes de notre cadre juridique international concernant l’élévation du niveau de la mer : pour garantir un accès continu aux ressources, tout en protégeant les frontières maritimes existantes, ainsi que pour protéger les personnes touchées et, dans les scénarios extrêmes, pour traiter les implications liées à aux statuts d’un État.

    Excellences,

    Nous ne pouvons pas laisser les espoirs et les aspirations de milliards de personnes sans réponse. 

    Nous ne pouvons pas permettre la destruction massive de pays et de communautés.

    Il est temps d’inverser la tendance.

    Et de nous sauver de la montée des eaux.

    Je vous remercie.

    ***
     

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI: Capital Revo Announces Its Cutting-edge Solutions to Protect Client Data

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    NEW DELHI, INDIA, Sept. 25, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, Capital Revo is proud to announce the launch of its cutting-edge solutions to protect client data. Whether it’s the best forex broker in India or a top trading platform globally, protecting clients’ data is of utmost priority. In this digital age, where internet users are exposed to various threats and vulnerabilities, taking the right measures and investing in cutting-edge technology is essential for safeguarding their online information.

    “By expanding the existing relationships with their strategic partners and focusing on improving their technological infrastructure, Capital Revo is proud to take the first step to ensure the protection of their clients’ data. We will continue to improve the experience their platform offers, making it safe for novice and expert traders to trade.” says the CEO of Capital Revo.

    The Importance of Online Security for Trading Platforms

    One of the major concerns that users have before joining a trading platform is online security. What if a hacker gains access to their personal or financial data? Such a situation can lead to a world of trouble, as the outsider can commit identity theft or financial crimes, creating further problems for the victim.

    Evolving customer expectations continue to drive the need for efficient and secure solutions to meet the demands of the modern trading world. While data encryption remains a key favorite among the different forex platforms, network security, firewalls, audits, strong authentication methods, and software updates are also important in combating a security system’s constant vulnerabilities.

    Enhancing Online Security and Technological Infrastructure by Making the Right Investments

    Capital Revo understands the constant threat that looms on the internet. From dangerous malware to intrusions, modern investors face many risks on a daily basis.

    Due to rising concerns among online traders, the company have decided to enhance their technological infrastructure by investing in cutting-edge solutions that encrypt their clients’ information. This demonstrates their commitment to data protection and their ability to listen to their audience.

    Their modern security systems can recognize and mitigate threats before they impact their operations. They are able to keep up with the changing online landscape and modify their systems accordingly to ward off potential hackers.

    Collaboration with an Online Security Company for Daily Protection

    While several trading platforms, including Capital Revo, have invested in robust technological solutions, it’s important to understand that cybercriminals are constantly developing new methods to breach advanced security measures. This makes it even more pressing for trading platforms to continually monitor and defend against emerging threats.

    Fortunately, their recent investments in cutting-edge technology and partnership with a reputable cybersecurity firm allow us to provide ongoing security support. Their experts will continuously monitor the platform and user accounts for vulnerabilities and suspicious activities, ensuring the protection of consumer data.

    Capital Revo on Its Way to Becoming One of the Best Trading Platforms in India!

    At Capital Revo, they aim to make trading easy and safe. Their intuitive dashboard, combined with the robust technological solutions they have invested in, makes us the best forex broker in India.

    With Capital Revo, users don’t have to worry about online hackers trying to get their hands on users’ personal or financial information. Their state-of-the-art cloud systems ensure that users’ data remains protected at all times, giving you peace of mind while you plan users’ next short-term and long-term investment strategies.

    Social Links

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capital_revo/

    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Capital-Revo/61552517622119/

    Media contact

    Brand: Capital Revo

    Contact: Media team

    Email: marketing@capitalrevo.com

    Website: https://capitalrevo.com

    SOURCE: Capital Revo

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Rep. Boebert’s Legislation to Protect Native Fish Species and Responsible Water & Power Users Passes in the House of Representatives

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Lauren Boebert (Colorado, 3)

    Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (CO-03) applauded final passage of her legislation H.R. 4596, “Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins Endangered Fish Recovery Programs Reauthorization Act:” 

    “Passage of my bill to reauthorize the Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basin Recovery Programs is a major win for Colorado and the West. These important programs, which will be extended for an additional seven fiscal years, will ensure that 2,500 water and power projects continue, and provide legal certainty for water and power users throughout Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. 

    With strong bicameral, bipartisan momentum and significant stakeholder support, I’m confident this bill will become law and this important program will be reauthorized,” said Congresswoman Boebert.

    “Congresswoman Boebert is true fighter for Colorado’s rich biodiversity, and her bill to reauthorize the endangered fish recovery programs in the San Juan and Upper Colorado River Basins will ensure these species are healthy for future generations to enjoy. I’m so glad to see this commonsense, science-based legislation pass the House today, and look forward to seeing it signed into law,” said House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman

    Background:

    The House of Representatives voted to pass Congresswoman Lauren Boebert’s bill H.R. 4596, the Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins Endangered Fish Recovery Programs Reauthorization Act.

    Congresswoman Boebert’s bicameral bill, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, provides a clean, seven-year reauthorization of the Upper Colorado and San Juan Recovery Programs that protect four threatened and endangered native fish species in the Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins by extending conservation programs at current funding levels for seven additional fiscal years.

    The Upper Colorado and San Juan Recovery Programs were established in 1988 to achieve full recovery of four federally listed endangered fish species including the humpback chub, bonytail, Colorado pikeminnow, and razorback sucker. Those designations led to the threat of significant water and power-use restrictions.

    The recovery programs facilitate water delivery from the Navajo, Flaming Gorge, and Aspinall Unit reservoirs which collectively can store more than 6.5 million acre-feet of water as part of the Colorado River Storage Project.

    For over three decades, states, tribes, local communities, environmental groups, energy users, and water users, have partnered to help recover four threatened and endangered fish species while continuing water and power facility development and operations in the Upper Colorado River Basin and the San Juan River Basin.

    Non-federal partners contribute $11 million per year in water contributions, plus another $750,000 in staffing and in-kind contributions. Participating states contribute $500,000 to base funding each year in cash equivalents for recovery actions, including for fish hatcheries and non-native fish removal.

    The Fish and Wildlife Service contributes $1.56 million per year in base funding. The Bureau of Reclamation provides cost-shared contributions to both base and capital funding. Reclamation’s capital funding supports major infrastructure projects at reservoirs, diversion dams, canals, and floodplains across the basin.

    Without these programs, these 2,500 water and power users would have to perform extremely burdensome Section 7 consultations for all 2,500 individual projects.

    Because of the success of these programs, the humpback chub and the razorback sucker are success stories with the chub been downlisted from endangered to threatened and the razorback being recommended for downlisting. 

    Rep. Boebert’s bill is the result of months of hard work with local stakeholders, the Bureau of Reclamation, and Senators Hickenlooper and Romney, and others to provide a long-term solution by reauthorizing these vital programs until 2031.

    Groups supporting Congresswoman Boebert’s Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins Endangered Fish Recovery Programs Reauthorization Act include: Aurora Water, Central Utah Water Conservancy District, Clifton Water District, Colorado River District, Colorado River Energy Distributors Association, Colorado Springs Utilities, Colorado Water Congress, Delta County Commissioners, Denver Water, Dolores County Commissioners, Dolores Water Conservancy District, Grand Valley Water Users, Huerfano County Commissioners, LaPlata Water Conservation District, Mesa County Farm Bureau, Montezuma County, Municipal Subdistrict, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, Pueblo Water, Purgatoire River Water Conservancy District, Rio Blanco Board of Commissioners, Rio Blanco Water Conservancy District, Rio Grande Water Conservation District, San Juan Water Commission, Southern Ute Tribe, Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, Southwestern Water Conservation District, Tri-County Water Conservancy District, Utah Waters Users Association, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and Ute Water Conservancy District.

    Co-sponsors of Congresswoman Boebert’s bill include Rep. John Duarte (CA-13), Rep. Paul Gosar (AZ-09), Rep. Doug LaMalfa (CA-01), Rep. Doug Lamborn (CO-05), Rep. Harriet Hageman (WY-AL), Rep. Troy Nehls (TX-22), and Rep. Dan Newhouse (WA-04). 

    Full text of Rep. Boebert’s Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins Endangered Fish Recovery Programs Reauthorization Act can be found HERE. Full replay of Rep. Boebert’s remarks on the House floor can be found HERE.

    ###

    For updates, subscribe to Congresswoman Boebert’s newsletter here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Rep. Boebert’s Legislation to Protect Native Fish Species and Responsible Water & Power Users Passes in the House of Representatives

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Lauren Boebert (Colorado, 3)

    Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (CO-03) applauded final passage of her legislation H.R. 4596, “Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins Endangered Fish Recovery Programs Reauthorization Act:” 

    “Passage of my bill to reauthorize the Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basin Recovery Programs is a major win for Colorado and the West. These important programs, which will be extended for an additional seven fiscal years, will ensure that 2,500 water and power projects continue, and provide legal certainty for water and power users throughout Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. 

    With strong bicameral, bipartisan momentum and significant stakeholder support, I’m confident this bill will become law and this important program will be reauthorized,” said Congresswoman Boebert.

    “Congresswoman Boebert is true fighter for Colorado’s rich biodiversity, and her bill to reauthorize the endangered fish recovery programs in the San Juan and Upper Colorado River Basins will ensure these species are healthy for future generations to enjoy. I’m so glad to see this commonsense, science-based legislation pass the House today, and look forward to seeing it signed into law,” said House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman

    Background:

    The House of Representatives voted to pass Congresswoman Lauren Boebert’s bill H.R. 4596, the Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins Endangered Fish Recovery Programs Reauthorization Act.

    Congresswoman Boebert’s bicameral bill, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, provides a clean, seven-year reauthorization of the Upper Colorado and San Juan Recovery Programs that protect four threatened and endangered native fish species in the Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins by extending conservation programs at current funding levels for seven additional fiscal years.

    The Upper Colorado and San Juan Recovery Programs were established in 1988 to achieve full recovery of four federally listed endangered fish species including the humpback chub, bonytail, Colorado pikeminnow, and razorback sucker. Those designations led to the threat of significant water and power-use restrictions.

    The recovery programs facilitate water delivery from the Navajo, Flaming Gorge, and Aspinall Unit reservoirs which collectively can store more than 6.5 million acre-feet of water as part of the Colorado River Storage Project.

    For over three decades, states, tribes, local communities, environmental groups, energy users, and water users, have partnered to help recover four threatened and endangered fish species while continuing water and power facility development and operations in the Upper Colorado River Basin and the San Juan River Basin.

    Non-federal partners contribute $11 million per year in water contributions, plus another $750,000 in staffing and in-kind contributions. Participating states contribute $500,000 to base funding each year in cash equivalents for recovery actions, including for fish hatcheries and non-native fish removal.

    The Fish and Wildlife Service contributes $1.56 million per year in base funding. The Bureau of Reclamation provides cost-shared contributions to both base and capital funding. Reclamation’s capital funding supports major infrastructure projects at reservoirs, diversion dams, canals, and floodplains across the basin.

    Without these programs, these 2,500 water and power users would have to perform extremely burdensome Section 7 consultations for all 2,500 individual projects.

    Because of the success of these programs, the humpback chub and the razorback sucker are success stories with the chub been downlisted from endangered to threatened and the razorback being recommended for downlisting. 

    Rep. Boebert’s bill is the result of months of hard work with local stakeholders, the Bureau of Reclamation, and Senators Hickenlooper and Romney, and others to provide a long-term solution by reauthorizing these vital programs until 2031.

    Groups supporting Congresswoman Boebert’s Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins Endangered Fish Recovery Programs Reauthorization Act include: Aurora Water, Central Utah Water Conservancy District, Clifton Water District, Colorado River District, Colorado River Energy Distributors Association, Colorado Springs Utilities, Colorado Water Congress, Delta County Commissioners, Denver Water, Dolores County Commissioners, Dolores Water Conservancy District, Grand Valley Water Users, Huerfano County Commissioners, LaPlata Water Conservation District, Mesa County Farm Bureau, Montezuma County, Municipal Subdistrict, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, Pueblo Water, Purgatoire River Water Conservancy District, Rio Blanco Board of Commissioners, Rio Blanco Water Conservancy District, Rio Grande Water Conservation District, San Juan Water Commission, Southern Ute Tribe, Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, Southwestern Water Conservation District, Tri-County Water Conservancy District, Utah Waters Users Association, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and Ute Water Conservancy District.

    Co-sponsors of Congresswoman Boebert’s bill include Rep. John Duarte (CA-13), Rep. Paul Gosar (AZ-09), Rep. Doug LaMalfa (CA-01), Rep. Doug Lamborn (CO-05), Rep. Harriet Hageman (WY-AL), Rep. Troy Nehls (TX-22), and Rep. Dan Newhouse (WA-04). 

    Full text of Rep. Boebert’s Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins Endangered Fish Recovery Programs Reauthorization Act can be found HERE. Full replay of Rep. Boebert’s remarks on the House floor can be found HERE.

    ###

    For updates, subscribe to Congresswoman Boebert’s newsletter here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senator Scott Leads Effort to Increase Access to Capital, Create Investment Opportunities

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for South Carolina Tim Scott

    WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the top Republican on the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, is leading legislation to revitalize the businesses within our communities and open up our capital markets to all Americans. Senator Scott’s Empowering Main Street in America Act will boost avenues for capital formation that create jobs and generate economic growth.

    Senate Banking Committee members, including Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), and Steve Daines (R-Mont.), joined Senator Scott on the legislation. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) is also a co-sponsor of the bill.

    “Our capital markets system is the envy of the world and has helped many Americans build wealth and save for their futures. But unfortunately for individuals in communities like the one I grew up in, investing in a local venture or raising capital to grow a business seems out of reach. We need to change that – and this comprehensive legislation will create economic opportunity and provide more Americans with the resources necessary to achieve financial security for their families and realize their version of the American Dream, while ensuring small business owners can access capital to grow and innovate,” said Senator Scott.

    At yesterday’s Punchbowl News event, Senator Scott highlighted how the legislation will improve access to capital for entrepreneurs across the country, tailor regulations for small and newly public companies looking to grow and expand their operations, and create new avenues for hardworking Americans to invest in their community.

    Click here to watch the full discussion.

    Senator Scott’s legislation, in part, is the result of feedback from his from his February 2024 roundtable with Black investors and business founders discussing ways to improve minority communities’ access to capital. Here’s what the roundtable participants had to say on the bill:

    “I thank Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) for his leadership in introducing the Empowering Main Street in America Act (EMSAA), which will significantly improve access to capital for all entrepreneurs and investors. I had the good fortune to participate in a roundtable that Senator Scott hosted in February with Black founders and investors, and I am very pleased to see many of the insights raised at that event reflected in the legislation. I launched RareBreed in response to the lack of access to capital for founders of color and founders outside the major investment hubs of Silicon Valley, New York, and Boston. Current rules price out many accredited investors, especially those of color, from participating in investment funds. This limits capital to drive innovation, economic growth, and job creation, and restricts capital invested in founders of color. We know this because research has shown that Black-led funds are four times as likely to invest in a Black-led company. The EMSAA will provide accredited investors of color more opportunities to participate in venture capital at lower minimums, helping to reduce risk, better diversify investments, and create wealth in communities of color. As someone who has spent my entire career in venture capital as an advocate for reducing barriers and expanding participation, I applaud this legislation and look forward to supporting its passage any way I can,” said McKeever “Mac” Conwell, Managing Partner, RareBreed Ventures.

    “Entrepreneurs don’t need to be in Silicon Valley or Wall Street to deserve access to capital. To truly foster innovation and growth, we must meet entrepreneurs where they are—whether in rural communities, urban centers, or underserved areas. The Empowering Main Street in America Act will help ensure entrepreneurs, regardless of location, have the financial resources they need to launch and grow their business, driving local economies and building stronger communities nationwide,” said Herbert Drayton III, Managing Partner, HI Mark Capital.

    “This legislative solution tears down barriers and fuels economic growth from the ground up. It’s about ensuring that every American has the opportunity to build a business, invest, and achieve financial security. The message from our roundtable was clear: strengthen our capital markets, foster entrepreneurship, make financial literacy a priority, and create pathways to prosperity for all,” said Ryan Frazier, Managing Partner and CEO, Frazier Global.

    For a section-by-section on the bill, click here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: S. 3277, a bill to amend the Marine Debris Act to reauthorize the Marine Debris Program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

    Source: US Congressional Budget Office

    S. 3277 would reauthorize the appropriation of $15 million annually through 2028 for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to operate the Marine Debris Program. The program supports efforts to remove plastics, discarded fishing gear, and other harmful materials from the marine environment. Under current law, the program was authorized through 2023; in 2024, NOAA allocated $6 million for the program. The agency also received $30 million annually from 2022 through 2026 to operate the program from advance appropriations in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Those amounts were designated as an emergency requirement. 

    Based on historical spending patterns, CBO estimates that reauthorizing the Marine Debris Program would cost $60 million over the 2025-2029 period, assuming appropriation of the authorized amounts.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Nature is adapting to climate change – why aren’t we?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jack Marley, Environment + Energy Editor, UK edition

    Humanity may be no better prepared for the impacts of climate change today than in the 1970s.

    So says a new study led by Stanford University researchers that compared how sensitive societies are to extreme weather now versus 50 years ago. This research has yet to be peer-reviewed, and its conclusions run counter to what many climate policy experts have long assumed. If they are accurate, it means that additional wealth, technology and climate-savvy have not meaningfully enhanced our protection as the weather has become more hostile.


    This roundup of The Conversation’s climate coverage comes from our award-winning weekly climate action newsletter. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 35,000+ readers who’ve subscribed.

    Earth’s atmosphere has warmed and contains more moisture as a result of fossil fuel burning. Europeans reeling from Storm Boris can testify to the failure of even wealthy countries to adapt to this reality says Chris Medland, a PhD candidate in climate change resilience at the University of Surrey.



    Read more:
    Who’s to blame when climate change turns the lights off?

    Eventually, everyone will feel this deficit.

    “Your home may not be in the path of the next storm but the infrastructure it relies on might be,” Medland says.

    Flood defences, power lines, rail networks – all of these things and more need to be built or upgraded to withstand mounting storms. Yet in the recently flooded UK, the companies that run utilities are not expressly obliged to ensure their networks remain resilient to climate change, Medland says. Nor is it clear who is ultimately responsible for keeping the lights on as the crisis intensifies.

    Invaders must die?

    If the accounts of biologists are anything to go by, the natural world is adapting to the effects of climate change far more radically than any human institution.

    “Faced with the degradation of their habitat, the species that will survive will be those that are able to adapt,” says Suzanne Bonamour, a postdoctoral researcher in ecology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

    Bonamour studies an endangered seabird, the crested cormorant, and its struggles to feed itself and its brood amid stormier seas. These birds can migrate to escape a winter squall, but only some do.



    Read more:
    How cormorants are rethinking their migration routes in the face of climate change

    Bonamour wonders whether adult birds might transmit this behaviour to their chicks, but she says that there is little that species can do to compensate for the catastrophe humans are engineering.

    Adjusting to a rapidly changing climate is a very tall order.
    LABETAA Andre/Shutterstock

    When plants and animals seeking cooler climes settle on new shores, they usually get a hostile reception. Attempting to root out these migrants is generally a mistake according to Heather Kharouba, an ecologist at the University of Ottawa.

    “Stated plainly, the vast majority of intentionally or unintentionally introduced species are not a threat to native ecosystems,” she says.



    Read more:
    Climate change means we may have to learn to live with invasive species

    Some arrivals do cause problems. In North America, “invasive species” include the emerald ash borer, an insect from north-eastern Asia that damages ash trees. But most control measures are laborious and expensive failures, Kharouba says. Some are even harmful, like using herbicides that afflict the native and non-native alike.

    Kharouba cites numerous examples of introduced species enriching their new homes. More generally, there is a trade-off: forests in the eastern US that are turning gold with autumn’s onset now harbour fewer species, but they store more carbon.

    “All this means that introduced plants could be well placed to support, or even buffer, current ecosystems as they undergo transitions due to climate change,” Kharouba says.

    Nature offers stark evidence that the world is changing rapidly. What if we embraced it?

    ‘Not just a challenge’

    Climate activists have typically shied away from discussing “climate adaptation” for fear of sounding defeatist says Joost de Moor, an assistant professor of political science at Sciences Po. There is cause to remain laser-focused on cutting emissions, he adds, but no excuse to neglect the question entirely.

    If change is inevitable, what sort of world do we want to emerge from the climate crisis? In March 2023, protesters in western France seized the initiative when they opposed the construction of a 628,000 sq metre reservoir in the rural Sainte-Soline commune, de Moor says.



    Read more:
    How climate activists finally seized the issue of adaptation in 2023

    France had suffered a historic drought, and so a huge artificial water reserve might have seemed prudent. Not if it involved draining a common resource, the water table, to serve a few farmers whose methods of agriculture already placed an untenable strain on struggling ecosystems, protesters argued.

    The campaign sparked a vital debate about whose needs ought to be prioritised in a future with greater hardship says Lucien Thabourey, a sociologist of environmental activism at Sciences Po. Fortunately, there is also a conversation to be had about the ways in which everyone might live better.



    Read more:
    Sainte-Soline : un tournant pour les mouvements écologistes ?

    “Some of the actions taken by humans to minimise the risk of catastrophic floods can actually make life more pleasant anyway, even when it isn’t raining,” says Maryam Imani, an associate professor of water systems engineering at Anglia Ruskin University.



    Read more:
    Torrential rain represents an opportunity to build a better society

    “For this reason, we should see rains like this not just as a challenge, but as an opportunity.”

    – ref. Nature is adapting to climate change – why aren’t we? – https://theconversation.com/nature-is-adapting-to-climate-change-why-arent-we-239750

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senators Collins, King Celebrate National Lobster Day

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Maine Angus King
    WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King today are celebrating Maine’s world renowned lobster industry after the Senate unanimously passed their bipartisan resolution recognizing September 25, 2024 as “National Lobster Day.” The resolution recognizes the cultural, economic and environmental impacts and importance of the iconic crustacean. Since 2015, the senators have introduced and sponsored legislation in recognition of National Lobster Day.
    “There are hundreds of small businesses along our Maine’s coastline that comprise our lobster industry, and their iconic catch is synonymous with Maine’s identity, history and culture,” said Senators Collins and King. “For centuries, the men and women who power the fishery wake up early every day proud to carry on this Maine tradition and ensure the long-term sustainability, resiliency and health of our Atlantic waters. Today, we recognize those lobstermen and women, and communities across Maine, who contribute hundreds of millions to our state and incalculable pride to our people.”
    “Lobster is an integral part of Maine’s identity, playing a crucial role in the livelihood of our coastal and island communities,” said Marianne LaCroix, Executive Director of the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative. “National Lobster Day not only allows us to share our, sustainably sourced product with the nation but also to highlight its significant impact on Maine’s economy. We greatly appreciate Senator Collins’ and King’s continued support in recognizing this important holiday.”
    Lobster is a top economic driver for the state of Maine and, in 2023, the industry brought in $611,000,000. Senators Collins and King have been vocal champions for the lobster industry in the U.S. Senate by pushing back against policies that could hinder future growth and successes. In 2022, Senators Collins and King secured a provision in the annual appropriations spending bill which included a regulatory reprieve to protect Maine’s sustainable lobster industry from misguided regulations that would have been devastating for the industry.
    Read the full resolution here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Defense News: Remarks by Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti at the Inter-American Naval Conference

    Source: United States Navy

    Buenos días.  Good morning.  Hello, heads of Navy.  It is so wonderful to be here and an honor to be back here in beautiful Rio de Janeiro.

    Obrigada, Admiral Olsen and his team – your entire team – for hosting this extraordinary gathering, the 31st Inter-American Naval Conference.  This has been so crucial to strengthening our bonds of friendship, collaboration, and partnership for more than half a century.

    You know, it is really great to be here among friends who are all united by our shared values, our shared geography, and our shared stake in the continued stability, security, and prosperity of the Western Hemisphere and our world.

    This year’s theme could not be more relevant or more important to the United States, this hemisphere, and the global community.  I know that all of the navies represented here understand well that these are very turbulent times, and we’ve been talking about that through your presentations today.  We understand that the international system that has provided security and stability for over three-quarters of a century is under threat in every ocean.

    We’ve all scanned the horizon, and we see the forces that are making our world and our hemisphere more unstable and more dangerous.  We’ve all experienced the devastation of natural disasters, which have been intensified by a changing climate:  flooding, fires, droughts, cyclones, landslides, and rising seas.  And we’ve all witnessed the impact of illegal, unregulated, unreported fishing, and transnational crime – drugs, weapons, human trafficking – and the impact this has on our societies and on our populations.

    And as I take in this changing environment, I know that my Navy must take action to get ahead of the changing character of the work and the additional challenges we are all facing in ship construction, maintenance, challenges we’re facing in recruiting and maintaining our infrastructure, all while acknowledging – in my case – the industrial and budgetary constraints that complicate my Navy’s ability to get after these challenges.

    We see advancements in battlefield innovation; like we were just talking about, the profound implications for the changing character of war.  We see cheaper, more accessible technology is pushing asymmetric capabilities at a lower cost to state and nonstate actors alike.

    Over the past two years, as we’ve all seen, the Ukrainian navy has used a combination of missiles, robotic service vessels, and agile digital capabilities to deny the Russian navy the use of the western Black Sea and to threaten Russia’s supply lines to its occupying forces in Crimea. And Houthi forces, equipped by Iran and emboldened by Hamas’ horrific attack on Israel nearly a year ago, have repeatedly targeted innocent merchant shipping along a key maritime chokepoint and created (vast/mass effects ?) through a mix of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones against the United States Navy and all of the partner navies that are serving in that part of the world today.

    We’ve all learned a lot about the future of war at sea, including the role – as we were just talking about – of robotic platforms, of proliferated weapons, and disaggregated forces in gaining and exploiting the sea.

    In this increasingly turbulent and unpredictable world, security through partnership is critical because no one navy, no single nation can handle all of these challenges alone, and because all of our safety, security, and prosperity are tied to the seas. And as I’ve seen in the briefings we’ve had here already this week, all of our navies are right there on the front lines – right there on the maritime front lines every single day with more tasks than resources that we often have available.

    So I think it’s really important that we, the global maritime community, work together to align our efforts in a way that can benefit us all.  And we need to do this thoughtfully, deliberately, and collectively.

    So whether you are charged by your nation with countering drug trafficking, human smuggling, illicit weapons transfers, IUU fishing, piracy, policing your territorial waters, delivering humanitarian aid and assistance to people in need, assisting mariners at sea, escorting cargo transports/tankers, or you’re deploying your forces all around the world, I believe that each nation here is the vital link in the chain of our maritime security network.

    You will have no stronger partner in this endeavor than the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps team, who will work with you tirelessly to find common ground and common cause to address our common challenges.  And you will have no more committed teammate than me, because I strongly believe that friendship is strength; and that allies and partners collectively, we are each other’s true strategic weapon.  Together, we can collaborate and build a unifying framework where there is no south, no north, no east, no west, but really just a coalition of countries who participate in and engage on matters of common interest to promote continued stability in this hemisphere and beyond.

    As I look ahead, I really see us doing this as part of what I call a warfighting ecosystem.  It’s a concept that I introduced last week when I talked about my Navigation Plan for America’s Warfighting Navy.  It’s my overarching strategic guidance that will make my Navy more ready for potential conflict across all time horizons, across the spectrum of operations both today and in the future.

    As the Chief of Naval Operations, I’m compelled to do more and to do more faster to ensure that our Navy is more ready despite all these challenges, despite the changing security environment, the changing character of war, and our own industrial base challenges.  I can’t stand still as we work to secure the long-term investments we need for our Navy to grow our work.

    My Navigation Plan will raise America’s Navy’s baseline level of readiness and put more players on the field.  Players are things like platforms that are ready with their requisite capabilities, weapons, and sustainment; and the people that are ready with the right mindset, the right tools, skills, training, and the relationships.

    We will be doing that by, first, implementing Project 33, seven key areas that my Navy needs to accelerate.  And they’re areas where I will put my personal time, my personal attention, and my resources, and really put my thumb on the scale to urgently move the needle.  It is a reference to my place as the 33rd Chief of Naval Operations in a continuum of naval leaders past, present, and future.

    Second, by expanding my Navy’s contribution to the warfighting ecosystem.  Where every country has a seat at the table and a role to play no matter the size of their forces or the extent of their capabilities, we can come together to counter our share of the challenges.

    So I’ll talk to you just a little bit about this ecosystem.  I think it’s probably better explained as a global security ecosystem.  We saw a little preview of this as we were just talking about – in the presentation on Orion (ph).  It’s another version of an ecosystem.  It’s where participants can plug in and contribute their capabilities, their information, their logistics, their people, their maritime domain awareness; and create compounding, outsized effects in service of an open, safe, and stable maritime domain.  It is a system in which the layered capabilities of each of our navies, coast guards, marine corps, marine maritime police forces, and interagency partners enable and then are enabled by each other.

    And in this area of operations, in the Western Hemisphere and its adjacent seas – an area that is critical to global security and stability – I believe there are some key opportunities where we can collaborate and cooperate to expand our collective contribution to this ecosystem.  And this is a great place to have these conversations, at this kind of conference.

    So let me just highlight a few of them today.

    I think the first opportunity is about building interoperability and accelerating our naval integration to work more seamlessly together.  In order to support our mutual requirements, we can work together coherently, effectively, and efficiently to achieve our tactical, then our operational, and then our strategic objectives.  We can do this through education, exchanges, through our officers and our enlisted leaders, whether it’s in the United States – maybe at the Naval Academy, the War College, Navy Postgraduate School – or in the many programs that you offer to us and to each other across the hemisphere.  Through these exchanges, we can plant the seeds to grow our long-term relationships, create long-term shared understanding, and develop approaches to address the common challenges we face.

    And we can build that interoperability through exercises.  We’re coming off a great year of many, many exercises.  And earlier this year we conducted the 29th Rim of the Pacific exercise with 29 nations, 25,000 people from across the Pacific Ocean, Europe and all around.

    In August, our Navy supported the 10th Southern Seas deployment, and the third with the Aircraft Carrier Strike Group George Washington, conducting at-sea operations and building our collective operational planning capability.  One of the ways we did that this year was through the deployment’s first-ever embarked international staff made up of 29 maritime officers from your navies and your coast guards.  And I want to thank you for that support.  Together, our staffs briefed, planned, and executed 35 bilateral and multinational exercises, further strengthening our interoperability and our enduring partnerships.

    In August, as well, our navies conducted the latest iteration of Continuing Promise, 2024, growing our collective capability to provide health and veterinary care, execute professional military exchanges, conduct construction projects, and enhance our collective disaster relief preparedness and ability to cooperate in the face of a crisis.

    Two weeks ago, our navies wrapped up – and thank you to all of you for participating in a highly successful UNITAS, the most recent in the longest-running multinational maritime exercise in the entire world.  It was at a meeting like this, at the first Inter-American Naval Conference in 1959, that UNITAS which conceptualized, agreed upon, and brought to life.

    This year, for the first time ever, our navies conducted that exercise at the operational level, executing full maritime operation center processes to synchronize efforts across all domains, including cyber.  And as you may have seen better resourced in my NAVPLAN, I talk a little bit about the importance of a maritime operation center.  Resourcing our MOCs is a critical part of my plan and a critical part of integrating with each of you, linking our commanders to the wide range of sensors and platforms that are distributed across the seas.

    You know, if you step back and you think about everything that has happened in our world since that Inter-American Naval Conference back in 1959, each of us here has remained committed to our UNITAS exercise, knowing well it is part of our maritime heritage.  It is part of our critical, sharing partnership.  And so, as the United States look forward to hosting UNITAS in 2025 in Mayport and participating in future exercises, I know we will continue to build our collective interoperability.

    I think our second opportunity is continuing to deepen our cooperation with maritime law enforcement and by aligning our authorities to help counter transnational organized crime.  Everyone today, as – (inaudible) – just talked about, is challenged.  And I think by synchronizing our efforts with our authorities, we can accelerate our progress against the forces that are working hard to destabilize our region.

    We’ve seen success in this with the Joint Interagency Task Force South, where the United States, alongside many allies and partners, as well as interagency partners, has been able to interdict vessels carrying drugs and other contraband.  And right now, as part of Campaign Martillo, our navies are working together to deny transnational criminal organizations the ability to use regional sea lines of communication for the movement of these illicit goods.

    And then, finally, I’ll pick up where I left off in our previous discussion.  I think the third opportunity is to enhance our collaboration on robotic and autonomous systems to help especially improve our maritime domain awareness.  As I said earlier, we can use these technologies to do things that are dirty.  We can free up our sailors to do the things that only they can do.

    So whether it’s tasks that are dirty – I think about, many of you who have been at sea, cleaning a bilge.  That would be great to have technology to do that and not our sailors.

    To do the things that are dangerous.  Many of us have worked with technologies to defuse mines and destroy mines.  Where else can we have autonomous robotic technology do the things that are dangerous?

    And things that are dull.  This is going on a patrol for weeks on end and maybe never even seeing one of the things that we’re looking for.  But can we do that through a robotic and autonomous platform on the sea, above the sea, under the sea, and then free up our people to go and see what is that anomalous behavior that an autonomous platform has detected in a pattern of life?

    Again, we can free up our people to use their talents and use their creativity for the things that only they can do.  And I think that we could partner together to leverage our respective innovation bases and invest in some of those advanced technologies and prototypes to ensure that our – we have this advantage today and we have it in the future.

    Integrating robotic autonomous systems into our daily business of operations is a key part of my Navigation Plan.  I think it is an area of great opportunity.  And I’m going to invest my time and resources to help, again, raise that baseline level of integration and the baseline level of readiness of our fleet by expanding, extending, and bolstering the reach and resilience, as well as potentially the lethality, of our conventionally manned fleet by integrating unmanned technologies.

    We’re already seeing the positive effects of these systems across our force and with allies and partners through the Fleet Experimentation series – or called FLEX series – that’s been sponsored by NAVSOUTH for the last several years.  In fact, today, in the Hybrid Fleet Campaign Event in Key West, Florida, there are sailors in companies from across our navies.  They are working together to operationalize new capabilities, to enhance maritime domain awareness, and to detect and monitor illicit trafficking – again, working towards a more stable future for our hemisphere.

    So, fellow leaders, this week we have an opportunity to discuss our shared challenges and chart our course to increase the resilience of our forces, to strengthen security, and promote prosperity as partners, building on our already very sound foundation.  Each of you here has an important role and provides valued expertise in this ecosystem that I believe is critical to tackling our common values.  Together, we can ensure the security and stability of our region while working to ensure that our shared values, our cultures, and our way of life can be shared by generations to come.

    So I thank you all very much for the opportunity and the honor to be with you today, and I hope we can do this next year at Mayport for UNITAS.  I also invite you to come to our International Seapower Symposium, which will be next October in Newport, Rhode Island, and then help me celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday.  I know that’s young for some of the other navies here, but 250 for us.  We’ll be celebrating that birthday also in October, in Philadelphia.  And I look forward to seeing you at those events if I don’t see you before.  Thanks very much.  Again, it’s an honor to be with all of you today.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: A sustainable enhancement of shoreline in Hiawatha First Nation

    Source: Government of Canada News

    News release

    Hiawatha First Nation, Ontario, September 25, 2024 —Hiawatha First Nation has received over $430,000 through the Natural Infrastructure Fund to restore more than 3 kilometers of shoreline along Rice Lake to protect wildlife and reduce shoreline erosion.

    By working with nature, the Hiawatha First Nation is supporting and protecting biodiversity and human well-being. This restoration project incorporates native plants to reduce further shoreline erosion, while creating a protected habitat for various frog and fish species, as well as wild rice, a cultural keystone species. A medicine garden, walkway, pier, and benches will also increase access to nature, boost community use of shoreline for conducting cultural practices, and create a welcoming and relaxing space for the community.

    Hiawatha First Nation is working to restore the land to not only ensure a more sustainable future, but also create a peaceful place for community members to enjoy nature and ensure the land and wildlife is protected for many generations. 

    Quotes

    “I am honoured to support this investment with the Hiawatha First Nation to restore the shoreline of Rice Lake. Investing in infrastructure, like this shoreline restoration project, is vital for the sustainability of our environment. It will support biodiversity through the restoration of the natural habitats of plants and animals and with the addition of the medicine garden, create a healthy, sustainable and welcoming environment for all community members.”

    The Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities

    “Restoring the shoreline with native species is vital for many reasons. Firstly, it is our responsibility, as given to us by the Creator, to take care of the waters, and when we restore lakeshores with native plants, we improve the health of our lakes. Shoreline restoration helps to improve water quality by removing pollutants and nutrients from run-off.  Also, by restoring our shoreline with native species, we in turn will have healthy and stable ecosystems that leads to strong habitats and food chains. Shoreline restoration is about taking care of water, lands and all living creatures.”

    Laurie Carr, Chief, Hiawatha First Nation 

    Quick facts

    • The federal government is committed to making our communities more livable, sustainable, and resilient by investing in the protection and restoration of natural environments.

    • The federal government is investing $437,500 in this project through the Natural Infrastructure Fund (NIF).

    • NIF supports projects that use natural or hybrid approaches to increase resilience to climate change, mitigate carbon emissions, protect and preserve biodiversity and wildlife habitats, and promote Canadians’ access to nature.

    • Examples of natural infrastructure include urban forests, street trees, wetlands, living dikes, bioswales, and naturalized coastal restoration.

    • Hybrid infrastructure incorporates elements of engineered grey infrastructure to enhance or support natural infrastructure and/or the use of ecosystem processes. Examples of hybrid infrastructure include green roofs and walls, and naturalized stormwater ponds.

    • A minimum of 10% of the overall program envelope will be allocated to Indigenous-led projects.

    Associated links

    Contacts

    For more information (media only), please contact:

    Sofia Ouslis
    Communications Advisor
    Office of the Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities
    Sofia.ouslis@infc.gc.ca

    Media Relations
    Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada
    613-960-9251
    Toll free: 1-877-250-7154
    Email: media-medias@infc.gc.ca
    Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn
    Web: Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada

    Hayley Vogler
    Capital Projects Manager
    Hiawatha First Nation
    705-295-4421
    capitalmanager@hiawathafn.ca

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Browning Man Admits Assaulting Woman with Belt on Blackfeet Indian Reservation

    Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (c)

    GREAT FALLS — A Browning man accused of beating and then using a belt to assault a woman on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation admitted to an assault charge today, U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said.

    The defendant, Briar Joseph Crawford, 29, pleaded guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon. Crawford faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

    Chief U.S District Judge Brian M. Morris presided. The court will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Sentencing was set for Jan. 29, 2025. Crawford was detained pending further proceedings.

    The government alleged in court documents that on Aug. 6, 2023, Crawford went to Twin Lakes go fishing with the victim, identified as Jane Doe. They got into an argument, and Crawford began to severely beat Doe over several hours as they traveled from Twin Lakes to the East Glacier Cut Across Road. At one point, Crawford removed his belt, wrapped it around Doe’s neck, grabbed it and lifted her weight off the ground until she blacked out. Doe suffered numerous injuries from the prolonged assault.

    The U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case. The FBI and Blackfeet Law Enforcement Services conducted the investigation.

    XXX

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Congressman David Scott Introduces Legislation for Inclusive Arts Education

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman David Scott (GA-13)

    WASHINGTON—Today, Congressman David Scott (GA-13), was joined by Representatives Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05), Maxwell Frost (FL-10), and Donald M. Payne Jr. (NJ-10) to introduce the Reimagining Inclusive Arts Education Act. This critical piece of legislation provides professional development grants to arts educators and creative arts therapists to best include students with disabilities.

    “Students, regardless of ability or disability, deserve the right to receive a well-rounded and comprehensive education—one that is inclusive of music and arts,” said Congressman David Scott. “From music to the visual arts, theater and dance, access to arts education has shown to inspire young learners to think critically and build socialization skills with their peers. This is particularly important for students with disabilities who may struggle with finding ways to express themselves. For this reason, the Reimagining Inclusive Arts Education Act will equip arts educators and creative art therapists with the knowledge and skills to make their content accessible for all students to actively participate together.”

    “Art programs in schools can provide important benefits for intellectual development – especially for young people with disabilities,” said Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon. “Unfortunately, many schools lack basic resources and funding to maintain these programs. I’m proud to partner with Reps. Scott, Frost, and Payne on this legislation to help our schools fill the funding gaps, ensure equitable accessibility for students with disabilities, and set up our children for success in the future.”

    “I am proud to cosponsor the Reimagining Inclusive Arts Education Act to help our schools become more inclusive,” said Rep. Donald M. Payne, Jr.  “Students with disabilities need opportunities to express themselves through the arts. This bill would ensure art teachers have resources to make their curriculum more inclusive and provide opportunities to students with disabilities.”

    “As someone who grew up with music as part of my daily life, I know just how critical the arts are to self-expression and its ability to unite our community. Alongside Reps. Scott, Scanlon, and Payne, I’m proud to support the Reimaging Inclusive Arts Education Act to help expand the power of music and arts to ensure that arts education can reach every student who wants it,” said Rep. Maxwell Frost. “This legislation is an inclusive labor of love that will support our schools and help educators put arts, theater, dance, music, and more into the hands of students with disabilities.”

    “The American Music Therapy Association is very pleased to support the Reimagining Inclusive Arts Education Act,” stated Judy Simpson, Director of Government Relations. “This important legislation will support innovative and inclusive creative arts therapies for children with disabilities and will expand unique learning opportunities for students to access education and achieve academic goals.”

    “The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) is a proud supporter of the Reimagining Inclusive Arts Education Act, introduced by Congressman David Scott (GA-13). This legislation is a monumental stride towards creating an inclusive environment where every child, regardless of circumstances, can participate in the transformative power of music. By prioritizing the adaptation of classroom materials and lessons, this bill not only acknowledges the unique needs of children with disabilities but also promotes equity within the classroom. The Reimagining Inclusive Arts Education Act aligns with NAfME’s commitment to advocating for equitable access to music education and supports inclusive practices where the diverse voices of every learner are valued. This legislation is a testament to the belief that music education MUST be accessible to all, including students with disabilities. NAfME urges the 118th Congress to consider and adopt this legislation, which supports an inclusive educational landscape where every student can embrace the joy and significance that music brings to their lives,” said Scott R. Sheehan, NAfME President

    Endorsing Organizations:

    Endorsing Organizations: National Association for Music Educators, Educational Theatre Association, American Music Therapy Association, National Art Education Association, Educational Theatre Association, National Dance Education Organization, Americans for the Arts, National Center for Learning Disabilities, The National Down Syndrome Congress, Council of Administrators of Special Education, Music Teachers National Association, National Media Arts Education Association, Kindermusik International, Hip-Hop Education Center, Percussive Arts Society, J.W. Pepper, JazzSLAM, Kindermusik International, Music Travel Consultants, Georgia Music Educators Association, Michigan Music Educators Association, Montana Music Educators Association, Utah Music Educators Association, Virginia Music Educators Association, Pennsylvania Music Educators Association, Rhode Island Music Educators Association, New York State School Music Association, New Hampshire Music Educators Association, Ohio Music Educators Association, Florida Music Education Association, North Carolina Music Education Association, Oregon Music Education Association, Arts Alliance Illinois, Arts Ed NJ, Arts North Carolina, Ingenuity Inc., TASH, Cure SMA, The Viscardi Center and Henry Viscardi School, Mental Health Association of Central Florida, The Feierabend Association for Music Education, The Lang Lang International Music Foundation,  National Music Council of the United States, Guitars and Ukes in the Classroom, League of American Orchestras, Young Audiences Arts for Learning, Music Will.

    Full text of the bill can be accessed HERE.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Translation: Sustainable Riverbank Improvements in Hiawatha First Nation

    MIL OSI Translation. Canadian French to English –

    Source: Government of Canada – in French

    Press release

    Hiawatha First Nation, Ontario, September 25, 2024 — Hiawatha First Nation has been allocated more than $430,000 through the Natural Infrastructure Fund to restore more than 3 kilometres of shoreline along Rice Lake to protect wildlife and reduce shoreline erosion.

    By working with nature, Hiawatha First Nation supports and protects biodiversity and human well-being. This restoration project involves integrating native plants to reduce shoreline erosion while creating protected habitat for various frog and fish species, as well as the culturally significant wild rice. A medicinal plant garden, boardwalk, pier and benches will also provide easier access to nature, promote use of the shoreline for community cultural practices, and create a welcoming and relaxing space for the community.

    Hiawatha First Nation is working to restore the land not only to ensure a more sustainable future, but also to create a peaceful place where community members can enjoy nature and ensure the land and wildlife are protected for many generations to come.

    Quotes

    “I am honoured to support this investment in the shoreline restoration of Rice Lake in partnership with Hiawatha First Nation. Investing in infrastructure, such as this shoreline restoration project, is essential to ensuring the sustainability of our environment. This project will support biodiversity through the restoration of natural habitats for plants and animals and, through the development of a medicinal plant garden, will create a healthy, sustainable and welcoming environment for all members of the community.”

    The Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities

    “Restoring shorelines with native species is essential for many reasons. First, it is our Creator’s responsibility to care for our waters, and when we restore lakeshores with native plants, we improve the health of our lakes. Shoreline restoration helps improve water quality by removing pollutants and nutrients from runoff. Additionally, restoring shorelines with native species creates healthy, stable ecosystems, which strengthen habitats and food chains. Shoreline restoration is about caring for the water, the land, and all living creatures.”

    Laurie Carr, Chief, Hiawatha First Nation

    Quick Facts

    The federal government is committed to making our communities more liveable, sustainable and resilient by investing in the protection and restoration of natural environments.

    The federal government is investing $437,500 in this project through the Natural Infrastructure Fund (NIF).

    The Natural Infrastructure Fund supports projects that use natural or hybrid approaches to increase resilience to climate change, reduce carbon emissions, protect and preserve biodiversity and wildlife habitat, and promote Canadians’ access to nature.

    Examples of natural infrastructure include urban forests, street trees, wetlands, living seawalls, biological seawalls, and naturalized coastal restoration.

    Hybrid infrastructure incorporates elements of artificial grey infrastructure to enhance or support natural infrastructure and/or the use of ecosystem processes. Examples of hybrid infrastructure include green roofs and walls, and naturalized storm basins.

    A minimum of 10% of the overall program envelope will be allocated to projects led by Indigenous people.

    Related links

    Contact persons

    For further information (media only), please contact:

    Sofia OuslisCommunications AdvisorOffice of the Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and CommunitiesSofia.ouslis@infc.gc.ca

    Media Relations Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada613-960-9251Toll free: 1-877-250-7154Email:media-medias@infc.gc.caFollow us onTwitter,Facebook,InstagramAndLinkedInWebsite:Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada

    Hayley Vogler Manager, Capital ProjectsHiawatha First Nation705-295-4421capitalmanager@hiawathafn.ca

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.

    MIL Translation OSI

  • MIL-OSI Security: Repeat Offender Imprisoned for Having Over 6,000 Child Pornography Images

    Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

    McALLEN, Texas – A 43-year-old McAllen resident has been sent back to prison for possession of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.

    Rene Javier Sarmienta pleaded guilty March 20, 2023.

    U.S. District Judge Randy Crane has now ordered Sarmienta to serve 120 months in federal prison. In handing down the prison term, the court noted it was unfortunate Sarmienta relapsed and needs therapy. Sarmienta was further ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution to each of 12 victims and will serve five years on supervised release following completion of his prison term. During that time, he will have to comply with numerous requirements designed to restrict his access to children and the internet. The court also noted his previous conviction of possessing child pornography in 2002 and that he would be spending another significant amount of his life in prison.

    The investigation began when law enforcement discovered Sarmienta had been purchasing child pornography using a PayPal account. He also failed to report having several social media accounts to local authorities as required due to status as a sex offender.

    A forensic examination of Sarmienta’s cell phone revealed 6,300 images of child pornography. Several of the images included prepubescent minors and sadomasochistic conduct.

    He will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

    The FBI conducted the investigation with the assistance of the McAllen Police Department.

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys M. Alexis Garcia and Tyler Foster prosecuted the case, which was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched in May 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section leads PSC, which marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and identifies and rescues victims. For more information about PSC, please visit DOJ’s PSC page. For more information about internet safety education, please visit the resources link on that page.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: During National Hazing Awareness Week, Klobuchar, Cassidy Bipartisan Legislation to Combat Hazing on College Campuses Passes House

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Minnesota Amy Klobuchar

    WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) announced their Stop Campus Hazing Act to improve the reporting and prevention of hazing on college campuses has passed the House of Representatives. This bipartisan legislation would require colleges to include hazing incidents in their annual campus safety report and establish a campus-wide, research-based program to educate students about the dangers of hazing. In addition, the bill would increase transparency and accountability by providing parents and students with better information about a student organization’s history of hazing incidents. The bill is championed by Representatives Lucy McBath (D-GA) and Jeff Duncan (R-SC) in the House of Representatives.

    House passage of the Stop Campus Hazing Act comes as the Senate passed Klobuchar and Cassidy’s bipartisan resolution to recognize National Hazing Awareness Week. The resolution designates this week, September 23 through 27, 2024, as “National Hazing Awareness Week,” recognizes the hundreds of students who have died or suffered severe, life-altering injuries as a result of collegiate hazing, and promotes efforts to prevent hazing. McBath and Duncan lead the companion resolution in the House of Representatives. 

    “When parents send their kids away to college, they expect they will get a good education and make new friends. Unfortunately, too many are also exposed to hazing, a dangerous—and at times deadly—problem,” said Klobuchar. “Our bipartisan legislation will improve hazing prevention efforts on college campuses to make sure we have the information we need to stop this abuse and keep students safe.”

    “Students and families should feel safe no matter what college they choose,” said Dr. Cassidy. “By increasing transparency, the Stop Campus Hazing Act will ensure that hazing is never ignored. We must get this bill across the finish line and passed into law.” 

    This Stop Campus Hazing Act is cosponsored by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Bob Casey (D-PA), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), James Lankford (R-OK), Steve Daines (R-MT), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Angus King (I-ME), and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV).

    The National Study of Student Hazing found that more than half of college students involved in extracurricular clubs, athletic teams, and organizations experience hazing. Since 2000, there have been more than 50 hazing-related deaths. 

    The Stop Campus Hazing Act would:

    • Improve hazing reporting by requiring colleges to include hazing incidents in their Annual Security Report;
    • Prevent hazing by establishing campus-wide, research-based hazing education and prevention programs; and
    • Help students and their parents make informed decisions about joining organizations on campus by requiring colleges to publish on their websites the institution’s hazing prevention policies and the organizations that have violated them. 

    This bipartisan, evidence-informed legislation is supported by the Clery Center; StopHazing; Anti-Hazing Coalition including the Hazing Prevention Network, Association of Fraternal Leadership & Values, Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors, National Panhellenic Conference and its member sororities, the North American Interfraternity Conference and its member fraternities; National Pan-Hellenic Council, Inc.; Association of Big Ten Students; College Safety Coalition; SAFE Campuses, LLC; International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators; National Association of Clery Compliance Officers and Professionals; and the parents of hazing victims.

    Klobuchar has been a leader in the fight to end hazing. 

    Last year, Klobuchar and Cassidy introduced the bipartisan Stop Campus Hazing Act and the first ever congressional resolution designating “National Hazing Awareness Week.”

    The 2024 National Hazing Awareness Week resolution is cosponsored by Bob Casey (D-PA), James Lankford (R-OK), Senators Angus King (I-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Chris Coons (D-DE), Steve Daines (R-MT), Tina Smith (D-MN), and Joe Manchin (I-WV).

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Connolly-Warner Reintroduce Chai Suthammanont Healthy Federal Workplaces Act to Protect Federal Employees During Public Health Emergencies

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Gerry Connolly (D-Va)

    Today, Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, and Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) reintroduced the Chai Suthammanont Healthy Federal Workplaces Act, legislation to better protect federal employees during a public health emergency. The legislation previously passed the House in September 2022.

    “On May 26, 2020, Chai Suthammanont, my constituent and a kitchen staff worker at a childcare facility on Marine Corps Base Quantico, died from COVID-related complications,” said Rep. Connolly. “Confusion and uncertainty surrounding agency guidance during the pandemic emerged as two of the largest contributing factors to Chai’s death. These factors, combined with a general lack of communication with federal workforce staff, led to tragedy. Our Chai Suthammanont Healthy Federal Workplaces Act will ensure federal employees are informed and better protected during any future public health emergency. I want to thank Senator Warner for his partnership, and I want to thank Chai’s widow, Christina, for her continued efforts to transform her family’s loss into a charge to help others.”

    “Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, federal employees remained hard at work, ensuring that the American people could continue to count on their government. But unfortunately, the pandemic highlighted that our federal agencies were widely unprepared to protect these essential workers,” said Sen. Warner. “It’s crucial that we learn from our mistakes. We owe it to our federal workforce to ensure a safe workplace, and when faced with another public health emergency, we must be prepared.”

    The legislation requires each federal agency to establish a plan that describes public health protocols including, but not limited to, testing; identification and notification of individuals who may have been exposed; cleaning; occupancy limits; use of personal protective equipment; protections for employees whose work requires them to travel off-site; and ensuring the continuity of agency operations. The bill would also require each agency’s Office of the Inspector General to report on the extent each agency has implemented the plan and would require the Government Accountability Office to report on lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Text of the legislation is available here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI: Advanced Technology Recycling (ATR) is pleased to announce partnership opportunities to Telecommunications Equipment Manufacturers

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    PENSACOLA, Fla., Sept. 25, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The telecommunications industry is advancing at a rapid pace, driving innovation with cutting-edge technologies that now carry unprecedented amounts of confidential data. As equipment becomes more sophisticated, the need for secure disposal of these data-rich devices is more critical than ever.

    As new equipment is introduced to meet growing demands, outdated devices and systems need to be disposed of responsibly. Unfortunately, this critical step is often overlooked, leaving sensitive assets vulnerable to data breaches or improper handling.

    Advanced Technology Recycling (ATR), a recognized leader in electronics recycling and secure asset disposal, offers telecommunications manufacturers the expertise, resources, and certifications necessary to manage decommissioned devices safely. By partnering with ATR, manufacturers can provide their clients with secure and compliant end-of-life solutions, protecting their brands while also ensuring environmental responsibility.

    A Call to Action: Manufacturers Must Play an Active Role

    Telecommunications manufacturers have a unique opportunity to play an active role in securing the disposal of outdated equipment. It’s not enough to simply supply customers with upgraded systems; manufacturers must also take steps to ensure that decommissioned devices are handled securely. ATR is calling on manufacturers to engage with us, so we can work together to identify critical components and areas where sensitive or confidential information may reside, helping to define best practices in asset management and disposal.

    Telecommunications equipment, such as routers, switches, and servers, often contains sensitive customer data or proprietary information. In addition, certain components may be subject to stringent regulations, such as International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Without proper disposal, these assets could end up in the wrong hands, exposing manufacturers and their clients to serious risks, including data breaches, regulatory violations, and damage to corporate reputations.

    By collaborating with ATR, manufacturers can customize disposal solutions to meet the specific needs of their clients, ensuring that these sensitive assets are disposed of securely, compliantly, and sustainably.

    ATR’s Industry-Leading Expertise and Credentials

    ATR is proud to hold the highest certifications in the industry, including R2v3 and RIOS, which guarantee that its recycling and disposal processes meet the strictest standards for environmental and data security. ATR is also approved by the U.S. State Department for handling ITAR-regulated devices, ensuring that telecommunications equipment used in aerospace and defense communications is managed with the highest level of security and compliance.

    Moreover, ATR’s work with key federal agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), has helped to define “best practices” for the industry as a whole. ATR has provided these agencies with valuable insights into the proper handling of sensitive materials, as well as comprehensive facility tours to demonstrate our state-of-the-art disposal processes. ATR has also provided operational insights to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), showcasing our expertise in secure asset disposal.

    Comprehensive Solutions and Customized Security

    ATR’s ability to offer telecommunications manufacturers customized solutions is a critical part of our service model. Every client has unique needs, and one-size-fits-all approaches often fall short when it comes to secure asset disposal. By working closely with manufacturers, ATR develops customized plans that address the specific challenges and regulatory requirements of their customers.

    • Identifying Hidden Data Risks: Telecommunications manufacturers are encouraged to work with ATR to identify critical components and areas within outdated equipment where sensitive data may reside. ATR’s team of experts will then develop tailored strategies to mitigate risks and ensure the secure destruction of these assets.
    • Proprietary Logistics and Chain of Custody: ATR operates its own fleet of vehicles, equipped with advanced tracking systems and video surveillance. This ensures an unbroken chain of custody for every asset, providing full transparency and peace of mind. Manufacturers can trust that their clients’ equipment is handled securely from pickup to final destruction.
    • ITAR Compliance and U.S. State Department Approval: For clients in aerospace, defense, and other regulated industries, ATR’s ITAR-approved processes guarantee compliance with strict government regulations. This expertise is especially important for telecommunications manufacturers working with federal or defense-related contracts.
    • GSA Discounts for State and Federal Agencies: ATR’s services are available at discounted rates through the General Services Administration (GSA) schedule, making it easy for state and federal agencies to access our secure disposal services.

    The Risks of Ignoring Secure Disposal

    Failing to provide a secure disposal solution for decommissioned telecommunications equipment is more than just an oversight—it’s a serious risk to both manufacturers and their clients. Devices that are not properly disposed of can easily find their way into secondary markets or, worse, be accessed by malicious actors. This can lead to data breaches, regulatory fines, and significant damage to a company’s reputation.

    In today’s world, data security is paramount, and companies that fail to safeguard their clients’ information will pay the price. ATR’s services eliminate these risks, ensuring that all decommissioned telecommunications devices are securely destroyed or responsibly recycled.

    A Partnership That Benefits All Parties

    ATR is not just a service provider—we see ourselves as a partner to the telecommunications manufacturers we work with. By forming a partnership with ATR, manufacturers can ensure that they are working together in the best interest of their clients, the environment, and the broader industry. ATR’s extensive experience with federal agencies like the FCC and FAA means that we understand the regulatory landscape and can help manufacturers navigate complex compliance requirements.

    Together, we can ensure that telecommunications manufacturers are not only providing their clients with the latest technology but also safeguarding their data, protecting their brands, and reducing their environmental impact.

    Contact ATR for Customized Solutions

    Telecommunications manufacturers interested in partnering with ATR are encouraged to contact us to discuss how we can customize a solution to meet their clients’ specific needs. Our expertise, industry credentials, and commitment to secure, compliant disposal make us the ideal partner for manufacturers looking to offer their customers a full lifecycle management solution.

    Conclusion

    The telecommunications industry is at a pivotal moment, where secure and sustainable asset disposal is no longer a luxury but a necessity. Advanced Technology Recycling (ATR) is ready to help manufacturers take responsibility for the end-of-life management of their equipment, offering customized, secure, and compliant solutions that protect both their clients and their brands.

    By partnering with ATR, manufacturers can take an active role in defining best practices and ensuring that they are aligned with the highest standards for security, environmental responsibility, and regulatory compliance. For more information or to schedule a consultation with our telecommunications liaison contact Stacy Jackson-Marsh for additional details.

    About ATR
    Advanced Technology Recycling (ATR) is a Certified Woman Owned, US Based, Nationwide Company formed in 2002 with 7 locations to meet the growing needs of Business-to-Business customers seeking transparent, compliant ITAM/ITAD solutions providing one of the industry’s most comprehensive electronic recycling service portfolios. Visit  ATReCycle.com for additional information.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Blunt Rochester, Kiggans Applaud House Passage of Legislation to Preserve U.S. Coastlines

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE-AL)

    WASHINGTON – Last night, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE-AL) and Congresswoman Jen Kiggans’ (VA-02) bill, H.R. 5490, the Bolstering Ecosystems Against Coastal Harm (BEACH) Act. This bipartisan legislation aims to protect Delaware’s coastline by approving new, expanded maps under the Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CBRA). A companion to this bill led by U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), the Strengthening Coastal Communities Act, passed the U.S. Senate unanimously in April.

    CBRA employs a market-driven approach to coastal conservation by prohibiting most federal funds from being used for development in storm prone, ecologically sensitive coastal areas. This not only helps preserve wildlife habitats, but also maintains critical buffers against storms and flooding. Importantly, CBRA does not prohibit or regulate development by state and local governments or private owners; it simply ensures hard-earned tax dollars are not used to fund risky investments in ecologically sensitive areas.

    “As the lowest-lying state in the country, Delaware feels the impact of the climate crisis every day. That’s why I am committed to strengthening our communities against extreme weather events,” said Rep. Blunt Rochester, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “The BEACH Act is a bipartisan effort to help us achieve that goal, not only in Delaware but nationwide. I am confident that the policies I authored in the House-passed bill, such as extending disaster loan eligibility to aquaculture businesses for the first time and authorizing a study on coastal barrier areas vulnerable to extreme weather, will protect Delawareans and our natural resources from hazards including flooding, storm surge, wind erosion, and sea level rise. I appreciate Congresswoman Kiggans’ collaboration on this bill, and I look forward to working with our colleagues to get it passed into law.”

    “For 40 years, the Coastal Barrier Resources Act has not only protected millions of acres of beaches and wetlands, but also prevented billions of dollars in property damage from natural disasters and undoubtedly saved lives,” said Congresswoman Kiggans. “I’m proud that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle joined me in making our coastal communities more resilient by passing the BEACH Act unanimously. We owe it to ourselves and the generations after us to take care of the world we live in, and my legislation does exactly that. I urge the Senate to take up this legislation so that we can continue to be good stewards of our environment and taxpayer dollars.”

    In April of 2022, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identified 96,435 additional acres in Virginia to be included in the Coastal Barrier Resources System (CBRS), including 1,422 of land and 95,013 acres of wetlands and estuarine areas. The BEACH Act would authorize these maps and related protections for use in the CBRS. Today, 163,589 acres along Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic coast are included in the CBRA system including 974 acres of land and 42,192 acres of wetlands where nearly all federal spending is prohibited. There are also 7,696 acres of land and 112,727 acres of wetlands in “Otherwise Protected Areas,” where only federal flood insurance is prohibited.

    A 2019 economic study reported CBRA has saved U.S. taxpayers $9.5 billion and is projected to save another $11-108 billion over the next 50 years. These protected coastal areas provide habitats for economically important fish and shellfish, recreational opportunities for hunters, and flood protection for nearby coastal communities. Acting as nature’s “speed bumps,” these coastal areas absorb impacts from storms and hurricanes and provide more than $23 billion per year in storm protection services nationwide. During Hurricane Sandy in 2012, coastal wetlands prevented $625 million in property damages from Maine to North Carolina.

    “Coastal barriers provide significant economic and ecosystem benefits,” said Dr. Derek Aday, VIMS Dean & Director. “There is clear scientific evidence that these benefits are enhanced through policies that allow coastal barriers and their associated estuaries, lagoons, tidal flats, and wetlands to remain in their most natural state. Based on the evidence, VIMS supports the BEACH Act.”

    “The BEACH Act is a win-win for birds and people,” said Portia Mastin, Coastal Conservation Policy Manager at the National Audubon Society. “Expanding protected coastal areas not only ensures that shorebirds can nest, feed, and rest safely—it also provides a buffer of healthy beaches and wetlands to absorb storms and flooding that would otherwise put our coastal communities at risk.”

    “Birds tell us we must act on climate, as increased storms, droughts, and sea-level rise puts pressure on both our wildlife and communities around the country,” said Felice Stadler, Vice President of Government Affairs at the National Audubon Society. “These important bills provide balanced solutions to the dual biodiversity and climate crises that we are witnessing, and we are pleased to see them move forward.” 

    “Healthy coastal ecosystems provide numerous protections and benefits to both people and wildlife,” said Emily Donahoe, Policy Specialist for Resilient Coasts and Floodplains at National Wildlife Federation. “Expanding the Coastal Barrier Resources System is an important step to improve the resiliency of our coastlines, protect critical habitats, and save taxpayer dollars.”

    You can view the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposed changes to the CBRA System in Delaware here.

    You can read the full text of the BEACH Act here and a one pager on the bill here.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Kugler, How We Got Here: A Perspective on Inflation and the Labor Market

    Source: US State of New York Federal Reserve

    Thank you, John, and thank you for the opportunity to speak here today.1 It is good to be back at the Kennedy School and in particular at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center, which has a long tradition of engaging on important policy issues.
    In my remarks today, I will provide my outlook for the U.S. economy and the implications for monetary policy. The combination of significant ongoing progress in reducing inflation and a cooling in the labor market means that the time has come to begin easing monetary policy, and I strongly supported the decision last week by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) to cut the federal funds rate by 50 basis points. While future actions by the FOMC will depend on data we receive on inflation, employment, and economic activity, if conditions continue to evolve in the direction traveled thus far, then additional cuts will be appropriate.
    I will begin by summarizing where we stand on inflation, including details on how the different components of inflation have changed over time, since these facts form the basis for my judgment on where inflation is headed. I will then talk about the recent cooling in the labor market and the forces driving it as well as how shifts on this other side of our mandate fit into the overall economic outlook for the rest of this year. I will conclude with the implications of all this for appropriate monetary policy and our focus on our dual mandate.
    Inflation based on personal consumption expenditures (PCE) has come down from a peak of 7.1 percent on a year-on-year basis to 2.5 percent in July. Core PCE inflation, which excludes energy and food prices and tends to be less volatile, has come down from a peak of 5.6 percent to now 2.6 percent. Based on consumer and producer price indexes, I estimate headline PCE and core PCE inflation to be at about 2.2 and 2.7 percent, respectively, in August, consistent with ongoing progress toward the FOMC’s 2 percent target. The progress on inflation is good news, but it is important to remember that households and businesses are still dealing with prices for many goods and services that are significantly higher than a couple of years ago. Prices for groceries, for example, are about 20 percent higher than before inflation started rising in 2021, and while earnings have been rising faster than inflation, it may take some time for it to feel as though prices are back to normal.2
    Inflation data are produced by the Labor Department, and when I served as chief economist at Labor, I delved into the differential effects of inflation on various demographic groups. When inflation was at its peak in 2022, it was more than 1 percentage point higher for lower-income households, for those without a college degree, and for those aged 18 to 29—all groups that spend a higher share of income on necessities and have less wealth to draw from.3 Fortunately, research by staff at the Fed shows that disinflation helps close that gap as well, something that only adds to the urgency I feel about returning inflation to the FOMC’s 2 percent goal.
    Research on the causes of inflation and the subsequent disinflation show that both supply and demand forces have played an important role. In the past two years, specifically, improvements in supply, along with moderation in demand in part due to tighter monetary policy, have both played a role in the disinflationary process.4 Supply chain bottlenecks as well as the drastic drop in the labor force due to excess retirements and the withdrawal of prime-age workers contributed to the initial rise in inflation, but the resolution of these disruptions and the return of workers to the labor force have also helped rein in inflation. Early on, consumers shifted spending from services to goods, a development that goods producers struggled to accommodate, putting upward pressure on prices. But as the demand shock to goods unwound and consumer spending shifted back to services, goods inflation fell and has been running below zero in recent months. Also, the increased demand due to the fiscal response to COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021 has more recently been roughly neutral on growth, as shown by the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy in their measure of fiscal impact. And, of course, as I will discuss in a moment, tight monetary policy has been and continues to be a moderating force on demand, primarily by raising costs for interest-sensitive goods and services.
    As I think about where inflation is headed, I find it helpful to consider how it has evolved over the past several years and in particular how the major components of inflation have behaved, so I want to take a few minutes to walk through those details.
    As I have indicated, the big picture is that goods inflation surged early on in 2020 and 2021, followed by prices for services excluding housing, and then housing, with some overlap in those steps. Disinflation has followed that course in reverse. Core goods inflation rose, after almost a year of social distancing shifted spending from services and after production and delivery of goods was disrupted by the pandemic. This was a big change because over the long expansion leading to the pandemic, core goods prices actually fell, slightly but consistently.5 On a 12-month basis, core PCE goods inflation rose above zero in December 2020, reached a peak of 7.6 percent in February 2022, and fell again below zero at the end of 2023. In July of this year, it was negative 0.5 percent. This recent disinflation offset still-rising prices for services and helped reduce overall inflation. Goods inflation has reverted to its longer-term pattern as demand has moderated and supply chain problems have abated. This is reflected by various indexes of supply chain bottlenecks that showed the supply-side disruptions that contributed early on to surging inflation have now retreated to pre-pandemic levels.6 Other data show that computer chip supply, which fell far short of demand early in the pandemic, is back to normal conditions as well.
    Food and energy prices, always subject to larger ups and downs than other parts of inflation, rose also early on. Food inflation increased in 2020 as shoppers began stockpiling groceries and as warehouses and production facilities had difficulty staffing due to COVID. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, energy price inflation reached a peak 12-month rate of nearly 45 percent and food inflation reached a peak of 12 percent in mid-2022, highlighting the importance of petroleum and agricultural commodities from that part of the world. Food and energy inflation has moderated over the past two years and are now both running at 12-month rates of 1.4 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively, as supply chain issues have resolved and production in the U.S. and elsewhere has increased. Food and energy expenses represent a sizable share of consumer spending, but the frequent purchase of these goods means that they are highly salient in the public’s views on inflation. Research by Francesco D’Acunto and coauthors has shown that the weights that consumers assign to price changes in forming their inflation expectations are not based on the actual share of their expenditures but instead on the frequency of purchases, which happen to be highest for food and energy goods.7 Thus, the fall in food and energy prices is important because it may feed back into lower inflation in other categories by moderating overall inflation expectations and also real wage expectations in wage bargaining.
    Housing services price increases were the last component of inflation to escalate, rising to a peak 12-month rate of 8.3 percent in April 2023 and moderating to a 5.3 percent pace in July. It took time for housing prices to escalate and has taken longer for them to moderate because of both the nature of the rental market and the data collection method from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as I have discussed at length in other speeches.8 However, new rent increases, which better capture rental price changes in real time, are falling and are the main reason why I expect housing services costs to moderate furt
    her.
    The final component of inflation is services excluding housing, which accounts for 50 percent of PCE inflation and is heavily influenced by labor markets. On a 12-month basis, this component of inflation rose to a peak of 5.3 percent in December 2021, stayed persistently high until February 2023, and has moderated since then to 3.3 percent in July of this year. Its escalation was driven both by the rise in labor costs and by the transition of demand from goods to services following the pandemic. Labor costs are a substantial share of the total costs for services. For example, labor accounts for between 60 percent to 80 percent of costs in construction, education, and health services.
    Among the initial forces driving the escalation in wages were the increase in food and energy prices, as wage demands tend to track closely with the prices of these frequently purchased goods. Data on wage demands from the New York Fed’s Survey of Consumer Expectations indeed show a sudden increase early on during the pandemic right after the first bout of food inflation.9 Importantly, worker shortages likely allowed those higher wage demands to be realized, contributing to the rise in wages. Later, as demand for services quickly rose and employers were creating a large number of jobs in several service sectors, workers were able to be more selective, and the ensuing “Great Resignation” took hold, allowing people to choose different careers. The relatively high demand relative to the supply of workers in some service sectors encouraged workers to move from job to job for higher wages, benefits, and other improvements in working conditions. Evidence from the Atlanta Fed’s Wage Growth Tracker suggests that during this period, wages for job switchers grew more than 2 percentage points faster than wages for people staying in the same job, though this wage premium for job switchers disappeared by the second half of last year.
    But now inflation for services excluding housing is declining, after a temporary escalation in the first quarter of this year that was likely partly due to residual seasonality. There had been fears that wage increases would drive a wage–price spiral, as the U.S. experienced in the 1970s, but this did not occur.
    To sum up, inflation has broadly moderated as the supply of goods and services has improved, and as producers and consumers have adjusted to the effects of higher prices. Demand has moderated, in part due to tighter monetary policy. And, as I just noted, changes in the pace of wage growth have also played an important role in the ups and downs of inflation, which points me toward a discussion of labor markets, which has recently become a greater focus of monetary policy.
    As I have noted, there has been a significant moderation in the labor market recently, but I want to start by pointing to what really has been a remarkable performance of the labor market over the past four years. After the unprecedented job losses early in the pandemic, and even accounting for the quick recovery of a large share of those losses, the recovery of the labor market that followed was historically swift. Unemployment was 7.8 percent in September 2020 and 4.7 percent only 12 months later, and it fell to under 4 percent 3 months after that. That is a more rapid recovery than the U.S. has experienced since the 1960’s. What started, at that point, was 30 straight months of unemployment at or below 4 percent, which had not happened during the pre-pandemic period, the boom of the 1990s, or anytime during the 1980s, and it was only exceeded by the strong labor market of the latter half of the 1960s. Something that I think was just as remarkable has been the narrowing of the typical gap between labor market outcomes for less-advantaged groups. For example, there has been a reduction in the unemployment rate between Black and Latino workers, on the one hand, and white workers, on the other hand. There has also been a narrowing of the prime-age labor force participation rate among these groups, and, perhaps most notable of all, wage inequality among them has narrowed, which is not typical during economic expansions, according to research by David Autor and several coauthors.10 They found that one benefit of the unusually tight labor market of the past few years was that the heightened competition for scarce workers produced more rapid wage gains for workers at the bottom of the wage distribution. The real wage gains for those in the lower quartiles of the distribution and with higher propensities to consume, in turn, likely spurred consumption and helped sustain growth after the pandemic.
    After a couple of years in which labor demand exceeded supply, the labor market has come into balance, reflecting an economy that has moderated in part due to tighter monetary policy. On the labor supply side, two forces have contributed to this rebalancing of the labor market. Labor force participation suffered due to the disruptions in work during the pandemic but rebounded strongly in 2022 and 2023 as the labor market tightened and wages rose sharply. The labor force participation rate for prime-age women reached historic highs over the past year and reached yet another historic record high in August. The overall increase in participation among workers aged 25 to 54, in the prime of their working lives, helped offset the loss of many workers aged 55 and over who experienced excess retirements during the pandemic. The second force boosting labor supply has been the large increase in immigration. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that net immigration boosted the U.S. population by close to 6 million people in 2022 and 2023, the majority of them of working age, and, by most accounts, rates of immigration have remained high in 2024.
    As a result of improved supply and easing of demand for workers, the labor market has rebalanced. After running at very low levels, unemployment has edged up this year to 4.2 percent in August, still quite low by historical standards. The slowdown in labor demand is most evident in payroll numbers. Job creation averaged 267,000 a month in the first quarter of the year and now stands at an average of 116,000 in the three months ending in August, which is still a healthy pace of job creation. Yet, given recent revisions in the payroll numbers, it is important to continue monitoring additional labor market indicators. In addition, the fall in diffusion indexes suggests that job creation cooling has been broad based, complementing the payroll data in showing rebalances in demand and supply across sectors. Beyond payroll data, voluntary quits, which tend to reflect the rate at which people find a better job, are now back around where they were before the pandemic. The ratio of job vacancies to the number of people looking for work, the V/U ratio, has also fallen close to its pre-pandemic ratio.11 In summary, after a period of demand exceeding supply, the labor market appears to have rebalanced.
    In tandem with the cooling in the labor market, economic activity has slowed but is still expanding at a solid pace. After adjusting for inflation, gross domestic product (GDP) grew 2.5 percent in 2023 and at around a 2 percent annual rate in the first half of 2024. Personal spending, which accounts for the majority of economic activity, has been solid this year, supported by a resilient labor market so far and high levels of household wealth relative to income. But given a rise in credit card and auto delinquencies, a rise in credit card balances, and a cooling labor market, I expect spending to grow at a somewhat more moderate pace moving forward.
    Certainly, tight monetary policy has contributed to cool off aggregate demand and slow the economy. It has done so in large part by slowing spending on interest-sensitive expenditures, such as housing, as well as autos and other durable goods. Other spending typically financed with credit, such as business equipment, has also been slower.
    Another effect of tight monetary policy is to keep expectations of future inflation in check. And, to the extent that ex
    pectations affect decisions by businesses to set prices and by workers to negotiate wages, this has helped put downward pressure on inflation. Survey- and market-based measures of future inflation did increase when inflation surged, but only modestly, and they have moved down in tandem with inflation and have largely returned to their 2019 levels.
    In conclusion, I would say that recent economic developments, against the backdrop of the experience of the past four years, have validated the Federal Reserve’s focus on reducing inflation and set the stage for the shift in monetary policy that occurred last week. The progress in bringing down inflation thus far, coupled with the softening in the labor market that I have described, means that while our focus should remain on continuing to bring inflation to 2 percent, we should now also shift attention to the maximum-employment side of the FOMC’s dual mandate. The labor market remains resilient, but the FOMC now needs to balance its focus so we can continue making progress on disinflation while avoiding unnecessary pain and weakness in the economy as disinflation continues in the right trajectory. I strongly supported last week’s decision and, if progress on inflation continues as I expect, I will support additional cuts in the federal funds rate going forward.
    Thank you.

    1. The views expressed here are my own and are not necessarily those of my colleagues on the Federal Reserve Board or the Federal Open Market Committee. Return to text
    2. Unlike in previous recoveries, those in the lower half of the distribution have benefited more from the real earnings increases during the post-pandemic period. The 12-month change in average hourly earnings and the employment cost index have been rising faster than consumer price index inflation for those in the first and second quartiles since 2019 and since 2022, respectively, and for everyone across the distribution for roughly a year. Return to text
    3. See Xavier Jaravel (2021), “Inflation Inequality: Measurement, Causes, and Policy Implications,” Annual Review of Economics, vol. 13, pp. 599–629. Return to text
    4. Different approaches allow a parsing of the relative contributions of supply and demand, top-down approaches by Bernanke and Blanchard (forthcoming) and Benigno and Eggertson (2023) and bottom-up approaches by Braun, Flaaen, and Hoke (2024) and Shapiro (2022); see Ben Bernanke and Olivier Blanchard (forthcoming), “What Caused the U.S. Pandemic-Era Inflation?” American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics; Pierpaolo Benigno and Gauti B. Eggertsson (2023), “It’s Baaack: The Surge in Inflation in the 2020s and the Return of the Non-Linear Phillips Curve,” NBER Working Paper Series 31197 (Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research, April); Robin Braun, Aaron Flaaen, and Sinem Hacioglu Hoke (2024), “Supply vs Demand Factors Influencing Prices of Manufactured Goods,” FEDS Notes (Washington: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, February 23); and Adam Hale Shapiro (2022), “How Much Do Supply and Demand Drive Inflation?” FRBSF Economic Letter 2022-15 (San Francisco: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, June 21). All of these studies agree that both supply and demand shocks contributed to the surge in inflation as well as its fall. Return to text
    5. The causes most often cited by economists are competition from globalized trade and productivity gains, including from technological advances. Return to text
    6. The most commonly used indicators of supply chain bottlenecks are the Global Supply Chain Pressure Index produced by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Supplier Deliveries Index from the Institute for Supply Management, and the percent of answers to the question of why production is not at capacity in the Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity Utilization fielded by the Census Bureau and funded by the Federal Reserve Board. Return to text
    7. See Francesco D’Acunto, Ulrike Malmendier, Juan Ospina, and Michael Weber (2021), “Exposure to Grocery Prices and Inflation Expectations,” Journal of Political Economy, vol. 129 (May), 1615–39. Return to text
    8. Rental prices are the basis for all estimates of housing service costs. Prices tend to change only when rented homes change tenants, which happens relatively infrequently. Prices tend to change more when there are new tenants, while the majority of lease renewals tend to keep the same price-generating persistence. In addition, the Bureau of Economic Analysis samples rents only every six months. As a result, substantial lags are built into the official statistics. See Adriana D. Kugler (2024), “The Outlook for the Economy and Monetary Policy,” speech delivered at the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., February 7; Adriana D. Kugler (2024), “Some Reasons for Optimism about Inflation,” speech delivered at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington, D.C., June 18. Return to text
    9. The Survey of Consumer Expectations from the New York Fed collects data on “reservation wages,” which are what workers report as being the minimum wage that they would require to accept a job. Return to text
    10. See David Autor, Arindrajit Dube, and Annie McGrew (2024), “The Unexpected Compression: Competition at Work in the Low Wage Labor Market,” NBER Working Paper Series 31010 (Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research, March; revised May 2024). Using Current Population Survey microdata, they show that increased labor market competition for scarce workers produced more rapid real wage gains at the bottom of the wage distribution, reducing wage inequality. Return to text
    11. I consider here a V/U ratio in which the numerator is the ratio of the vacancy rate for the total nonfarm sector computed as job openings over the labor force. Job openings data are from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey fielded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The denominator is the unemployment rate. The last data point available for job openings is July 2024, while the last data point for the unemployment rate is August. Return to text

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Ahead of 1 October, Rosen Gives Speech on Senate Floor Honoring Victims of Tragic Shooting, Calling on Congress to Ban Bump Stocks

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV)
    Watch Senator Rosen’s Speech HERE.
    WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, ahead of what will be seven years since the 1 October shooting in Las Vegas, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) delivered remarks on the Senate floor to honor the sixty lives lost and highlight how Nevada was forever changed by this senseless violence, the deadliest mass shooting in American history. She also recognized the heroism of Las Vegas’s first responders and urged further action by Congress to prevent gun violence, including banning bump stocks.
    Senator Rosen has been a leader in the fight against gun violence. Following this year’s Supreme Court decision to reverse the Trump-era bump stock ban, Senator Rosen joined bipartisan legislation to permanently ban bump stocks. Last year, she helped introduce the Resources for Victims of Gun Violence Act to provide all victims of gun violence and their loved ones with the resources to help meet medical, legal, financial, and other needs. Senator Rosen also recently helped introduce the Background Check Expansion Act to expand federal background checks to all commercial gun sales, including those made online and at gun shows. She helped pass the historic Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to enhance background checks on firearm purchases for individuals under 21, fund the implementation of red flag laws, combat firearms trafficking, and invest in school safety and mental health programs. 
    Below are Senator Rosen’s floor remarks as delivered:
    Mr. President,
    This year will mark seven years since my community of Las Vegas was forever changed on October 1st, 2017.
    On that night, we experienced a tragedy on a scale far worse than anyone could have ever imagined.
    Ten minutes. Ten minutes is all it took for a gunman to open fire on an unsuspecting crowd at a music festival, killing 58 innocent lives, injuring thousands, and leaving a permanent scar on our state.
    Sadly, in the years since, two more victims of that night’s attack died because of injuries they received during the shooting, bringing the death toll to 60.
    It remains the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
    The families of the victims of that tragedy had their worlds shattered that day, their lives forever changed. 
    Families who didn’t get to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, holidays. And the families who never got to say goodbye to their loved ones.
    That night also changed the lives in our city. People who were attending or working at the Route 91 Harvest festival, the first responders who ran towards danger to save lives. 
    And in the following days, we saw lines of people, lines of people around entire blocks willing to donate blood, willing to help in any way they could.
    This kind of selflessness embodies the incredible spirit of our community. It showed the country why we’re Vegas Strong.
    And as we remember and as we reflect on this tragedy, we must also commit ourselves to action so that no community has to experience the pain and suffering like we did. 
    The 1 October shooter was able to inflict as much pain and carnage as he did by using bump stocks.
    This dangerous modification allowed his weapon to fire more bullets faster, as a way to inflict the most amount of pain on our city. Over 1,000 bullets, 1,000 bullets in just a matter of minutes.
    And it was in response to this carnage that then-President Donald Trump issued a federal rule banning bump stocks. It helped save lives from these deadly modifications.
    But unfortunately, the Supreme Court overturned this common-sense federal ban, allowing bump stocks to flow into our streets once again.
    This shameful decision, shameful decision by the Supreme Court will put more lives at risk, which is why I joined bipartisan legislation to restore this common-sense federal ban on bump stocks.
    And when members of this chamber tried to pass this bipartisan legislation, extremists in this body, what did they do? They blocked us, and some even had the audacity to say this legislation was trying to solve a “fake problem.” 
    A “fake problem.”
    Mr. President, should we tell the families who lost a loved one at the hand of a firearm using a bump stock on 1 October that it’s a “fake problem?” A fake problem that they’re sad at every holiday, and every meal, and every Thanksgiving table that their loved one is missing? A “fake problem?”
    Their grief is real. Their loss is real, and their loss is forever. This is not a “fake problem.”
    It’s a very real problem, and there are real solutions. But once again, Congress has failed, year after year, to act.
    Las Vegas knows how the real threat, what the real threat of bump stocks are and why we must act. 
    And as we approach the seventh anniversary of this unthinkable tragedy,  I ask all my colleagues in this chamber to remember and to honor the memories of the victims, to honor their families, to honor everyone whose lives were forever changed from the night and the shooting on October 1st, 2017.
    I also ask that we come together, Republicans and Democrats, in a bipartisan way to save lives by just passing common-sense legislation to ban bump stocks. 
    Thank you.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: McConnell: Subservience To Autocrats Neither An American Value Nor Strategic Interest

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Kentucky Mitch McConnell
    ‘Hungary’s leaders have made no secret of their conviction that the future is one of American decline. They’re not hiding the ways they’re preparing for American weakness and betting on our failure. There’s nothing tough about bowing to autocrats. And there’s nothing for America’s leaders to gain by praising those who do.’
    WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding NATO:
    “I’ve spoken frequently about the welcome signs that America’s European allies are waking up to the strategic challenge posed by the PRC, and to the dangers of predatory Chinese influence in their own backyards.
    “Like America, our allies are watching the flaws of China’s statist economic model laid bare. They’re increasingly wary to hitch their wagons to a totalitarian system that stifles innovation, discourages free thought, and complicates free enterprise.
    “They’re hesitant to take risks in a system where the rule of law is trampled by the whims of the state, and assets are subject to expropriation by the regime.
    “Encouraging progress, like a German security strategy that explicitly recognizes the Chinese threat, and efforts across the EU to reduce reliance on Chinese technologies, presents opportunities for the West to work closer together. To secure supply chains. And to lower barriers to cooperation among allies.
    “Unfortunately, this progress is not across-the-board. China may not be a safe business partner, but it’s still an enticing one for far too many economies… including within the NATO alliance.
    “I’ve spoken before about Hungary’s decade-long drift into the orbit of the West’s most determined adversaries. It’s an alarming trend. And nobody – certainly not the American conservatives who increasingly form a cult of personality around Prime Minister Viktor Orban – can pretend not to see it.
    “Hungary’s leaders aren’t cozying up to Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran in private. They’re doing it publicly and vocally as well.
    “The Orban government has welcomed China’s view of a ‘European bridgehead’ in Hungary as the perfect complement to its own declared policy of an ‘opening to the East.’ And it hasn’t been shy about turning words into actions.
    “When Chinese state enterprise has said jump, Hungarian officials have asked, how high?
    “As European allies began to heed warnings from the Trump Administration to reduce reliance on Chinese industry and technology, Budapest repeatedly blocked EU progress and welcomed a geyser of Chinese Belt-and-Road investment.
    “Included in the torrent of PRC influence was five-hundred-million Euros from a Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer to build a new facility on Hungarian soil… and another seven-billion-euro investment in a new EV battery plant.
    “Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of a former vassal of Russian communism has nothing but praise for the neo-Soviet imperialist responsible for the first major land war in Europe since 1945.
    “Viktor Orban describes the regime that has sacrificed tens- if not hundreds of thousands of Russian lives and more than $200 billion dollars in military force for its unprovoked – and thus far unsuccessful – aggression against Ukraine as ‘hyper-rational’.
    “But this NATO Prime Minister doesn’t just admire Putin. He helps him. His government runs interference for Moscow, gumming up European and trans-Atlantic efforts to combat Russia’s unlawful aggression at every turn.
    “European allies are providing more assistance to Ukraine than the US is, but Americans who complain the EU isn’t doing more to help Ukraine should look no further than to Budapest’s efforts to block additional EU assistance for the answer.
    “And then there’s Budapest’s relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Hungary’s Foreign Minister has bemoaned that ongoing international sanctions make it ‘really challenging to build effective economic and trade cooperation’ with the world’s most active state sponsor of terror.
    “I have little sympathy for Hungarian companies that struggle to profit from their ties to the genocidal regime in Tehran.
    “Of course, that hasn’t stopped Hungarian firms from committing tens of millions of dollars to financing joint nuclear projects with Iran.
    “It didn’t stop a national Hungarian university from inviting the former Iranian President to a conference on ‘common values in the global environment’.
    “’Common values’ with Tehran. And here I thought it was American conservatives who claimed shared values with Hungary’s ruling party. Has the Orban government forgot its adoring fans on this side of the Atlantic?
    “No. Hungary’s leaders have made no secret of their conviction that the future is one of American decline. They’re not hiding the ways they’re preparing for American weakness and betting on our failure.
    “There’s nothing tough about bowing to autocrats. And there’s nothing for America’s leaders to gain by praising those who do.
    “Subservience to revanchist powers is not an American value. But far more importantly, it is not in America’s interests.”

    MIL OSI USA News –