Category: Germany

MIL-OSI Africa: Africa relies too heavily on foreign aid for health – 4 ways to fix this

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Francisca Mutapi, Professor in Global Health Infection and Immunity. and co-Director of the Global Health Academy, University of Edinburgh

There’s been a global trend in the reduction of aid to Africa since 2018. Donors are shifting their funding priorities in response to domestic and international agendas. Germany, France and Norway, for instance, have all reduced their aid to Africa in the past five years. And, in 2020, the UK government reduced its Overseas Development Aid from 0.7% of gross national income to 0.5%.

Many health services across the African continent rely heavily on overseas aid to provide essential care. International funding supports everything from vaccines and HIV treatment to maternal health programmes.

Cuts to aid, particularly unilateral ones, can have widespread implications. For instance, about 72 million people missed out on treatment for neglected tropical diseases between 2021 and 2022 due to UK aid cuts.

The freeze of US aid to Africa in January 2025 is the latest in this trend. It’s already having significant and wide-ranging impacts across the African continent. For example, vaccination campaigns for polio eradication and HIV/Aids treatment through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar) have been stopped. This puts millions of lives at risk. In South Africa alone, the cut of Pepfar’s US$400 million a year to HIV programmes risks patients defaulting on treatment, infection rates going up and eventually a rise in deaths.

President Donald Trump’s actions have highlighted Africa’s reliance on foreign aid for health funding. I’m a global health expert who sits on various funding and advisory boards, including those of the World Health Organization (WHO), the UK government and boards of global resource mobilisation organisations. I am well aware of the competing funding priorities for international funders and have long advocated for local, sustainable health funding mechanisms.

Long-term strategies to reduce aid dependency are critical. Breaking away from this current funding status requires concerted efforts building on proven best practice.

Read more: How nonprofits abroad can fill gaps when the US government cuts off foreign aid

Country-leadership and ownership

African countries currently face the unique challenge of simultaneously dealing with high rates of communicable diseases, such as malaria and HIV/Aids, and rising levels of non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

But Africa’s health systems are not sufficiently resourced. They’re not able to provide appropriate, accessible and affordable healthcare to address these challenges.

African governments spend less than 10% of their GDP on health, amounting to capital expenditure of US$4.5 billion. This falls short of the estimated US$26 billion annual investment needed to meet evolving health needs.

Aid goes towards filling this funding gap. For example, in 2021, half of sub-Saharan African countries relied on external financing, such as grants and loans, for more than one-third of their health expenditures.

Foreign aid has helped. But it clearly leaves African countries vulnerable to the political mood swings among funders.

It also leads to loss of self-determination in terms of health priorities as, ultimately, the funder determines the health priorities. This is one reason why many programmes in Africa focus on a single disease, such as HIV. This leads to poorly integrated health services. For instance health workers or services are channelled into managing a single disease.

New, underutilised financing options

The current trajectory of reduced aid to Africa is likely to continue. Global aid is being directed to other challenges, such as conflict and illegal immigration.

The continent cannot continue on the same path while hoping for different outcomes. Africa needs to grow a range of immediately available domestic financing options. Many of these are underutilised and include:

1.) Diversifying domestic resource mobilisation. This should include commodity taxation to fund health. For instance, tobacco taxes which are currently underutilised in Africa.

Zimbabwe offers a successful example. It has bridged donor resource gaps through its 3% Aids levy (started in 1999). Imposed on both individual and corporate incomes, it funds domestic HIV/Aids prevention, care and treatment programmes.

Nigeria’s another country that’s taken initiative, prioritising domestic budget allocation to health. It recently absorbed the 28,000 healthworkers formerly paid by USAid. This demonstrates that domestic health financing in Africa is possible.

2.) More private-public partnerships. Formed between local and international philanthropies or institutions, these can bridge financing gaps.

One successful example is the 2015 health service provision partnership between the Kenyan government and GE Healthcare. GE Healthcare provides radiography equipment and services which the government pays for over time. This allows the government to budget and plan healthcare expenditure over several years.

3.) Promotion of regional integration to boost local production. This will reduce the need for aid-funded imported medical products.

For instance, the African Union’s harmonised Africa Medicines Authority registration facility creates a single continental market for medicines. This supports local producers and exporters, by allowing them to operate on a larger scale. It also makes production and distribution more cost-effective. Finally, it reduces the reliance on imported medicines, strengthening Africa’s pharmaceutical industry.

4.) Leverage development finance institutions. These are specialised financial organisations – such as the Africa Development Bank, African Export-Import Bank and the Development Bank of Southern Africa. They can provide capital and expertise to projects deemed too risky for traditional investors. This includes support for health financing for infrastructure development, private sector development for small and medium-sized enterprises and the regional integration.

One transformative initiative is the AfricInvest investment platform. With support from development finance institutions in the US and Europe, AfricInvest has raised over US$100 million for health investment in Africa. It has funded at least 45 dialysis facilities in Africa, delivering over 130,000 dialysis sessions annually, primarily to remote and underserved communities all at affordable costs.

A combination of these approaches at national, regional and continental level will accelerate Africa’s withdrawal from aid dependency.

– Africa relies too heavily on foreign aid for health – 4 ways to fix this
– https://theconversation.com/africa-relies-too-heavily-on-foreign-aid-for-health-4-ways-to-fix-this-249886

MIL OSI Africa –

February 25, 2025
MIL-OSI Security: Met officer dismissed for football hooliganism

Source: United Kingdom London Metropolitan Police

A Met officer has been dismissed without notice for football hooliganism, and handed a three-year banning order.

A misconduct hearing was held last week for Arsenal supporter Detective Constable Gordon Irikefe, attached to Central South Command Unit, following his behaviour at a Bayern Munich v Arsenal match.

The officer also attended Westminster Magistrates’ Court today, Monday 24 February, in relation to his actions at Arsenal matches between October 2022 and April 2024.

Detective Superintendent Emma Bond, in charge of policing for the Central South area, said: “DC Irikefe has shown an unacceptable pattern of behaviour at football matches, for anyone, let alone a police officer who should uphold the highest of standards whether on or off duty.

“His actions have not only seen him now subject to a football banning order, but have also cost him his job.

”I am grateful to professional standards and football unit colleagues for pulling together the evidence in this case to ensure we have been able to take decisive action.”

A misconduct hearing was held on Thursday, 20 February following allegations DC Irikefe lit and threw a pyrotechnic into the crowd at a football match in Munich while off duty on Wednesday, 17 April last year.

DC Irikefe was also arrested that day by German police for wearing a full balaclava and sunglasses inside the stadium. He was fined 100 Euros for the ‘masking’ offence.

The hearing found he had breached the standards of professional behaviour for discreditable conduct at the level of gross misconduct.

DC Irikefe resigned on Wednesday, 12 February but his notice period meant he was still a serving officer when his misconduct hearing was held, therefore he was dismissed without notice.

He appeared at court today after investigating officers from the Met’s Central Football Unit made an application for a football banning order to prevent violence and disorder. DC Irikefe had been served with a summons on Thursday, 10 October.

The court heard that since October 2022 DC Irikefe had come to police notice on numerous occasions for disorderly and anti-social behaviour at football matches, including the matters in Germany for which he had also been disciplined, receiving management action.

In February 2023 he was heard ‘tragedy chanting’ at a Leicester City march, shouting ‘helicopter’. Other allegations included making lewd gestures and shouting abuse at a substitute player, ‘masking up’ to conceal his identify and intimating other fans including using pyrotechnics.

The order was granted and will be in place for the next three years. DC Irikefe is banned from attending any regulated football matches in the UK and must surrender his passport when asked to do so in relation to football matches played outside the UK.

He cannot go within one mile of the Emirates stadium if Arsenal are playing four hours before and after the match, nor visit any town, city or London borough four hours before and after an away match.

He must not go without two miles of any stadium where the England national team are playing four hours before and after the match.

Following his dismissal, DC Irikefe will also be placed on the barred list held by the College of Policing. Those appearing on the list cannot be employed by police, local policing bodies (PCCs), the Independent Office for Police Conduct or His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services.

MIL Security OSI –

February 25, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Second shipment of high level waste from the UK to Germany
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

News story

Second shipment of high level waste from the UK to Germany

Sellafield Ltd and Nuclear Transport Solutions are making preparations for the second return of high level waste, in the form of vitrified residue, to Germany.
Seven flasks will be transported from Sellafield via a German port to the Isar Federal storage facility in the first half of 2025.

This will be the second of three shipments from the UK to Germany. The first shipment of 6 flasks, to Biblis, was successfully completed in 2020.

The waste results from the reprocessing and recycling of spent nuclear fuel at the Sellafield site in West Cumbria, which had previously been used to produce electricity by utilities in Germany.

Vitrified residue returns are a key component of the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) strategy to repatriate high level waste from the UK, fulfil overseas contracts and deliver UK Government policy.

These returns involve Sellafield Ltd working in partnership with Nuclear Transport Solutions (NTS) to return the waste to German customers.

The waste will be transported by sea on a specialist vessel to a German port, then onwards by rail to its final destination.

The shipments will be carried out in full compliance with all applicable national and international regulations, and subject to issue of all relevant permits and licenses.

Sellafield Ltd and NTS will provide further information on the shipments in due course.

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Published 24 February 2025
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
February 25, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: 3 ways Trump is acting like a king and bypassing the Constitution’s checks and balances on presidential authority

Source: The Conversation – USA – By David Lopez, University Professor of Law, Rutgers University – Newark

Donald Trump’s efforts to expand presidential power defy the Constitutional separation of powers. zimmytws/iStock via Getty Images

I learned basic civics in my public school. But mostly, because it was more interesting, I also learned civics after school watching the animated series “Schoolhouse Rock,” often with my abuela – my grandmother – who took care of me.

Back then, “Schoolhouse Rock” had a wonderful episode, “Three Ring Government.” In singing narration, the characters explained “about the government, and how it’s arranged, divided in three, like a three-ring circus.”

Those three circles, all the same size, kept each other honest. For many in my generation, those three rings were our introduction to the idea of the checks and balances built into the U.S. government. They include the separation of powers among the legislative, judicial and executive branches.

In short, we learned, Congress passes the laws, the president administers the laws, and the courts interpret the laws.

This elegant but simple system stood in contrast to the nearly unshackled power of the British king, who ruled over the American colonies before independence. And it provided representation for “We the People,” because we vote for members of Congress.

During its first month, the second Trump administration has pushed a new balance of these powers, granting the president expansive and far-reaching authority. These actions imperil the power of elected lawmakers in the House and Senate to pass legislation, oversee the federal government and exercise spending authority.

Most U.S. legal scholars regarded these issues as fairly settled. Trump’s recent actions, however, have unsettled this understanding.

Here are three examples of how the balance of power is being upset by Trump and his administration:

The explanation of the separation of powers in the U.S. government in “Schoolhouse Rock.”

Independent agencies

On Jan. 28, 2025, President Donald Trump fired Gwynne Wilcox, a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board, three years before the end of her five-year term.

The National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, established in New Deal legislation in 1935, was designed to ensure industrial peace by protecting the rights of workers to organize and bargain collectively. Congress created the board as a bipartisan body to resolve allegations of unfair labor practices brought by workers or management.

By design, the board operated independently from Cabinet-level departments. Congress sought to preserve this independence by ensuring that board members serve a fixed term and could be removed only for “neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, but for no other cause.”

This independent structure – shared by other agencies such as the Securities Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission – aims to provide regulatory consistency, slightly removed from the political passions of the day.

Some legal scholars have been percolating an argument that the Constitution requires the Supreme Court to limit those agencies’ Congressionally endowed independence in favor of more expansive presidential authority, even though the court decided this issue unanimously in 1935.

Wilcox is suing the administration for its apparent violation of Congress’ statutory language by firing her.

“Ms. Wilcox is the first Black woman to serve on the Board, the first Black woman to serve as its Chair, and – if the President’s action is allowed to stand – will also be the first member to be removed from office since the Board’s inception in 1935,” the lawsuit states.

If this case makes it to the Supreme Court, and the court takes the unusual step of reversing itself, its ruling would imperil the independent structure, not just of this agency but of other agencies too.

Asylum laws

Congress created a comprehensive system of laws for processing the asylum claims of people who say they are fleeing persecution or torture to seek protection in the U.S.

These laws allow applicants to show likelihood of harm if they could not stay in the U.S. They were originally adopted in response to humanitarian crises, including when Jews fleeing Nazi Germany were turned away by the U.S., among other countries.

As part of Trump’s declaration, on his first day in back in office, that immigration is both a “national immigration emergency” and an “invasion” under Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution, the president essentially shut down the asylum process at U.S. ports of entry. His proclamation canceled the appointments of those who had waited to pursue their claim under existing asylum procedures.

In doing so, Trump ignored critical portions of laws passed by Congress. This move places asylum seekers already in the U.S. in danger of being deported to the countries where they say they face life-threatening persecution or torture.

Congressional spending authority

Protesters near the White House oppose President Donald Trump’s freeze on federal grants and loans on Jan. 28, 2025.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Under the Constitution, Congress has the power to set spending amounts and priorities for the federal government. By law, the executive branch cannot spend what has not been appropriated – meaning approved by Congress – nor can it stop that spending.

Shortly following the inauguration, however, Trump’s Office of Management and Budget ordered a pause of federal grants and loans to organizations and programs ranging from Head Start to farm subsidies.

Almost immediately, several states, concerned about the loss of essential federal services, filed a lawsuit to halt the freeze. A federal court in Rhode Island sided with the plaintiffs and temporarily stayed the freeze.

The judge rejected the Trump administration’s argument that it must “align Federal spending and action with the will of the American people as expressed through Presidential priorities,” calling it “constitutionally flawed.” And he concluded that the president could not act unilaterally under the Constitution.

“Congress has not given the Executive limitless power to broadly and indefinitely pause all funds that it has expressly directed to specific recipients and purposes,” wrote the judge, John J. McConnell, Jr. “The Executive’s actions violate the separation of powers.”

“Schoolhouse Rock” taught that one ring must respect the other coequal rings. What has happened under Trump is one ring expanding in size to swallow up much of another ring – that of Congress.

‘Kinglike’ powers?

Several of the Trump administration’s recent actions appear designed to test the legal viability of an expansive, more “kinglike” view of presidential powers.

Yet for the most part, Congress as an institution has mostly remained silent as the executive branch invades its sphere of authority.

Instead, the courts have served as a check on his power by stalling, temporarily, more than a dozen of Trump’s presidential actions that surpass the executive powers permitted under various laws and the Constitution.

Most of these stays are only temporary. They were issued based on the recognition that the immediate harm of unlawful presidential overreach would be difficult to roll back.

In the end, the Supreme Court will likely decide the scope of presidential powers in the various contexts. If they rule in Trump’s favor, the U.S. government will become a one-ring circus run by a kinglike president – precisely what it was never meant to be.

Gwynne Wilcox is a Rutgers Law grad and has spoken to our class.

– ref. 3 ways Trump is acting like a king and bypassing the Constitution’s checks and balances on presidential authority – https://theconversation.com/3-ways-trump-is-acting-like-a-king-and-bypassing-the-constitutions-checks-and-balances-on-presidential-authority-249347

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 25, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: How Elon Musk’s deep ties to – and admiration for – China could complicate Trump’s Beijing policy

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Linggong Kong, Ph.D. Student, Auburn University

Elon Musk holds an outsized influence in the new Trump administration.

As head of his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the world’s wealthiest man has enjoyed nearly unfettered political power in slashing and refashioning the federal government as he sees fit. And it has quickly become clear that he has the president’s ear on issues beyond that brief.

But on one topic, Musk stands somewhat apart from others in the coterie of aides and advisers around Trump: China. In contrast to the many hawks in the new Trump cabinet who call for a hard-line approach on China, Musk is a striking outlier.

As an expert on China-U.S. relations who has monitored Musk’s views on China, I don’t find his long history of espousing pro-Chinese sentiment surprising, given that he has sought throughout to get a business hold in the country.

But those entanglements are worth scrutiny, given Musk’s role in the Trump administration at a time when one of America’s biggest foreign policy challenges is how to manage its relationship with Beijing.

Musk’s journey to the East

For years, Musk has had significant business interests in China, with Tesla’s Shanghai factory, Tesla Giga Shanghai, playing a crucial role in the company’s global operations.

Since its opening in 2019, the Shanghai plant has surpassed Tesla’s Fremont, California, facility in both size and productivity, now accounting for more than half of the company’s global deliveries and a majority of its profits. Moreover, nearly 40% of Tesla’s battery supply chain relies on Chinese companies, and these partnerships continue to expand.

Elon Musk walks with Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong during the groundbreaking ceremony for a Tesla factory in Shanghai on Jan. 7, 2019.
STR/AFP via Getty Images

Notably, Tesla was the first foreign automaker permitted to establish operations in China without a local partner, following a change in ownership regulations. The Shanghai factory was constructed with the support of US$1.4 billion in loans from Chinese state-owned banks, granted at favorable interest rates.

Between 2019 and 2023, the Shanghai government also provided Tesla with a reduced corporate tax rate of 15% – 10 percentage points lower than the standard rate.

The cost advantages of manufacturing in Shanghai, which include lower production and labor expenses, have further cemented Tesla’s reliance on the Chinese market.

Given that Musk’s wealth is largely tied to Tesla stock, his financial standing is increasingly dependent on the company’s fortunes in China, making any potential disengagement from the country both economically and strategically challenging.

Tesla’s continued investment in China underscores this dependency. On Feb. 11, 2025, the company opened its second factory in Shanghai — a $200 million plant that is set to produce 10,000 megapack batteries annually. It’s the company’s first megapack battery factory outside the U.S..

This investment deepens Tesla’s presence in China amid a new wave of U.S.-China trade tensions. On Feb. 1, the Trump administration imposed a 10% tariff on Chinese imports, prompting Beijing’s retaliation with tariffs on American coal, liquefied natural gas, agricultural equipment and crude oil.

A Chinese fan

It remains unclear to what extent Musk’s financial interests in China will translate to real influence over the Trump administration’s policy toward Beijing. But Musk’s long history of pro-China remarks suggests the direction he wants the administration to move.

During his visit to Beijing in April 2024, Musk praised the country, noting also: “I also have a lot of fans in China – well, the feeling is mutual.”

His admiration appears to hinge in part on how he views business and labor practices in China. In that vein, Musk has criticized American workers as lazy and has faced U.S. labor law disputes, while simultaneously praising Chinese workers for “burning the 3 a.m. oil” under an intensely repressive labor system.

In numerous posts on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, which he owns, Musk has also praised China’s infrastructure and high-speed rail system, lauded its space program, applauded its leadership in global green energy initiatives and urged his followers to visit the country.

Musk has also opposed U.S. efforts to decouple from China, describing the countries’ economies as “conjoined twins,” despite a sizable part of the foreign policy establishment in the West viewing decreased dependency on China as necessary for security interests amid rising geopolitical tensions.

On the issue of Taiwan, the most dangerous flashpoint in U.S.-China relations, Musk has compared Taiwan to Hawaii, arguing that it is an integral part of China and noting that the U.S. Pacific Fleet has prevented mainland China from achieving reunification by force.

Musk further suggested that the Taiwan dispute could be resolved by allowing China to establish Taiwan as a special administrative zone, similar to Hong Kong.

His remarks were shared and welcomed by China’s then-ambassador to the U.S., who, in a post on X, emphasized China’s so-called peaceful unification strategy and advocated for the “one country, two systems” model.

Trump’s back-channel envoy?

The big question going forward is how Musk’s financial stakes in, and stated admiration for, China will translate into attempts to influence the U.S. administration’s China policy, particularly given Musk’s unconventional advisory role and the strong faction of anti-China hawks in Trumpworld.

Given Musk’s approach to China, it’s hard to see him not trying to use his influence with the president to push for somewhat warmer relations with Beijing.

If such counsel were heeded, it’s easy to envision Musk leveraging his deep ties to China, particularly his close personal relationship with China’s current second-ranking official, Premier Li Qiang, who was the Shanghai party chief when Tesla’s factory was built. In the scenario, Donald Trump could tap Musk as a back channel for diplomacy to ease U.S.-China tensions and facilitate bilateral cooperation when needed.

To this point, it was, perhaps, telling that it was Musk who met with China President Xi Jinping’s envoy to Trump’s inauguration, Vice President Han Zheng, on the eve of the event.

But it’s far from certain that Trump wants that diplomatic role for Musk, or that other voices won’t win out with regard to Beijing. In his first term, Trump launched an unprecedented trade war and tech blockade against China, fundamentally reshaping U.S.-China relations and pushing the U.S. toward something of a bipartisan consensus to counter Beijing that has existed for several years.

Trump’s tariff moves and second-term picks for top trade and commerce roles, like Peter Navarro and Jamieson Greer — who played key roles in the trade war against China during the president’s first term — suggest that Trump’s commitment to further decoupling from China remains strong.

Furthermore, Musk’s business interests and personal wealth tied to China could leave him vulnerable to Chinese influence. By leaning on Musk’s close ties with Trump, China could use his dependence on the Chinese market as a bargaining chip to pressure Trump into making concessions on issues of major strategic importance to Beijing.

China has a history of coercing foreign companies reliant on its market into making compromises on matters concerning its national interests. For instance, Apple removed virtual private network apps from its app store in China at the government’s request. Similarly, Tesla could face comparable pressure in the future if Beijing wants to use Musk as a cudgel to influence policy in the Trump administration. Notably, as the head of DOGE, with access to sensitive data from multiple agencies, Musk could find himself caught between U.S. security scrutiny and China’s strategic targeting.

So long as Musk retains the influence with Trump that he holds now, it’s conceivable that his pro-China sentiments will translate into attempts to influence government policy. Yet even if this is to be the case, whether those efforts succeed will depend on the president and his other advisers, many of whom are seeking an aggressive front against Beijing and are likely to view Musk as an impediment rather than ally in that fight to come.

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

– ref. How Elon Musk’s deep ties to – and admiration for – China could complicate Trump’s Beijing policy – https://theconversation.com/how-elon-musks-deep-ties-to-and-admiration-for-china-could-complicate-trumps-beijing-policy-249988

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 25, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Ukraine war: Trump is not trying to appease Putin – he has a vision of a new US-China-Russia order

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Stefan Wolff, Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham

There has been much and justified focus on the implications of a likely deal between US president Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and the overwhelmingly negative consequences this will have for Ukraine and Europe. But if Trump and Putin make a deal, there is much more at stake than Ukraine’s future borders and Europe’s relationship with the US.

As we are nearing the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s future is more in doubt than it has ever been since February 2022. For once, analogies to Munich in 1938 are sadly appropriate. This is not because of a mistaken belief that Putin can be appeased, but rather because great powers, once again, make decisions on the fate of weaker states and without them in the room.

Similar to the pressure that Czechoslovakia experienced from both Germany and its supposed allies France and Britain in 1938, Ukraine is now under pressure from Russia on the battlefield and the US both diplomatically and economically. Trump and his team are pushing hard for Ukraine to make territorial concessions to Russia and accept that some 20% of Ukrainian lands under Russia’s illegal occupation are lost. In addition, Trump demands that Ukraine compensate the United States for past military support by handing over half of its mineral and rare earth resources.

The American refusal to provide tangible security guarantees not only for Ukraine but also for allied Nato troops if they were deployed to Ukraine as part of a ceasefire or peace agreement smacks of the Munich analogy. Not only did France and Britain at the time push Czechoslovakia to cede the ethnic German-majority Sudetenland to Nazi Germany. They also did nothing when Poland and Hungary also seized parts of the country. And they failed to respond when Hitler – a mere six months after the Munich agreement – broke up what was left of Czechoslovakia by creating a Slovak puppet state and occupying the remaining Czech lands.

There is every indication that Putin is unlikely to stop in or with Ukraine. And it is worth remembering that the second world war started 11 months after Neville Chamberlain thought he had secured “peace in our time”.

The Munich analogy may not carry that far, however. Trump is not trying to appease Putin because he thinks, as Chamberlain and Daladier did in 1938, that he has weaker cards than Putin. What seems to drive Trump is a more simplistic view of the world in which great powers carve out spheres of influence in which they do not interfere.

The state of the conflict in Ukraine, February 20 2025.
Institute for the Study of War

The problem for Ukraine and Europe in such a world order is that Ukraine is certainly not considered by anyone in Trump’s team as part of an American zone of influence, and Europe is at best a peripheral part of it.

Trump-eye lens on the world

For Trump, this isn’t really about Ukraine or Europe but about re-ordering the international system in a way that fits his 19th-century view of the world in which the US lives in splendid isolation and virtually unchallenged in the western hemisphere. In this world view, Ukraine is the symbol of what was wrong with the old order. Echoing the isolationism of Henry Cabot, Trump’s view is that the US has involved itself into too many different foreign adventures where none of its vital interests were at stake.

Echoing Putin’s talking points, the war against Ukraine no longer is an unjustified aggression but was, as Trump has now declared, Kyiv’s fault. Ukraine has become the ultimate test that the liberal international order failed to pass.

The war against Ukraine clearly is a symbol of the failure of the liberal international order, but hardly its sole cause. In the hands of Trump and Putin it has become the tool to deal it a final blow. But while the US and Russia, in their current political configurations, may have found it easy to bury the existing order, they will find it much harder to create a new one.

The push-back from Ukraine and key European countries may seem inconsequential for now, but even without the US, the EU and Nato have strong institutional roots and deep pockets. For all the justified criticism of the mostly aspirational responses from Europe so far, the continent is built on politically and economically far stronger foundations than Russia and the overwhelming majority of its people have no desire to emulate the living conditions in Putin’s want-to-be empire.

Nor will Trump and Putin be able to rule the world without China. A deal between them may be Trump’s idea of driving a wedge between Moscow and Beijing, but this is unlikely to work given Russia’s dependence on China and China’s rivalry with the US.

If Trump makes a deal with Xi as well, for example over Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea, let alone over Taiwan, all he would achieve is further retrenchment of the US to the western hemisphere. This would leave Putin and Xi to pursue their own, existing deal of a no-limits partnership unimpeded by an American-led counter-weight.

From the perspective of what remains of the liberal international order and its proponents, a Putin-Xi deal, too, has an eerie parallel in history – the short-lived Hitler-Stalin pact of 1939. Only this time, there is little to suggest that the Putin-Xi alliance will break down as quickly.

Stefan Wolff is a past recipient of grant funding from the Natural Environment Research Council of the UK, the United States Institute of Peace, the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK, the British Academy, the NATO Science for Peace Programme, the EU Framework Programmes 6 and 7 and Horizon 2020, as well as the EU’s Jean Monnet Programme. He is a Trustee and Honorary Treasurer of the Political Studies Association of the UK and a Senior Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Centre in London.

– ref. Ukraine war: Trump is not trying to appease Putin – he has a vision of a new US-China-Russia order – https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-trump-is-not-trying-to-appease-putin-he-has-a-vision-of-a-new-us-china-russia-order-249979

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 25, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Gilead’s lenacapavir could revolutionize HIV prevention, says GlobalData

Source: GlobalData

Gilead’s lenacapavir could revolutionize HIV prevention, says GlobalData

Posted in Pharma

Gilead Sciences has announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted its New Drug Application (NDA) submissions for lenacapavir for HIV prevention. Lenacapavir was granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation for HIV prevention by the FDA in October 2024 and will be reviewed by the FDA under priority review. The FDA has set a target action date of June 19, 2025, under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA). If approved, lenacapavir has the potential to revolutionize HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Stephanie Kurdach, Infectious Disease Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Gilead’s lenacapavir, an HIV-1 capsid inhibitor, is already marketed in the US, EU, and numerous other countries, under the brand name Sunlenca, for the treatment of adults with multidrug-resistant HIV. If approved by the FDA, lenacapavir will become the first and only twice-yearly injectable for HIV PrEP.”

Conventional PrEP is administered orally once daily, but according to Phase III clinical trial data, lenacapavir demonstrated superiority in preventing HIV infections when compared with the once daily comparator, Truvada (emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate). Further, lenacapavir was generally well-tolerated with no new safety concerns observed.

Key opinion leaders (KOLs) interviewed by GlobalData have expressed positive opinions on the development of lenacapavir for PrEP. KOLs were largely in agreement that the trial data was impressive, and the route of administration and frequency of administration make lenacapavir a practical and promising option, although they also expressed concerns about cost, long term efficacy, and the potential development of resistance mechanisms.

Kurdach continues: “Lenacapavir’s route of administration and frequency of administration make it an enticing option for PrEP, not only for those at-risk of HIV infection in the US, but also in areas where adherence to a daily oral PrEP regimen is low, such as sub-Saharan Africa.”

Gilead also recently announced the submission of marketing authorization applications to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for lenacapavir for PrEP. One of the applications seeks European Commission authorization, and the other application would facilitate availability of the PrEP regimen in low- and lower-middle-income countries.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that 2.6 million people received at least one dose of PrEP in the WHO African region in 2023. According to GlobalData epidemiologists, there were 491,201 people receiving PrEP in the US and 263,726 people receiving PrEP in the 5EU* in 2023. Between 2023 and 2033, these numbers are expected to increase by over 30% in the US and by nearly 40% in the 5EU. These projections indicate the need for more convenient PrEP options worldwide.

Kurdach concludes: “Lenacapavir has the potential to transform HIV prevention, which could translate to increased PrEP adherence rates, and lower incident cases of HIV worldwide.”

*France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK

MIL OSI Economics –

February 24, 2025
MIL-OSI: Information on unaudited Financial statements for the twelve month period as at 31st of December of 2024
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

Urbo Bankas, a Lithuanian capital bank, generated a net profit of EUR 7.4 million in 2024. The Bank’s loan portfolio grew by 30.6% to EUR 414.5 million last year, while the Bank’s assets at the end of the year stood at EUR 634.8 million, or 15.8% more than a year earlier (EUR 548.1 million).

“2024 was a good year for the Lithuanian economy. At a time when even the major European countries such as Germany and France were struggling, our economy has adapted and demonstrated both impressive GDP growth (compared, again, to the European Union) and high consumer expectations, which are also contributing significantly to the positive economic trends. It has been a good year for our bank as well – we have maintained consistent, sustainable growth and improved our performance in all key categories of banking activity, from the number of loans issued or the deposit portfolio to the bank’s assets and shareholders’ equity,” says Marius Arlauskas, Head of Administration of Urbo Bankas.

In addition to the aforementioned almost one-third increase in the loan portfolio, the deposits held with Urbo Bankas reached EUR 543.9 million at the end of December last year, up EUR 76.4 million year-on-year. The Bank’s net interest income increased by a tenth, or EUR 2.1 million, to EUR 22.9 million. The annual net profit for 2024 of EUR 7.4 million was EUR 857 thousand lower than in 2023, which, according to Mr. Arlauskas, was due to lower commission income and investments in the bank’s developments.

“In 2024, the bank entered a new phase of its development – we changed the long-standing name of Medicinos Bankas and became Urbo, we renewed our visual identity, and we moved our headquarters, which had been located on Pamėnkalnio Street in Vilnius, to the central business district of Vilnius, Konstitucijos Avenue, and settled down in Artery, a modern and sustainable business centre,” shares the Head of Administration of the Bank.

In the last quarter of last year, net service fee and commission income of Urbo Bankas decreased by 29.9% (EUR 1.5 million) to EUR 3.5 million compared to the last quarter of 2023, mainly due to a 70.2% (EUR 0.8 million) decrease in payment collection income and an 88.2% (EUR 0.4 million) decrease in brokerage income. The net result from foreign currency operations decreased by 26.5% (EUR 0.9 million) to EUR 2.4 million in the reference period.

“Looking at economic trends, there is little doubt that this year will be better than the last one: there is no threat of new spikes in inflation, GDP should grow by at least 3%, and wage growth, although not reaching a tenth, should remain high. It is expected that the Euribor base rate may be lowered to 2% this year, all of which will increase both the demand for Lithuanian exported goods and services and domestic consumption,” says Mr. Arlauskas, adding that the positive economic trends will also have a positive impact on the bank’s long-term performance.

The shareholders’ equity of Urbo Bankas was EUR 64.3 million on the last day of the previous year and has increased by 13.3% during the year since 31 December 2023, when it was EUR 56.7 million. At the end of 2024, customer service network of Urbo Bankas consisted of 25 territorial branches with 280 employees.

For more information please contact: Julius Ivaška, Head of Business Division, tel. +370 601 04 453, e-mail media@urbo.lt

Attachment
- Unaudited Financial Statements 2024-12-31
The MIL Network –
February 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Who is Friedrich Merz, the man now most likely to lead Germany? Eight things to know

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Ed Turner, Reader in Politics, Co-Director, Aston Centre for Europe, Aston University

With the social democrat Olaf Scholz conceding defeat to the centre right in Germany’s election, the man most likely to be named the next chancellor will be Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz.

The CDU has emerged as the largest party with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) second – its best-ever result in a federal election.

Merz will have to assemble a coalition government, which will involve some tough negotiations, but Europe’s leaders can be expected to treat him as a “chancellor in waiting”. Here are eight things to know about the man about to take one of the most important political positions in Europe.

1. He’s taking his party further to the right

The first thing you need to know about Merz is that he and former chancellor Angela Merkel were longstanding rivals and sparring partners. Back in the early 2000s, after Merkel became leader of the CDU, she ousted Merz from his role as the party’s parliamentary leader, taking on the role herself.

Merkel never made Merz a minister, and indeed he decided not to run for parliament again in 2009, having already begun to focus on his various private sector interests (as a lawyer but also a company board member). Merz was critical of Merkel’s decision to shift the CDU to the centre ground and was concerned it would open up space for the AfD to move into.

Read more:
What is the AfD? Germany’s far-right party, explained

When Merz did become party leader in 2022, he began rewriting of the party’s programme in a much more conservative direction.

2. He’s an economic liberal

Merz takes a very different economic view to Merkel, at least in the latter years of her chancellorship. In 2003, he argued for a radical simplification of Germany’s tax rules such that a tax return could be calculated on the back of a beer mat.

His party’s 2025 manifesto argued for deregulation and tax cuts to boost Germany’s sluggish growth. Part of this, Merz argued, should be funded by more conditionality being applied to welfare recipients, with a complete stop on benefits for recipients who refused to take any form of work on. In 2024, he also said he’d do “everything” to stop the EU taking on common debt.

3. He’s a social conservative

In his younger years, Merz was in the Catholic youth movement. He has a record of voting against abortion and has made a few awkward comments about homosexuality (saying of Klaus Wowereit, a gay mayor of Berlin, “I don’t mind as long as he doesn’t come near me”). In a strange comment, he once referred to his wife and daughters as evidence he didn’t have a problem with women. In a TV debate with Scholz, Merz was asked about Donald Trump’s recognition of only two genders, and reacted: “You can understand his position.”

In 2000, Merz spoke of a German Leitkultur (loosely, “leading culture”, as contrasted with “multiculturalism”) – a term now in common parlance in Merz’s CDU.

4. He’s a transatlantacist

From 2009 to 2019, Merz chaired the Atlantic Bridge, a prominent German organisation devoted to strengthening relations between Germany and the US. He is a transatlanticist by instinct and recently sent a hand-written note to Donald Trump congratulating him on his election, noting his “strong mandate for leadership”. However, in a statement on election night, Merz pledged to “achieve independence” from the US and recognised that Trump is “largely indifferent” to Europe’s fate.

5. He’s pro-European

With some caveats (for instance around common debt and cooperation over refugees) Merz is a pro-European. He was a member of the European parliament between 1989 and 1994, and has been clear that closer European cooperation is an essential part of Europe’s answer to Trump.

He has also patched up relations with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen (with whom, as a Merkel ally and CDU liberal he had little instinctive attraction), and sees potential in cooperation with her and with Manfred Weber, a CSU politician and leader of the European parliament’s centre-right MEPs.

Merz has also pledged to visit Warsaw and Paris to rebuild relations after a difficult period under Scholz.

6. His dealings with the far right have been controversial

Merz has been consistently inconsistent when it comes to relations with the AfD. He mused in 2023 about the possibility of cooperation at a local level, noting that “we are obliged to recognise democratic elections”, before rowing back.

In November 2024, Merz said he and his party would not attempt to pass legislation in the national parliament if it meant relying on AfD votes to do it. But he shocked the nation in January 2025 when he did precisely that – pushing forward a hardline immigration plan with the AfD’s support.

Read more:
What happened in the German parliament and why is the far right hailing it as a ‘historic’ moment?

The volte face earned him criticism from his nemesis, Merkel – although that’s not something likely to have concerned him unduly.

7. He’ll be hemmed in by coalition politics

Merz will need to strike a deal with multiple other parties in order to govern. That will make his flagship programme of tax cuts hard to achieve, since cuts to welfare or climate spending would be anathema to all potential coalition partners.

Germany’s other parties instead want Merz to reconsider Germany’s “debt brake” – the constitutional rules that restrict government borrowing. He’ll be under even more pressure to do so given a broad consensus over the need to raise defence spending.

Perhaps it will take a conservative fiscal hawk to assemble the necessary two-thirds majorities in both chambers of parliament for change.

8. He’d like to visit… Tibet?

Finally, among rather thin pickings in popular reporting on Merz’s hobbies, a softball interview last summer told us he likes modern classical music and Beethoven, and one day hopes to visit Tibet.

But holidays will be some way from his priorities at the moment. There is a strong desire in Europe for Germany to play a more active leadership role once again. At a time when Trump is noisily backing away from underscoring European security and supporting Ukraine, Merz is keenly aware of the void being opened up, and is determined that Germany, with its European allies (including even the UK) will step up.

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

– ref. Who is Friedrich Merz, the man now most likely to lead Germany? Eight things to know – https://theconversation.com/who-is-friedrich-merz-the-man-now-most-likely-to-lead-germany-eight-things-to-know-247643

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Friedrich Merz has won Germany’s election. But as the far right soars, forming a government may be difficult

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Matt Fitzpatrick, Professor in International History, Flinders University

Friedrich Merz’s centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has captured the highest proportion of votes in Germany’s election on Sunday. The celebrations could be short-lived, though, as the task of forming a government now looms.

As it stands, Germany’s public broadcaster has projected Merz’s CDU and its Christian Social Union (CSU) counterpart in Bavaria to win 208 seats in the Bundestag (28.5%). The ousted Social Democratic Party (SPD) has been reduced to 121 seats (16.5%), while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party achieved its biggest-ever result of 151 seats (20.7%).

Other minor parties have failed to meet the 5% threshold in the proportional German parliamentary system, limiting the possible options for a government to take shape.

Merz’s party did lift its vote share compared to its record low in 2021. And German voters have given him the opportunity to attempt forming a governing coalition.

However, his electoral strategy may have made it harder to solve a number of problems, many of them of his own making. Here are four key things his victory has failed to do, which could make governing in Germany more difficult.

1. Stem the number of voters to the far right

With the German economy in the doldrums, Merz would have easily won on the question of economic management alone. Strangely, however, his electoral strategy mimicked the anti-migrant rhetoric of the far-right AfD.

By noisily electioneering on the policy of stemming the flow of migrants and insisting at every opportunity that migrants (particularly those from the Middle East) were a threat to the German way of life, Merz has given legitimacy to what had been fringe policies.

Yet, the election results show that the Germans who were motivated to vote for an anti-migrant party went for the most virulent version (the AfD) – particularly in the old East Germany – and not Merz’s centre-right imitation.

Instead of stealing votes from the AfD, Merz has substantially contributed to the record showing of the far-right party by making immigration – and radical approaches to it – a central issue.

The smiles on the face of the AfD leadership after the election tell the story. The party may not be in government, but its policies will in all likelihood be pursued by a Merz government.

2. Exclude the left from German politics

The day before the election, Merz railed against “green and left crazies” and insisted “there is no longer left politics in Germany”.

The SPD vote did sink dramatically off the back of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ineffectual and lacklustre term in office. But the left-wing Die Linke party (The Left) rode the wave of anti-AfD and anti-Merz sentiment to return from the wilderness with its best election showing in almost a decade.

In particular, a rousing speech by Die Linke leader Heidi Reichinneck helped lift the mood on the left in response to Merz’s anti-migrant stance. Die Linke is back in the Bundestag, at least for another term.

3. Create a governing coalition

Merz has spent the past few weeks breaking taboos by working with the German far right and roundly abusing his opponents using the kind of intemperate language rarely seen in German politics. Now, he is faced with building a governing coalition.

He has painted himself into a corner. He has called the Greens party and Die Linke “crazies”. And his closest ideological ally, the Free Democrats (FDP), appear to have failed to reach the 5% hurdle to enter parliament after voters punished the party for effectively blowing up the last coalition government.

So shockingly poor was the FDP’s result, its leader, Christian Lindner, has offered his resignation.

Previously, a “grand coalition” between the CDU and SPD has been able to form a stable government. This was especially so under former-Chancellor Angela Merkel, the longtime CDU leader.

The centre-left SPD vote might just be large enough to form a coalition government with Merz’s CDU. Whether the SPD would do so after being shocked in the past few weeks by Merz’s dalliances with the far right remains an open question.

Scholz, the SPD leader, has categorically ruled out serving in a Merz cabinet. Whether he might resign to make way for a grand coalition remains to be seen, should one prove mathematically possible.

That leaves only the far-right AfD – the only other party potentially large enough to allow Merz to form a two-party coalition government. Merz has ruled out a CDU-AfD coalition as a threat to German democracy.

Merz will either have to radically revise his attitudes towards the parties to his left or break his word not to allow the far right into government. If he did the latter, he may very well become Germany’s 21st century Franz von Papen, the Weimar Republic-era leader widely viewed as having helped usher the Nazis to power in the 1930s.

4. Exorcise the ghost of Angela Merkel

Merz’s career has been marked by his inability to overcome Merkel and her vision of the CDU as the umbrella party of the democratic centre.

After dragging his party to the right, Merz has posted an electoral result lower than anything Merkel ever gained.

Even if his party is able to cobble together a coalition government, Merz will still sit in the shadow of his more democratically popular, centrist predecessor.

Matt Fitzpatrick receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is the President of the History Council of South Australia.

– ref. Friedrich Merz has won Germany’s election. But as the far right soars, forming a government may be difficult – https://theconversation.com/friedrich-merz-has-won-germanys-election-but-as-the-far-right-soars-forming-a-government-may-be-difficult-250621

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 24, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: Friedrich Merz has won Germany’s election. But as the far right soars, forming a government may be difficult

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matt Fitzpatrick, Professor in International History, Flinders University

Friedrich Merz’s centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has captured the highest proportion of votes in Germany’s election on Sunday. The celebrations could be short-lived, though, as the task of forming a government now looms.

As it stands, Germany’s public broadcaster has projected Merz’s CDU and its Christian Social Union (CSU) counterpart in Bavaria to win 208 seats in the Bundestag (28.5%). The ousted Social Democratic Party (SPD) has been reduced to 121 seats (16.5%), while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party achieved its biggest-ever result of 151 seats (20.7%).

Other minor parties have failed to meet the 5% threshold in the proportional German parliamentary system, limiting the possible options for a government to take shape.

Merz’s party did lift its vote share compared to its record low in 2021. And German voters have given him the opportunity to attempt forming a governing coalition.

However, his electoral strategy may have made it harder to solve a number of problems, many of them of his own making. Here are four key things his victory has failed to do, which could make governing in Germany more difficult.

1. Stem the number of voters to the far right

With the German economy in the doldrums, Merz would have easily won on the question of economic management alone. Strangely, however, his electoral strategy mimicked the anti-migrant rhetoric of the far-right AfD.

By noisily electioneering on the policy of stemming the flow of migrants and insisting at every opportunity that migrants (particularly those from the Middle East) were a threat to the German way of life, Merz has given legitimacy to what had been fringe policies.

Yet, the election results show that the Germans who were motivated to vote for an anti-migrant party went for the most virulent version (the AfD) – particularly in the old East Germany – and not Merz’s centre-right imitation.

Instead of stealing votes from the AfD, Merz has substantially contributed to the record showing of the far-right party by making immigration – and radical approaches to it – a central issue.

The smiles on the face of the AfD leadership after the election tell the story. The party may not be in government, but its policies will in all likelihood be pursued by a Merz government.

2. Exclude the left from German politics

The day before the election, Merz railed against “green and left crazies” and insisted “there is no longer left politics in Germany”.

The SPD vote did sink dramatically off the back of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ineffectual and lacklustre term in office. But the left-wing Die Linke party (The Left) rode the wave of anti-AfD and anti-Merz sentiment to return from the wilderness with its best election showing in almost a decade.

In particular, a rousing speech by Die Linke leader Heidi Reichinneck helped lift the mood on the left in response to Merz’s anti-migrant stance. Die Linke is back in the Bundestag, at least for another term.

3. Create a governing coalition

Merz has spent the past few weeks breaking taboos by working with the German far right and roundly abusing his opponents using the kind of intemperate language rarely seen in German politics. Now, he is faced with building a governing coalition.

He has painted himself into a corner. He has called the Greens party and Die Linke “crazies”. And his closest ideological ally, the Free Democrats (FDP), appear to have failed to reach the 5% hurdle to enter parliament after voters punished the party for effectively blowing up the last coalition government.

So shockingly poor was the FDP’s result, its leader, Christian Lindner, has offered his resignation.

Previously, a “grand coalition” between the CDU and SPD has been able to form a stable government. This was especially so under former-Chancellor Angela Merkel, the longtime CDU leader.

The centre-left SPD vote might just be large enough to form a coalition government with Merz’s CDU. Whether the SPD would do so after being shocked in the past few weeks by Merz’s dalliances with the far right remains an open question.

Scholz, the SPD leader, has categorically ruled out serving in a Merz cabinet. Whether he might resign to make way for a grand coalition remains to be seen, should one prove mathematically possible.

That leaves only the far-right AfD – the only other party potentially large enough to allow Merz to form a two-party coalition government. Merz has ruled out a CDU-AfD coalition as a threat to German democracy.

Merz will either have to radically revise his attitudes towards the parties to his left or break his word not to allow the far right into government. If he did the latter, he may very well become Germany’s 21st century Franz von Papen, the Weimar Republic-era leader widely viewed as having helped usher the Nazis to power in the 1930s.

4. Exorcise the ghost of Angela Merkel

Merz’s career has been marked by his inability to overcome Merkel and her vision of the CDU as the umbrella party of the democratic centre.

After dragging his party to the right, Merz has posted an electoral result lower than anything Merkel ever gained.

Even if his party is able to cobble together a coalition government, Merz will still sit in the shadow of his more democratically popular, centrist predecessor.

Matt Fitzpatrick receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is the President of the History Council of South Australia.

– ref. Friedrich Merz has won Germany’s election. But as the far right soars, forming a government may be difficult – https://theconversation.com/friedrich-merz-has-won-germanys-election-but-as-the-far-right-soars-forming-a-government-may-be-difficult-250621

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

February 24, 2025
MIL-OSI China: Conservative CDU/CSU leads German federal election

Source: China State Council Information Office

Germany’s conservative bloc, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU), has taken the lead in the country’s 2025 federal election, according to preliminary results released by German public broadcaster ARD on Sunday evening.

According to ARD’s latest vote counts, CDU/CSU secured 28.5 percent of the vote, followed by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) with 20.6 percent and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) with 16.5 percent.

The Greens came in fourth with 11.8 percent, ahead of Die Linke with 8.7 percent. The Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) are projected to receive 4.4 percent and 4.9 percent, respectively.

The election will determine the composition of the next Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament. A party must receive at least 5 percent of the national vote to gain representation in the Bundestag.

According to ARD, voter turnout during this election reached 84 percent, the highest level since 1990. The newly elected parliament will select Germany’s next chancellor following coalition negotiations among parties.

Friedrich Merz, chancellor candidate of the CDU/CSU, vowed to move swiftly to form a new government. “Tonight we will celebrate and from tomorrow we start working,” Merz said after the vote. “The world out there is not waiting for us.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz acknowledged the SPD’s historic defeat and stated that he would remain in office until a new coalition government is formed.

“This is a bitter election result for the Social Democratic Party, it is also an electoral defeat,” Scholz said. “I have the responsibility for the election result.”

Christian Lindner, who has served as FDP chairman for over 11 years, announced on social media that he will retire from politics after the election.

The FDP withdrew from the ruling coalition last year following disagreements with Scholz’s SPD.

The AfD, on the other hand, has approximately doubled its results from the 2021 election. Alice Weidel, co-leader of the AfD, said that her party is now firmly rooted in mainstream society, calling the election the “historically strongest result.”

The AfD has expressed its willingness to cooperate with the CDU/CSU in the upcoming coalition negotiations. However, Merz has ruled out the possibility of forming a coalition with the AfD.

Cooperation with the AfD has long been considered taboo by Germany’s major political parties.

While acknowledging the challenges of forming a government under current circumstances, Merz said he would strive for the goal of having a government in place by Easter.

On matters of diplomatic policy, he emphasized the need to strengthen Europe step by step, with the goal of achieving independence from the United States. During an appearance on ARD and ZDF’s TV program “Berliner Runde,” Merz noted that the Trump administration has been “largely indifferent” to the fate of Europe.

MIL OSI China News –

February 24, 2025
MIL-OSI China: Chinese FM calls for fair global governance, stronger multilateralism

Source: China State Council Information Office

China calls for establishing a fair and equitable global governance system and promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks while briefing Chinese media on his visits to Britain and Ireland, attending the 61st Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Germany, chairing the UN Security Council’s high-level meeting in New York, and participating in the Group of 20 (G20) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in South Africa.

China will take the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations as an opportunity to work with all parties to draw wisdom from history, usher in a new era of multilateralism, build a fair and equitable global governance system, and promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, Wang said.

As the current international landscape undergoes transformation and turbulence, with growing deficits in peace, development and governance, global governance has reached a historical crossroads, he said.

The international community has high expectations for how to strengthen the role of the UN and jointly address global challenges and regional hotspots, he added.

He said that as the rotating president of the UN Security Council for February, China chaired the Security Council’s high-level meeting on “Practicing Multilateralism, Reforming and Improving Global Governance” to reaffirm the original aspiration of the United Nations, build consensus on multilateralism and inject new momentum into strengthening global governance.

During the discussion, all parties agreed that the role of the UN is indispensable, the trend toward multilateralism is irreversible, and reforming and improving global governance cannot be delayed, Wang said.

Regarding this year’s MSC focus on multipolarity, Wang said that despite the complex challenges facing the world, peace, development and win-win cooperation remain unstoppable trends of the times.

The historical shift toward multipolarity and economic globalization is irreversible, he added.

A multipolar world is not only a historical inevitability but is also becoming a reality, Wang said, stressing that China will be a factor of certainty in this multipolar system and strive to be a steadfast constructive force in a changing world.

Noting that the G20 Summit will be held on the African continent for the first time this November, he said it is an “African moment” for both the G20 and global governance, demonstrating historic changes in the international political and economic landscape and carrying great significance.

Wang also said that during the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Johannesburg, China proposed listening to Africa’s voice, taking its concerns seriously, supporting its actions, and empowering Africa’s development through G20 cooperation to achieve common prosperity and progress, a proposal widely recognized by participants.

China will play an active and constructive role in G20 cooperation, firmly support South Africa’s presidency, and encourage all parties to focus on the theme of “Unity, Equality and Sustainability” to meet the common expectations of the Global South, Wang added.

MIL OSI China News –

February 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Text of the Vice-President’s address at 65th Convocation of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Excerpts)

Source: Government of India

Posted On: 22 FEB 2025 7:27PM by PIB Delhi

I’m extremely pleased to be at this university and there are two very special reasons.

One – The name of the university says it all, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University and then, the city where it is located is also very, very significant. These two things define what we stand for. Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj the name we got only recently. Belated, delayed but then reflects changing times that Bharat home to one-sixth of humanity is getting back into its groove. It is on way to securing its glory. I therefore feel privileged to be associated with this great occasion, 65th Convocation of this great university.

In last decade, Bharat has seen growth, exponential economic rise, phenomenal infrastructural upsurge, deep digitalisation, technology penetration of unknown scale globally accoladed. No nation in the world has grown so fast in economy and development in the last decade as Bharat has done. The strides we have made in our economy were beyond contemplation few years back. Our jump from 10th or 11th number in global economy status to 5th and on the way to becoming the third in a year or so ahead of Japan and Germany. This nation therefore is full of hope and possibility. India is no longer a nation with potential, it is a nation on the rise, the rise is unstoppable and the rise is incremental.

Our youth have bountiful opportunity, it is your turn. You are the most important stakeholder in democracy. Our Viksit Bharat is no longer a dream, it is our object. We all are marching towards that object. Some of us will drop on the way on account of age but those before me, young minds, you will be in driver’s seat. You will have to fire on all cylinders the engine of growth. I have no doubt, if not before at 2047 when Bharat celebrates centenary of its independence, India will be a developed nation.

Now let me indicate to you boys and girls, A developed Nation status is globally not defined but if you look around and find the various elements and parameters, the challenge is daunting, but achievable and implementable. We will have to increase our per capita income eightfold and, time therefore for all of us to move fast, move with commitment that commitment requires that we first believe in our Nation. Nation has always to be the first. We cannot keep National interest subservient to personal interest, to partisan interest, to commercial interest. Commitment to Nationalism is non-negotiable because it is directly connected to our freedom.

Therefore I call upon you to make your contributions in a massive way. Now an issue arises. What can individuals do? But let me tell you, individuals define a Nation by their discipline, by their decorum, by being good citizens. But let me indicate to begin with ‘Panch Pran’ and these ‘Panch Pran’ you will find are best in our civilizational ethos. They are essence and if I may say, nectar of our civilizational knowledge and worth, and one is, which is very easy, if we practice. Fact is, we are not practising, we have to practice, believe and work day in and day out.

Social transformation will come when we will have social harmony. Social harmony will define unity in diversity. This will convert our caste, creed, religion, the divisive situations to appear into a force of unity. Let us generate social harmony at all costs. Let us believe in family values, respect our elders, our parents, our neighbours, our neighbourhood. We are a different civilisation, by nature we are not materialistic, we are spiritualistic, we are religious, we are ethical. We are role model to rest of the world, and that model has been in operation for thousands of years. So please imbibe family values, nurture family values, respect your elders, respect your parents, and that cultural strength will give you stamina to contribute for the Nation. A seed of patriotism will automatically blossom. Third, Environmental protection– Now we know it, Climate Change menace, the plant is cliffhanging its existential challenge. धरती माँ के अलावा कोई और स्थान हमारे पास नहीं है। We are trustees, we have recklessly exploited it with the result, the danger is blooming, the time bomb is ticking. We have to do our bit.

Prime Minister has given a call ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam’, If we do it sincerely, and many are doing, in millions they are doing it. It will be a game changer but let us believe in environmental protection. Every Nation can be powerful only if it is Aatmanirbhar and for that we must believe in Swadeshi. Let us be Vocal about Local.

Our Constitution has given us fundamental rights but passage to fundamental rights has to be earned and that passage is when you perform fundamental duties, when you perform civic duties. Just imagine, in a country like ours, public order is challenged, public property is burned, people take to agitations where redress lies not on the street, but either in court of law or in theatres of legislature.

Time has come for every Indian to assess and audit performance of institutions. Mindset has to be changed, you have to be a very powerful pressure group. You have to ask, your public representatives, the bureaucracy, the executive, are you doing your job? Public representatives are elected through a massive exercise. For what? To engage in debate, dialogue, discussion, work policies for your welfare. Not to disturb function. Are they really doing it? If they are not performing their job, well you have a job cut out for them because now you have the power of social media.

मेरी दृढ़ मान्यता है कि हमको संकल्प लेना पड़ेगा कि हम सदैव इस बात को याद रखेंगे कि हम भारतीय हैं, भारतीयता हमारी पहचान है, राष्ट्रवाद हमारा धर्म।

राष्ट्र विरोधी ताकतें जो हमारे प्रजातांत्रिक मूल्यों पर कुठाराघात करती हैं, जो हमारे संविधान की आत्मा को धूमेल करना चाहती हैं, जो हमारी संस्थाओं को बदनाम करती हैं, जब वो कुठाराघात हमारे मूल आधार पर करती हैं, ऐसी ताक़तों के ऊपर हमारा प्रतिघात होना चाहिए। ये हर व्यक्ति का कर्तव्य है।

Look around the challenges we are seeing. हमारे भारत में, करोड़ों की संख्या में, ऐसे लोग रह रहे हैं, जिनकों यहां रहने का अधिकार नहीं है। वो किसी न किसी रूप में, अपनी आजीविका का सृजन कर रहे हैं। They are making their livelihood here, they are making demands on our resources, on our education, health sector, housing sector और अब तो बात आगे बढ़ गई है। They are intervening our electoral process. हमारी प्रजातांत्रिक व्यवस्था के अंदर, वो महत्वपूर्ण अंग बनते जा रहे हैं। निर्णायक अंग बनते जा रहे हैं। हम सबका कर्तव्य है, कि हम देश में इस प्रकार की मानसिकता का विस्तार करें। एक ऐसे वातावरण और वायुमंडल का निर्माण करें कि हर भारतीय इस बात के लिए सजग हो जाए।

जब दूसरा देश उन लोगों को यहां भेजता है, अपने देश के कानून के हिसाब से। और वो लोग कौन हैं? हमारे उन लोगों को भ्रमित करकर, लालच दिखाकर, लाभ देकर, उनको ठग कर वहां ले गए। कुछ देशों ने पाया गलत है, वापस भेज दिया पर यह परंपरा दशकों से चल रही है। पर यह काम हम कब शुरू करेंगे? हर भारतीय के मन में यह प्रश्न आना चाहिए, कि हम इसको अति शीघ्र शुरू करेंगे। यह बहुत बड़ी चुनौती हमारे सामने हैं।

एक नई बात और है, हर व्यक्ति का अधिकार है किस धर्म का पालन करे, हर व्यक्ति का अधिकार है मनमर्जी से धर्म अपनाये पर लालच देकर, लोभ by allurement, by temptation conversion होता है और उसका उद्देश्य होता है We will get supremacy by changing demography of the Nation। इतिहास साक्षी है, दुनिया के कुछ देश उदाहरण हैं। आप मेरे से ज्यादा समझदार हैं, जानकार है, पता लगा सकते हैं। देश का रूप ही मिट गया, वहां जो majority community थी, गायब हो गई।

We cannot allow this demography invasion, organic demographic growth is acceptable, but if this is disruptive with the sinister design to control, हमारे कान खड़े हो जाने चाहिए। हमारे लिए चिंतन-मंथन का विषय है। हमारा दर्शन, जो सदियों पुराना है, उसको चुनौती है।

Boys and girls, there is another challenge and please read between the lines, see behind the screen. In a systemic manner. The President is ridiculed, the Prime Minister is ridiculed, my position is ridiculed. Our institutions are tainted. Be it Election Commission or Judiciary. These are activities which are being undertaken by those at their heart, National interest is not there.

Recently, it has been revealed authoritatively that our elections were sought to be doctored, manipulated. ऐसी परिस्थिति में मेरा आग्रह रहेगा हर व्यक्ति से सजग रहे, सोचिए, पर्दाफ़ाश करें। And I appeal to organisations concerned, time has come to engage into deep investigation, thorough investigation at micro level, expose everyone connected with these sinister designs aimed at destabilizing our nation, trying to manipulate our democracy.

****

JK/RC/SM

(Release ID: 2105547) Visitor Counter : 48

MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

February 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: How to teach hope when democracy is retreating

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Joel Westheimer, University research chair in democracy and education, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

In the wake of Donald Trump’s reelection, the United States has lurched further toward a democratic crisis.

Institutions once considered stable now feel precarious. The assault on truth — already well underway — has intensified, with political leaders openly flouting constitutional principles, suppressing dissent and dismantling democratic safeguards.

The rhetoric of grievance and retribution has become the soundtrack of public discourse.

The U.S. is not alone. Across the globe, democracy is in retreat. The list of nations such as Hungary, Poland, Brazil and India where autocrats and aspiring autocrats have tried to erode democratic norms is growing. Far-right movements in France, Germany, Finland and elsewhere, bolstered by economic anxieties and digital disinformation, stoke resentment and fear.

Read more:
What does Donald Trump’s win mean for his brand of populist authoritarianism?

People, exhausted by economic precarity and what author, activist and documentarian Astra Taylor calls the deliberate manufacturing of insecurity, are drawn to the false promise of strongman rule. The desire for stability — however undemocratic — threatens to eclipse commitments to liberty and justice.

For educators or civic leaders who teach young people about democracy these are not abstract concerns. Civic educators’ struggles to foster students’ civic engagement and strengthen their commitments to democratic institutions and the growing crisis in democracy makes these efforts even harder.

As a professor of democracy and education, and as an educator, I cannot promise young people that their efforts will always succeed. But I can assure them that whether in the face of victories or defeats, they are walking a powerful and worthwhile path.

The risk of civic despair

One popular approach to strengthening commitments to democracy is to engage students in community projects that address difficult societal challenges.

Some teachers take students to engage in community work that is deeply tied to the curriculum, through approaches known as action civics or service learning.

But when young people take on social action projects — especially those aimed at addressing systemic injustices — the experience can backfire if it leads only to frustration and failure.

Studies have shown that students who participate in civic initiatives that do not produce tangible change often become less likely to engage in civic life in the future.

When efforts to improve conditions in their schools, communities or governments meet bureaucratic obstacles or outright resistance, young people do not always emerge more energized. Instead, many walk away discouraged, cynical and convinced that the system cannot be moved.

This is not to say that teachers, parents or other adult mentors should avoid encouraging activism — far from it. But if educators fail to prepare students for the realities of social change — that it can be slow and difficult — we risk reinforcing exactly the kind of disengagement we seek to combat.

If young people see the struggle for justice only as a series of disappointments, it’s easy to understand why they may turn away.

Redefining hope

To counter this despair, we need to redefine what it means to hope.

We need to cultivate the kind of hope that sustains action despite uncertainty — the kind that fuels long-term struggles for justice, even when victories are slow in coming.

Read more:
6 ways to build resilience and hope into young people’s learning about climate change

Václav Havel, the Czech playwright and political dissident who later became president, wrote that hope is not the same as choosing struggles that are headed for quick success: “Hope … is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”

This distinction is vital. As I explore in my book about education for democracy, hope is not a guarantee of success, but the insistence that working for justice is meaningful in and of itself. When we work collectively on projects we believe in, we form bonds that are valued and energizing.

Howard Zinn, the late historian and activist, echoed this idea when he urged us to “hold out, even in times of pessimism, the possibility of surprise.”

Being part of something bigger

History is filled with unexpected turns, reversals and moments when change happens against all odds. As German theorist and activist Rosa Luxemburg wrote, before the revolution, everyone says it’s impossible. After, they say it was inevitable.

The singer-songwriter Holly Near expressed this artfully in her anthem to the many social change movements that have existed for as long as there have been things to improve. Change does not always happen at broadband speeds, but knowing one is part of a timeless march toward good goals makes much of what we do worthwhile. In her song “The Great Peace March,” Near sings:

“Believe it or not / as daring as it may seem / it is not an empty dream
To walk in a powerful path / neither the first nor the last / great peace march.”

Social change is about connecting with one another and being part of something larger than ourselves — a “powerful path” that stretches beyond any single moment or movement.

Hope as a practice

So how do we teach hope? How do we equip young people not just to work for change, but to sustain that work over the long haul?

First, we must be honest about setbacks. Too often, we romanticize past movements, presenting them as linear progressions toward justice. We do young people a disservice when we erase the years of struggle, failure and uncertainty that preceded social victories. A more honest history includes moments of despair as well as triumph.

Second, we must frame civic action as an ongoing practice rather than a single event. Students should see their work as part of a continuum.

Finally, we must model hope ourselves. Young people are watching us. If we meet today’s challenges with cynicism and resignation, they will learn that democracy is a lost cause. But if we demonstrate an enduring commitment to engagement and justice, they will see that democracy is not something we inherit; it is something we build.

We can promise young people that to engage in the work of justice is to be part of a legacy that stretches across generations. And that, I believe, is hope worth teaching.

Joel Westheimer receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. How to teach hope when democracy is retreating – https://theconversation.com/how-to-teach-hope-when-democracy-is-retreating-249926

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: While the U.S. threatens tariffs and builds walls around its economy, China opens up

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Shaun Narine, Professor of International Relations and Political Science, St. Thomas University (Canada)

The United States is threatening to impose tariffs on its major trading partners. In the meantime, China is consolidating its position as the world’s manufacturing and technological innovation hub by increasing trade with the Global South.

If the American role in globalization has been to consume the world’s products and resources by building on a foundation of ever-increasing debt, China’s has been to make tangible goods for the international market.

China is opening up its economy, especially to the nations of the Global South.

Effective December 2024, China eliminated all tariffs on goods from the least developed countries. Chinese Premier Li Quang has also described China as an economic opportunity for global investment.

The centre of Asian trade

China’s trade surplus with the rest of the world is almost US$1 trillion dollars. Its share of global exports was 14 per cent in 2023, compared to 8.5 per cent for the U.S.

China is working with regional states to make itself the centre of Asian trade. China’s Belt and Road Initiative is funding infrastructure in about 150 countries as Chinese companies invest internationally, both to avoid American tariffs and diversify their markets.

At the moment, China accounts for 35 per cent of the world’s manufacturing. By 2030, the United Nations projects this will rise to 45 per cent.

China has achieved this status by building efficient, high-quality infrastructure.

It’s also fostered highly competitive and innovative technological and commercial ecosystems. The recent emergence of DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup that is dramatically disrupting the sector, illustrates this reality.

China also controls global industrial supply chains in a host of critical areas.

The Chinese powerhouse

Despite its ongoing economic slowdown, China’s economy grew by almost five per cent in 2024 and has potential to grow further as it transitions to a high-tech economy.

By 2030, the country will have what’s known as a consuming class of 1.1 billion people, making it the world’s largest consumer market.

Only 7.8 per cent of the population has the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree, but China produces about 65 per cent of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) graduates globally on an annual basis.

China is also leading the world in most new technologies and industries, but there is room for infrastructure investment in smaller cities and rural areas. Because China is a global leader in using automation and AI, it will also need to lead in managing these technologies’ social and economic effects.

China has economies of scale that no other country — except India — can match. Its manufacturing dominance is the logical outcome of introducing an increasingly technologically sophisticated country with a vast population to the modern global system.

The first Donald Trump administration used tariffs to try to draw investment into the U.S. and stimulate domestic industry. He believed tariffs would create more manufacturing jobs, shrink the federal deficit and lower food prices.

The second Trump administration has returned to tariffs, again with the goal of pulling jobs and investment from other countries into the U.S.

Trump has threatened to slap tariffs on Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

He’s already put 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the U.S. and imposed additional 10 per cent tariffs on all Chinese goods. He’s also threatening tariffs on Taiwan, attempting to strip it of its semiconductor industry.

Trump is basically demanding that other countries address trade imbalances by buying more expensive American exports in exchange for unimpeded access to the U.S. market.

He’s trying to recreate an American industrial dominance that existed only under unique circumstances after the Second World War. Similarly, the historical circumstances that led to China’s decline in the 19th and 20th centuries are long past.

To compete with China’s advantages, the U.S. needs a competent and effective government capable of long-term planning. Under Trump, the U.S. is losing this already-weak capacity every day.

American debt

The U.S. is the world’s largest consumer economy because both the government and Americans go into extraordinary debt to finance their consumption.

Currently, the American national debt is more than $36 trillion while consumer debt was $17.5 trillion in 2024.

The U.S. can accumulate enormous debt because of the American dollar’s status as the world reserve currency. But the U.S. has weaponized the dollar by freezing the dollar assets of sovereign states and using the dollar’s reserve status to apply American laws and sanctions beyond its borders.

This has created a major push — led by the BRICS countries of Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates — to replace the U.S. dollar with other financial instruments.

In response, Trump has threatened 100 per cent tariffs on any countries that try to drop the U.S. dollar.

The American economy has grown through pumping up asset bubbles, but there’s been a decline in most measures of social well-being in the U.S. This aligns with increasing American social, political and economic instability.

Chinese products dominate

China’s exports to the Global South exceed its exports to the western world. Chinese companies and products are dominant in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

To the Global South, there are clear benefits to accessing affordable, high-quality technology and industrial products from China. The industrialized world can also benefit significantly from Chinese manufacturers, but possibly at the cost of its own established industrial capacity.

While some states may block Chinese imports to protect their industries, China’s increasing manufacturing dominance means that every country will need at least some Chinese products to develop or to sustain industry. It would be next to impossible for most countries to definitively cut all trade with China.

The world is entering a new era of globalization. For many states, that means trying to keep from being economically undermined by the U.S. while deciding how to manage the economic and political costs and benefits of engaging with China’s massive industrial capabilities.

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

– ref. While the U.S. threatens tariffs and builds walls around its economy, China opens up – https://theconversation.com/while-the-u-s-threatens-tariffs-and-builds-walls-around-its-economy-china-opens-up-245012

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Security: Man Pleads Guilty to Illegally Importing Suicide Drug Into the United States From Mexico

Source: Office of United States Attorneys

CHICAGO — A man pleaded guilty today to a federal drug charge for illegally importing the drug Pentobarbital into the United States from Mexico for use in committing suicide.

DANIEL GONZALEZ-MUNGUIA, also known as “Alejandro Vasquez,” 41, of Puebla, Mexico, pleaded guilty in federal court in Chicago to one count of importing a controlled substance into the United States. The charge is punishable by a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis set sentencing for Sept. 9, 2025.

Pentobarbital, also known as Nembutal, is a drug sold in Mexico for the purpose of euthanizing animals. In the U.S., Pentobarbital is a controlled substance and has been used in state-sponsored executions. Gonzalez-Munguia admitted in a plea agreement that from 2012 to 2021, he operated an online drug business that sold and distributed bottles of Pentobarbital to hundreds of individuals in the U.S. and throughout the world, including individuals in Illinois. Many of the buyers consumed the product and died, the plea agreement states.

The investigation by Homeland Security Investigations began in 2016 after a parcel of the drug was intercepted in a Chicago suburb. Authorities in the U.S. and several foreign countries conducted well-being checks and recovered Pentobarbital from numerous individuals who admitted to being despondent and ordering the suicide drug online from Gonzalez-Munguia. Law enforcement provided assistance to those individuals.

Gonzalez-Munguia admitted that he initially shipped bottles of the drug directly from Mexico and in the manufacturer’s packaging, but thereafter disguised it as a cosmetic product and used intermediaries to transport it into the U.S. before shipping to customers around the world.

The guilty plea was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Daniel Johnsen, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of Homeland Security Investigations, and Ruth Mendonça, Inspector-in-Charge of the Chicago Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Valuable assistance was provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Illinois Army National Guard Counterdrug Program, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, and law enforcement agencies in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Ireland, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kartik K. Raman is prosecuting the case.

MIL Security OSI –

February 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Apple Intelligence comes to Apple Vision Pro in April
Source: Apple

Headline: Apple Intelligence comes to Apple Vision Pro in April

February 21, 2025

UPDATE

Apple Intelligence comes to Apple Vision Pro in April

visionOS 2.4 advances spatial computing with a powerful set of Apple Intelligence features — including Writing Tools, Image Playground, and Genmoji — and introduces Spatial Gallery, the Apple Vision Pro app for iPhone, and more

Today, Apple announced Apple Intelligence is coming to Apple Vision Pro in April. With Apple Intelligence for Vision Pro, users will be able to proofread, rewrite, and summarize text using Writing Tools; compose text from scratch using ChatGPT in Writing Tools; explore new ways to express themselves visually with Image Playground; create the perfect emoji for any conversation with Genmoji; and much more. Apple Intelligence will be available in beta on visionOS 2.4 with support for U.S. English. More features and support for additional languages will roll out throughout the year.

visionOS 2.4 also introduces new apps and features to help users discover and share the magic of spatial computing. Spatial Gallery — a new app for Vision Pro — features a curated collection of spatial photos, spatial videos, and panoramas from artists, filmmakers, photographers, and more. The Apple Vision Pro app for iPhone offers users a new way to download apps and games from the App Store; discover experiences from Apple TV, Spatial Gallery, and more; easily find helpful tips; and quickly access information for their Vision Pro. Enhancements to Guest User make it easier than ever for users to share apps and experiences with family, friends, and colleagues using a nearby iPhone or iPad.

“Apple Vision Pro is helping users communicate, collaborate, and experience entertainment in entirely new ways — and we’re continuing to push the boundaries of what’s possible in spatial computing with visionOS 2.4,” said Mike Rockwell, Apple’s vice president of the Vision Products Group. “With Apple Intelligence, Vision Pro users will be able to take their productivity and creativity to new heights using features like Writing Tools, Image Playground, and Genmoji. And we’re excited for users to discover and share incredible new experiences with Spatial Gallery.”

Apple Intelligence on Apple Vision Pro

Apple Intelligence offers new ways for Apple Vision Pro users to express themselves visually, simplify everyday tasks, and get things done effortlessly — all with groundbreaking privacy protections. An initial set of Apple Intelligence features will be available in April with visionOS 2.4 for users with their device and Siri language set to U.S. English. Support for more Apple Intelligence features and additional languages will roll out throughout the year.

With Writing Tools, users can refine their words by rewriting, proofreading, and summarizing text nearly everywhere they write, including Mail, Notes, and third-party apps. With Rewrite, users can adjust the tone of their text to make it more friendly, professional, or concise, or specify the change they’d like to make using Describe Your Change. Proofread checks grammar, word choice, and sentence structure with suggested edits. Users can also select text and have it recapped in several formats with Summarize. And with Compose, users can ask ChatGPT to generate content for anything they’re writing about.

Image Playground allows users to easily create fun and unique images from themes, costumes, accessories, and places. Users can add their own text descriptions, and can even create images in the likeness of a family member or friend using photos from their photo library. The experience is integrated directly into apps like Messages and Freeform, and is also available as a dedicated app for Apple Vision Pro.

Users will be able to create Genmoji by simply typing or speaking a description into the emoji keyboard. Genmoji can be added inline to messages, shared as a sticker, or sent as a Tapback.

Smart Reply in Messages and Mail identifies questions and suggests relevant replies, so Apple Vision Pro users can easily respond to texts and emails with just a few taps.

With Create a Memory Movie in Photos, users can simply type a description, and Apple Intelligence will pick out the best photos and videos, craft a storyline with chapters based on themes identified from the photos, and arrange them into a movie with its own narrative arc and a soundtrack. As with all Apple Intelligence features, user photos and videos are kept private, and are not shared with Apple or anyone else.

Natural language search in Photos makes it even easier for users to find a specific photo, album, or a moment in a video just by describing it.

visionOS 2.4 also includes support for Priority Messages in Mail, Mail Summaries, Image Wand in Notes, Priority Notifications in Notification Center, and Notification Summaries. Apple Intelligence uses on-device processing to protect users’ privacy whenever possible. For requests that require even larger models, Private Cloud Compute extends the privacy and security of Apple products into the cloud to unlock even more intelligence. When using Private Cloud Compute, users’ data is never stored or shared with Apple; it is used only to fulfill the request. Independent experts can inspect the code that runs on Apple silicon servers to continuously verify this privacy promise, and are already doing so.

Introducing Spatial Gallery

visionOS 2.4 introduces Spatial Gallery, a new app that features a selection of spatial photos, spatial videos, and panoramas curated by Apple for Apple Vision Pro. With Spatial Gallery, users will enjoy breathtaking and intimate moments spanning art, culture, entertainment, lifestyle, nature, sports, and travel, with new content released regularly. At launch, users can discover remarkable perspectives from photographers like Jonpaul Douglass and Samba Diop; new stories and experiences from iconic brands including Cirque du Soleil, Red Bull, and Porsche; behind-the-scenes moments from Apple Originals like Disclaimer, Severance, and Shrinking; and special moments from top artists.

The Apple Vision Pro App for iPhone

Starting in April, Apple Vision Pro users will be able to queue apps and games to download, discover new spatial content and experiences, easily find helpful tips, and quickly access information about their device from their iPhone with the new Apple Vision Pro app. The app will appear for Vision Pro users when they update their iPhone to iOS 18.4, and it can also be downloaded from the App Store.

The Discover page offers curated recommendations for new and noteworthy experiences available on Apple Vision Pro. Users can quickly see popular apps and games on the App Store; nearly 300 3D movies, Apple Immersive titles, and more video content on the Apple TV app; and the latest spatial photos, spatial videos, and panoramas featured in the Spatial Gallery.¹ New Apple Immersive titles include “Ice Dive” from the Adventure series; “Sharks” from the Wild Life series; and Man vs. Beast. “Arctic Surfing” — the latest episode of Boundless — debuts worldwide today, while the next episode of Adventure, “Deep Water Solo,” debuts next Friday, February 28.

On the My Vision Pro page, users will find tips for getting the most out of Apple Vision Pro; can easily access information such as their current visionOS version and device serial number; and set up Personalized Spatial Audio. Users with vision correction needs will be able to store and view the App Clip code for their ZEISS Optical Inserts in the Apple Vision Pro app.

Guest User with iPhone and iPad

Apple Vision Pro users around the world have loved sharing the magic of spatial computing with family, friends, and colleagues through Guest User. From Control Center, users can choose which apps their guest can see, and guests can save their eye and hand setup for up to 30 days after their last use.

With new enhancements to Guest User in visionOS 2.4, users can start a Guest User session with their nearby iPhone or iPad. When their device is unlocked, they can choose which apps are accessible to their guest and start View Mirroring with AirPlay, making it easy to guide a guest through their Vision Pro experience.

Availability
- Apple Vision Pro is available in Australia, Canada, China mainland, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, the U.A.E., the UK, and the U.S.
- Apple Intelligence will be available in beta on Apple Vision Pro with visionOS 2.4. The first set of features will be available for Vision Pro users with their device and Siri language set to U.S. English. Feature availability varies by region. More features and support for additional languages will roll out throughout the year.
- Spatial Gallery will be available with visionOS 2.4 for users in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, the U.A.E., the UK, and the U.S. It can be redownloaded from the App Store for Vision Pro.
- The Apple Vision Pro app for iPhone will be available with iOS 18.4. The app will be available to download from the App Store, and will automatically appear on a user’s iPhone once they update to iOS 18.4 and have both devices associated with the same Apple Account.
- Customers can book a demo for free online. Demos are hosted at all Apple Store locations where Apple Vision Pro is available.
1. 3D movie availability varies by country or region.
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MIL OSI Economics –
February 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Why Germany’s far right hates the Bauhaus movement

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Katrin Schreiter, Senior Lecturer in German and History, King’s College London

Shutterstock/meunierd

At a time of political tension in Germany, the Bauhaus – arguably one of most influential architecture, art and design schools in the world – has become the target of far-right attacks.

Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, a member of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and a member of the regional parliament of Saxony-Anhalt in eastern Germany, has blamed his area’s economic problems on Bauhaus modernism.

His unlikely diagnosis came in response to the regional conservative CDU government’s “think modern” campaign, which seeks to attract investment into the area and cites the Bauhaus movement as an example of locally grown excellence.

Tillschneider asserts that for the area’s economic stagnation to be resolved “we do not need to think modern, we need to think conservatively.” He rejects Bauhaus ideas as diffused with communist ideology. With these attacks, Tillschneider has started a quasi-re-enactment of a historical culture war over German national identity and social anxieties.

Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius.
Wikipedia/Louis Held

Founded in 1919 by architect Walter Gropius in the German city of Weimar, the Bauhaus and its staff shared a programme of material utopianism. This was expressed via an explorative workshop concept that departed from traditional modes of teaching.

Such avant-garde practices moved the Bauhaus politically to the left, which would make it vulnerable to ideological attack throughout the Weimar republic, Germany’s first (and failed) democracy.

In the contentious debate about national identity that followed the end of the monarchy in 1918, Bauhaus artists inhabited an uncomfortable position between two schools of thought among the educated elite.

One side had opened up to modern aesthetics (such as impressionism and expressionism). The other – the conservatives – instead embraced an artistic nationalism that had manifested with German unification in 1871.

They saw “true art” as coming from the people and in turn educating them as loyal citizens. Aesthetically, conservatives found these values expressed in Weimar classicism. Curiously, given the emphasis on art by the people, this was a rather exclusive, high-brow form of literature, theatre and visual arts.

Bauhaus ideas, instead, were anti-bourgeois, avant-garde and experimental, while at the same time postulating the importance of creating art for everyone to access and enjoy. Such democratisation of style, however, was difficult to achieve, and most of what the Bauhaus produced remained unaffordable to the masses. Nevertheless, these clashing visions politicised culture during the interwar years.

The reconstructed Bauhaus school in Dessau.
Wikipedia/Lelikron, CC BY-SA

In 1925, the school had to move from Weimar to Dessau (in Saxony-Anhalt) after it lost its funding. This was the fallout of a dispute with the conservative political parties that ruled the city at the time.

In Dessau, the Bauhaus teachers built a school building that followed their modern aesthetic principles. Despite repeated attempts by Gropius to depoliticise the Bauhaus by pointing to its aesthetic pluralism, internal debates about the place of architecture in society and politics continued.

The point of contention was the concept of “New Objectivity” (Neue Sachlichkeit) which found expression in Neues Bauen: modularised construction which introduced the industrialised pre-fabrication of building parts in a turn away from traditional crafts.

Eventually, Gropius left the Bauhaus and in his place came the openly socialist architect Hannes Meyer. After taking over as director in 1928, he repoliticised the school and moved it back to the left.

In the heated political climate of the late Weimar republic, the Bauhaus encountered a new existential threat. When the Nazis took over in local elections in 1931, they requested the destruction of the Bauhaus school.

The Bauhaus moved again in 1932, this time to Berlin, where it continued as a private institution to avoid renewed conflict with the ever more powerful Nazis. Nevertheless, when Adolf Hitler seized power in early 1933, the school and its staff became victims of the Nazis’ anti-socialist measures.

The Bauhaus school closed on July 20 1933 and its staff dispersed, often to faraway places. Many went to the United States, where they continued in the legacy of the “Bauhaus spirit” by joining the international modernism movement that became the defining Western aesthetic in the 1950s.

Although the artistic influences and expressions had remained diverse throughout the lifetime of the school, postwar discourse has streamlined it to simple geometric shapes, a preference for the colours white, blue, red and yellow, and an emphasis on horizontal lines and perspectives.

The Nazis had labelled Bauhaus aesthetics as “degenerate”. In the cold war era, the socialist East German government called out Bauhaus modernism and its disciples as cosmopolitan in the pejorative sense.

They were accused of abandoning German national heritage for the sake of international “formalism”, elevating form – as pertaining to function – over cultural content. Tillschneider has put it even more provocatively: “They denied man’s connection to land and his cultural roots”. While a huge interpretative overstretch, these statements do not come as a surprise.

This year marks the centennial of the move to Dessau, where the school building still stands proudly as a Unesco world heritage site. Tillschneider used this moment to perpetuate the culture war that the AfD has become known for over the past decade.

He is equating the CDU to an oversimplified depiction of the Bauhaus legacy – one that is anti-crafts, anti-bourgeois and internationalist – he implies his political rivals are against German tradition and culture. These are the nativist sentiments that fuel the AfD. It is a strategy of cheap wins at the expense of the electorate’s anxieties about Germany’s cultural and national identity.

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

– ref. Why Germany’s far right hates the Bauhaus movement – https://theconversation.com/why-germanys-far-right-hates-the-bauhaus-movement-250416

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: What is the AfD? Germany’s far-right party, explained

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Léonie de Jonge, Professor of Research on Far-Right Extremism, Institute for Research on Far-Right Extremism (IRex), University of Tübingen

In the weeks ahead of the German election, the far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) consistently polled around 20%. For the first time, the AfD poses a challenge to mainstream parties’ longstanding strategy of isolating the far right.

The rise of the AfD is striking, given the country’s history of authoritarianism and National Socialism during the 1930s and 1940s. For decades, far-right movements were generally stigmatised and treated as pariahs. Political elites, mainstream parties, the media and civil society effectively marginalised the far right and limited its electoral prospects.

The AfD’s breakthrough in the 2017 federal election shattered this status quo. Winning 12.6% of the vote and securing 94 Bundestag seats, it became Germany’s third-largest party — unlocking viable political space to the right of the centre-right party CDU/CSU for the first time in the postwar era.

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The AfD was founded in 2013 by disaffected CDU members. This included economics professors Bernd Lucke and Joachim Starbatty, and conservative journalists Konrad Adam and Alexander Gauland. It began as a single-issue, anti-euro party advocating Germany’s exit from the Eurozone.

Dubbed a “party of professors”, it gained credibility through the support of academics and former mainstream politicians, lending it an “unusual gravitas” for a protest party. While nativist elements were arguably present from the start, the AfD was not initially conceived as a far-right party.

When it first ran for the Bundestag in 2013, its four-page manifesto focused exclusively on dissolving the Eurozone. At the time, the party advocated political asylum for the persecuted and avoided harsh anti-immigrant or anti-Islam rhetoric, cultivating more of a “bourgeois” image.

This helped the AfD build what political scientist Elisabeth Ivarsflaten has called a reputational shield — a legacy used to deflect social stigma and accusations of extremism.

Initially, the AfD distanced itself from far-right parties in neighbouring countries. However, successive leadership changes between 2015 and 2017 saw the party adopt a more hardline position, particularly on immigration, Islam and national identity. By 2016, its platform had largely aligned with those of populist radical right parties elsewhere.

Far-right views

Today, the party can unequivocally be classified as far right. This umbrella term captures the growing links between “(populist) radical right” (illiberal-democratic) and “extreme right” (anti-democratic) parties and movements. Ideologically, the far right is characterised by nativism and authoritarianism.

Nativism is a xenophobic form of nationalism, which holds that non-native elements form a threat to the homogeneous nation-state. In Germany, nativism carries a historical legacy. “Völkisch nationalism” was one of the core ideas of the 19th and early 20th centuries that was broadly adopted by National Socialism to justify deportations and, ultimately, the Holocaust.

Völkisch ideology is based on the essentialist idea that the German people are inextricably connected to the soil. Thus, other people cannot be part of the völkisch community.

The AfD has evolved into a far-right party by continuously radicalising its positions. It acted like a Trojan horse, importing völkisch nationalist ideology into the parliamentary and public arena, which used to be blocked by the gatekeeping mechanisms of German democracy.

The AfD carved out a niche for itself by advocating stricter anti-immigration policies. This came in response to the so-called “refugee crisis”, when then-Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed more than a million asylum seekers into Germany. At its campaign kickoff rally in January 2025, AfD’s chancellor candidate Alice Weidel vowed to implement “large-scale repatriations” (or “remigration”) of immigrants.

The party advocates a return to a blood-based citizenship, insisting that, with very few exceptions for well-assimilated migrants, citizenship can only be determined by ancestry and bloodline rather than birthright.

Additionally, the party upholds the white, nuclear family as an ideal and has pledged to dismiss university professors accused of promoting “leftist, woke gender ideology”. The party also calls for the immediate lifting of sanctions against Russia and opposes weapons deliveries to Ukraine.

In recent years, the party has embraced the far-right strategy of flooding the media and public discourse with controversy, misinformation and inflammatory rhetoric, to dominate attention and transgress traditional political norms.

A striking example is former AfD-leader Alexander Gauland’s 2018 claim that the 12 years of Nazi rule were “mere bird shit in over 1,000 years of successful German history”. With this remark, he sought to reframe modern Germany as a continuation of its pre-1933 history, while downplaying the significance of the Nazi era.

Normalising the AfD

Until recently, the far right was consistently excluded by mainstream political parties. It was a founding myth of the old Federal Republic of Germany that democratic forces do not cooperate with the far right. At least on the parliamentary level, this worked quite well as a part of Germany’s “militant democracy”.

However, the political firewall — the Brandmauer — has started to crumble. The AfD has since celebrated the election of its first mayors at the local level.

The success of the AfD has especially been fuelled by the narrative of a “refugee crisis” in Germany. Harsh political rhetoric about migration has contributed to the party’s electoral success, as well as mainstream adoption of some of its positions.

Oddly enough, the AfD is especially successful in rural, remote areas with low levels of migration. It is weak in more globalised, university-oriented urban areas.

Read more:
German party leaders are united against immigration – but there is little evidence for a key part of their argument

Ahead of the 2025 elections, Friedrich Merz, the lead candidate of the CDU, broke a longstanding political taboo when his proposal to tighten asylum policies narrowly passed in the Bundestag with backing from the AfD. Meanwhile, German media have increasingly treated AfD representatives as legitimate political contenders.

Once marginalised in political debates, they are now regularly invited to talk shows. And they have received international legitimacy from figures such as US vice-president J.D. Vance, and X owner Elon Musk.

This election may give an indication of how far the AfD’s normalisation will go and how it will affect Germany’s political future. Beyond electoral success, the main question will be to what extent mainstream parties will incorporate far-right ideas in their political agenda.

What is already clear, however, is that the political landscape has shifted. The boundaries that once kept the far right at the margins are no longer as firm as they once were

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

– ref. What is the AfD? Germany’s far-right party, explained – https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-afd-germanys-far-right-party-explained-250218

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Why Keir Starmer may gamble on increasing Britain’s defence spending

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Peter Bloom, Professor of Management, University of Essex

leshiy985/Shutterstock

Amid rising tensions around the world, the UK government faces pressure to increase defence spending. External threats and uncertainty over the nature of peace talks with Russia over Ukraine have been in the spotlight. But there are also broader political and economic interests shaping these decisions.

The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, must navigate commitments to Nato, expectations from allies and the influence of the defence industry. All the while, the squeeze on domestic spending and public scepticism loom large.

The UK’s total military spending for 2024-2025 is expected to be £64.4 billion, with a rise to £67.7 billion in 2025-26. This is equal to 2.3% of the entire UK economy (GDP). It would continue the trend of making the UK one of the highest military spenders in Europe. But it’s still not enough as far as the US president, Donald Trump, is concerned.

In 2023-2024, the UK’s Ministry of Defence spent its budget across several key areas. Around one-third went towards investment in things such as equipment, infrastructure and technology. Another big area of spending was personnel costs, accounting for around one-fifth of the spend.

In recent years, UK military spending has fluctuated, reflecting a balance between modernisation, deterrence and operational readiness. One of the most significant areas of investment has been in the UK’s nuclear deterrent (Trident).

At the same time, cyber defence has become a growing focus, with £1.9 billion allocated to counter threats such as increased cyber attacks and misinformation campaigns from foreign governments and political extremists. The UK has also committed to expanding its next-generation air capabilities.

Britain’s recent escalation in defence investment mirrors a global surge in military spending. In 2024, worldwide defence expenditures reached an unprecedented US$2.46 trillion (£1.95 trillion), marking a 7.4% real-term increase from the previous year.

This trend is particularly pronounced in Europe, where nations are bolstering their military capabilities in response to geopolitical tensions such as the war in Ukraine. Germany’s defence budget experienced a significant 23.2% real-term growth, making the country the world’s fourth-largest defence spender.

In the UK, Labour has pledged to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, aligning with Nato expectations. It also serves as a response to concerns about the country’s military readiness. This could require several billion pounds more annually, raising questions about how this would be funded.

Publicly, the party presents this commitment as a necessary investment in the UK’s global standing and ability to deter aggression. However, you can argue that there is more at play.

Political and economic pressures

Starmer’s government inherited a complex set of geopolitical challenges, from European security concerns to the UK’s international relationships post-Brexit. Nato commitments remain a significant driver of defence spending, particularly as European allies anticipate shifts in US foreign policy under the second Trump presidency.

The UK must also respond to regional tensions beyond Europe, due to its military alliances in the Indo-Pacific and its arms trade relationships with Middle Eastern states.

Domestically, Labour’s commitment to raising defence spending is not just about security – it is also a political calculation. Starmer wants to dispel any perceptions that Labour is weak on defence.

However, it comes at a time of fiscal constraint. Any new defence commitments must compete with demands for public investment in healthcare, education and infrastructure. Without additional taxation or significant budget cuts, Labour may struggle to meet its defence spending targets without compromising other commitments.

Beyond geopolitical necessity, increased military spending benefits the UK’s powerful military-industrial complex (the relationship between the country’s military and its defence industry). Major defence contractors such as BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce and Lockheed Martin UK secure billions in government contracts.

The so-called “revolving door” between government and defence firms frequently sees former military officials and politicians taking on lucrative roles in private-sector defence companies.

The cross-party consensus on expanding Britain’s defence industry, now embraced by trade unions and political commentators, reflects a narrow vision of economic security that overlooks more sustainable alternatives.

The sector’s 200,000 jobs are frequently claimed to justify increased military spending. But investment in renewable energy infrastructure and domestic energy production could both boost employment and address fundamental security challenges exposed by the Ukraine crisis.

The reliance on foreign energy sources can be weaponised by adversarial states, as reflected in the continued reliance of EU countries on Russia for their energy needs. By investing in domestic renewable energy infrastructure, the UK can insulate itself from geopolitical energy threats. Stable energy supplies can underpin both economic resilience and military readiness.

But there is a disconnect between strong government protection for arms manufacturers and relatively limited support for green technology development. This, even as climate change poses an escalating threat to national stability.

Labour faces a difficult balancing act. Increasing defence spending helps solidify the party’s credibility on national security. But domestically, it risks alienating voters who favour investment in social welfare over military expansion.

Additionally, higher military expenditure could make tax hikes or borrowing necessary. Both pose political hazards. And there is a real risk that increased spending will disproportionately benefit corporate defence giants rather than the public.

Starmer hopes increased defence spending will show that he is serious about European security.
Fred Duval/Shutterstock

Internationally, Starmer aims to signal Britain’s continued reliability as a Nato ally amid uncertainties about the US commitment to European security. This positioning becomes especially significant given the UK’s post-Brexit need to demonstrate its global relevance and military capability.

Labour’s drive to increase defence spending is also shaped by economic imperatives that extend beyond immediate security needs. The party faces pressure to expand a major sector of British manufacturing. At stake are not just defence capabilities but jobs, regional development and industrial strategy.

The government now finds itself caught between competing pressures. The commitment to military expansion reflects not just geopolitical imperatives but also domestic political calculations and economic concerns, which appear to be equally influential. And it raises fundamental questions about how national security priorities are truly determined in an era of multiple challenges.

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

– ref. Why Keir Starmer may gamble on increasing Britain’s defence spending – https://theconversation.com/why-keir-starmer-may-gamble-on-increasing-britains-defence-spending-250447

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: A Palestinian film is an Oscars favorite − so why is it so hard to see?

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Drew Paul, Associate Professor of Arabic, University of Tennessee

Directors Basel Adra, left, and Yuval Abraham on stage at the 62nd New York Film Festival on Sept. 29, 2024. Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

For many low-budget, independent films, an Oscar nomination is a golden ticket.

The publicity can translate into theatrical releases or rereleases, along with more on-demand rentals and sales.

However, for “No Other Land,” a Palestinian film nominated for best documentary at the 2025 Academy Awards, this exposure is unlikely to translate into commercial success in the U.S. That’s because the film has been unable to find a company to distribute it in America.

“No Other Land” chronicles the efforts of Palestinian townspeople to combat an Israeli plan to demolish their villages in the West Bank and use the area as a military training ground. It was directed by four Palestinian and Israeli activists and journalists: Basel Adra, who is a resident of the area facing demolition, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor. While the filmmakers have organized screenings in a number of U.S. cities, the lack of a national distributor makes a broader release unlikely.

Film distributors are a crucial but often unseen link in the chain that allows a film to reach cinemas and people’s living rooms. In recent years it has become more common for controversial award-winning films to run into issues finding a distributor. Palestinian films have encountered additional barriers.

As a scholar of Arabic who has written about Palestinian cinema, I’m disheartened by the difficulties “No Other Land” has faced. But I’m not surprised.

The role of film distributors

Distributors are often invisible to moviegoers. But without one, it can be difficult for a film to find an audience.

Distributors typically acquire rights to a film for a specific country or set of countries. They then market films to movie theaters, cinema chains and streaming platforms. As compensation, distributors receive a percentage of the revenue generated by theatrical and home releases.

The film “Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat,” another finalist for best documentary, shows how this process typically works. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024 and was acquired for distribution just a few months later by Kino Lorber, a major U.S.-based distributor of independent films.

The inability to find a distributor is not itself noteworthy. No film is entitled to distribution, and most films by newer or unknown directors face long odds.

However, it is unusual for a film like “No Other Land,” which has garnered critical acclaim and has been recognized at various film festivals and award shows. Some have pegged it as a favorite to win best documentary at the Academy Awards. And “No Other Land” has been able to find distributors in Europe, where it’s easily accessible on multiple streaming platforms.

So why can’t “No Other Land” find a distributor in the U.S.?

There are a couple of factors at play.

Shying away from controversy

In recent years, film critics have noticed a trend: Documentaries on controversial topics have faced distribution difficulties. These include a film about a campaign by Amazon workers to unionize and a documentary about Adam Kinzinger, one of the few Republican congresspeople to vote to impeach Donald Trump in 2021.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, of course, has long stirred controversy. But the release of “No Other Land” comes at a time when the issue is particularly salient. The Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, and the ensuing Israeli bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip have become a polarizing issue in U.S. domestic politics, reflected in the campus protests and crackdowns in 2024. The filmmakers’ critical comments about the Israeli occupation of Palestine have also garnered backlash in Germany.

Locals attend a screening of ‘No Other Land’ in the village of A-Tuwani in the West Bank on March 14, 2024.
Yahel Gazit/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Yet the fact that this conflict has been in the news since October 2023 should also heighten audience interest in a film such as “No Other Land” – and, therefore, lead to increased sales, the metric that distributors care about the most.

Indeed, an earlier film that also documents Palestinian protests against Israeli land expropriation, “5 Broken Cameras,” was a finalist for best documentary at the 2013 Academy Awards. It was able to find a U.S. distributor. However, it had the support of a major European Union documentary development program called Greenhouse. The support of an organization like Greenhouse, which had ties to numerous production and distribution companies in Europe and the U.S., can facilitate the process of finding a distributor.

By contrast, “No Other Land,” although it has a Norwegian co-producer and received some funding from organizations in Europe and the U.S., was made primarily by a grassroots filmmaking collective.

Stages for protest

While distribution challenges may be recent, controversies surrounding Palestinian films are nothing new.

Many of them stem from the fact that the system of film festivals, awards and distribution is primarily based on a movie’s nation of origin. Since there is no sovereign Palestinian state – and many countries and organizations have not recognized the state of Palestine – the question of how to categorize Palestinian films has been hard to resolve.

In 2002, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rejected the first ever Palestinian film submitted to the best foreign language film category – Elia Suleiman’s “Divine Intervention” – because Palestine was not recognized as a country by the United Nations. The rules were changed for the following year’s awards ceremony.

In 2021, the cast of the film “Let It Be Morning,” which had an Israeli director but primarily Palestinian actors, boycotted the Cannes Film Festival in protest of the film’s categorization as an Israeli film rather than a Palestinian one.

Film festivals and other cultural venues have also become places to make statements about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and engage in protest. For example, at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017, the right-wing Israeli culture minister wore a controversial – and meme-worthy – dress that featured the Jerusalem skyline in support of Israeli claims of sovereignty over the holy city, despite the unresolved status of Jerusalem under international law.

Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev wears a dress featuring the old city of Jerusalem during the Cannes Film Festival in 2017.
Antonin Thuillier/AFP via Getty Images

At the 2024 Academy Awards, a number of attendees, including Billie Eilish, Mark Ruffalo and Mahershala Ali, wore red pins in support of a ceasefire in Gaza, and pro-Palestine protesters delayed the start of the ceremonies.

So even though a film like “No Other Land” addresses a topic of clear interest to many people in the U.S., it faces an uphill battle to finding a distributor.

I wonder whether a win at the Oscars would even be enough.

Drew Paul 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. A Palestinian film is an Oscars favorite − so why is it so hard to see? – https://theconversation.com/a-palestinian-film-is-an-oscars-favorite-so-why-is-it-so-hard-to-see-249233

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 22, 2025
MIL-OSI NGOs: The medical humanitarian needs in Ukraine remain as urgent as ever
Source: Médecins Sans Frontières –
The strength of the Ukrainian healthcare system in the face of extreme violence is clear.

But as the war in Ukraine enters its fourth year, the need for sustained medical and mental health support is greater than ever.

MSF continues to work in Ukraine, close to the frontlines and further afield, but more support is required.
Kyiv – Three years after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, dramatically escalating an international armed conflict that began in 2014, people continue to bear the burden of the war’s devastation as seen through their lost lives, lost limbs, and lost homes. The resulting medical humanitarian needs are clearer than ever. The strain on Ukraine’s medical services has only increased, exacerbated by frequent attacks on hospitals, ambulances and medical structures.

Since 2022, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has seen more patients with war-related trauma in need of early rehabilitation, namely post-amputation physiotherapy. There is also an increase in the number of patients requiring treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. In areas close to the frontlines, daily shelling means that some of the most vulnerable, including older people and people with chronic conditions, have extremely limited access to medical care.

Inna Didych, MSF physiotherapist, is working with Andrii, a 27-year-old patient who is preparing for prosthetics after sustaining injuries during fighting on the frontlines in Ukraine. Andrii lost his right arm, leg, and nearly all of his vision. Ukraine, October 2023.
Pavlo Sukhodolskyi/Voice if America

MSF runs an early rehabilitation project with centres in Cherkasy and Odesa, where people receive early post-operative physiotherapy, mental health support and nursing care following incidents of violent trauma. MSF treated 755 patients in 2023 and 2024. From one year to the next, there was a 10 per cent increase in the number of patients requiring post-operative care for leg amputations.

In 2024, half of all patients in the project were diagnosed with either post-traumatic stress disorder, or depression. The need for mental health support in Ukraine is significant. In addition to the centres in Cherkasy and Odesa, MSF has established a project focused on post-traumatic stress disorder in Vinnytsia.

“The ferocity of this war has not diminished, and the medical humanitarian needs have only grown more complex,” says Thomas Marchese, MSF’s head of programmes in Ukraine. “Even if the war were to end tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of people would require years of long-term physiotherapy, or counselling for post-traumatic stress disorder. Ensuring this care requires an ongoing humanitarian commitment.”

Inessa Bondarenko attends group activities and sessions organised by MSF in Ndamyanka. She is from Kharkiv. Her husband stayed there but she fled. Her daughter is a refugee in Germany. She lives with two cats in a shelter in Ndamyanka, which MSF helped to build. Ukraine, October 2023.
Nuria Lopez Torres

Today, Ukraine’s healthcare system faces immense pressure, balancing emergency responses with the ongoing needs of patients affected by the war. For three years, drone and missile attacks have been a daily occurrence, in some cases striking cities more than 1,000 kilometres from the frontline. Medical facilities and systems have been forced to adapt to treating patients in bunkers or basements, as well as to frequent power cuts from attacks on energy infrastructure.

In response to this, MSF operates ambulances, transferring patients from overburdened hospitals near the frontline to medical facilities in central and western Ukraine with greater capacity. Over the past three years, MSF ambulances have transferred more than 25,000 patients, more than half of whom had injuries caused by violent trauma.

In 2024, MSF mobile clinic and ambulance teams working near the frontlines saw a significant increase in referrals for patients with chronic diseases such as cardiovascular issues, diabetes, and cancer. In 2023, these cases accounted for 24 per cent of all referrals, rising to 33 per cent in 2024. However, regular shelling and strikes mean that the access of MSF’s teams is not guaranteed. Many of those living with chronic conditions are older, and less mobile, in some areas, people have begun living in their basements or in bunkers, due to the intense shelling.

View of a destroyed hospital ward in Vysokopilla town, Kherson Oblast. Ukraine, January 2023.
Colin Delfosse

“For some of the most vulnerable people, relocating isn’t an option,” says Marchese. “Not everyone is able to leave their homes and start their life again, but the continued fighting means that these people are frequently cut off from medical care, just as MSF medical teams are sometimes unable to travel to certain areas due to ongoing shelling.”

As the war in Ukraine enters its fourth year, MSF’s teams witness how the medical humanitarian crisis deepens every day. The strength of the Ukrainian health system in the face of extreme violence is clear, but the need for sustained medical care and mental health support is greater than ever.

Even if the war were to end tomorrow, the long-term effects on people —physical and psychological— will linger for years to come. Ukraine’s infrastructure has also sustained staggering damage, with hospitals coming under direct attack. Hundreds of thousands of people will require ongoing care, rehabilitation, and therapy for trauma long after the last bomb falls. MSF continues to work in Ukraine, close to the frontlines and further afield, but more support is required.

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MIL OSI NGO –
February 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: India’s intervention in Employment Working Group (EWG) in First G20 Employment Working Group Meeting under South African Presidency

Source: Government of India (2)

India’s intervention in Employment Working Group (EWG) in First G20 Employment Working Group Meeting under South African Presidency
Secretary (L&E) outlines India’s achievement in leveraging technology and presented case studies on NCS and e-Shram portal as global best practices

Bilateral held with ILO & OECD to expedite the feasibility study on International reference Classification of Occupations and Skills

Bilateral held with Germany on collaboration in the field of AI and its impact on Jobs, OSH related knowledge exchange and strengthening labour administration under Joint Declaration of Intent

Bilateral held with Netherlands on living wages and its alignment with India’s Multidimensional Poverty index

Posted On: 21 FEB 2025 4:22PM by PIB Delhi

The first G20 Employment Working Group (EWG) Meeting under South African Presidency concluded today on 21^st Feb, 2025 at Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The EWG priorities (i) Inclusive Growth & Youth Empowerment and (ii) Social Security & Digitalisation for an Inclusive Future of Work, as was discussed in the working sessions of EWG meeting.

During the four-days, delegates of G20 Members and invited states made interventions and presentations on key focus areas of the G20 Labour & Employment track. Ms. Sumita Dawra, Secretary (Labour & Employment) led the Indian delegation and made interventions from Indian side on both the priorities. Secretary took an evidence-based approach on increased social security coverage in India, rising workforce in employment, as well as presented case studies on NCS and eShram to emphasize harnessing of technology by India for labour welfare.

Secretary Labour highlighted India’s transformative use of technology to (i) onboard workers in unorganised sector and build a national database on EShram, and further utilise the portal for building access of workers to various social security schemes; (ii) Use of National Career Service (NCS) Portal to bridge the supply-demand in labour market through convergence of various stakeholders- employers, job-seekers, counselling and skilling services, etc. Case studies were presented on both EShram and NCS, both of which drew much interest of delegates of G20 member states on India’s strides in harnessing technology for the labour market.

Case Study 1: eShram Portal

India presented the eShram Portal as a case study, showcasing its role as a comprehensive national database for unorganized and platform workers, for ensuring seamless access to social security benefits as a ‘one-stop-solution.’ Available in 22 languages and powered by Bhashini, the portal assigns a Universal Account Number (UAN) to each worker, enhancing transparency and accountability. Further, the platform workers’ module, launched on December 12, 2024, enables aggregators to onboard workers and share engagement details, facilitating intelligent mapping to their employers. This initiative strengthens last-mile delivery of social security benefits, empowering millions in the informal sector and exemplifying India’s commitment to leveraging technology for inclusive welfare.

Case Study 2: National Career Service (NCS) Portal

India’s effort on leveraging technology to bridge the Jobs-Skills gap was presented through case study on NCS Portal. The Portal had mobilized over 440 million vacancies and registered 4 million employers, bridging the gap between job seekers and employers. NCS is also integrated with the Skill India Digital Hub (SIDH). Upskilling initiatives in green jobs, AI, and the platform economy were prioritized to meet future workforce demands. The QS World Future Skills Index 2025 recognized India’s strength in ‘ready-to-recruit’ markets for digital, AI and green jobs.

Bilateral with ILO, OECD

Follow-up on India’s G20 2023 Presidency with respect to developing an international framework for mutual recognition of skills and qualifications has been prioritised by the delegation. Accordingly, on the side-lines of 1^st G20 EWG meeting, India held bilateral discussions with ILO, OECD and Germany regarding skill gap mapping feasibility study, its work plan and time-lines.

Secretary briefed on the latest updates regarding funding, status of agreement with ILO to complete the study, and collaboration with concerned stakeholders. It was agreed that feasibility study will focus on three key sectors: IT, Green Jobs, and Care-related roles.

Given India’s demographic dividend, and the projection of India to increasingly meet incremental global workforce requirements over the next decade, this study assumes great significance for facilitation of international mobility of qualified Indians.

Bilateral with Netherlands

A bilateral discussion was held with the Netherlands, focusing on India’s Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) and its alignment with global efforts to address poverty through the concept of ‘Living Wages,’ thus improving living standards. Collaboration with the Netherlands and the ILO was highlighted as critical to advancing living wages, with proposals for exchange of best practices and technical discussion on estimation of living wages. India reiterated its dedication to collaborating with international partners to advance decent work, sustainable wage systems, and enhanced livelihoods for workers.

Bilateral with Germany

During bilateral discussion with Germany, the importance of the Joint Declaration of Intent (JDI) entered by India with Germany in the month of October 2024 was highlighted. The JDoI is important for enhancing cooperation in work in global supply chains, human-centric AI and its impact on Jobs, developing Gig economy, a global skills referencing framework, etc. India reaffirmed its commitment to deepening collaboration with Germany, fostering innovative projects and a shared vision for an inclusive and equitable future of work.

*****

Himanshu Pathak

(Release ID: 2105272) Visitor Counter : 148

MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

February 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Video: Foreign Direct Investment in 2023: Key Highlights

Source: International Monetary Fund – IMF (video statements)

Inward direct investment grew by $1.75 trillion, rising 4.4% to reach a record $41 trillion by year-end!

Largest Gains:
Singapore: +$307 billion (+15%)
United States: +$227 billion (+4.4%)

Largest Declines:
The Netherlands: -$282 billion (-9%)
Germany: -$141 billion (-3.7%)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHyR9MY4Q3Q

MIL OSI Video –

February 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: OSCE workshop enhances protection of soft targets, public events, in Kyrgyzstan

Source: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe – OSCE

Headline: OSCE workshop enhances protection of soft targets, public events, in Kyrgyzstan

Participants in a workshop on protecting soft targets, such as public events, from terrorist attacks in Bishkek, 18 February 2024. (OSCE) Photo details

Protecting soft targets, such as public events, from terrorist attacks was the focus of an OSCE workshop held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, from 18 to 20 February. The event, bringing together 30 government officials, was organized by the OSCE Transnational Threats Department and the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek.
“Project PROTECT offers us a unique opportunity to engage in tabletop exercises and share international perspectives on vulnerable targets protection. By learning together, we create a powerful synergy—gaining new skills, exchanging lessons, and strengthening our global approach,” highlighted Adylbek Kadyraliev, Deputy Director of the Anti-Terrorism Center of the State Committee for National Security of the Kyrgyz Republic.
Participants discussed pre-event security planning tasks notably the delineation of roles and responsibilities between private and public stakeholders, assessing risk, managing traffic and ensuring human rights and privacy considerations. This theoretical knowledge was then tested in a full-day scenario-based exercise which encouraged rapid, practical and co-ordinated decision-making by participants.
“The protection of soft targets is a cornerstone of comprehensive security strategies. By addressing vulnerabilities in these high-risk areas, authorities not only reduce the likelihood of destructive attacks, but also contribute to building public trust and maintaining social and economic stability,” said Ambassador Alexey Rogov, Head of the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek, in his opening remarks.
Participants included experts and practitioners from the State Committee for National Security, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Education, Osh City Hall, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Prosecutor General’s office, Ministry of Culture, Bishkek City Hall and Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic as well as from the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism.
This workshop is part of Project PROTECT, which enhances national approaches to protecting vulnerable targets from terrorist threats and other hazards in a manner that integrates compliance with human rights. The event was organized with the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek and funded partly by Germany.

MIL OSI Europe News –

February 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Security: Three house searches in German cold case after information from the public

Source: Europol

The cold case revolves around a brutal murder that occurred in Dümmerlohausen, Germany, on 8 August 1996. The victim, a male national from the former Yugoslavia residing in Hamburg at the time, was involved in criminal circles and known to law enforcement for his involvement in burglaries in northern Germany. Local hunters had found him shot dead next to a…

MIL Security OSI –

February 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Australia: Bradford Exchange in Court over alleged misleading representations about subscriptions

Source: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

The ACCC has instituted legal proceedings in the Federal Court against The Bradford Exchange Ltd (Bradford) for allegedly making false or misleading representations in its advertising of collectable coins and ingots in breach of the Australian Consumer Law.

A global retailer of coins and memorabilia, Bradford allegedly made misleading representations to consumers in over 300 newspaper and magazine advertisements for collectable coins and ingots across Australia.

It is alleged that, in many cases, Bradford represented that it would send consumers a single advertised item, when in fact Bradford sent consumers multiple items subject to a subscription (in some cases up to 24 items) and charged them for those items.

Bradford also allegedly represented that, if consumers responded to the relevant advertisements, they would be treated as only agreeing to purchase the single item identified in the advertisement, when this was not the case.

Subsequent items in these collections were typically far more expensive than the originally advertised item, for example, costing $79.99 after the first item was priced at $29.99.

The ACCC alleges that Bradford applied direct debits, or invoiced consumers for these subsequent items. Consumers who did not pay an invoice were sent follow up invoices, some of which incurred a ‘reminder charge’. If the invoice remained unpaid, consumers would ultimately be referred to a debt collection agency which charged additional fees.

“We are alleging Bradford’s actions amounted to a ‘subscription trap’ for consumers who thought they were buying one coin or ingot but were treated as if they had agreed to subscribe to receive an entire series and be charged accordingly,” ACCC Commissioner Liza Carver said.

Subscription traps occur when businesses mislead consumers into signing up for a subscription by representing that the consumer is only making a one-off purchase, or by making cancellation of a subscription difficult.

The ACCC action relates to alleged misleading representations between 1 January 2021 and 26 June 2023 in advertisements by Bradford for collectable commemorative coins and ingots in various print newspapers and magazines across Australia such as the Herald Sun, the Courier Mail, Woman’s Day magazine and New Idea magazine.

The advertisements featured a large image of a single coin or ingot, often with historical or nostalgic themes such as Queen Elizabeth II, World War 1, Phar Lap, and the 1971 Ford Falcon.

In addition, the ACCC alleges Bradford’s advertisements prominently stated a single price for that item and did not state the total price of all the items in each collection.

“Businesses must be open and transparent when signing consumers up to subscriptions, including by stating the total price of goods or services being purchased,” Ms Carver said.

“There have been a large number of complaints about this company from consumers who purchased a single item from Bradford but were then sent and charged for additional items.”

“We consider Bradford’s actions deprived consumers of the ability to make an informed choice about whether to buy an entire collection of items. As a result, many consumers are likely to have paid for subsequent items they did not want or intend to buy and some are likely to have experienced distress and financial loss when Bradford charged them for items they did not intend to purchase,” Ms Carver said.

The ACCC is seeking penalties, declarations, injunctions, costs and other orders for Bradford’s alleged contraventions.

Example of Bradford advertisements:

Bradford exchange platinum jubilee coin ( PDF 2.71 MB )

Background

Bradford is a US-based, retailer of limited-edition memorabilia and collectables including coins and ingots, jewellery, prints, model cars, ornaments and figurines. A significant proportion of Bradford’s revenue comes from the sale of collections. Bradford advertises its products through mainstream newspapers and magazines, as well as on its website and social media accounts.

The Bradford Exchange Group operates globally across fifteen countries including the US, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Germany. Bradford has operated in Australia for 34 years.

Concise Statement

ACCC v Bradford Exchange – Concise Statement ( PDF 3.75 MB )

This document contains the ACCC’s initiating court document in relation to this matter. We will not be uploading further documents in the event these initial documents are subsequently amended.

MIL OSI News –

February 21, 2025
MIL-OSI: Diginex Limited Announces Secondary Listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and Tradegate Exchange and the Engagement of German-based Kirchhoff Consult GmbH to Broaden Investor Base Across Europe

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

HONG KONG, Feb. 20, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Diginex Limited (“Diginex Limited” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: DGNX), a Cayman Islands-based impact technology company specializing in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, announced today that its shares currently traded on The Nasdaq Capital Market (“Nasdaq”), are now cross-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Open Market) and the Tradegate Exchange under the symbol “I0Q” effective February 20, 2025. We expect this cross-listing to expand the Company’s global investor reach, and enhance liquidity and accessibility to European investors while reinforcing its presence in key international financial markets.

In conjunction with the Frankfurt and Tradegate listings, Diginex Limited has engaged Kirchhoff Consult GmbH, a European affiliate of Lambert by LLYC (Lambert), and a leading German investor relations firm, to spearhead an aggressive European investor engagement effort. This initiative aims to expand and diversify Diginex Limited’s investor base across Europe, which the Company hopes to lead to increased liquidity and resilience in stock trading, solidifying the company’s corporate brand value in these regions, and providing greater access to European capital markets.

“Our cross-listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the Tradegate Exchange, coupled with our strategic engagement with Kirchhoff Consult, represents a further step in Diginex Limited’s global growth strategy,” said Miles Pelham, Chairman of Diginex Limited. “Europe is a critical market for us, and we remain committed to deepening our relationships with European investors and partners. By increasing visibility and accessibility, we expect to enhance stock liquidity, strengthen brand awareness, support the growth of our European business operations, and drive long-term value creation for all shareholders.”

The cross-listing follows Diginex Limited’s successful initial public offering (IPO) on Nasdaq, which closed on January 23, 2025. The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is the largest exchange in Germany and the third largest in Europe based on market capitalization. The Tradegate Exchange is a German Stock Exchange that specializes in the execution of private investor orders. With its shares now trading in both the U.S. and Europe, Diginex Limited believes that it is well-positioned to attract a broader range of institutional and retail investors, fostering sustainable growth and financial strength for the Company in global capital markets.

The engagement with Kirchhoff Consult GmbH builds on the Company’s recent partnership with Lambert and its Hong Kong partner, Strategic Public Relations Group Ltd, reinforcing Diginex Limited’s strategic focus on enhancing visibility and bolstering investor engagement across key global markets.

About Diginex Limited

Diginex Limited is a Cayman Islands exempted company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands in 2024, with subsidiaries located in Hong Kong, United Kingdom and United States of America. Diginex Limited conducts operations through its wholly owned subsidiary Diginex Solutions (HK) Limited, a Hong Kong corporation (“DSL”) and DSL is the sole owner of (i) Diginex Services Limited, a corporation formed in the United Kingdom and (ii) Diginex USA LLC, a limited liability company formed in the State of Delaware. DSL commenced operations in 2020, is headquartered in Hong Kong, and is a software company that empowers businesses and governments to streamline ESG, climate, and supply chain data collection and reporting. DSL is an impact technology business that helps organizations to address the some of the most pressing ESG, climate and sustainability issues, utilizing blockchain, machine learning and data analysis technology to lead change and increase transparency in corporate social responsibility and climate action.

Diginex’s products and services solutions enable companies to collect, evaluate and share sustainability data through easy-to-use software For more information, please visit the Company’s website: https://www.diginex.com/.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this announcement are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on the Company’s current expectations and projections about future events that the Company believes may affect its financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. Investors can identify these forward-looking statements by words or phrases such as “approximates,” “believes,” “hopes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “projects,” “intends,” “plans,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “could,” “may” or other similar expressions. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent occurring events or circumstances, or changes in its expectations, except as may be required by law. Although the Company believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot assure you that such expectations will turn out to be correct, and the Company cautions investors that actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results and encourages investors to review other factors that may affect its future results in the Company’s filings with the SEC.

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

Diginex
Investor Relations
Email:ir@diginex.com

European IR Contract
Jens Hecht
Phone: +49.40.609186.82
Email: jens.hecht@kirchhoff.de

US IR Contract
Jackson Lin
Lambert by LLYC
Phone: +1 (646) 717-4593
Email: jian.lin@llyc.global

The MIL Network –

February 21, 2025
MIL-OSI: Intermex Launches Wire Transfers via WhatsApp, Making Money Transfers Easier Than Ever

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

MIAMI, Feb. 20, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — International Money Express, Inc. (NASDAQ: IMXI) (“Intermex” or the “Company”), a leading omnichannel money remittance and financial services provider, is making it easier than ever to send money by launching wire transfers through WhatsApp, the messaging app of choice for millions of Latinos. With 95% of U.S. Hispanics using WhatsApp on their smartphones, this new feature brings fast, secure, and convenient money transfers right into the app they already trust and love.

“This launch is all about meeting our customers where they are,” said Marcelo Theodoro, Chief Digital, Product & Marketing Officer at Intermex. “By integrating money transfers into WhatsApp, we’re making sending money as easy as sending a message—secure, seamless, and available anytime.”

With WhatsApp being the most widely used messaging platform among Latinos, Intermex is embracing conversational payments, a growing trend in fintech that simplifies transactions through familiar communication channels. This feature aligns with the company’s mission to provide real-time access to financial services, reinforcing its commitment to making remittances more convenient and accessible. By eliminating unnecessary steps and integrating transfers into an app customers already use daily, Intermex is breaking down barriers to financial inclusion.

Beyond transactions, the WhatsApp-powered channel will serve as a direct communication line between customers and Intermex’s support teams, allowing users to track transfers, receive updates, and access customer service quickly. Whether sending money through a retail location or a digital platform, customers can now reach Intermex directly through WhatsApp for assistance, making the overall experience smoother and more efficient.

“This service combines the trust and reliability of the Intermex brand with our powerhouse technology to bring a secure, user-friendly, and convenient experience to WhatsApp,” Theodoro added. “With 95% of U.S. Hispanics who own smartphones using WhatsApp, this integration allows us to connect with our core customers in the most natural way possible.”

The WhatsApp wire transfer feature will initially launch in key markets, with expansion plans set to follow as part of Intermex’s broader digital strategy. By integrating with widely used messaging platforms, Intermex is meeting customers where they are, providing greater flexibility, and strengthening its position as a leader in digital-first cross-border payments.

For more information, visit www.intermexonline.com.

About International Money Express, Inc. (Intermex): Founded in 1994, Intermex applies proprietary technology enabling consumers to send money from the United States, Canada, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Germany to more than 60 countries. The Company provides the digital movement of money through the Company’s website and mobile app, as well as through its network of agent retailers in the United States, Canada, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Germany, and its Company-operated stores. Transactions are fulfilled and paid through thousands of retail locations and banks around the world. Intermex is headquartered in Miami, Florida, with international offices in Puebla, Mexico, Guatemala City, Guatemala, London, England, and Madrid, Spain. For more information about Intermex, please visit www.intermexonline.com.

Investor Relations Contact:
Alex Sadowski
Investor Relations Coordinator
ir@intermexusa.com
Tel: 305-671-8000

The MIL Network –

February 21, 2025