Category: housing

MIL-OSI USA: Bowman, Unintended Policy Shifts and Unexpected Consequences

Source: US State of New York Federal Reserve

Thank you for the invitation to join you today.1 As the Federal Reserve’s Vice Chair for Supervision, I am responsible for, among other things, leading the Board’s Division of Supervision and Regulation in its work to promote the safe and sound operation of the U.S. banking system. While this includes the specific activities of bank supervision and regulation, the financial system reaches far beyond the banking system. Regulators must also monitor the effects of activities that extend outside this perimeter, for example activities that have migrated from banks to non-banks, or when there are broader market implications of regulatory actions and their potential effects on financial stability. Regulations should not be created in a static world of “set it and forget it.”
Today, my remarks will focus specifically on how the passage of time—with underlying changes in the composition of the economy and the financial system, interest rate shifts, and patterns and preferences of banking and financial activity—can lead to unintended policy application and unexpected consequences. Regulators should consider these broader evolving dynamics as they craft regulations to endure beyond today’s circumstances.
Typically, these effects are not contemplated in the scope of the usual cost-benefit analysis, as shifts occur over time after a new rule or regulation is implemented or enacted. But shifts can, in effect, become new policy choices with consequences that can pose significant issues.
One shift in particular is that of the supplementary leverage ratio increasingly becoming the binding capital constraint for the largest banks in the United States. The U.S. banking system includes two basic types of capital requirements: risk-based requirements that impose a capital “charge” based on the underlying risk of a particular activity, and leverage-based requirements that do not differentiate based on the risk characteristics of underlying assets. And while leverage-based capital requirements are generally intended to operate as a backstop to risk-based requirements, changes in the financial system and the broader economy can alter this relationship between capital requirements. This shift in the nature of leverage-based capital requirements, from backstop to binding constraint, was not driven by a deliberate policymaking process, but rather by the maintenance of a high level of reserves in the banking system, as well as the introduction of liquidity requirements that compelled banks to replace loans with high-quality liquid assets.2
Monetary Policy and Economic OutlookBefore turning to the main theme of my remarks, I would like to give a brief update on my outlook for the economy and monetary policy.
At the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting last week, the Committee voted to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 4-1/4 to 4‑1/2 percent and to continue to reduce the Federal Reserve’s securities holdings. I supported this decision because the data shows a solid labor market and I would like to see further confirmation that inflation is close to our 2 percent target on a sustained basis.
If inflation remains near its current level or continues to move closer to our target, or if the data show signs of weakening in labor market conditions, it would be appropriate to consider lowering the policy rate, moving it closer to a neutral setting.
At this point, we have not seen significant economic impacts from trade developments or other factors, and the U.S. economy has continued to be resilient despite some slowing in economic growth. Private domestic final purchases (PDFP) growth slowed to a moderate pace in the first quarter, even as activity was partly boosted by a pull-forward of spending on motor vehicles and high-tech equipment ahead of the implementation of tariffs. Although the pull-forward of spending appears to be unwinding, retail and motor vehicle sales through May provide further evidence that PDFP has softened so far this year.
The labor market appears to remain solid, with payroll employment rising about 140,000 per month, on average, in April and May, only slightly below the average monthly gains over the past two quarters. This pace of job gains appears consistent with the unemployment rate remaining at a low 4.2 percent through May, which is roughly unchanged since the middle of last year.
The labor market appears to be stable near estimates of full employment, with layoffs remaining low. The number of job openings relative to job seekers has moved roughly sideways since the middle of last year at, or a touch below, the pre-pandemic level. And the labor market no longer appears to be especially tight or a significant source of inflation pressures, as most wage growth measures have slowed closer to a pace consistent with 2 percent inflation.
Turning to inflation, we have seen a welcome return to further moderation of personal consumption expenditures (PCE) inflation over the past three months. The May consumer and producer price reports suggest that 12-month core PCE inflation stood at 2.6 percent in May, down meaningfully from its elevated reading of 2.9 percent at the end of last year. Similar to the past two years, elevated monthly inflation readings in January and February have been followed by low readings as we move into the spring.
On a 12-month basis, core PCE goods inflation has picked up somewhat since last December, but this has been more than offset by a considerable slowing in core PCE services inflation. It appears that any upward pressure from higher tariffs on goods prices is being offset by other factors and that the underlying trend in core PCE inflation is moving much closer to our 2 percent target than is currently apparent in the data. With housing services inflation on a sustained downward trajectory, and other core services inflation already consistent with 2 percent inflation, only core goods inflation remains somewhat elevated likely reflecting limited passthrough from tariffs.
With economic growth slowing, it is possible that recent softness in aggregate demand could be starting to translate into weaker labor market conditions. While still strong, the labor market appears to be less dynamic, with modest hiring rates, layoffs edging up from low levels, and job gains concentrated in just a few industries. With inflation on a sustained trajectory toward 2 percent, softness in aggregate demand, and signs of fragility in the labor market, I think that we should put more weight on downside risks to our employment mandate going forward.
Despite progress on lowering inflation, there are potential upside risks if negotiations result in higher tariffs or if firms raise goods prices independent of any tariff pass-through. Although we have not seen evidence of disruptive impacts on supply chains, changes in global trade patterns could lead to an increase in prices for goods and services. The current conflict in the Middle East or other geopolitical tensions could also lead to higher commodity prices.
I am certainly attentive to these inflation risks, but I am not yet seeing a major concern, as some retailers seem unwilling to raise prices for essentials due to high price sensitivity among low-income consumers and as supply chains appear to be largely unaffected so far.
Measures of policy and economic uncertainty have receded from recent highs, and measures of consumer and business sentiment have also improved in recent weeks after having dropped considerably. These developments reinforce my view that concerns will subside as more clarity emerges on trade policy. Businesses appear to be resuming investment and hiring decisions, as they feel increasingly confident that less favorable trade outcomes are unlikely to occur.
I remain focused on how new policies evolve and whether future data releases will provide perspective about their economic impacts. On trade policy, I expect that negotiations will ultimately result in lower tariff rates than are currently in place, consistent with the resumption of financial market optimism. Further, should we see effects on inflation this year, I expect that increased slack in the economy will limit this to a small, one-off impact.
Small and one-off price increases this year should translate only into a small drag on real activity. I also expect that less restrictive regulations, lower business taxes, and a more friendly business environment will likely boost supply and largely offset any negative effects on economic activity and prices.
In considering the risks to achieving our dual mandate, I fully supported the revised characterization of uncertainty and the balance of risks in our most recent monetary policy statement, pointing to the diminished uncertainty and removing the emphasis on risks to both sides of our mandate. In my view, it was appropriate to recognize that the balance of risks has shifted. In fact, the data have not shown clear signs of material impacts from tariffs and other policies. I think it is likely that the impact of tariffs on inflation may take longer, be more delayed, and have a smaller effect than initially expected, especially because many firms front-loaded their stocks of inventories. And, all considered, ongoing progress on trade and tariff negotiations has led to an economic environment that is now demonstrably less risky. The change in our monetary policy statement appropriately incorporates this shift in the balance of risks as well as the rapid improvement in many measures of uncertainty.
As we think about the path forward, it is time to consider adjusting the policy rate. As inflation has declined or come in below expectations over the past few months, we should recognize that inflation appears to be on a sustained path toward 2 percent and that there will likely be only minimal impacts on overall core PCE inflation from changes to trade policy. We should also recognize that downside risks to our employment mandate could soon become more salient, given recent softness in spending and signs of fragility in the labor market.
Before our next meeting in July, we will have received one additional month of employment and inflation data. If upcoming data show inflation continuing to evolve favorably, with upward pressures remaining limited to goods prices, or if we see signs that softer spending is spilling over into weaker labor market conditions, such developments should be addressed in our policy discussions and reflected in our deliberations. Should inflation pressures remain contained, I would support lowering the policy rate as soon as our next meeting in order to bring it closer to its neutral setting and to sustain a healthy labor market. In the meantime, I will continue to carefully monitor economic conditions as the Administration’s policies, the economy, and financial markets continue to evolve.
It is important to note that monetary policy is not on a preset course. At each FOMC meeting, my colleagues and I will make our decisions based on the incoming data and the implications for and risks to the outlook, guided by the Fed’s dual-mandate goals of maximum employment and stable prices. I will also continue to meet with a broad range of contacts as I assess the appropriateness of our monetary policy stance.
Bringing inflation in line with our price-stability goal is essential for sustaining a healthy labor market and fostering an economy that works for everyone in the longer run.
Policy Shifts and Unintended ConsequencesIn my responsibilities over bank regulation and supervision at the Federal Reserve, I intend to apply a pragmatic approach. We will review data and evidence, identify problems that need to be resolved, and develop efficient solutions to address those identified issues.3 While the regulatory authority of the Federal Reserve is primarily related to the banking system, the consequences of banking regulation and supervisory efforts are not limited to the banking system. Bank regulation and supervision affect how financial activities are conducted, the cost and availability of credit and financial services, and even what types of entities provide those services. While it is important to consider the consequences of regulatory actions as they evolve over time, in cases where regulation may create or exacerbate financial stability risks, we must examine whether those risks are justified by the safety and soundness benefits of the regulation.
Bank-affiliated broker-dealers play a critical role in U.S. capital markets, including in Treasury market intermediation activities. Today I will discuss the lessons we have learned about how bank regulatory requirements, specifically leverage ratios in the United States, can have unintended consequences. Leverage ratio impacts on bank-affiliated broker-dealers can have broader impacts, including market impacts like those observed in Treasury market intermediation activities. Once we’ve identified “emerging” unintended consequences—issues that were not contemplated during the development of a regulatory approach—we must consider how to revisit earlier regulatory and policy decisions.
As I will discuss in greater detail shortly, regulators must act quickly to address the growing problems with increasingly binding leverage ratios. In 2021, in connection with the expiration of temporary, emergency changes to the supplementary leverage ratio (SLR), the Federal Reserve committed to “soon” inviting public comment on potential modifications.4 Over four years later, a proposal has not been issued, and problems with Treasury market intermediation continue to emerge. The time has come for the federal banking agencies to revisit leverage ratios and their impacts on the Treasury markets.
Looking at the Data: Treasury Market FunctioningAs a first step in this pragmatic approach, it is important to look at what the data says about Treasury market functioning. This is a necessary first step before we determine whether there are issues or problems that can be addressed through adjustments to bank regulatory requirements.
A review of Treasury market data provides a history of growing issues with Treasury market functioning. In recent years, U.S. policy debates have highlighted the need to take preventative measures to ensure smooth market functioning. One issue that continues to persist is low levels of Treasury market liquidity as the Board’s semiannual Financial Stability Report noted.5 In addition, some dealers experienced balance sheet pressure in intermediating record volumes of Treasury market transactions in the spring, at a time when reports from market participants also indicated reduced demand from other Treasury investors.6
A survey of market participants from the Fed’s most recent Financial Stability Report noted that more than a quarter of respondents cited Treasury market functioning as a risk to the U.S. financial system and the broader global economy. This was an increase from the same survey conducted last fall when 17 percent of those surveyed cited Treasury market functioning as a risk.7
Recent changes to Treasury market clearing activities from the Securities and Exchange Commission’s central clearing requirement for U.S. Treasuries were implemented to improve Treasury market functioning. Once fully implemented, these changes may improve market functioning. The Federal Reserve’s Standing Repo Facility may also help to promote smooth functioning in the Treasury market. But it is unclear how the ongoing increases in the volume of Treasury issuance, the volume of Treasury securities outstanding, and changes to the Fed’s balance sheet over time, may also affect market liquidity.
Treasury markets have experienced stress events as recently as the September 2019 repo market stress, and the so-called “dash for cash” in March of 2020. In early April, we also saw strains in Treasury cash markets. Although markets continued to function, there were unexpected moves in Treasury yields, with an initial drop in yields followed by a sharp increase that seems to have been driven in part by the unwinding of the swap spread trade by leveraged investors in response to declining swap spreads.
We do not know exactly what circumstances may lead to a future stress event or how it will manifest, and continuing to impose unwarranted limits on dealers’ intermediation capacity could exacerbate a future stress event in this critical market. But we do know that these events have raised concerns about the resilience of U.S. Treasury markets. Therefore, we should continue to actively monitor indicators of market functioning. Recent trends in both market liquidity indicators and survey responses suggest that this problem has persisted and may be becoming more severe. Low liquidity can create more volatility in prices, exacerbate the effects of market shocks, and threaten market functioning.
Identifying the Problem: Looking Beyond Treasury Market IntermediationLarge bank-affiliated primary dealers play a vital role in the intermediation of U.S. Treasury markets. These dealers are subject to, not insulated from, the effect of banking regulation. While many factors can affect market liquidity, including the growing volume of Treasury issuance, Treasury market saturation, and interest rate volatility, we must consider whether some of the pressure is a byproduct of bank regulation. Due to the role of large banks in the intermediation of Treasury markets, there is a direct link between banking regulation and Treasury market liquidity, particularly when it comes to the growth of “safe” assets in the banking system and the increase in leverage-based capital requirements becoming the binding capital constraint on some large banks. In 2018, the Federal Reserve along with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) proposed significant changes to the enhanced supplementary leverage ratio (eSLR) that applies to the largest banks.8 These revisions were never finalized, but the intent behind them was to return the eSLR to its traditional role as a backstop capital requirement instead of what has become a substantial balance sheet constraint.
The proposed change was designed to promote resilience in the banking system and to protect financial stability, while also maximizing credit availability and economic growth throughout the credit cycle.9 During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Reserve addressed constraints on the ability of U.S. banks to support efficient Treasury market functioning by temporarily excluding Fed reserves and Treasuries from the denominator of the SLR.10
The central role of bank-affiliated broker-dealers in Treasury market intermediation has led us to take a close look at bank regulatory requirements to clarify how these requirements, particularly their calibration, may impact Treasury market functioning. Although designed to address low risk activities, like Treasury market intermediation, leverage ratios have become increasingly binding as a bank capital constraint as market conditions change.
While issues around the use of leverage ratios require close examination, a solid capital foundation in the banking system is critical to support safety and soundness and financial stability. Revisiting the calibration of leverage ratios to ensure that they remain backstops instead of creating binding constraints, especially in times of stress, should not be interpreted as a critique of the role of capital in a robust regulatory and supervisory framework.
But to be clear, the consequences of an overly restrictive leverage ratio go well beyond just Treasury market intermediation, and impact a wide range of low-risk activities. Leverage capital requirements do not differentiate between the risk of different asset classes or exposures.
However, in periods when bank balance sheets are expanding—like the significant deposit inflows during COVID-19—leverage capital requirements can unintentionally become the binding constraint on both banks and their affiliates. This increases the amount of required capital as bank balance sheets grow, regardless of the underlying risk. When constrained in this way, bank-affiliated primary dealers may pull back on the market intermediation of low-risk assets like U.S. Treasuries. A binding leverage capital requirement can create perverse incentives for banks to shift their balance sheets into higher risk assets, since doing so could generate larger returns without requiring additional capital. This is simply a cause and effect of overly restrictive leverage capital.
The fact of leverage ratios becoming increasingly binding is evident in simple metrics like the ratio of risk-weighted assets to total leverage exposure. These are, respectively, the denominators of risk-based capital ratios and the SLR. Shortly after the SLR was adopted in the U.S. in the mid-2010s, this ratio stood at 48 percent in the aggregate for the eight largest U.S. banks, the global systemically important banks (G-SIBs). Since then, the ratio of risk-weighted assets to total leverage exposure has declined and currently stands at 40 percent, primarily due to higher reserves and other types of high-quality liquid assets on bank balance sheets. This downward trend results in the SLR increasingly becoming the binding constraint and reflects banks’ growing holdings of high-quality liquid assets, most of which carry a risk weight of zero under risk-based capital ratios but have a 100 percent weighting under leverage capital ratios.
Efficient SolutionsOne example of the SLR’s unintended consequence is the erosion of liquidity in U.S. Treasury markets because it is driven, in part, by leverage ratio requirements increasingly becoming the binding constraints on the largest U.S. banks. This example also illustrates the necessity of evaluating tradeoffs in regulation and speaks to a larger issue with the calibration of leverage.
The banking regulators are uniquely positioned to both analyze and remediate components of the bank regulatory framework that may disrupt banks’ participation in low-risk, but economically critical activities. This includes the exacerbation of Treasury market illiquidity. Treasury markets play a critical role in the U.S. and global financial systems, and we should be proactive in addressing the unintended consequences of bank regulation, while ensuring the framework continues to promote safety, soundness, and financial stability.11 We should start by addressing potential constraints on Treasury market functioning before issues arise, lessening impacts from stress, and mitigating the need to intervene in future market events.
On Wednesday, the Board is scheduled to consider specific amendments to the eSLR, which is the requirement that applies at both the holding company and bank levels of the largest U.S. banks. While I do not want to front-run the proposal, I will note that the proposal’s goal is to address a long-identified—and growing—problem with the calibration of this leverage requirement. The proposal would solicit public comment on the impacts of this miscalibration, potential fixes, and work to develop an appropriate and effective solution. This proposal takes a first step toward what I view as long overdue follow-up to review and reform what have become distorted capital requirements. This proposal, while meaningful, addresses only one element of the capital framework. More work on capital requirements remains, especially to consider how they have evolved and whether changes in market conditions have revealed issues that should be addressed.
In a few weeks, on July 22, the Federal Reserve will host a conference to bring together a wide range of thought leaders to discuss the U.S. bank capital framework, including the design and calibration of leverage ratios. Fixing the design and calibration of leverage capital requirements will not resolve every issue with U.S. Treasury market functioning. But, simple reforms to return leverage ratio requirements to their traditional role as a capital backstop could improve Treasury market functioning by building resilience in advance of future stress events. And this could reduce the chances that we would need to intervene in Treasury markets should a future stress event arise. While we know well the issues created by the eSLR, there are many potential improvements that could address other issues within the capital framework.
As I have noted previously, a broader set of reforms could include amending not only the leverage capital ratio, but also G-SIB surcharge requirements. We should also reconsider capital requirements for a wider range of banks, including the SLR’s application to banks with more than $250 billion in assets, Tier 1 leverage requirements, and the calibration of the community bank leverage ratio.
The unintended shift over time in the eSLR increasingly becoming a binding capital constraint demonstrates that we need to think about regulatory policies in a dynamic way based on the evolution in the banking and financial systems, and the broader economy.
Other examples of regulations that must take into account the impact of economic growth and inflation include elements of the G-SIB surcharge, as well as regulatory thresholds that define the broader categories of banks. Thresholds like the $10 billion definition of a “community bank” and the $700 billion in total assets and $75 billion for cross-jurisdictional activity separating Category II and III banks determine which regulatory requirements apply to each group.
One way to prevent the original calibration from becoming divorced from the foundational policy decisions over time is to index the relevant G-SIB surcharge coefficients and regulatory thresholds to nominal gross domestic product. While approaches like indexing thresholds and requirements can make our regulations more robust and durable over time, we should also acknowledge the essential role of supervision as a tool to promote safety and soundness, and financial stability. Just as our capital requirements are intended to operate in a complementary manner, so do regulation and supervision act in a complementary way.
These are only a handful of relevant examples, but they are representative of an effective approach to regulatory reform. Regulations should not be created in a static world of “set it and forget it.” The economy evolves over time, as do the banking and financial systems and the needs of businesses and consumers.
Increasingly, regulators are expected to conduct a more thorough and detailed analysis as part of the ordinary rulemaking process, which includes a proposal’s costs and benefits. Yet, over time, we tend to devote fewer resources to the work of conducting maintenance of our regulations. Maintenance of the regulatory system should include reviewing the basis for earlier policy decisions, considering whether the policies embedded in regulations have been distorted over time through market developments, and examining whether emerging issues in the market should lead to further review and revision.
Closing ThoughtsThank you for the opportunity to join you today and to provide my views on the U.S. economic outlook and current regulatory proposals. In the United States, regulatory policy objectives are prescribed by law, and bank regulators focus primarily on promoting the safe and sound operation of U.S. banks, and financial stability. Despite this limited purpose, we must understand the consequences of regulations, which can extend well beyond the banking system. Recent trends—including providing more fact-based and analytical support for proposals—are a positive step in achieving responsible regulation.
But we need a broad commitment to follow the approach I have just described. We must consider relevant data and information, identify the source of any problems or opportunity for greater efficiency, and then develop targeted and effective policy solutions and approaches.

1. The views expressed here are my own and are not necessarily those of my colleagues on the Federal Reserve Board or the Federal Open Market Committee. Return to text
2. See 12 CFR 249.3; 249.20 (defining categories of high-quality liquid assets based on asset characteristics). Return to text
3. See Michelle W. Bowman, “Taking a Fresh Look at Supervision and Regulation (PDF),” (speech at the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business, Psaros Center for Financial Markets Policy, Washington, D.C., June 6, 2025). Return to text
4. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, “Federal Reserve Board Announces that the Temporary Change to its Supplementary Leverage Ratio (SLR) for Bank Holding Companies Will Expire as Scheduled on March 31,” press release, March 19, 2021, (“To ensure that the SLR—which was established in 2014 as an additional capital requirement—remains effective in an environment of higher reserves, the Board will soon be inviting public comment on several potential SLR modifications. The proposal and comments will contribute to ongoing discussions with the Department of the Treasury and other regulators on future work to ensure the resiliency of the Treasury market.”). Return to text
5. See Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Financial Stability Report (PDF) (Washington, D.C., April 2025), 10–11. Return to text
6. Board of Governors, Financial Stability Report, at 32. Return to text
7. See Board of Governors, Financial Stability Report, at 3. Return to text
8. See Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Reserve System (2018), “Regulatory Capital Rules: Regulatory Capital, Enhanced Supplementary Leverage Ratio Standards for U.S. Global Systemically Important Bank Holding Companies and Certain of Their Subsidiary Insured Depository Institutions; Total Loss-Absorbing Capacity Requirements for U.S. Global Systemically Important Bank Holding Companies,” Federal Register, vol. 83 (April 19), pp. 17317–27. Return to text
9. See Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Reserve System (2018), “II. Revisions to the Enhanced Supplementary Leverage Ratio Standards,” Federal Register, vol. 83 (April 19), p. 17319, paragraph 3: “Leverage capital requirements should generally act as a backstop to the risk-based requirements. If a leverage ratio is calibrated at a level that makes it generally a binding constraint through the economic and credit cycle, it can create incentives for firms to reduce participation in or increase costs for low-risk, low-return businesses.” Return to text
10. See, for example, Federal Reserve System (2020), “Temporary Exclusion of U.S. Treasury Securities and Deposits at Federal Reserve Banks from the Supplementary Leverage Ratio (PDF),” Federal Register, vol. 85, (April 14), pp. 20578–79. Return to text
11. For more information, see the press release in note 4 indicating that the Board would seek comment on changes to the SLR. Return to text

MIL OSI USA News –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Security: Man at Center of Alien Kidnapping and Smuggling Conspiracy Pleads Guilty

Source: Office of United States Attorneys

Defendants Kidnapped Two Women, Demanded Ransom, Instigated Shootout in Charlottesville’s Belmont Neighborhood

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – A Texas man, who conspired to kidnap and transport aliens and held multiple victims for ransom before instigating a deadly shootout in a quiet, Charlottesville neighborhood, pled guilty recently to federal charges as part of Operation Take Back America.

Ricardo Franco Ordaz, 26, of Cedar Creek, Texas, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to kidnap and one count of transporting an alien resulting in death. At sentencing, Ordaz faces a maximum possible penalty of life in prison.

“Human trafficking and human smuggling generate violence and are real threats to our community and the Justice Department will take all appropriate steps to hold accountable those who attempt to profit off of others trying to enter the country illegally,” Acting United States Attorney Zachary T. Lee said today. “This case serves as an example of the deadly consequences that can occur when individuals use human beings as currency. I am grateful to the Department of Homeland Security and our state and local partners for their work to bring this case to justice.”

According to court documents, in early January of 2023, Ordaz, his co-defendant Jordan Perez, and other co-conspirators, kidnapped multiple victims and held them for ransom, knowing these individuals had entered the United States illegally.

As part of the scheme, Ordaz arranged to pick up two victims from an area near the United States-Mexico border and bring them to a house near Austin, Texas. Once there, Ordaz, and others, held both victims against their will and under armed guard, then called and messaged the victims’ families and friends demanding cash ransom in exchange for their release.

Ordaz exchanged one of the victims in Texas for $5,000 cash, and on January 8, 2023, Perez and a co-conspirator transported another victim to Charlottesville, Virginia, where they arranged to exchange that victim for $10,000 in cash.

During the exchange, when it was revealed that the full $10,000 ransom was not available, an argument and shootout ensued, during which Perez, and another coconspirator, brandished firearms that resulted in the death of one of the kidnappers.

Perez is scheduled to go to trial in December 2025.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).

Homeland Security Investigations in Harrisonburg investigated the case with assistance from the Charlottesville Police Department, Albemarle County Police Department, and HSI Austin, Texas.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sally J. Sullivan is prosecuting the case.

MIL Security OSI –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Security: Man at Center of Alien Kidnapping and Smuggling Conspiracy Pleads Guilty

Source: Office of United States Attorneys

Defendants Kidnapped Two Women, Demanded Ransom, Instigated Shootout in Charlottesville’s Belmont Neighborhood

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – A Texas man, who conspired to kidnap and transport aliens and held multiple victims for ransom before instigating a deadly shootout in a quiet, Charlottesville neighborhood, pled guilty recently to federal charges as part of Operation Take Back America.

Ricardo Franco Ordaz, 26, of Cedar Creek, Texas, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to kidnap and one count of transporting an alien resulting in death. At sentencing, Ordaz faces a maximum possible penalty of life in prison.

“Human trafficking and human smuggling generate violence and are real threats to our community and the Justice Department will take all appropriate steps to hold accountable those who attempt to profit off of others trying to enter the country illegally,” Acting United States Attorney Zachary T. Lee said today. “This case serves as an example of the deadly consequences that can occur when individuals use human beings as currency. I am grateful to the Department of Homeland Security and our state and local partners for their work to bring this case to justice.”

According to court documents, in early January of 2023, Ordaz, his co-defendant Jordan Perez, and other co-conspirators, kidnapped multiple victims and held them for ransom, knowing these individuals had entered the United States illegally.

As part of the scheme, Ordaz arranged to pick up two victims from an area near the United States-Mexico border and bring them to a house near Austin, Texas. Once there, Ordaz, and others, held both victims against their will and under armed guard, then called and messaged the victims’ families and friends demanding cash ransom in exchange for their release.

Ordaz exchanged one of the victims in Texas for $5,000 cash, and on January 8, 2023, Perez and a co-conspirator transported another victim to Charlottesville, Virginia, where they arranged to exchange that victim for $10,000 in cash.

During the exchange, when it was revealed that the full $10,000 ransom was not available, an argument and shootout ensued, during which Perez, and another coconspirator, brandished firearms that resulted in the death of one of the kidnappers.

Perez is scheduled to go to trial in December 2025.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).

Homeland Security Investigations in Harrisonburg investigated the case with assistance from the Charlottesville Police Department, Albemarle County Police Department, and HSI Austin, Texas.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sally J. Sullivan is prosecuting the case.

MIL Security OSI –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Banking: Students Across Delhi NCR Reimagine the Future with Samsung Solve for Tomorrow

Source: Samsung

Classrooms lit up with curiosity, corridors buzzed with conversations around innovation, and young students stood confidently pitching bold ideas for a better tomorrow. The recent Samsung Solve for Tomorrow roadshows and open houses have been igniting minds across cities, and Delhi NCR was no exception.

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow, launched on April 29, 2025, is more than just a national innovation challenge. It is a call to action for India’s youth — an invitation to step up, identify real-world issues, and build technology-based solutions that can impact lives. The programme equips students with design thinking tools, mentorship from Samsung leaders and IIT Delhi faculty, investor connects, and prototyping support. It also offers INR 1 crore to the top four winning teams.

As part of the outreach, the Samsung team visited Mamta Modern School in Vikaspuri, Kamal Model Sr. Sec. School in Mohan Garden, DAV Sector 14 in Gurgaon, St. Teresa School in Indirapuram, and WCTM Gurgaon. In these open houses, students interacted with programme facilitators, asked questions, explored case studies from previous seasons, and began shaping their own problem statements.

At the New Delhi leg of the roadshow, the excitement was palpable. Students from schools gathered with ideas ranging from AI-based solutions for senior citizen care to sustainable energy innovations and mental health apps tailored for teens.

Among them was Aarna Kaushal, a class 11 student, who has been deeply moved by the sight of overflowing landfills in her city. Inspired by the programme, she’s now working on a smart segregation system for waste collection. “Samsung Solve for Tomorrow made me feel like someone is finally listening to students like us. I’m not just dreaming anymore — I’m planning, researching and designing,” said Aarna.

For Bhumika Rawal, it was the experience of watching kids around her struggle with dyslexia that sparked an idea. “I want to create a voice-based learning app that helps kids learn at their own pace. The roadshow helped me shape that dream into a project,” said Bhumika, her eyes lit with determination.

The energy in these sessions went beyond pitches and prototypes. Students discussed the importance of inclusion, accessibility, climate responsibility, and rural connectivity. They learnt that ideas don’t have to be perfect to be powerful — they just need to be rooted in purpose.

As the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow roadshows continue to travel across India, they’re not just spreading awareness about the programme — they’re awakening a generation of problem-solvers and change-makers.

India is full of young innovators. Samsung is providing them the tools, the platform, and the confidence to build something meaningful.

With open houses like these, Samsung is doing more than scouting for the next big idea — it’s investing in the next generation of changemakers who believe that solving for tomorrow begins today.

MIL OSI Global Banks –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Canada: Statement by Prime Minister Carney on the National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism

Source: Government of Canada – Prime Minister

“Forty years ago, innocent civilians, including over 250 Canadians, were killed in the bombing of Air India Flight 182. This terrorist attack remains the deadliest attack in our country’s history – one we must never forget.

“As we mark the National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism, we remember the victims of the Air India bombing and all others who have lost their lives to terrorism.

“Canada will continue to work with our allies and partners, at home and around the world, to better detect, prevent, and respond to the threat of terrorism and violent extremism. We are also increasing funding for national security, defence, and law enforcement, and enhancing intelligence sharing with our allies.

“Canada’s new government unequivocally stands against terrorism, and we will deliver on our mandate of change to keep communities safe.”

MIL OSI Canada News –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Residential electricity bills could increase slightly this summer

Source: US Energy Information Administration

In-brief analysis

June 23, 2025

During summer 2025, from June through September, residential customers in the United States can expect average monthly electricity bills of $178, a slight increase from last summer’s average of $173. We expect a slight decrease in consumption, driven by cooler forecast summer temperatures relative to last summer, which only partially offsets the expected increase in residential electricity prices in most areas of the country.

The number of cooling degree days (CDD), a measure of how hot the temperature is, affects the demand for electricity use for air conditioning. We expect that temperatures will be slightly cooler this summer with a 1% decline in total CDDs compared with summer 2024. The cooler expected weather contributes to slightly less U.S. residential summer electricity consumption, down less than 1% compared with last summer.

Weather remains the main source of uncertainty in our forecasts for summer residential electricity bills. If temperatures end up much hotter than expected, households are likely to face higher-than-expected increases in electricity bills, especially in the southern states.

The impact of electricity consumption patterns and electricity prices on summer electricity bills will vary regionally. New England residential customers will likely experience the largest increase in average monthly electricity expenditures, with a forecast rise of $13 this summer compared with last summer.

In addition to the largest increase in expenditures, the New England and West South Central regions are expected to have the highest overall electricity bills this summer. Residential customers in the West South Central region tend to use a lot of air conditioning in the summer because of hot temperatures and high levels of humidity. Residential bills are higher in New England because the typical price per kilowatthour is higher than in other regions because the cost of natural gas delivered to power generators in that region tends to be higher than other areas of the country.

Residential customers in the South Atlantic and East South Central regions are likely to see small electricity bill increases, in line with last summer. We forecast monthly bills will increase slightly below the U.S. average in both of these regions.

Conversely, in the Mountain region and Pacific region, residential bills are expected to decrease because of lower consumption after near-record temperatures in the West during the summer of 2024. Price increases in those regions are relatively modest compared with recent years. Increased generation from hydropower in the western states this year should reduce the need to supply power from higher-cost natural gas generators.

Principal contributors: Tyler Hodge, Katherine Antonio

MIL OSI USA News –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI: Rockcliffe Capital Initiates Coverage on Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. (TSX/NYSE: AEM) with a “Strong Buy” Rating and C$155 Price Target
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

TORONTO, June 23, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Rockcliffe Capital is pleased to announce today the initiation of equity research coverage on Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. (TSX/NYSE: AEM), a premier senior gold mining company with operations spanning Canada, Finland, Australia, Mexico, and the U.S.

Following rigorous financial and operational analysis, Rockcliffe Capital assigns Agnico Eagle a “Strong Buy” rating, alongside a 12-month price target of C$155, reflecting strong upside potential of approximately 25% from current market levels.

“Agnico Eagle has delivered extraordinary operating discipline and record earnings this quarter,” said Felix Gelt, Managing Director of Research at Rockcliffe Capital. “With Q1 net income soaring to US$815 M—up 134% YoY—and free cash flow reaching US$594 M amid near-zero debt, Agnico offers both growth and balance sheet strength in the gold sector.”

Investment Thesis Highlights:
- Earnings Powerhouse: Q1 2025 net income rose to US$815 million (US$1.62 EPS), a 134% YoY increase, driven by record operating margins from elevated gold prices.
- Revenue & Margin Strength: Q1 revenue climbed 34.9% YoY to US$2.468 billion, while all-in sustaining costs (AISC) dropped ~10% to US$1,183/oz, delivering a ~59% margin.
- Balance Sheet Resilience: Operating cash flow hit US$1.044 billion, free cash flow was US$594 million, enabling net debt to fall to just US$5 million, with cash reserves of US$1.138 billion.
- Strategic Growth Initiatives: Ongoing capital deployment into high-quality projects like Detour Lake, Upper Beaver, and the O3 Mining acquisition enhances reserve base and future production visibility.
- Shareholder Returns: Maintains a US$0.40/share quarterly dividend. NCIB buybacks of US$50 million executed in the quarter; the Board plans an expanded NCIB of up to US$1 billion.
- ESG Leadership: Released its 16th Sustainability Report highlighting best-in-class emissions intensity (0.38 tCO₂e/oz), C$1 billion Indigenous economic commitment, and sector-leading safety.
Valuation & Target:
Utilizing a disciplined valuation framework with a projected 2026 EV/EBITDA multiple of ~8× and P/E multiple of ~18×, Rockcliffe Capital derives a 12-month price target of C$155, equivalent to ~US$115/share, indicating ~25% upside from current levels.

Risk Factors:
- Gold Price Volatility: A sustained decline in gold prices could compress margins and cash flow.
- Project Execution: Delays at key sites (e.g., underground transitions, permitting) could affect supply outlook.
- Macro Factors: A stronger U.S. dollar or higher real interest rates may weigh on gold sector valuations.
About Rockcliffe Capital Research
Rockcliffe Capital’s Research Department provides institutional-grade equity research focused on growth-stage companies, public markets, and high-conviction investment themes. Through rigorous analysis, proprietary modeling, and deep sector insights, our research team supports investors, issuers, and strategic partners in identifying value and making informed decisions.

Our coverage includes detailed valuation frameworks, peer comparisons, financial modeling, and ESG scorecards—delivering the intelligence that drives market leadership.

Please contact research@rockcliffe.capital for access to our full research suite and initiation reports.

Media Contact
Rockcliffe Capital
Research & Markets Division
research@rockcliffe.capital
+1 (416)-642-1967

This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Rockcliffe Capital and its affiliates may hold positions in the securities mentioned.

The MIL Network –
June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI: Rockcliffe Capital Initiates Coverage on Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. (TSX/NYSE: AEM) with a “Strong Buy” Rating and C$155 Price Target
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

TORONTO, June 23, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Rockcliffe Capital is pleased to announce today the initiation of equity research coverage on Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. (TSX/NYSE: AEM), a premier senior gold mining company with operations spanning Canada, Finland, Australia, Mexico, and the U.S.

Following rigorous financial and operational analysis, Rockcliffe Capital assigns Agnico Eagle a “Strong Buy” rating, alongside a 12-month price target of C$155, reflecting strong upside potential of approximately 25% from current market levels.

“Agnico Eagle has delivered extraordinary operating discipline and record earnings this quarter,” said Felix Gelt, Managing Director of Research at Rockcliffe Capital. “With Q1 net income soaring to US$815 M—up 134% YoY—and free cash flow reaching US$594 M amid near-zero debt, Agnico offers both growth and balance sheet strength in the gold sector.”

Investment Thesis Highlights:
- Earnings Powerhouse: Q1 2025 net income rose to US$815 million (US$1.62 EPS), a 134% YoY increase, driven by record operating margins from elevated gold prices.
- Revenue & Margin Strength: Q1 revenue climbed 34.9% YoY to US$2.468 billion, while all-in sustaining costs (AISC) dropped ~10% to US$1,183/oz, delivering a ~59% margin.
- Balance Sheet Resilience: Operating cash flow hit US$1.044 billion, free cash flow was US$594 million, enabling net debt to fall to just US$5 million, with cash reserves of US$1.138 billion.
- Strategic Growth Initiatives: Ongoing capital deployment into high-quality projects like Detour Lake, Upper Beaver, and the O3 Mining acquisition enhances reserve base and future production visibility.
- Shareholder Returns: Maintains a US$0.40/share quarterly dividend. NCIB buybacks of US$50 million executed in the quarter; the Board plans an expanded NCIB of up to US$1 billion.
- ESG Leadership: Released its 16th Sustainability Report highlighting best-in-class emissions intensity (0.38 tCO₂e/oz), C$1 billion Indigenous economic commitment, and sector-leading safety.
Valuation & Target:
Utilizing a disciplined valuation framework with a projected 2026 EV/EBITDA multiple of ~8× and P/E multiple of ~18×, Rockcliffe Capital derives a 12-month price target of C$155, equivalent to ~US$115/share, indicating ~25% upside from current levels.

Risk Factors:
- Gold Price Volatility: A sustained decline in gold prices could compress margins and cash flow.
- Project Execution: Delays at key sites (e.g., underground transitions, permitting) could affect supply outlook.
- Macro Factors: A stronger U.S. dollar or higher real interest rates may weigh on gold sector valuations.
About Rockcliffe Capital Research
Rockcliffe Capital’s Research Department provides institutional-grade equity research focused on growth-stage companies, public markets, and high-conviction investment themes. Through rigorous analysis, proprietary modeling, and deep sector insights, our research team supports investors, issuers, and strategic partners in identifying value and making informed decisions.

Our coverage includes detailed valuation frameworks, peer comparisons, financial modeling, and ESG scorecards—delivering the intelligence that drives market leadership.

Please contact research@rockcliffe.capital for access to our full research suite and initiation reports.

Media Contact
Rockcliffe Capital
Research & Markets Division
research@rockcliffe.capital
+1 (416)-642-1967

This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Rockcliffe Capital and its affiliates may hold positions in the securities mentioned.

The MIL Network –
June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: “Ahead of Time Together”: Winners and Prize-Winners of “Highest Standard” Awarded in Moscow

Translation. Region: Russian Federal

Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –

June 13th Center of Cultures The HSE hosted a ceremony to honor the winners of the All-Russian School OlympiadHighest quality“. Of the more than 4.5 thousand winners and prize winners, about 700 schoolchildren from 67 regions of Russia took part in it. The best of the best were noted in special nominations established by the organizing committee of the Olympiad. For the second year in a row, the Olympiad “Highest Standard” is held with the support of Sber.

Before the ceremony, a festival program was organized in the HSE atrium, which for an hour and a half became the main city square of HSE City with street activities and artists, a lounge area and elegant pavilions, flags and garlands.

Here you could get a consultation from a neuro-fortune teller, play table football and hockey, solve puzzles and dance, take part in the creation of living paintings. In the chill-zone of Sber, which is supporting the Olympiad for the second season, schoolchildren played computer games, ate ice cream and got answers to questions about building a dream career, and in the VR-greenhouse of the ROST Group of Companies, a partner of Vysshaya Proba in biology, they picked tomatoes, drank smoothies and tried snacks with the taste of tomato and cucumber.

In the Photo Mosaic zone, participants were invited to contribute to the creation of the HSE inscription from hundreds of photographs of Olympiad diploma winners. Those who wished could take part in a quest introducing HSE, in the game What? Where? When?, continue to build up their intellectual potential at the master class What Can Be Learned from Social (and Not Only) Network Analysis? or the training Creative Worlds: How Ideas Turn into Collaborations.

The guests then moved to the Cultural Center. The participants of the ceremony honoring the diploma holders (similar events were previously held in Saint Petersburg, Perm And Nizhny Novgorod) said the first vice-rector of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Vadim Radaev.

“The Olympiad “Higher Standard” will soon turn 30, and every year it becomes more and more beautiful and cool. It already includes 30 profiles, including two new ones – “Industrial Programming” together with “Yandex” and “History of Art” together with the Pushkin Museum. And of course, the competition is growing. This year, more than 50 thousand people took part in it, and your victory is even more significant. There are more than 4.5 thousand winners and prize-winners, and even more diplomas, because some of you managed to win the Olympiad in several profiles,” said Vadim Radaev.

The First Vice-Rector also thanked the partners and the team of organizers, “who are conducting the ‘Higher Test’ at the highest level.”

Olga Tsukanova, Managing Director and Head of the Academic Partnerships Directorate at Sber, joined in the congratulations. She emphasized that the Higher School of Economics offers a wide range of sciences, and those who win the Olympiads then find themselves in a variety of fields.

“We will be glad to see you among our employees, clients, partners, and we are ready to support those who see the future, who are moving towards the future, who are ready to lead others. Invitations to internships at Sber are received not only by students, but also by schoolchildren, who can try themselves in our product teams, “twist” the products that we release to the market. And students, especially after two years of study, having received a solid base, do cool projects at Sber,” said Olga Tsukanova.

The organizing committee of the Olympiad established special nominations in which the best of the best were recognized: “Everest of Science” (diplomas in five or more profiles), “Conquering Olympus” (the highest results in profiles from 90 points), “Victory Marathon” (prize places for four or more years), “Ahead of Time” (completion of tasks two grades higher than the class of study, and tasks for the 7th grade by sixth-graders) and “HSE Olympiads” (winning several intellectual competitions of the National Research University Higher School of Economics). The laureates in these nominations, as well as two diploma winners of the Olympiad, who celebrated their birthday on June 13, were presented with diplomas, medals and gifts on stage.

Deputy Vice-Rector – Head Directorate for the Development of Intellectual Competitions HSE University Danil Fedorov, congratulating the winners in the “Everest of Science” nomination, urged them to apply to a university where it is difficult to study, reminding them that the Higher School of Economics is exactly such a university.

Olga Tsukanova invited the winners in the Conquering Olympus nomination to become students of the AI360: Artificial Intelligence Engineering track of the bachelor’s program Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, which is being implemented at HSE jointly with Sber and Yandex.

Chairman of the Methodological Commission for the Profile “Foreign Languages” – Head Foreign language schools HSE University Ekaterina Kolesnikova compared the process of preparing for the Olympics to playing sports. “The winners in the “Victorious Marathon” nomination know very well that those who do not stop when things are difficult, who act at the limit of their capabilities, win,” she noted.

The winners in the “Ahead of Time” nomination were announced by Anna Korovko, Senior Director for Main Educational Programs at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, and the Chair of the Methodological Commission for the “Political Science” profile, Dean Faculty of Social Sciences Denis Stukal. Anna Korovko promised that by the time they finish 11th grade, studying at the HSE will become even more difficult, and Denis Stukal, himself a former Olympiad participant, called them true leaders who not only challenged those who were a year or two older than them, but also succeeded in doing so.

“You have a great future ahead of you, and I hope that at some point it will become inextricably linked with our university, because HSE is a university that is also ahead of its time. Let’s get ahead of it together and move only forward,” Denis Stukal concluded.

The Chairperson of the Methodological Commission for the Economics Profile, Daria Tabashnikova, announced the winner in the HSE Olympiads brand nomination, Anastasia Usenko, who won the Vysshaya Proba Olympiad, the In Your Own Words essay championship, and the Highest Aerobatics competition. “Collecting awards, receiving diplomas, and preferences is great, but it’s even cooler when a person tries himself in different things and succeeds,” Daria Tabashnikova emphasized.

The results of the event were summed up by the Director for Work with Gifted Students at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Tamara Protasevich.

“The ending Olympiad season of “Highest Standard” is the fifteenth, anniversary one for our team, which is responsible for its implementation. The year 2025 is generally rich in anniversaries: 5 years of the All-Russian Case Championship, 10 years of “Highest Aerobatics”. And “Highest Standard” is our largest project: registration for it began in August last year, and diplomas are being awarded now, in June. The Olympiad is constantly in the focus of our attention, and we are constantly improving it,” said Tamara Protasevich.

She gave examples of feedback from Olympiad participants, which those present in the hall agreed with, raising glowing hearts: “The level of tasks is decent, difficult, but interesting,” “The atmosphere is pleasant, comfortable, not overwhelming, allows you to enjoy completing the Olympiad tasks,” “Organization – everything is clear and well thought out, prompt responses to questions, caring, friendly volunteers.”

Tamara Protasevich also announced another nomination – “Recognition of the Organizers”, the winners of which were the best volunteers – students of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, who over the past three years participated in the “Higher Standard” and other intellectual competitions of the university. “Without these guys, not a single project of our directorate would have taken place. They are the best!” – she concluded.

The ceremony of honoring the diploma winners ended with a collective performance of the student anthem “Gaudeamus”, after which all its participants were awarded the Olympiad diplomas and medals in the lobby of the Center of Cultures. Some of them shared their impressions with the news service “Vyshka.Glavnoe”.

“The Highest Standard” is a combination of all the best that can be found at the Olympiad, says Erland Glukhov, a 10th-grader at the AMTEK General Education Lyceum in Cherepovets. “I participated in the in-person stage in Moscow, my friends in St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod, and everyone was happy with the organization of the process and the support of the participants. I especially like the tasks: they are designed in an unconventional way, they include interesting elements, and they are really interesting to solve.”

According to Erland, behind every victory at the Olympics there is, first and foremost, hard work, not only your own, but also that of your mentors, as well as the support of your parents.

“When I was doing assignments in the Law profile, I had the feeling that I was in some other universe the whole time, that I fell asleep in the first minute and woke up in the last minute, when everything was already done,” said Alexander Gimpelson, a 10th-grade student at School No. 7 “Russian Classical School” in Ryazan. “The assignments required a creative approach, and it was always necessary not only to reproduce the provisions of the laws, but also to understand them, evaluate them from different angles, and show how they can be applied in practice.”

In preparation for the Olympiad, Alexander mastered scientific literature, thanks to which “these complex adverbial participial phrases, thirty subordinate clauses in one sentence of the law became lively and understandable.” In a year, he plans to enroll in the Faculty of Law at the National Research University Higher School of Economics and subsequently specialize in the field of private law.

11th-grader Polina Platonova from the Vladimir region has been participating in Olympiads since the 4th grade. This year she went to Nizhny Novgorod for the “Highest Standard”, and she associates the in-person round competitions with both a holiday and a tense struggle. The girl is considering the possibility of entering the National Research University Higher School of Economics – Nizhny Novgorod and also associates her further professional development with jurisprudence.

Albina Markaryan, an 11th-grader from Voronezh, participated in the final round in her hometown and will be applying to the HSE for a bachelor’s degree in International Relations this year. Before the awards ceremony, she walked around the atrium (“everything was organized wonderfully, lots of competitions and entertainment”), she liked everything in the university building, and she has no doubt that if she is accepted, these feelings will not only remain, but will also intensify.

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

MIL OSI Russia News –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI: Plymouth Rock Named a 2025 Top Workplace in New Jersey

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

WOOLBRIDGE, N.J., June 23, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Plymouth Rock Assurance, a leading auto and home insurance provider in the Northeast, has been recognized as a 2025 Top Workplace in New Jersey by NJ Advance Media. This list is based solely on employee feedback gathered through a third-party workplace survey administered by Energage.

Plymouth Rock is one of only 18 companies with 500+ employees in New Jersey which made this year’s list. Organizations named a 2025 New Jersey Top Workplace were selected based on their employees’ confidential survey responses that focus on core areas of a company’s workplace culture, such as appreciation, direction, values, innovation, and leadership.

“Being named a Top Workplace in New Jersey is an exciting honor,” said Greg Kalinsky, President and Chief Executive Officer of Plymouth Rock Management Company of New Jersey. “We strive to deliver excellence to our customers, and this recognition reinforces the vital role our people play—working together every day to provide exceptional service. Simply put, it’s our great people who make Plymouth Rock a top place to work.”

More than 40 years ago, Plymouth Rock Assurance was founded on the vision to set a higher standard for customer service and to be more than just an insurance company for its customers, agents and employees. Since then, Plymouth Rock has grown to be one of the leading insurance carriers in the Northeast, operating in Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.

To learn more about Plymouth Rock or to find out how to join the Plymouth Rock Team, please visit: https://www.plymouthrock.com/about/careers

About Plymouth Rock
Plymouth Rock was established to offer its customers a higher level of service and a more innovative set of products and features than they would expect from an insurance company. Plymouth Rock’s innovative approach puts customers’ convenience and satisfaction first, giving them the choice to do business the way they want—online, with a mobile app, by phone, or by contacting their Plymouth Rock agent. Customers can chat, text, or email to get answers quickly and easily. Plymouth Rock Assurance^® and Plymouth Rock^® are brand names and service marks used by separate underwriting, managed insurance, and management companies that offer property and casualty insurance in multiple states. Taken together, the companies write and manage more than $2.3 billion in auto and home insurance premiums across Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Each underwriting and managed insurance company is a separate legal entity that is financially responsible only for its own insurance products. You can learn more about us by visiting https://www.plymouthrock.com/.

Media Contact:
Kevin Long
Plymouth Rock
mediarelations@plymouthrock.com

The MIL Network –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: The EU’s CBAM: Implications for Member States and Trading Partners

Source: International Monetary Fund

Summary

The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) came into force on October 1, 2023, introducing reporting requirements for importers of covered products and, from 2026, an obligation to pay a fee on the carbon content of imported goods. This paper uses indices of ad valorem tariffs to assess the incidence of the EU CBAM on both EU member states and the EU’s trading partners. Overall, the direct impact on EU countries’ trade is estimated to be small, adding 0.1 percent to the value of EU imports when averaged across all imports, and 0.04 percent to the average cost of non-EU countries’ exports to the EU—with a maximum of 1.2 percent. However, effects could be sizeable for specific products such as iron, steel and aluminium, which can help explain CBAM’s political salience. Moreover, an expanded CBAM featuring full coverage of ETS sectors and a significantly higher carbon price could entail larger costs in the more distant future.

Subject: Environment, Exports, Greenhouse gas emissions, Imports, International trade

Keywords: Carbon Leakage, Carbon Taxation, Emissions Trading, Exports, Global, Greenhouse gas emissions, Imports, Trade Policy

MIL OSI Economics –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: The Art of Leisure: Slim Aarons’ Dazzling Summer Scenes Debut on Samsung Art Store”

Source: Samsung

Today, a dozen of Slim Aarons’ most iconic mid-century jet-set scenes arrive on Samsung Art Store in a seasonal, summertime delivery of works from the legendary Photographer. These sunny images of exotic resort locations such as Lake Como, Marrakech, and Mabella join the two dozen works of Aarons’s already available for digital display on the Samsung Art Store.
This latest collection of images from Aaron’s to debut on the Samsung Art Store showcases photographs from the 1960s, 70s and 80s, capturing the world’s most exclusive summer resorts and society destinations, where his timeless vision comes alive in full kaftan clad splendor. This seasonal offering, curated by Samsung Art Store, invites you into Aarons’ timeless world, where sunlit patios set the stage for photographs of the bold personalities and effortless style Aarons is known for. Featuring some of his most famous photography such as Positano Beach (1979) and Poolside Gossip (1970), each image reflects Aarons’ ability to capture high society in its most unguarded, yet dazzling, moments.

“Slim Aarons photography is truly timeless and offers a window into an era defined by elegance and style,” says Daria Greene, Samsung Art Store’s Global Curator. “His extraordinary ability to transport viewers through space and time to the most exotic and exclusive locations of the 20th century is unmatched and accounts for his enduring popularity. As part of the Samsung Art Store catalogue, we’re now able to bring his work into millions of homes in an entirely new format for him.”
“Bringing Slim Aarons’ work to Samsung Art Store reflects our deep commitment to shaping a more accessible future for art and for artists around the world,” said Yong Su Kim, Corporate EVP and Head of Service Business Team. “Samsung Art Store was built to reimagine how art is experienced in the home — making the world’s most celebrated works available in a way that is personal, dynamic, and beautifully integrated into daily life.”

An Analog Icon Goes Digital
“Expanding the Slim Aarons catalog available on the Samsung Art Store supports our mission to keep Slim’s incredible artistic legacy alive in the 21st century,” said Shawn Waldron, curator of the Slim Aarons archive for Getty Images. “Slim provided the blueprint for aspirational living by focusing on timeless elegance and environments. The Samsung Frame television is the ideal digital product to honor and display his work in ways he could never have imagined in his lifetime.”
Slim Aarons’ famously described his photography as capturing “attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places,” a phrase that has become synonymous with his legacy. Now, with his work available on Samsung Art Store, Aarons’ timeless vision finds a new audience, offering an effortless way to transform any space. Samsung Art Store subscribers can also enjoy over 3,500 other works of art from over 800 artists with the service now available on Neo QLED 8K, Neo QLED, QLED, The Frame and The Frame Pro, which are powered by Samsung Vision AI for AI-enhanced picture and sound.
For more information, visit www.samsung.com.

MIL OSI Economics –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Society needs a systems update to cope with climate crisis – my new film explains why

Source: The Conversation – UK – By James Dyke, Associate Professor in Earth System Science, University of Exeter

The climate and ecological crisis is one of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced. If the world fails to address it, and over the rest of this century we continue to burn fossil fuels and pump even more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, we’ll face catastrophe. On this much, almost all governments agree (with some notable exceptions such as the US).

Even the world’s largest oil and gas companies now acknowledge that their products are behind the alarming increase in global temperatures and that we will have to transition to alternative fuels. Eventually.

In some oil and gas firms’ net zero policies you will often see the word “eventually” or its equivalent used. Yes, they accept that the age of fossil fuels will be over, but they don’t give any end date. In fact, with continued expansion of new oil and gas fields they appear to give every indication of continuing to be fossil fuel companies for the foreseeable future.

Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

Will such firms actually phase out coal, oil and gas at the rate required to avoid dangerous climate change? How quickly does that now have to happen? Immediately.

At current rates of emissions, the window to have a 50:50 chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C will close in as little as six years. Given that global emissions are not stabilising but in fact going up, we are in the process of overshooting 1.5°C and heading deep into dangerous climate change territory.

Does that mean it’s game over, that the climate catastrophes we fear will come to pass? Thinking about these sorts of systemic risks form the basis of much of my current research. This includes some pretty alarming analysis on how societies can react to challenges such as climate change in ways that can make the situation much worse.

But herein lies a potentially powerful source of hope for the future because what we do as individuals and members of communities and countries will make all the difference. That’s what was on my mind when I started working on a new climate change documentary with filmmaker Paul Maple.

Radical reductions

Our new film System Update: Rebooting Our Future argues that, while we may have run out of time to avoid dangerous climate change, we are now only beginning to see how we can not just avoid further environmental damage but make a much better world for all of humanity. To do that, we must go beyond the incremental and timid policies of today. We need to be radical and dig into the drivers of climate change.

Take economic growth, for example. You will not find a political party in power in any industrialised nation that does not have continued economic growth as one of its core objectives. Economic performance is often the main way politicians are judged. That’s why threats of a recession lead news reports.

In System Update, I ask what is this economic growth for, if it continues to drive expanded energy and material consumption and drive us further towards climate and ecological collapse?

If our economic and political systems cannot deliver radical emissions reductions in a sustainable and fair way, then they need to be rebooted. Rather than policies being orientated towards maximising economic growth, we can instead question how the current goods and services an economy produces are used.

How can local communities be empowered to make themselves more resilient to climate change while reducing their emissions? Where can citizen assemblies strengthen our democracies and help foster the wider support for ambitious climate action? These assemblies work by recruiting a representative cross section of society who hear from a range of climate experts, and then work together to provide policy recommendations.

I put such questions to an amazing group of activists, academics and policymakers. We quickly discovered from economic anthropologist Jason Hickel that there is no end of new thinking about economics.

Lawyer and key architect of the Paris agreement Farhana Yamin recounted the epic battle that she and others have been waging with politicians to get them to understand and act on some of the fundamental truths of climate change. Researcher and strategist Laurie Laybourn spoke of the need for leaders to understand how this gathering storm of climate change demands new mindsets.

Climate change adaptation expert Kathryn Brown made the case for a rapid increase in efforts to protect communities from environmental change, while climate historian Alice Bell put today’s debates into the wider context. Climate campaigner Max Wakefield and climate justice activist Dylan Hamilton connected the big picture elements of the climate crisis to both everyday actions like what you buy and how to you travel, to deeper engagement with politics.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed about the scale of climate change. There is a constant stream of bad news about rising temperatures and extreme weather. What I hope System Update shows is that there is no end of ideas for how such an outcome could be averted, and how you could put them into practice.

We will win. The age of fossil fuels is ending. The question now is, how fast do you want to make that happen?

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

Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

James Dyke 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. Society needs a systems update to cope with climate crisis – my new film explains why – https://theconversation.com/society-needs-a-systems-update-to-cope-with-climate-crisis-my-new-film-explains-why-257503

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Appeals court ruling grants Donald Trump broad powers to deploy troops to American cities

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jack L. Rozdilsky, Associate Professor of Disaster and Emergency Management, York University, Canada

Residents of Los Angeles will need to get used to federally controlled National Guard troops operating on their streets. Due to a ruling from an appeals court on June 19, United States President Donald Trump now has broad authority to deploy military forces in American cities.

This is a troubling development. All presidents have held in their grasp extraordinary powers to deploy military troops domestically. But Trump stands apart with his apparent keen interest in manufacturing false emergencies to exploit extraordinary power.

An 1878 law called the Posse Comitatus Act restricts using the military for domestic law enforcement. The broader principle being challenged by Trump’s actions in L.A. is the norm of the military not being allowed to interfere in the affairs of civilian governance.

Injunctions and appeals

Five months into Trump’s presidency, L.A. has been targeted for aggressive immigration enforcement. In their pluralistic city where dozens of languages and nationalities peacefully co-exist, some Angelenos believe the city is experiencing an attack on its most essential social fabric.

On June 7, Trump acted under United States Code Title 10 provisions to take over command and control of California’s National Guard. Federalized military forces were deployed.

The objective was to counter what Trump argued was a form of rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States. In fact, these “rebellions” were largely peaceful protests in downtown L.A.

On June 9, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted an injunction restraining the president’s use of military force in L.A. The court order supported Gov. Gavin Newsom’s contention that Trump overstepped his authority.

On June 19, a decision from a panel of judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned the injunction.

What this means at the moment is that Trump does not have to return control of the troops to Newsom. California has options to continue litigation by asking the Federal Appeals Court to rehear the matter, or perhaps directly asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.

Moving toward authoritarianism

Trump’s June 7 memorandum facilitating his move to overrule Newsom’s authority and seize control of 2,000 National Guard troops was based on the president defining his own so-called emergency.

He claimed incidents of violence and disorder following aggressive immigration enforcement amounted to a form of rebellion against the U.S.

As Trump flexes his emergency power might, his second term has been called the 911 presidency. He has used extraordinary emergency powers at a pace well beyond his predecessors, pressing the limits to address his administration’s supposed sense of serious perils overtaking the nation.

Issues arise when the level of actual danger locally is not at all representative of what the president suggests is a full-scale national emergency. For example, demonstrations over immigration raids occupied only a tiny parcel of real estate in L.A.’s huge metropolitan area. A Los Angeles-based rebellion against the U.S. was not occurring.

As dissent over aggressive immigration enforcement actions grew, localized clashes with law enforcement did occur. Mutual aid surged into Los Angeles, where neighbouring California law enforcement agencies acted to assist one another. The law enforcement challenges never rose to the level of the governor of California requesting additional federal support.

Shortly after the federal government took over the California National Guard, Newsom said the move was purposefully inflammatory.

In addition to declaring dubious emergencies to amass power, stoking violence is a characteristic of authoritarian rulers. Creating fear, division and feelings of insecurity can lead to community crises. Trump did not need to wait for a crisis; it seems he simply invented one.

No guardrails

The expression “out of kilter” comes to mind as Trump inches closer to invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807. If so, the situation will look quite similar in practice to what is happening now in Los Angeles.

Five years ago, Trump flirted with invoking the Insurrection Act during Black Lives Matter unrest in Washington, D.C., in and around Lafayette Park.

As recent L.A. protests intensified, Trump stated: “We’re going to have troops everywhere.”

Currently, there are few guardrails in place to prevent a rogue president from misusing the military in domestic civilian affairs. Trump has been coy about whether he would tap into the greater powers available to him under the Insurrection Act.

Real emergencies presenting existential threats to America do persist. Nuclear proliferation, climate change and pandemics need serious leaders. But politically exploiting last-resort emergency laws designed to provide options to deal with genuine existential threats — not to weaponize them against protesters demonstrating against public policy — is absurd.

Jack L. Rozdilsky receives support for research communication and public scholarship from York University. He also has received research support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

– ref. Appeals court ruling grants Donald Trump broad powers to deploy troops to American cities – https://theconversation.com/appeals-court-ruling-grants-donald-trump-broad-powers-to-deploy-troops-to-american-cities-258894

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: To spur the construction of affordable, resilient homes, the future is concrete

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Pablo Moyano Fernández, Assistant Professor of Architecture, Washington University in St. Louis

A modular, precast system of concrete ‘rings’ can be connected in different ways to build a range of models of energy-efficient homes. Pablo Moyano Fernández, CC BY-SA

Wood is, by far, the most common material used in the U.S. for single-family home construction.

But wood construction isn’t engineered for long-term durability, and it often underperforms, particularly in the face of increasingly common extreme weather events.

In response to these challenges, I believe mass-produced concrete homes can offer affordable, resilient housing in the U.S. By leveraging the latest innovations of the precast concrete industry, this type of homebuilding can meet the needs of a changing world.

Wood’s rise to power

Over 90% of the new homes built in the U.S. rely on wood framing.

Wood has deep historical roots as a building material in the U.S., dating back to the earliest European settlers who constructed shelters using the abundant native timber. One of the most recognizable typologies was the log cabin, built from large tree trunks notched at the corners for structural stability.

Log cabins were popular in the U.S. during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images

In the 1830s, wood construction underwent a significant shift with the introduction of balloon framing. This system used standardized, sawed lumber and mass-produced nails, allowing much smaller wood components to replace the earlier heavy timber frames. It could be assembled by unskilled labor using simple tools, making it both accessible and economical.

In the early 20th century, balloon framing evolved into platform framing, which became the dominant method. By using shorter lumber lengths, platform framing allowed each floor to be built as a separate working platform, simplifying construction and improving its efficiency.

The proliferation and evolution of wood construction helped shape the architectural and cultural identity of the nation. For centuries, wood-framed houses have defined the American idea of home – so much so that, even today, when Americans imagine a house, they typically envision one built of wood.

A suburban housing development from the 1950s being built with platform framing.
H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock via Getty Images

Today, light-frame wood construction dominates the U.S. residential market.

Wood is relatively affordable and readily available, offering a cost-effective solution for homebuilding. Contractors are familiar with wood construction techniques. In addition, building codes and regulations have long been tailored to wood-frame systems, further reinforcing their prevalence in the housing industry.

Despite its advantages, wood light-frame construction presents several important limitations. Wood is vulnerable to fire. And in hurricane- and tornado-prone regions, wood-framed homes can be damaged or destroyed.

Wood is also highly susceptible to water-related issues, such as swelling, warping and structural deterioration caused by leaks or flooding. Vulnerability to termites, mold, rot and mildew further compromise the longevity and safety of wood-framed structures, especially in humid or poorly ventilated environments.

The case for concrete

Meanwhile, concrete has revolutionized architecture and engineering over the past century. In my academic work, I’ve studied, written and taught about the material’s many advantages.

The material offers unmatched strength and durability, while also allowing design flexibility and versatility. It’s low-cost and low-maintenance, and it has high thermal mass properties, which refers to the material’s ability to absorb and store heat during the day, and slowly release it during the cooler nights. This can lower heating and cooling costs.

Properly designed concrete enclosures offer exceptional performance against a wide range of hazards. Concrete can withstand fire, flooding, mold, insect infestation, earthquakes, hail, hurricanes and tornadoes.

It’s commonly used for home construction in many parts of the world, such as Europe, Japan, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, as well as India and other parts of Southeast Asia.

However, despite their multiple benefits, concrete single-family homes are rare in the U.S.

That’s because most concrete structures are built using a process called cast-in-place. In this technique, the concrete is formed and poured directly at the construction site. The method relies on built-in-place molds. After the concrete is cast and cured over several days, the formwork is removed.

This process is labor-intensive and time-consuming, and it often produces considerable waste. This is particularly an issue in the U.S., where labor is more expensive than in other parts of the world. The material and labor cost can be as high as 35% to 60% of the total construction cost.

Portland cement, the binding agent in concrete, requires significant energy to produce, resulting in considerable carbon dioxide emissions. However, this environmental cost is often offset by concrete’s durability and long service life.

Concrete’s design flexibility and structural integrity make it particularly effective for large-scale structures. So in the U.S., you’ll see it used for large commercial buildings, skyscrapers and most highways, bridges, dams and other critical infrastructure projects.

But when it comes to single-family homes, cast-in-place concrete poses challenges to contractors. There are the higher initial construction costs, along with a lack of subcontractor expertise. For these reasons, most builders and contractors stick with what they know: the wood frame.

A new model for home construction

Precast concrete, however, offers a promising alternative.

Unlike cast-in-place concrete, precast systems allow for off-site manufacturing under controlled conditions. This improves the quality of the structure, while also reducing waste and labor.

The CRETE House, a prototype I worked on in 2017 alongside a team at Washington University in St. Louis, showed the advantages of a precast home construction.

To build the precast concrete home, we used ultra-high-performance concrete, one of the latest advances in the concrete industry. Compared with conventional concrete, it’s about six times stronger, virtually impermeable and more resistant to freeze-thaw cycles. Ultra-high-performance concrete can last several hundred years.

The strength of the CRETE House was tested by shooting a piece of wood at 120 mph (193 kph) to simulate flying debris from an F5 tornado. It was unable to breach the wall, which was only 2 inches (5.1 centimeters) thick.

The wall of the CRETE House was able to withstand a piece of wood fired at 120 mph (193 kph).

Building on the success of the CRETE House, I designed the Compact House as a solution for affordable, resilient housing. The house consists of a modular, precast concrete system of “rings” that can be connected to form the entire structure – floors, walls and roofs – creating airtight, energy-efficient homes. A series of different rings can be chosen from a catalog to deliver different models that can range in size from 270 to 990 square feet (25 to 84 square meters).

The precast rings can be transported on flatbed trailers and assembled into a unit in a single day, drastically reducing on-site labor, time and cost.

Since they’re built using durable concrete forms, the house can be easily mass-produced. When precast concrete homes are mass-produced, the cost can be competitive with traditional wood-framed homes. Furthermore, the homes are designed to last far beyond 100 years – much longer than typical wood structures – while significantly lowering utility bills, maintenance expenses and insurance premiums.

The project is also envisioned as an open-source design. This means that the molds – which are expensive – are available for any precast producer to use and modify.

The Compact House is made using ultra-high-performance concrete.
Pablo Moyano Fernández, CC BY-SA

Leveraging a network that’s already in place

Two key limitations of precast concrete construction are the size and weight of the components and the distance to the project site.

Precast elements must comply with standard transportation regulations, which impose restrictions on both size and weight in order to pass under bridges and prevent road damage. As a result, components are typically limited to dimensions that can be safely and legally transported by truck. Each of the Compact House’s pieces are small enough to be transported in standard trailers.

Additionally, transportation costs become a major factor beyond a certain range. In general, the practical delivery radius from a precast plant to a construction site is 500 miles (805 kilometers). Anything beyond that becomes economically unfeasible.

However, the infrastructure to build precast concrete homes is already largely in place. Since precast concrete is often used for office buildings, schools, parking complexes and large apartments buildings, there’s already an extensive national network of manufacturing plants capable of producing and delivering components within that 500-mile radius.

There are other approaches to build homes with concrete: Homes can use concrete masonry units, which are similar to cinder blocks. This is a common technique around the world. Insulated concrete forms involve rigid foam blocks that are stacked like Lego bricks and are then filled with poured concrete, creating a structure with built-in insulation. And there’s even 3D-printed concrete, a rapidly evolving technology that is in its early stages of development.

However, none of these use precast concrete modules – the rings in my prototypes – and therefore require substantially longer on-site time and labor.

To me, precast concrete homes offer a compelling vision for the future of affordable housing. They signal a generational shift away from short-term construction and toward long-term value – redefining what it means to build for resilience, efficiency and equity in housing.

An image of North St. Louis, taken from Google Earth, showing how vacant land can be repurposed using precast concrete homes.
Pablo Moyano Fernández, CC BY-SA

This article is part of a series centered on envisioning ways to deal with the housing crisis.

Pablo Moyano Fernández 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. To spur the construction of affordable, resilient homes, the future is concrete – https://theconversation.com/to-spur-the-construction-of-affordable-resilient-homes-the-future-is-concrete-254561

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: No country for old business owners: Economic shifts create a growing challenge for America’s aging entrepreneurs

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Nancy Forster-Holt, Clinical Associate Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, University of Rhode Island

Americans love small businesses. We dedicate a week each year to applauding them, and spend Small Business Saturday shopping locally. Yet hiding in plain sight is an enormous challenge facing small business owners as they age: retiring with dignity and foresight. The current economic climate is making this even more difficult.

As a professor who studies aging and business, I’ve long viewed small business owners’ retirement challenges as a looming crisis. The issue is now front and center for millions of entrepreneurs approaching retirement. Small enterprises make up more than half of all privately held U.S. companies, and for many of their owners, the business is their retirement plan.

But while owners often hope to finance their golden years by selling their companies, only 20% of small businesses are ready for sale even in good times, according to the Exit Planning Institute. And right now, conditions are far from ideal. An economic stew of inflation, supply chain instability and high borrowing costs means that interest from potential buyers is cooling.

For many business owners, retirement isn’t a distant concern. In the U.S., baby boomers – who are currently 61 to 79 years old – own about 2.3 million businesses. Altogether, they generate about US$5 billion in revenue and employ almost 25 million people. These entrepreneurs have spent decades building businesses that often are deeply rooted in their communities. They don’t have time to ride out economic chaos, and their optimism is at a 50-year low.

New policies, new challenges

You can’t blame them for being gloomy. Recent policy shifts have only made life harder for business owners nearing retirement. Trade instability, whipsawing tariff announcements and disrupted supply chains have eroded already thin margins. Some businesses – generally larger ones with more negotiating power – are absorbing extra costs rather than passing them on to shoppers. Others have no choice but to raise prices, to customers’ dismay. Inflation has further squeezed profits.

At the same time, with a few notable exceptions, buyers and capital have grown scarce. Acquirers and liquidity have dried up across many sectors. The secondary market – a barometer of broader investor appetite – now sees more sellers than buyers. These are textbook symptoms of a “flight to safety,” a market shift that drags out sale timelines and depresses valuations – all while Main Street business owners age out. These entrepreneurs typically have one shot at retirement – if any.

Adding to these woes, many small businesses are part of what economists call regional “clusters,” providing services to nearby universities, hospitals and local governments. When those anchor institutions face budget cuts – as is happening now – small business vendors are often the first to feel the impact.

Research shows that many aging owners actually double down in weak economic times, sinking increasing amounts of time and money in a psychological pattern known as “escalating commitment.” The result is a troubling phenomenon scholars refer to as “benign entrapment.” Aging entrepreneurs can remain attached to their businesses not because they want to, but because they see no viable exit.

This growing crisis isn’t about bad personal planning — it’s a systemic failure.

Rewriting the playbook on small business policy

A key mistake that policymakers make is to lump all small business owners together into one group. That causes them to overlook important differences. After all, a 68-year-old carpenter trying to retire doesn’t have much in common with a 28-year-old tech founder pitching a startup. Policymakers may cheer for high-growth “unicorns,” but they often overlook the “cows and horses” that keep local economies running.

Even among older business owners, circumstances vary based on local conditions. Two retiring carpenters in different towns may face vastly different prospects based on the strength of their local economies. No business, and no business owner, exists in a vacuum.

A small business owner in Rochester, Vt., discusses the challenges of retirement in a news segment from WCAX-TV.

Relatedly, when small businesses fail to transition, it can have consequences for the local economy. Without a buyer, many enterprises will simply shut down. And while closures can be long-planned and thoughtful, when a business closes suddenly, it’s not just the owner who loses. Employees are left scrambling for work. Suppliers lose contracts. Communities lose essential services.

Four ways to help aging entrepreneurs

That’s why I think policymakers should reimagine how they support small businesses, especially owners nearing the end of their careers.

First, small business policy should be tailored to age. A retirement-ready business shouldn’t be judged solely by its growth potential. Rather, policies should recognize stability and community value as markers of success. The U.S. Small Business Administration and regional agencies can provide resources specifically for retirement planning that starts early in a business’s life, to include how to increase the value of the business and a plan to attract acquirers in later stages.

Second, exit infrastructure should be built into local entrepreneurial ecosystems. Entrepreneurial ecosystems are built to support business entry – think incubators and accelerators – but not for exit. In other words, just like there are accelerators for launching businesses, there should be programs to support winding them down. These could include confidential peer forums, retirement-readiness clinics, succession matchmaking platforms and flexible financing options for acquisition.

Third, chaos isn’t good for anybody. Fluctuations in capital gains taxes, estate tax thresholds and tariffs make planning difficult and reduce business value in the eyes of potential buyers. Stability encourages confidence on both sides of a transaction.

And finally, policymakers should include ripple-effect analysis in budget decisions. When universities, hospitals or governments cut spending, small business vendors often absorb much of the shock. Policymakers should account for these downstream impacts when shaping local and federal budgets.

If we want to truly support small businesses and their owners, it’s important to honor the lifetime arc of entrepreneurship – not just the launch and growth, but the retirement, too.

Nancy Forster-Holt 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. No country for old business owners: Economic shifts create a growing challenge for America’s aging entrepreneurs – https://theconversation.com/no-country-for-old-business-owners-economic-shifts-create-a-growing-challenge-for-americas-aging-entrepreneurs-254537

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: How the end of carbon capture could spark a new industrial revolution

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Andres Clarens, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Virginia

Steelmaking uses a lot of energy, making it one of the highest greenhouse gas-emitting industries.
David McNew/Getty Images

The U.S. Department of Energy’s decision to claw back US$3.7 billion in grants from industrial demonstration projects may create an unexpected opening for American manufacturing.

Many of the grant recipients were deploying carbon capture and storage – technologies that are designed to prevent industrial carbon pollution from entering the atmosphere by capturing it and injecting it deep underground. The approach has long been considered critical for reducing the contributions chemicals, cement production and other heavy industries make to climate change.

However, the U.S. policy reversal could paradoxically accelerate emissions cuts from the industrial sector.

An emissions reality check

Heavy industry is widely viewed as the toughest part of the economy to clean up.

The U.S. power sector has made progress, cutting emissions 35% since 2005 as coal-fired power plants were replaced with cheaper natural gas, solar and wind energy. More than 93% of new grid capacity installed in the U.S. in 2025 was forecast to be solar, wind and batteries. In transportation, electric vehicles are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. automotive market and will lead to meaningful reductions in pollution.

But U.S. industrial emissions have been mostly unchanged, in part because of the massive amount of coal, gas and oil required to make steel, concrete, aluminum, glass and chemicals. Together these materials account for about 22% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

The global industrial landscape is changing, though, and U.S. industries cannot, in isolation, expect that yesterday’s means of production will be able to compete in a global marketplace.

Even without domestic mandates to reduce their emissions, U.S. industries face powerful economic pressures. The EU’s new Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism imposes a tax on the emissions associated with imported steel, chemicals, cement and aluminum entering European markets. Similar policies are being considered by Canada, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and the United Kingdom, and were even floated in the United States.

The false promise of carbon capture

The appeal of carbon capture and storage, in theory, was that it could be bolted on to an existing factory with minimal changes to the core process and the carbon pollution would go away.

Government incentives for carbon capture allow producers to keep using polluting technologies and prop up gas-powered chemical production or coal-powered concrete production.

The Trump administration’s pullback of carbon capture and storage grants now removes some of these artificial supports.

Without the expectation that carbon capture will help them meet regulations, this may create space to focus on materials breakthroughs that could revolutionize manufacturing while solving industries’ emissions problems.

The materials innovation opportunity

So, what might emissions-lowering innovation look like for industries such as cement, steel and chemicals? As a civil and environmental engineer who has worked on federal industrial policy, I study the ways these industries intersect with U.S. economic competitiveness and our built environment.

There are many examples of U.S. innovation to be excited about. Consider just a few industries:

Cement: Cement is one of the most widely used materials on Earth, but the technology has changed little over the past 150 years. Today, its production generates roughly 8% of total global carbon pollution. If cement production were a country, it would rank third globally after China and the United States.

Researchers are looking at ways to make concrete that can shed heat or be lighter in weight to significantly reduce the cost of building and cooling a home. Sublime Systems developed a way to produce cement with electricity instead of coal or gas. The company lost its IDP grant in May 2025, but it has a new agreement with Microsoft.

Making concrete do more could accelerate the transition. Researchers at Stanford and separately at MIT are developing concrete that can act as a capacitor and store over 10 kilowatt-hours of energy per cubic meter. Such materials could potentially store electricity from your solar roof or allow for roadways that can charge cars in motion.

How concrete could be used as a capacitor. MIT.

Technologies like these could give U.S. companies a competitive advantage while lowering emissions. Heat-shedding concrete cuts air conditioning demand, lighter formulations require less material per structure, and energy-storing concrete could potentially replace carbon-intensive battery manufacturing.

Steel and iron: Steel and iron production generate about 7% of global emissions with centuries-old blast furnace processes that use intense heat to melt iron ore and burn off impurities. A hydrogen-based steelmaking alternative exists today that emits only water vapor, but it requires new supply chains, infrastructure and production techniques.

U.S. Steel has been developing techniques to create stronger microstructures within steel for constructing structures with 50% less material and more strength than conventional designs. When a skyscraper needs that much less steel to achieve the same structural integrity, that eliminates millions of tons of iron ore mining, coal-fired blast furnace operations and transportation emissions.

Chemicals: Chemical manufacturing has created simultaneous crises over the past 50 years: PFAS “forever chemicals” and microplastics have been showing up in human blood and across ecosystems, and the industry generates a large share of U.S. industrial emissions.

Companies are developing ways to produce chemicals using engineered enzymes instead of traditional petrochemical processes, achieving 90% lower emissions in a way that could reduce production costs. These bio-based chemicals can naturally biodegrade, and the chemical processes operate at room temperature instead of requiring high heat that uses a lot of energy.

Is there a silver bullet without carbon capture?

While carbon capture and storage might not be the silver bullet for reducing emissions that many people thought it would be, new technologies for managing industrial heat might turn out to be the closest thing to one.

Most industrial processes require temperatures between 300 and 1830 degrees Fahrenheit (150 and 1000 degrees Celsisus for everything from food processing to steel production. Currently, industries burn fossil fuels directly to generate this heat, creating emissions that electric alternatives cannot easily replace. Heat batteries may offer a breakthrough solution by storing renewable electricity as thermal energy, then releasing that heat on demand for industrial processes.

How thermal batteries work. CNBC.

Companies such as Rondo Energy are developing systems that store wind and solar power in bricklike materials heated to extreme temperatures. Essentially, they convert electricity into heat during times when electricity is abundant, usually at night. A manufacturing facility can later use that heat, which allows it to reduce energy costs and improve grid reliability by not drawing power at the busiest times. The Trump administration cut funding for projects working with Rondo’s technology, but the company’s products are being tested in other countries.

Industrial heat pumps provide another pathway by amplifying waste heat to reach the high temperatures manufacturing requires, without using as much fossil fuel.

The path forward

The Department of Energy’s decision forces industrial America into a defining moment. One path leads backward toward pollution-intensive business as usual propping up obsolete processes. The other path drives forward through innovation.

Carbon capture offered an expensive Band-Aid on old technology. Investing in materials innovation and new techniques for making them promises fundamental transformation for the future.

Andres Clarens receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P Sloan Foundation.

– ref. How the end of carbon capture could spark a new industrial revolution – https://theconversation.com/how-the-end-of-carbon-capture-could-spark-a-new-industrial-revolution-257894

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: SHU and Shandong Institute of Technology and Business agreed on cooperation

Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

On June 23, a delegation from Shandong Institute of Technology and Business (SIITB) visited the National University of Management to sign a cooperation agreement.

Rector of the State University of Management Vladimir Stroev, vice-rectors Maria Karelina and Dmitry Bryukhanov and director of the Institute of Marketing Gennady Azoev introduced the guests to the history of the university and the main areas in which cooperation is possible.

“Our university has been training management personnel for various areas of the economy for over 100 years. We have both a humanitarian and a technical component of training. In addition, many students independently study Chinese, as they see more prospects in it than in English. GUU is actively developing cooperation with the People’s Republic of China: our university has a center for social, political and economic research in China, and last year we conducted an internship for 50 graduates of the presidential program for training management personnel in China,” Vladimir Stroyev noted.

Rector of SHITB Tao Hu spoke about the history and capabilities of his university, noting the presence of similar positions and interests:

“Thank you for the invitation, you have a very beautiful university. We are pleased that the interaction between our countries and our universities is developing. Since 1985, the Shandong Institute has been training personnel, primarily in the field of economics. And we really value international cooperation. I am sure that we will be able to work well on joint projects.”

The parties discussed the possibility of admitting GUU graduates to master’s programs at SHITiB: “Business Management and Entrepreneurship”, “Applied Economics”, “Computer Science”, as well as admitting SHITiB graduates to the GUU master’s program “International Marketing and Brand Management”.

Another area of cooperation will be the exchange of teachers for teaching language and special courses and the implementation of scientific cooperation programs.

At the end of the meeting, a ceremonial signing of a cooperation agreement on the issues outlined took place.

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

MIL OSI Russia News –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI: La Rosa Relies on Lofty to Support National Expansion Strategy
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

PHOENIX, June 23, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Award-winning real estate technology innovator, Lofty today announced customer La Rosa Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: LRHC), a real estate and PropTech company, has partnered with the Lofty team to support the company’s impressive national expansion efforts. By enabling La Rosa’s agents to close more deals more efficiently, Lofty can deliver the practical innovation needed to help La Rosa scale and drive their long-term growth strategy forward. Citing immediate demand, a swift onboarding process, and high user engagement, the Lofty platform has already been adopted by over 500 La Rosa agents across the U.S. To learn more about how Lofty helps brokerages boost productivity, recruit and retain top agents, and lower operational costs, visit https://www.lofty.com/solutions-brokers.

With 26 corporate-owned brokerage offices across Florida, California, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Puerto Rico, La Rosa offers both residential and commercial real estate brokerage services, as well as technology-driven products and support for its 2,900 agents and franchise partners. As a strategic part of the firm’s national expansion strategy, Lofty’s comprehensive platform provides La Rosa with the innovative technology foundation needed to scale and grow.

“Our collaboration with Lofty reflects our commitment to empowering agents through cutting-edge technology that aims to enhance productivity, streamline client engagement, and accelerate business growth. Since its rollout, Lofty has demonstrated strong adoption across our agent network, validating its product-market fit,” noted Joe La Rosa, CEO of La Rosa. “The platform’s low churn rate underscores its enduring value and strong reception among La Rosa agents.”

Unlike other real estate technology solutions, Lofty provides a true platform, powered by AI, to support the unique and complex needs of both traditional and modern brokerages. Easy to learn, and quick to drive results, Lofty can convert 42% more leads than other solutions, enabling brokerages like La Rosa to rapidly drive growth from one centralized application while also optimizing technology investments. Lofty has also expanded its multilingual capabilities to better serve clients such as La Rosa. This includes two key features:
- Language translation and currency conversion capabilities which are automatically reflected on an agent’s Lofty IDX website.
- AI Sales Assistant now supports over 50 languages, powered by the language model from Google DialogFlow to GPT 4.1 to have more real and human conversations.
“La Rosa understands that cutting-edge technology is a key growth lever. From search to settlement, the Lofty platform provides them with innovative yet user-friendly applications that empowers agents, enables the business to scale, and puts them on the path achieving profitability,” noted Andrew Wild, Vice President, Enterprise Sales, Lofty.

To learn more about how Lofty’s unmatched AI capabilities can help your brokerage grow and expand, visit https://www.lofty.com/solutions-brokers.

About Lofty Inc.
Lofty Inc. (formerly Chime Technologies) provides an AI-powered platform that helps real estate professionals increase their productivity and accelerate business growth. Featuring award-winning technology, the Lofty platform is designed to optimize every step of the real estate journey, from search to settlement. By leveraging one unified hub, customers can automate marketing programs, streamline the sales process, and maximize collaboration between agents, empowering them to spend more time building relationships and their business. Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, Lofty provides proven solutions for brokers, teams, and the enterprise. For more information, visit lofty.com.

About La Rosa Holdings Corp.
La Rosa Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: LRHC) is transforming the real estate industry by providing agents with flexible compensation options, including a revenue-sharing model or a fee-based structure with 100% commission. Powered by its proprietary technology platform, La Rosa aims to equip agents and franchisees with the tools they need to deliver exceptional service.

The Company offers both residential and commercial real estate brokerage services, as well as technology-driven products and support for its agents and franchise partners. Its business model includes internal services for agents and external offerings for the public, spanning real estate brokerage, franchising, education and coaching, and property management.

La Rosa operates 26 corporate-owned brokerage offices across Florida, California, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Puerto Rico. La Rosa also recently started its expansion into Europe, beginning with Spain. Additionally, the Company has six franchised offices and branches and three affiliated brokerage locations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The Company also operates a full-service escrow settlement and title company in Florida.

For more information, please visit: https://www.larosaholdings.com.

Stay connected with La Rosa, sign up for news alerts here: larosaholdings.com/email-alerts.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b14f6437-2904-4be3-812e-d526b008ed34

The MIL Network –
June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Africa: Spaza Shop Awareness Campaign benefits business owners

Source: South Africa News Agency

Government’s Spaza Shop Support Awareness Campaign is providing much-needed clarity while also encouraging business owners to do things by the book.

“Before today, I didn’t know where to start or which documents were truly necessary. This workshop answered questions I’ve had for years. Now, I understand what compliance actually means and how to meet those expectations,” spaza shop owner Matshidiso Mooki said.

Mooki was among those who attended the session held at the City Hall in the Vereeniging Central Business District in Gauteng on Friday.

She said the campaign brought clarity.

“I am determined to ensure that I comply with all the regulations so that I can qualify for support through the Spaza Shop Support Fund,” she said of the session.

The campaign offered spaza shop owners and township-based convenience store operators critical information on how to apply for both financial and non-financial support under the R500-million fund that was launched by Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau and Small Business Development Minister Stella Ndabeni Abrahams in April.

For Matome Tshabalala, the information received at the session was a game changer. He started his shop after the COVID-19 lockdown.

“I’ve always operated informally, but now I want to do things the right way. What stood out for me was the emphasis on record-keeping and understanding zoning laws. I also appreciated the introduction to stock management and bookkeeping,” he said.

The campaign, which aims to formalise and support township-based enterprises, brought together local spaza shop owners, government officials and business development stakeholders.

READ | Government’s Spaza Shop campaign goes to Sedibeng

Compliance

Participants at the session heard about the importance of compliance requirements for spaza shop permit applications.

Matshepo Madumbo, the Assistant Manager of Local Economic Development and Tourism at Emfuleni Local Municipality, emphasised the importance of adhering to municipal regulations when applying for permits.

“Many residential areas are not zoned for commercial activity. For a spaza shop to operate legally, the property owner must apply for a rezoning certificate. Without that, the business cannot be recognised as compliant.

“I cannot stress the importance of submitting a stamped building plan, an occupancy certificate, certified identity document, a proof of address no older than three months, and registration documents from the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) along with a valid tax clearance certificate,” she said.

Madumbo noted that failure to comply with these requirements often leads to unnecessary delays and missed opportunities for funding and supplier networks.

“The Spaza Shop Support Campaign continues to rollout across provinces, ensuring that township entrepreneurs are not only included in the broader economic framework but are also equipped to thrive within it.

“By focusing on compliance, formalisation, and access to resources, the campaign is helping to level the playing field for small business owners in underserved communities,” said the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition and the Department of Small Business Development. – SAnews.gov.za

MIL OSI Africa –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Africa: The proposed Transformation Fund levels the economic playing field for emerging black businesses

Source: South Africa News Agency

By Parks Tau

In 1994, South Africa inherited an economy that was structurally designed to exclude the vast majority of South Africans. Apartheid’s distorted policies had created a dual economy: one of wealth and privilege and another of poverty and exclusion.

This calculated economic strategy, structured along racial lines, created white-owned mines, farms, and factories while many black South Africans languished on the fringes of the economy in an underdeveloped informal sector.

Their meaningful participation in our nation’s wealth was further eroded by discriminatory laws that restricted Black South Africans from owning land, accessing quality education, and entering skilled professions.

These economic distortions which were implemented over hundreds of years continue to plague our nation today as we grapple with one of the highest levels of economic inequality in the world, worsened by alarmingly high unemployment, especially among Black youth.

The country’s Gini coefficient of 0.63 shows that our nation’s income remains unevenly distributed, with the top 10 percent of the population holding more than 85 percent of household wealth. This persistent disparity undermines the development of an inclusive economy where all citizens participate and benefit.

The transformation we seek is about positive change and is the only logical path to long-term growth and the reduction of inequality. In deracialising ownership across our economy, we open more opportunities for black people, in particular women and the youth.

While the Constitution guides our work in creating a society with equal opportunities, we require a deliberate removal of structural obstacles to draw more people into the economy and mechanisms that advance our constitutional commitment to economic redress and transformation.

In this regard, government plans to introduce the Transformation Fund to help level the economic playing field for emerging Black businesses, particularly those in key economic sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture and tourism who struggle to secure funding due to stringent lending requirements.

The fund will provide financial support, infrastructure and capacity-building to Black-owned businesses – in particular Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises, women and youth entrepreneurs, and people living with disabilities – who are often locked out of meaningful economic participation due to their lack of access to capital.

In fostering greater access to capital, business owners can invest in equipment, hire skilled staff, expand into new markets and ultimately quicken the pace of transformation in South Africa’s economy. It is also expected to stimulate meaningful economic activities across all regions of our country.

A similar transformation initiative took place in South Korea, whose government actively worked with companies in the country to address market failures. Local businesses known as Chaebol were guaranteed loans from the banking sector, backed by the government. In the late 1980s, this led to rapid industrialisation with Chaebol businesses dominating the industrial sector in manufacturing, trading and heavy industries

There was also great success in Malaysia’s empowerment initiative, demonstrating what can be achieved through transformation. The country in 1970 found itself in a similar position we face today and began to transform its society and economy through economic empowerment. Its empowerment plan, the National Economic Policy, assisted with the redistribution of the country’s wealth to the indigenous Malays known as Bumiputeras. Today Malaysia is among the richest countries in Southeast Asia by GDP per capita.

The Transformation Fund we are proposing will operate through a transparent application process, where qualifying businesses as well as partnerships, can apply for funding based on the project’s potential for social impact, sustainability, and alignment with national development goals.

The fund will be anchored in contributions already made to the Enterprise Supplier Development and Equity Equivalent Investment Programme as part of our nation’s B-BBEE policy. While no additional contributions are required over and above those made under our B-BBEE commitments, the voluntary co-funding by government and business of our transformation efforts can quicken the change we want in our economy.

In supporting the Transformation Fund, both the public and private sectors stand to benefit from the investment in future suppliers, customers, and innovators who will, in turn build resilience and relevance in a fast-changing society.

In advancing the establishment of the fund, it is proposed that the fund will be managed by a dedicated governance structure to ensure transparency. A Special Purpose Vehicle will be established to ensure accountability to an Oversight Committee and a board that possesses the required skills and capacity.

The fund’s draft concept document was released for public comment on 19 March 2025 and the comment period concluded on 28 May 2025. South Africans are encouraged to continue to actively engage on the fund, and more details can be found on the website www.dtic.gov.za.

Government plans to have the fund operational by the end of the year and capacitated with R100 billion. Once operational, it will assist in helping to bring real change in our economy and the lives of people. Let us turn transformation from a concept into practice as we make a real difference in others’ lives and create a fairer society.

*Parks Tau is the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition

MIL OSI Africa –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Enforcement car to tackle dangerous parking near schools and bus stops after hi-tech makeover

Source: City of Wolverhampton

The Mobile Enforcement Vehicle (MEV) has been fitted with high definition cameras and will patrol problem areas blighted by illegal parking such as school keep clear zones and bus stops.

It will help boost safety for pupils and pedestrians; cut traffic congestion, improve bus journey times and passenger boarding safety and act as a visible deterrent to car related crime.

The MEV has been equipped with an intelligent enforcement system using GPS to recognise where parking restrictions begin and end.

It will capture video footage of potential parking violations, which will be reviewed by an independent officer. If a contravention is confirmed, a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN), along with photographic evidence, will be issued by post within 28 days.

Councillor Qaiser Azeem, Cabinet Member for Transport at City of Wolverhampton Council, said: “The council has a duty to tackle dangerous parking, and this backs up our work through initiatives like Safer Routes to School to ensuring streets are kept free from vehicles parking dangerously.

“Creating a safer environment will in turn encourage more families to leave the car at home and walk or cycle to school, improving healthy lifestyles, cutting carbon emissions and improving air quality.

“By tackling inconsiderate parking obstructing bus stops, it will also make it safer for passengers when they are getting on and off.”

You can report problem parking in school zones and at bus stops or appeal notices via Contact Parking Services | City Of Wolverhampton Council.

MIL OSI United Kingdom –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Student entrepreneurs are flourishing at ARU

Source: Anglia Ruskin University

The Helmore building at ARU’s East Road campus in Cambridge

Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is one of the leading institutions for student start-up companies in the country, according to new data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

A total of 123 ventures were formed by ARU students in the latest reporting period of 2023/24, placing Anglia Ruskin seventh in the UK and top across all universities in the East of England.

ARU’s Anglia Ruskin Enterprise Academy helps entrepreneurial students and recent graduates through a diverse range of support programmes, activities, opportunities, and events.

Last year, ARU became the first UK university to receive the prestigious Entrepreneurial University Award from the National Centre for Entrepreneurship in Education (NCEE).

“At ARU we make every effort to help all our students discover and explore entrepreneurship, regardless of their background or what or where they might be studying. We aim to help them develop the mindset and skills to get them started on their own personal entrepreneurial journeys and career paths.

“Starting your own business can seem daunting, but we are fortunate to have students full of ideas and ambitions. In return, we offer them the support and guidance they need to help turn their dreams into reality and make a difference.”

Professor Gary Packham, Pro Vice Chancellor for Student Enterprise and Entrepreneurship at ARU

Among the recent start-ups is The Community Classroom CIC, founded by Nirvana Yarger, a graduate from the Distance Learning MA Education with Montessori course. The social enterprise offers accessible and inclusive educational opportunities for home-educated children, helping families who need an alternative to mainstream education.

“While teaching in a mainstream primary school, I always felt that the National Curriculum and mainstream school approach did not provide the best outcomes for many children.

“I never lost my desire to be an educator. While completing my MA at ARU, I gained a deeper understanding of home education and the reasons families choose to deregister their children from school.

“I was fortunate to be chosen for the ARU Social Value Fund and I learned the fundamentals of business planning, including forecasting and market research. I was eventually awarded a £5,000 grant to launch The Community Classroom. We would not be where we are today without ARU’s support.”

Nirvana Yarger, who is a former teacher

Cosmin Diaconu, based in Cambridge, founded sustainable fashion company RetroGusto after graduating from ARU, and has built a collaborative network, involving ARU graduates from various disciplines, including graphic design, interior design, and marketing, all united by their passion for sustainability and independent businesses.

Cosmin’s participation in ARU’s ThinkBigARU pitching competition last year helped him secure valuable partnerships, and his work has since featured in publications such as Varsity, Velvet Magazine, and GAY45, reflecting his commitment to diverse representation in fashion.

“The Anglia Ruskin Enterprise Academy gave me the support and tools to grow my business with more clarity and confidence.

“The feedback from the pitch competition was invaluable, and their seminars offered practical insights from successful entrepreneurs that continue to shape how I develop my brand and practice.”

BA (Hons) Fashion Design graduate Cosmin Diaconu

MIL OSI United Kingdom –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: New residents parking scheme for Woodgate area

Source: City of Leicester

A NEW residents parking scheme is to be introduced in a Leicester neighbourhood from next month.

Leicester City Council will introduce the permit-only parking scheme in the Woodgate area, close to the city centre, to help address local concerns about the number of commuter and business vehicles using residential streets for free all-day parking.

The new scheme will include mainly terraced streets adjoining Woodgate and part of Fosse Road North. In total, around 700 homes will be included in the scheme.

It has been designed in response to concerns raised by residents and Fosse ward councillors over persistent parking problems and follows extensive local consultation.

From Tuesday 1 July, most parking in the streets covered by the new scheme will only be available to vehicle owners who have a valid resident’s, visitor’s or business parking permit.

Short stay, pay & display or pay by phone parking bays where customers can park will also be provided to support local businesses.

Eight streets off Woodgate and Fosse Road North will be included in the scheme. These include Balfour Street, Marshall Street, Bassett Street, Dunton Street, Rugby Street, Repton Street, Central Road, and Bonchurch Street.

Part of Fosse Road North, between Bonchurch Street and the Fiveways junction, and Woodgate, between its junctions with Balfour Street and Dunton Street, will also be covered by the new scheme.

Assistant city mayor Cllr Geoff Whittle, who leads on environment and transport, said: “We’ve seen in other parts of the city how the introduction of residents’ parking schemes can be an effective way of tackling parking problems in local neighbourhoods and freeing up spaces for the people who live there.

“This latest scheme, in the Woodgate area, will address concerns raised by local councillors and residents about city centre commuter parking. By introducing permit only parking, we can help make it easier for residents to find available parking close to their homes, and new customer parking bays will also mean local businesses don’t suffer.”

Under the city council’s current parking permit scheme, charges will be £35 per year for a residents’ permit; £100 per year for a business permit tied to a particular vehicle, and £150 for a business permit that can be transferred between vehicles. Visitor permits are available for residents, at either £40 for a year (limited to one per household), or £2 for 24-hours. Permits for landlords and carers are also available. Vehicles displaying a blue badge will be exempt from the permit holders only restriction.

There are currently 14 residents parking schemes in operation across Leicester.

MIL OSI United Kingdom –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Notice of re-entry issued

Source: Hong Kong Information Services

The Housing Authority today served a notice of re-entry on Aggressive Construction Company.

The authority explained that since the construction company’s performance in respect of three public housing projects was far below the contract requirements, it served a notice of re-entry on the company for each of the projects according to relevant contract provisions.

The three construction projects involved are the underground link of Pak Tin Estate redevelopment Phase 10, the public housing developments at Tuen Mun Area 29 West and Tung Chung Area 100.

MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI: Oportun Issues Letter to Stockholders Detailing CEO Raul Vazquez’s Record of Proven Leadership
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

Urges stockholders to vote “FOR” Mr. Vazquez and Carlos Minetti on the GREEN proxy card

SAN CARLOS, Calif., June 23, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Oportun (Nasdaq: OPRT), a mission-driven financial services company, today issued a letter to stockholders detailing the experience and proven leadership record of its Director candidate and CEO Raul Vazquez, who has driven Oportun’s growth and transformation and is successfully executing a strategy to deliver improved operational performance and stockholder value.

The Board of Directors strongly urges all Oportun stockholders to vote “FOR” Oportun’s two highly qualified nominees, Mr. Vazquez and Carlos Minetti, using the GREEN proxy card or GREEN voting instruction form. The letter to stockholders and other important information related to the Annual Meeting can be found at VoteForOportun.com.

The full text of the letter to stockholders follows:

Dear Fellow Stockholders,

This year’s Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Oportun Financial Corporation is fast approaching. The meeting will be held on July 18, 2025, and you can vote online or by mail using the instructions on the enclosed GREEN proxy card.

At this year’s Annual Meeting, stockholders have an important choice to make. One of Oportun’s stockholders, Findell Capital Management, LLC, is seeking to remove Oportun’s CEO, Raul Vazquez, from the Board of Directors and replace him with someone who we believe is far less qualified.

This would be a serious mistake. Mr. Vazquez has valuable skills, experience and institutional knowledge that make him an exceptional CEO and effective Board member. He has a proven track record of leading large operations while driving technological innovation and fostering high-performance cultures, both at Oportun and in prior roles, and he has played a vital role in setting Oportun’s new strategic direction and driving the Company’s growth and transformation. He is deeply committed to Oportun’s success, and as a top ten Oportun stockholder who has made significant out-of-pocket stock purchases beyond his executive compensation plan, his interests are firmly aligned with those of stockholders.

Mr. Vazquez Has a Track Record of Effective Leadership

Before joining Oportun, Mr. Vazquez spent nine years with Walmart Inc., where he held a variety of senior leadership roles. Walmart, like Oportun, serves a diverse customer base, with particular strength among value-conscious and lower-to-middle income households.

As EVP and President of Walmart West, Mr. Vazquez oversaw a division generating more than $60 billion in revenue and comprising more than 1,000 stores across 23 states. As CEO of Walmart.com, he led a period of significant growth where he helped shape and scale Walmart’s global e-commerce strategy, transforming the platform into the most visited brick-and-mortar retailer website.

Mr. Vazquez Has Driven Oportun’s Growth and Transformation

Mr. Vazquez was appointed CEO of Oportun in 2012. As the oldest son of Mexican immigrants, he has a deep personal connection to Oportun’s core customer and a strong belief in the Company’s mission to empower hardworking individuals to build better futures. Joining Oportun represented an opportunity to bring his deep expertise in retail, operations and digital innovation as well as his people-centered leadership approach to an industry where he believed he could make a meaningful difference.

At the time, Oportun was struggling to raise debt and equity from external sources at the levels necessary to maintain its market position and continue operations.

Amid these challenges, Mr. Vazquez took swift and decisive action, crafting a strategic plan to revitalize and scale the business. Under his leadership, Oportun transformed from a small, regional lender reliant on a network of physical retail locations into a national, digitally-driven company positioned for sustained growth and profitability. Mr. Vazquez also has led the Company’s expansion from two states to 41 states and into adjacent products, including secured loans and savings products. Together, these initiatives have enabled the Company to grow its loan portfolio from $100 million in 2012 to approximately $3 billion today.

When macroeconomic conditions shifted abruptly and unexpectedly in early 2022, Mr. Vazquez worked proactively with the Board to strengthen and reposition the Company by reducing costs, streamlining operations and realigning strategic priorities. Importantly, these initiatives were developed independently of Findell and were announced two months before the Board had any knowledge that Findell was a stockholder.

These vital actions to reposition the Company, and our focus on execution, are delivering improved financial performance. In 2024, Oportun returned to originations growth, delivered improved credit metrics and reduced its operating expense ratio. That strong momentum continued during the first quarter of this year and, supported by a more efficient cost structure and stronger credit performance, we believe Oportun is well-positioned to deliver strong financial results in 2025. Importantly, this progress has been recognized by the market, with total stockholder returns significantly outperforming both peers and the broader markets over recent time periods.

Other Organizations Have Recognized Mr. Vazquez’s Leadership and Qualifications

Under Mr. Vazquez’s leadership, Oportun has received national recognition by leading publications for its innovation and impact:
- Oportun has consistently been recognized as a top workplace, including by the San Francisco Chronicle for the past seven years and by regional and national publications for the past ten years;
- Fast Company named Oportun one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies and a Top Ten Most Innovative Company in 2020;
- TIME magazine included Oportun on its list of “50 Businesses Inventing the Future” in 2018;
- Mr. Vazquez was honored as the EY Entrepreneur of The Year® 2018 National Award winner in the Financial Services category.
In 2013, Mr. Vazquez joined the Board of Directors of Staples, Inc., and in 2016 he was appointed to the Board of Directors of Intuit, a global financial technology company with a market capitalization of more than $200 billion. The Chairs of both public companies have praised Mr. Vazquez for his leadership experience, strategic vision, and deep understanding of the consumer:

“Raul brings a nice range of financial services, retail, technology and community development expertise… With a great reputation as a game changer, Raul’s vast experience across local, regional, state, federal and international levels of engagement and diverse perspective will be of great value to our board.”

Intuit
Brad Smith, Former Chairman and CEO
May 4, 2016

“[Raul] is a multi-channel veteran with deep digital expertise and leadership experience in retail, marketing and operations. His global e-commerce perspective would be particularly valuable as we focus on rapidly increasing online sales as part of our strategic reinvention.”

Staples
Ron Sargent, Former Chairman CEO
April 4, 2013

Beyond his public board experience, Mr. Vazquez previously served on the Board of the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Consumer Advisory Board, and as Chair of the Federal Reserve Board’s Community Advisory Council.

Replacing Mr. Vazquez with Findell’s Candidate Would be a Mistake

As part of its annual evaluation process, the Board, which includes two individuals recommended by Findell, recently completed a comprehensive review of Mr. Vazquez’s performance. Following that review, the Board unanimously concluded that Mr. Vazquez is the best person to lead the Company forward. Supplanting the Board’s unanimous judgment and removing Mr. Vazquez from the Board – especially at a time when the Company’s performance is improving and its momentum is building – would be a mistake.

In our view, Findell’s candidate, Warren Wilcox, is no substitute for Mr. Vazquez. Mr. Wilcox has no public company CEO experience, limited experience serving low- and middle-income customers and has not served on a public company board in over a decade. Replacing Mr. Vazquez with Mr. Wilcox would jeopardize the continuity, leadership and business insight needed to continue our progress and momentum. With all of Oportun’s proxy peers and approximately 97% of Russell 3000 boards including the company’s CEO¹, removing Mr. Vazquez would also be highly unusual and send a disruptive message to employees, stockholders and other stakeholders.

We Ask for Your Support

We encourage you to visit VoteForOportun.com to learn more about the Company’s progress and our plan to ensure that our strong momentum continues. We believe you will reach the same conclusion as our Board: that Mr. Vazquez is the right leader for Oportun and that his reelection is the best way to protect and enhance stockholder value.

We urge stockholders to support Oportun’s CEO, Mr. Vazquez, and Oportun’s other nominee, Carlos Minetti, by voting for each of them on the GREEN proxy card today.

Sincerely,
The Oportun Financial Corporation Board of Directors

If you have any questions about how to vote your shares, please call the firm assisting us with the solicitation of proxies:

INNISFREE M&A INCORPORATED
(877) 800-5195 (toll-free from the U.S. and Canada) or
+1 (412) 232-3651 (from other countries)

About Oportun

Oportun (Nasdaq: OPRT) is a mission-driven financial services company that puts its members’ financial goals within reach. With intelligent borrowing, savings, and budgeting capabilities, Oportun empowers members with the confidence to build a better financial future. Since inception, Oportun has provided more than $19.7 billion in responsible and affordable credit, saved its members more than $2.4 billion in interest and fees, and helped its members save an average of more than $1,800 annually. For more information, visit Oportun.com.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this communication are “forward-looking statements”. These forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this communication, including statements as to our future performance, financial position and our strategic initiatives, and the Annual Meeting, are forward-looking statements. These statements can be generally identified by terms such as “expect,” “plan,” “goal,” “target,” “anticipate,” “assume,” “predict,” “project,” “outlook,” “continue,” “due,” “may,” “believe,” “seek,” or “estimate” and similar expressions or the negative versions of these words or comparable words, as well as future or conditional verbs such as “will,” “should,” “would,” “likely” and “could.” These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and projections about future events, financial trends and risks and uncertainties that we believe may affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. These risks and uncertainties include those risks described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, as well as our subsequent filings with the SEC. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and, except to the extent required by federal securities laws, we disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which the statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. In light of these risks and uncertainties, there is no assurance that the events or results suggested by the forward-looking statements will in fact occur, and you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Investor Contact
Dorian Hare
(650) 590-4323
ir@oportun.com

Innisfree M&A Incorporated
Scott Winter / Gabrielle Wolf / Jonathan Kovacs
(212) 750-5833

Media Contact
FGS Global
John Christiansen / Bryan Locke
Oportun@fgsglobal.com

______________________
¹ Source: Bloomberg

The MIL Network –
June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Clean energy future to be ‘built in Britain’
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

Press release

Clean energy future to be ‘built in Britain’

Government publishes its Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan to ensure the clean energy revolution is built in Britain.
Government publishes landmark plan to capture the immense jobs and growth opportunities of the clean energy economy

Plan will double down on Britain’s strengths as a coastal nation and scientific superpower, bringing jobs to industrial heartlands and coastal communities through Plan for Change

Further £700 million for Great British Energy to invest in clean energy supply chains and ensure the clean energy revolution is built in Britain

Communities across Britain will benefit from good jobs and investment in the clean energy economy, as the government today (Monday 23 June) publishes its Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan to ‘build it in Britain’.

Clean energy is the economic opportunity of the twenty-first century, and thanks to the government’s clean energy mission, investment is booming in the UK, with over £40 billion of private investment in clean energy announced since July.

This landmark plan, developed with industry, trade unions, and workers across all regions of the country, sets the UK on a path to unleash the tidal wave of jobs and investment that clean energy can bring, with the government targeting at least a doubling of current investment levels across our frontier Clean Energy Industries to over £30 billion per year by 2035.

It comes after the Spending Review confirmed the biggest programme of investment in homegrown energy in UK history – from launching a golden age of nuclear with funding to build Sizewell C nuclear power station on the Suffolk coast and small modular reactors, to £9.4 billion for carbon capture industries.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said:

This government is doubling down on Britain’s clean power strengths as we build this new era of clean energy abundance, helping deliver good jobs, energy security and lower household bills.

The UK’s pitch is clear – build it in Britain. Power the world.

Great British Energy Chief Executive Dan McGrail said:

Great British Energy will help the UK win the global race for clean energy jobs and growth by investing in homegrown supply chains and ensuring key infrastructure parts are made here in Britain.

We are working closely with businesses across the clean energy sector to invest in areas of strategic need and will get funding out as fast as possible to get new projects off the ground.

As part of this plan, Great British Energy will have an additional £700 million to help build manufacturing facilities here at home for key components for the clean power revolution like floating offshore platforms, electric cables, and cutting-edge hydrogen infrastructure. This builds on Great British Energy’s initial £300 million for offshore wind supply chains, which the Energy Secretary confirmed last week has already catalysed a further £700 million from industry and The Crown Estate. With today’s additional funding, this brings total public and private funding in clean energy supply chains to £1.7 billion. This investment will unlock thousands of jobs, kickstarting growth in coastal communities and industrial towns, and secure a cleaner, more independent energy future for Britain.

Lucy Yu, CEO and founder of the Centre for Net Zero, has also been announced as the government’s Clean Energy AI Champion – helping to drive the adoption of AI across the UK’s clean energy sector and accelerate the net zero transition.

The Clean Industry Bonus – the financial reward scheme for offshore wind developers to invest in homegrown, cleaner supply chains – could also be expanded to more sectors, such as hydrogen and onshore wind. This will ensure clean energy investment is directed to regions that need it most, including traditional oil and gas communities, ex-industrial areas and coastal communities.

The Industrial Strategy sets out how Britain’s strengths make it the natural home for clean power industries: as a coastal nation, a scientific and innovation superpower, with strengths in high-value manufacturing and a skilled energy workforce to match.

Read the Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan.

Stakeholders

Martin Pibworth, Chief Executive designate at SSE plc, said:

The government’s industrial strategy is a welcome signal of long-term thinking and ambition – doubling down on homegrown energy is the right thing for security, resilience and affordability, making the most of the UK’s competitive geographical and technical advantages in renewables in particular.

It’s exactly the kind of commitment that gives industry the confidence to deliver at pace and scale, and with important decisions on energy policy expected in the weeks ahead, we hope to see a continued focus on unlocking investment that drives growth.

As the UK’s clean energy champion, SSE is investing £17.5 billion over 5 years to 2027 – building the infrastructure, creating high-quality jobs, supporting the supply chain and driving the innovation needed to deliver a net zero economy.

Jon Butterworth, CEO of National Gas, said:

The Industrial Strategy makes clear the scale of economic opportunity within the clean energy sector. As an essential enabler for all growth sectors, we warmly welcome the Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan which will position Britain as a world leader in technologies like hydrogen and carbon capture.

As Britain’s national gas network, we believe technologies like hydrogen and carbon capture will attract major investment, creating highly-skilled jobs across the country, as well as decarbonising our existing industries and bolstering energy security.

We welcome the recent commitments and recognition shown by the government on the role of green gases and Britain’s national gas network and look forward to working in partnership to deliver the clean energy economy of the future.

Steve Foxley, Chief Executive of the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, said:

Wind energy is not only a critical enabler of Net Zero as the foundation of our future clean energy system but also a once-in-a-generation industrial growth opportunity. Through clear pathways from research and development to commercialisation and deployment, the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy will capitalise on our long history of innovation to not only attract critical manufacturing investment, creating thousands of highly skilled jobs the length and breadth of the country, but also ensure our energy security in an otherwise increasingly uncertain world.

Chris Norbury, Chief Executive of E.ON UK

We welcome the government’s bold ambition to put clean energy at the centre of the UK’s industrial strategy. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to grow the economy, strengthen energy security and create skilled, secure jobs across the country.

Our £2 billion UK investment plan is already driving forward decarbonisation, digitalisation and green skills, including through our Net Zero Academy and over 1,300 apprenticeships since 2018.

This strategy is a chance to accelerate that progress with the right clarity, long-term investment signals and genuine partnership between government, cities and industry. If we get this right, Britain can lead the world in clean energy and deliver real meaningful benefits to every household and business.

Paul Nowak, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) said:

We welcome the government’s Clean Energy Sector Plan and its clear commitment to creating high-quality, secure jobs – not just any jobs.

The explicit pledge to a new generation of good industrial jobs will strike a chord with workers from Teesside to Merseyside, many of whom felt left abandoned by the last government’s failure to act.

We strongly support the launch of the UK’s first-ever Clean Energy Workforce Strategy – a vital recognition that workers are central to both our economy and the clean energy transition.

By prioritising sectors like nuclear fusion, nuclear fission, and offshore wind, the government is showing a serious commitment to a balanced, resilient energy mix.

The TUC backs the ambition to ‘Build it in Britain. Power the World’ and stands ready to help make it a reality.

Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, National Officer at GMB:

This strategy is a welcome shift, recognising that Britain’s clean energy future must be built here, by skilled workers in secure, union jobs. For too long, energy policy has meant offshoring opportunity and hollowing out industry.

If delivered properly, this plan could help turn that tide. GMB will work to make sure these promises translate into real investment, real jobs, and a just transition that puts working people at the heart of our industrial future.

Sue Ferns, Senior Deputy General Secretary at Prospect union said:

Boosting clean energy is not only an important mission in its own right, it is central to the success of every other sector. It is welcome to see the government doubling down on this mission, focusing investment on key technologies like renewables and nuclear energy, and recognising the key role that trade unions play as partners in this strategy.

Securing the investment is important, but perhaps the biggest challenge in this area is around the workforce. The energy workforce is undergoing an unprecedented transition, which creates opportunities for many but also serious challenges that need to be addressed.

Delivering on this strategy in a way which creates prosperity and supports jobs will require the government’s forthcoming energy workforce plan to be as ambitious as possible and fully backed by all parts of government.

David Hall, VP, Power Systems, Schneider Electric, said:

The Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan will help to provide much needed certainty for businesses and investors. We welcome the recognition of electricity networks as a ‘foundational sector’ and look forward to working with the Government to develop an electricity networks growth plan.

We also welcome the commitment to phasing out SF6 gas – a potent greenhouse gas – from switchgear. Regulatory certainty on this issue is key for manufacturers like Schneider Electric who are committed to invest in our domestic capabilities and support the decarbonisation of the grid.

Schneider Electric is a key supplier of the electrical infrastructure powering the UK’s electricity networks. Over the past two years we have invested almost £50 million to further boost the UK’s domestic supply chain, including investing £42 million to build a brand new factory in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.

Vattenfall’s UK Country Manager, Claus Wattendrup, said:

The government is right to back clean energy as a growth engine for UK jobs and skills. Offshore wind already supports over 50,000 UK jobs and is scaling up fast through initiatives like the Offshore Wind Industrial Growth Plan, and we now await the government’s Onshore Wind strategy to help unlock even more investment, jobs, and energy security.

We must avoid own-goals along the way, however: the benefits of district heating must not be overlooked, whereas zonal pricing in Great Britain risks future investments without cutting bills.

Dhara Vyas, CEO of Energy UK, said:

Energy UK welcomes the government’s new Industrial Strategy and Clean Energy Industries sector plan, which rightly recognise the pivotal role energy will play across the whole economy, powering growth through digitalisation and electrification, boosting regional prosperity and delivering economic security and resilience.

Stable, affordable energy prices will help ensure that the UK remains a competitive place to do business, and in an increasingly uncertain global operating environment, clean power will deliver energy security. Focussing on priority technologies where the UK has global expertise will deliver a strong competitive advantage for our businesses and economy.

We know the investment necessary to decarbonise the economy will mostly be funded by the private sector. Clarity on government policy, removal of the barriers to investment and targeted support are all essential to meet this ambition.

Jane Cooper, Deputy CEO of RenewableUK, said:

Today’s industrial strategy identifies clean energy as one of the sectors with the highest growth opportunity, and we are going to see tens of billions of pounds of new investment in wind energy, grid and hydrogen in the coming years. With that new infrastructure comes a golden opportunity to secure new jobs, manufacturing, innovation and exports, in the growing industrial clusters across the UK, in areas like the Humber, Scotland, South Wales, the South West and Teesside.

There are already nearly 2,000 companies in the UK who have benefitted from contracts to deliver work in the wind energy sector. Collectively, wind energy currently employs 55,000 people, a figure which has risen by a quarter from two years ago. By keeping a laser focus, as this Industrial Strategy does, on unlocking investment, remaining competitive, and supporting UK companies to innovate and grow, the offshore wind supply chain alone could boost the UK economy by £25 billion over the next decade.

The opportunity and vision is there, now government needs to ensure they deliver on the critical aspects of this industrial strategy. Most notably for renewables, that means ensuring the next two contract for difference allocation round are as successful as possible, clearing large volumes of projects in a stable market framework to reduce costs. This is essential if we want to attract investment in the UK’s supply chain, skills and capabilities.

Claire Mack OBE, Chief Executive of Scottish Renewables, said:

Placing clean energy at the heart of the new industrial strategy is a vote of confidence in the enormous economic growth potential of Scotland’s renewable energy industry and supply chain. The scale of opportunity is clear with sectors like offshore wind expected to generate £35 billion for the economy, helping to deliver good jobs and energy security.

Scottish Renewables has been urging the UK government to be bold in removing barriers to investment and we’re pleased to see the ambition outlined in this strategy, including measures to build a grid fit for the future, drive competitive supply chains and grow exports.

In the years ahead, success will be seen in the delivery of new clean energy infrastructure, thriving supply chains and skilled jobs across Scotland. Our industry stands ready to continue meeting that challenge head on.

Olivia Powis, CEO of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA), said:

We are delighted to see the Government’s continued commitment to Carbon Capture, Utilisation & Storage (CCUS), including Greenhouse Gas Removals (GGRs), as a frontier industry. This rightly positions CCUS and GGRs as a core pillar in delivering on three vital national objectives: reaching net zero, driving regional growth, and strengthening economic security.

The UK’s CCUS industry stands ready to deliver and is pleased to see government’s prioritisation of cross-border CO₂ transport and storage networks in the North Sea, recognising the significant economic benefits for both UK and EU CCUS projects. This builds on the positive momentum from the recent UK-EU Summit – alongside the support confirmed in the Spending Review.

Following these government commitments, a clear timetable for deployment is essential to secure investment, as well as investment in scaling up supply chains and growing the workforce needed to deliver at pace. With continued partnership between government and industry, CCUS can anchor a new era of sustainable industrial growth – one that revitalises communities, boosts energy resilience and ensures the UK leads in tackling climate change.

Charlotte Lee, Chief Executive of the Heat Pump Association said:

It is great to see heat pumps, and by association heating systems, being listed as a frontier industry within the plan and identified as one of six areas with the highest growth potential.

With a new Heat Pump Investment Accelerator Competition confirmed, £13.2 billion recently announced for the Warm Homes Plan alongside a clear timeline for the introduction of the Future Homes Standard and a pledge to expand heat networks, it is clear the government are committed to enhancing the UK’s energy security by decarbonising heat from buildings.

Whilst we await the detail within the Warm Homes Plan, this strategy sets clear intentions for the sector, and the HPA will continue to work closely with government to support their missions to break down barriers to investment and deliver nationwide growth.

Clare Jackson, CEO at Hydrogen UK, said

The UK can, and should, lead the world in hydrogen, creating jobs and skills, driving economic growth, and lowering emissions. With hydrogen as a key pillar, the Industrial Strategy and Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan are welcome, positive steps forward to achieving that goal, with strong policy signals and funding to match.

The Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan in particular acknowledges hydrogen’s economic and export potential, and we look forward to working with the government as it puts these strategies into practice.

Dr Emma Guthrie, CEO of the Hydrogen Energy Association (HEA) said:

We welcome the publication of the Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan and the clear recognition of hydrogen as a central pillar in the UK’s clean industrial future.

The commitment to a dedicated hydrogen sector plan – 1 of 8 outlined across key growth industries – provides the clarity and direction that hydrogen investors, innovators and infrastructure providers urgently need.

The extension of the Clean Industry Bonus to hydrogen is a particularly positive step, signalling that government recognises the role hydrogen can play in decarbonising heavy industry and strengthening energy resilience.

The wider Industrial Strategy’s focus on reducing energy costs, accelerating grid connections and supporting frontier technologies reflects many of the priorities the hydrogen industry has long been calling for.

We now look forward to working closely with government and industry to ensure this strategy delivers tangible outcomes – unlocking investment, creating skilled green jobs, and accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Yselkla Farmer, CEO at BEAMA said:

BEAMA’s members are pleased that our calls for improvements to industrial conditions have been recognised. This long term strategy distinguishes electricity networks and electric heat – uniquely, both represented by BEAMA – as critical sectors for the UK’s economic prosperity. They have the potential to deliver significant benefits to consumers and those seeking excellent employment opportunities in our domestic supply chains.

We are well aligned with the government’s overall vision and objectives for our sector. We are looking forward to keeping the momentum up over the ten years of this strategy, working with government to bring tangible change and hugely increase investment in our members’ markets, with specific benefit to British manufacturing. In addition to some further measures from upcoming policy announcements, this strategy has the potential to build on our existing strengths for an exciting future.

We are especially pleased to see the level of financial support being targeted for BEAMA sectors through GB Energy, the National Wealth Fund and the British Business Bank and our hope is this can help bring forward investment in UK manufacturing to supply the UK’s electrification needs across the grid and in homes. The decision to reduce electricity costs for the IS-8 manufacturing sectors is an incredibly welcome step as we strive to ensure we can compete for investment globally.

Stuart Dossett, Senior Policy Adviser at Green Alliance, said:

As international events threaten to drive up the price of oil and send bills soaring once again, it is vital the government look at how to make the UK energy secure. If we’re successful in doubling the amount of investment in clean energy over the next ten years, as the government proposes today, this will provide the cheap, secure power we need for the rest of the economy to grow. The government is also right to focus on making sure more homegrown renewable energy results in cheaper electricity costs for businesses.

Darren Davidson, Head of UK, Siemens Energy said:

Today’s Industrial Strategy announcement, a 10-year UK government plan focused on partnership with business, is welcome news. As one of the world’s leading energy technology companies Siemens Energy has invested significantly in the UK, and we already employ over 6,500 people working on energy projects across the regions.

The new plan is a significant step forward in helping to create a coherent, strategic policy framework – including funding support – to help strengthen the UK’s industrial base, encourage job creation and deliver the energy transition.

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Published 23 June 2025
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: Interview with Minister of Industry and Trade Anton Alikhanov to RIA Novosti

Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

Anton Alikhanov: We are fighting phantom enterprises.

In an interview with RIA Novosti, Minister of Industry and Trade Anton Alikhanov spoke about how pseudo-Russian brands are identified, what measures the state is introducing to ensure product safety in schools and kindergartens, and the fight against illegal goods.

Anton Alikhanov (photo: Ministry of Industry and Trade)

A. Veselova: Anton Andreevich, what is the situation with illegal turnover of products in Russia today?

A. Alikhanov: I would like to start by saying that ten years ago, by decision of the president, a state commission was created to combat illegal turnover of industrial products. It became the main coordinating link in the comprehensive work in the fight against the shadow market. The activities of all industry and regulatory bodies at the federal level are linked through it.

Various tools are used to reduce the circulation of illegal products. But the most effective has become the digital marking and traceability system of goods “Honest Sign”.

This direction is already being implemented in all EAEU countries and in Uzbekistan. In Russia, 31 product categories are monitored from the conveyor to the consumer on a mandatory basis, with 16 being subject to an experiment. The government is also considering further expansion of the system to various products, especially in the food industry and industrial goods. The Honest Sign mobile application is used by almost 28 million consumers, they have checked more than 300 million products and identified 240 thousand violations. All complaints are sent to regulatory authorities.

A. Veselova: What effect on the economy has been recorded in the country from the introduction of labeling?

A. Alikhanov: According to the Federal Tax Service, over the past five years the economic effect has amounted to 1.2 trillion rubles in the form of tax and other revenues to budgets at all levels. More than half of this amount was achieved by whitening the tobacco market – 627 billion rubles. The results in other product groups are also noticeable. In dairy products – 148 billion rubles, in light industry – 143 billion rubles, in the footwear segment – 85 billion rubles, in perfumery – 35 billion rubles.

In addition to increasing state revenues, legal businesses earned an additional 687 billion rubles by increasing their market share. And according to Rosstat data, the profitability of sales has increased for all bona fide market participants. Since the launch of mandatory labeling by 2023, tobacco products have increased by 17.9%, packaged water by 13.1%, footwear by 5.7%, and dairy products by 3.2%. I would like to note that these effects have been achieved without a noticeable impact on the final price for the consumer. According to the Research Institute of the Ministry of Finance, the share of labeling in the cost price is no more than 1%.

A. Veselova: Since April 2024, a permit regime has been in effect for a number of goods in Russia, which checks the quality of the goods through a special QR code; if the product is of poor quality, the system will not allow the buyer to purchase it. How effective is this mechanism? How does the regime protect consumers?

A. Alikhanov: Due to the introduction of a permit regime at store checkouts, sales of 1.2 billion low-quality or illegal goods have been blocked. Among them: beer – 299 million units, milk – 243 million, tobacco – 311 million, in the light industry – 187 million, soft drinks – 110 million. This system already applies to 16 groups of goods and will be expanded this year to non-alcoholic beer, caviar, veterinary drugs, technical rehabilitation equipment and bicycles.

The labeling system allows for batches of unsafe products to be blocked within an hour by decision of regulatory authorities. For example, Rospotrebnadzor, based on research, did this proactively with respect to six million dietary supplements across the country with dangerous levels of lithium, melatonin, and simethicone. Similarly, due to a poisoning incident, sales of a batch of 2.5 million bottles of water were promptly stopped. Thus, we now have a mechanism for quickly stopping sales of products whose quality and safety are in doubt.

It is important that we not only control the products themselves, but also close illegal production facilities, in particular 56 tobacco factories, using control bodies. At the same time, many enterprises left the shadow sector and began to operate according to the law. This is how more than 550 “new” water producers appeared, the number of legal importers of dietary supplements increased tenfold and those who produce them tripled.

A. Veselova: What is happening now in the sphere of state control over industrial products?

A. Alikhanov: State control is one of the key mechanisms for consumer protection. It ensures quality control and product safety in accordance with established requirements at all stages – during production, delivery and circulation.

Today, the safety of certain types of products is confirmed by a certificate or declaration, while there is no further state control over such products. That is, there may be cases when an unscrupulous manufacturer provides the laboratory with a so-called “golden sample” that fully complies with the requirements. This is how he receives a certificate. And the product goes to the market under this certificate, but it does not comply with the requirements. As a result, unsafe products may end up on the shelf.

A. Veselova: Are you developing additional mechanisms to protect consumers in order to prevent unsafe products from entering the market?

A. Alikhanov: We have developed a set of measures with the Ministry of Economic Development. First of all, these are changes to the legislation to restore state control over certain types of industrial products – I believe that it will be effective. This is confirmed by the experiment that Rosstandart is conducting on certain types of construction products and materials. We are talking about cable products, various types of cement, construction and concrete mixtures, as well as heating convectors and radiators. Over two thousand control measures have already been carried out in a year of the experiment.

According to the inspection results, 57% of cases revealed violations of product quality requirements. Such unsafe products are recalled from the market. For example, in St. Petersburg, about 6 thousand tons of dry construction mixtures worth a total of about 104 million rubles were withdrawn from circulation. And such cases are not isolated.

Another significant initiative in this direction was introduced by the State Duma deputies. They proposed to legislatively enshrine the regulation of technical conditions, according to which manufacturers often release their products. We fully support this approach.

A. Veselova: What is the difference between technical conditions and technical regulations? What effect do you expect from fixing technical conditions?

A. Alikhanov: Technical conditions today are a non-public document in which the manufacturer himself defines the requirements for his products. Formally, they should not be lower than the requirements of technical regulations. But technical regulations establish only minimum safety requirements and do not affect quality parameters. Therefore, the requirements of technical conditions may be lower than GOSTs. A simple example: if a manufacturer puts saury in a can labeled “kilka”, this may not violate safety standards or technical conditions. But it absolutely does not meet consumer expectations and, most importantly, violates GOST requirements.

We are confident that the removal of technical specifications from the unregulated zone will increase transparency and ensure fair competition. In addition, it will involve bona fide manufacturers in the national standardization process. Ultimately, this will have a positive effect on the quality of products released into circulation and will increase consumer confidence.

A. Veselova: What additional measures are being taken to protect products from possible attempts at counterfeiting?

A. Alikhanov: We conducted an experiment with the Ministry of Economic Development and the CRPT, following which the government adopted Resolution No. 837, which comes into force on September 1. It strengthens control not only over the availability, but also the content of permits for goods in the labeling system. This will allow us to confirm their relevance and compliance with the declared products. If the documents do not pass the check, the products will not be allowed on the market.

In addition, a ban on sales at the checkout will be introduced if the permits are declared invalid after the products have been put into circulation. We are currently verifying the contents of the documents with the state registers of Rosaccreditation and Rospotrebnadzor. In the future, we will expand the array of data on the products themselves and whether the company has the right to produce them. We are discussing this decision with the member countries of the association and expect a positive decision from the Eurasian Economic Commission.

A. Veselova: How does the ministry combat pseudo-Russian brands? How acute is this issue today?

A. Alikhanov: We are conducting an experiment to identify such manufacturers and phantom enterprises. For example, more than 2.8 thousand shoe manufacturers are registered in the marking system, of which almost 470 are in Moscow. If the system reveals, based on risk indicators, that the activities of such companies deviate from the norm and raise suspicions, then representatives of the CRPT and Rospotrebnadzor conduct an on-site inspection. In fact, they determine whether there is real production or just a legal entity that legalizes illegal products.

The first results showed that 92% of inspections of footwear, consumer goods and dietary supplements were fake enterprises. Their addresses were found to be vacant lots, residential buildings or abandoned buildings. These companies tried to “legalize” products that did not correspond to the declared documents. In some cases, there is reason to believe that these are imports that are registered as products of Russian origin in order to evade customs duties and control.

Based on the results of the experiment, a mechanism was developed to limit the issuance of marking codes to such legal entities and block their products. Before the traceability system appeared, this was impossible to do. For now, we have extended this algorithm to the least regulated industries – footwear, light industry, perfumery, tires and dietary supplements. Then we will cover other product categories.

A. Veselova: Anton Andreevich, there was information on the Internet about the incorrect operation of the marking system in case of unstable Internet operation? Do you know about this, does such a problem really exist?

A. Alikhanov: Since March 1, 2025, an offline mode has been introduced for a number of product groups that require mandatory labeling, which allows checking the product even without the Internet. To do this, a special local module of the system is installed at the checkout, into which a database of labeled products is loaded. When attempting to make a sale, the system first accesses the online database, and if the check fails, for example, due to the lack of Internet, it loads data from the local module. Thus, the system ensures correct operation even during temporary Internet problems.

A. Veselova: Today, more and more people use marketplaces, but it is difficult to check the quality of goods there. What measures do you plan to take in connection with counterfeit products on marketplaces?

A. Alikhanov: In our opinion, it is necessary to strengthen control over marketplaces in order to exclude violations when selling marked goods on the Internet. The draft law “On the platform economy” provides for the obligations of trading platforms to check the registration of the seller, the product and its code in the marking system. If any of these criteria are not met, the offer should not be reflected in the buyer’s search. While such requirements have not yet been enshrined in law, CRPT has entered into agreements with the largest marketplaces: Yandex, Wildberries, SberMegaMarket, Samokat, Ozon, AliExpress and Russian Post. These online platforms have undertaken to independently check customer complaints received through the Honest Sign application and take action against violators. According to the marking system, 95% of complaints were confirmed. In relation to a third of them, marketplaces applied sanctions: fines, blocking goods or warnings. For the rest, sellers received notifications demanding that they eliminate the violations.

A. Veselova: Today, goods from the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union cross customs under a simplified regime. There are frequent cases where goods illegally enter one of these countries and then travel to Russia. Is the Ministry working on measures to strengthen control in such cases?

A. Alikhanov: Our country is the largest market in the EAEU and, of course, there are cases that you mentioned. Often these goods then end up, for example, in the fake production facilities that I mentioned earlier.

To solve the problem, it is necessary, firstly, to harmonize the list of goods that are subject to mandatory labeling. That is, the nomenclature must be uniform in all EAEU countries. This is what we are discussing with our colleagues.

Secondly, it is necessary to ensure regular verification of information from the labeling system with data from the EAEU member states on goods sent to Russia. This also concerns the verification of mirror customs statistics and the country of origin of the goods.

A. Veselova: What effect do you expect from the experiment to control the supply of unsafe and low-quality food products to social institutions?

A. Alikhanov: With the introduction of a permit regime at cash registers and the integration of the marking system with Mercury, counterfeit products were blocked from entering stores. But we see that dubious products have begun to appear in schools and hospitals where there are no cash registers.

In order to set a barrier for it, at the end of last year, we decided at the state commission to start an experiment in the labeling system to control the supply of food products to the social sphere. So far, it covers several regions – Krasnodar, Perm, Stavropol and Khabarovsk Territories, Moscow and Novosibirsk Regions, St. Petersburg. We will complete it by September, having created criteria and a mechanism for stopping this practice. The experiment affects packaged water and dairy products, which are subject to labeling. In the near future, we will make such control mandatory, since we are already seeing successful results.

A. Veselova: What are the prospects for the development of the labeling system in Russia in the future?

A. Alikhanov: The introduction of labeling is advisable for goods that are most sensitive to illegal trafficking. Therefore, the government will systematically expand the range of products, including industrial products. We are conducting experiments on radio electronics, building materials, and radiators. We are working on traceability issues for the raw materials from which these goods are made.

We will scale and develop the labeling system, supplement it with new functionality. That is, we will continue to narrow the opportunities for various tricks that pose a threat to human health and undermine food and economic security.

Source – RIA Novosti.

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

MIL OSI Russia News –

June 24, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: 23 June 2025 One optometrist’s mission to transform eye care in Somalia

Source: World Health Organisation

Based in Mogadishu, Dr Kalif leads a life of tireless dedication. Each afternoon, he treats patients in his private clinic, offering essential eye care in a setting where such services are scarce. He also teaches at the only optometry faculty in southern and central Somalia—home to the majority of the country’s population.

In addition, he is the Project Manager of Charity Vision Somalia, overseeing the country’s first free comprehensive vision eye care center. And every Friday, he travels 30 kilometers outside the capital to run eye camps, providing checkups for villages who, in many cases, have never had their eyes examined in their lives.

Dr Kalif’s commitment is deeply personal. In the early 2000s, his grandmother was left aphakic (the condition of having no lens in the eye) after undergoing cataract surgeryand forced to rely on thick +10.00 diopter that left bruises on her face. “Her glasses were so heavy they left painful marks on her nose,” Mohamed recalls. “I used to tell her that one day, I’d become an eye doctor and make things better for her.” Although she passed away before he could finish his education, her struggle remains a powerful source of inspiration behind his misión to make eye care more accessible for everyone.

Somalia lacks resources, and eye care does not receive much attention. But Mohamed refuses to let these challenges hold him back. Using simple tools and a single donated room in a voluntary hospital, he and his team treat over 100 patients every month for free. He focuses on creating solutions with what is on hand. “You don’t need magic,you just need a system.”

Technology is helping him build that system. After discovering the WHOeyes app through LinkedIn—a free vision screening tool developed by the World Health Organization (WHO)— Dr Kalif contacted WHO to translate the tool into Somali.

Today, he encourages families to check their eyesight and identify early signs of vision impairment. He also collaborates with local health platforms to spread awareness and plans to promote the app through social media videos. “It is easy to use and very effective,” he explains. “In a country like Somalia where awareness is lacking, this app could change lives.”

One of the biggest obstacles, he says, is a widespread lack of knowledge. Many parents and teachers don’t realize that children might be struggling with their vision. Over the years, Dr Kalif has screened hundreds of schoolchildren and discovered preventable conditions going unnoticed. He recalls a 17-year-old girl who lived with blurred vision in one eye her whole life. “She told me, ‘I thought everyone’s left eye was like this,’” he says. “When she smiled after getting her glasses, that’s the moment that keeps me motivated.”

But Dr. Kalif’s ambition reaches beyond individuals—he is focused on transforming the entire system. He played a key role in setting up Somalia’s first optometry training program, which celebrated its first group of graduates in 2024. He is also teaming up with the National eye health coordinator of the Ministry of Health and the WHO country office in Somalia to complete the first ECSAT (Eye care situation analysis tool) and prepare a national eye health strategy. His goal is to link Somali professionals with global training programs to gain expertise without always needing help from outside specialists.

In a country where healthcare is often limited and vision care is rarely prioritized, Dr Kalif stays optimistic. “Vision changes lives,” he explains. “I’ve watched people go from being jobless to providing for their families all because they could see again.”

His vision for the future is simple. “Eye care everywhere in Somalia. That’s my life’s mission”.

Note:

About optometry
Optometry is a healthcare profession that is autonomous, educated, and regulated (licensed/registered), and optometrists are the primary healthcare practitioners of the eye and visual system who provide comprehensive eye and vision care, which includes refraction and dispensing, detection/diagnosis and management of disease in the eye, and the rehabilitation of conditions of the visual system. According to the World Council of Optometry, an optometries holds a bachelor’s degree or higher from a tertiary-level educational institution.

About WHOeyes

WHOeyes is a free, population-facing mobile software application to check near and distance visual acuity. Regular visual acuity checks can ensure that vision impairment is identified at the earliest so that you can take action to continue enjoying your sight. You can learn more and download it here.

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MIL OSI United Nations News –

June 24, 2025
Evacuees laud ‘Operation Sindhu’, credit PM Modi for safe evacuation

Source: Government of India

Source: Government of India (4)

As India continues to bring its nationals home from Iran under ‘Operation Sindhu’, evacuees on Monday expressed heartfelt gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union government for the timely and efficient efforts to help Indians stuck in the war-hit country.

Recounting their ordeal, one evacuee told IANS, “I was brought back from Iran. We were in serious trouble. I want to thank PM Modi for ensuring our safe return.”

Another evacuee from Lucknow, who had been in Iran for the past 22 days, said, “When Israel attacked Iran, the Indian Embassy stayed in constant contact with us. They ensured our safety, provided us with food and medicine. We are truly thankful. Jai Modi!”

Describing the tense conditions, a young student added, “The situation there was very bad, but the Indian Embassy supported us fully. We didn’t face any difficulties, and the arrangements for our return were excellent.”

Another returnee added, “There’s nothing better than our India. Our PM Modi is truly great.”

Another evacuee stated, “The situation in Iran was frightening with continuous bombardments. Despite that, the Indian government made proper arrangements. PM Modi took care of all of us.”

Yet another person praised the seamless coordination, saying, “The government did a fantastic job, from picking us up in Iran to bringing us back home. The Indian Embassy was constantly in touch. I am extremely grateful.”

On Monday, another batch of 285 Indian nationals landed safely in New Delhi as part of the ongoing ‘Operation Sindhu’, taking the total number of evacuees to 1,713.

This large-scale evacuation effort comes in response to the escalating conflict in the Middle East, especially between Iran and Israel. The latest flight included passengers from various states including Delhi, Bihar, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Jammu and Kashmir.

Coordinated by the Ministry of External Affairs, ‘Operation Sindhu’ highlights India’s firm commitment to safeguarding its citizens, even in the most volatile regions of the world.

(With inputs from IANS)

June 23, 2025